Matthew 6. “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.” We have had a few days together and so much has been shared and this afternoon I am pouring into a full cup and have this thought that now is the time for doing. When we work on a project we gather all the material and then we are anxious to go out to build. 1Sam 2. “By him actions are weighed”. This is a way of doing, not a way of talking, a way of walking. This chapter 6 of Matthew is a chapter of doing, how and what to do and it is in the doing that treasure is being laid up. This building for God and adding to that and someone has said that if we are only building in our spare time the building will not be complete at the end.
A couple undertook to build a new house on a new block of land and so they moved into the workshop while they were building and that was 20 years ago. They are still living in the workshop, they are still building in their spare time and we don’t want to be like that, we want to put something into this building for eternity, it is important for us. I don’t want to use flattery but I want to encourage you, as these days I feel that I have been among sincere people and it is beautiful to see sincere people, they may have problems but they find the solutions. In the world there are people who have problems and cannot find any solutions for they are not looking for them for there is a lot of pretense in the world.
Another thing is an encouragement is to see people who are sincere who are in the right way, people who are in the right way and are sincere in it. We see so many people who are sincere but they don’t have what is right, serving false Gods, following teachings that end at the grave. There is one lady I know she is in her 80.s and I consider her to be a friend, she is kind to me, I have been to her home. Poor soul, morning by morning, day by day, up early in the morning, winter time when it is windy and snowing, she shuffles down 5 flights of stairs and goes across to the old Buddhist temple. She kneels down and prays, she light’s incense candles, all in vain, she gets nothing from it, so sad and she is sincere. How wonderful to be among people who are sincere who have what is true and have what is right and does not end at the grave. The temple we are building for eternity should be our chief concern and, in the days, we have spent together here we have been getting material to put into the building. We have been to God’s storehouse; we have been brought into the door and looking around we see many things. When we came our basket was empty but here, we have collected things suitable for our building, things we can use, to add to what we are building.
We see in the storehouse some things we are needing; some things have come to our attention and we did not know that we needed it till we saw it; we didn’t know it was available. So, it has been a good experience being here sharing his treasures and we go away with our baskets full. That is the miracle of convention, all come with empty baskets and after a few days listening our baskets are full to the brim, with many treasures we were lacking in. Treasures of faith, love, desire, zeal, wisdom, grace, they were all depleted, been used up and now we are full again. As we go out day by day, we will be building a temple for eternity and by and by there will come a time when our baskets will be empty again. We will need to be replenished; we need to seek the source of God’s storehouse where he shares with us his treasures that are useful for our building.
In this chapter of Matthew, we notice things that are important and things that are not important, those are things to be aware of. What’s important, this gets clouded at times, things look important but they aren’t, things that are for eternity, they have the greatest importance for the things that only last for a moment are not so great. In this list of things of what is important there is one thing that is most important, that we should do all we can to encourage one another. One thing that is not important is when we do something, who gets the credit for it, that doesn’t matter. Being doers of the word, it is not important that a lot of talk accompanies our actions, words are not important. It is unimportant that our will is mentioned, but is important that God’s will is done. Willingness is important, but ability is not important. Unity and oneness is important but what is not important is our pride and independence. It is important to have the approval of God but the honour of man is vain, not important.
If we look at the first 4 versus the thought that is outstanding to me is this, doing good deeds, doing good things that there is a right way to do it, for deeds form a part in the building. We have to remember that it is not our deeds that save us, salvation only comes through the blood of our Saviour, through his sacrifice and his life. In this building every deed forms a part, this doing, but it must be done in the right way, for there are right motives and there are wrong motives and if the motive is wrong there is no reward, it will not add anything to our building. The main thought that Jesus was leaving with us that our deeds were not to be seen of men, would not promote the glory of men but done before God and then being content with that and not talking about what we do to others.
Jesus gave this example himself; he left the glories of heaven and did what no other could have done, came to live as a man and never talked about it. Most people were not aware where he came from nor what he had done for he never talked about it and when our motive is right, we can be a help to some. We prefer when no one knows what we are doing but it is hard to do. You have probably tried to do something good and helpful for others so that others would not know but it takes effort doesn’t it. We have to plan to that end, to do something great or small, to do it according to what Jesus taught, that no one will know, it is going to take careful planning on our part for people are curious, they want to know and they will try to find out. There is an inherent curiosity in the human race, trying to find out what’s going on, it takes a lot of effort to do something quietly.
One thing that happens when people don’t know what’s going on they kind of make up a story and fill in the parts that they don’t know and it could well be that we will be misunderstood and things could be said that are not kind because such is a natural thing. A quiet service is a beautiful thing but too much talk ruins a lot of things, sacrifice is ruined by too much talking, so nice to see quiet sacrifice. Where we labour there is a communist government and they speak a lot of one person, Le Fung. There is story after story about what he did, all greatly exaggerated, but they are all about a lot of things he did for many people, but no one ever caught him doing it and that is the same ideal we should have, a quiet service. Among the Lord’s people adding to our building in a quiet way and then come the question, suppose I do this, to do good, to be a help in whatever way we can, in the way that Jesus said and so adding to our building.
Three things come to mind as guidelines if we want to do this, the first is that we must think before we do it, do it quietly, unnoticed and thought out for if we blunder forth others will see it. Second, we must work quietly, quickly, simply as we can, helpfully so that others will not notice. Thirdly after we have done if, when it is finished forget we ever did it, not talk about it for then God will not forget it. This is what is important and if we could do that it would be a comfort to us and be adding to our building and there will be an eternal reward for us. It is not so easy to do but in essence this is what Jesus is talking about, adding to our eternal reward. When Mary anointed Jesus with the oil, she knew what she was going to do, it was settled in her mind, there was no announcement for all to get out of the way, no statement and she quietly did it. No seeking of self-defense, no claims made so this was adding to her building for eternity, her eternal reward. The lad who had the few fishes that blest the multitude, I don’t believe that after all were filled and the baskets taken up, he then went around telling everyone, “they were my fish”. No, it was not necessary, for God sees, God does not forget and when we leave the matter to him this will add to our reward.
In two verses it says, “Who seeth in secret” and 12 times in the chptr it says, “Our Father in Heaven”, and he sees what no one else sees and this is often in my thoughts. Where we labour we often have to spend time alone, no companion and we have talked about this and what does Jesus mean here and we both agree that the secret times we spend alone means more to God than at other times. We want to make this our aim as it means more to God than we would know to be closer to God. We want people to think that we are closer to God than we really are, but to be closer than anyone would know is far better, for our father will reward us openly for that and it is adding to our reward. Often times our father knows all about us for my father knew things about me that no one else knew and I could go to him when things went wrong, he did not get angry but he would help me and more than that he knew more than I thought he knew. There were times when I wasn’t what I should have been and he would take me to a little room and no one knew what happened there. The things he said to me, and that’s the way it is with our father who sees in secret, no one knows, he draws near to talk to you. In this convention your father has spoken to you, you know what he said, I don’t, the person sitting beside you doesn’t know and this leads to a closer relationship, this time alone with him and it will add to our building and to our eternal reward.
Then fasting, Jesus taught not to be of a sad countenance, just putting on a show, pretending to be what we are not, this does not add to our reward. To be what we are is far better. Last year I saw a man who was just wanting sympathy, giving me the impression that he had a dreadful disease, face all distorted, he was chewing on his knuckles and I just wondered about that man. I then saw some photos taken a day before this and his countenance was perfectly normal and then I knew he was just pretending, just trying to get sympathy. It is far better to show gladness on our countenance, show joy. I knew a little girl, she was always a happy girl, always laughing, always smiling and we were looking at a book together, and it was a very sad book. A man had an angry appearance so I asked her, let me see you look like that, she laughed, could she do it, no. She tried and got a sad look but held it for two seconds and then she said, I can’t look sad when I am so happy. We have so much to rejoice in that we can’t have a sad countenance, we are not looking for sympathy for we are happy and this adds to our building, to our eternal reward, and where our treasure is there is where our heart is.
What do we define as our treasure, it is something of value, that we have kept, some things we have not kept but they are not treasure, the things that we keep that is our treasure, we keep joy, contentment, satisfaction, faith, confidence and peace, wonderful treasure that we can keep. These are treasures that thieves cannot steal; they are safe in heaven above where no thief can come. Sometimes I have been among thieves, and in a few minutes, we will be going out in the world and we will be in the presence of thieves, Satan is there and his purpose is to take your treasure away. Some places I have been and thieves were there in abundance, at a bus station buying something in a little shop and found I was in the presence of thieves, they were watching and looking to take what I had. It is the intention of the adversary of our soul to take away our treasure so we need to watch. We need to labour for this treasure that no one can touch. One-time riding on a train, crowded and I had my bag on the rack above, people were getting on and off and often I would look to see that my bag is still there, not that there is great value in the bag, but it is all I’ve got. The thought that came to me that day was this, if my treasure is stored in heaven then more and more our lives would be gravitating to that place, we don’t want to lose our treasure.
Then Jesus said, no man can serve two masters and a lady I know maybe tried to do that, she had a job in an orphanage and then she was offered another job so she thought for a while she could do both jobs, the work times overlapped a little bit. She would leave one job a little early then go to the second job arriving a little late so neither masters were happy with her, it just doesn’t work. We cannot serve God and mammon, the Lord is first in our service in everything we do, in all our choices the Lord is first and when this is so we will be adding to our building and adding to our treasure for eternity.
Truth Archive 