A. Godly Doctrine. 6:1-10 This chapter begins with the poor v.1 and ends with the rich. v.17-19 The sound heart of a servant toward his master. v.1-2 Christianity affects the work life. V.1 a) Blasphemy - Honouring masters. I. Bondage servants and their reverence to their masters. Christians should be an example to all under all circumstances. II. Blasphemy against God and the doctrine. If the slaves did not behave rightly before their masters then: A. God’ s name would be blasphemed because of the cursing of their masters. B. The doctrine of godliness and holy living would be blasphemed. V.2 b) Benefit - Serving masters. I. Bondage brethren’ s relationship to Believing masters. The slaves should treat their Christian masters good and not despise them in their action. II. Beneficiation of having Believing masters. A. Good relationship with the master. B. The slave works under the master to help other believers to be blessed. III. 1.Cor.7:20-24; Gal.3:28; Eph.6:5-9; Col.3:22-25; Phile.1-25; 1.Pet.2:13-25 The evidence of a corrupt heart. v.3-5 V.3 a) Consent of wholesome words - I. Deceptive teaching. A. Opposition against Healthy words - Wholesome (Gr. hugiaino) means to be healthy, sound and well. The English word hygienic comes from this Greek word. 1. Viruses survive in places where the hygienic is poor. 2. Infection increases in places where the hygienic is poor. 3. Sickness multiplies in places where the hygienic is poor. 4. Hygienic doctrine cleans the atmosphere in the Church from spiritual uncleanness. B. Opposition against Christ’ s words - They even contradict Jesus teaching concerning Christian living. 1. Denial of self life in the heart. Luke 9:23 2. Forsaking the materialism of life in the heart. Luke 14:33 3. Not focused on storing up on the earth. Matt.6:19-21 II. Doctrine of godliness. The true godly doctrine is to live a life with contentment and pursing the fruit of the spirit rather than the materialism and the goods of life. V.4 b) Corrupt heart - People who opposes these doctrine of godliness is: I. The state of man - Proud. A. Is self-focused, puffed up, beclouded with self, blinded with pride. B. Different kinds of pride: 1. Pride of place - Status. 2. Pride of race - Origin and genealogy. 3. Pride of face - Looks and beauty. 4. Pride of grace - Gifts and talents. II. The mind of man - Knowing nothing. Even though he might proclaim knowledge of Scripture or of God, then he knows nothing at all, not even the very basic and easy understood doctrine of godliness he lack. III. The way of man - Argument and contenting. The false teacher is obsessed (Gr. noseo means to be sick) with A. Debating spirit - B. Contenting spirit. C. 2.Tim.3:5, 7; 4:3 IV. Fruits of man - Envy, strife, reviling and evil suspicions. A. Envy - Living for materialism and wealth results in envy. B. Strife - Arguments and contenting results only in strife. C. Reviling - Arguments and contenting results only in blasphemy. D. Evil suspicions - Arguments and contenting results only in mistrust. V.5 c) Corrupt mind - I. Mind of man - Corrupt. They like to dispute to defend their ideologies of life that have corrupted their minds, it’ s their way to try to cool down their convicting conscience. II. Way of man - Destitute. They have by their living departed from Christ even though their mouths proclaim him. Phil.1:15-16; 3:18-19 III. Suppose of man - Godliness is a gain. A. Do we fleece the sheep or feed the sheep. B. Prosperity teaching teaches that if you live by faith you will be blessed beyond your needs, God will make you rich. These verses oppose that teaching. C. Covenantal confusion: There are 8 covenants in Scripture and each covenant was made to a different people at different times, a sign was given to each covenant people and folloowed those that were under the covenant. Belivers can't take an Old Testament promise that is not confirmed in the New Testament. 1. Edenic covenant - Sign was the tree of life. Gen.2:9 2. Adamic covenant - Sign was the skin of covering. Gen.3:21 3. Noahic covenant - Sign was the rainbow. Gen.9:12-17 4. Abrahamic covenant - Sign was the circumcision. Gen.17:11 5. Mosaic covenant - Sign was the Sabbath. Ex.31:12-17 6. Palestinian covenant - Sign was the Sabbath rest of the land. Lev.1-27 Rain and fruitfulness. Lev.25:18-22; Deu.11:10-17 7. Davidic covenant - Sign was the sun, moon and stars. Ps.89:34-37 8. New covenant - Sign are the gifts of the Spirit through Spirit baptism. Mark 16:17-20; 1.Cor-12:7-11 D. The cross is the dividing factor in Christ. 1. All things die in Him. Gal.3:19, 23-25; Heb.8:13 2. Certain things resurrects again but in a different glorified form. As an example: a. Physical warfare is resurrected as spiritual warfare. b. Circumcision is resurrected as circumcision of heart. c. Sacrifices are resurrected as spiritual sacrifices. d. The promise of wealth is resurrected to the promise of spiritual wealth. E. How the Old Testament Scripture is to be handled of a New Testament people: 1. To confirm New Testament doctrines. 2. To picture New Testament doctrines. For every New Testament Principle there is an Old Testament Picture. F. Even the law of inheritance in the world teaches us these things: 1. Can another man not a part of your family claim your inheritance from your parents? 2. Can Noah or Enoch claim the blessing upon the Church? 3. The promises given to the Church is different than the promises given to the Old Testament saints. Matt.11:11 IV. Isolation of man - Withdraw. Christians should separate themselves from those that teach that godliness is a way to gain prosperity, neither listen to their teaching. The sound heart of toward prosperity. v.6-8 V.6 d) Contentment and gain - The Great Gain of Godliness. I. Materialism and wealth is not a gaining but rather a loosing of once life. Luke 9:24-25 II. Contentment is not only a way to gain but a great gain - Like a satisfied life, serving God instead of wealth, happy marriage, freedom from dept, holy lifestyle, more people in church and more time for intimacy with God. V.7 e) Certainty - I. Naked man came into the world. No one was born and got a back of gold coins from God. II. Nothing man brings out of the world. A. All that man has Built up he leaves Behind when he dies. B. There is one way to bring it with you, give it away while you can. Luke 12:13-21; 6:19-21 C. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep and gets what he cannot loose. V.8 f) Contentment or greediness - I. Essential daily need - A. God provides for the essential daily needs. Phil.4:19 B. What God gives that is Beyond the daily needs could be for another Believer. What is Beyond is your Brother’ s. 2.Cor.9:8-10 II. Exhortation to be content. Matt.6:24-34; Luke 12:16-34; Phil.4:10-13; Heb.13:5 A. The 2 tents Christians can live in: 1. Content - I want what I get. 2. Discontent - I get what I want. B. The difference between greediness and covetousness: 1. Greediness - Not giving from what you already have enough of. 2. Covetousness - Wanting more than what you already have enough of. V.9 g) Care for richness - The sound heart of toward riches. I. Desire to be rich. A. Desire (Gr. boulomai) means to will. Not a strong desire but just the little will. B. Materialism is a desire to possess things instead of a love for the God who made those things. C. The will to be rich is scriptural wrong and it is a heart in error. II. Downfall because of the Desire. A. Temptation - Giving a ground for the Devil to deceive. Matt.4:8-10 B. Trap - A snare is trap that captures our souls. Matt.13:22 III. Deceptive lusts. A. Foolish lusts - Unintelligible lust that comes from the old nature. B. Harmful lusts - Hurting lust that brings unnecessary pain upon our lifes. C. The story of the white elephant. In the court of the royal kingdom of Siam, the king would reward a particularly disagreeable person by giving him a gift. The gift was an albino Indian elephant. Feeding and housing the elephant was beyond the person’ s means, but it was not permissible to return or sell a gift from the king. So the gift of a white elephant would ruin the person. IV. Destruction caused by lusts. The will to be rich causes a Christian to be: A. Drown - Sink slowly but surely from the spiritual life. B. Destruction - Ruins the spiritual life. C. Perdition - Ending with loosing their spiritual life by eternal damnation. V.10 h) Care for money - Matt.6:24; 1.John 2:15 The sound heart toward money. I. Satanic root of the love of money. A. The love of money is a root in the world deep within many people. They steal because of it, kill because of it, sell their body’ s because of it and exchange it for the love of God. B. There is no kind of evil to which the love of money may not lead men, when once it takes hold of them. C. How to know if we have the love of money: 1. The love of money ruins the feelings. Try to give a lot of them away, if it hurts and ruins your feelings then that love for money is in you. 2. The love of money ruins lives. II. Straying from faith. Wanting more money has caused many Christians to backslide from their former devotion to God. III. Sorrows of greediness. A. Instead of taking up daily the cross and bring the old man to the cross they are now experiencing heart breaking sorrows. B. It all began by a little will, they wanted to be rich.