Treasures in Heaven (1844)

Treasures in Heaven (1844)

“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.”
Matthew  6:19-21

Observe, dear reader, the following points concerning this part of the divine testimony:

1. It is the Lord Jesus, our Lord and Master, Who speaks this as the lawgiver of His people—He Who has infinite wisdom and unfathomable love to us, Who therefore knows what is for our real welfare and happiness, and Who cannot exact from us any requirement inconsistent with that love which led Him to lay down His life for us.

Remembering then Who it is who speaks to us in these verses, let us consider them:

1. His counsel, His affectionate entreaty, and His commandment to us His disciples is: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.” The meaning obviously is that the disciples of the Lord Jesus, being strangers and pilgrims on earth, i.e., neither belonging to the earth nor expecting to remain in it, should not seek to increase their earthly possessions, in whatever these possessions may consist. This is a word for poor believers as well as for rich believers.
2. Our Lord says concerning the earth that it is a place “where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.” All that is of the earth, and in any way connected with it, is subject to corruption, to change, to dissolution. There is no reality or substance in anything else but in heavenly things. Often the careful amassing of earthly possessions ends in losing them in a moment by fire, by robbery, by a change of mercantile concerns, by loss of work, etc.—but suppose all this were not the case, still, yet a little while, and thy soul shall be required of thee (Luk 12:20); or yet a little while, and the Lord Jesus will return. And what profit shalt thou then have, dear reader, if thou hast carefully sought to increase thy earthly possessions? My brother, if there were one particle of real benefit to be derived from it, would not He, whose love to us has been proved to the utmost, have wished that you and I should have it? If, in the least degree, it could tend to the increase of our peace, or joy in the Holy Ghost, or heavenly- mindedness, He, Who laid down His life for us would have commanded us, to “lay up treasure upon earth”!
3. Our Lord does not merely bid us not to lay up treasure upon earth; if He had said no more, this commandment might be abused, and persons find in it an encouragement for their extravagant habits, their love of pleasure, and their habit of spending everything they have, or can obtain, upon themselves. It does not mean, then, as is the common phrase, that we should “live up to our income”; for He adds: “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” There is such a thing as laying up in heaven as truly as there is laying up on earth; if it were not so, our Lord would not have said so. Just as persons put one sum after another into the bank, and it is put down to their credit, and they may use the money afterwards: so truly the penny, the shilling, the pound, the hundred pounds, the ten thousand pounds, given for the Lord’s sake and constrained by the love of Christ, to poor brethren or in any way spent in the work of God, He marks down in the book of remembrance; He considers as laid up in heaven. The money is not lost; it is laid up in the bank of heaven—yet so that, whilst an earthly bank may break or through earthly circumstances we may lose our earthly possessions, the money thus secured in heaven cannot be lost.

But this is by no means the only difference; I notice a few more points. Treasures laid up on earth bring along with them many cares; treasures laid up in heaven never give care. Treasures laid up on earth never can afford spiritual joy; treasures laid up in heaven bring along with them peace and joy in the Holy Ghost even now. Treasures laid up on earth, in a dying hour cannot afford peace and comfort, and when life is over they are taken from us; treasures laid up in heaven draw forth thanksgiving that we were permitted and counted worthy to serve the Lord with the means with which He was pleased to entrust us as stewards. And when this life is over we are not deprived of what was laid up there, but when we go to heaven we go to the place where our treasures are, and we shall find them there. Often we hear it said when a person has died: “he died worth so much.” But whatever be the phrases common in the world, it is certain that a person may die worth fifty thousand pounds sterling, as the world reckons, and yet that individual may not possess in the sight of God one thousand pounds sterling, because he was not rich towards God, he did not lay up treasures in heaven.

Dear reader, does your soul long to be rich towards God, to lay up treasures in heaven? The world passes away and the lust thereof (1Jo 2:17)! Yet a little while, and our stewardship will be taken from us. At present we have the opportunity of serving the Lord with our time, our talents, our bodily strength, our gifts, and also with our property; but shortly this opportunity may cease. Oh, how shortly it may cease! Before ever this is read by anyone, I may have fallen asleep; and the very next day after you have read this, dear reader, you may fall asleep! And therefore whilst we have the opportunity let us serve the Lord—I believe, and therefore I speak. My own soul is so fully assured of the wisdom and love of the Lord toward us His disciples as expressed in this Word, that by His grace I do most heartily set my seal to the preciousness of the command, and I do from my inmost soul not only desire not to lay up treasures upon earth, but believing as I do what the Lord says, I do desire to have grace to lay up treasures in heaven.

(5) The Lord lastly adds: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Where should the heart of the disciple of the Lord Jesus be, but in heaven? Our calling is a heavenly calling; our inheritance is a heavenly inheritance; our citizenship is in heaven; but if we believers in the Lord Jesus lay-up treasures on earth, the necessary result of it is that our hearts will be upon earth—nay, the very fact of our doing so proves that they are there! Nor will it be otherwise till there be a ceasing to lay up treasures upon earth. The believer who lays up treasures upon earth may, at first, not live openly in sin; he in a measure may yet bring some honor to the Lord in certain things—but the injurious tendencies of this habit will show themselves more and more, whilst the habit of laying up treasures in heaven would draw the heart more and more heavenward. [This habit] would be continually strengthening his new, his divine nature, his spiritual faculties, because it would call his spiritual faculties into use, and thus they would be strengthened—and he would more and more, whilst yet in the body, have his heart in heaven and set upon heavenly things. And thus the laying up treasures in heaven would bring along with it, even in this life, precious spiritual blessings as a reward of obedience.