About this sermon
Paul tells Timothy to charge the rich in this present age not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides everything to enjoy. They are to do good, be rich in good works, and be generous and ready to share, storing up a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of true life. Wealth can vanish overnight. God gives some believers wealth so they can bless the church and missions, and those who have Christ are rich in the age to come.
Sermon transcript
The Lord Jesus speaks to us this day. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Let’s open then to, or turn to 1 Timothy 6.17, our target passage.
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. So in the reading of God’s holy inspired word, let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this word. Cause us to tremble at it, but cause us to take joy in it.
We do also ask that you would be with our sister Laura, who is constantly on our minds. As she is away from us, we ask that you would strengthen her. We thank you for the contacts that we have had with her, and many of us have had with her in this time. We do ask that you would bless her as she is away. Strengthen her by your grace, and strengthen us by this word, for your word is truth. Apply it to us. Apply us to it. In the name of Jesus we pray, the one who is so precious to us, Jesus our Lord. Amen.
I appreciate the text that we have just read from the Apostle Paul, but the reason I appreciate this text is not simply because of the content. I appreciate this text because of the way that it comes to us. Remember in past weeks, or if you’re familiar with what has just come before us, we have a doxology. The Apostle Paul is writing, thinking about the day when the Lord Jesus comes, and he begins to just enter into praise.
You could almost sing what he says. Praise God. And then he ends with amen. It’s almost as if he ends the letter there. You could really read 1 Timothy 1, 1 all the way to 6 to that doxology and just have him say amen. And you would have said, that is enough. That is sufficient. He’s said everything that he wants to say.
But Paul is a preacher. And as a preacher, you know some preachers, it’s almost as if they’re not sure when to land. Coming in for the landing, pull up again. One more thing I have to say. And so that is what he does. One more thing. To God be eternal dominion. Amen. Oh, gotta say this.
To the rich, to the wealthy in this present age. I think our translation says in this present world, but it would be more, it would be closer to the Greek to say this present age. We have two ages before us, this age and we have the age to come. Paul talks about the rich, those who are wealthy in this present age, this present evil age.
He is talking about believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s not speaking about those who are non-Christians, who love their wealth. He’s talking about those in the church who love the Lord. He is not talking about those who desire to be rich. He’s already talked about that. He’s talked about that in verse 6, 9.
He said, those who desire to be rich, they end up tangling themselves up. They get into trouble. He has some positive things to say to the rich, and he has some negative things to say to the rich. That is, what they ought to do and what they ought not to do. First, we start with the negative. That’s what the Apostle Paul begins with.
He says, the rich who are within the church ought not to become conceited. They ought not to be haughty. They ought not to be arrogant about their wealth. They ought not to think that they are superior to the other brothers and sisters in the church.
Certainly, there are many ways that we understand that we are equal, we are on an equal ground before the Lord. We are covered in the blood and we bring nothing to our salvation. But there are ways that all believers would seek to show themselves greater than other believers. He’s cautioning against that. Do not think yourself superior if you are rich.
How does a man become rich? There are many ways that it can happen. Someone can be born into it, but even people who are born into it can waste it and throw it away. How does one become rich? Well, oftentimes, the most common way is someone becomes rich because God blesses that person. If someone has been blessed with a large amount of wealth, he ought not to think highly of himself as if it was his doing. You see, it is the Lord’s blessing that gives wealth.
You could take two people of equal talent and equal intelligence, if there were such, and they both begin a business, it is God’s grace. Though they both work very hard to exceedingly bless one. and to mildly bless the other, or to make one very blessed financially and to the other to have just a little bit, or even to lose his business and lose everything.
Everything comes crashing down upon him. Do not be cocky Do not be arrogant because it comes not from you. The rich man and the poor man are depending upon God’s mercy fully for all things. We love a rags-to-riches story, but We have to say that in reality, oftentimes, we have a riches to rags story. And that is what Paul is trying to talk about here in 17. Entrust, instruct those who are rich in this present age not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches. The uncertainty of riches.
Our money can be here one day and gone the next. It can be gone, taken away. There are many people who are entrepreneurs. They understand the way that money can just come in our hands and fall out of it. There are some people we can think of, even, who have gained and lost three and four fortunes. That is to say, being very wealthy and then being on the street, and then wealthy once again and on the street. Do not put your focus, do not place your love upon the fleeting nature of money and of wealth.
When I was working during seminary, I worked in a restaurant and there were some men there who were part of Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s a group that does a lot to help people get off of alcohol, and they’ve expanded it to other different types of addictions. But in the Alcoholics Anonymous, you take 12 steps of recovery. Well, I wish that Alcoholics Anonymous used the Christian God rather than just God in general. But my point in bringing this up is not to talk about their God, although we should disassociate ourselves from the Alcoholics Anonymous and understanding of God.
But some men came to me and they said, well, you’re going to be a minister. You’re going to be a pastor. You should read about Alcoholics Anonymous just in case some people in your church might have that sort of addiction. One of them gave it to me. I’ll never forget the first chapter of the Alcoholics Anonymous book.
The writer describes the time of the stock market crash that eventually brings about the Great Depression. The stock market crashes. and people who had great wealth and really had put their faith in the stock market and wealth, not realizing the way that it can just be gone from us. It’s very trying to read. The people, they lose everything they have because of the stock market crash.
The writer of the Alcoholics Anonymous book, whose name I don’t even know, he talks about those who just begin to jump off of buildings onto the pavement from stories up, many, many stories up, because they could not bear life without those things, without that great wealth. Very sad, very difficult. It is heartbreaking, but I believe it is a good picture of the way that putting your faith in riches and in wealth is suicide.
But what about the positive? That’s where the negative ends, the positive begins. They are to put their faith in God, not in riches, not in wealth. Instruct them to, excuse me, put on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Verse 17. What a wonderful statement to come from God’s Word that God gives all things for us to enjoy. There are those who would seem to make it be the case that Christians are not to enjoy anything.
We are to live our lives with sad faces, And we are to be depressed. We’re not to seek to have anything joyful. Maybe some people might think, I need to move out of the country. I need to go into a very small place and be with other people and just be depressed all day. That’s not the Christian life.
Paul is saying that God gives good things for people to enjoy, for wealthy Christians to enjoy. for those who are not so wealthy Christians. He gives these things for their enjoyment. The people that I’m talking about, the people that Paul is talking about, is those who are called Aesthetics. ascetics. Pardon me. Ascetics. An ascetic says, I want to live a holy life. I’m not going to get married because that would bring joy to my life. I’m not going to eat good food. That would bring enjoyment to my life as well.
See, the Apostle Paul, he is taking aim at two separate groups. Those who are wealthy and those who would intentionally not enjoy anything in life. but he has dealt with them in chapter four as well. You see, in a sense, he’s really summing up this whole book. He’s saying that he’s talking about the enjoyment of this life and of this world, not as a friend of this world, not as the wicked who do not understand God and do not know Him, but to enjoy the finer things of life.
That is not wrong for the Christian to do. It is not wrong for the Christian to enjoy good food and marriage, to enjoy the theater, to enjoy good music and to enjoy sports. Certainly, it’s best not to indulge in these things on the Lord’s Day, all of them. Let those things be for the other six days.
But God, in His grace, has given wonderful things for us to enjoy in culture and all things. Just look at food. Have you ever thought of food? Just the glory of what God has done in food. So many colors, so many tastes, so many textures and varieties. If someone were a chef among us, he’d be able to even discuss that even more and tell us all the more about it. This is God’s grace, his common grace to all people. He could have made all food taste like manna. Very bland. He could have made all food taste like vanilla. And that would be very vanilla indeed.
God has given grace to people that we might enjoy these things. It is not wrong. Paul says the rich are to do good. Rich people do good. But wait, how? He does not say, he is not specific, and he does not need to be. Certainly we must admit that the nature of wealth, that those who are wealthy have more of an opportunity, many times, to do good things. Let me just give an example to you.
Someone who was very wealthy. Imagine the Bill Gates, something like that. Someone who was very, very wealthy, that a million dollars is no problem at all. If that person were a Christian, or if I were in his shoes, I’d like to think I would give a million dollars to a chair, the chair of Vossian Biblical Theology, to the local seminary. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
I can’t do that. I don’t have anything close to that. Certainly not. And many of us, maybe all of us here, could not do such a thing. But a wealthy person, a really wealthy person, has opportunity to do wonderful things that we do not have. The Apostle says, do good. And leaves it at that. I know of a a Christian within a reformed church, and he’s a bit well-to-do. He does not flaunt it. You know what he does?
Every Lord’s Day, brings 30 people to his house, has a table big enough for 30 people That church is doing well for many, many reasons. Many reasons. The word is preached there, the sacraments are faithfully administered, but fellowship It’s really strong, it’s very strong there. In large part because of a very wealthy person who was able to have 30 people at his place on a Sunday. If there’s anyone new, a visitor, come to this person’s house and he works through the rest of the congregation as well. Think about the ways that God blesses wealthy people so that they can bless the rest of the church. It is a wonderful thing that all of us, or many of us, have not opportunity to do.
Paul says to store up treasure in heaven, even as the Lord Jesus Christ tells us to do. Store up treasure in heaven. Jesus says to do that where moth and rust do not corrupt and those who would be robbers do not break in and steal. And he says that those who are wealthy, who would give of the things that they have, would actually be gaining in the age to come, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
The Apostle Paul is not undoing The fact that we are saved by grace. He is reaffirming that. We are saved by grace. But a wealthy person who gives of the things that he has, he certainly gains something in the next life. We certainly ought not to think that if a wealthy person just gives away everything that he has, that he will gain eternal life.
Jesus tells a rich young ruler, a man comes to him and says, what must I do to be saved? And Jesus says, well, obey the Ten Commandments. And the man says, no problem, I’ve done that from my youth. And Jesus says, well, in that case, sell everything you have, and then Only then will you have eternal life.
Jesus is not talking about works-based righteousness, that that man would have actually done so. He would not have earned life. He did not have it in the first place, and he proved so by showing that money was his God. That man was not building a foundation for the age to come.
But those who are believers, who would give of what they have, will gain in the future. And the future is the time which is truly life. We will have life indeed, and we are putting away for that. The whole of the Christian’s desire is in the blessings of the future, ultimately. because there we have an inheritance by our God. 1 Peter 1, 3, and 4 speaks about the future and the inheritance that we have. While we are in this world that’s passing away, Peter says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again. to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Here, to an inheritance. And what is that inheritance that we have? All believers, we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. We have an inheritance that is given to us by grace, but that which we give in this life, We somehow gain something in the next, and there is certainly mystery to that.
But we know that our inheritance cannot perish, it cannot be defiled, and it cannot pass away. Heaven is the place in which the rich Christian, and every Christian, must be investing And that is not the case with our earthly treasure. Riches may leave us while we live. But we must leave them when we die.
So what Paul is saying is, even as the Lord Jesus has said, invest in the future. Invest in that which is truly life. Lose that which you have here, and you will have it in the age to come. Certainly, the apostle’s not saying to make yourself poor. We’re not talking about any vows of poverty. Those are not biblical at all.
God gives much to one and a little to the next. And we all should praise God for what he has given for each other, because he has given many, many gifts. It certainly is the case that a Christian can be used of God outside of the ministry. I hope you understand that. There are many people who think that Christianity, it’s as if only those who are ordained do the really ministerial stuff. God gives opportunity for all of us to bring people into worship. There are many things that we can do, but how much more for the wealthy person I know of a person who thought, I need to be in ministry because that’s what Christians are supposed to do. I need to be concerned with the lost.
This person tried to go into ministry and found out that he had no gifts for it. But he had gifts for making money, and for making money very, very well, and for making a lot. You know what this person did? He said, God has not called me into ministry, Realize that if he puts a lot of money away, he can be giving it off to missions. And that person gave many millions and millions of dollars to missions. He understood what God had called him to. He understood the gifts that God had given. And that person was giving away that he might not have what was fading, so that he might gain in the life to come, investing in the future.
But what will treasure in heaven look like? What will it be like? Will some have more than others? It seems to be the case. Will some people be jealous in heaven that others seem to have more than others? I don’t know. I do know this. We will not have a sin nature, so there will be no jealousy. What will treasure in heaven look like?
We can only guess, and we ought not to guess. We ought to focus more on the one who is the giver of all good gifts, focusing upon the Father, focusing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We will be without sin. even the sins of jealousy and of pride. And we will praise God for the crowns that we wear, and we will lay our crowns down at the throne of God. For truly, even the things that we have in heaven will be demonstrations of His grace. But who is rich among us? Are there people here who are rich?
If you listen to politicians as they speak, they almost want to set a certain numerical amount. This is the amount that is, if you make over this amount, you’re rich. If you make under that, you are not. And that number seems to be shifting and shifting.
Very strange. We certainly would not want to define wealth and riches by the ways of this world, by unbelievers who are seeking to define it simply so that they might tax people. There is not an absolute line. By many stretches of the imagination, we would think that all of us here As we compare ourselves with other people within the United States, we are not rich. I would assume so. I do not know.
But if we compare ourselves with people outside of this country, compare ourselves with those who might live in squalor, not having enough water and food and not having clothing and shelter, well by that, We are all rich for we have all of these things. So are we rich or are we not? I will leave it for you to decide. Are we rich in this present age? We began by talking about those who are rich in this present age or in this present world as our translation says it.
The Apostle Paul is a preacher, and a preacher of Christ is one who proclaims another realm. That is what a preacher is. That is what a preacher does. He proclaims a heavenly place. He proclaims the age to come, the place in which we are all rich. if we have had Christ save us, if He has drawn us to Himself. We are rich according to the age to come. That’s what Paul is inferring at the beginning of verse 17. We are wealthy and rich in the age to come if we have the Lord Jesus Christ.
He hides our unrighteousness with His righteousness. The Lord Jesus covers our disobedience with his obedience. The Lord Jesus shadows our death with his death. That the wrath of God cannot find us. We are rich if we know the Lord Jesus Christ. Rich indeed, rich in the age to come. Amen. Let us pray.
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