Hiding a Treasure

There's a rich man in New Mexico who several years ago hid a fortune in the Rocky Mountains worth two million dollars and he then wrote a esoteric and vague poem with hidden meanings and double entendres and the poem supposedly has nine clues and is a map to the treasure. He hid this treasure of mainly gold eight years ago and no one has found it even though tens of thousands of people have searched for it and two men have died searching for it. The most recent being a pastor who died in June searching for that hidden treasure.

The man who hid that treasure will more than likely die with its secret location going to the grave with him. I want to talk to you this evening friends about hidden treasure. I wonder have you heard this story of a buried treasure spoken of in my bible, in Matthew's gospel.

Listen. Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking to buy a treasure hidden in a field. The witch when a man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field.

Oh friend have you heard about that treasure? Do you know of which I speak? Listen to this other story of a treasure. 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. Do you know that pearl friend? The Lord Jesus Christ.

He's worth selling off for and losing off for. Do you know him friend? I hope that you do. I want to talk to you this evening about another treasure worth having and that is the word of God.

I believe one of the best things we can do as believers is to hide the word of God in our hearts through a disciplined scripture memory system. It's a treasure worth hiding. The psalmist declared in psalm 119 162.

I rejoice that that word is one that findeth great spoil. Did you hear that friends? Great spoil a thing of immense value of great worth like a treasure. Another advantage of memorizing scripture is seen in Psalm 119 11 which reads that word I have hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

The new American standard reads your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you. I believe scripture memory friends is something we can all benefit from and something we are guilty of not doing enough of. If I gave you a pen and pencil right now and took your phone away and took your bible away and I asked you to begin writing from memory all the scripture you've hidden in your heart through the years.

I wonder how many hours do you think you could consume by writing out all that you have memorized from your bible let me put it this way. If hot persecution comes to this country like I believe it will and it gets so hot here that Christians are being thrown in jail. How long do you think you'd last without your bible? Wouldn't you rather have hidden God's word in your heart to be a comfort to you and a witness to your cellmates the believers in China in the persecuted underground church why they've memorized so much scripture that they are walking bibles.

For years in my home I used to disciple other believers through a men's discipleship group that met on a weekly basis and the core strength of that group was getting men to memorize their bibles. I had little cards with bible verses on them that I bought from the navigators and I would put those bible verses in a basket and hand it around the room each week for the men to take a bible verse and memorize it before we met again the following week. I had the men take those bible verses to their bathroom mirror so they'd see it when they shaved.

I had them clip it to their car's sun visor so they'd see it driving down the street. I believe one of the biggest blessings those men received was not so much what I had to say to them but how they learned the discipline of hiding God's word in their hearts. I believe our main problem today friends is we don't love Jesus enough and we don't love our bibles enough and this is true I'm sad to say of many pastors who'd rather work on their golf handicap or watch a ball game instead of being on their knees and in their bibles.

This generation of Christians are basically biblically ignorant they don't know their bibles and many sadly don't know their God. Oh how we must aim to know our God and to know God's word. Dr. Stephen Alford used to say the word of God cannot be mastered until we are mastered by the word of God.

Oh friends how true that is. Make a vow to God this week that you will spend more time in his word and memorizing his word by hiding that wonderful treasure in your heart. Get an index card and write a bible verse on it and keep it with you during the week and gradually hide as much of God's word in your heart as he will enable.

What a rich treasure we have in our bibles. Begin memorizing God's word today friends and then you can say like the psalmist I rejoice at thy word as one that findeth great spoil. Let us pray.