Remember here in Matthew 6, we
started out talking about the believer's relationship with
God the Father. That was the thing. You go back
here in verse 1. Let me just cover a little old ground. Remember
about what we do. What we do to either be seen
of men or seen of God. He says, Take heed that you do
not be honored before men, otherwise to be seen of them, otherwise
you have no reward of your Father. And he's talked about our Father
doing our alms in secret before our Father there in verse 4.
And he said in verse 6, when you enter into your closet, shut
your door and pray to your Father which seeth in secret. He said
don't use vain petition, repetitions, and your Father which hears you,
and your Father which seeth. And then be not like that for
your Father knoweth, in verse 8, what things you have need
of. And then he says when you pray, pray our Father. So he's
talking about our Father. Now he goes on down here to show
us that because of this relationship that we have with our Father,
he puts us, he says, now, here's your relationship, and because
of your relationship, how do you view the world? What's your
value? What's your possessions? What's
precious to you in this world? What does your eye perceive?
What has you got your eye set on? If your eye is full of light,
what kind of treasure do you have? What is your treasure?
What do you have your eyes set on? What do you perceive? How do you perceive the true
treasures of heaven? On earth or in heaven? And so
that's what he's talking about. But we first remember this, that
everything about here is our personal lives and our devotions
to God. The works we do, the alms we
do. And if we do them to be seen of men, That's our reward. We get our reward the very minute
that folks see them and praise us and think that we're doing
a good work for God. I was talking to a young man
this week, and that's what he said he used to believe. He said
he felt like he was God's sword, that he was God's ish, you know,
that he was God just, you know, he couldn't do anything. He'd
outsold women, passing out tracts and everything, you know, that
God really needed him to do something. And now he's learned on each
side different. He's learned the gospel of the grace of God.
But that's what he done, and our Lord says that only one thing
that matters, does our God see us. And God does see us. Do we do what we do to be seen
of men, or do we do what we do for God's blessings? For God
to look on us, for God to have God's approval to be accepted
in the beloved. And that's the main and our only
concern is that God sees our doings, God sees our alms, God
sees our prayers, God sees our self-denial, God sees our fasting. And that's all that matters is
God. And if I pray and give only that people can see me, it absolutely
will amount to nothing. So I must, in the presence of
God, must not care what others think about what I say or do
as far as my relationship with God goes. Or even what I think
of myself. It's what God sees. Your Father
which seeth in secret. Your Father which seeth in secret.
Your Father which seeth in secret. Don't use vain repetitions, for
your Father knows what things you have need of. And when you
pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, your name is holy,
give us. If we have anything, you give
it to us. You give it to us. Now our Lord
brings us to see how we look at our treasures, what's valuable
to us, what's precious to us in this world. And he gives us
reasons why, and where our treasures should be, and why it should
be there. And the first thing he says here, lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doeth corrupt,
and thieves break through and steal. Now you've got two treasures
here. Treasures on earth, treasures
in heaven. You've got some that can be corrupted, some that can't
be corrupted. You've got two eyes by which
you perceive what true treasure is. And that's what he's talking
about here. And all she says, lay not up treasures for yourself
upon earth. Now most people, they take this
to mean strictly money. It's not talking about just money
only. Not only money only. Even though our Lord says how
hard it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Because if this means money only, and you have to give your money
only up, then all you'd have to do is be like that rich young
ruler, and our Lord says, sell everything that you have and
give to the poor and come follow me. But you find many saints
in the Scriptures that were wealthy. Abraham was a wealthy man. Lot
was a wealthy man. King David was a wealthy man.
And nobody was as wealthy in the Scriptures as Solomon was.
But where was their treasure at? Where was their treasure
at? But this doesn't only address
only the rich people. The treasures it's talking about
is talking about our possessions and our attitudes towards them
possessions. You know, you can have money
as long as money don't have you. You can have possessions as long
as possessions don't have you. And there's things that people
have that things that they have possesses them. instead of them
possessing them. Now, either your possessions
can have you, or you can have your possessions. And that's
what our Lord said. If it becomes your treasure,
it becomes what you count valuable, what you count precious. It's
not what a man has, but it's his attitude toward what he has. And treasure here means what's
most valuable, what's most precious, what your heart set on. And there's
lots of people who have treasures That a child can be, a home can
be, money can be, a lot of things can be their treasure that they
can have their heart set on. But what it really means when
you're talking about looking for your treasures and having
your treasures on earth, it means trying to find your happiness,
your peace and your joy in your possessions, in people or in
temporal things, in things that can be seen. in things that can
be touched, in things that can be tasted, in things that can
be handled, which the Scriptures tell us all are to perish with
the using. There's not a thing in this world
that we have that will not perish. We are perishing people, and
that's what our Lord said. Whoa, what is your treasure?
If your treasure is in this earth and anything you can see, touch,
taste, handle, then you are absolutely There's no hope for you. That's
what he's saying here. There are all these things that
are perished with the use. Oh, that's why he says here, they're
all temporal and they're going to change. Look what he says.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Moth is going to
get them. You can have the finest suit of clothes. Moths will eat
them up if you ain't careful. Oh, and look what he's doing.
And rust will corrupt it. You know, you can take silver
and gold and you leave it up. Some of y'all got some silver
that you've had from years and years ago when they used to have
silver and money. And silver will canker if you leave it alone.
It'll change color. That's why you have to polish
silver. And gold will even canker. And that's what he said, it'll
canker. Oh, rich man, you've got all
your riches, don't you know your gold will tinker? And that's
what our Lord said. And not only that, when you've
got it, if you've got enough, somebody's going to bust in the
door and steal it. Your treasure, your treasure,
if it's on this earth, it can be corrupted, it can be stolen,
it can rot, and it can be devoured by something. Fill up your barns
with grain, rats are going to get in it. That's what our Lord
said. And what our Master is saying,
don't look for peace, don't look for happiness in worldly prosperity. It's fleeting. It's always subject
to change. And if the things that you possess
don't change, you're going to change. All you've got to do
is go to the doctor and he says, you've got cancer, you've got
three months to live. Then, where's your treasure at? That's
all it takes. That's what he's saying, you
know. These things are going to change. You know, Mary's got
lots and lots of flowers. She keeps us both busy trying
to take care of them. I'll tell you something about
flowers. You go out, she goes out every day and pinches dead
flowers off. Pinches dead flowers off. That's
the way treasures are. I mean, you know, the prettiest
flower it fades has to be pinched off. Throw it away, huh? And
that's the way treasures on earth are. Change and decay all around
I see. Thou who changest not, abide
with me. Let me show you something in
Proverbs 23. Look in Proverbs 23. I want you to see something
here. Proverbs 23. And oh no, if our wealth doesn't leave us,
if our treasures doesn't leave us, We're going to leave them. Paul says, naked came I into
this world, and naked I'm going to leave. Proverbs 23. And ain't that right? We came
into this world naked, we're going to leave this world naked.
That's what Job said. He had all those possessions,
and all that treasure. But evidently that wasn't where
his heart was at. His heart was in God. He says,
Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. Proverbs 23 and 4. Labor not to be rich. You know
how many programs are on television telling you how to get rich?
You know how many people has got rich telling people how to
get rich? My father, my daddy, he had boxes
full of schemes trying to get rich. If that's one thing won't
work, I'll try something else. They'll charge, people will charge
you a hundred dollars to tell you how to make a thousand. But
you never make that thousand. But they make a hundred dollars
off it. That's why he said, labor not to be rich. Don't make that
to be your labor. You know, God give us all things
liberally, richly to enjoy. Cease from thine own wisdom.
Just start from it. Will you set your eyes upon that
which is not? Set your eyes on something you
don't have, something that you're going to think you're going to
have, something you're going to labor for, and when you've
got it, what have you got? For riches certainly make themselves
wings. You keep going after it, and
you never get it. You're always going after it.
That's why it says, the seeing eye and the deceitful heart is
never full. He that loveth silver is never
satisfied with silver. Never. And that's what he says,
why do you set your eyes upon, we were going after it and it
just keeps going here and yonder, here and yonder, and they fly
away. And they fly away. And so if we don't leave these
things, if they don't leave us, then we're going to leave them.
That's why you know that rich man who ground brought forth
plentifully. You can look at it yourself and
look. He said, he's ground brought forth plentifully. He says, what
am I going to do with all that I've got? That's what he thought
about. What am I going to do with all this that I've got?
Well, I know what I'll do. I'll just tear down my barns
and I'll build bigger and bigger and bigger. And he filled them
up, sat back, crossed his fingers, put his arms across his chest,
said, soul, take thine ease now. You've got it made. You've got
it made. And how many people are there?
You've got it made. And He says, fool, this night
thy soul is required of thee. Now God requires a man's soul.
He comes and He bought ours. He doesn't require
it of us. He bought ours. He's going to
come to get us. But He requires a man's soul, what He did with
it. And He says, now, Who are those things going to be? Who
are they going to belong to? And the next verse says this,
in verse 21. He says, So is he who laith up
treasures for himself, and is not rich toward God. Oh, a man
lays up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God. God
gave us, He says, to warn them that cease to be rich and that
the rich do not be high minded. But to be faithful, to be generous,
for God gave us everything richly to enjoy. And you know, here's
the situation. As short and long as it is, that
everything we have, God gave us to it, and He gave us to be
stewards of it. We're stewards of it. That's what we are. He
gave us everything we have. What do we have that He didn't
give us? He gave us the energy, He gave
us the will, He gave us the mind, He gave us the desire to have
what we have. And we understand that He done
this for us. We're not lazy people, we're not people who want to
sit back and do nothing and expect everybody to do for us. We want
a home, God gave us a home. We was willing to work, God gave
us the strength. We was willing to take care of our money, so
God gave us more money. And so we take care of these
things and we're stewards over these things. He gave us a home,
so we're stewards over that home, it's our responsibility to take
good care of it. We're stewards over it, it's our responsibility
to take care of one another. He gave us money, it's our responsibility
to use that money wisely. He gave us our health and our
bodies, it's our responsibility to take good care of these bodies.
And that's what he says, that he'd be a steward, that he'd
be faithful. He gave everything he got, he
gave it for us to take care of. And that's one thing, and I know
it bothers you to see people that don't do nothing and they
get taken care of, and people that just waste and mess and
gomp. It just bothers me to no end. And one thing, I do know
this. I do know this without a shadow of a doubt. People who
make this world to be their aim and goal in life are the most
miserable people you'll ever run across in your life. Just
what you said, Richard, before. They're angry. They're frustrated.
They're frustrated. And then look what else he said
here, now back over in our text. Lay not for yourself treasures
upon earth. Then he says here, but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven. There ain't going to be no moss
there. There ain't going to be no rust there. Nothing to corrupt
it there. And where thieves do not break through nor steal. When he says, lay up treasures
in heaven, what our Lord is saying here is to seek and expect your
happiness, your peace, and your joy, and your true wealth in
heavenly things. In things from above, set your
affection on things above, where Christ setteth on the right hand
of God. Make unseen things eternal things
to be your treasure. Things that you can't touch.
Things that you can't handle. Things that you can't taste. Things that will not perish with
the using. God's in heaven and that's where
the fountain of life is at. There's no life on this earth.
There's no fountain of life on this earth. There's no fountain
of use on this earth. People look for it and they can
spend all the money they want to and try to make themselves,
but they'll perish. And that's what he says, set
your treasure, make your heart to be there. Things that you
can't see. Oh, where God is, where Christ
is, where the true treasures of wisdom and knowledge is in
Christ. Would you rather have the wisdom
of God or the wisdom of this world? Would you rather have
Christ or would you rather have this world? Would you rather
have the treasures of knowledge and know Him as to know all about
how to make a million dollars in this world? Oh, so much more
to know Christ. Oh, you see, it's in this treasure
that we lay it up in heaven. And it's not like people say,
laying up rewards in heaven. That's not what he's talking
about. Having your heart set on those things above. Christ
is valuable to us. Christ is precious to us. His
righteousness and His person. Not His cross, Him who was on
the cross. His person is precious to us.
His blood is precious to us. His work is precious to us. His
name is precious to us. He's valuable to us. And that's
what he said. And I'll tell you, this treasure
that's in heaven, it's beyond the reach of change. It's beyond
the reach of decay. Now, we hear all the time about
people losing their Wealth and losing all their money, millions
of dollars by fraud. But we can't be defrauded out
of this one. The devil can't take it from us. And oh, beloved, I tell you what,
nobody can break in the door here in Ford by force, take it
away from us either. Ain't no thief gonna break in
here and take this treasure away from us. Huh? Why are we singing
that song, neither force nor guile can sever? Oh, let me show you something
over in 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. Oh, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse
3, I'm sorry. 1 Peter, I just looked down there
and seen that 3. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3.
Oh, there'll be no moths there. Oh, this, you know, when saints
get, you know, our treasure, our dress is the righteousness
of Christ. Moths ain't going to eat that.
And this gold that we have, this treasure that we have in Christ,
it can't be rusted. It can't be corrupted. It can't
be tinkered. Nothing can corrupt it. And it
cannot take wings and fly away from us. And I'll tell you something
else. Will not, beloved, will not leave
it. He read tonight in Genesis 17.
The first six verses there, I think it says six times, I will, I
will, I will, I will. Abraham stood there with his
mouth shut. Look there in 1 Peter, talking
about this blessed treasure that we have. In 1 Peter 1 verse 3,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
lively hope, a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. Watch it now. To an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, hateth not away, reserved in heaven for
you. Ain't nothing gonna mess this
up. But down here it can be messed up. Oh my! You think of some
people that you know, if they got a hold of a big inheritance,
it would destroy them. It would destroy them. But you
know, yes, we have this inheritance. It's not corruptible. It's undefiled. It's always kept for us. And
oh beloved, and I tell you, lay up treasures in heaven where
neither moth nor rust or corruption, or thieves break through or steal.
Our appetite for things here changes. The things that we have
an interest in changes. Our appetite changes. What we
desire changes. What we enjoy changes. And whatever
our appetite is, it grows with what it feeds upon. And here,
beloved, when we feed on Christ, when we feed on... You know,
now in this world, how our appetites have changed. But now when this
thing costs this treasure that we have in heaven, our appetite,
the more we feed on it, the more we want to feed on it. Our appetite
just gets more and more by the more we feed on it. But the more
you give me something in this world to eat on, the less I'm
going to like it. My appetite can only go so far, but on this
right here, it just gets better and better and better and better
and better. It just gets greater. And there'll never be no end
to the taste of what it is to have this treasure. Well, it's
never going to come to an end. So lay up for yourselves and
know where the true wealth is at, true riches is at. They're
in glory. And then look what it says now
over here in verse 21 of Matthew 6. So lay up not treasures upon
earth, where moth and rust doeth corrupt, and thieves break through
and steal, but lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doeth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through nor steal. Now watch this, for where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also. That's the key
right there. That's the key. What is your
heart settled? As a man thanketh in his heart,
so is he. My son, give me thy heart. For from then out of the heart
are the issues of life. And here our Lord says, where
your treasure is, that's where your heart is. If your treasure
is on this earth, that's where your heart's going to be. If
it's in a child, that's where your heart's going to be. If
it's in silver and gold, that's where your heart will be. If
it's in possessions, that's where your heart will be. That's what
you'll be bragging on. That's what you'll be glorying in. That's
what you'll be pointing to. That's what you'll be talking
about. That's what you'll be telling people about. But if
your treasure is in heaven, that's where you're going to be talking
about. That's where your joy is at. That's where your peace
is at. That's what you'll be talking about. That's what you'll
be enjoying. I know you all do this. You'd
be out working in your garden or be washing your dishes or
be with your children or just going about your business, sitting
around drinking your coffee. And how often does God cross
your mind when you're doing those things as you behold what goes
on around you? You know, a believer cannot help but do those things.
You know why? Because that's where his heart's at. He sees
a bird and he thinks, God, did he see that bird? I go around
and look in all the bushes all the time seeing how many bird
nests. I found six bird nests in one tree there by the house
yesterday. And I was looking at two today
and I was looking there and I kept seeing a little sparrow. I kept
looking in there and said, and there's this big old robin's
nest, two robins. And then right above him about
that far is another little nest of sparrows. And we done had
sparrows come and go. And I just sat and me and Mary
Bowes just sat and said, boy this is, why do we want to go
anywhere and do anything? We've got God's blessings all
around us. Thank God for it. Thank God for a good cup of coffee.
Thank God for a good cold water. Thank God for meeting with saints
like you. This is our treasure. This is our heart. My heart beats. Don't your heart beat for these
blessed things? And that's why we enjoy the things,
because our treasure's in heaven. That's why we enjoy what we have.
Oh, it'll all be like that. Whatever we consider our greatest
necessity and what's sufficient to make us happy, that's where
our heart's at. I know what my necessity is, don't you? The
Lord Jesus is, His Word, His saints, His people. If our happiness
and our joy is found in wealth and found in honor and applause
of men and power and worldly pleasures, And if we think it's
to be found in anything on earth, then our character will be of
the earth. But if our happiness, if our joy, our wealth is found
in glory, found in heaven, and only in heaven, and found in
knowing God, wanting to know God, oh to know God, to love
God for being God, for being loved of God, and knowing that
God loves you, and desiring to be like God. We view this world
through God's eyes. Do you know that? That's why
homosexuality, that's why this world upsets us so. That's why
this corruption and immorality upsets us so. That this lying
and cheating is because we view this world through God's eyes. We think scripturally. We think
what the Bible thinks. And we agree with God. regardless
of what anybody says. We will what God wills. We will righteousness because
God wills righteousness. We will honesty because God wills
honesty. We will judgment because God
wills judgment. We will to be moral and upright
and upstanding and have a character that honors God because God wills
that in this world. God wills that His Son get all
the glory, and that's what we will. We choose what He chooses,
and we enjoy what He chooses. And now if we do like that, then
we've got treasure in heaven. That's why this world bothers
us so, because we view this thing through the eyes of God, through
the eyes of Scripture. Huh? And oh, and then we go down
here to say this, and then He's going to show us. How we come
to decide what our treasure is. What we view to be treasure.
How we come to it. The light of the body is the
eye. If therefore that eye be single, that whole body shall
be full of light. But if that eye be evil, that whole body
shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light is in
thee, be darkness. How great is thy darkness. Oh my, what
he's saying is here, you know what you do with your eye? You
perceive things with your eye. And when he says that, How does
the eye see? He said, you know, the eye, the
light of the body is the eye. If the eye be single, that's
what he's telling us, if your eye be single, that means, beloved,
if your eye is used in one thing. You see, the eye is not the source
of light. The eye is the window into the
body. And so if we've got a single
eye, we can see the light. We've got one thing in view.
We've got one thing that we like to enjoy. We've got one thing
that we perceive above everything else. That everything's in Christ,
everything's in God. We've got that single eye. But
you see, the eye is for to see the light. But to see the light,
the eye must be able to see clearly. And when a man has a single eye,
he's not seeing double vision. Don't have double vision. You
know, that's why it goes on down there, it says, no man can serve
two masters. That's what David said. He said, oh Lord, you know,
I want to see you. I just want to look at you. That's
what you read tonight. As the heart paneth after the
rod of brooks, so paneth my soul after thee. And see what he's
saying here, that the eye is sound. If you've got a good sound
eye, the body is full of light. Light comes through and your
whole body enjoys that light. Your whole body enjoys what it
sees. Your whole body is affected by what it sees. It gets pleasure
from what it sees. It enjoys what it sees. The whole
body, a person enjoys the light what the eye sees. The man who's
got this single eye can see where he's going. Know what he's doing. He can see and his whole body
is full. Paul saw clearly when he says, for me to live is Christ. And everything else is done.
He saw clearly. He didn't see clearly until God
gave him a single eye. Ain't that right? But if your
eye be evil, an eye is what we perceive. How do you perceive
Christ? How do you perceive the Scriptures?
How do you perceive the Gospel? How do you perceive treasure?
But if your eye be evil, if you have trouble seeing, that's what
he's saying. How many times have we said,
boy, I sure would love for them to see that. And then people
say, why in the world can't people see that? What we're saying is,
is that, you know, they don't get it. They don't understand
it. They don't perceive it. They can't see the same way.
And that's what he said here. If your treasure is on this earth,
then your eye has got evil in it. Your whole body is full of
darkness. If you have trouble seeing, you
don't see clearly. You've got double vision. And it's to have
a tainted eye. And it's tainted. It can't see clearly. All it
can see is worldly desires. It has false perceptions. The
eye can't see right. It can't perceive right. The
only access to light is the eye. And if the eye is closed, if
the eye is darkened, if the eye can't perceive light, then the
body itself cannot enjoy light. It can just see darkness. The
person can see darkness. The single eye sees truth. The
true treasure. The evil eye sees only error
and falseness. It don't see the true treasure.
It's like Demas. Demas had a darkened eye. Demas, having loved this present
evil world, hath forsaken them." Judas had a darkened eye, sold
the Lord for thirty pieces of silver, betrayed Him with a kiss.
Lot didn't see clearly. He pitched his tent toward Sodom,
and God had to drag him out of there. He lost everything he
had but two daughters. By the eye is perception. And
that's what our Lord said. What does your eye see? If you've
got a single eye, do you see the true treasure? What do you
perceive to be the true treasure? What do you perceive to be what's
worth, valuable? What do you see? What's your
perception of what real treasure is? Is it of the earth or is
it of heaven? How does your eye see? this thing
called treasure. That's what he's saying here.
How does your eye perceive these things? How does it see? And if it don't see Christ, it's
an evil eye. It's a darkened eye. Ain't that
right? Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for meeting with us this
evening. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. Oh
God, how we desire, desire the treasure which is as above. Solomon,
when he prayed, he didn't ask for anything in this world but
for wisdom, to go in and out before your children, to teach
your children, to be a king worthy of the name. And Lord, you blessed
him so. And that's all we ask. for that
wisdom, that treasure of wisdom and knowledge that's in Christ,
to know Him, to desire to know Him, to have a greater understanding,
to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly
set our hearts on things above, and Lord, when you feel that
our hearts and you see that our hearts are wondering and straying
from you, straying from the treasure, I pray, Lord Jesus, you chastise
us and correct us and instruct us and keep us from the things
of this world that would keep us from our blessed Master, who
asked these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.