with me today to Matthew Chapter
6. In this part of our Lord's Sermon,
which is known as the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus
takes up the subject of worry. worry? And I'm going to begin
my message this morning with two questions. First of all,
do Christians worry? The answer is yes. And the second
question is, should Christians worry? And the answer is no. Do Christians worry? Yes. Should Christians worry? No. The Lord Jesus Christ knows what's
in the heart of all men and especially in the heart of his children.
And he found it necessary to sound this warning in this sermon. Stop worrying. Stop worrying. Now we all know that over time
words change, the meaning of words rather, change. And I'm
told that the three times in these verses where the Lord Jesus
Christ said, take no thought. You notice that in verse 25,
therefore I say unto you, take no thought. And verse 31, therefore
take no thought. And again in verse 34, Take,
therefore, no thought. In today's vernacular, this would
be stop worrying. I say unto you, stop worrying. As I said, words change their
meaning. And these words, as we have them
in our King James translation, take no thought, have been used
to for some believers to teach that we should not make any provision,
that the Bible teaches us, that Christ taught us, that Christians,
believers, should not make any lawful provision for the future. But that's not what our Lord
is saying. And we know that the scriptures
do not contradict In other words, what our Lord is teaching here
is not contradicting what is taught in other parts of the
Word of God. What is taught in other parts
of the Word of God, our Lord is not contradicting here. And
so it is wrong to take these words, take no thought, and just
say, well, tomorrow will take care of itself. Make no plans,
make no provisions for the future. Let me point us back to Proverbs
chapter six, if you will. Proverbs chapter six. And in these verses that we are
going to read, the Lord sends us to the ant. We all know what
an ant is, don't we? We see them, and we see them
working most of the time. When we see ants, we see them
busy, don't we? We see a line of them. Well,
God here sends men and women like you and I, believers as
well as non-believers, go to the ant, thou sluggard. Consider
her ways and be wise. which having no guide, overseer,
or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth
her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy
sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall
thy poverty come as one that prevaileth, and thou won't as
an armed Now obviously, from this parable here of the ants,
there are many lessons that we should learn. But primarily,
provision, making provision for the future. The ants know in
the summertime when they can gather food and store it up,
that there's going to come a time when it'll be too cold or it'll
be too wet, Something's going to change and we'll not be able
to go out and gather our food as we can today. So it is best
for us to store it up. And the Lord teaches us the same
thing in other places of scripture. Now he speaks of the sluggard
here, the person who just says, well, God's going to take care
of me. I don't need to work. I don't
need to be concerned about tomorrow. He's going to take care of me.
And yet the Apostle Paul wrote to the church of the Thessalonians,
and he said, if a man won't work, he shouldn't eat. In other words,
God has ordained. After Adam fell, after Adam sinned,
one of the things that sin brought upon man is the need to earn
his food by the sweat of his brow, to work, to labor. Honest labor is to be commended. I was reading recently and I
promised myself I wouldn't do this anymore, but here I go. But of the Protestant work ethic,
do you know how that came into being? It came into being by
the Protestant Reformation. If there had never been a Reformation,
beginning, as most people believe, with Martin Luther, but not only
him, then this idea of the Protestant work ethic would have never been
put into practice. Our country was based on that,
the United States of America, and it's better for it. And as
more and more we lose the truth from the word of God, we see
these things that are residual blessings that come from the
gospel going away and disappearing from our country. Now the scripture,
when our Lord said take no thought, he's not saying that men and
women should not make some plans, some provisions for the future,
for retirement. have a family and something were
to happen to you, your wife and children, you're going to leave
behind. You want to make sure that as best you can. He's not
teaching against that. We know that. In fact, in second
Corinthians, the apostle Paul pointed this out, that father's
parents should lay up for the children. In other words, parents
should provide for their children. Not vice versa, not the other
way around. So this word, take no thought. As I said, it would be better
for us to understand it as stop worrying. That's what our Lord
is saying to his children, stop worrying. Now most of the newer
translations of this word have the word anxious, anxious. It is anxious care, anxious care,
worrying about the future. That should not be true of God's
children. It just shouldn't be true of
God's children. The Apostle Paul writing to believers
in Philippi said, in nothing be anxious. In nothing. That pretty well includes everything,
doesn't it? In nothing be anxious. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God. Now this morning, I want to give
us a very simple four-point outline of these verses, and then I'll
come back and speak from the passage on the natural outlines
that we see in these verses. First, a very simple outline. You may want to mark this down
or write this down. Worrying is needless. It's needless. That's what we
see in verse 25. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought, stop worrying for your life, what you shall eat
or what you shall drink, or yet for your body what you shall
put on, is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment? In other words, the argument
is from the greater to the lesser. If God gives us life, he's going
to take care of the body, he's going to feed us, he's going
to clothe us, he gives us our life. Worrying is needless. And second, worrying is senseless. Senseless. In verse 26, we see
how that God provides for the birds. He provides, we're in
his senseless. He provides for the birds. They're much inferior creatures
to men, to his children. Won't he feed his children if
he feeds the birds? And he does. He does. And then third, worrying is useless. It's useless. We see that in
verse 27, when he says that you cannot, by your anxiety, by your
worrying, add one cubit to your stature. Now, many believe, and
I'm inclined to agree with this, that this is better understood
not of one cubit, that's 18 inches. If I added 18 inches to my height,
I could play basketball, I guess. Right? I remember we had a dear
lady in our church who's since gone to be with the Lord. She
was very small in stature. And I preached from this passage
one time, and she said, well, after the message, she said,
I'd like to add one cubit, 18 inches. But most people would
be way too tall. So the commentators, many of
them believe it's not adding length to our statue, but life,
time to our life, to our age. And in fact, I believe there's
one translation, maybe the ESV, that says, with all your anxiety
and all your worry, you cannot add one hour to your life. And we know that's true. We know
that so. The Word of God clearly teaches
us that our times are in His hands. When we come into this
world, the time that they put on your birth certificate, 12,
15 a.m., that was marked on God's calendar from before the foundation
of the world. And the time they're going to
put on your death certificate, 345 p.m., that too. is marked on God's calendar.
In the book of Job, in Job chapter 14 and verse 5, we read, man's
days are determined. Who determined the length of
our life? God did. He did. God has appointed his bounds. That verse goes on to say, God
has appointed his bounds. that he cannot pass over. If
God has appointed for me to leave this world today at 12 p.m.,
I'm not going to be here at 12.01 p.m. And you may know the same
thing. So, worrying is useless. You can't add a day, you can't
add an inch to your statue. It's useless. And fourth, Worrying
is faithless, faithless. If you look down in verse 30,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, O you of little faith. Now, he didn't
say, O you of no faith. All of God's children have faith.
Faith is a gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And it is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. When God quickens a person,
when God calls a person, translates a person from the kingdom of
darkness into the kingdom of his dear son, he gives us life,
and that life is like our breath. It is manifested with faith. We believe. So the Lord didn't
say to these people here, oh, you have no faith. All of God's
children have faith in Christ. There is no salvation without
faith in Christ because we don't believe in our faith. Let me
make that clear. We don't have faith in our faith.
We have faith in Christ. Christ is the Savior. Christ
is the object of our faith. and being united to him by faith,
we have everlasting life. Oh, you of little faith. And
how many times do we pray, Lord, I do believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. Only two people in the Gospels
did the Lord ever commend for having great faith, but his disciples,
he cautioned, as men of little faith. And sad to say, that's
true of most of us. Now, I want us to look at these
verses, and I want to take what I call the natural outline that
is given to us using the word therefore. Therefore. I'm sure most everyone here has
heard the old saying, and it's still true, When you're reading
the Word of God and you come upon a word, therefore, then
don't go any further, don't read any further, until you see why
it is therefore. Why it is therefore. Keep in
mind that the word therefore actually means for this reason. For this reason. Or because of
this. And we have three therefores
in this passage of Scripture. If you look in verse 25, therefore. Verse 31, again, therefore. And in verse 34, take therefore
no thought. Now, let's consider these three
therefores. The first therefore, in verse
25 is an answer. It's an answer. It's a conclusion
to what the Lord Jesus Christ said in verse 24 at the end there. You cannot serve God and mammon. He didn't say it's hard. He didn't
say it's really difficult. No. The Lord Jesus Christ, God
in flesh, he said to all men, you cannot serve God and man. You just can't do it. It's an
impossibility. You either love the one and hate
the other, cling to the one and despise the other. So you cannot
serve God and money. The love of money, you know,
many times people say, well, you know, the Bible says that
money is the root of all evil. No, the Bible doesn't say that.
Never said that, did it? What does it say? It says the
love of money. The love of money is the root
of all evil. In other words, covetousness,
which is idolatry. The apostle Paul tells us. Even so, we must recognize that
we cannot serve God and worry. Now what do I mean by that? You said at the beginning, preacher,
that Christians do worry, yes. Now I'm saying that we cannot
serve God as we should and worry. Why? Because we do not give God
the glory that he deserves. When we worry, We do not give
God the glory. How do we glorify God if we question
His providence? Divine providence, right? We
believe in divine providence, that God Almighty works all things
after the counsel of His own will. I love to think about providence,
don't you? I think about providence in so
many different ways. Sometimes just stop and think,
how did you meet your wife? I think about my wife and I,
how we came to know each other, love each other, and be married. And how God has given us four
wonderful children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I mean,
God's providence. And I know you feel the same
way. There's areas in which you think, How did I come here this
morning? How is it that I'm in this building
this morning and not down the road somewhere where they're
teaching men how to be rich and healthful and all of those things,
but never, ever talk about how a man can be right with God? How a man may have his sins forgiven? how man might have eternal life.
How is it that God has brought me here? God brought you here.
God brought you here. And I love the story that I've
read years ago by Charles Spurgeon of three men outside a church
building there in England on a Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening.
People were meeting on the inside. And these three young men, probably
in their 20s, just goofing off and playing soccer or something
like that. One of them said, I wonder what
time it is. I don't know. None of them had
a watch. They sure didn't have a mobile phone like you folks
have. Well, there's a clock in that
building there, just like we have. Run in there
and see what time it is. And nobody wanted to go. None
of these three men wanted to go inside because they knew inside
the people were worshiping God. The preacher was preaching the
word of God. And finally, they, I guess, intimidated
one of their fellows enough that he ran inside. But the thing
is, he didn't come back out. Don't you love that? He didn't
come back out. And so they talked another one
in, go ahead and see why he didn't come out. Well, he went in, he
doesn't come out. And lastly, the third man, he
runs in. And out of that, God used that,
the preaching of the gospel, bringing them into that place,
eventually hearing the gospel, and God saved them. It seems
so commonplace. Nothing is commonplace with God.
There's not an insect crawling in this world that is not exactly
where God determined that insect be right now. What a God we serve. You cannot worry and glorify
God as your Father, just like you cannot serve God in mammon. You just can't do that. There's an old saying, and it's
true, if you're worrying, you're not trusting. And if you're trusting,
you're not worrying. We shouldn't excuse our worrying.
Oh, well, I was just born. I'm a worrier. I've always been
a worrier. That's my constitution. I just
worry. Well, wouldn't that be like saying
I'm a liar? I've always lied. Don't talk
to me about I shouldn't lie? I've just always lied. No. Maybe it's true. You've always lied. But by the
grace of God and the power of God, the Holy Spirit, you may
learn to speak the truth in love. And the same thing about worrying. Stop your worrying. Confess worrying as a sin. and
trust God and His grace to deliver us from it. Think of your children. There's
young couples here today, and you have small children in your
homes. Your children have never one
time ever doubted that they would be fed. I know they haven't. It's never crossed their minds. And it shouldn't. It shouldn't. How much more our Heavenly Father,
if we being evil know how to give good gifts unto our children,
how much more our Heavenly Father gives good things to them that
ask Him. Second, the next, therefore,
is in verse 31. And this, therefore, concerns
knowledge. Every believer, every child of
God should know. This is not up for debate. It's not up for questioning.
Every child of God should know that God is both able, and everyone
will say that, oh, I know he's able, but I didn't stop there,
that he's both able and willing to meet the needs of his children. Look at how he cares for the
birds. I think in one place our Lord said, two birds are sold
for one farthing. And that must have been the least
amount of money in their money they used at that time. Maybe
like a penny. Not worth much. Birds not worth
much. Two birds are not worth much.
Your father feeds them. He's gonna feed you. I want you
to look back to Psalm 104 with me. What a beautiful passage
of scripture we're going to read here in Psalm 104. We'll begin our reading in verse
24. Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works. Many, different, how manifold
are thy works. In wisdom hast thou made them
all. The earth is full of thy riches.
So is the great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable,
both small and great beasts. There go the ships. There's that
Leviathan. Maybe a whale. There's that whale
out there playing in the Mediterranean. Whom thou hast made to play therein.
These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat
in due season. That thou givest them they gather. Now notice this, thou openest
thine hand. Think about God's hand. God's
hand. He opens His hand and feeds all
of His creatures in the sea, in the wild, wherever. He opens
His hand. He feeds us. If He closed His
hand, withheld the sunshine, the rain, it wouldn't be long. We wouldn't have anything to
eat. He opens His hand. They were filled with good. Now
hide us thy face. They're trouble. They die. There's that cycle in life, isn't
it? We're born. We're here for a few days. We're
like the grass. Today is the march cast into
the oven. Now hide us thy face. They're
trouble. Now take us away their breath. They die. and return
to their dust. God created man, his body, from
the dust, doesn't it? And we know there's coming a
day, if the Lord doesn't come in our lifetime, that this body,
this tent, this tabernacle in which you live today, in which
I live, it's going to go back to the dust. That's all it is,
just dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit,
they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth. Don't
we love springtime? When the birds are singing, the
flowers are blooming, the grass is green, God renews the earth,
doesn't he? Every year. For all of these
centuries, God has taken care of his earth, his world. And I know we hear about endangered
species, and I'm thankful that there are people who are concerned
and who want to take care of these species that could be wiped
out because of man's sinfulness, really. Because of man's covetousness. You see those big old elephants
and those tusks, and here comes a man along that will kill that
animal just to get those tusks. Speaks to the evil of man, doesn't
it? We're for this earth being preserved,
but without God, it wouldn't be preserved. This is God's earth. It's his world. He takes care
of it. The glory of the Lord shall endure
forever. The Lord shall rejoice in his
works. He looketh on the earth and it
trembleth. Those earthquakes, God looks
on the earth and it trembles. Brother Lance Heller was telling
us Wednesday night about being in an earthquake in New Guinea.
And as he explained that and pictured that to us, I can, my,
that would be very scary, wouldn't it? You see the earth moving. The earth trembles. He touches
the hills and they smoke. Oh, I love this. I will sing
unto the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God
while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be
sweet. I will be glad in the Lord. Let the sinners be consumed out
of the earth and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord,
O my soul. Praise ye the Lord. The apostle Peter said, casting
all your care upon him for he careth for you. Literally that
is, for he is mindful of you. Casting all your care. And that's
not like just throwing a ball. No, that's a definite act of
the will. Casting all your care upon him
for he is mindful of you. Don't you love how God fed Elijah? his prophet running for his life. God sent him to the brook Cherith.
And God told him, I've commanded the ravens to feed you. Now,
ravens are birds that eat meat. They eat meat. And God told Elijah,
the ravens are going to bring you meat and bread every morning. And they're going to bring you
meat and bread every evening. You say, well, did they? Of course
they did. Of course they did. God said
they would. God said, I have commanded them. And when the brook dried up,
God said, now I want you to go over to Zarephath. I've commanded a woman over there,
a widow woman, to take care of you. And I've told you this before,
but if it had been me, I would have thought, my, my, that's
Mrs. Rockefeller over there, I'm going
to say. That's Mrs. Gates over there,
I'm going to say. I'm going to be provided for
by this wealthy widow woman, and it gets there, and she has
enough food for one day only for herself and her son. Is that the woman? Is that the
one God has ordained, commanded to meet my needs? Absolutely. And Elijah said, you make me
a cake first. And all the days that there was
no rain upon the earth, that barrel of meal and that crucible,
it never ran dry. Here's the last, therefore, in
verse 34. Therefore, Matthew 6 in verse 34. Take therefore no thought. For
the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof. God's kingdom, seek ye first,
verse 33, but seek you first the kingdom of God and his kingdom,
and all these things shall be added unto you. May God's kingdom,
his righteousness foremost in your life, That just has number
one, that's my priority. Above everything else, here's
my priority, to be found in the kingdom of God, having His righteousness. You make that your first priority
and all these things will be added unto you. All these things
that the Gentiles Why does he mention the Gentiles? I'll tell
you why. Because the Gentiles worshiped
false gods. They worshiped stone, gods made
of stone and gods made of wood and little creeping things and
fowls of the air. Well, of course, THEIR god could
not provide. You have cause to worry if you're
dependent on THAT kind of a god. But not the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. No, seek his kingdom, his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you. Read the book of Esther. Go through
the book of Esther, just a short book, and you will see how God
provided to keep the Jewish nation. Hey, began providing before there
ever was a need. And before you have a need, God's
already made provision. Stop worrying. Pray for me. Pray for me that
I can do this, and I'll pray for you. But really, really,
we have no reason, no cause to worry. We really don't. May the Lord bless His word.
Let's turn to number 297 as we stand and sing this hymn. 297, brother Strader's.