Gracious God in our heavenly father how we thank you and praise you For creatures who Suppress the truth and unrighteousness and exchanged your glory for which we were created for that derivative infinitesimal Glory The creature that you have given your own self for us in order to restore us and to give your own self to us. Truly, O God, how wealthy we are to have you in Christ Jesus. We thank you for the perspective that this gives us, for with all of our other possessions. We pray for the health of your spirit, that you would bless your word to us, that you would show us Christ in your word, that you would show us yourself in your word, that you would help us be prepared to serve you well in what we do with earthly things. and especially that He will be preparing for us those men who will lead us in administering the ministry in earthly things in our congregation. So help us in this time we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I think we've all had experiences where Maybe not all of us. I think all of us parents have had experiences where we've been talking to our children about something very important and they either have completely missed the point or are so preoccupied with their own comparatively little and petty thing that they are obsessed about at the moment that they immediately whiplash into thinking about that. As we look at Luke 12, and what instigates the parable of the rich fool coming out of the Lord Jesus saying back in verse eight, whoever confesses me before men, the Son of Man will confess him before the angels of God. He who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And he's talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit to convince us of who Jesus is to us. But verse 13 then starts with, then one from the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you. So, what does the one who said teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me? What does he want Jesus to be to him? All right, he wants Jesus to be mediator, advocate, uses the words here judge or arbitrator, but specifically he wants Jesus to be the judge or arbitrator who does what? who tells his brother to divide the inheritance. He probably has a claim. It's probably a right claim, but he has missed the main point about who Jesus is to be to him. The one in whom he will be safe, even in the presence of God and his angels. And so here, the inheritance, the wealth, is the main purpose, and Jesus becomes for him a means to that end. And note Jesus joins to that question, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? He joins to that question this warning, he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. That's true even in this world. But it's much more true, isn't it? Or much more profoundly true with respect to the last day. With respect to the day that we must leave this soul. Sorry, leave this world. With respect to our eternal soul. Sorry, that's in my head that snuck out through the statement there. So in verse 16 through 21 Or verse 16 to 20 He gives a parable and he gives the main point of the parable then in verse 21 Then he spoke parable to them saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully and But of course, we know that it's not the ground that is to be credited. It's a very, very subtle way of saying and reminding us from where all our good comes from. The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself saying, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops? So he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul. Mentioned recently in preaching, I think maybe it was the midweek sermon, might have been last quarter today, but we mention often that Christians are those who engage in theological self-talk. We direct our inner life, correct our inner life by the word of God. Do not engage in the rich man's self-talk. I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years, take your ease. Very different than Psalm 103, right? Bless the Lord my soul, my whole heart, all that was within me, bless his holy name, bless the Lord of my soul, and forget none of his benefits. So when you have that inward conversation, what is the treasure? You have, I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be? which you have provided. So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So we see that the one who sees Christ as a way to preserve his riches, rather than Christ as his riches, is a fool. Jesus himself is for us wealth toward God first and foremost, and if we have Christ as our true wealth, that will give our other wealth its purpose. Who among the young men who have been attending the breakfasts for at least two years, trying to figure out how far back we'd have to go, can tell me why it is not wrong to eat and drink and enjoy your food and drink and all your labor? Why is that not wrong? Okay, and why would I have asked that in connection with the men's breakfast? Sorry? All right. Any of the grads want to take a shot? for like a year in the men's breakfast. And that was one of the refrains, wasn't it? And yet the great conclusion was to remember our Creator. And that, sorry. It's been saying because it's actually God. Oh yes, Zephaniah, sorry. It's actually from God and for God. and we're to enjoy him in it. If God is our treasure, then that which he gives us is proper to enjoy. But what we do with our possessions, and especially when we have great possessions, This man was not thinking about the inheritance he could lay up for his children. This man was not thinking about what he could do for the people of God or how he could supply for the worship of God. It was entirely focused on his self-indulgence. It's really a grotesque picture. But what was Jesus telling the parable in response to? In response to the man who wanted Jesus' primary role in his life to be the arbitrator between him and his brother to get his inheritance. He didn't see that thinking about Jesus in that way as primarily a way to get what was his from an earthly perspective was grotesque in how he related to Christ, how he related to others, how he related to his own soul. This is a very important thing for us, because there is more to handling money correctly than following all the rules. And the main thing is, who is your treasure? And how does that come out in what we do with what we have? This is why Sorry, grandmas, I'm going to step on some toes, maybe. This is why when, actually, I'm not sorry. I want to help you be better grandmas. When people, all right, I shouldn't have outed any grandmas, because now you'll know who I'm thinking about as Rosette. When people give my children money and they say, here's something to spend on yourself, reinforcing something that my children don't need reinforced, the impulse to spend on the self is inherited from our first father, Adam, through their most immediate father, James. but giving them something so that they may give to another, that they may have extra. I know you have everything you need. Here is more so that you can treasure Jesus with how you use it. And it's not wrong for them to spend some on themselves, is it? But we need to be careful with the way we view money. This is one of the things that our deacons are reminding us what is needed for maintenance, for worship, for evangelism, for missions, for those who are needy in the congregation or the community. This is something that they help us do, to experience that Christ is our treasure and express that Christ is our treasure. by what they lead us and help us in doing with our other treasures. You young people who, since, especially younger siblings whose older sibling got a job, and about three seconds after your older sibling has an income, the younger sibling has a tendency to think what? I cannot wait till I have an income. Fine. What can you not wait to do with that income? What can you not wait to be? Is it just to eat and drink and be merry? to be able to take your ease. And so we're gonna step back from loop 12 to loop 10, but I took that one first so that we can see what is going on and how we think about how we use our treasure. So Luke 10, an even more famous passage, parable of the Good Samaritan. But again, we're going to start a little earlier, get some context. We're going to start all the way up in verse 20. The 70 have just returned. Jesus has told them this wonderful thing, he who hears you hears me. This amazing thing that we often think about in preaching, and especially the preaching of the gospel, that it's not the man up there in the pulpit that we want to hear, it's Christ himself. I'm quite certain because of the way that I heard it prayed From the day I got here that this is something that has been drilled for years here You know, let his words be your words so again the subject the subject is the recognition of Christ he who hears you hears me he who rejects you rejects me and They come back. They're excited that the demons are subject to them. And he does affirm that by the preaching of his word and the faith that comes to the hearing, he's destroying the dominion of the devil, praise God. And then there's this amazing nevertheless. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this. that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them to babes. And that these things, most immediately, is that the greatest thing that there is is to have Jesus by which you know that your name is written in heaven, that that is even greater than the power to dominate evil spirits. is to have Jesus. And this is the thing that the wise and the great of this world could not figure out, eye couldn't see, ear couldn't hear, heart couldn't imagine. The great of this world didn't have access to it, but the father gave this to babies by his spirit. There's a connection here between what Jesus is saying and that wonderful portion in 1 Corinthians. So I thank you father Lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and fruit reveal them to babes Even so father for it seemed so it seemed good in your sight All things have been delivered to me by my father. No one knows the son except the father And who the father who the son is except the father and who the father is except the son and the one to whom the son wills to reveal to him He turns to his disciples, and he says privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it. And it's in that context that the Spirit carries Luke along to insurge of the very next thing the lawyer who stands up and tests Jesus saying, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And there are two answers and they're both right. One is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. And we say that that's right because Jesus answers in verse 28, you have answered rightly. Do this and you will live. Jesus had asked him in verse 26, what is written in the law? But Jesus's answer is, might as well be, to quote Whitefield in the last line of his last sermon, before he went and laid down on earth and woke up in glory. climb to the room, climb to the moon on a road made of sand. You guys familiar with that? Whitfield's winding up the conclusion to his sermon, and he says, works, works, a man be justified by works. You could just as easily climb to the moon on a road made of sand. And that's basically, all you have to do is love the Lord your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, chin up, go do it, you may not do, you cannot do anything to inherit eternal life. And again, the question is Christ as treasure, the man wanting to justify himself, instead of to be justified through Christ, right? Asks, who is my neighbor? And the Lord Jesus then gives us a parable of the good Samaritan. And the transformed guy who has Jesus as his righteousness, which is the implication in the course of Luke's gospel, if it's not immediately obvious in the parable itself is that the Samaritan has the Lord as his justification, not himself as his justification. That's the flow of Luke 10 there. Jesus answers and says certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho He fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing wounded him departed leaving him half-dead now by chance Chance a certain priest came down the road And when he saw him he passed by on the other side Likewise a Levite when he arrived at the place came and looked passed by on the other side but a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was and When he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, took care of him. The next day when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, take care of him. Whatever more you spend when I come again, I will repay you. If you had ever met a Middle Eastern innkeeper, you would not write him a blank check. All right, for the innkeeper and the guy who is your ethnic enemy to decide how to spend this indeterminate amount of funds. So which of these three do you think was neighbor? to him who fell among thieves. It's wonderful, right? It's that dad family worship question or that pastor Bible class question where everybody knows the answer. Ain't nobody gonna say the priest or the Levite, right? And so you almost hear the compulsion I have to say this answer in this voice. He said, he who showed mercy on him, Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. Jesus was describing his own righteousness in the picture of a Samaritan. The point of the Good Samaritan was not that it is possible to love like that. The point spoken to those Jews is that it is impossible to love like that. The internal response is something like when the disciples hear hear about the impossibility of the righteous man entering the kingdom of heaven by his words, and who then can be saved. If this is loving your neighbor, no one can ever love your neighbor. Which, of course, of the two impossible commandments is the less impossible commandment. The more impossible commandment is actually to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So there's two things going on here for somebody who's tracking through Luke. And I know we haven't been preaching all the way through Luke. That's one of the difficulties in doing topical stuff. There are two things going on here. One is to be amazed again at the glorious obedience of Jesus Christ. That he not only has loved us this way, he's done the lesser impossible thing, but that he has loved the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength in our place. My dear children, when you believe in Jesus Christ, you are as righteous before God as if you had helped every enemy you'd ever seen in the road come to him, spent your time, put him on your donkey or your mule, since those are the things of value around here, and wrote the blank check at your own expense and then not only love your neighbors so entirely and so completely as yourself, but have also loved the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength for every moment your whole life, never having treasured anything more than God, never having treasured anything apart from your enjoying God and loving Him, this is what Jesus has done for us. But the second thing that we see here is not just that this is what Jesus has done for us, but this is what Jesus is doing to us, that he is conforming us to himself. And one of the tangible, palpable ways, one of the more obvious ways it comes out in our life is what we do for our neighbor. the greater and higher way is what we do for the Lord, right? I mean, if we didn't have the wisdom of Christ here, it's kind of like the witch is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or get up, take your mat, and go home. It was actually easier to say get up, take your mat, and go home. Your sins are forgiven you is a lot more costly. But he's talking about which is more evident and which is more obvious in that context. And so between the two great commandments, he chooses the one that has more immediate, palpable, material demonstration. And that's also a help in our life, both in displaying what Christ has done in us. We want to display it before God most of all. And the way that we interact with him the next hour, how each of you listen to his word, how each of you pray as we're praying, how each of you sing with grace in the heart, giving the whole self to God, all of those things. No one else can see those things. You know, we're not, you know, Charles, Greenison, Finney, excitement zealots who think that genuine spiritual fervor is measured by, you know, what you can see in your neighbor. But there is a demonstration of love to one another that is very palpable, that is very obvious, because it is material. And there is a treasuring hymn that is displayed that way. Well, you can probably see where this is going when we go to the rich young ruler. It's the same sort of question, right, in chapter 18. But I hope you're getting a flavor for what we expect a church that is all about Christ as our righteousness, Christ as our God, Christ as our life, what they are going to look like when he forms them and acts, right? One of the reasons why we're especially sticking to Luke is because since this is a diaconal training and thinking about the office and role of the deacons, we're going to end up in Acts. And so we're sticking to volume one of the two-volume book. I say that, but the next one's only recorded in Matthew. But as we go through, Luke, you're getting from Jesus's own teaching during his earthly ministry what we are anticipating his church being like when he ascends and pours out his spirit and starts applying his redemption in the age of the gospel. So Luke 18, we're gonna start. Verse 18, and of course, I mean, you always want to go back further, but if you go back to the children's context, then you want to go back to the Pharisee and the tax collector and so forth. But he's just said, you have to receive the kingdom like a little child. And then a certain ruler asks him, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now, that's not necessarily the very next thing that happens in the order of Jesus' ministry. So remember, the Holy Spirit is giving us these things in a particular order for us, for our sake. We would answer, verse 18, already, receive the kingdom of God as a little child. Weren't you paying attention a verse ago? But Jesus, in his perfect wisdom, says to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God. Why is Jesus answering this way? Because if he really believed that Jesus is God and that Jesus is good, he wouldn't be asking what he can do to enter eternal life. you would If he's gonna ask something you would ask how he can have him how he can have Christ as his eternal life No one is good as God, you know the commandments do not commit adultery do not murder Do not feel do not bear false witness honor your father and mother and he said all these things I have kept from my youth poor fool Right? Those of you who have been going to the shorter catechism lessons through the Ten Commandments that we've just finished up, he thinks he's kept them. This is one of the helps of the larger catechism to keep us from becoming rich young rulers who think that we have kept all of these from our youth. When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, you still lack one thing. All that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me Okay, so which Which of those two things kids? would be how the the rich young ruler gets into heaven selling everything and giving it to the poor or following Jesus Which one of those things brings you to heaven following Jesus. If that man had sold everything and distributed it to the poor, the screen would not have gotten a golden aura and stars falling from the sky. You won. You get to heaven. You finished everything that you were supposed to do. That was the one thing that was left. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. That's not the point of what Jesus is saying, is he? This man had a treasure that was in competition with Christ, and what he needed was a perfect obedience that he had not produced and could not produce. He needed Christ. But it would have been a demonstration that he knows he has everything in Christ. that he was willing to share with the poor. But verse 23, when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. If anyone doesn't believe in the doctrine of poverty, Total depravity the doctrines of grace that you need to be regenerated. Why would you be very sorrowful? If you if you thought You know if you wanted the kingdom of heaven and you've been told to do something and it's completely within your power The problem is it wasn't completely within his power to stop loving his money. I He could have been like the one in the parable of the pearl of great price and said, wow, that's all I have to do? Sell it on the spot, sell everything so you can get Christ, so you can get the kingdom. But he goes away very sorrowful because those riches had his heart. They had his heart so much that it didn't even occur to him that he could do that thing. It's just very sad. I guess the kingdom of heaven's not for me. So this is why our willingness to do with our money that which the natural man cannot understand is such an important expression of the one who has Christ as his treasure, not that the kingdom of heaven is gained by selling all that you have and giving it to the poor. That's actually a sin if you're a husband or father or hoping to get married at some point. There are those whom the Lord has assigned to you that are your first obligations. But that it is a demonstration of where our treasure is. What we do with our money is a demonstration of where our treasure is. We're going to have to close here. I'll leave you to view the Matthew passage. The difference between those who call Jesus Lord and those who have him as Lord can be seen, at least in part, by what we do with our time and our resources for those who are in Christ, especially for those who are believers. That's in the Matthew 25 passage. But 1 Timothy 6, 17 through 19 speaks for itself, and we've recently studied this if you've been using the devotional. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Okay, so it's not wrong to enjoy them, but Verse 18, let them do good that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. So you learn to enjoy not just what money can buy for you, but you learn to enjoy the opportunity that money gives you to glorify God in your life on earth, that it becomes delicious to you to be generous. And that is one of the things that Christ forms in us. What pleased God? It pleased God to know and choose and love and save. This is the only reason any of us are saved, is because it pleased him. This is what we discovered about salvation. And those whom he saves, those whom he conforms to the image of the sun, those whom he makes to appear as his children in this world and have his character, it pleases them to be generous, even with their enemies. We're out of time. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are not a despised Samaritan, but the eternally begotten glorious Son, who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. You are the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You are the one to whom all authority heaven and on earth belong. None is judged but God and all judgment is given into your hands. And yet for our poor sakes, you have given yourself and written a blank check that all that you are, all that you have, would be given for us. And we ask that from the riches of God that are in you, your spirit would give us not only to have you as our treasure, but then the ability to be exceedingly generous with all of our other treasure, because we have you. Make us like you, we ask, in your own name.