Chapter 6, and we'll pick up where we left off this morning at verse 22. We looked at the first metaphor that tells us something about the kingdom treasures and then helps us assess ourselves. We looked at what we called an echocardiogram, just taking a term in the medical field and applying it spiritually. Where is your heart? Now we look at verse 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." And notice Jesus inspired the writer to put an exclamation point. How great is that darkness. So now we look at an eye exam. If you've ever had an eye exam, you know that when you go to the optometrist and you put your chin on the little shelf and you look into the lenses and the doctor starts to go through various lenses to sharpen your focus on whatever letter or letters you're looking at on the wall in front of you. So the question here would be, have you lost your focus? as it relates to kingdom treasures. Have you lost sight? If we make the connection with the previous metaphor, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. We lose sight of earthly or heavenly treasures when our focus, when our eyesight becomes impaired, And then all we can seem to see is the treasures that we think will do for us what, as we said this morning, God never designed them to do. So as we look at this eye exam of sorts, we ask the question, what is our focus? And then we look to Jesus to tell us, and Paul, how to refocus our sight. How do we get again to the place we can see clearly? As I mentioned this morning, the letter K for kingdom, instead of what I often see is the letter M for me. My name, my kingdom, my will. And that's the struggle we all have. How is it that light can be darkness, Jesus says? Luke says, take heed that the light that is in thee be not darkness. So there's something to pay attention to and to consider so that the light we have is not really darkness. And then here, of course, Jesus says, if the light is darkness, then the darkness is great. Now think of it in terms of the audience He's speaking to. They were in the light, were they not? They had the light of God's law. They had the light of the temple. They had the light of the sacrifices. They had the light of all the ceremonies. They had the light of all the feasts. But largely among the Jews, the light that was in them was darkness. Their vision was distorted. And their idea of the kingdom was indeed, and not to press this issue too far, was a prosperity kingdom. They were looking for a Messiah that would come and set up an earthly kingdom and give them the gold and the power and the glory they had under King David. After all, Jesus is the Son of David. But the problem is, the light that was in them was obscured, it was darkened, so their focus was off. And in fact, when they were looking for a Messiah, they were actually looking for earthly treasures that the Messiah would accumulate for them, so that they could live as kings on earth. Note that the church at Corinth took the same view. I would to God that you did reign as kings, and that we reigned with you, Paul said. But the time is not yet to reign like kings. The time is to press into the Kingdom of God. The time is to value the Kingdom of God and who King Jesus is, and press into it in the way that Jesus tells us throughout Scripture. The metaphor is very simple. The light of the body is the eye, the physical eye. The whole body gets direction. by the small organs called the eyes. When the eye is single, which means it's healthy, it's good, it's functioning as it should be, very simply, your whole body is able to be directed on a certain pathway. There's no stumbling, there's no veering to the left or right, because your eyes can see very clearly where to walk. If the eye is evil, which is just the opposite of single, which is to be impaired, to be diseased, and in that day, I'm not real certain the kind of devices they had to correct vision, but you can be sure that it wasn't what we have today. If the eyes were impaired, if the eyes were diseased, well then of course the whole body was full of darkness, and everywhere the body went was based on the eyes. And so you can imagine someone who doesn't have corrective lenses, glasses, contact lenses, or surgery, and they were resting in themselves to guide themselves, they're veering left and right and moving in all kinds of directions. Now, the way that we orient our heart for the right treasures of the kingdom is to have a focus on the kingdom. So Jesus says, when our eyes are single, our allegiance, our commitment is to the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. It's no secret to many of you that I've been in kind of a mowing business for several years. I don't do it anymore. The boys take it over. I better say that for their benefit or they'll take me to task when I finish. But years ago when I was involved, I was a stickler for straight lines. just had to have straight tire tracks. In fact, one day a guy joined our crew, he's a relative, and he had pretty good lines, but after he was finished mowing the yard, he proceeded to go from one corner all the way across the line to the other corner. We had quite a conversation afterward. What was nice, beautiful lines, he just went right over the top of it. Now I've noticed in a lawn like mine, I've got a pretty big backyard, the first pass is critical for straight lines. You have to get a target in front of you and focus your eyesight on it. A tree, a bush, some landmark. If you take your eyes off that landmark and just look down for a while or to the side, when you get back you will be amazed at how crooked your lines are. I can remember sitting on the mower looking back and thinking, how on earth was it so crooked? I was just sure. that when I look back, there would be straight tire marks, just as straight as could be. I almost wanted to go back and redo the whole thing, but it was too late. Now, if that first pass is off focus, what happens to all the other lines? They're all crooked. See, where is your vision this afternoon? Do you have a sharp focus on King Jesus and is your allegiance to Him? If it is, notwithstanding how easy and how prone we are to get on the wrong path, how easy it is to veer to the left or the right, if we're focused on the Word of God and the Kingdom of His grace, then the heart will be reoriented to the right treasure. And I think that's the connection from an echocardiogram, as we've called it, to the eye exam Jesus gives us. The Jewish people, their focus, they thought was on the kingdom. They thought they were making straight lines. They would have told you, yes, we're looking for the mark, but the mark was off because the mark was not King Jesus. They rejected Him and they crucified Him because He was not the Messiah they were looking for. In other words, He was not there to give them their heart's desire. He was there to give them the name of God, the kingdom of God, and the will of God. And because their light was darkness, they rejected it outright. Beloved, when Jesus is telling us to take this eye exam to make sure our focus is right, He's also telling us how to refocus our attention on the Word of God and the Kingdom of God. So let's talk for a minute. How do we take heed? that we don't get off course. How do we refocus? And I think Paul addresses this in Colossians chapter 3 verse 1, where he says these words, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Not on things of the earth. Alright? So there's the heaven and the earth. Just like Jesus talks about treasures on earth, treasures in heaven. Paul says, if you are risen with Christ, which is to suggest since you are Church of Colossae, then seek, pursue, Go after things above, not things on the earth. So that is synonymous of what Jesus is talking about. Set your focus, set your sights, set your heart on things above. Incidentally, according to Psalm 16, we know exactly what that would mean, right? If at the right hand of God there's joy and pleasure forever, and you're seeking what's at the right hand of God, what are you seeking? Joy and pleasure that lasts forever. Those are kingdom treasures. Those are the treasures of King Jesus. And that's all that heaven will be for us in the presence of Jesus Christ. So to seek those things that are above, where Christ is seated there, and David says there's joy there and there's pleasure at the right hand, means we don't have to choose between the two. Heavenly treasures are treasures that bring pleasure and joy. Secondly, set your affections on things above, not on things below. Again, heaven and earth. Start seeking, start setting. You see, the problem, if you have lost your focus, are those two issues, isn't it? You've stopped seeking, and you've stopped setting. So now you're seeking something of the earth, and that's where you've set your affections. Therefore, your whole body is moving in the wrong direction. Now, it may appear that I've got my sight set in the right place, and that my lines are straight when I look back. I can see that there's wavering and there's movement all across the backyard of God's kingdom. Now let me say that again because it's very important. If you've lost your focus, it's because you're not seeking heavenly treasures and you're not setting your affections on things above. It's all below. It's earthbound. And so what should we expect to happen? We expect to be like the Jews. We're expecting something from this world to deliver for us what, again, God never in His Word says that it will do that. In fact, the Jewish people, when they wanted to make Jesus a king, they expected the Messiah to give them what they wanted Him to give them so that they could make Mary with all the treasures that the Messiah would bring them. And Jesus continually did what? departed out of their midst, gave them the truth, and one by one they departed from King Jesus. They departed from their very Messiah. Imagine that. Why? Because they couldn't see. They didn't have the right light and focus. on who King Jesus was. So set your affections. The word there is a word for a mindset, a disposition, your inclinations and the mind itself. It's broader than just your thinking, but it includes that. It's a word that's hard to get an English equivalent. So sometimes it's mind in the New Testament, sometimes it's affections. But it's a disposition. So, we set our disposition on things above by setting our focus on the kingdom treasures found in God's kingdom word, knowing that the kingdom will be consummated in just the near future. And beloved, it's really near, isn't it? It's just a vapor. The Bible sometimes calls your life a day. Teach us to number our days, rather. Your life is just days. It's a vapor. It's a moment. So, Lord, teach us to orient our affections, our disposition, our mindset in such a way that we're seeking the kingdom. And we're setting the kingdom as the greatest value above everything. So that our focus either remains or comes back to the place we said it was when we went under the water and came up. What a day that was. King Jesus is everything. I love Jesus. I want to follow Jesus. And then what happens? We start losing sight of the kingdom, the landmark in front of us that keeps us directed toward toward where this is headed and everything the Bible says. And then slowly but surely, we begin to deviate, begin to take detours. Jesus says the light of the body is the eye. If the eye is focused on the kingdom, if the eye has an allegiance to the kingdom, then you're seeking things above, you set your affections on things above. Light is often a metaphor for understanding in the Bible. The word for set your affections, it's one Greek word, can mean understanding as well. Paul would say this in Ephesians 4, 17 and 18. Therefore, walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind." Emptiness. Futility. It's just darkness. They have no landmark. There's nowhere they're going. It's a dead-end street. All those words are found in the Word. Of course, in a religious context, it's greater because we think we're maligned. We're not. And that's the Jews, right? They thought they were. They even said, we're in the kingdom. So to set your affections on things above is for the Holy Spirit to illuminate. our understanding so that we can see the value, see the kingdom. And so that means we have to bring our eyes and our thoughts and our minds to the place the Holy Spirit uses to redirect our focus. If you're not in the word of God, your focus is disturbed. How can it be otherwise? You don't know what God says. You won't know what the kingdom is about. You don't know what His will is, because you're not seeking it and setting your affections on things above. Two reasons to do that in Colossians 3. Two reasons. Let me just say the whole verse again. If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, not on things below. Set your affection on things above, And this is the reason. For you are dead. Reason number one. You're dead. What does that mean? You think yourself to be dead? Well, I'm pretty alive right now. Am I dead? Would you mind? He says, you are dead. You don't look very dead. But in some way, right now, as a believer, you're dead. Now you were dead in sins, Colossians 2 verse 2. But now you're dead to sin. It's a huge difference there. When you were dead in sin, you walked according to the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that now is working in the children of disobedience, there's a spirit of the world that's at work, that's under the sway of the prince of the power of the air, that's the devil. among whom we all had our conversation in times past, fulfilling the lust of the flesh." There's the spirit of disobedience. What is the spirit of disobedience in every person that disobeys Christ? It's the spirit of lust. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. I will execute, I will bring into fulfillment my own desires and my own way. That's the sway of the devil. That's what is the spirit of disobedience. That's what makes all people under the wrath of God. Okay? But you're dead to sin now. Romans 6 says, Sin shall not have dominion over you. If sin dominates you as a believer, it's because you let it happen. It's because you're not seeking and you're not setting your affections above. It's because you've lost focus of kingdom treasures. It's because you've put your focus on earthly treasures and now sin is captivating once again. Right? You're dead to sin. You're no longer enslaved to it. You're no longer captivated by it. You can do it. It's still present. It's still a struggle. And we still have it, right? We still sin. But there's a difference in sinning. and being dead to sin, and sinning and being captured, incarcerated in chains of darkness. The chains have been broken, beloved. Christ and His resurrection, because you're risen with Christ, we're back at verse 1, you are dead to sin. So, seek those things above, set your affections on things above, because you are dead to earthly treasures in a way that you can't get out. You've been released. You've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Secondly, not only are you dead, you are hid. Your life is hid with Christ in God. Hid is the word crypto. We get that word for cryptocurrency, right? Crypto coins. And I'm already talking over my head, as you can well say. It's crypto because it's digital. It's not hard cash. It's not in your hands. Well, in some way, your life is crypto. It's not yet apparent. Like, you don't look like a king, but guess what? You are. You don't look like a saint, but in fact, you are. Your life is hid with Christ in God. It's being preserved. It's kept. And so what that means is this. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, shall be unveiled, Epiphany shall be in the brightness of His glory, then you shall appear with Him in glory. On that day, your crypto-life, the life that is hidden, preserved in God, that often is not seen in terms of who you are in Christ, as a king and a priest with God, it's going to be unveiled. And you will see Christ in all His glory. because you will be like Him in all His glory. And Matthew 13 says, you'll shine like the brightness of the sun. Go look up at the sun. Well, don't look at it. But you will shine just like that in the brightness of the sun. And you'll reign as kings and priests with Christ forever. That day is coming. That day will appear. And your life in Christ will appear also with Him in glory. Now here's the upshot. Therefore, mortify your members which are upon the earth. Kill sin. And interesting in the list of sin at the root of it is covetousness, which is idolatry. Now that was one of the things we saw this morning Christ is guarding us against, didn't we? See? We covet earthly treasures. We trust in earthly treasures. Earthly treasures govern our hearts. They rule us. So what needs to happen? Kill it. Kill covetousness, which is idolatry. See? Mortification means to kill, put it to death. If sin is enslaving you, incarcerating you, you're not seeking, setting, killing with the Word of God. Sin doesn't completely go away. Sin will be our struggle to the end. But we're talking about enslaving and incarcerating. If we've lost our focus from the kingdom treasures, It's because, according to Paul, and I think Jesus alludes to this in terms of our own vision, our vision has shifted to misplaced treasures, which means a misplaced vision. That's all we can seem to see. How is your vision this morning? Are you battling sin? Or have you given up the fight? Are you struggling with sin? Are you keeping the kingdom of God in your focus? Knowing that one day the kingdom will be consummated and everything that Jesus said will be true in reality. It is true and it's coming. Well, that's what Jesus would have us do. Refocus our vision so that we reorient our hearts to heavenly treasures. Although we have earthly treasures, and we use earthly treasures, and He gives earthly treasures, we're not to focus and love earthly treasures above Christ. And then lastly, one verse, 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. Mammon is a transliteration of the word for money. So you could just say money. Of course, it's not limited to money. There are many different masters, but money seems to be one of the masters that really has a relationship with all other masters that we serve in some degree. And so, Jesus uses the word for money, mammon. Now, what is the connection? If our hearts are oriented toward earthly treasures because our focus is on those treasures, then which master do you serve? Well, you serve the master of earthly treasures. See, now Jesus wants us to do a service evaluation. Which God, big G or little g, are you serving? Which one is your master? Now, a couple of things here. We shouldn't see master-servant relationship like an employee-to-employer relationship. Sometimes we sort of illustrate them that way. But you might say, well, I can moonlight. Isn't that possible? Well, yeah, if you've got earthly employers, you can moonlight. That's where you work eight hours a day and then you go to another job in the night. Some of you probably have done that or had to do it in your life. There was a time when I did that. Now, it's not good for rest, it's not good for relationships, but it is doable. And notice Jesus says, you cannot. It's not, well, if you work hard, you might pull it off. Not possible. No moonlighting will work here. It can't be done. Secondly, we should not see the terms love and hate as absolutes, because then you and I would say, well, I don't hate the kingdom. I sure don't hate God. So, I think I'm serving pretty good right now. This was a known Jewish idiom that meant more to do with preference, not love-hate. But, which do you prefer? That's a little closer to home, isn't it? This helps us explain Luke 14, when Jesus says, except you hate mother or father, brother or sister in your own life. Also, you can't be my disciple. In other words, if you prefer mother over me, you can't be my disciple. Because the Bible commands us to honor parents and love them. So hate there means if you prefer them over me. I'd rather you prefer me over them, and he uses the word hate. So here's the same thing. We serve the master that we strongly prefer. We like better. We're inclined to more. And of course, he explains that language. Hate, love, with what? Hold, despise. And that's the further explanation. To hold means you hang on. You grip that and you hold on to it. And the other one, it's like, I don't have any animosity to the other God. It's just, I don't think about it. That's what despise means. It can mean contemn, but it can mean just, I just don't even think about that God. Now we're getting a little closer to home as to which God we might be serving at the moment. Let's apply a little test while we're here. It's any given Sunday, and you wake up, and you have an opportunity to do an additional activity, and it's not worship. Maybe a rare opportunity. Maybe an activity. Maybe something fun. And you opt for the activity. You may object and say, I know where you're going, preacher, but that's unfair. What if it's a rare opportunity, and you just don't get to do it much? Fine, that's not the question. The question, beloved, is which do you prefer that day? That's a different question, isn't it? No, it may be rare. It may be once in a lifetime. The question is, which do you prefer? Worship or the activity? That's what Jesus wants you to ask. Are you going? I really don't want to go here. I really want to go to worship, but I'm just going to go. I prefer to be at worship. Well, that's where you'll go, right? See, it's your preferences. And I know there are a million things that could keep you from being at worship on Sunday, and that's all fine and good. But I ask you, which do you prefer? And that will tell you who you're serving. Which do you desire? And which do you really want? And that will help you with your struggle in the kingdom and struggling to value kingdom treasures. Now, why can't we serve both, we should ask? Well, because we've already learned that the position and location of the heart defines the God that you serve. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So if your treasure is mammon, money, that's where the heart is, that's your master. If your treasure is the Kingdom and Christ, that's where your heart is and that's who you're serving. And so the reason you can't is because you can't divide the heart to two allegiances. So Jesus says again, you'll love the one, hate the other. You'll hold and cleave to one, despise the other. You just won't think about it. Because He's not treasured. Jesus speaks of this in Matthew 16 when He says, If any man will follow Me, let him take up his cross and deny himself daily. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. I'm just going to take that to mean whoever holds on to his life. The master you hold on to. cleaved to. Save means to preserve, hang on to, lose it. But whosoever loses his life, he lets go of that master. For my sake and the gospel's, the same shall hang on to it, preserve it, keep it. Because What does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Now there's the key. Why would a man hang on and hold the God of Mammon or the God of his own life? Because he expects to profit from the gain. of the world. So Jesus just takes it all the way as if you're successful. Let's say you do gain what you're after. The entire world. And lose your own soul. What have you gained? You see, the God of Mammon will make an exchange for you. He's ready to do it every day. I'll give you myself for your earthly enjoyment and all the treasures earth can give you. Now, as I think about it, because I wasn't thinking about it, that's what the devil did with Jesus, wasn't it? If you will worship me, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof. The devil's really behind the God of Mammon, and that's what he offers you in exchange for your soul. You give your soul, he gives you 80 years of good times, maybe. We read of people all the time who have it and lose it. Maybe, and then it's over forever. Jesus wants us to think about that exchange. Is that really a good exchange? Only if the light that is in you is really, really darkness. So then, how do we serve one God or the other? And of course you, would already understand this by tracking just through the metaphors and all that we've said so far, that the way you serve money is very clearly, probably someone of an early age could tell you, your relationship with money is you get as much as you can of it. You can't serve money if you don't get it, so you plan accordingly and you get just as much as you possibly can. That's how you serve money. Then you guard it with your life. You secure it. You don't let any of it go, because the Master called money. You expect to deliver, so you serve it. You're enslaved to it. And then, of course, you already know that you expect then money to give you the happiness that you want. That's a servant of money. But then that defines what it means to serve God, doesn't it? It's just the same. You get as much of God as you can. You read about Him. You seek Him. You pray. You go hard after God. Psalm 36. You think about Him. You pursue Him. You read about Him. And you don't let any of God go away. You want as much of God as you can. And you accumulate God and you get as much of God. And then you enjoy the Master God by being enslaved to His glory, His grace, and His power. We know already that that's what Paul says service is all about in Titus chapter 3, where he says serving divers lusts and pleasures. We know that in Romans chapter 6, He said, but God be thanked, you were the servants of sin, but you bade from the heart that form of doctrine that was delivered to you. You were once a slave of sin, which is synonymous with being a slave of money. What does that mean? Well, he said, let not sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. That's in the same context. So sin is your master when you obey sin in the lust of the master called sin. So if grace rescues us, and God is to be thanked that we're no longer servants of sin, but now servants of righteousness, what then? We have now come unto the Master Jesus, and we serve Him out of holy desires. for kingdom treasures and King Jesus Himself. Which God are we serving this afternoon? Which God are we looking to, ultimately, for all that the Bible says that God is, God will be, forever and ever? And finally, I leave you with one passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 7, where I think Paul is alluding to this principle. of how we serve God and not worldly treasures, where He said to that church in the context of unpacking instruction on marriage that we saw some time ago when we went through that book, But I say to you, brethren, the time is short, it remaineth. Which means, it's coming. So, be as though they that both have wives, as if they have none. Because the time is short, something is coming, likely for that first generation that was going to be very difficult, a time of trial. And of course we have our times of trials too, to prepare for. So Paul says, in this context of marriage, here's how I want you to live. I want you to live as if when you're married, you don't have a spouse. And then we could insert, although not there, if you're single, live as if you're married, right? They that weep as though they wept not, they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, they that buy as though they possess not, and they that use this world as not abusing it, because the fashion of this world is passing away. The world is passing away, but the kingdom of God never passes away. How do you live in the context of serving God as the true master, Using this world, that would include money, that would include mammon, that would include resources and surplus and abundance. Using it, but not abusing it. How would you be married, but yet not married? When your marriage is not your master. Right? Now, go back to what we just said. Your master is the one you expect to deliver on your happiness. Marriage is not your master. So, if you're married, act like you're not married. Now, men, don't misunderstand the illustration. Be a husband. You're married. Do everything the Bible says. You get the metaphor, right? Because one day your marriage is over, right? What then? If the marriage was the master, you're destroyed. It's unrecoverable. You're down. It's over. Because the marriage was what was being served, not Christ in the marriage. If you weep as if you don't weep, which means your weeping is mitigated by the Master called Jesus. So whatever you lost that caused the weeping, you have something that cannot be lost. It's the Master you serve, God, that mitigates the weeping. Weep! But there's a way in which you weep not. Because you have hope. And your sorrow is not like others that have no hope. When others weep, they weep. It's ultimate. It's loss. It's tragic. It's it. Because they have nothing to mitigate the loss. They might try to find something earthly. But there's nothing there. The person's gone forever. Ever. but not for the Christian. If you rejoice as though you rejoice not, the rejoicing is not ultimate, right? If you're serving the object for which you're rejoicing, then you're only rejoicing, but not as those that don't rejoice. I hope that makes sense. It's mitigated by the fact that there's a joy greater than the object for which you're rejoicing in that day. Rejoice over a promotion. Rejoice over a raise. Rejoice with those that rejoice, but do it as though you're not rejoicing. Meaning, that promotion is not ultimate. Christ is. Meaning, the job is not the master. You're not serving the job, although we serve on the job. You're not serving that treasure. You're serving Christ. And then buy as if you don't possess it. Don't leave it at the store. You can take it home. It's yours. But you're going to lose it one day. Right? All possessions will be gone. When Jesus is Master, when Jesus is Lord, when you're seeking kingdom treasures, I think that's what Paul's saying. Marriage and other objects are not the master for which we're serving and which we expect that it will deliver everything we've ever wanted. We know as Christians, King Jesus and kingdom treasures at the consummation of the kingdom will do that for us. Therefore, I'm married but I'm not. I'm weeping, but I'm not. I'm rejoicing, but I'm not. I'm buying, but I don't possess. And I'm using the world, but not excessively, is the word abusing it. Not deeply, as if that's the only thing. Because the world is passing away. And for you singles, let's get that one in there. How are you single and yet you're married? You're married to Christ. He's better than a spouse. He's better than 10,000 spouses will ever be. So you have a husband, Christ Jesus the Lord. So be single, but be married. Because all is passing away. So quick review. Where is your heart today? How is your vision? And which master are you serving? Let's pray. Father, thank you for your.