Go with me back to first Timothy
chapter six. We were here for both of our
services last Sunday morning. And I wanted to be here again
tonight because this next verse in line holds such a sweet and
loving thought to me. Verse 17, first Timothy one verse
17. It says, charge them that are
rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust
in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly
all things to enjoy. Charge them that are rich in
this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain
riches, the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God who giveth
us richly all things to enjoy. He said, charge them that are
rich in this world to not be proud of their riches because all of it was given to
them. He said, tell them to not trust
in themselves. Tell them to not trust in their
ability to get riches, which is what we do. I'm pretty good
at this. Tell them to not trust in the
riches. They can be taken away just as
quickly as they were given. Job said, the Lord gave and the
Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's what Paul is saying right here. Don't trust in the gifts,
trust in the giver. Verse 17, charge them that are
rich in this world, that they be not high minded nor trust
in uncertain riches, but in the living God, put all your trust
in the living God. Verse 17 says, who giveth us. Everything that we have from
him is a gift. It is not earned. I know we men
and women think that we are earning a living and a life for our families,
but we're not. We're not. Everything we have
is a gift. All of it is grace. It's not works. It's not works. It's grace, it's all grace. Charge them that are rich in
this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain
riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly. Everything that God gives to
us, he gives it to us richly, abundantly. Abundantly, David
said, my cup runneth over. And it does. God's people say
that with David. My cup runneth over. Our Lord said, if you're hungry,
open your mouth wide and I'll fill it. As wide as you can,
I'll fill it. That's how God gives. When God
gives, he gives abundantly, not sparingly. He gives richly. And not only
does He give richly, He gives this way too. Look with me if
you would at 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 12 says,
now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
spirit, which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God, freely, richly and freely. That's good. And everything that
God gives to us, he gives it richly and freely. That's good. That's amazing.
He that spared not his own son. but delivered him up for us all,
all that the father elected and predestinated to Christ. How
shall he not with him? You think about the fact that
he gave his son richly and freely. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Revelation 22, 17 says, let him
that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely, freely. Isaiah 55 says, ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money,
come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price, freely. abundantly, richly, and freely. Our text says, charge them that
are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor
trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth
us richly all things to enjoy. Now, I want to spend our time
tonight dwelling on the fact that our God has richly given
us. Not the world, but the us. The us word is chosen people
who he foreknew in Christ and loved in Christ and placed in
Christ and redeemed in the blood of Christ and has kept in Christ
and called in Christ and glorified and will glorify in Christ, us. Our God has richly given us all
things. He has given the world, the unbelieving,
the unregenerated world, some things right now. But he has given us all things
richly to enjoy. Think about that. Think about
that. He has richly given us all things to enjoy. Now, there
are plenty of warnings throughout the scripture of being taken
up with the things of this world. Our text said, charge them that
are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded nor trust
in uncertain riches. The uncertainty of riches. You
cannot count on money. You can count on God Almighty,
but you can't count on money. John said, love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, and that means what I
want for myself, and the lust of the eyes, that
means how other people view me, And the pride of life is not of the Father, but is
of the world. And that's so. That's so. If any man loves the things of
this world more than the things of God, he is of the world. And he will leave this world
empty-handed and suffer the consequences to come without Christ. Without
Christ, Solomon said, everything in this world is vanity. It is all empty. It is absolutely
nothing and it will come to nothing. And that's why God's people don't
put their trust in it. We don't put our trust in this
world. You know, Washington is all up
in arms right now. I don't even care. I mean, I
do. But all that means is I'm just
waiting to see what God is going to do. Everybody's arguing and
everybody's, you know, trying to ward stuff off and trying
to get people out and trying to this and trying to that. I'm
just going to wait and see what God is going to do. I don't,
I'm not putting my trust in this world. I'm not putting my trust
in this government. I'm not putting my trust in this
country. My trust is in my God. God's people do not put their
trust in this world. All right. Solomon said everything
here is vanity. It's empty. But he said something
else to turn with me if you would do Ecclesiastes chapter two. Ecclesiastes is just before Isaiah. Ecclesiastes 2. Solomon spent these first two
chapters saying everything in this world is vanity. All of it ends up being empty.
You cannot put your trust in it. It'll only leave you with
nothing but disappointment in the end. He spent the first two
chapters saying this, but he realized in chapter two, verse
24, that if the Lord will let us not put our trust in it, if
he will let us hold it with an open hand and enjoy it in the
moment for what it is and for who has given it to us, Verse
24, he said, there is nothing better for a man than that he
should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy
good in his labor. This also I saw that it was from
the hand of God. Look at chapter three, verse
13, he said, and also That every man should eat and drink and
enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. Does that
not describe Jesus Christ to us? All of his good labor that
for all of eternity he will enjoy, we will enjoy. Rest in the efforts
of all of his work. Because of his work, every man
and woman gets their own vine and fig tree, Christ being both. He's the vine. He's the work. He's the rest. Look at chapter five, Ecclesiastes
five, verse 18. Behold that which I have seen.
It is good and comely for one to eat and to drink and to enjoy
the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all the
days of his life, which God giveth him for it is his portion. Our God has given us all things
richly to enjoy, not to put our trust in, but to enjoy. That rich man in
Luke 12 who had a bunch of barns, you know, the story of the man
in Luke 12, he had a bunch of barns. He wanted a bunch more
barns. He wanted to tear down the barns
he had and build bigger barns. He said, uh, if I hold more grain,
I can have a bigger retirement. That's what he was saying. If I do that, I'll be able to
say to my soul, thou hast much goods laid up to last you many
years. That's retirement. Take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. That's putting your trust in
the things. Every time we do that, the things
end up leaving us empty handed. Every time we do that, the Lord
said to that man, you fool. Tonight, your soul is going to
be required of you. He said, this is what I'm going
to do. And God said, no, you're not. Tonight, your soul is going
to be required of you. Don't put your trust in the things. Our God has not given us all
things to trust in. He has given us one thing to
trust in. The sacrifice of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, that's it. But because of Him, in light
of Him, with Him, our God has richly given us all things to
enjoy. I want us to really see that
everything comes from His hand. That's what I want us to really
get a hold of. He has given to us all things richly to enjoy. From the food we eat, to the
clothes we wear, to the homes we live in. We shouldn't take
pride in these things. If you eat filet mignon on a
regular basis, don't take pride in that. If you have name, I told you
what name brand my suit was on Sunday. This one is Belk, I think.
I don't take pride in that. I want to warn all of us. Let's
not take pride. Don't take pride in looks. Don't take pride in fashion.
Don't take pride in what car you drive. Don't take pride in where you
live. Don't take pride in face, place, especially not grace. Don't take pride in grace. May God give us the ability to
not take pride in what God has freely of his own will and his
own accord and his own doing and his own decision given to
us. What do we have that we have
not freely received from his hand? With that being said, may
God give us the ability to humbly enjoy and acknowledge his hand
in all of his gifts to us. Every good and perfect gift is
from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Now, let's take a
minute and acknowledge his hand and some very enjoyable things
that he has given to us, and I pray the Lord will give you
a second here, just one second. to, in your heart, dial in to
the enjoyment of this. I pray He will cause you to enjoy
this, see the enjoyment of it. Along with food, I love food. It's so enjoyable to me. I like
hot dogs. I really do. But I love food along with food,
clothes, homes, cars, conveniences, family, friends, brethren, health. Our health comes from him. Minds, jobs. Along with everything that the
rest of this world gets to enjoy, the rest of this world gets to
enjoy all that too. God has made his sun to shine
and his rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And along with all of the things
that the rest of this world gets to enjoy, here are some things
that God has richly given to us, his people. And I wanna acknowledge them.
I wanna acknowledge some of these wonderful gifts that he has given
to us to enjoy. And I pray we might enjoy this,
all right? For the sake of time, I'm gonna turn to a few and I'm
gonna quote a few. Let's start with Ephesians 1.
Turn with me over there. Ephesians 1. Verse 2, it says, Grace be to
you, that means gift, that's what it means, gift. Grace be
to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with, that means
given to us, that's what it means. Blessed us with, all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Our God has given
to us every spiritual blessing that heaven has to give. And
he has given it to us richly, freely and richly to enjoy. Think about this, okay? The grace
of God The kindness of God, the favor of God. How many times
did Paul say grace to you, grace be to you, the grace of God to
you, grace, grace, God's grace. God has given grace. He has given kindness. He has
given favor. He has not given that to the
rest of the world, but he's given that to us. He
has given grace and he has given grace. I think about, you know,
gracious people. who welcome you into their home
and sit you down at their table and feed you a meal and give
you a place to sleep. Graciousness, so gracious. They're just so gracious. Well,
that's how God is to us. He has given grace and given
grace. And after all of that, do you
know what James 4 verse 6 says? I adore this. For the record,
I absolutely adore this. After all of that, this is what
James 4 verse 6 says. He giveth more grace. He gives
grace and grace and grace. And then after all that's done,
he gives more grace and we get to richly enjoy it. Oh, we take that for granted.
We get to richly enjoy God Almighty's graciousness. I could just go
home. I got a bunch of these. I could
just go home right there. Christ is the grace. But I'll get to that in a second.
We get to richly enjoy His grace. We get to richly enjoy the thought
of His grace. What we're doing right now is
thinking about the grace that we have. That's what we're doing
in a worship service. We're recalling these things.
And we get to enjoy the thought of His grace. Think about the spiritual blessing
of mercy. He has richly blessed us in the
blood of Jesus Christ with mercy. Don't you love that story of
our brother who came up to me and just so troubled over his
sin and, you know, what do I do? What do I do? I said, beg God
for mercy. And he came back to me 30 minutes later and he said,
how much mercy does God have for me? So I think that could be my favorite
question I've ever answered in my life. It's infinite. His compassion
toward us because of his mercy starts over brand new every single
morning. Every morning we get to enjoy
the blessed thought. Have you ever gone to sleep at
night thinking, I am such a sinner. And then wake up the next morning
and think about the fact that His mercy started over brand
new. His compassion started over brand spanking new this morning. The world does not get to enjoy
that, but we do. We get to enjoy His mercy. We get to enjoy the thought of
His mercy. Our God who is rich in mercy,
but God who's rich in mercy. I enjoy thinking about the gift
of His mercy to us. Think about the gift of His righteousness. You get to go stand before God
Almighty in Jesus Christ's covering, not your own. The world doesn't
get that. We get to enjoy knowing while
we look at ourselves going, man, I'm so wretched. I'm so vile.
I'm so wretched. I'm so rotten. I'm so ruined. We get to enjoy the thought that
he has so covered us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. When God almighty
looks at us, all he sees is Jesus Christ. I enjoy that. It's very enjoyable to me. The gift of His sanctification. The gift of His redemption. The gift of His abundant peace. This is what He said, My peace,
I leave there with you. You get to hold on to that. Abundant. The abundant gift of His pardon. Isaiah 55 says He will abundantly
pardon. What a thing to enjoy. We can
richly enjoy every spiritual blessing that God has given to
us in Christ. And every spiritual blessing
can be summed up in this gift right here. All of them are because
of this gift right here. Galatians 1 verse 4 says, he
gave himself. Christ is the gift. Christ gave
himself, he gave all of himself. You know, it's possible for us
to give some of ourselves. He gave all of himself for our
sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world.
Just enjoy the thought of that. Now, I'm going to be very brief,
OK? We'll skim a couple of scriptures here. Go to John 17. John 17. Verse 14. Our Lord said to his father,
I have given them thy word. He has richly given us
this word to enjoy. And we do, don't we? We thank
God for this word. Oh, we thank God for this word.
I don't even know what to say about this one. I cannot comment
on this, but look at verse 22. He said, and the glory which
thou gavest me, I have given them the glory, the glory of
God, the glory of God. I cannot comment on that, but
I sure do enjoy the thought of it. Look at first Corinthians
15. Verse 57, 1 Corinthians 15, verse
57. It says, but thanks be to God,
which giveth us the victory, the victory of the cross. Christ
gave that to us. The victory is all his. But He won it for us and He gave
it to us. And because of that, we get to
richly enjoy that victory, the victory over death, the victory
over sin. We get to enjoy that. Look at
2 Corinthians 5 verse 18. It says in all things are of
God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath
given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Aren't you so thankful for the
fact that that is our ministry? That's our message, reconciliation. What a message to enjoy. Verse
21 says, he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's the greatest
announcement that has ever been given and we get to give it richly. So richly Paul said in Ephesians
three, eight unto me, who am less than the least of all saints
is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles, the
unsearchable riches of Christ. Don't turn, but first Thessalonians
four verse eight says he has given to us his Holy spirit. Second Thessalonians 2.16 says,
He has given to us an everlasting consolation. Second Peter 1.3
says, He has given to us all things that pertain to life and
godliness. 2 Peter 1 verse 4 says, He has
given to us exceeding great and precious promises. He said, I've
loved you with an everlasting love. He richly gave us His love,
the promise of His love. He said, I have redeemed thee,
thou art mine. The promise of His redemption,
exceeding great and precious promises. All right, turn to
1 John 5. We'll close with this. 1 John
5. Verse John five, verse 11. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life. Is the thought of that enjoyable
to you? Eternal life. It says, and this
life is in his son. Verse 20 says, and we know that
the son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that
we may know him that is true. And we are in him that is true
in his son, Jesus Christ. That word even is in italics.
This is the true God and eternal life. You know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that through his poverty, you might be rich. In Christ, God has given to us
all things. And in Christ, they are to be
richly enjoyed, very richly enjoyed. I pray the Lord will make that
enjoyable. All right, stand with me.