The Biblical View of Money, Part 3
2 Corinthians 8-9
Now we come to our time in the Word of God, continuing our series on a scriptural understanding of money. And I want you to listen to me very carefully this morning, I'm going to say some things that perhaps you have not heard. You're going to need to process them a little bit in your mind. I'm not going to have the time to deal with every possible caveat or exception of issue that what I say might raise, but we will deal with those as time goes on. But I want to lay a foundation, this morning, that is very important for understanding this issue of money.
Now last week we started kind of a preliminary discussion of money, two weeks ago, in anticipation of studying 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. And 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, as I said, is about giving, it's about Christian giving, how we give our money. And before we can understand giving, we have to understand some other aspects of money and wealth and possessions. And so we talked about the morality of money, that is that money is neutral but it does demonstrate our morality or our spirituality. It is an index on character. I made the statement that I could look at your checkbook and tell where your priorities in life are and the emphasis of your life. And that's pretty much true, money does manifest our character and our loves and likes and priorities.
Then we also talked about that issue of loving money. How important it is not to love money. God has provided resource for us. We are not to turn money into an idolatrous object, but we are to treat it the way God would have it be treated and not in His place, not substituting our money for Him, not trust it instead of Him.
And then last time I said, thirdly we want to consider the issue of acquiring of money...the morality of money, the love of money and the acquisition of money. And I told you last Sunday that there are some negatives with regard to acquiring money. First of all, we are not to steal it. Scripture is very steal about that. Secondly, we are not to exploit others to gain it. Thirdly, we are not to defraud others by withholding it and thus maintaining our own richness. Fourthly, we are not to gamble for it. So, we don't steal it, exploit others to gain it, defraud people of it, or gamble for it.
Now that brings us to the positive matter of how we acquire money. How does Scripture indicate that we are to acquire money or possessions or wealth? And as I was asking that question this week and endeavoring to answer it, another question interrupted my thinking...which happens to me a lot. And the question is this, does God really want us to acquire it at all? Reading, as I have, a number of books that advocate that Christians should live at a bare subsistent level, take a sort of semi-vow of poverty, have nothing more than bare necessities, I realized that I probably needed to address that issue. There are lots of books and there have been through the history of the church. There have been lots of folks, lots of people, even certain orders within the framework of the church that have taken the idea that the Bible indicates we should really have nothing more than our absolute bare necessities. We should live at that level, avoiding all comfort and all luxury and that that's really God's highest calling. That's what God wants for us is just that. God really wants us not to be totally poor, because he'll provide the basic things of life, but not much beyond that. Is that actually accurate? Is that God's purpose? Is that God's design?
If you have any comforts, any luxuries, anything that you really don't need to eat and sleep and survive and shelter yourself, is it a sinful thing? Or does God want us to have a certain measure of wealth? That's a very important question. And before we talk about how we acquire it, we have to talk about if God wants us to acquire it. And we have to answer that question.
As I think about answering that question, it's a marvelous, marvelous thing as it begins to unfold that indeed God does and God has provided for us to gain various measures of wealth. To understand this we need to go back to Genesis chapter 1. So open your Bible to the first chapter in the Bible, Genesis chapter 1 and just kind of stay there for a moment while I make a few comments and then read you some verses out of this chapter.
Now let's listen carefully to what I'm going to say because all of this is going to begin to accumulate and develop into something that is important for us to understand. God has created a material world. That is, God has created a natural world. It is purely physical...purely physical and temporary. It is a perishing earth. It is a perishing world.
As I have told you before, we live on a disposable planet. It is not to be perpetuated forever. It is to be used up and then it will go out of existence. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall...what?...pass away." This is not an eternal earth. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. This is a very temporary planet. In fact, I think both an understanding of Scripture and a proper understanding of science would put the age of this universe somewhere around 15,000 years ago and that's all. This is not a millions of millions of year-old universe or earth, it is a relatively young planet and it is designed by God in the midst of eternity for a very, very brief purpose. It is designed to be the habitat for humanity for a few thousand years, and really that's it. It is disposable. It is soulless. The whole creation is soulless. It has no eternal soul. It has no lasting purpose or value. It is simply for temporary use. It will be extinct in the near future and when you see the descriptions of heaven, there are no animals there, there are no flowers there, there's no grass there and so forth. And you can see a very great difference, although there are some metaphoric uses of minerals and water and rivers and the tree of life and those things, they have a heavenly and eternal character and could not be in any sense the same as what we experience here in this created world. So we live in a world for all intents and purposes which is going out of existence, is disposable and was designed by God for man to use.
That's very, very important to understand. It contains no eternal qualities. And what that means is it has nothing of heavenly value. Did you hear that? It has nothing of heavenly value...nothing.
Now the conclusion that I make after understanding all of that is that God has designed all of this for a very brief purpose to enrich the life of man. I mean, after all, He could have put us all on the moon which has no color, no nothing. In fact, when we go up there and walk around, we come back and say there's nothing there we need...there's nothing there that could support life, sustain life, let alone make life enjoyable. There's nothing outside of this earth that we need, there's everything here that we can use. And when we fly around in space and do all the exploration, we really never find anything that changes our life here, all we do is just get up there and spy on each other and send down telephone signals and TV pictures, and all of that. I mean, there's nothing out there that you can find that will add in any sense to the profound richness of life on this planet. And God never intended it be eternal. It wasn't eternal, He created it, and it won't be eternal, He'll uncreate it. It was created to house the humanity that He created for eternal purposes but it is not an eternal world. So whatever you have in this world is just temporary and it burns up.
Now having said all of that, let me go further and say when God created the earth He made a great distinction, there's a great big thick line, if you will, between man and all the rest of the creation. All the creation is soulless, temporal, dying and passing. Man is eternal. Okay? Man is eternal. A great distinction between the whole creation, all the creatures and all the components and elements of the earth, animate and inanimate, and man. Man was made in the very image of God. And He gave man dominion and supremacy and sovereignty over everything in this temporary, temporal, physical, soulless creation. Man is superior in design. He is superior in responsibility, capability, authority and value and man will live forever. He is an eternal being. The earth and all it contains then is to provide for man richness of life. And it really fits into the category of common grace. Whether a man is regenerate or not regenerate, whether he loves God or doesn't love God, whether he obeys God or doesn't obey God, his very life is filled with the richness of this creation. And that is just the character of God to be so kind and to spread His common grace to man.
Now having said that, look at verse 27 of Genesis chapter 1. "And God created man in HIs own image." Down in chapter 2 verse 7 it says, "And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul, or living being." That sets him apart from everything else. But verse 27, "God created man in His own image. In the image of God He had created them male and female, He created them. And God blessed them and said to them, `Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth...and here's the key...and subdue it.'" A very important command. Harness its power. Harness its resources. Extract its riches. That's what it's saying. As John Schneider writes, "It is here to be exploited, studied, cultivated, tamed, used and enjoyed." That's what God is saying. Draw out of it all the richness that's in it. The whole creation is for man to use and for man to enjoy and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. You're in charge of all of it. You have sovereignty over all of it. You harness all of its power and all of its beauty and all of its richness and all of its capabilities, all of its energies, all of its productivity.
Verse 29, God said, "I have given you every plan yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you, and every beast of the earth and every bird of the sky and everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food and it was so. And God saw all that He had made and behold, it was very good." Very good. There's nothing like it in the universe. We fly around, we see nothing like this planet, nothing with the incredible natural resources of this earth. And we then have to assume that there is a righteous use of the material world. There is a righteous use of material wealth. We live in a material world and it pleases God that it is as rich as it is. It pleases God for us to use it as a gift from Him in the category of common grace, grace common to all of us. We are to live richly and joyably, comfortably and we should be thankful to Him in the midst of all of this. God has made a very good world for us.
And He knew it would only be very temporary. He knew it would all burn up. And He knew that it wouldn't have anything that was eternal in it and yet He gave it to us just for the sheer brief joy and richness of it. God Himself then affirms the goodness of all creation as a gift to make man's life enjoyable.
I mean, when you think about it, it's pretty staggering. The beauty of nature, the absolute breathtaking beauty of nature is for our enjoyment. To go and visit places and see that magnificent beauty is part of God's good gift to man. The variety of foods, I mean, it's just incredible. Every plant, every kind of animal, every kind of taste and then God accommodated all of that by giving us the ability to taste. God could have created us with no taste buds and we would have eaten porridge three meals a day for all our life. But that's not God. God is a God of infinite variety, infinite beauty and God has created a world for us to enjoy. The endless joys of what we eat, the endless joys of what we see, the smell of things, the myriad of fragrances that fill the world have no lasting value. They are purely for this life. God has given us such a rich life to enjoy.
Why does He do that? Because that demonstrates His loving generous, almost lavish character, because that should engender in us a response of thanksgiving and praise and glory to Him and should cause us to be obedient to One who is so generous and because it should stimulate in us a foretaste of heaven. Whatever the wonders and joys and comforts and beauties of this life are, they are but a small taste of the glories and beauties and comforts and joys of the life to come. God has His purposes in putting us in a rich, rich, rich environment; the endless productivity of this earth, the endless seeds and plants and foods, the incredible mineral wealth that comes out of the ground, the gold, the silver, all of the other metals that create all of the things that make life enjoyable and comfortable, the tremendous deposit of oil that creates the plastics and all the things that we extract out of that.
All the wonderful little goodies and gadgets and all the comfortable things that we enjoy, all the fabrics that can woven out of cotton, and the little silk worm...why did God make a silkworm spin silk if He didn't expect somebody to wear a silk dress?...the whole point is God has created a world just loaded with richness and beauty and color. I mean, I look out of over this congregation this morning and I see a whole lot of drab men and a lot of colorful ladies and I know that...I know God has made all that color. He doesn't have to make color in the world, but He did. And the beauty of a lovely dress and the wonderful color even in a red tie occasionally pleases the Lord because He made the colors, right? There's nothing wrong with enjoying the comfort of a warm bed and sitting by a warm fireplace in a comfortable chair and in the warm light of the fireplace reading a good book and listening to beautiful music played on a guitar like Christopher Parkening played this morning, that's the richness of all that God has put into this earth. It's all there and comparing...or rather combining the richness of the earth with the ability of mankind to extract that richness, you have the fulfillment of God's purpose for men to enjoy their life. And that's how God made the world and that's His purpose. All these riches, we just keep tapping them and tapping them and it almost seems like there is no end to them...immense natural resources and human capability that is able to extract those resources in so many, many different ways. It's just incredible.
So, God gives a rousing affirmation of the goodness of this disposable planet. It's just for now, but He says enjoy it while it lasts...enjoy it while it lasts. It's kind of like life, you know, God only gives you your children for now really, and you enjoy them while they last and they all realize that some day you'll die or they'll die and life is short, but there's so much richness in this life. God is just a God who wants us to enjoy even this life.
Now the Fall came along. Adam and Eve sinned and the curse fell on the earth. It marred its goodness, it didn't destroy it. It didn't negate it. In fact, He created man with a freedom. You know, I mean, He just literally turned Adam and Eve loose in Eden and said...Have at it, you've got the run of the place, the run of the Garden of Eden. And when they sinned, that freedom became potentially damaging. The freedom is still there, but sadly man can now take the resource of the earth and turn them into war machines. He can now take the good gifts of physical love and turn it into sexual perversion. He can take the production of plants and turn them into poisons and drugs and destroy people's lives with them. There is rick in the freedom now. But the earth is still good, it's still very good.
You see, the sin is not in enjoying it. The sin is in overindulgence. The sin is in flaunting your wealth. The sin is in self-centered, self-indulgent, begrudging, compassionless consumption. It's the attitude of the heart that is the sin. If you enjoy the richness of what God has provided and you give Him thanks, and that thanks turns into obedience, and you're willing to be generous with others, then you've made the righteous use of the material world. The point is that God has made us rich. God has given us the ability to get well. And to different people, different capabilities in that regard. He doles out the capacities, He doles out the opportunities to enjoy those riches as He sovereignly sees fit. Not all of us are going to be as wealthy as others. There is a measure of comfort and joy and beauty and wonder and fulfillment in this life for all of us and some will be very, very rich and some not so rich and there are all different levels. It's just a brief little time, a vapor that appears for a little while, but God has spread His riches out sovereignly as He chooses to do that for His own glory and His own purpose. Even the wicked prosper momentarily under God's goodness in this expression of common grace.
So when you come to understand that this world is wealthy, look, I mean, He made a planet that is just loaded with riches, He made a planet that's even full of diamonds. Did He expect them to stay down buried in the ground? Or did He expect somebody to dig them up, put them in a jewelry store so you could give some to a girl when you wanted to marry her? I mean, you could say, "Well, you know, that's indulgence." But on the other hand, if I look at that thing and it somehow in a small way is symbolic of how I prize this woman of my love, and if I can see the beauty of God's creation in it and thank Him for that, it's an attitude of the heart, right? That is always the issue.
I was just saying to Lance, a large diamond might offend you, this was a gift given to me, it's a gold ring, it might offend somebody in Brazil where I was and this diamond wedding ring would offend somebody in Russia if all they were looking at was the materialistic side and didn't know the symbols of all of those things and if they didn't know my heart. I think you can enjoy the things that God gives you, a home and a car. Obviously there is a reasonableness in this, but you can enjoy those things because God has made a world which yields those riches. It's just a little taste of the riches to come. Enjoy it. Realize it's not eternal. It's a small taste of heaven where there will be riches beyond description. And there you will really be rich.
Earthly wealth is from God for a brief time. It's not going to be the issue in eternity and I think things may get turned the other way when we get there. But it shows how kind He is to His creatures and how He wants to put on display His incredible, incredible mind. So God made it clear in Genesis that the created soulless world was designed by Him for just a brief little period of time in the midst of eternity to provide joy and delight, even things like a nice car and a nice house and a garden, clothes, appliances, a warm fireplace, whatever.
John Schneider says, "Human delight is a precious expression of God's glory. In its proper form it is a sacrament to God's dominion over chaos and darkness."
Now, while you're in Genesis turn to chapter 8 for a moment. And I want to illustrate something that we've just been talking about, with a couple of scriptures here that look at Noah. God created this marvelous world for us to enjoy, to be a delight to us. Look at chapter 8 verse 21. Verse 20 talks about Noah building an altar. Now he was going to have a barbecue. We call it a sacrifice, but it's actually a barbecue. Every clean animal, every clean bird he offered as a burnt offering. Isn't that a barbecue? Isn't that what your wife says? "What is that, a burnt offering?" This is a barbecue. And I love this, verse 21, "And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma." Did you know God loves the smell of barbecue? I like the smell of barbecue. I'll tell you what, I love the smell of a barbecue, it is so superior to the smell of boiling broccoli. Even God likes the smell of a barbecue and He has...listen, He built that into that. He built that into that. Food didn't have to have a pleasant aroma but He made it have that for our joy and enjoyment. And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma. "And the Lord said to Himself...a little inner-trinitarian conversation here...I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent or the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done."
You know what He's saying? I'm not going to destroy this creation again, I'm going to leave it here and even though he's evil I'm going to let him enjoy it. I'm going to let him smell the aromas and taste the food, smell the flowers, dig out the minerals, enjoy the power, the fresh water, the cool breeze, the waterfall, the whole business. Verse 22, "While the earth remains it's going to be continuity, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease." God says I'm not going to destroy it anymore until the final destruction, I'm going to let man enjoy it.
And then in chapter 9, "So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, `Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and every bird of the sky.'" You're in charge. You determine whether they live or whether they die. "With everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given." We understand that. I don't think some environmentalists understand that. We're in charge of all of that. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you. I give all to you as I gave the green plant. I give it all to...it's all for you. And listen, He knew what was in this planet. He knew what was here.
You say, "Well isn't mining and all of that a modern enterprise?" No, read Job 28, Job is the oldest book in the Bible and Job 28 is about mining. It's about going down into the ground so deep where no eye has ever seen and coming up with the mine and the gold and the silver and the richness there, that's not new. Don't kid yourself. Man isn't getting better, he's getting worse as he declines from the Fall. And there was a level of human genius in those early periods that would even exceed us greatly. It's all for you, every bit of it is for you, every bit of it. Enjoy it. Use it, be enriched by it. Delight in it.
Now, in the delighting you glorify God, you thank God and out of gratitude you obey God and you have the hope of heaven. That's what He asks. And that does a check on the heart...doesn't it?...and keeps you from self-indulgence and proud parading of your wealth but it lets you enjoy the comforts with a thankful heart.
And there's one other very important issue to God. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 14...Deuteronomy 14, verse 22. By the way, these people who are worried about things going extinct, you know, we don't want to eat any more of these deals because there won't be any left, listen, very soon there won't be any of anything left. And extinction is not an issue to God. We're not here to preserve those life forms, we're here to use them. We're not here to p