Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 13, God willing we will be expounding verse 7 tonight.
The title of the message is "Poor Little Rich Man."
Poor little rich man.
Enjoyed my study.
I almost always, I guess always do.
I tell my wife I'm looking forward to preaching this Sunday or this Wednesday or I'm looking forward to teaching and I look forward to studying.
I just enjoy God's Word.
The Bible here in verse 7 says, "There is that maketh himself rich."
There is that maketh himself rich.
And I believe the key words here would be "maketh himself."
Maketh himself.
There is means to exist in Hebrew, to actually exist.
So Solomon is not speaking about a particular theory he has.
He's not speaking about his personal view on life or on this particular topic.
Solomon did not say there might be.
Solomon didn't say there could be.
Solomon said there is.
So Solomon is speaking about a condition that exists in our world today that has existed at every age in our world and thus it is applicable to us.
It's something that exists in our world.
There are people who make themselves rich.
And the Hebrew grammar here is interesting because it can mean that they make themselves rich literally, or that they can make themselves rich in the sense of pretending that they're rich, feigning that they're rich.
So this gives us a very broad sense of the text.
They make themselves rich in whatever way they make themselves rich.
And there's all kinds of ways to make yourself rich in this sense, but I believe three will sum it all up.
Some people make themselves rich by accumulating wealth.
That would be the obvious, right?
That make themselves rich by accumulating wealth.
They may work for it.
They may steal for it.
And whatever way they choose, they make themselves rich.
Some people make themselves rich by appearing to be wealthy to others.
They do all they can to give the appearance of wealth, hoping to project to other people that they possess wealth, put them in that position of status.
Thirdly, some people make themselves rich by considering themselves to be rich.
By making themselves rich not to others in their minds, but to make themselves rich in their own minds.
They puff themselves up, considering themselves wealthy in their own hearts.
So there is that maketh himself wealthy in these ways, Solomon said, look back in your yet hath nothing.
They make themselves rich, but they don't have anything.
And so by God's grace, we're going to be looking at this seemingly paradoxical condition here, because it is definitely pointing out a paradox in life.
And a paradox is something that appears to contradict itself, but once you investigate it, you find out that it's actually true.
So here's how.
First, remember some people make themselves rich by accumulating wealth.
And in this sense they accumulate earthly wealth.
But having accumulated earthly wealth, that's all they have is earthly wealth.
So they have no wealth at all.
You see, wealth you can't keep is not wealth at all.
In Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12 verse 19-21, Jesus was speaking about a rich man and the rich man says, "And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.'"
In other words, I'm rich.
Now you see how he's thinking?
He's making himself rich.
And apparently he had many goods, so he made himself rich literally.
He made himself rich in his own mind conscientiously.
He says, "You have much goods laid up for many years.
Take thine ease."
This was his conclusion, "Since I have so much, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry."
But God said unto him, "Thou fool, night thy soul shall be required of thee.
Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?"
That's the key.
The things that you have now, when I take your life tonight, whose things will they be then?
Because they won't be yours anymore.
You can't keep them, So you really never possess them at all.
The key words here are not rich.
When you look in verse 21, Jesus said in Luke 12, 21, "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself," that is, he makes himself rich, "and is not rich toward God."
So they make themselves rich, but they're not rich.
There's the paradox, right?
They lay up treasures for themselves, but they're not rich toward God.
The rich man had much goods laid up, but he couldn't keep them.
Even if the rich man lived forever, think about this.
Even if that rich man, if God never said, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee."
If God said, "Rich man, you will live forever." goods couldn't have continued to be his forever.
Even if the rich man lived forever, he couldn't keep them because all his wealth was composed of earthly goods.
And the earth, as we know, is perishing day by day.
Time's running out for this world.
The scientists agree that The world is... and the universe only has so much energy, it can only last so long.
And the world is perishing.
And God said there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth.
So whatever earthly goods that he got, that's going to go away anyway.
Even if he continued to live.
So he made himself rich in this world, but he was not rich toward God.
So he made himself rich, yet had nothing.
A rich man who is not rich toward God is simply a perishing man, leaving behind perishable goods.
That's all he is.
Some people make themselves rich, remember, by appearing to be wealthy to others.
To them it's all about the appearance.
They want people to think they've got something.
They want others to think they're rich because they value a person's possessions over a person's character.
I don't really care what a person thinks I have.
I do care about what they think I am.
What kind of man they think I am.
But these people, they're pretenders.
They appear to have great riches, but they don't have anything.
And listen, the things you have don't determine the person you are.
Our wealth, our character, our value isn't determined by the things we possess.
It's okay to have nice things.
I like nice things.
But there's only one thing that matters in this world, and that's the Lord.
That's all that matters.
Some people make themselves rich by considering themselves, remember, to be wealthy in their own hearts.
They fancy themselves to be wealthy when they're not wealthy at all.
They're fooling themselves.
The rich man thought he was wealthy, remember?
"Boy, look at all that I have.
I have much for many years."
The rich man fancied himself that he was wealthy until he died.
He didn't think he was wealthy anymore.
He had a good dose of reality when he died.
And there's a great spiritual lesson here.
Spiritually speaking.
Because remember, for every Old Testament truth, there's a greater spiritual reality.
And spiritually speaking, there are people who appear to be spiritually wealthy to others.
And there are people who consider themselves to be spiritually wealthy in their own hearts.
Brother Shepard recently mentioned a preacher who said that when people see his mansion, they will know there is a God.
Now what a foolish thing to say.
But see, that's that kind of man.
People who think like him, people who are giving him money, they're going to go by and say, "Well, that man is so wealthy."
And he thinks he's wealthy in his own mind.
The preacher thinks he's spiritually wealthy.
People look at him and say, "Boy, look at God blessing that man.
God must really, really like that man a lot.
He must be a man of God."
And he probably thinks he has an inside track to God.
Vain people are people like this.
He thinks that his big house means he's spiritually wealthy.
You know, other people look at it and think the same.
But the presence of God isn't measured by the presence of earthly things.
I'll repeat that again.
The presence of God isn't measured by the presence of earthly things.
Where was God when He met with Moses?
He showed up in a bush.
A bush.
Not some great elaborate structure.
Where was God on the Mount of Transfiguration?
I mean, they didn't even have a tent, remember?
Peter said, "Let's make three tents."
They didn't have anything.
But when they saw Jesus, they knew there was a God.
So the presence of God isn't measured by the presence of earthly things.
And if we understand that, that will help us a lot.
People who see or make themselves wealthy but are not rich toward God, they don't have anything.
In fact, they are perhaps the poorest people of all, even with all their earthly wealth.
And the reason is, they spend their entire lives chasing something they can never hold on to.
What I'm trying to labor for in this life, or what we try to labor for in this life as believers, in the Kingdom of God, we have forever.
We have eternal treasure in heaven.
"There is that maketh himself rich and has nothing."
Boy, what a miserable place to be.
To think that you're really something.
To think that you're spiritually wealthy.
To think that you're wealthy in this world's goods. only to die and to have your world's goods parted from you, and to wake up in, like the rich man did with Lazarus, to wake up in hell.
You weren't rich at all.
You were poor.
Reminds me, Brother Shepherd, of in the book of Proverbs, he said, "Y'all people think you're rich, but you're poor and miserable and blind and naked."
So let's go to the last part of this verse.
"There is that makes himself rich, yet has nothing, but it says, 'There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.'"
That's where we want to fall into, right?
We don't want the deep fake.
We don't want to think that we're rich and have other people think we're rich, only to find out we're destitute.
We want to be the people who fall at the end of this verse, who make ourselves poor, yet we have great riches, and we can easily understand why someone would want to make themselves rich, but someone making themselves poor is maybe a little hard to understand.
Let's use the same three categories that we used in the first part of this verse.
Some people make themselves poor by appearing to be poor to others.
Unlike the person appearing to be rich, they don't drive the fancy cars.
They may not live in the great big houses.
They may wear the old coveralls or blue jeans with holes in them, Old boots, old pickup trucks.
They're not trying to impress anyone.
They live simple lives and they enjoy things, at least in this world, that matter most and they don't show off their money.
Yet they have great riches.
Earthly riches, I mean.
How many of y'all know someone like that or have known someone like that?
Millionaires and they look like some hillbillies or something.
And they're happy.
Some people make themselves poor, like those people, at least to others.
They live like they're poor, even though they're rich.
But some people make themselves poor by considering themselves poor in their own hearts.
And this is where the greater spiritual truth comes in.
By considering themselves poor, they then become very wealthy.
How does that work?
Well, let's suppose for a moment that the rich man in Jesus' parable, instead of considering himself to be rich and saying, "I have great substance laid up for many years.
I'm just going to eat, drink, take my ease, and just enjoy the rest of my life here on earth."
Instead of considering himself to be rich and retiring early, what if he considered himself to be poor because he realized his earthly wealth was worthless without God?
What if he did that?
He may not be poor in finances, but the moment he realizes, "What good is this wealth to me?"
Remember in the book of Ecclesiastes, that's what Solomon was doing.
"What is all this?
When I die, who is it going to belong to?"
"Vanity, vanity," he said.
"All is vanity."
Which means nothing, nothing, nothing.
There is that makes himself rich and has nothing.
It's all vanity.
But what if this man said, "Look, this is all vanity.
I may only have 20 years at best left in my life.
And then who shall these things be?
And what good is all this corn and wine and money going to do for me when I'm dead?
I better make myself right with God.
That's what I need to do.
Now, had he done that, he may not have been poor in his finances, But he would have been poor in his spirit.
You see?
So he would seek the greatest treasure of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, and by making himself poor in his own heart, he would then make himself rich toward God.
In Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
He didn't say blessed are poor people.
Don't ever mistake that and think, "Well, Jesus said poor people are blessed."
I tell you what, if you ever get poor, man, you won't think it's a blessing.
Every person that comes in, pretty much, well, every person that comes into my courthouse, they're either in debt or somebody owes them money.
It's one of the two.
Or they're a lawyer representing one of the two.
But that's it.
And the majority of people that walk in are in debt.
And they're filing bankruptcy.
And they're miserable.
Jesus didn't say, "Blessed are the poor people."
He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
He said, "For theirs is," what?
"The kingdom of God."
Now if I have the kingdom of God, I'm not poor, I'm rich.
I have great riches if I have God's kingdom.
So that's why Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
This is why Jesus said, "You've got to become like a little child before I can accept you."
He's talking about the condition of the heart.
You have to realize that everything in this world is worthless without God.
And when you realize that without God you are absolutely destitute, that is when, by receiving God, you become wealthy.
You may have no money at all, but if yours is the kingdom of heaven, then you have everything, everything.
The Apostle Paul beautifully said in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 10, that he lived as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
And that's something.
So we're sorrowful.
I mean people are trying to kill us.
People are trying to imprison us.
People are always attacking our character and trying to malign our ministry.
Man, we're sad all the time, but we're always rejoicing.
That's the way it is for Christians sometimes.
The devil may be attacking them, the world may be terrible, but you know what?
As you have worldly wealth and you can be spiritually bankrupt, You can also have worldly sorrow in spiritual joy.
And that's what Paul had.
As sorrowful yet always rejoicing as poor.
Because monetarily he was poor.
Or else he wouldn't have been working part time.
And then he said, "Yet making many rich."
What a paradox.
How can I be poor and make someone rich?
The same way the apostles did when they looked at that lame man and said, "Silver and gold have we none, but whatever we have we'll give to you.
Stand up and walk.
That's what you really want.
That's the greatest treasure you could get.
You'd spend all your money to be able to walk again.
Stand up and walk in Jesus' name." as having nothing in this world, sitting in prison as he did when he wrote many of his letters.
And yet while he had absolutely nothing in this world, he possessed everything.
Everything.
Lastly, there is that makes himself poor, literally, financially.
I mean, he intentionally loses it all and yet has great riches.
Paul in some figure did that.
He did have a good job.
He was a Pharisee.
He was employed by the Sanhedrin court, but he became poor and at the same time spiritually wealthy.
But the greatest example we have of this is the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is that maketh himself poor and yet have great riches.
2 Corinthians 8, verse 9 says, "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, ye were not rich."
Yet for your sakes, he became poor.
I mean Jesus is the one that woke up in the morning and was hungry so he had to go to a fig tree to see if there was food on it.
He didn't go down to the buffet at the hotel.
He didn't wake up and smell bacon and well, they didn't eat bacon back then anyway.
He didn't wake up and smell eggs and steak or mutton.
He was poor, monetarily.
They had to go fishing to pay taxes.
Poor.
So he was rich, yet for our sakes, for your sakes, the Bible says, "He became poor."
There is that maketh himself Poor!
He says, "Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich."
How would you be rich?
By recognizing your poverty, then gaining God's kingdom, and then becoming rich toward God.
He became poor, who was rich, that you may be rich, and no longer poor.
By Jesus making himself poor, we gained His great eternal kingdom riches.
And I believe this is what Jesus was speaking about in Matthew chapter 13.
Watch how the Scriptures tie together again.
Matthew chapter 13, verse 44, speaking of this parable, He said, the Kingdom of Heaven parables, He said, Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure.
Notice that word treasure.
What is treasure?
That's riches.
Thank you, Brother Shepherd.
That's riches.
So again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto riches.
Hid in a field.
The witch, when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof, goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."
And there's a lot of commentators that they believe that this is speaking of us, finding the gospel.
And so we're going to sell all we have and then buy the field.
No, we don't buy salvation.
This is speaking of Jesus.
Now watch what happens here.
Jesus in the kingdom of heaven is is putting himself oftentimes in the Kingdom of Heaven parables.
Like a businessman that goes on a journey and he comes back.
Well this is Jesus who finds treasure in a field.
Now if you'll remember the parables, the field is the world, right?
The field is the world.
And Jesus finds riches, He finds treasure in this world.
What's the problem with the treasure though?
Treasure is hidden.
Look, he says, he says here, "Heaven is like a treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found."
So Jesus didn't take treasure and go hide in the field, the treasure was already hidden.
And Jesus has said, "Here's what the kingdom of heaven is like, it's like there's treasure."
Hidden in the field.
The treasure is there.
Nobody knows it's there.
Nobody can see that treasure.
But then a man sees the treasure.
He discovers the treasure.
When he discovers the treasure, what does he do?
He makes sure it stays hidden.
He says, "Oh, look at this.
Cover that up.
I don't want anyone else seeing this treasure.
If so, I may come back and it may be gone.
It may get, you know, plundered.
So he covers that treasure up so it can't be seen.
He goes off, he sells everything he has.
Everything.
Liquidates it all.
And by selling everything he has.
And only by selling everything he has, he's then able to purchase that entire field.
And by purchasing that entire field, he gets the treasure out of it.
Do you know who that treasure is?
It's you.
It's his church.
The church is the treasure that was hidden in the earth.
When you go back and you read in the Old Testament, you won't see anything about church.
Oh now it's there.
It's there.
Remember when we studied the Song of Solomon?
Oh man, church is all in the Song of Solomon.
But it's hidden, isn't it?
The church is all in the book of Genesis, but it's hidden.
That's why when you get to the New Testament, the church, the body of Christ is described as a mystery.
Have you ever seen that in the New Testament?
It's a mystery.
Do you know what a mystery is?
It's not an unsolved crime, not an unsolved riddle, not in the Bible.
A mystery is something that in the Old Testament was hidden.
And now in the New Testament, it's discovered.
When was the church discovered in the New Testament?
After Jesus purchased it.
Amazing!
Absolutely amazing!
The Bible says, "In the former times it wasn't known, but now it might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."
Previous times it wasn't known.
And so here's what Jesus did.
He saw the treasure in this world.
And He sold everything He had.
He lost it all, even his life, to purchase his church with his own blood.
He became poor, destitute.
He then became crucified.
Poured out his blood, gave all he had, literally, and by doing so, redeemed us, not with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ and in so doing it we now have treasure and the treasure of this truth of what Jesus has done is what makes us rich it makes us rich so he became poor that he might purchase the treasure and now We are His treasure and He has become ours.
We became His treasure through His purchase.
He became our treasure through grace, not our purchase.
We received ours as a gift.
There is that maketh himself poor, and yet hath great riches.
And if you'll look, is Matthew 13, thank you.
Watch this.
Again, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure," that's us, "hidden in a field," that's the world, "the which when a man hath found," that's Jesus, "he hideth," that's the mystery in the Old Testament, And for joy, for joy, for joy thereof, goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
I'll close with this verse, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2b says, speaking of Jesus, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross.
Do you know what he's saying?
For joy he bought the field on the cross.
With that, we'll go ahead and close.
Man, aren't you glad you have a Bible?
Oh my, wow!
I was speaking to someone the other day, and they just said, "These people, if they ever learn the Bible, If they ever learn the Bible, they'll never be able to deny it.
No one who denies the Bible knows the Bible.
They can't understand it.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word.
Thank you for seeing the treasure.
Thank you for hiding it.
The princes of this world, you said, didn't know what they were doing when they crucified Jesus.
It was a mystery.
But Lord, you saw the treasure.
And for the great joy of purchasing that treasure, you endured the cross.
Despising the shame, and are now Father and your Son, forever set at the right hand of God.
And in so doing, so are we.
Jesus was rich at your right hand, He became poor.
And now we in Christ at your right hand are at your right hand, and now we are rich with Him.
Thank you, Father, for the exceeding greatness of your treasure toward us.
In Jesus' wonderful name, Amen.
