Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWhere Is Your Treasure?
Bible TextMatthew 6:19-24
Date08-Nov-2009
Series Sermon on the Mount
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Where Is Your Treasure? (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Where Is Your Treasure? (128 kbps)
Length 28 min.
 

Series: Sermon on the Mount

Lesson #25

Title: Where Is Your Treasure

Text: Matthew 6: 19-24 (Lk 18)

Date: November 8, 2009

Place: SGBC, New Jersey

 

Matthew 6: 19: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

 

WHAT ARE EARTHLY TREASURES?

We might categorize them into two: religious treasures and temporal treasures.

 

Matthew 6: 20: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

 

WHAT ARE HEAVENLY TREASURES?

Christ Jesus the Lord, the fullness of the triune God bodily and all that is his.  Christ Jesus and all that belongs to Christ is the believer's treasure and inheritance in heaven.


Throughout the 5th chapter, the Lord taught his children the difference between the religious treasures of the earthly man and heavenly treasures of the believer.

 

1. The natural man's treasures are his so-called righteousnesses obtained by what he imagines as obedience to God.  On the other hand, the spiritual man treasures Christ Jesus who is our Righteousness which far exceeds that of the religious men of the earth, that Righteousness without whom no man may enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 

2. In chapter 6, the Lord showed that the natural man treasures religious exercises: alms-giving, prayer and fasting to be seen of men. He does it to be seen of men for two reasons: to appear holy before men and to attract/constrain other religious men to do the same. We saw in Isaiah 58 that the LORD said in the day of your fast

·       "Ye exact all your labors", wages. 

·       "Ye fast for strife and debate--they strove with one another and debated over how to properly go about their religious devotions.

·       "And ye smite with the fist of wickedness."--those who would not conform they smote until they conformed or they drove them out.

·       "Ye make your voices to be heard on high."--They marketed, advertised to the world their alms-giving, their prayer and their fasting to appear holy before men and constrain others to join them.

 

RELIGIOUS ORGINAZATIONS IN OUR DAY ARE MARKETING, ADVERTSISING ALL THEY DO AND OFFER, TO MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR HOLY AND TO ATTRACT AND CONSTRAIN SINNERS TO IMITATE THEM, TO JOIN THEIR CHURCH.  IT IS THE SAME VAINITY FOR AN ASSEMBLY, AS IT IS FOR ONE INDIVIDIUAL TO DO. 

 

The Lord said, "they have their reward", their earthly religious treasure.  These are those "many wonderful works and the casting out of devils" that men will boast about in the day of Christ.

 

Totally contrary to that, the spiritual man treasures: Christ our Alms-giver who feeds and clothes us spiritually with all spiritual blessings and makes us givers of alms. Christ our Intercessor who gives us access to the throne of grace and makes us to pray and intercede for sinners. Christ our Bread from heaven who causes us to fast from the polluted food of the flesh.  And because our treasure is Christ Jesus in heaven, we long for sinners to be joined to him and separated from those earthly treasures. 

 

Therefore, we heed our Lord's word--believers do not advertise, market, ourselves or our practices or our ministries--but we keep secret (not to be seen of men) the outward ministries which are the result of the secret ministry, of our secret God, wrought in the secret place of our heart. 

 

Instead, as our Lord has commanded, as all saints have done in every age, "We hold forth the word of life."  We proclaim the truth of Christ and him crucified with great plainness of speech that the faith of those who are called might stand in the power and wisdom of God and not of us.  This was the example Paul set and which he beseeched the brethren to follow him in.

 

Our reward, our treasure is open in our hearts and will be open before all one day when Christ returns and we appear with him in glory.

 

LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE

This is the light that Christ says for us to let shine, the good works that men shall see and glorify God which is in heaven.  When?  In the day of visitation (I Pet 2: 12.)

 

When God visits a sinner in this life in grace, he will glorify God for giving you a heart to hold forth the gospel rather than alluring him like the prostitute of religion does. 

 

And in the last day when God visits all men in judgment, the whole world shall behold the Lord's acceptance of you and thus behold your works were indeed good and theirs evil.

 

3. Now our Lord proceeds to point out the second category of earthly treasures of the natural man which is: what he will eat/drink AND what he will put on his body.  But, the treasure of the spiritual man is the kingdom of our King Jesus and his righteousness.

 

LAY NOT UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES ON EARTH--TEMPORAL OR RELIGIOUS--BUT LAY UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES IN HEAVEN.

 

HOW DO I LAY UP FOR MYSELF TREASURES IN HEAVEN?

I pointed out to you those religious earthly treasures as we moved into the treasures of temporal riches because our Lord connects these two.  The Lord goes right from speaking of alms-giving into this instruction, not to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth.  In Luke's gospel, the Lord says,

 

Luke 12:33: Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.

 

Our Lord is not saying that by giving alms you will earn treasures in heaven.  But alms-giving manifests that the believers treasure is already in heaven.

 

Matthew 6: 21: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

 

If our treasure is upon earth our hearts will be set on earthly treasures.  If our treasure is in heaven our hearts will be set on things above where Christ is seated at God's right hand.  Paul told the Galatians that those men who desired to make a fair show in the flesh, constrained others, but they themselves did not do the things they constrained others to do.  Yet, Paul never constrained men to give alms, but because they were constrained by the love of Christ for them, because their treasure was in heaven, the believers supported their poor brethren willingly and abundantly.  Grace made the difference.

 

OUR EYE DETERMINES WHAT FILLS OUR BODIES

Matthew 6: 22: The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23: 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!


Faith is the eye--the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 
If we have faith, then our eye is single--whole, woven in oneness with Christ, lit by Christ the Light and "having no part dark"--our whole body shall be full of light.  But if our eye is evil--if we are spiritually blind, without faith--our eye will be set on this earth and our whole body shall be full of darkness. 

 

This does not mean that a man will not give of his earthly possessions.  Only the love of Christ imparted in the new nature will make a man set his affection above.

 

1 Corinthians 13:3: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 

Matthew 6: 23: If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

 

When a person treasures religious OR temporal things and yet calls darkness light, calls bitter sweet, he is in great darkness.  Only God's grace can save him!


An example: The rich young ruler.

He came asking the Lord what he must do.  His earthly riches were "I have kept the law from my youth up."   And he was rich with many temporal possessions. 

 

How did our Lord reveal that his heart and his eye were set on earthly things, that he was blind, that he was calling darkness light?

 

Luke 18: 22: Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. 23: And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

 

The Lord used the temporal treasure to manifest that he had not indeed kept the law of God at all.  His eye was not single for Christ therefore, he could not part with his religious treasure which was his so-called obedience to the law for heavenly treasure which is the obedience of Christ.  He could not part with his temporal possessions for Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  The light that was in him was great darkness. His treasure was on earth.  I think what our Lord says next means both religious and temporal earthly riches.

 

Luke 18: 24: And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 25: For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 27: And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

 

God makes us forsake our earthly riches when he gives us something exceedingly better--Christ Jesus.  Christ is our Life, Wisdom, Acceptance with God, Protector, our Shield and Defender, Truth, he is the Resurrection.  Christ is the Pearl of great Price.  He separated himself perfectly from this world and he sanctified us from the evil, his gospel keeps us separate from being the servant of this world.

 

Luke 18: 28: Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee. 29: And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, 30: Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.

 

What is the manifold more we receive now and in the life to come?  It is the open reward.  Christ Jesus, access to our God, the kingdom of God and his righteousness.  It keeps getting better and better and better.

 

Isaiah 9:7: Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.


NO MIDDLE GROUND

Matthew 6: 24: 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. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (the word mammon--earthly treasure.)

 

Right now where you sit your heart is either set on the treasure of heaven, Christ Jesus at God's right hand--OR--your heart is set on the treasure of this earth.  Your eye is either single for Christ the Light and your whole body is full of light--OR--your eye is evil and your body is full of darkness.  You either love God and hate mammon--OR--you love mammon and hate God.  You are either the servant of God or the slave of mammon.

 

Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

 

Ro 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

 

2 Peter 2: 19:…for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

 

Application: Meditate on what our Lord says here:

 

Matthew 6: 19: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 21: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…22…if thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light…24: Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

 

 

The Lord's word is what Paul told the Colossians:

 

Colossians 3: 1: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2: Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3: For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4: When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.