True Treasure — William MacDonald

I'd just like to add my word of appreciation for the choir and for that number. It really hit a responsive chord in my heart. Matthew 6, please, verse 19. The sixth chapter of Matthew's gospel, verse 19.

The Sermon on the Mount and the Authority of Scripture

Some of us who are called dispensationalists are accused of not believing in the Sermon on the Mount. Well, here's a dispensationalist who believes in the Sermon on the Mount. I do admit that there are certain Jewish colorings to it, but I believe every word of God is pure and all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.

Matthew 6, verse 19. 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 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. 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 and men. Therefore I say unto 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?

Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

Why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin, yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?

Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. This afternoon we were speaking about faith and about the life of faith, and we read about some of these patriarchs in the Old Testament who lived the life of faith.

Walking by Faith Rather Than Sight

Well, God calls us to the life of faith too. Today we walk by faith and not by sight, the scripture says. And this passage of scripture is one that really drives it home very effectively to our hearts.

Very radical, very revolutionary, but here it is just the same. It's the words of the Lord Jesus and just as much a part of the inspired word of God as John 3 .16. Take the first verse, for instance. Verse 19, it says, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.

Did you hear that? Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth. Now, you know, when you and I read that passage of scripture, our minds can conjure up 60 theological reasons why that verse doesn't mean what it says.

Isn't that right? The reason for that is the most sensitive part of man's anatomy is his pocketbook. The hardest job that the Lord has is to cut that delicate nerve between a man's brain and his pocketbook.

And common sense tells me, common sense tells me that I have to lay up treasures on earth for my old age. Isn't that right? You have to think about the rainy day. Well, if I know anything today, if a man is living for the rainy day, he'll be sure to get it.

He'll be sure to get it. God has a better way and God has a program for social security and it beats anything that man has ever been able to divide. But I don't guarantee you'll like it, because it's the life of faith.

And most of us don't like the life of faith. Most of us like crutches and pillows and supports, you know, cushions, don't we? And we'd rather see it as a balance and a bankbook than have the naked promise of God to supply all our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Material Security Cannot Replace God

But here the Lord Jesus says it. He says, you're thinking about your future, are you? OK, don't lay up treasures on earth. You say, but Lord, there's security in material things, isn't that right? We all know that, don't we?

I was brought up in a Scottish home and I was taught that wise bees save honey and wise men save money, you know? And it must be true because it rhymes. But it's the very opposite of what you read in this verse of Scripture.

This verse of Scripture says, lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth. Now, what shall we do with that verse? You say, but I need security. Well, the Lord says in this verse you won't get security on material things.

You get three nervous breakdowns. Say, what are they? Moth, rust, and seeds. Isn't that interesting? The more you have, the more worries you've got, too. And really it's a great lesson to learn. It takes some of us generations to learn it, but it's a great lesson to learn.

Dear friends, you and I don't have any security in material things. Material things do not bring security. The only security the child of God has is God Himself, and He is enough. Now, I can just hear the arguments going on in your mind.

Well, they've gone into my mind long before they have in some of yours. But we have to grapple with what the Bible says. And we remember from this afternoon that faith takes the Word of God and accepts it at its faith value.

And a great rule of Bible interpretation is if the first sense makes sense, don't look for any other sense. And the first sense makes sense here. And the more you look at it, the more sense it makes. Don't lay up treasures on earth.

Laying up treasures on earth, as I've said so often, I think it was Anthony Norris Groves, maybe, who said it first. Laying up treasures on earth is as contrary to the Word of God as adultery. Oh, I don't say it's the same kind of a sin, but it's as contrary to the Word of God as adultery.

Do you believe that? Well, I'm not flooded with amens. It's not just the same, whether you say amen or not. It's absolutely true. The Bible says don't do it. We go ahead and do it anyway, right? It says lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, nor where thieves break through and steal.

How do you lay up treasures in heaven? By sending it on ahead. That's how. It's the only way you'll ever lay up treasures in heaven. Just sending it on ahead. Do your giving while you're living, and you're knowing where it's going.

It says for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And you know that's really true? Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And what it tells me tonight is that my heart is either in a fake deposit vault or it's in heaven.

Where is your treasure tonight? Where is your treasure tonight? Do you weep when you break a cup of bone china, a piece of stainless steel? Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My, what a word.

And it's true. Then in the next verse, it seems that the Lord has changed the subject in the next verse. He's talking about lamps and lights and eyes and all the rest, but he hasn't changed the subject.

The Single Eye and Spiritual Perspective

He's still right on B, right on target. And it says the lamp of the body is the eye. What does that mean? Well, it means it's through my eyes that the light somehow gets inside of me. You know, it's a very non-technical expression of it, but as long as my eyes are healthy, the light gets in and somewhere here is projected on the screen, and I see.

I see the image. That's what he says. There's a lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is flooded with light. You can walk along and see where you're going. You don't walk off the edge of the platform.

But if your eye is evil, while your body is filled with darkness, your life is filled with darkness, and he says that the light that's in you will be darkness, how great is the darkness thereof. What does that mean?

Well, it's speaking spiritually, of course. The healthy eye is the eye that's living for Christ and for heaven. For the glory of Christ, living the life of faith, trusting God for the future. That's the healthy eye in this passage.

If your eye is healthy, your whole being will be filled with light. That is, your life will never lack the guidance of God. Why, that's a secret, isn't it? Do I want to know the guidance of God? Have the single eye.

Have the healthy eye. Don't try to have one foot in material possessions and one foot in heavenly treasures. Doesn't work. Don't try to live for the world and for heaven. Won't work. That's the evil eye.

If your eye is diseased or blind, and that's what the evil means here, if your eye is diseased or blind, your body will be filled with darkness. You'll really, you'll be groping. You think you know the way, you don't know the way.

And if you've heard, it says in this verse, if I've heard the truth concerning earthly treasures and living for Christ, and I reject that, there's no greater darkness worse than that. If the light that's in me be darkness, how great is the darkness thereof.

Light rejected is light denied. It really is true. And he says in the next verse, again, you'll think he's changed the subject again, but the Lord hasn't changed the subject. It's the same subject. He said, 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 men. You cannot live for material things and for the Lord at the same time. It's a case of divided loyalty. It doesn't work in industry. It doesn't work in any aspect of life, and it doesn't work in the spiritual life at all.

The Lord's saying, look, let's get our priorities straight. Are we going to live the life of faith, or aren't we? Just remember, if you can see, you can't trust. That's true, isn't it? We learned that this afternoon.

Faith deals in the realm of the invisible. If you can see, you can't trust. Most of us want to see. Well, it blocks out the life of faith. I'm in my middle age now, and I have health, and I can move around and keep busy in your service and taking care of financially, but what's going to happen to me when I'm old and arthritic and rheumatic and a few other things, you know?

Who's going to take care of you then, McDonald? You know? A light bulb goes on. Maybe I better start salting it away, you know? Those cushions, you know, I feel so comfortable. Fondle those stocks and bonds, you know, they give me kind of a feeling of security.

Trusting God With Future Needs

Well, let's see what the Lord says. Therefore I say unto 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, or the body than raiment?

Now, I think just to explain something, we should make it clear that what the Lord is saying here is don't worry about your future. He's not talking about today's needs. He's not talking about the supply of today's needs.

What's going to happen to me 10, 20, 30 years from now? Ah, I better be taking care of that right now, shouldn't I? I should be laying up for the future. All the banks tell me that. Okay, Jesus says don't do it.

I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat. You say, how do you know it's the future? How do you know he's speaking about the future? Well, the last verse tells you that. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

The fish of the day is the evil of the road. He's talking about the future. What's going to happen to you in your old age? What kind of security are you going to have? And he says don't worry about that.

Take no anxious thought for the future. Don't spend your life worrying what you're going to wear or what you're going to eat 20 years from today. Isn't life more than that? God made us in his image and after his likeness.

Did he have no higher destiny for us than to model clothes and eat food? Jesus has likened it more to life than that. God has called us to his eternal glory and he set us down here to be his representative and our chief work here is to be apostles of Jesus Christ.

And he says, look, just keep this in mind and don't live your life for the future. And yet most of us do, don't we? And you have to think about days of retirement and all the rest. Is not the life more than meat, food, and the body than raiment?

Learning Faith From Sparrows and Flowers

And then he says, behold the fowls of the air, the birds. Wonderful, I think this is really beautiful that the Lord tells us that he has set little creatures all through life and they're saying something to us all the time.

Behold the fowls of the air. Can you learn anything from a sparrow? I hope I'm never too spiritual to learn something from a sparrow. I believe in everything in God's creation and there's a spiritual teaching behind it, if only I had eyes to see.

And here Jesus opens my eyes and he tells me what to learn from that insignificant work with little sparrow as he scratches around in the yard and gets his daily food. He says, behold the fowls of the air.

They sow not, neither do they reap. Now that doesn't mean you and I shouldn't. The argument here, they can't sow and reap, doesn't mean we shouldn't. The idea is when they can't do it, God still takes care of them.

Isn't that wonderful? They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Isn't that thrilling? Since I've been here the last five years ago, I've traveled in quite a few countries of the world and I saw bird's nests in all those countries of the world and I never saw one yet with a silo or a barn next to it.

Well, that's what it says here, isn't it? Nor gather into barns. You see, the sparrow doesn't worry about 20 years from today. He doesn't even worry about tomorrow. He scratches around and gets his own food day by day and leaves the future to God.

And the Lord is saying to him, look, a sparrow can teach you the life of faith. He can teach you what I'm trying to teach you. Behold the fowls of the air. They toil not, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

I think that's wonderful, don't you? Do you ever think of what a task it is for God to feed all the creatures in this world? I mean, they talk about logistics in the army, feeding an army. That's nothing.

Think of all the sparrows, all the birds, all the animals, all the fishes, all the insects, and God maintaining a wonderful balance in nature. I think it's marvelous. Your heavenly Father feedeth them.

God really, does God care for sparrows? Oh, He cares for sparrows. Dr. Ryanside used to say, God attends the funeral of every sparrow. He once said that in the Bible. It says, not one of them falls to the ground without your heavenly Father.

And this verse of Scripture is saying to me, McDonald, if God takes care of sparrows, insignificant sparrows, mostly feathers, you know? And that's true. If you take the feathers off a sparrow, there isn't enough meat left to make soup for a sick grasshopper, as Virgin said.

And that's just right. And the argument is, why worry about the future? Learn from the sparrow. Behold the fowls of the air. They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feedeth them.

What does it say? Are ye not much better than they? Ah, that's beautiful. For it's wonderful to know that I have a Father in heaven who really loves me and who really cares for me. And He's out for my best interest.

And then it says, which of you, and I love this verse, which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto His stature? Some of you who have a more modern translation of the Bible, the verse doesn't say that.

It says, which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to the span of His life? Is it? Lifespan? Somebody have that? I see some people nodding. Either one is good. Either interpretation is good. A cubit, generally speaking, is the distance from my elbow to the tip of my finger, and it's generally 18 inches.

Okay, the Lord is saying in this verse, now think hard, think hard and add 18 inches to your height. Say, don't be silly, you can't do that. Well, He says, take the other interpretation of the verse. Think of your life as a journey of a certain distance, so many miles, let's say.

Now think hard and add 18 inches to the journey of your life just by thinking. You can't do that. The Lord said, I know you can't, but you could do that a lot more easy than you could plan for your future.

You see, that's the whole argument here. You could do that more easily than you could arrange your future. You say, what do you mean? Well, let me just use myself as an illustration. And I want to think ahead to that arthritic, romantic stage, you know?

It's already started, incidentally. And so I want to make my future secure, right? How much will be enough? How much will be enough? If I salt away, how much? What could I be sure would be enough? Listen, dear friends, there's no answer to that question.

It's absolutely impossible to answer. You say, well, if you had $100 ,000, $100 ,000 might not be worth anything in 10 years from today if prices keep going the way they're going now. Really, seriously, we could have a runaway inflation and $100 ,000 wouldn't pay your utility bill.

It happened in Germany after the First World War. I said to my mother, Mother, could we go to Berlin on the train? She said, no, dear, we only have a few million left. That's true. There's no security.

There's no security in money. You think there's security in money? What's the money secured by? Just a piece of paper, that's all it is. And that's what the Lord is saying. He's saying you could add 18 inches to the span of your life, thinking of life as a journey of so many miles, or to your height.

You could do that a lot easier than you could take care of your future. And the argument is, if you can't do it anyway, why spend your life trying to do it? You say, I don't like it. Well, I know. I know.

And yet we have to grapple with the words of the Lord Jesus. And I want to tell you something. The Lord Jesus knew that the world would never be evangelized in any other way than by a strict adherence to his word.

The Lesson of the Lilies

It says in the next verse, And why take ye thought for Raymond? Why take ye thought for Raymond? Consider the lilies of the field. I guess we think of the Easter lilies when we read this verse, but I think it will help you if you don't think of Easter lilies.

Don't think of anything as magnificent as them. They are magnificent, but think of the wild anemones that grow out of millions on the hillsides of Israel, because that's what Jesus is talking about. The wildflowers that grow in profusion on the hillsides of Israel.

He said, If you don't want to listen to the little sparrows scratching around in your yard, why don't you walk through the field and look down and see one of these flowers, these wild anemones, and just remember that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of those.

And you know that statement is absolutely true. You know, the God's creations are wonderful, and the beauty is just indescribable, and the closer you look at them, the more beautiful they are. And they're wonderful to think of how God designs the inside of those little anemones.

You know, worthless little things in a way. And God goes to infinite care, and every one of them is different, and they're beautiful. It says that, doesn't it? It says, Why take ye thought for raiment?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. No, they can't toil or spin. That doesn't mean I shouldn't. The Lord's not teaching that. Don't use this verse to justify sitting around drinking Cokes all day, because that isn't what the verse says.

It just doesn't say that. They don't toil or spin because they can't, and yet God clothed them more magnificently than Solomon was clothed in all his glory. I like the next verse. It says, Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Well, this verse never really came alive to me, and so, a few years ago, I was over in Israel, and one day I went to a little town called Achor, or Achor. It's an Arab community in Israel, and the women, they don't have their own electric ranges there.

They knead their dough, and they send it down to a community oven. There's a man there that does nothing but bake the bread, and so they knead the dough into these round, flat little cakes, as it were, and the little boy goes down with a piece of wood tearing the dough, and this man has his bakery community oven.

It's an open hearth oven, and he bakes the bread for you, and beside his oven, there's a big pile of grass. All through that pile of grass are these wild anemones. They were growing beautifully out on the hillside yesterday.

Here they are today, and every once in a while, he reaches over into that pile, and he just throws it down under the oven, and as he throws it down, the fire blazes up. This is how the bread bakes. It's not wonder bread like we have.

It's not bread that rises in big loaves, but flat like pancakes. And the argument is here, just think of that. God went to all that chair to design those wildflowers on the hillside, and they're born, but for one brief day.

They're out on the hillside today, and they're burned in the baker's oven tomorrow. The argument is, if God is interested enough to clothe wildflowers like that, what are you worrying about, McDonald?

Don't you think he cares for you more than he cares for those flowers that are just going to be thrown into the oven? I have to think about my future, don't I? As the Lord says to me, look, that's just the very point.

That's what I'm getting at throughout this whole section. Bill McDonald, if you have to worry about your future, you won't have any time for my work. Because for me to take care of my future is a 26-hour-a-day job, and I still won't get it done, will I?

I've seen that, it's impossible. And the Lord is saying to me, Bill, if you have to worry about what you're going to eat and drink and what's going to pay the rent 20 years from now, you'll never have time to serve me.

I want to make an agreement with you, and that agreement is this. If you put me first and my interests, I'll take care of your future. Now, but the next verse says, it says, it says, it says, for after all these things that the Gentiles seek, that is, food and clothing and cover over their heads, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness shall be added unto you.

You say, yeah, but if everybody lived that life, who'd take care of us? Think he'd ever let you down? But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things. What does he say?

So I'll take care of your future. And I really believe that that's what the Lord's teaching in this wonderful passage of Scripture. He teaches, I believe the New Testament teaches first of all that I should work hard for the supply of my current need.

Work, Generosity, and the Lord's Work

I'll tell you, the Bible has a real work ethic in it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 says, if any man does not work, he won't eat. Further than that, it goes back to the Ten Commandments. It says, six days shalt thou labor.

You know, we always forget that when we talk about the seventh day of rest. Isn't that funny? The first part of that commandment is, six days shalt thou labor. There's a real work ethic in the Bible. The Bible teaches me first of all that I should work hard for the supply of my current need.

You believe that? Everybody? Amen? A few weak amens. It's not just the same. You work hard. The second thing it teaches is that I should put everything above that in the work of the Lord. I don't really believe, I really believe the New Testament teaches that.

It says, lay not up treasures on earth, lay up treasures in heaven. Put everything above your basic, common necessities and those of your family in the work of the Lord. The third thing it teaches is trust God for the future.

And that's where the life of faith comes in. You say, what would happen if Christians... The world would be evangelized. That's what would happen. The Bible would reach out to the far corners of the earth.

Human needs would be alleviated. I want to tell you the power of the revival in the church that we were singing about, that the choir was singing about would come. Dear friends, the Christian life is radical.

If your life and my life is no different from the lives of the unsaved people about us, of what value is it? It doesn't take divine life to live that walk by sight, but it does take divine life to walk by faith, doesn't it?

The human heart, untouched by the grace of God, shrinks from thinking of trusting in an unseen God. God would have us come to Him as to a loving heavenly Father to just commit our entire future to Him.

Let me say it again, and I really believe it with all my heart that this passage of Scripture teaches that we should work hard for the supply of our current needs, for the needs of our family, but everything above that is the work of the Lord.

Trust God for the future. Say, how would it work out practically? Well, it would work out practically just as the way as it did in the early church. The way it worked out in the early church was that wherever there was a need, the funds flowed.

You had a need, did you? Water seeks its own level. The funds just flowed in. The next day, the other people might have a need. The funds would flow correspondingly. You read about it in 2 Corinthians 8, and verse 13, Paul says, For I mean not that other men be eased and ye burdened, but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality.

This is the spirit that there was in the early days of the church. The spirit of grace was poured out upon the people. They didn't consider their material possessions their own. I think it's time that the church of the Lord Jesus really woke up to the fact some of these tremendous verses of Scripture that we don't grapple with.

You know, if a man is this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his bowels of compassion, how dwelleth the love of God in him? Those are searing words, aren't they? We go to enormous extent to justify Christians being rich.

You know? People come up to me after every meeting to justify Christians being rich. It's strange. The Lord didn't go to that extent. He said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God.

It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And you know many other passages in the word of God that say the same thing. Well, this is it.

Putting Christ First and Living for Eternity

And this is the difference between the healthy eye and the evil eye, isn't it? The eye that says, I'm going to put Christ first and I'll trust my future to him. I have the promise of his word. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

And I know that he'll never let me down. And I believe it with all my heart. And then the last verse says, it says, Patience unto the day is the evil thereof. Take no thought for the morrow, what ye shall wear.

Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. What a wonderful thing. I don't have to worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow is not my responsibility.

God takes care of that. He doesn't give me grace for tomorrow. Why should I carry the burdens of tomorrow? He says, as thy days, so shall thy strength be. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And so really the lesson is for us to put the Lord Jesus first in our lives.

To plunge everything really into his cause. To live sacrificially for the spread of the gospel and see revival in our time and our future well secure in his hands. Do you like it? Well, you say, no, I'd like to think that over.

Well, that's what we have to do. We have to think it over. We have to pray it through. Get our directions from the Lord and do what he tells us to do.