A man's life is not defined by his possessions, but by his relationship with God, as illustrated by Jesus' parable of the rich fool in Luke 12. The sermon contrasts the world's materialistic values with the Christian call to seek spiritual riches, highlighting the dangers of covetousness and the pursuit of worldly status. It emphasizes that true contentment comes from trusting God's provision and seeking His kingdom above all else. Ultimately, believers are urged to live as strangers and pilgrims, embracing a life of faith and detachment from earthly treasures.
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Twelfth chapter of Luke this morning. Luke chapter twelve. We'll begin to read with verse thirteen. And one of the company said unto him, unto the Lord Jesus, Master, it is to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man who made me a judge or a divider over you, And he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists of not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.
Do you believe that? Are you right sure you do? A man's life consisted not in the abundance of the things which he possessed. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns and go greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of these. Then who shall those things be which thou has provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thoughts, no anxious thoughts, no worry, for your life, what ye shall eat, neither for your body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than ravens.
Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither has storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth in. How much more are ye better than the fowl? And which of you, with taking thought, can add to his stature one few? If you then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take you thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow. They fall not, they spin not. Yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothed the grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the other, How much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after. And your father knoweth that ye have needed these things, but rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give off. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupt it, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
let your loins be girded about and your lights burning and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he shall return from the wedding when he cometh and knocketh and may open unto him immediately one more passage from John's first letter first John chapter Verse fifteen. He writes here the three classes of people, fathers, young men, and babies.
This is addressed to that middle group. I suppose very few qualify as fathers. I hope there are no babies present. just lovely to be a baby for a very short time. They don't stay like that. I suppose then that most of us would come under the class of classification of young men spiritually with growing. All right, here's the advice he gives to us. Verse fifteen, love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world...
The love of the Father is not in it. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abides forever. In the first century... There was a great outcropping of philosophy. Philosophy raged through the world.
The Greeks led the world in philosophical reasoning and discussion. And there actually was a philosophy of materialism. in the first century. It was a religion with people. It showed up in several of the philosophies by other names, but there was definitely a philosophy of man. Man, you know, was the name of the deity of money. The Lord Jesus said you can't serve God and man.
The Epicurean philosophy was, if it's enjoyable, it's good. Live for what you can enjoy. Cyclops, the mythical deity of the Greeks who was supposed to have one eye in the middle of his forehead, in the Greek poem Euripides said, My herds... And my flock, I sacrifice to my belly, the one true God in which there is joy in service. How do you like that? A smart man, apparently.
That was the philosophy of the first century. Many, many people believe there is nothing more than things. This is the twentieth century. Do you think we've made much advance? Do you believe, as I believe, that the philosophy of the world and especially of the United States is the old philosophy of materialism? I believe that the world has gone mad over materialism. My boy studied philosophy in the University of Chicago.
I tell you they're teaching some rotten things to our young people today. One of them is the eternality of matter. In one of his textbooks, they make the statement, there is nothing that cannot be seen, heard, tasted, or tested in a test tube. The only thing that exists is material thing. You believe that? Of course you don't believe. You wouldn't be at this conference if you believed it. But, brother and sister, this world is filled with that attitude today.
And because that's true in the world today, there's a great danger that you will now be contaminated with it. A man's life consists of not in the abundance of the things that he possesses. Who believes that outside of a Christian? And maybe not all Christians. A man of the world believes that. He has no question in his mind that a man's life does consist in the things that he possessed. After all, how are you going to tell what a man's worth if you don't look at Dunn and Bradstreet? What other criterion is there except to his bank account? To the average American, this is the thing that counts.
To God, he says those are the things that are leaked. Let's put them where they belong. The world says these are the things that are most. God says these are the things that are least. One of the other is right. Well, there's always been a reaction against this. My ancestors were run out of Europe by the Roman Catholic Church. My wife's ancestor, the Duke of St. Wall, is the chief persecutor of the walled angels. That's all been changed.
I do persecute them now in our family. She's no longer a Roman Catholic, and so we get along just fine. You ever read about the poor men of lions? You read about the Vodwa? You read about the walled angels? the outbuildings of. You read about these people in the dark ages that rebelled against this wicked, rotten, materialistic attitude of the professing church when gold was being gathered like dust in Rome. And these men who wished to be called the friends of God were godly people.
They didn't have the Bible. They didn't have a lot of things that you and I had. But they had learned that materialism is wrong. But the right thing is to reach for the riches that endure and love not the world. And they renounce these things. And people call them ascetics. And they call them a lot of other things. And we made a lot of progress into the Dark Ages. Oh, yes, we don't have to kill a man with a bow and arrow anymore, or we can shoot him with a missile. We've made a lot of progress.
We don't have to kill him one at a time. We can blast him a city full at a time. We've made a lot of progress. All of it is in the material realm. Who's going to say there's any more spirituality in the world now than there was in the first century? Our progress is material. This is especially true in the United States of America. Look what we're doing in the United States with our godless atheism. We say, that's communist. That's where the atheists are located. There are two kinds of atheists.
There are the philosophical atheists and then there are the practical atheists. The philosophical atheist says, I don't believe there's any God. The practical atheist acts like he doesn't believe there's any God. What's the difference? Look at the conditions in the United States. Look at the attitude of our government toward material things. What is the number one discussion? in Congress. Appropriations. What means are we using to try to win friends and influence people?
Greenbacks. We have paid so many million dollars for the goodwill of this country because it's worth so much to us. I read the other day that more good has been done in the Middle East through some attempts to teach those people how to irrigate at the cost of a very few thousand dollars. More good has been done and through all of the appropriation, all of the millions of dollars has been poured into that country.
They have spent money for things for those people that the people don't even know how to use and have no earthly use for, are not even slightly interested in. Because we have the idea, this is the criterion of property. This is how you're happy. Two chickens in every pot and two Cadillacs in every garage. This is the way to be supremely happy, the American way of life. I'm not unpatriotic. I don't believe that that is the American way of life. I don't believe that's the way our country was founded at all. I don't believe that the godly men and women who carved out this nation believe that the way to be happy is to have plenty of things.
This is the trend today. The trend toward luxury goods. The trend toward advertising appeals to the lusts and pride. Watch them as you go down the highway. What do the advertisements appeal to? I studied advertising when I was in the Georgia business. What does it appeal to? An attempt is made to make people believe that the way to be happy is to have more and to be somebody. There are just two things that the world knows.
Just two ambitions in the world. To have and to be. To be more than I am. To be Mr. Big. And to possess a little more than I possess. The average man in the United States just wants thirty-seven dollars and eighty-five cents more than he has. It doesn't make any difference what he already has. I read that in the paper so it must be sold. That's all people want. Just thirty-seven dollars and eighty-five cents more per week than they have. It doesn't make any difference what they get in there. Why? The lust for things and it's wicked.
And our Lord Jesus said a man who lives like that is going to die and go to hell. We as Christians are imitating. When the Lord Jesus plainly said, Brother and Sister, listen to this. The Lord Jesus plainly said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven? So we as Christians are doing everything that we can to see that our children are hindered from going into the kingdom of heaven by trying to give them more than we have. We don't believe what the Lord Jesus said. We don't believe that material things are a hindrance to spirituality.
We believe that a man's life does consist in the things which he possesses. Now, this is the philosophy of the world. I don't think anybody doubts that at all. What about the professing church? For all of the dangerous trends which I see in this twentieth century, begin in the world and then encroach upon the church. What about the professing church today? When the Lord Jesus redeemed his bride and he clothed her with pure linen, clean and white, that didn't satisfy the professing church.
And you find the false church in the book of the Revelation, clad in gold and precious stones. ornamented. And the professing church is not satisfied to be the bride of Christ. We want it also to be the mistress of the world. And you know what's happened to the professing church. And I don't mean simply Rome. There was a time when you visited some beautiful cathedral belonging to the Church of Rome and saw it loaded down with beautiful things.
You can't tell the difference now between the church buildings of the Roman Catholic faith and of Protestantism. The trend today is toward elaborate buildings. The trend today is toward pretentious dress, vestments, toward things to be seen. toward the use of candles and incense and all sorts of things that appeal to the senses. This is a trend today. The table that used to stand down in the front of the building has been pushed against the back like this and made into an altar.
There's no criticism. I don't know who did that. I know you didn't. But you just look, all the pictures that you see, this is what's happened. It's been pushed up here for an order. An imitation of Rome. You expect this in Protestantism today, because this is the trend. I'm a Protestant. I've heard some Christians say, we neither Catholics nor Protestants. If you're not a Protestant, then you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You don't know the conditions in that rotten system, or you would be a Protestant. and they're encroaching upon our liberties in the United States and they're doing it fast. You pray, God, that we'll be able to continue with the liberties that we have till the Lord Jesus comes back, because the slogan for Rome is, Rome never changes.
You expect this in the professing church today. How important are finances in the professing church today? They're number one. I have a friend. I believe he loves the Lord. I believe he's a real child of God. But like Lot, he's vexing his righteous soul from day to day with the unlawful deeds of the Sodomites. He's a pastor in one of the big denominations in the United States. He said, John, I don't know what we're going to do in our church. I said, I don't know what you're going to do either. I'm glad I'm not in it. Well, he said, it's pretty serious. He says, it's bad. You just don't know what we're going through.
He said, listen, we had a man in our church who wanted to get control of the entire convention. And everybody else was trying to figure out who's going to be president of the corporation, the convention. Who's going to be president? And he said, this wicked man sneaked in the back door and got himself made treasurer. And he said, who do you suppose is in complete control of our convention? Well, the treasurer, of course. He said, the rest of us didn't realize there's power and money. The man who holds the checkbook for the corporation is the man who has the power.
He said, this man is in complete control of our denomination in the United States. He said, we not only have the national funds, the national treasury, but he said in Texas they've got the layman's fund. A lot of wealthy oil men and cattle men in Texas have contributed toward this layman's fund, which is used to build churches for the organization, for the denomination. And he said at the close of the last fiscal year there were twenty-seven million dollars in that one fund. And that man controlled the whole thing. He said he wanted to change the curriculum in our Sunday school.
And he went to the head of the publishing house, and he said, this is what we want. The man said, we can't afford it. He said, how much will it take to change over to this type of literature? Why, they said it would take between a half a million and three-quarters of a million dollars. And he sat down and wrote them a check for one million dollars, and he said, give us what we want. And they've got it. I saw some of the literature. They've changed that over completely. And that denomination is shot through with liberalism because a man had a checkbook. That's the trend in the church today.
The emphasis on rich men, the great attempts that are made to pull a man into this denomination or into that one, simply and solely because he's rich. Why, we know this is what's happening. And you're all duly shocked, I'm glad. But now let's get down to where we live. You know this is the condition in the professing church? What about in the companies of God's people where you and I fellowship? Well, you say, thank the Lord, we don't have any of that world in us, wasn't we? Remember it begins as a heart condition.
Remember it begins on the inside. Let me ask you a few pertinent questions. What are your ambitions for your children? What do you really want your children to have? Can you say before the Lord that you are not concerned, you are not trying to get for your children more things in this world? When I lived in the state of Iowa, we had a couple in our fellowship.
I believe they loved the Lord. I believe that they really was the best for their children. But they had a mighty funny idea about what's the best. He had always had a hard time, but he had risen in the corporation where he worked till he had a good job. And his wife said, I heard her say this. She said, my husband and I have decided that we want the best for our boys. So they moved out near the country club. And they took out membership for their two boys.
These two boys that profess to be saved were in our meetings. They took out membership in the country club for these two boys. They said we want our boys to meet the right kind of girl. Meaning girls whose parents have money. That's exactly what they meant. And they did. And they married girls with money. and they became important men in that city. And today, this is about almost forty years ago, today one of those men is a confirmed alcoholic, given up all professions, Christianity.
And the other one, His general manager of the corporation where his father worked. He hasn't been to a meeting in fifteen years that I know of, of any kind. He's a wealthy man. He's an influential man in that city. And he doesn't amount to a hill of beans for God. I don't know whether those boys were ever saved or not. But I know that their broken-hearted mother told me the last time I was there that she'd give anything. She'd give anything if she had had better ambitions for those boys.
The third boy came along later, but this time she had realized a mistake. She tried to influence him toward the Lord's things. He has a very ordinary job. He lives in a very ordinary home. And his wife still picks her teeth after meals. But there are lovely Christians. There's one one for God. Where's your ambition one for your children? Tell me that. Where is your ambition run for your children? You want to be vice president of the concern?
You want them to run for God. Brothers and sisters, we need to be thinking about these things. It's how we say materialism is only in the professing church around us. What about installment time? For a while I was credit manager of a jewelry store. Back in the days when credit buying was just coming in, the things that I saw taught me. My wife agrees with me, thank God, that installment buying is out.
We buy what we can afford to buy. I don't say there isn't any reason, anytime, when you might not buy some of these things on install. But you know what's happening today? Our young people start out so heavily in debt with a home, furniture, appliances, a car, and a few extra luxuries until they'll never get their heads above water. One young fellow told me, he said, I've got so many payments due. He said, if I ever get sick more than two weeks of the time, I'm son.
I said, how long will this go on? How long will it take you to get out? He said, twenty-eight years. Why, to me, that's just a sentence in the penitential. And that's the way the young people are living today. You know this is true, and we're encouraged in a minute. by the way we live and by the things that we desire for them. It would be a disgrace for our kids to get married and start out with anything less than the Joneses. Excuse me, Joneses. What I'm getting at is this. You and I are responsible for God for the example that we set.
Most of you are middle-aged. Don't ask me how I know. Most of you are middle-aged, and your lives are going to be the examples for the young people in the assembly where you are. Now, what kind of an example are you setting? Well, I'll tell you what a great many Christians are doing. We're filling our homes and our garages and our basements full of toys. I visited the man's home while back. Why do we while back? I hope I never go there again. I spent the whole Sunday afternoon, wasted the whole Sunday afternoon looking at that rich man's talks.
He led me from one room to another, showing me the things that he'd accumulate. In his study, I saw shelf after shelf full of first editions, letterbound volumes from back in the seventeenth century. beautiful books that he collected from all over the world at tremendous cost, fifty dollars for this one, a hundred dollars for that one. Then he showed me his collection of cameras. Brother, he can take everything but x-rays. He's got them all lined up. He can do this or that or the other thing.
He can take pictures anywhere from midnight to midday. He's got everything. I don't know about cameras, but I'll tell you those were fine-looking instruments. What was his business? Nothing to do with his business. Then he showed me his collection of guns. He goes hunting once a year. So he needs guns. A great many guns. You shoot anything from an elephant. That fellow's got guns. All over the house he's got guns. He showed me an over and under gun. I never saw one before.
Top of the gun will shoot one kind and the lower barrel will shoot another kind. So that you don't get them at one, you get them at the other. What are those guns cost? I don't know. But I know that that man keeps them polished. I know that he lovingly ran his hand over the beautiful steel and showed me the engraving on the stock. Beautiful. Then he took me down to his basement. He showed me two complete workshops, one for wood, one for metal. I built fourteen thousand dollars worth of improvements on our camp with nothing but a quarter-inch drill and an old worn-out table saw.
And that man had all kinds of things in that basement. He could make anything you wanted made. and a screw-turning lathe. I don't know how the South Bend lathe like that costs. My dad used to be a machinist. I know they're expensive pieces of equipment. What's all this for? Rich men's toys. What do you got? I tell you, brother and sister, we better have a tenured conscience about these things. It's no wonder we don't have anything for the Lord's work. Per capita, those who meet as we do are as rich as any congregation in the United States. But per capita, we are among the world's poorest givers.
And if you don't believe that, you just give me a chance to prove it to your little arithmetic. Why? Because we've got so many installments to pay. Somebody says, well, you know, we're not supposed to give until we have our debts out of the way, so you keep accumulating debt. So you never have to give. I know this is going on and you do too. And I know men who are going to have to give up the work of the Lord in this country. Within the next two years, you're going to see some changes. I've talked to several of them. Why?
Because God's people... are so materialistically minded that they're trying to accumulate a house full of things. I know a man who told me just recently, and one of our best men, I think, he said I wouldn't be able to continue preaching if my wife hadn't taken a part-time teaching job two years ago. I know another man who has gone to work part-time. And people say, oh, he's just doing it because he likes to do that kind of thing. I had a talk just recently with another man. He said, I applied for a position with a government because I used to work for the government.
He said, I made that a kind of a fleece that I put out. Although I've been in the work of the Lord for twenty years, he said, I told the Lord I can't go on much longer like this. I'm willing to go back to work. You want me to go back to work, you just give me this job. The Lord didn't give it to us. I'm glad he didn't. God's using that name. Materialism is beating up our assemblies. We see it in our attitude toward buildings. There's nothing wrong with a building. A building is a good tool, but it is nothing more than a tool.
Whenever it becomes a status symbol, Whenever it becomes competition, whenever we're trying to show the folks down the street in the first, whatever it is, church, that we can do it too, then it's lost. And our attitude today seems to be we can cure anything with a new building. You can. We have two lovely buildings in Colorado Springs, and they never cured anything. They created a few new problems, but they never cured anything. You can't say the souls of the building. They have to be one through the gospel.
And you can preach the gospel anywhere by ringing doorbells best of all. We're still getting souls in our city by the simple expedient of calling on the neighbors. That's the way we're getting souls. They don't come flocking to see our lovely buildings. They can do better down St. Mary's any day. They don't come to see our buildings. My brother and sister, we have a great many things that indicate that we have lost our pilgrim character. Our methods for financing are changing among those who need as we do.
We no longer believe in the simple expedient of prayer. I met brother Harold Harper out in California. A few years back, he said, did you drive out? I said, no. I came out on the train. The car I had at that time was a little on the crippled order, and I didn't think it'd make the trip, so I came out on the train. Well, he said, John, it used to be when we needed a new car, we prayed about it, but now he said, we just ride into Chicago and start a new fund. Do you think you approved of it? You don't know Harold Harper if you think so. We cure everything with funds. We cure everything with drives.
We no longer pray and wait on God for things. We say the smart thing to do is to form a committee. Let's get this job done. When you talk about the faith line, talk about the simple expedient of the simple plan of trusting God instead of the expediencies that we resort to today, Some man twist his face into a real sharp... Look, you know, that's how you tell that he's a real sharp dealer. He says, well, you've got to be practical about this, you know. Meaning, you don't want to be foolish enough to trust God. When the Lord has set in something like a half million dollars in the last twenty-six years, to support the children's home in Colorado Springs and every dime of which has come in and answered a prayer, you don't need to think for a minute that we believe that we need to turn to any kind of expediencies, that we need to turn to anyone except to God.
God is still on the throne. God is still able to answer prayer. And we show by our attitude toward finances that we do not believe it. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, I'd like you to turn with me to that. He gives us the character that Christians ought to exhibit in this present age. Hebrews chapter eleven. And verse thirteen says these, these who have been mentioned before, Abraham, of course he began with Abel, Enoch, Noah, then Abraham, Sarah, and mentions of course Isaac and Jacob.
Verse thirteen, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them. and embrace them and confess that there were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country. That is, in heaven. Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God.
For he hath prepared for them the same. The Chinese call the verbs the living words. The verbs are the words that make a sentence live. Look at the seven verbs in this. First thing, having seen these things. They saw what God had. Now you see this. I haven't told you a thing new this morning. You see that the real, the important things are God things. The real riches are God things. You see that. All right, the next thing is they were persuaded of them.
Most of us would have to say almost about persuading us to be a Christian. A lady told me a while back, she said, you knew my father. I said, I did. One of the most godly men I ever met. Well, she said, at Daddy's funeral, my sister, when we got home from the funeral, my sister said, you know, Daddy was a radical, and I don't want to be a radical. She said, I'm a Christian, and I want to be, I want to live for the Lord, but I don't want to be radical like Daddy was. And this sister who told me this said, I wish you'd pray for my sister.
I wonder now if she's really saved. A Christian who does not want to be a radical raises the question as to whether or not he's really saved. There's no other way to be a Christian. We've got to be persuaded by these things. Not simply persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him. but persuaded that I'm to keep a few things that he's committed unto me. He was persuaded of these things, and they embraced them. When I get home, I get an embrace, and I'm not so bad at giving them.
My wife and I love each other. We've had thirty-one happy years together. And we show our affection for each other by an embrace. Do you have any real affection for God's face? Have you embraced these things? Do they control your heart? Never mind about your head. A lot of the things which you and I know need to be lowered about a foot. Yes, you know these things are true. Do you embrace them? Are they real to you? You say, this is what I love. Or do you have to say, I'm afraid I still love the world?
Just recently in Colorado, we buried a man who professed to be saved about thirty-five years ago. Thirty-one years ago, his family asked me to go to see him. They said, we're not sure about him. His life isn't right. And I went to see he was living just like a man of the world. And I said, what's the matter? What's wrong? Well, he said, I'll tell you, John, he said, the world is tossing out some pretty nice bouquets for yours, truly. And I had to turn away and leave him.
It wasn't the thing that I could say. I never got through his armor. The world is throwing out some pretty nice bouquets to yours truly. Mostly financial bouquets. Things, pleasures, this world. He loved it. He's dead now. I hope he knew the Lord, but I doubt it. He never embraced these things. Now when you embrace these things, then you will confess. that you are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. That's the fourth birth. Having seen, were persuaded, embraced them, confessed that there were strangers and pilgrims, they that say such things.
You see, you confess it by your life and then you say it because you believe it. Wouldn't be any good to say these things if your life isn't behind them. No use to talk about them if they're not real. I'm more exercised about this than I am about delivery. I'm not trying to be an attractive speaker. And by the grace of God, I want to live what I tell God's people. If I love this world, it's no use for me to tell you about it, not to love it. When they confessed these things by their eyes, then they could say them.
They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. Seek first the kingdom of God in His righteousness. What do you seek? What do you really want? The Lord Jesus said that in the first chapter of John. He turned to the disciples and he said, What are you looking for? What do you want? And they said, Lord, where do you stay? That's what we want. We want your company. We want to be with you. Don't you want? Could anybody tell they're watching me this last week? This last month? This last year? Or is there any real difference between you and your neighbors?
And the seventh verb is in verse sixteen. But now they desire a better country. Desire is what motivates us. Desire is what makes us what we are. Now I've said a great deal about the disease. What about the cure? Well, first of all, diagnosis is a great part of the cure. You're not going to cure leprosy if your diagnosis is heat rash. You're not going to cure covetousness when you call it a natural net for making money.
You know, I'm sharp. Always squint that right eye when you say that. I'm sharp. And the truth of the matter is you're just downright covetous. Or you say, I don't want what he's got, I just want one like it. Covetousness is not necessarily wanting what another person has. It's just simply wanting. Covetousness is reaching for things. That's why he says covetousness is idolatry. When the Lord ought to occupy our hearts, the Lord ought to satisfy us and we've got to have things. This is the true God in eternal life.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourself from loving anything that will displace him. Let's diagnose it for what it is. Some people never get rid of their rotten temper because they say it's something that they inherit. It's man's fanny. They just will not admit that it's a rotten temper. You can't get any cure for it at all. Unless we call it what it is, we're never going to get cured from the love of this world. Is there somebody here this morning that has the courage to get down before God and say, Lord, I'm ashamed of this, but I've been loving the world.
Loving this present world. Maybe I haven't forsaken the Lord's people like Demas. That's what's the matter with him. He loved this world. Maybe I haven't gone that far, but, Lord, my heart isn't right. I love things. Somebody here got the courage to say that to the Lord this morning? That's the first step in restoration. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we turn to the Word of God, we get cleanser.
Remember when the Lord washed the disciples' feet? He didn't say to them, Now you need to be washed in the precious blood again. We're cleansed in the precious blood of Christ once. The blood of Jesus Christ is of this character, that it is the cleanser from all sins. But the verse doesn't mean that the blood of Christ keeps on cleansing. You only need to be cleansed in the precious blood of Christ once. But you need to be cleansed by the washing of the word of God many times in the day. Ephesians chapter five, the washing of the water by the word.
Psalm one hundred and nineteen, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. If you and I turn to the word of God, And we'll read the example of the early Christians. What were they like? Was there a millionaire in the crowd? Was there anybody in the crowd who was interested in getting something here on this earth? They believe what the Lord Jesus had taught them. And their life was a life of devotion to the Lord, an abstention from this world. Take the example of our blessed Lord himself.
How could you read? How could you read such a verse as this and then go in for this world's goods? You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. How though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. How poor. Who could say how poor? For your sake he became poor. that he through his poverty might be rich. How could you read that and go in for this world? How could you read that and then kid yourself into believing that you need this or you need that?
What rationalizers we are? We wouldn't say the truth of the matter is I'm just covetous And I want something better than I have, and I want to be somebody, and I want to show off. We wouldn't say that. We'd say, I need it, you know. I have a friend out in the West, and he gets a new Cadillac every year. I don't have anything against Cadillacs, but... His wife said, she don't know, she said, you know, his Cadillac runs this fine when a new model comes out and everything goes wrong with it.
She said, sometimes I'm afraid he won't be able to get the thing down to the garage to trade for the new each fall. That's rationalizing our condition instead of testing it by the word of God. Oh, I can say that and not hurt anybody at all. But I could say some other things and come a little closer to home. Why don't you say it? Be much better if you let the Lord say them to you. Get along with him. Say, now, Lord, examine my life. Pour the word of God through my heart and soul. Help me to see the Lord Jesus in his complete lack of love for things.
Help me to see the early Christians in their true discipleship. disinterested in accumulating things, but living because they wanted to be all together for God. Lord, pour this through my soul and teach me to avoid this materialistic, covetous attitude of the world in my day. Brother God, would you be dismissing me for that?