You don't have to look this up,
I'll just read it. Zechariah 9, verse 9. Rejoice greatly,
rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee. He is just and having salvation,
lowly and riding upon an ass. and upon the colt the foal of
an ass. Thy king cometh unto thee." Oh,
that's our hope, isn't it? The Lord would be pleased to
make himself known to us this morning. Tom's going to come
lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand
together. ? Saving grace, how sweet the sound
? Where shall praise enough be found? ? Praise to tell what
God has done ? Praise to honor Christ the Son ? Chosen by his
sovereign grace ? Members of a holy race ? ? What a wondrous,
gracious plan ? ? God would raise up all in man ? ? Lo, in time
the Savior came ? ? Friend of sinners, what a name ? ? He the
woman promised seed ? Jesus meets our every need. He who knew no sinfulness, charged
with our own wretchedness, died upon the cruel cross, saving
us from endless loss. By His blood we are forgiven,
Jesus makes us free. ? His the righteousness we plead
? ? He alone is all we need ? ? Praise the Lamb who reigns on high ?
? All our hopes on Him rely ? ? By Him we are justified ? ? His
great name be magnified ? Good morning. Would you turn
to the Book of Mark, Chapter 10? Book of Mark, Chapter 10. We're going to begin reading
in verse 46 for our call to worship. Whenever the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ is proclaimed and Lord willing preached here in
this next hour, there are only two responses and only two. One, from the heart, you'll be
gnashing your teeth and shaking your fist, saying, I will not
have that man rule over me. Or the second, a mercy beggar,
recognizing that he's unclean, needing the Lord Jesus Christ
to save him. That's it. I know many here have
been coming for weeks, months, and years. And perhaps you continue
to have an indifferent attitude about that, but I can assure
you one thing, that indifference has a shelf life and it will
come to an end. And it's my hope this morning
that that end will be just like our brother Bartimaeus crying
out, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. So let's read
this familiar gospel story and ask the Lord, to cause us to
cry out like our brother did here. Verse 46, And they came
to Jericho, and as he, the Lord Jesus Christ, went out of Jericho
with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus,
meaning unclean, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth He began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. Beloved, he confessed to Christ's
scripture when he said that. Many of those that were with
Christ didn't know who Jesus was, but he did. He said, thou
son of David. That's an Old Testament passage. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace, but he cried to more a great deal. Thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. He didn't invite him, he didn't
ask any, he commanded him. And they called the blind man
saying unto him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he
casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, What will thou that I should do unto
thee? The blind man said unto him, O Lord, that I might receive
my sight. And Jesus said unto him, go thy
way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately, immediately,
he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. May he do that
for us this morning. Let's pray Merciful heavenly father Thankful
that you called us here again this morning To be in thy presence
Lord enabling us once again To be able to hear but oh lord we
ask that you would give us eyes to see thy dear son the lord
jesus christ Lifted high Lord, we thank you that you and
you alone have the authority and power to forgive sin, to
give us your righteousness, enable us to love your gospel and your
people. Lord, would you be pleased to do that again through the
preaching of your gospel, that we may leave here whole, assured,
comforted, peace in him. We're thankful for our pastor,
our gospel preacher. Oh Lord, as you have done in
the past, would you do it once again this morning? Give him
free course, utterance, freedom to lift up Christ. Be merciful to those who are
here. And Lord, I pray this morning, this will be the morning that
those who they've heard but they have not seen it. Lord, this
would be the morning that you give them eyes to see. And Lord, we are reminded this
morning for Marina. Lord, I ask that you would be
grace to Pena family and ask that you
would comfort them in their time of need. Praying for Armida, ask that
you too would give her the grace You would heal her, Lord, bring
her back to us. That you would increase the faith
of the Pena family, Lord. Draw them to yourself. But we
ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together. Once
again, we're going to sing hymn number 150. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove
With all thy quickening powers Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold hearts of ours Look how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily they go
to reach eternal joys. In vain we tune our formal songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues. And our devotion dies. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live at this foredying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to
Thee, and Thine to us so great. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening powers, come shed abroad the Savior's
love, and that shall kindle ours. Please be seated. Pam? Pam? Pam Hardman from Crossville,
Tennessee, Ryan's mom, is going to come bring some special music
now. The Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to die. ? And provide ? ? In every change
? ? He faithful will remain ? ? Be still my soul ? ? Thy best, thy
heavenly friend ? Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Be still, my soul. thy God doth undertake to guide
the future as he has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence let
nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul, the waves
and winds still know his voice who ruled him while he dwelt
below. Be still my soul, The hour is
hastening on, When we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and
fear are gone, Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed we shall
meet at last. Amen. Well, that's a blessing,
wasn't it? Thank you, Pam. I've invited Pam's pastor, Donny
Bell, to come and preach with Todd and John Chapman and Clay
Curtis. So we're going to have four preachers
this year at our conference in January. And you guys come back
for our conference. Pam, I want you to sing again,
okay? Thank you so much. That was a blessing. Do you get any of those genes,
Ryan? Alright, let's open our Bibles together to 1 Timothy
chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. I want to ask you a very personal
question. Are you content? Are you content? You show me a happy person, I'll
show you somebody that's content. You show me a discontented person,
I'll show you somebody that's unhappy. Contentment is the number one source of happiness,
true happiness. Are you content? Are you content with Christ and
with all that he's done and all that he's provided for you? If you are, then you have peace
with God and you're happy. That's what the Beatitudes are
all about. Those, you know, Matthew chapter 5, where the Lord speaks
of blessed are the poor in spirit and blessed are they who mourn.
That word blessed is happy. That's what that word is. And
in religion we used to say, well, these are the attitudes that
ought to be. And we would try to drum up these attitudes in
the flesh. And we got confused between cause
and effect. We had the effect as the cause. We thought, well, if we can drum
up the effects, then we can create a spirit of happiness in our
own hearts. No. No, those are the effects
of the Spirit of God when He causes you to be content, to
be content in all your circumstances. A happy person is a person who
is poor in spirit. They have nothing. They're bankrupt
before God. They can't produce any righteousness. They can't give God any reason
why He should save them. They are completely dependent
upon His grace and His mercy for everything. Where does that come from? It
comes from the Lord. That's a spirit of grace that comes from God.
Happy or blessed is the person who mourns and would mourn over
our sin. They should be comforted. Hold your finger there in 1 Timothy
chapter 6 and turn with me to Matthew chapter 5. Here's the question, are you
content with being a sinner? Or do you want to try to find
something other than sin in your life to offer up to God? Now,
that's what the natural man's doing. He's not content in being
a sinner. He wants to find something that's
not sinful that he can offer to God for the hope of his salvation.
God says, happy. blessed look at there it is right
there verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit that's abject
poverty I mean that's a that's a beggar you've got nothing for
theirs is the kingdom of God kingdom of heaven blessed happy
blessed of God are they that mourn They grieve over their sin. They
lament the fact that they can't do anything but sin. Blessed are the meek. Humility. Growing in grace and
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ produces humility,
meekness, happy person. A content person is meek before
God. They're content with knowing
that all the hope of their salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.
They've got nothing, they can't do anything but look to Christ.
They're just hungering and thirsting after Christ for all their righteousness. setting their affections on things
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Blessed, happy are the merciful. They know something about mercy
because they've been mercy beggars and they've been the recipients
of mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Oh, I've got a righteousness in Christ that's absolutely perfect. As He is, so are we right now
in this world. And He that sanctifieth and they
that are sanctified are all as one. I've got a new heart, a
new nature, the mind of Christ. I'm content with that. How are
you going to add to that? Blessed are the peacemakers.
They know something about making peace because they've been the
recipients of the maker of peace. The prince of peace is their
peace with God and their content. Content in knowing that I have
peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm content. And I'm content in whatever providence
God sees fit to send my way, whether it be persecution, tribulation,
trials, troubles, I'm content in knowing that He does all things
right. And what he does for his children
is out of their, out of his love for them and their good, the
salvation of their soul. Everybody's looking for happiness,
aren't they? Looking for happiness in religion, looking for happiness
in things, looking for happiness in all the wrong places. Go back with me to our text,
1 Timothy chapter six. Verse four. Verse three, if any man teach
otherwise and consent not to the wholesome words, even the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine, which is
according to godliness. He is proud, knowing nothing,
but doting about questions and strifes of words where I've come
with envy and strife and railings and evil surmising. I got a text on the way to church
this morning, and the whole thing was in capital letters. And I mean, this guy was angry. He was just angry. And I didn't
even read the whole thing. I just texted him back and said,
sorry, I'm going to have to block you from my phone. I just blocked
him. He was angry over something that
I had said about something he held to that, you know, just
disputings over things. Perverse disputings of men of
corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is
godliness. Men compete to get dominance
over one another. because they're looking for happiness.
They think, well, if I can discover a secret mystery in the Bible
that nobody else knows, that gives me an advantage over other
men. I've gained knowledge that other people don't have, and
that means that God has blessed me. I have a godliness now based
on this secret knowledge that nobody else has. They suppose that gain is godliness. Now, I for one, and I know many
of you, were taught by men the doctrines of grace before you
were saved. You became a Calvinist before
the Lord revealed Christ in you. and what was your attitude about
your calvinistic doctrine you thought your gain was your
godliness didn't you you thought i've got some information now
that my armenian brethren don't have and you suppose that that
that gain in knowledge was your godliness men of perverse minds
supposing that gain is godliness i i i'm I'm happy now. I'm content because I've got
an advantage over other men. Some of us came out of religious
organizations that were very large and very wealthy. And we
would have looked on a congregation like this and said, they're not
blessed of God. Look at them. Just a handful
of people meeting in a small building While we've got thousands
of people. And we supposed that gain was
godliness. We supposed that the counting
of nickels and noses was the evidence of God's blessings on
our ministry. Supposing that gain was godliness. That's what a perverse mind will
do. And then we thought in our religious experiences,
well, you know, I don't do the things I used to do. I've got
control over some of those bad habits I used to be engaged in. And we thought that the gain
of control that we had over our bad habits was the evidence of
our godliness. And we look to our changed life
as the evidence of our salvation. Well, I don't do those things
anymore, so I must be saved. Men of perverse minds thinking
that gain is godliness, trying to comfort ourselves, trying
to get happiness, trying to get contentment in what we saw as
gain being the evidence of God's blessings on our lives. That's
just the way the world is. You see, all men are perverse
minds. And the perverse mind concludes that gain is godliness. How many times have you heard
somebody say, well, look at what they've got. Look at their house. Look at
the cars they drive. Look at how much, boy, God's
really blessed them. 999 times out of 1,000, material
wealth is not a blessing, it's a curse. The only time it's a blessing
is if God gives it to one of his children and they understand
that it belongs to him and they use it to his glory. Otherwise,
it's a curse. But men of perverse mind, suppose
that gain is godliness. Or people think, well, you know,
if I just, if I can have a lot of children, then that'll be
evidence that God's blessings on me. And they suppose that
gain is godliness. What are they looking for? They're
looking for evidence of God's blessings on their life based
on some measure of gain. That's what the perverse mind
does. But, here's, look, supposing that
gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. Don't have
anything to do with it. It's not true. It's not true. All those things that men use
to measure godliness are not true. Here's godliness. Godliness with contentment. is great gain." Now what is godliness? What is
godliness? Is that the man who's walking
with his head in the clouds and living above sin? Is that what
godliness is? The first mention to the word
godliness in the New Testament is found in Acts chapter 3 verse
12 and that's when Paul, on Peter I'm sorry, goes into the temple
to preach the gospel and he sees the man at the gate called Beautiful
begging for alms. And the man asks him, asking
for alms and what did Peter say? silver and gold have we none,
but such as we have in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I say unto
thee, stand and walk." And he stood and he leaped, and he went
into the temple with Peter and John, and the people knew that
that's the guy that was sitting out, and this guy was hanging
on to the apostle Peter. The scripture says he was clinging
to him, as naturally would. I mean, he's been crippled all
his life, and now he's been healed, and he's clinging to the man
that healed him. as far as he was concerned and
so all these other people started coming the scripture says they
knew that he was the man and Peter said this why marble ye
at us and look upon us as if by our power or our godliness
this man was healed we didn't heal him We're nothing special. And he gives glory to the Lord
Jesus Christ and preaches the gospel right there. We, it's
not our godliness, no uniqueness in our lives that gave us power
to perform a miracle. The Lord Jesus Christ did it.
He is our godliness. He is our godliness. The scripture
speaks in 1 Timothy chapter 3, 16. Turn with me there. Just
back a page from where you are. Verse 16, chapter 3, and without
controversy. Don't you love being without
controversy? I just, I don't want to, I don't
want to be in fellowship with somebody, I've got controversy
over the gospel. Anybody else does to me what
that guy did to me this morning, I'm just going to block him.
I just withdraw myself. The scriptures teach that, don't
they? This is without controversy.
This is what every child of God knows to be true. Why? Because
the mystery of godliness has been revealed to them A mystery
is not something that's strange or weird or mysterious. It's something that's hidden.
It's something that you can only know by the revelation of the
Spirit of God. And when the Spirit of God comes,
what does He do? He reveals Christ to you. Here's the mystery of
godliness that God, God Almighty, the Creator and Sustainer of
heaven and earth, the Sovereign omnipotent, omniscient God became
a man? He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh. He was born of a woman, born
under the law. For what reason? To redeem them
who are under the law. He is our godliness. This is
the great mystery of godliness, that God was manifested in the
flesh. that he was seen by angels. The
angels testified to those shepherds in the field that fateful night,
didn't they? Unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And then the angels testified
at his baptism when the Holy Spirit, now that's the Holy Spirit.
Look, God was manifested in the flesh
justified by the Spirit. He's the Anointed One. He's the
One who came in the full power of the Spirit of God in order
to accomplish the purpose for which God sent Him, the salvation
of His people. You will call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people. He's going to do it. He's going
to accomplish what He came to do. Why? Because He's coming
in the full power of the Spirit of God. He's the Messiah. He's the Christ. He's the Anointed
One. This is the mystery of godliness. Godliness is not your level of exception or level of
sanctification or perfection. Are you content with Christ the
Lord being your godliness? Or are you looking for some godliness
in your own life to add to? Him. You see, godliness for us is
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's looking unto Christ. It's
resting in Him. It's having all our hope in Him
as our righteousness. Preached among the Gentiles.
Here's the mystery of godliness. That this message of the Lord
Jesus Christ can be preached and a Gentile can hear it? a Gentile? I mean, it's one thing
for a Jew to hear it. They've had, you know, they've
had thousands of years of the revelation of God's law and mercy
given to them through the prophets, but for a Gentile to hear it
and believe it? That's a miracle. That's a mystery.
How can it be? It's a work of the Spirit. believed on in the world. A worldling would believe this
message? And then that the Lord Jesus
Christ was received back into glory, taking with him the names
of those for whom he lived and died, and ever lives to make
intercession for us? We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the Rock. Are you content with godliness? Men of perverse minds suppose
that gain is godliness. I've gained some advantage over
other men by my knowledge, by my possessions, by my position,
by something. And I suppose that that gain
that I have is evidence of my godliness. It's not true. It's a lie. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. I'm content. with the Lord Jesus
Christ being all my godliness before God. Is Christ enough
for you? God's satisfied with him. Are
you? Are you content? Or do you need
something more? Are you content with his life
being your life before God? or do you need to add something
to what he's done? Is Christ your only life, your
one and only life before God? Is His faithfulness to the Father?
Are you content? Are you content? You see, you're
going to be happy if you're content with Christ. Discontent is unhappiness. They're synonymous. You show
me a person that's discontent, I'll show you a person that's
unhappy. You show me a person that's content, I'll show you
a happy person. So I'm not asking you, are you
happy? I'm asking you, are you content? Content with his faithfulness
before God for all your righteousness. Content with his fulfillment
of the law. Or do you think there's still
some law that you can at least try to measure up to? I'll keep the Sabbath. I'll do this. I'll do that. Religious people and preachers
are the worst. When they preach against a sin, They always pick
something that they're not guilty of. Oh, I could give you an example. I heard somebody recently. taking the passage in Leviticus
that talks about not marking up your body and preaching against
tattoos. And in that same verse it says don't trim the edge of
your beards and don't cut your flesh. And this person I know
has cut their flesh in the same verse, but they don't have any
tattoos. You know, it's just, or they'll
preach against homosexuality because they're not a homosexual.
Or they'll preach against abortion because they've never committed,
they've never had an abortion. You know, they always pick that.
They're not content with the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling
the law on their behalf. They think that their gain is
their godliness. They think that their attempts
to keep the law is somehow giving them an advantage over other
men and giving them access to God. Are you content with Christ? Blessed, blessed of God are those
who are poor of spirit. And don't try to drum up being
poor in spirit. Lord, give me this heart. Give me the heart of contentment. Is the Lord Jesus Christ all
your righteousness before God? For most people, it's Christ
plus. Christ plus my decision. Christ
plus my faith. Christ plus my works. You hear people say, I'm going
to make Jesus Lord of my life or Jesus is the most important
thing in my life. He's the most important person
in your life. Is the Lord Jesus Christ your
life? Are you content with having him
as your life? or they'll have Jesus plus an
experience. They look back on a conversion
experience, a dramatic life-changing experience, and it's Christ plus
that. Contentment with godliness is
great game. Contentment with Christ. being
content with him. Are you content to be chosen
of him and in him in the covenant of grace before the foundation
of the world? Are you content with the fact that God according
to his own will and purpose before time ever began sovereignly chose
a particular people to save? And that he placed them in the
Lamb's book of life and hid them in Christ and always viewed them
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you content with that? I'll
tell you what, God gives you contentment in His sovereign
mercy and in His sovereign grace, you'll be happy with that. Because
you'll know that your salvation is not determined by anything
you do, it's determined by what He's already done. And that time
nor eternity can change what God's already purposed. is sovereign electing grace all
you need for the hope of your salvation are you content to
have Christ as your surety now a surety we use that word in
modern language to describe a down payment or a cosigner but that's
not what it is in the scriptures when When Judah stood before
his father Jacob as the surety of Benjamin, Judah was a picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
lamb, is the lion of the tribe of Judah. And Judah represents
Christ in this story. And look what Judah says in Genesis
chapter 43, verse eight. And Judah said unto Israel, his
father, send the lad with me and we will rise and go that
we may live and not die, both we and thou and also all our
little ones. I will be surety for him. of my hand shalt thou
require him, if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before
thee, then let me bear the blame for ever." Now that's the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking prophetically through Judah about his Benjamin,
his church, to his father. I'll be surety for them. I'll
provide everything necessary for their salvation. And if I
fail, Hold it to my account. Charge me with my failure. I'm going to bring him back.
I'm going to bring every one of them to glory. Is it possible
for the blame of our lost condition to be placed on Christ? Are you content with having the
Lord Jesus Christ as your surety before God, providing everything
that God requires of you? Everything. Are you content with the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ being the only hope of your justification
before God? Are you content? If you are,
you're going to be happy. You're going to be happy. God says, when I see the blood,
I'll pass by you, not when I see your good intentions, not when
I see your good works, not when I see your knowledge, not when
I see anything that you have done. When that blood was put
on the lentil and the doorpost of those houses that Israelites
were instructed to get in the house, don't stick your finger
out the door. Don't put your hand out the window.
Stay behind the blood. When I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. Are you content? Or do you need to stick your
hand out the window and wave for God to come see you? Come
take notice of you? Content with the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Do you want God to take anything
else into consideration other than the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ for your justification? Do you? No, you don't, do you? I'm content with what God's content
with, having Christ as your intercessor before God, presenting before
the throne of grace all your necessities. Are you content
with that? Are you content to see the Lord
Jesus Christ in the scriptures? Or do you go to the Bible looking
for some trinket that will help you to
live a better life? A lot of people do. A lot of people are looking for
law. They're looking for, they're
not looking for Christ. They're looking for a doctrine
to defend. They're looking for some absurd
revelation of truth that no one's ever seen before. They're looking
for, you know how we could fill this place up on Sunday morning?
Just put a sign out there on the prophecy of the end times. They'd be looking in the windows.
Place would be packed, standing room only. Everybody wants to
know what's going to happen tomorrow. People go to the Bible. You got
the newspaper in one hand, the Bible in the other hand, and
they're reading the scriptures trying to figure out what's going to
happen tomorrow. They're not content with Christ in the scriptures. They want some advantage over
other men, assuming, supposing that that gain is their godliness. God says godliness with contentment. Contentment. is great gain. Are you content for the Lord
Jesus Christ to get all the glory in your salvation? Or do you
want some credit? John Newton wrote in Tedious
and Tasteless, content with beholding his face, may all to his pleasure
resign. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind. I'm content. While blessed with
a sense of his love, a palace, a toy would appear, and prisons
would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me there." Was Paul chained to the Roman
dungeon, having been beaten in Philippi, singing praises to
God, was he content? That prison was a palace to him.
Why? Because the Lord was there. See, we live in the most affluent
society that the world's ever known, and we've got the most
discontent, unhappy people. everybody's in therapy or they're
on drugs or they're doing they're doing why they're looking for
happiness they're looking for contentment it's not to be found contentment with godliness is
great gain don't suppose that gain is your godliness are you content with the provisions
that Christ has given you, not just in salvation but in life. In life. As soon as I hear a
man say, well, I'm not happy in my marriage, he's not content
with what God's given him. Or a woman says, I'm not happy,
she's not content. When the Romans, when John the
Baptist was baptizing at the River Jordan, a Roman soldier
asked him, what should we do? And John said to him, don't charge
any man falsely, don't abuse anybody and be content with your
wages. Hebrews chapter 13 says, let
your conversation be without covetousness and be content with
such things as you have, for he hath said, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. In Philippians chapter 4, Paul
said, I have learned to be content in whatever state I'm in, whether
I abound or whether I abase, whether I suffer loss or whether
I gain, whether I'm hungry or whether I'm full, I've learned
to be content because that's where God's put me. Where you are right now is where
God puts you. Be content. You'll be happy if you're content. Look at the rest of this passage
in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 6, but godliness with contentment
is great gain for we brought nothing into this world. You
didn't bring any righteousness into this world. You didn't bring
any goodness into this world. You're born a dead sinner. You
didn't bring anything to help you save yourself into this world,
and you didn't bring any material wealth into this world. You can
go out of this world just as naked as you were when you came
in. And it's going to be sooner than later. For we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And
having food and raiment, let us be there with content. content. Why? You see, if you're
not content with the provisions of Christ, then you're not content
with Christ. Don't say, well, I'm content
with Him for my salvation, but I'm not content with Him for
what He's given me to live on. It doesn't work like that. If
you're content with Christ, you're content with Him. And if he's
got something different or something more for you, you'll never discover
that until you're content with where you are. But they that will be rich fall
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of
money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows." Isn't that the case? covetousness, discontent. What do we do? We pierce ourselves
through with sorrows. We're like the person who's cutting
himself. You know, we're just living a self-destructive life.
Why? Because we're not content with what God's given us. But thou, O man of God, flee
these things. Flee from them. Follow after
righteousness. Contentment with godliness is
great gain. Follow after Christ. He's the
mystery of godliness. Faith. Trust Christ. Childlike faith. Oh Lord, I've
got to have you. I can't do anything. Love. Lord, cause the love of Christ
to be shed abroad in my heart. Teach me something about the
love of God. Patience, patiently waiting,
first and foremost, for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and patiently waiting for you to provide for me what you know
I need. And being content in the meantime. Meekness, humility. The evidence of grace is humility. Humility is contentment. Meekness
before God. People looking for happiness
in all the wrong places. It ain't there. It's really not. That's a perverse mind. Supposing that gain is godliness,
but godliness with contentment. Now that's great gain. That's
the kind of gain the world doesn't know anything about. Amen? Amen. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
how we pray that you would give us a heart of contentment We
pray it in Christ's name, amen. Brother Tom. 225, let's stand together, 225. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Come unto me and rest. Lay down thy weary wand, lay
down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was, weary
and worn and sad. I found in him a resting place,
and he has made me glad. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
behold, I freely give. The living water, thirsty one,
stoop down and drink and live. I came to Jesus and I drank of
that life-giving stream. My thirst was quenched, my soul
revived, and now I live in Him. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
I am this dark world's light. Look unto me, thy morn shall
rise, and all thy day be bright. I look to Jesus, and I've found
in Him my star, my sun. And in that light of life, I'll
walk till traveling days be done. Thank you.