Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter
6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. We have already looked at the
first five verses in this chapter. Today we will look at verses
six to 14. Let's begin reading in verse
one, and we'll read through this text. First Timothy six, verse
one, it says, let as many servants as are under the yoke count their
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his
doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing
masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren,
but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved
partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise and
consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he
is proud knowing nothing, but doting about questions and stripes
of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute
of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, From such
withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment
is great gain. For we brought nothing into this
world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having
food and raiment, let us be there with content. 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. But thou, O man of God, flee
these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, patience, meekness, fight the good fight of faith, lay
hold on eternal life whereunto thou art called and has professed
a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge
in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ
Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good confession,
that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me begin this
Bible study by telling you the point of this, okay? And I feel very burdened about this
study and this portion of scripture. So let me try to make this as
plain as I can, all right? This is the whole point of this. Christ is everything, and everything
else is nothing. Christ is everything. And everything
else is nothing. If we leave this world with Christ,
we are leaving with everything. And if we leave this world without
Christ, we are leaving with nothing. Nothing. I asked our middle school and high
school class to come in with us. I wanted them to hear this. This is a critical reality that
especially every adult needs to hear. A lot of times when
I tell the kids to come in here, I say, okay, I'm talking to you.
I had you come in here. I'm talking to the adults and
the kids, but adults really need to hear this. I really need to
hear this. And one day real soon, you teenagers
are gonna be adults. And you're gonna need to know
this. You're gonna need to go through
your life knowing this. This is critical. This is critical. I pray God will give us a heart
to receive God's word on this, not be offended by it. Because
this is eternally, life or death, critical. Eternity's coming,
and it's coming quick. It's coming very quick. He that
hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life, but the wrath of God abides on him. That's critical, isn't it? That
is critical. So to all of us, all right, let's
really listen to what God has to say right here. Look at verse
six, 1 Timothy 6, verse six. It says, godliness with contentment is
great gain. If you end up being content with
godliness, you have gained it all. If we end up being content
with godliness, we have gained it all. Godliness, what is godliness? What do we mean when we say godliness?
We'll look at 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. 1 Timothy 3, verse 16 says, and
without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. And
here it is. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Godliness is the knowledge of
Jesus Christ. It is a true knowledge of God's
grace to sinners in, by, through the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what godliness is. Godliness
is not us trying to work the very same works of Christ. That's what almost everybody
thinks it is. They think that what Christ did was godliness,
and it is. And they think if we're going
to have godliness, we have to copy what he did. That's not
it. Godliness is not us trying to
work the very same works that Christ did. If we could do that,
then why did Christ come? Godliness is us believing on
Christ's work. Godliness is faith in Christ. People naturally think that it
is sinlessness in our flesh, us achieving sinlessness by our
own doing, according to our own works. That's not so. That's just not so. Godliness
is faith in and faith on Jesus Christ. Faith in who he is, faith
in what he has done to save his people from their sin. He saved
them. He saved them. Did He save them
or not? Yes, He saved them. Is the work
finished or not? Yes, it's finished. That's godliness. Godliness with contentment is
us being content with Christ. Being truly content to just have
Christ. It's being content that His grace
is sufficient. It's being content that His sacrifice
is sufficient. It's being content with the fact
that His love to us and His presence with us is all we need. He is all we need. Christ is
all we need. I pray that you teenagers will
get to a point where you say that and believe it and mean
it. Christ is all I need. I pray we adults, this world
is full of adults. This world is full of people
who have lived here for decades and decades and decades and are
on the verge of leaving it who don't believe that and don't
say that and don't mean that. For all of us, oh, I pray God
will cause us to cry. Christ is all I need. That's
godliness with contentment. And if a sinner has that, that
sinner has received great gain. True godly contentment is contentment
with Christ. Contentment with the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you find a person who says
he or she believes on Christ, but cannot be content, and I'm
gonna tell you, you're gonna find people like this everywhere. They are everywhere. It's hard
to not run into a person like this. When you find a person who says
he or she believes on Christ, but that person cannot be content
without adding their own fleshly good works to their salvation. Cannot be content with Christ
alone. Got to be something else. When
you find that you found a person who possesses fleshly contentment,
contentment with good words, contentment with the things of
the flesh. You found a person who possesses
no godly contentment at all. Godly contentment is total faith
in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Rest in the person in
the work of Jesus Christ. They came to our Lord one time
asking, what must we do that we might work the works of God?
The Lord said, here it is. You believe on the one whom he
sent. You want to work the works of
God? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him. That's what Paul is talking about
back in our text when he said, fight the good fight of faith.
As these temptations, as these distractions come, do everything
you can do with all the ability that has been given to you to
just keep looking to Christ. Just keep looking to Christ.
Say to yourself, okay, I want everybody to say this. It doesn't
mean everybody's going to say this, but I pray everybody will
say this, say to yourself, if that is going to draw me away
from Christ, we're not going down that path. Godliness with contentment is
great gain, great eternal gain. Go back to first Timothy six. Verse six, but godliness with contentment
is great gain for we brought nothing into this world and it
is certain we can carry nothing out. We all came into this world
with nothing. And no matter what we accumulate
in this world, we will take none of it with us. It is so hard for us to understand
that by the way of this flesh. It doesn't matter whether we
accumulate $100 in this lifetime or $100 million in this lifetime. All of us are leaving the exact
same way with none of it. None of it. It's all going to
be gone in just a minute. I'm going to repeat that because
it's so it's all going to be gone in just a minute. In just a minute, it's all going
to be gone. Here we here we sit in all of our great gain. You
see this suit right here. This is Brooks Brothers. Was given to me. It's all going away. We are sitting
in great gain. I'm telling you, in just a minute,
this is all going away. Hannah and the girls and I moved
into our house nine years and 11 months ago. We rented in Ridgefields
for about a year. When we moved into our house,
our next-door neighbor was a 92 or a 94-year-old man who had
built the house next to us. He lived in it for 40-something
years. He was a lawyer in town. He had
a good job. Apparently, he was very successful. He had accumulated a lot of things. In the short time I knew him,
he was very generous. I borrowed a lot of things from
him. I came, I kind of came here with nothing and a very nice
man. But when the time came, his kids
put him in a nursing home. And when it became clear that
he was not going to come back out of that nursing home, his
kids put up his house and everything he had for absolute auction. He was still alive. And they
put up everything he had for absolute auction. It didn't matter
what price it went for. It was going. They didn't care. I never saw them step foot on
the property. Not one time. Just an auction
company came, stuck a big sign in the front yard. And on the
day that the auction was held, it was a Saturday. On the very
day that the auction was held, he died that morning in the nursing
home. Same day. About an hour, I think the auction
started at 10 o'clock and they said he passed away at 9 o'clock
this morning. And I went over and I watched them sell all of
his stuff for pennies. His house, his car, everything. for pennies. And as far as I
know, that man left this world without Christ. And according
to the word of God, we know how horrible it is to leave this
world without Christ. We carry nothing into this world
and we will carry nothing out. None of it means anything. None of it means anything. You
say, yeah, but at least while I'm here, I can eat filet mignon
rather than baloney. If it means I'm going to miss
Christ, give me baloney. Verse seven says, we brought
nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing
out. It is certain. and having food and raiment,
food and clothes, let us be there with content. Solomon said in
Proverbs 30, Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches. Now this
was the wisest man in the world, the richest man in the world.
He said he was the richest man in the world, but he was the
wisest man in the world. All right. And he said, Lord,
give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient
for me. Lest I be full and deny thee
and say, who is the Lord? Lest I forget about you, just
have so much. Or lest I be poor and steal and
take the name of my God in vain. He was asking, Lord, give me
godly contentment. Give me a contentment with Christ. That's all I want. That's all
I need. That's all I need. Verse eight, having food and
raiment, let us be there with content, 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." Now, let me say this. The scripture says, whatever
our hand finds to do, we ought to do it with all of our might.
Our Lord said, we ought to work while there are 12 hours in a
day. The scripture says, if a man will not work, neither should
he eat. It says, if a man will not work
to provide for his own, he is worse than an unbeliever in God's
eyes. Solomon said, it is good for
a man to enjoy the things that he's worked for. He said, that
is a gift from God to us. This is not saying that we should
be lazy. It's not saying that we shouldn't
strive to do well in this life that we have. I encourage everybody,
go work hard, get a good job, earn a good living, provide for
your family. He didn't say money is the root
of all evil. He said the love of money, gotta have that. Rather
than saying, gotta have Christ, gotta have Christ, I have to
have Christ, I can't go on another day without Christ. Saying I
gotta have money, I gotta have that money, whatever it takes
to get that money. I'm gonna lay hold on money.
That's the root of all evil. And it's not saying that we should
not strive to do well in this life and strive to have good
jobs. But I tell you what it is saying.
If anything takes a greater place of importance to us, anything, in our minds, in our hearts,
in our schedules, if anything takes a greater place
of importance to us than Christ, then the worship of Christ, then
the gospel of Christ, then the assembling of ourselves before
God with the saints of Christ, mark it down. God's word says
we will fall into temptation and a snare and we will pierce
our own selves through with sorrow and destruction and death. When the opportunity comes along
for us to take a job, and teenagers, it will. It's going to. When the opportunity comes along
for us to take a job, that will cause us to worship God less. And I want to, all you men and
women, I want to tell you, I'm not talking about taking call.
I'm not talking about, you know, I have to travel for work. I'm
not talking about, you know, the meeting ran long. I'm not
talking about that. I'm talking about when a job
offer comes along and you're faced with, okay, if I take this,
A third of the worship services are gone. Half the worship services
are gone. I'm going to have to choose if
I take this, you know, more money, better situation in life. But
if I do this, I know for certain it's going to cost me worship. It's going to cost me worship
services. If we take that job, one of two
things will happen. It will either bring trials and
hurt upon us. We will bring that upon ourselves
and we will grow calloused to Christ and to the gospel. until Christ and His grace and
His mercy reaches down and pulls us out of the mess that we got
ourselves into. We will either bring that upon
ourselves or we will not bring trials and
hurt upon ourselves at all, worldly speaking. And that will cause
us to grow calloused to Christ and to the gospel. And we will
need Christ and the gospel less and less until we fall away from
it and we leave this world in darkness and utter destruction
and condemnation. One of those two things will
happen. If a choice is made against Christ
and the gospel, somehow consequences will come. If we willingly, consciously,
decidedly neglect Christ and the gospel, either temporarily
for our correction or permanently for our eternal judgment, consequences will come. I have
many people in my mind that I've known throughout the years, and
the ones that I'm thinking about in the moment have attended other
congregations. I don't want anybody to start,
don't start rolling people through your mind, okay? But I have known
people who made decisions like this and tried to justify it
in their mind and tried to say, I'll still be fine. You know,
I'll still, I'll still. And I'm telling you, they are
gone. They're gone. They're gone. I like nice things. I like You know, I'd rather be
able to pay my bills and not pay my bills. I'm just like everybody
else, but I'm just telling us if it costs us Christ, it's not
worth it. It's just not worth it. Verse nine says 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. Our Lord said in Matthew
6, it is one or the other. We cannot serve God and this
flesh. The fleshly desires and lusts
of the world, the flesh. Verse 11, but thou, O man of
God, flee these things and follow after righteousness. That is
a person. Righteousness is a person. Christ
is our righteousness. Christ is made unto us righteousness. Verse 11 says, follow after godliness. That's a person. Who he is, what
he has done, faith in him. Verse 11 says, and faith. That's
a person. Our faith is of Christ. It's
his faith that he gives to us. Our faith is in Christ. Our faith
is to Christ. You can read the scripture and
substitute the word Christ for faith. When you come up to the
word faith, you can just stick the word Christ right there.
If you want to have a good understanding of what faith truly is, do that.
Just stick the word Christ right there. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Without Christ, it's impossible
to please God. Verse 11 goes on to say, in love,
that's a person. All the love of God is in Christ,
to Christ, through Christ. It's God commended his love when
Christ was commended. That's a person. Verse 11, patience,
meekness. That's the character of a person.
Jesus Christ, the Lord. Verse 12, fight the good fight
of Christ. May the Lord give us a heart,
a desire to contend for Christ. Look to Christ. Faith, fight
the good fight of faith. Faith means look to Christ. Keep
looking to Christ. Resist everything that might
steal your attention and your focus away from Christ. Verse
12 says, lay hold on eternal life. That is Jesus Christ. Christ
is eternal life. He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I'm the life. Well, I know in the resurrection,
he said, I'm the resurrection. Colossians 3 says, Christ, who
is our life, he's our life. Verse 12 says, where unto thou
art also called and has professed a good profession before many
witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight
of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who
before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou
keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just remember, this is what I
want to emphasize and get across this morning. Just remember,
He is coming back. I know that seems so foreign.
I know that sounds like, you know, a crazy man on a street
corner ought to be hollering that, but he is coming back. Scripture says he's coming quickly.
You say, well, they wrote that 2000 years ago. Well, I don't
know when he's coming back to this world, but he's coming for
each one of us quickly. We're not promised tomorrow.
It may be today. He's coming back and when he
does, all of this is going away and none of it will matter. Christ
and his gospel and his people will be the only thing that remains.
And if anything hinders us from him, get rid of it. If anything hinders us from him,
get rid of it. Get Christ, lay hold of Christ. There's great gain in that. With
all you're getting, Solomon said, with all you're getting, get
wisdom. Who's Christ? Get rid of everything else that
hinders us from Christ. Should I quit my job if it's
keeping me from worshiping Christ? Yes. There are a thousand jobs
out there. There's one Christ, there's one
gospel, and only one hope. What if I end up living up in
a cardboard box? You'll have Christ in that cardboard
box. Everything will be with you in that cardboard box. The Apostle Paul said, I count
everything that I had done, that I may win Christ and be found
in him. And I wanna end, I've gone way too long. Whenever I
stop this, we're gonna have to have a quick turnaround, but
I have to, let me finish. One minute, okay? 75 seconds. The reason Paul counted it all
done is because Paul belonged to Christ. The Lord made Paul
do that. I'm going to end this by giving
the glory where it's due. God got the glory for that. If
we heed this word and we say, you know what? I'm not offended
by that. I believe it. I say, amen. And we heed this word that
will be the Lord's doing in us. Only God's people get rid of
everything and lay hold of Christ. And I'm not telling you to go
sell all your stuff. I'm talking about in the heart.
It means nothing. Give me Christ. Only God's people
do that. That's the first thing. We don't
do this to get Christ. We do this because we have gotten
Christ. The second thing is, our Lord
said, whatever is given up for his sake and the gospels will
be returned a hundredfold. You won't be in a cardboard box.
You won't be begging bread. Even if that hundredfold does
not come in the form of money, if we leave this world with Christ,
we're leaving with everything. We're leaving with everything.
Listen to God's word on this. Adults, teenagers, my own soul. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. I pray God will give every soul
here contentment with Christ. All right, you're dismissed.