Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the Gospel according to Matthew
chapter 6, and reading from our text, verse 33. Verse 33, But
seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. What is upon my spirit this morning
is that God is a God of order and He directs us in that which
we need to put first, first things first. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you. In the previous verses, our Lord
made mention of Solomon. In verse 29, Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like the lilies of the field. And we read
of where Solomon became king over Israel and Judah. And the Lord appeared to him
in a dream by night. And God said to him, ask what
I shall give thee. And Solomon, he asked for wisdom. He asked according to the greatness
of the kingdom that was before him. He was so impressed upon
him. What a responsibility, what a
great thing was before him. and that weighed above everything
else. And so he asked for wisdom. He asked for that help to be
able to discern between good and bad, and to be given the
wisdom to govern that people. And we read that the speech pleased
the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto
him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked
for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself,
nor hast asked the life of thy enemies, but hast asked for thyself
understanding to discern judgment, behold, I have done according
to thy words, lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding
heart, so that there was none like Thee before Thee, neither
after Thee shall any arise like unto Thee. And then we read this,
And I have also given Thee that which Thou hast not asked, both
riches and honour, so that there shall not be any among the kings
like unto all Thy days. This is in 1 Kings and Chapter
3. And the Lord then promised him and gave him what he had
not asked. And we have in our text, but
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. The things that have
been mentioned before, the raiment, the riches, the things that the
Gentiles of the world go after, the Lord says, put you the priority
on the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these other
things shall still be given thee." Just the same as it was with
Solomon. With Solomon, he had a real sense
of what was before him. And I wonder how much do we have
a real sense of the worth of our soul, the shortness of time,
the greatness of the kingdom of God, and of being part of
that kingdom, and to have not our own righteousness, but Christ's
righteousness, God's righteousness, God's provision for us. How much do we really realize
that? So that we, like Solomon, seek
that first. Seek the good of our souls, seek
that eternal kingdom first. and are able to lay aside these
other things. The Apostle Paul, he says, let
us lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset
us and let us run the race that is set before us looking unto
Jesus. It's a solemn thing. If we go
through the year and we are so filled with the things of time
and sense which shall be taken away in a moment, and we neglect
our souls, we neglect the Kingdom of God. And so may the Lord help
us to view this Word before us this morning and lay aside those
things that would detract and take us away from the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness, but let us seek that first. And so I want to Look in our
thoughts in three ways. Firstly, a God of order bids
us to put first things first. God is a God of order and in
our text he says, seek ye first. And then secondly, what the kingdom
of God is and how we are to seek it. Because our text bids us
to seek this, to seek the Kingdom of God. We need to know what
it is to be able to seek it, and we need to know how to seek
it. And then lastly, what God's righteousness is, and how we
are to seek that. Because we are told in our text
as well, He's not just seeking the Kingdom of God, but it is
and His righteousness. We are to seek that. as well,
and so then how is it that we are to seek that? Firstly, we have a God of order,
and He is the one that bids us to seek fast. Right from the very beginning
of the Word of God, we have God set before us as a God of order,
In the first chapter of Genesis we have the creation account. And God there gives a very clear
pattern of order. First he makes a place for the
planets and the heavens. Then he makes a place for the
fishes and the birds of the air. And then He makes a place, Earth,
that He is going to put man in. In the first three days, He is
making these places and they avoid, as it were, of anything
in them, but they are places. And then He comes in the fourth
and fifth and sixth day and He takes the heavens and He puts
in them the sun, the moon and the stars. and he takes the sky
and the seas and he puts the fishes in the seas and the birds
of the air in the air, and then he takes the earth and he puts
the beasts in the earth, a man, not only in the earth but in
a garden that has already been prepared for him. And there is
all of that order. He doesn't put man on a waystailing
wilderness and then makes it, he prepares it first. And we
have that repeated with Canaan, with the children of Israel going
to Canaan. Canaan is the promised land. And the Lord said they would
not need to build houses or vineyards. It was all done for them. And
in heaven, the Lord says, I go to prepare a place for you. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also again. is a prepared place for a prepared
people. And so God is a God of order
in that way. We see in the very beginning
of this book, the Gospel according to Matthew, and we have the line
traced from Abraham right through to David, and from David to the
carrying away into Babylon, and from the carrying away into Babylon
unto Christ. And we have 14 generations in
each of those parts of history. And we cannot but be impressed
upon the order that God makes and puts right over the table
of history. And those things that the Lord
does, he does in an orderly way. In the churches, it is the word
of the Apostle that everything might be done decently and in
order. When it was in the times of the
sacrifices, the Old Testament, when they built the altars, we
think of Elijah on Mount Carmel and he's built the altar. did
everything in order, the 12 stones according to the tribes of Israel,
and then set the wood in order, and then the bullock in order,
and everything is done in its right place and the right order. And many of us who worked in
business, we know that there are things that must be done
first, and then there is that which follows afterwards, and
to change that order, would completely destroy and it wouldn't result
in anything done properly at all, in anything that is built,
in roads, in buildings or anything. It is the plan, the design, the
drawings, the checking, the ordering, the preparing of the ground,
the building from the foundation up, in everything we're reminded
there's things that must be done first, things that are more important
than others, things that must be left to wait to another time,
and God is a God of order in that way, and in the Kingdom
of God. We have in the growth of it,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear,
just like the farmer expects, he puts in the seed, and it grows
in that order, in that gradual way. So it is also in the Kingdom
of God, in the resurrection. It is Christ, the firstfruits,
then they that are His at His coming. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the first begotten from the dead. He is the firstborn and
He is the Head of the Church of God. He is the King of the
Kingdom. In all that the Lord does, in
the Church of God, in Providence and in our lives, God is a God
not of confusion, but of order, and that is very much reflected
in the directions to the churches, and it is directed here in our
seeking, in the concerns of the people of God, that they are
to seek some things first, and then to leave others, and to
let other things, as it were, go, because there is a priority
and there is an importance on things that must be attended
to first. I wonder how the Word finds us
this morning. Are we trying to do things? Are
we doing them in the wrong order? We're not doing it in the order
that God sets us to do in the Word of God. Our priorities are
not the same as His, and we're seeking to do things in our own
strength. We're seeking to order our own
ways and leave God out of it, or to just tack Him on the end
of it. But how is it with us, especially
concerning our souls, concerning that which is eternal, those
things that pass away, those things that belong to this world.
We think of that time when we shall yield our last breath. What shall be important then?
What shall our assessment of our lives be then? What shall
our thoughts be then? What have we had our priorities
put on at that time? So our Lord is a God, of order,
a God of planning and of things that are done first, and then
there's that which follows. In the psalmist, he said, he
shall give grace and glory. Grace comes first, glory comes
next. Our Lord Jesus Christ, man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, humbled himself, became obedient
unto death, Even the death of the cross, that came first. Wherefore
God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow. That comes second. Through the
cross comes the crown. Through this world, being born
into this world first, and then born again of the Spirit of God,
and then to enter into a heavenly Kingdom. God is a God of order
and may that be reflected in our lives as being a follower
of Him and learning of Him. So I want to look then secondly
at the Kingdom of God and how it is that we are to seek it. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Really, we could summarize the
kingdom of God as being in two parts. One, it is the Church
of God in these Gospel days here below, made up of believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ. The second part of that kingdom
of God is that kingdom which is above in heaven. It is one people, it is one kingdom,
they have one king, the Lord Jesus Christ is over them all,
but while the earth remains, it is in these two parts. The hymn writer says, more happy
but not more secure the glorified saints above and it sets forth
the security of God's people even here below in that same
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is emphasised when our Lord
speaks of John the Baptist and he says that the least in the
kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist. And of course
John the Baptist, he was the last of the prophets. John Baptist
died before the Lord Jesus Christ suffered at Calvary, before he
rose again, before the Holy Spirit was given, and before the gospel
of the kingdom was fully preached. And so there's an emphasis pointing
separating between what had been pointed to by the Old Testament
prophets, they pointed to Christ, they spoke of Christ, it was
the gospel in their day, it was the ceremonial law and the promises
which were in Christ. But when we come to the time
of our Lord and the time of his sufferings and the time of his
resurrection, and especially the time of the giving of the
Holy Spirit, then that is what is spoken of as the Kingdom of
God. When our Lord sent forth His
disciples to preach, it was the Kingdom of God that He told them
that they were to preach. When they went to people that
rejected that word, then they were to shake off the dust from
off their feet but to say unto them that they were to know surely
that the kingdom of God had come nigh unto them. That is, it had
been preached, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And it hath pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It
is through that means and that way that men, women, children,
are brought into the Kingdom of God. And how are they brought
into it? They are brought into it by being
born into it, not naturally, but born again of the Spirit
of God, quickened into spiritual life. And they are then brought
into that Kingdom, and that Kingdom is spoken of by our Lord in another
way. The Kingdom of God cometh not
by observation, for it is within you. And so it is that which
is formed in the heart by the Holy Ghost, unseen by the world. The disciples asked the Lord
how should it be that they should believe or that they should see
Him, but the world should not see Him. And the Lord said, because
the world cannot see the Holy Spirit, doesn't know the things
of God at all, but ye see them, ye know them. And it is because
of the work of God within. And so that kingdom of God is
that which is formed in the heart by the Holy Ghost, whereby instead
of Satan ruling, it is Christ that rules. He sets up his kingdom
in the heart of us all, and he has the sway and the ruling there
in the heart. those that He has suffered, bled
and died for on Calvary, they in their lifetime are brought
out of nature's darkness and into His marvellous light. And
that kingdom on earth is a kingdom of people that are born again.
And they are a people that are known as gathering together in
the Church of God as a number, they that feared the Lord, spake
often one to another, forsaking not the assembling of yourselves
together as the manner of some is, so much the more, as ye see
the day approaching. And it is unto him that the gathering
of the people shall be. And in his temple every one shall
speak of his glory. And it is this that is the kingdom
of God, where he rules and he has his way and his people are
his servants and his people and his sheep and they follow after
him. And so what is then the way that
we are to seek this kingdom of God? Well in this chapter, in
Matthew chapter 6, the Lord gives first a manner of praying in
verse 9 after this manner pray ye our father which art in heaven
hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth
as it is in heaven and so in the first way it is sought in
the way the manner the lord himself has bid and that is in prayer
that we are to ask that his kingdom come. Some might say, well, this
is making there be almost heaven on earth, that the whole world
shall be converted unto the Lord. But as we said, our Lord said,
the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, it is within
you. And it is a prayer that we should
seek first to ask of the Lord, that His kingdom might come,
it might come within us, that we might know it, and that He
might have the sway in our hearts and in our lives, and that we'd
be very clearly under His dominion and Him as being our King. We think of the times in the
Old Testament when there was the different kings over Judah. And what a profound difference
they made, even over the people of God. Who was in ascendancy? Who was the king? Who was the
one that was making the laws? So we see the very great difference
between the reigns of like Ahab, or Ahaz, and Hezekiah, good king,
Josiah, good king. kings that truly serve the Lord
and their people with them, thy kingdom come. We want the Lord
rule in our heart, not self, not the world, not Satan, but
the Lord rule in our hearts and we are to seek that and we just
seek that by prayer. The other context that is here
Our Lord is speaking to those that were seeking to lay up treasures
upon earth. In verse 19, we have, lay not
up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, where thieves break through and steal, but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven. While we can't go up to heaven
and like physically lay up treasure there and put it there like we
would go up to a bedroom, and put things away in a bottom drawer
or ready for some other time. It's not in that way at all.
But it is laying up treasures for ourselves in seeking the
Lord and seeking His Kingdom, seeking His blessing and His
presence and the things of God instead of these riches. How hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God. How the Lord so clearly
says he cannot serve God and mammon. The Lord does give his
people things on this earth. We proved it. Our food and raiment
and many things he has given us. But those are not to be in
our hearts. Those are not to be in ascendance. We're not to seek them first. And we don't have to have great
riches to do that. The Lord knows our heart. Years
ago, not long after I first became a believer, and I was paying
off my own home over in Australia, and I had insight how I could
be able to pay it off. And I sat down and I worked out
how many months or how many years I would have, putting away money
to do it. And the Lord saw my heart was
set on earthly things. It was set on achieving those
things here below. And immediately I did that. Then the Lord started to touch
things. I'd changed my car and I'd had
to have warranty repairs, changed the speed of the speedo, unknown
to me. And I had a run of speeding fines
and I couldn't work out why until I was able to prove it was actually
the speedo that was wrong. But all my calculations, they
all went. The Lord touched them all. And
it is a comforting thing to realise that when the Lord sees our heart,
He's set on things on earth, He touches those things. And
I say it in kindness, if the Lord is touching things in your
life, then really think, have I got my heart in the right place? Am I looking at these things? And so the Lord is touching them.
He's taking off my wheels. He's taking off these things
and touching these things and making there to be no success,
no profit, no help, because you're going about them and not seeking
me first, not seeking that kingdom. which is within his kingdom. And so, in the sense of the seeking,
it is seeking the Lord first, and holding with a loose hand
the world and the things of it. Verse 24, no man can serve two
masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or
else ye will hold to the one and despise the other, ye cannot
serve God and mammon." If we are seeking our Lord first, it
will be that God sees that we are seeking Him first, not our
own estimation, God sees it. In mercy, we are His people,
and He sees that we are not, He will deal with us and touch
those things. Also, we have a willingness,
need to be a willingness to part with those things that offend
and grieve. In several of the Gospels, our
Lord speaks about cutting off hands and plucking out right
eyes, those things that offend, those things in our lives that
are fighting against the Lord, bringing us into bondage, making
us kindly minded, those things our flesh loves and yet deep
in our hearts we know that to indulge them, to go along with
them, we are doing damage to our souls. We are putting a stumbling
block before ourselves and So we are exhorted in this to be
willing to take drastic measures that those things that are detrimental
to our soul's eternal good are dealt with, are parted from. We are to take up the cross and
to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We are to seek
unto the King of the Kingdom. how the Lord Jesus Christ is
to be the first, the one thing needful for our souls. If you and I are seeking first
the kingdom of God, we will be seeking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. We think of the dying thief,
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. The Lord has
always ordered it that all in his kingdom have a first-hand
experience of him. You know, it's not like the kingdom
here in the UK now. You know, many of us, we probably
never see King Charles actually in the flesh, or shake his hand,
or speak to him. And yet he is the king. But there's many of his subjects
that it's very indirect. But with the Lord, He knows His
people. I know my sheep, they are known
of mine. My sheep, they hear my voice,
and they follow me. And all the time, the King is
speaking to His subjects, and He knows them, and He governs
them, and He loves them. And so we are to be very mindful
of the King, our King, Lord Jesus. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. He will also be seeking his people. We have the beautiful account
of Ruth, brought out from Moab, and she turned her back upon
her own people, her own gods, and clave unto Naomi. And she says, entreat me not
to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. Whither
thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy
people shall be my people, and thy God my God. She clave to
Naomi, clave to the people of God. If we are seeking first the kingdom
of God, then we will have that spirit as well, like the apostles
being let go, they went unto their own company. You think of the kingdoms of
the world and those in Bible times. If someone was belonging
to Judah, wouldn't they want to be in Judah and with their
own people? Was it not a trial when they
were carried away to another people? Thy people shall be my people. That is one aspect of the kingdom. It'll be a seeking to the people
of God where they are and where the Lord is. We spoke before
of the kingdom as being characterised by the preaching of the kingdom. That is what the apostles were
commissioned to do. And when it wasn't received and
they shook the dust off their feet, it went somewhere else.
But our desire should be that we should then hear the Word
and be where the Word is preached and set forth. And that is inseparably
joined to the Kingdom of God, where the Kingdom is preached,
where the Gospel is preached, The way of salvation is preached
where Christ is preached and Him crucified is preached. This is the Kingdom of God that
we are to seek first. The Word of God, in our closets,
in prayer, in the Word of God, to be like dear Mary sitting
at the feet of Jesus and hearing His Word, not like Martha cumbered
about with not serving, seeking first the Kingdom of God. May we truly be able to consider
how we are seeking it, and do we seek it first? Is it a priority
in how we seek? And the other aspect as well,
is not only the Kingdom of God here below, but it is that above,
running the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. The Thessalonian church, when
they were converted, it was not only to be followers of the Lord
and of us, the apostles, but it was to wait for the Lord from
heaven. And so the church of God, the
New Testament church, the kingdom on earth, When the Spirit is
with them, they say, the Spirit and the Bride say, come, even
so come, Lord Jesus. And there is that desire for
that last, that great kingdom, the heavenly kingdom, to come,
to kingdom, to be delivered up unto the Father, behold I, and
the children whom thou hast given me. And that will be the desire
as well. The apostle says to thee, Corinthians,
if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are all men
most miserable. If we are only following for
the loaves and the fishes, then we are most miserable. But if
we are seeking that bread which endureth to eternal life, then
we are a blessed soul, and we are to seek that first. I don't know about you, but I
need such an exhortation as this. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God. So may we know what the Kingdom
of God is, and may we know what it is to seek it, and that we
search our hearts whether we seek it first, or whether it
comes way down on our priority, on our use of time, our use of
money, Our use of affections, our association with those of
the Kingdom. Where does it come? In what priority,
what order? Made simple here. Not second,
not third, but first. But seek ye first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness. Well, in the third place, The
question is then what is God's righteousness and how are we
to seek that? In one sense it is very closely
bound up with the Kingdom of God, but in another it becomes
very, very personal. Seek ye and His righteousness
is adjoining of a people with a righteousness which is not
theirs, it is his. The Apostle Paul, when he was
writing to the Romans, and he desired that they might be saved,
his own people for Israel might be saved. But he said that they
were ignorant of God's righteousness, this righteousness in our text. They were ignorant of, and not
only not seeking it, they didn't even know about it. And he says,
they were going about to establish their own righteousness, have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. They
were seeking by their own works, by their own efforts, by their
own good deeds to make themselves pleasing and acceptable unto
God. And when we are doing that, when
we are seeking under the law and under the old covenant to
make ourselves acceptable to God, we are not seeking his righteousness
at all. If we were to go back one chapter
to Matthew chapter 5, we have the blessing pronounced upon
those in verse 6, those that do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. They are seeking it, they hunger,
they thirst after it. Why do they? because they feel
their own unrighteousness. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags, saith the Word of God. Our good deeds, our best
deeds, they all are stained and dyed with sin. We're not to expect
any good, we're not to seek any good there. We're to seek His
righteousness and seek that first. Naturally, many of us, sometimes
we might say, well, it gets very complicated. The Word of God
says that we should walk in ways of righteousness, we should do
good, we should repent of our evil, we should turn from our
evil ways. Shouldn't we do that? Yes, we should, but with the
right motive, as a motive for love to the Lord. and a hatred
to sin, and a desire to do that which is pleasing in his sight. That is why we should do those
things. But not to obtain heaven, not
to purchase heaven, not to purchase God's favour. That righteousness
that comes by our works, that shall never merit heaven. The righteousness that we are
to seek is that which was wrought out by our Lord, that which is
perfect. His life, His perfect life of
obedience to His Father, a fulfilling of the law, that is what shall
clothe us. That is what shall be given to
a believer. That is what we shall stand unashamed
before God at the last day. And dear friends, if we are all
the time troubled, troubled that we shall not inherit heaven,
we shall not be part of the kingdom, and that we must make more effort
and more attention to our own works and with the thoughts that
we shall make ourselves acceptable to God, then we are not seeking
first. His righteousness but seeking
ours, and then just His name cast into the scale if we don't
quite make up. But it's when we see ourselves
so black, so sinful, so vile, so unfit, and then our only plea
is the righteousness of Christ. May we be clear? It is the precious
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed upon Calvary, that puts
away sin. But it is the righteousness of
Christ that fits us for heaven and enables us to stand without
shame before the throne. It is the wedding garment. It
doesn't hide sin. That is blotted out by His precious
blood. It does make that we stand not
naked before the throne, but we are clothed upon. It is like
our Lord shedding the blood of the beast to clothe Adam and
Eve. The blood is like His blood that
was shed. The skins are like His righteousness. It is like the robe that they
cast lots on at His crucifixion. Let us not rend it, but let us
cast lots. The hymn writer takes it up without
a seam. This garment's woe, bequeathed
in everlasting love, ordained to be from all time, ordained
to be a royal robe to cover thee. And it is to seek that, to be
very clear in our own hearts. Again, it's the words of the
hymn writer, in Christ's obedience clothed, and wash me in his blood,
so shall I lift my head with joy among the sons of God. It's to have a very clear view
of what our standing is before God, and our place in his kingdom
is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but that
which the Lord has done. And when we seek that first,
Then the Lord deals with our sins, he deals and he gives us
repentance, he gives us forgiveness of sin. John takes it up in his
first epistle, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It is a seeking first of the
gospel, the good news of salvation, through Jesus Christ, is laying
aside every weight, every idea of salvation out of Christ, and
seeking Him first, and seeking Him and His Kingdom as being
the priority and the order for our souls. That if we have Him,
and if we are clothed in His righteousness, then it is well
with while life endure, and well when called to die, and be that
which holds us stable, instead of tossed to and fro with every
wind of doctrine, instead of one moment saved and the next
minute lost, one moment thinking, well, we're not too bad before
God, it's well with us now, and another, well, now we've slipped
and fallen, now we're not the people of God. found in Him, not having our
own righteousness which is of the Lord, but that which is of
God by faith, that we view our standing by faith in Christ. And this then is to be sought
first. These are things that, not of
indifference or unimportant, but and not only just to be sought
for, but to be sought for first, that we might truly know that
we have found these things that the Lord bids us to seek after. But seek ye first. How will we know that we've found
them? In one sense, we're always seekers, but to be found in Christ. not having our own righteousness. That would give such peace. It
gives such quietness. It gives a clear knowledge and
an understanding of our position in Christ. Then were the disciples
glad when they saw the Lord. That the love of God be shed
abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost. that we have joy and peace
in believing. These are the things that accompany
a true knowledge and possession and understanding of the Kingdom
of God and His Righteousness. But seek ye first the Kingdom
of God and His Righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you. The Lord art His blessing.