Luke chapter 12 verse 22 this
morning. Speak to you for a little while
on the subject, what to seek. Luke 12, 22. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore
I say unto you, take no thought for your life what you shall
eat, neither for the body what you shall put on. The word therefore
is there because he's been teaching them a man's life does not consist
in the things which he possesseth. Don't be caught up in the things
of this life, but seek the kingdom of God. And so he says, therefore,
don't take any thought. for these things. The life, verse
23, is more than meat. The body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they
neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and
God feedeth them. How much more are you better
than the fowls? Are we as dependent on God as
a bird is? You reckon? I think more so, don't you? Because
birds aren't nearly as stupid as we are. They just not. They just not. Birds don't go around looking
for ways to mess up. Like we do. And which of you,
verse 25, with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit,
if ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why
take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they
grow. They toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you that
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothed the grass
which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not what ye shall eat
or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. Don't
worry about it. Quit doubting. Because what is
it that we're doubting? When we're of doubtful mind,
if you're his child now, if you're of doubtful mind, if my children
were just always worried when they were little, you know, but
what in the world are we going to eat tonight, Dad? What are we
going to do? What am I going to wear? What am I going to do?
Are we going to be safe tomorrow? You know what they're doubting?
They're not doubting circumstances. They're doubting me. We're doubting God. We're not
doubting that the stars are going to align for us. We're doubting
God. For all these things do the nations
of the world seek after. And your Father knoweth that
you have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom
of God, And all these things shall be added unto you. It's important right away to
understand what our Lord means by take no thought. He doesn't
mean there just to ignore the common sense duties of the day. He's not saying don't bother
to see to the care and maintenance of your family and things like
that. We know that the Lord said if a man doesn't take care of
his family, And he's worse than an infidel. We know that that's
our business to do those things. The word thought in the text
means to be anxious about, to be troubled with cares. And listen
to this now. It means this. It means to seek
to promote one's own interests. To be worried all the time about
self. It comes from a root word that
means to be drawn apart or distracted from what is important. So now
we understand what he means. But don't take any thought. Don't
be distracted. Don't set your heart on selfish things. It's just
as important now to understand the positive as it is the negative.
That's what not to think about. We're not to be anxious. We're
not to worry. We're not to be distracted from what's important
by the cares of this world. But what are we to do? Seek ye
first. Seek ye the kingdom of God. Now
the word seek means to seek in order to find. It's not just
going through the motions. It's to have a determination
to find. It means to crave. to inquire
into, to crave, to demand. To demand. Now, and if we see,
we talked about this in the men's meeting a while ago, if we just
understood what was going on, if we had just a little bit of
understanding about what's at stake, and who it is we're dealing
with, and what we're dealing with, and what really matters,
There would be a craving, a demand for him. This is Jacob saying,
I will not let you go. How am I going to let you go?
I can't let you go. That's the word seek here. It's
to demand. Not presumptuously, but desperately. Desperately, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. This is what our Lord was talking
about in Matthew 11, 12. When he said, From the days of
John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence
and the violent take it by force. Now, this is not an assault on
the gates of heaven. This is not talking about forcing
your way into heaven, apart from Christ, especially. But it means
that once a sinner sees his condition before God and sees Christ as
he is. As far as he can be known in
this flesh by God's given faith, sees that Christ has lived and
died, that sinners might live before God and die to sin, that
sinner will have Christ. And nothing will stop him. You
don't have to beg him to walk down an aisle. He's not interested
in aisles anyway at that point. But religion loves to beg people,
just come down here, you know, and everything will be great.
No. All sinners need is a glimpse of the Savior. And they will
have Him. They will have Him. That's what
he's talking about there. Taken by force. It's a demand.
It's a craving. A demand. When they told old
blind Bartimaeus to shut up, he just cried louder. How about
you? How about you today? Do you need
anything that bad today? The woman with the issue of blood
is one who took the kingdom of heaven by force. She pressed
through that multitude. She said, if I can just, how
else is a little lady, no doubt weak from loss of blood and literally
dying, how is she going to press through that throng and touch
the hem of the master's garment? She did it because she had to,
that's why. She didn't have any other hope. So the cares of this world are
not to be our priority, our pursuit, but we are to violently pursue
something else, someone else. To take it by force is to seize
upon, to eagerly claim for oneself. You can't hide that now, that's
evident in people's lives when it's that way. What's important
to you? What's precious to you? Verse
34, where your treasure is. Where your treasure is, your
heart will be found there too. That's where your heart, your
desires, your efforts, your pursuit. So let's think about this a little
bit more. When Christ warns us here, what we're not to do, He
warns against this, particularly against this, because it's our
natural inclination to do that very thing. The Lord doesn't
warn against things needlessly. He warns against them because
if we don't heed His warning, we're going to do them. We're
going to do them. It's our natural, very strong,
and very constant, before we leave here, we'll be worried
about it, we'll be thinking about it, we'll be concerned with that,
and important things will be set aside. It's our constant
inclination to do this very thing. We're earthbound creatures, aren't
we, by nature? Christ warns us in the parable
of the sower against this. It's what that chokes out the
word. In Mark 4.18, the cares of this world. That word care
means the concerns of this world. The considerations, the things
of this world. Choke out the word and it becometh
unfruitful. The word care there in verse
19 of Mark 4, the cares of this world choke out the word. That's
the same word as the word thought in our text, Luke 12, 22. Take
no thought. Don't be anxious about that. Don't be concerned, overly concerned.
Don't let that be your pursuit. Our Lord shows us two things
in our text here that make the pursuit of earthly things to
be manifestly idiotic. It's foolish for you to pursue
these things, first of all, because you can't do anything about them
anyway. Is that what he said? Which of you, taking thought,
can add one stature to his stature, one cubit? Now that sound, I
always used to think that you can't make yourself any taller.
That's what it sounds like, doesn't it? The word stature there is
age or life span. I'm not sure why they translated
it stature, but you look it up, it means age or life span. That's
what you can't add anything to. Your life. Your physical life. You can't add to that. A unit of distance was commonly
used then as a measure of time. Which is why the word cubit is
used in regard to your lifespan. Listen to Psalm 39 5. Behold
thou hast made my days as in handbreadth. And mine age is
as nothing before you. So that's why it talks about
cubit with regard to your lifespan. You can't add one increment to
your life. And everybody knows that, right?
Well, I say that, but everybody, how much money is being spent
on things to prolong your life, you know? I suppose there can
be some common sense, you know, used in not doing things that
are going to shorten your life, but that's all in God's hand,
isn't it? It's all in His hand. And we can't earn. That's the
least. He said you can't add anything
to yourself in any sense of the word. You can't add any wealth
to yourself. You can't add any prosperity. You can't add anything. The least
thing he's talking about is adding a second to your life. He said
if you then be not able to do that thing which is least, why
are you worried about the rest? Much less can you do any of that
other stuff. So that's the first, I hate to use the word argument,
but that's the first teaching that our Lord gives us to show
us how foolish it is to always be thinking about, you know,
ourselves. And gaining this and increasing
that. You can't do it anyway. You're
going to get what God gives you. You're going to have what He
gives. And when He don't want you to have it anymore, you're
not going to have it anymore. And beyond that, you know, just
live your life and use the common sense that he gave you. Work
on honest, hard days work for an honest day's pay as he's taught. As though you're working under
him, as though he's your boss, because he is. And take what
he gives. You can't add anything to it. Remember James in James 4.13,
go to now ye that say today or tomorrow will go into such a
city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.
You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. You don't know
if you're going to go there. You don't know if you do whether
you're going to be able to buy and sell anything. And if you
do, you may lose money. What we ought to say, James said,
what we ought to say is if the Lord will, We shall live. If the Lord will, another cubit
will be added to our stature. Right? Maybe not, this may be
it. But if a cubit's gonna be added
to our lifespan, it's gonna be the Lord that adds it. He may
do that, he may not do that, but if he does do that, we may
do some other things too. But that's in his hands. A man deviseth his way, but the
Lord directs his steps. We need to do everything we do
with that in mind. That's a pretty good reason not
to be always worried about everything, isn't it? The things of this
world. You can't do anything about them
if you wanted to. That which constantly occupies
man's thoughts. He said the whole world, that's
what the countries of this world, everybody in this world is worried
about. and all of it, that which occupies
their thoughts and motivates all of their daily pursuits,
that which they obsess over and give themselves to obtaining
is something that they have no power whatsoever to obtain. God gives and God takes away. And think about this now, even
if we were in our power, to achieve some things, some success in
earthly pursuits. And we were successful in it.
What would we have? What would we have? And that brings us to the second
thing our Lord teaches here about the necessities of the flesh,
the things, what you're going to eat, what you're going to
drink, what you're going to wear. He gives them, first of all,
freely to whomsoever He will. To give yourself and to set your
heart on the things of this world is to neglect, it's to offend
the one who alone is able to give you those things. And most
importantly, he says, life does not consist in those things. Look at Deuteronomy chapter eight. Deuteronomy chapter eight. The Lord's been teaching this
for a long time, hasn't he? Deuteronomy 8.11. Beware that thou forget not the
Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments
and his statutes which I command thee this day. Now what would
cause us to forget God? Look at it. Verse 12. Blessed
when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses,
and dwelt therein. And when thy herds and thy flocks
multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all
that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up,
and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth
out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. The cares of this world, the
things of this world cause us to forget our God. That man we
talked about just last week or the week before, oh look at all
my stuff, I'm just going to have to tear these barns down and
build bigger ones. Never a thought for God. Never even a thank you for God. Verse 15, who led thee through
that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and
scorpions and drought, where there was no water, who brought
thee forth water out of the rock of flint, who fed thee in the
wilderness with manna. Now this is physical earthly
things that he just provided. But this is salvation. This picture
is salvation. The Lord has done everything
for us. That water from the rock, that rock was Christ. Are you
going to forget him because of the pursuits of this life who
was stricken for your transgressions and life flowed out of him unto
you? Will you forget him? Who fed thee in the wilderness
with manna? Christ said, I'm the bread that came down from
heaven. Will you forget him? which thy
fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might
prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end. And thou say
in thine heart, Are you really going to say this? My power and
the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth? You know, what would people do
without me? Look what I've done. But thou shalt remember the Lord
thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power. to get wealth. And you know why he does it?
Well, so we'll be able to enjoy things. Nah, that ain't it. I'm glad we were able to enjoy
things. He doesn't forbid that, but you know why he does it?
That he may establish his covenant, which he swear unto thy fathers,
as it is this day. You see, we usually have a little
different agenda than God does. To us, it's all about getting
stuff so we just got more to enjoy so we can just do what
we want to do and have all kinds of great times and fun. God does
everything he does to save his sheep. He does it all because
of his covenant of grace. If he gives you a little something
along the way, it's toward that end, not toward puffing you up
or making you somebody. He gives you what He does, not
so that you'll be great in the things of this world, but because
of the covenant that He made with His people in Christ. That's
why He does everything that He does. That's why there's an earth.
That's why there's a universe. God doesn't need a universe unless
He's going to save somebody. You reckon? What does He need an earth for?
What does He need a bunch of people for? Tell you what, he's
doing it to glorify his son in the saving of his elect. That's
why he does everything he does. And I want in on that. I don't
want to be on a whole different agenda than him, do you? Promoting
this flesh and prospering this flesh. When considering the things of
this earth, the necessities of the flesh, understand this. God
just uses these things as a means to an end. which end is the fulfillment
of his everlasting covenant of grace with you if you're his
in Christ Jesus. That's what a man's life consists
of right there. Not the things which he possesses.
Your life consists of Christ. I guarantee you that. Whether
you don't know him or whether you know him. If you don't know the Lord Jesus
Christ, what else is going to matter about your life in the
end? And if you do know Him, what
else is going to matter about your life in the end? Your life consists of Him now. And the sooner we understand
that, the more fully we understand that, the better. May He teach
us Back in the text, verse 29, and
seek ye not what you shall eat or what you shall drink, neither
be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations
of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that you
have need of these things, but rather seek ye the kingdom of
God, and all these things shall be added unto you. The kingdom
of God. That has to do with his covenant.
that we read of there in Deuteronomy. In Matthew's account he said,
but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. You know why Matthew's account
words it that way? Because God's kingdom is a kingdom
of righteousness. God gives and uses the things
of this world to temporarily sustain and bless his people,
but God's purpose is not to make us prosperous in this world,
That's not the end of it. That's not the real reason for
it. All that he does is in pursuit
of the fulfillment of that covenant that he made with us in Christ
Jesus. And David was in on that, wasn't he? At the end he was.
He said, this is all my salvation and all my desire. All my desire,
that covenant. Not being rich, not being a family,
not being a king, having all the authority. the covenant that
God made with me. That's all I care about. So what should our pursuit be?
His kingdom and his righteousness. When it says his kingdom, understand
that he's saying don't seek your kingdom, seek his kingdom. Right? That's what a kingdom is about.
Now to pursue the things of the flesh is to promote the flesh.
You're either interested in establishing your own kingdom, you know, that's
what it's about, isn't it? People want to establish a legacy,
you know. Seek his kingdom, not your kingdom. Seek his glory, not your glory.
Bow to his will, not exert your will. He's the king, not you,
not me. It's his glory and his promotion
and his exaltation that we're to be interested in. Seek to
enter into his kingdom rather than to establish yourself in
this world. He said, my kingdom is not of
this world. And his righteousness, his kingdom
and his righteousness, not really two different things, two different
distinctions. But righteousness here identifies
his kingdom. It defines his kingdom. Romans
14, 17. Listen to this now. Romans 14,
17. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. You know what the next two words
are? The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness. That's why Matthew, that's why
it's recorded that way in Matthew. That's what he said. Seek the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. Righteousness and peace and joy
in the Holy Ghost. You can't overestimate the importance
of that word righteousness in the kingdom of God. And I want to just briefly talk
about the righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. The kingdom of God speaks of
promoting him and not yourself, exalting him, not yourself, honoring
him, not you, bowing to him, not expecting everybody to bow
to you. And his righteousness. To understand
righteousness in the scriptures, you got to understand something
about righteousness lost. Our sin is a departure from his
righteousness. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes
7.29, God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many
inventions. He made us in righteousness, didn't he? Perfect personal righteousness
in his own image. Upright, perfect, righteous,
and Adam enjoyed communion with God on that basis of a natural
righteousness, but it was not infallible. And because of the
fall, the original sin that we talked about this morning, there
is none righteous. No, not one. As we read in Adam,
all sin and all died spiritually and were born dead in trespasses
and sins. And we have to understand something
also about righteousness required. Our failure to measure up to
God's perfect standard of righteousness because of the fall, in no way
lowers that standard. He still demands perfection,
though we can't render it. This is why, as we are by nature,
we have no fellowship with God. As Paul said in Ephesians 2,
we are by nature, even his sheep, by nature, we're the children
of wrath, even as others. There can only be wrath where
there's anything short of his perfect holy standard of righteousness. God reveals in the gospel that
he didn't give his law so that man could aspire to keep it and
thereby attain righteousness. We can never measure up and God
didn't give his law for that purpose. God's not that naive.
He didn't expect people to measure up. That's not why he gave it.
He gave his law so that we would see the nature of the righteousness
that he requires. And therefore see how far we
fall short of it. And to despair of self and run
to Christ. Christ who alone kept that law
and paid the price for our breaking of it. Which brings us to the third
thing about righteousness. We need to understand to seek
his righteousness is to seek righteousness fulfilled. Where
do we find righteousness? Christ fulfilled the righteousness
of the law and only he did. There is only one righteous man. And if you're going to be righteous
before God, you've got to be found in Him, not having your
own righteousness, which is of the law. But the righteousness
of God, which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Unto all and
upon all them that believe. Righteousness fulfilled the Lord
remember what he said to John the Baptist thus it becometh
us to fulfill all Righteousness he included John in on that by
saying us because he was doing it for both of them They were
yoked together Matthew 517 think not that I'm
come to destroy the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy
but to fulfill I For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law
till all be fulfilled. Christ fulfilled the law for
those who lost righteousness. He is the Lord, our righteousness. He alone could say, I do always
those things that please my father. And he literally is our righteousness. And then God has declared His
righteousness. You remember Romans 3, 21 through
26, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness. God
sent His Son to redeem those that were under the law. All
sin and come short of the glory of God. There's no difference
in that same context. He teaches us that He gave his
law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty
before God. But now the righteousness of God without the law is revealed. And God sent his son to declare
his righteousness, Romans 3, 21 through 26. Christ crucified
declares all of the aspects of God's righteousness. In the son
of God bearing the penalty of our sin, we see righteousness
lost. If we hadn't lost, if we hadn't fallen, then Christ would
not have needed to come and bear our sin on the cross. In God
pouring out His wrath upon His own Son, we see righteousness
required. God requires perfect righteousness. And when Christ bore our sin,
He had to be punished for our sin. In His obedience unto death,
even the death of the cross, we see righteousness fulfilled. At Calvary, we see righteousness
revealed and declared for all to see who have eyes to see.
Then we have to understand something of righteousness imputed because
Christ was righteous, we understand that. He's the only one that
was. But what does that do for me? He was righteous as my representative,
as my Adam, my second Adam, as my substitute. Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life. By the same mean, by representation, For as by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, many shall
be made righteous. His righteousness is imputed
to us. Listen to Romans 4.20. I should
probably have you turn. I'm reading a lot of these because
I know I'm going to go long if I don't. But look at Romans 4.20.
This is what we're to seek now. We are to seek Him because He
is the righteousness of God and He is the King of the Kingdom.
Romans 4.20 He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. and being fully persuaded that
what he had promised he was able also to perform and therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him. If we believe on him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered
for our offenses. You see that? Imputed he was
delivered for our offenses, and he was raised again for our justification. Do you see the opposite? I've
never seen that before He was delivered for our offenses our
offenses were imputed unto him He was raised again for our justification
His righteousness imputed to us justified not guilty no sin The faith itself is not said
to be righteousness, nor does it say that faith was substituted
for righteousness. But by faith, by means of faith,
righteousness was imputed to Abraham. That is, he was given
the credit for the righteousness of another. And that happens
by grace through faith. Righteousness is in Christ alone.
God hath made his son to be sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. We're not personally any more
righteous than we've ever been. We still, every time we do something,
every time we think something, every time we say something,
we sin. Well, what do you mean we're
righteous then, Chris? We're righteous in him. He is our righteousness. Being righteous in Christ is
more than just righteousness imputed. Righteousness in Christ
is the cause of righteousness imputed. We are counted righteousness
because in him we are righteous. And I don't understand a lot
about that. That's God's business. What he
hadn't revealed is his business. But God is described in Romans
4 17 as him who calleth those things which be not as though
they were. And we don't experience righteousness
yet, we don't have it, we don't possess personally. But he is our righteousness even
now. There is therefore right now
no condemnation. Paul said, who is he that condemneth
me? It's Christ that died. I'm righteous right now in Christ. and in him the very righteousness
of God. Righteousness in us now, we are,
we do experience this, we experience Christ indwelling us and listen
to the way Paul talked about that. Because Christ is in us
and he does a work for us that we have nothing, it's between
him and the Father. He redeemed us from our sins, he washed us
from our sins in his blood, he made atonement for our sins without
us. But he also does a work in us. We're created in righteousness
and true holiness. Because Christ dwelleth in us. It's the only reason we're able
to worship God. The flesh don't worship God.
But Christ in us does. And again, that's mysterious,
isn't it? I don't understand that. It's us worshiping. And yet Paul said, not I, but
Christ that liveth in me. Ephesians 4 24 that you put on
the new man which after God is Created in righteousness and
true holiness. We are partakers of the divine
nature of God 2nd Peter 1 4 Christ in us is the hope of glory Colossians
1 27 And listen to what John said in 1st John 3 9 whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin. I For his seed remaineth
in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. That's the
new man, that's the new nature. Now do I sin as a person? Of
course I do, because I also have an evil nature. But the new nature
don't sin. In this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. And this is of course the divine nature that we're
partakers of, the spirit of Christ that dwelleth in us, Romans chapter
eight. And the fruit of the spirit,
the fruit of that spirit that dwells in us is love, peace,
joy, faith, long-suffering, all of the things that we do not
possess by nature in our flesh. So there is righteousness in us, not meritorious righteousness,
because it's mixed with our sin, but Christ himself stands as
our righteousness before God. And the Holy Spirit of God, the
Spirit of Christ, dwells in us to enable us to live unto God.
To love him, to honor him, to worship him, not perfectly because
of the sin nature. But we do love him now, we didn't
before. And then one day we will experience
perfect righteousness. David said, I'll be satisfied
when I wake up just like you. Boy, I'm not satisfied yet, are
you? In him I am. I'm satisfied with him, but not
with myself. It's never going to be about
self. Our robes are white because they are washed in the blood
of the Lamb. When we're there, they'll be white, won't they?
Revelation 7, 14. So our Lord says, seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That should be our daily continual
pursuit. That's what we demand. That's
what we crave. That's what we've got to have,
not things, not stuff. Look, I don't want to be hypocritical
about this. You know me and I know you. I
enjoy things as much as you do. I'd rather have things than not
have things. By God's grace we also know what's vital. By His
grace we know what's really important, what's really of value. And it's
nothing that this world can give. It's Christ himself. He is the
pearl of great price. If we ever see him for that,
we'll sell everything we have and obtain it, lay hold of him. The kingdom of God and his righteousness,
the heart of a kingdom is a king. It kind of defines it, doesn't
it? You can't have a kingdom without a king. Christ is the
King. And God's righteousness is Christ. There's only one human righteousness. And think about this, the one
human righteousness that there is, is also God's righteousness. Because it's the righteousness
of the God-man. So, what's the distinction? Well,
He's God and man, and He's righteous. as both he's the only righteous
man that ever lived it's a human righteousness but it's also the
righteousness of God the Lord our righteousness he says seek
ye first all these things Luke 11 9 I say unto you ask
And it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth.
And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Precious promise
from our Savior. Let's pray together.