Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 10:15, 16, 22 (A Righteous View of Riches Part 2) (Part 33)

I don't ordinarily have this opportunity, but I'm going to be doing part two of a sermon that I started not just Last Lord's Day, it turns out, but a number of weeks ago. Because in between the time of beginning that sermon and this morning, there have been a couple of breaks for some church discipline matters and finishing up some vacation weekends that I had yet coming as your pastor. But as it turns out, we come this morning to finish a sermon that's already been begun. So turn with me in Proverbs, the tenth chapter this morning, where I'd like to finish talking to you about a righteous view of riches. Proverbs 10, 15, 16, as well as verse 22 all take up this theme. And since we're trying to get through the themes of Proverbs 10, we'll be talking about these three verses as they open up the door to even more passages in the book of Proverbs about this theme of riches. But let's hear God's Word as we begin this morning at verses 15 and 16 of Proverbs 10. The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty. The income of the righteous tends to life, the increase of the wicked to sin. And then verse 22, the blessing of Jehovah, it makes rich, and he adds no sorrow therewith. And thus far, the reading of God's Word. It's a very easy thing for us to fall into oversimplifications. It's a very easy thing for us to fall into satisfying our own preconceived notions and desires when it comes to something so important and so central to our lives as money. Have you ever noticed how that is? Usually people young in their lives before they've been successful, before they have very much money to worry about, have a number of ideals to follow, a number of moral principles that they think are crucial and by which they are willing to judge the. The things they see going on around them in the world. And we say there are certain things we'd never do. But I notice that it's just part of the common track record of all of us as humans that as life goes on and as greater temptations are there and more opportunities to get ahead, that we tend to shave some of our moral principles. We tend to find more and more exceptions to those principles that we thought were. Were so important. It's not usually the case that we'll repudiate our earlier principles. Mind you, that sometimes happens. We sometimes say, oh yeah, well, I used to believe that, but I don't anymore. And we just go about in reckless abandon, making money and doing the things we want to do anyway. But more likely than that is the possibility of self deception where now put in new circumstances and seeing an opportunity that really was remote or not, not there at all previously. We find now excuses. We rationalize, we see things in a new light. And so what it is is that we keep our previous principles by profession, but now we just have encumbered them with so many qualifications, so many special pleadings for our own circumstance that we change our mind really about the way we should see money. Money has a very corrupting effect upon us. That doesn't mean that this preacher believes we ought to stop using money, doesn't mean that I think economics is somehow a dirty field or that finances are something that we should put out of our minds completely. I haven't become a socialist. I'm not saying that we ought to give up private property or any notion that wealth is a blessing of God. But I am saying that we must balance a proper view of wealth and private property and so forth with a realistic appraisal of what money does to us. Money changes people. Isn't that a common theme in the movies? We see that all the time, don't we? The general plot is you have someone who is poor, gets a lot of money. How does that change them? How do they relate differently to people? How do they see life differently? Or the overwhelming lust to gain money? How that changes people comes up over and over. And so we as Christians had better wake up and be realistic about money. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And that being the case, it is not sufficient for me as a preacher of God's Word. It is not adequate in the eyes of God for me simply to give you a lesson that justifies private property in the pursuit of wealth. I have given that lesson. I will continue to maintain those principles and I will continue to preach those things as they come up in God's Word. But it is not adequate to say only that much, because that must be tempered with other things that we find in God's Word about the spiritually destructive character of money if it's not approached in a proper mindset. As we look at the Book of Proverbs, we. We find just such balance. In the Book of Proverbs we find, it seems to me, a many faceted, a varied approach to the question of finances and money, or, if you will, a balanced understanding of riches. And we began to look at that. As I've already said a few weeks ago, I have summarized the economic teaching of the Book of proverbs into 10 premises or propositions, 10, if you will, central themes that the book pursues. And what I'd like to do right now is just review for you those that we've gone over, and then we'll pick up and finish out those themes from where we left off last time. You'll recall, I hope you'll recall that we began saying that in the Book of Proverbs, wealth is not inherently moral or immoral. Wealth is not moral. You can't automatically say, if you have money, that's great, you must be a righteous person. Nor can you say automatically that wealth is automatically immoral. If you have money, you've obviously cheated, you're not giving enough to the poor or whatever. The possession of money and the lack of possession of money do not in themselves do not per se or automatically tell you anything about morality or immorality. Rather, the Book of Proverbs teaches us that righteous men use their possessions righteously and unrighteous men use their possessions unrighteously, and money is but a tool for one or the other. Money or riches. Wealth will be used either to advance good, noble, godly purposes in this world, or selfish, unloving and wicked ones. But the money is not the problem. It's the heart of man that's the problem. A second theme we found in the Book of Proverbs is that poverty is not the worst thing that can happen to you. In fact, I suppose if you were to do it just by numerical count, which isn't a reliable standard necessarily, but if you were to do just a numerical count, I think you'd find more verses talking about this theme than any of the others that we will see in the Book of Proverbs. Repeatedly we find out that poverty is by far not the worst thing that could happen to a man. I just want to give you one example of that, since it's such an important theme. Proverbs 28:6. Better is the poor that walks in his integrity than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. Very simply put, a poor man who has integrity is far better off than a rich man who has none. A third theme we find in the Book of Proverbs pertaining to riches, as we've already rehearsed it, is that righteousness is preferable to riches. That as you go through life and you set your agenda, you have your priorities, you have your game plan for life. You'd better make righteousness more important than riches. Now, that doesn't mean that you should not pursue riches. It means that you should pursue riches subordinate to righteousness. Proverbs 16, 8. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. We need to have our priorities straight. The fourth theme that I have found in the Book of Proverbs, as we analyzed its view of riches, is that we should not romanticize poverty or riches. Do not romanticize poverty or riches. Book of Proverbs, as you recall, is very down to earth, maybe uncomfortably so for us. It's quite realistic. It understands the ways of the world. And so Proverbs says very clearly that poverty is a disability. It points to that money affords protection from misfortune. The the poor are overwhelmed where the wealthy can get by. Wealth brings authority, it brings leverage, it brings power in this world, and that's a fact of life. So don't romanticize poverty. Poverty is a disability. If you had a choice between wealth and poverty, everything else being equal, it never is. But if everything else were equal, the point is, clearly we wouldn't want to romanticize poverty and say, well, that's really spiritual. Let's be poor. It is a disability in this world. And the harsh reality is, as we saw in Proverbs, that money wins friends. On three or four occasions in the Book of Proverbs, we saw that the man who has money has a lot of friends, the poor, and no one will stand up for him. Another fact of life doesn't mean the Book of Proverbs approves of that. But you see, when we go into this world, we aren't supposed to go into this world with such a heavenly mindset, with ideals that. That it doesn't touch the real experiences that we have around us. The Book of Proverbs says, look, go into this world and realize money's going to buy friends, poverty. A lot of people are not going to stand by you. On the other hand, Proverbs says, don't romanticize riches either, because wealth has its own liabilities. What kind of friends do you buy with money, after all? Fair weather friends, it isn't much comfort. I know a lot of miserable wealthy people, people who can't be sure who really likes them, who doesn't, or who says they like this person but really dislikes that person's money. Fair weather friends are no comfort to you. And Proverbs 13:8 indicates the wealthy have a lot more tension, a lot more anxiety in this world because they're worried about how to Protect what they've gotten. And I know we usually chuckle about this because we're on the other end, but the poor man says, when you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose. And so he can be carefree toward things where the righteous is real uptight and he has to be. So don't romanticize that. Wealth can deceive you into a false security. And as Proverbs 18:23 says, it doesn't tend to meekness and humility. The wealthy man does not need to be as courteous as the poor. There is, there is some advantage to being poor because you learn to have a proper deference and respect for others, whereas wealthy people tend not to think that's so necessary. And so Principle four is don't romanticize poverty or riches. The fifth principle is be level headed in financial affairs. As we looked at this, we learned that you can't always take men at their own outward valuation. The poor pretend to be rich and, and by the way, the rich pretend to be poor. You can't trust the outward appearances and you'll get warnings that a sagacious businessman might give you. People are going to want to drive hard bargains. Here's the man who you know says, oh, this is really poor, this is really poor. But then he goes away and he boasts about how he got it for such a low price. Proverbs 20:16 tells us, you better recognize a person who's a bad risk. Protect yourself against such a person. Don't lend without security when you see somebody else who is lending to strangers. The sixth principle that we looked at is that it is morally good to seek financial success. Very simply put, the righteous leaves an inheritance for his children. Not just his children, but his children's children. That is a righteous thing to do. It is good to try to lay up an inheritance which means accumulated wealth, doesn't it? When people tell us we are to live simply at the minimal level, just enough to get by, just to meet our daily needs for ourselves and our family and everything else must be given to the poor. They are not looking at all that the Bible has to say, because if you live that way, you cannot righteously lay up an inheritance for your children. The seventh principle that we looked at is that righteousness is financially rewarded by God. Diligence will lead to plenty. Proverbs tells us knowledge understood in the proper and moral sense. Knowledge of God and of his ways will bring a house full of riches. And faithful and productive work will bring a blessing. Our needs will be met. Righteousness will Be financially rewarded by God. You remember how Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Well, what are all these things that are going to be added? Well, all those daily concerns of what should we eat and what should we wear. Jesus says, don't worry about those things. Pursue righteousness. God will take care of the rest. And now we come to the final three principles. I want you to see numbers 8, 9, and 10. We'll call these the 10 commandments about riches. Okay, number 8. Greed is morally repulsive and brings the curse of God. Greed is morally repulsive and brings the curse of God. So now open your Bibles and follow along as we begin to look at some new passages. Proverbs 27:20. Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied. And the eyes of man are never satisfied. Just like death and hell, the sinner's eyes are never satisfied. Proverbs tells us Sheol is never satisfied. Have you ever noticed that? The place of the dead, whether you take that as just the grave, or if maybe Proverbs is thinking beyond that because of the destructiveness of the grave of hell itself. Hell is never satisfied. Hell will take more and more and more, and it doesn't stop wanting more. And the eyes of man are just like that. Not a very flattering parallel, by the way. The eyes of man are like hell, always wanting more. Always wanting more. Always wanting more. This is something that I've seen in myself, I despise in myself. And I want to point out, I trust that you too will be repulsed by this. You realize that just as soon as we get to the next level of financial security, we want more. It's incredible. No matter. I see younger people starting out and they're struggling and you hear things. Or maybe people are crass enough to just say it. If I just had so much money, then I'd be happy. It's not true. It's unbiblical. It's unrealistic. It's not true. The eyes of man are like hell, never satisfy. And there are people a lot more wealthy than me by far that are not satisfied. And yet knowing that doesn't change our sinful, greedy hearts, does it? I know that people who have a lot more than me still want more. And yet I think if I could just have what they have. Proverbs 30, verses 15 and 16 paints a picture of craving, which is pathetic and repulsive. Proverbs 30, verses 15 and 16. The horse leech hath two daughters. Give, give there are three things that are never satisfied. Yea, four that say not enough Sheol. And the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire that saith not enough. Here we have an unusual portion of Proverbs, by the way. When we get to chapter 30, I'll tell you a little bit about the literary features of this kind of proverb. But it's a broken picture. It's just painting something. Look, there are things out there that say not enough, not enough. The horse leech, the vampire fly, always wanting more blood. Always wanting more. Always wanting more. The horse leech has two daughters. What does the life of the horse leech lead to? What does it eventuate in? What does it give birth? To give give, you wouldn't likely name your children the same thing, but that's all the life of a vampire fly is like give, give, give. Likewise, there are things that are never satisfied that will never say enough Sheol. We've already talked about that. The barren womb, very unpleasant topic. The earth is not satisfied with water. And on the other hand, fire that cannot be put out. Is your life like that? Do you think of yourself as a devouring fire, as a barren womb, as Sheol as a vampire fly? Is your life just an open testimony to give, give, I don't have enough. I don't have enough. Greed is morally repulsive. Proverbs wants us to see. And it doesn't come out and say it in so many words, it just paints a picture. Look at what it's like to never be satisfied. Proverbs 21:6. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vapor, driven to and fro by them that seek death. That's a passage we want to look at. But it's verse 26 that I had intended, so let's read that too. There is that coveth greedily all the day long, but the righteous giveth and withholdeth not. You notice in this verse, greed stands in contrast to the generosity of of the righteous. The opposite of being greedy is to be generous. And it's the righteous that is generous. The righteous gives and doesn't withhold. The righteous is always willing to do that for others is always oriented toward the other. But by contrast, there is that that covets greedily all the day long. It's never satisfied. Proverbs 28:25. He that is of a greedy spirit stirs up strife, but he that puts his trust in Jehovah shall be made fat. Here we see greed placed in opposition to trusting God and isn't that true? I mean, that is worth a lesson in itself. The opposite of greed is trusting God. The those who trust God will not be greedy. Those who trust God, ironically, just because they don't have to go out there and strive and be anxious and be greedy will be made fat. But those who trust God stand in contrast to the one who is greedy all day long. And what does greed bring? It brings strife into your life. The most miserable people in the world are those you see who just can't get enough. They're greedy for more. And Proverbs 15:27 follows up on that and tells us that greed is going to bring trouble into your home. Proverbs 15:27. He that is greedy of gain troubles his own house. But he that hates bribes shall live. He that is greedy of gain troubles his own house. This, too is a common theme. Tv, the movies. But even they don't, you know, portray it with all of the vividness and the pain that you know, either in your own family or your close associates, neighbors, what have you. Those who are so materialistic that they let their family life go to pot. Because what's most important is that the parents are out there. Both parents are working. What's important is that the children are. Are getting the new tricycles and the new bicycles and all the fancy new toys. What's most important is that we're moving up in life and getting better and better homes and so forth. And that we have nicer clothes to put on our children, and they go to better places and we have better vacations, and we just keep going and going, going. And the day comes when we realize we haven't got a home, we haven't got a family. We've been troubling our own house by our greed, which we had justified, of course, because of all the nice things it can do for everybody. But in the process, we lost the love and affection and harmony and unity that that home was supposed to represent. I'll tell you, the Book of Proverbs understands us and very wisely warns us that greed is morally repulsive and brings the curse of God upon us. And now, principle number nine. What else do we learn about riches in the Book of Proverbs? We learn that the financial end does not justify the immoral means. The financial end does not justify the immoral means. There's another way of putting this. We could say, be ethically careful about how you gain your wealth. Be ethically careful. Don't think that finances are such a blessing. They're so good at the end, that God doesn't care how you gain them. You know, I have a hard time preaching on that. I have a hard time preaching on it because there's not a person in this room who doesn't know it already. And I have a hard time preaching on it because all I can do is inform your minds here about the truth of this. But you already know the truth. The problem is that just as firmly as we know the truth, we don't live it. Just as certainly as you would all say, the end does not justify the means economically. That is an overwhelming temptation for us. And so what's the preacher to do, you think about Nathan? What's he supposed to do when King David has murdered and committed adultery? The prophet goes before David as he's supposed to say, david, Moses says, thou shalt not commit adultery. David knew that David was aware of the law of God. And so I feel the same kind of frustration. By the way, Nathan, what he did is he went and he told David a parable and got David really worked up and morally indignant about something that took place in the parable. And then Nathan turned around and said, david, you're the one. This story is about you. And so, I mean, if I were a good parable weaver, maybe I'd tell that story and get you all worked up and then say, by the way, I've been talking about the people I know best, my own congregation. Maybe then it would hit you. You have to understand the book of Proverbs wants you to pursue wealth in a morally appropriate way with integrity. The end does not justify the means. Here's some verses that show us that. Proverbs 13:11. Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth by labor shall have increase. You see, if you pursue wealth through immoral means, through vanity, it could very well be lost. It'll be diminished just because God sees the way you're pursuing it. Proverbs 22, the second portion. I'm sorry, Proverbs 13:22, the second portion of that verse says, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous. As a generalization, not in every particular case. You can't carry one to one connections out from this verse. But as a general truth, it is the righteous that are going to inherit what the wicked have been doing. They are going to build this all up and they are going to lose it. They are going to lose it to the righteous in a number of different ways, by the way. But nevertheless, that is the general pattern of history. The wealth that is gained by wickedness cannot be maintained. It's laid up for the righteous. Proverbs 20:21 tells us that wealth we gain through wicked means in the end will not be blessed. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. You may gain a great inheritance, you may work at it in a hasty, immoral fashion, but in the end it will not be a blessing to you. It will prove to be a curse. Proverbs 21:6 the getting of treasure by a lying tongue is a vapor driven to and fro by them that seek Death and Proverbs 28:20 22 from Proverbs 28 first of all, verse 20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that makes haste to be rich shall not be unpunished. Verse 22 he that hath an evil eye hasteth after riches, and knoweth not that want shall come upon him. Here's a man who has not learned what life is all about. He doesn't take seriously the personal presence of God in the affairs of men. He doesn't realize that what he's chasing after is going to be death and want. And so the book of Proverbs encourages you to practice what you will say when you preach that the end does not justify the means. I can't give you a parable to drive it home to your hearts, but I can give you a method by which it might sink in. I want to suggest, well, with all of the Proverbs, but you take these last few that we have seen, and one a day you get up and you memorize the proverb and promise you'll say it to yourself 20 times during the day. Just let it sink in. Just like, you know, a throat lozenge that you just kind of suck on and get some benefit from all day long. And then maybe, you know, we'll start seeing things differently and acting differently. Finally, as we come to the end of the righteous view of riches in the Book of Proverbs, the last principle that we have to learn is that riches are not trustworthy for this life or for the next. Riches are not trustworthy for this life or the next. There is going to be an illusion of security given by wealth. Proverbs 18:11. Let me remind you of that verse. The rich man's wealth is his strong city as a high wall. In his own imagination, the rich man thinks, I'm fine, I'm secure, things can't go wrong. You remember how Jesus taught in the Gospel of Luke of the Foolish man who gained his wealth, he harvested his fields, he built his barns, he built bigger barns, stored all of this stuff. And then he takes his ease. He says, eat, drink and be merry. And Jesus says that the response of God is, you fool. Don't you know tonight your soul will be required of you? And when it is, that wealth will have been an imaginary high tower. Actually, there's two ways in which we need to see the untrustworthiness of riches. First of all, riches cannot provide true security, cannot provide true happiness, even in this life. That's an illusion. It's a mirage. And secondly, the principle of the untrustworthiness of riches is all the more pointed when it comes to the judgment of God on the final day. So let's look at both of those as we conclude today. First, riches can't provide true security and happiness even in this present life. Proverbs 11:28. He that trusteth in his riches shall fall, but the righteous shall flourish as the green leaf. You see, when you trust wealth, that's going to lead to your downfall. Those who are going to flourish in this world are the righteous. One can't help but remember Psalm 1:3 that tells us, you see the righteous man, the godly man who meditates on the law of God day and night. He'll be like a tree planted by rivers of water whose leaf is green. He's always flourishing. But the man who pursues wealth and trust in his wealth is going to fall. Proverbs 23:4 5 tells us all the more that wealth is elusive. When you have it, it doesn't truly give you a good life. When it's pursued in an unrighteous way, you'll rather fall because of it. But even more importantly, maybe we ought to realize you're not going to always have it. Weary not thyself to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon is gone. Riches certainly make themselves wings like an eagle that flies toward heaven. Do you set your eyes on riches? Do you say, I've got it. Finally, lo and behold, you're going to see like birds just going to fly away. That's a great picture, isn't it? You just have to imagine all those dollar bills sprouting wings, flying off. Don't set your eyes on riches. The book of Proverbs warns you, trust in the right things. In this life, riches are not the source of security and happiness. But you know, if that's true in this life, how much more a fortiori to the Greater must you see that riches cannot help you in the life to come. Proverbs 22. 2. The rich and the poor meet together. Jehovah is the maker of them all. Before God, the Creator of both the rich man and the poor man before God, these two are reduced to being on a par. On the day of Judgment, the rich aren't going to go to the front of the line, and the poor aren't going to be consigned to the back of the line. And the rich are not going to have one standard by which they are judged and the poor another standard. On the Day of judgment. Before God, they're all going to look alike. Proverbs 27:24. For riches are not forever, and doth the crown endure unto all generations? Rhetorical question. The answer is no. Riches do not last forever. Money and fame, the crown and riches are not going to be forever. And in light of that, you had better set your priorities in order. The accomplishments of this life should not block out your view to the life beyond. In the life that will be forever, riches and crowns will mean nothing. So you see how foolish it is to consume your life with gaining a reputation, gaining wealth, when it's only for such a short time. I mean forever in comparison to even the longest of lives on Earth. Forever in comparison to that makes this life a drop in the bucket. And so why should you have the wrong priorities now, that will not last. The ancient Egyptians made the mistake of thinking that you could take it with you. That's why the pyramids are as they are. The pharaohs were buried in the pyramids, and they had all their wealth in the the room of the burial chamber with them. And not only that, their horses, their favorite horses were brought in and their slaves were killed on the spot where the king was being buried, where the pharaoh was being buried, because they thought you could take your possessions, you could take your wealth and your power and reputation with you into the next life. Proverbs says, what fools. They aren't forever. They're going to be cut off at death. And so you'd better labor for that which is going to Last forever. Proverbs 11:4. Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. A day of wrath is coming indeed. All of human history is moving toward that day when God's wrath towards sin will finally be expressed once and for all, in and with eternal consequences. And on that day, riches will mean nothing. Righteousness will mean everything. And so here we have 10 principles then a righteous view of riches as we see them in the book of Proverbs. The verse that we read In Proverbs, the tenth chapter at verse 22 pretty well summarizes, I think, what we need to learn as God's people today. The blessing of Jehovah. It makes rich, and with it he adds no sorrow. Well, the blessing of Jehovah may include money, but you know what? The blessing of Jehovah may not include money for you. It may keep you at a very comfortable lower class position, at a moderately comfortable middle class position. It may make you very wealthy and famous in this world. But the blessing of Jehovah, if that's how we pursue life, and if that's what we're interested in, life, it will not add sorrow whether we have money or don't have it. And so, in a yuppie envious age, in a yuppie environment, as we have here in Orange county, in a materialistic culture as we see it here in America, can we gain the wisdom to see riches in a righteous light, avoiding the immoral extremes that pull us either in the direction of romanticizing poverty and making that an end in itself, thinking that is righteous in itself, or romanticizing wealth and saying we should pursue wealth? That's the most important thing. Let everything else be hung. As long as I get ahead in this world, can we in our culture be different? Be lights that shine in a dark age, lights that understand the balanced principles, the book of Proverbs? Let's pray. Father, please give us the wisdom we need to not let money become an obsession, and yet not to let poverty become an ideal. We pray that you would give us an attitude that befits your word, one that reflects the standards of your law, and above all, one that shows forth the character of Jesus Christ who lives in us by his spirit. We pray, Lord, that you might enable us to trust in him so much that we could put aside the cares of this world to pursue righteousness, knowing that in so doing, all the other things of this life will be added to us. For we pray in Jesus name, Amen.