September 27, 2015
Morning Service

We have seen the will of the Lord on several different subjects.  Last Sunday evening Greg touched on how we should do our good deeds, and how we should pray.  We will find in all of the Lord’s teachings, humility, and thinking of others is foremost.

 

As we continue in our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we begin with vs 19 of chapter six.

 

Mat 6:19-21  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 

·         Young man at the hospital.

·         Treasure upon earth?  Anything you spend more time to attain, or are involved with, than you do God, is your treasure on earth.  We must learn to build our lives around God.

·         Here Jesus is using the common things people thought of as treasures.  Clothing, ( moths) silver, gold, ( rust) jewels.  But today there are so many more things that people try to attain.  Such as, electronics, automobiles, boats, campers, etc.

·         In themselves there is no sin, but it is how we treat them, that makes them earthly treasures.

·         Paul warned the church these days were coming.  2Ti 3:1-5  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  (2)  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  (3)  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,  (4)  Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;  (5)  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

·         Now this is God’s idea of someone living for Him :  First of all,  Authority is in this manner:  1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

1.       A family where the man is leader, and provider.  A Godly man, and faithful. 

1Pe 3:7  Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. 

Paul said;  Eph 6:4  And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

2.      A wife, and mother, under subjection, and respect for her husband:  Peter said, “1Pe 3:1  Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;

3.      Paul said, Tit 2:3-5  The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;  (4)  That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,  (5)  To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

4.      The Children in this home, Eph 6:1-3  Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.  (2)  Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)  (3)  That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

Barnes’s comments from commentary:

This is the first great duty which God has enjoined on children. It is, to do what their parents command them to do. The God of nature indicates that this is duty; for he has impressed it on the minds of all in every age; and the Author of revelation confirms it. It is particularly important:

(1) Because the good order of a family, and hence of the community, depends on it; no community or family being prosperous where there is not due subordination in the household.

(2) because the welfare of the child depends on it; it being of the highest importance that a child should be early taught obedience to “law,” as no one can be prosperous or happy who is not thus obedient.

(3) because the child is not competent as yet; to “reason” on what is right, or qualified to direct himself; and, while that is the case, he must be subject to the will of some other person.

(4) because the parent, by his age and experience, is to be presumed to be qualified to direct and guide a child. The love which God has implanted in the heart of a parent for a child secures, in general, the administration of this domestic government in such a way as not to injure the child. A father will not, unless under strong passion or the excitement of intoxication, abuse his authority. He loves the child too much. He desires his welfare; and the placing of the child under the authority of the parent is about the same thing in regard to the welfare of the child, as it would be to endow the child at once with all the wisdom and experience of the parent himself.

(5) it is important, because the family government is designed to be an imitation of the government of God. The government of God is what a perfect family government would be; and to accustom a child to be obedient to a parent, is designed to be one method of leading him to be obedient to God. No child that is disobedient to a parent will be obedient to God; and that child that is most obedient to a father and mother will be most likely to become a Christian, and an heir of heaven. And it may be observed, in general, that no disobedient child is virtuous, prosperous, or happy. Everyone foresees the ruin of such a child; and most of the cases of crime that lead to the penitentiary, or the gallows, commence by disobedience to parents.

That was the description of a family seeking to please God Almighty.  

NOW NOTICE:

(20)  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  (21)  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

·         Treasures in heaven?  It’s not clothing, silver, or gold, then what are the treasures to lay up in heaven?

1.      Gal 6:7-10  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  (8)  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;   THESE ARE THINGS NOT TO LAY UP IN STORE.

2.      Soweth means to live after the ways of the flesh:  Which are, Gal 5:19-21  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,  (20)  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  (21)  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

3.     but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.  (9)  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.  (10)  As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.  THESE ARE THE THINGS TO STORE UP.

4.     James said, Jas 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

 

The treasures to lay up in heaven are your good deeds.  Your faithfulness to the assembly.  Your faithfulness in giving to the Lord’s work.  Helping the poor.  Visiting the sick, and fatherless.

The things that comes from a life of sowing after the Spirit.  Love, joy, forgiveness, gentleness, etc.

Being a good Father, and husband.  Being a good Mother, and wife.  Being obedient children. 

This should be every Christians goal, not to live after the things of the flesh, but after the things of God.  This lifestyle will be laying up treasures in heaven.

 

ALMIGHTY GOD HELP US TO SEE THE THINGS YOU TEACH US FROM YOUR WORD, WILL BRING HAPPINESS, AND JOY TO OUR LIVES, AND IN TURN, BE SENDING UP TREASURES TO HEAVEN.