Episode Transcript
All right, if you take God's precious Word, turn to Proverbs chapter 10, verse 15.
Proverbs chapter 10, verse 15.
The title of the message tonight is "Our Strong City.
" It's funny how people use wealth as a measurement for so many things.
They use wealth to measure their importance, their value, their social status, and their success in life.
Many people will go to bed at night and will wake up in the morning trying to figure out how to become wealthier, how they can adjust or tweak their business, what ideas they can have to try to gain more of this world's wealth.
For them, wealth and the enjoyment of it is their passion and the objective of their life.
Tonight, the Bible turns our attention to, look in Proverbs 10, 15, "The rich man's wealth.
" See that?
The rich man's wealth.
The Bible has a lot to say about rich people.
Have you noticed that?
The rich young ruler, the rich man in Lazarus, lots of warnings given to rich people.
There's a lot to say about rich people.
It's not because God doesn't like rich people.
He does.
It is not because God doesn't want people to be rich because He does, in fact, want to bless some of His people with riches.
It's God's choice.
You know, out of all the people in the Bible to have someone to be the father of our faith, which is Abraham.
Abraham is the father of our faith.
He is where Israel came from, where they descended from.
And out of all the people that God chose to be the father of our faith, God chose a very rich man, Abraham, to be that example for us of how to believe God in spite of our circumstances.
Abraham was a tremendous man of God.
The wisest man on earth, so far as we know whoever lived, who wrote the Proverbs that we're studying from tonight was also one of the wealthiest men on earth.
So Solomon sure isn't knocking rich people.
He was rich.
He wasn't quite as rich as my dad, but he was on up there.
He was way up there.
But the Bible says because Solomon sought wisdom, God gave him wealth.
God gave it to him.
So there's nothing wrong with being rich.
Being rich can be a great blessing as long as you're humble, and most importantly, you're rich toward God.
The problem with riches isn't that God doesn't want us to be wealthy.
The problem with riches is that our flesh is prone to idolatry.
Our fallen, Adamic nature, it's just prone to idolatry.
Give a man enough time and he can make an idol out of anything.
Mark chapter 11 verse 22.
Mark chapter 11 verse 22, if you're taking notes tonight.
"And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
" Up on our screen, "Have faith in whom?
In God.
" Where does our faith belong?
It belongs in God.
And it belongs in no one else.
Our faith should rest in one thing.
And that's the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, never-failing God who made us.
That's where our faith belongs.
Any time that we depend on something other than God, the thing that we're depending on becomes an idol to us.
And we'll repeat that again.
Any time that we depend on anything other than God, the thing that we're depending on becomes an idol to us.
Now in some sense of the word, we could say that when Brother Shepherd goes to work, he depends on his weapon at work.
But that's only in a limited sense of the word because ultimately he's depending on God, not that weapon.
I've been in law enforcement now for 35 years, and I thank God that I've never had to shoot anyone, and I pray I never will.
Who do I give praise to for that 35 years of safety?
I give it to God.
I don't go to work believing on my weapons.
I go to work believing on the one who loves me and who created me and who cares for my well-being.
Even if God were to bring me or Brother Shepherd into a situation where we were to have to use deadly force and we survive it, we won't survive because it's our weapons that save us.
It will be our God that gives us the strength, the skill, the frame of mind to survive.
And if I ever begin to rely on anything other than him, then I will be making an idol out of whatever it is I'm relying on.
So we rely on people, but ultimately we have to rely on God, and that's where we get in trouble sometimes.
You have someone who is married, and they depend on their spouse.
I depend on Tammy for a lot.
Ultimately, I depend on God because God could take Tammy away just like that.
And if my faith is in Tammy, then when God takes Tammy away, I'll panic.
If my faith is in God, then I'll realize that it's God providing me through Tammy.
Tammy is God's provision to me.
Your spouse is God's provision to you.
And having a sinful flesh like the rest of us, the rich man is prone to depend on what?
His riches.
He's prone to depend on his riches.
When you have a bank account full of money, you don't have to worry about medical bills.
When you have a bank account full of money, you don't have to worry about those sudden unexpected expenses that pop up.
You can just pay for them without any stress at all.
Seeing that large amount of money in the bank can naturally give us a sense of security.
So a rich man can easily fall into the snare of trusting in his riches.
So Solomon said the rich man's wealth, look back in your text, the rich man's wealth is his strong city.
Now, he's not saying that the rich man's wealth is a strong city.
Look back at your text.
The rich man's wealth is his strong city.
See the difference?
The Bible's not saying wealth is a strong city.
It's not.
It's saying it's the rich man's strong city.
When you think of a strong city, I want you to think of a well-armed, fortified city with heavy gated entrances in military guarding those entrances round about.
I tell you what, you have something like that.
You can feel pretty secure inside a city like that.
You're talking about a gated community.
You can feel very secure inside a community like that.
You can lay your head on your pillow at night and sleep quite soundly.
And a rich man can start viewing his wealth like a strong, fortified city.
It gives him that sense of security, like the walls and the security around those walls in a fortified city.
So because that rich man, being a descendant of Adam like us, because he's prone to idolatry, his wealth becomes to him his strong city in his heart that he takes refuge in.
When a rich man does that, he's being foolish, and he's committing the sin of idolatry.
Yeah, thank God for your riches.
Thank God for your wealth.
And be wise and store wealth up.
The Bible tells us to.
God tells us to.
It's a wise thing to do, but never trust in your riches.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight.
Because the world is uncertain.
The wealth in this world is uncertain.
Okay.
If we have an uncertain world, then we have uncertain, worldly wealth.
You can't depend on it.
First Timothy chapter six, verse 17.
First Timothy six, seventeen.
The apostle Paul said, charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
So tell the rich people, don't be high minded, don't get all proud because you have a lot of money.
And don't put your faith in your riches because they're uncertain.
Put your faith in God.
What's the difference between riches and God?
One certain, the other's not.
Put faith in God who gives us all things richly to enjoy.
In other words, if you have those riches, God gave them to you.
What did Job say?
The Lord gave, the Lord took away, you know.
So if God can give you riches, God can take riches from you.
On September 11th, 2001.
Is anyone, were you all born September 11th, 2001?
You aren't here yet.
All right.
It was a bad day.
Really was September 11th, 2001.
Rudolph Giuliani was the mayor of New York City, and he led his city through that terrible tragedy of 9/11 as it unfolded after it unfolded.
He was heroic back then.
And before that time, Rudolph Giuliani was a federal prosecutor.
He tried federal cases in federal courts, putting criminals behind bars.
He was a wealthy attorney.
He was loved by the public nationwide.
And he had friends in very high places.
Less than four years ago, Rudolph Giuliani was the personal attorney of the president of the United States.
And I'm sure he must have felt very secure in that strong city.
For years, he lived in a wealthy, powerful, strong city.
But just last week, he was ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages for some things that he said about what he believed about the presidential election.
Ordered to pay so much money, in fact, that this man who once made his living in the federal courts was stripped of his wealth and had to file bankruptcy last week in the federal court system.
You go from this, I'm better off than he is right now.
I'm not bankrupt.
I hadn't had to file bankruptcy.
I'm glad I'm not in his shoes.
Paul said, "Don't trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God.
" Why?
Because the world will change on you just like that.
But God never changes.
Never changes.
The rich man's wealth is his strong city.
Look back in your text.
The destruction of the poor is their poverty.
Man, I told Tammy on the way up here tonight, I love studying the Proverbs because of all the topics you get to cover.
The rich man's wealth is his strong city.
The destruction of the poor is their poverty.
Now, just as the rich man's wealth is not a strong city, it's not actually a strong city, but to the rich man it is because he's prone to idolatry.
The same thing applies here to the poor man.
This is what's so beautiful about this passage tonight.
The destruction of the poor is whose poverty?
Their poverty.
Riches, the rich man's strong city.
Poverty, the poor man's destruction.
Neither one of them are real.
It's something that they perceive in their heart.
The rich man's riches is not really his strong city.
It may be in his mind.
He may account it as his strong city, but it is not a city worth trusting in.
The poor man's poverty, he may think that's his destruction, his destruction.
It's not really his destruction.
He may account it as his destruction in his mind, but it is not.
As the rich man's wealth is his strong city, so the poor man's poverty is his destruction.
As a rich man can view his wealth as his strong city, so a poor man can view his poverty as his destroyed city.
Kind of like the Jews when their walls were knocked down and they had no defense at all.
When a rich man thinks his riches are his strength, he is not trusting in God.
When a poor man thinks his poverty is his destruction, he is not trusting in God.
Both are wrong because both, what's the connection between both?
You got a rich man trusting that his wealth is his strong city.
You have a poor man believing that his poverty is his destroyed city.
What is the connection between them both?
Both are wrong because both are measuring their well-being based upon their wealth or lack thereof.
They're both wrong.
If you're rich, don't lift your head in pride.
If you're poor, don't lower your head in despair.
You're making an idol out of wealth whether you have it or not if you do either one of those.
You're looking at a wealthy man right here and my wealth is right up there.
Jesus Christ became poor for us, the Bible said, that we might be made rich.
He became poor.
When Jesus was here on this earth, he was poor.
Did the city destroy?
No.
They tried to kill him.
God safeguarded him in Egypt until it was safe and he brought him back out.
They tried to lay hands on him.
He had passed right through them.
He did not die until it was his time.
He kept saying, "It's not my hour yet.
It's not my time yet.
" So he was poor.
You didn't see him wringing his hands.
You saw him trusting his God.
He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Here he was so poor and he's out here in the wilderness.
He hadn't eaten for a month and the devil's tempting him and he's still out serving God, praising God, obeying the Father all the way with his eye on the prize for the inheritance that is yet to come.
Since he became poor in this world, we have become rich in the world to come.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, whether you're rich or whether you're poor, God is your strong city.
Here's a good one for you, Isaiah chapter 26 verse 1.
Listen to this prophecy from the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 26, 1, "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.
" You ready for the song?
You ready for the lyrics?
Here it goes.
"We have a strong city.
Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
" That's the lyrics.
"We have a strong city.
" What's their strong city made out of?
Stones, guards, iron.
What's their strong city made out of?
Salvation.
I didn't get to get my pointer out, Brother Shepherd got it.
Salvation.
God will appoint salvation.
And what's that salvation.
.
.
Oh, hang on Brother Shepherd.
I got to get it.
I got the bug.
I got to get it.
Can we get this over here?
Oh, I think for the online people, this is on there anyway.
That salvation is going to be appointed to be what?
Our walls of the city and our bulwarks of the city, which really means like armies in Hebrew.
So the salvation of Jesus Christ, the gospel is to the believer.
A big wall around our city in bulwarks or the armies that defend those walls.
God has appointed the gospel of Jesus Christ to be your strong city.
Salvation.
What a blessed promise we have.
Nobody could get John the Baptist head until God sovereignly allowed that to happen.
And he'll get so much more in eternal rewards in return for the head he lost.
Jesus told us the story about a rich man in Lazarus.
Lazarus was a beggar.
He was poor.
They both died.
The rich man died and went to hell.
Lazarus the beggar died and went to heaven.
Who had the strong city?
The rich man's city and the rich man's king failed him.
The rich man's city and the king of his city failed him.
The beggar's city and the beggar's king did not fail.
Lazarus is quite comfortable right now.
Who had the strong city?
The poor man did.
Isaiah said there's going to be a song sung one day in the land of Judah.
Judah one day is going to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
Right now they don't.
And because of that they don't have a strong city.
It's penetrable.
It's porous.
It's got the enemy coming in and out all the time.
They're fighting constantly.
I heard an update on their war this morning.
They said they had them military in the tunnels, on the ground, and in the sky.
Why?
They don't have a strong city.
But one day they're going to turn to Lord Jesus Christ and God is going to appoint them salvation for walls and bulwarks.
They won't need an iron dome when that time comes.
Whether we are poor or whether we're rich, the gospel is our strong city.
God has appointed us salvation and he has appointed us walls and armies made out of the blood of Jesus Christ and his death, his resurrection.
So don't be proud when you're rich and don't despair when you're poor.
For whether you are rich or poor, it is God who feeds the eagles and it's God who feeds the sparrows.
So until God calls you home, continue to abide in his city through faith in his son.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your precious word tonight.
Thank you, Father, Lord, that you care for the sparrows.
You told us we're worth more than many sparrows.
Thank you, Lord, that even the very hairs of our head are numbered.
You care that much about us.
Thank you, Father, for clothing the lilies of the field and thereby teaching us a lesson, how you'll clothe us.
Lord, we love you so much.
And Father, I pray this will be a lesson to us tonight.
Perhaps there's some here that are wealthy tonight and in the future they won't be.
Perhaps some that are poor tonight in the future, they'll be wealthy.
And as the apostle Paul said, either way, whether we're sick, whether we're poor, whether we're rich, whether we're sick or healthy, rich or poor, whatever way we're in, Lord, your grace is sufficient for us.
And we can be content in that.
Have our faith depend on you and neither be high minded nor despair.
In Jesus' precious name we pray.
Amen.
