Our lesson this morning is in
Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. Beginning with verse 19. Lay
not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal. For where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also. The light of the body is the
eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
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. 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. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life. what you shall eat, what you
shall drink, nor yet for your body, for what you shall put
on. Is not the life more than meat,
and the body more 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 you not much better than
they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to
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 thee.
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, that is, no anxious 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 you 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 morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In these 16 verses, the Lord
warns us of the danger of these anxious cares and thoughts. Anxious cares and thoughts are
no more than just doubting the sincerity and the love and the
sufficiency of our God to take care of us. I'm talking about
anxious thoughts. We are to take responsible thoughts
for what we're going to eat. We're not going to sit at home
with our arms crossed and say, well, if the Lord wants me to
eat, He'll rain bread down from heaven. No. He wants you to take
wise thoughts and know that God has provided means. But anxious
thoughts, just looking out there way out there somewhere and pacing
the floor and wondering what I'm going to do and all this
kind of nonsense. Those are anxious thoughts. And
these anxious cares, they reveal a divided mind and a divided
heart. Believers are primarily concerned
with three things. And these three things are to
have his undivided attention, and require 100% of his heart
and mind. He wants to be found, first of
all, in God's kingdom. He wants to be found. That's
his main concern. You know, some folks, our Lord
said, in heaven, at judgment, are going to say to him, now
wait a minute. Have not we done many wonderful works in thy name?
Have not we cast out devils in thy name? Have not we preached
in thy name?" Done many wonderful works. And he said, depart from
me, I never knew you. The first thing the believer
wants to know is if he's in the kingdom of God. That's his primary
concern, is to be in the kingdom of God. To be found in Him. Ain't
that what Paul cried? Oh, that I might be found in
Him. And then secondly, to be found
in him not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us through faith. I want to be found having his
righteousness, not mine. I don't want to stand there in
my own righteousness. That's what happened to those
folks he said, I never knew you. Depart from me, he said, ye workers
of iniquity. Now, these folks thought they
was religious. They thought they knew God. because
they were preaching, and they were doing wonderful works, and
they were visiting hospitals, and whatever else they were doing,
and they said they were doing it in His name. But they didn't
know Him, and they didn't stand before Him in the righteousness
of Christ. And then the third thing that
should occupy our minds is to be accepted and approved in Him,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. Everything else in this world
is just a means to that end for the believer. He knows this is
not his home. He knows that. That's why Abraham
never did build a house. He lived in tents. That's why
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all those, they were pilgrims. They
confessed that they were pilgrims in this world, and they sought
for a city whose builder and maker was God. Brother Henry Mahan made five
statements years and years ago concerning anxious thoughts that
I believe are worthy of our attention. So I'm going to give them to
you very briefly. He said, we have, first of all, entirely,
entirely too many fears for a people to whom the Lord said, fear not. Now, I'm going to tell you, if
I tell you not to fear, you can have some doubts. But if the
Lord God tells us, fear not, we ought to fear not. We ought
to fear not. Who knows what's out there beside
him? Do you know what's out there?
I don't know what's coming today. I have trust him for today. And
that's what he tells them later on here. Tomorrow take care of
itself. You've got enough to worry about
today. Let's quit worrying about tomorrow. You got sufficient
evil for the day to keep you occupied, and I'll give you sufficient
grace. But who knows better and could
more wisely tell you to fear not? If I say fear not, it's
just more or less a guess or a speculation on my part. But
if God tells you to fear not, what that means is He's already
made provision for whatever's out there, and you can fear not. He said we've got entirely too
many fears for a people to whom God said, fear not. Why can't
we believe God? You ever notice that's the hardest
thing you have to do in this world is believe God. That's so hard, isn't it? Some
idiot meet us out on the street and say you won $10,000 and we'd
run down to the bank and see if the check was there. Wouldn't
even question. But God tells us something and
we struggle over it and fight with it. And that's just a commentary
on how sinful we really are. God runs the show. He's at the
helm. He arranges providence. He's
the giver of all grace and salvation is of the Lord. Is there any
reason to be found in all the history of the saints some evidence
to prove God unfaithful? Examine the lives. He's been
careful to preserve the lives of hundreds and hundreds of his
saints in this book. Have you ever found one reason
in any of the history that God's written of his saints to suspect
God to be unfaithful in anything he ever said? God's faithful. He used to be believed. David,
the man after God's own heart, he believed God and it quieted
all his fears. All his fears. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. Listen to a perfect
heart sing. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Why? For thou art with me. And thy
rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Huh? That's what a A believing
heart sings. And then secondly, Brother Mahan
said this, we've got too many doubts and fears concerning God's
mercy, His love and grace for a people to whom He said, He
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. But don't we
walk around in a constant fear of being cast out? We cast ourselves
out, don't we? That's exactly right. We X out
our name all the time. He couldn't be talking to me. Can a believer really do what
I do? The Lord said, I'm not going to leave you and I'm not
going to forsake you. I'll never leave you. He said, I give unto them eternal
life and they'll never perish. They'll never perish. Reasoning from this same foundational
truth, the Apostle Paul makes four bold statements in Romans
chapter 8 concerning the final end of all those that believe.
And listen as I go through these, because he speaks of these things
as already done. Even though they lie out there,
they weren't done. But they are done in the purpose
of God. He said, if God be for us, who
can be against us? Who can be against us? I wonder
if you and I truly believe that the one true and living God has
taken up our cause. That's hard to get a hold of,
isn't it? God Almighty, the creator of the universe. He that sits
at the helm and runs providence and creation and salvation, all
of these things. He who has purposed eternity,
John, has taken up your cause, if you believe. Do we really
believe that? He's for us in His everlasting
purpose of grace. He's for us in the incarnation
and work of His Son. He's for us in His intercession
and glory, and is for us in the final judgment and restitution
of all things. And then secondly, Paul says
this, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Who's going to charge you? There's only one in eternity
with the right to charge anybody of anything, and that's God.
That's God. I might bring a thousand charges
a day against myself, And Satan and Antichrist's religion, sure
enough, will charge you. He's called the accuser of the
brethren. They run all kind of charges on you. Yet God himself
refuses to hear the charges, having cleared us of all charges
through our substitute and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's God
who justifies, ain't that what he said? Now who's going to condemn
you? Is there someone higher than God? Is there some counsel
that can twist God's arm and condemn us? Who's going to condemn
you if God has justified you? And we're even now, Paul said,
presented in Christ, holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. And thirdly, he said, who is
He that condemneth? Only God can condemn. He alone
is just. He alone is judge. But it's God
who justifies. And then, fourthly, he asked
this question. He said, who shall separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Who's
going to separate us? Today, tomorrow, things present,
things to come, life nor death nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Let me give you three things
here to kind of help you a little bit. God's love should never
be questioned because of something we said, because of something
we thought, or because of something we did, because His love is free
and unconditional. God loved you before you were
born, if you're His. Huh? Isn't that right? Isn't that what the Scripture
teaches? You know how God commendeth His love toward us? While we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's how God... So,
suddenly we begin to discover what we are, we begin to discover
what sinners we are, and we won't question the love of God. Well,
that's how God manifested His love. While you were yet sinners,
He commended His love in that way. And His election, was altogether an election of
grace. Ain't that what Paul taught?
There remaineth even today, he said, a remnant according to
the election of grace. And if by grace, then it's no
more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. Has not God chosen the foolish
things of the world? Ain't that what Paul said? The
base things? The weak things? We can't question God over those
things because that That's his purpose, to show his glory, and
he did those things and chose those things just that way so
that no flesh would glory in his presence. And Paul said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am teased. God's love is free
and unconditional. And then secondly, sin should
never make us doubt His grace because grace is not affected
by sin. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Sin's not going to triumph over
grace. Grace reigns. People wonder,
well, you mean you all don't preach laws over there? You don't
threaten those folk? Well, no. No, grace reigns. Where grace reigns, it reigns,
don't it? What's that mean? That means
it sits on the throne. It's more powerful than anything
else around. Grace. And then thirdly, we ought
not ever to doubt His mercy because we don't deserve it. That's what
we say, well, I just don't deserve His mercy. Brethren, that's what
mercy is, isn't it? Nobody deserves mercy. That's
what makes it mercy. Mercy is for the undeserving.
In fact, the one thing that would disqualify you from mercy is
believing that you do deserve it. That's the one thing that
will disqualify you from it. We've got too many doubts and
fears concerning God's love and mercy and grace. All right, here's
the third thing. We spend entirely too much time
grumbling and complaining about trials and troubles for a people
to whom The Lord said, in this world you shall have tribulation. He tells us what we're going
to have in this world. We ain't going to have a good
time. You're going to have tribulation. That's what you're going to have.
And then tribulation comes. Oh, no! Huh? Did we not hear Him when He said
it? Why are we so shocked by it when it comes? Huh? He said, you shall have tribulation
in this world. And that word is trouble. But
he said, be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. I've overcome
the world. And it's ignorance and unbelief
that leaves us shocked when some trouble comes into our lives.
God actually allows these troubles and has purposed these troubles
to attend our way as a refiner of the aura of his grace, just
as the old silversmith or goldsmith would take that precious ore,
but it was mixed with other dross and other things, and he'd put
that thing through the fire. Not to hurt the gold, but to
get rid of the dross, to expose the dross for what it was, and
purify that gold. And so God does that. He proves
us in the fire. He tells us over in the Corinthians,
He said, what's built on the foundation of Christ is going
to pass through the fire. You build hay, wood, and stubble,
He's going to burn it up. He's going to burn it up. Listen to this. Let me read this
verse of Scripture here in 1 Peter chapter 4 concerning these thoughts,
these anxious thoughts. 1 Peter 4 verse 12. Now listen
to this apostle. He wouldn't have said this if
he hadn't already been approached with this. Somebody come to him
with these anxious thoughts and cares. And listen to what he
said. He said, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some
strange thing happened to you. Why do we count that such a strange
thing like it couldn't have? But you talk to believers all
over the country. I don't care what church you
go to. I've talked to thousands of them. And here's what they
tell me. They all have trials and troubles. Every one I've
ever talked to. I couldn't tell you how many
have called me since Kathy and I had to pass through this trial
that we're going through and called me and told me about trials
and things that they went through. As believers, we're told to expect
these things. And also, we're told that they're
for our good and that on the other side of these trials comes
patience. And not only comes patience,
but through that deliverance that God gives you from this
trial, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost. Isn't that what it says in Romans chapter 5 in those
first three verses? All right, and then fourthly,
We have entirely too much attachment to this world and to this present
life for a people who are looking for a city whose builder and
maker is God. We got too much attraction to
this life, too much connection to it. Everything we do seems
to be bound by those things. We put too much store in these
bodies that are doomed to return to the dust. That's the first
thing God told Adam. You're going back to the dust,
back to the dust. And we put too much in store,
just too much store in it. And we put too much emphasis
on the things we have in this world, knowing how temporal and
how carnal those things really are. We put too much value on
them. You know what the Lord calls
covetousness? Idolatry. Idolatry. He tells us, godliness with contentment. That's a great game. That's a
great day. And Abraham, the father of faith,
he didn't seek to build anything permanent in this world, Isaac
and Jacob, but they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And
I would tell you this, beware of dissatisfaction of spirit
and attitude that always lusts for more. Be cautious of that. Love not the world, he said,
neither the things of the world. What could be clearer than that?
That's pretty clear, isn't it? Folks are always telling me,
well, that's your opinion. No, that's pretty clear there.
I don't think you can label that an opinion. I think that's pretty
clear. Love not the world, love not the things of the world. And the only way, I want you
to hear me, the only way that you can avoid or be delivered
from these carnal fears and doubts and foolish affections that we
have for this world is to find something better. Something better. I've told you often that story
about that little two or three year old that was down there
in that seafood restaurant down there in Ball, Louisiana years
ago and had these little buttered ears of corn with the little
sticks in them and boy he was wearing that thing out. He done
ate all the corn off of it and everybody else was done eating
and he still had that little stick in his hand with that cob
of corn because it had that that butter in it, that spicy butter,
and he was still, and they wanted to get his coat on, and he had
corn from head to toe. He was covered with it. And they
was trying to get him to give them that ear of corn so they
could wipe his hands off and get his coat on, and he wasn't
going to give up that ear of corn. He just wasn't going to
do it. And when they started to reach for it, he'd just squall
and everybody was looking, you know, and then so they'd stop
and they'd try something else, and they kept going and doing
different things. Finally, the owner of the restaurant came
over and he said, I think I can help you if you don't mind. And
they said, well, we tried everything. He pulled out a Hershey bar.
And when he did, that boy, that little kid just dropped that
here. Come on, reach for that Hershey bar. That's what I'm
trying to tell you. That's the only way that you
can lose those doubts and fears is to see something better, something
better. And Christ is something better.
You see Him? All of a sudden, this world begins
to lose its luster. Just begins to lose its luster. Christ alone is better. And then,
fifthly, he said, we've got too much anxiety and care for daily
material things for a people who ought to know that your Heavenly
Father, this is what he tells us, your Heavenly Father already
knows what you have need of before you ask. Huh? He wants you to ask, but he already
knows what you... When you was little and you come
up to your parents and you want something, they already knew
what you wanted. They'd let you come and ask,
but they already knew what you wanted. Usually had it already
prepared. And I believe it's nothing less
than unbelief and ignorance toward God that makes us unbelieving
and doubtful of God's willingness and God's power to give us all
that we'll ever need. He's not going to hold back anything.
Paul, in fact, used this argument over in Romans chapter 8. He
said, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us
all things? If he didn't spare his son, what's
he going to spare? Huh? If God will not spare you
whatever it is He gives you, it's absolutely necessary for
you to have it, whatever it is. But other than that, God's not
going to spare you anything. He's not going to let you...
Would you let one of your kids go hungry? Huh? Just sit back there and watch.
I'm sovereign and I can hold it back about no. There's affection
involved in this thing, not just cold, hard sovereignty. God loves
his children. He's not going to keep back one
thing that you need. That you need. Paul said to the
Philippians, listen how these believing souls, these old apostles,
listen how they talk. He said, my God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. There's not a maybe in that sentence,
is there? My God shall, he said, supply
all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Worldliness. We talk about worldliness. What is worldliness? It's the
love of this world. It's affection for this world.
Worldliness is the walk of ungodly men and women in their everyday
affairs. That's what it is. We want to
find these radical examples and we want to find these radical
groups. When we're talking about these things, we're not talking
about that. When Paul describes these things over there early
in Ephesians chapter 2, he's just talking about everyday affairs
of men as they live in this world. Walking according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children. He's not talking
about these radical religious nuts. He's talking about everyday
people, how they live their lives before God. Everything they do, their relationships,
jobs, marriage, business dealings, geographic location, religion,
everything they do is based on what this world thinks. We want
to reason with worldly theology. And Paul warns us about that
over in Corinthians. He tells us not to do that. Not
to do that. He said, don't you leave this
basis of Christ. Don't you leave this thing of
great. You stay right there because you're complete here. In Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. You're complete
here. And He tells us here, he that findeth his life will lose
it, and he that loseth his life for my sake will find it. And all that we count dear must
be committed into the hands of Him who loved us. He alone is
wise enough and good enough and faithful enough to vest our hearts
and souls. Vest them in Him. Don't vest
them in yourself. Don't vest him in these anxious
thoughts and cares and preparations. Brethren, I'm not trying to tell
you not to have a bank account. I'm just trying to tell you don't
go out here and build 10 barns so you can be set for the rest
of your life. It's foolishness. He may take
you home tomorrow and somebody else will get your barns. That's
right. You want to find out about them
things, go over there in the book of Proverbs. Solomon will
tell you what a heartbreak it is to work a lifetime and leave
something to kids that's going to squander it. He'll tell you
what that is. And there's no surer evidence
of an unconverted state than to have the things of this world
uppermost in our thoughts and ambitions and affections. He
tells us in Matthew 6.33, seek ye first. We're talking about that manna
Wednesday night. You know when you got that manna,
you got it first. First thing. You had to go out
there just as the dew lifted from the ground and get it. If
you went out at 10 o'clock, the sun melted it. If you got your
cousin to gather up too much and you're going to get someone
that got home and had worms in it and it stunk. You want manna,
you got to go out there and get it first. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. And all these other things will
be added to you. God will give them to you. He'll
give them to you. Now, he said, take therefore. Based on that, based on God's
promise, God's eternal purpose of grace, based on those things,
take no thought for tomorrow. For tomorrow shall take thought
for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. Listen to this old hymn. He said,
O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you
see. There's light for a look at the Savior, and life more
abundant and free. Through death unto life everlasting,
he passed, and we follow him there. Over us sin hath no more
dominion, for more than conquerors we are. His words shall not fail
you, which he promised. Believe him, and all will be
well. Then go to the world that is
dying, his perfect salvation to tell." And here's how the
course goes. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. look full in His wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light
of His glory and grace.