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Money can be an uncomfortable subject for many of us, so you may be surprised to know that Jesus spends a good bit of time in the Gospels talking about it. Why was the subject of money so important to Jesus? And what does it mean for our lives today? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller explores how the hope of Christ transforms the way we view our finances.
After you listen, please go online to gospelandlife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll start receiving our quarterly newsletter with articles written by Dr. Keller, as well as other great gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at gospelandlife.com. We're going to do a little mini-series this week and next week out of Luke 12. This is Jesus teaching in Luke chapter 12. Let me read you verses 13 to 21.
Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus replied, Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? And when he said, then he said to them, Watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them this parable.
The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop, and he thought to himself, What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, You fool.
This is God's Word, unfortunately. Now, what I'm going to do, we're going to do two weeks on an interesting subject. In the book of Luke, chapter 12, there's a great deal of teaching by Jesus Christ on the subject of...
the attitude and the use that we should have in his mind toward our possessions and toward our wealth. Jesus teaching on our attitude and our use of our wealth and our possessions. Now, if you've been here over the years, you'll know something, and that is that traditionally and very consciously I stay away from this subject in preaching on Sundays.
Usually once a year, traditionally, you know, at the end of the year, near the end of the year, I preach a sermon on some passage of the Bible about how God wants us to view our money. Last year, I didn't even do that. And the reason I have consciously done this over the years is pedagogical. I'm a pedagogue, which sounds terrible, but I am. And a pedagogue is not a demagogue, please. It's a teacher. And as a teacher, I know that you always have to do first things first.
At Redeemer, we continually have, and this is one of the most satisfying things about being here, is that we always have in every meeting, in every service, people at every single stage in the spiritual journey. Every stage.
And that means there's always significant people who are trying to come to grips with who Jesus is and how they relate to him. And if you haven't already got a grip on the basic foundational principles of who Jesus is and what your relationship is to him, of course, then the principles that the Bible lays down on our internal motivation and our external guidelines for our giving are
And our use of wealth won't make sense. They may even be offensive. They may be a turnoff, you see. If you don't know who Jesus is and you don't have a grip on that relationship, then the implications for how you use your money won't make much sense. And as I said, it might actually be misleading. So...
I've always said first things first, and I've sort of stayed away. Then I was brought up very short by this chapter. And in the very beginning of the chapter, which we didn't read, there's a fascinating setting verse. In the very beginning of many of these chapters, the gospel writer gives you the setting. He explains, is it on a mountain or on a plain? You know, the Sermon on the Mount, the setting is a mountain. In the very beginning, in Luke 12, verse 1, we're told,
When a crowd of many thousands gathered, trampling upon one another, Jesus Christ began to speak to his disciples. Now, one of the most amazing things about 12, I'd never seen this in my whole life, though I've read the material before, is that a crowd gathers, thousands of people trampling on each other, and Jesus Christ begins to speak to his disciples. And there's a number of times in which he speaks directly to the crowd, but very often he speaks directly to the disciples, but always so that the crowd can hear.
And that's one of the reasons why Peter himself gets kind of confused at one point. Down in verse 41, he says, Now, Lord, Master, are you telling us this or are you telling the crowd? And here's what I suddenly realized. Jesus Christ addresses a crowd, people who believe, people who don't believe, and people who don't know what they believe. And he not only says some things to them directly, but he also chooses certain subjects that he wants them to overhear him talking to his disciples about. Very interesting.
He not only gives the crowd things he wants them to hear, but he also gives them some things he wants them to overhear. And most of the material on giving and stewardship and the relationship to our possessions that Jesus Christ wants his disciples to have, he wants the crowd to hear. He wants the crowd to hear. Jesus wants the crowd to hear him talking to his disciples about their money.
And we'll get to why that might be true, but I suddenly began to realize one of the main ways you will come to know who Jesus is, and you will come to understand who he is and what he's done, is if you see him talking to his disciples about their money. And therefore, we're going to look and see what he says to Christians about their money. And if you are here and you're not sure what you believe...
Then here's my suggestion. Let nothing I say and nothing I tell you Jesus says here today, let none of these things, let nothing here be interpreted by you as a request for your money. Jesus is not asking you for your money. I certainly am not asking you for your money. If you're not quite sure where you stand with him, I certainly am not. You will be asked for something, as we will see, but it's not your money. But if you want to understand him, you need to hear what he says to his disciples about money.
Isn't that something? So I've been brought up short. Let's talk about it. If you want to understand this passage, there's three R's. Not reading, writing, and arithmetic. The three R's. There is a request, a refusal, and a rebuke. And when you ask why the request, why the refusal, and why the rebuke, all sorts of things come tumbling out. So first of all, there's a request. Teacher, see, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with us. Why that request?
Why was that asked? Now, this is the shortest of the points, but let's look at it. Why would this man come to Jesus Christ and say, look, my brother and I were left in inheritance from our parents, and my brother has possession of it and is not giving me my fair share. Please come and settle it. Now, why would he request that of Jesus? Now, there's a general answer that we have to certainly take into consideration. Notice he calls him teacher, rabbi.
And in those days and at that time, civil suits like this were not taken to some. There were no secular judges in that sense. You would go to a rabbi and the rabbi would apply the biblical law and make the adjudication of the case. But that can't be enough of an explanation for why he would do this, because Jesus was not. He was not on the Sanhedrin. He was not one of the trained, accredited rabbis who would sit in the temple courts.
and would adjudicate questions and issues in civil cases and so forth. He was not part of the system. So why was he being asked? Here's why he's being asked. He's being asked because if you would be willing, and I don't know if you would, if you'd be willing to read through the book of Luke, or actually all the gospels, but just the book of Luke in one sitting, the thing that would immediately amaze you
is the fact that Jesus talks about money more than he talks about any other single subject except maybe himself. But even there, I don't think so. He talks about money relentlessly. He talks about wealth and possessions and justice and mercy with money constantly. It's a constant emphasis. I mean, I don't even know how to begin to go about telling you about it. Most of chapter 12 is about it. Most of chapter 11 is about it. Most of chapter 16 is about it. Back in Luke 3, when John the Baptist is asked, for example, how do I repent?
He's told, what does he tell them? He says, don't be greedy. Be content with your wages. When the disciples, when the Pharisees are being denounced in Luke 16, they're called lovers of money. When Zacchaeus' life is completely transformed in Luke 19 by Jesus Christ, he immediately gives away 50% of his wealth. Luke 11 is the only place in the Bible where Jesus Christ affirms the tithe as a standard for giving, a 10th.
Luke is continually talking about it. And of course, 11 out of Jesus' 39 parables are directly on money and on what we're supposed to do with our money. And that means at least 28% of the time that Jesus Christ opened his mouth and maybe more, he was talking about money. And that's the reason why this man asked this question.
Because Jesus is continually talking about the proper use of your wealth. And so he asked Jesus, he says, well, help my brother with this. You know, it's like many of us. We sit in a sermon, we listen to a sermon, and we say, I wish so and so were here. Okay? Well, that's the reason, that's why the man's doing it. The man is so used to hearing Jesus say, be generous.
so used to hearing Jesus say relentlessly, continually, talking about money and wealth and how we should use it, that he says, fine, would you talk to my brother about this? Now, before we move on, you say, okay, that's interesting, but let me apply this. Let me screw this in for a minute.
Those of you who get our newsletter will read about this when it comes to you. One of the things that has amazed me recently as I've been looking again at what the Bible says about giving and trying to come to grips with why Jesus would talk this much about it and frankly, coming to grips with why I talk so little about it, why I'm afraid and why Jesus talked constantly about it.
I began to realize that giving is not just a duty that lays here along with the other duties like worship and evangelism and prayer and loving others and helping the poor. No, actually giving is at the heart of... The reason Jesus talks about this is that giving of your money, generosity of your money, is at the heart of every single thing a Christian is and does
If you look at the whole scope of everything the Bible says about everything that a Christian is and does, giving's at the heart of every part of it. It's not... Let me show you what I mean. Let's take a look at everything a Christian is. The whole range of Christian character. Faith, hope, and love. The three cardinal virtues. Faith, hope, and love. Why don't we give more? Let me talk personally. Why don't I give more? Number one, I don't have faith. I'm scared. I wonder whether God will take care.
I wonder whether he'll really care for me if I give. See, that's not just a lack of generosity. That's a lack of faith. Okay, hope. Why don't we give? Hope means what do you really get your value from? What do you really get your sense of worth from? Is it in Christ or is it in how we live, the restaurants we can eat at, the clothes we can wear?
One of the reasons we don't give is also because of hope and then love, faith, hope, and love. One of the reasons we don't give is because we lack sympathy and sensitivity to the unbelievable needs out there. We don't even want to know about those needs. We get scared. We don't feel them. We cut ourselves off from them. And therefore, the only way to build faith, real faith, not faith you say you have, giving is a reality check on every one of the virtues.
You can say I've got faith, but here's how I know it. You see? Because money is quantifiable. It's concrete. It's a reality check. Hope. You want to build your hope? You want to have a hope that's real, not just sentiment, not just something you're talking about? Here's how you do it. You give. You want to have love that's not just sentiment? Here's how you do it. You give. Let's take a look at not what your Christian is. That's faith, hope, and love. That's the range of character. But let's talk about what Christians do. The whole range of duties.
And the whole range of duties is we're supposed to serve God and other Christians and the world. And when you read what the Bible says about that, you can't serve God unless you say, everything I own belongs to you. Otherwise, it's just lip service. It's sentiment. It's not real. And you can't say to other people, other Christian brothers and sisters, I love you, but I'm not going to share my material wealth with you because then again, that's just sentiment. It's not reality. And I'll tell you, if you go to Acts into chapter 4, 5, and 6,
you will see that because Christians gave their money away in astonishing proportions, that showed the world that something real had happened to them. If you say to the world, God's changed me, I'll say, fine, that's nice. I mean, everybody says that. But when the world saw Christians giving their money away in ways that nobody else did, you see, the reality of God's generosity changed.
to us will never hit the world until they see our generosity to everybody else. Here's the point. Reality. Giving is not just something over here. It's at the heart of everything. You can't worship God. You can't love your brothers and sisters. You cannot change the world without radical giving. A lack of giving is not just, I'm just being kind of stingy. It's at the heart of everything. It's a lack of faith. It's a lack of hope. It's a lack of love. And the way to build faith, hope, and love is through the giving.
Do you remember two weeks ago, if you were here, in Exodus 33 and 34, God came to the children of Israel and he said, I will help you, but I'm not going to be real to you. Remember that? He says, I'll be a concept to you. I'll do things, but you're never going to have my glory. You're not going to have my reality, my palpable presence. Remember what Moses said and what the people said? They said...
We don't just want the idea of God. We want the reality. We don't just want the sentiment of God or this insignia of God or the symbol of God. We want the reality of God. What did Jesus, what did God say? Remember, he said, strip off your ornaments, your wealth. He says, put your wealth at my disposal. And you see what he's saying? He says, if you want me to give me, if you want me to give you my reality, my
I want you to give me your reality. You can say you give me your heart. You can say you give your brother and sisters your heart. You can say you've given the world your heart. But until you put your wealth on the line, there's a reality check. That's the only way I know you really have done it. Giving is at the heart of real Christianity. The reason Jesus Christ is talking about it all the time is because it's not one subject. It's not like, gee, here's the giving subject. When is it going to get to the other subjects? It is all the subjects. It's at the heart of all the subjects. It cuts through everything.
That's the reason the man asked the request. He asked the request because Jesus was always talking about money, because there's no way there can be any reality of God in your life. There can be any reality in your community with other Christians. There can be any reality of impact on the world. No way you can have the reality of God's character in your life unless concretely we treat our money differently than anybody else does. We are remarkably different. We are visibly different. We are concretely different. That's the first.
That's why this man asked the question, because Jesus never stopped talking about this. Okay, number two. That was the request, but then why the refusal? You know, in some ways, the big surprise of this whole passage is when Jesus Christ refuses to do it. And you see, it's not just a surprise that he refuses, considering Jesus is very concerned about social justice. He's very concerned about it. He's concerned about issues of justice. He's always talking about it. That's why the man asked. But the way he says it,
What does he say? It's really almost a rebuke. It's kind of, and he says, man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you or over you? Now, the reason it's so confusing, let me, let me, if you're not confused, let me help you. My job is first confuse you, I hope.
First of all, Jesus is continually saying he's a judge. I mean, all through the Gospels. He says that judgment won't happen until he comes back, and then he will be the judge, and he will sit on the throne of the universe, and the nations will be gathered at his feet, and he will divide the sheep from the goats, and all that. And of course, not only does he say he's a judge, but, and here's the thing that's important.
in this very chapter. In this chapter 12, he says he is an arbiter. Now, for some reason, I can see why, the New International Version translates this word arbiter like an arbitrator, arbitration. But the Greek word is a word that really means divider. It means a divider. And it's a meristan, which means a divider. And down in verse 51, in this very same chapter,
Jesus seems to completely contradict himself, or Luke does, because he's putting this all together. And you see, in verse 51, Jesus says one of the most dramatic things he ever says. He says, I came to set the world on fire. This is verse 51, 49 to 51. He says, I came to set the world on fire. And by the way, this is a very interesting verse in light of this Christmas season starting to come up. He says, think not that I came to bring peace on earth. Whoa. Whoa.
He says, I came to put fire on the earth and I came to divide people. He says, I will divide mother from daughter. I will divide father from son. Jesus Christ says he's a divider. And the reason he's a divider is because he's always talking about himself. Think about this. How would you like to be with a person who is constantly interrupting you, saying something like this? Well, enough about you. What do you think of me?
Jesus Christ was always doing this, and he had to. And the reason he had to, if he was right about his claim, if he's right when he said the universe is divided in two, there is a huge concrete slab between the real and the ideal, between what we are and what we want to be, what we need to be, what we hope to be. And it's a slab, and we can never get through it. But somebody has.
Somebody from the eternal world has come through. The great captain. He's broken through. He's open to cleft, C.S. Lewis says. He's broken through. Someone from the eternal world has come to earth. The creator, the judge, the son of God. And that's the reason why Jesus can always say, if that's true, then...
Your relationship to me is more important than anything else. If you've got an eye offending you, if you've got a hand that's keeping you from me, cut them off. They're nothing compared to me. If you have me, you conquer the universe. If you have me, you're allowed to shine the stars. If you don't have me, you'll be nothing but the wind, the chaff that the wind drives away. Jesus was always making those kinds of claims, enormous claims, and therefore he was dividing people constantly. He was saying, choose me.
Or reject me. But see, there's nobody who makes these kinds of claims that you can just treat casually. There's a person like this, a person who made the claims that Jesus Christ made. You either have to worship him and throw yourself on the ground and say, command me, or else you run away in fear and in hatred. As you probably know, the end of the year is an important time for ministries like ours. And it's your generosity that allows us to continue to grow and share the gospel with more people.
When I've spoken to others about the potential for Gospel in Life to reach more people, they're encouraged that the good news of the gospel is going forward. Please join me in praying that God would move through the resources of Gospel in Life to transform the hearts and minds of more people all over the world in the coming year. Your support is vital to our ministry, and I ask you to prayerfully consider whether God is calling you to make a year-end gift to Gospel in Life.
To make a gift, go to gospelinlife.com slash give. Again, that's gospelinlife.com slash give. Thank you for your generous support because the gospel truly changes everything, everywhere. So he was a divider. He says he was a divider. In verse 51, what's going on here? Are you confused now? Good. Now we can keep on going with the sermon. You have to be confused. You don't get any drama here. The reason...
He would say this, unless you think he's an idiot or that Luke was an idiot, and let's assume that they're not, that in the very same chapter they would just totally contradict themselves using the very same word. I'm not a divider. I am a divider. Here's what he means. He says, I was not appointed, see this, for this kind of division. What he is saying, or this kind of judgment, what he is saying is, if you come to me asking me to divide your inheritance before you ask me to divide your life, or...
If you come to me asking for anything before you have given me your everything, you don't understand me. You don't know what I'm appointed to do. You don't understand my mission. Well, what is his mission? What is he appointed to do? He says right here, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Now, literally in the Greek that this is translated from, it actually says you do not exist in your possessions.
That's what it says. They don't translate it that way because it would sound very odd. Jesus literally says, you don't exist in these things. And now we see. Jesus is saying, my job is to tell you what life is. And my job is to show you what your life really consists in. He says, what you have done, mister, is you've come to me and you believe your life consists in this. Everybody has something that they are existing in.
And if you come to me saying, I know you're a teacher, or if you come to me and say, I know you're the son of God, even if you come to me and say, I even know you're God. And you ask me without knowing what that thing is that you think your life consists in. If you don't see it, if you haven't unveiled it, that's my job to show you what it is. And then you come to me, then you're actually not serving me. You're using me to get that. See, he says, you think your life exists in that.
And if you come and ask me to get this or that for you, do you know what's going on? He says, you haven't understood what I'm here for. I am not here to get you things that you think will make your life. I'm here to be your life. Jesus is here to ask you a question, much more fundamental questions than we want to ask. We always go to Jesus Christ, and I know there's plenty of you here. We go to Jesus Christ like this. We say, I'm thinking of becoming a Christian. I've got a lot of investments. Lord, tell the stock market to stop gyrating.
I'm thinking of becoming a Christian. Lord, tell him or her to marry me. I'm thinking of becoming a Christian. Lord, tell the firm to make me a partner. I'm thinking of becoming a Christian. Lord, tell the critics that I'm a great singer. Same thing.
You come in at this level. You see, you come in at this level and say, Lord, I'm thinking about kind of getting to know you and I see you're a great person and oh, I can't live without you. Lord, get me the thing that I know is my life. And Jesus Christ says, no, no, no. I come in at this level. I'm not appointed to talk to you at this level. I'm appointed to come down here and say...
I have not come to give you things that you think are your life. I have come to become your life, to be your life. I came to set your life on fire. I came to revolutionize your life. I came to give you, not to help you get to your agenda, I came to give you an entire new agenda. And don't you see, you will just be chaff. You won't last.
You'll just be blown away with your money or blown away with your singing or blown away with your spouse or whatever you think is your life. These things are going to go and you will go with them. He says, I'm not appointed to do this. See, he says, I'm not this kind of divider. If you come to me, ask me to divide this and give you these things before you have given me your very self, before you have seen that what you're living for is all wrong.
That what you're living for is a bubble. You're a bubble boy. You're a bubble girl. You're living your life on a bubble. These bubbles are going to burst. That's the reason why you're coming with this franticness. That's the reason why a lot of you are at Redeemer today. Because you know that you're living on a bubble and you're actually saying, I'd like to find Jesus. Maybe Jesus will help. And Jesus says, the only way I will help is not if you say, oh Lord, come and help strengthen my bubble. But oh Lord, I want to live for you. See, he wants your all. He wants your whole life.
Now, before we move on to the last part, which is important, don't you see what's going on? If you're not sure what you believe, okay, never make this mistake. Jesus Christ never says to a person when they first show up, give me your money. If you give him your money before you give him your life, it's death. Plenty of people do it. They give their money to build orphanages. They give their money to build hospitals. They give their money to the poor. They give their money to the church. They give their money to build a church.
And they say, maybe then God will listen to me. Oh, see what's going on. That's literally death. If you give him your money before you give him yourself, he's not after your money, actually. Because you see, he realizes that if you give him your money before you give him yourself, well, you're actually using him. You're not serving him. And Christian friends, for a minute, just realize this. Anything, not just money,
Anything we come and say, Lord, tell this to happen. Tell that to happen. We'll get back to this in just a second. We're doing that. And Jesus Christ says, not that these things are unimportant, but they're not primary. It's priorities. That's the whole point. The reason for the refusal is priorities. And there's an awful lot of us who definitely are saying, Lord, tell the circumstances of my life to get into order. And Jesus Christ is saying, I didn't come for that. And you know what? If I did it for you, it wouldn't help you a bit.
It wouldn't help you a bit. It would help you for a month. It would help you for a year. It would help you for a life. But there's more to you than this life. That's what he's saying. So there's the reason for the request. And there's the reason for the refusal. But then finally there's a rebuke. Now we just said that you can build your life on anything, and that's bad. But you see, this particular passage is about money and how money blinds you to reality.
And what words with the great rebuke is in verse 20. You know, I didn't look out. I didn't go through the Bible. I should have because I wanted to come and say this is the only place that I know where God calls somebody a fool. And I'm not sure I didn't look it up, but sure, it isn't very often. How often does God come and say to somebody, you fool? Now, see, the word fool in the Bible is a very significant word. The word fool in the Bible certainly does mean being it does have a rational aspect.
See, a fool in the Bible is somebody who's not thinking, somebody who's not thinking out, somebody who's out of touch with reality, out of touch with reality. But there's also a spiritual aspect because in the Bible, a fool, foolishness is not the absence of mental equipment. It's the presence of an outlook that hates God's definitions of reality.
It's not just rationally being out of touch with reality. It's a hatred for God's definition of reality. And what we see here is that money made this man a fool. Money made him a fool. Meaning, money spiritually...
blinded him to God's reality in two ways. And if we look at the story, we see the two ways. First of all, I'll just tell you what the two ways are so I get back to make sure. First of all, money blinded this man to the existence of spiritual reality. And then secondly, money blinded this man to the very principle of spiritual reality. Here's what I mean by existence. Very important. Notice that this man saved as if this life was all there is.
Notice, it's interesting. It's all about savings. I don't know why savings and loan people don't use this passage in their advertisement. Because notice, this man is communing with his heart, and he says, I can have ease, and I can have joy. Why? I've saved. He says, I've stored up. And not only that, he doesn't just say stored up. He says he stored up everything. See, verse 18? I stored up all. Because he's saved, he's happy. He's happy.
But God says you're a fool, and here's why. Because he stored up as if this world was all there is, as if there wasn't a spiritual reality, as if the material world was all there is, when actually there's an immaterial world as well. Another way to put it would be, obviously, if there is a physical world, and there is, then to save nothing is stupid, it's foolish. But if there is something besides a spiritual world, then to save everything...
is stupid and foolish because God says, you fool, you're dying tonight. Look at that great question. Who will get? Who will receive? Now who will get what you've prepared? He didn't think of any way of sending it on. And see, what we have here is something pretty important. We have here the idea that money tends to make us think of this. It pulls us on in. What God is actually saying here is that money you spend on yourself cannot go with you.
If you spend money on clothes, the clothes burn up eventually. They either fall apart here, or when the world ends, everything will burn up. If you put money into houses, they crumble, they burn up. But there's some things that never stop. The Bible says, for what? God's kingdom doesn't stop. It says in Isaiah, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord abides forever. The word of God doesn't stop. People don't stop.
In Luke chapter 16, we're told about the unjust steward who comes to his senses and he makes friends for himself with his generosity. And then Jesus has the audacity to say, and therefore, make friends for yourself in heaven with your money so you'll be welcomed into heavenly mansions. And what he's talking about is this. People last forever. If you put your money into people, you're putting your money into something that lasts. See, this man said...
I am smart. If somebody gets the lotto lottery and makes a million dollars and immediately goes out and spends it all on cowboy boots, you say you're a fool. You need to put your money into savings. You need to put your money into investments, into something that lasts. And here, of course, Jesus Christ is coming along and saying, if you take your money and put it all into barns, put it all into the savings, you're a fool.
Does that last? The banks fall apart. Everything falls apart here. Put your money into God. Put your money into God's kingdom. Put your money into God's word. And put your money into people. And that lasts forever. You see, that's the important thing. And that's the first point. Money has a tendency to blind us to half of spiritual reality. It tends to blind us to it. But it's pretty interesting. I was reading a very, very interesting old book.
called the Letter of Diognetus. And the Letter of Diognetus was written after biblical times, but in the earliest part of the church, when the church was growing rapidly and taking over the Greek Roman world. And in the Letter to Diognetus, he says, one of the things that makes it so different is this. Christians share their table with all, but they don't share their bed with all. Though poor, they make many rich. Now, what was Diognetus saying? He said,
That culture in that day was losing its sense of the gods and of the eternal. And here's what was happening. When you become completely concentrated, when you can concentrate completely on this world, which is what happened to that, the pagan society, what happened was he said, Christians share their table with all, but not their bed with all. If this world is all there is, sex is no big deal. Somebody asked for it, you give it to them. But money becomes holy. Money becomes sacred.
Because money is the only way, just like this guy, the only way I can know I can have ease and I can be merry. And see, if this world is all there is, sex is no big deal. You give to who asks, and money is a big deal, and it becomes holy, and I don't want anybody asking me for it, and I don't want anybody making me feel guilty about it. And it's very personal, and it's very private, and if somebody asks me, I'm not going to give them anything. Christians, because they believe both in a material world and an immaterial world, totally reverse that.
They gave their money to almost anybody who asked, and they only had sex with one or none. Totally different. Total change. Now, what about this culture? Howard Stern, who has no problem talking about everything he does with his wife in bed, stopped his political campaign. Remember a couple of years ago? Because they asked for financial disclosure. Sex, hey, money. Not too many years ago, I talked to a couple, a married couple,
I remember this very clearly. And I was amazed. We were counseling them. I was very amazed because they were willing to tell me all kinds of very intimate details. They weren't even blushing. How about their sex life? And they weren't even blushing. And I would sit there and, mm-hmm, wow, you know. At one point I said, well, you know what? I think there might be some tension in the area of finances. Let's talk about money. Suddenly the shutters went down.
And they said, if you make us talk about income or savings or investments or anything like that, that's too personal. The counseling is over. Well, what is that? If this money now is sacred, money now is holy. Sex is no big deal. Money, money and sex are reversed. If you see all of reality, all of reality, you got it. Hey, listen, Christian friends, many of us are like this. This is one of my problems, too.
We live in a secular world and we, in our minds, we still believe, yes, there's the material and the immaterial. There's, you know, there's earth and then there's heaven. But we're affected by this, are we not? We're affected by the foolishness that says this world is all the reality. This world is all there is.
And as a result, when you start to treat your money that way, when you don't want anybody talking to you about it, some of you may be offended today. Say, I don't mind if he's talking about love and telling me I'm selfish and telling me I'm not humble and telling me I'm not loving. But when you start to tell me that I'm spending too much money on myself, that's personal. You're imbibing the spirit of the world. Money's made you a fool. Now, the second way money blinds us is not just to the existence of spiritual reality, but it also blinds us to the very principle.
What do I mean by that? The Bible over and over and over says that in the spiritual realm, there is one principle for progress. And you know what it is? It's the exact opposite of what the world says is the principle of progress. The world says, store up, and the Bible says, empty your barns. It says it many ways. When Jesus says, the one who wants to find himself must lose himself. What?
But you see, what the Bible says is the way to real honor is to humble yourself. The way to real joy is to repent. The way to real riches is to empty your barns. The way to real everything, see, the way to real power is serve. And of course, the world says that's utterly ridiculous. It's a war of sanities, a war of sanities. But see, Jesus puts it right out here when he says in verse right here at the very end, this is how it will be with anyone who stores up for himself.
That's the world's way to strength, but it's not rich toward God. See, obviously rich toward God must mean the principle of spiritual progress is empty your barns. Give it away. Well, now, how do we know this is true? Who's sane? You see, God says to the person who's storing up, you're a fool. The world says to Christians or anybody who follows this principle that says, give away your honor. You see, admit when you're wrong.
Serve other people. Sacrifice. Surrender. Give it away. They say, you're a fool. Who's the fool? Jesus chose who's right. Do you realize who Jesus is? The rich fool is the person who stores up. But Jesus Christ on the cross is the ultimate fool. At least as far as the world's concerned.
That's the reason why Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 1 in a very, very, very stark way. He says, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us being saved, it's the power of God. For foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than men's strength. Jesus Christ has proved it. When he went on the cross, he won through losing. He was filled through emptying.
He got glory by emptying himself of his glory. Here's proof. Here's a man in sandals. Here's a man without home. Here's a man that had no money. Here's a man that had no organization. Here's a man that had no publicity. And today, he is the most influential man who's ever lived. And his followers are still the power in the history of the world, without a doubt. He's proven who's sane. He's proven who's crazy. He's proven who's a fool. And you know, the gospel works that way.
You know what the gospel is? The gospel is that Jesus Christ came with his spiritual riches. And it says in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, Jesus Christ, though he was rich, became poor so that through his poverty we might become rich. Do you know what it means to become a Christian? Every other religion says, store up, do your good deeds, and at the end, say to God, I'm full, and God will let you in. Christianity says, no, no, no, no, no, no.
We have to do, if we want to unite with Christ and be Christians, we have to do exactly what Jesus Christ did. If you go to God and say, I'm full, he'll say, you're empty. But if you go to God and say, I'm empty, he'll say, I will now fill you. If you come to God and say, I have nothing, I have nothing that can merit your salvation. I am weak. You see, I am meritless. I don't deserve it. Then God says, come in. It's the same thing. Money, though, will blind you to that.
And once you see it, it'll change your attitude towards your money. Now, somebody says, okay, well, then how do I overcome this? Jesus says, and this is the final point, you have to become rich toward God. Well, what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. In 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, it says, though he was rich, he became poor so that through his poverty we might become rich. Right?
Well, what does that mean? That's just sort of, that's metaphor. But in 2 Corinthians 5.21, same book, Paul says, God made him sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him, and that's it. Jesus Christ gave up his entitlements. He came to earth, he was entitled to be protected, and he was blasted. He was entitled to access, and he was cut off. He was entitled to glory, and he got ashes. He was entitled to these things. He lost them so we could have them.
When you become a Christian, you become rich. And here's how you know you really have become rich. Here's how you know that you have experienced this, that you've seen what Jesus has done, that it's melted your heart, that you have actually come to God not full but empty and he's filled you.
Here's how you know that he's changed your standing. He's changed your status. He's given you the protection. He gives you the access now because of what Jesus has done. You're clothed in his righteousness. You're holy and blameless before God. You're rich. Here's how you know. Charles Spurgeon, the old Baptist preacher, says, The one way you know that Jesus Christ is precious to you is that nothing else is. Everything else is expendable. Your money isn't precious to you anymore. Your possessions aren't precious to you anymore. These things don't have a hold on you anymore. Don't you see?
If you're in your right mind, you can look at the world and you can say this. World, you owe me nothing and you cannot frighten me. I don't care what the stock market is doing. I don't need this or that from you because I'm rich. I'm rich beyond the dreams of a wildest billionaire. And as a result, it doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter. Okay? I'm rich. Let me conclude. Do you understand why this is so important? Those of you who aren't completely sure where you stand with Jesus.
You say, are you after my money? No. How many times have I got to tell you that? But here's what I want you to look at. And with all due respect, Jesus Christ, as I mentioned in Luke chapter 11, has a fascinating place where he says he curses the Pharisees. He says, woe to you, Pharisees, because you tithe, you give a tenth of everything, but you neglect the love of God and justice.
He says, woe to you, Pharisees, because you keep the outer part of the cup clean, but not the inner cup. Now, you know what he's saying? First of all, he says, woe to you, Pharisees, you tithe, but you neglect the love of God. You give the outer cup, but not the inner cup. And then he says, you should do the former and not neglect the latter.
That means, A, he's saying to the Pharisees, you should give 10% of your income. That's the way you know you'll be giving far more than the rest of the world. That's the way you know your faith and love and hope are going to grow. That's the way you know it. But then he curses them for only tithing. You know, I've read that passage and I said, why? And here's what he's saying. Unless there's an inner passion, unless the inside of the cup has been revolutionized, unless you are so emotionally wealthy that you can empty your barns,
He says, "You're not really giving in a way that God wants." Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, please rate and review it so more people can discover this podcast. This month's sermons were recorded from 1994 to 1997. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
