Matthew chapter 6 and verse 19. Look at it, it says, Christ preaching,
lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust
doth corrupt, where thieves break through and steal. But lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."
It's a pretty simple message, but it does involve so much that
shows us what I've got written in your lesson as the realities
and the nature of the spiritual eternal kingdom of heaven, the
kingdom of God. The kingdom of which we who are
sinners saved by grace are subjects is a spiritual kingdom. It's
not an earthly kingdom. Christ told his detractors and
he told his disciples too in teaching them that the kingdom
of heaven is not of this world. It's not wrapped up, centered
on, or bound to the decaying, corrupting things of this earth.
This earth is a sin-cursed earth. It's decaying, it's dying. You've
often heard me talk about the environmental movement. And I
often say that we should be good stewards of this world. We should
be. We want clean water. We want
clean air. We don't want to waste things.
We don't want to purposely destroy things. I don't want my children
and my grandchildren drinking dirty water or breathing dirty
air. So we ought to be good stewards. But we cannot save this world. This world is decaying. This
world is dying. Environmentalism is really a
product of the self-righteousness and hubris or pride of man because
he thinks he can save this world. He thinks he can destroy this
world. We can't destroy this world, only God can do that.
But God's gonna save his creation by the salvation of his people. And so what he teaches here is
this, that the spiritual kingdom of heaven is the only thing that's
gonna last forever and ever and ever. Now, we have a tough time
in seeking to thank spiritually. And the reason is, is because
all we've known so far is this life. But we do realize, according
to God's word, that this life is very brief. And as you grow
older, you realize how brave, don't you? And eternity is forever
and ever and ever. But we have no reference point
within ourselves, within our experience to see that. So all
we have to do, that's why the Bible says we walk by faith,
not by sight. Now, we love our lives here on
this earth, but the scripture says in some senses we're gonna
hate our lives. And I'm gonna show you that in
the next lesson, okay? when we start talking about seeking
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. But this is
why, when we see how much that we ourselves, as far as our physical
being, we're in a state of death and dying, and this world is
dying. That's why we have to be so attuned to understanding
and feeding upon the word of God. I've got written in your
lesson 1 Peter 1 verse 23 says, being born again not of corruptible
seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever And then he goes on to say, for all flesh
is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. Everything that man boasts in
and glories in, in this world, is like the grass and the flower
that fades away. The grass withereth, the flower
thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever,
and this is the word which is by the gospel is preached unto
you. Now that's why we as believers have to be so attuned to getting
ourselves into the Word of God. That's what we're doing this
morning. We're studying that which is eternal. When we go
back to eat this afternoon after the worship services, we'll enjoy
that. And there's nothing wrong with
enjoying that. But it's not going to last. You'll get hungry again,
won't you? We'll all get hungry again. And
then there'll be a time when it's all gone. So even though
we enjoy it, we put it in its perspective. And a lot of what
the Lord says here from verse 19 to the end of this chapter
has to do with true children of God getting our priorities
straight, getting our understanding of what really is eternal. And what we're doing right here,
you know, people have come, they've gotten so far away from the word
of God. And, you know, when we come here
and we meet, and somebody says, well, I just wish this would
hurry up and get over. You know, we don't say that in our minds.
But this right here, what we're doing right now, getting into
work, that's the only eternal thing that we've got. See? And I know, I mean, I get just
as hungry as you, and I want to eat just as much as you, you
know, all that. But this right here, that's going
to be gone. This right here lasts forever,
forever and ever. And so what he's going to talk
to us about in these lessons is basically, yes, we're to be
responsible to take care of the good things that God has given
us in this life, but our main concern, our single concern is
for the glory of God in Christ, who is our righteousness. That's
our main concern. And when we get so concerned
with the things of this world that we neglect or even deny
the things that are eternal, that's a bad place to be in.
It may not feel bad, but it's a bad place to be in. So that's
what he's talking about. Well, the kingdom of heaven,
he says, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And the
kingdom of heaven has been established forever and ever upon the righteousness
of the king of kings. And we stand before God in his
righteousness imputed and that righteousness cannot be corrupted,
it cannot fade away, it cannot be taken away. And think about
it like that. Christ alone and just as But
as we see that Christ, because of his righteousness established
for and imputed to his people, he rules over this kingdom of
heaven which is destined for eternal life. Eternity. We're made by God through his
grace and power to be citizens of this kingdom. You see, that's
the thing about it. We have to look at ourselves not as citizens
tied to this world, even though we live in this world. Christ
told his disciples, you're in the world, but you're not of
the world. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But we're citizens of a heavenly
kingdom. And that means a lot. We're brought
into this spiritual kingdom of Christ by Christ who sends forth
his spirit to birth us again, the regeneration, the new birth.
Remember he said, unless you're born again, you cannot see this
kingdom, see the kingdom of God, and you cannot enter the kingdom
of God. So understand, now it's then
that our whole, and when we're brought into this kingdom as
we see, as the Holy Spirit teaches us the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ, he convinces us of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment, it changes our whole view of things. You think
about it, you who know Christ. Everything that you used to think
concerning salvation, concerning eternity, concerning glory, has
passed away, and now they've become new. In other words, you
view the whole, you know, Paul stated in Galatians 6, 14, he
said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and he says, by whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I'm crucified unto the world. We've got a different
view of what sin is. I used to think of sin as nothing
but immorality according to man's standards. Anything religious
or dedicated or sincere or moral to me was righteous. But now
I think differently because I've seen the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ, like Paul in Philippians chapter 3. He
said, everything that I used to think was good and righteous
and recommended me unto God and evidenced my salvation. He said,
now I count it all but lost, even but done that I may win
Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ. That's a change, isn't it? That's a great change. That's a miraculous change, a
powerful change. Now with that in mind, what is
he talking about? Lay up for yourselves, look at
verse 20, treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
Well that word lay up, that phrase lay up means to gather, it means
to store, it means to accumulate, it means to keep in reserve. That's what it's talking about.
Now, what does that mean? Lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven. A lot of people believe that that means that, well, if
I'm a Christian, I really need to start working hard to earn
my rewards and my blessings in heaven so that when I get there,
I'll have a bigger mansion than you. That's common, isn't it? Now, maybe they don't state it
that way. But that's, you know, I used
to know a preacher who used to talk about, he said, he said,
I don't want to live in a little cabin in here, I want a mansion.
So he was working hard, you see. Well, that's anti-gospel. Did
you know? That's anti-grace. That's work
salvation. The Bible doesn't teach that.
So this lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven doesn't mean
that. First of all, let me give you these three things. First
of all, the Bible tells us that those who are saved, They are
saved by God's grace and what we have in our possession as
far as salvation and all of its blessings and all of its benefits
we did not earn and do not deserve. That's number one. You see, that's
what grace and mercy are all about. I have a treasure of salvation. I have an inheritance that's
incorruptible. That's how Peter described it.
But I didn't earn it. And I still don't earn it. And
I don't deserve it. Do you understand that? Its grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life and that eternal
life is everything that eternal life and salvation involves through
Jesus Christ our Lord. God is never one to put himself
into a position where he's indebted to us. Now we're indebted to
him, not legally, but we have a debt of love, don't we? Gratitude. But none of the blessings, that's
number one. Ephesians 1.3. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And I'll often
use this illustration. You take the Apostle Paul. How
much did Paul work as far as the ministry? Well, I don't know
anybody to compare with him other than our Savior who superseded
everybody. But as far as men, sinners saved
by grace, Paul was probably the most diligent, zealous, sincere,
and bold missionary of any of them. How much did he give up? You say, he gave up his whole
life and even went so far as I quoted earlier, to count it
all but done, but lost. Well, Paul was a sinner saved
by the grace of God. He said, this is a faithful saying
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am present tense chief. Paul's not
talking about just what he was, he's talking about what he is.
What am I? What are you? I'm a sinner saved by grace.
We sing that song, only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story,
to God be the glory. So that's number one. We don't
earn it, we don't deserve it. None of it, at any time. Okay? All right, here's the second
thing. The Bible tells us that all salvation and all spiritual
blessings are freely given to us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's what he earned for us. That's
what salvation is. Christ as my surety, Christ as
my substitute, based on his righteousness imputed and given to me. It's
what he earned. I don't have any earning power
with God, but I have Christ, and if I have Christ, he earned
it all by his obedience unto death as my surety and my substitute. In, I've got listed in your lesson,
Luke 17, seven through 10, that was a little illustration that
the Lord gave to his disciples. And it's called the unprofitable
servant. You ever heard about the unprofitable
servant? Well, here's a person who serves his master. And the
Lord said this, now think about this. He said, if you do everything
that is required of you. What do you earn? What do you
deserve? Nothing. You've just done that
which is what a servant should do. You're still an unprofitable
servant. All right? Now, you can read
about that in Luke 17. We won't turn there this morning,
but that's what it is. Now, here's the thing about it. Can any of
us look at ourselves and say, we've done everything that we
should do? No. If we had, we'd still be
unprofitable servants. What that means is if we had,
we wouldn't earn or deserve anything from God. He's the creator, we're
the creature. But none of us can say we have done everything
that we are supposed to do. So where does that leave us?
undeserving sinners who deserve nothing but damnation. But God
has graced us freely in his son. Now what kind of gratitude should
that bring out? Infinite gratitude. I think about
that. I was thinking about that yesterday
when I was writing on a future bulletin. I often say, why Lord
did you bless me with the knowledge of your grace in Christ? I mean,
out of all the people in this world. And now, you know, we
look at it this way, say, well, you know, there's a lot of people
who are more deserving than I am. None of us are deserving. Salvation
is by grace. And then here's the third thing.
All the promises and all the blessings of salvation are said
to be in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're described
as what? I mentioned this earlier. An inheritance, 1 Peter 1, 4
through 5, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not
away." See, everything in this earth is fading away. But this
inheritance is undefiled and fadeth not away. It's reserved
in heaven for you. In other words, for believers,
for God's people, we have a reservation. And who are kept by the power
of God, we're kept too. Because everything about this
thing is all the power and goodness of God in Christ. None of it's
about our power or our goodness or our faithfulness. We're kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. So that right now, we possess
all the treasures of heaven in Christ. So look at verse 21. Now here's the rub. Here's where it comes down. Everything in the Bible is meant
to draw us out of ourselves to look to Christ, but also in this
sense to help us examine ourselves. And listen to what he says in
verse 21. He says, for where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also. In other words, there's no use
trying to fool ourselves. Whatever we truly, truly value. All right? That's where our heart
is. If we value the things of earth,
that's where we'll be. We value the word of God, the
things of heaven, that's where we'll be. Feasting on it, you
know, whenever we have opportunity. You know, I love the book of
Ecclesiastes. Turn over to Ecclesiastes 2.
I want to show you something here. And I want to make this really
clear. There's nothing wrong with a
man or a woman working hard to make their living. There's nothing
wrong with taking care of your families, your children, spending
time doing the things that you need to do, teaching your children.
caring for yourself, all of these things. In fact, here in the
book of Ecclesiastes, it's perfectly all, you know, when we talk about
our treasures aren't on earth but in heaven, that doesn't mean,
as Pastor Mahan used to say, that we're so heavenly minded
that we're no earthly good. Doesn't mean that. You know,
I know people, I'll never forget one time, a young lady, well,
I'd say she was in her 40s, came into my office and she told me
she was living totally by faith. I said, you are? I said, what
do you mean by that? She said, well, I've quit my
job and I'm just depending upon the Lord to take care of me.
And I told her, I said, well, you're not living by faith, my
friend. She said, what do you mean? I said, the Bible says
he that don't work does not eat. That right? Living by faith means living
by what God says. And God says, if you're capable
of working, then you work, or you don't eat. So, she wasn't
living by faith. Well, the book of Ecclesiastes
says that we're responsible. If God has given you a family,
You're responsible to take care of that family, to work and giving
you a job, all of those things. And there's nothing wrong with
enjoying the fruits of your labor. Nothing wrong with enjoying the
good things of this world that God gives us. But here's the
key. Look at Ecclesiastes 2 verse
1. Now Solomon was one, I often
portray him as a man who had the best and the most that this
life could give. He had wisdom. Remember when
God said, I'll give you whatever you want. He said, I want wisdom.
He had wisdom. He had money. He had all those
things. He had power. Solomon, King Solomon,
he said in verse one, I said in my heart, go to now, I will
prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure and behold, this
is also vanity. And behold, I said of laughter,
it is mad, of mirth, what doeth it? I sought in my heart to give
myself unto wine, and yet acquainted mine heart with wisdom, and to
lay hold on folly." You see, all these things. Verse four,
I made me great works. I builted me houses. I planted
me vineyards. Nothing wrong with doing that.
I made me gardens and orchards, I planted trees in them, all
the kinds of fruits. Now, made me pools of water,
all those things that he had, all right? But go down to verse
10 of Ecclesiastes 2, verse 10. He said, and whatsoever mine
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
my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works
that my hands had wrought, and on 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. Now that sounds pretty depressing,
doesn't it? But here's the point of Ecclesiastes.
You know what the theme of Ecclesiastes is? Life here on earth, no matter
how good or how bad or in between it is, without God, without His
glory, without Christ, without truth, is nothing ultimately
but vanity and vexation of spirit. It will not ultimately save you. It will not ultimately fulfill
you. That's what Ecclesiastes is about. Read through the book sometime,
you know. Nothing wrong with a man or a
woman enjoying the works of their labor. But here's what you gotta
think of. It's all a gift from God. You
love your children? They're a gift from God to you.
Isn't that right? You didn't create them. I don't
care how you joke about it. You didn't do it. God did. You
love your job? Well, you may hate your job,
but you may thank God for your job. It's God who gave you the
abilities and the brain. You know, somebody thinks up
a good idea and makes a million dollars. Who gave him that brain
or her that brain? Who gave him the intelligence?
Who gave him the opportunity? It's all of God. That's what
Solomon is saying in Ecclesiastes. Ultimately, it's all owing to
God. at a young lady that her parents and their members of
the church in Ashland, she graduated from college yesterday. And I
sent her congratulations and I said, may the Lord bless you
in all your future pursuits. And I said, but don't forget,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And
all these things will be added unto you. That's what we're gonna
be looking at in the next lessons. Well, look back. Where's your
heart? Here's the point. Where's our treasure? All right?
Listen to this in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5. Paul writes, he said,
for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. That's our
salvation, the glory of God in Jesus Christ, who he is and what
he accomplished. He is God in human flesh. He's
the greatest gift that God ever gave to his people. Christ himself
and what he accomplished in establishing righteousness that demands our
eternal salvation and our inheritance. But look at verse seven in 2
Corinthians four, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels
that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us. Now,
what is this treasure? It's Christ and our salvation
by the grace of God in him, that's the treasure. And our treasure
is Christ himself and all that he accomplished for us, his righteousness
imputed. So look back at Matthew six,
look at verse 22 now. Now, he uses a metaphor here.
He says this in verse 22, the light of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full
of light. 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 that darkness. The light of
the body is the eye. What's he talking about? Well,
he's talking about a spiritual kingdom for which it takes a miracle
of spiritual sight for us to see. The light of the body is
the eye. We don't have eyes to see apart
from the Holy Spirit's work in us, isn't that right? We have
to be given eyes to see and ears to hear. We're spiritually dead
by nature. So what he's saying here is this,
if the light of the body is the eye, if therefore thine eye be
single. Now what does that mean? The
single eye refers to the person whose spiritual sight is focused
singly upon Jesus Christ and him crucified for all salvation.
That's the single eye. Paul called it the simplicity
that's in Christ, the singleness. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I don't look anywhere else. for
salvation, for blessing. I don't look to you, I don't
look to myself, I don't look to the church, I don't look to
anything we do. I look to Christ for all righteousness, for the
forgiveness of all my sins, for the inheritance that lasts forever.
I look to him alone. My eye is singly focused on him. And that's how we lay up treasures
in heaven. We do it by looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. Not by trying to work
our way into more rewards, Like as if we earn it, it's looking
to Christ who is our reward. And as long as you look to Christ,
that's what you're doing. You're laying up treasures in
heaven. Because they're all in Him. If
you have Him, you have it all. That's what it's saying. By the
grace of God. That's the single eye. Now if
your eye is evil, now what is an evil eye? You know, people
joke about that. He put the evil eye on you. No
he didn't. The evil eye. That's the eye
that's darkened, cannot see, that's unbelief, that's ignorance,
that's deception. And when he says this, now remember
who he's talking to here, the Jews, unbelieving Jews who had,
and he's talking to his disciples too, but the crowd is made up
of unbelieving Jews who had so much light in the old covenant,
the law of Moses, in the prophets, But he says, if therefore the
light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness? It's
like people today. You know, everybody's got a Bible
today, don't they? And some of them read it. But
do they see with that single eye that it's all in Christ and
based on his righteousness imputed? That his righteousness is the
only ground of my salvation, the only source of my life, and
the only earning power for my whole treasure and inheritance
in heaven. Remember Christ told the Pharisees,
you do search the scriptures, in them you think you have eternal
life. He says, they are they which testify of me. That's what
this book is all about. Leading us singly to look singly
to Christ for all salvation.