Make Sure You Get the Real Thing

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

ADRIAN ROGERS WAS A MOTIVATOR, AN ENCOURAGER, AND A LEADER OF THE FAITH. HE WAS ALSO PASSIONATE ABOUT PRESENTING SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION TO EVERYDAY LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES. AND YOU’LL HEAR THAT IN TODAY’S MESSAGE. NOW, LET’S JOIN ADRIAN ROGERS.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:16

WE’VE BEEN MAKING OUR WAY THROUGH THIS WONDERFUL SERMON CALLED THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT UNDER THE GENERAL TITLE BUILDING ON THE ROCK. And today we come to Matthew chapter 6 and I begin reading in verse 19. Before I read, may I say that this is a plastic and a phony world in which we live. Many of us have been lied to, conned, abused, gypped, manipulated, deceived, until we have a sales resistance built up. And yet, in spite of it all, many times we sell out too cheaply and we end up having the wrong thing. Today, I want to talk to you on this subject. Make sure you get the real thing. 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 mammon. The three basic truths in these passages that I have read to you. Truth number one, we must possess real wealth if we would be successful in life. Look again 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. Now, there are many people who think that they’re wealthy who are not. It’s a strange thing. We see on television the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and really, in many times, it’s the lifestyle of the rich and foolish. When is a rich man poor? Well, a rich man is poor when he tries to find satisfaction in his money because he will never find it. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. A man of modest income said to a man who was very rich, I have more than you have. The rich man said, How is that so? He said, Because I have all I want and you don’t. Think about it. I have all I want and you don’t. Did you know that not to want something is better than owning it? You don’t have to maintain it. Listen. Listen, a rich man is a poor man when he tries to find satisfaction in what he has. A rich man is a poor man when his wealth increases his worry. Proverbs 15, verse 6, In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenue of the wicked is trouble. Think about it. In the revenue of the wicked is trouble. You see, many times a man, when he increases his riches, increases his worries. Thirdly, a rich man is a poor man when he becomes a slave to his money. Put this verse down. Proverbs 23 and verse 4. Labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. If you set your goal… To be wealthy, I can tell you you’re going to have difficulty. Because when you set your goal to be wealthy, then money becomes your master rather than your servant. It’s incredibly bad advice to tell a young person, make all the money you can just so you make it honestly. Because if you tell a person to do that, he’ll be making money when he ought to be doing something else. He’ll be making money when he ought to be spending time with his children. He’ll be making money when he ought to be serving the Lord, when he ought to be praying, when he ought to be doing other things. A rich man is poor when he becomes a slave to his money. A rich man is a poor man when he has no treasure in heaven. Put this verse down. Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 5. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward the heaven. Money talks all right. It says goodbye. I mean, you cannot keep it. You cannot keep it. And if you don’t have any treasure in heaven, really, how rich are you? Everything that you have that you think is yours, in a material sense, sooner or later, you’re going to leave. That’s what the Bible says. Riches make themselves wings. Some time ago when the bottom fell out of the oil market, I heard of a woman walking down the streets of Dallas, Texas. She heard a noise on the ground, a little voice. She looked around. She couldn’t imagine who it was that was speaking, but some little voice down there low. And she looks down and she picks up a frog off the ground. And it’s a frog that’s talking. And the frog says, kiss me. She said, why should I kiss you? Well, he said, I… I am a Texas oil man. I’ve been turned to a frog, but if you’ll kiss me, I’ll turn back to a Texas oil man. She took him and put him in her purse. And her friend said, why didn’t you kiss him? She said, I’d rather have a talking frog than a Texas oil man. Money. Money can only last so long. And then he goes. I’ll tell you, rich man is poor if he dies a Christless death. Listen to this one. Proverbs 11 and verse 4. Riches profit not in the day of wrath. Oh, boy. What does that mean? It means, friend, you may pay off a traffic policeman, but you’ll not bribe heaven’s judge. Doesn’t matter how wealthy you are. Your riches are not going to help you at the judgment if you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 16, a tragic story. The Bible says, And the rich man died, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. Our Lord says don’t lay up for yourselves treasures upon this earth. Years ago I read a story about a man named Charlie Dobson who lived in Ontario, Canada. They didn’t have regular garbage pickup there. And so Charlie Dobson had a little fun game the way he would get rid of his garbage. He took his coffee grounds and his grapefruit rinds and his eggshells and the paper and the trash and so forth and would put it in a little box. And then wrap that box up in wrapping paper and put a bow around it. And then take it out in front of his house and put it down by the curb. invariably someone driving along would see that beautifully wrapped box, would stop, pick up, put it in their car, and off they would go. And Charlie was looking behind the curtains all the time, watching those people drive off with their gift-wrapped garbage. So often that’s what the devil does. He just takes the things of this world and wraps them up beautifully, but all we have is not treasure. What we have is trash. Now, the Bible does not say that it is wrong to have material things. Don’t ever get that idea. Let me give you this verse. 1 Timothy 6, verse 17. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded. That is, don’t be proud. Nor trust in uncertain riches. Don’t put your trust in your possessions, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. God does not mind you enjoying your wealth. Just don’t let Him make you proud. and don’t put your trust there. Remember, it is a gift of God, and God gives us richly all things to enjoy. Certainly, when the Bible says, lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth, it does not mean you’re not to work. Because the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 6, verses 6 and following, Go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in harvest. God says you better learn how to work like an ant works. Nothing wrong works. with work, nothing wrong with having material goods. What does this mean then when the Lord Jesus Christ says, lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth? Actually, you don’t see it in the English, but He uses the word treasure twice in that sentence. What it literally says is stop treasuring treasure. Stop treasuring treasure. That is when your money possesses you rather than you possessing it. When you see wealth as an end in itself rather than a means to an end, you have begun to treasure, treasure, and when you treasure, treasure, you really don’t have any treasure because it can be lost. As a matter of fact, our Lord is not saying don’t have a treasure. Our Lord is saying do have a treasure because Just make certain it’s a real treasure. You have. You see, he’s saying get the real thing. Get the real thing. Don’t be cheated. Don’t let the devil make a fool of you. Quit treasuring treasure. Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven. Make sure it’s real treasure. You want to know how wealthy you are, mister? You add up everything you have that money cannot buy and death can’t take away. Then you’ll know how wealthy you are. Quit treasuring treasure. Now listen to this. First Peter, chapter 1 and verse 4. Peter is talking about what we have in heaven. And he says, we have an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Incorruptible. Incorruptible. You see, our Lord spoke of that where the moths can eat it. The rust can corrode it. The thieves can get it. Our Lord is saying you better have a safety deposit box in heaven where the foul breath of decay and the gnawing tooth of time and some thief cannot get what belongs to you. Incorruptible. Undefiled. That means that it’s not tainted money. It’s not tainted wealth. It doesn’t have a curse upon it. Unfading. That means no fees, no court costs, no taxes, no inflation can take it away. Reserved in heaven for you. That’s pretty good treasure. Jim Elliott, that missionary who gave his life to take the gospel to the Aka Indians and was slain there by the Akas, run through with a spear. Fine young missionary, died in the prime of his life. But he wrote these immortal words in the fly leaf of his Bible. No man is a fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. That’s pretty good philosophy. You see, he’s talking about a treasure in heaven. That’s what our Lord is talking about. Now, how can you have treasure in heaven? Paul told Timothy that you’re to lay up for yourself a foundation against the time to come. How can you do this? You know, people say, well, you can’t take your money to heaven with you. Well, that’s right. But you can send it on ahead. You say, how can you send it ahead? Well, the only way that you can get your money to heaven, the only way you can take your treasure and put it in heaven is Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven is to invest in something going to heaven. Praise goes to heaven, so you ought to praise the Lord. Souls are going to heaven, so you ought to win souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. Invest your money in missions. Invest your money in soul winning. Invest your life in prayer and praise. And those things that are going to heaven… And when you invest your wealth in that which is going to heaven, you don’t take it with you. You send it on ahead. Some time ago I heard a story that touched me. I have a pastor friend up in Virginia. His name is Vander Warner. But Vander told a story something like this. He had in his congregation a beautiful young woman. She was working hard. She fell in love with a young man. They were going to get married. They were just getting ready for the wedding… This young girl in her automobile was driving along and one of those tragic accidents happened. She had a collision and she was killed. When the police came to the scene of the accident, they were trying to find out who this girl was. Trying to find out how they were going to notify the next of kin. And so they had to open her purse and They began to go through her personal things, trying to find some address, to find some identification. Do you know what they found? They found her bank statement and where her checks had been written. And from that they got her name and somehow they got her fiancé and he ended up there at the scene of the accident. And the policeman said, listen, He said, I had to look at this bank statement, and he said, whether it was right or wrong, he said, I couldn’t help it. He said, but my eye just went down her deposits and withdrawals and so forth, and the checks that she’d written. And he said, I kept seeing a check written to a certain church, a check on a regular basis, a good-sized check written to this church, to this church, to this church, down this thing. He said, what kind of a girl was this? The young man told what kind of a girl she was who loved the Lord Jesus in such a way that you could tell by looking at her bank account and led that policeman to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. I wonder, would somebody come to know Jesus Christ by looking at your bank statement? Would somebody have some idea as to where really your treasure is what really matters to you? Jesus said, don’t lay up for yourself treasure on earth. Lay up treasure in heaven. Because friend, all of these things that you think are treasures, one of these days you’re going to leave. You say, but now wait a minute, Pastor. I’ve got to save something for me. And the Bible does teach that you need to take care of yourself and plan for your children and leave an inheritance. There’s a wealthy businessman over in Nashville. That man invested so very much in the cause of Christ. He was a man that God blessed with the ability to make money, but also God touched his heart with the ability to give money. And he gave and gave and gave and gave. And then he had a financial reverse. Things went wrong for him. And he lost. And his fortune was gone after he’d given all of that money. You say, Pastor, was that right for that to happen to him after he gave all that money? God is sovereign. He can do as He wishes. He did with Job, didn’t He? This man lost all that money. One day a friend came to him. And the friend said, You know… You don’t have anything now, do you? He said, No, I really don’t. Not in this world. He said, Well… Do you ever think about all that money that you gave away? Do you ever think about that? Oh, he said, I think about it a lot of times. He said, that’s all I have left. Don’t you love that? That’s what I have left. That’s the part that nobody can get. It is in heaven reserved. Nobody can take it away. That’s what the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about when he says, lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven. We must take. Possess real wealth. Second thing, not only must we possess real wealth, but we must perceive real wisdom. Real wisdom. Look, if you will, in verses 22 and 23. 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. There are many people who think they have wisdom, but they don’t. They don’t have real wisdom. The light that is in them is darkness. And how great is that darkness. I can hardly overstate the need for wisdom in this world. Proverbs chapter 4, verses 4 through 7, He taught me also and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments and live, get wisdom and get understanding. Forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth, Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee. Talking about wisdom. Love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom. And with all thy getting, get understanding. We’re not talking here about learning. We’re talking about wisdom. We’re not talking about intelligence. We’re talking about wisdom. Make sure you get the real thing. If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? Suppose you go off to the university and you get a graduate degree. You have a 4.0 average and you don’t know Jesus Christ. You’ve made straight A’s and flunked in life. You missed it. You have missed it. Now when our Lord is talking about the eye, He’s not talking about the eye of the body. He’s talking about the eye of the soul. And He’s comparing the eye of the soul to the eye of the body. Our Lord here is talking about sight physically and insight spiritually. And He uses your physical eye as an illustration because it’s your physical eye that lets in the light. It’s the light that enables you to see. And so what our Lord here talks about is the single eye and the sinful eye. If your eye be single, your body is full of light. If your eye be evil, and the word for evil there is the word that means sinful, then your body is full of darkness. So you have the single eye and you have the sinful eye. Now a single eye is an eye that is healthy, an eye that is focused. And what is it focused on? Of course it’s focused on the Lord. The Apostle Paul said, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Apostle Paul was a one-note man. You say, well now wait a minute. Paul preached about many things other than Jesus Christ. Not if you analyze it. No matter what else he was talking about, it was just more about Jesus. Everything centers in Jesus. You see, you may learn more about Jesus. You may go deeper into Jesus. But really, Paul said, I haven’t known anything else but Jesus. You say, isn’t that fanatical? Call it what you wish. But you need a single eye. The Apostle Paul said, this one thing I do. Remember that old story about the man who had the cello, was playing it just like this? Somebody said, why don’t you move your fingers up and down like other people? You just hold your finger in one spot. He said, they’re looking for it. I found it. Friend, that is it. That is it. Jesus Christ. Other people can go up and down as they wish. If your I be single, oh, to know the Lord Jesus, to have all your wellsprings in the Lord Jesus. You can go deeper into Christ. You’ll never go beyond Christ. When you come to that spot, your body will be full of light. You know, there’s sometimes when I get busy and get on the fast track and, you know, I pray and so forth. But I don’t know. Sometime I have an idea that I’m just really not centered in Christ like I need to be. I’m just not what I ought to be. And I have to have a session. I’ll get in my study and lock the door. And I say, Lord, I’ve been double-minded. I need to be single-minded. And I take everything that means anything and I bring it under the dominion of Jesus Christ. And I take things that are precious to me. I take my family, very precious to me, and give to Jesus Christ. I take any so-called possessions that I think I hold title to and make Him Lord of those things. I take any so-called ability as a speaker, as a preacher. I take this church. I take my health, my body, my right to myself, and give it to Jesus Christ. Now, sometimes I say that I am, and I know I haven’t yet, so I have to stay there and have to wrestle. You know how I can tell when I get there? My body is full of light. You say, well, what does that mean? I don’t know that I can explain it to you. There’s something about being clear. There’s something about saying that Jesus Christ is L-O-R-D, Lord of all. And when your eye is single, your body is full of light. That’s the way God wants us to live, my dear friend, with real wisdom. The single eye as over against the sinful eye. What is the sinful eye? Well, if the single eye is an eye that is focused, the sinful eye is an eye with double vision. James says that a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. But the sad thing about the man with double vision is that he thinks that he sees. You see, Jesus said, if the light that is in thee is darkness, how great is that darkness? It’s bad when a man is in darkness and knows that he’s in darkness. But isn’t it tragic when a man is in darkness and thinks he’s in the light? Do you know in the book of Judges what it says about a time of moral declension? It says in the book of Judges that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. He didn’t do what was wrong in his own eyes. He did that which was right. And the nation was going deeper and deeper and deeper into moral declension. When the blind lead the blind, they both fall in the ditch. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. It is morality by majority rather than the Word of God. And if the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness? Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And it becomes midnight at high noon. I mean, they’re saying, oh, we’re walking in the light and they’re stumbling in the darkness. Wisdom is the principal thing. Knowledge is proud that it knows so much. Wisdom is humbled that it knows so little. You need knowledge to pass the test in school. You need wisdom to pass the test of life. Knowledge is learned. Wisdom is given. Knowledge comes by looking around. Wisdom comes by looking up. If your eye be single, your body is full of light. What is our Lord saying in the passage before us? He’s saying make certain you have real wealth. Make certain that you have real wisdom. Don’t let the light that’s in you be darkness. What a tragedy. And what a travesty. The third thing our Lord is saying, not only make sure that you have real wealth, not only make certain that you have real wisdom, but make certain that you have real worship. Real worship. Real worship. Possess true wealth. Perceive true wisdom. Practice true worship. Look at it. 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. Now what is mammon? Just an Aramaic word for possessions. Came to be the God of wealth, the God of personal possessions. You can’t serve both. Now Jesus here did not say you ought not to try to have two masters. Jesus didn’t say it’s better to have one. What Jesus Christ here is talking about is an impossibility. You can’t serve two masters. It’s absolutely impossible. Listen, now wait a minute. I’ve got a job. I worked for this company so many hours. And then after I worked for this company so many hours, I quit. I get something to eat. I’ve got a second job. I have two masters. I have a job here, and I moonlight over here. I have two masters. No, you don’t. You have two employers, and that’s fine. If you can carry it, if you can handle it, fine. That’s all right. That’s not what our Lord is talking about here at all. The word that He uses for master is the word kurios. Lord, a slave owner. Now, if you’re my slave, you can’t be anybody else’s slave. Willingness doesn’t have anything to do with this. We’re talking about a master and his slave. And Jesus said, you can’t be a slave to two. any more than you walk in different directions at the same time. No man can serve two masters. It is absolutely, totally impossible. And there is one absolute Lord, and His name is J-E-S-U-S. And Jesus does not want a place in your life. He really doesn’t. Jesus does not want prominence in your life. Jesus demands… Listen, demands preeminence in your life. He is kurios. He is L-O-R-D, Lord. That means no rival, no refusal, and no rebuttal. Now, if you’ve got two slave owners, then which one owns you? Neither one. Neither one. You are his slave. His slave. You say, well, I don’t want to be a slave. Then you’ll never know what Christianity is. And you will never know the freedom that comes through absolute slavery. When you bow the knee to Jesus Christ and say, I’ll say, yes, Lord, yes. You are Lord of all. Then Jesus said, if the Son shall make you free, you’ll be free indeed. You say, well, I don’t want to be anybody’s slave. You already are. He that serves sin is the slave of sin. You say, well, I’ll do as I want. Yes, you’ll do as you want, but you’ll never do as you ought. You’re free to do as you want, but you’re not free to do as you ought until you become the slave of Jesus Christ. You’re the slave, the servant of Satan. Make sure, friend, that it is real worship that you get. So many people think that coming to church on Sunday is worship. Coming, sitting, listening to Adrian preach is worship. Come listening to the choir is worship. And then you go back out to that other world and you’re trying to serve God and mammon. You can’t do it. You deceive yourself. Our God is not a moonlighting God. He doesn’t have a duplex for a throne. He’s one God. Thou shalt serve the Lord thy God forever. And Him only. And if He is not Lord in the true sense of the word, you haven’t got the real thing. Jesus is saying that you must possess real wealth. Jesus is saying you must perceive real wisdom. Jesus is saying you must practice true worship. Make certain it’s the real thing that you get. I was in California at the National Religious Broadcasters, and we heard Paul Youngie Cho speak. You know who Paul Cho is? He’s the pastor of the largest church in the world. You say, well, I think this is a big church you pastor here, Pastor Rogers. How big is that one? Well, buckle your pew belt. Let me tell you, 700,000 members. Now, I didn’t misstate that. 700,000 members. We better get busy, folks. 700,000 members in Seoul, Korea. I’ve met Paul Cho, had dinner with him in Korea, preached in his church. Paul Cho, among other things, is a man of prayer. He told experience, he said, I knew that I have to have that special time with God in prayer. So I told my secretary, I’m going to pray. I do not want to be disturbed by anyone unless it is Jesus Christ himself. Don’t disturb me. He went to pray and the president of Korea came. The president of Korea said, I want to see the pastor. The secretary said, I’m sorry, you can’t be disturbed. He said, you don’t understand. I, the president of Korea, want to see the pastor. I want to talk with him. She said, I can’t disturb him. He’s talking with God. And wouldn’t let the president of Korea in to see the pastor. Later on, the wife of the president said to the pastor, you ought to fire that secretary that you have. She would let my husband in to see you. He said, I told her to do that. Well, the wife of the president said to the pastor, said he is the president of Korea. He said, I was talking to the president of the universe. One master, not two, one. That challenged me because I think if the President of the United States wanted to see me, I’d say, excuse me, Lord, I’ve got somebody more important. That was a challenge to me. I heard also, I had some time, special time with two of my dear friends, Bill Bright and Vonette Bright. Vonette wasn’t there, but you know what happened to Bill and Vonette Bright? Bill Bright, in 1951, was a young businessman. And Bill Bright began to study the Bible. And Christ got hold of his life. And so Bill and Bonnet, just young people, it was many years ago, 1951, decided that what Jesus Christ said in this passage of Scripture is true, that no man can serve two masters. Do you know what they did? I’ll tell you what they did. They wrote out a contract and signed it. Bill and Vonette together, they signed it. And this contract said, Lord, we will be your slaves. And they signed it. Not just said it, but actually wrote it out and signed it. A contract. That was 1951. Today they head up that organization called Campus Crusade for Christ that has 40,000 full-time workers, counselors, and volunteer workers around the world in 152 countries because they said, Lord, we are your slave. You say, well, Lord, you can have a little bit of my time. He doesn’t want it. Just keep it. He said, Lord, you can have a little bit of my love. Just save yourself the time. No man can serve two masters. You just can’t do it. Why don’t you make certain it’s the real thing you get? Real treasure, you’ll never lose it. Real wisdom, your body will be full of light. Real worship, Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Father God, I pray that you will burn this message into my own heart. Help me, dear God. Teach me and instruct me by your word. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen.

SPEAKER 01 : 36:40

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