Alright brethren, let's turn
to Matthew chapter 6. I didn't say much last night
by way of introduction as far as thanking you but I have wanted
for some time to spend some time with your pastor and get to know
him better and his wife and I'm so thankful that He asked me
to come out, and I'm thankful to you for having me. I really
thank you, and it's a privilege. Anytime you get to preach the
gospel, and it's an honor, and I really, really am thankful
the Lord allows me to be here, and I'm thankful that you had
me here. I do pray he'll meet with us tonight. My subject is
Seek First. Seek First. Now, the one speaking
here is our sovereign savior, the Lord Jesus. This is the one
who spoke the heavens and the earth into existence. The Lord
Jesus Christ is God. He spoke the heavens and the
earth into existence. Colossians says all things were
created by Him and for Him. And He's before all things and
by Him all things consist. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. A worm don't wiggle without our
Lord. Everything in this earth comes
to pass by our sovereign Redeemer. He's ruling everything. Everything. And this is what He says to you
who believe Him. This is His gospel, His word
for our benefit, for our edification to you and me who He's given
faith to trust Him. He says in verse 33, Matthew
6, 33, Seek ye first. The kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things, all lesser things that you need in this
life shall be added unto you. How much do you need Christ and
His righteousness? How much do you need Christ and
His righteousness? How much do you need the preaching
of the gospel of Christ? How much do you need His saints,
your brethren, the family of God? Christ our righteousness
Himself and the preaching of His gospel and His saints, our
brethren, is what He is referring to when He says, seek ye first
the Kingdom of God. Christ Himself He is our righteousness. It's Christ Himself. It's the
preaching of His gospel. And it is His family, our brethren,
His saints, His church. You see, everything you can see
with these eyes is perishing. It's all perishing. Christ Himself
His gospel and His church are eternal. And so our Lord Jesus says to
us, seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Now I don't intend to preach
verse by verse through this passage, but to give us some context of
what He's referring to, what He means by seek you first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. Let's just look briefly at a
few of the things He said leading up to this. Here's what He means
in verse 19. Verse 19, he said, Lay not up
for yourselves treasures 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 forth 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, the 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 and mammon. Brethren, everything you see
is perishing. Everything we see with this carnal
eye is perishing. Christ and his gospel and his
church is what is eternal. The same as the eye, the carnal
eye is the light that lightens our path and lightens the body.
Well, the faith is the eye of the soul. Faith is how we see
these things that are real and these things that are lasting.
And if our carnal eye is set on things below, on mammon, on
carnal things, and that's what we're focused on, then brethren,
our whole body it's going to be full of darkness. We're going
to be seeking those things. Our heart will be on those things. That will be where our treasure
is. And our heart will be on those things. But if the eye
of faith is single for Christ, if you're beholding Christ and
looking to Christ and seeking Christ, your inner man will be
full of light. Your inner man will be full of
life. We trust Christ, and we'll trust that He is providing. He
has, He is, and He shall provide everything we need. he declares
here, it's an impossibility to do both. It's an impossibility
for a man to try to serve the Lord and serve for the carnal
mammon, the carnal riches and stuff in this world. It's an
impossibility. No man can, he said, serve two
masters. You'll despise one, you'll love
one and despise the other. And that's just so. You can't
serve both. You just can't serve both. What
does he mean when he says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness? He means seek Christ, seek His
gospel, seek the good of His people, trusting God our Father
and Christ our Savior to provide all lesser things we need. He
says here in verse 25, 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 shall you put on?
You know, you read that, and our first thought as a preacher,
my first thought is, well, I'm gonna have to, I need to explain
that. He didn't. He's deep preacher. He's deep
prophet. He meant what he said. Take no
thought for your life. Take no thought for your life.
what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor yet for your
body what you put on. I want you to think about this,
brethren. God our Father chose His people in Christ and to save
us from our sins, God our Father gave His only begotten Son. For a bunch of God-hating rebels
like us who wanted nothing to do with God, God the Father gave
His only begotten Son. He did it to declare His righteousness. He did it to show He is just
in how He saves sinners and He's the justifier of sinners. He
gets all the glory. He does everything right and
just. That's why He did what He did
in sending His Son. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world from glory. He came into this world and He
gave Himself. He shed His own blood and laid
down His life and died for His people to redeem us. That's what He bore the wrath
of God in place of His people because that's what we deserve.
And that's what it took to satisfy God's justice. And He did that
for His people. And He redeemed us. He redeemed
us. You know, listen to this now.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though He was rich,
yet for your sakes, He became poor. that you through His poverty
might be made rich. That's what Christ did. Christ
is righteousness. He's righteousness. And He made
His people the righteousness of God in Him. That's what He
accomplished. He put away the sins of His people. And then we just read it. He
sent the Holy Ghost. He sent the gospel to you and
He sent the Holy Spirit and regenerated you and Christ was formed in
you and He became your holiness. The holiness of your new man
is the Lord Jesus. He's the sanctifier and the sanctification
of His people. And He's kept you separated from
you, from your old man of flesh, separated from this world, separated
from the evil. He's kept you sanctified in Him
from that moment He called you to right now. He's done that. And brethren, you're His purchased
possession. He bought you with His blood.
You're His purchased possession. He owns you. He bought you. Do you think He's going to let
something happen to you? Do you think He's going to let
you fall away or let somebody separate you from His love? Do
you think He will possibly let that happen after what He's done
for His people? Now listen to this verse. Actually,
let's go put an eye on it. Romans 8. Romans 8. Go there
with me. Romans 8. Look at verse 32. Romans 8, 32.
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How? Shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? How shall He not freely with
Christ give us all things? Now what does He mean by that?
Look what our Lord says in Matthew 6 and look at verse 26. He said,
you look at the fowls of the air. They sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them." Are you not much better than they? He said Solomon wasn't
arrayed like the grass of the field. They don't spin, they
don't toil, they're not And Solomon wasn't arrayed like them. He
said in verse 30, Wherefore 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? Shall he
not provide you with every lesser thing you need? He already gave
his Son for you. Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal
shall we be clothed? You know who does that? Unbelieving,
heathen, folks who never even heard who the truth of God, who
God is or believed Him. He said, after all these things
do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father, your
heavenly Father, you have a Father in heaven. He's your Father in
heaven. He knows you have need of all
these things. The world says, I'm going to
look for a job, see where I can find me a good job, in some city
I can find me a job, and they find them a good paying job.
And that's usually the end of it. They don't give a thought
to God, they don't give a thought to anything about God. Just,
I want to get all I can, can all I get, and sit on the can.
If they are religious, they say, let me find a city that's got
a good paying job, and they find them this good job, and so, and
they move there, and then they get there, and then after a little
while, they start thumbing around and talking to some folks and
say, let me see if I can find a place where I can go now and
then and hear some preaching. Soothed my conscience, made me
feel a little better. Christ says, seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. Don't worry about the lesser
thing. Don't worry about the job. Don't worry about how you're
going to eat and be clothed and all the stuff, the lesser thing. Seek first Christ Himself, the
church where His gospel is preached. where He's assembled His saints
together and then look for the other stuff. He'll provide that.
That's the true order. That's the right order. That's
Christ's order. Knowing your Father has given
His only Son. Knowing Christ has given His
life for you. Knowing your Heavenly Father
will provide all lesser things that you need for the sake of
Christ. Christ said, seek you first the Kingdom of God. and His righteousness. And all
these things will be added to you. Now, that's my introduction. I want to look at three things.
I want to look at first of all, seeking first Christ. Secondly,
seeking first the preaching of the gospel of Christ. And three,
seeking first the good of our brethren. First of all, When
Christ says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
He means, first of all, seek Christ and His righteousness. Seek Christ and His righteousness.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the life. That's what righteousness
is, you know. If you're righteous, you have
life. Sin is death. If you have no
sin and you're righteous, you have life. Christ is the life. He's the righteousness. That's
who He is. He said, I am the way. I am the truth. And I am the
life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. That's what He said. Martha was
troubled about serving. That's what we're troubled about
mostly. Serving. And mostly serving ourselves. That's what we're troubled about
mostly. And Mary just sat at Christ's
feet and listened to Him. She just sat at His feet listening
to Him. And here's what the Lord said. Martha came complaining. And the Lord said, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing
is needful. Just one. Just one thing. And Mary has chosen that good
part which shall never be taken from her. Christ is the one thing
you need. Christ is the one thing I need.
Nothing else. And Christ will never be taken
from you. You think about if a man passes through this life
and he becomes extravagantly wealthy and he is recognized
by this world as a great success, he's honored by this world, he
gets all sorts of honors and all sorts of great things are
attributed to him and what have you. When he dies without Christ,
all that he accumulated will be taken from him. He came in
with nothing and he will leave with absolutely nothing. That's
so of me and that's so of you. And if a man departs this life
without Christ, his entire life was worthless. He accomplished nothing. One
thing is needful. One thing is needful. You need
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, what is a man profited
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? You think about it. What are
men giving in exchange for their soul? The pleasure of sin for a season? Filthy money to just have for just a little
while? Those God chose to save by grace
are sinners in ourselves. We can't make ourselves righteous.
There is no possible way we can make ourselves righteous. You
need Christ. He's the only righteousness of
His people. And God won't receive us unless we are perfectly righteous. We need Christ Jesus the Lord. He's the righteousness God's
provided for His people. He's the one thing needful. We
can't make ourselves holy, brethren. You can't create in you a new,
pure, perfect, innocent heart. You can't do it. I can't either.
Only the Lord can do that. He is the holiness of His people.
He's called the Holy One of Israel. We need Him. He's the one thing
needful. We can't deliver ourselves. Christ
is the Redeemer. We couldn't deliver ourselves
from the curse of the law, the condemnation we were under. We
can't deliver ourselves from any of the troubles we get ourselves
into. And we can't deliver ourselves
out of this world, out of the grave, into the presence of God. Christ Jesus was made a curse
for his people. That's how he redeemed his people
from the curse of the law. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and He delivered us from the bondage of our sin nature in
regeneration and gave us faith to trust Christ. And He will
redeem us from every single trouble we get into and all the iniquities
we commit in the process. And one day, He'll deliver us
out of this world into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
You need Christ. He's the one thing needful. And here's another thing. We
don't have understanding to direct our steps in this world. That's
just so. That's just so. He is wisdom. And this is what the scripture
says. Lean not It says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy steps. See, the Lord Jesus Christ and
His righteousness is the one thing needful. Seek ye first. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Seek Him first. You young people, I know you
got to go to school and right now I'd hate to be in your shoes
because they're teaching some crazy thing. You're going to
have to learn it. You're going to have to take
the test and pass the test. Do that. And just submit to Him. The Lord put them there. and
you submit to the powers that be and you take the test and
you get the grade. But you seek Christ first. You
seek Christ first. And that goes for me and you
and every one of us. We need Him. He's the one thing
needful. Secondly, seek ye first the preaching
of Christ and Him crucified. We saw last night In the wisdom
of God, it pleased God to save through the foolishness of preaching.
That's how God's saving His people, through the foolishness of preaching.
Now, if you knew Christ was present, if you knew He was present somewhere
in this world, and you knew He was the one speaking this afternoon,
would you be there? Would you be there? Well brethren, when Christ sends
His preacher and the gospel is going forth, Christ is present
and Christ is preaching. As real as if you could lay your
eyeball on Him and see Him standing there preaching, it's Christ
preaching. Let me show you that in Colossians
2. Colossians chapter 2. Us sitting here tonight that
are preachers, we have hesitation, or we don't have hesitation saying
this and declaring this, but it makes you a little uncomfortable
declaring it because you're just an earthen vessel. You say things,
slip up when you're preaching and say things you ought not
say, say it sometimes in the wrong spirit you ought to say
it in. That doesn't matter. If it's this word, Here's to
you a rule of thumb. When you hear the gospel preach,
the gospel's gonna rebuke sometimes. When you hear the gospel preach,
here's the rule of thumb. Is what's being said the word
of God? If it is, why am I offended? That's the rule, that's it. Why does that make me upset? And here is what we will do.
If I am blessed, oh, the Lord blessed me tonight, but if I
am rebuked, that is just the preacher. What if it is Christ
preaching? And if it is a God sent preacher,
and he is preaching this word, it is Christ preaching. Look
here, Colossians 2.19. Christ's church, made up of each
member in particular, is His body. And it says here, Colossians
2.19, at the end there, it says, just ignore not holding, it says
there, He is the head from which all the body, by joints and bands,
have nourishment ministered and knit together and increase with
the increase of God. Christ is the head who's ministering
nourishment to all his people and he's doing it through this
gospel. Go to Ephesians 4, Ephesians chapter 4. It says here at the end of verse
15, again, it says Christ is the head, verse 16 says, from
whom the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working,
and you can put there his effectual working, in the measure of every
part in each member, and he makes increase to the body unto the
edifying of itself in love. You see, the risen prince of
peace is the prophet. The reason he, one reason he
saves through preaching and the office of the pastor glorifies
him. He's the prophet. He's the prophet. And He's the one preaching and
He's the one making the gospel effectual in the hearts of His
people. So when you hear the gospel, don't hear the voice
of a man. You hear the voice of the Lord
Jesus. And when He's really speaking into our hearts, that's who we
hear. That's who we hear. Even if it rebukes us and humbles
us, that's who we hear. We hear it's Christ speaking.
Paul said, he committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now
then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us. We pray you in Christ's stead
be ye reconciled to God. But here's what Ephesians 2 said.
It says, here's why we have peace with God. Ephesians 2 17 says,
he came and preached peace to us. Christ did. When He sent
the Gospel to us, He came and preached peace to us. And it's
through Him that we have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
He did that. He did that. Turn with me in
Isaiah 52. I'm gonna show you one more place. I just think
this point's very important to make because you need to know
this. We need to know this. How important
is the preaching of the Gospel? Christ is preaching. Christ is
preaching. Isaiah 52, look at verse 6, I
referenced this last night. He said, Therefore my people
shall know my name, therefore they shall know in that day that
I am he that doth speak, behold it is I. That's when we cherish
the gospel, we cherish the pastor he sent us, that's when we cherish
the one Christ Jesus himself doing the preaching. And we say
this, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth
good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith to Zion,
thy God reigneth. Thy watchman shall lift up thee
voice, with thee voice together shall they sing. Listen, all
God's true preachers They do sing, they do lift up the voice
together. We're in agreement because we're
speaking by one spirit. But look, each individual watchman,
each individual pastor lifts up his voice together with Christ
the voice. And that's how The Lord brings
again Zion. That's how He calls His people
and makes it effectual. That's when you break forth in
a joy and sing together you waste places of Jerusalem for the Lord
hath comforted His people. He's redeemed Jerusalem. Now, let me ask you this. How
important is the preaching of the gospel to you? Let me tell you what Job said.
Job 23, 12. Job said, I have esteemed the words of His mouth
more than my necessary food. When Christ saves through the
preaching of the gospel, that's when we start needing the gospel. The preaching of the gospel more
than all the other things we thought were necessities in this
life. more than even our bread on our table. This is the children's
bread. From Christ the bread. We need
the gospel. You recall Elimelech in the book
of Ruth. Elimelech did what our Lord teaches
us in our text. Elimelech did what he teaches
us never do. Elimelech started looking with
the carnal eye. And here's what he saw. He saw
a famine in Bethlehem, Judah. And then he looked down to Moab.
He hears, you know, on the news that there's a plenty down there
in Moab. And his whole body was filled
with darkness. He couldn't think of anything
else but having his heart set on earthly mammon for his flesh. All he was thinking about, well,
shouldn't a man provide for his family? Well, sure he should.
And that's all he could think about was providing carnal mammon
for his family. And in doing so, he took them
away from the gospel. He took them away from the one
thing needful. He took them away from the bread
from heaven. What did Christ say? If a man
gain the whole world and lose his soul. So he moved them from the house
of bread. Bethlehem Judah means the house
of bread. He moved them from there and
moved them to Moab and it cost him his life and it cost his
sons married Moabite women and then they died. It cost him dearly. So God took everything away,
all carnal things, He took them all away from Naomi. He took all carnal things from
Naomi. And the Lord made her hear that He had visited His
people in giving them bread. He gave them the gospel up there
in Bethlehem, Judah. And her eye of faith was set
single on the Lord Jesus Christ. And her whole body was full of
light. Oh, she was poor and she said, oh, don't call me Naomi,
call me Mara, bitter. Things were bad for her. But
she heard that the Lord had given His people bread up there and
she had to get to the gospel in Bethlehem. She had to leave
Moab and get to the gospel in Bethlehem. And I'm going to tell
you something, when your whole body is filled with light by
the Can't nobody stop you from getting to that gospel in Bethlehem.
Nothing can. She believed her Heavenly Father
would provide her all lesser things she needed to get back
to Bethlehem, Judah. And so what did she do? Ruth
1.7 says, Wherefore she went forth out of the place where
she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the
way to return to the land of Judah. on the way, you know,
the one daughter-in-law, she said, y'all, you girls go back
to Moab. I'm too old. I can't have any
more sons. Go back to Moab. And the one daughter-in-law, she had her eyes set on that
carnal mammon, and she said, that's what I'm going to do.
And she took off and went back. The other daughter-in-law, She
had her eye of faith set on the bread, and the Lord filled her
with light, and she said, I'm going with you. And she ended
up with the kinsman redeemer. Child of God, you hear Christ
our prophet, priest, and king speak in our text. This is what
he commands us. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. Seek the preaching of the gospel
of Christ over everything else. And the Father and our Savior,
he'll provide you every lesser thing you need. You seek the
gospel of Christ first. If you're in Moab, God's given
you the gospel here. Value what he's given you here
above everything you have in your life, because this is the
most valuable thing you have right here. I guarantee you,
I don't care what you got. I don't care what you got in
the bank. This gospel is more valuable than anything you possess. And if you find yourself, ever
find yourself in Moab, without the Gospel of Christ, do what
our Lord said. You seek the preaching of the
Gospel of Christ above everything else. Pack up and move to where
the Gospel of Christ is. And if the motive of your heart
is to hear the Gospel of God's dear Son preached, God the Father
is going to make the way for you. Because He's going to have
His Son exalted in the hearts of His people. And He will make
the way for you. Christ will make the way for
you. God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that
you always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to
every good work. That's who our God is. That's
who our God is. And that's exactly what Christ
is declaring in our text. You seek Him and His gospel above
everything else. Now lastly, seek ye first the
good of His saints, your brethren, the household of God. You see,
those Christ has sanctified and framed together in His local
assembly, they're the household of God. They're the family of
God. They're the saints of God. You
know they're the only reason this world exists? They're the salt of the earth.
They're the reason this world's preserved. Because he's using
them to preach this gospel because he's still got some lost sheep
and he's calling them out. And when he's called the last
one out, we're all going home. Now, Matthew 12, 48. I want you
to look there with me. One day, there were some folks
came to Christ while He was preaching. And He said, and they said to
Him, they said, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without
desiring to speak with thee. Christ is preaching. Verse 48,
Matthew 12, 48, He said, but He answered them, and He said, Who is my mother and who are
my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples and he said, Behold, my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister
and mother. Look with me to Matthew 10. What's his will? You know, he gave a parable.
Before I read this, let me tell you this. He gave a parable of
the Lord who made a great supper. That's what the gospel, preaching
of the gospel, when the family's together, we're hearing this
gospel, this is the Lord's great supper. And we're going on our
way to the great supper. But he, this Lord made a supper
and he bid many to come. And when he bid these folks to
come, they began to make excuse. One said, I bought a piece of
ground. I can't come. Another one said, I bought some
oxen. I got to prove them. I can't
show up for the supper. One said, I married a wife. I
can't come. You imagine, you ladies, you imagine You prepared
a great Thanksgiving dinner, Thanksgiving supper, and all
the kids are saying they're going to come, and you're expecting
them all to come. You prepared this big feast for
them, and you worked and worked. Your husbands cut the grass or
whatever you have to do, got everything ready, and the house
is all nice, and everything's fixed up. And one by one, they
began to call you and say, we're going swimming. We can't make
it. we're going to go down here and
they got a sale at the mall, we're going shopping, we're not
coming to the feast. And then one by one they start
making excuses and all these things, they're not coming. And
the Lord at the supper said, you go out and you find the lame
and the haught and the blind, you find the truly needy and
you bring them to the supper. And here's what he said. He said,
let me give you this from Luke 14. He said, if any man, this
was his point of the whole thing. He said, if any man come to me
and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren
and sisters, yea, his own life also, he can't be my disciple. He said, and whosoever does not
bear his cross and come after me, he can't be my disciple.
He said, and whosoever be of you that forsaketh not all that
he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Now here's how he put it in Matthew
10, verse 37. Matthew 10, 37. He said, he that loveth father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He said, and he
that taketh not his cross, oh, it's going to be so hard for
me It's going to be hard for me
to have to stand with Christ and His gospel and His people
when my mama and my daddy, my sister, my brother, they don't
believe this gospel. That's going to cause me some
suffering. You're not going to have to bear the cross Christ
bore. You're not going to have to suffer
the wrath of God. But yeah, it's going to be a
cross. It's going to be some suffering.
It's going to be hard for me to have to pack up and move where
I can hear the gospel. Yeah, yeah it is. You're going
to have to get in a nice new vehicle and a soft cushioned
seat under climate control and move somewhere, yeah. But you're
not going to have to bear the curse of God. Yeah, it's going
to be a cross though. It's going to be difficult. But
the Lord said, he that taketh not his cross and follow after
me, he's not worthy of me. He that findeth his life, what
does that mean? Sparing ourselves any suffering. He that findeth his life shall
lose it. And he that looses his life for my sake, he that suffers
for my sake, he gonna find it. He that receiveth you, receiveth
me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth
him that sent me. You see, our family is those
that Christ has made one body and born of one spirit with one
faith and one hope kept by one Lord, one baptism with one God
and Father who is above all and in you all and through you all.
That's the family of God. And He's given us far more in
the family of God, having Christ and His unsearchable riches,
and having the gospel of Christ, and all this being eternal. He's
given you far more, even right now, than you've given up. Let me show you that. Mark 10. Mark 10. I'm going to go a little
longer than I normally do, but I want you to see this. Mark
10. Mark 10. I won't keep you much longer.
Mark 10. That Lord told the rich young
ruler what the Lord's telling you and me right now. He told the rich young ruler
what He's telling you and me right now. It's exactly what
He told the rich young ruler. He told him to sell all that
he had and give it to the poor and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven and come and take up your cross and follow me. That's
what the Lord said. Mark 10.22 says, And he was sad at the saying
and he went away grieved for he had great possessions. You
see, the only thing that makes us sad about hearing this word
from our Lord is being attached to the mammon. That's it. The possessions. Who gave them? He gave them. They're just lesser
things you need. They're not the one thing needful. But listen to what he said. He
had great possession, impossible to serve Christ at mammon. Look
at verse 23. And Jesus looked round about,
and he said to his disciples, How hardly shall they that have
riches enter the kingdom of God. Let me tell you something. You
can have riches and be poor as Job's turkey. You can have riches
and be a poor man in this world. The riches are anything you're
attached to. other than Christ. And anything
you're attached to other than Christ, you can't enter the kingdom. He's the way. Watch this now,
verse 25. It's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of God. And they were astonished out
of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus
looking upon them said, With men it's impossible. That rich
young ruler could not do what the Lord told him to do. It was
impossible. But with God, all things are possible. He can make
you drop it today. And cling to Him. But only He
can. Look here now, Peter began to
say to Him, Lo, we've left all in a folly thee. And Jesus' answer
said, now I'm trying to say to you, whatever He's made you leave
behind, including mother, father, sister, brother, whatever, and
given you his riches and made you one with your brethren and
given you this gospel. He given you far more than you
left and forsook. Watch it. Jesus answered and
said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, or lands for my sake and the gospel's. You know
what another gospel says? For the kingdom of God's sake.
What does our text say? He said, seek you first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. All these things I've been telling
you is what it is to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
It's to seek Christ himself, the preaching of his gospel,
and his church, his people. And he said, if no man is left,
all for my sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in
this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children
and lands with persecutions, You're going to have to bear
a little persecution and in the world to come eternal life. Eternal
life. The love of God in the heart
makes those born of God love their brethren who are born of
God. The love of God in the heart
makes us love our brethren who are born of God. And we once
did everything for self. That's all we were working to
just do it all for self. Now, we do all for our brethren. We do it to have the gospel.
We do it to further the gospel. We do it so we can each have
the gospel. Because Christ said, when you
do it to these, at least to my brethren, you've done it to me.
Your brethren are the closest thing you have in this world
to Christ. Christ is in them. And what you
do to them, you do to Him. By this shall all men know that
you are My disciples, that you love one another." Now, remember
how the Apostle Paul was beaten and he was shipwrecked and he
was stoned and he was thrown in prison and all those things.
You know why he did all that? He said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake. I do it for the family of God.
I do it for those already called out and for those He will call
out. That's why I do it. You know this and I want to get
this point across to you. Big turn to Hebrews 10. I want
you to see this too. Hebrews 10. You know that we even assemble
together to hear the gospel not merely for self but for our brethren. We not only assemble for ourselves,
dear God, we do it for our brethren. You know, somebody will say, Somebody will say, well, I have
the internet. I can just stay home and watch online. Or somebody
will say, well, you know, I can't move, so I have the internet.
I'll just stay where I'm at. Now listen, I understand there
are some legitimate reasons why people can't assemble with God's
people. And I'm thankful for the internet
in that case. But most of what I hear people
say on why they don't assemble or why they don't go where the
gospel is preached, I hear it like that Charlie Brown cartoon,
wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, because it's not legitimate. It's just excuses. I bought a
Yoko Oksan. I got a piece of ground. I'm holding on to dust so I can't
go. Those who can, and just stay
home and watch online, that's selfish. Because God's people
assemble to encourage their brethren. They assemble not just for themselves,
because they love their brethren. Look here now, Hebrews 10, 24.
Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works. How you gonna do that? not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day
approaching. Those are not necessarily different
things. Just by assembling with your
brethren, you provoke them to love and good works. You exhort
them and comfort them by showing up for one another. You know,
if you show up and one day everybody just has that attitude of, well,
it's just me. I'm not going to go today. And
everybody has that attitude. And just you and one other showed
up, you'd be greatly discouraged. What if you showed up and all
of y'all showed up here and you got here and Brother Rick's not
here? And you call home and say, Brother
Rick, we're all here to hear the gospel. And he said, oh,
I'm home in my pajamas. I'm just going to watch online
today. You get my point? We come together
because just assembling with each other, you encourage one
another. And if you love one another,
you know, I need my brother and my sister and they need me for
us to have the gospel. Seek ye first the Lord's people. Seek ye first the Lord's people. He that loveth his life shall
lose it, He that hateth his life in this world should keep it
unto life eternal. Christ has made us know he's
our life and we need Christ. He's made us to know his gospel
is the most important thing we have in this world and we need
to preach another gospel. And he's made us to know our
brothers and sisters are one with us in the body of Christ
and we need our brothers and sisters. Seek Christ. Seek His Gospel. Seek the good of your brethren. First. That means above all,
preeminently, all the time, and nothing else. Everything else
you need, He'll provide it. He'll provide it. Amen.