Lay Up Your Treasures In Heaven

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I appreciated the discussion in the Sunday School and particularly the short discussion on the irrelevance of relevance or being relevant to this society. [00:00:30] How much are we, in our stand of faith, relevant to our society? Well, relevance is important, but relevant to what? Not to our society. That's not the point. Point is we're relevant to God and to each other, to our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's important. And when our society sees that, then they should be attracted to it. Then they will be called to it. That's part of our evangelism. That's part of the work of God in us in the church, is that we're relevant to each other and to him. [00:01:02] And we are here for him, not for the loss, but for him. And then he uses us to reach the loss through that relationship. So, I had to think of that in connection with my loss of my cell phone. It really wasn't that terribly tragic or relevant to my life, to my salvation. When you think of free justification, and if you haven't experienced that or don't understand that this morning, My message may be a bit offensive to you [00:01:35] because it's only on the basis of being freely justified by His grace that we can grasp the commands and the call of Jesus Christ in our lives to go further and to go on with Him. I was very weak on that in my experience, my spiritual experience. And quite frankly, I think the Anabaptist people have become very weak on that. The understanding and the teaching of justification, of knowing that freely and completely and wholly we are justified in the sight of God [00:02:13] by faith through the blood of Jesus Christ, with the absence of everything else, is only by His merit and through His blood. and so on that that that's the basis for for the rest of our life we have to know that we have to experience that there's a lot of people that may know that may claim to know it but without the experience to see the the greater call of Jesus on our life it's not going to be it's not going to be understood it's going to be it's going to be offensive it's going to be a stumbling block [00:02:47] just as Paul said it would be it's going to be foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block Talk to the Jews. I'm not sure how to start. You know, after coming back from, after leaving the culture, the way things are done, that's what culture means, the way we do things, [00:03:19] of America, the strongest, most prosperous nation in the world, the freest nation in the world. And going to a country that is at the very bottom prosperity-wise, it's the very poorest nation in the world, It is a nation of slaves who are still in slavery, though not to white physical masters. [00:03:53] They're in slavery to voodoo and to Satan. And their culture is a result of that slavery. So it's a very low, slavish, fear-ridden culture. It is quite a shock to make that transition. But after learning to understand something about that and seeing what they have and what they have to live with and the seeming hopelessness of their situation [00:04:24] and learning their political and social and spiritual culture then to come back to this place is even more of a shock. and more of an enlightenment. I really never understood growing up what patriotism was, but I understand now. I understand what it feels like to love your country for what it stands for. [00:05:02] And I'm not lifting up America over any other nation. The Bible makes clear that the nations of this world are against God and He's going to fight against them. He's going to destroy them and make them all His at some point. But to realize anew the wonderful liberties and freedoms that we have and the culture that we have that is based much more on Scripture of long ago. Long ago it was. Now we're losing a lot of those things. [00:05:32] But to see the utter absence of that in Haiti And to realize what we have here and why was I born here That I could grow up to think To think freely and to act freely And to have a country that works We actually have electricity 24 hours a day And you can drive down the road And you have some sort of expectation as to what the other drivers are going to do That's a marvelous blessing Good pastor friend of mine, well I'm not acquainted with him real well, I've met him several times, a native Haitian. [00:06:11] On his motorcycle was going down the road in the middle of the night and suddenly there was a truck in front of him. Stopped on the road, broke down, no lights, nothing. And he hit it full speed. And that is a very, very common thing down there. There's just no law. And the law that is, is completely disregarded. So every person is a law unto themselves. But just the blessing of coming back and having some expectations and being able to go to sleep at night and pretty well assume that you're going to be able to sleep through the night in relative peace. [00:06:42] And you expect to wake up at the same place tomorrow without a mob outside your door or without a radical change in the government and a new president because of a coup overnight. Those things are just immeasurable. And so, this morning I want to say, and I wanted to say this in light of the message I have, that I'm very grateful to live in this country. And in spite of, I don't know how much you listen to the news, but in spite of all the news that comes out, comes across the radio and other media, there are still many, many good things here that we take for granted. [00:07:19] And I would encourage you, if you want to experience more of that, just don't take in any news for a month. just don't take any news in from any media and just live joyfully before the Lord and I think maybe your outlook on the future will change maybe the recession won't be quite as bad maybe you'll be a little more grateful for the way God is providing in the middle of all these things that's just a bit of commentary for your edification [00:07:51] that's not my message but I feel I have an obligation to share it Because I have a perspective there. So I and my family have been very appreciative of being able to come back. One of the greatest things we've found since coming back is just being able to come to a service like this where there's other believers who speak the same language. You can clearly understand exactly what they're saying. And to listen to a message, to sing together, and to enjoy fellowship Fellowship is a privilege that is beyond compare also. [00:08:27] So don't take it for granted. Rejoice in what you have. Even when you're not seeing eye to eye with your brother or sister, it could be much, much worse. And a lot of times in good fellowship, we tend to focus on little immaterial things, things that maybe aren't really in Scripture, just little faults, and we magnify those things and allow them to divide us. But think of all the things that you do agree about, that you actually have brothers and sisters to come together with. You have one God who loves you [00:08:58] and you can sit and raise your voices together. You can pray for each other, even as we did this morning. Those things are things that much of the world knows nothing about. Probably 90% or more of the world has never experienced. It's a very small percentage. So we are blessed. I would like to speak this morning to you more specifically about our view and our understanding and our approach to our culture. [00:09:31] First of all, we have a tendency in growing up with a certain way of doing things, especially as a somewhat exclusive Anabaptist setting, which is separate from the majority of society anyway. We have our ways of doing things and our ways of thinking. And our tendency is to take the Word of God and to apply our culture and our way of thinking to it and to find places in the Word of God where it agrees with the way we are and the way we think and the way we do [00:10:07] and then call ourselves followers of Jesus. And then think of ourselves as a little better than other cultures or other people groups because we can identify with most of the Word of God. But I would like to suggest to you this morning that that's not scriptural. As a matter of fact, that's called deception. We should not be taking the way we do things, the way we think, the experiences that we have, take them into the Word of God and then identify with what we can find and think that that's the end. [00:10:43] But rather, the Word of God is the final authority and we should be looking to base our life on its teachings no matter how radical they are and to be willing to let go of the things in our culture and change what needs to be changed to bring in accordance with the Word of God. One of the greatest struggles that missionaries have in going into another culture is knowing what parts of their culture are relevant to the Word of God and what parts aren't. Because you often run into a thing of where you're teaching something from the Word of God and they say, well, our culture doesn't do that. [00:11:18] And you say, well, your culture needs to change. This is the Word of God. Let's put ourselves in those shoes this morning and always and look at the Word of God. You know, our tendency is also as humans to come to certain verses and certain areas of Scripture. and because they're puzzling to us, possibly because we haven't obeyed them or because we haven't seen them practiced, we're not sure if it can actually work. [00:11:49] We tend to make explanations or detours around those verses or even through them in a way that makes them acceptable to our culture. It doesn't upset the apple cart quite as much. After all, isn't unity in the church the highest priority? And so if these things bring disunity, we must somehow adapt them to fit into our unity. And I think what I'm speaking of this morning, you all understand well. [00:12:23] We've all had experience with those things. So I was thinking along this line and the Lord brought a verse to my mind, which we all know very well. Well, we don't even have to turn to it. It's in Micah 6.8. I think we all know it. But in that verse, there is like a gospel in a nutshell. Now, it's not complete, it's Old Testament, but it's the will of God. And the gospel enables us to live out the will of God, does it not? [00:12:56] The gospel is the enabling, the power, the power of Jesus Christ to live the will of God. and in those verses in Micah it says He hath showed thee, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of thee? A very pertinent, a very relevant question. What does the Lord require of thee? It also says He hath showed thee, O man, what is good. He's already told you. So we have it. [00:13:28] We have it right here. through the written word, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, through the testimony of the Holy Spirit in our life. We have it. What does the Lord require of you? Now, in this verse, this is written to the Jews where God had been dealing with the Jews for a long time. And they knew very well what God required of them. But God was sort of here, He's sort of getting tired of discussing it with them. He sort of is like, we're not going to argue about this anymore. This is what I require of you, to love mercy. [00:14:01] Now Jesus said words very similar to this to the Pharisees. To love mercy. What's the next part? To do justice and to walk humbly with thy God. To love mercy. Jesus said to the Pharisees, he said, and these were people who knew what God wanted, but he says you've taken those things and applied them to your culture and you've made a way to where you interpret mercy after the way you do things. [00:14:35] You're not seeing mercy the way I see mercy. You're seeing mercy through your culture's eyes and that's not mercy. You see justice, what you think is just and equitable through the way you do things and you justify yourself because you have your own description of these words. Do you have your own version of humility? God says those are not acceptable with me. And when Jesus came, He came to set the record straight. Christ's call and teaching was nothing more than the practical outworking [00:15:13] of this simple and powerful call of God in Micah 6.8. It was to a people who were blinded through their pride and their self-sufficiency. They were blinded to the evil of the way they practiced it. They didn't see it. They thought they were good. They just took for granted that their way of doing things was right and good. They hadn't examined for a long time God's definition of these words, God's definition of righteousness. [00:15:50] They hadn't examined their hearts personally because the truth is in there. God has put it in every man. They hadn't searched for it. They hadn't examined their own hearts. For God's version of mercy, God's version of justice, truth, humility, they had their own standard. And so Jesus' call seemed radical. It wasn't radical. Jesus' call isn't not radical. It just seems radical to us, to them. It shouldn't seem radical to us today. [00:16:22] Maybe it will. Maybe it does. Let's admit it. We are flesh and blood. There's things in here that demand a measure of faith that seems radical. and we say, where's common sense in all that? We'll touch on that later. Jesus seemed so radical because they were the ones that were afar off. Their culture and their way of doing things, their way of describing who God was and what is expected was upside down. [00:16:53] The teachings of Jesus weren't, as they said, these men have turned the world upside down. No, they had turned it right side up. They had turned it right side up. They had complicated, greatly complicated the simple faith of Abraham and this is where we often get caught. Not great theological things, but simply day by day allowing the role of everyday life to carry us along. [00:17:27] just to carry us along and we end up waking in the morning to live that day and going to sleep to see the next day and our job and our responsibilities simply just carry us along and we're not examining everything that we do and think and keeping our own hearts in tune with God. We end up living life for the sake of life itself. You know, it's so easy for me to get up in the morning and think about what I have to do that day and yes, I have my devotional time, my quiet time, And then off I am. And what occupies the majority of your time? [00:18:04] Is it the call of Jesus Christ on your life? Or is it making a living? After all, we have to make a living, don't we? Well, can you give me chapter and verse? The role of life carrying us along, sweeping day by day, deeper and deeper into the things of this life, the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, of beginning to agree with American capitalism that says gain is godliness. [00:18:42] That's American evangelical Christianity. that if I am bettering my position on earth, I am becoming more godly. But let me suggest to you that that is against the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's not what he says. He doesn't say that to better your position in life and to make yourself more secure and to be a good manager or some of these cliches we use to justify a better position in this life [00:19:14] That doesn't mean that we're more godly. Often, sadly, it means the opposite. And yet, what occupies the majority of our time? Now, this is where the call of Jesus Christ sounds radical. Is it not? It sounds radical. When we start to look into the words that he left to us. We dare not accept the standard of the previous generation. You know, somewhere along the line, things changed. [00:19:52] I'd like to ask you a question or two. Have we seen that... Well, before we do that, let me develop that a little further. And then we'll get into the Scripture here. Are we content to just, when we hear the call of Christ on our life, whether we're not saved or whether we're already born again and we see a new revelation, [00:20:22] are we content to change some of the way we do things and some of our outward practices or dress or way we run our home or maybe the style of service we have? so that we feel that we have completed what Christ has called us to, that maybe we just come to a point where we feel superior to the other churches around us [00:20:54] or the other people around us because we have a new revelation and so we make some changes and now we're set apart. This is some of the insidious ways that pride gets into our heart, is it not? Or are we willing to really go to the heart of the matter, to go to the scripture and obey it all, to take it all? Is it possible to just take part of it and let the rest lay? Yes, it is, unfortunately. But that's not what Jesus Christ is after. That's not how he's going to build his kingdom. [00:21:27] And it's very possible, probable, that unless you are willing to deal with all your heart and to seek the Lord with all your heart that your hand will come back off the plow. It'll turn around and that's possible. Jesus said it was. To put your hand to the plow and then look back. Do we believe God's Word enough? When we come to these difficult sayings of Jesus [00:21:58] to stop life, stop that daily grind that carries us on, that we feel that we are so obligated to, How important is it in the light of our eternity, of our family's eternity, of our church, of our neighbor's eternity? How important is that daily grind of life that we get into a rut doing? Is it important enough that we cannot stop it and say, wait, something is wrong. Something is not right. I have scripture here that I don't understand, but it seemingly militates against the way I think and do. [00:22:33] I'm going to have to do something about it. Are we willing to do that? And I'm speaking broadly here. I'm not speaking of one particular Scripture. I'm speaking of a number of them. And they may be different in your life than mine. Where we're troubled by it, and yet we tend to, when we get to that point, that area when we're reading our Bible, we sort of just, yeah, well, that again. Still not sure what to do about that. Let's hurry on. Those things is exactly where the Father, our loving Heavenly Father, wants to touch our lives [00:23:10] and to make us radical according to the world's standard, according to the world's culture. He wants to transform us into the image of His Son. You shall seek me and you shall find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. and his promises and I will be found of you. So the call of Jesus is revolutionary and we, I believe, I stand before you [00:23:41] and I wouldn't preach this message this morning if I didn't believe that this hadn't occurred in your hearts already. I don't believe you've come here this morning. I don't want to believe that you've come here to find social fellowship and feel good about yourself and go home thinking that, well, we've done that again and it's so good and I'm refreshed. I can make it through one more week. Rather, I believe you've come here because you are victorious, because you are victors. [00:24:15] That is finished. But you're here to be, to share that and to encourage each other and to build each other up as the Church of Jesus Christ. It's a time of refreshment and it's a time of being strengthened in the faith. It's not a defeatist attitude. But you've been justified freely. You're more than conquerors and you've come here on that basis. That's the basis that we come to meet together week by week. So that's what I believe of you. But I want to challenge you this morning. I want to strengthen your faith. Recently, or haven't been said, or maybe you haven't heard it quite this way, that's going to challenge you to a deeper reflection on the words and the call of Christ. [00:25:10] The just shall live by his faith. That's what it always comes down to. You know, how much do we believe? How much, to what extent, I should say it this way, to what extent do we really believe what Jesus said? I'd like to turn to one of the scriptures that has been a personal hurdle for me. [00:25:47] One of these things that you climb up and you don't seem to get to the top, Which is in Matthew chapter 6, the last part of the chapter. Starting at verse 19. Matthew chapter 6, starting at verse 19. I think I'll just read this because these are such powerful words. [00:26:26] And these words, I don't know about you, but I grew up hearing little teaching on these words. It seemed to be a sort of a troublesome scripture to the setting I was in. and rightly so because as often is the emphasis was rather the opposite of these verses. And so it was a troublesome scripture and so I heard it preached [00:27:01] but there was often some common sense and some more obscure phrases in the scriptures used to clarify this clear teaching. And so as I began to seek the Lord and come across this, the Lord began to work in my heart and say, you know, if you're going to accept my love [00:27:31] and you're going to live for me, which is obviously your heart's desire, and it was, then you kind of have to deal with this. I mean, you kind of have to know what this says and agree with it. Because if you agree with other things but not this, it's not going to make sense. Your life is not going to be what I need it to be in order to use you in this world. Verse 19 of Matthew 6, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Now, that right there is enough to blow anybody out of the water. Any sense? After all, we have to, I mean, are we not commanded to provide? Yes, okay, we have faith, we believe in the Lord to cover our sins and to cleanse us, but when it comes to the practical areas, let's face it, I mean, we have our part too, do we not? [00:28:32] Well, yes, we certainly do. And here, Jesus outlines what it is. He doesn't command us not to lay up treasures. He just tells us where to put them. Notice that. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, and 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 and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. [00:29:06] I think I asked this question already. What is most of your time and energy given to on a day-by-day basis? 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. In other words, if what you think is light, is truth, is actually not truth, think how deceived you are. [00:29:38] You're thinking what is light is really light and it's not light at all, it's darkness. Your eye is not perceiving true light. Have you ever thought about how light is, how your eye is how you know what light is? You would have no concept of light if you did not have an eye. You wouldn't know. You wouldn't know how to describe it. You wouldn't know how to experience it. Light of the body is the eye. But if what you're seeing as reality and as truth and as faith and as real values in life is actually upside down and wrong, [00:30:11] how great is the darkness that is in you. 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. I've actually been in a situation recently where I've been trying to serve two masters, literally. Since we came back, I got a day job to... Well, I was offered a job by Israel Yoder while we lived in his rental house in order to provide for the family and to hold us over until we got back into our store, which we're not going back into until October. The Ixty family is leaving on the first of October and then we'll go back in there. [00:30:56] And so through the summer, I'm very thankful to have a job. But the work sort of ran out that he had given me to do. And so I started getting on the phone, calling around, seeing if I could find work somewhere else. That's sort of a strange position to be in because I've been my own boss for nearly 20 years. And suddenly I'm on the phone saying, do you have work for me to do? And I found work. And I found another fellow that had a lot of construction type work to do. He was glad to have me. And so I've been working for him for the last three, four weeks. And now Israel called me and says, okay, I've got work for you again. Can you come back? And I had told him I would dedicate myself to him. And so now I need to go back and work for Israel again. [00:31:45] But that's a little difficult Because these two guys are as different as night and day And it takes a little while to learn their style To learn how to please them To learn really what they're after And to switch back and forth is a little difficult But it's been good for me It's been good for me to learn again how to work for somebody else That's been very good for me I actually had some trouble with that right at first, believe it or not I guess I'd been my own boss too long But I was determined to give myself to it because I knew I would be able to learn by it. And I have learned. [00:32:21] But I tell you, it's a little tough to serve two masters. Now, if they both called me on the same day and said, you need to be here today, that would really be tough. But you know, that's exactly what some people try to do. They try to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And they try to say, well, we're going to have to make our own way when it comes to our finances. And that's exactly what this scripture is addressing. There's a scripture that says, if any man provide not for his own, he is worse than an infidel. [00:33:01] And we need to take that very seriously. However, that is given in a little different context than what Jesus is talking about here. We would do well to study that and not use a single phrase like that taken out of context to completely wipe out an entire teaching of Jesus, which is in the very constitution of the Christian life, the Sermon on the Mount. That's what this is. This is our foundation. This is our foundational teachings. There's other teachings that come later that mesh with these. But this is the foundation. This is where we begin. [00:33:37] So, as a result, Jesus says, of what I've already told you about this issue, in verse 25, He said, Therefore, I say to you, take no thought for your life. What ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on, is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Think of these simple, clear comparisons that he gives and realize the wisdom in what he says [00:34:08] and the foolishness of our common sense. That's quite paradox, isn't it? The foolishness of our common sense. Or the way we're... That is the type of thinking that is commonly accepted. That's what that phrase means among us. The way of thinking that's just commonly accepted. Jesus' words fly in the face of that. Behold the fowls of the air, for example. For they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, [00:34:38] yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto 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. and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now here, when we read these verses, these comparisons, we want to say, but, but, but, but, but, wait a minute. We're not birds. I mean, birds die of starvation. So what are you trying to tell me, Jesus? That's our common sense kicking in. [00:35:10] That's our human logic. These teachings transcend human logic. They're based on faith. This is the crux of faith. And I am not going to stand up here this morning and make apologies for what I'm reading here and say Well, you know, of course I know we have to do, I mean, and make excuses I'm just going to, I mean, you're very capable of doing that just like I am So if in your mind you're making excuses for some of these verses, that's, I guess, your problem [00:35:41] I'm not going to do that this morning I kind of have heard that a lot, where these verses are given and then we take them and try to twist them and fit them into the way we're already doing without stopping to think that maybe the way I'm doing is wrong. Maybe I need to change rather than justifying myself. Wherefore, if God so clothes, he concludes this thought here, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, [00:36:14] Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? There he touches right into the nerve, doesn't he? O ye of little faith. See, our Father, God, has full intentions and created us capable of simply trusting Him for our life. And when we try to twist that and take our lives into our own hands, we're wrong. and the Bible calls it unright or unrighteousness. [00:36:47] That's simply what righteousness means. It means we're right. If you like to be right, find the righteousness of Jesus Christ and you'll be right. You'll always be right. It's called righteousness. But when we try to take these scriptures and somehow fit them in so that they fit our culture and our way of doing things, we do violence to them. We do violence to them. Therefore take no thought, and here this is saying take no thought, do not be worried or consumed with thinking about how things are going to work out, saying what shall we eat, what shall we drink, wherewithal shall we be clothed, clothed. [00:37:35] The very things that we think when we read these scriptures, Jesus is saying, don't think that. Isn't it? That's what you thought when I read through these verses. Well, how are we going to live? How are we going to eat? Jesus says, don't think that. Okay. Okay, I'm sorry. We won't think that. Okay? What does he say? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. The people who know nothing about God. That's what they're consumed with. That's what they're worried about. That's what they spend their life uselessly trying to stay alive. And they never get anywhere. When they die, like Solomon said, it all goes back to dust. [00:38:09] They don't take it with them. It's vanity. Where is meaning in life if that's all that occupies our time? Where's the meaning of life? What are we really accomplishing? Sit down and take stock of your life. What have I accomplished for the Lord Jesus? And can I accomplish what He asked me to do by going on the way I am? We know what the heartbeat of God is. It's that souls would be saved. That people would be brought out of this darkness of this vain system, whether it's a system of abject poverty in bondage to Satan in Haiti, or whether it's materialistic capitalism in America. [00:38:50] They both have the same end. They're vanity. They're useless. They do not lead to everlasting life. for after all these things do the Gentiles seek and they haven't gotten anywhere for your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all these things we don't have to persuade him that what he is saying is unreasonable and we know a little bit better about how to live life here than he does [00:39:20] because we have to experience it it's fine for him to sit up in heaven with all his riches but try it down here Well, guess what? He did. He did. But seek ye first. Here's Jesus, the one who came and experienced it, saying, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. You find a greater promise for the believer in the Word of God than that. [00:39:53] Oh, that's a wonderful promise. Boy, I love that promise. Let's go on. No, no, let's stop right there. Let's stop right there. Is that a promise for you? For me? We need to take that just as seriously as we take our theology of justification. As just as seriously as we believe that Jesus Christ's blood has cleansed us from our sins. Now, if we can't believe that, what do we have? We don't have much, do we? Anything. But this is the word of God as much as the other. [00:40:26] 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 now, I'm sure you would appreciate if I would stand up here and tell you, ok, this is the way it's going to work out in your life if you do this and this then this will happen, which will lead you to greater faith and you'll become a hero for God I can't do that That's intruding into the dynamics of your relationship with God. [00:40:57] I can't do that. This word, that's the genius of the gospel. It's a personal gospel. It works out collectively in the church. But it has to be applied personally to your heart. And I've only dabbled experimentally in this. I'm not experienced at all. But my testimony is, and I can tell you most assuredly, That anything that you give to Jesus Christ as treasure in heaven, he will give back to you tenfold, a hundredfold. [00:41:28] He promises to do that. It may not be in the same currency. It may be. You know, currency is just a medium of exchange. Long ago, or in primitive places, even in America when she was first discovered, there wasn't coins, there wasn't money. They just bartered goods. But now we have a currency-based economy, and it's not good, because it leads to love of money, and it makes it so easy for people to prey on the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. [00:42:06] An agrarian society is far superior and that's actually what's given to us in the Bible. A society where every man dwells under his own vine and fig tree, raises enough for himself and for his neighbor, and there's bartering. But we don't live in that kind of a society. We live in a fallen world. We live in a, as I said, a country that was based on many good principles of the Word of God today in America. But the fact is that as America has grown older and generation after generation, including the Anabaptist people, have left the principles of God's word and especially this to the point where now when we go back and read it in our generation and say this is alien to us. [00:43:00] What is he talking about? But had you gone, if you could go back four or five hundred years to our Anabaptists, it wouldn't have been strange to them. It was normal everyday life to many of them who were living, fleeing from town to town for their faith. And everywhere they go, they would preach Jesus Christ knowing that it would make things hot and they would have to go on again. And they, because they lived the evangelistic part of the gospel, it made this work out practically in their life. But when we start to break too many of the rules of God's Word, [00:43:35] when we start to cool down in our evangelistic fervor, we don't really need this part of Matthew 6 anymore because we have enough for ourselves. Why should I worry about what Jesus says here? Because I'm able to take care of myself. Things aren't hot for me. I don't have to be afraid for my life. And you see, all these things, And I'm just picking out one here. I wasn't necessarily picking this morning on this particular chapter per se. [00:44:08] I'm simply lifting this up as an example of ways that we can treat the Word of God and be unfair to God. We'll say, yes, Lord, I trust you with my life. I surrender all. Yet do we. I was thinking as I pondered this scripture of another scripture in Timothy [00:44:38] where he says things pretty clearly too and this is also found in it's amazing how many of these were in chapter 6 of a particular book you have Matthew 6, you have Luke 6, you have 1 Timothy 6 where this issue is addressed and in 1 Timothy If any man teach otherwise, other than the doctrines that I am giving you, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, [00:45:10] that's all the words of Jesus Christ, including Matthew 6, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud. He is proud. That's his conclusion. If you don't agree, you're proud. So, you can examine your heart pretty clearly on that, I guess. Knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words. You know, let's change the definition of some of these words back here so that we can live with what he says. [00:45:45] That's what he's talking about here. We're not supposed to change the definition. We're supposed to take them at face value. Whereof cometh, oh, we have disunity in our churches? Surprise, surprise. Envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, far from simple faith, and destitute of the truth. Supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. [00:46:16] You would have thought that Paul maybe knew something about 21st century America when he wrote this. To Timothy, well, I guess men haven't changed all that much over the years, have they? It's just that one of the major differences is the culture that this was written into and the political system that this was written into. Men were under an absolute government, a monarchy. And they were accustomed to having to obey their authority over them. When it disagreed with what they wanted, with their freedoms, [00:46:49] with their, quote, given liberties. They had to sacrifice them. Well, we in America don't have that advantage. We can do whatever we want and get away with it. And so we tend to do that with the Word of God. Well, it's not authoritative. We sort of take a democratic view of the Word of God. We kind of choose what's the most popular and then that's what we apply. Don't let me get off on a tangent here. Let me keep going here in 1 Timothy 6. [00:47:20] But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. I've already mentioned some of these truths. And having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. Now, that's an interesting point. Because we always add homes to it. A house or a job. Jesus and Paul didn't. A number of times in the New Testament they say food and raiment. [00:47:51] Food and raiment, be content. But, but, but, but, but, I'm not going to make any excuses for the Word of God this morning. I'm just preaching it the way it is. Is it personal to you? Does it strike a chord in your heart? God wants to come and work that out with you, exactly what that means to you. And that will bring unity. But they that want or will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. [00:48:26] Doesn't that describe the economic system of today? You know, we hear about these foreclosures of homes where people have borrowed on top of borrowing and have gotten into big trouble because they've borrowed themselves to the hilt and beyond because men who were greedy for gain were willing to give the money for what they could get out of it. And now we have this balloon economy that is collapsing, and it's called foolish and hurtful lust that brought this destruction, which drowned men in destruction and perdition. [00:48:58] For the love of money is the root of all evil. What do you spend the majority of your life doing? which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith simple faith says God will take care of me according to Jesus and we are not to trouble ourselves about tomorrow but when we do and it's out of a love of money [00:49:28] we err from the faith and pierce themselves through with many sorrows But thou, O man of God, flee these things That means run away fast That's all Get out of there Don't associate with that mentality or that culture If that is the culture that you live in, get out And become a godly culture unto yourselves Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love [00:50:03] patience, meekness, fight the good fight of faith. Faith is the antidote to these things. Just truly and literally accepting, believing, and practicing what Jesus said. Whereunto thou art called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. And skipping over, Paul goes on here to just praise the Lord for a little bit. and lift up His glory and His power and His ableness to keep us. [00:50:36] And in verse 17, He says, charge them. That word charge is a powerful word. If you're in the head of an army and you say charge, things are going to move and shake. Charge them. That means strongly admonish and command. them that are rich in this world now a lot of times in our churches we're afraid to preach to the rich I mean after all they kind of support our churches don't they? [00:51:08] watch and not offend them too much here it says charge them that are rich that they be not high minded oh you think you run this place huh? I'm trying to put this in terms that we can clearly understand I'm not saying that's what he said But today, I think we need a little bit of strong teaching in some of these areas to bring us back on balance. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. [00:51:45] Where do the riches come from? God who giveth us richly. Freely ye have received, freely give. Verse 18, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. I will throw this out, the tenor of the teaching on this particular subject. Two things. One is, the only way I have figured out a way to lay up treasure in heaven is to give to the poor. [00:52:19] I don't know any other way to do it, to give to those that are needy. I don't know, in scanning all these scriptures about riches in the Bible, how else to do it. How else is a practical way that you can lay up treasure in heaven? But by doing good to those who don't deserve it, or to those that can't do anything for themselves. That's laying up treasure in heaven. And number two, make lots of money. There's nothing in scripture that says you shouldn't make lots of money. It just says give it away. Just use it for the kingdom of God. Don't put it aside as a trust fund for your retirement. Don't have it as a security because it's going to destroy your faith. How can you have your faith in mammon and in God at the same time? Yes, I believe God saved me from my sin and he's redeemed me and I'm walking the road to glory. But don't get rid of my CD. Why? If the former is true, why do you need the latter? [00:53:19] And for us Americans, it's a painful one. It's a painful one because our whole economy and our whole culture is geared to operate on currency, on money, on that as a security. And all these businesses have sprung up that prey on that fear of death or that fear of sickness. Insurance, funeral homes. I mean, you just go on and on. There's this whole bunch of businesses that are able to make their money because you're afraid. [00:53:52] You don't have your trust in God. So this morning, remember, gain is not godliness. Oh, the Lord is just blessing my business. Yeah, well, the pornography business is flourishing too. God bless that. I'm not saying God can't bless your business financially. I'm just saying let's be careful in our reasoning. And when we approach the scriptures, let's take them for really what they say. [00:54:26] That's really the thrust of my message today. Let's not take the way we do things in our culture and take it in there and make it all fit nicely. Men have been doing that for thousands of years. There's no future in it. Let's take the Word and love it and seek the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. And He will give us the desires of our heart. We don't even know what those are many times, but He says He will give them to us. He'll show us what they are and He'll give them to us. That's my hope and my faith this morning. [00:55:00] I need to grow in these things. I'm just learning things too as I read over the Scriptures again and again. Like, wait a minute, I've never dealt with that. And the Holy Spirit takes that. He makes it pertinent to my heart. And then I am accountable for it. I'll have to answer for it before God. I won't have to answer for the things I don't know or don't understand, but I will have to answer for the things I do. And you will too. So, be comforted. I believe you are here this morning because you want the Word. That's the only reason I dare preach a message like that. There's a lot of places I would have been scared to. [00:55:30] But I'm not here. Because I believe you want the Word and you want the Lord and you want to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. So keep seeking that way. If you are freely justified, you have nothing to fear by going to this scripture and saying, I want to do what this says. Lord, help me. Because He's already done so much for you. You think He's going to do something bad to you now? Of course not. So love the Lord with all your heart. God bless you.