Speaker #0Welcome to the podcast ministry of Pilgrim Baptist Church. Wherever you're listening from, welcome. We pray that the truth from the Word of God speaks to your heart during today's message. 1 Timothy 6. We're going to talk tonight about money. And... I can tell you that I thought, there was a time in my life where I thought making it in this world was having money. I'm just being honest with you. And I spent a good part of my life making some money. I mean, I didn't make it, I had to work for it and earn it. But it can easily become a snare, a trap, an idol. So I'd like to spend some time in God's Word, because that's where we'll get our help. The Bible says in verse number 9 of 1 Timothy chapter number 6, but they that will be rich. This desire, this will, money should always be earned, by the way, at the service of others, not at the expense of others. This will to be rich no matter the cost, it's not of God, it's a satanic deception. It's this will, it's this desire for things, it's this desire for stuff that is against God's will. And our will has to line up with His will. Our will must be to glorify God and our will must always be... suppressed down because our flesh is fighting to glorify self and our soul since our soul saved wants to glorify god and we must consider how money and wealth and riches and material things falls into our lives you know a marriage works when both are willing i've said this before you can have the worst You can get the worst counsel from the worst counselor to try to help your marriage. And you can get some help if the husband and the wife are willing. But on the other hand, man, you can have the best pastor, the best pastoral council, the best church family that has multiple leaders that are, I mean, they really, they can just lay it on the way it should be laid on. They can be the best counselors, but if you've got a husband and a wife and they're not willing, it don't matter. I'm telling you, it's our will. that gets us in a lot of trouble. Child rearing is the same way. Sometimes you feel like you're on a horse and the horse is rearing and you've got to do all you can do to hang on, man. But child rearing is the same way. If the children are willing, parenting becomes, it seems like it's easier, doesn't it? And look. If one spouse is fussing or acting up or not living the way they ought to be, what should the other spouse do? Keep their eyes on God. and do what's right. If parents are trying to raise their children in a godly way, and those children are rearing up and bucking up, and they get to an age where they want to do their own thing and go a different way, did the parent fail? Not all the time. Maybe they just need to keep their eyes on God and keep their will focused on God's will. It's this willingness to want to get along and this willingness to want both parties to want to keep their eyes on God. Well, money wants to take you one way, and God wants to take you and I another way. What race are you willing to run? The one with patience that's set before you, or the race to be rich? Think and grow rich, man. All that stuff, all that self-help stuff. All of that is the race to be rich. I'm telling you, happiness is only found in a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. And look, you can make it in this world. You can have no education. You can be a college dropout, burnout, or never even went to begin with. You cannot come, you can come from a poor family where you didn't have money handed down to you and you can make it in this world. People have done it. People have done it. And it's all vanity. It's all vanity. So, 1 Timothy 6, we want to get our wills set, a way that will be rich. Fall into temptation is the next part of this verse. They that will be rich, fall into temptation. You know, Proverbs talks about, He that trusteth in his riches shall fall. Where is your trust? We don't trust in uncertain riches. Who do we trust in? The living God. That's our trust. We have the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. You can't search Him far enough, long enough, and wide enough to find all of the riches in the person of Christ. And we are takers of His exceeding grace, and we are rich in that. There are no poor Christians. We are rich in His mercy. But this fall into temptation, look, everybody's tempted. And it isn't a sin to be tempted. Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Right? Well, Jesus never sinned, so it's not a sin to be tempted. But, in the context of this verse, they that will be rich, when your will is to be rich, then you will fall into temptation. And, it basically will reveal what is in your heart. You have a will to be rich. you didn't rob a bank, you didn't do a deed, but you have a will to be rich in the heart, and then that will is going to cause you to fall into temptation. Now, although the deed is sin, we can also say that the deed is not sin, because Jesus talks about murder, you're a murderer in your heart. You've never killed anybody. Look, killing somebody is a sin. But if you and I think for a second that since we haven't killed anybody, we're not a sinner, Jesus very quickly reminds us, look, have you ever hated somebody? Have you ever had ill will towards someone? Yeah, you're a murderer. The guy says, I've never cheated on my wife. You've never committed adultery. But that billboard on the highway that you took a double look to, God says, yeah, you're an adulterer. Why? Because in the heart, that's where the sin is. The deed is just a bigger manifestation of what is already in your heart. Now, you young kids pay attention to this part of the sermon. This is brought to you by way of a loving preacher. If you have a sibling, whether an older sibling or a younger sibling, you're not going to like them at times. And if you think or say the words, I hate you or get away from me or I don't like you, the same Jesus that said, suffer not the little children to come unto me, that same Jesus who loves children, he also calls you a murderer when you are mean to your brother or your sister. So all you young people repeat after me tonight please and say it nice and loud. Say it like you mean it. and if you don't mean it act like you mean it and hopefully you'll start meaning it okay here it is real simple deep deep theology okay ready be nice but let me hear it again louder be nice be nice why get yourself worked up Okay? It's your heart that has to be made right. Pride is committed in the heart. Greed, we're talking about money, it's committed in the heart. And the will to be rich will cause us to fall into temptation. Then it talks about in 1 Timothy 6 verse 9, fall into temptation. and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. Man, you can't name all the stupid things people have done and do for money. Man, you did that for money? You needed money so you did that? Foolish, hurtful. Parents, teach your children about money at an early age. Teach them to give of their money. Teach them to work for money. Teach them that money is necessary in order to live in this world, but that the bigger treasure isn't our earthly possessions. No one starts off wanting to be greedy. Greed is foolish and it is hurtful. But notice what happens. You don't start off wanting to be greedy, but watch what happens at the end of the verse. Which drown men in destruction and perdition. You ever hear the phrase, man I'm drowning in debt. That's where that comes from. Then you're going to just drown yourself. And God says, you better be careful. And man, I'm just flooded with debt, somebody says. Yeah, you're drowning. You're starting to drown. And if you have a pool, you... I came from the People's Republic of New Jersey and in New Jersey they, they had a, you had to get a permit to do everything at your house. If you wanted a pool, forget about buying a pool because you needed a deck with steps and then you had to have a gate on the steps and then you had to have a fence around the whole place so that nobody would go in and because somebody would walk into your property, go into your pool and drown because apparently they can't see a big huge pool with water and so you got to pay for all that. Well to over correct. the fence around the water, around the pool, they overcorrected because they didn't want anybody to drown. They want you to put a fence up. God's putting some fences up so that we don't drown into debt. And if we don't heed those fences and we just keep climbing over every fence that God puts in front of us, we're going to be drowning. And God doesn't want that for any of his children's lives. Go to Exodus 23, because somewhere along the line, people, even Christians, get blinded by the God of this world. Exodus 23. Start looking at a few different passages. Exodus chapter 23. All these laws and ordinances God gave the nation. In verse number 8, he says, Exodus 23 verse 8, he says, And thou shalt take no gift. Back up to verse 7, keep thee far from a false matter and the innocent and righteous slay not, for I will not justify the wicked and thou shalt take no gift. Well, why not? For the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous. So if you're a judge and you accept a gift, you're going to be blinded. It's easy to blind people with gifts. You ever hear the phrase love bombing? People, they just throw gifts at you. They just love bomb you. You know, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts. Well, the love bombing, it's a negative phrase. It's not really about love. It's about, I've got another motive, but I'm throwing all these gifts at you because I want to blind you. It's not true love. It's deception. We need to be careful that we don't have get all of these material riches down here on earth and all these gifts we get for ourselves now we're blinded to the truth of god's word so let's be careful about that go to proverbs 30 proverbs 30 be a good exercise to read one proverb a day ...for the month. We did that a while back. If you forget a day or two, it might take you a little longer than a month, but it's got 30 chapters. Proverbs 30, verse 8 gives us some insight as well. Proverbs 30, verse 8. Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me. Man, everybody thinks they can handle all this money that they think that they want. But many men have ruined their lives over money. And they're thinking, oh, I can just handle it. And this verse, Proverbs 30, verse 8, you know what God says? You just be right in the middle. Don't pray for poverty and don't pray to be rich. God, just give me what's convenient for me. Somewhere right in the middle there's going to be what's convenient for you and for I. And I believe that's a good place, that's a good proverb to get a hold of. Alright, go back to 1 Timothy 6 and also get Isaiah 56. We're going to look at some strong warnings here. We've got Isaiah 56 and 1 Timothy 6. Keep your finger in 1 Timothy 6 throughout the message. But 1 Timothy 6, now the next verse. It says, 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. Greed is the selfish desire for something. I want more. I want more power. People think I want more wealth. I want more recognition. I just want more, more, more. And God says that love is going to hurt you. And the love of money is the root of all evil. Now, let me just park here and let's take another way of looking at it. what the love of money isn't. It's not greedy. Men, when we go and work a long week and Friday is payday, it's not greedy to want to have your paycheck. That's not greed. Okay. It's also not greed if you don't want to give your money to save the whales because the cashier, whatever place they're working at, the boss requires them to ask you, do you want to round up a dollar to give to, you know, save the manatees or whatever the humanitarian effort is. You can say no. Okay. It's, it's not greedy to say no to those things. It's your money. You've earned it. It's God's money, but He's allowed you to earn it, and you get to spend it how you want to spend it. And if I give to a charitable cause, I have convictions on where I want to give that money. I have a limited amount of it, you have a limited amount of it, and I'm looking to give it to specific Bible believing efforts. If you want to give to other things, that's fine. The point is, you're not greedy if you choose not to do that. It's your money. You can do with it what you want. And also, man, God tells us to provide for our families. It's not greedy to provide for them. That's the right thing to do. We know all these, we don't know them, but we've heard of them and have seen things on the news about all of these wealthy, wealthy, multi-million billionaires that give their money to certain humanitarian efforts. I don't know their heart. I'm not saying that we need to know their heart, but I'm saying a lot of people give to appear good. But they're not good. Their hearts are wicked and their hearts want to do wicked things. You know how politics works? Like that. It's a greedy, greedy, money-grabbing world. And people are given because they want something. And we need to be careful that we have some discernment concerning that. Man, Isaiah gave a strong warning. Look at Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56, God, oh, he never addresses, he always addresses the leaders harshly. The people, different. But the leaders, he lets them have it. Watch what Isaiah the prophet says in Isaiah 56. concerning these false prophets. In verse 11, His watchmen are blind. They're all ignorant. They're all dumb dogs. Imagine calling somebody a dumb dog. Isaiah the prophet did. They cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Then he says in verse number 11, Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough. And they are shepherds that cannot understand. They all look to their own way, every one for his gain, for his quarter. Isaiah calls these false prophets greedy dogs that can never have enough. Man, he calls out these false prophets. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, what did we learn about church leaders? They shouldn't be greedy of what? Filthy lucre. God warned the prophets and he warns church leadership to not be greedy of money. It'll destroy a church. It'll destroy it. Go to Proverbs 1. There are countless people who have left church. and nothing changed on the doctrinal statement nothing changed on the belief of the preachers of the people but somebody did something dirty with money And that family or that group of people that have just had enough and it wasn't made right and it wasn't talked about and it was covered up and it was a dirty, filthy lucre deal, they're gone. Do you blame them? I don't blame them. I don't blame them. God warns very strongly. about how to deal with money and it should be righteous. Go to, okay, so in Proverbs 1, look at verse 19. Bible says, so are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. Man, God says you seek gain by unlawful and wicked practices. Man, God calls you a murderer. That's a strong verse. Greedy of gain, which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. To that person, look, it doesn't matter how many families starve to death. To the person that's always greedy of gain, to that business owner, it doesn't matter to him that he puts all of the other little businesses out of business in town. That's his goal. He doesn't care if they starve to death. All he is worried about is his own gain. It's a destructive lifestyle. Destructive. Where does it start? In the heart. Who did it start with? I think this is a good side road to take. Go to Ezekiel. Go to Ezekiel 28. Past Proverbs. go past Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and you'll come to the book of Ezekiel. You'll need to get chapter 28, Ezekiel 28. We don't have time to open up the whole context of this chapter, so I'll just start reading in verse number 4. You have Tyre that's a city, but it's also a type, and that type is Satan. And in chapter number 4, it says, With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches. and has gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. All this wealth has been accumulated. By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God. Behold, therefore I will bring strangers unto thee. And this city of Tyre was destroyed and judged by God, but it's also a picture of Satan himself. When you get down to verse number 13, we see the type. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Well, that was nobody that was living in that city during that day. Now it's the type. That was Satan in the garden. And it says, every precious stone was thy covering. The sardis, the topaz, and the diamond. I was so happy, I saved up my money. And, man, I was in love. I saved up my money and I went to the jewelry store. And I was in love. I bought my wife a diamond ring, a diamond. And I spent all this money for this little itty bitty diamond. Because it's so valuable. And it had a real nice diamond in the middle, but I said, oh, I really love her. I'm going to get her the ring that's got the other little itty bitty ones around it. And that cost me a little bit more. But the real little itty bitty. I can't afford to buy diamonds every day. And I trust that you probably can't either. I don't think anybody has Sardis or Topaz and it says the beryl, the onyx and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald. I don't have any emerald. And the carbuncle and gold. They say the price of gold is astronomically high right now. But, you know, I mean, I guess if you need money, you can put your gold tooth out or something, but for the most part, gold is very, very expensive. All of this we can't afford, but it says, the workmanship of thy tabers and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth. Satan, he's a cherub by the way, not an angel. An angel doesn't have wings. A cherub has four faces and four wings. Seraphims, they fly and they have six wings. But Lucifer here, he was decked out in riches and in wealth. It wasn't enough. I don't want to just be the cherub that covers you, Lord, and my glory goes to you, Lord. No, I want you to be the one that covers me. And that was his fall. He wanted more. He had more than anybody could ever dream to have. But he wanted more. It's greed. And it starts with that anointed cherub. God help us. Do you believe in a trinity? Yeah, we believe in a trinity. We are made in the likeness of God, a soul, a spirit, and a body. Go to 1 John 2. Kids, I want you to get a hold of this verse, because you're going to be old enough someday to be actively presented with many opportunities, and I want you to know that there is a trinity of evil. that you need to be aware of. Well, we all do. Young people, I'd like you to really get a hold of this tonight. 1 John 2, verse 16. Here's the trinity of evil. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. I'm telling you, the world, the flesh, and the devil is the trinity of evil that we all need to watch out for. That world is worldliness produced by mammon. Our flesh is our attachment to it. We get so attached to it that we become spiritually blind and we become weak. Now the devil has a real good foundation to be able to build off of because we're already weak and we're already blind. Go to Matthew 6, I want to wind down on some thoughts that are important. But Matthew chapter number 6, verse number 24. Matthew 6, 24. Back up to verse number 20. Let me get one thing real quick. Before I read that, I just want to get something. I think we'll go right with this. Okay, that's right. Matthew 6, verse 20. The Bible says, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart... Be also. And this love of money is always going to be in conflict. Material riches are always going to be in conflict with spiritual riches. We can't get away from it. Does anybody have a super rich great granddaddy that left your family like five million dollars? No, I didn't think so. Me neither. Oh wait, except we do. Except we do. You don't have to turn there, I'll read it. 1 Peter chapter 4. The Bible says, I have, you have, if you're a believer, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away. Nobody's stealing your inheritance. Nobody's stealing your spiritual riches. As a matter of fact, the Bible says, it's reserved in heaven for you. And the next verse says, who are kept by the power of God. You don't have to worry about the bank system crashing and not being able to keep your money safely. You have an inheritance that is kept by God. It's reserved for you. Get your eyes on spiritual riches that we have in high places. Matthew 6. Keep reading because God strongly warns us in verse... Number 24, no man can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You can't serve two masters. You can't love them both, gentlemen. Gentlemen, if your wife says to you, Yeah, I'm going out. It's Friday night. Oh, where are you going? Well, I got, I got some other guys going to take me out to dinner. Okay, hold on a second. Well, where are you going? I'm going to get my shotgun. That's where I'm going. Why? You can't love me and love somebody else. Are you kidding me? Husbands, we say to our wives, where are you going? Well, I'm going out, it's Friday night. Oh, where are you going? Well, some girl, I'm going to take her out to dinner. And she's going to say, oh hold on, where are you going? I'm going to get my shotgun, right? Because it's obvious that would never happen because you would be clearly showing your hand that you don't love the person. Well, I'm devoted to God. You know God's a jealous God? Where are you storing your treasures up? Because that same application applies. If we say we love God, Bible tells us very clearly, Jesus says, you cannot serve God and mammon. Well, man, oh man. I guess my relationship with money just created me a theological problem. I can't serve both. If you are in service to money, the idea is to accumulate more and more. We are not in service to money. We're in service to God. Mammon is material riches worshipped as God. You want to know why America is so corrupt? What's the American dream? Yep. Mammon is America's God. You want to be the president of the United States. You don't even have to go up that high. You want to be the governor of a state. If you don't have a couple million dollars to start with, you're not going nowhere. America's God is money. Matter of fact, you trace this word mammon, there is a false god of riches, Maimon, M-E-Y-M-U-N. He's the ruler over the sin of greed. Maimon is the god of greed. By the way, that is what is behind the false prosperity gospel. More, more, more, more. And you know what the false god of Maimon says? Hey, look. Don't try to war against God. Don't do that. Don't start a fight with God. No, no, no, no. Follow after me. Build your own kingdom. You can do it. You can build it and be a self-made millionaire. Build your own kingdom. You'll live for money and you'll die for money. Matter of fact, occultic and paganistic pictures illustrate the God of Maimon. He's depicted as holding the body of a sleeping man. And as he's holding this man, he's suspending him in air. And he's just holding this man as he's sleeping. And it's showing, it's depicting the control and the grip and the power that this Maimon false god has. A lot of greed can take a hold of on somebody. Mammon is used in the Bible to describe as a mindset to achieve and to pursue more. You'll just betray trust for material wealth. Thirty pieces of silver like Judas. He's sitting right with the Savior. Let's finish up in Matthew 6. than they? God says, man, you trust in all these riches. You work and you work and you work and you trust in your money to provide for you. God says, what about me? You don't trust me to provide for you. I provide for the fowls of the air. You're so much more higher and better than that. You're created in my image. And all our trust goes to money. It shouldn't be. Verse 27, which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? None of us. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? O ye of little faith! Wherefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All these things shall be added unto you. I take therefore no thought for tomorrow. For tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. You can work for mammon, you can't work for God. How many hours are you going to spend working for mammon? How many hours are you going to spend working for God? His treasures are so much better. Job 15 talks about a dreadful sound is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. When death knocks on the rich man's door, if he's not saved, it's a dreadful sound. If you're saved, it's not a dreadful sound. You are following the voice of the Good Shepherd and praise the Lord. Jay Gold, he died in 1892. He had an estimated worth of $100 million. This is 1892. When he died, none of his family were present. Those who came, they didn't come for sympathy. They just came out of curiosity. and a little bit of, kind of, I'm glad he's gone. There was a cold sense of satisfaction that surrounded the entire town. Why? Because Jay Gold was a cold-hearted, unscrupulous, money-loving railroad developer in the late 1800s. He lived for money. He had no relationship with people. someday we're all gonna die you're not taking your house you're not taking your car you're not taking your clothes God says I've got a place prepared and if you've been clothed in my righteousness I've got an inheritance I want to give you he said that's how much I love you And all He asks for us to do is, can you just serve Me and not the money god of mammon? Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them that love him? Why don't we love God more? Because we can't serve both. Let's pray.
