Matthew-075

 

Today, we continue to study in the passage concerning what is known as the rich, young ruler. We shall read the account in Mark10:21-31 because it is somewhat fuller than those in Matthew and Luke at this particular point.

 

Is your desire to inherit eternal life conditional?

The rich young ruler, as he is called, was desirous of inheriting, or obtaining, or having eternal life. But just how far was he willing to go to obtain eternal life was precisely the question. We may say we desire to do God’s will but up to what point? My question is this: Can obedience ever be conditional?

If I say I will obey you but only up to this point, then I have made myself the judge of what I will or will not obey. Then what is left of obedience? Or if someone points out to you that this is the path of life but you say, “Well, I will go along this path if it’s not too difficult. But if it gets difficult, I’ll quit.” Then what is left of the profession of commitment?

We must say this rich young ruler did earnestly desire to have eternal life. In fact, Mark 10:17 tells us he knelt before the Lord Jesus, which is more than most other people did before the Lord Jesus. Despite his position and wealth, he humbled himself to kneel before Jesus and addressed him as “Good Teacher.” He did not swagger up to the Lord Jesus saying, “You’re some kind of teacher, maybe you can tell me how to get eternal life, if you know anything about it.” No, he did not approach in this kind of way at all. It is very hard for a rich man to kneel down to anybody because he is used to having servants attend him, and he does not kneel to other people. He knelt down before this poor preacher, and begged to know the path to eternal life.

Now the question is: Just how far is he willing to go to inherit eternal life? How far are you willing to go to inherit eternal life? Or is it in your mind, as you sit there and listen to the words of the Lord Jesus and you say, “I only want to know what is the path to eternal life. If it’s easy enough, if the conditions are acceptable to me, I will consider eternal life. But if the road is too difficult, then I want out.” This is the tragedy of so many Christians today. They go to some conference somewhere, and the preacher tells them, “You’ve got to do nothing to have eternal life! It’s a gift that you just collect. It’s as simple as that!” And they think: “I can raise my hand when every eye is closed, every head bowed, and nobody is even looking, and I’ve got eternal life!” No one can make it easier than that! As the Lord expounded to the rich young ruler, it isn’t quite as simple as that.

As a result, these people belong to that so-called “disillusioned majority” of the church, because as they went along this “path of life,” they discovered that the preacher had not told them a few things about the Christian life. Of course, the preacher toned down the whole matter for fear they might not raise their hands. Then after you became a Christian, after you signed on the dotted line on the card that the counselor gave you, you discovered, “Wow! I am finding this life rather difficult to live! This gift of eternal life seems to have all kinds of consequences. I accepted the gift of eternal life and I thought that I would quietly take it to my bank and keep it in the safety deposit box. Then when the time comes to get to heaven, I will take it out, and say to Saint Peter at the gates of heaven—we are told that St. Peter is standing somewhere at the gates of heaven like a ticket collector—“On that day, at that meeting with that preacher, here’s the evidence I’ve accepted the gift. I’ve stowed it away safely in my safe-deposit box all these years.”

 

God’s life is a gift of new life that has to come into you

You will find that gift is not just going to stay in any safe-deposit box. This gift is a gift of life, and what does life do to a man? I wonder if at any time, you have sat in an awkward position. When you were sitting in this awkward position, you unwittingly shut off some blood supply to your leg or arm, so that when you stood up, your leg or arm is numb. Sometimes, you sleep in an awkward position, and when you wake up, you say, “Hey! What’s happened to my hand? It has no more feeling! It’s gone dead!” But as the life began to return to it, do you remember what happened? Pins and needles! That is so uncom­fortable! You thought life is going to be a nice piece of cake that you can have and suddenly, you feel pins and needles everywhere making you uncomfortable.

The gift of life is not something you can store away in some deposit box. The gift of life is something that has to come into you. Certainly, it is a gift. Who said we can earn life? Even physical life is a gift, isn’t it? Which of us earned our physical life? Life is always a gift; it was transmitted to us by our parents. You didn’t even ask for it. That was a gift that was simply given to you whether you like it or not. If you don’t like it, too bad, you got it anyway! You are going to live with it. Life is not something that you can store away. Sure enough, it is a gift, but what will that life do to you? You’d best think well on it. And that is what a preacher should tell you.

 

How far will you allow God to change you?

So when this new life started coming into you—assuming it did come into you—all things began to happen in your life. There was conviction of sin that you never had before, the equivalent of the pins and needles in your leg or arm. Before, you sinned and you never thought about it. But now you feel terrible when you sin! You say, “Funny, I used to do the same thing before but it never bothered me. But now when I’m doing it, it’s making me feel so wretched. You also find that your appetite has changed. The things you liked before you don’t like anymore. That life is beginning to turn your life upside down.

Then after a while, you begin to find that your former friends think you are odd, you are a nutcase, you have gone all religious! So they are turning away from you. And you will say, “What’s happening? This gift is doing all kinds of things to me!” You might find you are getting into tension not only with your friends but also with your parents. Your parents start opposing: “What’s the matter with you? You’ve gone all religious! Every day you want to go to church!” So conflicts arise. Is it fair to say God’s life is a gift and you don’t have to do anything to have it? That life, if it is life at all, is going to have to be expressed in all kinds of ways.

After a while, as you read the Bible, you will begin to say to yourself, “Wow! I’ve got to love my neighbor as myself? This is too much for me! I didn’t bargain for all this, so I’m not going to opt out of this life. This life is a gift but I can’t take it! It’s turning me upside down. It’s ruining my relationships with my friends and my parents. It’s even jeopardizing my future, my career. Previously, I really wanted to be an engineer, a doctor, a professional, and suddenly, I find that all my interest in these things is gone and my whole future is changing! This preacher just said, “Raise your hand to take a gift, and put it in your pocket.” It’s not like this at all! Everything is changing, and the consequences are too costly! I’m going this far and no more!”

 

If you draw the line, you are like the rich young ruler

That is exactly the point of this passage. The rich young ruler wanted to inherit eternal life, but how far was he prepared to go? You also have to answer this question: How far are you prepared to go? You are prepared to go so far as attending church once or twice a month, or even every week. If you can put up with long-winded people at the Bible study, you might even go twice a week. Moreover, you are prepared to accept the inconvenience of going through the snow and the cold, whereas many people just stay in when the snow is too heavy. But we are willing to accept these consequences to travel to church. It costs us time. You feel: “I could have been sitting in a cinema but I’m sitting here listening to this preacher. I have to make quite a few sacrifices. I could have bought a nice ice-cream and here I am, foolish enough to drop my dollar into the offering box. I don’t know where the money goes to. It might even encourage that preacher to talk longer next time. So I’m making quite some sacrifices for being a Christian, not to mention that I have to mix with all these “cranky people” in church. One or two are tolerable, but I don’t particularly wish to see some of the others if I could help it. So I’m making quite a lot of sacrifices to get this eternal life, to be able to inherit the kingdom of God. It costs me something, but we have to draw the line!”

That is precisely the problem of this rich young ruler. His question to the Lord Jesus was simply, “How do I inherit eternal life?” And the Lord Jesus said, “Fulfill the commandments for a start.” “Oh, that’s easy! I’ve been doing that before.” He did not even understand what he was saying yes to, like so many people who raise their hands at conferences.

The Lord Jesus said, as we explained in last week’s message, “You don’t really understand my answer.” So he goes on to tell him that the path to eternal life is the path of discipleship, and said, “What’s involved in discipleship? Let’s begin like this. Go, dispose of all your riches and come and follow me.”

You will say, “Hey, come on! Let’s draw the line here! You asked me to keep the commandments and I thought that was already quite demanding. Are you telling me to dispose of my riches? You just leave my pocketbook alone and I’ll come to church. But if you start touching my pocketbook, you won’t see me again! Just leave me alone! I’ve got to have something that is still in my control. I’ll do your will but just leave my pocketbook alone.”

That’s why I say, how far are we prepared to go when it comes to discipleship? I don’t know that it’s possible to be a disciple without it affecting our possessions. The Lord Jesus did not mess around with this rich young ruler. He came straight to the point: “Let’s talk about your possessions.” At that point, the rich young ruler’s face fell and he decided that the price of eternal life was simply too high. “I would have liked it if you had brought the price down a bit. If you asked me for half my possessions, that’s already a bit much but it’s still tolerable. I’ve still got the other half. But you’re asking me to go and sell my possessions. You are really uncompromising! I’m willing to have this eternal life but it’s costing too much.” What is your verdict? You have to decide.

 

The Lord’s teaching regarding money: “Blessed are the poor”

Today, we want to spend a little time considering the Lord Jesus’ teaching regarding money. It’s a very important subject. I want to show you that the Christian life does rather affect everything, not only our future, our relationships to other people, but also our possessions. That is when it begins to hurt. If you look at the Lord Jesus’ teaching, you are going to see that he does not leave that area out. He said, “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of God.”

Now we may not be poor necessarily. Most of us who are students and who have been students, do have the earning power to make a reasonably good living. This means that our decision to have God’s life, that is to become a disciple, will not just affect what we have now but what we will have in the future. It is continually going to touch our pockets right through into the future. And this is very uncomfor­table. It’s no wonder that few preachers like to talk about this, and no wonder that many preachers who preach on this passage say, “Well, it’s only the rich young ruler who is told to surrender his possessions. Other people don’t need to surrender their posses­sions.” Of course, most students have nothing much to surrender so there’s nothing much to talk about. But do you think that the rich, young ruler loves money more than any of us? Certainly not! Therefore, why should he be the only one? But more seriously, to talk like this is not to understand what the Lord Jesus has to say about our possessions.

Perhaps at this point, many of you are beginning to feel uncom­fortable. “Why did I come to church today? If I had stayed at home, I would have had peace of mind. I come here, made all the sacrifices of the long journey to have this man knock all the peace and joy out of my heart such as I had before.” Preachers are not here simply to make people comfortable. We are here to speak the truth. You must remember, it also speaks to me, not only to you.

 

The Lord Jesus’ teaching on the danger and the character of riches

What is the Lord Jesus’ teaching concerning the danger of money? What is his teaching concerning the character of money? And once we have understood the character and the danger of money, how are we going to deal with it? I think once you understand what we are saying here, you will understand why the Lord Jesus said that the road to eternal life is a narrow road and few find it. Anyone who contradicts these words of the Lord Jesus simply does not understand what he is teaching concerning eternal life.

I have often asked the average Christian in the churches today, why the Lord Jesus said that the road to eternal life is narrow, and few will find it. Given the kind of superficial Christianity we have today, it’s hard to find an answer. The less God’s Holy Spirit works in you, the less difficult you will find Christian life. The more powerfully the Holy Spirit of God is working in you, the more blatantly you will see the problem in front of you, particularly if you have considerable affection for possessions. I guess this is the reason why so many who go back to Hong Kong don’t survive for long. You would soon realize that you cannot serve God and mammon. You have to make a choice sooner or later. And in most cases I would say, the choice is mam­mon, money.

Let us read Mark 10:21-31:

It’s very important to observe that the Lord Jesus looked at this young man and loved him. He did not require him to sell his posses­sions because he wanted to make it difficult for this man to be saved. He did not say this because he disliked the man, that he just made it so difficult that the man would give up. No, he loved this young man. The Lord Jesus told this young man, “There is the one thing that matters in life, and you lack that one thing.” What should he do about it? “Go, sell your possessions and come, follow me.” Then, addressing the message to his disciples—and addressing the message to us who are his disciples—“How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.”

The disciples were amazed at his words because the Jews, in their astonishing and biased religious outlook, always thought riches were in fact a blessing from God; that in fact, the rich are the first people to be saved because they have been so abundantly blessed by God. The poor have been cursed by God. So they thought if the rich cannot be saved who can? Then the Lord Jesus repeated, “How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God,” because obviously, the message had not got through to them. By nature, we all love money, so who can be saved? But God can change our hearts. God can transform us.

As so large a part of the Lord Jesus’ teaching is occupied with the question of entering the kingdom, of inheriting eternal life, these are not questions that we can pass over easily. If we close our eyes to the Lord Jesus’ teaching, we will deny ourselves the inheritance of eternal life. Now let us look at verse 23:

 

The Lord’s teaching on the danger and the character of riches

I want to deal with the Lord’s teaching on the danger and the character of riches under eight points.

1. Antagonism between possessing riches and entry into God’s kingdom

As we look at this verse, the first point we see immediately, is that there is a definite incompatibility between the possession of riches and the entry into the kingdom. Even looking very superficially at this verse, it is obvious that there is a definite incompatibility. If you have riches, you will find it hard to enter the kingdom. How hard? Verse 25 tells us it is simply impossible! In fact, so impossible it will be that the Lord Jesus says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle”! If it is easy for a camel to get through an eye of a needle, then it will be easy for a rich man to enter the kingdom. The fact is, no camel can get through the eye of any needle! It’s simply the hyperbolic, proverbial way of saying that the possession of riches will exclude a person from entering the kingdom.

No matter how you look at it, this is a general statement. It has nothing to do with just the rich young ruler. It is referring to how hard for anyone with riches to enter the kingdom. So it is utterly foolish to confine the statement to the one person, the rich young ruler. This is absolutely a general statement. And we must be willfully blind if we don’t see what the Lord Jesus is saying here. So the first point we must notice is that there is an antagonism between riches and the kingdom of God, the possession of riches and entry into the kingdom of God.

Why is this so? It is so simply because of one basic principle in the Scriptures: the flesh and the Spirit are always in antagonism to each other. Paul says very clearly in Galatians 5:17, that the flesh and the Spirit are irreconcilable; they cannot be brought into harmony with each other. They represent two things which are hostile to each other. They belong to two incompatible categories which will always be in opposition to each other. The flesh, our natural character is always in conflict with the Spirit of God. You cannot harmonize them. There cannot be peace or settlement between the two. Riches belong to the area of the flesh, and the kingdom of God belongs to the area of the Spirit. Hence they belong to these two antagonistic camps opposed to each other.

It is also the opposition that we find in Scripture between this age and the age to come. These two ages are entirely different in charac­ter. They cannot be compromised. They cannot be brought into a relation with each other. You must choose this world or the world to come. You choose this age or the age to come. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of kings and rulers are two different kingdoms and you will have to choose which of these two kingdoms you want to belong to. You either live under God’s authority or you live under the authority of the flesh. As the Lord Jesus, the Messiah-king appointed by God, says to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. You are of this world but I am not of this world. Your kingdom is of this world but my kingdom is not of this world” (cf. Jo. 18:36). So riches in no way belong to the world of the Spirit; it certainly belongs to the world of the flesh. Therefore, we are forced to choose between the two. We cannot have the one and the other. That makes it so difficult.

 

2. Riches compete against the kingdom of God for our devotion

The second point is that this antagonism between the flesh and the Spirit, this antagonism between riches and the kingdom of God, is seen in the fact that riches compete against the kingdom of God for the love of our hearts. The Lord Jesus made it very clear in Matthew 6:21, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Your heart is bound to be where your treasure is. If the possessions of this world command the affections of your heart, then “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” That means to say, nobody can stop you from professing devotion to God, but your heart will be where your treasure is. When the world is your treasure, and when your treasure is in this world, then of course, your treasure will not be in the kingdom of God. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Therefore, if I love possessions, it means I love the world. If I love the world, it means my heart is in the world no matter how I profess about my love for God. The Lord Jesus said, “Material possessions compete against God for our devotion.”

 

3. Wealth competes with God for the lordship of our lives

The third point is simply this: as the Lord Jesus says a few verses further on in Matthew 6:24, “You cannot serve God and mammon” because mammon, the Aramaic word for wealth is here not only competing for our love, but more seriously, it is competing for the lordship of our lives. You cannot serve two masters. Material possessions are competing for the lordship of our lives, not just our love but our allegiance. It will command our lives so you cannot serve money and God. You cannot have God as your Master and money as your master at the same time.

But so much of Christianity today tells us that we can do this. Certainly, you can do this if you are prepared to be just some kind of nominal “Christian.” No one can stop you from professing to be a Christian while your heart is loving the world. But we are talking about the path to eternal life not about some superficial religion! Again, this is a matter so easy to understand. It is a matter of common sense.

We cannot serve two masters. If you want to serve money, if you devote your life to serving money, to getting money, to adoring money, to worshipping money, you cannot at the same time be rightfully worshipping God. God does not accept half of our hearts. He does not accept even three-quarters of our hearts.

God accepts nothing less than total devotion, no matter what any preacher tells you.

How far are you willing to go to inherit eternal life? It’s not just the rich young ruler who is confronted with this uncomfortable, desperate question. It is you and I, we are confronted with this question.

 

4. Mammon becomes a god that blinds us spiritually

Fourthly, because mammon competes not only for our love, the lordship of our lives, but it also becomes the object of our faith, a god. Mammon in fact, is god in our hearts. We put our trust in riches, or we put our trust in God. Foolish is the man who tries to ride two horses at the same time, who says, “I will trust in God to some extent, and I will trust in money to some extent.” The only person you will fool by this kind of thinking is yourself. You will certainly not fool God. You will only succeed in fooling yourself, and maybe fool others into thinking that you are some kind of a real Christian. You and I cannot ride two horses at the same time. We must make up my mind once and for all whether we put our faith and future in money, in this world or in God.

Now this very word, mammon is very interesting. It is the Aramaic word for wealth, possessions. According to the linguists, mammon means the object of our trust, our faith, our hope. Literally, it becomes our god because you have faith, trust and hope in it. This is very frightening! That is why the Lord Jesus wanted the rich young ruler to understand, “If you are going to be my disciple, if you are going to follow me, you cannot follow me with a divided heart, thinking of your bank account and following me. Make up your mind which you are going to serve, in whom do you put your trust?” That is a decision that you and I will have to make. Mammon is that in which we put our trust. That is, it seeks us to put our trust in it. It literally becomes in a very definite sense, “the god of this world.”

What does the unbeliever have as god? If you ask them, “What do you trust in?” They will tell you, “I trust in money. Money is my god. I serve money. I live for money. I work for money.” You literally work for money, don’t you? You work in order to get money. The god of the unbeliever is money. And he thinks he is wise. He thinks he is down-to-earth. In a moment, we shall see whether he is correct or not according to the Lord Jesus’ teaching. You will judge for yourself whether the Lord Jesus’ words are true.

What is the danger of worshipping mammon, the god of this world? You will become spiritually blind. “The god of this world has blinded their eyes,” the apostle Paul says in 2Corinthians 4:4. There are many “Christians” who are spiritually extremely blind. The Bible tells us that there are many reasons for being blind but one of these reasons is that they have worshipped the golden calf. Not only the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, not only the unbelievers wor­ship the golden calf, but many Christians today also worship the golden calf. And the god of this world has blinded their eyes.

Now I’m quite aware that 2 Corinthians 4:4 could refer to Satan if the word “god” refers to “ruler” in the sense of John 12:31, “the ruler of this world.” Very few people worship Satan, unless he is a Satanist. Yet there are Satanists, and they actually worship Satan as god. Very few people serve Satan deliberately, but many people do delib­erately serve and worship money.

How many times you are used to seeing people taking money and kissing it in a movie? Oh! They love money! Money is so wonderful! I remember seeing in a movie in my childhood, the ridiculous tragedy of someone dying just as he discovers this great pot of gold, this great treasure. Even in his death, he is still trying to clutch these golden coins to his bosom. You would think to yourself: “How stupid can you get? He literally died for money!” How many Christians would die for God and Christ Jesus? Yet these people would literally die for their money! And even in the moment of their death, they have no bitterness towards that god that caused their death. Rather, they are still clutching to these golden coins in their fingers which are already turning cold with death. They worship their god until the end – faithful unto death! That is more than can be said for Christians!

We don’t have to choose to worship Satan, the god of this world, because he works through money just like the criminal bosses do. How do you get people into committing crime? Offer them money. It’s very easy, exactly as we see in these movies. Money can get people to do everything. It’s an amazing god! It can command your life. People can do all kinds of things because of it. That is why Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:17, to warn people, especially rich people, that they do not put their trust in uncertain riches. The word in Greek is literally to “hope in” riches. It is to say riches are what give you your hope.

 

5. Riches are addictive and leads to covetousness

The fifth point in the Lord Jesus’ teaching concerning the danger of riches, is to my mind, a very striking one. In Luke 12:15, the Lord Jesus says to the whole crowd of people listening to his preaching,

Our philosophy when we were non-Christians, is that life does very much consist in the abundance of what you possess. Have we not envied and coveted the nice life that other people have? We feel envious of someone’s nice home and luxury car. “Look at his nice car! And he is standing there talking about riches! Ha! The supreme hypocrite of them all! He also has a big house and he’s talking about not trusting in riches. It’s easy to say when you’ve got that.”

I have to look back in my life many times with shame, when I felt really jealous of the possessions of other Christians. Although I’m still young, but not all that young, I never possessed a house until only the last few years since coming to Canada. I did not want to buy a house; I wanted to rent a place except they told me that I would pay as much rent to the landlord as paying the mortgage. Through all this life, I have possessed no building. The last two cars I drove in England all ranked well over ten years old. And the ones I drive now have not been younger than five years old. And so it’s easy to feel envious of other people’s possessions. And I confess that many times I did feel this way. When I feel that way, I must ask myself, “Isn’t it because of my covetousness?” As the Lord Jesus says, “Beware of covetousness.” I want to have what other people have, and if I don’t have what someone else has, I will feel envious, bitter and covetous. I do confess that many times, I have felt covetous. It’s very danger­ous.

This word “covetousness” is translated from the Greek word, pleonexia. Pleonexia means quite literally to want more. This is precisely what the Lord Jesus warns us about riches. There is an English word “morish,” which means you want more. In England, you would say, “This cake is morish.” I have never heard it used in Canada or North America. it means you can’t stop eating it; you just want to eat more and more. In other words, it becomes addictive. That is the great danger of riches. It is addictive. Once it gets into your system, you will want more. Covetousness is simply the desire to have more, to be insatiable. At which point do you want to stop? When your bank account is at $500, you want it to be $5,000. When you have $5,000, you think, what about $50,000? You have got the sweet taste of money. Money is “morish.” It gets into your system. It is like peanuts or chips that you cannot stop eating. You have to go on to another one and another one.

Lately, I’ve been looking at a program on drugs. I never knew how serious the drug problem today is in North America. The drug problem goes into billions of dollars. If you don’t take drugs, you can’t understand addiction. Who wants to take this terrible thing? But wait until you get the taste of it. How did that the first taste of drugs start? Someone gave you a little sniff, a little taste – “Just taste a little bit.” Once you taste it, it makes you feel so good! So you have just a little bit more. And then you have another little bit. Oh, you are feeling better all the time! So another one, and another one! Finally, the soft drugs are not good enough, how about the hard ones? They send you really high. When you have some more, you are addicted! They got into your blood. Now that is precisely what covetousness means. The Lord Jesus says, “Beware of covetousness” because once you get the taste of riches, it will feel so good! And you forget what it will do to you in the end. No drug addict thinks or worries about what happens to him in the end so long as he can have that high now. That feeling now is what matters! Forget about the future! We think we are wise because “a bird in hand is better than two in the bush.” Who worries about the kingdom of God at some future date? Let’s have it here now in my hand! So the present satisfaction leads us to sacrifice the whole of eternity.

 

6. Money leads into unrighteousness

The sixth point is in Luke 16:9, where the Lord Jesus says,

Money is bound to fail, and you can never be received into the kingdom of God.

Seeing that money is so dangerous, so addictive, the Lord Jesus describes it as “unrighteous mammon,” or “mammon of unrighteous­ness” (adikia is a noun in the genitive). That is the important thing we have to notice. Only people can be righteous or unrighteous. We cannot speak about “an unrighteous car” because that makes no sense at all. Cars cannot be righteous or unrighteous. You cannot speak about a house being righteous or unrighteous. Money itself cannot be righteous or unrighteous because it’s just a piece of paper.

What does the Lord Jesus mean when he speaks about “unrighteous mammon”? Here you have in the Greek a noun attached with a genitive, so the words are literally, “mammon of unrighteousness.” What does “mammon of unrighteousness” mean? In Greek, this would be an objective genitive, and that would mean it is mammon which leads to unrighteousness. It is not that the mammon itself is unrighteous, as things cannot be righteous or unrighteous. Money cannot be good or bad in itself, but it leads to unrighteousness. That is the point the Lord Jesus wants to teach.

A drug in itself cannot be righteous of unrighteous but drugs lead to unrighteousness. That is the point. When you are on drugs, as that program was showing, you need more and more drugs as your addiction deepens. One person being interviewed said that he needs $400 a day to keep up his drug habit! $400 a day! How much would he need in a month? He would need $12,000 a month! What kind of a job would he have to have to earn this kind of money? So the reporter asked him, “How do you get $400 a day?” His answer was very frank: steal. There is no other way you can earn that sort of money. That is why it leads to unrighteousness. It leads you to commit crime in your desire to have it. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus teaches us.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:10, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” It is the root of all evil because it leads us into evil.

For example, we might start out slandering someone else in our workplace to trample him down, because if we can get him demoted, we might get his job which pays more than ours. Love of money leads to this.

Or we may love money because of the position it brings. We may not love money for its own sake but what it can do for us. If we had plenty of money, we could go to nice places. You and I have to live in the cold because we don’t have money. If we had money, we could think of Bermuda, and all those nice places where people are tanning themselves while we are freezing in the cold. What money can do is so nice! And so it leads us into evil. For the sake of money, people are prepared to lie, cheat, steal, rob and kill!

Oh, it’s easy to get people killed. You just get some fellow and say, “I’ll give you $3,000 and you bump that guy off.” Some people will do it for less than $3,000. After all, it may cost him only one bullet, which may cost only a few dollars. If you give him a few thousand dollars, he might even be willing to do it, especially a drug addict who needs his $400 a day. Money, the “mammon of unrighteous­ness,” is the root of all evil.

 

7. Money, the object of our trust, is unfaithful, untrustworthy

The seventh point is in Luke 16:11. The Lord Jesus says this:

If you don’t know Greek, you won’t realize that in fact, the word translated “unrighteous” is an adjective (adikos) here in verse 11, whereas it is a noun (adikia) in verse 9. The ESV, NKJ, RSV, NJB translate both as “unrighteous” mammon. We have seen that money and wealth itself cannot be righteous or unrighteous, but that it leads to unrighteousness. What exactly does the unrighteous mammon mean here?

Let us study the Greek word adikos. The same Greek word adikos in verse 10 is translated as “dishonest” in the ESV, RSV, NJB, and “unrighteous” in the NAS:

But in the comparison in verse 10, the word adikos can be more appropriately translated as “unfaithful.” So “the unrighteous (adikos) mammon,” the wealth that leads to unrighteousness in verse 11 means that it is unfaithful (adikos) in verse 10.

A person who proves to be unfaithful in a small thing, what he or what others may regard as a small thing, will prove to be unfaithful in greater things. It means that when a person has proved unfaithful in no matter how small a matter, you don’t entrust that person with any job again in the future, because if he has proved unfaithful once before, or even twice, he will certainly prove unfaithful again. This is the point here. If you are unfaithful in the small things, how can you be faithful in the big things? Who will entrust to you bigger things to do? In serving God, your constant problem is to observe how people do things and what they do. And you must come to the decision that when they are unfaithful in something, you dare not entrust them with the Lord’s work in the future because they are going to be unfaithful again. You have to observe their faithfulness, their quality, their character in all that they do.

What does “unfaithful mammon mean? It means it is untrustworthy. You cannot trust money at all. That is to say, if you put your trust in money, you are going to be disappointed. It is utterly unreliable. So, foolish is the man who trusts in money, who makes money the object of our trust. The very word mammon, as we saw, comes from the Aramaic root, the object of our trust. Money calls for our trust, but when you put your trust in it, it’s going to betray you, disappoint you.

People who have been around in this world for some time certainly know how unreliable money is. If you put your savings into shares, into “blue chip” equities as they are called, that is, really steady and reliable equities, and then it all collapses, your savings are gone! It’s very unreliable. You never know what happens with money.

When you put your trust in property for example, and what hap­pens? When a war comes along, the property is worth nothing. It has happened in China so many times. The rich people bought lots and lots of property because it is said to be the safest investment. And do you know what happens? War will wipe out your investments overnight. Your land is worth absolutely nothing!

Or others put their money into jewelry, into diamonds. Then again, a crisis comes along, a war comes along, and your jewelry is worth absolutely nothing. You can take your diamond ring and exchange it for a piece of bread in your desperation, and nobody wants your diamond ring! People want the bread, not your diamond ring. What are they going to do with it? They can’t eat your ring. At that time, food is what matters.

Those of us who have been in China also know this. You could bring home your monthly pay in a big suitcase, and then what do you do? You run out as quickly as possible and buy yourself a bag of rice, because if you don’t buy it in a hurry, by night time, you won’t be able to buy a bag of rice with it anymore! The devaluation of the money is so fast that you end up trying to buy a bag of rice with a whole suitcase of money! Such is the unreliability of money. It is unfaithful, untrustworthy, unreliable.

We can see what is happening now. Can you imagine that the Canadian dollar is having problems even in a peace-time economy? What happens in war-time is just terrifying! Those of us who have lived through wars just know how worthless material possessions are.

In contrast, the Lord says in Luke 16:11, that money is not the true riches:

What are the true riches? are those that. As Paul says, the true riches cannot fade away; they are spiritual and eternal; they. never lose their value. But riches are not eternal.

 

8. Money is transient

The last point of the Lord Jesus’ teaching concerning money is that because it’s not eternal, it’s not true riches; it’s transient. The Lord Jesus tells us that money is transient. In this sense, it can never be truly your own. What is transient simply passes through your hands. When you try to clutch it, it’s gone!

In this day and age, you go to the bank to withdraw $120, and in a few days’ time, you will say, “What did I do with the money? It’s gone with the wind! It flowed away like water!” $120 is a lot of money. From time to time, I have to take that kind of money out from the bank to do our shopping and so forth. And a few days later, Helen was asking me when we were discussing together, “Didn’t we take out $120? Where has it gone to?” I am trying to account for it when I only have a few dollars left in my pocket, and she has only a few dollars left in her bag. The money has just flown away! We couldn’t see what happened to it. Buy a few groceries and it’s all gone. It’s transient! To put your trust in something that is transient is utterly foolish. You put your trust in the wrong thing. The Lord Jesus warns us about this.

 

You are foolish to trust in money

We will continue next time, to study the Lord Jesus’ teaching on this matter of how to deal with money. We must not deal foolishly or rashly. We must see exactly what the Lord Jesus is telling us to do, what exactly he means before we can act correctly.

Today, we will just consider the nature, the character of money and the foolishness of trusting in it. Then where will you put your trust? How far are you willing to go? Let us take to heart and ponder these things.

Let us be quiet before God in prayer.