Staying Free from the Love of Money

Verse 1, it says, now the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith. They're going to give heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of devils. Speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own consciences seared with a hot iron. And in Paul's time, he speaks about the things that were going on, they forbid marriage, they command to abstain from foods which God has created to be received with thanksgiving. Those who believe and know the truth, for every creature of God is good, nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. But there's many other things, many other doctrines of men that hinder people from being led by the Spirit of God and walking by faith. And it says in latter times, it says, some will depart from the faith and give heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Now, faith is the evidence of things that we hope for and the substance of what is unseen. And by it, those of us who are mature or who have come to a maturity in Christ obtain a good testimony before God. Because if any man shrinks back, but as the scriptures say, my soul has no pleasure in him, but the righteous one is justified by faith. The just shall live by their faith. There was a time in Acts when there were Gentiles, they didn't know the right hand from their left and they got born again. And some Jews came down and they were going to load them up on a whole bunch of things that they got light on, on how they should live and walk in a way that's good, teach people to be righteous. And then they had a meeting about it, they had some prayer and they decided that they should only share with them a few things, to abstain from drinking blood. Obviously they were doing that. Stop committing sexual sin, which is huge, right? And some other things, but he didn't give them even the 10 commandments. They didn't give them many, many things that are good to do as a Christian. Don't lie, don't steal, don't cheat. These are things Paul did right to some of the churches. But he said, if you do these things, you'll get a good boost and you'll do well. Because God doesn't need a junior Holy Spirit to help you to be a good Christian. He provided the Holy Spirit to give you conviction of sin, to give you a light on what does righteousness look like, and to give us a conscience about, hey, you know what? We're going to give an answer. There's a judgment coming. We're going to have to give an answer to the things that we're doing. To convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. So what is this falling away, this great falling away that happens before the man of sin is revealed? What does this look like? Having begun in the spirit, now all of a sudden pride comes into the heart. People begin to be perfected, how? In the flesh. And then when we take ground spiritually, what do we do? We look down on other believers who should be further than they are in their walk, and we start to judge them in an unrighteous way, saying, you know what? You should be doing these things also, as we've gotten light on them now. You should not be doing those types of things. And without realizing it, pride comes in our heart, and we start proclaiming, don't taste, don't touch, and don't handle. Which has an appearance of godliness, but it doesn't make anyone holy on the inside. So after we receive Christ, we receive the forgiveness of sins, and we start to walk by faith, then people go amiss, they go astray. And quite often it is because men have come in and given them another gospel, and they've sold them a different Jesus. And they've made the narrow way wider for them, so that they can be accepted. Maybe those ministers want to have them come to their church. Maybe those ministers would like to have a big following. Maybe there's a lust in their heart to be somebody. And you know what? The way to build a big church, a mega church, is to widen the gate and make it as wide as possible, so you can include everybody. You can include homosexuals, you can include lesbians, you can include transvestites, you can include Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, you name it. You can include the sexually immoral, the drunkards, you can include the liars, and all the thieves. You can include them all, come as you are, and the blood of Jesus has cleansed you from all sin. You don't have to change. You are secure. But this is a deception. And young believers, when they receive a lie, then they get off track. And they're no longer governed by the convictions of the Holy Spirit, and by faith, they have another way worked out. Because someone that they respect as a man has given them a wide gate, and has given them a license to sin, without even realizing it, because when the man is ministering, he doesn't go out and say those things, but he doesn't preach the Word of God in pure truth. He compromises the Word of God. He picks and chooses through the Word of God, so as to be popular. The scripture goes on from there. He says in verse 6, if you instruct the brothers in these things, you'll be a good minister. Now we know one thing about the Catholics, and they've got themselves in a world of hurt. They never allow the nuns to marry, they don't allow the priests to marry. And what has happened? What kind of chaos and mess has happened because of these traditions of men? Just because Paul remained celibate and was unmarried, and he said, I wish it all were as I am, right, but not everyone has this gift, should we then put yokes on people and say that it is more righteous for you to be set apart for the purpose of God, when they're burning with passion, and next thing you know, there's all kinds of sexual scandal in the Catholic Church, and not just the Catholic Church, in many other churches, why? Because of doctrines and teachings of men. So you have someone who's sincere, who maybe at one time, I'm not saying all, but was wholehearted in their passion for Jesus, they got caught up in this religion, and it set them on a course to destruction, forbidding to marry. Now we also have these denominations who abstain from certain foods. Now we know that good things come from Scripture, and God had said that if you eat certain shellfish, certain pork and different things, you should abstain from those things because they're not good for you. If they're not cooked properly, you can get sick from them. But we know that in the New Testament, all these creeping things and unclean things came down on a sheet when Peter was there praying in the upper room waiting for his lunch, and the word came from the Holy Spirit, kill and eat, and he said, Lord, never, I've never put pork or shellfish or these kinds of things, unclean things in my mouth, and he said what God has sanctified, he says, don't call it unclean. What he is specifically speaking about was Gentiles. Because Jesus came primarily for the Jews, but because the Jews rejected him, he now allowed an opportunity for us as Gentile believers to come into the kingdom who were considered the uncleans. Then we can go back and make a doctrine out of it, and we can say, you know what, we're more righteous if you abstain from pork. You're more righteous if you abstain from certain things. You may have a personal conviction, and that's between you and God. The one who does not eat does not eat to the Lord. But if you put that conviction on a whole congregation, you can bring people into bondage. This is not the will of God for you. You may get an upset stomach if you eat too much bacon, you decide you're not going to eat the pork. That's between you and God. If somebody else has liberty to eat these things, and he gives thanks to God, and he receives it with thanksgiving, don't put your conviction and your bondage on other people. And it can go from there. These are things which the scripture speaks about which are lawful things. But then there's things where people give people liberty in things that are sin. He's not speaking about that. He's speaking about these other things, bringing people into bondage. Don't taste, don't touch, and don't handle. But then some people would accuse us of saying, oh, you're preaching holiness. You're preaching a doctrine which accords with godliness. You're bringing people into legalism. No, we're bringing people into liberty. Because God has called us to liberty, only don't allow that liberty as an opportunity for the flesh to obey the flesh in its lust. You say, what is the flesh? The flesh is your nature that wants to live like a dog. That has to be crucified. The flesh is your nature that loves money. That has to die. The flesh is your nature that wants to be seen as somebody, and you want people to honor you. That has to go. Because we've been baptized. What does baptism represent? Dying to the old man, dying to the flesh, dying to what we're held by. And wanting to make a name for ourselves. Lucifer sought worship. Do you seek worship? It says the Pharisees, who were very careful with the law, but they sought honor. And they were lovers of money. These are things that if you are very honorable, and you love money, and you're very good with money, people will esteem you. But God said that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. He said beware of covetousness. Beware of the love of money. The Pharisees loved money. Be careful that we don't become lovers of money. Boastful, proud, arrogant, unthankful, unholy, unloving. Having a form of godliness and denying the power of God. And such, it says, turn away. This is in 2nd Timothy in chapter 3. In the latter times, some will depart from the faith. 1 Timothy in chapter 4. Brothers, sisters, we have to continue in the faith. We have to persevere in faith. We have to be led by the spirit of God. These are the sons of God. Money, I heard Brother Zach share, and I tend to agree. It makes a wonderful servant. We need money. But it is a terrible master. If you're controlled in your thoughts about how you can get more, make more, how you can save more, how you can... We don't worship the creation. Money is created by man. They print it in a press, or they mold it and they fashion it with a tool. We worship God. It's a wonderful servant, if we're using it in a right way, but a terrible master. And we become slaves to whom we obey. Don't allow yourself to become the tail. Where you become controlled by money. Where your decisions are governed by, am I going to make money at this? Is this going to be profitable for me? We have to love the Lord with all our heart. To love the Lord with all of our soul and with all of our mind. And out of that comes a love for people. If you love the Lord and you love people, you're not going to love money. You're not going to sit and dream about money. You're not going to look in your account and count money. We have to make financial decisions, but we're not governed by these things. We're not controlled by them. We want to make good decisions, but we're not going to make these things lords in our lives. Judas loved money. He was a lover of money. And what was the first sign? He started to justify taking for himself that which was the Lord's. That which was to be used for their needs. He stole money, and he justified himself. The Pharisees loved money, and they justified themselves. It's easy to justify yourself when you're looking to justify your actions. But we need to listen to the convictions of the Holy Spirit. That one area is money. Another area is sexual immorality, remarriage, getting another girlfriend. People seek to justify themselves. Well, my wife was abusive. Well, I was in an abusive relationship. Well, my wife was this. My wife was cheating. My wife was this. My husband was this. My husband was abusive. This. And next thing you know, there's a lust in the heart for a partner. And not a love for the Lord. A love for women. A love for another man. This thing can set you off course. It was one of the four things. It said abstain from sexual immorality. It says in Romans in chapter 7 that if you've been married once, it says that the covenant of marriage, what breaks that is the death of one of those partners. And someone who divorces, they cover their garments with violence is what it says. It says what God joins together, let not man separate. And then the Pharisees seeking to justify themselves said, yes, but Moses permitted a certificate of divorce. He said, but from the beginning it was not this way. Because of the hardness of your heart. You know what, if you keep saying, can I, can I, can I, can I, can I, can I have, can I have, can I have, who says these things? Little spoiled children when they go to the store, they wear you down. And eventually because you don't stop, God gives you over to the lust of the flesh. You just get given over to your passions and your intense cravings. The children of Israel just cried out for meat in the wilderness. Can I, can I, can I, can I, can I have meat? I want meat. I don't love this bread anymore. I don't like this bread. This is awesome manna. Give us meat to eat. Can I? And God sent quail until they ate, until they vomited, until it came out their nostrils. He gave them so much of it. You keep lusting after another man's wife, and another woman after you make covenant. You're just asking to lower the hedge on yourself. You're just asking for the powers of darkness to destroy your life, and to cover your life with violence. You're just inviting more hell into your life. And we've seen it time and time again, where people, they start well with the Lord, and then they go after money. They go after another woman. They go after these other things. Pride. To make a name. And the end is destruction. The Lord would want to spare us from these things. But He's not going to force us. He's not going to force you. He's given you a will. That's one thing that we have received from God is our own will. And we willingly have to yield that will daily to God. Offer your bodies by yielding your will to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. That's how we worship God. By bringing thoughts captive. When I have these temptations, these thoughts, crazy thoughts that come into my head from the devil, I bring those thoughts captive, bring them to the obedience of God's Word to Christ, so that I don't do the things that I wish according to the flesh. It says, but such were some of you ungodly, worldly, liars, thieves, warmongers, covetous, sexually immoral. But you were what? Washed. You were baptized. You died and your life is now hidden with Christ and God. And then when you were raised with Christ, you were washed with the Word of God and by the Spirit of God. And we were sanctified through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. When Jesus was on the earth, He sat down with His disciples and He ungirded Himself and He said, I'm here to wash your feet. And He began washing His disciples' feet. And He came to Peter and Peter said, Lord, you're never going to wash my feet. This isn't right. Why are you doing this thing? Why are you getting so low? You're the Christ. He had the revelation. You're the Christ. Why are you doing this? No, Lord, you shall never wash me. And the Lord said to him from His knees, looking up to Peter, He said, Peter, if I don't wash you, you have neither part nor portion of me. He said, well, then wash all of me, tip to toe. I want the full deal. I want everything. He said, no, Peter. He said, you're already clean because of the Word, the Word, the Word. I've washed you with my Word, which I've spoken to you. Only your feet. You've been baptized. You've been raised with Christ. You're walking with Christ. But we have a need to be washed because our feet get dirty. You go to work, you laugh at something you shouldn't have. You listen to things with your ears that you shouldn't have heard. Right? You get caught up looking at stuff or getting tempted, and you've made some fails along the journey, and you feel dirty. And you come and you repent before God and you say, Lord Jesus, forgive me. I've walked on unholy land. Have mercy on me. I'm an unclean man among an unclean people. Help me to be clean. And Jesus, in all lowliness and compassion, He washes our dirty feet. You know, I was reading something this morning, I got a revelation on something. I haven't had revelation in such a long time, I've been asking, and it hasn't been the right time. But I got light on it, and you can ponder it. Matthew in chapter 11. Matthew in chapter 11, speaking about John the Baptist, he says this, verse 7. But as he departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John the Baptist, What did you go out in the wilderness to see? Did you go see a reed shaken in the wind? I think not. John the Baptist is a bold preacher. But what did you go in the wilderness to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses. You didn't go out to see that. What did you go to see then? A prophet? I say yes, and more than a prophet. For this is whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. Surely I say to you, among those born of woman, there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist. The greatest prophet of all time up to that point. Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Never understood that verse. He who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And then I got light. The kingdom of heaven on earth is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Jesus is a manifestation of God come down. And only one greater than John the Baptist is Jesus himself. The least in the kingdom of heaven. He didn't come to be great. He came to take the lowest place and to be least. He said, the greatest among you shall be least and servant of all. He came not to be served, but to wash his disciples' feet. To give us an example of how we should live. You want to be great? You aspire to be the least, like Jesus. The one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. He goes on from there and he says, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. And the violent take it by force. Another part in Luke, chapter 16, it says, the kingdom of heaven is preached. It's violently preached. And everyone is pressing into it. When you see Jesus going from place to place, the people are trying to get to Jesus with desperation. Because if they can only get to Jesus, they can get their miracle. And it says that wherever he went, all these different places, he said they would come and he healed them all. They wanted to get to Jesus, even the woman with the issue of blood. She just fought with all her might. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence. And the violent take it by force. That woman pressed as hard as she could get, if only she could touch the hem of his garment, she could be healed. She knew, she had this kind of faith. She could be healed. You know, the Lord is very gracious and compassionate. Praise God for that. He's slow to anger and rich in love. And he's good to all. And he has compassion on all that he's made. But you know, there's something that's coming and it's called the judgment. And he's going to be, not the way that we experience him now, he wouldn't be bold. He's going to be king of kings and lord of lords. He's going to judge with righteous judgment. We're going to have to give him an account. If we don't receive his mercy, we're going to get his wrath. The wrath of the lamb. When it's written in Revelation, it says, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah. And then they looked and they saw what? They saw a lamb, as though it had been slain. Jesus is referred to as the lion of the tribe of Judah, but never seen as a lion. King of the jungle, or king of kings. But when we see him, we see him as a lamb that was slain. When people see you, do they see you as a lion? Do they see you as a bull in a china shop? Or do they see you as a lamb? As Jesus says, meek, lowly, humble in heart. Something else I'd like to share. At that time, verse 25, chapter 11, Jesus answered and said, he made a prayer to his father. I thank you, Lord, heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from those who are wise and prudent. In other words, from the Pharisees. But you have revealed these things to babes, to babes in Christ. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight, Lord, all things have been delivered to me by my father. And no one knows the son except the father. Nor does anyone know the father except the son and the one to whom the Lord, or to whom the son wills to reveal him. To make the father known to them. I like this next passage. It says this, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. There's so many people seeking to get a hold of Jesus. They're trying to press in to get a hold of Jesus. And they're trying to say if he can only notice me, if I knock on enough doors, and I preach the gospel to enough people, he's going to take notice of me. If I do all these righteous things that the pastor told me to become holy, then I'm going to be good enough for him to notice me. If I dot all these I's and get all these T's crossed, and I work really, really hard to become righteous, he's going to take notice of me. And after you exhaust yourself completely in seeking to become the righteousness of God, and having a doctrine which accords with godliness, you find yourself absolutely exhausted in your pursuit for Christ, in your pursuit for God, in knowing the father. And you think, have you been to me like an unfaithful stream? I've done all this for you. What have you done for me? Where is your outpouring of your spirit? And we have a misunderstanding that it says he gives the spirit to those who obey him, and so we think if we do all these things and don't do all these things, somehow he's going to be more pleased with us, and somehow then we're going to have this outpouring, and we're going to receive this great unction. But the exhortation is very simple. After we exhaust ourselves, I've seen a dog chasing his tail. He's going hard, and eventually he collapses from exhaustion, and he's just laying in their path, and he's just done. And then he gets up again, and he does it all over again, chasing again, and again, and again, until he's absolutely exhausted. I don't know if you can relate to this, but I know there's a lot of people seeking holiness and righteousness, like I believe it was John Wesley was seeking. Some of these men sought to be part of the holy club. George Wichfield, some of these others, and so it happened that Jesus, the voice comes, and he says, come to me. All you who have been laboring, working hard to attain to the righteousness of God, and found that you can't attain to it. You haven't been able to press into it. You're heavy laden. You're exhausted. I'll give you rest. Stop trying. Start walking by faith. Start looking to him, and all of a sudden you'll be radiant as this man saw these men who were full of the spirit and the joy of the Lord, and he wondered how they attained to it when he was heading up the holy club. They were heading up the holy club, and here are these people with the joy of the Lord on their face. Look to him and be radiant. Your face won't be ashamed. Start being obedient to the convictions. My yoke, it is a yoke. When you yoke yourself with Jesus, it is a yoke, but he says this, take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. Stop learning from the doctrines of men. Stop following Pharisees. Stop taking all these things on yourself to try to become a holy man, and be better than the rest of us, and start following Jesus. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. For I am a lamb that was slain. I looked, and I saw as though a lamb had been slain. The lion of the tribe of Judah I'm speaking of now. For I am gentle, and lowly, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Are you prepared to exchange the yoke that you received from religion, a yoke that you received to be recognized by the Pharisees, to become a Pharisee of Pharisees, as this one Saul was very exceedingly zealous for the things of God? And take the yoke of Jesus, and allow the Holy Spirit to make you holy. Allow it to happen from the inside out, not from the outside in. Stop seeking to attain to a righteousness by don't taste, don't touch, don't handle. And if you know something, you're convicted of it, repent and turn from it. Be obedient to the Holy Spirit, and be obedient to what the Word of God says. Stop seeking the approval of man, Jesus himself. They called him Beelzebub. What do you think they're gonna call you? What did those Pharisees call Jesus? They called him Beelzebub. Rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also, follow him. Be led by the Spirit. Love him with all your heart. Seek him while he may be found. Don't seek to attain to a righteousness so you can lord it over people and talk down to them. No! Lead by example. Don't lord it over the flock. Lead by example. Love people. A thing to say about Noah. Noah got drunk in his tent and he made his mistakes. I've had my own issues with my own natural father, and I'm sure my children have issues with me. There's times when our nakedness is revealed when we get carnal and we get in the flesh. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But there's something of the office when it comes to authority where it says that a man does not honor his father and mother. It's not a good thing. We go to shame our father as Ham shamed his father for his nakedness. It wasn't a matter of whether Noah was naked. It wasn't a matter of whether he was lying there in shame. The matter was that Ham exposed his nakedness in pride. When he should have done what his other sons did, Ham did the opposite and he laughed about it. And he told his brothers, Shem and Jephthah, they walked in backwards with a blanket and they covered over his nakedness. And the scripture clearly states that love covers a multitude of sins, especially when it comes to fathers and mothers. And unless we learn that, then we're going to end up going through hard times. Our shame will be exposed before men until we're prepared to cover over the shame and nakedness of our parents. Because they did as they seen best and they might not be walking with God and they might know better. We might have every right to do it but you know what? Because of the position honor your father and mother that you might live long in the land. This is one of the promises. Don't shame your parents. Honor them. In Jesus name. Amen.