John 12. Let me just read the first eight verses again. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom He raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper, and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein, Then said Jesus, let her alone. Against the day of my bearing has she kept this. For the poor always you have with you, but me you have not always. So again, we're thinking about the tale of two loves. We have Mary, Martha, Lazarus, their love for Christ. And then we see Judas as the contrast here, and his love for money. It's very clear. The text makes it clear. This is one of those times. Every now and again in Scripture, and we've seen this a few times in John, Every now and again, the Holy Spirit will give us some insight into what's going on in an individual's heart when they say something, particularly something that they were trying to be deceptive with. and this is helpful for a couple of reasons. Number one, we can't, with our own abilities, we can't see what's inside of a person's heart just at face value, but the Spirit can. And so Judas' response to Mary, who pours out this extravagant gift onto Jesus to anoint Him and wipes His feet with her hair and the fragrance spreads throughout the room, His response to that was, what a waste, what a waste. Why would you do that? We could have sold that and gotten a year's wages and given that to the poor. Now, if this is a parallel account with the ones in, or at least some of the ones in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, then the disciples kind of get on board. Judas was not the only one who thought this, because it says that they began to rebuke her as well. And if it's not this, then it was a separate account, but a similar instance. They began to rebuke her as well. And so, Again, the text, the spirit tells us that Judas did not say this in verse six because he cared for the poor. He had zero concern for the poor. It was because he was a thief and he was the one who carried the money bag and he would have helped himself to part of that money had it been put in there. So Judas was a man whose love was a love of money. It's been said, and we don't know if this is exactly the way it happened, but it certainly lines up. Jesus had already told the people, told his disciples that he was on his way to the cross. They didn't really know exactly what the timing was, but he knew that. Here at this particular instance, Jesus says of the lady, of Mary, that she did this for his burial. And so it makes perfect sense that Judas, who was motivated by money, sees that he's at least going to miss out on this one. He can't skim off the top of a year's wage. And so you remember what he does next. Matthew 26 lets us know that Judas goes and makes a deal with the chief priest and the Pharisees. And I mean, one of the questions might be, why would he do such a thing? Well, The text in Matthew, I'm sorry, in John, 1157 tells us this, both the chief priest and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he was, that's Jesus, he should show it that they might take him. So here's Judas. He knows that the chief priests and the Pharisees are interested in getting Jesus and taking him and at least doing away with him, if not killing him. They had made that motive clear. And so maybe Judas gets to this point and he recognizes that this run with Jesus is almost up. She's anointed him for his burial. And so in Matthew chapter 26, 14 through 16, we find Judas meeting with the Pharisees. And it says they came up with a deal and covenanted for 30 pieces of silver that if Judas would tell them where Jesus was, then he would receive that wage. 30 pieces of silver. That's a couple of months' wage. A couple of months' wage. Really, I don't know that he would directly communicate this, but based on the price of this jar of ointment and the price that Judas was willing to give Jesus up for, Judas esteemed this spikenard way more than he did the life of Christ. This is a year's wages. You should have kept it. If you give me a couple of months worth, I'll give you the man and you can kill him. So he takes and for the love of money is willing to betray Jesus. One of the things that we also notice in Matthew 27 is that it's Judas's love of money that eventually leads to his conscience being so stricken with misery and guilt that he hangs himself. It's this preoccupation with greed and more, more, more. We don't know exactly what Judas was doing with the money, but we don't have to think very hard to figure it out. What would you do with it? What is it that motivates you? What are you looking for? Perhaps some security, perhaps some comfort, perhaps some status. We don't know. We could take our pick. But we do know that in 1 Timothy 6, we get a direct word on this very issue. Look in 1 Timothy 6. In 1 Timothy 6, starting in verse 6, The Apostle Paul says, 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 therewith content. but they that will be rich fall into temptations and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition." I wonder if he was thinking about Judas when he wrote that. Verse 10, "'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.'" Well, we see several things here. The main verse being verse 10 as far as relating to what we're talking about as far as a love of money. And it's not really translated very clearly here as far as what the Greek actually says. In the KJV we read, the love of money is the root of all evil. Really in the Greek it's the love of money is a root of many evils. So it's a roots. of many evils, plural. So it's not like every evil that you come across can trace its route back to money. It's that for the pursuit of money and for the love of money, you can get yourself intertwined with all kinds of evils, all kinds of wickedness in your chase to either make or keep or worship, really, money. It's a common root. It's a common root of all kinds of evils. We just kind of think about things like pride, status, greed. Scripture has a whole lot to say about greed. Covetousness. This is the opposite of contentment, which is where Paul starts out. Godliness with contentment is great gain. The opposite of that is the love of money is the root of many evils, a root of many evils. Worry, anxiety, envy, betrayal. I mean, we could just keep going as far as the plurality of evils that are attached to that. Well, one of the things that I think is fairly obvious. Is that we live in a culture? And we're not immune to it ourselves as Christians, but we live in a culture. Where the driving motive? Or the driving encouragement to live for the love of money is just the air we breathe. I mean, it's just more, more, more, more. And we have to be careful. There's a balance on any area of life where we want to maintain wisdom, So it's not as if money doesn't mean anything at all. It's not as if work doesn't mean anything at all. First Thessalonians would tell us, if a man doesn't work, he should not eat. So sometimes we could maybe go too far for this love of money and go into pious laziness, and that's not where it is. But at the same time, If we're not careful, not only will we be motivated ourselves, but we will also cultivate and encourage the motivation in our children to be driven by this love of money. Now, everybody wants to see their children succeed, and no one should be necessarily faulted for that. But did you know that ambition and being motivated by what looks like being responsible on the outside, but is really just a starving greed and covetousness in the heart. It can look good, and years down the road, destroy somebody's life. We ought to encourage our loved ones when they're doing well. We ought to encourage our loved ones to be responsible. But anytime we see the priorities in our loved ones flip-flop, honestly, anytime we see the priorities in our own hearts and lives flip-flop, we better pay attention. Because a love for money, a love for greed and material wealth, a love for security behind the dollar, will ultimately end in you betraying your commitment to Christ for the almighty dollar. Now, I'm not saying that you're going to ultimately fall away the way Judas did, but this is the way this works. Money is a good gift and it's meant to be used for a good purpose. So we live in, it's no secret, and it's also, there's nothing wrong with it, we count it as a blessing. We live in really the most prosperous nation in the world. I'm thankful for that. We enjoy some of the most material blessings out of really anybody on the planet. Things that we take for granted that many people wouldn't dream of having. I don't think that's grounds for a guilt trip. I think it's a blessing from God and blessings are to be enjoyed. I do think that whenever we get to the place where rather than enjoying the blessing, we begin to start demanding more blessings, then we've fallen into this love of money that is the root of many kinds of evils. Notice in the text in 1 Timothy 6 that it begins with, Godliness with contentment is great gain. What's really the root of love for money or really love for anything else outside of Christ? Well, it's contentment. And in order to be content with Christ, you have to have a growing love for him. But in order for that love to be redirected toward whatever these evils are that find their roots back where Timothy, or Paul says to Timothy that money is the root, we find a discontentment with Christ, whether it be with security, whether it be with comforts, whether it be with our own greed, whether it be with our own envy, whatever that is. Paul says, I mean, this is probably not going to be the most exciting verse we read, but Paul says in verse eight, having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. So how much could we actually do without? I mean, my goodness, we're living in an economy that is really hurting. And it is, and it's been a strain on all of us. We've had to all make adjustments. But we haven't gotten close to only having food and rain, have we? Maybe we've had to dial back a little bit, shave off a little here and there. But Paul says, with food and raiment, you can find contentment. These are the provisions that the Lord gives that are mercies from His hands. So then the question is, what is the solution for this preoccupation with money, this love for money that can get out of control? And Paul gives it really to us in verse 6 when he says, Godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness with contentment. Godliness just simply means pursuing a life of righteousness. Pursuing a life of trying to serve the Lord. Pursuing a life of communing with God, of fellowshipping with the Lord and with His people. Really, it is adjusting your life or lining your life up with God's righteous standards. You're seeking to please Him. You're seeking to love Him. You're seeking to obey Him. And then you're seeking to be content with what the Lord has given you, and these are things that are cultivated. I mean, it's not just given like that. It's cultivated through a life of, as we saw this morning, serving, a life of communing with, and a life of treasuring Jesus Christ. There is no contentment outside of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There will never be enough money to satisfy you. There will never be enough money to provide the kind of security that you want, to provide the kind of satisfaction that you want. You'll never have enough stuff to keep you entertained and to keep you from getting bored. That's not the way it works. But you could have the basic necessities and a relationship with Jesus Christ. And have a life that is overflowing with joy, overflowing with peace in the Lord. And this is how you get there, as you seek to walk with Him and as you seek to grow content with His will and His provisions for you and for your life. And so, the love of money. We could say a whole lot about it, but just as we contrast, again, this tale of two loves in John 12, You have three figures who were serving Christ, communing with Christ, treasuring Christ. And then you have Judas who was eaten up with greed and discontentment and a love for money that will ultimately lead to his misery and his suicide. And so may God bless us to choose the better love. Let's pray. Father, recognize, I mean, aside from it being easy to preach a sermon on something like this, that our hearts are so deceived in this area. We put our hopes and even dreams at times in money, which you say is just fleeting. It flies away. Lord, would you bless us to be content with what you've given us and to spend our time pursuing godliness, that we might be a blessing to Your kingdom, that we might be pleasing to You, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.