Matthew 6. Let me read some to you beginning
in verse 19. Matthew 6. Verse 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust doeth corrupt, and where thieves
break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doeth corrupt, and where
thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is
the eye. If therefore your eye be single,
your whole body shall be full of light. But if your eye be
evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness! No
man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, what ye shall put
on, or what ye shall drink, or yet for the body, what ye shall
put on. Is not the life more than meat,
and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air,
for they sow not, Neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your Heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are you not much better than
they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to
his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spin. Yet I say unto you that Solomon, in all his glory, was
not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the
grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into
the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows
that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. And all these things shall be
added unto you. Take therefore no thought for
the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." I think
the older I get, the more I see a need for these words of this
Sermon on the Mount. to read it and understand it
and let it soak into my soul. I know of nothing at this point
in my Christian life that more comforts me and reassures me
than knowing that I have a Father in heaven who loves me and cares
for me and will provide for me. And I'd love sometime just to
go here and read these passages And remember that. And I think
as we look at this passage, and we've looked at it in great detail,
and I can't do that this afternoon, but I just want to mainly look
at these verses and remind you. And one of the reasons I wanted
to do that is because it seems like that in our day, that we're
facing a very, very peculiar crisis in our society. It's evident that we look around
us that some kind of awful crisis is coming on this world. And
one of the things that's so peculiar about it that I've never seen
before, it's coming on the world. It's not just one nation or two
nations, but now our world seems to be headed for a crisis. And
they know about it. They're aware of it. And what
they seem to be saying now is the remedy for this crisis is
for us to join together, nation with nations, to see if we can,
as one, solve this crisis. And what makes that so concerning
to me is when the world joins together, it's never good for
God's little flock. When they got together there
in the huge valley and said, let us join together and make
us a tower to heaven, that wasn't good for the little church. And
God stopped it. Nebuchadnezzar in his day that
ruled over the nations, he got together and built his image
and said, let all nations bow to it. That wasn't good for the
little flock. The little flock wouldn't bow.
And the little flock was thrown into the fiery furnace. It seems
like it's never good when the world realizes the best remedy
for its problem is to bind hand in hand and house to house. Because
when the kings get together and the governors of the earth and
the mighty, it's always against the Lord and against His Christ. And I doubt seriously If we're
facing the magnitude that seemingly we're facing today without something
that's going to come out of it, what the world seems like it's
facing, it goes beyond the powers of flesh and blood. You know,
we look at what's going on, and the politicians look at what's
going on, and the heads of state, and they say, you know, this
is caused by man, and it'll be fixed by man. But they're looking
at some problems that maybe will be fixed by man. But I tell you,
there are some great powers behind what's going on in our society
today. It's beyond flesh and blood. It's beyond the power
of humanity. These two great powers, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Sovereign Lord, and the God of this earth, is
doing battle. They're fighting for the hearts
and minds and souls of men and women. I don't know how this
is going to turn out, short term, but I know in long term how it's
going to turn out. In the long term, we know. But in the short
term, while you and I are here facing what we're facing today,
the uncertainty of so many things today, the crisis that we seem
like we're facing. And I've got it pretty easy.
I'll be honest with you, I've got it pretty easy. As far as
I know, my salary is secure. Some of your salaries may not
be. We don't know what we're going to face yet as some of
these crises are magnified. But here's our solution. The reason I love this passage,
especially this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, this is
the solution for God's children, for God's church. as we face
the crises that come in this world. And here is the most important
one. Look in verse 33 again. But seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
other things shall be added unto you. Seek you first God's righteousness. Seek that righteousness which
God gives a man. Seek that righteousness that
is called the righteousness of faith, imputed righteousness,
that righteousness that never changes, a righteousness that
God gives to a man and justifies him from everything and clothes
the shame of his nakedness. God has made Christ to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. Listen to this now. Who of God
is made unto you. Righteousness. Seek that righteousness. Seek it by faith. Believe in
Christ for it. Tell Him to clothe you with that
garment of righteousness. Tell Him to give it to you. And
then when He has, when you have some assurance of it, live in
the reality that you have a righteousness that never changes. Whatever
crises you face in your life, you have a righteousness that
never changes. I tell you, a man can face some trials. A man can
face some crises. in his heart, in his family,
in his community, in his country. If he can be assured in his heart,
I have a righteousness that God requires. I have a righteousness
that God has given me. I have a righteousness that never
changes. It's the righteousness of someone
who is already in heaven. Now, brothers and sisters, I'm
telling you, if you've got a righteousness like that, you can face this
world with some peace. with some confidence in your
heart. You kill me. You punish me. You put me in
jail. Do with me what you want. My
righteousness is in heaven. You can't touch my righteousness. And not only seek that righteousness,
that imputed righteousness, but seek and upright walk with God
every day. Keep your conscience clear with
Him. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Be honest. Be truthful. Walk
in the light as He is in the light. Read His Word. Meditate upon it. Live by faith. Believe His promises. Seek His
will in everything. Seek you first. I tell you, if
we do this, if you'll do this, everything else will begin to
take its place. Now, you just try and see if
that doesn't work. Everything else, the things that you used
to be so concerned about and worried about and anxious about,
you begin to see. You begin to lose those things,
the worrying and the fretting. Look here at verse 19 right quick,
because I don't want to take up a lot of your time. Verses
19 through verse 21. Let's just look quickly at these
verses. Lay up treasures. Lay not up, he said, treasures
upon this earth. Treasures, earthly treasures.
You know really in honesty, in all honesty, there's no such
thing as earthly treasures. There's nothing valuable about
anything in this world. Gold's not a valuable thing.
It's a corruptible thing. They pave heaven's streets with
it. You know what makes something a treasure when we set our hearts
on it? We make gold our treasure by
esteeming it. That's what makes a treasure
our son. The things of this world are not a treasure in and of
themselves. It's when we esteem them to be so. We set our heart
and our life upon it. The best commentary on the scriptures
is the scripture. And let me tell you, let me say,
listen to these scriptures that I read them to you, and you'll
see that it's not just gold, it's not silver, or anything
else that this world has that's a treasure, but it's when we
trust to it, when we set our heart on it. Now listen to these
scriptures I'll read them to you. Job said, if I have made
gold my hope, and if I have said to find gold, you're my confidence. That's what makes it a treasure
ant. If it becomes my hope, if it becomes my confidence to get
me through some tough times, I'm going to fall back on it.
Listen to what David said. If riches increase, set not your
heart upon them. Oh, there's a treasure ant. Set
not your heart upon them. And Solomon said, will you set
your eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make
themselves wings, and they fly away to heaven like an eagle.
Solomon said again, he that loves silver shall not be satisfied
with silver, nor he that loves abundance with increase. How
hardly shall they be saved who trust in riches. See what he
said. It's a confidence, it's a hoping
in, it's a trusting in. Listen to one more place. Having
food and raiment, let us be there with content. For they that will
be rich fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drowns
men in perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all. Not money, it doesn't matter
where it is, but the love of it. See how we make a treasure
out of something. Don't make treasures out of these
worldly things. Don't set your heart. Lay not
up for yourself treasures upon this earth. But verse 20, he
said, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Make the will of God
your treasure. That's a good treasure, isn't
it? Esteem the will of God above everything else. Let that be
the most valuable thing in your life. My need is to do the will
of Him that sent me and to finish His work." That was the treasure
that belonged to Christ, the will of His Father. Esteem faith
and love and hope above everything else. These are treasures. These are treasures. All faith
is a treasure, isn't it? Precious. Precious. The trial
of it is precious. Hope is precious. Love is precious. These things won't be taken away
from you. A thief is not going to break through and steal those
things. And they can't rust. Never wear out. Seek every motive
in your heart to be for Christ's glory. Oh, what a treasure that
is. Doing everything you do for His
glory. When you sigh, let it be over
sin. That's a good treasure. Every
word that you speak, let it be for the good of the Lord's people. That's a treasure, folks. That's
a treasure. To build up the Lord's little
flock, to edify them, that's a treasure. Let your desire,
let your prayers, let your word be for your fellow man to turn
him from his errors to the truth. That's a treasure. These are
treasures that will never be robbed, they'll never rust, and
the moth will never eat them up. Listen to what this says. Listen to these verses of Scripture.
God is not unrighteous to forget your work and your labor of love
which you have showed towards His name, in that you have ministered
and you do minister to the saints. And we trust that every one of
you. will show the same assurance, the full assurance until the
end. God will never forget what you do for His glory and the
good of His people. He'll lay it up there in heaven.
I can't understand that, but that's what He said. Listen to
this passage. Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that
your labor is not in vain in the Lord." That's treasures.
That's treasures. And listen to this one. If you
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sits on the right hand of God, set your affection on
things above. Things above. That's treasure. Set your mind, set your heart,
set your will, meditate upon, give your thoughts to those things
which are above where Jesus Christ is. Meditate upon those things. And David said those that do
that will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. They
lay up fruit in heaven. Set your affection upon things
above. You know something, brothers
and sisters? Moth and rust and thieves are going to get everything
in this world. Ain't no sense you trying to
hang on to it. There's some very smart thieves out there, and
they're going to get it after a while. One of them is death. Death take it. He'll kick you
out of your house and he'll get everything you've got. Moth. Rust. I was over in my dad's. We sold my dad after my dad died. Over in his woods. He owned a
farm. And over in the back of his woods for years, people had
pulled cars over there and parked them. They just jumped them out.
And you'd go over there and look at those old cars. Some old cars
and old trucks. But they'd all rusted out. Fit
for nothing. Fit for nothing. You couldn't
do anything. They finally came in and just loaded them and hauled
them off. Hauled them off. Fit for nothing. And I often
wonder, I wonder how many hearts have been set on that car right
there. I wouldn't want the labor and
the time that somebody went in to buy that old truck, and here
it sits, just all rusted down, fit for nothing. And somebody
set their heart upon that thing. Don't set your heart, the Lord
said, upon these things down here. Set them upon things in
heaven. Those are eternal things. In verse 22, the light of the
body, he goes on the same subject. The light of the body is the
eye. If therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall
be full of light. But if your eye be evil, your
whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the darkness that's
in thee, if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great
is that darkness." You know something, and I'll say this very cautiously,
but a Christian life is a joyful life. It's a peaceful life, and
it's not a difficult life when you keep your eye on one
option. And she found that to be so. It's when you get your
eye off of that one object that it becomes difficult. That's
what this word single means, just one object, looking in one
direction. If your eye be single, if you're
looking in one direction, you remember when they stoned Stephen
to death, and just before he died, the Scripture says he looked
up. into the heavens, and he saw
the glory of God and Jesus standing on his right hand. And he said,
I see Him. I see the glory of God. And I
see my Lord standing in His right hand. I see Him. I see Him. And somebody said, boy, what
a way to die. And another man said, what a way to live. That's a way to live, isn't it? Looking unto Jesus. Have a single
eye. Look unto Me and be ye saved. Look unto Me and be ye saved
from sin. Look unto Me and be ye saved
from worry. Look unto Me and be ye saved
from heartaches and troubles. Always be looking unto Jesus. Have a single eye to Him, and
you'll find out your whole body is full of light. Your heart
is full of light. We look not at the things which
are seen. Ain't that what the apostles
said? That's what the world looks at. But the children of God don't
look at the things which are seen. The things which are seen
are temporal. Everything about this world is
temporal. They're fading away, brothers and sisters, they're
fading away. It's almost like they're not
real. My son came down yesterday evening and we were visiting
together and he was talking about politics and politicians and
how they just lie like dogs, he said. And he finally said,
he said, Dad, I can't even tell what's real anymore. I can't
even tell what's real anymore. Well, if you're looking at the
world, you're looking at the things of the world, you're looking
at things that aren't even real. They're vapors, born for one
brief day, and then they vanish away. They're gone. By the time
you think you've got them in your hand, boy, they fly away. It wasn't even real. It was a
shadow. Really, they're not real. We
look not at the things which are seen. The things which are
seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen They ain't
seen with this eye, but they're seen with the eye of the soul.
They're seen through the eye of faith. Those are eternal things. You know what's real? You know
what's real? You know what's satisfying to
the soul? Eternal things. Eternal truths. Spiritual things. Holy things. The things of God. The things
of Christ. The things of the Holy Spirit.
Those are lasting things. God is light. Jesus Christ dwells
in the light. His Word is a lamp and a light
unto our feet. Jesus Christ is the light of
heaven. And if you keep your eye upon Him, get your eye upon
Him, and keep your eye upon Him, your whole body your heart, your
mind, your spirit, it'll be full of light. It'll be full of light. But if you and I look around
us and we set our eye upon the things around us, you know what?
We're looking at things of darkness. And those that's got their eye
on this world and the things of this world, darkness has filled
their hearts. Darkness has filled their spirits.
Love not the world, or the things that are in the world. If any
man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
All that's in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eye, and the pride of life. These are not of God, but these
are of the world. And what's going to happen to
the world? It's going to pass away. But they who do the will
of God, Abideth forever. Forever. That's what's real, brothers
and sisters. That's what's real. That's what's
real. The things of God are real. The
Word of God is real. Truth is real. Keep your eye
upon that. A single eye upon that, and your
whole body, your heart will be full of light. Look in verse
24. This is amazing, and it almost
seems out of context here, but it's really not. It's the very
same subject. Look here. No man can serve. No man can. No man can come to me except
my Father God. No man can serve two masters. Not at one time. You can't serve
two masters. Ain't it sad when we see what
sin has done to us? It has destroyed the whole order
of things. All these things in the beginning
were put under our feet. God put them there to serve us. Malmon, money, whatever that
is. All these things were put under
our feet to serve us. But sin entered and now everything
is turned upside down. Instead of everything serving
us, If we are not careful, we start serving things. Mammon,
the master? Mammon is my master? Mammon is
my God? People live for mammon. They
serve mammon. It becomes the end to which they
labor. And instead of them using and
controlling it, it uses and controls them. It becomes a master. When we look around us and see
all the mammon, I don't care what farm that it comes in, it
comes in so many farms, instead of us being able to say, Oh,
what a blessing. Oh, I got a job. Man, I got a
job. A thousand dollars a week. Oh,
what a blessing. Oh, I got an inheritance, a hundred
thousand dollars. What a blessing. Building me
a new house. What a blessing. What a blessing. But instead of being a blessing,
the Lord warns us, don't let it become your master. Don't
let it become your master. The only way that you and I can
lawfully enjoy the things of this world, lawfully enjoy, lawful
things. He's not talking about anything
but lawful. Your food. your drink, your raiment. The only way you and I, brothers
and sisters, can enjoy the things of this world is to enjoy them
in this way. Enjoy them after and only as
we enjoy our God. Use them only as we serve our
God. And if we're not careful, we
can take these lawful things and make idols out of them. If anybody can enjoy this world
and the things of this world, I tell you, it's a child of God.
It's a child of God. Because they enjoy them as they
enjoy God. In verse 25 through verse 34,
and I'll look at this and I'll let you go. The Lord deals here
in these passages with the importance of our thought process. One of
the most critical things in our life is how we think. Did you
realize that? As a man thinks in his heart,
so is he. The Apostle Paul said, Whatsoever
things are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and of good
report. Think upon these things. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, who thinks upon Thee. Our thought process is so important,
and the Lord Jesus here gives us an illustration of that. Notice
how he instructs us in our thought process there in verse 25. He
says, don't think this way, but think this other way. He says
in verse 25, I say unto you, take no anxious thought. Don't
be worried for your daily life saying, what in the world are
we going to eat? What in the world are we going
to drink? And you get so anxious in your thoughts. that you forget that you have
a Father in Heaven that has fed the ravens and continues to feed
them. Ain't it an amazing thing and
a humbling thing too, but it's a truth that God loves and cares
for and provides for His children. Now, ain't that an amazing thing?
That's difficult for us to believe, but it's the truth. That's what
the Master tells us. If He feeds the ravens, will
He not much more feed you? And to not remember that and
to mistrust our Father in Heaven is sin. That's all it is, is
sin. To worry in my thoughts what
I'm going to eat today, What I'm going to drink today? To
be so concerned about that? God, I can't sleep? Ain't that an awful mistrust?
And then he says there in verse 28, why take ye a thought for
Raymond? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. And they don't toil. They don't
work. They don't spin. And I say unto
you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
of these. Who is it that clothes these
lilies? Nobody human. You don't plant them. Not out
in the wilderness. They just grow on their own.
They're beautiful. And who puts them there and who clothes them?
Your Father in Heaven. Your Father. Solomon had to work
so hard. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
being a seamstress for King Solomon? Can you imagine the late hours
that you worked for that man? And you was worried sick, afraid
he didn't like it. All the money, all the toil,
all the effort that went into making his garments. But here
the Master pointed at those lilies. He said, those lilies are more
glorious than Solomon in his array. Why? God clothed him himself. They
didn't hit a lick. They never picked up a pick.
They did nothing. God closed. Will your Father
not much more close you? Oh, you of little faith. Thought
process is real important. This is what they were thinking,
you see. They were thinking, Oh, no. What am I going to eat?
Oh, my soul. What am I going to drink? Oh,
my soul, when are we going to get clothes? Oh, my, they're
just worried they're self-sick. The Lord said, don't think that
way. You're the children of your Father. Think this way. My Father,
which fed the birds of the air and clothed the lilies, He'll
feed and clothe me. That's my Father. And trust Him.
Trust Him. Just keep remembering this. Don't
ever forget this. My Father in Heaven, He loves
me. And He'll feed me and He'll clothe me. Keep thinking that
way. Keep thinking that way. And He
gives us a good reason to keep thinking that way. Look in verse
31. Therefore take no thought. Well,
He done told us that. Yes, but now look what's added
to it. Take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? What shall
we drink? Wherewithal shall we be close?
See that? Before it was just in their thoughts. Now they're
talking about it. Before they were just thinking,
how in the world? But now they're talking, how
in the world? They're like us sometimes when
we get together. Instead of talking about spiritual
things, where does the conversation pretty soon go? To politics and
to taxes. Boy, I'll tell you my check. I don't know if I'm going to
get my check. Ain't that the way we are? We've been worried
about these things. We've had these things on our
mind. And then, when we start talking to somebody, that's what
comes out. Now, in verse 34, look at this.
It even goes further than that. Before, they were thinking about
today. What are we going to eat today? What clothes are we going
to wear today? Then they started talking about
it. And now it's got worse. Look in verse 34. Take no thought
for tomorrow. Now, what are they worried about?
I had to worry about tomorrow. Now I have to worry about next
week. Now next year. We were down in Mexico a few
years ago, and I never will forget this. It's very amusing. We'd
been down there about a week, and we never picked up a newspaper,
never had a TV set on. Never listened to the radio.
We had no access to the media. We didn't have time. We were
just going and meeting with the Lord's people and worshiping,
singing. It felt so good in our souls. And on the way back home, somebody
said, I wonder how it's going on in the world. And somebody else said, it's
strange that it's been able to exist and survive without us
worrying about it. But it did. Ain't it strange
that we think sometimes we're not going to make it if we don't
worry about it? As though somehow or another
God could not keep us. He would not be willing to keep
us and care for us unless we were so anxious about it all.
See what I said, brothers and sisters, at the beginning of
this. I don't know what we're facing. I really don't know what
we're facing. Nobody else does. But just facing
daily life is bad enough. And to take these precious truths
that our Lord Jesus tells us is so comforting, so reassuring. We can live so peaceful and so
trustful. May God help us to do that. Let's
pray.