The title of the message today
is Treasures in Heaven. Starting with verse 19, where
the Lord continues teaching his people in light of all the blessings
of grace and glory that he has freely given us through Christ.
He says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. And I think about this, I put
in your lesson, what he's dealing with now is what we could call
true Christian values. What we look at and what we see
and what we value and how we set our priorities, the next
lesson will conclude this passage here in chapter six, and the
title of it is Our Priority is Christ. And that's what he's
talking about. He's talking about that which
is set upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that by Him through
the truth that God has revealed, we know the spiritual and eternal
value of things as compared to the earthly things that are fading.
He says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth
and rust the corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
And always remember, you know, the Lord in the, in his Lord's
Prayer in John 17, he basically said this, he said, though we
are in the world, we live in this world, We have to deal with
things in this world. We have to deal with the daily
affairs of life, family, work, all of that. We've got no choice
in that. But we're not of the world. We're
not worldlings or earthlings in that sense. A lot of times
in the book of Revelation that we're going through, it'll speak
of those who are of the earth. And what he's speaking of there
is people who are tied to this earth to the point that they
don't believe God, they don't worship God, they don't serve
God. They're just so tied to this
earth as if this earth is everything. But we know better. We know that
this world is not our home. This world is fading. So though
we live in the world, we're not of the world. And this world
is a temporary thing. Now, when he says, lay not up
for yourselves treasures upon earth, the Lord is not forbidding
us to prepare for the future here on earth. None of us know
how long we have to live. Just like last week, we had some
visitors, twins, who were 91 years old. And I've often said, well, I
don't think I'm going to live to 91, but I don't know that
for sure. It's appointed to men once to
die. Who appoints that? God does.
And there's nothing wrong with preparing for the future, setting
aside money for the future in our old age. even insurance policies,
all of that stuff. Setting up, I've got here, a
nest egg for the future. Nothing wrong with owning property,
even working to gain wealth, and enjoying our lives here on
Earth. The whole book of Ecclesiastes is about that, talking about
God's people, that we are allowed by the Lord to enjoy the things
of this life, the fruits of our labors. and all that, but not
to the neglect of that which is eternal and spiritual and
ultimately more valuable and more important. And so when you
read the book of Ecclesiastes, when it talks about the vanity
of life, vanity of vanities, it's talking about living a life
here on earth without God. That is, without worshiping God,
serving God. Without grace, without truth,
without Christ. Like the rich man in the parable
of the rich man and Lazarus. He dwelt sumptuously in this
life, but when it was over, what happened? He perished. And like the one, I think it's
in Luke chapter 12, and I know I've got that cited in the lesson
here. You know, the guy who said that
he accumulated so much stuff and he filled up his barns, and
so what was he gonna do? Well, was he gonna thank the
Lord and serve the Lord and show his gratitude to the Lord? No,
he's gonna build bigger barns so he can get more stuff and
fill it up. And you remember what the Lord
said? He said, tonight thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee. And then where it goes. Now you've
always heard the saying, you can't take it with you. Well,
that's true. The things of this world fade. And if you look over
in 1 Peter, and this is another passage that I've got cited here
in this lesson. 1 Peter chapter one. And look at
verse 22. This is what this lesson is about.
He says, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth
through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that
you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. This word of grace,
the gospel, our love and fellowship in the truth, it lives and abides
forever. And he says in verse 24, for
all flesh is as grass, all the glory of man is the flower, the
best of men, the best that human beings can attain to in this
life. And go back to the book of Ecclesiastes,
written by Solomon, who is portrayed in the Bible as a man who could
have what we would call the best of everything that a human being
could have on this earth. He had money, he had power, he
had influence, all of that. And what does Ecclesiastes say?
Well, without God, without faith, without the word of God, it's
all vanity. And so he says, the grass withereth,
the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. There's nothing more important
in our time here on this earth than right here, right now, reading,
hearing, studying, preaching, worshiping God. as he reveals
himself in Christ, and thanking him for that great salvation
that he's accomplished on our behalf. Because without it, where
would we be? Vanity of vanities. We'd perish. So when he says back here, lay
not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust
doth corrupt, where thieves break in through and still. Don't cling
to the fleeting, corruptible, dying things of this world. And
especially, don't treat them as if they're your God, your
life. Now somebody says, well, you
can't make a God out of money and all that. Well, you know,
the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. Not
money, but the love of money. And Paul spoke of this, you know,
look over at Colossians chapter three. And this is one of my
favorite passages. because it actually is a good
commentary on what we're studying this morning in this lesson. Excuse me. He says in verse one
of Colossians three, now listen to this. If you then be risen
with Christ, what is it to be risen with Christ? It's to be
justified before God. And how are we justified? Not
by the things of this world, not by our works, were justified
by the blood and righteousness of Christ. Seek those things
which are above. Now he's gonna say that over
here in verse 20. Lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven. But I'll get to that in just a moment. Seek those
things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God. Now how is he sitting there at
the right hand of God? As the one who finished the work
of my salvation. the forgiveness of sins, the
righteousness which I stand before God. He finished it. He completed
it. And he sits there as my surety,
my substitute, my redeemer, my keeper, and he says, sitteth
on the right hand of God. Verse two, set your affections. Now the word affection there
could be translated mind, meaning your thoughts, but it's the heart.
Set your heart on things above and not on things of the earth,
for you are dead. How are we dead? We're dead to
sin. Sin cannot be imputed to us.
Sin cannot condemn us. Because who shall anything to
the charge of God's elect? Who can condemn us? Christ died
and risen again. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. Don't you thank God for that?
My life is hid. That means protected. It doesn't
mean hidden from view. It means protected, safe, secure
and sound. Hidden with Christ in God when
Christ who is our life shall appear. Notice how he puts that. Christ is our life. Not the things
of this world. We live in the world and we deal
with those things and we can enjoy those things, but they're
not our life. Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. And then he
says, mortified therefore your members which are upon the earth,
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence,
and covetousness which is idolatry. Covetous is the sinful desire
of things in such a way so as to take us away from the proper
value and attendance to the things of the Lord. And that's why it's
called covetousness, which is idolatry. Anything you desire
or are in pursuit of. And you know, God, it's not that
we're forbidden to seek to get a better job or better income
or have more money. That's not the issue. But if
your pursuit of those things causes you to neglect to serve
God, to look to Christ, to set your affection on things which
are above, that's idolatry. That's what the scripture says.
And so, I've got a list here, how God has prospered many of
his children in the past. Think about Job, Abraham, David,
Solomon, Philemon. Remember the book of Philemon?
Philemon was a rich man. So it's not money or riches or
the things of this world that we pursue that are within God's
revealed will by way of commandment. You know, it's like I've always
told you when we talked about prayer. I mean, if you get on
your knees and pray hard that God'll help you rob a bank, you're
not gonna be successful in that, because that's against the revealed
will of God. Thou shalt not steal. But the
pursuit of things is not bad unless they take your attention,
your life away. from those things which live
and abide forever. So look at verse 20 of Matthew
6. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal. Now that word lay up means to
gather, to store, to accumulate, to keep in reserve, and he's
not talking about working for our salvation. And he's not talking
about greater rewards in heaven based upon our works. Not at
all. He's not saying, well, if you
work harder, you'll have a bigger treasure than somebody else.
Because, again, anything like this has to be founded upon the
foundation of grace, covered under the umbrella of grace.
But we, as I put here in your lesson, we lay up treasures in
heaven only by God's power and grace as we believe, trust in,
and look to Christ who is our reward. And always remember now,
how are we blessed? Ephesians 1.3, we're blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus already. And it's grace. But our blessings
from God, that's not what we earn. It's not what we deserve. They're all earned for us by
Christ. His obedience unto death as our
surety, substitute, and redeemer. And they're described as an inheritance.
I've got a list in your lesson, 1 Peter 1, 4 through 5, and I
wrote it out. The blessings of grace, the treasures,
they're an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth
not away. reserved in heaven for you, that's
a reservation that God made for us in Christ, who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
at the last time. But what he's saying here is
let's set our hearts and our affections on these things that
we have and possess in Christ, where moth and rust doesn't corrupt,
thieves cannot steal. Nobody can take this away. However
much, whatever you have here on earth, somebody can take it
away. Somebody can. But this is something nobody
can take away. What we have in Christ. We have
a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and
justice. It cannot be corrupted. It cannot fade. It cannot be
taken away. And that's our assurance, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And we serve the
King of kings. His scepter is a scepter of righteousness. Our treasure cannot be corrupted,
cannot be eroded, cannot be stolen from us, because Christ is our
treasure, and everything we have that is valuable is in and by
him. And as we grow in grace and in
knowledge, we come to value these treasures in heaven more and
value the treasures of the earth less. Isn't that the case with
us as we get older? You know, when we're young and
just starting out in life, you know, we dream of having a home,
having a house, having a family, having a car, all of those things,
they're really valuable. And there's nothing wrong with
that now. Again, as long as we set our priorities straight.
But as we grow older and we get closer to death, the things of
this world, what is it the song says? As the things of this world
grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. No treasure on earth can save
us. No treasure on earth can last
forever. Look at verse 21, he says, for
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Now
that's the bottom line. You know, sometimes we like to
fool ourselves. I'll never forget one time I
was at a conference up in North Carolina and a fellow walked
into the church and the pastor had not seen him for two years.
And back then they didn't have the internet like we have it today
where people can watch online and stuff. And the fellow just
come in and he started bragging about how much he loved the Lord
and how much he loved the Lord's people and how much he loved
the gospel. Hadn't shown up to the fellowship in two years.
And the pastor, he said, he's really hungry for the gospel.
He said, and the pastor said, well, you must be starving to
death then. Well, there's no use fooling ourselves. If we
don't desire to hear the word, to feed upon it, to be in the
fellowship of God's people, what does that say about us? And I
know we have to be careful there. We're not judging based on character
and conduct. And I know even believers can
stray. I know that. And what do we do? Well, we look at Galatians 6.
It tells us that we try to draw them back with love, realizing
that if it weren't for the grace of God, we'd be there too. But
he says, where your treasure is, that's where your heart is.
These things we truly value reveal the state of our hearts. Do we
have a heart for Christ? Going back to the book of Ecclesiastes
here as I mentioned, vanity, vexation of life on this earth
without knowing the glory of God in Christ and the gospel
of God's saving grace. In the book of Ephesians chapter
two, it shows the worthlessness of setting our hearts on the
things of this world rather than the things of God. Well, what is every true believer's
treasure? And I thought about this verse
and I put it in your lesson. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And the very next verse says
this, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power might be of God and not of us. You
see, the problem that we have in struggling through this life
seeking to serve the Lord and to thank him for the grace that
he's given us in Christ. The problem's not the treasure.
You know, somebody says, when you preach real sovereign grace,
that tells us that salvation is not conditioned on what we
do or don't do, and it's not. But it's all conditioned on what
Christ did. And somebody says, well, if I
believe that, I just go crazy, I go sin all I want. Well, here's
the point. The problem's not the treasure.
The problem is us. The flesh. And I always tell
people, I say, well, what do you want to do? Go do it. The Bible gives us the strong
motivation as we set our hearts on that treasure which is above,
to motivate us to be responsible, to thank God, to worship Him,
to be good witnesses for Christ and good stewards of His grace.
That's the motivation. And here's what we need to see.
Isn't that enough to motivate us? Because if it's not, what
does that say about us? There's a real problem there.
If grace is not powerful enough to motivate me to serve the Lord,
to love God and to love my brethren, in all the areas of life that
we have to deal with each other, areas of forgiveness, areas of
mercy, areas of charity, if grace is not powerful enough in Christ
to motivate me that way, what does that say about me? You mean
I have to come in here and lay down the law As one old preacher
said, the black whip of the law to get you to do what, get me
or you to do what we need to do? No, grace is enough. And that's what that means. For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be. What is my
treasure? What do I value above all things?
The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the gospel.
That's why we're intent on spreading the gospel. Now again, we don't
neglect the things of this life. We have to take care of, but
not at the expense of the other. And then look at verse 22. He
says, the light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye
be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. The single
eye here refers to a born again person. One who's been given
sight. You see, we, by nature, what
are we? We're in darkness, we're blind, spiritually. And our view
of things is so mixed up and so varied that we really don't
give our heart to any one thing particular, it changes. But when
God gives us eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ, that's the single eye. Focused on Christ, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Looking to the
brazen serpent, remember Moses? He that looks, if I knew that
that look was the only cure for my sin, that's where I'd fix
my gaze. My heart is fixed, my gaze is
fixed. And he says, if thine eye be
single, the whole body shall be full of light. The Pharisees,
Christ described them as the blind leading the blind. And
he said they all fall into the ditch together. But those who
have been given spiritual sight to see the glory of God, we know
things that the world doesn't know. We know the holiness of
God. We know the justice of God. We
know that the only way that a sinner can approach God is by the merits
of a qualified, appointed, willing substitute who can do for us
what we cannot do for ourselves. We see our own sinfulness, don't
we? Somebody said, well, we see it,
but we don't see the nth degree of it. Well, maybe not, but we
know this. Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, who would stand? I wouldn't right now. If God
were to impute sin to me, I wouldn't stand. I'd fall. I'd be damned
forever. And therefore we know the value
of Christ in the glory of His person and the power of His finished
work. Why do we preach His person? Why do we preach His righteousness?
Because that's our hope. And we've got no other. The spiritual eye is fixed firmly
and singly upon Christ for all blessings and benefits of salvation.
And I put in your list, that's what I believe Paul was talking
about when he talked about the simplicity that's in Christ.
That word simplicity can be interpreted or even translated as singleness. Singleness in Christ. Christ
is my one and only Savior. He's my one and only righteousness. He's my one and only Redeemer
and King. And I don't look to nobody else
or anything else. That's the single I, the author
and finisher of my faith. And so we lay up treasures in
heaven by looking to Him, resting in Him who is our treasure. And he says in verse 23, he says,
but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great
is the darkness. The evil eye. You know, there's
a lot of myth, false magic around that. I remember, you remember
that old comic strip, Little Abner? I can't remember who this
was, there was a guy who they said he'd give them the evil
eye and he'd put that eye on them, they'd all feel like it. The evil eye has to do with looking
anywhere to anyone but Christ for all salvation. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He's
able to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father
by him. So we look to nobody else. Again, that's that simplicity
that's in Christ. When Paul said that he's able
to keep that which I've committed, what have I committed unto him?
My whole salvation. It's not divided between me and
him. That's an evil eye. It's not divided between him
and the world. It's squarely focused singularly
upon him, and any other way is an evil eye full of darkness. And I think about people who
don't know the gospel, who read their Bibles, and there's so
much truth here. And I thought, myself, I'll use
myself as an example. I mean, I was a second year seminary
student studying the Hebrew and the Greek and the history and
the context, and I didn't know Christ. until God, on that given time
that he appointed before the foundation of the world, chose
to reveal himself to me. We were talking about this last
week at lunch, how you look back on the things that came together,
those small little events that God was working in his providence
to bring us as his sheep under the preaching of the gospel.
And it's amazing, isn't it? Well, God is going to reveal
himself to his people, and until he does, the eye is evil, and
it's full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness, whatever light you have, you may have
a Bible, you may be reading it, but if you don't know Christ,
if God hasn't revealed his glory in Christ, how great is the darkness? How many of the Pharisees could
quote scripture, read their Bible, see what I'm saying? And then
he says in verse 24, I'll go ahead with this verse, no man
can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, love the
other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon there signifies money,
riches, substance, everything that comes under the name of
worldly goods. That's mammon. And what he's simply saying is
you can't serve God with a divided heart. You're either focused
intently upon Christ as your whole salvation, or you hate
him. And he calls it hatred. And I've
known unbelievers say, well, I don't hate him. Yes, you do.
How do I know that? Because he says you can't ride
the fence. He that is not with me is against me, Christ says.
And that hatred may not come out in anger. They may not pick
up stones to throw at you, but even their neglect of it, their
denying of it, their not wanting to be around it is a hatred.
The light that comes into the world that exposes their deeds
as evil, that's hatred. They hate the light. But thank
God he's delivered us from that evil eye and given us eyes to
see and ears to hear the truth that we might know where our
treasure is and lay up treasures in heaven by looking to Christ
as our only hope. Okay.