THINGS... THINGS... THINGS... THINGS!


Introduction--
“My dear, after all they are only things, and the Word says, “Take joyfully the spoiling of your goods.” Cheer up, we’ll get along somehow. Thus that missionary giant, Jonathan Goforth, sought to comfort his broken-hearted wife. Through fire, through flood, and through the Boxer Rebellion they had three times suffered the loss of things. And WHY the latest blow? Why the fourth loss? A blundering missionary had occasioned the fourth spoiling of their goods. After all they are only things, the old soldier had declared!

I was amazed as I went through the Word of God and noted how many times it speaks of things! It is impossible for me to share a breakdown of the way the word, things, is spoken of in the Word of God.

I want to share how things impact our lives:




I. THINGS ARE A PERIL (Matt. 13:22; Luke 12:15)



A. Mark 4:7, 18,19 “...and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the Word, and it becometh unfruitful.” (Luke 8:14) John Wesley was much afraid of two kinds of foes. One will openly persecute you and the other will crush you with kindness. Of the two he far more feared the latter.

Today we Christians are being crushed, not outright, but by our many comforts and conveniences. The inditement of Revelation three applies to us today for we are rich and increased with goods, we have need of nothing. What dupes we have become, dupes of our own desires. It has been said: “Destiny has two ways of crushing us -- by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.”

Is there any mistaking our present lot? In the lap of luxury our last material wish has been fulfilled. And insensible to the peril we have passed the point of pain. Ours is the peril, not of poverty, but of an over plus. Heaven’s diagnosis of our state is: And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

B. Thorn-ground folk -- are those in whom the thorns grow along with the seed, the Word of God. (Luke 8:4-15; Mark 4:1-20; Matthew 13:1-23)
Apparently the Word took some root in the heart and life. But the lusts of other things entering in, choked the Word. There are the pleasure of this life -- enjoyments, possibly innocent in themselves, things which a worldly prosperity enables many people to indulge, but which choke or smoother the Word of God.
These other things take so much attention, are so absorbing, so time consuming, and so exhausting that they leave only the dregs of a hurried, worried, and dragged around victim - who brings no fruit to perfection.

C. “Love not the world”, John cries, he adds a second important clause.. ”neither the things in the world.” It is perilously possible to be, as a whole unworldly, yet become the victim of some single worldliness. We may not drink, smoke, or indulge in the baser lusts - and yet be absorbed with popularity, or money or business, or power, or profession.
There are refined lusts -- a fondness for fine things -- fine foods, fine dress -- all fleshly lusts that war against the soul. What one thing of the world entices us? Is it rock music, contemporary music, TV shows that push nudity, violence, etc.? Is it the garbage of the world?
What on particular thing has paralyzed your power or prayer life?
Face up to it -- John does not say, Love not the world too much, he says , love it not at all!
Consider what all is included in the lust of the flesh eyes, the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life.



II. THINGS and PROSPERITY!

“The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” (Prov. 1:32) What nation of the world ever withstood prosperity? When were the masses of any past people ever exposed to such a paradise of prosperity as the common people of our Western world? Let any silver-tongued politician of the West put forth the four following planks in his platform, and he is almost assured of public office: “We are the greatest people of the earth and have every right to be proud of ourselves. Every family in the land must have a higher standard of living. Every one should be secure from any want, and the government should give it to you. We are for the laboring man, and for a still shorter work-week.”



A. Turn to Ezekiel 16:49 note that when God was proceeding to judge religious Jerusalem He reminded her how her sins resembled those of her sister Sodom: “Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, an abundance of idleness and neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and
needy
.”

B. Not once does God, the heart searcher, specify one of Sodom’s notorious lusts.
When God arises to judge the Christianized Western Word, will He specify the enormous crimes, the notorious wickedness of the unnatural defilement of the nations? Will He point to the filthy sodomites, the dopesters, the gamblers, the drunkards, and the juvenile delinquents, and the criminals.??
God may not even mention these, but He may point to the above four basic troubles that center about the features of unparalleled prosperity.
Would you ever have suspected that pride, plenty, idleness and withholding the gospel from needy countries would be a major sin to God? Would you have dreamed, I ask, that these four sins could bring down upon us the fire and brimstone of Sodom’s judgment?




III. THINGS AND THEIR PERVERSION AND PASSION!
In the beginning God made everything beautiful! God has given us richly all things to enjoy. Heaven’s quarrel with us then is not the use, but the misuse of these things. We have perverted things from their original purpose. Ever since the fall of man, mankind's every impulse has become a danger, for --



A. Every appetite is fevered and perverted.

B. It is not the lust for these things and the pride of life? (I John. 2:15)

C. Think of the scores of things invented, devised and advertised solely to arouse the desires, to stimulate the appetites of man -- to foster, feed, and cater to man’s fallen nature.

D. When it comes to dress, to reading, to buying, and spending -- to business, and to recreation, how little distinctive difference there is between the children of God and the children of the devil.

E. Things become a passion for we are a passionately attached to things. This is discovered by our unwillingness to forego it. Very often it happens that not until we are forcibly torn away from a thing do we awaken to our foul infatuation.

Suddenly caught in a train wreck, a Christian engineer discovered and confessed his lifelong attachment: “I have lived all my life for second things”




IV. THINGS, YES, THEY ARE PASSING (I John 2:15-17)

An old minister, Thomas Craig, left at his death a half-finished sermon on his desk. Men later discovered that his text was: The world is passing away. How much did our noble citizen leave when He passed away? someone asked. He left it all, was the reply.
Naked we came into the world, and naked shall we leave. We will leave with empty hands.
After conquering the world, Alexander the Great ordered that when his corpse was embalmed his hands should be left exposed. He said, “I want all men to know that I left the world with empty hands.” But who ever left any other way, but with empty hands.



V. THINGS -- THEIR PURPOSE (Study Luke 16:1-13.)

All worldly men are well photographed in the rich fool of Luke 12:16-21. Some six times this man names himself, but never once speaks of God. He speaks ofmy fruits, my barns, my grain, my goods, and my soul.”
With his fortune made and barns rebuilt and filled, he will retire with much goods and many years. Like a thunderbolt from the blue bursts God’s estimate of the man: Thou fool -- this night. It is impossible for a man who is hoarding no riches in the world he is hastening to -- and who treasures everything in the world he is fast leaving from, to escape the definition of a fool.



A. Christ’s disciples should not live and die like fools.

B. Concerning their stewardship of things in this world, Jesus lays down the profoundest use of money: Never hoarding it, nor squandering it; but carefully investing it as laid-up treasure.

C. And I say unto you: Make to yourselves friends, personal friends, souls saved, in all lands -- not barns, no farms, nor fine houses, nor bank accounts, but friends who receive salvation -- by means of the mammon of unrighteousness.

D. Through your proper use of the world’s wealth you should have an ongoing part to send out the gospel. That when it shall fail (money will fail) and fail it must then you will see the result of your service with material things. God’s will is that when the grip passes from the dying grasp then the souls in glory made through your wise investment for Christ may receive you into the eternal tabernacles. (Read, yes study Luke 16:10-13.)

God’s purpose for us in the use of things is that we use all created things here to create deathless friendships on yonder shore. Those friends already in glory, friends we made on earth by sending them the gospel, will constitute Heaven’s welcoming committee to receive us in the eternal abode.

E. We are to possess the right things. (Phil. 3:19; Col. 3:2; I Tim. 6:6-17)

 

Sermon by Dr. Edward Watke Jr.---- Revival in the Home Ministries, Inc.