Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Matthew, chapter 6, Matthew 6. I would like to read verses 28
to 30. The word of our God will ask
our Lord's blessing. Matthew 6, 28. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spin. And yet I say unto you, that
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today
is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more
clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? Our Father, we thank you for
another time to be able to come together and to hear the Word
of God. Pray this morning, Lord would
you bless the Word for the honor of our precious Savior and to
the comfort and salvation of your people. Lord, I pray Pray
for our families, our kids, our parents, our spouses. Lord have
mercy. Teach us this day of Christ. For it's in His name we pray. Amen. Consider the leaders. How they
grow. That's what I want to speak on
this morning. Often our Lord would take from
nature illustrations concerning God's care for those that He's
everlastingly loved. Today I want to consider one
of those illustrations. He was preaching a sermon on
the Mount. And he said these words to those that heard him,
consider the lilies, how they grow. I read those words and
I thought to myself, you know, that's not just a passing statement. That wasn't just a passing suggestion. Knowing that there's nothing
unprofitable concerning our Lord's words, I want us to consider
this morning what He was saying. Here's the first thing I wanted
to consider. Who do these lilies represent?
Consider the lilies, how they grow. There's flowers out there. Solomon 2.2 says this, as the
lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As our Lord spoke these tender
words, as the lily among the thorns, so is my love. I know this. Almighty God has
a love. He loves His own. The Lord has a love that was
given Him by the Father in electing grace. He has a love that He
bought and paid for by His precious blood and Calvary. And He has
a love that comes to Him in time, made willing in the day of God's
power to come to Christ for help, for their need, for comfort. Consider the lily, how they grow. That word there, the lily, the
whiteness, that's what it means, the whiteness. There's not a
chance that when the Lord's people hear the Lord speaking of the
living, that was His love. The whiteness, that was His love.
There's no way that they don't immediately think, what made
her so? Why is she thus? Why? No other reason but that she's
robed in His righteousness. She's not beautiful in herself.
From the crown of her head to the sole of her foot, in herself
she's nothing but putrefying sores. Her wounds have been bound
up, not mollified, but anointed with oil. Why is she the whiteness? Consider the lilies. The lilies
of the field, how they grow. Our Lord said concerning these
lilies, Matthew 6, 29, we just read it, even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these. They don't toil. They don't spin. They never even tried to make
themselves beautiful. Almighty God in his infinite
mercy and grace, made himself. Turn with me to Isaiah 61. Isaiah
61. Concerning the beauty, the role
of God's lilies. Isaiah 61, verse 10 and 11. The scripture says, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God. For
he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered
me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth
the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord
God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before
all nations. Beautiful pictures of God's people,
God's elect, that don't produce their own righteousness. Solomon,
in all of his glory, in all of that beautiful array of gold,
The jewels. He didn't even come close to
being arrayed like one of these. I'd say that's just a flower.
Yeah. But God made it so. Somebody
look at a believer and say, well, I look at that believer and I
don't see that much. I see them just, they kind of
act like I do sometimes. I agree. But you don't see them
the way God sees them. And thanks be unto Him, that
Almighty God, who sees His lilies robed in His Son, looks upon
them in Christ, It says, beautiful, well done. If God so clothed
the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith? I read that scripture again and
I thought, I'm so glad he said little faith. He didn't say no
faith. little thing, only by faith did
we behold the surety of being clothed by Almighty God, robed
in the righteousness of His precious Son, and in Him. Beautiful, beyond compare, beautiful,
beyond description. Solomon in all of his glory was
not arrayed like one of these. Secondly, not only who are they,
but secondly, where are they found? Consider the lilies of the fields. Consider how they grow. I'll
tell you where they're found. They're not found in the culture places of man's ability, where
man can take take credit for something that he's done to so-called
make himself beautiful. Consider the lilies of the fields,
how they grow. Those lilies that the scripture
sets forth are in the world, not of it, they're in it. The scripture says back we read
in the Song of Solomon 2.2, as the lily among the thorns, as
the lilies of the field. These lilies are found as wheat
among the tares, objects of God's mercy actually dug out of the
same pit as being fallen in Adam. They're just like anybody else
as far as their human nature's concern, but concerning those
that Almighty God has everlastingly loved, those that He's looked
upon in favor in Christ. I know that they were born in
this world, they came forth speaking lies just like anybody else. Those who the Scripture says
in time past walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air. Oh, but something
happened in due season. Something happened in time that
no one could ever have imagined. Almighty God revealed to me what
they truly are, lilies. The scripture sets forth that
these lilies They're just, as far as their human time is concerned,
they're like the flowers of the grass, which today is. This life is but a vapor. We're
just frail creatures. While they're here, in themselves,
truly they see no beauty. Every believer truly will admit
But old John Newton says, when I look at myself, can I deem
myself a child? When I look within all that is
dark and wild, and he asks this question, you that know the Lord,
is it not so with you too? Is it not that we consider ourselves
Look at ourselves and say, where's the beauty? I don't even know
how to pray as I ought. I don't know how to read. I try
to read and I think, this is Almighty God's Word. But thanks
be unto Him. And Almighty God sees us in Christ. Yet truly we are in this world.
By the grace of God. Consider the lilies. Who are
they? Where are they found? Consider how they grow. Consider
how they grow. How do the lilies grow? Well,
I'll tell you this, I know that they're found to be growing,
being grafted into Christ. He said, I'm the vine and you're
the branch. They grow because they're grafted
into life. If there was no life there, they
wouldn't grow at all. They'd be dead. Consider the
lilies, how they grow. The Lord said, John 15, verse
4, Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except
ye abide I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For
without me, you can do nothing. You're dead. Not grafted into
Christ, there's no way. Being rooted and grounded in
love, how do they grow? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. I'll tell you how they grow.
They grow also in grace. And in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, they are the garden of the Lord Jesus
Himself. And the Holy Spirit cultivates
that garden. Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. I'll tell you how you grow. You
grow truly as He grows you in grace. Listen to this scripture,
Psalm of Solomon 416. Awake, O north wind, and come
thou south. Blow upon my garden that the
spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits. How tenderly Does the Lord, by
His Holy Spirit, cultivate His garden? You know, we'll have
a little garden. We'll do what we can. We'll grow it. We'll fertilize
it. We'll take care of it. Hedge it about. Try to keep the
deer out of it and other farmers that put up distractions. How does the Lord cultivate His
garden? Here's how he does it. Awake,
O north wind, and blow. By the north wind of the Spirit
of God's cold to us, we feel it. Conviction and chastisement. We feel these cold winds. For the moment, how they bite.
of chastisement for the moment. It's pleasant. It's grievous. That's what Paul says. The Spirit
of God that causes us to realize our desperate need of Christ
and what we are. How the Spirit of God, through
His Word, by His Spirit, teaching us. But you know what the living
of the field that's growing is going to say, it's good for me
that I've been affected, that I might learn my statutes. Boy,
I'll tell you a believer, here's how they go through this world,
struggling, struggling. The world knows nothing about
the inward struggles that a believer knows. They see themselves, they
see what they are, they see the presence of sin, and they say,
as Paul the Apostle said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? The world doesn't care. It doesn't
care. What's that got to do with me?
I'm not interested in that stuff. One day they will. One day. This chastening hand causes us
to see afresh our frailty. Causes us to see the desperate
need of sustaining grace. Peter said, Lord, save me. I'm
going to perish. A believer wakes up every morning.
Lord, guide me this day. Guide me. Direct me. Lord, direct my steps. Lord keep
me according to your mercy. We were looking, Neil and I tried
to go over and we were looking in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah
and there was one passage over there that said, Ezra prepared
his heart to seek the Lord. I thought, he prepared his heart
to seek the Lord. How do you do that? Honestly. Lord, help me. Lord, have mercy
on me. Lord, keep me. We come this morning
and we're going to hear the Word of God preached. Lord, would
you prepare my heart to hear? Lord, would you cause me to hear? Lord, speak to my heart. Lord,
as the gospel of God's grace is set forth, as the Word of
God is preached, Lord, would you speak to me? Lord would you
cause me, cause me to be abused upon these things, help me. Oh
the Spirit of God, chastening mercy, blow on north wind, but
I need the south wind of his comfort. I need to be reminded
of the warmth of his smile and his tenderness to remind me I'm
never going to leave you. I'm never going to forsake you.
Oh, when that cold wind blows, you think, oh, Lord, are you
there? Lord, have you forgotten to be
merciful? There's times when we would ask
when the Lord is pleased to bring us to realize afresh our need
of Him and that north wind of conviction. And we'll say, as
the bride said, Then Solomon said, Saw ye him whom I spoke
of? Have you seen him? Where is he? But then when that
south wind blows, surely it will blow because the Lord has commanded
it to blow. Blow, O north wind, blow, O south,
that the spices of my garden may come forth. How is Almighty
God going to realize are set forth in realizing to His people,
His mercy, in causing the fragrance, the spices, the spirit of God's
fruit in His people. How? He'll show them what they
are, He'll remind them of His sustaining grace. When that south
wind of warmth and comfort of God's people blows, and then
they say, oh, but a little while, I found Him. Whom my soul loveth,
I held him and I wouldn't let him go. You think when old Jacob
wrestled with the man, and you know he was by the grace of God,
Almighty God wrestled with him. And when the Lord said to Jacob,
the daybreak is letting me go, Jacob said no. I won't let you go unless you
bless me." By the grace of God, he was able to hold. By the grace
of God, God's people, the lilies of the field, those that grow
in grace, those that grow in faith and grow taught, comforted
by God's Spirit, they're going to say, like Peter, where are
we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. They grow
in that precious fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ being fed
by His mercy. That which only they can and
must feed on, Himself. How do they grow? You've got
to eat. If you don't eat, you're going
to die. If you don't eat, you're already
dead. I can tell you that. If you don't eat, you're dead.
If you don't hunger, I'm not going to find a child.
I'm not going to find anybody. I'm not going to find a human
being that doesn't eat. They don't eat. They're dead.
They're dead. They're not going to die. They're
dead. Psalm 216, My beloved is mine and I am his. He feedeth
among the litters. That is, he doth the feeding. He feedeth, not that He goes
in to feed. Oh, I'm sure that there's much
that could be said concerning Him feeding and the enjoyment
of His people, but this Scripture is talking about He does the
feeding among the living. John 6, 51, I am the living bread
which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give. life of the world, consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow, planted in Him in electing
grace, made alive spiritually in time, in quickening grace,
and matured and made beautiful in the Father's sight, being
robed in the precious righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're growing. Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow in their growing in time. He delivers them from this present
evil world into the glorious presence of the Father. Psalm and Solomon 6 to my beloved
has gone down into his garden. to the beds of spices, to feed
in the gardens, and to gather lilies. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. He mercifully gathers his lilies. Whosoever liveth and believeth
in me, shall never die. Believest thou this? Oh, the
wonder of the lilies of the field, how they grow. They grow by the
grace of God into that point, let me say it like that, in which
Almighty God is pleased to gather them to Himself. Oh, the wonder
of growing into the presence of His perfection and to be able
to read our time clear. Read our time clear. By faith,
we look. By faith, we rejoice. But according to the Word of
God, there's a time coming when as we grow, according to His Word, to never
die, to be gathered into His presence, to see Him as He is,
to be like Him, growing totally, perfectly, completely into the
very presence of Almighty God, oh, to every lily of the field. Considering how they grow, do
you know what their heart, joy, and desire is as they grow? Come quickly, Lord Jesus, for
Christ's sake. Amen.