Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
Matthew chapter six. And the main verse I'm going
to launch out from is Matthew 6, 33, which says, but seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6, 33. And the title
of the message is Our Main Priority. our main priority. You know,
we live in a time where most of you would probably agree with
me that life is just busy. And especially in our youth,
you know, especially young couples who have children and in school
and activities and jobs and clubs and outside activities, all of
these things, we're just a busy people. And that's not all bad. But here's the lesson that the
Lord is teaching here in this portion of the Sermon on the
Mount. And it's more than just what people call practical living. Of course, it has to do with
living in a way that is practical and beneficial. What he's teaching
us is this, as we go throughout our busy lives trying to do well
for ourselves and do well for our families and all that, that
our main priority in everything is to seek the Lord. to seek
Christ, to seek his salvation. He says in verse 33, but seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be added unto you. And he's talking about the necessities
of life. But if you go back up to verse
19 of this passage, Matthew 6, 19, listen to what he says here. He says, lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, where
thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where
thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. Now obviously what he's
talking about is don't set your whole life in the value of things
that are going to fade away and be destroyed. Things that are
going to corrupt and be gone. Many people, you know, the Bible
talks about the love of money, for example. We all want to be
comfortable. We want to buy the things that
we want. We want to secure our futures. And so, you know, the
Bible doesn't say that money is the root of all evil. It says
the love of money, that love which consumes a person so much
that that's all that they do. That's their priority in life. And so we have to be careful
with that. But listen to what he says in Matthew 6.22, and
it's true. Whatever you value the most,
that's where your heart is. If you want to know the state
of your heart, what is the heart, the mind, the affections, the
will, the inner person, what you really are, your makeup,
where your treasure is, what you value the most, that's where
your heart is. And if you value the things of
the earth most, houses and lands and money and even relationships
with people, I mean, those are things that we do value. But
if that's our treasure, then what's the state of our heart?
Well, that's lost. And so, you're connected to the
earth in the Bible when it talks about those who are of the world.
That's what it's talking about. those who are earth dwellers.
In other words, they have no heavenly treasure at all. And when he talks about laying
up treasure in heaven, he's not talking about working for your
rewards. That's not what he's talking
about at all. Listen to what he says in verse 22. He says,
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?
The single eye has to do, and we need to understand something
about this. What he's talking about is a
right relationship with God now and how that comes about. And
if your eye is singly on the things of the earth, And you
know, many people, when they're given a lot of material blessings,
as they say, they equate that with a right relationship with
God, but that's not necessarily so. You remember in the parable
of the rich man who had all these houses and his goods, and he
got more goods, and he said, what shall I do? He said, well,
I'll build bigger barns for my goods. And it says there, thou
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. You see,
that's what it's talking about. The love of money, the root of
all evil. But what he's talking about here is a right relationship
with God. And so when he talks about laying
up treasures in heaven, he's not talking about sinners, even
saved sinners, working to earn their rewards. Well, I'm gonna
have more treasures than you because I preach the gospel.
No, no, no, not at all. He's talking about the treasure
of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessings of salvation
which are given equally to all of God's people by His grace,
based upon not their works, but based upon the righteousness
of Christ. Again, verse 33, seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Why? Because all those things that
he's talking about, the blessings of salvation, now he's talking
about the necessities of life too, but mainly the necessities
of salvation, they're all earned for God's people by Christ. Ephesians 1.3 says, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, in Christ Jesus. So all the blessings of salvation.
And so he says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Now what is his righteousness? Well you know, back over in Matthew
chapter five, the Lord was talking about the law. This is the part
of the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. And he says in
verse 17, now listen to this, this is Matthew 5, 17. He says,
think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am
not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Now he's answering
some of the accusations that the Pharisees had brought against
him that he had come to break the law of Moses because they
had set up traditions of men that were added to the Law of
Moses that actually perverted that Law and turned it into a
self-righteous system of works salvation. And the Law was not
given for that purpose. The Law was never given to Israel
to be a way of salvation by their works. Somebody said, well, they
just kept the law. Well, what was the law given
for? And what did the law teach them?
The law was given to show them their sinfulness. The fact that
they could not be saved by their works. The fact that they could
not be made righteous by their works. That's why the law was
given. It was given to show them the
impossibility. of salvation and being made right
with God by their works. And in the types and the pictures
and the shadows and the prophecies of the law, it was given to show
them that one was coming, the Messiah, who is the only way
of salvation for sinners. And it must be by grace and not
by works. So Christ says, I didn't come
to break the law, I came to fulfill it. And the Bible says, in Romans
10, 4, that he is the fulfillment of the law, the end of the law,
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He says in verse
18 of Matthew 5, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law
till all be fulfilled. God's gonna fulfill the law through
his son. And verse 19, he says, whosoever
therefore shall break one of these least commandments and
shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom
of heaven. Now many people say, well, that means he's saved,
but he's the least. No, no, that's the judgment of the kingdom of
heaven. It's the judgment of the gospel.
Here's a sinner who is teaching other people to try to keep the
law to be saved. Well, that's breaking the law.
Now, they think he's the most, but the kingdom of God says,
no, you're the least. And he's not saved. Nobody's saved who
does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the fulfillment
of the law for them, as the Lord their righteousness. And so he
says, but whoso shall do and teach them, the same shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now who's that referred
to? That refers to some super saint? No, it refers to any sinner
who is saved by God's grace and who honors the law by pleading
the merits of Christ. How do you know that? Well, look
at verse 20, Matthew 5. For I say unto you that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. You gotta have one that's better
than the best people on earth in your mind. Now what does he
mean by that? A righteousness that exceeds.
Well, he begins there in Matthew 5, 21, and I won't go through
all these verses, He begins by showing them the extent of the
law. How far does the law of God reach? Well, it reaches to the heart.
It reaches to the thoughts. And remember, he begins there
in Matthew 5.21 talking about murder. He says, you've heard
it said by them of old, thou shalt not kill. Well, that's
true. Murder is a sin. But he said,
I say unto you, it's a sin to be angry enough to murder someone. That's thought. He goes on, he
says, you've heard it said by them of old that it's sinful
to lust after a woman. He said, but I'm telling you,
it's a sin to commit adultery. He said, it's a sin to commit
adultery. He said, well, I'm telling you,
it's a sin to lust. That's a sin of the heart. Thou
shalt not covet, that's a sin of the heart. And that was to
combat the Pharisees' view that, well, it's not a sin to think
it, it's a sin to do it. No, it's a sin to think it. I'll
never forget years ago when I first moved to Albany and began pastoring
this church, we had a Sunday school teacher. And he got up
and he made this statement. He said, it's not a sin to be
tempted. It's only a sin if you give in.
Well, in our case, that's not true. Because why are we tempted? Why would we be tempted in that
way? Because of our sinful thoughts
and our sinful desires. You see? Now, somebody says,
well, if that's true, then I might as well just go ahead and commit
the act. No, no, the Bible doesn't teach that, and that's wrong.
If you get angry enough with me to murder me, that's sin.
But it's even, it's worse if you go on and do the act. You're
gonna go to jail, and be maybe a capital punishment. So no,
there's no excuse for sin in thought, word, or deed. No excuse
at all. But for us to deny the sinfulness
of the thought is wrong. You see, that shows us how far
we are in this thing of sin. Now, when Christ was tempted,
it was not sin because he had no sinful thoughts or desires
or goals. I often tell people like this,
it's kind of like this. When Christ was on the Mount
of Temptation, when Satan tempted him on that Mount, he had not
eaten for 40 days and 40 nights. Well, he was just as hungry as
you and I would be if we had not eaten that long. But when
Satan come along and tempted him, he's not like us. He had no thoughts of relieving
his hunger in a sinful way. We would. We'd just about do
anything to fulfill our hunger. So in other words, what Christ
is teaching there, that the righteousness of the law is perfection not
only in action and deed, but in thought. That's what righteousness
is. It's perfect satisfaction to
God's law and justice. And our works will not make it. So you've got to have one that
far exceeds the righteousness of the most religious, the kindest,
the most sincere people on earth, I don't care, whoever you have
in your mind who you think is the best of the best on this
earth, in order to be saved and to be right with God, in order
to be forgiven, in order to be justified, in order to be blessed
of God eternally and spiritually, you must have a righteousness
that exceeds theirs. Now, where is that righteousness
to be found? Well, he tells us in Matthew
6.33, our text. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. His righteousness. Should we
strive to be righteous in our character and conduct? Yes. But
we realize the whole time that we're not gonna make it in this
life. We're going to realize the whole time that in order
to be right with God, we must have Christ. We must be washed
in His blood. We must be clothed in His righteousness,
His righteousness imputed. And you know, that's what He
later on in Matthew 7, we'll look at that, that's what He
calls the straight, narrow way of salvation. Look over at Matthew
7 and verse 13. He says, enter ye in at the straight
gate. Now the word straight there.
doesn't mean straight like a straight as an arrow, straight as a ruler.
It's a straight like a ship on the ocean would pass through
a straight to get into a port. And it's a very, he says, a straight
gate. And he says, for wide is the
gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. Many
there be which go in there at. So there's the straight, narrow
way. He says in verse 14, because straight is the gate and narrow
is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find
it. Now what is that way that leads
to life? It's the way of His righteousness. What is the way of His righteousness?
It's the way of Christ as the surety, the substitute, and the
redeemer of His people. going to the cross, dying for
their sins, satisfying the justice of God, and bringing forth the
only righteousness, the one and only righteousness, whereby God
can be just and justify a sinner like me, whereby God can be just
and truthful and holy and still forgive me. You see, the forgiveness
of sins must be based on a just ground. And there's only one
just ground, and that's the blood of Christ. That's the righteousness
of Christ. The forgiveness of sins does
not come by your faith or repentance. Yes, if Christ died for you and
your sins are forgiven, you will believe and you will repent,
but that's not the ground of the forgiveness. You understand
that? Somebody says, well, it says if we confess our sins,
he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, that if there is
not a condition that we meet in order to gain forgiveness,
that if there is evidence that we have been forgiven based on
the blood of Christ, he says right before that, the blood
of Jesus Christ washes away all our sins, forgives us of all
our sins. It's on the basis of the blood.
Now the blood is the same as his righteousness. Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness. There's only one just ground
upon which God can save a sinner, can forgive a sinner, can justify
a sinner. And that's his righteousness
imputed, charged, accounted to me. And therefore he says it's
a straight and narrow way. Now what is the broad way? with the wide gate, any other
way but the way of His righteousness. You see, that's why the main
priority here is to seek Christ. You remember back over here when
I talked about the single eye? You know, Paul, in the book of
2 Corinthians, he makes this statement concerning believers
who were being seduced by false preachers concerning the way
of salvation, the way of righteousness, the way of life, and what they
were trying to do, these false preachers, they were trying to
get these believers to look elsewhere other than the one way, the single
way of His righteousness, and to make their priority something
other than Christ and His glory, the glory of His person, the
power of His finished work. You see, that's the main priority
of a believer. And he says in 2 Corinthians
11, he says, but I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. That word simplicity
there is the word singular. In other words, Paul says, my
goal is that you look singularly. to Christ, that He's your main
priority. Well, look back at Matthew chapter
7 and not anything else. He says in verse 15 of Matthew
7, Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves. These are false preachers
who claim to be Christian, who claim to preach the gospel, but
they're preaching a false gospel. How do you know? Well, they make
salvation at some point, in some way, to some degree, conditioned
on you or me, on the sinner, rather than totally upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. They want your priority to be
not on Christ and Him crucified and risen from the dead, but
on how you're living. Should we be concerned with how
we live? Yes, but our main priority is Christ and His righteousness
alone. You see? Because if we've got
our eyes singularly fixed on Christ and what He's accomplished,
then our lives will follow suit as living testimonies to His
goodness, His grace, His power, and it'll be testimonies of thanksgiving
and obedience to Him. And so he says, Beware of these
false prophets. Verse 16, you shall know them
by their fruits. Now, who are their fruits? Well,
do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so,
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree
bringeth forth evil fruit. What's the good tree? That's
the gospel of Christ. That's Christ. He's the tree
of life. And out of him comes good fruit,
and he cannot bear evil fruit. And what is the evil fruit? What
is the corrupt tree? That's the false preacher who
preaches a false way of salvation, leading sinners on the broad
road that leads to destruction. And no good fruit can be produced
out of that, only evil fruit. And so when you see a believer,
you know that whoever preached to him preached the gospel to
him under that which he was saved. And so he says in verse 19, or
verse 18, a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Christ in the gospel
cannot bring forth evil fruit. False prophets in a false gospel
cannot bring forth good fruit. So he says in verse 19, every
tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast
into the fire, wherefore by their fruit you shall know them. See,
that's not talking about the works of believers or anything
like it. It's talking about the true Christ who is the tree of
life, who is the one way of salvation, the only way of righteousness
before God, as opposed to false gospels, false preachers who
preach a false way, bringing forth evil fruit. You see, the
true preacher of Christ, the true ambassador of Christ, He
will point you to Him alone, to Christ alone, as your main
priority. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, Matthew 6, 33, and all these things shall
be added unto you. Take care of your jobs, take
care of your families, take care of your marriage. Listen, the
Bible nowhere tells us to neglect our responsibilities in life
in lieu of even the gospel. In other words, there are people,
there are preachers who neglect their families. And they justify
that by saying, well, I'm doing God's work. God, listen, taking
care of my family. is just as much God's work. That's
because He gave me that family and I'm responsible. Take care
of them. Be a good worker, be a good husband, be a good wife,
be a good father, be a good mother, all of that. But your main priority,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteous. Obviously,
don't neglect the things of the kingdom of God and the gospel
in order to take care of other things. And that's what he's
saying here. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added
unto you. And let me tell you this, you fathers especially,
fathers are supposed to be the spiritual head of their homes. And so you would be taking care
of your family more than you can know by making sure that
they're sitting under the true gospel, wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed, where the Bible is preached. Don't take
them. You say, well, I want my kids
to be where there's a lot of activity, involvement. No, take
them where the gospel is preached. Take them where they can hear
of Christ and His, the grace of God and His gospel, His righteousness
alone. That's what they need to hear.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Somebody
said, well, I want to go where the man is real eloquent. Well,
eloquence has its place, but he might be eloquently preaching
a false gospel. Someone says, I want to be entertained.
Well, go be entertained, but that won't help you. Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is the
main priority. Keep your eyes singularly fixed
on Christ, the glory of His person, the power of His finished work,
the blood that He shed, the righteousness that He accomplished. And all
these other things will be added unto you according to God's Word. This is the promise of God to
His people. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.