In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of a king who sought outside help instead of trusting in God. The prophet reminds the king of God's faithfulness and warns against the craving for riches. The preacher emphasizes the importance of being content with what we have and trusting in God's provision. He also highlights the dangers of pursuing wealth and how it can lead to spiritual downfall. The sermon references Jesus' teachings on God's care for the birds and lilies, as well as the parable of the sower and the story of Balaam in the Old Testament.

Let's go ahead and open up to 1st Timothy chapter 6. 1st Timothy chapter 6, we finished up our last study with the second verse of the sixth chapter and the very last sentence of the second verse, Paul says there to Timothy, teach and exhort these things. And so you remember that Timothy was left in the city of Ephesus where Paul had established a church and he was there to make sure everything went as God would intend it to go. He was there to help develop the leadership of the church and to sort of set the course for the church in Ephesus. So he had been admonished by Paul to instruct the brethren in a variety of different things and we've been looking at those things. He told Timothy to teach them about the importance of prayer. He told Timothy to teach them that God had been manifested in the flesh. He told Timothy to teach them about the church being the pillar and the mainstay of the truth and on and on and on a number of different things that their hearts were to be nourished in the grace of God and in the love of God and practical things about how to take care of the widows in the church and all of those kinds of things are the things that he is now saying that these things are to be taught and abided by. So he says if anyone teach otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words. So now Paul is going to, as he's coming to the end of this first epistle, he's going to once again remind Timothy that one of the realities of church life is that there are those who are working against what God is doing and that is the truth and it always has been the case going back to the apostolic period as we can see here and the devil has been at work sowing tears among the wheat and sending his agents into the churches in order to oppose and to undermine and basically to just bring confusion to the people of God. So there's a need for pastors and leaders to remember that this opposition is real and to deal with it, to stand against it. So once again Paul sort of comes back to that issue here and he speaks of those who teach things other than wholesome words, the things that he has been telling Timothy to teach to the church. So if anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud knowing nothing but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. So now Paul pinpoints these people. He tells us that they are proud that they don't know what they're talking about. He says that they're obsessed over disputes and arguments and they're caught up in useless wranglings. But he says they're men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth and here's how you will know who he's talking about. He said they suppose that godliness is a means of gain. In other words, simply stated, they're in it for the money and they're teaching people that they can get rich. They're teaching people the prosperity doctrine. It's the name it and claim it sort of a thing. This isn't anything new. This isn't something that, you know, developed in recent years among the charismatics. This is something that goes back to the earliest days of the church. People have sought throughout the long history of the church to make a profit off of God's people. And so Paul pinpoints these teachers here as those who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. And he says, from such withdraw yourself. Withdraw yourself. We're not to embrace those who are holding to false teachings. You know, there is today a great ecumenical spirit that is moving across the globe and sweeping people up. And the big thing today is that we're all supposed to be positive and we shouldn't be critical of any teaching or we shouldn't, you know, speak ill of any ministry. And we need to just embrace everything. And we saw that to some degree this past week with the death of the pope. And, you know, all of the response to that from so many people from different areas and and people from within the Bible believing segment of the church have also chimed in and spoken of the greatness of the pope and what a blessing he was to so many. And, you know, truly a godly man and and things of that nature. Now I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but the reality is if we're going to at this stage in the game start embracing the papacy, if we're going to start closing a blind eye to the major theological discrepancies within Roman Catholicism, we're going to end up in serious trouble down the road. We've got to hold our ground. We've got to stand firm even though it might not be the popular attitude today. We've got to remember that there was a good reason for the Reformation to take place. Catholicism had kept the world in darkness for centuries. The gospel of grace had been completely lost within the Catholic system and they've never found it to this day. It's just as lost today as it was at the time of the Reformation. And I think it's an unwise thing for Christians to just sort of blindly be embracing these things at this time. Now I can agree that from a human standpoint, the man who was in the office of the Pope, he was from a human standpoint, he was a good man in many ways, did some wonderful things on a humanitarian level, and all of that. I don't dispute that, but spiritually speaking, he was completely deceived and led millions and millions of people along that deceptive road that he himself was on. And so we've got to be on our guard that we're not swept up in all of this. And it goes of course beyond just the issue of Catholicism. I was using that as an example because of what's happened over the past several days. But we have within the church, we have this group that promotes the idea that godliness is a means of gain. That if you're really godly, you're going to be healthy, you're going to be wealthy, you're going to be prosperous. And if you're not healthy, and if you're not wealthy, and if you're not prospering, then it's indicative of the fact they say that there's sin in your life, or you're not right with God. And they're preaching this prosperity doctrine, and they're making millions and millions of dollars themselves off of it. And they're living in luxury. You know, they used to in, you know, years gone by, they used to talk about the papacy, they talked about the Vatican, they talked about the luxurious lives of the Popes, and things like that. And generally they were, you know, sort of trying to contrast the poor Protestants with the rich Catholics. But that's no more the case. These guys have made a killing off of the people of God, bringing in millions upon millions upon millions of dollars a year, and much of that going into their pockets personally. But it's a doctrine. It's something that they're teaching, and they're using scriptures out of context to support their position. The most prominent Word Faith teacher is Kenneth Copeland. And along with Kenneth Copeland would be Benny Hinn. Now they're different in some ways, but they're very, very similar in other ways. But essentially they believe and teach the same thing. And it's this idea of godliness being a means of gain. Now there's another individual who's become quite popular. He's not as blatantly heretical as those first two fellows I mentioned, but he nevertheless believes and teaches the same thing. It's just sort of a kinder, gentler version of it. And that's this fellow Joel Olsteen. Real popular guy today. A lot of people watching his program, reading his books, and you know there's a lot of praise going out toward him. And he seems to be a nice enough fellow. I'm not disputing whether he's nice or not. What I'm saying is that his doctrine is very much the doctrine that Paul is describing here. Godliness is a means of gain. What does he say we're to do? He said, from such withdraw yourself. You see the pressure today is to embrace it all. Join together. Don't be a person who's causing division in the church. Don't speak out against these things. That's wrong. We need to all be united. But you see what they're really saying in essence is let's throw the truth out and just embrace each other. We can't do that. We've got to stand firm for the truth and on the truth. And so those who teach that godliness is a means of gain, rather than embracing them, we are to withdraw from them. And we're to recognize that doctrine for what it is. It is aberrant. It is incorrect. It is contrary to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine that accords with godliness. The New Testament does not promise material prosperity. There's nowhere in the New Testament that you can find a promise for material prosperity. These guys get all of their material from the Old Testament. The Old Testament did carry with it a promise of material prosperity because the Old Testament was given to God's earthly people Israel. And their whole relationship with God centered around the land and being blessed in the land. Israel would be God's earthly people, but the church is God's heavenly people. We are pilgrims and sojourners here on the earth. Our citizenship is in heaven. And we're looking for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. You see, we're not to be settling into life here on earth and trying to get all the wealth we possibly can. We are to be living with a light touch on the world. So withdraw from these teachers, Paul said, rather than embrace them. And then he said this, now godliness with contentment is great gain. This is real gain. Godliness with contentment. Paul would say himself to the said, I have learned that in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to abound and I know how to be abased. I can go with having an abundance and I can go with having nothing. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. How many times has that verse been taken out of context? How many times have we heard this prosperity doctrine being based on that statement right there? You can be a millionaire because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Can you be content with nothing? That's the context of the statement. Godliness with contentment, that's great gain. That's what God has called us to, to be content with such things as we have. Because he has promised, I will never leave you or forsake you. So I can boldly say the Lord is my helper. That's what we're told in Hebrews chapter 13. So 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 shelter with these we shall be content. You know the vast majority of people that have lived throughout human history have relatively poor lives. The vast majority of people in the world today live relatively poor lives especially in comparison to us. We who live in the prosperous West, we live today in our own personal lives on the level of kings and queens of past generations. You know sometimes you hear people talking about the horrible poverty in our country. You know the poorest people in this country are considerably richer than the rich people in most countries. The reality is we have so much we ought to be able to be content. But the human condition is a condition that doesn't lend itself to contentment. I'm always wanting more. There's this dissatisfaction. It's part of human nature. But we as God's people, God has done a work in our lives through his spirit. We're to have a new set of priorities. We are to be thinking in terms of the spiritual rather than the material. And so we're not to be overcome by these things. We brought nothing into the world. We can't take anything with us when we go. We need to be content with food and shelter. And of course God has blessed us with much more than that. We need to be content for those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a trap. And into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. Now the Bible does not forbid a person from becoming rich. The Bible doesn't tell us that we have to aspire to poverty. The Bible acknowledges the validity of wealth under certain circumstances. But what the Bible does warn us against is the longing for riches or the craving after riches. You see if we do become rich through a normal process of hard work with our priorities in the right place and so forth, we count that as a blessing. We don't put a premium on poverty. But we have to be very careful that we are not longing after riches. Because as Jesus said, you cannot serve God and riches. Many people have gotten material wealth at a very high cost to their spiritual life. And that's what Paul is really referring to here. People who are running after riches to the point that they are neglecting their spiritual life. They're running after the material. They're pursuing the material to the point that they're neglecting the spiritual. And in the end they suffer greatly for it. And that's what's happened to so many. And Paul mentions that here. He had seen it himself. Those desiring to be rich, they fall into temptation and into a trap and into many foolish and harmful lusts. Oh I bet you could fill volumes and volumes with illustrations of this very thing from history. People who started off well with the Lord, but got caught up in the pursuit of riches. You remember what Jesus told us in that parable, the parable of the sower, about the seed that fell on the various types of soil. And that third one is very interesting. Remember the seed fell on the thorny ground. And it grew up. It sprouted and grew up. But because it was entangled with the thorns, it never brought forth any fruit. And he said, this is the person who hears the Word of God, but that cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things choked the Word. So it brings forth no fruit. But notice that phrase, the deceitfulness of riches. You see, that's what the vast majority of people don't realize. Riches are deceitful. Because what do most people think about riches? They think that riches bring fulfillment. They think that riches bring satisfaction. They think that if they could only become wealthy, they would then be happy. And it's this endless pursuit for happiness through riches that never is attained because riches are deceitful. They will not make you happy. They cannot make you happy. All you have to do is analyze the lives of the rich. The rich quite often are just as or even more miserable than the poor. Because with wealth comes all kinds of other issues and problems. But isn't it true that so many people think, I could solve all my problems if I could win the lottery. All my problems would be over if I could win that match on want to be a millionaire. Boy, that would take care of everything for me. But you know it won't. That's a deceitfulness of riches. Jesus warned us about that. And then Paul says this, he said, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. The love of money, a root of all kinds of evil. Now notice, this has been misquoted many times. I've heard it said, money is the root of all evil. No, money is not the root of all evil. Money is neutral. Money is neither good nor bad. It's neutral. It's what you do with money that makes it either good or evil. It's where your heart is in relation to money. You see, it's the love of money. It's putting money in the place of God. And that's what Jesus was talking about when he said, no man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and riches. Remember, Jesus said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Why? For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is absolutely amazing to me to think of the things that people have done, the evil things that people have done in the pursuit of money. People will literally sell their souls for money at times. Think of all of the murders that have been rooted in the love of money and the lust for money. Think of the selling of people's lives, their bodies, their souls into slavery and things like that. All the drug trafficking and all of that that goes on in our world today. What's at the root of that? It's all about money. It's all about money. And so the love of money, it's not the root of all evil, but it's the root of all kinds of evil. And so, of course, we don't want to go down that avenue. We don't want to go down an avenue that would lead us into evil, but this is what's happened for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. It's a certain road to misery, the love of money. Two examples from the scripture. I think of Balaam in the Old Testament. Balaam, an interesting character, a prophet of sorts. God speaks to him. He has a relationship with God to some extent. He's called upon by King Balak, the king of the Moabites, to come and to curse the children of Israel. They've come out of the land of Egypt and Balak is afraid they're going to take over his land. And so he calls for Balaam to come and to curse them. And he says, come and curse these people and I will make you rich. But as Balaam inquires from the Lord, he finds that these people can't be cursed. God's blessing is upon them. So three different times, Balak takes him to different locations and he has them, you know, look out over the tents of Israel. And he says, okay, now curse him. And three different occasions, Balaam, as he opens his mouth, he blesses Israel. And finally, after the third time, Balak says, you know what? I'm sick of this. I called you here to curse these people and you keep blessing them. And Balaam says, I told you from the beginning, I can't but speak what God speaks to me. And Balak says, your commitment to God has kept you from great riches. I was going to honor you and make you a wealthy man, but you've lost that because of your commitment to God. Now, the story seems to end there, but it doesn't really end there because we find out later that Balaam, he succumbed to his lust for riches. And although he could not curse the people himself, he instructed Balak on what he could do to get God to bring a judgment upon the people. He counseled Balak to send the young women down into the camp of Israel so they could seduce the young men. And this would accomplish Balak's goal of bringing God's judgment upon these people and getting rid of them. Balaam sold out. And so the New Testament refers to Balaam as someone who was led away by his own greed. And Jude warns us about greed there when he's talking about keeping ourselves in the love of God. He gives us examples of people who failed to do that, and one of the examples is Balaam. Balaam failed to keep himself in the love of God. He failed to keep himself in a place where God could bless him, where God could do all that he wanted to do in his life because he was carried away by greed. In the New Testament, well, of course, probably the most classic example and the most tragic example would be Judas himself. What did Judas do? He betrayed the Son of Man for 30 pieces of silver. He sold Jesus, the Son of God, and in doing so, he sold his own soul for 30 pieces of silver. But you know, people are doing the same thing today. People are selling out for basically nothing. But Jesus reminded us, he said, what would it profit a man to gain the whole world if he lost his soul in the process? What can a man give in exchange for his soul? And so, Paul warns us. He warns us about that craving to be rich, and he tells us to be content with the things that we have. You know, God is good. He's faithful. And even though, as I said, there is no guarantee in the New Testament that we are going to be rich, there is the promise that we are going to be taken care of. God has given us that promise. Jesus reminded us. He said, look at the birds of the air. They don't sow, they don't reap, they don't gather into barns, but yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. He said, look at the lilies of the field. They neither toil nor spin, but I tell you that Solomon, in all of his glory, he was in a raid like one of these. And if God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is burned up in the oven, how much more will he clothe you? Oh, you of little faith. Here's the wonderful promise of the New Testament. God will provide for us. He'll take care of our needs. That's the promise. We have the guaranteed promise from God that he will take care of our needs. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you. But here's what I've discovered, and many others have as well. God doesn't merely take care of our needs. He goes beyond that as well, just because he's good. He goes beyond that. He blesses. He provides an abundance for us. But the key is being able, as Paul said, to be content. Godliness with contentment is great gain. So if I have a little, I'm content. If I have plenty, I'm content as well. I'm not losing my contentment based upon my circumstances, but my contentment is in God and his love for me. That's the way the Lord wants us to be living. He wants us to be putting our energy into seeking him, not into seeking riches. Now, as I said, there's nothing the matter with working hard and making a good wage or being successful in business ventures, making good investments. Those are all perfectly acceptable and normal things in life, but we always have to remember that the only time that is legitimate is when I'm able to do it and maintain my spiritual life as God would have it maintained. Whenever my spiritual life begins to suffer because of my business life, so to speak, that's when I have to realize I've got an imbalance here, and I've got a dangerous situation going, and I've got to get things back where they need to be. We need to keep that balanced perspective that we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then God adds those things to us. You see, because riches can turn our hearts away from the Lord. You know, God actually will, with certain people, he will block them from getting rich. You know why? Because he loves you, and he knows this, that if you got rich, you would lose your dependency upon him. He knows you better than you know yourself. You might be saying, oh, no, no, no, Lord, not me. No, I promise, Lord, I'll keep trusting you, but oh, he knows better. You know, Solomon said something interesting. He said, give me not riches, lest I be full and deny you. You see, here's the thing. Riches can easily come in and, in an interesting way, sort of replace God. Because what happens when we get rich, what do we do? We trust in riches. We're not supposed to trust in anything but the living God. But it's so easy when you get that cushion. You've got that extra money there in the bank, and there you are. You're just saying, all right, I can sort of just kick back now. You know, I don't have to worry, and you know, I don't even have to be so dependent. I can be independent now. And there's a tendency in our hearts as people, when prosperity comes, to just slack off in our dependency upon God. There's an interesting illustration of this, again, back in the Old Testament. It's the story of one of the kings of Judah, and there's a great dependency on God in the early days of his reign. In the early days of his reign, there's no prosperity in the kingdom. Things are difficult. There's a great struggle. There's enemies coming against him. And in those early days, he's clinging to the Lord. And God is blessing, and he's having great victory. But then something happens. Prosperity comes to the kingdom, and they live in prosperity for a long, long time. Now, it's interesting, because when you read the story back in Chronicles, it doesn't tell you that exactly, but it's inferred as you read the story, and as you look at the timeline. But what happens is there comes a point where there's, once again, a difficulty that arises. And where the king previously depended on God, on this occasion, he doesn't depend on God. On this occasion, he calls for outside help. And the prophet actually comes to him and says, listen, you know, when you depended on the Lord before, he helped you. And the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro throughout the whole earth, and he's looking to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him. How come you're not trusting him now? And the king is upset at the prophet. He puts him in prison. And in the end, it's a real disastrous thing that occurs. But as you look closely at the story, here's what you find. In the early days of Asa's reign, before prosperity set in, he was clinging to the Lord. But then the blessing of God comes, and there's a 25-year period that is not mentioned in any detail. It's just sort of passed over. There's a 25-year period between these two incidents. And now, 25 years later, a similar situation to his original one arises. A multitude of people come against him. In the early days, he trusted in the Lord. Now, doesn't need to call on the Lord. He's got a lot of friends and people in high places, and he can call upon the armies and all of these things. But this was his great mistake. The question that you would ask in looking at Asa as a king, you might look at him and ask this question, what happened to good King Asa? He had such a great start, a dependency upon God. But in the end, he completely left off his dependency on God, and he's actually persecuting the prophet of God. And he's depending on man. What happened? He spent 25 years in prosperity. He spent 25 years at ease, and in his ease and prosperity, he lost his dependency on the Lord. And so when another great challenge came, he did not trust God, but he trusted himself, and it became his downfall. And the end of his life, he had a great start, but the end of his life, he became sick. And it says that he sought the physicians rather than the Lord, and he died. He went from a place of total dependency on God when he was in a state of weakness. When he was in a state before he prospered, he was clinging to the Lord. But when prosperity came, he lost his grip, and he never got it back. You see, God knows best. God knows there are some that he can trust with riches. He knows that most he cannot. That's why most are not rich, because God knows. He knows what's best. And so Paul says, Timothy, flee from these things. Flee from the pursuit of riches and the love of money, because that leads to a disastrous situation in the future. He said, Rather, pursue righteousness. But you, O man of God, flee these things. The man of God is a man who's depending on God, not on riches. Timothy, flee these things. Trust in the Lord. There's always a danger when prosperity comes. In our lives personally, you know there's a danger in church life when prosperity comes. It happens over and over again. Young pastor just starting out in the ministry, struggling every step of the way, but clinging to the Lord. And God honors that faith. And then God blesses, and prosperity comes. And sometimes, unfortunately, down the road, those men who in those early days were trusting God, they're no longer trusting God. They're trusting in the blessing of God, the riches that God himself has provided. They become the thing that we trust in now. And we have to really be careful. If riches increase, Psalm 6210 says, do not set your heart on them. We can't get caught in that trap. But rather, we're to flee these things. And what are we to be pursuing? We're not to be pursuing wealth. We're to be pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. We're to be pursuing spiritual riches, not material riches. If in the process of your pursuit of spiritual riches, God blesses you materially, that's a wonderful thing. If there is no great blessing materially, that's a wonderful thing too, because godliness with contentment is great gain. You see, the Bible does talk about prosperity all right, but it's the prosperity of the soul. That's where God wants to prosper us, because that's where satisfaction really comes. Satisfaction comes when my soul is prospering. And you can truly be, on the one hand, one of the poorest of people materially, but one of the richest people on the planet. Paul said, regarding himself and the other apostles, he said, we are poor, but we make many rich. We are poor, but we make many rich, because true riches are spiritual riches. And so let's remember that. Godliness with contentment. Now, we live in a highly materialistic world, and there's pressure all the time. And there's sometimes pressure right in the home. You know, maybe you see your neighbors getting ahead. Maybe people you work with are getting the promotion and the raise, and they're able to get the things that you think that you ought to be able to get as well. And then all of a sudden there's this, you know, I've got to get more money. And so you go in pursuit of that. But that's a dead-end street. You know, maybe you as a wife, maybe you're saying, oh honey, you know, we're driving this clunky car around, and look what the neighbor's got. I feel embarrassed. And then, you know, you start putting the pressure on. Be careful. You don't want to be the one to drive your husband away from the things of the Spirit. Oh, you might get that new car, you might get that jewelry, you might get those things that you want, but you'll get things you never bargained for in the end. You'll get misery. You'll get frustration. You might even get a broken-up marriage. A lot of times these things are at the root of families splitting, dividing, because someone wasn't content. We need more, and the push comes. Remember, we're to pursue godliness, the things of the Spirit. That's where the real blessing is. If God happens to bring riches in the process, wonderful, but don't set your heart on them. Don't set your heart on them, for riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. In verses 17 through 19, notice what Paul says here in speaking to the rich. He's speaking to those who aren't rich here, saying, don't pursue that. Pursue God. But now he speaks to the rich. He says, command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, not to be proud, nor to trust in uncertain riches. We've always got to remember that about riches. They're uncertain. There's no stability there. The world's economy could crash tomorrow, and all that you think you're worth could be proven to be an absolute mirage. It's not really there. Riches are uncertain. So we're not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them, those who are rich, do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. So for the non-rich, Paul says, don't crave riches. Be content. Seek to be godly. For the rich, Paul says, don't trust in these things, but rather use your wealth to bless others. Trust in the living God. Let's pray. Lord, as we consider these things tonight, we know this is an age old, and Lord, you know that we are easily deceived, and we have a tendency to think that things that are not really able to make us happy or fulfill us are somehow going to. Lord, deliver us from that deception, that we might realize that true riches are spiritual, not material, that we might store up treasure in heaven, as Jesus said, not laboring for the things that perish, but for the things that endure to eternal life. So, Lord, for those who are rich, Lord, may they trust you, not their money, and may they use that blessing to glorify you and to further your kingdom. And for those, Lord, who are just eking out a living and struggling along, help them to thank you that you have promised to provide and to bless. And Lord, do that. We know you're faithful. We thank you for your promises. And Lord, as we seek your kingdom first, your righteousness, we rest in the promise that you will provide all that we need. Thank you, Lord. Amen.