A Godly Attitude Towards Money and Sex

Can you hear us from different places? I wanna greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have one head, that's Christ. If you have made him Lord of your life, many accept Christ only to go to heaven.

That is part of the selfishness that came into the race of man when Adam sinned, to think only of what I will get. God so loved the world that he gave his son not to think of what he would get, but what we would get.

Living for God's Glory Rather Than Personal Gain

And that's one of the primary characteristics of God that we need to partake of, not what I will get. The Bible says, whatever you do, do for the glory of God. That is the most satisfying Christian life that you can ever have.

So I wanna give this as an introduction to our subject today, just a brief testimony about my own life. I'm nearly 81 years old now. I was born again 61 years ago when I was 19 and a half, when I was an officer in the Indian Navy.

And seven years later, the Lord called me to leave my job. And in 1966, God took me out of the Navy and I've been serving the Lord in India and different places for the last 54 years. It's been the greatest joy of my life.

We work on different principles in our churches. We don't have any paid workers. I've never received a salary from our church in all these years. I trust God to take care of my needs, just like the apostle Paul took care of his own needs.

That's how all of us 150 elders work in our churches. Just to give you an introduction of how we work. We don't judge others. We're not here to criticize anybody. We live before God's face, but that's how Jesus lived.

And that's how we have sought to live. So coming to our subject today, a godly attitude to money and sex. These are two of the biggest problems that human beings have everywhere around the world, money and sex.

And so does the Bible have something to say about it? The Bible has plenty to say about it. To begin with, what was God's original plan for man? You remember once when the Pharisees came and asked Jesus in Matthew 19, why did Moses command divorce?

And Jesus said, he never commanded divorce, he permitted it. And even today, Jesus has not commanded divorce. So in the same way, sometimes people take scripture and misquote it, but God said to the Pharisees, how was it originally?

God did not make two women for Adam, only one. So Jesus always took people back to the beginning. So in this subject also, I want to take you back to the beginning. What was God's original plan for man?

Humanity Made in God's Image

Turn with me to Genesis chapter one, verse 26. Let us make man in our image. Verse 27, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. That's three times the word image of God, image of God comes in there.

Very, very important when we realize that God did not make the angels in his image, he made man in his image. And when, and then he blessed them, verse 28. Today he's blessed us with the Holy Spirit. And then we read in Genesis three, that Adam disobeyed this wonderful loving God, then began all the chaos there is in the world today.

So what happened actually there was, Adam thought, Adam and Eve, both of them, they thought they knew better than God. And instead of humbly submitting to what God had told them, don't touch, don't eat, sorry, from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

But the tree of life was there, they could partake of that. So there are things God has forbidden even today. And when we think we know better than God, or we can come close to those forbidden things and test it out and try it, the same problem arises that came to Adam.

So that is how sin originated and God had a great desire to save man from this calamity. And that's why he sent his son, you know the story. But I wanna tell you a few verses before I go on. And the first of all is John 14 and verse 21.

Here it says, Jesus said in the middle, he who loves me will be loved by my father. The Christian life is not just about going to heaven. In fact, to tell you honestly, I have no interest in going to heaven, zero.

And God is my witness when I say that. I want to be with Jesus wherever he is. That is my heaven. And that is why for me, heaven has already begun. Because I live with Jesus now every day. And the Christian life is not about just believing in Jesus.

He who loves me will be loved by my father and I will reveal myself to him. I thank God the way Jesus has revealed himself to me in these past years. But it begins with loving the father, loving God. And if you love money or sex more than God, well, then this verse is not for you.

He who loves me will be loved by my father. If you love Jesus more than everything else in the world, that's one of the primary conditions of discipleship. And if you do that, you have this wonderful promise.

If you do that, there's a big I-F, if. If I love Jesus more than everything and everyone else in this world, here is a promise in John 17, 23, that the father will love me as he loved Jesus. That's the most wonderful truth I've discovered in the whole Bible.

That if I love Jesus more than everything else, more than myself, more than my parents, more than my wife, more than my children, Luke 14, 26, more than money, property, and more than my self-life and the honor and appreciation of men, more than any pleasure this world can offer.

If I love Jesus more than anything else, I can live the most wonderful life that any human being can live on this earth. The father will love me exactly like he loved Jesus when Jesus walked on this earth.

Can you imagine a greater privilege than that? And that's for every one of you. There's no partiality with God. We begin with loving Jesus more than everything and everyone on this earth. And the father will love me.

That means as he cared for Jesus, he will care for me. What a wonderful thing that is. This most wonderful truth I discovered in the Bible, John 17, 23. You have to begin there. And I wanna show you one more verse, one of the most important laws of God, which many Christians have not understood.

Humility, Grace, and Victory Over Sin

If you understand this, it'll solve many problems in your life. The law of God described in James 4 and in 1 Peter 5 is like this. 1 Peter 5 and verse 5, the last part. God is opposed to the proud and he gives grace to the humble.

Let me repeat that. Very important for you to remember all your life. God opposes the proud and he gives grace to the humble. And it's not a question of what other people think we are humble. We can fool the whole world that we are humble.

But if we have high thoughts about ourselves and we think we are very important people, then God is opposed to us. And there's something else. Psalm 138, verse six, it says, God knows proud people far away.

He keeps proud people far away. Anyone who is proud of anything, spiritually proud, proud of material things, proud of his education, proud of his good looks, proud of anything, God keeps him far away.

Psalm 138, six, I don't want to be far away from God. I wanna be very close to him. And there's one secret. God gives grace to the humble. And Romans 6, 14 says that sin will not have dominion over you when you're under grace.

So if you wanna overcome sin, we have to receive grace and God gives his grace only to the humble. One more verse. God dwells in two places, Isaiah 66 and verse two. He dwells in the high and holy place and he dwells with him who is humble, Isaiah 66, verse two.

He looks upon those who are humble and contrite in spirit. This is the person upon whom God looks. If you want God to look at you, be humble and contrite in spirit. So having said those words as an introduction, let's move into our subject.

Salvation as Progressive Christlikeness

The purpose with which God saved us is to bring us back to his original purpose. What was that? That we might reflect his image. And when Jesus was on earth, he reflected the image of the father perfectly.

And that is why he has called us to reflect that image more and more. You know, when we first come to Christ, we are so corrupted by sin, but the grace of God, which he gives to the humble, can change us little by little, by little, by little, that more and more we can become like Christ.

The purpose of salvation is to make us like Christ. Romans chapter eight and verse 29. Those whom God knew beforehand, he predestined. That means he had a destination for them. Just like when you buy a train ticket, destination is written on that ticket.

When God saved you, he had a destination for you. And that destination is not heaven. And predestined, Romans 8, 29, is to become like his son, Jesus Christ, so that Jesus Christ might be the elder brother among many brothers and sisters.

That is God's purpose. Never forget that. Don't think of salvation as God's purpose is to take you to heaven. No, it's to make you like Jesus. And if you're not fulfilling that more and more, you're frustrating God's plan.

Just like if you get a train ticket to go from one place to another, and if you are in the right train, every hour you'll get closer and closer to your destination. And if you are on the right path, every day, every year, you become more and more like Christ.

Otherwise you're going in the wrong direction. Examine your life. How is it compared to last year? What does your wife think about you? What does your husband think about you? Have you become more like Jesus?

If not, you're going in the wrong direction, my brother, sister. So please keep that in mind. Let's turn to 1 John 2, verse six. It's an amazing calling. Everyone who says that he abides in Christ must walk as he walked.

Is that possible? God will never give us a command, which is not possible. What should your attitude to money be? The same attitude Jesus had towards money. That's our goal. You won't reach there in one day, but if you work towards it every year, listen carefully, every year, your attitude to money will become more and more like the attitude of Jesus to money.

Sex, your attitude to sex will be the attitude Jesus had. Jesus was never married, but he was tempted in all points. The Bible says exactly like us. Hebrews 4 .15. Are you tempted in some area? Hebrews 4 .15 says, Jesus was tempted exactly like us, but he never sinned.

He was tempted with money, he was tempted with sex, but he never sinned. And our calling is to walk as he walked. We don't become like him overnight. 1 John chapter three, verse two. When Christ comes again, the last part, we will be like him.

We will never be completely like him until he comes again. Our attitude to money and to sex will not be 100 like Jesus' attitude until he comes again, but it should be better every year. If it is 1 like his attitude today, it should be at least 1 .1 by next year, 1 .2 and 1 .5 and 2 and 5 and 10 year by year by year that we become more and more like him in his attitude to people, his attitude to things, his attitude to his temptation.

We will be like him more and more. And that doesn't happen automatically. 1 John chapter three, verse three says, if you have this hope in you, very important verse. If you have this hope, of becoming like Christ when he comes again, what is the proof of it?

What is the evidence of it? You will purify yourself. Now the Bible speaks about the blood of Jesus cleansing us. That's what God does. If we confess our sins and we turn from our sin, God is faithful to cleanse us in his blood and wipe us clean from all unrighteousness.

But that is God's work dealing with our past. He, we can never cleanse our past no matter 10 ,000 good works or a million good works will not erase one sin from our life. Only the blood of Jesus Christ we shed on the cross, the judgment he took on Calvary's cross, the hell that he experienced on the cross for our sake is what forgives us.

Now we are talking beyond forgiveness. Forgiveness is just cleaning the cup. You know, when you drink a cup of milk or a cup of water, the first thing is to clean the cup. And the first thing God does is clean up our heart.

And then he wants to fill us with the life of Christ. He doesn't want to leave that cup empty. And that can happen only as we cooperate with him. Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, Matthew 11, 29.

We have to work together with him. The Bible says that God wants to work within us. It says in Philippians 2, it's God who works within us. Philippians 2, 13, to desire his will in the areas of money and sex.

And then to do his will in the areas of money and sex. Philippians 2, 13. But Philippians 2, 12 says, we have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. In other words, we have got to cooperate with God because otherwise we'll become robots.

There are certain objects that God has created that don't have a will of their own. It's the stars, the planets. They have obeyed God for thousands of years without any disobedience, but they don't have a will of their own.

Stars and planets can never become sinners. They can never become sons of God. The same way with the trees and the flowers. They obey God's laws. They can't become sinners and they can't become children of God.

But it's only when God gives us a free will to choose that we can become children of God or sinners. So because God's given us a free will, he wants us to exercise that free will in his direction always, not once for all, but every day.

You know, a good marriage does not begin with a good wedding. It's good to have a good wedding. You love each other fervently that day you get married, but a good marriage is a day by day affair. Every day, as each husband and wife deny themselves, they can have a good marriage.

But if they don't, just because we had a good wedding, doesn't mean you have a good marriage. The same way you may have accepted Christ in your life once, but that doesn't mean you're growing spiritually.

Most Christians are backslidden terribly. They love Jesus more on the first day they were converted than they do today. We have to purify ourselves, cleanse ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that's why it's very important to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So let's talk a little bit about our attitude to money, having heard those words of introduction. Let me show you a verse which many people don't take seriously.

Money as a Rival Master

Luke 16 and verse 13. Luke, please turn with me. This is a very important verse. If you don't know it, please look at it. Luke 16 and verse 13. Jesus said, no servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other.

And who are the two masters he's talking about? Not God and Satan, but God and money. Do you know, if you were to ask Jesus, who are the two masters trying to rule man? You ask the average Christian, they'll say God and Satan.

Jesus says, no. The two masters that are trying to rule you are God and money. And some of you who can sit back and say, I don't serve Satan, good. But if you're serving money, you can't serve God. It's very important to understand that.

I've hardly heard a message in my life from anyone on this verse. Because it says here, you've got to hate the one and love the other. And you've got to hold on to one, devoted to be devoted to one and despise the other.

Apply those verses to God and money. How can I love God? According to Luke 16, 13, face it. However difficult it may be, face it. And it'll work for you. Sometimes we have to go through a difficult surgery for a cancer to be removed from our body.

And people are so willing, even to let some organ of theirs be removed from their body if they can be free from cancer. I tell you, the love of money is one of the biggest cancers that's found in all human beings and even among believers.

And they don't want God, the Holy Spirit, to do any surgery to remove the love of money from them. And that's why they never love God. They think they do, because they're active in Christian work and doing so many things.

They preach and do all that. But I want to say to you in the name of Jesus, if you love money, you do not love God. I remember when I preached this somewhere, somebody said, oh, is there anybody who doesn't love money?

Uh-huh. There are lots of people. Maybe you don't. You're not one of them, but there are many people in the world who love Jesus more than anything else. See, what does it mean to hate money? Luke 16, 13.

In another passage, two chapters earlier, Luke 14, 26, Jesus said, if you want to be my disciple, you've got to hate your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and your own life. So what did he mean there by hate?

Because in other places, he tells us to honor father and mother. It says you've got to love your wife like Christ loved the church. So this is not contradicting that. The meaning of hate, father, mother, wife, children, et cetera is that the love for Christ must be so great that all other loves sort of disappear in the darkness.

Something like, you know, when the sun rises, the light of the stars disappears. There is light in the stars. Stars are very bright, but they disappear when the sun rises. So that's an example of what he meant by hate.

And when you compare scripture with scripture, you understand that in Matthew 10, 37, what Jesus meant was he who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. Put that together with here.

You've got to hate money to love God means I have to love God more than I love money. Just like I got to love God more than I love my father and mother, more than I love my wife and children. You cannot be a disciple if you don't love Jesus supremely.

He must have number one place in your life. Otherwise he'll have no place in your life. And money very often takes the place that Christ should have in our life. You must put money below. It's not that you can't use it.

Do you know that in the first chapter in the beginning of the Bible and at the end of the Bible, it speaks about gold. In the garden of Eden, there was gold. Did you know that? Galatians, sorry, Genesis 2, 11.

It says there is gold. Genesis 2, 11 in Eden. And it says in verse 12, Genesis 2, 12, that gold of that land is good. Gold is good only when it is in God's presence. Genesis 2, 12. And the other place we read about gold is in Revelation and chapter 21.

And it says here in verse 21, Revelation 21 and 21 at the beginning of the Bible, you read about gold. Here at the end of the Bible, you read about gold. And here it says the streets of the city, the streets of heaven are of pure gold.

So in heaven, people walk on gold. Gold is under their feet. Here on earth, people put gold on their head, around their neck, their ears, but in heaven, they put it under their feet. In other words, the picture there is that gold does not have any power over me.

Money doesn't have any power over me. It's there, it's good. You read that in Genesis 2 and Revelation 21, but it has to be under my feet. If it is to be good. If it's filling my mind, it's not good. Money must be under my feet.

I must be the master of money, not money be the master of me. That's the point. Money is a good servant, but a terrible master. Can you have plenty of money and be a disciple of Jesus? Well, it depends whether they're all your servants.

Abraham, we read, had 318 servants. Ooh, what a large number of servants, but Abraham was the master. Every one of those servants obeyed Abraham. You can be a very rich man, but if money is under your feet, you can be a disciple of Jesus.

Or you can have very little money, one servant. And if that servant takes over your house, then you're not the master anymore. It's not a question of how much money you have. It's a question of whether money is under your feet or on top of your head.

Some people think that you have to be very poor in order to be a disciple of Jesus. Job was one of the richest people in the world, and God said there was nobody on earth like him. Abraham was another very rich person.

In the new covenant also, there are rich people and there are poor. These things are unimportant. It's like, are you good looking or not so good looking? It doesn't make a difference. If your looks mean a lot to you, then you can't be a disciple of Jesus.

But if your looks don't mean anything to you, your discipleship of Jesus does not depend on how handsome you are, how tall you are, how good looking you are, what's the color of your skin. It doesn't depend on that at all.

It's a question of whether all these things are subservient underneath your feet. And Christ alone is your Lord. So that's the most important thing in relation to money, where I can't be, as it says in Luke 16, 13, I can't be devoted to Jesus Christ, unless I say money, you have no power over me.

You're my servant. I won't kick you out of the house. I need you. We all need money on this earth, but it's a question of putting it in the proper place. You know, in the Old Testament, if you read the Old Testament prophets, the main thing they condemned Israel for was for idolatry.

It was because of idolatry that Israel was punished and sent into captivity many times. And if you look at the idolatry of Israel in the Old Covenant, they made idols of gold. And many of their worship places, they had sexual sin, just like today.

There's a lot of sexual sin in religious places. Yeah, wherever sex and money come together, that's idolatry. In the Old Testament, in the high places, we read about the Israel worshiping in the high places.

It was gold and there were sexual sin, religious prostitutes that was there in the Old Covenant and is there today in many heathen religions and even a lot of pastors who sin with women. Sex and money are a very important part of false religion in the Old Covenant and even today.

So we must remember that these are the two things that we have to really fight and be free from. So coming back to this, let me turn to 1 Timothy in chapter six and verse three. 1 Timothy six, it says here, he's talking about people who preach a different doctrine and he goes on to talk about godliness.

What is this different doctrine? If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words, healthy words of Jesus Christ. And he's talking about money, a wrong attitude to money.

People who preach a different doctrine where your attitude to money is unimportant. It is very, very important. And he goes on to say that these are people who think of verse five of godliness, 1 Timothy six five, as a means of making profit for themselves.

You know, the number of Christian preachers who have used their gift to make money for themselves. I remember when God called me to his service and when I left my job 54 years ago and I sought the Lord for some guidance.

I took all my life savings, which I earned in the Navy over many years. And I gave it away for God's work. And I came out with an empty bank account to serve the Lord. And I said, Lord, I'm gonna trust you for all my need.

Now I'm not saying others should do it. If God called me to do it and that's why I do it. And not everyone is called to full-time Christian work like me. So I'm not saying that is something we have to do.

But I'm just telling you what the Lord tried to teach me then. And I came to the scriptures and I read the first temptation of Jesus where the devil told him, you're hungry now, 40 days you have not been eating.

Turn, you've got the power. Turn these stones into bread and satisfy your hunger. And Jesus said, no, I don't live by food. I live by every word that proceeds from the father. And I have not received a word from the father to turn stones into bread, so I won't do it.

He had the power to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. He would not have been cheating anybody. That's not stealing to turn stones into bread. If God has given you power, what's wrong in turning stones into bread to satisfy your hunger?

But Jesus said, no. But he did use his power to multiply bread once for 5 ,000 men and many women and children. When he took five loaves and multiplied it. So what I learned from that was he did not use his power to make bread for himself, but he used it to make bread for thousands of others.

And what the Lord told me there was, when I give you a gift, it may be a gift of preaching or any other gift, you must not use it to make profit for yourself. Zero. But use it to bless others. That's what I learned from the first temptation of Jesus.

You cannot use the power God gives you to satisfy your own need. You cannot use the power and influence God gives you because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit to become famous or to seek honor or to seek for money or to seek for any gain for yourself.

But you can use it to serve others again and again and again. And I've sought to follow that principle by the grace of God. Lord, I will never use any gift you've given me to promote myself, to make gain for myself.

I will not make gain for myself through my preaching gift. And that's why all the books I write, the Lord said, don't ever take any royalty for it. Paul never took any royalty for his writings. And we have never done it.

And the same way with use, you know, don't preach to make money. Don't go somewhere to preach to make money. Very, very important. So it says here about people who have made godliness a means of gain for themselves.

Well, they're not like Christ. But he says, godliness can make a lot of spiritual gain in your life if it's accompanied by contentment. One of the most important lessons we need to learn is to be content with what God gives us.

To be content with whatever the way God has made us. Don't look at somebody else and say, why is he more good looking than me? Well, God made you the way you are, be happy. I wanna be happy with the way God made me.

I don't want to wish I would like somebody else. I don't want to wish that I had a house like somebody else or a car like somebody else or a scooter like somebody else. Yeah, if you learn to be content with what God gives you, you'll be free from the love of money.

Godliness with contentment is a great gain. In one translation, it says godliness with frugality. Frugality means living very simply. That's another thing that the Lord taught me. Don't waste money on yourself.

Live simply. Don't follow the example of worldly people or even the example of other Christians or other preachers. Live simply. Jesus lived very simply. He did not waste money unnecessarily. Now, don't misunderstand me.

I'm not saying you can't have an ice cream or something like that. But don't, just because God's given you money, don't think that, yeah, I can spend that lavishly on myself and waste it. Godliness, living simply with contentment will bring great profit in your life.

Because it says in 1 Timothy 6, verse 7, remember one thing, when you came into the world, you brought nothing. When you leave this world, you can take out nothing. So then if God has given us enough to take care of our earthly needs, be content.

Now listen to this. Those who want to get rich, verse 9, fall into many temptations and a snare. A snare is like a trap. You know how they catch wild animals in the jungle? They put a trap and even the tigers and elephants get caught in a trap.

That's a snare. And it says here, those who want to get rich, not those who have money, not those who became rich. Listen, read carefully. Don't add to scripture. There are many God-fearing Christians who never pursued wealth, but God has blessed them and they become very wealthy.

They become millionaires, fine. There's nothing wrong in that. But they didn't want to get rich. Their whole aim in life was not to become rich. They did not pursue after money. But those who want to get rich, their aim in life is, I wanna make more and more money.

Your aim in life should be, I wanna be more and more like Jesus. So those who want to get rich will fall into a snare. They'll get caught like the animal in a trap by the devil. And not only that, they'll fall into many foolish desires, 1 Timothy 6, 9, many harmful desires, and it will finally ruin them and destroy them.

I've seen that happen. Be very careful when God multiplies your wealth. Keep gold under your feet. Walk on it. Don't let it fill your mind. Those who want to get rich. You can become rich without wanting to get rich.

But you may be poor, but you want to get rich. You're in danger. The other thing it says here about money, 1 Timothy 6, 10 is, the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. When I love money more than I love Jesus Christ, when money is not under my feet, but it's in my mind all the time.

How can I make more? How can I make more? I'm not talking about poor people who are struggling to survive, particularly at a time like this, when there's a plague going on all over the world and many people have lost their jobs.

They're naturally thinking, how can I earn some money to take care of my family? There's nothing wrong in that. They're thinking of necessities. I'm not talking about such people. I'm talking about people who got far more than they need and they want to get more and more rich and they love money.

And well, it says here about verse 10, I'm not talking about those who are longing, longing for more and more and more and more. It leads to, it's a root, verse 10, 1 Timothy 6, 10, from which all sorts of evil come.

Think of a root from which a tree comes out, all sorts of evil. What is it? What's the root there? The love of money. And those who long for it have wandered away from the faith. One of the easiest ways to wander away from the faith, from the true faith, and to lose your salvation completely and end up in hell is by longing for more and more and more money.

Let me clarify, God gives you and you don't seek for it. You don't run after it. You don't love it. You don't long for it. God gives you, accept it. But if you long for it and you love it, then you're eager to become more and more rich.

You can wander away from the faith one day and you'll pierce yourself and your family with many, many sorrows. Be very careful. So Paul tells Timothy, verse 11, what should you do? Not avoid these things, but run away from these things.

Run away from it. Stay completely away from this running after money, which is happening even among Christians and fight the good fight of faith, verse 12. And think of Jesus Christ, verse 13, who made a good confession before Pontius Pilate.

Why is that mentioned here about Jesus making a good confession before Pontius Pilate? You know what was the confession Jesus made before Pontius Pilate? Let me read it to you. What Jesus said to Pontius Pilate was in John chapter 18 and verse 36.

"'My kingdom is not of this world.'. That's the good confession he made. "'If my kingdom were of this world, "'then my servants would be fighting "'so that I don't get captured by you people. "'But I did not allow Peter or anybody else "'to fight in the garden of Gethsemane "'when they came to capture me "'because my kingdom is not of this world.'".

Applying that to money in relation to what we read in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 13, the good confession, he had to say, "'My kingdom is not of this world "'so I don't fight for money.'. Judas Iscariot stole the money which people gave for Jesus and he didn't fight with Judas Iscariot over it.