Proverbs 30:7-9
Struggling with the Spirit of Materialism
Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds on the spiritual dangers of materialism, particularly for those who have benefited from godly nurture. He draws extensively from Proverbs, Deuteronomy 8, Hosea 13, Matthew 6 & 13, Psalm 49, Job 31, and 1 Timothy 6 to demonstrate how material prosperity exerts pressure to forget God, seduces to idolatry, and chokes the Word. Martin then provides practical guidance, urging believers to pray Agur's prayer, determine how they will honor God with wealth, guard their hearts, and trust Christ to save them from these sins.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 11 sections · 72 min
- Introduction and Scripture Reading 0:01
- Godly Nurture and Material Prosperity: The Ordinary Connection 12:01
- The Vulnerability of the Prosperous to Sin 26:30
- Sin 1: Material Prosperity Exerts Pressure to Forget God 28:02
- Sin 2: Material Prosperity Exerts Seduction to Idolatry 37:32
- Sin 3: Material Prosperity Exerts Deceptive Influence to Choke the Word 46:41
- What to Do in Light of These Dangers: Avoiding Wrong Responses 51:07
- What to Do in Light of These Dangers: Pray Agur's Prayer 54:05
- What to Do in Light of These Dangers: Determine How to Honor God with Wealth 58:30
- What to Do in Light of These Dangers: Guard Your Heart and Trust Christ 65:52
- Conclusion and Prayer 70:16
Key Quotes
“I have said that we need to be very much aware that with godly nurture internalized, embraced and now seeking to regulate our mature adult life, we will be particularly vulnerable to the sins associated with material prosperity.”
“In other words, material prosperity exerts a powerful pressure on the soul to forget God, the giver of those blessings.”
“Some of the saddest verses in all the Bible. They were filled. They forgot me.”
“Your god is that from which you seek your highest satisfaction to which you yield your supreme allegiance for which you'll pay the greatest price to retain it and that upon which you pin your hopes for well-being.”
“riches in its wretched rotten stinking deceitfulness promising what it can't deliver and then delivering what it never promises”
“Lord don't make me poor but don't make me a fat cat Lord don't give me either of those because I understand the peculiar spiritual dangers of both of them and I want to avoid them”
“There's nothing wrong with a wealthy man living like a wealthy man there's nothing wrong with him buying his suits but at a first class men's clothing store just as it would be wrong for some of us to have custom made suits it may be perfectly right and almost a form of necessity for his station for someone else to have suits custom made God gives us all things riches to enjoy for a wealthy man to enjoy the fruits of his wealth this is mandated not sinful not sinful”
“you laid hold of my grace that kept you from the crippling sins of material prosperity you did not forget me you did not make a God of stuff and things you kept an open hand a generous spirit”
Applications
Parents & families
- Pray the realistic prayer of Agur from Proverbs 30, asking for neither poverty nor riches, but for the food that is needful, understanding the peculiar spiritual dangers of both.
- Determine now, while detached from the reality of major prosperity, how you will seek to honor God should it come to you, soaking your soul in passages like 1 Timothy 6 and Romans 12.
All listeners
- Impart to the rising generation that when God puts things in our hands, it is not to consume it upon ourselves selfishly, but to recognize that what we have comes from the Lord, and God gets His portion.
- Be forewarned and forearmed against the soul-destroying sins associated with material prosperity, watching and praying lest you enter into temptation.
- Understand that material prosperity exerts a powerful seduction to idolatry, making a god of money and things.
- Keep a close guard upon your heart in the use of God-appointed means, recognizing you are in a place of danger, and pray that God will keep you from heart sins associated with wealth.
- Set up an accountability relationship with a brother or sister in the church who understands similar vulnerabilities, praying for one another and opening your heart.
- Be honest with your pastors and do not allow yourself to go off into spiritual isolation where these sins can eat away at your soul.
- Above all, trust the Lord Jesus to save you from the sins associated with material prosperity, knowing that through Him you can do all things.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 132 paragraphs, roughly 72 minutes.
Introduction and Scripture Reading
The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, November 10, 2002, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, in preparation for our consideration in the scriptures tonight, I want you to follow with me as I read several portions of scripture to which we will make reference in the course of the message. One is from the Old Testament, the book of Proverbs, the book of Proverbs and chapter 30, Proverbs chapter 30, and these are the words of Agur, the son of Jaca, the oracle or the word from God. And who Agur was, we don't know, but since it is an oracle, that is a word from God, it is part of the spirit-inspired body of holiness. And we read in verse 7, the prayer of Agur.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy, we'll come to this, God willing, in several weeks, but I want us to turn to it this evening, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 3 to 10, and then verses 17 to 18. 1 Timothy, chapter 6, in verse 3.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 7 to 10, and then verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 7 to 10, and then verses 17 to 18.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 7 to 10, and then verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18.
And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. And now in the New Testament, 1 Timothy and chapter 6, verses 17 to 18. of a disposition and spirit of industry and diligence in one's appointed tasks. Well, here I ask you to open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs.
Godly Nurture and Material Prosperity: The Ordinary Connection
We'll be looking at a number of passages, and under this heading we look first of all at Proverbs 10 and verse 4. He becomes poor that works with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Here God says that poverty generally comes in the wake of a lazy hand, an indolent disposition, but that riches come in the wake of diligence. Chapter 12 and verse 24.
The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be put under task work. Someone will end up being the foreman. Someone will end up being overseer of the office and become office manager and assistant vice president and then vice president, and with that comes increasing compensation and greater measures of material prosperity. The hand of the diligent.
The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, not infallibly, not without exception, but as an ordinary rule when someone is embracing godly nurture that underscores the necessity of industry and diligence. What follows in its wake is eventually material prosperity. Chapter 13 and verse 11. Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathers money, by labor shall have increase.
The person who does not expect to make it rich by the lottery, but with diligence in the course of his appointed sphere of calling is given with industry to that task. God says he that gathers by labor shall have increase. And then Proverbs 22 and verse 29. I don't want to weary you.
I don't want to weary you with too many texts, but I want to give enough to substantiate my thesis in your judgment. Proverbs 22 and verse 29. Do you see a man diligent in his business? Do you see that kid in school, whether it's home school, whether it's Trinity Christian school, wherever it is, do you see the kid that's not goofing off, always pushing to the margin the privilege of goofing off, taking his free time, right to the limits, never husbanding his time, never having the sense of diligence, that right now I'm laying up in stock for what I will be able to be and do as a mature man.
There's a connection between my goofing off now and my inability to produce ten years from now. But do you see a man who's got the connection? There's a boy sitting in his school, diligent in his business. What will happen?
He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand. He shall not stand before mean men. He shall stand before kings.
His diligence will pave a way to a sphere of influence and usefulness and often with that commensurate compensation in terms of material prosperity. And the opposite warning is clearly given in chapter 6 of Proverbs. Verse 6. Go to the ant, you sluggard.
Consider her ways and be wise, which having no chief, oversee a ruler, provides bread in the summer, gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep? Oh, a little sleep.
A little slumber. A little holding of the hands to sleep. So shall your poverty come as a robber and your want as an armed man. By degrees, the material devastation of laziness will be just as great as someone who came in and one night, and tillaged all your goods.
Now, if that is part and parcel of the nurture that we are seeking to impart to our children and they embrace it and they internalize it, what will be one of the results? Material prosperity. Ordinarily. Not infallibly.
Not without exception. But according to these passages, ordinarily, material prosperity will come in the way of industry and diligence. An industry and a diligence imparted as part and parcel of godly nurture. Now, secondly, godly nurture certainly underscores principled, generous giving to the Lord, His cause, and to the needy.
Part and parcel of godly nurture is imparting to the rising generation that when God puts stuff and things in our hands, it is not to consume it upon ourselves selfishly, but to recognize that what we have comes from the Lord. And therefore, very early, parents will insist that children with, if they get an allowance, with money that they earn, that God gets His portion. And there are specific promises as to what comes in the wake of that kind of principled, generous giving to the Lord, to His cause, and to the needy. Let's look at several passages again in Proverbs.
Chapter 3, verses 9 and 10. Now, hope you don't get weary. Don't often do this, running around many passages, but folks, but I've got to deliver my conscience on this thing, and I've got to persuade you. So, hang in there with me, alright?
Proverbs chapter 3, verses 9 and 10. Honor the Lord with your substance, and with the leftovers of all your increase, no, with the first fruits of all your increase. God gets His portion off the top. And godly nurture will impart that perspective to the rising generation, Honor the Lord with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase.
What will be the result? So shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. They won't just get filled up. You'll have to run around with cuffs and get this filled over.
The wine will spill over. Prosperity. God's beneficence manifested to the generous person who honors Him with His substance. Chapter 11, verses 24 and 25.
Proverbs 11, 24 and 25. There is that scatters and increases yet more. There is that withholds more than is justly due, but it tends only to want. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that waters shall be watered also himself.
Here's the person who scatters. And the more he scatters, the more he increases. Here's the person who is narrow-hearted, who is niggardly, has nothing to do with race. It's a good word.
It's a narrow heart, tight-fisted. And here's the niggardly person. That person, he says, withholds more than is right. And what happens?
It puts him in the way of personal deprivation and poverty. So God says, when there is generosity, in giving to God, to His work, and to the needy, 28 and verse 27, one more text under this head, 28, 27, he that gives unto the poor shall not lack, but he that hides his eyes shall have many a curse. What is God saying? He's saying ordinarily, when there is the cultivation of this disposition of generosity that gives the Lord His portion off the top, that responds to the needy, that sees what we hold as a trust from God, not just to meet our needs, but the needs of others.
God says, our own prosperity will come in the wake of this disposition and attitude and action of generous giving. Now thirdly, godly nurture certainly will underscore the necessity for kindness and truth in interpersonal relationships. God have mercy on the home that doesn't have a mom and dad, that always riding herd on their kids, that they're going to have a climate of kindness and truth in all their relationships. That's part of godly nurture.
Well, what happens when that godly nurture takes hold, is internalized, and becomes regulative of a person's life? Well, look at Proverbs 3, 3 and 4. And we have the answer. Proverbs 3, 3 and 4.
Let not kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them about your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart, and what will be the result? So you will find favor and good repute, good understanding, marginal reading, good repute, with whom? In the sight of God and of man.
When kindness and truth dominate our interpersonal relationships, we not only find favor with God, but with men. And when there's a review of our performance, fair-minded people above us, in the pecking order of the company, of the construction company, of the business, wherever it is, the report goes in, this guy knows how to handle people. This woman knows how to interact with people. And you find good repute before men.
And with that, often, not infallibly, not necessarily, but ordinarily, comes the promotion, and with it, the material increase that follows in the wake, of that kind of disposition of kindness and truth. And then, certainly, in the fourth place, godly nurture underscored sexual purity. And what is one of the results of sexual purity? It's material prosperity.
Look at chapter 5 in the book of Proverbs, verses 7 to 10. Now therefore, my sons, hearken to me. Depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her.
That's the foreign woman, the immoral woman. Come not, near the door of her house. Lest you give your honor unto others in your years to the cruel. Lest strangers be filled with your wealth.
That's the marginal reading. Lest strangers be filled with your wealth, and your labors be in the house of an alien, and you mourn in your latter end when your flesh and your body are consumed, and you then curse your stupidity in not embracing that godly nature. That's the ordinary nurture that sought to set before you the benefits of moral sexual purity. Moral sexual purity will often bring in its train the retaining of the fruit of our labors rather than giving them away to another.
And then certainly the fifth category, godly nurture, underscores moderation and self-control with our bodily appetites. And what is the ordinary result? Proverbs 20 and verse 13. What is the ordinary result of the restraint and discipline of our legitimate bodily appetites?
Proverbs 20 and verse 13. Do not love sleep lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes. Learn to master your bed.
And you will be satisfied with being satisfied with bread. Here's a person with tremendous potential to earn bread for himself and others. But that potential is squandered in his bed. He has an inordinate love of sleep.
And it leads to poverty.
21.17 He that loves pleasure shall be a poor man. But he that loves wine and oil shall not be rich. The guy that's attached to the fine things of life, they're more important to him than the discipline of his appetites and his bodily passions.
This man does not come to the material prosperity that otherwise would be his portion. And then chapter 23, 20 to 27, similar emphasis as well. Well, this is just a sampling. I just speed read at my desk through the entire book of Proverbs with this filter in my eyes.
And in my brain. What are some of the benefits of godly nurture held out? Remember, this is basically a father talking to his son in the first of ten chapters. And then it is general principles of godly nurture in the rest of the book.
And again and again, there is held out as incentive as well as cause and effect relationship material prosperity as that which comes in the wake of a man's life. Of a responsible godly disciplined life and character. Now then, do you see the bridge? I have said that we need to be very much aware that with godly nurture internalized, embraced and now seeking to regulate our mature adult life, we will be particularly vulnerable to the sins associated with material prosperity. You see now the connection? Yes or no? I can't go on.
The Vulnerability of the Prosperous to Sin
Do you see the connection? Oh, very good. My black brother's got an advantage over me. The people don't sit there like stones.
They let them know when they're connecting. I'm not up here to get through my notes, folk. If I ain't connecting here, I'm going to stay here until I connect. I'm here to persuade you.
And you're not going to You've got to give me some response like that. Thank you for your amen so I know that I've connected. Because this is absolutely crucial. And if it's connecting in my brain but not yours, the purpose of preaching is not for the preacher to get connected up here.
It's for us to get connected together. All right? All right. Now, I've sought to demonstrate why is it that godly nurture can indeed leave those who have it and embrace it and are seeking to work it out particularly vulnerable to the sins connected with material prosperity.
It's because that godly nurture has as its ordinary reward in this life material prosperity.
All right? That comes to the next question, brings us to the next question. What are some of the soul-destroying sins especially associated with material prosperity? If godly nurture is not embraced and worked out, leaves us particularly vulnerable to the sins associated with material prosperity, what are the beasts?
Sin 1: Material Prosperity Exerts Pressure to Forget God
What do those sins look like? What are they that I may be forewarned and therefore forearmed, that I may watch and pray lest I enter into temptation? What are some of the soul-destroying sins especially associated with material prosperity? Well, I want to identify three of them with you tonight.
Number one, material prosperity exerts a powerful pressure on the soul to forget god. Material prosperity exerts a powerful pressure upon the soul to forget god. And we're going to look at two passages which set out this truth in spades. The first is Deuteronomy chapter 8.
Deuteronomy chapter 8.
In the opening verses of this chapter, through Moses, God is reminding the people of how wonderfully he cared for them in the whole 40-year wilderness experience. Their sustenance was one perpetual miracle of God's gracious intervention on their behalf. He sent man a day after day. He did something and I don't know what he did.
My mind got working on this and I said, Lord, I've got a table left until Monday on my day off and when I'm raking the leaves, I can think some more about that. Verse 4 of Deuteronomy 8. Your raiment did not wax old upon you, neither did your foot swell these 40 years. What did God do?
Did he impregnate the cloth on their garments so they didn't wear out? How did God do that? I never thought of that until I was looking at the passage preparing to preach on it. And then my crazy old brain got fascinated by it.
What did God do? Imagine 20 years and you had the same cloak. You get up the next morning and put it on and you say, look, Harriet, it looks like I just took it off the rack.
So God did. And surely his man has sustained them. God did something so that their garments did not wax old. And God reminds them of all that he did for them and then he said, verse 7, the Lord your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, fountains, springs flowing in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land where you shall eat bread without scarceness.
You shall not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron and out of the hills you may dig copper and you shall eat and be full and bless the Lord your God for the good land. He says, you're going to be a bunch of fat cats in that land. I'm bringing you to a land that is profuse in its natural resources. All kinds of stuff already in place as you dispossess the Canaanitish nations.
No longer will you be in that posture where in a sense every morning was a cliffhanger. Will God send a man again?
He said, it's all going to be there. Fruit trees, natural resources, plenty, abundance.
Now look at verse 11. Beware. Beware. Watch out.
Be on your guard. Beware lest you forget the Lord your God in not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I command you this day lest when you have eaten and are full and have built goodly houses and dwelt therein and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold is multiplied and all that that you have is multiplied then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God. God said, I'm going to give you this bounty. Don't let my gift become your curse.
That's what God's saying. They didn't earn this. God says, I'm going to give it to you. It's going to come in the way of covenant obedience.
And in other passages in the Pentateuch, God says, God lays it out if you come into the land and keep my statutes and obey them. There'll be no miscarrying womb among your flocks, among your wives. There will be blessing in the field, in the kneading trough. Everywhere you turn, everything's going to drop with blessing.
No little part of that was material and tangible. But God knew that when they're smothered with material blessing,
they were liable to the sin of forgetting the blessing. And God says, Beware, lest you forget your God. Verse 14, Your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God. In other words, material prosperity exerts a powerful pressure on the soul to forget God, the giver of those blessings.
And what is highlighted in this passage is highlighted in one of the prophets as well in Hosea. The book of Hosea after the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea.
And Hosea in chapter 13 has this very, very searching, penetrating word. In the opening verses of the chapter, God is indicting them again for their idolatry. And then, he says in verses 4 to 6, Yet, in spite of all of this, I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt. And you shall know no God but me, and besides me there is no Savior.
I did know you in the wilderness. That is, I regarded you with distinguishing love and affection in the land of great drought. Now, verse 6, According to their pasture, so were they filled. They were filled.
And their heart was exalted. Therefore, they have forgotten me. Some of the saddest verses in all the Bible.
They were filled.
They forgot me. They forgot me. They forgot me.
While they were in a state of destitution,
they remembered him. Their need was great. They were reminded of it continually. And now God brings them into a land of profuse, material blessing.
And they forget God, the blesser. One man has written too often, the more we receive from God, the less he receives from us. Many of us can remember when we were in what would now be defined as borderline poverty. A mere subsistence existence.
No savings account.
No retirement accounts.
Literally praying month by month that money would somehow be present to meet basic standing monetary commitments. When our families would gather at family worship and pray for the money to come in for the next payment for Christian school. And when a check came from nowhere to be able to bring it to family worship, show the children and have them say, Dad, God answers prayer.
Some of us know what that is. And in that, in that state, though we might be vulnerable to the sins of envy and resentment of what others had, there was no forgetting God. We knew if God didn't intervene, we'd have it.
That's one of the great blessings of being borderline poor or being just plain poor. That's what Paul says about true widows in 1 Timothy 5.5. Those that are widows indeed, what do they do?
They set their, their hope on God and they pray day and night.
Their destitution keeps them close to their God.
Material prosperity has a powerful pressure upon the heart to make us forget God.
Sin 2: Material Prosperity Exerts Seduction to Idolatry
That's why you who have had the benefit of godly nurture better understand this clearly and think and pray and regulate all your perspectives by the principle that you are going to be most likely in a place of great danger. But now there's a second sin to which material prosperity exposes us in an unusual way and it's this. Material prosperity exerts a powerful seduction to idolatry. Material prosperity exerts a powerful seduction to idolatry.
That is, making a god of money and things. Now what is your god? Your god is that from which you seek your highest satisfaction. Your god is that to which you yield your supreme allegiance.
Your god is that for which you pay the greatest price to retain it. Your god is that upon which you pin your hopes for what you want. For well-being. That's your god.
That's your god. Your god is that from which you seek your highest satisfaction to which you yield your supreme allegiance for which you'll pay the greatest price to retain it and that upon which you pin your hopes for well-being.
And material possessions have a powerful seductive force to draw us into that kind of worship of what Jesus calls mammon. Matthew 6 and verse 24. I ask you to turn to that chapter. Jesus says in turns that are blunt, explicit and clear.
No man can serve two masters. No man can have his allegiance supremely attached to two gods. No man will serve a god. No man will serve can serve two masters.
He will either hate the one and love the other hold to the one and despise the other. There's the general principle. Now Jesus gets very specific and notice the focal point of his specificity. I got it out without stumbling.
What was it? You cannot serve God and mammon. You know what mammon is? Money and things.
That's money and things personified into a god. And Jesus said you can't serve the God who is God and that which presents itself for your worship as God. Money and stuff and things. And then he goes on to open up the folly of making money and stuff and things.
Your God culminating in verse 32 for after all these things do the Gentiles sin. Seek. It is their God. Mammon is their God because that is that from which they seek their highest satisfaction to which they yield their supreme allegiance for which they pay the greatest price to retain it.
That upon which they pin their hopes for well-being. After all these things do the Gentiles seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all the stuff and things you need will be added unto you. We'll look at several verses that clearly indicate that material prosperity exerts this powerful seduction to idolatry.
The Matthew 6 passage is sort of the foundational passage but I want to look at several others. Psalm 49.
For you who may be visiting with us we don't often do this kind of jump in many many passages but at least you go out of here saying hey those people believe their Bibles.
If it's a little bit strange for you to be doing this come back and try it again you may like it. Alright? Psalm 49. Psalm 49.
Verses 6 to 12.
They that trust in their wealth that is they make wealth their God. Their wealth becomes the object of their trust. Boast themselves in the multitude of their riches. None of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him for the redemption of their life is costly.
It fails forever that he should still live all way and should not see corruption for he shall see it. Wise men die and fool and brutish alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Now notice. Their inward thought is their houses shall continue forever.
They attribute the God-like quality of eternity to their stuff. Their inward thought is their houses shall continue forever. Their dwelling places to all generations. The Bible says God alone.
Is anyone's dwelling place to all generations. Oh Lord. You have been our dwelling place to all generations. They give God-like quality to their houses.
Their inward thought is their houses shall continue forever. Dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names. But man being in honor abides not in his life the beast that perish.
Oh the stupidity and the folly of attributing God-like qualities to mammon to stuff to things to material possessions. Turn back to the book of Job. Listen to Job when he's been unjustly accused of being a hypocrite. And he is rightly protesting that he is not a hypocrite.
And he is declaring the things that would validate the accusation that he were a hypocrite. And he says in Job 31 verse 24 If I have made gold my hope you see your God is that upon which you pin your hopes if I have made God gold my hope and have said to fine gold you are my confidence and if I've rejoiced because my wealth was great and because my hand has gotten much you see what he's saying? If I've made a God of my wealth then he says this is what should happen to me verse 28 this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judges for I should have denied the God that is above. If it is true that I've pinned my hope on my wealth that God gave me and I've said to my fine gold you are my confidence then indeed I would have denied the God that is and made a God of the stuff that he gave me. Job was conscious that material prosperity does indeed exert a powerful seduction to idolatry but he protest that by the grace of God this was not true of him. That's why the psalmist says in Psalm 62 10 if riches increase
set not your heart upon them. Open your hand and receive them as the gift of God and seek to be a good steward of their use but don't set your heart and your hope upon them. You see that's why Jesus said how hardly shall the rich enter the kingdom. It astounded the disciples.
Who then can be saved? Because Jesus knew the idolatrous attachment to stuff is so strong that rich men hardly enter the kingdom.
Hardly enter the kingdom.
And what happens to those who are professing believers and their hearts begin to allow the tentacles of affections of affections and trust and expectation that ought to be fixed only on God to begin to be stretched out to money and stuff and things. We read it in 1st Timothy chapter 6 and verse 8 verse 9 They that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts such as drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is a root of money and a root of all kinds of evil which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Sin 3: Material Prosperity Exerts Deceptive Influence to Choke the Word
You who have known the benefit and blessing of godly nurture need to recognize that one of the liabilities of that nurture if internalized and regulative of your life is that you will be particularly vulnerable to the sins associated with material prosperity. For material prosperity exerts this influence to seduction the seduction of idolatry it draws us in the direction away from remembering god and thirdly material prosperity exerts a deceptive influence upon the soul that chokes the word of god material prosperity exerts a deceptive influence upon the soul that chokes the word. Now we turn to Matthew chapter 13 Matthew chapter 13 the parable of the sower and the soils many of you familiar with it I'm sure the lord said the sower goes forth to sow one kind of seed falls on four different kinds of soil one of the soils is described this way 13.7 of Matthew others fell upon the thorns and the thorns grew up and choked the thorns and the thorns them then he interprets the significance of that soil
later on in the chapter verse 22 he that was sown among the thorns this is he that hears the word and the care of the world now notice the terminology and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful deceitfulness of riches what's he talking about well riches are deceitful even when they come in the way of promised blessing and that's what I want to emphasize not riches wrongly gained but riches that come as the reward of diligence and frugality and uprightness and purity and kindness and grace and interpersonal dealing all the passages we looked at at the beginning riches that come in the train of those things they nonetheless have woven into their very texture deceitfulness they promise what they cannot give that's what lies behind the mania that is connected with the lottery we've heard the jingle times without number if I had a million dollars right hey you never know yeah you heard it
if I had a million dollars what you see behind that is the deceitfulness of riches this would bring fulfillment this would bring satisfaction this would bring the ease from pressure and trouble and all the rest it is riches in its wretched rotten stinking deceitfulness promising what it can't deliver and then delivering what it never promises we just read riches stand out in front of this professed believer and they stretch out after the riches thinking it will give what it promises but what does it give them it pierces them through with many sorrows and browns them in perdition you think the riches have written on them seek me and you'll go to hell seek me and I'll shatter your usefulness seek me and I will bury any real validity of your testimony for Christ no they are deceitful riches promising what they cannot give delivering what they cannot what they never disclose now that's only a sampling that's only a sampling of three soul destroying sins especially associated with material prosperity but certainly those three identified established from the scriptures should cause every one of you of the second generation any one of you who presently is in a prosperous state to say
What to Do in Light of These Dangers: Avoiding Wrong Responses
wait a minute I'm on dangerous ground dangerous ground so having sought to answer the question why is it that godly nurture leaves people particularly vulnerable to these sins second question what are those sins now thirdly and finally what are we to do in the light of these dangers what does the bible say we are to do is it a catch twenty two I'm supposed to be diligent diligence sets me before kings diligence brings prosperity and now the very thing it brings is going to ruin me what am I supposed to do is god playing games with me no now let me tell you what some people say you ought to do but they're all wet they're dead wrong they say take a vow of poverty and go join a monastery or a nunnery get away from it all make sure you're never going to be tempted bible nowhere teaches that others others take the attitude well I'm going to be so fearful that I will not aspire to excellence that will bring promotion and additional compensation I will not be diligent because if diligence brings the reward of material prosperity and material prosperity brings into all these dangers phooey on it I'll be a lazy bum
I'll be content with being at the bottom of the rung wherever I work because I want to get to heaven my friends that's a cop out God will call you an unfaithful and lazy servant if you're a two talent person and you wrap up those talents and don't use them God will hold you accountable for your stinking laziness hid behind a veil of you want to be spiritually safe no the answer is not a vow of poverty the answer is not a course of indolence and irresponsibility well what is it well let me give you three suggestions again four this time number one pray the realistic prayer of ager as recorded in proverbs 30 oh my dear young men and women this is a prayer for you this is your prayer you ought to make it yours pray it often pray it frequently pray it intelligently what is ager pray proverbs chapter 30 we read it at the beginning of the message tonight this man who's got an understanding of his own heart this is what he prays verse 7 two things have I asked of you deny me them not before I die remove far from me falsehood and lies that's number one number two give me neither poverty nor riches but rather feed me
What to Do in Light of These Dangers: Pray Agur's Prayer
with the food that is needful or the bread of my portion now why does he pray that way Lord don't make me poor but don't make me a fat cat Lord don't give me either of those because I understand the peculiar spiritual dangers of both of them and I want to avoid them the danger becoming a fat cat is this lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord he understood that material prosperity has this powerful pressure to forgetfulness of God he understood it I wonder had he taken his clue from Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 8 beware lest you forget Ager says yes Lord I'm going to beware I'm going to beware so much I'm going to pray this way don't let me be full lest I forget you but Lord I know this heart of mine and if you lead me into poverty then I know I might be tempted to steal when my belly's growling and my kids are crying and my wife's wringing her hands and there's nothing on the table Lord I'm perverse enough on the one hand and noble enough to want to provide on the other I'd stoop to stealing lest I be poor and steal
and in so doing handle the name of my God profanely I carry the name of the God who said thou shalt not steal and I claim to be a covenant keeper and God I would break one of the covenant words so God don't let me become a fat cat don't let me become a skinny scrawny cat Lord just keep me in the middle of the road that's what you need to pray if you understand this that's what you'll pray now in praying that you recognize ultimately if you're walking in obedience to God the answer to that prayer is in God's hands he may as he did with Paul he said I have learned both what how to be abased to be poor and how to abound how to be poor how to be poor how to be poor how to be poor how to be rich sometimes he said I'm a fat cat sometimes I'm a skinny scrawny cat and I've learned from God how to be shout and happy in both cases I covet neither and I know God's grace is sufficient for both and that should be your disposition to pray Lord I know there are peculiar dangers with wealth Lord if it please you don't put me in the sphere of those dangers and when he said give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with the food needful the marginal reading the bread of my portion you see
if he were a man in a place where he had the responsibility to spread his table for many like a king like a governor then his portion would be considered a wealthy portion by the man who just has his wife and two kids to feed so you see there's no flat standard here what is excessive what is beyond subsistence existence for one man is luxury for another and penury and poverty for another so we have no baseline artificial man-made standards differs in every individual in terms of his station in life but pray the realistic prayer of Agur as recorded in this passage secondly determine now and here I plead with you precious young men and women determine now how you will seek to honor God should major prosperity come to you in the will of God don't wait till you're in the midst of major prosperity to figure out what do I do with this state determine now from your Bible when you are detached from the reality what by the grace of God you will do if you're brought into that reality the same way you determine now
What to Do in Light of These Dangers: Determine How to Honor God with Wealth
before your hearts all pitter-patter flitter-flutter gone all crazy on you what will be your non-negotiable standards for the man or woman upon whom you'll set your affections with a view to marriage don't wait till you've looked at the moon and you've been struck and everything's gone haywire in your judgment and run around and say oh well do I meet the standards of the world? do I meet the standards of the world? no no no when life is all nice and calm and quiet alright when the moon ain't up there and he ain't sitting on a horse on the hill backlighted by the moon okay you got me? well you do the same thing with this matter what does the Bible say I should think and be and do if I come into a measure of prosperity this is where I urge you I urge you to soak your soul in such passages as we read tonight in 1st Timothy we're going to look at in just a moment but look at a passage such as Romans chapter 12 as we are exhorted each one to determine soberly what his or her gift is and may be with which to serve in the body of Christ isn't it interesting that among the gifts listed verse 6 of Romans 12
having gifts differing according to the grace given to us whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith or ministry let us give ourselves to our ministry he that teaches to his teaching he that exhorts to his exhorting here are these four what we would call speaking gifts which bring great edification to the people of God but now when he moves from speaking gifts notice the first one he mentions he that gives let him do it with liberality he that gives let him do it with liberality and you pray and Lord if I should ever come to a place of significant prosperity could it be that you be giving me the gift of giving so that the concept of giving the tithe would be ludicrous that Lord by your grace I would aim to the point where I could be giving away half or three quarters of my income to the work of God some of you remember R.G. Letourneau Letourneau they called him mover of mountains you've seen Letourneau earth moving equipment and before that man died he was giving ninety ninety five percent of his gross income to the work of God and still living very comfortably determine now Lord could it be that you're positioning me as you're giving me honor in my place of business you're giving me promotions you're giving me unsought raises Lord could it be you're giving me
the gift of giving so that I can do something substantial for your kingdom pray in the first Timothy sixth passage when Paul addresses those that have an inordinate desire to be rich he warns them and says watch out you're on the road that leads to perdition but what's he say to those who are rich verse seventeen charge them that are rich in this present world get unrich quick the dangers are too great being rich is inconsistent with being in a state of grace nonsense I have no sympathy for people that try to put wealthy Christians on a guilt trip Paul didn't charge them that are rich in this world this is what you're to tell them Timothy don't be stuck up don't go around and think your riches give you a right to be a big shot to swagger around like you're something special because you've got a big account in the bank that stinks in God's nostrils who gave you power to get your wealth so what are you going around like a hot shot thinking people ought to treat you in a special way because you've got a few more greenbacks no he said don't be high minded nor have your hope set on the uncertainty of riches don't make a God of your riches don't make a God of yourself because you are rich but what are you to do set your hope on God who gives us richly all things to enjoy enjoy
the particular benefits of your wealth personally there's nothing wrong with a wealthy man living like a wealthy man there's nothing wrong with him buying his suits but at a first class men's clothing store just as it would be wrong for some of us to have custom made suits it may be perfectly right and almost a form of necessity for his station for someone else to have suits custom made God gives us all things riches to enjoy for a wealthy man to enjoy the fruits of his wealth this is mandated not sinful not sinful what else is he to do now look that they do good be rich in good works you say Lord if you ever give me a lot of that stuff I'm going to be not just engaged in a paucity of good works but I want to be as rich in good works as you've made me rich in stuff and things and money I want my good works to be commensurate with the good things you have given me I want to be rich in good works I want to be ready to distribute willing to communicate and when I do what am I doing I'm putting stuff in the bank of heaven where neither rust nor moth corrupt and thieves do not break through and steal laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come
pray that stuff in now young men pray it in now say Lord if you ever put me in the place where I am a wealthy man a wealthy woman oh Lord this is what I want to be pray that God will make you a case I've been with this church forty years I've heard boys who have been born called all kinds of names good names but I never heard anyone named Gaius now that's a shame Gaius is a noble man you ought to have ambitions to be a Gaius third John book of third John see I didn't know there was anything in that little epistle to preach from oh yes there is the elder unto Gaius the beloved whom I love in the truth beloved I pray I pray and this is not written to any group this is written to Gaius this is first this is singular beloved I pray that in all things you Gaius may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers he says Gaius I want you to continue to be a prosperous man why for I rejoice greatly when brethren came and bore witness unto your truth that you walk in the truth verse five beloved you do a faithful work in whatever you do towards them that are brethren in strange with all who bore witness of your love before the church whom you will do well to set forward on their journey worthy of God for because
What to Do in Light of These Dangers: Guard Your Heart and Trust Christ
of the sake of the name they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles he said Gaius I've heard the report that when these traveling missionaries come through you're the fat cat that's able to take care of them and Gaius I want you to keep on doing it you got to stop and I'm even praying you'll continue to have to stop that's why I'm praying you'll continue to prosper there'll be more missionaries coming through there'll be more people Gaius that you can minister to because God's given you more than a subsistence existence that's the kind of stuff we need to pray pray it in and in the days to come some of us may live long enough to see the fruit of that well pray the realistic prayer of Agur determine how you would honor God should you become more than just ordinarily possessed of things and stuff and goods thirdly keep a close guard upon your heart in the use of the God appointed means recognize you're in a place of danger Proverbs 4.23 above all that you guard guard your heart pray that God will keep you from the heart sins associated with wealth and with material prosperity then not only pray use the means Hebrews 3.13 exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin
set up an accountability relationship with a brother in the church who understands some of the same vulnerability pray for one another open your heart to one another James 5.16 confess your sins one to another pray one for another open your heart and be honest with your pastors don't allow yourself to go off in a secret dark corner of spiritual isolation where these sins can eat like termites at the foundation of your soul and then everyone will know when the house comes crumbling down and you drown yourself in perdition as Paul said and then above all trust the Lord Jesus to save you from the sins associated with material prosperity Philippians 4 verses 10 through 13 Paul says it's the Lord Jesus through whom I can do all things who teaches me how to be abased and how to abound and how to embrace my abasement without resentment and irritation and how to abound with idolatry and pride and forgetfulness of God well I conclude this series with these words if the Lord delays His coming it won't be long before some of us will be gone to a better place when we do
and you come behind us we want to hear the Lord Jesus say to you His faithful followers well done good and faithful servants you laid hold of my grace that kept you from the crippling sins of material prosperity you did not forget me you did not make a God of stuff and things you kept an open hand a generous spirit and then to hear His words well done good and faithful servant by my grace you avoided the spirit of Phariseeism the spirit of legalism the spirit of materialism and if some of us have gone before and spent our lives laboring for you can stand on the side and hear the Lord say to you well done then we'll understand what Paul meant when he said in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 what is our joy and our crown of rejoicing are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming that's what we've labored for increase our joy at His return
Conclusion and Prayer
increase our joy you of the rising generation may God help you may God enable you and may we stand in that day rejoicing in our Lord Jesus let's pray our Father we've covered many portions of your word tonight and we thank you for your promise that no word of yours shall be void of power and we pray that the scriptures read and commented upon would be driven home deeply into all of our hearts and that you would bring forth abundant lasting fruit from the labors of this day and those connected with this brief series we commit it to you for your blessing and trust that you will by your grace cause it to be buried deeply in the hearts especially of the rising generation in this place we ask our Father that you would dismiss us with your blessing you would help us as we go forth into a world that has no love for you no sympathy for you enable us to be light and salt and to be useful in bringing the knowledge of Jesus to those who are yet in darkness hear then our prayers
and receive our thanks as we offer it in his worthy name Amen
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
Agur's prayer serves as a central text for understanding the spiritual dangers of both poverty and riches and the wisdom of seeking a balanced provision from God.
This passage is expounded to highlight the dangers of the love of money and to provide specific instructions for how rich believers should conduct themselves and use their wealth.
This passage is used to demonstrate God's warning to Israel about the powerful pressure material prosperity exerts on the soul to forget Him.
The parable of the sower, specifically the thorny ground, is expounded to illustrate how the deceitfulness of riches chokes the Word of God.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
More from the archive