Greetings and welcome to the Beacon Broadcast from Beacon Baptist Church on Kirkpatrick Road in Burlington, North Carolina. The Beacon Broadcast is supported in part by the gifts of faithful listeners. If you'd like to correspond with Pastor Barkman and The Beacon Broadcast, or if you wish to support this radio ministry, write to The Beacon Broadcast, Post Office Box 159, Alamance, NC 27201. The Beacon Broadcast, Post Office Box 159, Alamance, NC 27201. Now with today's message from God's Word, here is Pastor Greg Barkman. I wonder how many times you've heard somebody say that money is the root of all evil, thinking that they were quoting from the Bible. Well, that is not what the Bible says. And we're going to be getting to the text that is frequently misquoted in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 10. I think we'll get to it today, so if not today, surely tomorrow. But we need to understand what this text does say because it is a very serious warning. It is a very significant statement. It is searching enough as it is found in the Word of God. We don't need to misrepresent it or embellish it or misquote it, but we need to take a close look at it, understand it, and most of all be willing to apply it to ourselves and not to other people who are around us. And so to that end, I'm grateful that you've joined me on this Thursday. July 11 for another edition of the Beacon Broadcast, and I'm very, very grateful for those whose financial gifts have made it possible for us to continue to broadcast on this and other stations. Now, in the sixth chapter of 1 Timothy, we've come to a section that deals with the right view of money. And we saw in verse 5 why some have a distorted viewpoint concerning money. We saw in verse six what is the measure of true wealth, and that really continued down through verse eight. And then in verse nine, we picked up some of the dangers of materialism, and this is very important. We'll go back to that at this point. We read in 1 Timothy 6, 9, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition." There's real danger here, serious danger. We must not take this lightly. To have a lust for money is dangerous. In fact, if not dealt with, it is destructive. Usually when we use the word lust in our modern day, we think only in terms of sexual lusts, but there are many desires that are destructive. A desire for unbiblical, unlawful sex is certainly a strong and destructive desire, and it has ruined many a person and brought them to utter destruction both in this life and in the life to come. But of course, many other desires will do that as well. The strong desire for alcohol, as we know, is a very destructive desire, or other drugs, for alcohol is a drug, you understand, a mind-altering drug, a very addictive drug, but there are many other chemicals, many other drugs that are addicting and destructive as well, legal as well as illegal, and we need to recognize those desires as being dangerous and potentially destructive. But this one, the desire for money, the desire for things, is often minimized as if that's not all that critical. But the Bible says it is very dangerous. It is potentially destructive. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. That's plain enough. You better not pass this off lightly. You better listen carefully. A materialistic mindset leads to sinful temptations, which in turn become a snare, which in turn destroy lives, which in turn destroy your soul. That's serious. But now we come to the further explanation of this in verse 10, which says, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. which some, having strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." The love of money. The quotation does not say, money is the root of all evil, but the love of money, and that is a huge and significant difference. We need to understand that money itself is not wrong, it is not sinful, it is not dirty, but the reason why it seems that way is the way people view it, handle it, desire it, misuse it, hoard it, do anything in this world to get it. It has that effect upon the human soul, and in a fallen world where all of us are sinners, every one of us fallen sons and daughters of Adam, then money generally is misused. It is misused far more often than it is properly used. So no, money itself is neutral. It is neither bad nor good. It is how we view it and how we use it. It has the potential for great good. but it has to be understood as under the rule of God. God gives it, God takes it away. When God gives it, he expects us to be stewards, to manage it wisely, carefully, with eternity's values in view, with the interest of Christ's kingdom in our uppermost thoughts, not to hoard it, not to steal it, to love it, not to misuse it. It's the love of money that is indeed the root of all kinds of evil. And again, the text does not say that the love of money even is the root of all evil, but of all kinds of evil, of many evils is really what that is saying. It's a figure of speech. The love of money is at the root of many, many evils. The statement itself is strong enough and clear enough without, as I say, misrepresenting it by dropping a word here or there. Dropping the word love and just saying money, that's not good. And to say money is the root of all evil is not good either. It's all kinds of evil. There are other evils that are not necessarily related to money. have nothing to do with money. But money is at the root of an awful lot of evils. Money is at the root of far more evils than most people realize. So we need to understand that. And it goes on to tell us that one reason why the love of money is so dangerous is because Number one, it leads us away from biblical faith. And number two, it results in a multitude of sorrows and a multiplicity of sorrows. Again, listen in verse 10, for the love of money is a root, a root, not the root, but a root of all kinds of evil, not all evil, but many kinds of evil. For which, it goes on to say, some have strayed from the faith in their greediness. For which, for their love of money, their desire for things, their greater interest in material bounty rather than the honor and glory of God, for which, we read, some have strayed from the faith in their greediness. This is a real danger. Only God knows how many have walked a long ways in seeming Christian fellowship, but have dropped out and have dropped into perdition because they were consumed with covetousness, greediness, a love of money and the things that money can buy. I say only God knows the heart and only God knows how often this happens, but apparently it happens more often than we might think. Some, he says, have strayed from the faith in their greediness. They have left the biblical faith. Now, dear friends, when you leave the biblical faith, then you don't go to heaven. So you say, what is this talking about? Is this talking about somebody who loses their salvation? No, it's talking about somebody who over the passing of time reveals that they never were truly born again because the love of things, the love of riches, the love of this world proves to be more important to them than the love of Christ. Isn't that exactly what Christ taught in the parable of the four soils? Some seed fell by the wayside, some fell in stony ground, some fell in thorny ground, and the thorns grew up and choked it out. And Jesus said, what is that? And one of those thorns is riches, a love of riches, and that will choke out the Word of God. It'll choke it out of your heart. You say, well, I don't understand that. Please explain how a person can have God's Word in their heart and then have it choked out. Well, it's clear from that parable. that what we're dealing with is a profession of faith without genuine conversion. What we're dealing with is an appearance of faith without genuine conversion. And that's where the real warning is. Because the Bible teaches us that there are lots of people who will profess to be saved and will appear to be, but then with the passing of time, something reveals the true nature of their heart's condition. We can't see the heart. Man looketh upon the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart. So we see the outward appearance, and we see and hear their profession of faith, and we see their attendance at church, and we see their participation in church activities and with the fellowship of the people of God. We see these things, and we We think that they are Christians, and they may think that they are Christians, but time goes on, and it becomes apparent that what drives them, what motivates them, what they love is money more than Christ, more than the Word of God, more than the souls of men, more than the spread of the gospel, more than the advancement of Christ's kingdom. They're more interested in money than in anything else. They are no true child of God at all. Didn't Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount, no man can serve two masters? You can't serve money and Christ both. One will predominate. And if money predominates, then Christ is not your master and Christ is not your savior. If Christ predominates, then you will view money as Christ would have you view money. You will view it in a biblical way. You will view it as a stewardship. You will handle it carefully and lightly with eternity's values in view. You will view it and handle it in a way that will honor and please the Lord and will be very useful for the interests of his kingdom. But watch out. Watch out. Because money has a way of gripping your heart, and strangling your soul, and bringing you to ruin, and revealing that you have no true faith at all. Listen to these warnings. Don't brush them lightly aside. Because the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and it can drown men in destruction and perdition. Don't let that be you. We'll talk about it, Lord willing, some more on the broadcast tomorrow. We hope you can join us then. Until then, this is Greg Barkman, Bible Teacher on the Beacon Broadcast, saying good day. May God give you His eternal peace.