Let me look at Matthew chapter
6 beginning at verse 25. If you look in the King James
Bible, if you go back up to verse 24, you see that little mark.
That's a paragraph mark. And sometimes when you talk about
the division of verses and chapters and all that, I think sometimes
I'll read it and I wonder what the King James translators were
thinking when they divided this or that. But it's really probably
not the division of a paragraph. It keeps on the same thought.
And the idea here is that believers, justified sinners, saved by the
grace of God, that we are to make an effort, and it's only
by the power and the goodness of God that we do so, to set
our priorities straight. And so I entitled this lesson,
Our Priority is Christ. And you remember last week, we
ended with verse 24, which says, no man can serve two masters.
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. And of course, that's showing
how we cannot rightly serve God and call him our heavenly father
with a divided mind and a divided heart. You can't have one foot
in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God. And that's
why I made this point squarely to understand, even though we're
in the world and we have to deal with things in the world, we
can't just neglect everything. We've got families, we've got
jobs, we've got things that we have to deal with because we're
in the world, but we're not of the world. We're citizens of
a heavenly kingdom. And I know I've always heard
the joke about somebody who is so heavenly minded, they're no
earthly good and all that kind of thing. Well, that's not what
we're talking about. We know that as we're in this
world, we're here for a purpose. And that purpose is to serve
and to glorify and exalt Christ. And that's why I titled this
message, Our Priority is Christ. No matter what else we're doing,
If you have a good job, do well. Try your best to get ahead. Nothing
wrong with that. But your priority is the kingdom
of God in Christ. And so that's what the rest of
this lesson really deals with, 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 you shall put
on, what you're gonna wear. Is not the life more than meat,
more than food, and the body more than raiment or clothing?
Now of course, we have to think about what we're gonna eat and
what we're gonna wear. We have to think about those
things. We've got no other choice. But what he's forbidding here
is that anxious care, that worrying that consumes us over what we're
gonna eat and what we're gonna wear to the extent that it causes
us to neglect the things of God. Now that's what he's talking
about, anxious care. Anything that, well, for lack
of a better word, I keep repeating, anything that consumes us to
the point that we neglect the prayers, our prayers, that we
neglect worship, anything that consumes you to the point that
you can't meet with the people of God and worship, which is,
you know, we meet one day a week, and what are we doing here? We're
thanking God. for the things he's given us,
even our clothes and our food, especially our salvation, and
anything that consumes us to the point to take us away from
that, or even from our reading of the scriptures, studying of
the scriptures. That's not a good thing for a
believer. That's what he's saying. And he forbids us to be so consumed
with the pursuit of these things to cause us to neglect the more
important things. There's nothing more important
in our lives as sinners saved by grace, realizing what God
has freely and fully given us. There's nothing more important
than worshiping him. And I'm not just talking about
on Sunday or in a formal worship service like this. Yes, this
is important now. We're to meet together as the
people of God, to serve him and to thank him. But understand,
I've always said this, thanking the Lord is more than just looking
up at the sky and saying, thank you, Lord. Now that's part of
it, that's okay, because that reveals it's on your mind. But
it's a life lived for the glory of God. That's what gratitude
is. We talk about our service to
God. It's not motivated by law. It's
motivated by love and by grace and by gratitude. And I saw a
quote this morning. I don't know if I should have
written this down. It's really good. It was by J.C. Philpott.
He's talking about how we live as believers. And he said, we
cannot use a law that kills us to guide us to a life of service. And that's why we talk about
our priority is Christ. He is our motivation. And God
commands us, for example, like when he says, all right, taking
no thought for what you're gonna wear and what you're gonna eat.
Well, now you know that with what you're gonna wear and what
you gotta eat, you gotta buy those things, don't you? I mean,
if you go down to Publix and go through the line, they're
not gonna let you just walk out without paying. And so you gotta
buy it. That means you gotta have money.
So to have money, you gotta do what? You gotta work. And you
gotta give a good attention. And the Bible teaches us to,
if we have a good job, that we're to do a good day's work. In fact,
over, I've got it listed here, 2 Thessalonians chapter three,
he says, those who don't work don't eat. That's biblical. So the Bible doesn't teach some
welfare state for lazy people. Now we know sometimes people
get into situations through no fault of their own where they
need help, and that's okay. We're to be generous in that
sense. But the situation calls for nothing, nothing at all in
this life is to take priority over our service to God, our
worship of God, our giving glory to God, the gospel. Kingdom of
heaven is everything to us, because we know that this life, whatever
span of time we have, is just a blink of an eye. And when we
die, we're going to leave all of this behind, and it'll do
us no good, and we've gotta meet the Lord. And what's our concern
when we meet the Lord? Do we have a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's justice? And the only way we
can have that is through the grace of God by the righteousness
of Christ freely imputed and given to us. And that ought to
be our concern. We were talking at lunch this
past week, you know, when we talk about testing our faith, examining ourselves, as the scriptures say, examine
yourselves whether you're in the faith. There's really basically
two concerns for us who claim to be believers in that issue,
claim to believe in Christ. And the first concern is this,
do I believe and trust in the Christ of the Bible and not a
false Christ? You know, people today, and it's
really kind of sad because there's so much about this in the scripture,
but there are false Christ. False saviors. And I'm not talking
just about these psychos who go around claiming to be the
Messiah, like David Koresh or Jim Jones. They're false Christs,
obviously. But I'm talking about preachers
who preach a false Christ because they don't preach Him according
to the doctrine of Christ revealed in the Bible. Who He is and what
He did and why He did it and where He is now. Who is He? He's God, manifest in the flesh,
fully God, fully man without sin. What did He accomplish on
the cross? He accomplished the salvation
of all whom the Father gave Him before the foundation of the
world. He bore away their sins. And it wasn't for everybody without
exception, it was before His sheep. If He bore my sins away,
I can tell you right now, I'm not going to perish. Because
sin is the cause of our perishing. So if he bore our sin, so how
important is this? And I've got listed in your lesson,
Colossians chapter three. This is a good parallel verse
to this passage here in Matthew six, Colossians chapter three.
And it says in verse one, if you then be risen with Christ,
that means if you're justified, that's what that means. If your
sins are forgiven by His blood, if you're justified, declared
righteous by God based on His righteousness imputed, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God. Set your affection, your minds,
your heart on things above, not on things of the earth, for you
are dead. How am I dead? I'm dead in Christ,
dead to sin, dead to the law. And your life, the life that
I have spiritually, is hid with Christ in God when Christ who
is our life, see that's a priority, he is my life. He shall appear,
then shall you also appear with him in glory. That's putting
things in perspective. That's setting our priorities.
And we have to wrestle to do that, don't we? We have to struggle
to do that sometimes. Well, look at how he gives us
an illustration of it. In verse 26, he said, Behold,
the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Now those fowls of the air, they do things in order to get their
food. He's not saying that they just
lay up there fat, dumb, and happy in their nest and God feeds them.
You understand? But he's using nature to say,
they're not sitting around worrying about it and trying to build
big nest eggs for the future and all of that, even though
he does use the ant who prepares for the future here. Nothing
wrong with preparing for the future, but to be so consumed
with that that we neglect the things of God, that's what's
bad. And he says, your heavenly father
feedeth them, are you not much better than they? Now better
there doesn't mean that When I read that verse, you know what
I thought of? I thought of Isaiah chapter one. Because you know
one of the things that Isaiah says in showing the depravity
and the ingratitude of Israel, he said this to them, he said,
even the ass knows his master. And he was telling them, you
don't even know who's You don't know the God who feeds you, the
God who keeps you. Even the ass knows his master.
Even a dog knows his master. So in that way, we're not better
than them. We're worse than them, actually. But what he means,
we're better than them in the sense that God sent his son to
redeem us from our sins. Christ bought us lock, stock,
and barrel. And think about that. He gave
His life for us. I've been studying that for another
lesson out of Revelations about being persecuted. Nobody was
persecuted more than our Lord. And nobody deserved it less. Because He's the Son of God incarnate
without sin. He did nothing wrong. And yet
he was persecuted like no other person. Now think about it this
way. He did that for his people. He did that for his sheep. And
if I'm one of his sheep, I know the shepherd. I know the master. And I'm gonna give him, try to
give him what's due unto him. Give unto the Lord the glory
that's due unto his name. How many times is that stated
in the Psalms? So as I work the job or as I
buy the clothing, buy the food, whatever I do, do it as unto
the Lord. That's the lesson. Look at verse
27, which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
That means his life. If we worry about things, and
I'll tell you what now, I'm a worrier. I'm not hypocritical about this. I am a worrier. And worry is
unbelief. It is. You say, well, I've got
no choice but to worry about this. I know what you mean when
you say that, because I've been there. And I'll probably be there
again. But I know that it's wrong. I'm
not talking about having a laissez-faire attitude now. I'm not talking
about being concerned with things when concern is needed. But to
sit around and worry, is that gonna add one second to my life? And the answer's no. Is that
gonna solve the problem? No. What does the Bible tell
us about anxious care? He said, give it unto the Lord. He'll deal with it. Now that
doesn't mean we shouldn't use the means that God's given us
to solve the problem because that's the way God is doing these
things. You know, if I feel sick, go
to the doctor. Who gave that doctor the skills
and the knowledge to do what he's doing? God did. If you need financial advice,
go to somebody who's adept in those things. Who gave that person
the knowledge to do that? God did. And that's the way we're
to think about it. That anxious thought, by taking
thought, he's not talking about just thinking about it, he's
talking about anxious care, and that's not gonna help. Verse
28, and why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they
spin. He says, and yet I say in you
that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
of these. All of these things, we look
around in nature, And God takes care of it. Sometimes God in
wrath destroys it. I mean, you know, back when we
had the hurricane several years ago, a lot of trees came down,
didn't they? A lot of homes were destroyed.
We've seen that. That's God's judgment. But here's
the point that I believe our Lord's making here. God's gonna
take care of His children one way or the other. Now, it may
be that He may take us home to be with Him. And there's nothing
better. Sometimes we don't realize that
now on earth. You know, I think about my children
and my grandchildren. I don't really want to leave
them right now. And I don't. I'd like to see them grow up.
But if the Lord has other plans for me, you know what? That's the best there can be.
And that's the way we gotta look at it. Why? Because our priority
is Christ. There's nothing better than going
to be with our Lord. He told the thief on the cross,
today you'll be with me in paradise. And then all this pain and this
suffering will be over. It'll be over. The Lord took
our brother Winston home several months ago. And I'll guarantee
you he's in the bliss of glory. He wouldn't come back for a billion
dollars. The Lord took our son home in
2018, and he's in the bliss of glory too. He wouldn't come back
if he had the choice. I'd love to see him back, but
he wouldn't come back. And I don't want things to be
worse for him. I honestly don't. So we thank
God for these things. And then look at 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? At little faith, he's talking
about worrying. Faith in the Bible is a true
believer, a true child of God, believing what God says. And
that's what faith is. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Why do we believe the gospel?
Why do we plead the righteousness of Christ alone without our works? Why do we do that? Because that's
what God says. We have the word of God on that.
And that's why we're so adamant about it. I have people who don't
think, that I know who think very little of that, even preachers.
who think very little of the preaching of the righteousness
of God. And it baffles me, especially
when they claim to believe it's true. But they think very little
of it, and it comes out in their preaching, because they preach
more of salvation by conditions on sinners and character. My
friend, there's no better message for us. And why do we know that? Why do we believe it? Because
God says it. Well, even in these lesser issues, and I call them
lesser issues because it has to do with our lives here on
earth. And they are important now. They're things we have to
think about and deal with, but they're lesser issues when you
compare them to eternity. Don't you agree with that? My
life here on earth, I'll be 70. Randy, you'll be 70. This year,
I'll get there a few months before you, but that's all right. Three score and 10. And some
of you live past three score and 10. But what's 70, 80, 90
years compared to eternity? So whatever we're going through
here on this earth, it's a lesser issue. But the only way that
it becomes an issue of life and death is as we know and believe
the gospel of God's grace. And that's the most important
thing of all. Christ is our priority. So when he says, O ye of little
faith, he's talking about this worrying, this anxious care that
sometimes consumes us and sometimes we We have to wake up. The Lord wakes us up, doesn't
he? And says, Lord, forgive me. Forgive me. Well, look at the
last few verses here. He says in verse 32, he says
in verse 31, therefore take no thought saying, what shall we
eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
But again, anxious thought is what he's talking about. Worrying,
being so consumed with that that we give no time and thought to
the more important issues. Verse 32, for after all these
things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth
that you have need of all these things. And when he's talking
about Gentiles there, he's talking about unbelievers. Not all Gentiles, because he's
got elected among the Gentiles. But spiritually, what are they?
If you're a Gentile, I'm a Gentile. But spiritually, what are we?
We're Jews. Remember what Romans 2, 28 and 29 says? He is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, but he is one which is one inwardly.
And it's matters of the heart. Circumcision of the heart. So,
that's what he's talking about. But look at verse 33. Here's
the key. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. Now one thing you note about
this verse is that if you're truly seeking the kingdom of
God, and that means salvation and all of its blessings and
benefits, you cannot seek it unless you're seeking righteousness. If you're not seeking righteousness,
you're not seeking the kingdom of God. And so what does that
mean? If you're not seeking Christ,
Because if you're not seeking Christ, you're not seeking righteousness.
God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because he hath
appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained, and that he hath given assurance
unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. So seek ye first, first and foremost,
the kingdom of God. And to seek the kingdom of God
is to seek righteousness. And to seek righteousness is
to seek it and find it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can't
get away from that. The preaching of the kingdom
of God is the preaching of righteousness. And the preaching of righteousness
is the preaching of Christ. Those who preach man's works
are not preaching righteousness. Because man's works always fall
short. But the perfection of the law,
which equals righteousness, can only be found in the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. And he says, all these
things shall be added unto you, which simply means God will take
care of you, and he will. Now, we may go hungry for a while,
but it's not going to last. And he's gonna fill us with his
spirit. Verse 34, he emphasizes, 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.
There's enough evil to think about today than to cast it into
the future and think about tomorrow. Just put it in God's hands, where
it's always been. We don't, you know, people say
that, you know, I'm just gonna put it in the Lord's hands and
let him deal with it. Well, it's always been in his
hands. But he's gonna take care of his
people. We stand before him. The things that we go through
here in life, and I'm dealing with this later on in the book
of Revelation. Whether it's good or it's bad,
in our eyes, It's not gonna change our standing before God in Christ. Because the righteousness in
which we stand is the righteousness of God in Christ. And it cannot
be marred, contaminated, or taken away. So think upon these things,
as he said. Okay.