Contentment or Corruption? — Part Two

0:11 Can I invite you to take your Bible and turn again to the passage that we were reading this morning and to which we said we would return, dealing with this whole matter of contentment. Every so often, my proclivity for song lyrics kicks in, in a sort of undeniable and overwhelming fashion. And this has been one of those days. And throughout today, I've had the lyrics of a song in my mind, a Paul Overstreet song. And I could only remember part of them, and they go like this. I've heard tell of millionaires and billionaires and such who gathered all their treasures and still did not have enough. If money could buy peace of mind, I guess they'd have it all. But all the money in the world won't hold you when you fall. We've got a roof over our head, and the kids have all been fed, and the woman I love most lies close beside me in our bed, Lord, give me the eyes to see exactly what it's worth, and I will be the richest man on earth.

1:26 Lord, when I wish I had the things that you gave someone else, I pray that you'll forgive me for just thinking of myself. I haven't been as thankful as I know I ought to be. I should be more satisfied with all you've given me. And one thing is for certain, it don't matter when you die, if you had a million, or if you just got by. We've got a roof over our head, and the kids have all been fed. Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. And some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Those few verses there in 1 Timothy 6 were the focus of our study this morning in verses 6, 7, and 8, and now we turn to verses 9 and 10. This morning we introduced the concept of contentment, and this evening we look now at the contrast that he gives to us with this picture of contentment. Let me read to you from Philip's paraphrase once again. For men who set their hearts on being wealthy, expose themselves to temptation. They fall into one of the world's traps and lay themselves open to all sorts of silly and wicked desires which are quite capable of utterly ruining and destroying their souls. Now, as we said this morning, it is important that we recognize that he is not addressing here people who are rich. He is not addressing rich people. He is going to address the rich, or he has done, and we'll come to that in the 17th verse,

3:32 those who are rich in this present world. At the moment, though, he is addressing individuals who are tempted to believe the idea that in the pursuit of wealth, in the amassing of money, in the securing of riches, then they will be fine. And he is pointing out that there are peculiar your dangers that accompany a yearning for material things. Now, this, of course, is a salutary and important word for all of us, because living as we do in the world, as Jesus said we must, asking his Father in the high priestly prayer not to remove his family from the world, but to leave them in the world and keep them from the evil one, living as we do within this late twentieth-century materialistic culture, we are bombarded on every side with the idea that somehow or another money and possessions is what it is all about. And I know you think I have a thing about this, but I tire of the advertisements on the golf programs on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from all the stockbrokers' companies, playing on our nerves and playing on our emotions and playing on our fears and our anxieties and everything else, and you can't watch the golf for wondering whether your portfolio is significant enough to cope with your great-great-great-great-grandchildren who apparently are relying on you somewhere down the line. And I'm sorry, but I put the mute button on now. Unfortunately, I know these jolly commercials off by heart, most of them.

5:13 and the guy with the wee tiny glasses, you know. What a rascal he is, whoever he is. The fact of the matter is, money buys you stuff. Money can buy medicine, but it can't buy health. It can buy you a house, but it can't buy you a home. Buy you companionship, but not friends. Entertainment, but it won't buy you happiness. It can buy you food, but it can't buy you an appetite. light. It can buy you a bed but not sleep. It can buy you a good life, but it can't buy you eternal life. And the same boys who were writing that money was all they want very quickly realized that you can buy me diamond things, my friend, if it makes you feel all right—diamond rings—you can give me anything, my friend, if it makes you feel all right, because I don't care too much for money, because money can't buy me love. And Seneca, the Roman, was reputed to have said, money has never yet made anyone rich. And yet the desire for money is founded on the illusion that it brings with it security. But as we're noting, it cannot buy wealth, it cannot buy health, and it cannot secure love. It is powerless to prevent the onset of illness, nor does it make it possible to evade the chilling and cold hand of death. Ironically, money actually breeds anxiety, because the more we have to keep, the more we have to lose. And the tendency is to be haunted by the fear of loss. And the writer, namely Paul here, speaks into the first century of his day, and he issues this stirring word of warning describing the circumstances, and he has particular people in mind in verse 10 and a general description in verse 9, the circumstances of individuals who make it their express purpose in life to get rich. That's who he's describing,

7:23 Someone who is determined, of all the things that I'm going to do in life, I am going to become rich. Because somehow or another they believe that that holds the key to everything. Now, he says the people who want to get rich find themselves in these circumstances. And I want to summarize them with three words. First of all, they find themselves tempted. Tempted. People who want to get rich fall into temptation. Now, the person who wants to get rich or craves riches generally also yearns for the things that go along with money. What goes along with money? Honor, popularity, power, an inordinate amount of leisure, and satisfaction. And in the pursuit of all of these things, along with cash, the individual is peculiarly susceptible to temptation on each front. And the man who wants to get rich or the woman who wants to be rich may easily be led into wrong ways of securing that goal. For example, he may be tempted to go places that he shouldn't go, because he wants to get rich. And he has heard that there is the possibility of riches in a certain place, so he may be tempted to go somewhere that he ought not to go.

8:51 The lights of Las Vegas, which I saw for the first time two weeks ago, have special appeal for those whose hearts are already set on inordinate wealth. They have special appeal for those whose hearts have already determined that the one thing they want to do is to find a way to get rich. If that is not your passion, then frankly, the lights will leave you dazzled for a moment and disillusioned in the morning. Indeed, they may well leave you disillusioned in the morning, even if money is your passion. Secondly, such an individual may not only be tempted to go places that he shouldn't, but he will be tempted to form alliances with those that he shouldn't form alliances with. 2 Corinthians 6.14, Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, because what fellowship does light have with darkness, says Paul? What communion is there between the evil one and those who walk with Christ? The answer is absolutely none.

9:58 But when an individual has as his expressed desire to get rich, he will be tempted to sidestep the clear instruction of the Bible, not only in terms of where he goes, but in terms of who he joins. Thirdly, such an individual may well be tempted and caused to look in directions he would never have considered otherwise. In other words, instead of being the man at the beginning of Psalm 1, he has become the wicked man. Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law he meditates day and night. And this individual will be like a tree who is planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season. But the wicked are not so. They are like the chaff which the wind blows away, and the wicked will not stand in the day of judgment. But the individual who has determined that they're going to be rich will be tempted to go places that he shouldn't, with people that he shouldn't, and turn his gaze in a direction that is all wrong. You see, a discontented spirit is peculiarly susceptible to temptation. Now, we could apply that at virtually any level.

11:27 But we're thinking of money here. And someone who is discontented with their lot, always desiring more, making it their aim to amass as much as they possibly can, such an individual will be tempted constantly to capitulate to that which makes it possible for them, they believe, to attain their goal. So such individuals who desire to get rich are tempted. Secondly, they're trapped. Trapped. They fall into temptation and also into a trap. Having snatched at the bait as it's been dangled in front of them, they find themselves caught. Hendrickson puts it in this way, As a snare keeps an animal imprisoned, so the ungovernable passion for wealth fastens its clutching tentacles about those who pant after the dust of the earth. It's a graphic picture of someone going for all that they can grab and discovering that they are tempted and then they are trapped, and the tentacles close around them and squeeze out their very life. Now, Paul doesn't actually say what this trap is, but earlier in 1 Timothy, you may remember, in verse 7 of chapter 3, he talked about the trap of the devil and falling into the devil's trap. He does elsewhere in the pastoral epistles.

12:56 And I think that he would clearly have this in mind. The appeal. How could somebody find this to be appealing? Well, it's made all the more appealing because of the many desires to which we're prone. And what are the desires to which we're prone? Well, they're foolish desires and they're harmful desires. And the word here for foolish is the same notion as you have in the Psalmist, where it says, The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. It's not an expression of intellectual impoverishment. It is an indication of moral indifference. And when an individual starts down this path, they'll be tempted and they will be trapped. And it is quite staggering just how foolish and ridiculous and pathetic an individual's actions may prove to be once having set foot on this slipping slope. Such foolishness will pursue a deplorable vice as if it were a desirable virtue.

14:11 One of my good friends far away from here, I cannot speak of this passage at the moment without thinking of him. And the wreckage of his marriage… and the massaging of his ego, and the foolish, stupid, ridiculous, pathetic activities in which he finds himself tonight in one of the largest cities of Britain is directly related. to pound signs in his eyeballs. And he didn't realize that when he took his eyes off God and put his eyes on gold, that it would be very, very difficult for him just to come up with what he wanted. And he has discovered now that he couldn't get what he wanted without at the same time getting what he didn't want. And he is a tragic expression of this. Desiring to get rich, he has fallen into temptation. He is trapped. He has engaged in foolish, moral foolishness and spiritual harm to his own destruction. He has become susceptible to the enticements of the evil one. And none of us should think for a moment that we are immune to this.

15:55 I do not stand for a split second in judgment on my friend, lest I join him. Eve was seduced by the evil one in the garden. He tempted her to eat death by offering her what? A slice of life! Only a fool would eat death, wouldn't you say? But of course it would be possible to be conned into believing that what was offered as life… was actually something different. And having fallen into temptation, such individuals find themselves plunged into ruin and destruction. And the circumstances described here of these individuals is that they are tempted, and they are trapped, and their condition is terminal.

17:01 Terminal. These two words that he uses here describe a terminal condition. They either heap one word on another to describe spiritual destruction, or one word speaks for physical impoverishment, and the other one speaks of spiritual demise. But the words are graphic, and they are powerful in their implications. If you turn back just a couple of pages in your Bible to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and to verse 9, you will see the same expression used, speaking of these individuals. Those who do not know God and don't obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus, he says, they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified. Shut out from the presence of the Lord.

18:03 For a dollar? For a hundred? For a thousand? For a hundred thousand? Would you sell your soul for a million bucks? and live in hell for all eternity? Now, it is at this point, at this very telling point, that we come, in verse 10, to one of the most misquoted statements in the Bible. This little sentence, For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. And, of course, people misquote that, saying that the love of money is the root of all evil. And in point of fact, what is being expressed here is the sentiment that there is no kind of evil to which the love of money may not lead men.

19:17 When that love of money once takes hold of someone—that's the point. Once a love of money takes hold of someone, there is no kind of evil to which it may not lead. And therefore, it is imperative that we ask ourselves, Well, am I a lover of money? Because if a love of money brings with it temptation and a trap and termination, this is something that we would want to find out about, don't you think? How can I tell if I am eager for money? How can I tell if I have an inordinate love for money? Well, some time ago, when we studied in another portion of Scripture, I gave you one or two telltale signs, which I'm sure you have all forgotten, and so I'll just reiterate them for us now. How can I tell that I love money inordinately? Number one, when thoughts of money consume my day. When thoughts of money consume my day. When my mind goes into neutral, I start thinking about money—how much I've got, how much I'm going to get, how the stocks are doing, how the portfolio's doing, whatever else it is—when thoughts of money consume my day.

20:31 Secondly, when the financial success of others makes me jealous. when the financial success of others makes me jealous. Thirdly, when I am tempted to define success in terms of what I have rather than what I am in Christ. When I think about myself in relationship to what I possess rather than I marvel that I am Christ's possession. Fourthly, when my family is neglected in my pursuit of money. When I am prepared to discard all other considerations—schedules and meals and games and everything—not because I am fulfilling the duty of an emergency vehicle driver, and there are a lot of emergencies out there, but because I am using up all the time that I have to the detriment of my family because I want money. Fifthly, when I close my eyes to the genuine needs of others. Because, you see, I don't want to spend any of it. I just want to keep it all.

21:49 Sixthly, when I live in the paralyzing fear of losing my money. And I'm waking up and I think, oh, if I don't have all this, what'll happen to me then? You see, then we're a long way away from the large black coffee and the blueberry muffin at that point, right? Because all you need for that is a buck seventy-four. right you're gonna need all that other stuff you need a dollar seventy-four another dollar for the New York Times it's 274 Now, if you need a Rolls Royce to go pick it up, that's a problem. Seventhly, I love money when I'm prepared to borrow myself into bondage. When I'm prepared to borrow myself into bondage. I'm not prepared to live in a certain kind of house or drive a certain kind of car or drop back into a rented apartment or put myself in half a trailer home beside a stream, because I'm so consumed with all of this stuff that I am prepared to borrow myself into total bondage. And eighthly, it is a safe indication that I love money too much when God receives my leftovers rather than my firstfruits.

23:14 Now, says Paul, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and some people, he says, eager for money, have wandered from the faith. And a departure from the faith is inevitable when gold replaces God in man's affections. Let me just illustrate this. First of all, in the parable of the sower, as we have it in Luke chapter 8. I'm not going to expound this. I just want to turn you to it for your own further study. But in Luke chapter 8, you remember the story of the sower. He goes out and sows the seed, and some of it falls along the path, and the birds come and take it up. Some falls on rock, and there's an instant bloom and an instant fade, and some other seed falls among thorns, which grow up and choke the plants. And Jesus, in response to the question of his disciples, is giving the explanation of his parable. And he says in verse 14, the seed that fell among thorns, stands for those who hear. But as they go on their way, they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not come to maturity.

24:49 Somehow or another, Ananias and Sapphira, in Acts chapter 5, fit into that picture. You remember the story of them lying about the sale of their property, trying to make it look as though they had done better than they had done in terms of their giving? There was no reason for them to do so, there was no pressure on them to capitulate in the way in which they did.

25:23 And what about Judas Iscariot on that sorry morning? when Jesus was bound and led away and handed over to Pilate. And Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, and he was seized with remorse, and he returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. I have sinned, he said, for I have betrayed innocent blood. What's that to us? they replied. That's your responsibility. You're the one that borrowed the money from the bank. The bank's—now, the bank manager's not going to stand up and take the hit for you when you go into foreclosure. I don't expect him to come and bring soup to your house. You'll get a very curt letter from him. He'll simply say, that's your responsibility. And so Judas threw the money in the temple, and he left.

26:26 And then he went away and hanged himself. Or what about the man we read of in the Old Testament in 2 Kings 5? Gehazi, lying, because he's consumed with the idea of getting stuff. The thing that annoyed him about his master was that he let Naaman off the hook. Naaman shows up with all manner of provisions, offers them to Elisha. Elisha says, No, I couldn't possibly take that, bids him goodbye, and Gehazi's standing by, and his heart is full of a desire for money, and he wants all the stuff that Naaman had. And so he goes down, and he is led into temptation, and he is trapped, and his condition becomes terminal, and instantaneously he breaks out in leprosy, and the children born to him were born in a leprous condition. So says the Scriptures.

27:20 What of Demas? In 2 Timothy 4 and in verse 10, Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me. Now, there is no indication there, admittedly, that he was consumed with money, but the fact is he is an indication, like those mentioned here in verse 10, who wandered from the faith. You see, they wandered from the faith by straying from faith and trust in the Lord Jesus as the central, foundational desire and love of their lives. Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in thee I find, says the hymn writer. Say we in the singing of the hymn. But then we have to live.

28:16 Then we have to make decisions. Then we have to decide about purchases. And what happened to them? While having wandered from the faith, they were pierced with many griefs. It says one commentator, Their reaching out after money has brought the previously mentioned foolish and injurious sinful desires into their life, and these desires are the means of this self-inflicted torture. You know the greatest tragedy of all here is that there is no indication that the grief that came to these individuals was godly sorrow. You say, Well, is that significant? Yes, it's actually very, very significant, because Paul, when he writes his second letter to Corinth, speaks about the distinction between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. And he says in 2 Corinthians 7.10, godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. But listen, worldly sorrow brings death. Worldly sorrow brings death. So here are these individuals who start off so well. Then their eyes are distracted from the course. Then they begin to look over here and fancy that perhaps their lives would be far better if they had all of this.

29:42 And so they begin to pursue that, and they're tempted to do foolish and injurious things, and they become trapped, and they become impaled on their own desires. And their hearts are broken, not because of their condition before God, but because they lost all that they had hoped for, and their disappointment and their regret. is not the gateway to repentance and to life, but is actually the path to death. Fee, one of the commentators, Professor Fee, has a wonderful paragraph that I just want to close with. He says, "'Thus their final indictment is a tragic one, and for Paul a painful one. Here were good men who had emerged as leaders in the church in Ephesus.'" You understand? He's not talking hypothetically here. He's talking about people he has in mind—guys who were at the front of the parade in Ephesus.

30:56 You see, you can't wander from the faith unless you have been united to the faith, unless you have been a proponent of the faith. Here were these good men, emerged as leaders in the church in Ephesus, but they had allowed themselves to be ensnared by Satan. Who knows how or why? They became enamored of new ideas, fell in love with speculative interpretations, or made themselves look good by appealing to an ascetic ideal, an elitist Christianity?

31:33 But underneath, they had come to love money, and it did them in. That's the phrase. I thought it was quite a striking phrase for Fee to use, because his language is fairly prosaic. But he says they came to love money, and it did them in. And it'll do you in, and it'll do me in too, as sure as guns are guns. It's not even a point of debate. They went astray from the faith and pierced themselves through, as with a sword and with many griefs. And Paul says, Let those of you who think you stand take heed, lest you fall.

32:35 Loved ones, we must shudder at the thought of joining them. I'm sure that a lot of the moral failure that we have seen in the last twenty years here in America in pastoral ministry is actually directly related to 1 Timothy 6, 6 and following. that what happened was that the individual began to love stuff and began to have stuff. And the stuff that he had allowed him to go places that previously had never gone. And in that climate and in that company, he allowed himself the wandering eye and the distracted foot and the uncontrolled hand. And he was impaled. Let me give the last word to a woman,

33:37 which I seldom do but not purposefully. It just so happens. Joe Briscoe says, Years ago, I stopped looking to anyone but God to satisfy me. There is no man that can love me enough, no child that can need me enough, no job that can pay me enough, and no experience that can satisfy me enough. Only Jesus. Let me read that again, because it's good. Years ago, I stopped looking to anyone but God to satisfy me. She writes this in the context of her husband being gone on a three-month preaching trip without returning home. There is no man that can love me enough, no child that can need me enough, no job that can pay me enough, and no experience that can satisfy me enough. Only Jesus.

34:55 Now, Paul says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. And the old is gone, and the new has come. And certainly, if we are going to make any kind of significant impact in our day. The pagan world is going to have to be able to look and detect a radical difference. Not necessarily in the externals of things, because as I said this morning, we could all move to a shack down by a stream and kid ourselves that we had dealt with the problem. Monasticism tried that, and look what happened to those gentlemen—many of them. But at our core attitude, in relationship to sex—namely, purity before marriage and fidelity within marriage—and in relationship to money.

36:11 and in relationship to power. Because our whole culture is built on bodies, brains, and bucks. Whether you have the right body, or you're with someone who has the right body, whether you have the right level of intelligence, or you hang with a group that does, and whether you have sufficient wherewithal to establish your status. And the prophet says, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, or the strong man boast in his strength, or the rich man boast in his riches. In other words, don't do what everybody else does. Don't go out and say that you're ugly, poor, and stupid. Don't tell lies. You're not ugly. You're not poor. And you're not stupid. That's not the answer to it. The answer is don't boast in it. Don't tell your kids, Oh, you are so beautiful! Command your children for their character.

37:35 If you have resources, don't sit and count it in the night. Figure out ways you can use it for the kingdom. And if you have intelligence, don't use big words to impress people. Offer your mind to the living God and serve him, and let the world see the difference of a new creation, of a life transformed. Now, you young people especially, with all of your lives before you, and all of the challenges coming your way, and all of the consuming demands, you know, you better look like this, you better think like this, you better drive like this, and so on. It's so hard. So hard. But the little song that I quoted earlier, I quote regularly to myself, and you may like to quote it too, Cleanse me from my sin, Lord. For the sin is all over the place.

38:41 Put your power within, Lord. Because I'm powerless by myself. I can't evade temptation. I'll be in the next trap. I'll be a terminal case. Put your power within, Lord. Take me as I am, Lord, and make me all your own, and keep me day by day, Lord, underneath your sway, Lord, and make my heart your palace and your royal throne. Whether I make a buck or not, whether I'm well-known or live in obscurity, whatever I do and wherever I go and whatever it costs, this is what I want you to do, Lord, and this is what I want to be for you. And the promise of God's Word is that the individual who is prepared to say that and mean it, God will never be that individual's debtor. For there is no good thing that the Lord will withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

39:42 And some of you are here tonight, and you need to make that little song your own. And some of you have been wandering and fooling around, and you're dealing with foolish and harmful desires. I pray that God will arrest you before you fall into perdition. Let us pray. O Lord, our God. How your Word searches our lives. How soon they will be over, and how quickly we will return to the dust from which we were formed. And although we know it to be true that the key to contentment is somehow directly related to our possessionless arrival and departure, Nevertheless, in the middle, it's so easy to get stuck, so easy to be distracted.

41:15 And so we pray that you will remind us of the wonder of our standing in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we have been declared accepted in your sight not because of how well we have done on this particular test, but because you have loved us with an everlasting love. that instead of standing before you in condemnation, we have been justified freely in your sight on the basis of what Jesus has done. So then we pray, in light of your mercies, help us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.

42:10 May the crown we wear be the crown of contentment. May our hearts be your very palace and the throne upon which you reside. And when we fall and falter as we inevitably do, help us, Lord, to confess our sins, to pick up and to look on to you, the welcoming Father, who ran and kissed the neck of the boy who made a royal hash of it in a pursuit of everything that represented pleasure. Grant to us then a spirit of joy as we anticipate another Monday. For we ask it in Jesus' name.