Our text is Proverbs 1o:2,
"Treasures of wickedness profit nothing:
But righteousness delivereth from death."
Two more verses to keep in mind both say the same thing; Matthew 6:21 and Luke 12:34,
"For where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also."
I. First, I want you to see three varieties of treasures of wickedness.
A. The first of the treasures of wickedness is possessions gained by wickedness. These are things gained through unethical activity, such as cheating and fraud, bribery, income tax fraud, in fact, any shenanigans of unfair gain.
B. The second of the treasures of wickedness is pleasure gained through evil companionship. These are gained through wrongful use of influence or power.
C. Power gained through deception, whether of self or others, or any other form of wickedness, such as mamipulation of other people.
II. Secondly, I want you to see are why treasures of wickedness are unprofitable.
A. Treasures of wickedness are temporary. They don't last. The Apostle James, in chapter 5, verses 1-3 tells us, 'Go to, now, ye rich men, and howl, for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver are cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days."
James was talking to wealthy Christians here. He is not saying the having wealth is necessarily unchristian or wrong. I believe that what he is talking about here is wealth-seeking motivated
by selfishness. I know of very wealthy Christians who give 90% and perhaps more of their money to the spread of the Gospel. Giving motivated by love for Jesus Christ will have a great reward in heaven no matter what the percentage. However, giving to show off, or to achieve one-upmanship, saying you are better than others, this is corrupt in motive, and God will not reward that kind of showboating in eternity. The use of fire in this passage reminds me of one in I Corinthians. In chapter 3:9-15, the Apostle Paul says, "For we are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." Straying off the foundation of Jesus Christ for the sake of gaining wealth or anything else is not good for a Christian to do. In the end, your works will be put through the fires of judgment.
As a wise poet once wrote:
"Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
Only what's done for Christ will last."
It is only important that your needs, and not necessarily your wants, are met. Sometimes, you should be thankful God doesn't give you everything you want. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." In the context, "these things" are the basic needs of food and clothing. Seek God first, and your needs will be taken care of. Seek treasures of wickedness, and you might wind up in the hog pen like the prodigal son.
In several passages of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, one of the wisest people that ever lived, had these things to say about the treasures of wickedness:
Of possessions, he said in 5:10, "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity."
Of pleasure, he said in 2:1, "I said in my heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and behold, this also is vanity."
Of power he said in 2:9-11, "So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was the portion of my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun."
Solomon was the wisest of human beings, yet in the end, he found all these things of little or no value. Meditate on these passages and keep in mind that the Hebrew word translated "vanity" means nothing. The value of possessions, pleasure and power is infinitely exceeded by the value of a righteous life.
B. Treasures of wickedness take the heart away from that which is more permanently profitable, such this as eternal life. The Gospel of Mark 8:35-37 has this to say: For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" What good is it going to be in relation to eternity to have vast possessions that at death, you are not going to be able to take with you? Those things could never equal the value of your eternal soul.
To look at the same thing another way, turn to Romans 8:18 and II Corinthians 4: 17 and 18. First, Romans 8:18, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Now to II Corinthians 4:17 and 18, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." If you are not a Christian, these verses do not apply to you. These are our hope that, no matter how much pain we must endure in our earthly lives, God has glories in store for us that will make it all worthwhile. You who are not saved, if you don't come to Christ by faith, and trust Him for your salvation, all you will have will be the treasures of wickedness, and hell to look forward to.
C. This brings me to the beginning of the Gospel: your sinfulness. Treasures of wickedness cause the sin in the heart to be revealed. Chasing after the treasures of wickedness; possessions, pleasure, and power, only puts delusions in the mind.
1. The lust for possessions gives one the delusion of Materialism. This philosophy can be summed up in the maxim, "He who dies with the most toys wins." The delusion is that apart form God, they can gain anything lasting. Many deceive themselves into believing they are helping others, but are doing it from selfish motives. Some of these motives might be to feel good about yourself, getting a tax deduction, bettering your reputation, or putting others under obligation to you.
But the reality is that he who dies with the biggest toys is as dead as he who dies with nothing. His "toys" profit him nothing at the end of his earthly life. Unless that man is saved, the only reward he can look forward to is an eternity in hell with Lazarus' rich man, as told in Luke 16. The real question is, as we have seen, found in Mark 8:37, " What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
2. Another delusion is the lust for pleasure, commonly called Hedonism. This is exemplified in the an old beer ad slogan: "Grab all the gusto you can." People who do this live apart from God, wanting little more out of life than wine, women and song. Pleasure is all the Hedonist lives for. They think they are not hurting other people, but by living for pleasure apart from God, they are depriving the world of their own contributions.
The Bible has much to say about deriving improper pleasure from wine, women and song: Of wine, Proverbs 20:1 says, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whoever is deceived thereby is not wise."
Men must be especially careful of pleasure with women. Proverbs 23: 27 and 28 says, "For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. She lieth in wait as or a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men." A further warning about this woman is found in Proverbs 7:26 and 27, "For she hath cast down many wounded: many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chamber of death." In other words the consequences of adultery will be devastating.
As far as songs and music goes, there are far more Scriptural references to good music than bad. But in Ecclesiastes 7: 4 and 5, we have these words: "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. Songs of fools might be pleasant to hear, but they do no real good.
Pleasure in proper doses is a good thing, but grabbing all the gusto or pleasure you can get is crazy! Misuse of wine, women and song produces drunkenness, disease, and deafness!
3. A final delusion is the lust for power, or pragmatism. This is exemplified in Machiavelli's maxim, "The end justifies the means." People under this delusion live to gain position and control of everything in their world, and don't care who gets hurt when they to manipulate God and others. There are many political leaders who are delusional enough to think they are doing good by following a particular agenda, and destroying anyone that gets in their way. The Apostle Paul, in I Timothy 1:8 says, "But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." We see from this that there is a use of the law that is wrong. The law is perverted all the time by those who wish to manipulate in order to gain power.
The reality is that that end does not justify the means when there is manipulation of people or attempted manipulation of God. Power, pleasure and possessions must all be gained through morally legitimate avenues, or you might have some temporary gain, but in the long run, you will lose. Paul, in II Timothy 2:5, wrote, "And if a man also strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully."
The message should be abundantly clear: No one can manipulate God's moral universe to suit his own ends. The lord is bigger, stronger, and smarter than any man that has ever lived. This alone makes the pursuit of the treasures of wickedness a foolish endeavor.
II. Now we come to the second part of our text: "But righteousness delivereth from death."
A. As we have seen, there is no profit in chasing after treasures of wickedness. In I Timothy 6:10, Paul says, "For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some have coveted after, they have erred form the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." Back in verse 6 he says, "But godliness with contentment is great gain."
B. It is righteousness that delivers from death. If you wish to have a profitable life, you must turn from your own sin,, which leads to death, and accept God's gift of His own righteousness. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Eternal life is a far greater treasure than anything gained through sin and wickedness. It is the gift of God: It cannot be earned.
This gift is of grace. It is the very righteousness of Christ Himself imputed to us. Paul also said in Romans 5:21, "That as sin reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Apart from God, we cannot help but sin. It is only through God's grace that righteousness will reign in us.
Jesus Christ was our substitute, giving His life on the cross for us, taking our sin upon Himself, and giving us His righteousness. Paul said in I Corinthians 5:21, "Fort he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Christ was our totally pure and sinless substitute for our sin. His sacrifice paid the price for our sin.
So, the conclusion is simple: Repent and trust in Christ to impute His righteousness to you. Give up chasing the treasures of wickedness. In the end, you will not be able to keep them anyway. In eternity, earthly possessions, pleasure and power will be absolutely meaningless. In hell, they will no longer be yours. There is something better: By trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the treasures of heaven will be yours forever.
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