Lars Larson Live Stream

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Well, let's turn in our Bibles, please, to Ephesians 5. We'll be reading there shortly.
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Well, we've been considering the world as one of the three great spiritual enemies of the
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Christian. We battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And today is the fifth
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Sunday we've addressed this matter of the world. And we could go on and on, but I think we're going to leave this and move on to address the second matter, the battle that we wage against the flesh, which we'll probably pick up next,
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Lord's Day, Lord willing, I think. The Scriptures speak, of course, of this hostility, this warfare that we're waging between Christians and the world.
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And it's described, mentioned in a number of places in Scripture. We have cited some of these several times.
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The two that stand out, 1 John 2, do not love the world or the things in the world.
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If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and pride of life is not from the
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Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
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And then the very direct words of James, writing to professing
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Christians, Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
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Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Intractable enemies.
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God and the world. The fallen world has its ways of thinking, and these ways are often in conflict with, even in contradiction to the ways of God.
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And so the spiritual foe of the world that is against us, and we guessed it, takes on many forms.
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We've addressed some of these. Today we'll consider the fifth topic in this mini -series on Love Not the
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World. And so what we want to consider is the sin of covetousness. You can see that's linked with the idea of the world, isn't it?
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Love not the world, neither the things of the world. That touches in the area of covetousness. And so covetousness is a sin that can be regarded as associated with the first enemy of our souls, the world.
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But covetousness can also be regarded really as something that is born of our sinful flesh, our principle of sin that's within us when we covet that which we crave.
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And then also covetousness can be seen to be brought to us through the temptation that the devil poses to us.
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And so it really touches all three, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Did not the tempter tempt our
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Lord Jesus to covet when he took him up on an exceeding high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to them, all these things
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I will give you if you fall down and worship me? Wasn't he trying to entice Jesus to covet those things?
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Certainly was. So the devil instigated that. Our own sinful propensity has a problem with covetousness.
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And then certainly the world would lead us in that direction as well.
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And so do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
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Father is not in him. To love the things of the world is to covet that which
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God has commanded that we not covet. Now one of the most difficult aspects of the fallen world with which we all struggle is the place of the things of this world, which we have in our hearts.
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We're prone to covetousness. Every one of us. You are.
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I am. This is the way we are. We desire to have that which we do not have.
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And we tend to refuse to be contented because we do not have what we want to have. If we were in control of things, we would do things differently, generally speaking.
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And so we want more of what we do not have, whether we can afford it or not. And it can become really an unhealthy desire.
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And the Word of God declares to us that covetousness is sin. It's a sin, of course.
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It finally got Paul, wasn't it, before he was converted. He thought he was a pretty good man. Touching the righteousness of the law?
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Blameless. And then he came to that Tenth Commandment. Thou shalt not covet. And he was aware, he said, he had covetousness that permeated his soul.
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And it showed him his need for Christ. Probably when Jesus said to him on the road to Damascus, it's hard for you to kick against the goads, isn't it?
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He's probably talking about the goading of Saul's sin for some time with regard to his covetous nature.
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And so this sin falls under the broad category of worldliness. However, we need to understand covetousness should not be regarded as present when we simply appreciate or are grateful for the things that God has given us.
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You know, we're not to be selling everything we have and go off to a monastery somewhere and live in stark conditions, abusing ourselves.
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God has given us richly all things to enjoy. We should enjoy the things that God has made.
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Nor should covetousness be reduced to any and all desire for something you do not have. That's not necessarily sinful in itself.
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Desires are covetous when they become all important to us. That's where the problem lies.
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And perhaps leading us to do the following. First, when we say neglect or disregard the priorities that God has set forth in his word, setting aside
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God's promises of care and provision, setting aside our chief duty to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, but rather we're seeking after those things we desire.
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Principally, we've set it forth at the head of the list. Or secondly, when we become discontented or angry, envious or jealous of others for what
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God has given to them and that he has not given to us. Envy and jealousy of others is probably an indication of covetousness.
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Or third, when we grow impatient and we violate scriptural principles and commands in order to obtain what we desire, when we go into debt beyond our ability to repay or perhaps even steal or deal with others dishonestly in order to obtain that which we want.
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That's when covetousness is apparent, clear. Covetousness is a damnable sin.
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You cannot be a Christian and characterized by covetousness. This is quite significant.
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And here we have Ephesians 5. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children, walk in love as Christ also loved us, giving himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet -smelling aroma.
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Then he warns them about sin. Fornication, all uncleanness, or covetousness.
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It's right up there with fornication. It's a serious sin.
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Let it not even be named among you as it is fitting for saints, neither filthiness or foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, dirty jokes, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
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And then I embolden, italicize verse 5. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, or covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
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He doesn't have salvation. The covetous person is set forth as worthy of the same damnation of a grossly immoral person.
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Think about that. When we hear about gross immorality, and we do all the time, it just grieves us terribly, doesn't it?
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But covetousness seems to be so much a part of us that we don't see it, perhaps, as the evil it is.
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Paul wrote, Let no one deceive you with empty words, because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, and therefore do not be partakers with them.
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For you were once darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the
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Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. And the idea is that covetousness and these other sins are just not compatible.
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Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 6, covetousness is set forth as a damning sin, and therefore it's already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another.
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Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? They were suing one another,
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Christians going before non -Christian judges in the civil courts. In the name of the
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Lord, Christianity was being blasphemed because of it. No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat.
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You do these things to your brethren. Do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
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In other words, you will not have salvation. Salvation is inheriting the kingdom of God, entering into it the glory of eternal life.
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Do not be deceived. There's a lot of people deceived about this. Neither fornicators, there's again the sexual immorality, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
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Thankfully, such were some of you, but you're washed, you're sanctified, you are justified in the name of the
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Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. No doubt, some of us were characterized by covetousness prior to our conversion, but I suspect every one of us has to address this at times, don't we?
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Covetousness itself is a rather broad category of sin. In other words, although we're focusing our attention on say covetousness manifested in the area of greed or for money or things, the sin of covetousness can be committed in many forms.
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Perhaps the 10th commandment itself makes this clear. God has given all mankind, not just believers, but all mankind this 10th commandment.
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You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.
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But again, we're focusing principally on covetousness as shown in greediness, the inordinate desire for money and the things that are not ours to have.
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And this is a problem that we struggle with. We might even argue that this is a problem that is particularly difficult in the culture in which we live.
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We exist in a consumer -driven culture. We had some folks in our church in Germany.
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She was from England, he was from France. And he got a job in Montreal, Canada.
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And so they moved over and they'd been living in Germany for 20 years.
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And so they came to North America. And they came back and visited our church in Germany and talking with them, and they were talking about the terrible adjustment that they had coming to North America.
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And I remember Fiona very vividly saying, I now go into a drugstore to get some aspirin, and there's a whole aisle of painkillers.
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I don't know what to choose. She was in a dilemma. It frustrated her. She didn't know what to do. Because here in North America, there's so many options.
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There's so many, everything's available to her. And she struggled with it. That's the culture in which we live.
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So many things are readily available. When I was in Germany, I longed to have something
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English to read. I remember traveling 45 minutes on the train from our home in Starnberg to downtown
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Munich to the main Hauptbahnhof train station because they had an English literature store there.
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And I paid $30 for a New York Times because I wanted something in English.
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Longing for it. And I remember one of the things that I was looking forward to coming back to America, you can buy
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English reading material 24 hours a day, seven days a week, anytime. We live in this culture where everything is so available to us.
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And then we're bombarded day after day with you just gotta have this in order to make your life happy or better.
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We're in a consumer -driven culture. And so voices are bombarding us throughout every waking hour, leading us to desire and purchase that which we currently do not have.
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And some of us might be plagued by this temptation. You know, sometimes, again, the idea that things, we want whatever we want and we want it now.
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And I realize that this is a worldly spirit that wells up in my own soul when
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I'm going through a fast food drive -up lane and it's slow. And I get irritated.
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I think, you know, not being served as I want to be served. It encroaches on us and overtakes us in ways that we may not be aware because we think that we've got a right to these things.
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That's not to say that people in other lands don't have this problem of covetousness. There's not a week that goes by I don't get a request from somebody asking us for money.
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And I tell you what. You know, I had a lady write me from Nigeria the other day and she had orphans that the physicians would not care for their orphans because she didn't have a deposit and wanted me to wire money.
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And, you know, and by the way, we've done things like that in the past. But there's no way in the world
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I could answer every request. Nor should I. We've got to be wise in these matters.
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But it's difficult. But just the multitude of requests I get and appeals.
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And I'm sure that there's real, real needs. But covetousness isn't just here in America.
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And it exists all over the place. I commonly receive requests from churches in Africa.
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Won't you help us with sound equipment? You know, they want booming music in their services. It's just, it's incredible.
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Oh well. This desire to have and to shop is so apparent in our society it's actually been declared in some quarters to be a psychological disorder that needs treatment.
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In fact, I heard on the radio once the development of a new drug that's designed to curb the appetite of spending.
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How about that? Yeah, I see guys shaking their head. Yeah, I need some of that from my family.
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I'm just joking. One woman testified she couldn't go to sleep at night until she bought something on the internet.
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Covetousness is being discontent with what God has given us even as we long for that which he's not given us.
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Covetousness can be regarded as an absence of contentment. The opposite, probably, of covetousness is contentment.
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Covetousness, therefore, can also be regarded as ungratefulness to God for his goodness to us.
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We're ungrateful. And this was at the heart of Adam and Eve's sin in the garden, wasn't it?
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They desired what God had not given to them. They desired that which God had denied them. And so we read in Genesis 3,
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So when the woman saw the tree, that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
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And she also gave to her husband with her. He ate. She coveted the fruit of that tree, didn't she?
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This progression toward committing sin is commonly set forth in scripture. First the woman saw the tree.
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Then she desired it. That desire, there's the covetousness on Eve's part.
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And then she took it. She would not deny herself of it. She took it. The same pattern of sin can be seen in Achan, the person of Achan at Jericho.
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God commanded Israel to take the city but not to take anything from the city. And God wonderfully, miraculously caused
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Jericho to fall flat. And the people of Israel captured the city.
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They were not supposed to take anything out of that city for themselves. But Achan did so, of course.
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And so where God gave them an easy victory over this massive defensible city of Jericho, God punished them by causing
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Israel to be defeated, attacking a little city of Ai shortly thereafter.
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And this indicated to them that they had forfeited God's blessing. And so they, of course, did an assessment.
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Why did God withdraw his blessing? And it was finally determined that Achan had sinned against the
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Lord. And we read about this in Joshua 7, 19 and following. Joshua said to Achan, My son,
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I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel. Make confession to him. Tell me now what you've done and do not hide it from me.
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And so Achan came clean. Answer Joshua said, I indeed have sinned against the
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Lord God of Israel. This is what I have done. And then I emboldened and italicized the same pattern that we saw in Eve.
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When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver, a wedge of gold, weighing 50 shekels,
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I coveted them. In other words, I desired them. And then I took them. Same thing Eve did. And this is what we do.
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We see things and we want them and we take them or obtain them in some way.
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And of course, the result is that Achan and his whole family suffered the penalty of death.
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It was a capital offense and God restored his blessing to his people. Covetousness is born through our viewing that which
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God has not given to us or of what he has forbidden to us. But because of our sinful desire for that thing, which is a manifestation of a covetous heart, we long for it.
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We fix our attention upon it. We long for it. We desire it. In essence, we devote ourselves to it.
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We begin to worship it as it were. And that's why covetousness in two places in Paul's writings is likened to idolatry because it becomes really something that you fix your heart upon rather than upon the
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Lord. It's an inordinate desire and affection for something other than God and what
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God has given to us. We all desire things.
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And one of the ways I deal with it is I try and put myself in a frame of mind if I get it, fine. If I don't get it, fine.
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I tell you, Lowe's had a sale on an upright tool chest around Christmas time. And it was nice.
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Man, it was nice. And reasonable price, too. And I could use one.
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But I try to wait. Wait for three, four days.
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Put my mind around it. Get myself in a frame of mind if I get it, fine. If I don't, fine. And it wouldn't have been necessarily wrong to buy it.
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But it could be very wrong in the degree or nature of desiring it.
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I never bought it yet. But we all deal with this in different ways, don't we?
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And things can be thrown out to you, presented to you. The world knows how to elicit covetousness from your heart.
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It's an art form. And if people paid the big bucks to do just that, to entice you to be covetous toward whatever service or product that they are setting before you.
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The Lord Jesus addressed the sin of covetousness. He told the parable of the rich fool. We're at the top page four of your notes.
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In Luke 12. Then one from the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell me my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
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But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you? And he said to them,
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Take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.
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And then he spoke a parable to them, saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
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And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do since I have no room to store my crops? And so he said,
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I will do this. I will pull down my barns, build a grater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.
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And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years.
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Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul will be required of you.
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Then whose will those things be which you have provided, so is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
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I got a call early yesterday afternoon, and I was really laboring to come up, you know, to get this produced today.
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It wasn't coming easily at the time. And this woman, a radio listener, not one of us, thankfully, she called and began to, you know, said she wanted help from me, but she was very irritated about her grown daughter stealing.
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She accused her daughter of stealing from her and all kinds of, I won't go on and on and on about that, but she did.
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And finally, I had to cut it off. And then she called again this morning at quarter after five, and so just as if she had just continued the conversation from we hung up yesterday, and she was supposed to call me back tomorrow.
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But this passage gives me a clue to how to handle it. Jesus said, who made me an arbitrator between you and your brother?
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You know, who made me an arbitrator between you and your daughter? Beware of covetousness. And I happen to know this is her sin because of my past interaction with her.
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This is her problem. I'm not justifying her daughter or saying there's not great wrong there.
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I'm sure there is. But this is her problem, and I'm going to address it. I don't know how it's going to go, but she's already accused me of not caring for people.
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So we'll see. But covetousness, and it's subtle. We feel so justified.
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She took from me that which is mine by deceit and trickery. Our Lord warned people against covetousness, which is here set forth as a greedy desire for wealth.
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And so we read, a man approached the Lord Jesus, posed a question, and so we detect from the
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Lord's response this man was a worldly greedy man. He was covetous. Here is a man who would be willing to destroy his relationship with his brother over money.
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There's the parallel in my own experience now with this woman. And oftentimes problems over the distribution of an inheritance is played out in this way.
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I'm sure many of you could testify to that. And I believe the response of our Lord reveals the inappropriateness of this man's concern and his question to the
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Lord on this occasion. The Lord was talking about spiritual matters, and then all of a sudden he interjects this, talking about temporal possessions.
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And in doing so, the man revealed himself to the Lord as a greedy man, unconcerned about the real issues of life, of heaven and hell.
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He desired treasures on earth rather than treasures in heaven. And it occasioned the Lord to speak to the crowds about this matter.
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Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses.
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But oftentimes, that's the standard as to whether or not you've arrived in this world, right? In the abundance of the things you possess.
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It's very easy to think this way, particularly in this world. You know, it's how much you accumulate amass, hoard all you get, bumper stickers.
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You remember the bumper sticker? You say, he who dies with the most toys wins. I mean, does that not embody everything we're talking against here this morning?
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We would say it's easy, even for disciples, however, to fall into this way of living and thinking.
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Watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. We all struggle with it.
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And so in order to stress the folly of this kind of thinking, the Lord gave this parable that we might describe as the end of a greedy man.
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He described this rich man in this parable who took pride in his possessions, verses 16 and 17.
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The ground of a certain man rich yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, what shall
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I do since I have no room to store my crops? Actually, one need not be successful to be greedy.
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Again, I think that, again, some of these contacts I'm receiving from some very poor places in Africa and elsewhere are from greedy people.
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Greed is not determined by the amount in one's bank account or the number of possessions one has, but rather it's measured by the amount of space and priority in the heart that one has toward these things.
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And so a poor man might be a very greedy man. A wealthy man may not be greedy at all. It has nothing to do with the amount in the checking account.
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This man was a wealthy man and a greedy man, however. By the way, notice how the
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Lord expressed this. It was the ground that produced the crop, verse 16. But the man took credit, my crops.
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He regarded himself as a self -made man. He had arrived. The scriptures declare, of course, that the earth is the
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Lord's in the fullness thereof. But this man did not see what he had, what he acquired was a gift from the
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Lord. He had acquired it. He was not a steward. He was a self -made man.
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He did not see anybody but himself as responsible for what he acquired. He was not thankful to God. He was not mindful that it was
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God who blessed him. I sat yesterday and talked with a wealthy man.
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He himself told me that and I know he is, but what a godly man. He talked about how his dad had a terrible accident and thereafter the
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Lord turned him around. When his friends come over they are going to have dinner or something. He says, now let's pray.
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He got down on his knees. This is what my dad would do. He would have everybody in the room get down on their knees and pray.
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He raised this boy with these values. He says,
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I just cannot tell you. The Lord has blessed everything I have put my hand to and I am so grateful.
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Not an ounce of covetousness could ever be detected in this man. He was grateful to God.
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It was just a wonderful testimony. I really enjoyed visiting with him. Godly man. May we all be that way.
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Grateful for the Lord and mindful it's his doing and not ours.
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He took pride in his possessions, however, and he trusted in his possessions. Secondly, verses 18 and 19.
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He said, I will do this. I will put down my barns, build greater and there I will store all my crops and my goods.
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And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry.
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So he set goals for himself and he acquired those. He achieved those. He reached them. He established further goals for himself.
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Finally, it arrived. Concerned only for himself, he became rich for himself. He was not rich toward God.
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He was self -sufficient, so he thought, self -indulgent, self -centered. He had the attitude,
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I am merry and let the world be damned. I have arrived. But God's verdict, this man, this rich man, he was a fool.
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We read in verse 20, God said to him, Fool, this night your soul will be required of you.
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And who will those things be which you have provided? Somebody else's. And Jesus concludes the parable,
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So he who lays up treasure for himself is not rich toward God. May the
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Lord help each of us be rich toward God. The old adage, you can't take it with you.
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That's absolutely true. But you can send it ahead, can't you? When you put forth your funds for the
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Lord's work and for the good of other people, you're sending it ahead. You're laying up for yourself treasures in heaven, is what
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Jesus encouraged his disciples to do. And so although a man may be successful, wealthy, stable, and secure, if he only lives for himself and his own, not living before God and others, he's a fool for he ends with nothing.
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He'll live with little or no regard for eternity. This life is all there is. And this is where his folly becomes most clearly manifest.
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He assumes and lives as though there were no God, no accountability, no eternity, no heaven, no hell.
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It's clear what our Lord was teaching here. A life lived out with concern for only me and mine is a wasted life.
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Wasted. God did not place us here on earth to indulge and gratify ourselves, but to live to glorify him, to be rich before God.
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And so this rich man gathered treasure, but in doing so, he failed to gather true wealth for himself. He died in poverty.
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Spiritual poverty. Well, then the Lord gave instruction on how to avoid the sin of covetousness.
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And so he spoke of earthly provision and heavenly possessions in Luke 12, 22 -34.
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He said to his disciples, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on.
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Disciples shouldn't worry about those things. Life is more than food. Body is more than clothing.
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Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn. God feeds them.
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How much more value are you than birds? Boy, that runs counter to modern philosophy, doesn't it?
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There's an equating of life. No, no. The Lord Jesus said, you are of much more value than birds.
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And which of you worrying can add one cubit to a stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?
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Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
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If then God so closed the grass which today is in the field, tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you,
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O you of little faith? Do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.
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See, God wants to deliver us from this. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your
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Father knows you need these things. Seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.
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Do not fear, little flock, for it's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Thank God. Sell what you have, give alms, provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.
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For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And so in order to counter the sin of covetousness, our
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Lord assured his disciples of their Heavenly Father's provision for all things needful in this life, for their day -to -day existence.
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And it was appropriate our Lord would address this point because a sincere disciple might have said to him,
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Lord, I realize you should not be greedy, but really, I don't want to amass wealth and things, I just want to put food on the table and pay the bills.
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And he responded, you're not to worry about life. That shouldn't be your principal concern.
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And so he gave a number of reasons. We already read them, but now we're trying to list them. Life is more than these things,
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Jesus said. To focus on these things is to miss out on what life really is. It's to live a misdirected, misguided existence.
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And secondly, you may be confident that God will provide. Thirdly, it's ineffective to worry anyway.
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What good does it do? Fourth, after all, it's God who ultimately clothes you. And fifth, you'd just be like non -disciples, the unsaved of the world, the nations of Gentiles.
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It's as though the Lord said to them, unbelievers might worry about these matters, but you need not. Why be miserable?
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Why be full of worry like them? Therefore, he concludes, seek first the kingdom, and these will be given to you as well.
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We all know this, but it has to continually be reinforced, right? Because, again, we've got this sin problem.
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When covetousness wells up, and the whole world is immersed in it, and it sucks us in so easily.
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And then we want to consider Paul's instruction to Timothy regarding covetousness, 1
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Timothy 6. Now, godliness with contentment is great gain. Again, I would argue contentment is the opposite of covetousness, a lack of contentment.
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Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world. It's certain we can carry nothing out.
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He can't take it with you. And having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
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For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness.
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You can mark down, that's the seed sown in among thorns. They believe, you just ask them.
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They can tell you the faith, they believe it, they claim they're Christians, but the cares of the world and riches has choked out the word, so it doesn't become fruitful in their lives.
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They strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. See, it doesn't stand still.
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Many sorrows result. We could reason that the opposite of covetousness is contentment.
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Contentment with what God has given us, and with what God has not given to us. And here the apostle speaks to this matter.
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First he set forth a basic assertion, godliness with contentment is great gain.
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What is meant by godliness? John Gill, I really like him, a
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Baptist pastor of the 18th century, pastored the same church as Spurgeon, but 100 years before.
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By godliness is not meant any particular grace, but all the graces of the Spirit of God as faith, hope, love, fear, the whole of internal religion, as it shows itself in outward worship, in all acts of holiness, of life and conversation, which the doctrine that is according to godliness teaches and engages to, and this is gain.
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Very great gain indeed. Or we might describe it in terms, say, of the earlier chapters of this epistle of 1
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Timothy. Godliness speaks of a person who is devoted to God so as to be deeply concerned about knowing
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Him, pleasing Him, enjoying Him, making Him known to others. A godly man is one whose life is immersed with high thoughts of God, who is aware that he is living his life in the presence of God and under the scrutiny of God.
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He's mindful of the fear of God that we've talked about.
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A godly man or woman is a contented man or woman. And again, what is contentment or spiritual contentment?
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Spiritual contentment is a sense of well -being or sufficiency or satisfaction that the godly man or woman experiences in his soul that's grounded on a confident assurance that God is all -powerful and an all -benevolent
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God and that God is my God. The contented man is one who is happy enough with what he has or is.
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He does not desire to an inordinate degree something more or different.
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Again, it's not wrong to desire something. It's only wrong if it's an inordinate desire. It squeezes out other things.
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It takes priority over other matters. God wants to bless people with things if they're seeking first the kingdom of God and righteousness.
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He's given us all things richly to enjoy and we ought to enjoy them as gifts from God. But the contented man is a godly man because he knows
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God and he knows that God is for him. He's soundly assured based on the truthfulness of the promises of God in Christ.
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A God who is the source and giver of all good has his good in mind.
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And so a godly man who's a contented man knows who he is, what he's been given in Christ.
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One once described him this way. I think this was Gil, too. Yes. A man possessed of true godliness is a gaining, thriving man.
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Such as are godly or truly gracious. They are come into good and happy circumstances and are possessors of the true, solid, and satisfied, durable, and unsearchable riches of grace.
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All their debts are paid. They are richly clothed and deliciously fed and are in a good family, even the household of God.
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He's speaking in spiritual terms here. Who, or they, before were in debt, arrayed in rags, were in starving conditions, strangers and foreigners.
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Yea, now they are heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, and have both a right and a fitness for the heavenly inheritance.
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They are now made kings and priests to God. And in the present state of things have God to be their portion, exceeding great reward.
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They have an interest in Christ and all spiritual blessings in Him and have the spirit as the earnest of their future inheritance.
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They are rich in faith and in good works. Their souls, which were lost, are gained, and shall be saved with an everlasting salvation.
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And before long they'll be possessed of all the riches of glory, signified by a house not made with hands, a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is
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God, an incorruptible inheritance, and a kingdom in glory. How great is the gain of godliness.
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Amen. And so the reasons why the godlier are or may be content.
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First, Paul reasons we brought nothing into this world and it's certain that we can carry nothing out.
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You can't take it with you is what he's arguing. When God calls a person home he leaves behind all but his soul.
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And this is the idea of Ecclesiastes 5, 15, and 16. As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, shall take nothing of his labor which he may carry away in his hand.
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This also is a sore evil. This is Solomon as he observes the world. Draws conclusions that in all points as he came, so shall he go.
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What profit hath he that labored for the world? If only for the world. Of course he concludes at the end of all this this is the need to know
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God and keep his commandments and realize that all of life is going to be brought under the scrutiny of God's judgment.
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And even in times of great loss or distress there's a calmness about this kind of man.
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It was Job who had lost everything who could nevertheless say and he was distressed. He was grieving but he could say naked
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I came from my mother's womb naked shall I return there the Lord gave the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the
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Lord. It's common to think what has God taken from me rather than thanking
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God for the time and for the ones that he had given me for perhaps a lengthy time to so wonderfully enjoy.
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And so we read of Job and all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong. And so how could
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Job be this way? Although Job had been a wealthy man Job had not been a covetous man.
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He would be content before the Lord even in his great loss and distress. And then secondly
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Paul reasons having food and clothing with these we shall be content. The godly purposes to be content with what
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God or the godly purposes to be content with what God has given him and he purposes to be content with what
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God has not given him. Since God is able and willing to care for his own the godly man may be patient and waiting upon God.
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Praying asking waiting on God's provision content with God's goodness toward him for him.
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Our Lord bid us pray God may you provide us this day our daily bread.
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And we're to be content that God is able and that he will be faithful to provide us as we need.
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Food and clothing we're to be content with this probably he's speaking about general basic needs of life perhaps housing included also in that.
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The necessities of life. The psalmist in Psalm 37 wrote of the assurance that the godly may have in God's provision for them.
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Psalm 37 it's a wonderful psalm and I've given a portion of it in your notes page 8.
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A little that a righteous man is better than the riches of many wicked for the arms of the wicked shall be broken but the
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Lord upholds the righteous. See your happiness and security is not based on how much you have.
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The Lord knows the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time implying that those who are not godly just the opposite is the case.
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In the days of famine they shall be satisfied but the wicked shall perish. And the enemies of the
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Lord like the splendor of the meadow shall vanish into smoke they shall vanish away. The wicked borrows does not repay but the righteous shows mercy and gives.
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For those blessed by him shall inherit the earth but those cursed by him shall be cut off. I'm thinking of a person right now what a sorrowful end.
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He's not a member of a church obviously but he's an acquaintance of mine that I've known for numbers of years.
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It's going to be a sorrowful end. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord he delights in his way.
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Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with his hand. I've been young now
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I'm old yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor of descendants begging bread.
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He is ever merciful and lends and his descendants are blessed. The Lord provides.
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And then thirdly Paul reasons but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful loss which drown men in destruction and perdition.
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This is not a warning to the rich it's a warning against those who long to be rich. Again it's not dependent on how much money you have it's how much you've got to have or want to have that drives you.
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These people do not desire foremost to be godly they long to be wealthy. They do not see contentment as being right with God contentment in their estimation is found in the accumulation of things and wealth.
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They're not satisfied because they're not rich and they may never become rich but they never cease longing to be rich.
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It consumes them. That is the appeal of the health and wealth gospel the Benny Hens of this world throughout the entire world third world nations.
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He came to Durban I believe it was South Africa a few years ago and was going to preach in the evening and 100 ,000 people showed up but the traffic in Durban was locked up from early morning and you know people of the world want to hear that message.
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Why if you're right with God you're going to be wealthy and healthy and it has a strong appeal to people sadly.
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They however who desire who long to be rich fall into temptation and a snare.
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They long to be rich rather than godly. Well they will fall into temptation their longings to become rich leads them to compromise standards of honesty and integrity they sacrifice their goodness for their gain.
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The temptation for riches is too great saying that this is what their heart longs for.
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This is what they desire. They who desire to be rich fall into a snare. They're easily deceived and they're caught in a snare.
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Of course a snare was an ancient way of catching birds lay a loop of rope on the rock put some bait down the bird doesn't see the rope until he's snared.
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And so the rich those who long to be rich are easily tricked easily scammed and that of course is a big problem today.
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Just this week or last week I got called by one of my credit card companies you know you've got a couple a couple expenses here that just don't seem to jive wasn't much one was 62 cents the other was 62 dollars and somehow their ability to detect you know purchases it caused an alarm and so they froze my credit card thank
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God and then they called me and are these your expenses? No they're not.
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Well our department detected it. I mean the you know the people are clever and the fact is
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I hadn't used that card there was no balance on it hadn't even used it I don't know how they got it. I did try and purchase something for the church over at Best Buy about a month ago and it didn't go through for some reason and so I wonder if it didn't get you know picked up over there
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I don't know. I saw a thing on the news this week where there's a little attachment that they push put right on to the front of a money machine and you don't it's a card reader you come in you put your card in it reads your card and they come back and take it off the machine and it looks just like a part of the machine and so this was advocating every machine you go up to every
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ATM see if you can easily pull that thing off the place where you insert your card because it's a reader and if you can pull it off you know easily you know beware people are you know they're clever to deceive but those who long to be rich they're they're very vulnerable they're easy targets and they desire those who desire to be rich fall into many foolish and harmless lusts
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I read of a woman who got connected up with one of these Christian dating outfits with a guy from Nigeria he got $500 ,000 from her
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I mean people are so easily deceived the reason those who long to be rich are neither godly nor content for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil it's a root it doesn't stand still and he says some have strayed from the faith there are others who pierce themselves through with many sorrows and so Paul warned