All right, Matthew chapter six,
I believe that the Lord has given me a lesson for us this morning
that will be very, very helpful. It has been to me as I studied
it, and I trust it will be to you as we look at it. I titled
the lesson this morning, Consider the Lilies. This would be the
cure for worry. Consider the lilies. I want to
look at these verses in our text this morning and look at the
obvious truth that they're teaching. And then I want to come back
and I want us to see the more important spiritual truth that
the Lord is teaching us here. In short, this is what the Lord's
teaching. Here's the cure for worry. It's to rest in Christ. If Lord would give us faith to
rest in Christ, if Lord give us faith to see him, we would
have no reason for worry. At verse 24 of Matthew chapter
6, our Lord says, 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. You know, we don't worry when
we feel secure. We feel like we don't have anything
to worry about. If we feel like that we have enough of what we
need, then we feel like we don't have anything to worry about.
Well, the question is, what do you need? What is it that you
need? Everybody needs something. What is it that makes you feel
secure? And you'll serve that. Whatever
it is that you need, you will serve it by spending your time
and your energy to get it because you know that you need it. And
the Lord tells us it's one of two things that we need. Either
it's the riches or the stuff, the things of this world, or
it's Christ. It cannot be both. Impossible. If it's the riches of the world,
the things of the world that makes you feel secure, then you'll
seek those things. You'll serve them by seeking
them. But in doing so, you won't be able to seek Christ and to
worship Him, to seek Him. But if you need, if God the Holy
Spirit has made your need to be the Lord Jesus Christ, then
you'll serve Him by seeking Him, seeking Him first above all things,
by worshiping Him first above all things. Now that does not
mean that you won't have to go out and earn a living. You won't
be able to live like a monk in a monastery. You know, you're
still going to have to go out and earn a living. You're going
to have to go out in the world and earn a living and take care
of your family and provide for those things. Take care of the
things that are necessary, but you'll trust in the Lord to provide
while you're doing it. That's what the Lord's teaching.
Your security is not going to be in bank accounts and retirement
accounts and real estate holdings. Your security is going to be
in the Lord. who is the one who owns everything
anyway. Now you're still going to have
to think about your job, the things that you've got to do.
You've got to think about how is it that you can do the best
job you can possibly do. Trusting in the Lord to provide
also means you're going to be the best worker that you can
possibly be, the best worker in the company. And it's your
responsibility to take care of your family. You've got to think
about your family. You've got to think about what they need. You've
got to prepare for the future for your family. That's your
responsibility, so that they don't find themselves in want.
You've got to be prudent. You've got to be wise in these
things, but not greedy. But not greedy. In verse 25,
the word thought the Lord uses there means anxious thought. I mean, he doesn't say don't
be unmindful of the things going on in the world, but don't be
anxious about these things. Don't be tormented because you
don't feel like you've got enough stuff. You don't have to be greedy. Gather this world's goods and
hold them as tight as you possibly can in order to be safe and secure. Not if you're trusting in the
Lord, you don't. So the wise choice, this is obvious, and
almost anybody can tell you this, the wise choice is seek the Lord
first. You're not gonna have excessive
worry if you're trusting in the Lord to provide. Verse 25, he
says, therefore I say unto you, take no thought, no anxious thought
for your life, what you should eat or what you should drink,
nor yet for your body what you should put on. Is not the life
more than meat and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of
the air. They sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are ye not much better than they? Now you who believe,
you do not have to worry about having enough to eat. The Lord
feeds the wild birds of the field. And they're not worth anything.
They're worth nothing. You're worth more than them.
So the Lord's going to feed you. He's going to give you what you
need. He's going to feed you. Now understand what the Lord's
saying. The Lord's going to feed you. You don't have to worry
about not having enough to eat. The Lord's going to feed you.
But he's not saying that you don't have to worry about your
job. You don't have to worry about going out and work. No,
you can't be lazy and just expect the Lord to rain these things
upon you. You've never seen a bird plant seed and prepare for spring
to start growing that seed and prepare for a harvest to gather
that fruit back in the fall, have you? You've never one time
seen a bird planting seeds and preparing for winter. Yet the
Lord feeds them, doesn't he? But birds are hard working animals. Now the Lord feeds them, but
birds are always looking for seeds and worms and grubs and
berries. They're always looking for them.
This is what the Lord is teaching us. Go work for your bread. If
man won't work, don't let him eat. That's what scripture said.
That's not too hard. That's what God says. Go to work
and do a good job. Earn your bread, all the while
remembering that Christ is your life. Christ is your life, not
the things of this world. Go to work and do a good job
and trust the Lord to provide. That applies to clothing. It
applies to everything our bodies need to live. Look at verse 28.
And why take your thought for Raymond? 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. Now here is the cure
for worry. Consider the lilies. If you find
yourself worrying excessively, just look at a field of lilies.
Those lilies don't work to make themselves beautiful. They don't
go out and try to find expensive clothes and do different things
to try to make themselves look beautiful. The Lord just makes
them beautiful by the way He clothes them. Consider the lilies. Our Lord mentions Solomon here.
Solomon or somebody, somebody, probably spent a lot of time
on Solomon's wardrobe. If he didn't spend a lot of time
thinking about it, one of his servants did, didn't he? When
the queen of Sheba saw Solomon in all his finery, she saw him
in his kingdom. She saw him with his servants,
how happy his servants were to serve him. She saw the bounty
of his table. Scripture says there was no more
spirit left in her. She was just could hardly breathe
when she saw the glory of Solomon. And she said the half of Solomon's
glory hadn't been told me. I first heard of it and I thought
they were exaggerating. And truth be told, the half's
not been told. What a sight Solomon must have
been. You wanna see something more
breathtaking than that? Consider the lilies. Consider the lilies. Our master said Solomon was never
clothed as beautifully as the lilies of the field, as God clothed
them. Now if God clothes the lilies
of the field, The lilies of the field are not lilies you ladies
plant and take care of. They're the lilies of the field.
Nobody planted them. Nobody takes care of them. Really,
nobody thinks much about them. They drive by them and see there's
some lilies over there. They really don't think much
about them. It's a flower nobody cares about. Nobody planted.
Well, don't you ever think God's going to let you go naked who
believe. God purchased you with the blood of his son. God's planted
you in his vineyard. He's going to take care of you.
This is surely as he takes care of the lilies of the field. Now,
clothing-wise, it may not be the finest from a New York City
fashion show, but it'll get the job done. You're not going to
go naked. Verse 30, the Lord says, wherefore, if God so clothed
the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow's cast
in the oven, should he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith? Therefore, take no thought, no
anxious thought, saying, what should we eat? Or what should
we drink? Or wherewithal should we be clothed? For after all
these things do the Gentiles, the heathens, seek after these
things. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things. Now the Lord says, take no anxious
thought. You know, excessive worry about
these things, the things of the flesh. Do you know that dishonors
God? I mean, it's dishonoring to our
God. It shows weak faith. Our Lord calls those who are
excessive warriors, O ye of little faith. Now, here's the thing
about little faith. Little faith saves, because it's
not the strength of faith that saves, it's the object of our
faith that saves. Little faith will save because
Christ is the Savior. But let us never, ever, ever
use that as an excuse to have weak faith, because we have a
great God. You want to know the cure for
excessive worry? Trust Christ. Trust Christ. Now, Clark and I were sitting
talking last night. He didn't know I was going to
be dealing with this, but he made a very profound statement about little
faith. You want to know the cure for
little faith? Clark said, if you have little faith and you
want more, look to Christ. If you're looking to Christ,
you'll have strong faith. Your faith will be strong if
you see Him. because you see him as all that you need. Look
to Christ. That's the cure for excessive
worry. It's a cure for little faith. An excessive worry also
shows a lack of trust in our father. In our father. I don't know if you caught this
in Dan's prayer, but he said about, let's not take this for
granted, the intimate relationship that God's given us with our
father. With our father. Well, if God's our Father and
we have excessive worry, doesn't that show a lack of trust in
His love for His people? Doesn't that show a lack of trust
in His ability to provide everything that we need? You know, I can
understand the heathen thinking that way, but I can't understand
God's people thinking that way, God's children. And yet I can understand it.
I can't. Ain't you? To our shame. We have to admit we've all done
it. This excessive worry that just torments us. I can understand
it. No excuse for it, but I can understand
it. Our father has never one time given us a reason to doubt
him. Not one time. He not one time given us any
reason to question his love for us or to question his willingness
and his ability to provide everything that we need. God's children
have a relationship with our father, then the cure for excessive
worry is trusting our father, trusting our father. And we shouldn't
have excessive worry about all the things that our father will
take care of. So a cure for excessive worry
is childlike faith. It's childlike faith, just trust
our father. Now, look at verse 27. Which
of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit under his stature. Here's another reason not to
spend time excessively worrying. Our worrying never solves the
problem. Not one time ever. And really,
it adds to it. It doesn't even contribute to
a solution. All our worrying does is make
us more miserable. And no matter how much time and
energy we spend worrying, our Lord says it won't make you grow
an inch. Not an inch. And by experience, I can tell
you that's true. I mean, more than anything in
this world, when I was a kid, I wanted to be 6 foot 7. I just
somehow thought that if I could be 6 foot 7, I could play for
University of Kentucky. Didn't matter that I can't dribble,
jump, or shoot. I just thought if I was 6 foot 7, I'd have this
chance, you know? And I did everything I could
think of to be 6 foot 7. See how it worked? It didn't
work at all, did it? Not one bit. Why worry about the things? that
we're not in control of anyway. Isn't that just a waste of time? But can't we trust our Father? Now, is our God is in control
of everything that happens? I mean, from dust flying through
this air, we can't even see, to the big events of the world.
Now, is that just doctrine to us? Is that what we believe about
our Father? Is he in control of everything?
Then why do I worry about it? Why would I worry about it? Look
at Luke chapter 12. All we're doing when we worry
about those things that our father's in control of anyway, we're just
wasting our time. I think we could find something
better to spend our time on than worrying about these things our
father's in control of. Luke 12 verse 25. And which of
you which taking thought can add to his stature one cubit.
If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why
take ye thought for the rest? Why worry about these things? You can't change the outcome.
You can't change anything. You can't affect the least thing. Then why worry about the great
things? I mean, if we... That's just so logical. If you
can't affect the least thing, why worry about the greatest
thing? Why don't we just trust our heavenly father who's in
control of these things? Now the, the real key to the
spiritual truth that the Lord's teaching here that we've seen
just like the surface natural truth of those things. It's something
that could help us. Seems like in this day and time,
everybody's full of anxiety and worry. This, this is a good cure
for those things. But here is the key to the real
spiritual truth that the Lord's teaching. It's found in verse
33. but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all these things should be added unto you. Now, this is
the key. The real spiritual truth. The
Lord is teaching is his righteousness. He's teaching us about God's
righteousness and his kingdom. Look back at page at chapter
five. This is what he's been doing ever since chapter. Well,
really in this whole, what we call sermon on the Mount, but
here, especially in verse 20, look what he says. For I say
unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And this has been his subject
ever since. It's righteousness. How is a
sinner made righteous? How is a sinner made where he
can enter the kingdom, God's kingdom, the kingdom of righteousness?
So the cure for spiritual worry, this is really the primary subject
the Lord's dealing with. The cure for spiritual worry,
anxiety is trusting Jehovah's Akinnon, the Lord, our righteousness. And there's nothing we need more
than that. I mean, we're going to seek the
thing. We're going to serve the thing that we need, right? By
seeking it. Well, there's nothing we need
more than Christ and his righteousness because we're completely unrighteous
and God will only accept perfect righteousness. Now with that
in mind, go back to verse 24. 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. Now that word mammon, we read,
we normally think it means money, but that's not what it means.
The word means your confidence or your trust. You can't trust
Christ plus. You can't trust Christ plus your
faith. You can't trust Christ plus you
keeping the law. You can't trust Christ plus your
morality because you cannot mix grace and works. Grace and works
are two different masters and you can't serve them both. You
love the one and hate the other. And if you're trying to keep
the law, you are causing yourself excessive worry. If you're trying
to serve the law, you cannot avoid excessive worry. If you're
trying to keep the law as the way that you can come before
God, you have to constantly worry. You have to constantly worry.
Am I keeping the law well enough to be saved? Am I keeping the
law well enough to keep my salvation? You know, some people think God
saves me by his grace, but then I got to keep it by how well
I keep the law. Well, if you think that you're
causing yourself excessive worry because you, am I? How do I know? Am I keeping the law well enough?
Well, let me tell you, no, you're not. No, you're not. So quit
tormenting yourself and rest in Christ. Just rest in Christ. Resting in Christ is the key
to stopping excessive worry about the state of your soul. Verse
27, which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
If you can't put away even the smallest, what we say is the
smallest sin, I mean, what we would think is just one smallest
sin is enough to damn us, but if you can't stop even the smallest,
most insignificant sin, why are you trying to put away all of
them? If you can't keep what you think is the easiest commandment
to keep, what are you worrying about all the rest of them for?
You can't do the least thing. Then quit tormenting yourself
and rest in Christ who's done all things. He's done all things
well, just rest in Him. Verse 25, therefore I say unto
you, take no anxious thought for your life, for your soul,
what you should eat or what you should 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,
they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better
than they? Now by nature, spiritually, we're
starving to death. All of us are. We try to find
something to eat and you know what we end up trying to eat?
The husks, the empty husks of our own works. And there's nothing
there. There's nothing to sustain your
soul there. There's nothing nutritious for your soul there. Spiritual
food, spiritual health for your soul can't be had by earning
it by your works. Spiritual food is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the bread of life and he
gives himself to his people freely without their works. It's just
like manna from heaven. All you got to do is go out and
pick it up. Lay hold on Christ by faith.
Christ, the bread of life is not had by our works of the law. But don't you think that means
you can have him by being lazy either? Don't think, oh well,
you'll never be saved, you'll be saved, and if I'm just sitting
on my porch doing nothing, God will strike me with lightning
and boom. No, that's not how it works.
You have to dislike the birds. And they don't plant, they don't
breed, but they're always working, aren't they? They're always seeking
food. You have to avail yourself to the means of grace. Our Lord
said, seek the kingdom of God. Seek it. Seek to find it. Seek
the kingdom of God. Seek the righteousness of Christ.
You can't earn it, but you can seek it. You can seek to have
it freely. Then seek it where it's found,
where God's word is preached, where Christ is preached. God's
sheep feed on Christ the living bread by being in the public
worship service where Christ is preached. God reveals himself
and saves his people through the preaching of the gospel.
And that very same message that saves one of God's sheep over
here, that very same message feeds one of God's sheep over
here. The same message fits the need of everybody in the congregation. Then quit your working, quit
trying to earn it, and seek grace where it's found. Seek Christ
where he's found through the preaching of the gospel, because
that's the only way God's sheep are going to be fed. Verse 28,
and why take your thought for Raymond? Consider the lilies. 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. Now when Adam ate that
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam realized
he was naked. Now that meant more than Adam
didn't have any clothes on. Now, he didn't have any clothes
on, but that wasn't the real problem. The real problem was
spiritual nakedness. Adam had always didn't have any
clothes on, never a problem. His real problem now was spiritual
nakedness. He'd been stripped of righteousness. He'd been stripped of innocence.
He suddenly had no covering for his guilty soul before God. And all of us are born into the
world spiritually the exact same way, just like our father Adam
were naked without a covering, without righteousness, without
innocence. And we inherently feel shame about it. We inherently
know I've got to do something. Something's got to be done to
make this up to me and God. And we think we got to do it.
So what do we do? We get busy trying to spin a
robe of righteousness. We get busy trying to spin these
things together to to piece together enough good works that we think
will cover our righteousness. But our problem is everything
we do is no better than Adam's fig leaf. I mean, Adam made him
a fig leaf apron, didn't he? His bodily nakedness was covered. Why'd he hide in the bushes when
God came? Because he's naked. He didn't have a covering for
his soul, for his guilty sin. And when we try to piece together
our good works enough to make us a patchwork quilt, you know,
to cover our nakedness, all we've got is filthy rags. Rags that
are defiled by our sin. And a constant worry, do I look
good enough to God? Do I look good enough that God
might accept me? Is spiritual worry that tortures
the soul. Have I done enough for my soul? that on that last tomorrow, is
God going to accept me on the day of judgment? It's torture to the soul. Well, the cure for that spiritual
excessive worry is quit trying to spin your own garment and
seek to be found in Christ's righteousness. Seek to be dressed
in the righteousness of Christ. And when we're dressed in the
righteousness of Christ, that means God just gives us a, you
know, a road we can put on and over, you know, the sin and decay
and everything we want to hide still there. Being dressed in
Christ's righteousness means that God actually makes us righteous
by giving us the obedience of Christ, our representative. When
he obeyed the law, we did too. So we're righteous in him. He
makes us actually righteous. Now here's the cure for excessive
worry for your soul. Consider the lilies. Consider
the lilies. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
lily of the valley. None can be compared to him,
can they? Oh, his beauty. He's altogether lovely. He's perfect. When the bride
sees him, she says, there's no spirit left in her. Oh, he's
so beautiful. The half of his glory hadn't
been told. Consider the lilies. Christ, the lily of the valley.
God saves a sinner. You know what he does? He makes
them just like his son. He puts them in Christ, the lily
of the valley, so that when Christ sees, when Almighty God, God
the Father sees his people, when he looks at his people, you know
what he sees? He sees the lily of the valley. He sees us in
Christ. He sees us as beautiful and as
holy and as righteous and as perfect as God's son himself. Now you can't be more perfect
than that. You can't be more beautiful. You can't be more
loved. You can't be more accepted than that. Just consider Christ
the lily of the valley and you've got nothing to worry about. Nothing. Not one thing. Seek. The Lord
says seek Him. Seek the lily of the valley.
Righteousness is a gift of God. Ask Him to give it to you. There's
nothing wrong with that. Ask God to give it to you. You
can't earn a righteousness, but you can beg God for it. That's
how we seek it. Consider Christ the lily of the
valley and seek to be found in Him. That's what the Lord's telling
us. Verse 30, He says, Wherefore,
if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and
tomorrow is cast in the oven, so he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith. If God's blessed you with salvation
through the death of his son, if God's taken care of your greatest
need, you reckon he's going to take care of your smaller needs
too? You don't believe he will. I really do. I am sure Our Father
will do what any wise, good, loving Father here on earth would
do. He'll take care of those smaller needs, too. See, the
excessive cure for worry is to trust our Father to provide everything
that He requires. So seek Christ first. He's what we need. Seek Him with
all your heart, verse 33. Seek Christ first and all these
things will be added to you. I don't know what the Lord will
add to you physically, but I do know what he'll add to you spiritually.
Seek Christ first, his righteousness, and all these other things will
be added to you. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, forgiveness
of sin, justification, eternal life. All these things will be
added to you. If God's going to add all those
things to you, Reckon he's able to take care of those smaller
little insignificant things in this life, like something to
eat, something to wear? Of course he will. In verse 34, therefore
take no thought, no anxious thought for tomorrow. Prepare for tomorrow
in case it comes, but don't take any anxious thought for tomorrow.
For tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof. Now don't have this excessive
worry about tomorrow. Today is enough for us. Today and its problems, today
and its joys, that is more than enough for us to handle. Let's
leave tomorrow to tomorrow. Tomorrow, maybe it will bring
trouble. Maybe it will. Maybe it will. But why worry about it Fort Collins?
Why worry about it? My grandmother used to say, don't
borrow trouble. And I thought about that a lot
this week. Don't borrow trouble. Because when you borrow something,
you've got to pay interest on it, don't you? You've got to
pay interest on the trouble. Let's just wait till tomorrow.
Songwriter said this, I don't know about tomorrow. It may bring
me poverty. But the one who feeds the sparrows
is the one who stands by me. And the path that is my portion
may be through the flame or flood. It will be some tomorrow. I promise
you that. But his presence goes before
me and I'm covered in his blood. Many things about tomorrow I
don't seem to understand, but I know who holds tomorrow. That's
it. That's the cure for excessive
worry about tomorrow. I know who holds tomorrow. And
if tomorrow comes, you know who will be there? Our Lord's going
to be He'll be there if tomorrow comes. He'll be there with grace
that's sufficient for the day. And when that last tomorrow comes,
and you worry about your soul, consider the lily. Consider Christ
the lily of the valley. Don't have excessive worry about
judgment. Rest in Christ who's already
been judged for his people. That's the cure for excessive
worry. God bless you.