Morning. Turn with me, if you
would, to First Timothy, chapter six. First Timothy, chapter six,
our pastor has asked that we read verses three through 10.
First Timothy, chapter six. beginning in verse three. 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 strifes 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 therewith 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." We'll end our reading there. Let's pray together. Our Holy Heavenly Father, Hallowed
be thy name here in this place this morning. And in fact, always,
but in this time that we have together, hallowed be thy holy
name. Let your name be glorified during
this time that we have together. Our father, let us not be fools. Let us not be so distracted with the sin that does so easily
beset us. And father, it's not a distraction,
but rather it's idolatry. Let us not put anything between
ourselves and Christ, but let us see only Christ and let us
be taken up with Christ and not so easily taken up with the sin
that we are so easily taken up with the things of this world,
the love of money, even our trials, father, our trials are, are real. And we, we pray that you deliver
us. Even our trials, Father, are
small compared to the glory, to your glory. Let us not be
fools, but rather use this time to worship your name as you deserve
to be worshiped. Send your spirit to be with us
and give us this hour of worship that we may see Christ. Call
sinners to repentance and to your throne where you delight
to show mercy in Christ. Be with our pastor and give him
recollection of his studies. Give him a word from you. Be
with us as we listen. Give us hearts to understand
and ears to hear, eyes to see, that we may truly worship as
we ought. I pray that you increase our
love and increase our love for you and our love for one another.
Increase our faith. and increase our joy in your
salvation, that this indeed be a time of worship, of joyful
worship. I was glad when they said unto me, let's come to the
house of the Lord. Give us that gladness of worship. Gladness in the fact that our
sin is completely covered, completely paid because of Christ and his
work, his life and his death. Give us that joy of your salvation. Father, you know the need. Remember
that we are dust. You know the need. Whatever that
trial may be. I pray that. That you feel that need. We think
specifically now of our sister Janet as she travels with and
is with her mom. We pray for Ethel. That you be
with them and. And restore Janet to us in your
time according to your will. We pray these things thankfully
in Christ name for his sake. Thank you very much. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the stars, I hear the rolling
thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed Then sings
my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! That God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing He bled and died to take away my sin Then sings
my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, my God, how
great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, how great Thou art, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! If we're not motivated to preach
and to hear Christ preach, we've got
a heart problem after that, don't we? Open your Bibles with me
again, if you would, to 1 Timothy chapter 6. The title of the lesson, or the
message this morning, great gain from contentment. I took my title
from verse six, it says, but godliness with contentment is
great gain. Godliness, last week I tried
to show you this, that godliness is not acting like God. Godliness,
the word means devout, piety. Godliness is had by faith in
Christ. Godliness is had by believing
and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. We have godliness, we are godly.
When we trust Christ to be our savior, and don't have to add,
don't feel compelled to add any of our works to it, knowing our
works would just mar it. But if Christ, we want Christ
to be all of our salvation, we have godliness. Brother Henry
said, you can't have godliness without God. Well, you can't,
he's right. You can't have godliness without
faith in Christ, who God sent. And faith in Christ gives us
great gain. It's through faith in Christ
we have righteousness. It's through faith in Christ
we have salvation, eternal life and holiness. It's through faith
in Christ we have rest, peace with God. That's great gain. That is a great treasure for
your soul. Now in our text, Paul says that godliness with contentment
is great gain. The word contentment means sufficiency. It means a perfect condition
of life in which no aid and no support is needed. So a person
is content when they don't need anything else. They don't need
anything else because they already have everything. True contentment
does not come from physical, material things like the flesh
thinks. You know, that's wrong. Look
at Philippians chapter four. True contentment can only come,
contentment in a variety of different physical situations, physical
blessings. True contentment can only come
by believing Christ, trusting Him. Philippians chapter four,
verse 11. Not that I speak in respect of
want, for I've learned. This isn't something that just
came overnight. Paul said, I learned this. In whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased
and how to abound. And everywhere in all things,
I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer need. But in all those different situations,
Paul said, I've learned therewith to be content. Now in all those
different fleshly circumstances, how could Paul be content? Most of the epistles that Paul
wrote, he wrote in prison. I mean, he was out preaching.
You know what stopped him and gave him the time to sit down
and write these epistles? The Lord put him in prison. And he said, therewith I'm content.
In other times, he's blessed, he's got plenty. In both of those
various opposite spectrum situations, physical situations, how can
Paul be content? Because contentment, true contentment,
doesn't come from our fleshly circumstances. It comes by trusting
Christ, by believing Christ. And I'm going to give you five
ways from our text that the believer has great gain by being content. And this is contentment because
we don't need anything else. Five things. If we can, if the
Lord teach us to be content with these five things, we will have
great gain for our souls. Number one is this, it's great
gain to be content, to have faith in Christ, to have faith in Christ,
to trust Christ and nothing else. Nothing else. In verse three
that we looked at last week, Paul talked about the doctrine,
which is according to godliness. The doctrine, the teaching of
all of scripture is Christ. Every verse in scripture is written
to reveal Christ to us. In some aspect of his glory,
it's written to reveal Christ to us. And if we don't see it
or we think we see something else, we're not seeing the true
meaning of the verse. Every verse of scripture is written
to show us Christ that we might come to Him, that we might rest
in Him, that we might believe Him. Now, that's what Scriptures
teach, that godliness is trusting Christ. Well, there is peace
of heart and peace for your soul by trusting Christ. And oh my,
that's great gain. I mean, somebody that just has
a troubled mind and troubled heart, what they wouldn't give,
that peace. Peace of mind, peace of soul.
That's great gain. that's had by trusting Christ.
It is great gain to be able to trust Christ to save me and me
not have to work to get it or work to keep it. That gives me
rest, to rest in Christ. It's great gain to be free from
the bondage of the law, but rest in Christ who fulfilled the law
for me. It's great gain to be free from
the burden of the law. The law just put such a burden
on people. Preachers use the law to beat
God's sheep and whip God's sheep, but just puts a burden on the... Peter said, don't put that burden
on folks that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.
It's too heavy. Oh, but what gain it is to wear
the easy light yoke of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be free from
the law. It's great gain to be free from the fear of death.
People live all their lifetime subject to this bondage, fear
of death, fear of death. What gain is it to not be afraid
to die? Don't be afraid. I mean, you
know, there's things I just assume do before I die. But if I die
today, I'm not afraid of it. Be grateful, be thankful. How
can you not be afraid of death? Because Christ died for you through
faith in him. It's great gain to be free from
fearing condemnation for my sins, fear, judgment. People live just
this horrible, this cloud over their head all the time, being
afraid of judgment. What gain it is to be free from
worrying about judgment because Christ was condemned for me.
And that can only come by faith in Christ. Man's religion can
never give folks that kind of peace. All man's religion can
bring is strife and conflict. Verse three, if any man teach
otherwise, if any man teaches anything other than this gospel
that's according to godliness, this gospel of Christ, if any
man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, he doesn't consent to the doctrine
which is according to godliness, he's proud, knowing nothing,
but doting about questions and strife 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."
That's where we'll come if we're left to our own wicked mind.
We'll suppose that gain is godliness rather than Christ is godliness.
That's where we'll go. And religious people, they have
this strife all the time. Do you know why they keep debating
all the time? because they don't know the answer is Christ. Let's
stop all the debating that there is. Religious people dispute
over the ideas of their corrupt minds. They keep doing it, and
they keep doing it, and they keep doing it. Stuff they've come
up with. You know why they do that? Because they do not know
Christ is all. That's why. Religious people
become so proud of their knowledge. All the things that they know,
You've met people like that, you know. They're up here on
this ivory tower. They know so much more than you. They're proud
of their knowledge. You know why they're proud of
their knowledge? They don't know Christ. Knowing Christ will humble
a person, not make them proud, no. Religious people love to
debate about the things that they think. They think their
thoughts are so important that they gotta debate over these
things. We're gonna divide. This is what I think. If you
don't agree with me, we're gonna divide. And when they do that,
you know what they show? They show their ignorance of
Christ. All that matters is what God's
Word says. Well, I think that matters. All that matters is
what God's Word says. And all that matters to your
soul and mine is this. What think ye of Christ? It's
all that matters. It's not what you think of the
preacher. It's not what you think of the order of service. It's
not a what you think about when the second coming might be. It's
not what you happen to think about the millennial reign. It's
not what you think about your morality and how you got to stand
out from the rest of the wicked world. All that matters is this. What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Do you believe
him? Very interesting. You know when
the Lord asked that question to the Pharisees? What think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? You know when
he asked them that question? When they wanted to debate. Remember
that Pharisee, the lawyer came to him and said, which is the
greatest commandment of all the law? And Lord answered him. And then he asked this question.
What think ye of Christ? When he wanted to debate. Buddy,
that put an end to all the, they dare not ask any more questions
after that. What think ye of Christ? Is the Lord Jesus Christ
the son of God? Is he? Is the Lord Jesus Christ
the savior of sinners? Is he? Well, if he is, and that's
what God's word says he is, that he saved everybody he came to
save. And you and I had better get
busy looking to him. We better trust him. We better
get busy worshiping him because he's all that matters. He's the
only savior of sinners. He's the only object of worship
and we better get busy doing it and leave all our other junk
outside the door. Just leave it out there. It don't
matter. What think ye of Christ? the preaching of Christ and believing
Him, that's all that matters. And God helped us, not to debate,
not to get drawn to these debates and these perverse disputings
that people come up with, and just preach Christ. I mean, if
they're gonna insist on doing it, run away from them. Run away
from them. It's great gain to have faith
in Christ, isn't it? Everything faith gives us. How's
faith coming? How's God give faith to His people?
Faith coming by hearing. by the Word of God, that God
help us not to debate, but preach Christ. Not preach what we think,
but preach Christ. All right, number two, it's great
gain to be content with Christ. It's great gain to have faith
in Him, and it is great gain to be content with Him, with
His person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's great
gain to want Him and not anything else. It's great gain to have
what He's done for us, what he's done in his people. It's great
gain to just be content with what he's given us. Oh, God's
blessed this congregation. Oh, bless this congregation. And I firmly believe he's continuing
to do it. He will continue to do it. We
ought to be so content with that. What God's given us is blessings.
And listen, be content with what he's promised us. Oh, the precious
promises of God. It's not gonna end this way.
It's not always gonna be this way. Oh, there's coming a day. There's coming a day there'll
be no more clouds, no more sorrow, no more tears. What He's promised
His people. His promise that He'd never leave
nor forsake His people. A believer's content with Him,
with Christ. Because if you have Him, you
have everything. You have everything your heart
could desire. You have perfection. Look at verse seven. For we brought
nothing into this world, And it's certain we can carry nothing
out. Now that's true physically. We come into this world with
nothing. We come into this world naked. We come into this world
dependent. We come into this world owning nothing. We come
into this world knowing nothing. And we spend a lifetime accumulating
things, accumulating knowledge, accumulating material things
that we want and need. And we just spend a lifetime
accumulating those things. And we ain't going to take none
of it with us. Not one blessed thing. We're going to leave this
world just like we came into it, naked with nothing and helpless. That's how we're going to leave
this world. All the stuff that we accumulated, whatever knowledge
you accumulated is going to die with you. All this other stuff
we accumulated, our children are going to walk in, look at
the house and say, oh my goodness, what did they do with all this
stuff? And they're either going to throw
it away or sell it at a yard sale. But this, what Paul's talking
about here, much more than that, much more. This is also true
spiritually. We came into this world with
nothing. We came into this world naked. We came into this world
with no spiritual good. We came into this world with
no righteousness, with no life, with no ability to please God,
with no ability to obey God, with no ability to come to Christ,
with no ability to believe Christ, with no knowledge of who God
is and who we are. We brought nothing into this
world that we can contribute to our salvation. And in the
case of the believer, we don't want to take any of it with us
either. I don't want to take anything I've done to judgment,
do you? No, I want to leave everything about me behind and the believer's
content to have nothing but Christ. Let Him be my all. Who He is
and what He's provided for His people. You know, there are no
spiritual advantages to the flesh, none whatsoever. There's no advantage
about us, about anything, who we are or who we're related to,
or no advantage to anything we can do. The only advantage you
and I can ever have is knowing Christ and believing Him. Look
at Hebrews chapter 13. And a believer's content with
that. The believer's content to just know Christ and believe
Him. And we don't want it any other
way. Hebrews 13 verse 5. Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For
he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And the
believer is content with that. We're content to have what the
Lord has given us, what he has provided for us. We're content
to have the righteousness of Christ in none of my works. The believers content to be saved
by grace alone. Sovereign, electing, saving,
calling, keeping grace. The believers content to have
only the blood of Christ as my plea before God. The believers
content to have Christ as my only hiding place from God's
wrath. And the believer is content to
have God's presence with me. He hath said, this is his promise
to his people, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I'm content with that. Everybody
else will. Everybody. Everybody. You don't
have a friend close enough that'll never leave you. No, you don't. I mean, husbands and wives separate
from each other all the time. You just don't know. But the
Savior has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Maybe
our loved one didn't forsake us, but they died. The Lord called
them home. We're not with them anymore.
But the Savior said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I'll
be content with that. Content with beholding his face.
Palace, a toy would appear and prisons would palaces prove if
Jesus would dwell with me there. That's being content with his
presence. His presence in the heart gives
peace, peace to the heart that is unshakable in the most violent
storms of life. Now look back at Mark chapter
15. This is an important one. I want us to get this one. I
hope the Lord teaches us this. And he'll have to keep reminding
us of it. The believer is content to have
God's will and not my will. See why I said the Lord's gonna
have to keep teaching us that? I believe that. I do, I believe that. But
when what I want to happen doesn't happen, the Lord had to teach
me this again. I'm content to have God's will be done and not
mine. Mark chapter 15, verse 15. And so Pilate, willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them and delivered Jesus
when he had scourged him to be crucified. Now this is what contented
the people. This is what contents the flesh.
Give us Barabbas. Give us this murdering, seditious
criminal and crucify Jesus. Just get rid of him, destroy
him. That contents this flesh. Oh, the Lord would make us content
and how we should be content when His will is done and not
ours. I'm content, the believer is content, to just look at Christ. Just look at Him. When Janet and I were dating,
I was so content to just stare into those blue eyes. I mean
to tell you, I look at him now, and it's the same deep blue eyes. I'm still content. Oh, I'm so
content with that. The believer is just content
to look at Christ. Just look at Him. Just think
of Him. Just tell me about Him one more time. Constantly remind
me, don't look at yourself. Don't look at yourself. You're
never going to be content. Never will you be satisfied looking
at yourself. But oh, what contentment I have
to look at Christ, just to look at him in his word, just to hear
him speak, just, just to look at him and to rely on him. Oh, what contentment. And if
all you have to take with you, you didn't come into this world,
that kind of faith, you didn't come into this world with eyes that
can see him, but God's given it to you. Oh, you're content.
If all you have to take with you to judgment is Christ, that's
great gain, great gain. You're free, free from judgment,
free from condemnation. You have eternal life. All right,
number three, it is great gain to be content with the gospel
of Christ. Back in our text, 1 Timothy 6,
verse eight. And having food and raiment,
Let us be there with content. Now, you know, we should not
be picky eaters. My darling wife does not particularly
like seafood. Not particularly, she doesn't
like it at all. But this is what she says about seafood. She says,
well, if that's all I'd have to eat, I'd eat it and be thankful.
You know, we shouldn't be picky eaters. As long as we've got
food to eat that keeps our body alive, we ought to be content.
We ought to be. But now let's face it. We all
like good-looking or good-tasting food. Julie, it's important to
you to cook good-tasting food. And Sean, you're glad, aren't
you? I mean, Emmy, I see you smile. You're glad, aren't you?
Yeah, you're glad. We want our food to taste good. You know,
last summer, I was in the hospital a good bit, and the food wasn't
bad. It wasn't bad. But there were
days they wouldn't let me eat. All day long, they would not
let me eat. work me into the surgery schedule, you know, and
got to be late evening and it's too late to work me into the
surgery schedule. And the nurse came in and told
me, she says, it's too late, they can't fit you in today.
That happened a number of days in a row. And she came in and
says, it's too late to get you into the... surgery schedule,
they'd already brought the trays of food, you know. And I told
her, I said, can I have something to eat then? And she just laughed.
She said, yes, you can have something to eat. And I said, well, what's
on the menu? She said, you just tell me what you want to eat.
I'll get them to fix it for you. And she did. And I was so glad to
have it. But the next day, same thing all over again. Couldn't
eat all day. And then they put me on a liquid diet. I won't
tell you. I mean, it's a liquid diet. But
to add injury to insult, I mean, it tasted bad. I mean, it was
bad. They gave me a liquid diet. I
was hungry and didn't even eat at all. I mean, it was bad. And
I told myself, laying there in that hospital bed, I ought to
be content. Now, you got clothes on. You
got food, you know, keeping your body alive. You ought to be content. And I just, I mean, I just tell
you, I wasn't. Maybe I should have been, but I really wasn't.
And I was so happy to go home and have home cooked meals. That
was so good. Well, we ought to be content.
We ought to be content with our earthly state. It's what the
Lord's given us. But that's not really what Paul's talking about
here. And that's true. What Paul is talking about here
is food for our souls. He's talking about the children's
bread. The gospel, the food for the believer's soul, that feeds
the soul is the gospel of Christ. It's the preaching of Christ,
the bread of life, and you can't taste anything sweeter than that.
David said, oh, come taste and see that the Lord is good, he's
gracious. Come taste. And I am content with nothing
but the simple gospel of Christ. Just simple, simple, simple bread. Just simple preaching. I'm just content with that. I
was talking to a pastor the other day, so I'm thinking about inviting
Darwin Pruitt up to preach for us. I said, oh, you ought to
do that. You ought to do that. Darwin preaches plainly. Everybody
in the room can understand every word he's saying. It just so
plainly gets to Christ as fast as humanly possible. That's the
kind of preaching I love. Just simple preaching. And that
ought to make every believer content. And if it doesn't, Something's
wrong with us. Maybe we're sick. Something's
wrong. I tell preachers everywhere, do not try to impress me with
your knowledge of doctrine, your knowledge of all these hidden
things somewhere. Just try to preach Christ as
simply as you possibly can with this goal in mind. So I'll be
impressed with Christ, not you. That's what I love. I love that
kind of preaching. I don't need the wisdom of words.
I need Christ, who is the wisdom of God. Isn't that what you need?
I don't need men and women to act all holy and impress me with
their piety and how much better they are than everybody else.
I tell you what I need, what I'm content with. Christ is my
holiness. That's what I need. That's what
you need. I just can't be content with anything but the simple
gospel of Christ. I don't need to be impressed
with my favorite preacher. I love every preacher that preaches
Christ. Just preach Christ simply and
plainly and I'll be content. Isn't that true physically? How
many of you have bread with every meal? Janet thinks y'all have
bread with every meal. How many meals have we eaten?
Nope. You ever tired of it? You're saying, I hate bread.
I decided today I hate bread. Simplicity. Christ is the bread
of life. Just preaching simply. I'll be
content with that. I'm content with the simple gospel
of Christ. I want to have a building that's
comfortable. I love these chairs. I've started
to hate pews. I go to places to preach or go
to conferences and stuff. Man, those pews are, I mean,
I love these chairs. I want a place that's comfortable.
I want the building to be clean and look nice and people be comfortable
in it. But I don't need a great big
fancy building. I mean, if the Lord blew this building down,
we can meet in a tent. You know, I don't need a building I can
be impressed with. I don't need a show up here on
the pulpit that I can be impressed with. You know, lights and all
this professional looking stuff. I tell you what I need. I need
the gospel. And you do too. And if God will
enable us to believe it, we'll be content. To be content with
the gospel. Oh, it's a great game. Isn't
it a great game to be content with the gospel? To not always
have to have your ears scratched and all this new stuff. Just
to hear how Christ is the Savior of sinners. To hear that over
and over and over again. You can't tell me that too often
because I'm a sinful man. Isn't that good news? I'm just
content with that. And if not, something's wrong
with us. Something's wrong with us. All
right, number four. It is great gain to be content
with Christ as my righteousness. Verse eight says, and having
food and raiment, let us be there with contentment. That word,
raiment, is clothing. And we all ought to be thankful
for clothing. We'd be mighty embarrassed without
it, wouldn't we? Mighty embarrassed without it.
And, you know, nice clothes, it's nice. You know, it's nice
fabrics and clothes that fit well. They make us feel nice,
you know? I mean, from the time I was a
little guy, I liked to put on a suit and tie and Come to church. I mean, it's an outward show
of respect. I just always liked it. I liked
dressing up, and I just like it. I didn't mind too much when
I wore a tie to work every day. Just, you know, I was kind of
glad when that kind of fell by the wayside, too. You know, you
can take any good thing too far, but I just like it. It's an outward
show of respect for me. You know, nice clothes make you
feel better. But now, we can't take that too far. We can't take
that too far. You know, if we, you know, start
having a fashion show and everybody start trying to outdress everybody
else and see, you know, who spend the most money on their clothes
and stuff. If that happens, tell you what, we need to get content
with a pair of Wranglers and a t-shirt. I mean, we just need
to be content with those things. I wish the Lord would give us
this attitude. Be able to be satisfied. Don't
always need more. Be able to be satisfied. Not always having to have something
better, you know. And that's good advice, but that's not really
what Paul's talking about here. He's talking about spiritual
dress that covers our nakedness and our shame before God. And
that has been man's problem from the moment Adam took that fruit,
God told him not to eat. Adam and Eve were created naked. They'd always been naked, however
long that was from the time that they were created to the time
Adam ate that fruit, they were naked. And they weren't ashamed
of it, not at all. But the moment Adam ate that
fruit, they knew they were naked, scripture says. And they became
ashamed. And they tried to cover their shame, their nakedness,
with aprons that they made out of fig leaves. And I reckon those
fig leaves did, you know, a good enough job of hiding, you know,
their bodies. But they still felt ashamed.
It didn't take away their shame. When God came down walking to
them in the cool of the day, where was Adam? He's hiding in
the bushes. If the fig leaves took away his shame, he wouldn't
have been hiding in the bushes, would he? It didn't take away their
shame. So that tells me you and I need
a whole lot more than a covering for these fleshly bodies. In
order to take away our shame, our guilt, we need to be clothed
with the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness. And that's what
Paul's talking about here. And if you're clothed in Christ's
righteousness, and nothing else. You didn't add a stitch to it.
You didn't add any decorations to it. You're clothed in nothing
but Christ's righteousness. You're content. And you know
why you're content? You don't need anything else.
You don't need anything else to stand before God perfectly
and accept it. You're content. And that's great
gain, to not be afraid to stand before the thrice holy God because
you're clothed in Christ's righteousness. That's great gain. And all of
us would be embarrassed to stand before God naked without a covering
for our sin, without a wedding garment, we'd be ashamed. But
when we talk about the robe of Christ's righteousness, that
righteousness doesn't take away our shame because it just covers
our guilt and our filth and our sin. It's not just like it covers
it, you know, like, like it hides it. The robe of Christ's righteousness
takes away the embarrassment of God's people because it makes
them righteous through and through. The robe of Christ's righteousness
is spotless. It takes away the sin. It takes
away the guilt of God's people so they have nothing to be ashamed
about. Now that's great gain. Great gain. See, when we talk
about being clothed in Christ's righteousness, what we're talking
about is being born again. Born again with the righteous
nature of Christ. And that new man is innocent. He's righteous. He can never
sin. He always accepted of the Father.
And I can be content with that, can't you? Because with that
nature that God gives, we don't need anything else. That's great
gain to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And fifthly, it's
great gain to have Christ as my treasure. Verse nine. 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 have coveted after, they've
erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows." Now, there's nothing wrong with money. You know, you
have to have money to live, to buy food and clothing and housing. You have to have money to live.
You know, one of my favorite movie lines about money is, you
may not use money in heaven, but it sure comes in mighty handy
down here, bub. You just got to have it to live.
So go out and work. Work hard so you can have the
money that it takes to support your family, to buy them the
things that they need, to educate them and so forth. Go out and
work hard so you've got the money to support the gospel in your
town, that the gospel would be preached to you and your family,
your friends, your neighbors. Money supplies those things,
so money's not evil. But the scripture says the love
of money is evil. The love of it. You know, our
sinful nature can make anything evil. We can turn anything into
an idol. We can turn anything into something
that's evil. Paul here says those that will
be rich fall into these traps and temptations and foolish and
hurtful lusts. They that will be rich. The phrase
means those They've made it their goal. It's their goal to be rich. They just want that more than
anything else. And when they do that, that's somebody's goal. They're gonna fall into temptation.
A temptation that'll trap them. Maybe it'll make them compromise
the gospel. Maybe it'll make them ignore
faith. Maybe they don't have time anymore.
They've made it their goal to be rich. That's going to take
some time, isn't it? It's going to take some time,
some work, some effort. Maybe they don't have time to
come to the worship service anymore. And it drowns them. It drowns
them. Oh, that's good. I mean, that
water is good. Hope I didn't make you all real
thirsty, but I'm telling you, that water is good. That's a mouthful. Too much water is bad for you.
Too much will drown you. See, that's what Paul's talking
about there. Oh, money, there's nothing wrong with money, but
the love of it. To set your heart on riches. Too much of it can be bad for
you. Isn't that exactly what happened
to the thorny ground here? Oh, I heard the word breached,
didn't I? Heard the word breached. But the cares of this world and
the riches of this world choked it out, made it unfruitful so
that he did not have life. There's a man here recently was
offered a job, and it was a good job, increasing pay. But this
is what he found out. It's going to require more hours,
more, and he said, I'm just almost never going to be able to make
it to a Wednesday night service. It's just not worth it. Comparing
hearing the word to money, it's not worth it. It's just not worth
it. That's the proper perspective on money. We gotta have it to
live, but now, what are you gonna sacrifice to get it? I'll sacrifice
some time and effort, most of it, won't you? But not worship,
not worship. Now again, money's not evil.
Being rich is not evil. Abraham, Job, David, Solomon
were all wildly wealthy men. Nobody in that part of the world
was more wealthy than Job. But you know what David said
over and over and over again in the Psalms? The king of Israel. Other nations were just coming,
giving David gifts and things, you know, that he could use to
build the tabernacle or the temple. He's a wildly wealthy man. And
repeatedly in the Psalms, David said, but I'm poor and needy.
I'm poor and needy. He couldn't have been talking
about money there, could he? And that's a big problem for
those who make it their goal, who will be rich. They're seeking
security from and there's no security there. It doesn't make
you not poor and needy. Having all the money in the world
is not going to keep you from being poor and needy. Solomon
said you can get riches, but they'll make themselves wings.
Somebody's not going to come give them wings. They'll make
themselves wings and fly away. Peter said it'll rot. It'll rot. Look at Revelations chapter three.
It's a great fear of mine to become too comfortable. I want
to be comfortable, you know, physically, materially, whatever,
I want to be comfortable. But when we become too comfortable,
physically, materially, we'll become too comfortable thinking
how much God's blessed us spiritually. Think of the gifts that God's
given us, the ability to preach and all the things that God's
given us in this congregation. We become too comfortable. We
mistakenly think, I'm not in need anymore. I used to be, but
I'm not poor and needy. anymore. I think I've got some
security in these things. And that makes me not see Christ.
That makes me not rely upon and depend upon Christ. And it makes
me not be able to hear the gospel. Did you know that the only people
who can hear the gospel, hear it and get what they need out,
get the message of the gospel, the only people who can hear
it are those who are poor and needy. And we're not poor and
needy anymore. We can't hear it. Revelation
three, Verse 14. And unto the angel of the church
at Laodicea write, these things sayeth the amen, the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know
thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou work
cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because
thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.
And knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind,
and naked. They became rich and increased
with goods. Maybe it was material, financial things. Maybe they
were awful proud of all the gifts in the congregation. They said,
we're rich and increased with goods, and we don't need anything.
God said, I'll speak to you out of my mouth. You become lukewarm,
having, relying on those blessings, thinking that those blessings
means I don't need the Lord anymore. It's a trap. It's a trap that,
uh, that, that offends the Lord that causes him to spew us out
of, out of their mouth. And when we get too comfortable,
it's, I see this, I see this today. I see it in the grace
community. I'm talking about. Believers
now, people who know and love Christ and know and love the
gospel, when we become too comfortable. 60 years ago, there were about
two men in this country that I know of preaching the gospel.
Now, there's many. I mean, there's many. If you
wanted to have a conference and you said, I'm going to have 12
speakers at this conference. I mean, you're really going to
have a great big old conference. You'd be hard pressed to see who am
I going to leave out. I mean, there's a lot of good preachers in this
country. We've become too comfortable and start picking at them. Start
picking at them. Start picking at them. Am I become your enemy? Because to tell you the truth,
we got too comfortable. The gospel won't be a blessing
to us unless God makes us poor and needy. Poor and needy. It's
a serious, this is a serious warning. Those who would be spiritually
rich. I mean, it's a trap to want to
be physically, financially rich. But those who think, that they're
spiritually rich. They have their own works that
makes them rich. That's deadly to the soul. Somebody
could be chasing after financial riches and fall into a trap and
the Lord deliver them out of it. This is not a trap that can
be escaped from. It's deadly to the soul 100%
of the time when we think we're rich because of our own works.
100% of the time. But believers who have Christ
They have the pearl of great price. They're content. Those who think that they have
security, they think they have riches in their own works, they're
going to be damned because their works are never good enough.
God will never accept them. But those who have Christ, the
pearl of great price, they're content. They're fully satisfied. Because if you have Christ, you
have everything. Oh, they're still poor and needy.
If you have Christ, You believe Him. You love Him. You rest upon
Him. You're poor and needy. But yet you're rich. You're rich. Because you know what? The Lord
fills the poor and the needy. If I'm poor, spiritually poor,
He'll make me rich. If I'm spiritually naked, He'll
clothe me. If I'm spiritually hungry, He'll feed me. And that's
great gain. Great gain. Oh, that God would
make us poor and needy. Christ only came to preach the
gospel to the poor. That's what He said. He only
came to save the poor. And He made them rich through
His poverty when He was made sin for them. Christ, our substitute,
became poor of righteousness. He was emptied of it. He was
made sin so that He could make His people rich in the righteousness
that He would give them. And I'm fully content with Him,
aren't you? I want to show you one more scripture. Look at Genesis
chapter 33. We'll close. Here is a really
good example of what I'm talking about. Here Jacob is finally coming
back home and he's afraid that Esau is going to kill him when
he sees him. He knows Esau still remembers
he stole the birthright from him. And so he sent the whole
family ahead of him. Here's the leader. stayed behind
and said, everybody else sent the women and children out in
front of him, bearing all these gifts, all these riches and wealth,
you know, to give as a gift to Esau, hoping that it would soften
Esau up before he got there. I mean, that's a big problem.
But anyway, I won't preach too long. I'm not going to get off
on that. But you see, I don't need, like Robert Hawker says
often, I don't need to swell this book with these words. You
already see what that's saying. But now Jacob has come and met
Esau in verse eight. of Genesis chapter 33. And Esau
said, what meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he
said, these are to find grace in the sight of my Lord. And
Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep that thou hast
unto thyself. And Jacob said, nay, I pray thee.
If now I found grace in thy sight, then receive my present in my
hand. For therefore, I've seen thy face, as though I'd seen
the face of God, and thou was pleased with me. Take I pray
thee my blessing that is brought to thee because God hath dealt
graciously with me and because I have enough. And he urged him
and Esau took it. Now in verse nine, is it verse
nine? Esau said, I have enough. And that Hebrew word enough means
much abounding. It means many. I have much, I
have many. But in verse 11, the word translated
enough that Jacob uses is a totally different Hebrew word. It means
the whole. It means the totality. Esau said,
Oh, I'm bounded. I have many, but he was not content. He still took the gift, the Esau
sin or the Jacob sin. He had many, but he wasn't content.
He could still take more. Jacob couldn't take more. Because
he had enough. He had enough. He had the totality. Brethren, in everything about
spiritual life, in everything about forgiveness, in everything
about righteousness, in everything about glory, Christ is the totality. If we have him, we'll be continued. All right, let's bow together. Father, I pray. that you'd honor
your word as it's been preached. Honor it in spite of the bumblings
and stumblings of the preacher. Bless it in spite of the weakness
of the hearer. And Father, bless your word to
our hearts. Father, would you show us your glory? Would you
reveal to us the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and cause us
to run to him? to fall at his feet, begging
him for mercy, to lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ, that we
might have the whole, the whole of everything you have to give
to sinners. Father, we pray you bless us for Christ's sake. Bless
and save and keep your people for Christ's sake. Is it his
blessed name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're
dismissed.