Matthew chapter 6 and verse 25. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall
drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat and the body than raiment? Behold the
fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor
gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not
much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet
I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. Wherefore, if God so 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? Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things. but seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. Take therefore no thought for
the moral, for the moral shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. I'm sure that you've noticed
with me that when the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking, when he
was ministering, when he was conversing, when he was challenging
the Pharisees and the scribes, his enemies, when he was communicating
with his disciples or speaking to the common man, he did so
emphatically. He did so persuasively and he
reasoned powerfully. And I think that when we come
to this Sermon on the Mount, and perhaps even particularly,
if I can say so, in these verses before us here this evening,
we can see something of that great emphasis, that emphatic
ministry of our Saviour and his persuasiveness. and this powerful
reasoning that he brought to the arguments that he set before
men and women. Let me give you an example. He
says emphatically, you cannot serve two masters. You cannot
serve two masters. He didn't say, It's hard to serve
two masters. He didn't say you'll have a problem
trying to serve two masters. He said you can't do it. It's
an impossibility. Men may try. You may try. And I may try. But we will always
fail. We have to be loyal to someone. That's what service demands. You have to be loyal to someone. And sooner or later, that loyalty
will be stretched to the point that it will snap and break.
You have to be faithful to someone. And sooner or later, that demand
for faithfulness will be tested to the point that you cannot
be faithful to two different people. You have to be dedicated to one. And the Lord Jesus Christ emphatically
says, you cannot serve two masters. And he's persuasive. Look at verse 25. Therefore I
say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat
or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put
on. Is not the life more than meat
and the body than raiment? This approach that the Lord takes
throughout this sermon, this Sermon on the Mount, we've seen
it much in chapter five. He said, you've heard it said,
but I say unto you. Or here in verse 25 of chapter
six, therefore, I say unto you. He's saying, look, this is the
reality. This is the truth. Therefore,
let's apply that. Let's think about what that's
saying. Let's think about what it means. Let's think about how
that affects you. Hear what I have to say, and
then take this. As in the Old Testament, the
Lord said, come, let us reason together, saith the Lord. And
this is the persuasiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
actually a very interesting aspect of the Lord. We often speak about
the authority that the Lord had. Never man spake like this man.
And yet he was persuasive. He didn't go into a discussion
ready to knock heads together. He didn't try and bulldoze people
and flatten them with the weight of his arguments. He was persuasive. I think the word is winsome.
He was winsome. He spoke gently to men and women
and yet he spoke in a way that showed them the obviousness of
the truth that he had to declare. He says, take no thought for
your life. Now life is comprised of essential
elements. And when he says, take no thought
for your life, what he's saying is take no thought for those
things which are integral, which are basic for your life and for
your well-being. And the examples that he gives
here is what you shall eat. Your life won't last long if
you don't have something to eat. or what you shall drink. Again,
your life will last much shorter if you don't have anything to
drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Now, I'm
not going to talk about this point too much because I have
plenty to say this evening, but if you sit down and think about
it, that's it. That's it, the Lord has summarised
life, all that's needed for life in those three simple pictures,
those three simple examples. What you eat, what you drink,
and what you wear. Somebody said there's no such
thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing. And that's true, because
as far as shelter is concerned, as far as warmth is concerned,
as far as protection is concerned, and of course, this wasn't a
particularly cold part of the world, but all you needed was
a cloak. All you needed was a shirt and
a cloak and you could keep warm. Peter stood in the courtyard,
in amongst the soldiers and the servant girl, and he warmed his
hands at the fire, so it could get cold. But if you had raiment that was
appropriate, you had food for your belly, you had something
to drink, your life was secure. It perhaps didn't have all the
comforts of a grand house or rich, sumptuous fair, but you
could get by. And that's the picture that the
Lord is giving us here. He's saying, look, this is the
essential elements. And the argument that the Lord
is setting forth here is that The life has been given to you. Your life has been given to you. We didn't make ourselves. We
didn't cause ourselves, bring ourselves
into existence. We did nothing. It's another
example that's given, in fact, about eternal life. We did nothing to bring ourselves
into this world, and we do nothing as far as salvation is concerned. It is entirely, completely a
gift from God. It is a creative work of God
the Holy Spirit. We speak about the quickening
power of God the Holy Ghost, of regeneration. And so it is,
ye have ye quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin, and
our second, our new birth, is just as little to do with us
as our first birth. Life is a gift, life is given,
and none of us bring ourself into existence. Where then does
our existence come from? Someone might say, well, Mother
and her father. Well, where did theirs come from?
Because yours is only somewhere down the line from theirs. Who
gave them theirs? And of course, ultimately, we
have to take this back to God himself. If God gives life, God
is the life. We saw that just last Lord's
Day, that all life comes from Christ. All life comes from Christ. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ
is saying here, take no thought for your life,
what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your
body what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat
and the body more than raiment? Here's what he's saying. He's
saying, look, if God has given you life, That's the big thing. Do you
think he's not going to give you clothing? Do you think he's
not going to give you something to drink? Do you think he's not
going to give you something to wear? The way in which the Lord Jesus
Christ argues is that he often argues from the greater to the
lesser. And what he's doing here is he's
saying, look at what God has done in total. Look at the great
work that he has done with his creative power. Then if he has done this, don't
you think he's going to look after you in this? It's a frequent
method of reasoning in scripture. Let me give you a modern example. Suppose you work for somebody,
and that person requires you as part of your job to travel
round and visit customers. And as part of your job, as it
might appear reasonable, he gives you a car to make that journey,
or he provides you with a truck to make that journey. Well, if
he provides you with a truck, Don't you think he's going to
put gas into the tank? That's arguing from the greater
to the lesser. He has given you a truck. He's put his hand in his pocket
and paid $25,000 to put you on the road. Do you think he's not
going to put the gas into the tank that actually allows you
to make the journeys? And that's what the Lord is saying
here. Now I've used perhaps a flippant example. But if a mother loves
her child, will she not comfort that child when he's sad? An
argument from the greater to the lesser. If God calls you
into his family, don't you think he's going to supply your needs?
an argument from the greater to the lesser. And so the Lord
is so pervasively bringing this argument to our attention. He's
saying, look at what the Lord has done for you. Don't you think
that he's going to provide these lesser things? He's given you
life. Do you think he's going to leave
you without something to wear? Without something to eat? Without
something to drink? Another example of this form
of emphasis or argument is found in Romans 8, verse 32, where
the Apostle Paul is speaking. And he says, He, that is the
Lord God, God the Father, 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? You see the argument? If God
gave His only begotten Son, if God gave His dearly beloved Son
to the cross, to death, for you, what is He going to withhold
that you need? What is He going to be reluctant
to give you that He knows you require? Men can do all that is within
their power, but let us remember that our God is omnipotent. And that word means he's all-powerful. That means that there is nothing
that we need that God won't give us. If he has given us the biggest,
then the Lord says he's going to give you lesser things. Don't
ever imagine that he will withhold from you anything that is good
for you, anything that you need. He will give you all things because
he's given you his best. And if he gives you his best,
he's not going to hold back on the lesser things. And then the Lord gives us a
number of examples to support and to enforce this argument,
this logic that he has set out here before us. And I like the
way in which he does this. He says, behold, and then he
says, consider. He says, look, look at the evidence
here. Consider these things that we have. Behold the fowls of
the air. Consider the lilies of the field. These are beautiful pictures
and it's lovely the way in which the Lord just, as it were, draws
in the practical things from around about them. They were
on a hillside here. He probably was able to point
at the fowls of the air. and the lilies of the field.
They were probably just flying around and growing there in the
fields around him. These are fowls of the air. These
aren't your aviary birds. These are not the birds that
you have in the little cage in the house that you feed seed
to every day. These are the fowls of the air. These birds don't know from morning
to night what is going to happen. They don't know where they're
going to eat, where they're going to find food. We speak of ravens
often in scripture. And ravens are used as a picture
because of the way in which they eat, the kind of things that
they eat. And we have words that we use
nowadays, we talk about being ravenous. Oh man, I'm so hungry,
I'm ravenous. And that's talking about a raven. That means that we want to eat
the way a raven eats. We just want to get in at it.
We just want to get in at it. It's filling our whole thought. It's encompassing everything
that we want to do. Forget about everything else.
I need to eat. I'm starving. And that's what
a raven's like. You see them out in the fields
and they're pecking away. They don't know what they're
going to eat, and so when the opportunity comes, they eat ravenously. Well, these are the birds of
the field that the Lord, or the birds, the fowls of the air that
the Lord is talking about. No one supplies for them. They
have to search out their own food. And yet, the Lord Jesus
Christ says, God supplies for them. He provides for them. They live their lives. We see
young ravens every springtime because those old ones have managed
to get through the winter. You wonder, how do they manage
to survive these cold, barren winters? And yet, come the spring,
there's the young. Just the same, the Lord provides
for them. How about the lilies? Again,
these are lilies that just grow up in the grass, grow up in the
field. But the Lord says Solomon himself wasn't arrayed in the
beauty of these lilies. The fowls don't sow or reap,
but they eat. Now the Lord's not advocating
laziness here, far from it. but he is saying that there is
provision made in the grand dispensations of God's purposes. He looks after
that which he has created. How is that done? Well, the Lord
God himself, he feeds them. If he feeds the ravens, is he
going to leave you? Your heavenly father feeds them. It's a lovely phrase that heavenly
father, our heavenly father, our father, which art in heaven,
our heavenly father, a father that we have in heaven. Some
of us don't have good memories of our fathers. Some people have
very bad memories of their fathers. But we have a heavenly father. And that Heavenly Father cares
for His children. He is the grand example. He is the glorious reality of
what a father should be. The lilies don't weave or spin,
but they are adorned gorgeously. If God clothes the grass, will
He not also After all, says the Lord Jesus, you're better than
these. This grass is just sprouting
in a day, it's cut down and it's thrown in the oven, but you,
you are the people that God sent his son into this world to save
and to deliver and to redeem. Do you think he's going to leave
you for a moment without providing all your needs? Look at verse
27. Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit to his stature? Now that, in the way in which
this is written, gives the impression that we're talking about adding
to our height. A cubit normally was the length
from the tip of the finger to the point of the elbow. That's
a cubit. slightly different measurements
at different times. And anyway, that's what we tend
to regard as being a cubit. And we think here that we're
talking about the length or adding to our length. In fact, Another
translation is possible here, which may be also useful for
us to consider, because elsewhere the words that are used here
apply rather to time than distance. And it's used as to adding age
or days to our life. Now, here's a statement that
I venture that none of us would want to doubt. And certainly it contradicts
most of what passes for wisdom in this world. But you see, what
the Lord is saying here is that it doesn't matter what you do,
You're not going to be able to add one day to your life. It
doesn't matter what you do, you won't add one day to your life. You won't add one hour to your
life. Now there is such a business
going on today, such a business of healthcare and sport and exercise
and getting medicines for our bodies and filling ourselves
with vitamins and not eating this food when eating that food. And we are geared so much in
our way of thinking to extending our lives, living longer. We all want to live longer. Well, with one or two exceptions. But that's what the Lord is saying
here. This is what John Gill interprets as this verse. The
sense of the words is this, that no man, by all the care and thought
he can make use of, is ever able to add one cubit or the least
measure to his days. He cannot lengthen out his life
one year, one month, one day, one hour. No, not for one moment. Just as there are no grounds
for the believer to tolerate anxious thoughts over the cares
of, what am I going to eat? And what am I going to drink?
And what am I going to wear? Because the Lord has promised,
I'll provide all those things for you. I gave you life, am
I not gonna give you these lesser things? Just as the believer
is taught not to be anxious about clothes and food and drink, so
we are being taught that we are not to be anxious about the days
of our lives. You cannot add one more day,
one more moment to that appointed time. It's an appointment that
you're going to keep nor indeed will a moment less
be granted to you. Someone once said that we are
immortal until our work is done. And that's true. There's nothing
can happen to you. Nothing can befall you that is
going to in any way limit the extent of the days of your life. beyond that which God allows. So much in control of the events
of the moments of our day is God that nothing can happen to
us that is outside of his control and his purpose. Now someone might say, I wouldn't
worry about food and I wouldn't worry about drink and I wouldn't
worry about shelter if I had a million dollars in the bank. But you've got a much richer,
a much more extensive wealth in the bank of heaven. You've
got God himself. You don't even have to worry
about bank charges or a bank manager or about whether your
investments are doing well or not. You've got someone who's
looking after all of those things and you don't need to give it
a second thought because God himself is managing everything
in this world for your good. For your good. You who are his
people. And you say, I wouldn't worry
about the day of my death if I knew when it was going to happen. And God says, be assured my child,
be assured it won't occur a moment before it is ordained. And in
that moment at which it is ordained, you will be absolutely delighted
to enter into the presence of your Saviour and into your eternal
rest. It will be all that you want
to do. Romans 14, verse 8 says this,
Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die,
we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or
die, We are the Lords. I want to take a couple of the
phrases of this passage and just think about them for a moment
or two. First one I want to draw your
attention to is there where we see that the Lord speaks to his
disciples in verse 30 and he says to them in the context of
these things that he has been speaking about He says, O ye
of little faith. Now is a little faith better
than no faith? Absolutely. Absolutely it is. A little faith is better than
no faith. But the Lord here is not talking
about the possession of the gift of faith. He is not talking about
the possession of that Life, that eternal life, that faith
brings us into that quickening call that generates faith and
trust and belief in his people. All who have that faith are blessed
indeed. They have been called from death
into life. They have been given the richest
blessing possible for a man or a woman on the face of this globe. To be in possession of faith,
be it great faith or little faith, is a blessed thing indeed. The only true faith is the faith
which God gives to his people. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the gift of God, the Holy Spirit. But rather the faith that is
being spoken of here, when the Lord admonishes his people, when
he speaks to his disciples, he is speaking about the faith of
believers in the exercise of our trust in God. And what he's saying is that
believers ought not to worry. Believers ought not to fret. We should not be anxious because
being so betrays a failure to trust and exercise faith in the
love of God and in his providence for us. Providence just means
those things which are provided. And when we speak about providence,
we're speaking about the circumstances of the days of our lives. And
those things that happen and occur in the days of our lives
are God's providence for us. And I believe what the Lord is
saying to his people here, O ye of little faith, is simply this. Your life would be so much better,
so much richer, so much fuller, if you trusted in my sovereign
love and my providential care for you. And why don't we? It's unbelief. That's just what
it is. It's unbelief. It's unbelief. It's fleshy doubt. It's like Peter when we take
our eyes off the Lord and start to look at the tempest around
about us. And what happens? We begin to
sink. Any of you ever felt that sinking
feeling? Anyone ever been consumed with
that darkness that besets the worrier? Those dark days, those
difficult times when it looks as if you're falling into a hole
and the light's getting smaller and smaller and smaller above
you and you think to yourself, where is this ever going to end? If we trusted in the sovereign
love The love of God towards us, the
love of an omnipotent father, a heavenly father who has given
us life and promises that he's going to take care of all these
little details. Don't fret about the details.
God's got them in hand. He knows exactly what you need. Our anxiety, and our fretting
and our doubt and our unbelief is the usurping of the new creation
by the old man. We talk about this battle that
goes on between the new man created in Christ Jesus and the old man.
Well, our worrying and our anxiety and our doubt is the victory
of the old man over the new. Now, I've got no desire, no desire
at all to beat you up with my words. I don't want to do that
at all. And I speak to my own heart when
I'm talking about this. As I trust I'm speaking to yours
as a friend, as a pastor, as someone who cares for you, as
someone who sees it as my job, as my role, as my responsibility
and duty to comfort you, to comfort you in the midst of your trials
and your troubles and your difficulties. That's my job. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
the source of our every comfort. And it's as we look to him and
as we lay hold upon his promises, as we take him at his word, that
we will be blessed in these things. You know, I was delighted at
the beginning of this week when so much of the trouble that has
taken place in your lives began to unfold. The first thing that
several of you thought about was, pray for me, pray for us. Why did you say that? Why did
you ask for that? Because that prayer is both an
admission that it's all too much for you and a recognition as
to where your real help lies. And it's good when we come together
in prayer and we pray for one another. It's good when we do
that because we are recognising where our help, where our comfort,
where our solace is to be found. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ
knows no bounds. He loves us more than our parents
love us, more than our spouses love us, more than our children
love us, all put together in one big bag. He loves us more
than that. There is no end. It's an infinite
love. It's an eternal love. It's a
love without bounds. It's an unconditional love. His
intimate personal care of his people is limitless. He willingly
gave everything that he had for your soul. Is he not going to
take care of every other need that you've got? And so he draws
near. and he whispers encouragements
into our ear. And he bestows kindnesses every
minute of every day, every day of our life. And we rob ourselves
of countless blessings if we don't allow ourselves to see
these things that he is doing. We become so distracted by the
cares of the world that we fail to see his daily provision for
us and we deny ourselves the comfort of his goodness. Let me tell you why I think that
happens. I think it happens because we
look too far ahead. I think we look too far ahead.
I think that we worry about the what-ifs of life before they've
ever happened. And we spend our days thinking,
what if this happens? And what if that happens? And
what if the next thing happens? And then what if they all happen
together? And we build ourselves up into such a stew that we forget
to see the provisions that the Lord has given us right there
and then. What happens if we get a pain? Do you have a pain now? No? Well
then enjoy the fact that you don't have a pain. This is today. Whatever happens
tomorrow is in the Lord's hands and he will give grace for tomorrow. He will give the grace that you
need. He will give the help that you need. He will provide at
the time that it is needed. He's not going to give you a
pocket full of graces to last you for the next six months.
He'll give you grace for today and that's sufficient. We indulge our fears. We nourish
our doubts. We feed our weaknesses. We say, I'm so weak. And it's true. But we say, I'm
so weak that we forget to remember that the Lord is so strong. Listen
to what the Lord says. Your father, Your father knoweth
ye have need of all these things. See that word in there, father?
That's the same heavenly father that we were talking about before.
That's the same omnipotent God that we were talking about before.
And that tells us something about the way that God works. Whenever
we talk about our father, let us remember the word covenant. covenant. That's the lesson that
we have to remember whenever the scriptures speak about the
God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Right? What's this genealogy thing?
What's this father and son and grandfather thing all going on
here? It's to teach us about covenant. It's to teach us about
the enduring promise of God. that lasts from generation to
generation to generation to generation, right down through the history
of the world. A promise that is unchangeable,
a promise that is sure and certain, a promise that is yea and amen,
because it's a promise given by God to his children. And here, our Heavenly Father,
Your father that loves you. Your father that sent his son
to die for you. Your father that has preserved
you all the days of your life. And will preserve you all the
days into the future. Your father knoweth those things
that you have need of, every single one of them. He knows
about the food that you need for your stomach and for your
nourishment and for your body. He knows about the drink that
you require. He knows about the raiment that
you need. Yet, he knows about it all and
everything else. What does he not know about? He knows whatever we need and
he prepares whatever we need for us. Zacchaeus, he needed
a tree to climb. Zacchaeus needed a tree to climb.
So the Lord planted one and gave it 50 years to grow. Jonah, he needed transport out
of the depths of the sea to the shore. I was going to say Jonah
needed a ride. Jonah, he caused that great fish to
be born all those years before and to be there at that moment
to take his profit into his stomach. The Lord knows what we need.
He knows everything that we need. And he is already, years ago, preparing the things
that he knows we'll need tomorrow, next month, next year. The fact
that you don't know about it doesn't mean that it's not already
prepared, doesn't mean that it's not already in situ, just for
that very moment when you come along with your particular need
of the day, and you bounce off of God's providence,
and you know what? Nine times out of 10, you don't
even notice. You just take it for granted.
You just think, well, of course that tree's there. Or of course
that fish is there. Or of course this set of circumstances
just happens to be provided. But the reality is that God has
been there working everything according to his purpose for
your well-being. Sometime in the creation of the
world, The Lord Jesus Christ made a little stone and that
little stone was picked up by a young lad, put into his sling,
whipped around his head and killed Goliath. But God created that
stone when he created the world and he put it in that brook and
he set an angel to stand guard on it so that it didn't get moved,
so that when David came along that day with his sling and faced
that man, he would bend down and pick it up. Too much? I don't
think so. I don't think so. Because God
had prepared the deliverance of his people. And that's what
it's about. It's us trusting him. It's us
committing that he knows better, that he knows everything, that
he is all powerful and he is taking care of his people. From salvation to surgeons. From forgiveness to food and
fellowship. Your Father knoweth ye have need
of all these things. Look at Matthew 6, verse 33. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things. All what
things? All these things what we've just
been talking about. All these things shall be added
unto you. Seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness. Seek that first before you worry
about anything else, because you surely are going to worry
about it. That's just your flesh. That's just your mind. That's
just the way our humanity leads us. That's just the unbelief
that constantly encroaches upon our hearts and our minds. But
before you worry about anything else, seek first the kingdom
of God. What is the kingdom of God? Well,
it's the gospel. It's the gospel. Seek first the
gospel and in the gospel, seek righteousness. I'm so pleased
that you ladies are here tonight because if you had wanted a reason
not to be here, you had some of the best reasons that anybody
could have had tonight. See all the other people that
aren't here tonight because they've got all the other reasons and
great falls to be doing something else. Not you. Why is that? Because you seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Because that's
what's important. That's where the rubber hits
the road. That's what the true meaning
of trusting and believing really is. In the gospel, we seek our righteousness. Now actually, that was quite
revolutionary for the Lord to say that because all these people
knew that you sought your righteousness in the law. That's where you
get righteousness, okay? In the law. The Lord says, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no. No, you seek your righteousness
in the gospel. You seek your righteousness in
Christ. You look to Christ. And if you look to Christ, you
look for righteousness that comes from God apart from works. You look for righteousness that
comes from Christ. And you know what you will find
when you seek that righteousness in the gospel? You will find
peace. Peace. Peace with God. Peace in your heart. peace in your conscience and
in your mind, peace in the knowledge, not only that your sins are forgiven,
and I say that because that's huge to know that your sins are
forgiven, but to know that you're a child of God, to know that
your Father is caring for you in every single detail of your
life, that's peace. And that's why the Lord speaks
about a peace that passeth understanding, because there are very, very
few people grasp what true peace is. Men foolishly seek righteousness
by their own doing, and they'll go to the law for their standard
and for their direction. But the gospel takes us to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And once we have peace with God,
once we have a knowledge that we are justified by Him, that
we have a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ through
the Holy Spirit indwelling our bodies, we shall see that we've
got everything. We've got everything. Everything
needful. What was it we said before? What
was that verse that we read from Romans chapter 8, verse 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? All things. What limits all things? How broad can we make our definition
of all things? Well, just about as broad as
it could possibly be imaginable. And that's all things. The sense
is this, surely, that once we know that we are God's peculiar
people, once we grasp that we are his prized possession, the
most valuable thing to him. I know some of you have got some
valuable things. Maybe a car or maybe a piece
of gear or a piece of equipment and you keep it in your garage
and you keep it nice and clean and you look after it and you
guard it and you make sure the lock's fixed on the door and
you prize it. It's a prized possession. We
are God's prized possession. Do you think anyone's going to
take us out of his hand? Think anyone's going to do anything
to us that he doesn't want to happen? We are his jewels. Malachi says, when he cometh
to gather up his jewels, we are his precious possession, his
beloved people, his bride. And what perverse logic is it
that will convince us That he will not supply our every need
according to his riches in glory. That he will not freely give
us all things. What perverse logic is it that
does that? I'll tell you what it is. Unbelief. Unbelief. We don't take him at
his word. We don't believe his promises. Francis Crosby wrote, take the
world but give me Jesus. All its joys are but a name. But his love abideth ever through
eternal years the same. Oh, the height and depth of mercy. Oh, the length and breadth of
love. Oh, the fullness of redemption. Pledge of endless life above. Last verse in the chapter. Verse
34. Take therefore no thought for
the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought of the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. Friends, the Lord is not saying
that we are to be careless about the future. But he is saying
that we are not to be anxious and fretful about what the future
holds. By all means, make your plans
for what you're going to do next summer, come the holidays. By
all means, make sure that your business is in order and your
arrangements are made for the things that have to be dealt
with. That's what good stewards do. but let us not be anxious or
fretful. Our God, in perfect, absolute,
total, complete, sovereign control of all things, knows exactly
what we need, and he will provide everything for us. The Lord Jesus
Christ is committed to our protection and to our preservation. In John
10, 27, he says this, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all. and no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. Will there be trouble ahead?
Yes. Yes. Yes, there will. There will be troubles ahead.
Shall we have hurt and hardship? Yes. Yes. Is there a charmed life of problem-free
existence for Christians? Nevertheless, there's no value
in anticipating these problems prematurely. Boast not thyself
of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. You take what God has given you,
he's given you today, and you live for him, and you trust him,
and you serve him today. He knows what'll happen tomorrow,
and he will supply the grace that you need for tomorrow's
problems. 1 Thessalonians 5.10, the apostle
Paul says, Christ died for us, that whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with Him. Lord, help us to trust Thee
more. Help us to rest in Thy sovereign
love. Help us to believe in Thy power
and Thy promises. Help us to commit unto thee all
the days of our life. For, as the psalmist says, surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.