We read from the Holy Scriptures this evening from the Gospel according to Matthew, a portion of chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. We'll read verses 19 through 34. This is, of course, a section of Christ's sermon on the kingdom of heaven. First part of this chapter, Jesus is showing the contrast between the citizens of the kingdom and hypocrites, especially with regard to their giving of alms and praying and fasting. In the section we read, Christ's concern is especially to warn us with regard to our attitude towards this world and the things of this world. Our text is found in verse 24 of this passage. We hear the word of God in Matthew 6, beginning at 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. 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 Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and 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. Thus far we read from God's infallibly inspired word. As I said, our text this evening is found here in Matthew 6, verse 24, 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. He cannot serve God and mammon. beloved congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ. As I said, our text is part of the Sermon on the Mount, better spoken of as the Sermon on the Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven. And it only stands to reason that the Lord Jesus would warn us in this sermon regarding worldly-mindedness, for the Kingdom of God is not of this world, And that's really what our text, as well as the previous verses we read, and even the following context, are all about. In this section of which our text is a part, Jesus warns us about our attitude toward this world. Jesus says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Obviously, we must avoid interpreting this only with respect to money, The word treasures is a broad, very inclusive term. It includes money, but it means something much more important. It's not simply what you have or what you don't have, or even how much you have, but it's what you think of what you have. Your attitude towards your possessions, your whole attitude toward life in the midst of this world, Jesus is warning against people confining their ambitions, their interests, their hopes to this life. From that viewpoint, those of us who have little money need this exhortation about not laying up treasures as much as those who have much. We all have treasures. Maybe it's our home. Maybe it's our job, our career. Maybe it's our farm or business. Maybe it's our education. Maybe it's our position. Whatever it is, it stops with this life and this world. Perhaps in our day we could well read this verse, lay not up for yourselves pleasures upon earth. Think of. worldly entertainments. Think of sports, how easily these things can begin to dominate in our lives. Why does Jesus give this warning? For this reason, that moth and rust doth corrupt, thieves break through and steal. There is an element of decay in all these things. They simply don't last, and thus these things never really fully satisfy. And to one extent or another, we even begin to tire of them after a while. We may enjoy them for quite some time, but sooner or later, somehow, we gradually lose interest in them. That's why it seems we are always seeking something new, a newer model, a new style, new fashion, new thrill. We see it as we grow up, from the time we're children, but it's one thing after another. Perhaps it's a new bicycle, but later on it might be a motorcycle, or a snowmobile, a boat, a quad, Car, a truck, as age advances though, these things cease to satisfy us. The fact about these things is that they inevitably perish. They can disappear so rapidly. Moth and rust corrupt them. Thieves break through and steal. Illness, injury, financial hardship, Ultimately, death separate us from these earthly things. But it's the spiritual danger involved in laying up treasures upon earth that's much more serious. Jesus says, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. These things gradually take hold of us, and we begin to set our hearts upon them. The treasures below become our goal in life. They captivate our thinking, our willing, our whole life. We begin to love these treasures. We may pretend that we only like them, but we begin to love them. It's important that we examine ourselves in this light. We face questions. Jesus poses them. even regarding our eyesight? How do we look at things? Do we see all things with what Jesus calls the single eye? The eye of the spiritual child of God who sees things as they really are in the light of God's word? Or is our eye evil? Do we have double vision, spiritually speaking? Is it cloudy, blurry, tainted by certain lusts and desires? Jesus in this passage warns against the love of money, possessions, the things of this world. And it's important that with regard to this matter too, we learn from history's light. History's full of examples. In the book of Joshua, we are told of the sin of Achan that caused the defeat of the armies of Israel at Ai. You recall, you children know how Achan had taken of the forbidden things of Jericho, a beautiful Babylonian garment, gold and silver. He had hidden them under his tent. The judgment of God came upon Achan and his household. We might think of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira. Soon after Pentecost, they lied to the Lord and to the apostles about money, pretending that they had given the full price for the sale of their land. The apostle Paul wrote in one of his epistles about a young man named Demas, who he said, hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. having loved this present world. We see the same problem today when people begin to direct their efforts at obtaining more and more of the things of this world, accumulating earthly things. No wonder the apostle wrote to Timothy to remind him that the love of money is the root of all evil, But we must also understand that in very subtle ways, mammon can intrude upon and influence us in our lives. So Jesus tells us we must lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Then our heart will be there also. And if we are citizens of the kingdom, it must be. If our heart has been touched by the power of the irresistible grace of God, we will be guided more and more in the way of righteousness and holiness. Our eye will be single toward the things that pertain to the kingdom of heaven and the glory of God. We will be spiritually minded more and more. But Christ goes into the relationship that we must have to the things of this earth a little deeper still in our text. No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon. Listen to the words of Joshua, of old familiar words that he spoke to the children of Israel, in Joshua 24, verses 14 and 15. Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. And put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve. whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Let us examine ourselves in this light as we consider our text this evening under the theme, in ability to serve God and mammon. We notice, first of all, that there are two distinct masters. Secondly, that they are mutually exclusive masters. And finally, we notice the spiritual significance. No man can serve two masters. Notice how Emphatically, the Lord puts this. He speaks of masters. He speaks of serving. These are the expressive terms he uses in order to impress upon us the terrible control that mammon tends to exercise over us. Are we aware of the awful power of worldliness? God and mammon are both masters according to Christ. Now, mammon is a rather difficult word to define. It's kind of an indefinite term. Mammon was a word used for material possessions, but it had come from a Hebrew word meaning to entrust or to place in someone's keeping. And so it referred to wealth or possessions that one entrusted to another for safekeeping. Now when a bad or negative sense was meant, usually a qualifying word would be added. The mammon of unrighteousness, for example. But the word came to have the active sense of that in which one trusts. And so it took on an entirely bad meaning. It even came to be spelled sometimes with a capital M as designating a god, an idol. Obviously then it refers to our attitude toward the earthly. Mammon refers to earthly possessions of all sorts, money, property, things, anything earthly in which people might place their trust. Essentially, Christ uses the term to reflect back upon the treasures that we talked about before. Whatever they may be, that's mammon. That treasure becomes a lord or master. People place their trust in mammon, their money, their investments. their insurance policies, their careers, their earthly honor and fame, their possessions, even government entitlements. How can it be? Everyone knows that the things of this earth, whatever they may be, stand at our disposal. There's nothing wrong with things in themselves. our money and the conveniences and even luxuries it affords us, we may use, and we would use these things for our benefit, wouldn't we? They serve us, right? We don't serve them, do we? How does mammon become the master of people? Must remind ourselves that beneath all this is the spiritual, Jesus said, for where our treasure is, there is our heart also. And ultimately, our heart is in one of two conditions. It is either a hard and stony heart, or it is, by grace, a heart of flesh. Our heart is a heart that is or is not regenerated. The heart that has not been born again and is therefore hard as rock motivates one's whole life toward sin and iniquity. And out of the heart are all the issues of life. Because of the fall of our first parents and the entrance of sin into this world, the heart of man, apart from the grace of God, stands in slavery to sin. The bondage of the will, as Luther put it. Mammon is their master. They're driven by the loss of the flesh and the loss of the eyes and the vain glory of life. Their whole desire and will is captivated by the things that are earthly. They are in the grasp of earthly treasure. It is their master. And we can see it all around us. Greed, envy, covetousness, people driven wholly captivated by their lust after the earthly. These things rule in their lives. They are completely devoted to mammon. That's all they live for. Mammon has become lord in their lives. It dictates to them what they shall or shall not do. It's so true that people will lie, cheat, steal, murder, do anything to acquire the things of the earth. They will sell their very souls for a morsel of bread. Though they may claim to be masters of themselves, in charge, ruling in their own individual little empires, in reality, they are ruled by Mammon. That is their one lord and master. But even as those with hearts of flesh, those who have been regenerated, those who, by grace, love and serve the true God, we must realize the danger. For though our heart has been changed, though principally we are delivered from the power of sin by Christ through His Spirit, Yet as long as we live in this present life, we contend with our sinful nature, that old man of sin. And we must realize that our evil nature would have us serve mammon by nature. We are inclined to love the world and the things of this world. We are inclined to the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, and must fight against them all our life long. We must not underestimate the power of mammon. It may be very subtle, but its influence is there in our lives. Mammon is a terrible danger. is a terrible master. Beloved, the other master is the living God of heaven and earth, the triune God whom we have again confessed in this evening, the sovereign one, the creator and sustainer of the universe, who holds all things in his hands. and rules in and through His exalted Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord and He is Master. He told the children of Israel, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And though the nations rage and kings imagine vain things, the Lord God shall hold them in derision. He shall laugh at their foolish imaginations, as Psalm 2 tells us. The living God demands our service and our worship. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. as God spake unto Moses. And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul? The living God demands our all, wholehearted, service, and devotion. As our Lord Jesus summarized the law, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Jesus said, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And then comes the soul-searching declaration. You cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot have two masters. It's one or the other. This is something truly antithetical. It's yes to one, it's no to the other. They are mutually exclusive. Whom do you serve? The one will not share you with the other. No matter how we might contrive to split our allegiance, it simply can't be done. We can't in reality straddle the fence at this point. With regard to certain earthly matters, we may be able to do that. You might have a regular full-time job, but also pick up some part-time work on the side. And one can devote himself to several interests or hobbies at the same time. But this will not work from a spiritual point of view. True materialism is always atheistic and being a child of God always transcends the earthly. People have and will continue in their vain attempts to roll these two masters into one. We foolishly try that sometimes too. The attempt can be very subtle, you understand, the attempt to do service and give allegiance to God and mammon, to serve two masters. There are those who call themselves Christians who can no more be shaken loose from their earthly treasures and possessions than a hungry lion from its prey. They may set their feet toward church God's sanctuary, but their heart and mind stay outside the door, busy with their daily affairs, their business concerns. Some may appear quite charitable, give a certain amount of their treasured wealth unto causes of the kingdom, and they would suppose that that makes everything else all right with God. Or, if one has but little, He may put the church and the causes of the kingdom down at the bottom of the list. If there's anything left, then God can have that. We must beware of such self-deceit. It creeps in so easily. Perhaps some of you have heard the classic story that illustrates this point so powerfully. It's like the farmer who one morning joyfully comes in, announces to his family that their best cow had given birth to twin calves, one white and one red. And he was so overjoyed that he told his wife, I'm going to dedicate one of these calves to the Lord. The profit from one of the calves would in the end be given to the church. The farmer's wife asked more than once which calf was the Lord's, but he always answered, it makes no difference, we treat them both the same. But one day the farmer entered the home, somber faced, and announced that he had some bad news. He announced, it's very sad, but the Lord's calf is dead. His wife asked, well, how do you know which is the Lord's? And he answered, oh, I had decided all along that the white calf was the Lord's, and the white calf died. It's too bad, but the Lord's calf died. And all too often, that's the way it goes. It's always the Lord's calf that dies. We rationalize when money becomes tight, when times are not quite so prosperous, it can be the causes of the kingdom that suffer. And we think, if only I get a better price for my product I'm selling, if only I get this raise, if only this business deal goes through, then I'll have something more for the Lord. How the prophet Malachi rebuked the people for robbing God. That's the language he used. Robbing God. Instead of the best of the flock, they took the sick and the lame for their offerings. Be not deceived. You cannot serve God and mammon. Everything that we have must be pressed into the service of God with a view to his kingdom. Jesus 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. Ye cannot serve God and mammon, no matter how hard one tries. That's the inevitable result. Notice again that it's first of all spiritual matter and that the spiritual matter affects the outward activity. If one tries to serve God and mammon, he will find that inevitably he will begin to love the one master and begin to hate the other. That's the way it is from the viewpoint of the heart and that's first to drive that Spiritual aspect home, Christ uses a very strong word here for love. This, you see, is not just a liking, affection, but it is a deep-seated, fervent love. One deceives himself if he thinks he can disprove this fundamental proposition for a while, and that, in all seriousness, We may think that we can do justice to both masters. We may try to lead a life with a divided allegiance, at least intellectually. Outwardly, we will serve and worship God. Outwardly, we may appear quite pious and godly, while at the same time, we are cleaving to earthly things. They become larger and larger part of our life. For a time we may be successful in satisfying these two opposing masters, at least we think we are, but sooner or later we find a polarization in our life and we're drawn toward the one master and away from the other. Gradually, we get sick and tired of the demands of the one master, and we begin to hate him. Now, you understand that that was not really true from the outset. It was so all along. But finally, the love for the one grows stronger, and the hatred for the other intensifies. There is a spiritual progression in our life, one way or the other, because We cannot serve God and mammon. Christ adds to this the practical implication of the spiritual attitude. He will hold to the one and despise the other. Our heart is always betrayed in our walk and life. James understood this and makes reference to this very thing in his epistle. He says, show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. Why? Because faith without works is dead. And so it is. Love without service is really a farce. It doesn't exist. Hatred must always show itself in a despising, and love must always show itself in service. We can document that from our own life and experience. He who truly loves the Lord with all his heart and soul and mind and strength, though he has the same sinful flesh, the same inclination toward earthly things as the ungodly man, will nevertheless find himself more and more departing from the earthly and drawing closer and closer to the spiritual. You see that even in the quite natural process of spiritual growth and maturing. A young man or a young woman may stand in all of their youthful vigor and dream of really making something of themselves according to the standards of this world. They may have big plans, big dreams, serious goals, financial success perhaps. a dynamic career, what have you. They find that as a child of God, through their spiritual maturing, they are more and more weaned away from the things of this earth and drawn closer and closer to their Lord. So much so that at the end of their pilgrim journey, they're completely ready to relinquish all grasp upon the earthly and eager to possess the heavenly inheritance. And the opposite is also quite true. As love for God grows, so also with regard to the wicked, the hatred toward him increases. For lust has an insatiable appetite in the ungodly. The desire after the things of this earth will never give to God even a fraction of what is rightly his. The lust of this earth and the flesh exercises itself in greed. And once people get a taste of wealth and fortune of this earth, they often become so enamored with it that they forget about God, compromise any real principles they thought they had. They will sacrifice, forsake the church for career advancement, for example. To serve the master of mammon is, in effect, idolatry. Oh, the objection would be made immediately Oh, I don't bow down to my earthly possessions. But our God is a jealous God, jealous of His glory and honor. He alone is worthy and deserves our praise and allegiance. His demand upon us is not partial. He demands our all. With all that we are, with all that we have, we must strive to serve Him. All that we are and have must be pressed into the service of his name and the causes of his kingdom. If we exclude anything from him, we rob him of his rightful due. Then we, in essence, are bowing down in allegiance to else beside him and become guilty of the sin of idolatry. That temptation is very near. And it's easy for us, too, to try to compartmentalize our lives. Perhaps you've heard that kind of talk. Well, that's business. And I don't mix religion in with business. That really means that God rules in one domain of my life, but in this other realm, a different set of rules apply, a different master rules. We must understand that religion is not something that's tacked on to a secular life. Then you have a pretense of God and mammon. And Christ says, it cannot be done. The one or the other demands complete allegiance. And we find in our experience that both are intolerant of the other. God is jealous of his glory and honor. And the lust of the flesh begrudges it if you attempt to give even a formal sacrifice to God. That makes our calling very clear. It's one of two ways, God or mammon. No matter how hard we try, we cannot satisfy both. Unbelieving hypocrites, though they think to satisfy their consciences, will hear the awful words of Christ, I never knew you. Depart from me. Yes, we sin grievously when we refuse to subject all and everything in our lives to God. Must strive to devote our time, our talents, our possessions unto him. There ought to be no question as to what their purpose is in our lives. God is a jealous God. He will have no other gods before him. Beloved, consider your sins and the curse due to you for them. Where does this leave us? Beloved, look to the Savior Our Lord Jesus Christ is perfect in service and obedience. Behold his passion and death, concerning him it is written, lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. He himself testified, I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. and all his life long, he walked perfectly in that way of obedience, serving his Heavenly Father. The command that God gave him to execute, he has fully realized. He walked in obedience, even that dark way to the cruel and shameful death of the cross for us. to atone for our sins, also our sins of worldly mindedness. And that obedience was rewarded in that God raised him from the dead, exalted him far above all. We see that our obedience is possible only in Christ. Obedience is a gift of grace bestowed through Christ upon His own. More and more, He delivers us from the power of sin. He has created within us a new heart. He leads us by His Spirit and Word in the paths of obedience, whereby we would serve our God. We are His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. And our rebellion and stubborn resistance to his ways are more and more broken. We joyfully walk in his ways more and more, forsaking the world, crucifying our old nature, walking in a new and holy life. Seek that, strive for that, pray for that. For this doesn't mean that our life will be sweet and easy. The struggle is there every day again, the battle of faith. The way of obedience means bearing a cross, denying ourselves, suffering for Christ's sake. But that's the way of blessedness and that blessedness. Lord willing, we find an experience also next Sunday as we come to the table of the Lord. We read in 1 John 2, verse 17, and the world passeth away and the loss thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Doing the will of God, we seek not mammon, but the kingdom of God and his righteousness in all of life. And we will labor faithfully in our daily calling, whatever station that the Lord has placed us, not that we may serve mammon, but that we may glorify God with the things of this present life. And then we don't worry either about the necessities of life, what we're going to eat or drink or put on. Jesus says, look at the birds of the air. Behold the lilies of the field. Look at even the grass. Father cares for all these creatures. Will he not surely care for his people? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Beloved, don't become a slave to mammon. Let us live in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Don't be a slave of things that were meant to serve you, to help you in your service of the living God. Don't be dominated by them. Don't be mastered by them. Don't let the Lord's calf die. It's a terrible thing to see things that were meant to minister become a master. But you realize, don't you, what the end of mammon is? Utter ruin. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Mammon is total loss. To the extent that we find ourself living to serve mammon, the word of God is repent. Serve the Lord thy God with all thy being. Do you purpose henceforth to show true thankfulness to God in your whole life and to walk uprightly before him? That's one of the questions we face as we examine ourselves before coming to the Lord's table. Then let us, by the grace of God, with wholehearted resolve, say with Joshua, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Amen. Most merciful and gracious Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word, bless it unto our hearts and our lives. Also now, especially in this week of self-examination, we acknowledge our worldly-mindedness. Forgive, we pray, sanctify by Thy good spirit that more and more, young and old, we may be consecrated unto Thy service. Behold us, we pray, as we are in Christ. For we acknowledge that our righteousness is in Him alone. We ask it in His name. Amen.