This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 6, 1989.

This morning our scripture lesson is taken from Matthew 6, beginning with verse 19. Matthew 6, beginning with verse 19. Hear the word of God. Play 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, thine 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. He cannot serve God and mammon. 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? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothed 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 where with all shall we be closed for after all these things to the Gentiles see. For your Heavenly Father know it that you have need of all these things. But seek he first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 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.

Lord, you have taught us that it is your word that gives life. So by your word, we have been begotten again unto a living hope. We thank you, our Father, for this marvelous act whereby you have done just this. So we are brought to life by your word, and we are also sustained in our lives by that word. We rush headlong then forth to that word as if we were men and women dying of thirst in order that we might have our thirst quenched. in order that we might be satisfied. Teach us, Lord, to be satisfied with your word, with you, with your kingdom, and with your righteousness. For you offer yourself and all that is yours to us freely as a gift. We pray this through Christ. that magnificent gift, the greatest gift of all.

Amen. This morning we are moving into a new section in the Sermon on the Mount. section that begins with the nineteen birth of the sixth chapter. This does indeed begin a new unit. A new section. In Jesus sermon. And we can see that clearly if we take note of how he expresses himself throughout in this section. It’s almost as if he uses a formula, and it’s easily recognized if you have a New American Standard version, for instance, before you. Take note of the opening words there in verse 19. Do not It’s a negative, do not.

And that phrase is repeated once again in verse 25. For this reason I say unto you, do not be anxious for your life. And then once more in verse 31, do not be anxious then saying, what shall we eat, et cetera. But we aren’t done with the matter yet. You’ll see that the section continues into the next chapter. for the first word of the seventh chapter are do not judge let you yourself be judged. The formula continues and once more verse six of that chapter do not give what is holy to God do not ask your pearl was one.

So here is then. A new unit a new section for Jesus sermon from the Mount. And you’ll note something of a regularity to the development of the various points in this section. The structure remains the same. You have a negative statement, do not do this, coupled with a positive, do thus and so, also joined with an explanation, a reason.

Note, for instance, verses 19 through 21. There it is in capsule for you. Verse 19, the negative. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Joined with the positive in verse 20, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Then comes the reason, verse 21, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Now you have to struggle a bit at times to see that structure at work. It all points throughout the section, but that structure is faithfully adhered to throughout. The section then has an integrity. That is, it hangs together. He also is an appropriate point to which Christ might go, having concluded what he has just said. There is transition, then, from what he has said at the beginning of the sixth chapter, verses 1 through 18, and what he now says. Not everyone believes that. Surprise, surprise. Not everyone believes that. You see, they’re all those who have suggested to us that we are dealing here not with a sermon from Jesus.

What we are dealing with here is a collection of sayings that Matthew thought Jesus had said. And he sort of compiles them and puts them here. And we’re not to look for connections, for flow. or not to look for transitions as we move from section to section. Don’t wear yourself out doing things like that, because it really doesn’t hang together. These are just isolated statements that Matthew picked up, and then he sewed them together into this supposed sermon. Now, in some churches, they don’t tell you those things from the pulpit, even though the one in the pulpit believes that. He learned that at seminary. He keeps his private opinions to himself.

But there is an appropriate transition as you move from the beginning part of that sixth chapter to the latter part. Well, first of all, the theme that is consistent. And that theme is righteousness. You know, the first time righteousness is mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount? Well, if you bring up the Beatitudes, you’re on the mark. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Check out verse six of chapter five. Righteousness is mentioned again in verse 10 concerning those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, and then righteousness is mentioned again in verse 20 of that chapter as Jesus speaks about a superlative righteousness, that righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of scribes and pharisees. And then he goes on to explain and expound upon that righteousness in the latter part of Matthew 5. Take a look at Matthew 6, verse 1. Righteousness is mentioned again there.

Here, beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be seen of them. If you act in this way, you will have no reward of your father. But once more. Maybe from one of the most famous. In the Sermon of the Mount verse thirty three of the sixth chapter how does it go. Your Heavenly Father’s King. And his righteousness. and all these other things will be added on the earth. Righteousness, the theme. There is also the consistency of perspective.

Are we really catching hold of what Jesus is saying? Throughout this sermon, whether at the beginning or at the end, Jesus is setting in juxtaposition two environments. There is the environment of this earth, the world, and there is the environment of heaven, the kingdom of God. Jesus is concerned in establishing perspective, in setting tone, in maintaining that juxtaposition of earth and heaven.

The message he brings is an uncommon one. It is an unprecedented message. For never before has the light of heaven shined as it does now. Jesus then, in this sermon, is not providing us wise words to live by. Little moral gems, if you will. Jesus here is describing the life of a disciple of the Kingdom of Heaven. He is describing the life of a citizen of the realm above which he has come to make clear and plain. A realm mediated by him, expanded and explained by him. It is an unprecedented and uncommon message, one for which hardly the Jew looked for. So as you trek through the Sermon on the Mount.

Be it the Beatitudes or Jesus’ treatment of the law, or whether he’s treating the proverbial three pillars of piety, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. He is always setting before you this magnificent contrast between an administration of the be it so fine administration as that of Judaism with the new administration of the transcendent kingdom of glory.

So, what we have established thus far is this. There is an integrity to the unit. From verse 19 on in that 6th chapter. We’ve noted the formula and the structure. We’ve also noted now the transition into the text, convincing us that yes, Jesus. Delivers. The sermon on the Mount believe it came from him.

As he sat there, on the mount and his disciples came to him he opened his mouth and he spoke and taught them these words but there’s something else here as well and it is well for us to take note of it in terms of this matter of the transition from the first part to the latter part of that sixth chant and that is the concrete concerned. The concrete interest of Jesus in the behavior of the obedience of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Now you’ll see the relationship between the perspective that we’ve spoken of and this point with respect to concrete obedience we’ve just mentioned.

For you see, it’s as if the citizen of the kingdom of heaven has been placed in a totally new environment. He has been placed in the environment of heaven itself. Now, how do you behave in heaven? That’s the point. You see why Jesus presses as he does with regard to the seventh commandment? The commandment read, says, thou shalt not commit adultery. Fine, I’m clear, I’m clean, not me Lord. He presses beyond that. No friend, not just the act, the thought. You see, in heaven, you can’t even think it. It’s a completely new environment. Concrete obedience.

Note, for instance, verses 14 and 15 of chapter six. Jesus has just instructed his disciples, the citizens of the kingdom of heaven in prayer, how they should pray. but he chooses to comment on one petition in particular, the fifth petition. You remember that petition, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors? Petition number five, he chooses to comment on that, verses 14 and 15. If you forgive men, you will be forgiven. If you don’t, you won’t. Then you go on to the whole subject of fasting. those who are making a show out of their fasts. It isn’t the first time.

You can run back to Isaiah 58, for instance, and read about those in the pre-exilic days who were making a show of their fasting. Jesus is taking exception to those who make a show of their fasting in His day. And the Lord, through Isaiah, was taking exception to those who were doing the same in his. But what does the Lord say through Isaiah in that 58th chapter? He says to them, the kind of fast that I want is that kind wherein you deny yourselves, you forego those things that merely build up you while you forget others.

The kind of fast in view is one that is demonstrated in concrete obedience through acts of mercy and kindness through sacrificial love. The giving up of one’s self. For others now the same thing is continued after the exile Isaiah before the exile Zachariah after the exile chapters seven and eight same message is there.

What kind of fast. Not where you deny yourself food for a certain amount of time, making a show out of your performance, thinking somehow you’re flattering God by this behavior. No! Something else altered it altogether different. A fast where you deny yourself and you give yourself sacrificially for the sake of others.

Well, the whole of this portion of the Sermon on the Mount is building there as you move from the first part of the sixth chapter to the latter. It’s almost as if when you get to verse 19, Jesus wants you to understand that that first and what follows as a continuation of what he’s already said. As if this preoccupation with approval from men, spoken out against by Jesus before, is now to be plugged into what is being said here. As if taking the approval of men and making a vain show equals laying up treasures upon earth. This means then that verses 19 and following serve as a conclusion to what Jesus has been saying about the practicing of your righteousness. Now, having made all of these connections and noted the force and the power of the transition in the text, Have we said enough? I haven’t yet begun to preach. Everybody checks their watch. It’s hot in here. Doesn’t this guy realize that?

I’d probably make you all feel better if I took off my coat one day. Now if I take off my coat, you will all feel cooler. Now we can preach. Having said what we have about the transition now into the text itself and the force as you move from the first part to the latter part of this chapter, we want to be clear, we want to press on, we want to get to the heart of things with respect to what Jesus is speaking of when he talks about laying up treasures on earth and then laying up treasures in heaven. Now, there is a mindset. I have attacked the liberals this morning, but I’m not going to leave out the evangelicals. They’re next. When you come to an exposition of this text, customarily given by an evangelical, this is what you hear. God is so good that he has provided for us, not only in this world, but the world to come.

And the balanced life! The balanced life includes both. Now you’re all out of sync if you’re giving a little bit too much emphasis to life in this world and not enough emphasis to life in the hereafter. What you need is to balance things out. I just read this, this last week. They come to this text and they say that Jesus is obviously pleading for a life of balance, a life of equilibrium, keeping things in focus, keeping things in perspective. On the one hand you have this, but on the other hand you have this. It’s called the theology of the other hand. That’s why I’m not an evangelical. I’m reformed. I’m a rock-ribbed Calvinist.

Now you tell me, reading these verses, 19 through 21, you tell me, is Jesus here interested in balance, equilibrium? Take a look, for instance, at verse 24, if there’s any doubt in your mind. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and man. He’s not interested in balance here. He’s interested in an antithesis, opposites. It’s either one or the other. It’s not going to be both. There was a man who passed through the life of Jesus who thought that it was a matter of balance. and equilibrium.

You could read about him in chapter 19 verses 16 through 22. He is called the rich young rule. Most people misunderstand this boy of Israel. They think that the rich young ruler was actually a vain fellow proud really not sensitive enough to own up to his transgressions, his sins, his failures. Not at all.

This man’s the best Israel had. He is the best you could do under the law. He was utterly sincere. He was completely religious. But this man, you see, religious as he was, was laying up treasures on earth. You see, laying up treasures on earth is more than mere selfishness, stinginess, more than a bare worldliness. One can be quite religious, magnanimous, sincere, devout, and lay up treasures upon earth.

The way in which Jesus deals with this rich, young, Jewish boy sets the record straight. I’m going to Jerusalem. Sell what you have. You’ve counted on an inheritance here, being a good Jew. You want the land, don’t you? Well, give it up. Give it up. Follow me. I’m going to Jerusalem to die on a cross.

Only one who has seen clearly the kingdom of heaven will do that. Only one who has come to know the inestimable riches and treasures of heaven will do that. You can be as religious as the rich young ruler and be laying up treasures in Europe. But you see what Jesus is saying there to that rich young man. He is telling him about true treasure above. He is telling him about the kind of activity, behavior, the kind of obedience that is necessary, expressive of the character of the kingdom itself.

For laying up treasure in heaven equals taking up the cross. You no longer live for yourself, you live for God. You no longer live for yourself, you live for others. In the cross you see what God has done for you. He has given it up. He has given it up. He has given it all up for you. He loves you that much.

And now, what is the request, the demand, the obligation, the imperative of our Savior? No, not to treasure it here. Be you even within the circle of Israel, promised a plot of ground forever as long as the earth exists. No! What I want for you is a plot above, an inheritance that transcends. where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, where no thief can break in his deal eternal.

The cross of Jesus Christ is preached as much from Matthew 6 as it is from Matthew 27. why it is almost as if Jesus knows what’s coming and every message he delivers is in light of the inevitability of that cross and the subsequent resurrection so you can’t even preach this text or understand it unless you have Christ And no cross less Christ will do. Only the one who died so that your sins could be forgiven. Only that Christ. And now This Christ tells you, you having embraced that cross, there is treasure for you in heaven.

Again, our Father, if we are tempted to glory in ourselves, then Lord, may you stop us in our tracks and may we confess with those who have been great in your spirit that we have no glory save that which comes to us through mediated unto us by that cross through Christ himself our Savior who we exalt and Lord we pray that the testimony of that exaltation by us of him would be the way in which others are able to see Him at work in us. We too, selflessly giving, sacrificially expending ourselves, not even counting our lives dear for the sake of our God and the sake of His Church. We pray these things through the great head and king of the church.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.