The War of the Kingdom

The speaker is discussing the Sermon on the Mount and how it relates to the war of the Kingdom. They explain that Jesus emphasized the importance of love for God and love for others, and that this love should be the motivation behind following the law. The speaker also talks about the inward transformation that occurs when someone becomes a Christian and how this should affect their actions and behavior. They mention that the focus of our hearts and what preoccupies our lives reveals where our love lies. The speaker suggests that our love for God should be the driving force in our lives. Overall, the theme is about the importance of love and its role in the Kingdom of God. If you've been kind of keeping up and paying attention, we have kind of jumped ahead in the Sermon on the Mount. And I really struggled and struggled and struggled all week trying to figure out exactly what part because I don't want to go through the whole entire Sermon on the Mount. And I have about two or three weeks before we get into holiday stuff. And so I was just kind of figuring what would be some of the most important parts of this or whatever. Man, when I finally landed on this passage of Scripture this morning, it spoke to my heart and it's been speaking to my heart all week. And I'm ready to be able to preach this morning. But if you'll notice on here that I titled this section The War of the Kingdom. And when we come to the Sermon on the Mount, if you will remember, what we find is that John the Baptist started off the New Testament and he commanded them to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And then as he's preaching this, we finally notice that Jesus Christ submits to His baptism and not because He needed to repent, but for our example and for fulfillment of the Word of God. And we also notice then that He was led up into a mountain and He was tempted. And God tested Him. And then after that, God helped Him as He called His twelve apostles that would go into His ministry that would kind of be by His side as He now goes and tries to turn everything that has happened with the law back upright where it's supposed to be. And He sits down with His very first sermon in this message of Sermon on the Mount. And it covers two and a half chapters of information that He gives them. And when you think about it, He begins with the Beatitudes. And when we look at the Beatitudes, we are looking at how we should view ourselves. In light of this new Kingdom, where do we stand and how should we look at ourselves? And when we look at ourselves properly, the next part of the Sermon on the Mount, He tells us we will become an influence in this Kingdom. And what will be an influence? We will be salt that will permeate into the people's lives and we will be light that will radiate Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. And so after He deals with this influence, He then reaches the pinnacle that we looked at last week. And He says that I have not come to do away with the law. I have come to fulfill the law. And so He's very specific in that, but He told us the law is still good. The law is still holy. And our righteousness in this new Kingdom has to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. And then He tells us there in 520, He says, "...except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." And then as you go into the next section, He comes off of that and He begins to deal with morality in comparison to the law. And you'll notice every one of them, man looks at the outward appearance. He says that you have heard that you shall not murder. You have heard that you shall not commit adultery. But I say unto you, in this new Kingdom, we're going to take it and instead of lowering God's standards, we're going to raise God's standards back up to where it belongs and where it's supposed to be. And so it doesn't start... God's standards don't start on the outward of man. God's standards start inwardly. And so He goes through that morality and then He comes to chapter 6 and now that we've got our morality fixed because we have to be right and we have to be moral before we can worship Jesus Christ. And so then He deals in chapter 6 with our worship. And He mentions three facets of worship. He talks about our prayer life. He talks about our fasting life. And He talks about our giving. And after dealing with our giving, He comes to this section that I want us to look at this morning. And as He comes to this area, He deals with the war of the Kingdom. And when we think about the war of the Kingdom having just come through Ephesians chapter 6 where it says that we fight not flesh and blood, right? But we fight against principalities, against powers that are unknown. And so we know that is one battle, but yet He is dealing with a different battle here. And I think this war that He actually talks about that we're in and that we are engaged in here in this new Kingdom is a war that is actually going to surprise you. And in order to understand this, we have to understand that the law is good. The law is holy. The law is necessary. But to simplify the law, if you remember when the tribes and the Pharisees wanted to lower the standard, they came and said, ok, God, what is one commandment? If you had to pick of all of the commandments, which one commandment is the greatest so we could start focusing there? And Jesus Christ said unto them, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And so notice what He is saying. He didn't go and pick out an external law. He didn't say the greatest one is not to murder. The greatest one is not to steal. The greatest one is not to have any other idols. He didn't go to a specific law. But what did He do? He went to the attitude behind the law. He went to our heart. And when He did this, He said, See, if you'll take care of your love for God, you won't have to worry about not keeping the Sabbath day holy. If you love the Lord with all of your heart, you won't have to worry about other idols and stuff in your life. You won't have to worry about taking the Lord's name in vain and blaspheming God. And He said the second is like unto it, if you love your neighbor like you love yourself, you're not going to steal from them. You're not going to covet from them. You're not going to commit adultery. And so He says, I'm not dealing with the outward part of the law. I want to get into your heart. I want to look into your heart. And so when we read that, then here's the question that we have to ask ourselves. How do we know when we love God with all of our heart? A lot of people are confused with this today. Because a lot of people think, man, I go to church on Sundays, so I love God with all my heart, right? I pray. I read my Bible. I do all of these different things. But matter of fact, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away and behold, all things become new. When you are saved, and you unite with Jesus Christ under the Christian flag in the Kingdom that He has established and that He is continuing to establish, things change. Things are different. You're no longer focused on the outward appearance, but now you're focused on the inward attitude. God doesn't change the outside at salvation, but rather He creates a new you on the inside. And if we will submit to Jesus Christ and His Lordship that is already in us, then guess what? The outside will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. What's on the inside will all of a sudden begin to happen externally, just like we saw with salt and light. God doesn't change our outside at salvation. Not one single one of us after giving our life to Jesus Christ looked any different. But you know how we knew that we were saved? Because we acted different. And as we begin to act different, we're going to talk different. We're going to look different. We're going to dress different. We're going to do different things. Because now Jesus Christ is coming out of us. Ephesians 2 and verse 10 says that we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them. And so the goal, the purpose, our whole being is surrounded around the submission of ourselves to Jesus Christ in order that that inward transformation might be lived outwardly as salt and light in this world that we live in. This radical change takes place in what we call our heart. It takes place on the inside of us. That deepest place of our emotion and reasoning and understanding. It's the place that is controlled by our mind. Paul said in Romans 2 and verse 2, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. If we love something with all of our heart, we are speaking in terms of investment of our life. In other words, if you really love something, how much are you investing into that, right? If we love money, we invest time in the stock market and ways to make more money in our work. And so if you're invested into your wife, if you love your wife, you ought to be invested in her. It ought to take time and energy and finances and all of these things. And that's what drives our motives. That's what drives our attitudes and the thought patterns in our life. And so our heart is supposed to be motivated and lived out by the love for God. So when determining the love of your life or the focus of your heart, we can ask a couple of questions. What preoccupies your life? What preoccupies your life? Some of you right now love hunting. Hunting is preoccupying your life. You're out there very early. You're out there very late. You've been scouting. You've been spending a lot of time and a lot of energy to fill your six deer tags this year because of your love. So what is preoccupying your life? What controls your focus? Some of you are focused on sports and the stats and everything that is there. And so what takes up most of your time? What is most of your energy dispensed toward? That's what you love with all your heart. And Jesus is testing our heart condition. Jesus is testing our heart. And see, the war, we like to say, man, Satan made me do it, or we're fighting against principalities. But before Satan will even give us the time of day, we already fail because of what James, we read in our Scripture reading this morning, we have already been drawn away by our own lust. And when we've drawn away with our lust, what happens? We sin. And sin leads to death. And so Jesus Christ steps in here in this Sermon of the Mount after dealing with worship because, man, we all like worship. And you hear so much today about worship, worship, worship. And we talk about different styles of worship and everything in the church today seems to be focused around worship. And the minute that Jesus Christ gets finished talking about worship, He says, let's take a look at your heart. Let's take a look at your heart. And He says in 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 and steal. And then notice what He says in verse 21, For where your treasure is, there will be your what? Heart also. Notice He focuses on treasures. We that are spiritual, and I'm being very sarcastic when I use that word spiritual this morning, we look at the treasures of our life as being blessings from God, right? We look at them because isn't that what God has promised us all through the Bible? In other words, when we look at blessings and we think about blessings, tonight we're going to have a blessing bash, and I hope that you attend and come and participate. But when we look at blessings, are these blessings revealed materially? Or are they revealed spiritually? Do we see God's blessings? Or do we experience God's blessings? And they're two totally different things. As a matter of fact, if you go back into the Old Testament, and the Pharisees and the scribes, remember, this whole sermon is to show them they are the ones that are controlling and dominating the religious scene, and Jesus Christ is trying to straighten them out. And the scribes and the Pharisees believed that all of their blessings were shown and manifested physically, materially. And they got all of that from Deuteronomy 28. It says, "...and it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on a high above all nations of the earth." And notice, "...and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee." What are the blessings? So He's going to describe them for us. "...if thou shalt hearken..." But He reminds us you've got to obey God. You've got to listen to God. And then notice what He tells us about these blessings. He says, "...blessed shalt thou be in the city, blessed shalt thou be in the field, blessed shall the fruit of thy body, the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep." Do you see what He's saying? Everything you touch, everything that you do is going to be fruitful. It's going to prosper. And so guess what? Back then, their material wealth was not what necessarily they stacked up, but what they produced. Their blessings would... You know, if God was lithium, then their vines would go more, and what they produced would go a lot further. He goes on in v. 5, "...blessed shall be thy basket in thy store, blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed when thou goest out." But then He comes down here and so He says all of these blessings are going to happen. But yet, when they think about these blessings, they're associated here with material stuff. With fruit. With cattle. With children. With offspring. With storing up and what you've gained and all of these physical, tangible, visible, earthly blessings. He says if you obey Me, I'm going to bless you. However, He also talks in this same passage of Scripture about material poverty. And material poverty was considered a curse because of disobedience. You jump down to v. 15 and it says, "...it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord, to observe all His commandments and His statutes, which I command you to do this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee." The leading religious people, the scribes and the Pharisees of that day of Jesus Christ had the same exact problem that you and I have today. They were totally consumed with themes. With themes. In other words, they were theme-oriented. The scribes and the Pharisees were greedy. They were hoarding. They were covetousness. They were manipulative. And they moved toward the accumulation of more and more themes. And remember last week, what were they doing? They were trying to move the standard of Jesus Christ and re-establishing their own boundaries. And Jesus Christ directs some statements about things to the Pharisees who are abusing this whole matter of possessions. Now before we get into this this morning, I want you to notice 1 John 2 and verse 15. He tells us, "...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. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world." Now I want to take them three things and I underline them there. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And I want you to notice, lust of the flesh deals with wealth. Or your wants. In other words, when you have your flesh desire something, then that is a want. It's not something that you necessarily need, right? But Parker wanted to do something last night and Lisa told him no. And he said, but Gigi, I want to. And she said, I don't care what you want. It is not going to happen, right? And then she threatened to spank him and boy, his eyes get big because Gigi don't do the spankings, right? Pawpaw has to do that. And so what we're talking about when we talk about the lust of the flesh, we see it's a desire. It's a desire. But then he mentions the lust of the eyes. It goes from the flesh to the eyes. And when we talk about the lust of the eyes, we are talking about wisdom. We're talking about perception. In other words, this is where the deliberating takes place. Right? This is where we say, man, I want it! And then we go, whether we take the Bible or we take our traditions or whatever, and we begin to justify our wants, right? God, I know You want me to have this, right? Preacher, pray for me that I get this job. Pray for me that I get this new vehicle. Pray for me whatever. You know, and we've justified all of this in our heart, in our eyes. And then the third one is the pride of life. And this deals with worship. And authority. In other words, when we see something that we want, and we make up our mind that we want it, then what do we do? We deify. We give that thing the authority in our life. Exactly what happened to Adam and Eve, wasn't it? Eve saw the fruit with her eyes. She deliberated over the fruit. And when she decided, you know what, God really doesn't know what He's talking about, she made that fruit her authority. And when she did, what happened? That fruit became her God. She wanted that fruit more than she desired God. And so what did she do? She ate of that fruit and she gave it to Adam and he ate also. You see the process that takes place there that John is talking about? Where did John get this? He got it right here in our passage of Scripture in Matthew 6. Well, in Matthew 6, Jesus Christ says, lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. Treasures in heaven. And then He goes into verse 22 and He says, the light of the body is like the eye. If therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light. If your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. Then look at verse 24. 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. And so as we look at these, I want us to break them down this morning into three separate parts as Jesus did. And I want you to notice that the first one deals with this lust of the flesh. This desire. And it has to do with wealth. And wealth equals these treasuries. And He said there is an earthly treasury and there is also a heavenly treasury. And so He deals with both of these. And He says lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. And so there are different wants that we need to be focused on. And He says don't focus on the treasures on earth, but do focus on the treasures in heaven. So notice this earthly treasure. Earthly treasures have idea of not the necessities we use every day. If you'll keep reading in chapter 6, and I don't know if I'm going to cover this next week or not, but if you read the next section, He deals with the necessities of life. The necessities in order for us to live is food, clothing, and shelter. Right? And He deals with all three of these in the next passage. And so we're not talking about necessities. What we're talking about is the luxuries. We're talking about the wants. You know, it's amazing when we say, man, I need this new phone, or I need this, or I need that. No, we want it, right? We want it. The flip phone works just great, doesn't it, Brother Vangin? That's right. You don't need all the later technology. Your life is so much simpler when all you can do is text or call with that. And so notice what Jesus does. Jesus, and I want you to understand this, and I want you to get this this morning, Jesus is not condemning possessions. He's not condemning possessions because we need money. We need possessions to survive on this earth, right? We look at some Scriptures in Acts 4 and verse 34. You remember after the Holy Spirit fell upon them? It says what? It says all of those that had many possessions of lands and houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles' feet and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And then what happens in the very next chapter? And we hear this misinterpreted all the time. Well, Ananias and Sapphira were killed because why? They kept part. They didn't give every bit of their money to God, right? They didn't give it all, and so therefore God killed them. God did not kill them over possessions. God struck them dead because they lied to God. If you go over to chapter 5, it says, but Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, whose land was that? It was Ananias'. He inherited it. He worked for it. It was his. He says, and then what? He said, was not that in your own? And then he says, and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Who controlled the money from the land? Ananias. Now why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. In other words, what Peter is telling Ananias is God not one single time told Ananias to go sell his land. You will not find it in Acts. You will not find it in the Bible. You will find in Acts 4, what did they do? As they were filled with the Holy Spirit, none of them sold the residence that they were living in, but they sold the excess stuff so that everybody could be equal. And Ananias and Sapphira, seeing these great spiritual acts, wanted to take part. And then all of a sudden, they sold all of this land. And what happened? Man, we got a lot more money for that land than what we thought we would get, right? The church don't need all of it, right? And so what did they do? They presented it to Peter as if they were giving the whole thing, but they kept back. All they had to do was say, hey, Peter, here's a portion of some stuff that we sold, right? And there would have been absolutely no problem with what was going on. But they told God, I'm giving You all. I love You with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my might and my strength. And then they held back these earthly treasures. And God said, no, you don't really love Me with your whole heart. And so guess what? The church is growing. The church is booming. People are being saved. People are getting right. And Satan is trying to get into this. We're going to stop it right now. And they dropped dead immediately. And so when we think about this, what exactly... And see, I want you to understand that remember from the very beginning in Genesis 1, God is good. God is good. God has blessed us. Remember Ephesians 1 and verse 3? He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. All of these things that God has given us. Why? Because God is a generous God. As Katie and Emily sang a while ago, He is a good, good God. And He's gracious. And all the way from Genesis to Revelation, we see where God gave them and blessed them both physically with possessions and spiritually with relationships. So what is Jesus Christ forbidden? What is He talking about here? What is He forbidden? What is this treasures of treasures? Jesus is not talking about what we have. What Jesus is talking about is the attitude that we look upon what we have. Listen to me very, very carefully. Is it right to seek needed things? Yes. Is it right to provide for your family? The Bible says if you don't, you're worse than an infidel, right? An unbeliever. A lost person. So yes, is it right to plan for your future? Yes, all through the Bible. He even came to a dream to Joseph and he said what? Store up for seven years because of why? There's going to be seven years of famine. If you wait until you're my age to start saving for your later in life, you're not going to make it. So yes, we're supposed to plan for the future. We're supposed to take care. Is it right to make wise investments? Yes, we ought to be invested. If you're just putting your money in the ground or in a bank and drawing the minimum amount of interest, you're wasting your money and your time. Right? Jesus Christ gave that parable. Right? He said you took money. I gave it to you. I blessed you with it. And what did you do? You went and buried it. And then you came back and He said at least the bank would have given you one or two percent, right? But there's other ways that you can even make a greater percentage that is on that. Is it right to help the poor and to give to the poor? Yes, it is. But guess what? We cannot help the poor unless it was out of the excess of what we have. We can't go poor helping the poor. Is it right to have enough to carry on your business and your life on hand? Yes, it is. That's the principles of money that is taught all through the Bible. So what is Jesus Christ forbidden? Is it wrong to be greedy? Yes, it is. Is it wrong to be covetous? Yes, it is. And we come right back to this motive thing again. If I am doing this to use it for the glory of God and in the life of those around me and in His kingdom, then I have a right to all of it. But, if I'm deigning it to stockpile it, to hoard it, to keep it, to amass a big inheritance for me and my children, then that is a sin. That's a sin. And the idea of this Greek word here is that we not pile up what we don't need that we don't plan to use. In America today, we see this as being one of the greatest problems that we have is with hoarding and building up. How many of you go through and clean your refrigerators and cabinets out and throw away stuff because it's out of date? But boy, it was a good deal, right? Knowing that we can't eat that much corn before it expires, right? It doesn't have an indefinite shelf life. And so the issue is not in what you have, but in what you do with what you have. So don't stockpile things on earth, but rather stockpile them in heaven. And so notice the heaven part. He says, "...but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal." Heavenly treasures, how are they gained? Heavenly treasures are gained by investing earthly treasures in the lives of people. See, it's taking what God is giving you on this earth and investing it in people. Being salt in people's lives. Permeating people's lives. Being a light that radiates in dark places. Taking what you have so that you can present Jesus Christ to the lost and dying world. And the Jews believed and practiced deeds of mercy and deeds of kindness as ways to store up treasures in heaven. And so this was taught all through the Old Testament that every time I do something good, then God's pleased with me and I'm laying up stuff that is there. As a matter of fact, Proverbs 11.24 says, "...there is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." In other words, he said the guy that's going to just take his possessions and scatter things, he's going to increase more. It's the same principle as farming, right? The more seeds you put out in the ground, the greater production and more of the stuff that you're going to get back during this harvest, right? And so, man, if you scatter it, but man, it's hard. The Proverbs talks about that we go forth weeping, right? Sowing seeds. Why? When you take them seeds off of your family's table in order to produce more to get you through the next winter, it's hard. It's difficult to turn loose of that and to trust God. But he said, who's that withholdeth and hoards it up and just hangs on to it? Guess what? The seeds are going to rot before he ever gets around to using them. And so, guess what? You're going to go to poverty. Your date's going to expire. You're not going to be able to get parts for it anymore. Paul told Timothy this. He says, "...charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but..." What? "...in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." Everything you have physically, materially, and spiritually, God has given you. Why? So you can enjoy it. Notice the next verse, "...that you may do good, and that be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." What does he mean by laying this up in store? He is talking about treasuring up your treasures for yourself. It's the same exact word that Jesus Christ referred to and used for earthly treasures and earthly heavenly treasures. It's something that you're storing up. It's something that you're building up. And so Jesus in Mark 10 and verse 21, "...beholding him, and said unto him..." You remember the rich young ruler? What did He tell him? He said, "...one thing thou lackest, go and sell whatsoever you have, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come take up your cross and follow Me." If you will study your Bible, and I challenge you to look this week, the only time anywhere in the Bible Jesus asked anybody to go and sell and get rid of their possessions was this man. Nobody else did God ever tell to sell their stuff or give up their possessions. Only this man. Because it wasn't about the possessions. It was about his heart. And this man, when he looked into his heart, he said what? He said, I have a lot of possessions. Right? And so I don't want to get rid of my possessions because this is my safety net. What if this thing following you don't work out? I've got my safety net. And he walked away sorrowful. On the other hand, there's another couple that was in his life. Do you remember Mary and Martha and Lazarus? Do you remember what Jesus Christ... How many times through the Gospels did Jesus Christ go to Mary and Martha's house and eat? And spend the night? Not one single time did He ever tell Mary and Martha, man, if you want to be great in My kingdoms, why don't you get rid of all of this? No, but what happened? The possessions that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had, every time Jesus Christ had a need, what did they do? They opened up their home. They opened up their cupboards. They opened up what they had. And it was not theirs, but we get an opportunity to worship Jesus. We get an opportunity to share. Do you see the difference? And so God has not asked us to give up our possessions. And I'm not asking you this morning to give up your possessions, but notice the determination. What determines whether these are earthly treasures or heavenly treasures? And He tells us right here in verse 21, for where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. When you look at your possessions, are your possessions for you or for Jesus Christ? Are they for you or are they for Jesus Christ? If Jesus needs your possessions, how willing are you to give them to Him? As a matter of fact, did not God give you everything to begin with? He's the One who gave it to us to begin with. And here's the difference, and I'll use an example for you of what I'm talking about. A few several years ago, we realized, you know what, we better take some money and start preparing for our future. Because guess what? Pastors don't have a great retirement plan. And most of the time, they end up having to live with family members. A church has to support them or whatever. And so we started doing that. You know what? I cannot tell you where my... I went and found me a Christian finance advisor, and I said, you take care of this. You work it out. When I get ready to retire, I want to do this. If it was my money, I would be watching the stock market every single day. Man, I got this much. I lost this much. You know how often I review what my finances are doing? Once a year. He gives me out a report and I look at it. See, because it's not my money. God's going to take care of that. That's His money. God's going to help me to retire. But if it was my money, then I'm going to spend all of my time watching to make sure, man, I lost this much. I gained this much, right? No, it's God that gives. Right? And so that's the difference of the possession. Is it yours? Or is it Jesus? And so then He takes this idea, this lust of the flesh, and now He takes it another step and a little bit deeper. Because He moves from these wants to wisdom. To wisdom. Look at what He says. This is deliberation. This is deliberation. Look at exactly what He says in verse 22. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore, that eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if that 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. Now Jesus goes from talking about these treasures, earthly stuff, wants, to now talking about our eye. Now here's an interesting thing about the eye. Do you realize that it is your eye that allows you to see and perceive everything? If your eye is healthy, if your eye is good, as it brings in the light, it allows you to view all of God's creation to do what? To make reasoned judgment as to how that's going to affect you, right? You get up this morning. How many of you looked outside and it was raining, so you went in and grabbed your umbrella? Why? Because you saw the rain, so what? If you're smart, you know you're going to get wet if you don't have an umbrella. So, the eye is attached to wisdom. And He's not talking about the physical eye here, but remember, Jesus is talking about spiritual stuff. And so the eye is also considered the entryway to your soul. And notice how He explains it here. Physical sight, or physical sight, is driven by spiritual sight. Right? What are we supposed to look at? Looking unto Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith, right? We don't look at the physical situations and stuff on earth. What do we look at? We look at Jesus Christ. If we don't look at Him with our eye, how many of you go around with your head looking up for Jesus every single day of every single moment or take a picture of Jesus and hold it there? Right? So, what are we talking about? We're not talking about a literal picture of Jesus Christ. We're talking about a spiritual. It's your heart, your focus, your soul on Jesus Christ. And so notice what He says. And so the physical sight is driven by spiritual sight. And your physical eye now becomes an illustration because your physical eye is what lets in light. And it's the light that enables you to see. And when our Lord is talking about a single eye and a sinful eye. Now, single is not one of the easiest things for us. It doesn't really make sense here. The more I read it, yeah, if I just had one eye, if I was a cyclops, right? Then this works out real good at Halloween, right? This one eye. If your body has one eye, then guess what He's talking about is you know your eyes are supposed to look with each other. Any of you have an eye that has astigmatism in it? Or an eye that may have a cataract in it and the other one doesn't? That bad eye, guess what, affects both of your eyes. But if both of your eyes are 20-20 and doing what they're supposed to be doing, you see as one. Right? You see as one. And so that's what He's talking about when He says a single eye. He means that your eyes are healthy. That they're functioning properly. And everything that you perceive in this world comes through your eyes, and because they come through your eyes, it allows you to have understanding. Because what we see, then we're able to make action and choices based upon what we see. And so Jesus has given us a tremendous principle right here. He takes a physical illustration and He says that the eye is like a window. And if that window is clean, if that window is clear, the light floods into the body. And if that window is blacked out, cataracts, problems, and all of a sudden there's no light that's able to enter into that eye, what He is taking is is this physical illustration with its blacked out, and don't allow light in, you cannot see. And so He's turning it to a spiritual metaphor. He says the light of the body. In other words, the light of the body. Your body is made up of what? Three parts. Your body, your mind, and your spirit. Your flesh and your spirit is controlled by your mind. That's why Paul said in Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy, spiritual, right? How do we do this? By being transformed in our mind. Renewing our mind. The single part of our soul. The opening of our soul. And so the root word for single, some translations have it as healthy, but literally when you look at this word and you look at the root of this word, it literally means generous. In other words, if you have a generous eye, that means that it is healthy, that it is above and beyond what it needs to be, then guess what? You can perceive more, right? And so therefore you can make a better judgment. James also translated this word liberally. And it was kind of interesting to do this word study in Detroit because this is the same word that is single that Jesus used. If any of you lack wisdom, let them ask of God that giveth to all men liberally. Single. And upbraideth not. Paul uses the same word, but he uses it with simplicity. He says he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with what? Simplicity. And he's not making it real, real easy. What he's meaning is is give it generously. Generously. And this is the idea. And so if your heart is generous, and your heart is healthy and giving, then guess what? You will have wisdom. You will have wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is what? The fear of God, right? Go back to read Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. But notice what Paul said in 1 Corinthians. He said, for I determine not to know anything among you, say Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul said in Philippians 3.13, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth unto the things which are before. What is the one thing? You see what he's doing? He's saying I'm getting rid of all this other garbage in my life that is distracting me, that is causing blindness. 1 Corinthians. You can jot this one down. It's not on the slides, because it just came to my mind. In 1 Corinthians 4.4, God said that Satan had blinded our eyes that we may see the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. He hadn't blinded this eye. What had He blinded? My spiritual, my soulish eye. Because He's blinded it so that I can't see Jesus Christ. And if I can't see Jesus Christ, I can't be saved. And so that verse gives us this eye and this deal. So the sinful eye equals darkness. And he's not being focused on Jesus Christ. Not being able to take in all of the light. And look at what he says in verse 23. If thine eyes 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. What is a sinful eye then? A sinful eye is an eye that is dark. It's black. It doesn't allow light in. And if light can't come in, you can't perceive nothing. You can't make anything out. So when it's dark and there's no light and your eyes are not working, you go through filling around. You've seen blind people? What do they do? They walk with a cane or with a dog. Because why? They can't perceive nothing. So that's the definition of blindness. If your eye is not focused, if you have double or blurred vision, you can't see and may perceive properly. It's one thing to know you are in darkness and can't see. It's one thing for a blind person to know they're blind and can't see. But I want you to realize it is downright dangerous when an individual thinks they can see when they can't. Right? You know, that's why I say, starting at about 45, everybody ought to have to go yearly or every two years down to the driver's license bureau and have your eyes checked, right? Because, man, how many people are out there driving thinking that they can see just fine? Right? Oh, I can drive. I've been driving this road for years, right? My wife this week just discovered a brand new house on our route that they've been building for over a month. But she saw it today. Man, how dangerous it is. You remember back in the book of Judges when we talked about Judges early in the summer? It says in those days, there was no king in Israel. There was no authority. There was no one single person casting a vision. And so what did they do? It says every man did that which was right in his what? His own eyes. Deuteronomy 15.9 says, "'Beware that there be not a fault in your wicked heart,' say, in the seventh year, the year of release is at hand, and that I be evil against the poor brother, and thou givest him nothing, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee.'" In other words, what is the seventh year? The Sabbath year, right? The Sabbath year. And so what? He said, man, is somebody in that Sabbath year? Because why? They can't work during that whole year. The finances that they've saved up is what they had to live for that year. And he says while you're saving up, knowing that you cannot work, that you can't earn money, if a poor person comes to you and you have an evil eye, you don't see their need, you don't see their desire, and help them out with what you have, he said, don't let me hear about it. That's Arkansas Donny language there. Proverbs 23, verse 6 says, "...eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats." You know what he's talking about? Don't take anything from a greedy individual. You know what greedy people want to do? When they give you something, they're not giving it to you to give you. When you go to the phrase, there's nothing free. And that's what he's talking about. Don't eat bread from a greedy person because guess what? They're going to come back and not only want that bread back, but they're going to want a whole lot more for it too. Another Proverbs 28, verse 22 says, "...he that hasteth to be rich, hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye." How do we haste to be rich? Lottery. Casinos. Right? We're trying to get rich quick rather than working and earning it and allowing God to bless and work in our life. We want to get it quick without God's interfering. "...he that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not the poverty that shall come upon them." How many hundreds and thousands of dollars do people spend on the lottery and never win anything? The next one. The next one. See, if you are feeding the flesh and you're focused on the flesh, you will never be able to understand spiritual things. That's what Jesus Christ is telling us here. And He tells us in Proverbs 9, 10, "...the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." And so our flesh and our eyes will determine what you worship. And that's the last one and we're going to close. The pride of life. See, once you get to this point, the decision has already been made. The sin has already been committed. Look at what He said. He says, "...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." Now in order for us to understand this, we have to look at that word serve. The word serve is the Greek word doulos, which means a slave. Alright? So now, no man, no slave man, take that serve, no slave man can serve two masters. A slave can't serve two masters. You can only have one master. You can't do it. And that's what He's talking about here. Slavery, by definition, is a single ownership and full-time service. Either you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, or you love the things in this earth. That's what He's saying. You cannot be a slave of both. You remember what Paul said? How many times did Paul say it? Just about every one of his writings in the first three verses you can read, Paul said, I am a slave of Jesus Christ. It's not about what I have. It's not about what I possess. It's not about my family. It's not about my job. I am a slave. I am focused. And that's why he was able to say this one thing I do. Forgetting the past. I can't worry about all the stuff I acquired in the past. I can't worry about what's happening in the present. All I can do is look for Jesus Christ and trust Him every day. That's what this Sermon of the Mount ends with in chapter 6, verse 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. A slave was a living tool. No different than a plow or an ox. It was a tool. They were a tool. They were a tool for what? They were a thing. They were a thing. And a thing can't be used by two masters. You and your wife have a homework assignment today. Go home and get a hammer and both of you try to use it at the same time. Two people can't work one thing. So we are a slave of Jesus Christ. We are a slave of Him. And that's what he's saying. What he's talking about is your love really for God and for others, or is your love for yourself? For yourself. You cannot serve self and serve God. And so we think that we're worshiping God. We think that we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our might, with all of our strength, but what is our actual time and energy being invested into? That tells the true story. Because where your heart is, that's where you're going to be storing up your treasures. Is your heart with God? Or is your heart here on this earth? But if it's here on this earth, guess what? I have not buried one single individual that has taken their possessions with them. And no matter how great you may think your grandchildren and your children are, I've watched more children waste an inheritance than I have seen put to good use to make better out of the inheritance. But yes, we're supposed to take care of our children and our grandchildren. But what happens when that missionary needs it? What's happened when God says, I need your vehicle to go pick up some kids over here on this street? I don't want to get my truck dirty. I don't want to get my car dirty. I don't want mud on my floorboard. Right? And all of a sudden, what do we do? We show where our heart is. And that's what Jesus is trying to get through in this sermon. We look on the outside. And on the outside, we look great. We dress up for church. We sing, man, that end Christ wall ago. Man, I was ready to shout and jump a pew or whatever, man. And we get excited, but God's not looking on the outside. He's looking at the heart. And so as we stand, where is your love really? Where is your love really? As we sing, what hymn?