I want you to look back here
with me now. You know, in talking about how merciful, Jeremiah
3 says, you know, the Lord's mercies are new every morning.
I remember the Lord's compassions and His mercies are new every
morning. And one fellow said that by the
end of the day, there's no mercies left over. Got to start all over
again the next day. And oh, He gives us brand new
mercies every day. We need mercy. It's what I want. I don't want what I deserve.
I want mercy, grace. It's what
I want. God given it to me. All right,
back over here in 1 Timothy 6. You remember, Last week we talked about these
ungodly men that they taught things other than the doctrine
of Christ, didn't consent to wholesome words, how they was
in it for the money, proud, act like they knew everything but
they didn't do anything. And that word doting means they
were sick, sick, so sick of over their own self-glory and self-honor
and self-promotion and railings and evil suspicions, but it said
down there in the last part of verse 5, supposing that gain
is godliness, they suppose that the more money you made, the
more godly you were. And I read something today about
a TV preacher, Kenneth Copeland, You know, he tells everybody,
send me money. Send me money and God will bless
you. You send me 10%. You give God's
first 10% and God will bless you. And you know how wealthy
they are? $760 million. Now that's godliness
to them. That's godliness to them. You
remember those folks that had air-conditioned dog houses for
their dogs. But they was on television robbing
everybody else blind. They're like the Pharisees. They're like the Pharisees, you
know, who robbed widows' houses. Robbed widows' houses. And that's
what they do. That's what they do. And they
make people think that if you give to me, then you're going
to get even greater. But oh no, that's not so. But
the difference between them, lost religionists, money-grubbing
preachers, and TV evangelists, and anybody else in this world
that suppose gain is Godliness, stay away from them. Stay away
from them. But he comes around, the difference
in them and the difference in us is this. Godliness with contentment
is great gain. They suppose godliness is gain.
We say godliness with contentment. That's gain. To have godliness
with contentment. And I tell you, I do know this. When he says godliness with contentment
is great gain, let me ask you something. Are you content with
God being who He is? You know, if you've got godliness,
if God's in you, Christ is in you, Christ is your interest,
Christ is your hope, Christ is your salvation. Are you content
with God being who He is? Are you content with God saving
you the way He does? Are you content with the Lord
Jesus Christ and what He did and the salvation that He accomplished?
Huh? Are you satisfied and you content
with how God gives you life every day? Are you content with what
God does with you and does with you every day? Are you content
with how God treats you? Are you content with what God's
done for you? Would you change God ever? Would
you ever change your salvation in any way? Would you ever change
how your relationship with God based on Christ in any way? Christ
has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
We say Christ is all and in all. Are we content with that? If
we got that, what else do you need? You know, we're heirs of God.
The world's heirs of the world. They suppose gain is God, the
more money I get, the more godly I get. That's what they say. Oh listen, we're heirs of God. Let them inherit their money.
Let them make their money. And it's always like James said,
the riches are going to canker with them. And I tell you, we're
heirs of God, join heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'd
rather be rich in faith as to have a pocket full of money.
Wouldn't you? Oh, to be rich in faith. And
God be our portion. Well, there were him where I
said, God is my portion. You know, we go and we get in
line and we say, listen, you know, when you go to a place,
you know, and they dish out your portion, you'll get a portion.
They put a little on here, a little on there. Well, listen, you know
what he said? God is my portion. How big a portion you reckon
he is? Oh, we're contented with our
lives. We're thankful for what we have. Because in Christ, all
things are worth having. They're all worth having. I want
you to keep 1 Timothy, and look with me in Psalm 103. Look over
here in Psalm 103. I want you to look at this with
me for just a little bit. You know, the older I get, the
more emotional I get, I guess. And the more needy I get, the
more needy I get. You think you would have learned
a little something, but I feel like I'm going backwards. But look what he said here now,
Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless
his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. And
don't forget, don't do whatever you forget, don't forget this,
don't forget all his benefits. And here's one of them, who forgiveth
all thy iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, especially
the disease of sin, who redeemed your life from destruction. He
crowns you and puts on your head loving kindness and tender mercies. He satisfies your mouth with
good, with good. Oh my, that's what he's talking
about. That's what David said, I'm content.
God satisfies me. He's my portion. He's my portion. And I tell you, that's why He
says, My grace is sufficient for thee. And I tell you, Christ
Himself is sufficient, and that's all we need. And then, let me
give you down here, but godliness with contentment. Oh, what a
great gain it is. Now, I tell you, this is, Paul
said over in one place, he said, you know, I've learned, I've
learned how to be content. Whatsoever state I'm in. Now
this being content, it's not an easy thing. It's not an easy
thing. I'm not saying it is. But I do
know this about us as God's people. We're content with God. We're content with our salvation.
We're content with God's Word. We're content with Christ. We're
content with the blood. We're content with everything
God does for us, and the life He gives us, and the life He
orders for us. And we would never, ever, ever,
we're like Job. We are not gonna question God.
And look what he goes on to say. And this is why godliness with
contentment is great gain. Look what he said in verse seven.
And we brought nothing into this world. What'd you bring when
you got here? I'm gonna tell you one thing
you brought with you when you was born in this world. Brought
you sin. That's all you brought into this
world. He was born with it. That's the only thing that we
come in, the only original, Scott Rich said this so many times,
the only original thing that we have in this world that belongs
to us and us alone, and that's our sin. Born with it. And that's why we come into this
world, but we brought nothing into this world but sin, and
it's certain, certain we're not carrying anything out. Not carrying
a thing in the world out here. Job said, naked I came into this
world, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I'm gonna leave
this world. He said, I came without nothing,
and I'm gonna leave without nothing. And you know when he got, I'm
gonna let a cat out of a bag here, but when Job got to the
end of his life, you know he lost 10 children. Lost his home,
lost his wealth, but by the end of his life, God gave him 10
more children, and God doubled what he had to start with. And you know what he said? He
said, there he slay me, I'm gonna trust him. And I tell you what,
Job, when he died and left this world, he left every bit of it
behind. And you know, whatever we got
in this world, I tell you, oh my. I'll tell you, if we're going
to go after possessions and worldly things, they have no value after
death. And when somebody you love dies,
they sure enough don't have no value. Bruce Crabtree right now,
he said, I know how everything in this world is nothing but
vanity! Vanity! It's vanity. When you got nobody,
you know, in this world and all of it's baubles and it's toys,
and it's, and the things that people hunger and thirst after.
Oh my, but when a man dies, he ain't gonna know nothing but
Christ unless he knows Christ. And all my soul, to leave this
world, and to hear a believer going to be with Christ, we rejoice
in that. Millionaires are going to leave
every dime they got. We're going to leave our houses.
We're going to leave our children. We're going to leave our clothes.
We're going to leave our money. We're going to leave our everything
behind. We're going to leave our lovers behind. We didn't bring nothing but sin
and bless the Lord's name that He took care of our sin for us
from the first one we come out of the womb to the last one when
we take our last breath. Oh, I tell you what, now I can
live and die with that. But to be forgiven of sin, to
be an heir of Christ, that's the greatest value. Oh, the world,
I tell you, as soon as a man learns this, As soon as a man
learns that what he has in Christ, in Christ is everything, he'll
cease to be concerned so much about his flesh and his earthly
possessions. And you know what he'll want
to do? And he'll do it, he'll say, Lord, I want to lay hold
on eternal life. I want to lay hold on eternal
life. I want to lay hold on eternal
life. And to lay hold on something,
you've got to turn loose of something else. You can't have Christ in
the world. You can't have Christ himself.
You can't have Christ and be selfless. You just can't have
him and be so self-centered. You just can't do it. Oh my,
and I'll tell you something else about God's people that they're
content with. And this is something else about
this. We know, and he said, we know, we know
this. that all things work together
for good, not for everybody, work together for good to them
that love God and are called according to His purpose. Huh? Get your stake and drive her
down right there and say, that's it for me. You say, boy, things
sometimes get tough. I've got what God wills for us. That's all right, ain't it? He's
God. He's too wise to do wrong. He's too good to be unkind. Oh my. And then look what he
said. I'll tell you what. Oh, we got
to get a hold of this thing. Ain't nothing we're taking out
of here. Ain't nothing we're going to take out of here. And
having food and raiment, verse 8. Having food and raiment, let
us therewith be content. Oh my. Now I got to thinking
about this today, having food to eat. Every one of us can go to our
refrigerator and get out some incredibly good food, having
food to eat, abundance of food to eat. And you, how much food
do you reckon we've eaten in our lifetime? Having food, and listen to this
now, and clothes to wear. I wonder how many suits of clothes,
how many clothes we have wore out. How many clothes have we
bought? How many clothes have we thrown
away? How many clothes, and that's what he said, having food and
movement, I mean these things have to, they just come over
and over and over, and then look what he says. Let us therewith
be content. Having something to eat, Clothes
to wear. A house to dwell in. We ought to really be content
for that. Huh? And I'll tell you something. God gives us all these things
and blesses us to have all these things. Go home and sit down in a good chair. Have something to eat? Get up
and put on good, clean clothes of the day? Sit down to a good meal? Good
bed to sleep in? Oh my. We ought to be the most contented
people in the world. Look over and keep first Timothy
and look at Hebrews 13. Look at Hebrews 13. You know,
that's what I was telling you a minute ago about Paul said,
I've learned, I've learned that whatsoever state I am in, therewith
to be content. I know how to be abased, I know
how to abound, I know how to be in woe, and I know how to
be content. These are things we have to learn.
But look what he said here in verse 5, Hebrews 13, 5. Let your conversation, that word
conversation means your manner of life. Let your life, let your
manner of life be without covetousness. Let your life be without covetousness. Don't go around saying, I won't,
I won't, I won't, I won't, I won't, you know. And be content with
such things as you have. How many things do we have? How
many things do we have? You think about how many things
do we have? We got lots of things. Lots of
things. Unlike Jack Shanks, if they made
reversible shoes, I'd have one pair. If they reversed, I'd have
black and brown. If they reversed, I'd have one
pair of shoes. I wish it was that way, but it
ain't. But here's the thing, don't go around talking about,
I want this and I want that and I gotta have this and I gotta
have that. Be content with such things as you had. Because here's
what he said, for he has said, everything else will leave you.
Your health will leave you. Your clothes will wear out. Your
house will start falling apart. For he has said, I'll never leave
you and I'll never seek you. Oh, everything else will forsake
you one of these days. So I'll tell you what, we're
gonna turn around and say confidently, boldly, the Lord's my helper. I'm not gonna fear. Let man do
what he wants to. Oh my, here's the thing that
makes us content. We're rich in grace, oh so rich
in grace. Rich in love, rich in joy. and
faith, whatever our earthly condition is. Huh? It's nice to have a
home, it's wonderful, absolutely wonderful, and I thank God for
it. And the will of God, everything
has to do with our present state. God's will has to do right now
with everything that's happening in our lives. We got a thing
in this world that God's will did not order for us. Nothing. And I tell you, Henry
Mahan used to say all the time, boy, whatever you possess, hold
on to it real, real lightly, because it's going to leave you,
going to leave you. And oh my, that's why he said,
in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. And then look what he says down
here now in verse 9. Then he goes, he talked about
God in this contentment, not having anything. We brought nothing,
we're gonna leave nothing. And so what we got in this world,
food, clothes, a place to live, let's be content with what God's
given us. 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. Oh my. You know, there's nothing
wrong with desire. Nothing wrong, nothing at all. But the desire to make it your
life's motive to become rich, to become wealthy in this world,
instead of wealthy in the Lord Jesus Christ. He exhorted believers
to be content with what they have. And always consider worldly
possessions in their proper light. They're just vanities and fleeting
vanities. And now he tells us how dangerous,
how dangerous the pursuit of riches is. It's a dangerous thing
to pursue riches. It really is. That's what he
says here. They'll fall into temptation.
They that desire to be rich. They that will be rich. That's
my will to be rich. I have piles of money. Oh, I have piles of money, but
he said, oh my. But here you are. If God gives
you anything, these carnal riches won't amount to anything. But
I do know this. If God's promised, prospered
you for His glory, and don't set your heart on nothing but
God and Christ, And if you're covetous, that's idolatry. And
he said, a man that would be rich, would be rich, falls into
temptation. He gets it in his mind. I've
got to be wealthy. I've got to be wealthy. I've
got to have lots and lots of money. I've got to have enough. They say now it takes $2.2 million
to retire. Well. We're a bunch of paupers here.
How many of y'all don't retire that much
money? But that's what they tell us
now. So when people out here, what they do, they just grub,
grub, grub, grub, grub. Oh my. And then look what he
says, they fall into temptation and a snare. You know what a
snare is? A snare is something they use
to catch an animal. And that snare catches it, and
it entraps it. It can't get away. And that's
what he says, the man that will be rich, he'll get snared. The
desire for riches and wealth, and the desire to be extremely
wealthy, and have all kinds of riches, it's like a snare. It
gets his soul, it catches his soul, it catches his mind, it
catches his will, catches his heart. And oh my. Oh my, and it puts, look what
he goes on to say, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. I
know a man one time, he's dead and gone now, but I know a couple
of men. He was a pastor of a church,
and our first pussy we got, we got from here, from out of the
building that he was a pastor in. And he was as early as a
young man, And he decided, he said, I got tired of scratching
with the chickens. That's how he described it. And
he said, I went and walked with the hogs. And he went and he
became a millionaire. Became a millionaire. At 47 years
old, he was a millionaire. But he was one of the most miserable
people you ever met in your life. He was miserable. And not only
was he miserable, he'd make you miserable when you was around
him. Because he was so discontent. He was so miserable. He couldn't
go back to where he started. He could not never go back to
that place where he left. And look what it says here. And
hurtful lust. Look, he said, drowned. Drowned. Drown, they go down under, they
drown in destruction and perdition. It'll drown them, they'll sink
under the weight of that. Satan, trap, foolish, flesh,
the devil, lust for money, wealth, power. Oh my, it'll imprison
a man, it'll imprison a man. And I'll tell you something,
you know what our Lord said about riches? He said, riches are deceitful. Two deceitful things in the scriptures,
the deceitfulness of sin and the deceitfulness of riches.
They both will promise you something and they can't deliver. They'll
promise you, they'll promise you that you can go this far,
and then you'll go so far with it, gotcha. And riches comes
up there and he says, boy, I tell you, look at that, look at that.
Next thing you know, you're drowning, you're drowning. And then look
what else he says now, in verse 10. For the love of money is
the root of all evil. I heard a preacher say one time,
he said, it's the lack of money that's the root of all evil. Needless to say, he was begging
for it. But here he says, the love of money is the root of
all evil. Money is not the root of evil. It's the love of it.
The love of it. We all have to have money. And
I've told you time and time again, all that money is for is to exchange
money for something else. That's all money's for. You exchange
your paycheck for a house, exchange your paycheck for a car, exchange
your paycheck for food, exchange your paycheck for clothes on
your back. You just take money and you use
it to get what you need. And that's what it amounts to.
Is that not right? It's just a means of exchange. And so why
does anybody need any more than what they need? That's just my
opinion. One man's opinion. But look down
here at what else he says. For the love of money does the
root of all evil. And if we can find this only
to silver and gold, we'll miss the apostle's message. Because
what he's talking about here, that when you start getting greedy
for gold, you know what it'll do? It'll make you be, produces
fraud. you'll start lying, you'll start
cheating, you'll start having hatred over people having more
than you, more than, scared to death somebody's going to take
something that you've got, and it'll involve every crime that
you can imagine. And this insatiable desire for
earthly treasure and possessions has caused some Believers and
fellowship that was in the fellowship to depart because look what he
says for the love of money's rule all evil which have while
some coveted after Coveted after and covetousness is idolatry
They have erred from the faith and you look at that in the margin
that says have been seduced Money seduced them have erred from
the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Pierce
themselves through with many sorrows. Oh my You know, it says
over in Ecclesiastes 5.10, you don't need to look at it, but
he said, he that loveth silver will never be satisfied with
silver. He that loveth gold will never be satisfied with gold.
Never will. There was a famous movie star,
he's gone now too. And he started after he had made
so much, you know, he said, you can only have so much money,
and you don't need any more. So he started giving it away.
He started giving an incredible amount of money away to charity,
and he's dead and gone and still giving money away. And all he had was, he just,
you know, he had four million dollars, and he said, that's
enough for anybody. And he's one of the, he's a great movie
star. And he's dead and gone, but I
mean, his charity keeps on going on. You know, and there's not very
many people like that. You know, I've got enough, I've
got enough, that's sufficient. That's sufficient. And I tell
you, then he says, the rule, the love of money is the rule
of all evil. And when you talk about love,
love is a hard emotion. He's talking about the heart
here, the love of money. Love is a hard emotion. It's a condition,
you know, it denotes a craving or desire or concern for that
inner person. That's what the heart is. So
this love of money, or anything possession that God didn't give
you, he says it's the root of all evil. That was Satan's sin. You know Satan said, I will ascend
above the throne of the most high. He said, I said in my heart,
I'll go above God. He's had this emotion in his
heart. I'm going to be above God. God throwed him down. And that's why, you know, Israel
in the wilderness, they murmured against God, and God gave them
clothes. You know, when they left Israel,
and when they left Egypt, their clothes never got old, their
shoes never wore out, and every morning they had angel's food,
bread from heaven. And every evening they had quail.
They wanted meat and they wanted bread, and God gave them both
every single day. And what did they say? I hate
this light bread. I'm so sick, I want to go back
to Egypt. And that's what happens to these
people with a love of money. I want to go back to Egypt. Go
back to Egypt. Oh, that's Adam's sin. And so
we come back to this one statement. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. It's not just contentment. Now
listen to me. A hobo is content with being
lazy and sorry. There's a lot of people that
is content with being lazy and sorry and living in a shack and
not caring. There's people that just, you
know, there's a lot of people content. But contentment with
godliness, that's what we're talking about. All right, let
me give you one more thing and I'm done. And then look what he said down
here in verse 11. Oh, he just talked about God
and His contentment. Oh, we didn't have nothing. Then
look at all these people, whatever happens to them when they love
money and go after money and desire to be rich. But thou,
O man of God, flee these things. Follow after righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, patience, meekness. Oh my, that's what he said, flee
this thing. Whatever you see, listen, you
flee. Oh God, help us all as believers. Flee pride, flee covetousness,
flee worldly ambition. Oh, God, help us not to be rebellious
in any way. Desire the sensual milk of the
word. Seek the kingdom of God and His
righteousness. Follow after true godliness,
faith, and meekness, and temperance, and love, and all the things
that make up a believer's character and nature. Oh, my. Follow after faith. Oh my, and
that's why our Lord asked this question. Why shall it profit
a man if he gained this whole world and lose his soul? That happened, if you know, it
happened in the scripture several times. Several times. That rich man, he said, oh my
goodness, I've got so much stuff I'm going to have to tear down
my barns and build some biggins. I've got so much goods laid up,
oh soul, you've got it made. God said, oh, you fool. Oh, you fool. I'm coming after
your soul tonight. Then, who's those things gonna
be? Huh? Oh, God, help us to seek after
Christ, faith, kingdom of God, love, Oh, if we're going to seek
after anything, seek after the things of Christ as we need to
be believers. Seek after them with all our
heart. And everything else is just, that's just cherry on the
ice cream. Everything else. Our Father,
oh, our Father, oh, blessed be your holy, glorious,
righteous name. Oh Lord, you're precious to our
souls. Your love is precious to our
souls. Your grace is precious to our
souls. The love of Christ is precious
to our souls. And Lord, put it in our hearts
to desire, flee all these things that would dishonor you. Don't
let us be covetous. Don't let us dishonor you. Oh God, let our conversation,
let our manner of life be filled with the words of Christ, the
words of grace, words of love and kindness and forgiveness.
And Lord, we again pray for our dear sisters tonight and our
dear brothers that through going through a great trial, great
fight of afflictions, Lord, restore them in your good time, in your
good providence. Bless these dear saints, keep
them, preserve them. Those who are going to be traveling,
those who are traveling today, Dionne and her family and Luther,
please give them traveling mercies. And those that are going to be
leaving this weekend, God, give them traveling mercies. Please
see them safe back home with us. so we can all worship together
again to the glory of Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim. in the light of His glory and
grace. It really does, don't it? I'll
see you Sunday, God willing.