If you or anyone else wants to receive salvation, forgiveness, eternal life in heaven, there

are two pervasive damning forces that must be avoided.

Beware of hypocrisy and beware of greed. read. Welcome to Grace to you, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host,

Phil Johnson. In the 1920s, an Italian-American businessman went from being broke to becoming a

multimillionaire in just a few months.

With a track record like that, you might expect that man to have business schools named after him

today, but instead, the name Charles Ponzi has become synonymous with fraud and deception,

and his life serves as a lesson that the veneer of success

is often deceptive. With that in mind, today John MacArthur looks at a spiritual Ponzi scheme,

a story about a very successful man, but one whose life was headed for disaster. Here is John now

with the parable of the rich fool. Luke chapter 12, verses 13 through

21. Let me read this text to you. And someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother

to divide the family inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who appointed me a judge or arbiter

over you? And he said to them, beware and be on your guard against every form of greed.

For not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. And he told

him a parable saying, the land of a certain rich

man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself saying, what shall I do since

I have no place to store my crops? And he said, this is what I will do. I will tear down

my barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain

and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come, take

your ease, eat, drink and be merry.

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