Turn with me, if you would now,
to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, and I want to read Matthew's
account of this, what we just read there in Luke. Let's read
how it's written here in Matthew, beginning in verse 19. Our Lord said, 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. 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. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God in mammon.
Therefore I say unto you, take no 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 raiment. Behold the fowls of the air,
for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better
than they? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit unto his stature? 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? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth
that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Take therefore no thought for
the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof." I wish that I could do that. I do. I truly do. If we're gonna continue to have
services, and if we're going to continue to open up the word
together, if we're gonna continue to preach messages, I pray they
might be a help to us. I pray they might be something
that we can really feed on and really learn from and really
grow by. And I pray the Lord might Let
us get a hold of this. I pray the Lord might help us
and make our life maybe a little more full of faith.
Easier is not the word, but he said, O ye of little faith. Well,
Lord, increase our faith. Increase our faith. Increase
our trust. I want to tell you some things
tonight, and I want to preface what I'm gonna tell you. I wanna
say some things before I say some things. The preface is,
in Jeremiah 3 verse 15, the Lord said, I will give you pastors
according to mine heart. And we can look at that two ways.
Number one, as the Lord purposes in his heart, Whenever he sees fit and wherever
he sees fit, he will send pastors to his people. We don't just
go sticking pastors in pulpits and say, well, you have a pastor
now. That's of the Lord. That must be of the Lord. And
number two, the pastors that he sends, if it's truly of him,
They will teach and instruct His people, not according to
their own hearts. If it's of Him, and I pray it's
of Him, I want to be, and you want me to be, and any man who
stands here, upon the Master. Move my mouth, move my heart,
and don't let me take advantage of this platform for my own agenda. If God is in it, he will send
pastors who will teach and instruct not according to their own hearts,
but according to his heart. And where do they seek his heart
and know his heart and find his heart in his word? They will
personally want and desire to know His heart in the matter,
and they will instruct and teach God's people very strongly to
seek His heart in the matter. They will point men and women
to His heart in every matter. He said, I'll give you pastors
according to my heart. I think about that. I think about
these things that the Lord says as I study and preach. If he
has called me to be one of his pastors, then it is my calling
and it's my responsibility to point all of us to his heart
in every matter. That's my responsibility. God forbid that I see things
differently. and don't agree and steer away
from what he said on this and lean us toward something that
I feel would be more beneficial for us. I don't know anything
more beneficial to us. It's all right here. Every bit
of it. So I'm encouraged to do that
and I find confidence to do that in realizing this is my calling,
this is my calling. I am to tell you, this is God's
heart in the matter. This is God's desire, this is
His will, this is His way in every matter that the scripture
deals with and reveals. All right, so I preface with
that acknowledgement. And I do that because what the
Lord has revealed right here to be His will and to be His
way, this is so foreign to the flesh of man. I'm telling you,
honestly, this is so opposite and so foreign to the flesh of
man. This goes against everything that man and woman in his or
her flesh sees to be good and right and upstanding and responsible
and honorable. This goes against everything
we see to be honorable and responsible. Verse 25. Our Lord said, therefore I say
unto you, take no 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 raiment? They were constantly telling
our Lord, you need to eat. He said, I have meat that you
don't know anything about. He said, is not life more than
meat and the body than raiment? He's saying right here, don't
take any thought for the provisions of your life. Don't take any
thought what you're gonna eat, what you're gonna drink, what
you're gonna wear. Don't take any thought for it. Take no thought. All right, here's the natural
response. Here's the flesh's response. You can't tell people
that. You really feel good about standing
up there and telling people that? You don't feel responsible if
you stand up there and tell, that's, I don't think that's
a good idea. Isn't that unwise? Isn't that bad advice? Don't
you think that's bad advice? My flesh, just like yours, would
naturally see it to be that way. It would naturally see it to
be that way. Honestly, if anybody else was saying this, if anybody
else was the one saying this, we would have to respond with,
that's bad advice. Don't listen to that. That is
bad advice. That's wrong instruction. But
here's the thing about it, even though they don't understand
it, even though it's hard to get your mind around it, the
heart of God's people, knowing that this is God saying this,
the heart of God's people know that the only response to this
other than amen is utter blasphemy. There's only one response to
this. Amen. Amen. In hearing and reading
something like this right here, the heart of God's people respond
by saying, who am I to reply against God? God said, take no thought, take
no thought. And he didn't just say it once.
He said, he said it twice. At the very end, he said, don't
take thought for tomorrow, but he said concerning these provisions,
he said it twice. Look at verse 31. He said, therefore
take no thought 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. For your heavenly father knoweth
that you have need of all these things. And we read all those
verses. He said, just like He knows that
the birds have need, He knows that. He knows that the flowers have
need. Are the flowers important in
this world? Not really, but neither am I.
He knows that the grass has need. He knows all of this. And the
reason is because he made all of this and he made you and me. And this is what he has to say
to all of his creation. This is what he has to say to
all of his creation that he made and owns and controls and rules. He says, look to me. Look to me, this is the word
of God to everything. Look to me and be saved. Look
to me and live. Just trust me. Here's what I, here's what I pray we might get
out of this. We're talking about a man who
we can trust and needs to be trusted. and his name is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And if we were talking about
another man who we loved and trust, it's easy for a man on
this earth to say, I'm going to tell you, you can trust that
man's word. You trust him. If he tells you something, you
can trust him. But for some reason, there's
a disconnect between the physical and the spiritual, but I pray
the Lord might reconnect us and cause us to see we can trust
this man. This man who is doing all things
after the counsel of his own will, perfectly ordering and
just masterfully controlling and organizing all things, just
trust this man. Oh, I lost my job. Trust this
man. Oh, who knows what happened?
Trust this man. Trust this man. Just trust this
man. He said, I take care of the birds.
I take care of the flowers. I take care of the grass. He
said, I chose for you to be my wife. Are you not much better
than they? Trust this man. He said, in this scripture, in
this portion, he said, you trust me and everything will be taken
care of. This is my calling, and this
is my commission according to His heart. I am to tell you to
completely, totally trust Him in everything, for everything. Completely, not partly, not mostly. Completely look to Him. Completely go to Him. Go to Him. How do I do that? In the heart. In prayer. Run to Him. Go to Him. Don't bring any provision of
your own. No preparation, no work, no payment in your hand,
no price you bring for anything. You just completely, totally
look to Him, go to Him, trust Him, seek Him, ask of Him, and
He will supply all of your need. How can you be so confident?
Well, in my flesh, I may not be, but He is. He is. He said, I will supply
all your need. I don't need to be confident
in what I'm telling you. I'm confident in what he's telling
all of us. I'm confident in his confidence. Turn with me, if
you would, to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55, verse one, it says,
ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Where's
that? What is that? It's not a where
or a what, that's a who. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the living waters, the water of life himself. Ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, You don't have any money? He's
saying right here, take no thought of it. Take no thought for it.
He that hath no money, he said, come ye, buy and eat. Buy without money? Why would you say buy without
money? Why wouldn't you just say take without money? Why would
you say buy? How do you make a buying purchase? How do you make a purchasing
redemption? How do you redeem something without
money? Oh, a redemption was made. A payment was made. A transaction
took place. We just sang a moment ago, tis
done, the great transaction's done. Everything was fully redeemed,
but it wasn't redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. It
was all redeemed, that means paid for, with something much
more precious than that. It was the precious blood of
the Lamb of God that was without blemish and without spot. A payment
was made, it just wasn't made by you. There was no price passed along
to you. It was freely given to you. So
he said in verse one, ho everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters and he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come
buy wine and milk without money and without price. And he said in verse two, when
you get here, don't try to spend any money. Verse two, he said,
wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently
unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight
itself in fatness. Verse three, he said, incline
your ear and come unto me. Here and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. He said, I've made a covenant
with you to do this for you. It's the same covenant of mercy
that I made with David. And that covenant stands on and
has been built on and is made sure on the person and the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse four, he said, behold,
I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander
to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation
that thou knowest not and nations that knew not thee shall run
unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the Holy One
of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. Verse six says, seek ye
the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way. Well, that's not the way I see
it. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man
his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have
mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. Now watch verse eight. He says,
for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater." He's saying, who
do you think's doing all that? Verse 11, so shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For you shall go out
with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the
hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the
trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn
shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come
up the myrtle tree. and it shall be to the Lord for
a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." The Lord said, I will do all
these things for my people. I'll do it, both spiritually
and physically. Spiritually speaking, He said,
take no thought, and if we want proof, one for the other, The
spiritual ought to, in our hearts, prove the physical. And the physical
can prove the spiritual. Spiritually speaking, he said,
take no thought for what you're gonna spiritually eat. What are we gonna eat? How are
we gonna be fed spiritually? How are God's sheep all over
this world gonna be fed spiritually? He said in John 6, I'm the bread
of life. What are we gonna eat? I'm the
bread from heaven. Turn with me over there quickly,
John 6. John 6 verse 48. He said, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. 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
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Verse
52 says, the Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how
can this man give us his flesh to eat? What they're saying was,
doesn't this sound foolish for us to listen to? Doesn't it seem impossible to
receive life if we take no thought for the showbread of the law,
you know, our works? If we only cling to the bread
that Christ can provide himself, wouldn't that be irresponsible
of us? Wouldn't that be neglective? Wouldn't that be unwise? Spiritually
speaking, wouldn't that be unwise? Honestly, a sinner who has received
faith from the Lord God will say, absolutely not. Spiritually, don't I need to
go gather my own bread and feed myself? Absolutely not. We had better look to Christ
and trust Christ on this, in spite of how foreign that is
to the flesh, spiritually. That's so foreign to the flesh.
But in spite of the fact that the flesh naturally says, how
can a man live this way? You mean Christ just gives it?
He just feeds His people with it? How can a man or a woman
live eternally this way? Well, in spite of our natural
ignorance and blindness, we need to know this is God's will, this
is God's way, spiritually. We are to stop looking to ourselves
and we're to start looking to Him alone, spiritually. This
body that we live in feeds on His body. The Spirit feeds on
His body. His body is our meat. His blood
is our drink. Verse 53, then Jesus said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
I'm gonna tell you, I remember growing up hearing that thinking,
what in the world does that mean? And then when the Lord reveals
to me, there is no sustaining life but Him. There's nothing that feeds and
nourishes and supplies what I need to live but Him. Verse 54, he said, whoso eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will
raise him up at the last day. My flesh is meat indeed, my blood
is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. "'as the living Father hath
sent me, "'and I live by the Father. "'So he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. "'This is that bread which came
down from heaven, "'not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. "'He that eateth of this bread shall live forever.'" Spiritually
speaking, this is God's will and God's way. This is what I'm
to tell you. Spiritually speaking, take no thought to yourself saying,
what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or yet
for your body, what you shall put on. Take no thought for it.
Our Lord said, the robe of my perfect righteousness is the
only covering you need. That's the only clothing you
need. So go with me back to Matthew
six. We know that where we go wrong
spiritually is when we think that we need to provide for ourselves. We know we go wrong spiritually
when we think we need to provide for ourselves. And our Lord spiritually
said, no, you don't. You cast your all on me. Spiritually,
you cast your all on me. Well, I pray this will help us.
All right, I pray this will bring a little bit of relief to us. I pray this will bring a little
peace to us. Our Lord has said to his people, the same thing
applies physically. The same thing applies concerning
the well-being of our life. I know that we think, you know,
just like falsely, spiritually speaking, people think, well,
I know he's involved somehow in my salvation, but I think
I'd better take matters in my own hands just in case. That's
wrong. Physically speaking, we tend
to think, I know he's involved somehow, but I think I better
take matters into my own hands just in case. Our Lord said, you cast your
all on me. You look to me, you trust me,
I will provide all your need. Thank God he doesn't give us
all of our wants. But he said, I'll give you all
your need. Somebody will hear that and say,
does that mean I don't even need to worry about working? I mean,
do you think I ought to just not even worry about going out
and find a job? Absolutely not. The Lord said, go to work while
there's 12 hours in a day. We complain after eight, you
know, I'm five minutes over. Lord said, work while there's
12 hours in a day. He said, if a man won't work,
neither should he eat. He said, if a man won't provide
for his own, he's worse than an infidel, an unbeliever. Go
to work. But remember, he gave you the
job. He gave you the ability to perform
the job. He gave you the health. He gave
you the mind. He gave you that breath of air
you needed. He makes your legs work and your feet work and your
hands work. He is doing that. He's doing
that. And He gets the glory and the
praise for it. He is sustaining that. It's all His doing. All
right, somebody will read what's said here. Look at verse 34 in
Matthew 6. It says, take therefore no thought
for the morrow. The morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself, sufficient unto the days of evil era. Somebody
will say, okay, so I need to go to work like the Lord has
commanded me to, and I need to do the job He's given to me to,
you know, that'll provide the immediate needs. Does that mean
that I'm not supposed to set anything aside for a rainy day?
Take no thought for the morrow. Should I not set anything aside
Listen to this, Proverbs 6, 6-8 says, Go to the ant, thou sluggard,
consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer,
or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her
food in the harvest. Absolutely, be wise, go to work,
provide for your family, such on and so forth. But let's remember
that what he's saying right here is, look to Christ tomorrow,
just like you look to Christ today. You need him today and
you're gonna need him tomorrow, tomorrow. Keep looking to Christ. What do we have? What will we
ever have that doesn't come from him? Everything. Everything. So we look to Him for all things. And we quoted this morning, Proverbs
3, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your
own understanding. All your ways acknowledge Him.
He'll direct your path. So from the last few messages
we've had from Matthew 6, this is a little summary of what's
been told to us. Lay hold of Christ. Need Christ. Seek Christ. Serve Christ. Bow down to Christ. Worship Christ. Trust Christ. Look to Christ. Rely on Christ. He owns you. He controls you. He provides
for you just like he does all of his creation. I'll close with
this verse, verse 33. He said, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. What is that? It's not a what,
that's a who, Jesus Christ. And he said, all these things
shall be added to you. And that is so. I'm telling you,
my flesh has doubts just like yours does. But my command and
commission is to tell you, according to the heart of God, that is
so. That is so. All right, Brother
Dwight, you come and lead us in a closing hymn.