We look together in God's word in First Timothy, chapter six, and our scripture reading is verses three through 10, and we will be looking at each of those verses and their application and meaning for us as God's people. First Timothy, chapter six, people of God hear the word of the Lord If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. Now, 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 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 for the love of money. is the root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Well, people of God, that word sets before us the general theme of godly contentment, godly contentment. It is in the context of godliness or the contentment of godliness, which tells us that contentment and humility, the opposite of pride, is not some kind of virtue that isn't connected with being a true child of God. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Contentment without godliness, if there is such a thing, is not gain at all. And godliness that has no contentment, well, it's really not godliness and it is of no gain either. And so the heart of this text is verse six, which declares now godliness with contentment is great gain. And so it's both of those things tied together. Indeed, true contentment cannot arise unless their godliness and true godliness does not exist where there is no contentment. And so as we look at this text, then, as in its context, the surrounding verses, we see this truth emphasized in verse three, that godliness, godly contentment or godliness with contentment comes in the context of the gospel and of the word of God and the truth of God's word. It's not just kind of some moral virtue that can be taught in every situation under any circumstance and you just have to attain it through your own work. No contentment tied to godliness can only come in the context of the word of Jesus Christ. Verse three, if anyone teaches otherwise and now we're looking at all of teaching. Otherwise, we're looking at the teachings about godliness in First Timothy, chapter one through chapter six, verse two. We're looking at an overview of the teaching here. If anyone teaches otherwise, if anyone teaches you any other thing than what I've already said to you in chapters one through chapter six, verse two, or indeed, if anyone teaches something contrary to the word of God in its entirety. And does not consent to wholesome words, to wholesome words, Even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is proud. And so this whole section about how to look at wealth and how to be content and the whole section is rooted in this context, the word of God and the truth of God's word and the truth of the gospel. which is described as wholesome words and also as the words of Jesus Christ. Wholesome words here is that word that I was referring to this morning that would be in harmony with the Old Testament word that we know as Shalom. or peace or wholeness or fullness. And if you really have the shalom of the Old Testament, you have godliness and you have contentment. And there are words that are words of wholeness and shalom. There is a message. There is a good news. There is a gospel message that brings about this peace and shalom. Certainly, in First Timothy, chapter three, verse 16, reminds us of the very words of, let's say, the Apostles Creed. You might say, so we have the Apostles Creed and we have those declarations about God, the Father, Creator and Jesus Christ conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. And then we have about how he suffered and died and and what we believe about the forgiveness of sins. And we've already seen in chapter three, verse 16 of First Timothy, these words and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, meaning Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He was manifested. He was revealed. They could see that he suffered, that he died. He was manifested in this in the flesh, justified in the spirit. His offering before God on the cross was acceptable to God. It was totally just. It was totally righteous. It was seen by angels. It's preached among the Gentiles and it continues to be preached even here in this church. It is believed on in the world. And Jesus Christ is received up into glory. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the father. So those kinds of wholesome words, the word of truth, the word of truth about Jesus Christ are absolutely essential as the context for what God says about godliness with contentment and says about wealth and says about clothing and food. You can't just go to these verses as some kind of a parable that is disjoined or or separated from this gospel and this godliness that is described in all of God's Word. And these are wholesome words. They are the words of Jesus Christ. The words of Timothy are the words of Jesus Christ. And that's why it's rather disheartening when you see a Bible that have read letters of these are the words of Jesus. No, the whole New Testament are the words of Jesus, according to this verse. Even the words of our Lord Jesus. These are the wholesome words. These are the words that Paul just taught. Timothy. These are the words that God gave to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These are the apostolic words. These are the words of the prophets of the Old Testament that point to and reveal the nature of God and the provision of God in Jesus Christ. These are the words of the Lord. And when those words are preached, you hear the word of Jesus. When they are preached faithfully, It's the word of Christ, just as that, but they need to be preached faithfully. And we've seen that emphasized in First Timothy, the preaching of the word. And so the words of Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, the teachings, the doctrines. There are those who are fundamentally opposed to doctrine. They think doctrine has nothing to do with godliness, with great contentment. But the word of God declares it's absolutely connected. This verse connects everything together here in this passage. And so some people say, well, we pride Christianity, that we tried to be virtuous. Or you have people who think that the answer to the moral question in America today is to teach virtue, a virtue, the virtue of contentment, the virtue of humility. But first, Timothy doesn't approach these virtues and they are virtues, but it doesn't approach the the teaching of these as some kind of abstract philosophical declaration. It teaches them in the context of God's saving work in the life of his people through Jesus Christ and the word that Jesus Christ gives to us concerning our sin, concerning our salvation in Christ. And so these are the words that come to us. But there are those who reject. These words and there are those who reject humility and there are those who find no contentment in life, and those are described then in verse four. Because godly contentment is rejected by many. There are those who don't want it or they redefine what pride is so that they would declare Christians to be filled with pride and arrogance. And they were really the humble. But really, the word of God, if you look at it, describes the Christian as humble and the unruly and the sinful man as the one who has is filled with pride. I mean, we can argue about a word, but how is it defined? Right. So God's word sets before us the nature of the proud man, and the proud man is one who has rejected the wholesome words, rejected the words of Christ, redacted the doctrines which accord with godliness. And so there's a read that there may be a redefinition of the very term and certain of false application. And then pride is set before us as the fundamental. Action or mindset that is contrary to godly contentment, it's pride. Oftentimes known as the one of the great sins, a pride is set before us throughout God's word in the book of Proverbs. In the book of Proverbs, chapter eleven, verse two, we read this about pride. When pride comes, then comes shame. But with the humble is wisdom or chapter thirteen, verse ten. By pride comes nothing but strife. But with the well advised is wisdom or Proverbs 14 verse three in the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise will preserve them. Or again, Proverbs 15 verse 25. The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but he will establish the boundary of the widow or Proverbs 16 verse five. Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though they join forces, none will go unpunished. And so we see that both in the text here in 1 Timothy and throughout God's Word, the proud man will come to nothing. That's why we sang from a number of the Psalms as we were approaching this text how God will bring to nothing the proud and arrogant man. He will destroy such a mindset. And indeed, in First John, chapter two, verse 16, First John two, verse 16, we read this for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father, but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. And so we see in this text, as we as we dissect godly contentment, this this absolute opposite to contentment is pride. Our text is setting before us. Really, the opposite extremes. It is the man of God who trusts in the word of God and in the in the word of Christ versus the proud man. But the fact is, we all in our sinful nature would have a tendency to this pride. We all can fall into the trap of pride and we all can all live out of the desire of pride at some point in our lives. It isn't an all or nothing part of the text. It sets before us these extremes, but sadly, even as believers, we can enter into pride, which is in which is set before us at the end. When I believe when it says in verse 10, some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, in their pride, and so they can stray from the faith. But that doesn't mean they may lose the faith. There's there's two types of interpretation there. One would be that they never had. They strayed from what is the truth of God. They strayed from it because they've never truly embraced it. Or it could be a true Christian who has strayed for a moment. He strayed for a time. And so this this warning is it to say to us now we never have to worry about pride because we're true believers or On the opposite extreme, if you have pride, you can't be a true believer because, of course, we all stumble and fall. But the word of God comes to us in this text and directs our minds and hearts, how we can certainly grow in grace so that we avoid pride. And its consequences, so what is so? what is set before us as the beginnings of godly contentment is to rejoice in wholesome words, the words of Christ and the doctrines which accord with godliness. To know the word of God, the truth of God's word, to know that is the foundation of contentment. But the proud is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words. We had there were times that I have argued with people, and when we sit there and we would talk for a considerable amount of time, and then there are occasions when we just say, we're just arguing over words, and that's not profitable at all, is it? Meaning, you can argue about a word, whether a certain word is appropriate or not, but it really depends on what you mean by those words, much more than the word you use. I personally don't like to use the word and term the doctrinal term common grace, but there are some people who avoid using the term and define the relationship between those who are not Christians and God in a way that is totally unbiblical. And there are some people who use the term who define God's relationship between himself and those who are not believers in an appropriate way. So the term, if all you're going to do is argue over the term, it's not very profitable. We can do that with a whole number of words. And so we don't want to just simply argue over a word, but a really proud man, he's able to argue over everything and he'll just argue over a word itself, just the word as if that has any meaning or significance at all. But words are important and the meaning of the word is important. The truth of God's word is important, but we don't want to simply just argue over words. Well, the the result of such thing is set before us there. They're obsessed with disputes and they really know nothing. The proud man really knows nothing, but the proud man thinks he knows everything about everything, or at least that he knows most or that he knows a lot about almost everything. The proud man thinks he knows almost everything, but his knowledge is devoid of the. words of Christ, of the truth of God's Word, of the gospel, that gospel that would truly humble us, because we know that we are dead in sin apart from Christ and that we are nothing before God. So how can we exalt ourselves before a man? No, the proud man really knows nothing, is obsessed with disputes, from which come. And how do you know if a man is truly proud and he's obsessed with disputes and he argues over words? Well, envy, strife, reviling and evil suspicions follow such a one, even in the focus of First Timothy is is in the context of the church of Jesus Christ. It isn't like these disputes are with the world. This is within the church. And there's this person who is he's constantly wrangling and then come in the strife, reviling. Evil suspicion. We know what envy is, that connection to pride that is always wanting something more, always envious of what another person has. Reviling is a railing or a slander. speech that's injurious to another. You know the Greek word that is found in the text. It's a word that we usually use for slanderous speech only against God. But in the Greek, it's a word that's used more broadly. And it's the word blaspheme. That's that's how the word sounds in Greece. Blasphemous, one who blasphemes his neighbor, not just God, but another person. He's he's one who would revile another person's name in in almost every situation. He's always able to find something bad about another person. The reviling man is certainly quick to point out another's faults. And there is then evil suspicions, always suspicious of the other person's motives or the other person's activities. Pride binds a person and strangles their ability to have relationships. And these are really useless wranglings, says the text. There is this destitute of the truth, and then they are those who have envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men. It's quite a description, isn't it? It sets before each one of us how easy it is to fall into those things and how God would have us to avoid such lifestyles. And then they are really of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Once again, we see the importance of the truth of God's word as it permeates our minds and hearts to set us on this path of godliness with contentment. We suppose that godliness is a means of gain. That somehow through religion, now it's not turned, godliness here is then, is nothing but a means to gain. Maybe monetary gain. Maybe gain of prestige. But it's just looked as a tool to an end. rather than a life of gratitude before God for all that He has done for us. It's the foundational aspect of godliness. They suppress the truth. They're destitute of the truth. The word here is actually the phrase here that they are destitute of the truth is it's a phrase that actually implies an ongoing robbery of the truth. They robbed the truth. They steal it. And. They don't consider it either the truth of God's word or the truth of a situation that one may be found in. And it's certainly not. The means to gain. Godliness. It's as if this whole scenario sets before us something like this, and maybe you run across someone like this, so there's a problem and then you go to solve and you go to solve the problem, you go to help the person solve the problem or they try to solve a problem. And in the attempt to solve the problem, they create five more problems. And now instead of having one, you got six. And so now they're going to try to solve six problems and they only increase it and they double it again. Now they got 12. And every time they try to solve a problem, they create more problems. Certainly within the church of Jesus Christ, we wouldn't expect such a thing. As brothers and sisters, That would give us a clear indication that we're on the wrong path. A path of pride. Rather than a path of godliness with contentment. Rather, God sets before us the contrast that is is in this text. And from such you ultimately need to withdraw yourself, but now godliness with contentment is great gain. It is great gain, doesn't need to gain anything. And certainly there's a play on words in the text, because the word gain here is a word that in the Greek language would imply that you have everything that you need. But godliness, contentment is everything that we need. Because it's godliness with contentment, it's not just, well, I'm happy with my life situation, but it's godliness with contentment in this world. A world that we know is a world where sin exists and where difficulty exists and where trouble exists. And how can you have contentment in such a world connected to godliness? And that is better than any gain, any of this world's riches. There is true gain. There's true wealth. Godliness with contentment. It's the realization that this is great gain. And one of the simple truths is. Is that no matter what you think about this world's goods, verse seven, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Why would you find your contentment in this world? and the things of this world or the clothes of this world or the cars of this world or the riches of this world. If that's your source of contentment, the word of God simply wants to make one true statement concerning that you're not going to you didn't come in with anything and you're not going to leave with anything. We know that truth from one of the parables of Jesus in Luke chapter 12, don't we? Luke chapter 12, beginning with verse 16, it's the parable of the rich fool. And Jesus spoke a parable to them, saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentiful. And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops? So he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and I will build greater. And there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for yourself for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, fool, This night, your soul will be required of you. 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. But there is no godliness, there's no love for God, where there's no trust for God, where there's no recognition of the saving work of Jesus Christ in our lives. What is it? It is a foolish declaration. Yes, we may legitimately store up some things for retirement. The Word of God isn't saying that that is fundamental evil, but to say this is my source of security. As we noted this morning. All of this can disappear. In but a moment. And certainly, we can't take anything with us. We stand before God without any of this world's goods when we die. No, we are a people who thank God for providing the necessities of life in the context of providing for us the greatest of all issues of life, salvation. Eternal life, forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ, and we trust God having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall in temptation and a snare. Oh, maybe that God may grant riches to to some. In fact, I believe that most of us here would be would be described as rich. So I'm not rich. Well, compared to the world, we have lots to be thankful for and we have many riches. But if that's your goal, your desire, if that's the fundamental issue of your life is to be rich. It will bring. It leads and is brought out of many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. That desire, that wealth and riches is the answer, because it's not. It is not the answer. The devastating alternative to godliness is this desire for riches, which would arise out of a love of money that this is what you love. This is your first God. This is your your most the most important aspect of your life. But no true believer. lives out of love for money. Oh, we're tempted to it because we all recognize that, oh, if I had this, then then I could be content. But the truth is. If we're not content with what we have, and that doesn't mean that we cease to work, of course. Or we can't strive to use the gifts and talents that God gives us. But if love of money is the driving force rather than obedience to God and an expression of our love for God to serve him through our work. But if the love of money is what drives us, then we will never be satisfied. One of the great rich men of the 19th century was asked, a multimillionaire, one of the tycoons of the railroad industry of the day. He was the Bill Gates of the 19th century, the rich man of the world. And they asked him, how much is enough? How much money is enough? And he says, just a little more, always a little more, never enough. Give me a multimillionaire, but it's never enough. And that's what happens with the love of money. And why is that, people of God? It's because money and riches cannot satisfy the deepest fathoms of our heart. Only God can fill that void. Only God can give us true contentment. Only God saying, I will be your God and you will be my people. And I have gathered you through the blood of my son. I have come to you through him. I have rescued you to be my people. And there there is contentment. There there is peace. There are the wholesome words out of which we live, and we can be content then in every circumstance. Then we can take upon our lips the words of Paul in that passage of God's Word. And we can testify to being content in every situation. I have to tell you about one of those situations, brothers and sisters in Christ. I don't often do this, but I'll do it here tonight. And I go see our brother Lyle in the hospital. Lyle Christensen is a beloved brother in Christ here in this church, for those of you who don't know him. And he's struggled for years with many health issues, and he just had an obstruction of the bowel, and he's been flat in bed for two weeks, and he's just now recovering. And and I said to him and Lyle, what about and, you know, where's his contentment, where's his hope, where's his joy? And I said to our brother, I said, so would you and you remember, he's hardly had enough energy to speak for two weeks. And I was and I said and Lyle, I said. And what would happen if you would die and go to the Lord? Would that be a bad thing? And he perks up, which I knew he would. That's why I asked him the question. He perks up and he goes, No! I would love to go home to the Lord. Right. In the midst of no physical strength, in the midst of what the world would look at and say, why this man has no reason to be content, no reason to have joy, no reason to have peace. No, I would love to go home to the Lord. There's contentment not based on this world's riches, not based on the health or strength of his body. but based on the love and the promises of God in his life. Reflected in the testimony of Paul in Philippians chapter 4, where Paul has those great words that so many of us find dear. Testifying in the midst of difficulty, In the midst of trial, in the midst of turmoil, Philippians four, beginning with verse 10. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things. I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We can be content in all things, not because of who we are. But because of who Christ is, because he strengthens us. And so, people of God, may we rest in that truth. Amen. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for a word that doesn't declare that it's only possible to be content when we are wealthy and healthy. But a word that comes in the context of the truth of the words of Christ and the word about Christ and the word from Christ. That we can learn to be content in all places, because Christ strengthens us, loves us, has died for us and has made us one of your own children. And so we thank you for the riches beyond measure that are ours in Christ and heavenly father, we pray that out of that truth. That we may learn how to be content in every aspect of our lives, oh, heavenly father, not content with sin. Not content with not knowing the gospel. but content with the provisions that you give in the daily activities of our lives, thanking you for the blessings that you give, thanking you for the wealth that we have without loving it or worshiping it. Help us, Heavenly Father, to know godliness. With contentment and the great gain that is ours in that. Help us to keep from pride and help us to rest in Christ. This we pray in Jesus name. Amen.