Take your Bibles if you would and turn with me to 1st Timothy chapter 6. 1st Timothy chapter 6 as we continue here in our study in 1st Timothy. A few more weeks and we will be done. We've been in 1st Timothy now for quite a long time and in a few weeks we will bring this study to a conclusion. We're talking about contentment in this chapter. It's interesting how, as we've gone through this entire book and we've seen various aspects of church life, that by the time we get to the end of the book, the Apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit, is leading him back to this subject of contentment. We really see that developed in the verses that we read today, and we'll study today and next Sunday, where the Apostle Paul is really stressing to the church. Find contentment. in their situation in life. I was reading this morning in the Table Talk magazine, and in the month of November, it's talking about gratefulness. And one of the articles had to do with the reality that the twin sister of gratefulness is contentment. And if I'm not content, if I'm discontent, I'm truly not grateful. Now, I want you to notice with me, let's begin reading in verse 3. We're going to read the verse 10. and we'll break and have a word of prayer and then begin to study this week. Like I said, this is a lengthy paragraph and there's so much truth in it, it's gonna take us two weeks to get through it. The Holy Spirit tells us in verse three, if anyone teaches differently and does not consent to the wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which corresponds with godliness, then he is proud, he knows nothing, he is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, and from that comes envy, strife, revilings, and evil suspicions. useless wranglings of men of corrupt mind and destitute of the truth, men who suppose or imagine that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. Now, godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. So having food and covering, with these we shall be content. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith and their greediness, and they have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Would you join me in a word of prayer? Lord, it's easy for us living in a materialistic and a consumer-geared culture to always want something new, to always want something better, become discontent. Lord, as we think this morning about contentment, we even think about gratitude, we think about the things that you have entrusted us with, and maybe things that you have withheld from us. I pray that you would help us as your people to be content. So Lord, as we begin to think about these things and issues that come into our lives that destroy contentment, I pray that, Lord, you would speak to us and mold us by your spirit to be what we should be in our hearts. Our hearts may be formed to be like Christ. And so we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now I want to take just a minute and connect what we are talking about beginning in verse 3 and going through verse 10 to verses 1 and 2 of this chapter. A couple of weeks ago we studied verses 1 and 2. We took a break last week as we were having a baby dedication and a baptism. So there's two weeks or there's a week in between what we talked about in verses 1 and 2. But there's a clear link in what Paul is dealing with. In verses 1 and 2, he tells servants to honor their masters. And he tells them why and how they are to do so. And then he goes on and he goes into this subject of some who are teaching something differently. In verse 3, if anyone teaches differently, do not consent to that, to their unwholesome words, does not consent to the wholesome words of our Savior. He says, withdraw from that. And there's a clear link here. What we really see is in this passage and in this link, These false teachers seem to be fostering a spirit of disunity and discontentment by highlighting the social injustices that are abounding in the Roman world because of slavery. And those social injustices are very real. And it seems like some of the false teachers are trying to cause a disunity in the churches by telling the slaves, throw off that submission, go and find your own freedom, so to speak, go and try to bring to yourself material gain. Not that there's anything wrong with material gain, but they are fostering a spirit of disunity in the church. And Paul is dealing with that. And he is telling the Christians, and he's directing this specifically to slaves in the link, in the context of verses 1 and 2, godliness with contentment is great gain. And Timothy is then told here to teach and exhort the congregation to be content. Now, in the first half of this paragraph, what we're going to talk about today is that there are spirits that Paul is mentioning, attitudes that cause discontentment. They foster discontentment in our heart. And then he's going to talk about contentment itself when he says, godliness with contentment is great gain. And then he closes this paragraph by laying out the danger that we are exposed to when we desire to be rich, when we fall in love with money, and how that drowns men in perdition and opens us up to many grievous harms and hurts that can enter into our life. Now, what I want you to notice as well is he says, from such withdraw yourself. Now, at the beginning of this book, in 1 Timothy 1, Paul tells Timothy, and let's go back in our thinking to the very beginning of the study. As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, stay in Ephesus and instruct certain people not to teach a different doctrine. In this section, Paul is now dealing specifically with some of the different doctrines that they were teaching that he is to rebuke. Now, notice as well, at the end of verse five, he says, from such withdraw yourself, these false teachers. One thing I want to mention real quickly is that phrase is not in some manuscripts of the ancient New Testament. So if you're reading certain translations, that phrase may not be in your Bible. From such, withdraw yourself. For instance, if you're reading in the ESV, it's not there. I'm not sure all the other ones and how they deal with that. But in the ESV, it's not there. Nevertheless, having said that, there is a consistent New Testament teaching that when we are confronted with error, the way the Christian deals with it is to withdraw from it, not to pander to it, not to embrace it, not to go and study it a little closer. No, it's just to withdraw from it. This comes out in many passages in the New Testament, not only here, like, for instance, in Romans 16. Paul tells the Roman church, I urge you, brothers, watch out for those who cause dissensions and obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have learned. Avoid them, for such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but they serve their own appetites. and they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul tells the church, bad company corrupts good morals. Bad company corrupts good morals. It's like one rotten apple does what? Spoils the barrel. And so he says, withdraw from it, don't pander to it. Listen to me for just a minute. Listen to me for the whole time, but listen up for a minute, okay? The internet's a wonderful thing. You can learn a lot on it. But you can learn a lot of error on it. as much good stuff as there may be on it on Christian truth. And man, you can dig deep using the tools that are available to us today. It is amazing, isn't it? To have a whole library on your phone. Who would ever thought of that? You can just do anything you want on your phone. You can find so much information and so much of it can be good and so much of it can be helpful. But there's a lot of junk stuff on it. And I'm not just talking pornography and that stuff. I'm talking about false teaching. And so, you need to be careful and you need to be wise. When you go out there and you're going to investigate some teaching, don't do so by going and listening to a heretic. Right? Don't go and listen to a heretic. Don't read what they have to say. Listen and learn from good orthodox men. But don't use the baloney that's out there. Withdraw from it. Don't even let it come into your thinking. Don't even invite it into your mind. Use the good stuff. The Holy Spirit will keep us from error. And the way he keeps us from error is he says flee from it. flee from it, don't play with it, don't listen to it, all of a sudden what happens is we begin to think, oh, maybe that is true. Or there's a seed of doubt that is sown in our thinking. And so Paul says here, withdraw from it. Now what is contentment? Let's think about contentment for a minute. We're going to study this more in depth next week. What is contentment? Let's just do so very much on the surface today since it comes up core to this passage. Contentment is a rare jewel. It is a rare jewel. Basically, the word to be content just means to have enough or to feel satisfied. That's really what the word means. Now, we understand that word very well in relationship to our stomach. Don't we? I remember vividly as a kid going to a wedding and then going to the reception after. I must have been maybe seven or eight at the time. The wedding was the boringest thing I'd ever been to in all my life. I thought it would never end when I was seven years old. And then they had like 30 minutes or it seemed like 30 hours of pictures afterwards. And all I'm thinking about is that big wedding cake that's up there. The front of the reception hall, I can't wait to have that cake. Finally, after they'd cut the cake and they were putting it out, I began to eat cake. And I remember eating so much cake that I made myself ill. I mean, I was sicker than a dog. We know what it means to have enough. Thanksgiving season, right? We go and we think about eating a big Thanksgiving meal and we've all done that. We eat and we eat and we eat and we eat and all of a sudden, you know, 10 minutes after, we feel like a bloated pig. And we know that we ate way too much. But we also know what it's like when we sit down to a meal We ate enough, and we feel satisfied. We know what this word means in relationship to our stomach, but that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about contentment in relationship to our heart, to just feel satisfied. And that's what we're going to deal with. That in this text, he says, when we are living a life that is oriented towards godliness, and then we feel that sense of satisfaction in that, with whatever God has given us, that is great gain. That is great gain. This word is used, for instance, in John 6, verse 7, in relationship to food. Philip answered. Remember, Jesus has this huge crowd of people and he's been teaching them, and Jesus tells them, we'll feed them. They need to eat. And Philip says, 200 denarii worth of bread wouldn't be enough. That's the word contentment. Same Greek word. For each of them to even have a little. It wouldn't be enough. Now, this word is also used in Hebrews 13. And like I said, next week, we're going to come back to contentment. But in Hebrews 13, verse five, you see the link with what we're talking about here. Your life should be free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I said, contentment is a rare jewel. Because there are things within our flesh that foster discontentment. And there are three spirits that Paul deals with in this text that destroy discontentment that these false teachers are pandering to. There are descriptive words that are used to describe these false teachers and the resultant fruit in the congregation of discontentment. These three spirits that destroy contentment are number one, a vain spirit. He is proud. Number two, a critical spirit. He is obsessed with disputes and arguments and a competitive spirit. Envy, strife, dissension. When we allow these three things in our life, it destroys contentment. Let's look at them real quickly. Number one, a vain spirit. A proud spirit. We've already seen this word in 1 Timothy 3, verse 6, when he tells us, don't make a man an elder, who is a new convert. Because if you do, he may be lifted up with pride. He may be lifted up in pride. And he tells us here in verse 4, this person is proud and he knows nothing. Have you ever been around somebody who's just proud and they think they know everything? But you find out the deeper you go in conversation with them, literally, although they're boasting about everything they know, In essence, they know nothing. And he says, this person is a proud individual who really knows nothing. Now, this is an interesting Greek word for pride. It's not the normal word that is used in the original language to speak of pride or arrogance. It is a word which literally is a Greek word which means to wrap in smoke. to wrap in smoke. And I think there's a clear link with some of this false teaching that these men who have a vain spirit or are lifted up in pride, they like to wrap themselves in smoke or in showiness. They cloak themselves in mystery. They claim great things. And yet in the end, it's all a sham. They're just snake oil salesmen. It's just a big show, and there's nothing else to it. On Friday night, a lot of times, we'll get together as an extended family, and we'll have a movie night. The other night, we watched The Wizard of Oz. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Remember that? And as I was watching that movie, I was thinking of this text. And The Wizard of Oz. And it was all a show and it was all a sham. And he wrapped himself in mystery and there was smoke and mirrors and it all diverted away from the reality that he was nothing. It was just a sham. And I think that's exactly what Paul is dealing with with these false teachers. You know, there is really a great simplicity to the truth. When you study the Word, it's just really plain. Mark Twain, who was a rank unbeliever, once said, it's not the part of the Bible that I don't understand that bothers me, it's the part that I do. Why? Because it's just very plain. It's just very simple. And yet, false teachers and this error likes to Puff it up and make something big and showy of it. But there's just a real simplicity to biblical truth and biblical teaching. Pride is revealed in a preoccupation with self. And so in this situation, his teaching is more about himself than it is about God. And he likes to get followers to himself. and not so much Christ. He is proud. The second thing that you notice here is a critical spirit. And I really want to notice this. He's talking about this nitpicky spirit that just kind of likes to dissect other people's lives and all the nuances of what they say and point out everything that's wrong with someone else. That destroys contentment. A critical spirit. Notice where he says he is proud, he knows nothing, but he is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words. He is obsessed. He has an unhealthy craving He likes to quarrel about words. This is mentioned all through these pastoral epistles. He began the letter talking about these people. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, he goes back to it. He talks about how they're obsessed with genealogies and fables and myths. And in Titus chapter 3, he deals with the same thing. What you see here is this critical spirit is an injurious spirit It does not produce God's blessing, but it degenerates into folly. There's a huge contrast in this text. Notice this contrast. He begins by talking about wholesome words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now think about this for a minute. He says the words of our Savior are wholesome. That word wholesome is a word which speaks of health. In fact, the most common way that is used is in the Gospels. It says when Jesus healed somebody, he made them what? Whole. The words of our Savior are words that produce health, wholeness. Now I'm not just talking about healing from physical maladies. What I'm talking about is this. When somebody really imbibes the teaching of Jesus, they will become of all men most balanced and whole. Jesus himself was perfect, wasn't he? Still is. What a blessing it would have been to have been able to spend time with Him as a man, as an individual, walking the life that He walked, seeing how He responded, seeing what His values were, and then to hear Him teach. We read it, but to hear Him teach and to think that the very words that Jesus spoke are words that produce in us wholeness. My friends, spend time in the Gospels. The epistles are tremendous. They're great. Spend time, though, in the teachings of Jesus and see how the teaching ministry of Jesus brings wholeness, balance, health to our life. You want to have a healthy mental life, emotional life, spiritual life? It's in the words of Christ. But what you see is there's a tremendous contrast here because these men are obsessed. Notice the word obsessed. The Greek word there is a word for disease. These men have an infectious disease. And that infectious disease, that malignancy is a critical heart. Listen to me. A critical spirit is infectious. You hang around people that are always critical and nitpicky and talking about other people and tearing other people down. You know what it'll do to you? It will infect you and give you that same discontentment. And so there's this huge contrast. Jesus was not that way. Jesus was not that way. And so what we see here is a critical spirit is an infectious spirit that destroys our contentment. All of us deal with criticism. All of us deal with difficult people. But when we become critical and argumentative, God doesn't use that to bring about blessing. The third spirit he mentions is a competitive spirit. A competitive spirit. What he says here in this text is what these men breed by their criticalness and by their pride is they breed envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction. That's what they produce. They produce constant friction. It is so true that the good fortunes of one's friends makes one discontent and envious. And that shows us something about our heart, doesn't it? You know, what he's talking about in this list, every one of the things he mentions isn't something that's like uncommon to any of us. Every one of the things in this list is not just true of false teachers, it's true of all of us, because we all have the same flesh. And every one of these things is just a work of the flesh as it is mentioned in Galatians 5. And if we are not careful, if we don't walk in the Spirit, it's not very long until our life degenerates into a life of walking under the power of the flesh instead of the Spirit. And so these men have given birth to a competitive spirit in the church. And so rather than producing a unified effort toward a common goal, which would be the glory of God and the discipleship of the nations, instead of producing a team, they divide, they disunify, and they create ill will among brothers. And this is a danger that lurks in the human heart of each one of us. Paul dealt with these people while he was in prison in Rome. In Philippians chapter 1, he says, some men preach Christ even of envy and strife, hoping to add misery to me while I'm in my chains. But Paul would not give any credence to it. He says, nevertheless, I rejoice that Christ is preached. These three spirits at their core come from distorted reasoning. Notice this real carefully in verse 5. Useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, who suppose. You see that word suppose? In the ESV it's translated imagine. They imagine. What are they imagining? that godliness is a means of gain. And then he says in verse six, godliness with contentment is great gain. They imagine something. These three spirits at their core come from distorted human reasoning, rationalism. They rationalize in their mind. They suppose, they imagine. It's kind of like deductive reasoning. This word is used in Acts 16. You remember the story? Apostle Paul and Silas are in prison. While they are in prison, they are singing in the middle of the night, and all of a sudden, there's a great earthquake, and the doors are thrown open wide. And it says the jailer supposed that everyone had fled, and he goes to commit suicide rather than being killed by the Roman authorities. He supposed. According to his deductive reasoning, he thought everybody will have fled, and so I'm going to take my own life. And Paul says, don't hurt yourself. That's the word. It's also used in Acts 8 about Simon the sorcerer when Peter rebukes him because Simon the sorcerer supposed that he could purchase the gift of the Holy Spirit with money. He imagined that. And what Paul is telling us here is our imagination can go places that the Spirit of God would not take us. And that's exactly what these men are doing. They are supposing that if we are godly, we are going to get a lot of money for it. And Paul says, withdraw yourself from it. No, on the other hand, those who are godly will suffer persecution. we see in 2 Timothy. So the core of their error is rationalism or faulty human reasoning. Now, let's just deal with two things in Oak Grove. There's a realization, we'll develop this more next week. His realization, I think there's a clear allusion to Job chapter one, when Job said, blessed be the name of the Lord, even though I lost everything. And what Paul says here is I brought nothing with me, When I came into this world, I came in on my birthday suit. I hope I'm not going out in my birthday suit. I hope they leave something on me, but I'm not taking nothing with me. Nothing. I own, at the end of the day, I own nothing. I'm just a steward. I'm just a caretaker of everything because I brought nothing with me and I'm taking nothing with me. That is a sobering realization to really let settle into our mind. And because of that realization, he comes to a commitment. So, having something to eat and coverings. The word there is really not the word for clothing. It's the word for covering. And I think it's broader. I think he's saying having food and coverings. He's talking about shelter and clothing. Place to sleep. Something to wear. Having that, my commitment is I will be content. I'll close with a little illustration. Together, our family just recently bought an old homestead, old farmstead in the valley, and we're going to go through it and gut it and fix it up and remodel it and tie in grace we're going to live in. Literally, this old farmstead has been sitting vacant since, I think, 2006. And it literally looks like the people went to town and just didn't come back. That's the way it looked when we went in. Bed's still made, although mice have gotten into a lot of things in the bed. I mean, just literally looks like the people got up, went to town, and the home was left. Kids didn't go through a thing. So after we closed on it, we went in and began to go through stuff, and it feels really funny to rummage through someone else's life, to go through the dressers, to go through the crawlspace and the attic, everything. I found a box in which, in this box, there was the guy's receipts from cattle sales in the 50s. Makes me really thankful for what we're getting today. I mean, receipts, tax record, everything. Step back from that and realize, once upon a time, that was their life and their dream. And they're not there. And someone else is cleaning up the mess. I brought nothing in. I'm taking nothing out. There was a picture we found. I took a picture of it with my computer, so it's not the greatest. There was a lot of old pictures, but this is a cool picture. Looked at that picture. Old place. That's not the place. Ty and Grace are not going to live in that. But on the back of that picture, She had written these words, the place I grew up in before I was married, my little piece of heaven, my little piece of heaven. Moth and rust corrupts, thieves break through and steal. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I'm not saying anything wrong with what she said, my little bit of hell. I'm not saying anything with that. I'm saying what? Everything you own, you don't own. We kid ourselves. We're leaving it all. Based on that, how should we live? What should be our values? Godliness with contentment is great gain. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for truth. Lord, we wrestle with this. We know you've entrusted to us talents and you expect us to multiply them and you expect us to to be fruitful, to work diligently, and as we do so, you bless, and we thank you for that, and we thank you for riches, we thank you for material possessions that come our way. And yet, Father, help us not to allow those things to consume us or to own us. Help us to be content. What a hard lesson Joe blurred. Wealthy man and he lost it all overnight. But blessed be the name of the Lord. So we pray in Jesus' name.