Lay Not Up Treasures on Earth, Part 2

The Guiding Principles of Matthew 6: The Father Sees and The Father Cares

0:06 We have come in our studies of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6 to this latter division of the 6th chapter beginning with verse 19 and moving down through the end of the chapter.

0:21 But in keeping before us the basic structure and the basic issues of chapter 6, if we'll just remember two questions and the simple answer to those questions, we will be able, I believe, to continually keep before us the truth embodied in this particular section of the Word of God.

0:41 What is the most vital issue when I perform my religious duties?

0:50 If there's one thing I must remember above all others when I pray, what is it? If there's one thing I must remember above all others when I give, what is it? If there's one thing I must remember above all else when I fast, what is it? Then it's the liturgy.

1:06 It's the final phrase, the Father seeth. That's the key to the first 18 verses of Matthew chapter 6. The Father seeth. That's all that matters.

1:16 And if I remember that, then I'll not be content that I simply spend some time in the closet for the Father seeths. And if my heart was not there, then I'll take no comfort that my body was there.

1:29 And conversely, there are times when the closet time has been seemingly so unprofitable. There's been nothing but dryness and dullness. Dullness and coldness of mind and of spirit. But the Father sees, and He remembers our frame.

1:46 And He sees that in the midst of that coldness and dryness, there was an earnest crying out after Him. The Father seeth. That's all that matters. Now as we come to the latter part of the sixth chapter to deal with this matter of the Christian, not in his religious life now, but in his practical life, the world of things, of clothes, of food, of providing for loved ones and providing for ourselves.

2:09 What's the key? What must I remember above all else as I move day by day in this world of physical necessity and physical things? The key is the two little words, the Father cares. The Father cares.

2:23 As our Lord says later on in this chapter, The Father knoweth that ye have need of such things. The Father sees. That's all that matters when I pray. As I go out into a world where I must work in order to put bread upon the table, I must work in order to put bread upon the table.

2:38 I must work in order to put bread upon the table. Where I must be concerned about the education of my children and the meeting of car and home payments and bills and all the rest. The Lord says you must continually remember. The Father cares.

2:51 The Father cares. Now in looking at the details of this latter part, beginning with verse 19, moving to the end of the chapter, we saw last week that the first few verses deal with the problem of a positive love of the world and then verses 25 to the end of the chapter deal with the matter of a sinful anxiety about the world. And we are tempted in both of these areas. The positive love of the world, actually seeking to lay up treasures.

Christ's Command: Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

3:20 But then there is the more subtle problem of sinful anxiety about the world, taking anxious thought, four times that little phrase is used, anxious thought, in the latter part of chapter 6. Now as we come to our study this morning, we want to pick up where we left off. We want to pick up where we left off last week by considering verses 19 to 24. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.

3:52 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 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 thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

4:12 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. 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.

4:40 End of Mammon. Last week we just began to consider these verses. Our Lord's command comes with a positive and negative aspect. Lay not up treasures upon earth, but lay up treasure in heaven.

4:55 And we saw that a treasure is anything that is of importance to me. It's the accumulation of anything that has value to the one who accumulates it. And our Lord said we must not be occupied, with laying up that which is of value to us, which is earthy. It can be money, but with most of us it is things more subtle than money.

5:21 Reputation, standing, our families, our home, position. Anything that is of value to me, that I seek to hoard up, which is tied to this earth, is to violate the command of our Lord. But he says lay up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt. Now having considered the command last week, we want to look this morning at the reasons which our Lord gives for this command.

Reason 1: The Folly of Earthly Treasures (Common Observation)

5:49 I think we just touched on this last week, and I want to amplify on it this morning. Our Lord condescends in such graciousness here to support his command with reasons. He doesn't need to do this. He is God.

6:06 We are his creatures, and if we are born of the Spirit, we are glad subjects of his reign. and of his crown. And it would be enough for our Lord simply to say, as the head and king of his church and his people, lay not up treasure upon earth, but lay up treasure in heaven. But our Lord condescends to our weakness, and seeks to demonstrate by very logical and sane reasons, why he has given this command to us.

6:37 And so in his condescension, let us behold the reasons which our Lord gives, and in so doing, not only be amazed at his condescension, but let's tremble at our responsibility. For some might say, well, I don't see the reasonableness of our Lord's commands, therefore I'll be slow to obey them. Our Lord takes that argument right out of our mouths and says, I will support my command with such clear reasons that even your conscience will force you to confess the reasonableness of this command, and therefore our responsibility is even heightened. Now, what is the first reason for this command, that we lay not up treasures on earth, but that we lay up treasure in heaven?

7:20 It's the reason that we might call the reason of common observation. Notice what our Lord says in verse 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal. He said, by common observation, every one of you will have to acknowledge the absolute folly of a treasure, an accumulating earthly treasure, whether it's money, reputation, prestige, standing, position, popularity, pleasure, regardless of what it is.

7:54 He says, by simply being an observant human being, you are forced to acknowledge that everything that is an accumulation from earth is subject to two things. It's subject to decay and corruption, moth and rust corrupt, and it's subject to theft and to violence. Thieves can break through and steal it. Now let's break this down.

8:20 The folly of laying up earthly treasure is found in the fact that all that is of earth is exposed to decay and corruption. Our Lord says the earthly treasure is exposed to the moth and to rust. The moth, this would be corruption that comes from without. Rust or canker, the word here literally means anything that consumes or cankers cloth or metal.

8:47 Here is something that arises from the very nature of the treasure itself. You take silver and gold. If you leave them alone and shut them up in a closet, they tarnish. If you use them, they will not tarnish, but they wear away.

9:03 So in either case, you can't even preserve a treasure like silver and gold intact. To use it to keep it from being cankered is to have it worn away. Look at the wedding band that you have. It is not cankered and rust or tarnished.

9:19 It shines, but there is not quite as much of it as there was at least in mine nine years ago. And so to preserve it, I will take it off and put it on the shelf while I come back in six months and it is tarnished. What is true of gold is true of every single earthly treasure. Reputation, it is exposed to corruption and decay from without.

9:43 How easily a good name can be marred by a loose and wagging tongue until one who stood in the place of esteem and reputation amongst his peers is suddenly looked upon as an outcast. So everyone who makes reputation his treasure is making a treasure of that which is exposed to corruption and decay from without. And then there is the matter of corruption and decay that arises from within. Moth does consume and rust and canker eats away.

10:16 The word eat away or corrupt is the same word used in James where James speaks of what is your life. It is a little vapor that appears and then vanisheth away. It is something that is transitory. It is not tangible.

10:32 You can't take hold of it and hold it. And so because of decay and corruption it loses its worth. Now the Lord said, don't lay up treasure on earth because by common observation you see the folly of making a treasure of that which will lose its worth because of corruption coming from without or from within. Anything that you treasure up here on earth is exposed to that.

10:56 And then he says it is exposed to violence. Thieves break through or literally dig through and steal. It is exposed to theft and violence. It may keep its worth but it will change hands by thievery.

11:10 Now common observation tells us that any earthly treasure is exposed to these two things. Physical riches exposed to the moth of inflation. To the rust of a devalued dollar. Physical riches exposed to actual thievery.

11:28 Exposed to tragedy and sickness that can sweep away your life savings in a month. The Lord said, common observation tells you the absolute folly of laying up treasure on earth because every treasure beginning with even the actual treasures of money are exposed to all forms of corruption and decay or to theft. Take the treasures of popularity.

11:55 The moth of age. The rust of the lines that steal across the face of the one who once enhanced everyone with his or her beauty suddenly passed by as just an old relic of humanity. Beauty and the popularity that it brings exposed to rust. To decay.

12:17 Even exposed to thievery. Someone more beautiful than you comes into your class and suddenly you are not the number one on the list of desirable young ladies or desirable young men. How foolish. To make our treasure the accumulation of the praise of people and the popularity of those amongst us when it's exposed to decay and to corruption.

12:41 This is true of reputation. It's true of pleasure. You take anything that has its roots in this life which we seek to accumulate as a thing of value and there's not a thing but what it's exposed to these two areas of loss. Decay and corruption and death.

13:01 So our Lord said it's absolute folly. Absolute folly to lay up treasures here on earth. Isn't it amazing how foolish and blinded is the human heart that it will fly into the face of facts that are disclosed by common observation by all humanity and yet live as though it were not true. I'm looking into the faces of young people today who are laying up treasure on this earth.

13:32 Your treasure is marks in school, the approval of your friends, popularity, physical pleasure and common observation tells you that these things are exposed to decay and yet you'll still set your heart upon them. There's no explanation for this but that sin has been so devastating in its effects upon humanity that we don't even use our good common sense to our own advantage but we allow ourselves to be destroyed in the very face of facts that cry out from common observation. Isn't it true? Others of you as parents, you see the absolute folly of other parents

14:15 who've had ambition for their children who have been willing to sacrifice the souls of their children upon the altar of parental ambition and you've seen the folly of it, you've seen their broken hearts and yet what will you do? You'll do the same thing. You'll do the same thing. And yet our Lord would impress upon us by common observation the folly of laying up treasure on earth and then He says it's just plain good sense to lay up treasure in heaven.

The Wisdom of Heavenly Treasures

14:45 Why? Because He says nothing there is exposed to decay and corruption. Thieves do not break through and steal and moth and rust do not corrupt. No violence in heaven.

14:57 There is no corruption there. Our Lord said just plain good horse sense should make a man be occupied with laying up treasures in heaven. We read in 1 Peter 1 and verse 4 that we have been called unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us. It won't be long before these drapes will begin to droop and fade.

15:24 Pretty as they are now, we'll be getting the itch in a few years to get them down and get them replaced. They're exposed to that which makes them fade but Peter says our inheritance and the glory everlasting. There's nothing there that can fade. It's incorruptible.

15:40 Nothing can decay. And our Lord says from the standpoint of just good sense, why not lay up treasure in heaven where there is no exposure to corruption, where there is no exposure to violence. Yet it's only the person who's been regenerated by the Holy Spirit that even complies with His good sense and reason. You see, the world prides itself.

16:02 We can't accept Christianity. We live by our reason. The Lord says no. Until a man's a Christian, he doesn't even use his reason rightly.

16:13 His reason's his worst enemy. But the Scripture says after that, in the wisdom of the world, the world by its wisdom knew not God. But it's the Christian, one who's been illuminated in his mind and heart by the Spirit, who's been regenerated by the mighty work of God, who sees the proper perspective and says like Moses, and I think this is the best commentary in the New Testament on this, in Hebrews chapter 11, it tells us that Moses made a choice regarding the treasures of Egypt or some other treasures that he couldn't see and touch at the time. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 26,

16:57 beginning with verse 25, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Why? Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect to the recompense of the reward. Moses said, as a regenerate man will say, I see the absolute folly of laying up treasure in Egypt.

17:31 What would that treasure have been? Not just earthly treasures as far as money is concerned, but there he was. Profane history tells us perhaps next in line for the throne of Egypt. There's some speculation that Pharaoh had no sons and that Moses, if he had become the adopted son, would have actually been in line for the throne of Egypt.

17:56 All that it would have brought, he could have reasoned from this vantage point, I can bear an influence for the true God from this vantage point. I can spread abroad the knowledge of Jehovah and all the rest. But he saw that Egypt's treasures were born of earth and would die with her. And that if he were to go out and identify himself with the people of God, there would be a treasure incorruptible that would meet him when he would stand in the presence of God.

Searching Questions on Your Treasure

18:25 And it says, because he had respect to the reward, he said, I'm not going to invest my life and energies and time into that which is exposed to moth and rust and corruption. But to that which is not exposed, he laid up treasure in heaven. May I ask you some very searching yet simple questions this morning? What do you have laid up that's absolutely moth-proof?

18:57 We go by a certain cleaning establishment and they say we moth-proof garments and store them. What have you laid up that is absolutely moth-proof? In the sense that our Lord is saying. What have you and what are you laying up that is not exposed to the decay and the moth and corruption of time, of death, of change in circumstances?

19:25 What are you laying up that tragedy can't touch? If God should take the darling of your heart from you, be it girlfriend, or fiance, or husband, or wife. If God should take the darlings of your heart, your children. If God should take your most precious earthly possessions, home, car.

19:44 If God should sweep it all away in a moment of time like he did with Job. What have you got that's absolutely guaranteed not to be touched by? What are you investing that cannot be touched by any of these things? Second question that flows out of this.

20:08 What have you laid up that depressions, bombs, disfigurement of face, demotion in position, time, sickness, accident, can't touch? What are you laying up that death can't sever you from? Oh young people listen to me. Some of you are living for the approval of your friends.

20:42 ...on your Christian stand because you're afraid of the frown of your friends and you've got to keep that smile at any cost.

20:51 What will happen to that smile when you die? You'll be severed. If you're laying up the treasure of the smile of God that you long for in that day when he'll say to his own well done good and faithful servant. All death can do is bring you to see that smile instead of taking it away from you.

21:15 All death can do is usher you into the presence of a God whose smile you've counted more dear than the smile of any creature. This is very practical when you're at work and you say well if I speak out as I ought I might ruin my job and I might lose my position. All right. Listen.

21:40 Is your position more precious than the smile of God that you'd cut corners on your Christian stand and your Christian ethics just to keep your job? If so, you're laying up a treasure that God could sever you from in an instant of time. What are you laying up that can't be touched by demotion, sickness, disfigurement, death? Third question.

22:08 What is it that flows out of this? If God ushered you out of this life today, how much accumulation would meet you there? From the past week, how much of time, of energy, of thought, how much has been an investment of the capital of heaven back into the bank of heaven? Or have we dispersed our energies and our time and our thoughts and interest in accumulating that which death and moth and rust can sweep away?

Reason 2: The Relationship of Treasure to the Whole Man

22:46 Now, our Lord is asking you why we should lay up treasure on earth and why we should not lay up treasure on earth but lay up treasure in heaven. And He does so in a threefold way. To summarize all three of the reasons, I believe I would call them and I've done some mental sweat trying to get something that would stick with us and this is the best I've come up with. The first reason why we ought not to lay up treasures on earth but lay up treasure in heaven is the reason found in just common observation.

23:21 The second reason is the relationship of treasures to the whole man. What is the relationship between the thing that I treasure and my total being as a human being and my total personality fellow girl, man or woman, whoever it be? Our Lord says for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye.

23:44 No man can serve two masters. What is He doing in these three verses? I believe what He's doing is to lay up treasures. I believe what He's doing is this.

23:56 He's showing us that we cannot divorce our treasure from what we are. If we could divorce what is our treasure from our relationship to God in heart mind and will then this matter of laying up treasures on earth wouldn't be a serious issue. But the Lord Jesus wants to show us in these verses that this matter of laying up treasures is of such a nature that wherever my treasure is my heart and my will will be. So what is my treasure and has my treasure has me?

Treasure and the Heart

24:31 That's the import of the next few verses. Let's look at them. First of all He starts with the heart. For where thy treasure is there will thy heart be also.

24:46 Either your treasure is an earthy one or it's a heavenly one and wherever the treasure is with its negative polarity magnetic wise and the human heart having a positive polarity. So wherever the treasure is with its negative polarity the heart will be drawn in the same direction. Some of you fellows and girls you've played with magnets and when you get those two polarities opposites wherever you turn the one the other will move. You can move a magnet right around the earth and the other will move a magnet right around

25:31 the earth. So the heart is a positive polarity like the sun and the sunflower. So what has or what is my treasure has my heart. Now when I make the things of earth my treasure whether it's money my children popularity my home things pleasure the moment my treasure is here that's where my heart is.

25:56 We were made with hearts to know God. We were made with hearts for eternity not time. We were made with hearts to live and dwell in the realm of the spirit and not to be held in the clutches of the sensual and the earthly and the flesh. So our Lord says if you understand the relationship between your heart and your treasure you won't lay up treasures on earth.

26:23 If you're a child of God then the basic longing of your heart is to dwell with him and to fellowship with him. Your basic longing is to live and move and work in the light of eternity. Your basic concern is the realm of the spirit but the moment you set up an earthly treasure I care not what it is your heart's going to be where your treasure is and if it's an earthly treasure you've got an earthy heart and an earthy heart can't fellowship with God. And then in the second verse a very strange verse and there are several basic interpretations or explanations

Treasure and the Mind (The Eye)

27:08 given to the verse the light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light 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 the darkness the illustration is clear. If I have one little member called the eye if I have a healthy eye I see everything in its right relationship I see your shining countenance and your pretty hat or little veil or I see the pretty drapes if the eye is functioning properly then I see things as they are but if my eye is evil if it's distorted if it's clouded

27:52 I'll see either with a double vision or a blurred vision so if the only instrument by which light comes into my body is perverted my whole activity will be one of darkness and that's the implication of this verse now how does it apply well some would say that it applies to the matter of the heart that the Lord is amplifying what he said in the previous verse if you have a single heart then everything will be seen in its right light some would say that it's dealing with the aims and intentions of the life if your goals are right everything will fall into line but if you have a single heart then you are dealing with the matter of the mind

28:36 let me explain why you see what is valuable in the judgment of your mind is that to which you will give your life you and I were made to be rational beings we were not made to be animals that's a part of the fall that the mind which should govern the appetites has been made subject to the appetite so that even though we cry out we do that thing against the dictates of our better reason before Adam and Eve fell they were creatures of flesh but they were creatures also of mind or of spirit and flesh was subject to mind but in the fall

29:20 of man it's been reversed and the bible says men now worship and serve the creature it says that men as natural brute beasts carry out the appetites of their flesh but God in his grace does a wonderful work and basically reverses that trend again so that the Christian though he is always aware of the appeal and the pleadings and the cryings out of his baser nature he's been brought back to the place where by the renewing of his what his mind he seeks to prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God now notice what our Lord says here if your eye

30:04 be single if your mind is set on earth upon heavenly treasure then you'll see everything in its proper light illustration yes somebody comes along to someone and says now look all's fair in love and war and in business I know you're one of these religious fellows but look if we'll just cut a corner here it'll mean this and this and this in terms of your own position in terms of promotion now just forget your religion for a moment now if you're a man whose heart is set on earthly possessions position and the money it brings what'll happen because your eye is dark because your mind

30:49 is not fixed upon heavenly treasure but earthly treasure you'll make a wrong judgment and you'll cut corners on what your mind ought to see in its true light and your mind will be an inaccurate conveyor of what you ought to do in that instance here's the young person who's faced with the issue if I take a clear cut stand on this thing at school it'll mean I'll lose some friends I won't be as popular if I take a clear cut stand on my date with this fella who's begun to make his intentions known and I say look these are my Christian convictions I know what'll happen I'll perhaps lose my Friday night date and have to sit home so if your treasure is an earthly one

31:33 popularity and social standing and social acceptance the eye is darkened and instead of making the right judgment on that particular situation you make a wrong judgment why? because your treasure is here therefore the thing your mind that should give you proper judgment is darkened and how great is that darkness you read about that in Romans 1 where it says God gives people up to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient what a terrible thing to have a heart that is so enmeshed with the things and the treasures of time that a man can no longer make proper judgments with his mind on what's right and what's wrong

Treasure and the Will (Serving Two Masters)

32:16 what has or what is my treasure will have my heart what has my heart will have my mind and my judgment and then our Lord says it will issue ultimately in the will no man can serve two masters a better translation no servant can be a slave to two masters if the two masters are not in cooperation and are both demanding the same thing a man can serve a hundred masters if they're all agreed but what our Lord is saying is that no man can serve two masters whose plan and purpose for their subjects

33:01 their servants is diametrically opposed for what will happen notice what he says either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold to the one cling to the one and despise the other you can't you cannot serve God and mammon now what is mammon well again the commentators go round and round trying to track down this word mammon but one thing is clear it is some kind of a personification of this matter of earthly treasures whatever it means it has to do with this business of an earthly treasure now notice what our Lord is saying two masters stand before you one is God one is mammon God says lay a treasure on earth

33:46 in heaven mammon says lay up treasure on earth now we can't obey both because their demands their commands are so diametrically opposed I must yield allegiance to one or to the other God says be anxious for nothing mammon says be anxious and fretful for everything God says to our hearts be content with such things as you have mammon says cling and grasp and accumulate all that you can mammon says be concerned with what you can't see the world of the eternal and the spirit mammon says be occupied

34:30 with what you can see and touch and feel and taste now how can you serve two masters like that you can't their demands are so diametrically opposed that either we hold to the one and despise the other or love the one and hate the other set these things together our lord says where your treasure is there your hearts going to be and whatever has the heart will have the mind and whatever has the mind will have the will and whatever has my

35:14 will is my master and either it's god or it's things and there's no neutral things temporal and the incorruptible miss of all things eternal but he'd show us the relationship between our treasure and the whole man what is my treasure has my heart what has my heart has my mind what has my mind will have my will this is why James tells us that friendship with the world is enmity with God there's no such thing as a worldly Christian it's a misnomer there's no

35:58 such thing as a worldly Christian there is such a thing as a Christian who may be blinded by some aspect of worldly attraction and succumb yes but to say a worldly Christian is to use the term worldly as a description of a dominant characteristic James said whoever is the friend of the world attachment to to the world is dominant in his life, is the enemy of God. And an enemy of God is not a Christian.

36:31 That's why John says in 1 John 2.15, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Let's get out of our conversation the term worldly Christian as much as we get the other one.

36:49 I think it's been pretty well expunged from our midst. Carnal Christian. Those are misnomers. There is no such thing.

36:58 There is a Christian who can be overcome in a given area of carnality. Christ is his object. Holiness is gold. And here's some glaring inconsistency of carnality.

37:11 But to say a carnal Christian is to place the word carnal as the dominant descriptive adjective of that person's life. Now you're saying a carnal Christ one. A sin. Spirit.

37:24 Flesh one. God says there is no such thing. Either we're in the flesh, basically, or in the spirit. Romans chapter 8.

37:32 And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh. Galatians 5.24. Now the same is true with this matter of the world.

Practical Application: Choosing Your Master

37:40 May I be very practical and I trust the Holy Spirit will force the issue home to your mind as we close this morning. As you sit here this morning, every one of you without exception is either basically bowing to mammon, or you're basically bowed to the living God. And Jesus said you can't be bowed to both. That's the wrong thinking of this idea of worldly Christians.

38:07 We say that man's a Christian, he's bowing to Jesus, but he's bowing to the world at the same time. Impossible, Christ says. You can't serve God and mammon. You can't.

38:19 For at every point where the demands of God conflict with the demands of mammon, you'll show your true self. You can come to church and not see mammon. Any conflict. When it comes time to make your missionary pledge and you've got some plans for some things you want to do that will feed your flesh, ah, here's the conflict.

38:37 You're going to serve God or mammon. There's the conflict. Mammon says, keep up possessions for yourself. God says, disperse abroad that my gospel may be taken to the ends of the earth.

38:52 Beloved, your missionary pledge could be $10,000. It doesn't prove anything. It could be five cents. It doesn't prove anything.

38:57 The real issue is this. In making that pledge, you're saying yes to mammon or yes to God.

39:05 In our affluent society, most of us can make a pledge up into the hundreds of dollars and still be kissing mammon's feet and be humming our nose at God. That's right. We could. Does that pledge that you and I make represent saying yes to God who says lay up treasure in heaven?

39:29 Or is it just disposing of something that we could conveniently use elsewhere anyway and still allow us to bow down and hug mammon's feet and kiss him? We can come to church. We can come to church and young people's society and be reasonably Christian in our demeanor. But the real issue is when I'm in that crowd of kids at school or at the shop and the issues are clear and I must either speak out and lose my reputation in standing before men to some degree or be silent in order to keep their respect.

40:06 What do I do then? That's the issue. Whether I bow down and kiss mammon's feet and keep my mouth shut or whether I open my mouth in the sweetness and boldness of Christ. And kiss my Lord's feet.

40:20 Jesus said you can't serve God and mammon. Every one of you is basically bowed to God and mammon.

40:29 As a Christian, it's possible that in a given area we can bow down to mammon. Peter did. His treasure at the moment when the young woman came and said aren't you one of them? Your speech betrays you and he cursed and denied saying I know not the man.

40:44 What was his treasure? His own skin. He didn't want to lose his own hide. So he denied his Lord because at that point his treasure was an earthly one.

40:53 His own skin.

40:57 Thank God it wasn't always that way. This wasn't the basic bent and pattern of his life for tradition tells us he one day lost his skin rather than lose or deny his Lord.

Final Exhortation: Where Are You Laying Up Treasure?

41:11 Where are we laying up treasure this morning?

41:15 What has your heart?

41:18 What has your mind? What has your will? When your mind is free from other necessary occupations does it move to different ways where you can scheme to make an extra gift? Does it buck?

41:30 Or does it move to ways that you may lay up treasure in heaven?

41:36 When you sit around and talk with other people and the conversation can move in any direction if you have anything to say what direction does it move? To the things of earth? Or does it naturally gravitate to the things of heaven? When you have decisions to make you young people and I'm earnest that you get some of these principles if you face such crucial decisions as you think about your life work what government?

42:02 Is it Lord? Where can I best invest my life in the light of treasure in heaven? If it is, your eye is single then your judgment about your life's work will be accurate and right. But if your eye is evil and you're thinking of your life's work in terms of money, position, standing you can't make a right judgment because the eye has been darkened and your whole life shall be full of darkness.

42:28 See how important it is to make sure in your early years that this has been settled. I want treasure in heaven. No matter where God puts me in my occupation my concern is not earthly treasure but heavenly. See how important it is you mothers?

42:44 How can you make any sensible decisions about your children? How can you make the right decision about where they go to school? Some parents will kill themselves to get their children into a school that has academic recognition and standing. Why?

42:58 Because they want their children to have a good name and so they'll sacrifice them to mammon. The children may come back full of unbelief and immorality. They've sacrificed them. Why?

43:11 They couldn't make a right judgment about the college for their children because their only ambition was earthy instead of heavenly. When my ambition is Lord all I want from my children is that they'll know you and glorify you and serve you according to your will and your eye is single to laying up heavenly treasures through your children then your body will be full of light. God will guide your judgment. You see how this applies in so many areas.

43:42 If we would have clear judgment in the decisions of life then our hearts must be fixed upon treasure in heaven. May the Lord take these reasons that he himself has given us and burn them into our hearts and enable us to be a people who lay up treasure there where moth and rust do not corrupt. In closing this morning let us make a decision to make our prayer the prayer of hymn number 215