“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” —Missionary Jim Elliot (1927-1956)Our text verse from Matthew 13:44 is an incredible Scripture. Jesus plainly teaches that He is likening this story to Heaven. Jesus tells the story about a man who finds a treasure in a field. The man realizes that he has found something so great, that he joyously goes and sells all his earthly possessions in order to purchase this land, so he can obtain the hidden treasure. This story is comparable to Heaven Jesus said, the motherload of all treasures.
This wise man went and sold all his earthly possessions in order to leverage his debt (spending power), so that he could buy this field and all that is hidden in it. My friend, Heaven is a real place. Jesus in this small passage of Scripture is teaching that we ought to do the same as this worldly wise man, by using all of our earthly money, resources and things for Jesus' sake and the Gospel's. Life is so short that it will literally all be over just in a matter of heartbeats. Your life and mine are counting down quickly.
It means to use all that God has given to you for His glory, pleasure and purpose. There are thousands of ways to honor God with our substance. It pleases God when we by faith obey Him, taking heed according to His Word, that is, the holy Bible. Psalms 119:9, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” The day you got saved, everything you own became the Lord's. 1st Corinthians 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” That purchase price was the precious blood of Jesus (1st Peter 1:18-19). Every saint has been redeemed by Jesus' blood, and we belong to Christ!
Whatever golden opportunities that we may presently have to glorify God by reaching the lost for Christ with the Gospel—praying and fasting, supporting missionary work, giving financially to the work of God, contending for the Christian faith, taking a stand for God, helping the poor and needy, visiting captives in prison, lifting up the fallen, restoring the weak and living for OTHERS—are quickly fading away. Time is of the essence! This life will be over before we know it! What impact are you making for the Kingdom of God?
So oftentimes people go into massive financial debt to get married, buy a home, buy a business, buy a boat, buy a car (or all of the above). They use what is called “debt-leveraging,” which means in simple terms, “borrowing to invest more.” You are leveraging your assets to enable you to make a greater investment in something else. In the case of our text Scripture, this man sold everything he owned, leveraging all his worldly wealth in order that he could buy this property with the hidden treasure that he had found. Jesus likens this debt-leveraging principle to the Kingdom of Heaven...
Matthew 13:45-46, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”This merchant (buyer and seller) of pearls went and sold all his pearls so that he could purchase the mother-of-all-pearls which he had just found. The Lord is likening (comparing) this merchant's decision to go-for-broke to investing in Heaven. Most people (saved and unsaved alike) spend their entire lives leveraging their earthly assets to buy temporal things here on earth. Remember, you can't take any of it with you! You were born into the world with nothing, and you'll die and leave this world with nothing. Proverbs 27:20, “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”
With these important truths in mind, it ought to become very clear to the reader that this earthly life isn't worth investing in. Life is like a car, that is, it's a depreciating asset from the moment that you drive it off the parking lot where you bought it. Albeit, Heaven is an eternal investment, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and neither do thieves break through and steal. This is what the Lord taught and promised in Matthew 6:19-20. We have but one life to live. Will you live it for Jesus?
Don't lay up treasures and go into financial debt here on earth, so that you can enjoy a better temporary lifestyle here on earth; but rather, lay up for your self eternal treasures in Heaven that will never erode away, nor can they be taken away from you for any reason. We leverage our debt for an eternal lifestyle through laboring in preaching, contending for the faith, praying, fasting, sharing the Gospel (soul-winning) and ALL that we do in Jesus' precious name for His' sake and the Gospel's. The Lord Himself promised that He'll even reward giving a cup of water to a disciple of His. I love that! Mark 9:41, “For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.”
In other words, NOTHING done for Christ will go overlooked and unrewarded. Due to the indifference and lack of detailed concern by most people in this world, it would be easy to assume that God doesn't care about details either, but HE SURE DOES! The most important job is the one that doesn't get done! Do you think the same God Who knows the very number of hairs upon your head (Matthew 10:30), missed the horrible things that people have done to you? Do you think God doesn't see your good deeds and sacrifice for Him? He does! Do you think that same benevolent, omniscient and omnipotent God, Who gave His only begotten Son for me on the cross, doesn't see my sacrifice at 3 a.m. in the morning, as I labor on my computer for Him? You better believe that the Lord sees it all! Hebrews 4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”
When I return someone else's shopping cart in the parking lot to the store, I do it for Jesus, to glory God. Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” When we do GOOD WORKS as believers, not TO BE saved but because WE ARE saved, it glorifies God. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” As Christians we SHOULD serve Christ; not MUST (that is works); not WILL (that would be Calvinism).
Jim Elliot (1927-1956), the martyred American missionary to Ecuador in 1956 said: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.” Elliot was one of five missionaries who went in an attempt to evangelize the Huaorani people of Ecuador, but were instead brutally murdered by ten Huaorani soldiers and their dead bodies dumped into the local river. They died for their Christian faith. In America, we think persecution is someone laughing at a religious bumper sticker on our car. Around the world today in 2020, Christians are still being persecuted, prosecuted and martyred for their faith.
The way that we view this temporal earthly life now, will determine our eternal lifestyle in Heaven as saints. Matthew 6:19-21, “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.” Jesus told us to lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven. Our lifestyle in eternity as believers will be determined by our lifestyle here on earth. Otherwise, what would be the use of laying up heavenly treasures? Daniel 12:3, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” If some believers will shine in eternity, then others won't. If some have laid up treasures, then the plain implication is that others haven't. Will you be one of the have's or have not's in eternity?
Heaven is the mother load of all treasures and we as believers ought to be leveraging our debt by using everything that we own, our talents, our resources and influence to further the Kingdom of God. 'Tis only one life will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last. If we're all going to have the same exact rewards in Heaven, then what's the use of Scriptures like 1st Corinthians 3:8, “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.” Clearly, God rewards the water boy on the spiritual playing field as much as the key players. There are no 'BIG SHOTS' in Heaven's eyes, only 'LITTLE SHOTS' serving the Lord faithfully. God rewards the praying man as much as the preaching man, for time spent laboring for Christ. God rewards labor, not talent; although we may use our talents in our labor.
Every believer can and should serve God. Even the person locked behind bars or crippled in a wheelchair can fervently labour in prayer as taught in Colossians 4:12, “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” Prayer is work!
I'm tired of hearing so-called “experts” on the internet talk about the importance of laying up earthly treasures for retirement, without ever addressing the reality that death could come at any moment. Proverbs 27:1, “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” People ought to be concerned about the fate of their soul, and not obsessed with buying gold or silver for the future. I haven't the slightest interest in laying up any earthly treasures! There's nothing in this world that you can take with you into eternity, NOTHING, except the souls who were saved, and the lives that were impacted by your labors, prayers, witnessing and influence for Jesus Christ. ...
“Only one life, ’twill soon be past,Only what’s done for Christ will last.And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be,If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.”—Charles T. Studd (1860-1931)The average person in America is boggled down with covetousness and materialism. The heathen world lives for personal success, prosperity and trying to get ahead of their neighbour. I hear advertisement on the radio, luring people to invest every penny possible for retirement, not even considering that our very breath is in God's hands. Daniel 5:23, “...the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.” At some point in life, every reasonable person eventually realizes the foolishness and vanity of living for this world's good, pleasures and wealth (because it is all vanity).
In reality, there are hundreds of bad things that can happen (and usually do) which devour your wealth, health and retirement. When the dwindling steel industry collapsed (due to the evils of deindustrialization in America), even the institutions which were created to protect the retirements of the workers went belly-up, and they lost everything! The steel workers lost their medical insurance and the money which they had laboured day and night to earn for 40-50 years. To my understanding, no one went to prison, but many crooks should have. God will make them pay dearly! The point here is simple, Jesus told us in Matthew 6:19-20 not to laying up treasures in this world, where thieves break through and steal (the biggest thieves wear white collars and sit behind desks).
Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-20 that we ought to lay up treasures in Heaven. Christians can earn heavenly rewards by helping local Bible-believing churches, contending for the faith, giving alms to the poor, supporting missionaries, doing good works in Jesus' name, helping the afflicted, encouraging your pastor, visiting the imprisoned, and soul-winning by proclaiming the Gospel. Anything good that you do as a born-again Christian for Jesus Christ, and to further the fulfillment of 'The Great Commission,' will be rewarded. God's heart's desire is to see souls saved, that His house may be filled. Any work for God that leaves off proclaiming the Gospel is a waste of time, all done in vain.
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” —Missionary Jim Elliot (1927-1956)
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