We're looking in 1 Timothy chapter
6. We looked at some of these verses
last week, but I want to begin reading there in verse 15. It says, Which in His times He shall
show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings
and Lord of lords. who only hath immortality, dwelling
in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath
seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. 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. That they do good, that they
be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. Laying up in store for themselves
a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay
hold on eternal life. O Timothy, keep that which is
committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and
oppositions of science. falsely so called, which some
professing have aired concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. Now, as we come to the end of the book of
Timothy, we are confronted with, or Paul would confront Timothy
with the whole basis upon which he is exhorting him. Now, religion is a very powerful force in the earth. And men by
and large love religion because irreligion, that is no religion,
those that would say I'm not religious, they're actually very
religious because they're religious not to be religious. And so it
is that all men have a religious bent. Probably the atheist, the
pronounced atheist is probably the most religious of all men.
because he wants to be certain that you understand that he's
an atheist. He's not content just to be an
atheist. He's content that you know he's
an atheist and he's not content for you not to be one because
he doesn't like that. But he says that the Lord will
show in his own time that he is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords. And so religion, as I'm using the term, now there
is a pure religion which is undefiled. which is to visit the widows
and the fatherless and keep oneself unspotted from the world. But
when I'm using the term religion, I'm usually thinking of that
in terms of what men consider religion to be. And so that sort
of religion seldom, if ever, would rejoice in this terminology,
that he dwells in the light which no man can approach unto. Because
the whole purpose of religion, as men exercise it, is to get
themselves into a place where they are comfortable with serving
God, or being in the presence of God, or worshiping God. See, men are not opposed to worshiping
God. They just want to do it like
they want to do it. I mean, down through the ages,
men have worshiped gods, have they not? I mean, Brother Al
was talking about it there this morning. It's a very common thing.
There's not a culture on earth that doesn't worship a god in
some fashion. But the problem, see, is that's
man's religion to say, well, we will worship God, we'll make
God. As the Lord said, men love the
creature more than the creator, and they made God In what? Their own image. Now the scripture
says that God made us in his image. He didn't say go and make
God in your image because he said I am the Lord. There is
none else. And you will worship me in spirit
and truth or you will not worship me at all. And so he says here
that no man can approach unto God. And what he means by that,
he didn't say no sinner could ever not approach unto God. Because
you see, all sinners will approach unto God in Jesus Christ. Now there are plenty of men that
have sinned who never have any desire to come to the Lord, that's
for sure. But sinners. See, the Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners. Sinners are those
that call upon his name. Sinners are those that know they
have no righteousness of their own. That's the definition of
what a sinner is, that he is completely wicked. Now, it's
hard to find a man that's completely wicked. Do you know that? I mean,
there's some people that know they did the wrong thing. But there's very few people that
really believe they're just totally and absolutely wicked before
Almighty God. But you see, that's the place
God will bring them in. That's where he brought Job,
did he not? Job was a righteous man. Job was an upright man insofar
as the world was concerned. And in the sight of God, he was
righteous because the Lord determined him to be righteous. But Job
had to learn some things, and he did. And he came down at the
end of his days, and he said, I've heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear. But he said, now mine eye seeth thee. And what
did he do? He says, I hate myself, and I
repent in dust and ashes. Now, we live in a culture and
society when that, those words would be, that would be anathema.
Well, Joe, surely, you know, buddy, you need to calm down
a little bit. Don't hate yourself. You're supposed to love yourself. Now I'm not getting into psychology
and all of that stuff, philosophy, I'm not interested in that, but
I know this, that when the Spirit of God convinces a man of his
sin, he will hate himself. And he will see himself as wicked
inside of God. David did. He said, Lord, against thee and
thee only have I sinned. Because, you see, that's the
work of the Spirit of God, to teach a man that. Only the Lord
can do it. No man hath seen Him, nor can
see Him. It's not in the ability of men
to decide how they will approach unto God. The Lord must come
and bring a man unto Himself. The Apostle Paul thought that
he was on the way to serve God. Did he not? I mean, you could
not have convinced him otherwise. He was certain of it. If you'd asked him, he'd have
said, I'm a servant of God. I'm going about, I'm doing the
Lord's will. I'm walking in a manner that's
pleasing unto God. But you see, the Lord, the Lord
loved Saul of Tarsus, even when he held the coats of those that
stoned Stephen. Now he was an enemy of God, was
he not? God was not his enemy. Because
if God had been his enemy, he would have been destroyed. And
the Lord will destroy those that are his enemies, those to whom
he is the enemy. But we were enemies of God, that
is, in our mind, by wicked works. We were those who fought against
him, even as the Apostle Paul, even though he thought he was
doing a good thing. He was in reality walking contrary
to the way of God and didn't even know it. But the Lord made
him aware of it. And when he did, he fell down
on his face before God. No man hath seen nor can see
to whom might be honor and power everlasting, amen. But by the
grace of God, he does give men eyes to see. And so he 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, we live in quite
a different time and situation economically than they did in
those days. I would venture to say that by
the standards that he is speaking of here about charging rich men
that they trust not in uncertain riches, he'd be speaking to every
one of us. Because in those days, Rich men,
we would look at them and we'd say, man, they in bad shape.
You know, because they don't even have a lot of, they didn't
have the stuff that we think is just common. So we're rich
in this world's goods. Now I know there's poverty, there's
people that don't have hardly anything in the world, but I'm
talking about where we are and how we live. I mean, we seldom
go without eating every day. I mean, some of us probably shouldn't,
but we have really anything that we need. We're not in poverty. And so these commandments here,
he's speaking to all, but he says, charge them that are rich
in this world, those that have the goods of this world, that
they be not high-minded, that they be not trusting in these
things. And dear brethren, you know,
we find ourselves quite often quite confident and we rest in
the possessions and things that we have because it's comfortable,
it's nice, and we don't want to be disturbed by it. But he
said, don't trust in uncertain riches. These are uncertain things.
Just think for a moment how quickly all of the things that you hold
dear as far as the things of this world, the goods that you
have, if in a moment some catastrophic event took place and all of a
sudden the money was no good. Nobody wanted your money. What
would you do? What would you have? If you're
trusting in money, and I know, you listen to all these guys,
they tell you, well, you need to get you a bunch of gold, and
you need to get you a bunch of silver. And I'm not opposed to
that. I think it'd probably be a prudent
thing to have some of those things. but not to trust in them. Because
what good is it going to do you if you got a sack full of money
and you need something to eat and nobody's got anything to
eat? I mean, what are you gonna do? Well, let's get us some survival
food. We'll bank up us a big old building
out here full of survival food. Well, man, we got the food. Well,
now, let me ask you something. When all the people that don't
have food, where are they gonna go? They're
gonna go to the people that have the food. Now, what are you gonna
do? You know, you got the food and
you got it for your family. What are you going to do, shoot
them when they come and say, man, I'm starving to death. I need
some. Do you think the Lord Jesus Christ would do such a thing
as that? Brother, you know, trusting in
the world's goods is of no value whatsoever. It don't make any
difference if it's food or money or whatever it is. All these
things can be gone in a moment, and they're of no use. Our trust
is not in these uncertain things, but in the living God who gives
us richly all things to enjoy. Thank God he has blessed us as
he has in material things. Now, in some ways, material things
is not a blessing, but in, In some ways it is. I'm glad we
got air conditioning. I think it's made us soft. You
know, when I grew up and we worked in the fields and stuff and we
didn't have air conditioning, we didn't even think about it.
Didn't worry about it. And I mean, it was hot. I mean, just as hot as it is
now. But somehow or other, we survived. I don't think people
could even survive now. I mean, if the air conditioner
goes off, that's like a major situation, is it not? I mean
those things, but what is that? It's nothing. But it is a blessing
from God to have these things. But we're not to trust in these
things. He gives us these things richly
to enjoy. We have been blessed. And we
don't need to try to live in poverty. You know, some religions
teach that you need to take a vow of poverty and you need to go
here and even though you could live in a nice house, you're
gonna go out here and live in a shack. I mean, you know, because
they think that is somehow beneficial. No, we're to use the world, not
abuse the world. The Lord put us here. We're not
of the world, but we're in the world. And so he says here, that
he gives us richly all things to enjoy. The Lord has given
us a place in this world and a provision in this world to
use the things that he's given us. But he says, here's the reason
that you've been given these things, charge not them the rich
to be high minded, but that they've been given these things to do
good. That they'd be rich in good works.
Now that's the place where our riches need to be laid up, is
it not? Not in the things that we think
will make us safe in our retirement account or in this or in that
or whatever. I mean, that's not the thing
that makes us rich. But he said, be rich in good
works, ready to distribute. Why'd the Lord give you an abundance?
Did he give it to you just so you'd have plenty? Well, he did
give it to you. But I mean, we're taught in the
scripture that he's been given, we've been given good things
that we might bestow it upon others, that we might help those
whom we can help. Now, the Lord said, the poor
you have always with you. You can't stamp out hunger. You
can't stamp out laziness. You know, I mean, you can't help,
just every time that you can't go, it's about as bad in Lake
City now as it used to be in Gainesville. Just about every
street corner, you got somebody standing out there, you know,
a sign, we'll work for food, or they don't even say that much
anymore, that used to be the deal. But, you know, they really
won't work for food, if you want to know. That's the reason they're
out there, is because they won't work. for food. If they'd work
for food, they'd probably have some food, but they won't work
for food. And so it is that they say they will. I saw one over
there. I hadn't seen this one before.
A guy standing there that says, need just a buck. He just needed
a buck. He needed a dollar. And he's standing there smoking.
Well, I'm wondering, You know, a man that will smoke, he can't
really be in too bad of a need because he got the cigarette
from somewhere. They don't give them away. We have to do good, be ready
to distribute, not just to anybody that comes along, but to those
who are in need. And we do come across people
that have needs of one sort or another. And if we can relieve
those needs, especially among the brethren, we're to be ready
to do so, to bear one another's burdens, to be willing to communicate
these things. laying up in store for themselves
a good foundation against the time to come that the Malay hold
on eternal life. And as he's saying, as I was
taught in my younger years, that we're laying up these things
in heaven so that we'll have a great reward when we get up
there. That's not what he's saying.
He's saying laying up in store, just like a rich man would lay
up in store many goods, he says, don't worry about laying up in
store many goods, but lay up your store in heaven. That is,
do good things. See, there's a lot of heaven
on the road to heaven. The Lord has blessed us that
we might be a blessing, and there is a blessing in blessing others.
That's a great blessing. You know, when you can bless
others, you have been blessed yourself. Is that not what the
Lord said? He said it's more blessed to
what? To give than it is to receive. And so that's what he's saying
here, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation.
That's the foundation we're building on, is what? Jesus Christ. Because
he's told us to do these things, to follow in his steps. Who went
about doing good? That they may lay hold on eternal
life. Because this is eternal life.
To do the will of God is eternal life, is it not? I mean, that's
living. See, eternal life's not something we're gonna have. Eternal
life's something we have now. He made us alive in Christ. For
me to live is Christ. Falls ahead, to die is gain.
So that's the store that we lay up. That's the foundation upon
which we build. Jesus Christ and him crucified. Oh Timothy, keep that which is
committed to thy trust. Now that's the only thing that
any of us can do. By the grace of God is keep that
which is committed to my trust. You can't keep that which is
committed to my trust. You can only keep that which
is committed to your trust. Because the Lord has called all
of us to various callings. He's given us various gifts and
We're to be faithful in the thing that we're called to do, not
try to do what somebody else is called to do. You may read
about somebody that got on a ship and went to Ecuador or someplace
and did a mighty work and the Lord blessed them. And the Lord
may raise you up to do it, but he may not. He may not have called
you to do that. You don't need to have a guilt
trip on your life because you never did go to Peru, or you
never did go to India, or whatever. I mean, if the Lord's sending
you somewhere, and He raises you up to go, you know what I
found out by studying the Scripture? You're going to go. The Lord
said to Jonah, did He not? He said, Jonah, go down to Nineveh.
Jonah said, I ain't going to Nineveh. What happened? He went and met them, but didn't
he? And so the Lord is able, you know, you're not going to
thwart the purpose and will of God. Now I know Jimmy Swaggart
says you might. He said, you know, if you don't
send me some money, we're going to have to go off the air. on
this station over here. And you know, people get a guilt
trip laying on them and they send him some money and lo and
behold, he's able to stay on the station. Well, I'm telling
you this, if the Lord calls a man to do something, he'll make the
provision for him. Now, that doesn't mean the man
just sits there and doesn't do anything, but the Lord will lay
it on your heart. You can't, see, when the Lord lays a burden
on your heart, you can't escape it. You must do it. And that
is exactly what he's telling Timothy. He said, keep that which
is committed to thy trust. He said, the Lord called you
to teach these people, to exhort the people of God. He said, do
it. And we exhort one another. He
said, avoiding profane and vain babblings. Now there's a lot
of profane and vain babblings that go on in our day and time
in the name of the Lord. The world's full of vain babblers.
What's a vain babbler? It's an empty talker. It's somebody
that talks about stuff that has no foundation. Now we could spend
a lot of time talking about this doctrine and that doctrine, but
suffice it to say this, vain babbling is anything that does
not magnify the name of Jesus Christ as the Lord of glory,
the King of kings, and the Savior of sinners. It don't make any
difference what it is. If that's not the purpose of
it, if that's not the goal of it, if that's not the degree
of it to which we would have set forth, then it is vain babbling
because what is it going to profit us if we get all of those things
that men tell us we need if we miss Christ? Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That is the end of vain babbling. Because when Christ and him crucified
is the message, there can't be any vain babbling. That's not
empty talk. That is the truth of God. And
that's the basis upon which all of our hopes rest. And then he
says, and oppositions of science, falsely so called. Now, you know,
we live in a scientific age, you know what I mean? I mean,
everybody's interested in the science. We learned that back
during the COVID, didn't we? I mean, everybody wanted the
science. You know, they wanted the science,
but the reality was they didn't want the science. They wanted
the science that said what they thought ought to be done. Because
the science, if you want to go with the science, it said they
made a mistake. They couldn't ever say that,
though. They couldn't say we were dead wrong. We shouldn't
have done what we did. No, it's the science deniers.
What about climate change? If you don't follow the line
of thinking that a certain political and religion, I might say, there
is a religion of climate change. Now, I have no doubt that the
climate is changing. The climate has changed from
the time that the Lord made the Earth to now. You ever heard
of the Ice Age? Now, when was I say, now, did
the climate change? How did they find civil, a house, civilization,
signs of civilization underneath a glacier when it melted? How did they find, how did that
happen if the climate has not changed? During the course of
time when men have lived in the world, The climate is always
changing. It will change. It may get hot. It may get cold. I know it's gonna get hot at
one time. It's gonna get hot at the end
because the Lord said he's gonna cause all things to melt with
the fervent heat. So the climate's definitely gonna
warm up at that point in time. And the sea may rise. And the sea may go out. You know,
the sea did rise at one time, didn't it? It rose higher than
it'll ever rise again, because the Lord said he wouldn't ever
destroy the world again by water. So I know this, the sea level
might rise up, but it's never gonna rise up to the point that
it's gonna destroy the earth, because the Lord said so. So
science falsely so called, what about evolution? Now are we supposed
to spend our time trying to convince people that the Lord created
the earth? No, how are you gonna do it in
the first place? Because how do we believe it?
By faith. That's the only way, I mean,
you cannot prove What about the earth being flat? Now here's
the thing that people get all caught up in sometimes. And I'm
the only brethren that's fell out with one another over something
as stupid as whether or not the earth's flat. Now the earth may
be flat. I'm not gonna tell you the earth
isn't flat. I personally don't think it is, but I mean, I'm
not gonna spend a lot of time, you know, trying to prove it
one way or another. Why? Because it doesn't make
any difference. It's science falsely so-called
and vain babbling. What difference does it make?
If you could prove it tomorrow to the satisfaction of everybody
in the earth, what good would it have done? Because you see,
that's not gonna cause a man to believe that Jesus Christ
died for sinners. If you call, you can teach him
that the earth's flat and you might convince him of it. Or
that the earth's hollow. There's even some people that
believe the earth's hollow. And that you can just go right
on in and when you get on the inside of the earth, you don't
know any different than being on the outside of the earth.
Now, these are stupid things, are they not? It's science falsely
so called, yet they have scientific proof. I mean, I've read, I've
looked at some things. that these people do these scientific
experiments to prove the Earth's flat and to prove the Earth's
round and all these different things, and all of them can prove
it. It's science falsely so called. Brother, we're not interested
in it. We're not to be concerned with it. And as much as I despise
the concept of evolution, I'm not gonna spend 10 minutes trying
to convince somebody that it's not so. Because what difference does that make
if somebody believes that? Because if they don't believe
that God created the heavens and the earth, then they don't
believe in God. Now that simple as that. Because what did he
say? He said in the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. And he made it just like he wanted
it to be made. And so he's the one true God. He dwells in the light to which
no man can approach. What are you going to do? Come
up with a different plan? A different theory? Are you going
to change anything? No, not at all. Avoiding profane
and vain babbling and oppositions of sides. We're not gonna spend
time with such things as that. We're gonna point men to the
word of God. And by the grace of God, they'll either believe
it or they'll go on their own way. And there's not a thing
in the world you can do to change their mind and you might as well
save your breath. And I mean, you know, you know
the people, the people that That's like Lester Roloff, I've shared
this before, but Lester, one time here a while back, they
claimed they had found the remnants of the Ark over there in Turkey. And somebody came to interview
Lester Roloff, and they asked him, well, Brother Roloff, it
says, now that they've discovered the Ark, does that strengthen
your faith? He says, it wouldn't strengthen
my faith if they took and drugged the thing up in my backyard.
Because it doesn't make any difference. That's not the basis upon which
we're not looking for such things as that, dear brother. Which some professing have erred
concerning the faith. Some people have spent their
whole life proving something that don't
need to be proved, in my estimation. Now, I'm not saying that we don't
benefit from some of the research and stuff that some of these
people have done that show the foundations of things that we
believe are shown to be scientific fact. You know, I'm not against that
in any way, but what I'm saying is, that's not the basis upon
which we believe these things. You know, I might go up and visit,
they built the ark again up in somewhere, Kentucky or something.
I might go up there and look at the thing, just from a knowledge
standpoint. But it's not gonna cause me to
believe that it was so, more so than I did before. And it's
not gonna keep somebody from believing in it, or it's not
gonna change somebody's mind that doesn't believe it. Not
gonna do it. But the declaration of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, sent by the power of Almighty God, applied
by His grace to the ears of the hearer, will change the lives
of men. And that's the only thing that
will. See, apart from the grace of God opening man's eyes to
see and believe, he won't. And you won't convince him of
it, even though you might desire to. Grace be with you. Amen. May the Lord's grace be with
us and help us. And keep our eyes focused on
the one thing that he has called us to, called all of us to, and
that is the worship of Jesus Christ as the Lord of Lords and
the King of Kings. And if your eyes never stray
from that, you'll never be swerved from the truth, because that
is the truth. May the Lord give us a mind to
believe it.