When we get together like this,
we should never leave, I think, without trying to preach a little
bit. That's the main part of our service,
isn't it? I won't keep you, but just for
a few minutes. But I want you to look at the message our Lord
Jesus preached in Matthew chapter 5, 6 and 7. I don't have a particular
text, but I was just thinking about this message itself. It
was the best instructions that I can imagine that's ever been
preached in a message. It's the longest message that
we have recorded in the entire Bible, and it was preached by
the Lord Jesus, and it was His first message as far as we know. But it's a message on how a believer
should live his life. Now, this is amazing that the
Son of God would come down from heaven and tell us how to live. But one thing we have to remember,
this is for the children of God. This is for believers. I don't
say, I would never say this wouldn't be a help to lost people. All
Scripture can be a help to lost people, but this is written to
the children. It's very important to remember
that. Seventeen times in these three chapters, the Lord Jesus
makes mention of your Father. Your Father in heaven. He said,
when you pray, say, Our Father which is in heaven. So that's
the children's prayer, isn't it? That's the way the children
pray. No lost person, no unregenerate person can really come and say,
My Father. To pray, My Father, you have
to have the Spirit of Christ in your heart. God has sent forth
the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Father, Father. So for a prayer to be to the
Father, it has to be from the heart, by the Holy Spirit. The title of what I've got to
say this evening is this, The Miracle of the Christian Life. The Miracle of the Christian
Life. It's a miracle, Craig. It's a standing miracle anthem.
The Miracle of the Christian Life. And I say that for different
reasons. The first one is this. Because
no believer, no child of God is exempt from this message as
a rule of life for them. If you could say, well, it's
optional, you're a Christian and you can take it or leave
it, then there'd be no miracle. But there has been, ever since
the New Testament, a church in this world, a group of people,
that were born of God, and they lived their life according to
this message that the Lord Jesus preached in the Sermon on the
Mount. I'm not saying they lived it out perfectly. Nobody's talking
about perfection, are we? But I'm saying the bent of their
life is after this message our Lord Jesus preached. That's what
makes it a miracle. No matter what age you live in,
there's a group of people that live according to this message
and this rule that the Lord Jesus preached here for believers. A believer lives by the Word
of God. If I said that you could be a
child of God and you could believe anything you wanted to, live
any way you wanted to, and do anything you wanted to, I'd be
lying to you. I'll be lying to you. I want
you to look here at how the Lord Jesus, boy, He makes this so
plain. Look here at what He says in
chapter 7 and verse 16 and verse 17. He sort of draws a line in
the sand here. And this is what I'm saying.
This is the first aspect of the miracle of the Christian life
that everyone who is born of God lives by the rule of this
message. And look what he says in chapter
7. Well, look all the way back in
verse 16. You shall know them by their fruits. 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.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore,
by their fruit ye shall know them." Now look in verse 21,
"...not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
unto the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven." Many will say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? In your name have
cast out devils, and in your name have done many wonderful
works. And then while I profess unto them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Therefore, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, Him will I liken
unto a wise man which build his house upon a rock, and the rain
descended, and the flood came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon
a rock. And every one that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a
foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, and the
rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."
Notice these two people, he says, two people in this world. Those
who know the will of my Father and do it. And he said, those
who have my sayings and keep them, and those who don't. So he sort of draws a line in
the sand here, doesn't he? And He says, here are My people.
Here are believers. Here are children of God. Those
who have My Word and walk accordingly. And they keep it. Now, this is
very important for this reason. And this has always been this
way. And you and I know it. We see it all over the place.
You can belong to some kind of a lodge or some sorority or some
other organization, and you are expected to obey their rules.
If you don't obey their bylaws, you'll probably get kicked out
of their organization. They expect you to obey their
laws. And it's almost that way in everything,
isn't it? If you're a citizen of some country
and you try to overthrow that country or you won't obey that
country's laws, you'll be put in jail. It's that way in almost
every aspect of life until it comes to professing Christianity. And then when you come to professing
Christianity, you're allowed to think anything you want to,
believe anything you want to, do anything you want to, and
you're offended if somebody calls your profession into question.
Now isn't that so? So the Lord Jesus Christ says,
yeah, that's not subtle. I do have laws. I do have rules
laid down in my kingdom. I've laid them down myself. And
here's my children, those that hear my Word. And they obey my
voice. They build their house upon the
rock. Look here how he says it. He
really draws this too in chapter 6 and verse 24. Look back in
chapter 6 and verse 24. Look how he says it here. He
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 wealth,
or God and manna, or God and anything else. Now let's be honest,
you and I can serve more than one person. We've done that. You've got people that work for
two employers all the time. You can work for two or three
or a dozen people. You can serve that many, but
listen, you can't serve but one Master. Just one Master, isn't
it? God is a Master, and we can't
serve anybody else but Him. That's how technical this is.
That's why I'm saying that this is a miracle. No matter what
the world professes, you've got people in this world who love
the Lord, they're born of God, and this is the rule of their
life. And if it's not, they're in trouble.
They're in trouble. To say a man can serve two masters
is like saying there's no difference in darkness and light. It's like
saying there's no difference in truth and a lie. It's like
saying there's no difference in Christ and the devil. There
are some things that will not integrate Two masters is what
happened. See what he's saying? So see
why I'm saying here, the first miracle, it must be a miracle. Because you must have a group
of people in this world of all ages that are walking according
to the rule of this Word. And when you see them, you'll
know them. Because Christ said you'll know them by their fruits.
You'll know them by their fruits. That's the first miracle. Look
over here what he says in chapter 4. concerning these two kings who
served two masters. Look what he says over in chapter
4, in verse 8, this temptation. The devil came to him and took
him up to an exceeding high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms
of the world, all the glory of them, the wealth and beauty of
all of them. And said, all of these things will I give you
if you will fall down and worship me. He wanted to be worshipped.
You know what he wanted? He said, I want to be the master.
Ain't that what he's saying? You worship Me as the Master. You serve Me as the Master. Fall
down and do that. Here's Christ's answer to it.
Then Jesus said unto them, Get thee behind Me, Satan, for it
is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only
shalt thou serve. Why is it Him only? Because you
can't serve anybody else but Him too. He's the Master, isn't
He? He's the Master. That's the first
miracle. You've always got a group of people in this world that
take this message that Christ preaches, the rule of life. They
must. That's the only way to be a Christian. The second one
is this. The second reason I call the
Christian life a miracle. The Christian life is lived from
the heart. It's lived from the heart. Now, why make an issue out of
that? We'll turn back again to chapter 6. Some of us were just
talking about this the other day, about walking in a vain
show. Look here in chapter 6. This
is why we say Christianity is a matter of the heart. Look in
verse 1 and verse 2. Take heed. Here's a warning. Take heed that
you don't fall into fornication. Take heed that you don't commit
adultery. Take heed that you don't get
drunk. Well, those are all good take heeds, aren't they? But
look at this one. Take heed that you do not your
good deeds, your charitable deeds, your alms before men to be seen
of them, otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is
in heaven. Therefore, when you do your alms, do not sound a
trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the
streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward. That's what the Pharisees used
to do. When they give a little bit of money, they used to sound
the trumpet. Why'd they do that? They wanted everybody to see
them. I had a math teacher when I was in high school. I won't
tell you his name, but he's a religious fellow. He went to the local
Methodist church and he'd give some money, take it up front.
They was all coming up front and giving their money. He gave
his money and they didn't recognize him. They didn't call his name. And he got mad and quit. And
they asked him why he quit. He said, they didn't recognize
me. Is that what you wanted? Isn't it easy? You know, we've
all got our trumpets happening. We may not put them up to our
lips and say, look at me, look what I'm giving. But you know
what? We can drop a little word. Well, I gave so and so $100 last
week. Just sort of drop it. Ain't that
a trumpet? We've got our little trumpets
happening. It's easy to do things to be seen of men. It's easy
to do things for a show. It's much more difficult to have
a heart faith, a heart reverence, a heart worship, a heart reverence
for God. It's much more difficult to serve
and worship from the heart than it is to do things outwardly.
Is it not? Look here what else he said.
Look down in verse Verse 5, look at this, "...and
thou, when thou prest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are,
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the
corners of the street, that they may be seen of men. Verily I
say unto you, they have their reward." Now think of what an
awful sin that is. Think of, here I am up here in
the synagogue, And I am going to go to prayer and pray to the
eternal God in heaven. I'm going to mention His name.
And yet I'm doing it just to be seen by you. You talk about
a sin. You talk about a reproach on
heaven. That's one of the most awful sins. To pray just to be
heard of man? And to use God's name that way? And look at what he says in verse
16. Moreover, when you fast, Be not as the hypocrites of a
sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces,
and they may appear to men to fast. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward." What's the proper way to do it? It's
a heart way. It's of the heart. Look here
what the Lord Jesus said in verses 3 and 4. When you do all, Let
not your left hand know what your right hand doeth, that thine
arms may be in secret, and your father which sees in secret shall
reward thee openly." That's the way you should do it. In secret. Don't let anybody know what you're
giving and what you're doing. Look at where to pray. Look in
verse 6. And thou, when thou prayest, enter into the closet.
When you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is
in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secretly shall reward
thee openly in secret heart prayer. And look what he says up down
in verse 17, And thou, when thou fastest,
when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face, that thou
peer not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father, which seeth
in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward
thee openly. See what the Lord Jesus is saying.
The Christian life is lived before God in heaven. Right in His presence,
right in His eyes. So it doesn't matter if you're
here tonight or out on your job. You live a Christian life before
Him who sees all things and knows all things that you're doing.
Listen to how Paul said it. He said, We have renounced the
hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. That's the way the Christian
lives his life. In the sight of God. You know, if all people
see about Christianity is outward forms, this show, they won't
enter into this message that our Master preached. Because,
buddy, he goes right to the heart, doesn't he? Does away with the
show. Does away with the bragging.
Does away with the wanting to pat on the back or hear your
name called out. He goes to the heart of the matter.
The Christian life is lived in the very presence and before
the eyes of Almighty God, our Father. I was coming back from
somewhere, a while back. I was listening to Catholic radio.
Sometimes I like to listen to that. I want to go down in Kentucky
just to see what they're saying. And I thought I would count the
number of times. They were at Mass. They were
having Mass, broadcasting Mass. I thought I would count the number
of times they said, Hail Mary, the Mother of God, pray for us
children. They went on so long, I lost count. I actually lost
count of how many times they said that. Thirty, forty times. Hail Mary, the Mother of God,
pray for us sinners. Hail Mary, the Mother of God,
pray. Why do they do that? Why do they keep repeating, repeating,
and repeating? You know why they do that? They
think by repeating a prayer enough, God is obligated to hear. You
know how I know they think that? Look at what the Lord Jesus said
in chapter 6, in verse 7. And when you pray, use not vain
repetition as they either do, for they think that they shall
be heard for their much speaking." Just vain repetition. A vain
show. That's all in the world it is. Christianity, first and foremost,
is about the heart. Heart faith. Heart love. heart
obedience, heart worship. God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine. that was delivered to you. Servants,
be obedient to your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling,
in singleness, in oneness of your heart, as unto Christ, not
as I service, as men pleasers, but as the servants of God, doing
the will of God, were from the heart." From the heart. That's the only way God can be
worshipped. That's the only way He can be served. That's the
only way we can believe the salvation of our faith, in the heart. Thirdly, we call this a miracle
because of the believer's whole attitude about life, himself,
and others, and the Lord. His whole attitude has changed.
He's got an attitude that's not accorded to this world. Be not
like unto them. How many times does the Lord
Jesus say that? Don't you be like that. His attitude towards others.
Look here in chapter 6 and verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. And He says in verse 14, For
if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also
forgive your trespasses. But if you forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. You know a Christian is different
than other people. He can't hold grudges. He just
can't do it. He can't live a hard, bitter
life against other people. He's a forgiven person, isn't
he? We'll see the next point here
in just a second. Here's what Paul said. If any
man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, So
also do you. Now why in the world is that
a miracle? Because we're so stubborn by nature? We're so selfish by
nature? If somebody hurts me, I don't
want to forgive them. I hope to get what's coming to
them. Is that the way you feel? I hope to see them fall down
the road somewhere. To have a forgiving, gracious,
merciful, loving spirit is contrary to our wretched, miserable, sinful
nature. Because our feet are swift to
shed blood. Look what he said in chapter
5, and look in verse 38 and verse 39. Our attitude towards other
people. Look at this. Chapter 5, look at verse 38.
And ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth. Boy, that's what they did. You
knocked somebody's tooth out and you got yours knocked out.
You blinded somebody, you got blinded. But I say unto you that
you resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee
on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man
sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy
cloak also. Isn't this contrary to nature?
But this is the way a believer's attitude is to be towards other
people. Forgiving, not resisting evil,
being kind to those who persecute you and hate you, and turning
the other cheek. I remember years ago, not too
long after I got acquainted with Donnie Bell, he was a young preacher
and people hated him there in Crossville, Tennessee. They just
hated him. And he was telling me, he was sitting in his living
room, and he was telling me about this guy. He said, I got out of my truck
and walked up to him. He said, I reached to shake his
hand. And he said, I didn't know that he had a huge ear of corn
in his hand. And he said, when I reached out his hand, he hit
me right in the side of the head with that huge ear of corn. And
he said about knocking me out. I said, what did you do? He said,
I turned and walked away. I turned and walked away. What
would we want to do? I hit him back. Why didn't Donny
hit him back? He had been preaching to him
about the grace of God and what Christ was a great Savior to
save you from your sin. If he had turned and lost his
temper and beat that guy up, man, that would have messed up
everything. So the Lord Jesus said, Don't
be like that. Don't be like that. But ain't
that a miracle? To feel that way about somebody
else? And look what He said in verse 44. And I say unto you... Well, look what He said in verse
43. You have heard that it has been said, Love your neighbor,
and hate your enemy. But I say unto you, Love your
enemies. bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully
use and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven. For He makes His Son to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and
the unjust. For if you just love them that
love you, what thanks do you have? The publicans do that.
But if you love your enemy, If you forgive those who have sinned
against you, then you're like your Father in heaven. Ain't
that a miracle? Knowing what we are by nature,
what a miracle that is. And fourthly, it's a miracle
because of what the believer really is now. He's right the
opposite of what the world is. When the Lord saves a man, He
saw the attitude of the world. Look back in chapter 5, how the
Lord Jesus begins this sermon. Look back in chapter 5 and look
in verse 3. Look what He says in verse 3.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
God. Is that what the world says? That isn't what the world says.
What does the world say? Happy are the rich. Ain't it? Happy are the wealthy. You can't
be happy if you're poor, but the Lord says, blessed are the
poor. Verse 4, blessed are those who mourn. The world says, blessed
are those who laugh. Verse 5, blessed are the meek,
the humble, the lowly. The world says, blessed are the
stout-hearted. Verse 6, blessed are the hungry,
the thirsty. The world says, blessed are the
full. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful. who will always give
in. The world says, blessed are those
who take advantage. Verse 8, blessed are the pure
in heart. The world says, happy are the sinful in heart. Blessed
are the peacemakers in verse 9. The world don't say that.
Blessed are those who divide and tell tales and spread rumors. Verse 10 and 11, look what he
said there. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteous mistakes. For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute
you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for
my sake." You're a happy man. That doesn't sound like happiness,
does it? I want everybody to speak well of me, and I don't
want anybody to hurt me. But the Lord said, that's what
a believer is. It's right the opposite of what
we think it is. You find a person like this,
And you can say, Bud, there goes a standing miracle. Find a man like he described
right here, and you see a miracle. That's a miracle of God's grace.
He's nothing like this world anymore. He's nothing like he
used to be. He's a broken, poor man. He's meek. He's lowly. He's
kind. He's loving. He's persecuted. Don't you and I see the brilliance
of Christ's mind in the way that He begins this message? What
an introduction for His message. If the Lord is going to mold
a man and shape a man in His own image and make him gracious
and kind and merciful and forgiven and willing to follow Christ
wherever He leads him, what's the first thing He's going to
do to him? He's going to make him poor. He's going to break
him. When He starts farming him on
that wheel, first thing He's going to do is He's going to
take everything and just lump it up. He's going to have it
His way. If He's going to make you like
Himself, He's going to strip you of everything you trust in. He's going to turn you from the
love of sin, the pleasure of this world. He's going to bring
you to poverty. He's going to make you poor in
spirit. That's the only way He can mold
us. Love your enemy? Ain't no way. Forget it. Oh,
when I'm through with you. Yeah, when I'm through with you.
Forgive those who have sinned against me. Pray for those who
persecute me. I ain't going to do it. You will
when I strip you. When I make you poor, I strip
you of your self-will, your stubbornness, and your rebellion, and I bring
you to poverty in yourself. Then you will. Isn't that brilliant
the way you begin this message? You see, the Lord don't have
anything to work with. until he begins to make something
to work with. He comes to us and he can't work with this old
heart. He can't work with this old nature.
He has to give us a new one, a pliable. I will give them a
heart of flesh, a pliable heart. Now that's what this is right
here. It's what the believer is. That's
a miracle. Why did Paul say, set your affections
on things above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God?
Because that's their treasure. Christ is their treasure. Ask
them what? I'll ask you as a believer, what
do you have that you value? Do you have anything that you
value in your soul, looking at eternity? Do you value your righteousness? You don't have a thing that you've
had. The Lord has stripped you. Everything you come into this
world with, He has just stripped you of it. And He stripped you
of it and made you poor that you may find your treasure outside
of yourself in heaven. Christ is your treasure. Set
your affection upon things above. I ain't going to do it until
He makes me poor here. Paul said, I count all lost. I count it done. for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Do you think he would
have counted his righteousness as done before the Lord made
him poor? No way. He would have killed
you if you had said, your righteousness is nothing but filthy rag. You
would have had a fight on your hands. But when the Lord stripped
him of it and made him poor, he said, Oh, Christ is my righteousness.
Christ is my treasure. Paul, are you going to follow
Christ? Oh yes, where else can I go? He's my treasure. If you're
poor, Christ is all. He's all for you. Fifthly, the
Christian life is a miracle because it's impossible to live it. It's
impossible to live it in your own power and in your own strength. It's utterly impossible to live
it. If you're here tonight and you're
living the Christian life according to this message, you're a miracle. You're a miracle. Because you're
not living this Christian life in your own wisdom and strength
and power. Who could possibly read these
three chapters and conclude, I can do that. I can live like
that. Only a man who don't know himself
and only a man that don't know what's required in this message.
That's the only kind of person. How often have you and I have
realized, Lord, how short we're coming. We're not doing what
You told us to do. My attitude's not right. And
we take it to Him in prayer, and He corrects it. He begins
to correct it. I can't love my enemy. I'm mad
at my enemy. I'm getting this bitterness in
my heart, Lord. I've tried to correct it. I can't. I don't
have the ability, the strength. And what does He do? He gives
me grace to love. I don't know how the Lord does
you on these things, but I can tell you how He does me. When
I go and I can't love like He tells me to love, love my enemies,
I can't do it and I go to Him. You know what He usually shows
me? How He loved me when I was His enemy. And then I said, oh, that's it. You loved me when I was your
enemy. I can love them now then. When I get to a place where I
can't forgive, and you know it's easy to say, I forgive you. Brother,
will you forgive me? Oh, I forgive you. I forgive
you. Then you go home. Boy, that's a sorry thing. Yeah,
I told him I forgave him and I'm going to keep an eye on him.
That's a sorry rascal. I knew what kind of man he was
anyway. But you know what the Lord said? If you forgive not
your neighbor from your heart. And when you can't do it, And
you keep having to go back. Lord, I can't do it. I know I
can't do it because I keep bringing it up. I keep accusing Him in
my mind. I'm getting bitter about it.
You know what He usually shows me? How much He has forgiven
me. There's somebody that committed
one little sin against me. And it just worries me sick.
And I've committed a mountain of sins against Him. I can't
forgive one sin and He forgives all of mine. And when He shows
me that, Lord, I forgive him. I forgive her. I forgive. But you know what? It's Him working
in you. You can't live the Christian
life. I mean, it's God from start to finish living. I can almost
say He lives the Christian life for you. You can almost say that
in a sense. I know you can take that and
you say, Bruce, that's bad theology. But you know, listen to these
two or three verses. being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it. He will perform. What is the
Christian life but God performing? Is that not it? He will perform it. Listen to Philippians 2.13. It
is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good
pleasure. God's doing that in me. Listen to Hebrews 13, 20. The
God of peace that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus,
that Great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect and complete in every good work to
do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His
sight. He is working in you. That's why I've lived the Christian
life. The devil told me for years, you can't live the Christian
life. And boy, he told me the truth. Only truth I ever know
the devil told me. You can't live the Christian
life. And that was the truth. But I've lived it now for over
40 years. How have I done it? By power outside of me working
in me. to will and to do of His good
pleasure. Every virtue we possess and every
victory won and every thought of holiness is His and His alone. I used to read John Foxe's Book
of Martyrs and I was amazed how those guys could be beaten and
whipped and have their limbs torn from their body and pray
for their enemies. Pray for those who were doing
that. Or while they sang, while their body was on fire. And they
were singing in the flames way. How did they do that? And that used to amaze me when
I read Foxe's Book of Marks. But you know what amazes me now?
I have been a Christian for 40 something years. I have been
following the Lord Jesus for over 40 years. following Him by faith. Everywhere
He leads me, there I go. That amazes me now. I'm a standing
miracle, Greg, myself. I'm a miracle of grace. Here's my conclusion. The Lord has removed every barrier
to our living the Christian life. When we live in Him, and we live
through Him, and we live to Him, we have nothing to be anxious
about. That's a miracle in itself, is
it not? What makes us so anxious and
so fearful? Unbelief. Mistrust. mistrusting our Father in heaven,
that He cares for us, and that He rules all things for us. Look
here what He says in chapter 6 again. You're familiar with
this, beginning here in verse 25, but let's read it right quickly
together. Look here what the Master says. Therefore I say
unto you, take no thought for your life. No thought? What ye shall eat, what ye shall
drink, Now yet for your body what you shall put on is not
the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment. Behold
the fowls of the earth, they sow not. Have you ever seen a
bird out here sowing seeds so he'll have a harvest in the fall?
No, and you won't. Neither do they reap. They don't
have barns to gather into. How in the world do they live?
Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than
they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to
His statute? Why take ye thoughtful 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 raided like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which
today is, tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more
clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, no
anxious thought, don't be full of anxiety and fear, saying,
What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal
shall we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your Father knows that you
have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. All these things shall be added
unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow
shall take thought for the thanks of itself. Sufficient to the
day is the evil thereof. Did you notice in verse 33 he
contrasted this? Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God. Why did he say but? Well, he wrote the opposite of
what he had been talking about. What had he been talking about?
Anxiety. When you are full of anxiety and you are full of worry
and fear, are you going to be seeking the Kingdom of God? What
does anxiety do for you? I'll tell you exactly what it
does. It keeps you from worship. You can't have your mind full
of anxiousness about everything going on in your life, and how
you're going to make it, and how you're going to live, and
how you're going to exist, and worship the Lord, and set at
His feet, and enjoy Him too. You can't do it. I've tried it.
I've come here, tried to preach that way. I've come and tried
to listen that way. Remember Martha, when the Lord went to
Martha and Mary's house, and Mary sat at Jesus' feet, hearing
His Word. Remember that? Oh, she was just
soaking up His Word. It was life to her. And it burned
in her heart. And while the Lord was speaking,
Martha came in and interrupted. And said, Lord, speak to my sister. Does she come and help me in
the kitchen? And the Lord said, Martha, Martha,
you're so anxious about so many things. You've just filled your
mind with worry. And you're losing out on so much.
You're losing out on what Mary's getting. You have chosen all
this anxiety, filling your life and heart with all this stuff,
and she has chosen to sit at my feet and hear my words. All your anxiety, you're going
to lose all of this that your answer is about, but she's going
to keep all of this. See what anxiety will get you.
I'll tell you something else anxiety will do. It will rob
us of our peace. Even the peace of God that's
in our heart. How did Paul say in Philippians chapter 4 and
verse 6? Be anxious for nothing, didn't he? Don't be fearful. Don't be so fearful about anything. But in everything by prayer and
supplication, let your request be made known to God. And then
what happens? The peace of God which passeth
all understandings, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus." I wonder what that request was. Let your request
be. I wonder if it wasn't going to
the throne of grace and saying, Lord, would you deliver me from
this anxiety? Would you show me that you care
for me and that's your rule in everything? And I don't have
to worry even about my food? I wonder why the Lord Jesus used
the example of food and clothing. Don't be anxious about that.
I imagine because it's the two of the most basic things that
we have. And why not worry about food
and clothing? Somebody said, well, I've got
a job. One lady said, I've got a job
and I provide my own food. I've got food because I work,
I go to the grocery store, I buy it, I bring it home, fix it,
and I eat it. When the Lord says, don't be anxious about food,
He means more than just that. You can't eat your food without He gives you the means
to get it. And when you get it, you can't
eat it without an appetite. And if you have an appetite and
your digestive system is all messed up, you ain't going to
eat food, are you? My dad had a willpower stronger
than anybody I've ever seen. The last two years of his life,
about the last probably 20 months of his life, the last two years,
he absolutely willed himself to eat. Because he knew he had
to eat. The doctor said, Luther, if you don't eat, you're going
to die. I've seen him eat and throw it up. Eat and throw it
up. And just keep eating until he
kept enough down. I've seen him do that for almost two years. And then he reached the place,
he said, I can't do it no more. I don't have an appetite. My
stomach won't receive it. We can't do the most basic thing
if God don't give us all the means to do it well. I've got
my own clothes. I buy my own clothes. I'd be
careful, boy. I'd be careful. Who's going to
put that hospital gown on you after you've had a stroke? Who's
going to put the last suit on you when your breath left your
body? We can't even clothe ourselves, can we? And our Master is saying here,
don't be anxious about anything. If you can't control the most
basic things in your life, why do you live full of anxiety about
other things? We shouldn't look out into the
future, not even tomorrow, and be filled with anxiety and fear. Anxiety and fear should not be
in the Christian vocabulary. Only hope. Only hope. We got an old dog, came to our
house, most of you's met him, old stink dog, I call him. He's
stinking, this dog, in the summertime, he's awful. But we got attached
to him. Now we let him in the house.
We never did let any dog in the house. Now we let this dumb dog
in the house for two or three minutes. We have to put him out.
But he's scared to death. He's scared to death. If you
go out through the yard and a little short two foot long limb has
fell out of a tree and you reach down to pick it up to put in
the trash, man, he skedaddles. Oh no, he's going to beat me.
So he runs off. You come out of the garage with
a rake to rake the leaves. Oh, he's going to beat me. And
off he goes. Joe said the other day, wouldn't it be awful to
have to live in that kind of fear? Yes, it would. Wouldn't it? Why do we then? Why do we? Why do we live with so much anxiety?
With such a Father that we have who loves us, and cares for us,
and has purchased us with His only begotten Son, and rules
the universe for our good, and wouldn't let anything happen
to us. One man said that he would starve his angels before he would
let his children go. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Oh, tomorrow. Oh, I'm so afraid.
Oh, my goodness, what's going to happen tomorrow? Oh, I'm scared
to death. My God! Do we have a God or not? Walt Beecher said this, he said,
the past belongs to gratitude and regret. The present belongs
to contentment and work. The future belongs to hope and
trust. That's good, isn't it? John Newton
said, life is just like a huge bundle of wood that we could
never carry, but the Lord has unbundled it and gives us one
stick at a time. Today, He gives us our stick
to carry. Tomorrow, He gives us another
stick. The next day, He gives us another
stick. And He says our whole problem
is we want to carry yesterday's stick, and today's stick, and
tomorrow's stick, instead of just carrying the stick that
we could carry, the one that God gives us, day after day. If we're full of anxiety in our
Christian life, We're just not trusting. We're just not trusting. Because the Lord has moved all
of the obstacles that we would have from serving Him in peace
and contentment and with peace of mind. The Lord bless His Word. Well,
I went on too long.