Last Sunday I said that this
would be the last sermon you would hear this year. Emma was
shaking her head no the whole time I was saying that. But I
didn't see her. In my mind, this is supposed
to be the first. That's what I thought Sunday.
So Sunday's message was the next to the last. This is the last.
Let's turn to Matthew chapter 6. Our text is going to be in Matthew
6 verses 19 through 34, but let me just read verse 33 and make
a few comments to get us started. Verse 33 says, and this is Christ
speaking, this is God the Son, the Lord Jesus speaking. He says,
Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God. and His righteousness, that is,
Christ our righteousness, as well as that which He says is
right. And all these things shall be
added unto you, all the things we need. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Now this is the eve of a new
year. and we're looking back on what God's provided for us,
and we're looking forward to what God shall provide for us. And I hope that God will bless
this Scripture to make us to see that we need to start off
looking to Him by His grace, and by His grace, continue looking
to Him. That's our chief need, is to
be looking to Christ all the time. The subject is seek the
kingdom of God first. Seek the kingdom of God first. Now you've heard it taught, I've
heard this taught, that seeking the kingdom of God first is to
make a list. Sort of a list that you have
things prioritized on. And at the top of the list you
have seeking Christ. And then under that is the next
most important thing in your life. And then under that is
the next most important thing in your life and so on. Well,
that's not seeking first the Kingdom of God. What it means
is, is in everything Christ has the preeminence in our hearts
all the time. In other words, there's not a
list of greatest to least importance. That's not it. In everything,
Christ has the preeminence. If you're looking for a church,
Christ has the preeminence. Where's Christ preached? That's
where I want to be. When you attend in that church service,
Christ has the preeminence. Christ is the one I want to hear.
If you're looking for a job, Christ has the preeminence. Where's
the job? Where are the Gospels preached?
Where is the job where I can worship and still serve Christ?
Christ has the preeminence. If I'm dealing with my family
in happy times, Christ has the preeminence. If I'm dealing with
my family in hard times, Christ has the preeminence. What's going
to bring Him the glory? What's going to bring Him the
honor? What's going to deny me my flesh? That's what matters. Nothing else. Christ has the
preeminence all the time. Paul put it this way, whatsoever
you do, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, as
to the Lord, not unto men. Now, our Lord gives us four things
here that Christ and God our Father is to us, to the believer. And I want you to see this. This
is how Christ has the preeminence in everything. These four things
cover everything we need And usually they cover everything
that causes us to go away from Christ and look elsewhere from
Christ. Alright, first of all, Christ is our treasure. Christ
is our treasure. Let's read verse 19. Lay not
up for yourselves treasure 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." Now
isn't God's word different from what our word is? We grow up
hearing, now save up, you better save up. Lay up for yourself
for a rainy day. God says, don't do it. Don't
do it. That's backwards in the way we
think, isn't it? Don't do it. Earthly treasures, what's that?
Well, they can be self-righteous works. There's a lot of men trying
to lay up for themselves works on this earth that they expect
is going to give them acceptance into heaven. And the Lord said,
there'll be a lot of people in that day that'll say to me, Lord,
Lord, didn't we do many wonderful works? Didn't we preach in your
name and cast out devils? And he'll say, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. He'd been dealing with self-righteous
works all the way up to praying to be seen of men. He said, they
have their reward. That's their reward, men glorying
in you. Oh, can he pray. That's a treasure to some men.
Well, that's your reward. That's your payment. That's what
you got. Or fasting, disfiguring your face and trying to let everybody
know you're fasting. Everybody says, oh look at what
a religious man he is. Here you got what you're seeking.
There's your treasure. All those things he's talking
about. Religious works. All of these earthly treasures
can be temporal treasures. The love of money. The love of
money. That is one of those things that
can just Separate the wheat from the chaff. Money. Money. The love of money. Garments. Homes. Careers. And this is something too. Even
our families. Our spouses. Our children. They
can be our treasures. Christ is warning us against
covetousness. He is warning you not to be covetous.
He is warning us against having a mind set on worldly things. against saving up and hoarding
riches unto ourselves. I saw this story about this man
who had died and his children went into, was cleaning out the
place and they went into the attic and he had just hoarded
up just bags and bags of old coins. And these old coins had
been there for so long that they were just covered over in rust
and mold and just... I mean, they'd just been sitting
there for no telling for how long. And men hoard up riches to where
they become rusted because they're not in circulation. In other
words, the Lord used that to say they're not being used to
provide for the needy. That's what He gave them for.
And he said, you take them out and hoard them up for yourself
like we're going to keep them. You know what happened to that
man after he hoarded up all that treasure? You think about probably
after a certain point of having all that much money in his attic,
this man probably got to a point where he wouldn't even leave
his house because he got all that up. He can't let anybody
get in here and get that. Somebody might steal it. But
what happened? Somebody stole it. Death stole
it. He left every bit of it. That's
what the Lord is warning us. Every kind of earthly treasure
shall be taken away from us. He said there, lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth, a little moth can
eat it up, and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through
and steal. But you see, here's the point. If Christ is our treasure, if
Christ alone is our treasure, if Christ Whatsoever we do, we're
doing it as unto the Lord, by His Spirit, by His grace, being
one with Christ. He's our treasure. This is treasure,
brethren, that nobody will ever take away. Nothing will destroy
it. It's the one thing in the world
nothing will destroy. Only Christ and His Kingdom.
He's given eternal life. That won't be taken away. He's
given eternal righteousness and eternal redemption and eternal
salvation. That won't be taken from His
people. He gave us this freely and He is these things to us.
Fruits that Christ produces. They're the fruits Christ produces.
These are fruits God remembers because He made them. He produced
them. He don't forget them. They're eternal. They'll never
go away. And this is the only lasting treasure. He said, but
lay up for yourself treasure in heaven where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves do not break through
nor steal. Now let me tell you how Christ applied this text.
He said in Luke 12, 33, here's what He said, Sell that you have
and give alms. That means provide for whoever
needs it. And he says, And provide yourselves
bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not,
where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupteth. Now is the Lord
saying that if I do that, then I can earn a place in heaven? Of course not. We are not saved
by works. We can't do that. We are saved
by grace. And grace and works don't mix. We are not saved by
works, we are saved by grace. No, our Lord is saying that if
we've been given a new heart by grace, to where He's our salvation
and He's our all, He's our treasure, then these things down here won't
be our treasure. When He gives them, we'll know
who gave them. And when He provides a need that
needs to be provided, we'll know who provided that need. And when
He gives you the heart to say, here, take this, He gave it to
me for that purpose, we'll thank Him because He did it. You see,
that's the heart and effect of grace. That's the work of grace
in the heart. But the man who doesn't have
that heart, you know what he'll do when he hears that? He'll
be like the rich young ruler. He'll go away fearful or sorrowful
because he got much riches laid up, hoarded up. And these riches
can be our children, they can be our spouses, they can be They
can be our careers, they can be all these different things
that we treasure. Let's read on here. Here's the
reason He gives the warning. Now this is the Master speaking.
This is not just your preacher speaking. This is the Master
speaking. So hear this word now. Look at verse 21. For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also. We see this happen
to us on a lesser scale. You know where like something
new comes along that you are excited about and it comes like
your treasure. And all of a sudden it takes
up all your focus and all your attention because your heart
is set on it. And that is what he is saying
here will be the predominant thing depending on what our treasure
is. There is where our heart will
be. It will take up our time. If our treasure is upon earth,
our hearts will be set on earthly things. Then when we have to
make these choices, we are going to have to make in life. We won't
be thinking about Christ. You know what will be ruling
our hearts? Thoughts like this. How will I make the most money? Let me make a pros and cons of
this. How will I make the most money? How will I get the most
treasures for me and mine? Those are the kinds of thoughts
we'll be thinking if our treasure is in this earth, earthly treasure.
But if our treasure is in heaven and our hearts are set on Christ
and He's our treasure, when we have to make these kinds of choices,
you know what our thoughts will be? Will this glorify Christ? Will this glorify Christ? Will this be best for those for
the church for whom Christ died. Will this keep my family under
the sound of the gospel of Christ and Him crucified? See, Christ
will have the preeminence. And when you make any choice
in life, you can't stray too far from Christ. You've got to
be where His gospel is preached. Brethren, Christ is our treasure.
That's true of every believer. Christ is our treasure. He's
our treasure. And whatsoever you do, do all
unto Christ. In Him is the unsearchable riches. And let me say this to you sitting
here. I said jokingly this is the last
sermon you'll hear in 2015. What terrifies me the most is
it may be the last sermon some of you ever hear. And the world
just has a way of just sucking people in and they're gone. Children that go off to college
or go off to trade school or go off to the military, whatever
they do, and you don't see them again, they're gone. Let me tell you this, and you
remember this, there is no other treasure that will last in this
world but the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace He gives, nothing
else. Alright, secondly, Christ is our light. See, He's our treasure. That's why He's got preeminence
in our hearts all the time. And then He's our light. Look
here now, verse 22. The light of the body is the
eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy
whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. Now the Lord
says, the light of the body is the eye. And for the believer,
this is the eye of faith. We have a different eye than
this world has. This is the eye of faith. Scripture
says, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence
of things not seen. Not seen by what? Not seen by
the carnal eye. By this eye. You know, you can
talk to somebody that does not believe the gospel and the things
that thrill your heart because you have faith to believe God.
They hear those things and they just think that's utter absurdity. Why? They can't see it with their
carnal eye. You see it with the eye of faith.
They can't see it with the carnal eye and they don't have faith
to see it. But faith to use the substance of things hoped for.
It's the evidence of things. You don't need somebody to give
you proof you believe God. But the man who doesn't believe
God, no proof will do. You could talk to him until you're
blue in the face. He don't have faith. He can't believe. If we have God-given faith, then
our eye is single. That means it's whole. That means
it's woven in oneness. That means it's looking at all
times to Christ. To Christ. Listen to how The
Apostle Paul used this in a very practical way. He said, Servants,
be obedient to them that are your masters according to the
flesh. In our day and time, that would
be like saying, Employees, be obedient to your employers with fear and trembling in singleness
of your heart as unto Christ. You are I single. For who? For
that employer? No. For Christ. And Christ put
that employer there as your master in that position. So what are
you going to do? I'm going to serve Him like I would Christ.
Singleness of eye upon Christ. And then Paul used this same
word when he spoke of his fear. And he said, I fear lest by any
means as the serpent beguiled Eve, as he tricked Eve. So your
heart should be corrupted from the simplicity, and that word
is the same word here, from the singleness, from having your
eye set single upon Christ the Lord. You know, we live in a
world that's so full of all kinds of distractions, just so subtle
to just pull us away and grab our attention. And the devil's
subtle. And he would have you tricked to just, you know, oh,
I'm doing this for my children. Are you? Am I? Or is this for
my pride? See what I'm saying? They're
just all these subtle things. They appear to be like a good
reason and a valid reason, but it's just subtle pulling us away
from Christ. That's all it is. Why is it so
important to have our eye fixed on Christ? Well, He says, "...if
therefore thine eye be single." Looking at Christ. Trusting Christ.
Your whole body will be full of light. And Luke records it
like this, "...no part shall be dark." Your whole body will
be full of light and no parts shall be dark. And he said, as
when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light. Now, how
does a candle give us light? You think about that analogy.
When a candle lightens the room, it lightens your eye and it lightens
your whole body, it steers your whole body. Why? Because it's
lighting your path. is showing you which direction
to go. And when you know which direction to go, you've got confidence
in your heart. Your whole body is being steered
because you know this is the way right here. This is the way
I'm going to go. Well, that's what Christ is to
His people. Listen to this. Blessed is the people that knoweth
the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of Thy countenance. Remember that scripture where
He said, I'm going to give you your instructors won't be, they
won't be taken away anymore. And he said, and when you turn
to the left or the right, you'll hear a still small voice saying,
this is the way, walk ye in it. And that's what Christ is to
his people. He's light. And when our eyes are fixed on
Him and trusting Him and looking to Him, He's going to guide His
people and steer His people. But now here's the warning. Now
look at this warning. And listen to this now. If you
don't believe on Christ, Or if something is pulling you, you
believe Christ, but something is pulling you away from Christ.
Listen to this warning now. Verse 23. But if thine eye be
evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. You notice here, he said first,
if your eye be single. Now he says, if your eye be evil.
What is this evil eye? Well, Christ said in another
place, is thy eye evil because I am good? A man's eye is evil when he looks
at all the things going on around him, and all the things going
on in his life, and he questions God, and he doesn't like what
God's doing, or he just tries to renounce God altogether, that
God has His hand in it, controlling everything in it. In other words,
this evil eye has to do with a lack of having God-given faith. Man doesn't have faith. All he
has is an evil eye towards God, towards his providence, towards
his people, towards his gospel, towards everything that God's
doing. And when that's the case, brethren, look here. He said,
He said, you'll be full of darkness. If our eyes fixed on this cursed
earth, and our eyes fixed on this cursed flesh, and we're
just trying to live for our belly, our whole body is going to be
full of darkness. It's going to be full of darkness. If Christ
is not our light, darkness is the only light we got. Look at this, and when darkness
fills a man, you know what he thinks? He thinks he's wise.
When darkness fills a man, he thinks he's wise. And he thinks
that that darkness is really light. And if that's so in religion,
it means outside of religion is religious. They think they
know everything and they call in that darkness light. But the
man who's steeped in religion, in false religion, and calling
that light, look what the Lord says. If therefore the light
that is in thee be darkness, How great is that darkness! See, that's where the Lord found
me and you. He found us in darkness, total darkness. We couldn't hear
Him. We couldn't follow Him. We couldn't believe on Him. We
couldn't see anything He'd done for His people. We couldn't at
all. But the Lord came by the Spirit through the Gospel and
when He enters in, He gives you light because Christ is the light.
And for the first time, He shows you His glory in the face of
of Christ and you behold God is righteous and just and He's
made mercy and truth meet together in Christ. He's made His law
to be satisfied and He's justified His people. He's done for us
what we couldn't do. He even gave us life to believe
on Him. So now you begin to trust Him in providence because you
realize if He did all that for me, He's going to do everything
else too. He's sovereign, absolutely sovereign
to rule everything. But where of this world Whatever
you do, beware of it. And here's something we need
to watch out for. You know, you see people post these catchy
phrases that came from a poet or somebody just made up something
and it sounds good to the ear. But there ain't a lick of truth
in it whatsoever. It's not true at all. Or some
worldly, some, you know, mind-provoking philosophy that somebody comes
up with. But if it's not of God, it's darkness. That's all it
is. And truth cannot embrace error
without forsaking itself. This is what the Lord said, to
the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this Word, there's no light in them. No light. It's just darkness. Beware what you hear the world
say. Oh, don't correct your children.
You know, it's okay to murder your baby, but don't correct
your baby. You know, that's the world's thinking. It's darkness. Everything about us is darkness.
Christ is our light. And whatsoever you do, do everything
looking to that light, to Christ the light to guide you. And this
is his promise. He said, I'm the light of the
world, and he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life. Alright? Here's the third thing.
Christ is our master. Christ is our treasure. Christ
is our light. Christ is our master. This has
to do with who we serve. Who we serve in this world. Verse
24. No man can serve two masters, for either he'll hate the one
and love the other, or else he'll hold to the one and despise the
other. But you cannot serve God and
mammon. It just can't be done. Christ
says that's an absolute impossibility. You know what mammon is? Mammon
is riches personified. He's personifying wealth and
riches and those things here. And He's saying now you can't
serve God and serve riches. It just can't be done. It's an
impossibility. Either He'll hate the one and
love the other, or else He'll hold to the one and despise the
other. Look to the right there to Mark 4 and look at verse 19. This is what happens right here,
Mark 4, 19. The cares of this world, the
cares of this world, caring for our loved ones, caring for our
children, All the cares of this world that keep men from coming
to hear the gospel preached, keep them, make them miss the
gospel and make them have to be off, isolated from the gospel
or from their brethren or whatever. The cares of this world, they
may seem like honest cares, may seem like valid cares, but the
cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other
things entering in choke the Word and it becometh unfruitful. There's an old writer, I read
this quote from him, and he said, prosperity is like salt water.
The more you drink it, the thirstier you get. Joe and I were watching something
today about this Italian man whose last name was Ponzi, who
started the Ponzi scheme. And this was in, I believe it
said 1920, did they say? 1920? And at one point, when he started
this Ponzi scheme, he had $15 million. And they said he could
have walked away and nobody had ever, with that much money, he
could have done what he wanted to, nobody had ever known where
he was at. But he couldn't leave it. He just had to make a little
bit more. $15 million wasn't quite enough.
In 1920 dollars, it wasn't quite enough. And he stayed right there
until the coastal inspectors, the police
came and arrested him. It's like salt water. You drink
it, you drink it, you just get thirstier and thirstier and thirstier.
This coming year, which one of these do I desire to serve? Do
I want to serve God or do I want to serve riches? Which one of
them is going to make me content and which one will destroy me?
Look over at 1 Timothy 6 and look at verse 6. Let's listen
to Paul speak the Word of God here. Listen to this. He says in 1 Corinthians 6, 6,
Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing
into this world, and it's certain we can carry nothing out. And
having food and raiment, let us be there with content. But they that will be rich fall
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. Because the love
of money is the root of all evil." Can't you see that? Don't you
see that more and more in this world? The love of money. You look at things that are happening
in Washington, and things that are happening on Main Street,
things that are happening you know, everywhere around you and
you think, how's that possible? Because somebody's getting money
put in their pocket and they love that. That's how. The love of money is the root
of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred
from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But
thou, O man of God, now listen to this, flee these things. Run away from them as hard as
you can, fast as you can. And follow after righteousness,
and godliness, and faith, and love, and patience, and meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. It ain't gonna be easy. Sin is
always the easiest thing in the world. Sin is the path of least
resistance in the world. If you're going to live by faith,
you're going to have to fight. Fight the good fight of faith.
Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast
professed a good profession before many witnesses. Isn't that good
counsel? Flee from those things. Flee
whatever you see the world going after. Love of money and the
lusts of other things. Flee those things. Follow after
righteousness. Godliness, patience, faith, love,
meekness, those things. Alright, now lastly, as we do
all this, as we do this look into Christ who is our treasure,
we look into Christ who is our light, the goddess, we look into
Christ who is our master whom we are serving, we do so looking
to Christ and to God our Father who is our provider. You see,
all this would be null and void if you get into a tight spot
and can't provide for yourself and you don't, you're not looking
to Christ. All that I've said here be null
and void because you'll start biting and clawing and scraping
and doing anything ungodly you can to try to get out of that
spot. And try it all the while to make it look all religious
and for a good cause. So we got to remember too, He's
our provider. Look here. I won't comment much
on this. I'm just going to read it. This
is where Paul got the word we just read. We'll look at how
closely this is to what Paul just said. This is Christ speaking
in Matthew 6, verse 25. Therefore, knowing Christ is
your treasure, Christ is your light, Christ is your master,
therefore I say unto you, take no anxious thought. He's not
here saying, just do away with these responsibilities. That's
not what he's saying. Don't run to that extreme. That's
not what he's saying. He's saying don't be troubled
and anxious and worried and fretful and being unfaithful in all these
things. That's what he's saying. Give
no anxious thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you
shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on.
is not the life more than meat and the body than Raymond. Raymond is clothing. And if Christ
has robed us in righteousness, His perfect righteousness, and
He's robed us in the garment of salvation, He says here, don't
worry about food. If Christ has made us to taste
the bread from heaven and the wine from heaven, then you know
indeed that The life is more than clothing and the body is
made for more than just meat. You know that. In another place
we read the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. What is it
then? It's righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth
Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men." What? In these
things he serves Christ? Let me read them to you again.
Righteousness. He serves Christ in righteousness.
He serves Christ in peace. He serves Christ in joy in the
Holy Ghost. He serves Christ in the Holy
Ghost. He that doeth these things, serveth Christ, is acceptable
to God and approved of men. Let us, therefore, he says, follow
after the things that make for peace and things wherewith one
may edify another." You see, when you become a child of God,
when He makes you see He has loved you from eternity and He
redeemed you and He sent the Spirit to quicken you and He
makes you see He has done all this for you, He makes you quit
being selfish. This thing is not about self.
It's not about me anymore. It's about how can I edify my
brethren for the glory of Christ. You see that? That's what's important. And knowing our Heavenly Father
provides for all His creatures, we know this, He's going to provide
for His dear children. He said to you, don't worry about
food and raiment and all that. Your life is more than that anyway.
And then He says this to you, verse 26. Behold the fowls of
the air. They sow not. They are not fretting on getting
that inventory on the shelf. They are not worried about that.
Or getting that seed in the ground. Neither do they reap. They're
not worried about collecting money from this one or that one
and rigging up that register constantly and seeing that daily
tally go up. They're not worried about that.
And look at this, nor gathering the barns. They don't even have
a bank to put it all in and hoard it up for themselves. Well, how
on earth do the fowls live on a day-to-day basis? Yet your
heavenly Father feedeth them. Have you found that grace for
today is what God provides? He provides grace for today.
That's all He's promised is grace for today. If we go beyond grace
for today, what we're really doing is saying, I don't believe
He's going to provide grace tomorrow. That's right. Grace for today. Look here. He says, Now your
heavenly Father feeds the fowls of the air. Are you not much
better than they? Are you not much better than they? Which
of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit into his stature?"
Now he turns to us and he says, now, if you worry and carry on,
can you change anything? Nothing. And he says, and why
take you troublesome thought for raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spend. They're not worried and anxious over things. We're talking
about garments now. And yet I say unto you that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these,
like the flowers in the field. Wherefore if God so clothed the
grass of the field. We're not talking about them
expensive plants you get at the hardware store. We're talking
about grass of the field. And God clothed them. Sometimes
you look out there and those wildflowers are prettier than
anything there is. God clothed them. And look at
this. And today they are and tomorrow they're cast into the
oven. Shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? See what I said? I said when
we do these things and worry and trouble, we said, we don't
know if He's going to provide tomorrow. What did He just say?
Shall He not provide this for you, O ye of little faith? And
we have a Heavenly Father. Now look at verse 31. Therefore
take no anxious worrisome thoughts, saying what shall we eat or what
shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after
all these things do the Gentiles seek. And it says in another
place, the world. That's what the world is seeking.
Look at the world. Look at what your Kim K's and
your Kanye's and all them Jay Z's and Flo Rida's and all that. Look at what they're after. They're
after the things of this world. That's all they're after. Now
look at this. Your Heavenly Father knoweth
that you have need of all these things. He keeps saying that,
your Heavenly Father, your Heavenly Father. He said, take no anxious
thought, your Heavenly Father will feed you. He said, take
no anxious thought, your Heavenly Father will clothe you. Now He
says, take no anxious thought, your Heavenly Father knoweth
you have need of these things. Now, if my Father knows I have
need of something, and I don't have it, and He's sovereign over
the stars in heaven, and sovereign over the planets, and sovereign
over the microbes, and sovereign over from the least to the greatest,
and I don't have it, isn't it because He hadn't given
it to me? He knows I need it. And if He hadn't given it to
me, I don't need it as bad as I think I need it. But when I
really need it, and it's a need, a real need, He'll provide it.
Look here now, when He's preeminent in our hearts,
this is what He tells you, this is what He commands you, verse
33. Rather than seeking those things, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. Seek the kingdom of God and His
righteousness. Now does He say here, seek a
job first and then seek a church where you can worship God? That's
not what he says, is it? He's saying here, seek a church
where you can worship God, then seek a job nearby. But that's
not all. While you seek a job, seek first
Christ. Seek a job where you can worship
Christ and still work. And when you work that job, seek
Christ first. Work that job as unto the Lord. You see what I'm saying? It's
not a prioritized list. Christ is first. He's always
first. and all things. And we do so
knowing this, the Lord is going to provide, our Father is going
to provide. Look at verse 33. And all these
things shall be added unto you. You think about three things.
When you didn't know God, you didn't love God. Scripture says
God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him. We had nothing to do with it
whatsoever. Our hands weren't put to it whatsoever.
Christ gave Himself. That's the second thing. Son
of God gave Himself on that cross to suffer separation from God
to satisfy divine justice for His people. And He did that.
And then we still didn't know Him. We still didn't love Him.
And He sent the Holy Spirit in our hearts and gave us life and
faith and grace and all things that pertain to godliness. And we didn't do anything. So,
when you wake up tomorrow and you start wanting to worry and
get troubled over what's going to happen tomorrow or the next
day, or even today, at the end of the day, remember, I didn't
have a thing in the world to do with my salvation. He did
it all. You know who's going to provide
for you today? Same one that provided for you in eternity
when He chose you in Christ. Same one that provided for you
when He laid down His life on the cross. Same one that was
provided for you when He called you by His grace and gave you
life to believe. Same one. Romans 8. Let's go there and look at that. Romans 8. Look here. What shall we say
then to these things? Romans 8.31. What shall we say
then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for all his elect, for all those for
whom Christ died, for everyone he brings to believe on Christ,
for us all, Now watch these next four words. How shall he not
with Him? God's not just doing this randomly.
God's doing this with Christ. Because Christ is saying, that's
one I died for. That's one I bought. That's one
I purchased. That's one that I've justified. That's one that's
righteous and complete in me. And with Him, God's providing
everything. Justice won't allow Him not to. And God don't want
to, because Christ has satisfied His justice for him. And so that's
what He's saying to you, brethren. He's saying, hastily not with
him, also freely give us all things. Every lesser thing you
need. If you've got eternal life, if
you've got Christ, if you've got righteousness and holiness
and wisdom and redemption, everything else is a lesser thing. Everything
in this earth is a lesser thing. When you've come to Christ, you've
reached the point for which God God put you on this earth as
far as your personal experience of His grace. He showed you this
is the end for which He created all things. Now, He might have
some more work for you to do as far as supporting His gospel
and by which He's going to call out His people. But you see now
what the priority is. It's Christ, the preeminence
of Christ. So the rest of this stuff is just, it's not the important
stuff. God will provide what you need.
Don't worry about that. What's important is Christ and
His gospel and His kingdom and following Him, doing what He
says is right. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus and love one another. That's what's important. That's
what's important. So Christ says to you for whom
He died, verse 34, take therefore no thought for tomorrow, Matthew
6, 34, take no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought
for the things of itself. Sufficient unto this day is the
evil thereof. You don't have to be thinking
about the evil of tomorrow. There's enough in today without
bringing tomorrow into it. And you know, besides that, most
of the stuff we worry about don't ever happen. Most of the stuff
we worry and trouble about don't ever come to pass. We just worry
and trouble and get ourselves all bent out of shape about it
today. Tomorrow comes and it don't even happen. And God will provide for you
tomorrow in the face of every evil just like He's provided
for you today in the face of every evil. Now, did God provide
for us this past year? In every way. In every way. Everything He's done has been
right, right on time, and just what we needed. He's provided
every need. Every need. And I pray we'll
start out now, wake up, Be awake tonight when the bell tolls and
start tomorrow knowing. Look into Christ knowing. He's
going to provide for me just like He did this past year. He'll
get everything in every way. Even if you have a lot of sorrow
and trouble in your life right now, that's just what you needed. And God provided just that for
you. I don't see it that way. You just wait a little while,
you will. If you're God's and He's teaching you something,
you wait a little while and you'll get it. And He'll make sure you get
it. And you'll look back on it and say, that was the most sorrowful
time of my life and the best time of my life. God brought
me to the end of me. Made me lay on hold of Christ.
I pray He'll teach us that. And during the year, too, if
you find that you find a brother or sister and they're worried
and they're troubled and they're fretting over this or that and
they want to bend your ear and get you all fretted and troubled
with them, I pray God will give you grace to say, let's go back
and listen to that message we started this year out with. Let's go. You go listen to it
and I'll go listen to it. And I pray God to comfort our hearts
again, so we can sing this. You see Him, you look at Him,
you see Him, He's your treasure, He's your light, He's your master,
He's your provider. Then you can say, be still my
soul. Thy God doth undertake to guide
the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let
nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul. The wind and
the waves still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt
below. That's comfort when you say that.
When you can be the preacher to your own soul and start preaching
to yourself. Be still, my soul. I've probably got to use it for
that. All right, Eric, let's sing that. Tonight