For our Scripture reading this morning, we're going to turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6. We'll read the whole chapter. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. and they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and unto many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called. and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot. unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting, amen. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science, falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. We consider this morning verses six through eight. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with contentment. Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle here in the passage that we consider this morning, sets forth a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. So fundamental is this doctrine that it stands as a foundation, as it were, to matters, indeed all matters, of faith and of godly living. go wrong here, and one will end up denying the faith, forsaking the faith, and living a life that leads to perdition. So important is the truth that the apostle sets forth in this text. That truth is simply this, godliness with contentment is great gain. The truth, a simple truth, a truth easy to understand, and a truth that is fundamental to faith and life. That this is the case is evident when you see that the apostle is connecting that truth with the context. The context is that there were false teachers. false teachers in the church that were teaching the opposite. And that, in particular, with regard to how slaves and how employees ought to treat their masters and their employers, especially and even those who were also fellow believers. And so the apostle begins by exhorting the slaves under the yoke and also by implication employees to honor their masters and deed show double honor and to also honor those who are believers for two reasons, because they are fellow heirs and also that the name of God be not blasphemed and the doctrine of God according to godliness be not blasphemed. At the heart of that was that false teachers were teaching the opposite. He tells us what they were teaching. They were teaching that gain is godliness, supposing gain is godliness, verse 5. That might seem like a small error to teach that game, his godliness. But the Apostle says about those teachers that they know nothing. They're proud. They're men of corrupt minds. They're men who, exactly because of their doctrine, dabble in matters that produce envy and strife and controversy. To flee from such men is what the Apostle says is the solution. But this passage also has to do with what follows. In verses 9, he gives a sharp warning to those who will be rich. That is, those who suppose that gain is godliness. And he warns them. that that view leads to lusts, foolish and hurtful lusts, and lusts that actually drown men in perdition and destruction. Basically calls that the root of all evil, that false notion. The false notion that gain is godliness. Contrary to that, the apostle says, no, you need to know the truth. The truth is that godliness is gain. Godliness with contentment is indeed great gain. That's what we're going to consider this morning, that truth. As I said, this simple, basic truth that godliness with contentment is great, gain is set over a false doctrine brought by false teachers even at the time of the apostle. That teaching is that gain is godliness. In other words, gain is the way to be like God. It is the way to achieve a godly-like life. By godly is meant by these teachers to be like God, to live like God, to imitate God, to show yourself to be in the image of God. The way to do that is by gain. The more you gain, The more you get, the more godly you will be, the more like God you will be. And now by gain, what they meant was an advancement, an increase in any earthly material goods or status or honor. By gain, they meant nothing spiritual, but what they meant was what you gain in this life, What you gain in earthly property and money, what you gain in status and honor among men, that is godliness. This was a great threat in the church, which is why the apostle spends almost an entire chapter on it and has in mind throughout the book as he instructs Timothy, who will in turn teach other ministers. That's evident that this is a threat within the church and to the church. when it mentions the issue of godliness. This is not a false teaching and false notion that one finds in the wicked world. The world doesn't care about what it means to be godly. They care nothing about God. This is a notion you find in the church and one where we ought not underestimate its popularity. When the apostle speaks these words to Timothy, This notion was already loose. It was already there in the churches. He wants Timothy to refute it. And as is clear from elsewhere in the book, the apostle is also aware that when he preaches what the apostle teaches him, he will be unpopular. The popular preaching and the popular teaching is that gain is godliness. We shouldn't look at a passage like this and say, now, I understand where that might be a threat, a threat back then, a threat the church had to deal with back then. I can see where that's an issue with regard to slaves and masters, but it really has nothing to do with us today. And if so, you could not be more wrong. This is indeed the message of the most popular and well-known teachers and preachers in the church today. If you would survey the general population on who represents the church, who as preachers represents the Christian faith, these names will come up. Millions flock to hear them and see them and give them their millions and even billions This is the message of Benny Hinn. This is the message of Kenneth Copeland. This is the message of Paul Crouch. This is the message of Crefro Dollar. This is the message of Joel Osteen. So crass is the message that even the ungodly know the name of its gospel. It's the health and wealth gospel. that gospel teaches, gain is godliness. What they teach is very crassly, that God exists, that God is here, and that Jesus Christ is given so that you may attain, so that you may get things. God's work, God's job, God's salvation, God's existence is to give you gain. And the exceeding wickedness of the doctrine is a guest who gains the most. Yes, all these men with their personal ministries. But now, if you think that that is the message found only there and nowhere else, you would be wrong again. This message has invaded virtually every church, And it is a great threat, even a threat here at Trinity Protestant Reformed Church, and a threat that comes very subtly. This is the message that comes in response to a lot of questions that the people of God have about life. about living, and a question that many Christians, including Reformed Christians, including Protestant Reformed Christians, go to many church leaders and pastors to find answers to. And subtly, the answer to those questions is gain, is godliness. For example, there is the question, There is the question whether I may leave a true church in order to take a job, a better paying job, a much better paying job in a location where there is no true church. May I leave the Protestant Reformed churches over some grievance that I have to go to another church where I know full well they don't teach what I believe and in fact what I confess is wrong. The question comes up, may I divorce my spouse whom I'm unhappy with for various reasons? Or, if my spouse hates me or has rejected me or even abandoned me, may I remarry? How many children should we, as a Christian couple, have and raise? How many, rightly, should we have? Those questions and a thousand others routinely come up in the members' lives. And the answer, sadly, to many of those questions is, gain His godliness. Now, how it comes isn't exactly like that. Often it comes this way. You have to do what's best for you. Ask the questions, as I listed above, of many church leaders and many self-help books, even Christian ones, well-known Christian authors, and the answer is you have to do what's best for you. If now that is better for you in some way, in other words, if it involves some benefit, some gain in an earthly way, whether it be the relief of some pain or trouble, whether it be the obtaining of more money, whether it be a little bit easier life, if that's what it results in, then you may do it. It's godliness. You see? Would the church be benefited by allowing more members to live in certain sins? Let's say young people in the sin of fornication, or to allow divorced and remarried to be members, or even admit open homosexuals as members. Would the church gain in any way? If the answer is yes, then we must approve as godliness. And now not simply approve, but quickly even promote. Promote as good. Promote even as better. And so the same message also comes with a warning. These same teachers and preachers will tell these individuals looking for answers not only is gain godliness, but those who say otherwise are abusers. The Protestant Reformed Church is an abusing church because it does not teach that and will not allow that to be preached. The husband or the wife who would give an answer along the lines of the Apostle Paul is an abuser. You need to be aware of how prevalent this is and how easy it finds its way into your home and into your heart. And it does that because that is the answer of our nature. That is not the answer of the holy gospel. That should be plain from what the apostle teaches, and calling it the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ, calling it the doctrine according to godliness, and insisting it's the doctrine he teaches. In other words, all else is something else. And what it is is the doctrine of hell, the doctrine of the devil. It's the doctrine of our human nature. Over against all that, the apostle says, no, gain is not godliness. Godliness is gain. Indeed, great gain. Godliness, according to the apostle here, when he says this, is basically this. Godliness is to live in the image of God. It is to live in Christ by faith in true righteousness, knowledge, and holiness. That's what godliness is. Godliness is basically the reflection of God, the image of God. It is true righteousness and knowledge of God received by faith in Jesus Christ. That's what godliness is. We don't have time to get deeply into that, but if you study that word, you will quickly discover that that word is found in this book more than any other book of the Bible. And if you want to know what it's really all about, the Apostle teaches that in 1 Timothy 3.16, a very, very important text. 1 Timothy 3.16 talks about the mystery of godliness. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. And what is the mystery of godliness? It's this, Christ. The mystery of godliness is God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. There's the mystery of godliness. Then it's further defined elsewhere in the book, and when you put it all together, it's very simple. Godliness is not itself faith, but it's rooted in faith and what faith believes. Faith believes God is God. Godliness is the fruit of faith that believes God is my God and only my God, my only God. And believes that, of course, that God is one's God through Jesus Christ, that it is in Jesus Christ that God is my God. And furthermore, that since God is my God in Jesus Christ, therefore the perfect obedience of Christ is imputed to me as my own. The righteousness of God in Christ is my own through faith in Him so that I stand before God as righteous and good. Notice, righteous. Godliness has something to do with true righteousness, knowledge, and holiness, the knowledge of faith, the righteousness imputed to us in Jesus Christ, and holiness. Now, godliness is more related to holiness as such than the other, and that is what the apostle is getting at when he says godliness is gain. You see, this should be pretty easy to see. Do you see what one gains? and how great it is when one believes that God is their God through faith in Jesus Christ. What does one gain? One gains perfect righteousness, true knowledge and holiness. One gains God as their God. One gains all the blessings of salvation that are found in Jesus Christ. And that is gain, this godliness is gain, exactly because it transforms one's life. Faith is a faith in a doctrine, in a truth, in a reality that is according to godliness, that produces godliness, that is the fountain of godliness. That's what he's getting at. That's why, among the other things he pointed out about that false doctrine, what he went to right away is what it produces. And he points out that that false doctrine, that godliness, or gain is godliness, he points out what it leads to is rebellion. It leads to rebellion on the part of slaves and employees. He shows how even in the false teachers, what it leads to is endless controversy and strife, leads to envy and fighting. It leads to greed. It leads to being drowned in perdition. There's no gain there. Conversely, his point is, godliness, on the other hand, is great gain. It's not only the fruit of faith, but it itself produces. It is a virtue. It is a thing that grows and grows and grows. And that is the point he's making when he does not simply say, godliness is gain, but godliness with contentment is great gain. What does he add to that? Well, one reason is he's pointing out there what godliness really is and what it consists of. What he's really saying there is godliness without contentment is no godliness at all. The supposed godliness of gain that was being promoted by the false teachers didn't produce contentment. It produced the exact opposite. All it did was stimulate the lusts. It promoted the temptations into sin. It moved the people to more and more, the will to be rich. But godliness produces something, contentment. Now what's contentment? Contentment is a very easy concept to understand if you understand that it's basically a relationship to things outside of you. There's you, and then there's everything around you, everything in your life, all the circumstances, all the property, all the material, but all the events, everything can turn into life that's outside of you, and then there's the inside of you. Contentment is inside of you. And what contentment basically is, is complete independence from everything outside of you. That's what contentment is. that I live my life completely independent of everything around me. Contentment is that virtue whereby my happiness and joy, that happiness and joy inside of me, has nothing to do with everything outside of me. That my well-being, that is my health, My real health, my life, has nothing to do with anything outside of me. How I feel and how I think fundamentally isn't altered by what others feel or others think. I'm content. Whether others think I'm this or that, I'm content. Whether I have this or that, I'm content with whether this happens to me or that happens to me. And that, you see, is one great, great example of how godliness is gained. What one gains in godliness is not only God Himself in all of salvation, but a godly life, a life like God. And God lives completely independent and free from everything outside of Him. God is God. And God lives a blessed, happy, joyful, wonderful life of eternal blessedness no matter what happens and what goes on outside of Him. And you see, when one is godly, when one has God as their God, even that, and especially that, will be the life of such an individual. Now, to move on and to really understand what the apostle is getting at, and we have to hammer this home, is that godliness with contentment is not just great gain, Well, that's the word he uses, great gain, great gain. Do not underestimate the greatness, but he's saying it's the only gain. Now, he does that, of course, because he knows He knows the appeal. He knows the appeal of the gain is godliness false doctrine. He knows the appeal of that in our own hearts. He knows the appeal and the tug that's in our own hearts. If I only do this, If only that happens, then I'll be happy, then I'll be content. If only this gets cleared up, if only that gets handled, if only this or only that, then, then, then, then I shall be satisfied. And he knows that's in our hearts. So what he means to teach, and the profound, deep teaching of the apostle here is, you only have two choices. There are only two. It's not one and that you can choose to live your life believing that godliness is gain and, well, gain is godliness too. But no, it's one or the other. One or the other. Either your life is ruled by the one principle or it's ruled by the other. And he points that out by what he says following. He gives a proof for what he's saying, and if you look at the proof, the proof isn't simply that godliness with contentment is great gain, but it's the only gain. Notice, for we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. He's pointing out a truth, a truth so obvious, a truth that is irrefutable, a truth that every single individual in all the world knows. You are born with nothing. You receive nothing. You come into the world naked, and that's how you leave it. You cannot even leave this world with one single thing. Not any material thing, not any physical thing, not even the clothes on your body or the ring on your finger can go with you. And you say, well, yeah, I get that. So what's he getting at? Well, he's obviously pointing out that no matter what you amass, no matter what you gain, no matter what you get, no matter how much it is, and no matter how much you think, if only I had this, then I would be satisfied, then I would be content. Don't you realize that you haven't gained anything? And that, therefore, everything that you based upon that gain, everything that you hoped you would get, everything that's built upon that gain, falls with it, is left behind with it. Even worse, you see, he's getting at something even more fundamental. Which is, you see, we imagine, okay, I get it. I'm born with nothing, and I leave with nothing, and therefore everything in between is my time to gain. That's my time. I get that I'm brought naked into the world, and I get I have to leave it all behind. So time, my time, this time, is a time to gain. And the apostle's pointing out the foolishness of that. Why is it that what the apostle points out is what makes godliness with contentment the only gain? A couple of things. Number one, you have to understand what the apostle is driving at with the gain is godliness teachers. What is actually going on? And the answer is that gain is your God. Oh, gain is godliness sounds good. It may sound appealing, but what that really teaches and that this is the teaching is evident from what follows is gain is your God. There's a correlation there. Even as godliness is gain reflects on God and has something to go, so does gain. So, you're going to gain. What happens is you may gain your God. Your happiness depends upon that gain. Everything comes down to that gain. And that gain cannot save you. Not only can it not bring happiness and joy and all the things that you think it's going to bring, not only is it going to be better for you and your family and everything else, as the false teachers teach, But it leaves you at the one time you need salvation and deliverance more than any other at death. Over against that, the Apostle is teaching that godliness is the only gain. It's the only gain. Why? Because it's the only thing you can take with you. If you search the scriptures, you will discover that the scriptures have much to say about things like treasures in heaven, have to do with spiritual matters in terms of the eternal life. And one thing we greatly, greatly minimize is the life of godliness, and the godliness that God works through faith in Jesus Christ is what we take with us. It gets even better that upon death that gain not only goes with us, but it's perfected. It's sanctified in a way that we can't imagine. The contentment that a child of God will have in the everlasting life after this death will make everything that we have in this life pale in comparison. But that's another reason it's the only gain. It's the only thing, the only thing that goes with you, that doesn't get left behind. You see, that's another thing we fool ourselves with. The only purpose of godliness and the only benefit of it, the only reason why we ought to live before God in godliness is so that maybe others think highly of us after we're gone and things like that. No, again, that's all wrong. That's looking at gain being godliness again. No, godliness is gain. Do you understand what the apostle is doing here? He's redefining. Well, he's not really redefining. What he's doing is making clear that the false teachers have redefined things. False teachers have a way of doing that. Have you ever noticed that? So the Bible says God is love. False teachers flip that and say, well, love is God. So homosexual love is approved by God. It's godliness. You just flip it. Well, the truth is, godliness is gain. The false teachers come along and say, oh, no, gain is godliness. And the unsuspecting might look at that and say, well, yeah, sure, I could see that. No. Don't you understand by flipping that, you have redefined everything, false teacher. Godliness now is disconnected from God. Godliness no longer has anything to do with God at all, but godliness has to do with earthly material things. In other words, godliness and gain have been brought together so that gain now is your God. Gain is your idol. But you have to understand that in the light of the truth, in light of God, what gain really is and what godliness really is. Do you see how one can only have anything, really, and only gain anything in God, and that if one has God as their God, they have everything? Do you understand what produces contentment? That right there. Contentment is only produced, only part of godliness, can only be part of godliness, when godliness says that God is my God. And God forgiving my sins is the one thing I need to live with God. In living with God, to be like God, I want to actually live like God, be like God, holy as He is holy, and nothing else matters. See how that produces contentment? You see, true godliness is to be like God Himself. Gain is godliness. You know what it does? This is important, because this is always the giveaway. When someone says they're going to do something because, well, it's best for me, When they read these books by these so-called Christian teachers and pastors to do something, that behind it is some game and it approves some sinful act as godliness, what flushes that all out is faith. Faith will not disobey the Word of God like that. Faith believes everything that God says is true. Faith says that's wrong, and that's sinful, because that's what God says. And therefore, even though keeping that, obeying that, following that would bring me great pain, even loss, God is my God, and therefore I will obey Him. And what the other produces is always disobedience. And under that false teaching, any disobedience can be approved. Do you see, beloved, this morning, how that false teaching underlies the apostasy of the church today and the apostasy of so many members of the church? They've been overtaken with idolatry, assuming that gain is godliness. The truth, and what truth for which you ought to be thankful this morning, is that no. Godliness is gain. God has given yourself. He's given himself to you. Given himself to you in faith. And therefore, be content. Be content with what God gives you. Even today, when our tables are laden with things, and there is much to be thankful. Much. The gain. The gain is God and godliness. Don't forget to give him thanks. Amen, let us pray. O Lord, our God, we thank Thee for Thy Word, Thy Word which exposes that which is false, that which leads to perdition, that which leads away from Thy Word, that which leads to disobedience. We thank Thee for the truth, that godliness. Godliness with contentment is great, great gain. We are thankful, O Lord, for this great gain that we have been given, this great gift of thy grace and goodness, thyself. Thyself is our salvation and deliverance, our all in all. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.