Sunday Sermon: Keep the Commands of God (1 Timothy 6:14-19)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. In honor of the word of the

King would you please stand. This is 1 Timothy chapter 6 beginning in verse 13 reading to verse 19 the

Apostle Paul addressing his servant Timothy. Hear the word of the Lord. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment and unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ which he will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign the

King of kings and Lord of lords who alone has immortality and who dwells in unapproachable light whom no one has ever seen nor can see to him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen. As for the rich in this present age charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

They are to do good to be rich in good works to be generous and ready to share thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father as we come into these verses today

I pray that we behold the glory of Christ that Paul writes about so eloquently and exalting here so that the glorious things that the world says are glorious will pale by comparison.

They won't be anywhere near as appealing to us as the glory that has been demonstrated to us through Christ our

Savior. We will be fully satisfied in Christ and not led astray by the things of this world.

Keep us safely in your counsel and help us to do the things that we have been instructed to do for the glory of your name.

For as said in the Psalms God has set above all things his name and his word.

It is in Jesus name that we pray and all God's people said amen. When the

Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians he was writing to a church in a city that had largely been forgotten by the

Roman Empire. Now that wasn't always the case in Colossae's history at one point it was one of the most glorious cities in the empire outside of Rome itself.

That's where the city got its name from Colossae. It was huge. It was beheld as incredible by those who passed through it, those who traded in it, those who lived there.

This was one of the most incredible cities ever built by man. But then there was, then

Rome decided that they wanted to reroute one of their major highways which traveled through Colossae.

A lot of the trade that happened there, people coming in and out of the city was because of that major highway. They rerouted it 10 miles to the north that it went through Laodicea instead of Colossae.

And then all of the things that Colossae was known for moved over to Laodicea. At one point

Colossae was known as the purple fabric center of the world. This was like the finest fabric that could be made.

This was what royals dressed themselves in. They would wear purple. And Colossae no longer became that center of trade of the purple fabric.

It got moved 10 miles away to Laodicea. So all of that wealth and riches that used to travel through Colossae now went to another city and Colossae began to languish.

And then in the first century, even while the church was being built, while the message of the gospel was going forth throughout the

Roman Empire, there was a major earthquake that devastated both

Laodicea and Colossae. And Rome, because Laodicea was so important to Rome, the capital city sent great wealth to Laodicea so that Laodicea could rebuild after the destruction that was caused by the earthquake.

Laodicea had so much money that they sent it back to Rome.

They said, we don't even need it. We're doing fine. And they rebuilt just on the wealth and riches that they possessed.

But Colossae was forgotten. And Rome didn't take that money and send it to Colossae so that they could rebuild.

They were just left to do it on their own. And so you had a devastated city that was largely forgotten by their own empire and a church that was there in a place that nobody seemed to really care about.

Even their own capital city didn't care about whatever was going on there in Colossae.

And so when Paul wrote to this church, he wrote showing great affection for this church as though to say, you haven't been forgotten by us.

We know you. We pray for you. You are every bit as much a part of this ministry work that is happening in the world as what we're out here doing.

So you hear about Paul and the other apostles and the missionaries and the work that they're doing.

You hear about those things. We hear about you. And we pray for you and we consider you partners in the work of ministry that is being done.

Paul's showing great affection to this church so that they would know, you haven't been forgotten about. We love you and we pray for you.

There was all kinds of false teaching that was trying to woo the

Colossian Christians away from the hope of the gospel that they had first been given. There was philosophy, of course, that was common throughout the

Greeks and throughout the Romans. There was even, it seemed to be that there was this one philosopher that had come into Colossian.

He was making this claim, you need the philosophy. You can believe whatever else you want to believe, but I have the philosophy that will unlock all the secrets of the universe.

There were also what might've been the charismatics of their day, the hyper charismatics who were saying we're seeing angels and we're going to teach you how you can worship the angels.

And then there were also the Judaizers who were coming with their claims of you have to keep these aspects of the law if you want to be saved.

You can worship Jesus, but you also have to do these things to be saved. And then there were, of course, the other sins that have been common to many churches.

Though there were people who claimed to be Christians, they were still kind of dabbling in their sexual immorality or there were some anger issues that they had not yet conquered.

These were some of the things that the church in Colossae was having to deal with. But instead of opening up his letter, addressing those things line by line, okay,

I hear there's all these troubles that you got going on, there's these false teachers in Colossae, stuff like this. Paul does get to that, but he doesn't open with that.

The first thing he does in Colossians is he makes Christ big.

And in fact, he uses language to describe Christ Jesus so exalting that we don't even find that language in the other letters that Paul wrote.

Consider what he says in Colossians 1 .15. He is the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created.

This is Christ he's talking about. By him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things. And in him, all things hold together.

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning.

The firstborn from the dead, that in everything, he might be preeminent.

That word preeminent meaning top. There is nothing above him.

There is nothing beyond Christ to gain. There is nothing beyond Christ to get.

If you have Christ, you have everything you need. And that's how

Paul begins that letter. Even using that word preeminent, which is how we have it translated in English, in Greek, it's the word protouon.

And that first part of the word proto, that might be something you've heard before, like prototype.

A prototype is the first. And so to describe Christ as protouon or preeminent means he is the first.

And there's nothing else you need beyond Christ. That's the way Paul starts the letter so that everything else that he needs to address, whether it's false philosophies, false teachings, or even confronting the sin of things that are going on there in the church in Colossae.

He has first established you have everything that you need in Christ. Christ is the greatest.

And later on in chapter two to say that it is in Christ that we have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

And Paul says, I say this in order that no one may deluge you with plausible arguments.

So if you know Christ, you are less likely to be led astray by the schemes of Satan, by the temptations of this world, or even the temptations that you may experience in your own flesh.

And so here what Paul establishes with Timothy is that reminder of how great

Christ is. So that even when it comes to the temptations of this world, you will recognize those things simply cannot satisfy because I have everything that I need in Christ.

Let's come back to the passage again. In verse 15, we have kind of this excursus being tacked onto these closing instructions, these closing imperatives that Paul has been giving to Timothy.

Now, let me remind you once again of what we read here. Again, we have that first exhortation in verses 11 and 12.

And these were like these staccato instructions where Paul says, do this, do this, do this.

Flee these things. So flee sin and false teaching. Pursue these things, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you have been called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

So you see those action words there, flee, pursue, fight, take hold. And then from there, he gets to a more specific instruction in verses 13 to 15.

I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus.

I'm going to come back to that. He gives life to all things, Christ Jesus, our

Lord. Because as we come down then to verses 17 to 19, and we talk about not putting hope in riches, riches don't give us life.

Christ gives us life. So it is Christ who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession.

And remember, Paul just told Timothy, you must make the good confession. So you are following after the example of Christ who, though his life was on the line, made the good confession before Pontius Pilate.

Before a man who stood there before Jesus and said, do you not realize that I have the power to either put you to death or release you?

And what was Jesus' response to him? You would have no power if it had not been given to you from above. Jesus made that confession though his life was on the line.

So it is being said to Timothy, you must be willing to give your life for the gospel. Now, that is going to be an even more relevant point in 2

Timothy when we get to that letter in April. Because that whole letter is about,

I'm dying because I preach the gospel. And so, Timothy, you must be ready to do that as well.

That's even more direct in 2 Timothy. But here, Paul is giving this here at the close of this letter. Christ made the good confession and gave his life.

And so, you must, in your confession, be ready to do the same. Keep the commandment unstained,

Paul says in verse 14, and free from reproach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time. And so, my friends, this letter, though it was written 2 ,000 years ago, we're continuing to keep that.

We must continue to keep that. Keep the commandment unstained. Don't try to dilute what

God has instructed us to do with worldliness. You know, how can

I soften this instruction here so that I can have the things that I want to have or maybe look good in the eyes of the world?

That's not our objective. Do what God has commanded. Don't try to soften it or reshape it or make it into something else other than what he said.

Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. Keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time. And now we have that moment here where it's like Paul takes some space to just exalt

Christ. Remember who he is. Remember who we are doing this for.

He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen. Let's consider the various aspects of that, of what Paul says here about Christ and how he describes him.

First of all, he is the blessed and the only sovereign.

For Paul to say that Jesus is the blessed means that he is the anointed one.

He is the fulfillment of the prophecies that were made about the

Messiah who was to come, my anointed one, as he is referred to in Isaiah.

He is the chosen one. He is the one that we've been waiting for.

And remember, going back to what we had read previously in chapter 5, where it was said, or sorry, in chapter 4, where it was said about Jesus, that he is the savior of the world.

And so these things that are being said about Christ, there are the universalists out there who will take that passage and will say that this means that everybody in the world is already saved.

Well, that wasn't what Paul was meaning there when he said that. Because we've also read here in 1

Timothy about judgment that is coming upon those who do not know Christ. So what is meant there by Jesus being the savior of the world is that there is one savior for the whole world.

There's not a different savior in a different place. He might be the savior for us here in North America, but there's a different savior in South America.

There's a different savior for people in Asia, a different savior for people in Australia, so on and so forth. I remember a quote from Joel Osteen years ago when he was being interviewed by Glenn Beck, and Osteen said on this interview with Glenn Beck that people who are

Hindus love God. They just love God in their own way. No, a person is a

Hindu because they rebel against God, not because they love God. And there is that idea of universalism in which a person can love

God, but they just do it with the best of what they have. If a pagan worships the sun, it's not because he's rebelling against God, it's just because, you know,

I don't know what to worship, so I'm going to worship the sun. I want to worship God, but I don't know who he is, so the sun is the best thing

I have. Romans 1 tells us plainly that the reason why they worship the created things and not the creator is because they hate the creator.

They love their sin and hate his righteousness. And so they go after gods of their own making so that they can have what they want.

They can have the sins and the desires that they pursue that they want in their flesh, so I'm going to make a

God that's going to allow me to have those things. I'm going to worship the God that lets me do what

I want. But the one savior of the world is

Jesus Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. There is not another, and he shares his glory with no one,

Isaiah 43. He is the blessed, he is the anointed one, and he is the only sovereign.

Being the only sovereign means that he alone reigns over all.

And anything that happens, happens because he has commanded it.

What does it mean to be sovereign? Just as we had read in Colossians 1, verse 18, that he is preeminent, that he is top and above all, so that is what it means for him to be sovereign.

Christ is fully in control of everything that happens, and there is nothing that happens outside of his decreed will.

This is what it means for Christ to be sovereign. I remember listening to a former

Southern Baptist Convention president who was preaching on the sovereignty of God, and he said, what does it mean for God to be sovereign?

He said, it means that God has the ability to take the things that we do, and he just works them out to bring about his desired end.

I said, no, that's not sovereignty. You might be able to provide that as a description or a definition of providence,

God working in the midst of our circumstance to bring about his desired end. That would certainly be providence.

But sovereignty means God is in control. Nothing is happening outside of his control.

Either God is sovereign over all, or he is not sovereign at all.

A sovereign, or if you read from the King James, I think it's the word potentate that's used there, but a sovereign or the one who reigns over all, he has full control over his kingdom.

Nothing happens in his kingdom without his approval of it. And he is the federal head over his kingdom.

You've probably heard this referred to in theology, federalism or federal headship. What does it mean that Christ is our federal head?

Well, to be our federal head means that whatever happens beneath the head, whatever the head decides, that is in effect for his entire kingdom.

Before we come to Christ, Adam is our federal head. And so whatever Adam has done affects everybody.

Now this, we don't live in a monarchy, so this is a concept that's a little more difficult for us to fathom.

But when you hear this word federal, what do you usually apply federal to? The government, right?

Yeah, the federal government, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the, you know, we don't really think of them as federal heads, though, because we've elected them.

We decided that they're going to be in power. Yeah, that's what a lot of them want you to think. But if you were to look at this or consider this in terms of a monarchy, you have a federal head in a monarchy who one king decides for his kingdom everything that happens for his people.

If you have one king that goes to war against another king, he brings his entire kingdom in conflict with this other kingdom.

There's none of this, you know, like what you hear after every presidential election, well, he's not my president, you know?

I'm not following that guy. I voted for the other guy, so he's not my president. Well, if this were a monarchy, if we were existing in that kind of kingdom, you don't get to decide who your king is.

He is the king, and whatever that king decides for his people goes for everybody. So if one king chooses to battle against another king, that's one kingdom against another kingdom.

And so it is with Christ who is our sovereign, whatever he has decided for his kingdom, then that is the case for everybody.

But Christ is not just reigning over his kingdom, he reigns over all. And so everything that God has decided over all is exactly what happens for all.

He is the blessed and only sovereign. And so to go on to say, he is the king of kings and lord of lords, he is your king whether you like it or not.

You can't say, well, he's not my king, I choose to follow this king. Well, guess what?

He's the king over that king too. He is king of kings and he is lord of lords.

And this is exactly the way that Christ describes himself in the book of Revelation. I am the alpha and the omega.

I am the beginning and the end. There is not even anything that happens in time outside of my sovereign rule.

As Abraham Kuyper had said, every square inch that exists, exists under the sovereign rule of God.

As R .C. Sproul was famous for saying, there are no maverick molecules.

If there is even one molecule that exists in the universe outside of the will of God, then we have no certainty to believe that God will fulfill any of the promises that he has given us.

If even one molecule can go outside his will, what hope do we have that if he has promised us something, he will fulfill it?

But we can be certain in the promises of God because he is sovereign, because he rules over all, because he is king of kings and lord of lords.

The skeptic will say, why would you pray to a God who has already determined the beginning from the end, who has already decided what is going to happen, who is already ruling over everything?

Why would you even pray to such a God? To which I would respond, I would never pray to a

God who isn't sovereign. If I can't be sure that he can answer my prayer, why would

I pray to him? But knowing that he has all things in his hand is exactly why

I want to go to his throne and fall down before him and say,

God, hear my prayer and cast all my anxieties on him, knowing as said in his word that he cares for me.

He alone has immortality. Once again, meaning that he has no beginning and no end.

He alone is immortal. Now, we are immortal as well, only in the sense that we will never cease to exist.

And I want to put it in those terms, not that we will never die, but we will never cease to exist. For even the sinner will never cease to exist.

Even the one who never comes to Christ, who is never redeemed, whose eternal destiny therefore is hell, even he doesn't cease to exist.

Hell is his eternity and he will continue to be under the punishment of God there in that horrid place forever.

So once you have come into existence, there is an existence by which all men and women will continue in.

Only those who are in Christ will live forever. So there is a certain immortality that we have, but it's not immortality in the sense that we have no beginning or we...yeah,

right. We have no beginning. I said that right. Only God has no beginning. We have a beginning.

God has no originator. We had read a moment ago in Colossians 1 that Christ is the firstborn of all creation.

And there are some that have taken that passage to mean, in Colossians 1 .15, that Jesus was the first of God's creation, like the father created the son.

And so therefore, that's why he's referred to as the firstborn of all creation. Well, that cannot be the case because as you go on and read there in Colossians 1, it says that he created all things.

So if he himself is created, how can he be the creator of all things? How can he sustain and hold all things in his hands when even he has to be sustained by something else?

So what does it mean, therefore, that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation? It means that God has given to him all the rights of the firstborn.

Everything that belongs to the father belongs to the son. That's simply all that's meant there. Remember that Jesus says in the

Great Commission, in Matthew 28, verse 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Whenever I have debated with the Jehovah's Witnesses or the

Universalists or the oneness, rather, those that believe that God is not triune, but he's just simply one person.

He's one God and also one person. He might manifest himself as a father or a son or the

Holy Spirit, as the modalists believe, but there's not three persons in the

Godhead. There's just the one. Whenever I've had debates with them, I've asked them, according to Matthew 28, 18, so what was

Jesus referring to when he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me?

Who gave it to him? And they're not able to answer the question. It was given by the father because the son has received all the rights of the firstborn.

As that's understood in the Old Testament context, the firstborn would be the one that would receive the inheritance of the father, as it was even understood in a

Roman context. It was the oldest son who would receive everything that belonged to the head of the household.

So Christ being the firstborn means that he gets everything, that the father has extended to the son all that belongs to God, and that is everything.

And so Jesus being immortal has no beginning. He was not created.

He has eternal glory with the father. Jesus even prayed as much in John 17,

Father, glorify me with you, with the glory that I had with you before the ages began.

So the son is uncreated as the father is uncreated, as the Holy Spirit is uncreated.

God alone is immortal. So he alone has immortality.

He dwells in unapproachable light. And notice that Paul is using expressions here to describe

Jesus that can only be true of God. They cannot be true of anybody who is not

God. So Jesus is not merely an exalted man. He is the

God who has existed in all time, who has no creator, no beginning, and no end.

And he even dwells in unapproachable light. What is this unapproachable light that's being referred to here?

Psalm 104 .2 says that he covers himself with light. Daniel 2 .22,

light dwells with him. In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah beholds the glory of God, the vision that comes to him in the year that King Uzziah died.

And he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

And Isaiah says, above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two, he covered his face.

With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the

Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Now, notice the description of the angels there that are surrounding the throne.

They have six wings, and two of those wings cover his face. So even the angels in their glory, even the angels who are able to enter into that place where God dwells, he is so glorious that even the angels can't look at him.

They have wings that cover their faces so that they can be in the presence of God, and they themselves not burned up with the glory of God who sits enthroned on high.

The closest thing that we can get to in our earthly experience to what this glory might be like is the sun.

You can't look at the sun for very long. You can go out, put your eyes to the sun three seconds, and you could do damage to your eyes.

You ever looked at the sun for a second, and then you turn your eyes away, what do you have in front of your eyes? You have those spots.

You can't even look at anything else because the sun is so bright and so glorious. God created that sun, and his glory is even greater than the sun.

So that just as looking at the sun, you could do damage to your eyes and even to your brain. So we, in our finiteness, we, in our mortality, we, in our corruptible bodies, cannot behold the glory of God without doing serious damage to ourselves.

If we were to stand before God in his glory, it would incinerate us. And so Isaiah even recognizes that.

He sees God in his throne room, and Isaiah says, woe is me, for I am lost.

I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king and the lord of hosts.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with the tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

So how can we enter into the presence of God? Because we have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

We have been made righteous so that we might enter in. As Isaiah was made holy and his sins atoned for, the angel said.

So our sins are atoned for in the sacrifice of Christ, which is given to us.

All of the benefits of that sacrifice, God has chosen the mechanism by which he will impute the righteousness of Christ to us is by our faith in him.

So that the God who dwells in unapproachable light, we might be able to approach him through the

Christ who saves us. Paul goes on to say that no one has ever seen him nor can see him.

Now, that's a curious statement because we just read about Isaiah who saw him. Moses saw him but could not see his face.

God said to Moses in Exodus 33, 20, no one can see my face and live.

And so what God did for Moses was hide him in the cleft of the rock and God passed by him and Moses saw the back of him but was not able to see his face because it would have, again, just like the glory of God would do for us, it would have destroyed

Moses. So what does it mean there then that no one has seen

God nor can see him, we cannot behold his face? Especially in the situation, the circumstances in which we are in, we would never be able to behold the glory of God.

But note something, the scripture does tell us that we will see him face to face.

In fact, Jesus promised in the Beatitudes that we would see his face.

In 1 Corinthians 13, it is said, now we look as through a glass darkly, but soon we will see face to face.

And then we will know just as we are fully known, excuse me, in 1 John 3. It is said that we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

So a day will come in which we will enter into the glory of God that is promised for us to dwell in as well, and we will be able to behold his glory because he will transform us to be able to stand it.

Right now, we would not be able to stand it, but a day is coming in which we will dwell with God in his glory.

John 1 18 says, no one has seen God at any time. The only

God who is at the father's side, he has made him known. And that's referring to the father and the son.

No one has ever seen the father, but the only God, the son who is at the father's side, he has made him known.

1 John 4 12 says, no one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, he lives in us.

Even the immortal, invisible God who dwells in unapproachable light, who no one has ever seen or can see, dwells in the lives of those who worship him.

And Paul goes on to say, it is to him, the honor and eternal dominion.

Amen. He holds dominion over all that he has created now, and he will continue to hold that dominion forever.

He will never be unseated from his throne. There will never be a recount. He will not be unelected and somebody else put into his place.

He remains there eternally. He rules over all that he has made.

He is our only sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords. He alone is worthy of our worship.

Now then, knowing that, knowing that this is the God that we have been given through Christ our

Savior, that we have even been promised we will dwell with him.

Later on, when we get to Titus and Titus chapter 3, it is said there that we are fellow heirs with Christ.

All the stuff that the king gets, he shares with us as fellow heirs of his eternal kingdom.

Knowing this, is there anything in this world that can promise you greater than that?

And so, where does Paul go on from here? What does he say next? Look at verses 17 to 19.

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. Don't be full of yourself.

Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches.

What a great way to describe wealth, right? It's uncertain. You can have it one day and then not have it the next.

The American dollar can be the most valued currency in the world one day, and then

God may decide by his sovereignty that it has no value at all the next. You know, any day,

America, the United States of America, is on the precipice of another financial collapse.

It could happen to America. We're not untouchable. We're not invincible. Riches are uncertain.

As much as this country has experienced great wealth, just like Colossae did. At one point, one of the most powerful cities in the

Roman Empire, and then it was like virtually overnight, all of that wealth was taken from them and distributed somewhere else.

God could decide to do that with this nation. And we no longer enjoy some of the luxuries and benefits that we've had the privilege to enjoy as one of the most successful and richest nations that has ever existed in the world.

Riches are uncertain. And so,

Paul says, don't set your hopes on them. But on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says, you cannot serve God and what? Yeah, some of you said money, and I heard others say mammon.

Yeah, the correct word there is mammon. Now, a lot of people will take that to mean, well, that must be the Greek word for money because some translations do translate it money there.

No, mammon is actually a Chaldean word. And it comes from the Babylonians who believed that wealth could actually be personified.

Like wealth could actually become a person and get up and walk around. And you then decide to serve that person.

If I want to be wealthy, if I want to have riches, then I need to serve mammon. I need to give mammon all the things that mammon wants because then mammon will maybe bless me and I will be as rich and as wealthy as mammon is personified.

And so, Jesus says, you can't do that. You can't serve God and this money that you've made into a

God -like figure thinking that he's going to bless you with things. You can have that, the uncertainty of riches, or you can have

God who is certain and sure, who is eternal, who is unchanging, who will give us everything that we need for life and then some.

Don't place your hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, as Jesus has described in Hebrews, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

So, Paul goes on to say, verse 18, they, referring again to the rich, are to be rich in good works.

They're to do good, being rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.

So, what's being demonstrated here is that the rich are not putting their hope and trust in the things that they have.

They have such a loose hold on it. This thing can't actually satisfy me anyway, that they're ready to share it with anybody.

Here, this is what God has blessed me with so that I may bless you with it. Now, none of us may be in that tax bracket that would be called wealthy.

But yet, do you have a loose enough grip on the things that God has blessed you with that you're ready to share it with anybody?

I'm ready to share with those who are in need. There's nothing sinful about being wealthy.

As I said to you previously, when we were earlier in Chapter 6, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. There's nothing in Scripture that says it's a sin to be rich.

But the wealthy need to be careful because they have a greater temptation to put their hope and trust in those riches instead of a hope and trust in God.

Even those who are poor can have a love of money. So, it's not that being rich is inherently sinful, but we need to be careful that we don't put our hope and our trust in those things.

We trust in God who is the one that has provided us with all things. So, instead of desiring to be rich in the stuff of this world, desire to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.

Verse 19, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

So, we recognize here that we are to glorify Christ and we see that true glory is in Christ.

Those things that the world calls glorious are not certain. They may be glorious to the world one day and then have no value even in the world's eyes the next day.

I mean, how quickly do we see morality changing in this culture? That which the culture values as moral today may be an immoral thing tomorrow.

Once upon a time, there was a man named Martin Luther King Jr. who preached that the value of a man should not be in the color of his skin, that we should be colorblind, that we should not be looking at someone's skin tones to see whether that man has any worth.

That was what Martin Luther King Jr. preached in the Civil Rights Movement. What is the culture preaching today?

No, you actually must see a person's skin color. Abram X.

Kendi, who is kind of the father of this racism movement that's going on in America today, he has said that the solution to discrimination is more discrimination.

That's what he's actually preached. And you must actually recognize a person's skin color and either discriminate against them or show favoritism to them because of the color of their skin.

That's a far cry from the Civil Rights Movement that existed in America just a few decades ago.

See how quickly the morality in America can change. That thing which we valued as good at one point can be something else even contrary to that the next.

We can't put any hope in this culture. The only hope that we have is in Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

J .C. Riles said, I'm one of those old -fashioned ministers that believes every word of the Bible is true. And the book that I'm reading here is still the same words that were written 2 ,000 years ago.

They're still relevant and good for us today as they were when they were first written.

There is very sadly and unfortunately a movement that is going on in churches that is trying to diminish the glory of God.

I heard a sermon earlier this week from a pastor up in Washington who said the following. This is going to shock you, but I listened to him say it and this is what he said.

What if God worships me? Worship has become so God -centered that it risks the subjective colliding of our own things and biases, et cetera.

I don't even know what that means. What in the world does that mean? But notice that he says there at the beginning, worship has become so God -centered as if that's a bad thing.

What if worship is us on the mountain of transfiguration, the space where God spoke, that God was well -pleased, this place where God spoke about God's son in such a way that the light shone on him and God looked and said, wow.

What if worship is Genesis 3 where God says, where are you and who told you that you were naked?

Who told you that there was a flaw in your beauty? The God who meets us and keeps confirming that who we are is good enough.

What if that's worship? That's what this preacher preached.

I engaged with a man earlier this week who said the following to say God saves people for his own glory actually contradicts what

Scripture says. But what does Psalm 23 say?

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. And that's not a concept foreign to the

Old Testament. 1 John 2 .12, your sins have been forgiven for his namesake. Philippians 2 .11

illustrates to us that Christ did everything that he did, giving of himself, sacrificing himself for the glory of God the

Father. Psalm 106 .8, he saved them for his namesake. Psalm 8 .1,

you have set your glory above the heavens. Psalm 115 .1, not to us,

O Lord, not to us, but to your name, give glory. And Isaiah 43 .7,

I have created them for my glory. Blasphemy of blasphemies.

If we are to say that God sets us above his glory, far be it from us to think such a thing, that he would exalt us above himself, that's exactly what we want in our sinful flesh, for God to exalt me above himself.

But he is the blessed and only sovereign.

He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He alone has immortality. He dwells in unapproachable light.

He is the one no one has ever seen or can see. We can't even set our eyes upon him if not for his grace toward us.

So to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

This is the God whom we worship. This is the God in whom we are to set our trust.

Trust in nothing in this world, my friends, but set your hope and your trust in Christ.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the

King of creation. O my soul, praise him, for he is my health and salvation.

All ye who hear, bow to his temple drawn near.

Praise him in glad adoration. Praise to the

Lord as we take him.

Shelters we honor his wings, they so gently sustain him.

Past have not seen, how by his eyes there have been.

Praise to the Lord through the cross, surely this good day be done.

Ponder of you what the Almighty can do.

To the

Lord we adore him.

All that praises before him.

Let the amen sound from his people again.

Gladly for I we adore him.

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours.

But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family. Find a good, Gospel -teaching,

Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again Monday for more Bible study, When We Understand the