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Colin Smith: We will only get serious about pursuing contentment if and when we are convinced that the lack of it is a hellish sin in our lives.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, that is quite a bold statement there. Discontentment is a hellish sin?

Colin Smith: Well, I first came across that from one of my Scottish heroes, a man by the name of Thomas Boston, a marvelous pastor of an earlier century. And I found a sermon that he preached called "The Hellish Sin of Discontent."

And I thought, "Really? I mean, I can think of a lot of sin that you might call hellish, but discontent honestly isn't the first one that comes to mind." But as I looked at the scriptures, I came to the conclusion he was absolutely justified in describing it that way. This actually comes from hell, it leads to hell, and it gives the experience and the taste of hell as well.

And here's what I found in my life: that coming to see that discontent is a serious sin has actually brought me to the place of saying I therefore have to deal with that when I see it rearing its ugly head in my life. And that's the point of the message today. We want to be able to name sins for what they are in order to come against them more strongly and to seek the grace of God to overcome them.

Steve Hiller: Well, let's get right into it. We are in Exodus chapter 17, so you can join us there as we begin the message "The Hellish Sin of Discontent." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Today we begin a four-week series that is entitled "The Art of Contentment." And if you are wondering why we would devote the whole month of May to this one subject, there are two reasons. There is always both a personal and a public element to the ministry of God's Word. That is, it must come from the heart of the one who speaks according to what that person has been taught in the scriptures, and it must relate to the lives of the people. That's at the very heart of what the ministry of the Word is.

With regards first to the personal element, some years ago I came to a place of wanting a greater sense of peace in my own life. I have been privileged to serve for 36 years, two very wonderful churches, both of them in the suburbs of world-class cities: London and Chicago.

And there is, as all of us know, a relentlessness about life in our cities, always chasing after the next thing. And I have to say, I like that. I like it because I want to live flat out for the glory of God. But some time ago, I came to a place of saying I have to find a way of living flat out for the glory of God from a greater sense of internal peace.

And so for some time now—some years—the subject of contentment has been a focus of my own thinking, my own reading, my own praying and learning, and I hope at least to some extent growing.

The second reason is the public one. We are in a season in our culture where anger is increasingly characterizing public life. Someone said to me, an older person said to me recently, "I don't think I can remember in my life a time when so many people were angry for so much of the time."

People are frustrated. We don't seem to be able to subdue the threat of the terrorists. There doesn't seem to be a clear vision around which people can unite, and as a result, there's a growing sense of anxiety that you can feel spreading from day to day. I put these three words together: anger, frustration, and anxiety.

And think about it this way: contentment is moving from anger to peace. It is moving from frustration to satisfaction, and it is moving from anxiety to trust. And so this series not only comes out of a personal journey of seeking the Lord, it also speaks to a moment in which we find ourselves in public life, in our own experience. It speaks, I believe, to an issue that we desperately need to come to terms with today.

Now, my own journey with regards to contentment began some years ago when I came across—and I remember when it really began. I came across a sermon by one of my heroes of the faith, a 17th-century pastor by the name of Thomas Boston. And I found this sermon that Boston preached, and he called it "The Hellish Sin of Discontent."

And I looked at that—"The Hellish Sin of Discontent." My first thought was, "Really?" The hellish sin of murder, maybe, but discontent? Was Thomas Boston exaggerating when he used this title, or was he justified in his description?

Well, I've become convinced that he was entirely justified in his description, and that is why I am using his title for this message today. We are beginning the series with a focus on the sin of discontent and its nature for this reason: that we will only get serious about pursuing contentment if and when we are convinced that the lack of it is a hellish sin in our lives.

And so my single aim for today is that, by God's grace, every one of us will come to the place by the end of this service of saying, "I never before saw my anger, my frustration, and my worry as a hellish sin. But I do now."

And seeing that this discontent is a hellish sin, by the grace of God, I am going to set about pursuing a greater contentment in my life. I am going to seek to take this journey from anger to peace, from frustration to satisfaction, from worry to trust. And I am going to set about it by the grace of God and with the help of God in this month of May 2016.

Now, I want us to begin in the book of Jude, and this is perhaps the only time you will ever hear me say this from the pulpit: I do not want you to look it up. We'll get there in a moment, but I want first to play "Fill in the Blanks." So go with me on this just for a moment. Jude speaks about the judgment of God that will come upon the wicked.

And he says this: "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

Now, four times in these two verses you have a reference to the ungodly. God comes to execute judgment on the ungodly. When judgment comes, God will bring it to the ungodly and He will convict them of their ungodly deeds, and of what they have done in an ungodly way, and of the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against God. Now, when you get the same word four times in two verses, you know what it's about. It's about the ungodly and the judgment of God that comes upon them.

Now, here's the fill-in-the-blank. Jude then tells us who the ungodly are. "These"—that is, the ungodly—"are blank." What do you think belongs in the blank? The ones on whom God comes to execute judgment. These are the murderers? For sure. Adulterers, thieves, rapists, terrorists? For sure.

But none of them are mentioned here. "These," the scripture says—the ungodly—"are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires." Now you should look it up and make sure that's really what it says, and I promise you that it is. The ungodly are the malcontents. The malcontents.

So here is the first reason that discontent is rightly described as a hellish sin. Discontent is a hellish sin because Jude says very clearly, it directly leads to hell. Hell comes because of this. God comes to execute judgment on the ungodly. Who are the ungodly? They are the grumblers and the malcontents.

Steve Hiller: What a sobering place to hit the pause button on today's broadcast. But I hope you'll stay with us. We'll get back to the message "The Hellish Sin of Discontent" in just a moment.

If you joined us late, if you have to leave early, or you ever want to go back and listen to a broadcast again, you can do that when you come to our website. Just come to openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at openthebible.org. Back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Discontent is a hellish sin because it comes from hell. Remember that hell is a place of perpetual discontent. People in hell are always angry and never at peace. People in hell are always frustrated and never satisfied.

Discontent is a defining characteristic of hell itself. And that is surely the significance of our Lord's words. Do you remember how He described the experience of hell? He said, "There there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." What content would you put into the description "gnashing of teeth"? What does gnashing of teeth convey?

Surely it conveys this: to be always angry and never at peace, to be always frustrated and never satisfied. Now, there are three sins that lie behind discontent, and they are the characteristic and even the original sins of hell itself. They are pride, rebellion, and unbelief.

And it is for this reason that I say that discontent not only leads to hell, it actually comes from hell. It's characteristic of it. Think of this. Discontent first is a manifestation of pride, and Jude in the verses that we looked at a moment ago immediately makes this identification.

"These, the ungodly, are the grumblers and the malcontents. They're following their own sinful desires. They are loud-mouthed boasters." So there you are. He goes straight to pride because that's at its root. Discontent is at its heart a manifestation of pride.

Because it flows from a heart that says, "I deserve better than God has given to me." And of course, that was the original sin of Satan and the fallen angels themselves. In fact, in the letter of Jude, if you still have that open, as I hope you now do in front of you, we have a reference to the angels who, like Satan, were not content to be the servants of God.

Verse six: "Angels who did not stay within their position of authority, but left their proper dwelling." You see, here are angels and they are given positions of authority in the reign of God Himself in heaven. But there are some of these angels, Jude is telling us, who way back in the midst of pre-time said in effect, "We deserve better than what God has given to us." They were not content with their positions of authority. They're not content now, and of course, they never will be.

Thomas Boston says this: "The devil is the proudest creature of all and the most discontented because pride and discontent lodge under the same roof." That's very memorable. Pride and discontent—they always go together. You always find them in the same place, always find them under the same roof. And that is why Satan, the restless wanderer, never at peace, is always discontent.

The proudest creature, the most discontented, because the two belong under the same roof. "I deserve better than God has given to me."

Now friends, if I catch myself thinking like that, I have to take myself in hand. And I have to say to myself, "I deserve better than God has given to me?" That is the polar opposite of everything I believe.

I believe that God has given me abundantly more than I deserve. I believe that what I deserve is hell on earth followed by hell in heaven. But God has not given me that. He has loved me. He has given His Son for me. He has blessed me with every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ.

He has given me all that I need for life and for godliness. In all things His love surrounds me, and in all things He works out His great purpose, that now has become my purpose, that a true reflection of the glory of His Son should be seen for my joy and for His glory forever and ever in me.

Discontent, it is a horrible manifestation of pride. That's what it is. Second, discontent is an expression of rebellion. In the Old Testament, as you know well, we have the story of Job, a good and a godly man, a man wonderfully blessed by God.

His family was blessed, his business was blessed. Job was living the dream, as we would say, until one day through a series of disasters this good and godly man lost everything. And Job said, you remember these famous words: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Now, that's what a godly person says.

An ungodly person, a discontented person, says something different. The discontented person says, "The Lord gave, and He should have given more. The Lord has taken away, and He should not have done that." Which is why Jude speaks about the harsh things that ungodly sinners speak against God.

See, discontent is a hellish sin because at its heart it is a rebellion against God. Any person who believes in a sovereign God and then is discontent is guilty of rebellion because God is sovereign over all of my life.

Paul pictures it this way in the book of Romans. He said, "Imagine a piece of clay saying to the potter whose hands mold it, 'Why are you making me like this? Why have you made me like this?'" Have you ever said that to God? "God, you should have done something different."

And remember how the apostle Paul answers that? He says, "Who are you, oh man, to talk back to God?" He's God. But all discontent at its heart is an expression of horrible rebellion against God. It's a manifestation of pride, it's an expression of rebellion. It is thirdly a fruit of unbelief.

And this is why we read from Exodus and chapter 17 this morning. It tells the story of how God's people had been greatly blessed. They had been brought out of slavery in Egypt. They had crossed the Red Sea without getting their feet wet.

God had given them manna to feed them in the wilderness. And here's something fascinating. Why is it that those who are most evidently blessed are often most discontent?

This was an overwhelming impression made upon me the very first time I came to India. Meeting brothers and sisters who have so much less than I have in my life, so much less than the vast majority of us have. And seeing that there was a far greater general level of contentment among Christian believers than typically is experienced here.

Why is that? That so often those who are blessed the most are content least? Why would that be? And the answer, of course, is that contentment has nothing whatsoever to do with what you have or what you do not have in life. Contentment is a condition of heart.

That is why adding to what you have cannot bring contentment. It just doesn't work. It doesn't happen. The world always says to us, "If you can bring what you have up to what you want, then you will be content." It never happens. What you want just moves. Contentment is a condition of heart.

Now, at one point, God's people who had been so greatly blessed, they come to a place where they had no water. Now, that is a legitimate concern. And there obviously are times in life where we may have a legitimate concern as to how God will supply what we need.

But what happened was that their legitimate concern metastasized into unbelief. Verse seven of Exodus 17: "They tested the Lord by saying, 'Is the Lord among us or not?'" Now, here are redeemed people, God's people, brought through the Red Sea.

And within a very short space of time, they have lost confidence that God is with them. If you no longer believe that God is with you, you will no longer be confident that He will supply what you need, and it will not be long therefore before the grumbling and the complaining begins, and you will find yourself sliding into the hellish sin of discontent because it is the fruit of unbelief. It arises from a loss of confidence that God is actually with you, that He cares for you, and that He will wonderfully supply all that you need.

Steve Hiller: Really a word of warning on today's broadcast. This is the first part of the message entitled "The Hellish Sin of Discontent." Now, we're going to pause here, but we'll continue on our next broadcast. If you ever miss a program, you can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. There you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free.

Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. It is your generosity that allows us to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day. And as you give a gift to Open the Bible this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of a book written by Brad Wetherell called *Saved to Sin No More*. And Colin, who is Brad Wetherell and why should we read this book?

Colin Smith: Well, I've often said that we should choose books not by the title, but by the author. And the reason for that, of course, is that when you read a book, you're actually reading a person. You're reading what has come out of that person. So who has written a book is really very, very important.

And I'm just so glad to have the opportunity to introduce Brad Wetherell. His name may not be widely known. He is my successor as the senior pastor of the Orchard Evangelical Free Church. I served that church for 30 years. I've worked with Brad for more than 15. I stepped down from being the senior pastor just over a year ago to focus full-time on the ministry of Open the Bible.

And so Brad is someone that I feel very, very close to and very, very confident in. He has a deep, authentic walk with the Lord. That's always the first thing you want to know about someone who you're going to read. He has a wonderful gift of preaching and a wonderful gift of writing.

This is his first book, and he's chosen to write on a subject that he's studied very deeply, and it's this wonderful truth of union with Christ. I think this, Steve, may be the most important and least understood doctrine in all of the Bible. People often look a bit quizzical: "Union with Christ, what's that?" Well, folks are going to love this compelling and clear introduction to what I think is one of the most encouraging truths in all of the Christian life.

Steve Hiller: The book is called *Saved to Sin No More: How Union with Christ Empowers a Life of Holiness*. And we want to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for financially supporting Open the Bible this month.

You can call and give over the phone. Our number is 1-877-OPEN-365. Or give online at openthebible.org. Again, our phone number is 1-877-673-6365, and the website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.

Guest (Male): This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: Everyone has questions about heaven, but the question that matters most is how do you get there? Many people have the idea that if a person was to get into heaven, they'd get there by living a good enough life. Well, the thief on the cross hadn't lived a good enough life, and he wasn't in a position to start living a good life. But Jesus said to him, "Today you will be with me in paradise."

Well, if the thief could get into heaven, so can you. *Heaven, How I Got Here* is a compelling 60-minute film in which Stephen Baldwin portrays the thief on the cross in a one-person play. Many have found that this story opens their eyes to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the hope of heaven. You can watch the *Heaven, How I Got Here* film for free on the Open the Bible website. For more information, visit openthebible.org/heaven. That's openthebible.org/heaven.