"Ye Cannot Serve God And Mammon"
Luke 16:13
Hell is full of men and women who tried to
prove Christ wrong, who tried to serve both God and mammon. And our churches
are filled with men and women, in the pulpit as well as in the pew, who are
trying to prove Christ wrong, who are trying to serve both God and mammon. But
it cannot be done. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." This is a lesson
we must learn. "We have no other way to prove ourselves the servants of
God than by giving up ourselves so entirely to his service as to make mammon,
that is, all our worldly gain, serviceable to us in his service." - (Matthew Henry).
If you love the world and seek to hold on
to the things of the world, you will hate God and despise his grace. Your worship of, service to and faith in God will be made
subservient to your worldly interests. You will use the things of God to
serve your worldly interests. "The friendship of the world is enmity with
God. Whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of
God" (James 4:4). "Love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him" (I John
If you love God and seek to hold on to
him, serving his kingdom and his glory, his Son and his gospel, then you will
hate the world and despise all that it offers. That simply means, when the
world comes into competition with God, you throw the world away and hold on to
God. You make your business and worldly interests subservient to your worship
of, obedience to, and service for your God. You make the things of the world to
be neither more nor less than instruments with which you serve the Lord your
God. The religious worldling fits the worship of God into his life. But the
worship of God is the believer's life. He arranges the affairs of his life
around the worship of God.
"Ye cannot serve God and
mammon!" You must let go of one and hold to the other. So I say to you
what Joshua said to
Don Fortner