First Timothy lesson 36 begin

We are now in lesson 36. Everybody got a list of the questions for 36? I sent them out. There's some back there if you want them. Raise your hand and Brian will get you a copy. OK. So somebody read chapter 6, 17 through 21. Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter, and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.

Okay, so my first question was, expand on the idea of rich in this present world from the standpoint of what it does to most who are rich in this present world. You understand the question? Yeah, it's like they get stuck up or something. They get stuck up, huh?

I think the first thing, I think one of the first things we can talk about, define the world. What is it? Greek word, cosmos. A lot of times as Christians we don't think about that there is this environment the Bible refers to as the world or the cosmos. And if we don't know what it is, then it influences our thought process and our behavior process until we learn from God's Word that that process is separated from God. So what do you think about the world? I know all you've been working your whole life to fit into the world. How's that working out for you?

I'll give you a definition from a theologian named Trench. Here's what he says. All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time, current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize, or accurately defined, but which constitutes the most real and effective power being the moral or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale again inevitably to exhale. Isn't that an amazing definition? It's the thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, and aspirations in the world.

So we're born, we're raised, we go to school. Why do you go to school? So you can function in the world, right? You've got to get your brain educated in the world so you can function there, right? It's really interesting, the air that we breathe, he uses the idea of every moment we live and we inhale it, and again, evidently, we exhale it. So did you ever in your experience thought, you know, this world I live in is not really a good place? It's designed to kill me. That's really what it's designed to do, isn't it? No matter how much you read about, well, if you take this supplement, you're gonna live another 15 minutes. We're all gonna die, that's for sure.

I think I was in college, I'm trying to think of what this... There was an author named Robbins, and he wrote a book that was really popular. And it was a book about a young guy who sort of got everything that he wanted, and this was the guy's theory.

You live fast, you die young, and you have a good-looking corpse. Yeah, that's the world. You live fast, you die young, and your corpse looks really good in the coffin. Now don't jump ahead. We're staying in the world. Because it's interesting, if you don't grasp I'm going to say this right. If you don't grasp the world for what it really is, then you won't reject it.

You know? Did you say that the world was designed to keep you from Christ? Yes. Yes. When Adam sinned and the creation fell, it got a new ruler. And the ruler was supposed to be Adam, but it became Satan. And everything in Satan's environment leads to death, separation. That's his whole game. The other thing it does, think about this. There was never any competition until Adam's sin. Because what did you have? There would have never been a Super Bowl. There would have never been competition for anything. Why? Because you would be living under grace. But Satan now competes with God and so now the environment is competitive. Who's going to win the game? Who's going to win the game of life?

And so a lot of times Christians, they kind of understand a definition like this, but through religion, they get a bottle of holy water and sprinkle it on there and try to make it okay. And that doesn't work. So you come to a church like this or you read an author that starts talking about things like we talk about, like identification and the cross of Christ and what it means, not only are you separated from the sin nature, but you're positionally separated from the world, that whole system. And as soon as you hear that, you take a look around you and say, well, it says that in the Bible, but boy, I'm not separated. So now you have the conflict between position and condition. Which is which?

So when I ask the question, expand on the idea of rich in this present world from the standpoint that it does what it does to most whom are rich in this world. What is the rich people in this world? What's the motto of the world? Healthy, wealthy, and wise? What does money do?

I mean, all those little green pieces of paper with pictures of presidents on them, what good are they? They help you fulfill your desires. Yeah, you get to use that to get your desires. That's what currency does. So if you have a lot of those, the supposition is you can fulfill your worldly desires for health, wealth, and wisdom. Well, basically they're saying by happiness. Yeah, yeah. Another guy defined the world using the word Aeon, the subtle informing spirit of the cosmos or world of men who are living alienated and apart from God. I like that one. I like that one.

Donna and I went to a baptism a couple months ago, and one of the interesting things there, this was a Catholic baptism. The whole focus was somehow this little baby, through this procedure of water baptism, was not going to have to live in the world. that she was going to be able to function in the Lord's realm of things because somebody poured water on her head. You know? Think she's in for a big surprise? Yeah, she is.

We're used to that by Roman Sikhs. A lot of people think that's water bathing. Well, if you try to understand Romans 6 without understanding Romans 5, 12, moving forward, the only explanation you have for it is water baptism, which is really kind of a washing. I can say this because I used to be a Catholic. The Catholics view the human person that has a soul like a glass globe.

And when a baby is born or conceived, the glass globe has a smudge on it called original sin. And what baptism does is wipe off the smudge so you start from zero. Well, when you get to the age of reason, you start smudging it up again. So you spend, the whole system is designed to clean the smudge, go for a while, get it dirty again, clean the smudge, go for a while, get it dirty again, clean the smudge, that kind of thing. Well, that's the same thing as Reformed theology.

When John 1.9 says you confess your sins, I cleaned the smudge off, now we're doing good, until I do it again. Would you agree with that?

That's basic Catholicism. It's basic Reformed theology is what it is. Yeah, but they don't have confessionals. They don't have the rituals. Yeah, I agree. Well, it's self-effort, period. I'm sorry? You have to do something. Don't give me that, it's all been done. You've got to keep that thing going. Sure. Sure. There's no way around it. That's every other religion outside of Christianity. Every one. Every single one. It's the pagan mindset. Yeah.

Please the gods. If you study any other cultures, the Mayan culture, Western European cultures, they're all designed on you have to do something to please a god who's mad at you. because you messed up somehow. And, you know, it goes from praying to asceticism to sacrificing babies and fire. I mean, it's the stuff that the world has come up with is amazing. Interesting.

How many of you in the audience are Germans? German descent. The Germans have a word for this. Zeitgest. What? Zeitgest. G-E-I-T. Z-E-I-T. G-E-I-S-T. And what it means, the spirit of the age. Is that like Aquarius? Yeah. Yeah. No, that's right. That's exactly right. It's the present age that we live in. You know, the spirit of the age. So the Greeks used to call it the now age. We live right now.

Those who belong to the unsaved portion of humanity and are part of this age system and who think that the material wealth which they possess is the sum of all existence. What I heard a guy say the other day, he said, you've never seen a U-Haul trailer hooked up to a hearse. You get what he's saying? You're not taking with you. But that's the world system. And that's the system we all were born into. And one way or another, it's performance-based so that God won't be mad at me and he'll hopefully bless me.

Where does the idea of wealth come from, that a blessing to me is wealth? Where does that idea come from? You don't know your Old Testament, do you? No, it's not. Where does the idea that if I'm wealthy, God is blessing me come from? It comes from the Old Testament. It comes from the Jewish. Because if you had property and wealth, you were favored of God. People that are wealthy are usually trying to hang on to what they got. Or add to it.

I think we've looked at and defined the world we're in and the world that we breathe in and exhale every day. Every day. The issue is, how do you discern? Well, if you start with the premise that everything I see, every stimulus that comes towards me, is of the world, then we're starting to get the right idea of what's happening.

Well, there's three friends in that category, so there's the world, the flesh, and the devil, and they all function through sinful expressions and temptations, and this is one of those, and we're talking about the world specifically here, but the world feeds the flesh, and the devil tells you you can have it. You know, that's the same thing in the Garden of Eden. You know, I'm using the words satanic and devil for the reason of I think it started in the garden, you know.

You know better, and to have wealth is better. To have something you don't have, that is better. Even if it is knowledge, it is also, it has to do with, you know. That's why the three of them are combined, because they function out of the same source. Sure. And I think you have to know what the big lie is. The big lie is everything around you. It's like, who has said that I've been rich and I've been poor, but rich is better. Was Adam wealthy? He had everything he needed. Everything. Everything he needed.

And then some. Including a wife. A wife? A wife. So what is it? Companion. The world? The world, the flesh, the devil. That's it. In this context, Paul is writing to believers who live in the world who are wealthy. Seems like an oxymoron, but it's not. And he says to them, not to be conceited.

So, do you think it's too much attention is paid to world politics contribute to the problem? That's a trick question if you're paying attention. I'll ask it again. Do you think that too much attention, if you pay too much attention to the world of politics, it contributes to the problem of being rich or poor or being stuck in the world?

In other words, do you care really about What's that group that meets every year and they want to dominate the world? Do you care what Congress does? No. Do you care what Congress does? Do you care who the President of the United States is? Do you care who, you know? So if capitalism, do you care about them? Do you care about communism?

Both of them are trying to do the same thing, is control people. Well, let me ask you this. Let's see how smart you are. Is the free enterprise system spiritual? No way. No way. Were you designed to be a free person? Self-actuated? directed and self-aggrandized?

No. The point is this, is that one of the things that will give you away in terms of how interested you are in the world system is how interested you are in politics. Because you think they, whoever the politicians or groups are, influence what's going to happen to you. not recognizing that God is sovereign. Nothing happens to a believer that he doesn't say, this is going to be good for you, I'm going to let it happen.

You know, I've talked recently about the dot and the circle. Should I draw it on the board? Everybody, have I said that enough in here? The dot and the circle. I get to write on the board, JD. if I can stand up. So, if I can stand up. So you have a dot, and then you have a circle. This is you. What's this?

This is the sovereignty of God. Nothing gets to you that doesn't have to go through all of this to get to you. So the point is, is that Believers live here, inside the sovereignty of God. And outside of this is the world system. See that? Believers who understand this realize that I may be physically on the planet in the system, but this is the environment I live in. This is what determines what happens in my life. because I belong to the God of the universe. You see that?

And He'll use the whole world system to bless you. Now, it may not look that way when that torpedo hits your ego, but He's blessing you. I just want to point out that being in God's sovereignty, in that way that you're explaining, requires a dependence on the one who is sovereign.

You don't have to believe it. No, this is the reality. This is what's really true. But if I don't believe it, what benefit is it to me? If I think that God is maneuvering circumstances and I don't live inside this sovereign circle, You lose control in that situation. Then you become self-sufficient. That's what this is about. I don't really need anybody's sovereignty. I live in my own. I make my own moves. Yeah, but you're still under authority. You're still under authority, but you operate conceitedly. You lose your hope.

What did we learn in Romans 6, the first part of it? that I'm free, what? What is freedom? It's a change of master. I go from being a slave to sin to being under the Spirit of God. That's what freedom is. Because the world system is not free. They don't live here. They're outside of this.

I don't know how people can handle it if they're not a Christian. Yeah, how do they handle it? It's amazing, but... There's a thousand and one ways they try to endure. If your focus is centered in what the world is doing, or will do, it's because there's no real trust or rest. that left to themselves a world can fix the chaos that prevails. Really? What do you think the news media is all about? It's to promote chaos. They can't stand good news. And even if there is good news, they couch it in such a way that it's a little bit of angst in there.

So how do riches make one high-minded and conceited? Because you can buy things with it. You can buy time. You can buy, you can fulfill your desires. This work, high-minded, the Greek word high-minded is two words. The first word means to think. And the second word means just high. So think about, or lofty. We would use the word pride or high-minded. Think about this.

When Lucifer came to Eve in the garden, what was he selling? What did he sell her? that if you eat the fruit, you will be like God. What does that say? No kidding. What's that? Well, the point is, I'm amazed at how Satan has never changed his game plan.

He still comes to me and said, if you do this, you'll be like God. You will be independent. You can do it. This is for your good. In other words, you're the center of the universe, and if you do this, or if you, whatever, you will aggrandize yourself. The same dance. It's the same temptation every time. He can't sell you something that isn't going to be good for you. Maybe put it another way. He's not going to try to sell you something that doesn't appear to be good for you.

I mean, when you think about it, did Adam, before he sinned, have an ego? Before? No. What did he have? What drove him? What? Before he fell. What drove him? He walked to the Lord. Sure. And he knew he was a creature created by God and that God was the creator. And God cared about him. Look what he gave him. He gave him the whole thing. Totally. And he was okay with that.

But look at the authority that God gave him. He said, you know all these other creatures I've created, you get to name them. Whatever you call them, that's what they're going to be. I don't know how that fits. I've given you everything you need. The whole creation I built or created to support you.

And the problem was that when he sinned, that whole creation now was against him. It didn't support him anymore. What do you think weeds are? They didn't have any. How do you know that? Yeah, that's right. Would it have been okay to be a vegetarian? Yeah, it would have been. Yeah, nothing dies. In Adam's world, before he sins, there is no death. There's death all around us all the time.

I'm not going. I'm not going there. So the problem that Paul is telling Timothy, that those who are rich in this present world instruct them not to be conceited or to fix their hopes on uncertain riches." Is he saying you shouldn't be rich? No, he's not. No, he's not saying that at all. But he's pointing out the danger of your sin nature, realizing that you are rich and that you can use your riches to enhance your sin nature. You do? Why, are you rich? Well, it's just that whole concept and principle. Getting lied to and stuff. I don't understand what you're saying.

Seeing money as a form of time that you can buy Well, we've already learned that money, the love of money, the desire for money is the root of all evil. It isn't the money, it's the desire for it. And that is always the problem with the sin nature. Romans 7 is going to teach us the big problem in Paul with the law is desire.

That's what Roger talked about last week. I would not known desire if the law hadn't said, you can't desire. So what happens? The way the principle works, if I come to you and I say, you have to stop desiring, what's the first thing you're going to do? It's like, I don't want any of you to think about a chicken in the other room. What did you just think about? a chicken in the other room, didn't you? So if I come to you and say, you cannot desire, what are you going to do? You're going to desire, right?

That's why the law is so insidious in terms of the sin nature. It activates the sin nature. All you have to do is tell them, don't do it. Take a two-year-old, put something in front of him and say, don't touch it. What's he going to do? Grab it. First thing. Why? Because somebody told him not to. So if I tell you, don't be rich, then you want to be. If I tell you, don't desire... How about this one? Question authority. Don't question authority. How about that one? So, I mean, the point is, is that when you start to figure out how this in nature works and that it goes against, it's no wonder the world...

The word we use for desire, in English it is translated as desire, but in Hindi the word is greed. So greed is bad, desire is not bad. I need money for my family. Unless I will desire, how can I earn? If I don't earn, I will not be doing justice with my family. Yeah, and as we go on in these verses, he will lay out, you know, what the person of wealth can do with their money, what they're supposed to do with their money.

From the standpoint of grace, not necessarily law. So it isn't the issue. The issue is not give everything away and go live on the street. There's nothing wrong with having money or being wealthy. The point is that... There's nothing wrong with being on the street. No. Or boomed up. Well, let me put it this way.

If God has saved us so that we can serve, if I'm on the street and I'm not serving anybody, I'm in the wrong place. If I'm boondocking and I'm not serving anybody, I'm in the wrong place. If I'm wealthy and the president of a corporation and I'm not serving anybody, I'm in the wrong place. How does Bob describe it?

It's not where you are, but who you are. And once you know who you are, then you can Yeah, so so what do you what are you saying that the circumstances I find myself in We need to trust yeah Well, I mean Paul is Paul it says you got to work The Lord's Jesus or the Yahweh told Adam you got to work We got to work why Take care of those you have a responsibility for those who gives you and others well, I think there's a Positive Feeling or emotion that comes from Working all day you put in your time you can go home and eat a good dinner and hang out with family you know there's That's worldly.

You think? Sure. No. When did you mention the Lord in that scenario? The family. They're the Lord? Well, if you're in Christ, you're in a new creation, a new family. So you get better food that way? Well, you could. Depends on which restaurant you're going to. No, I'm not discounting the family. I'm not discounting the family unit. It's the building block of society.

In this particular case, Paul is warning Timothy about those that do have money that are believers, that they not get conceited and not fix their hope on uncertainty. I know we haven't got there yet, but those two things are two dangers that come from having money.

You start getting dependent upon yourself. So he's not at all talking about having wealth versus not having wealth, or even the adverse, the desire. It depends on what it's in, right? And in that case earlier in this chapter, he's talking about the average desire for money is the root of all evil because you're dependent upon it. It defines you. So if you're saying, no, your definition is not your wealth, And there's other places where we build a doctrine of wealth and so forth.

But in this case, they were fixing... there was a danger, right? And he wanted Timothy to be aware of the danger that those in his body were potentially dealing with, obviously, if it was addressed. And so, I find it really interesting that that word, uncertainty of hope, is really the factor there. you fix yourself on your self-sufficiency.

It's like, it's not what God has given me and prepared for me in the treasures in heaven that I do possess because I'm in Christ. It's more about my portfolio. That's what defines me is what I have. On the earth, yeah. Yeah, it does. So, well, it's interesting. I just looked at the time. They must be going over next door, too.

He says that it's a false hope. That if you have a lot of money and you depend on it, it's a false hope, because it could be gone tomorrow. Yeah, but really, doesn't a man have to find that out experimentally? You mean a man can't read God's Word and say, OK, I'll go with that?

Okay, God gives you $100,000. Okay, He gave me that for a reason, right? So, it just teaches you more dependency on who the Lord is. What, to give to $100,000? Yeah. What if He gave it to you to give to somebody else? a lesson hard learned. Yeah. You know, but he, I'm sure he does things. But if you understand this, you don't have a problem with whatever he gave you. It doesn't belong to you. You're the custodian of it. And whatever he wants to do with it, you're in. You're okay with it. So good discussion. Come back next week and we'll argue some more.

That's close. Father, we thank you. Can I pray now? Can I pray now? Oh, good. Father, we thank you. We thank you very much for your word and how you're so careful to teach us that our dependency really is on you, which is where it ought to be, and that anything outside of you is a false hope. And we thank you for your dear son, the Lord Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.