Be Not Anxious for Your Life, Part 2

Introduction: The Problem of Sinful Anxiety and the Lord's Command

0:04 We will continue our studies in this portion that is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. I trust that increasingly we are made aware by the Spirit as we study this together of the grand symphony of truth that God has given us in this particular portion of His Word. We are at present in the middle of chapter 6 where we are considering under the general heading the Christian and his relationship to the world of things. We have looked at the Christian in his basic character, clearly set forth in the Beatitudes. A Christian is a man who by the Holy Spirit has been brought to poverty of spirit. He has known what it is to mourn his sinfulness, to hunger and thirst after righteousness. He is one who is light and salt in the world, one who regards God's holy law in all its length and breadth, as we saw in the remaining part of chapter 5.

1:15 And then in chapter 6 we beheld the Christian as a man who gives, who prays, and who fasts, who disciplines his physical needs to spiritual ends. But he is not only this kind of a person, but the Christian living in a world in which, in which it is necessary to have food and clothing in order to live, is also a man or woman concerned about the world of things. And so our Lord in dealing with this matter of the Christian and the world of things lays out a clear prohibition in verses 19 to 24 telling us that we are not to set our affections upon the things of this life. We are not to seek. As treasure, that which we can be severed from by death. We are to lay up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt and thieves do not break through in steel.

2:17 But then having dealt with the matter of the positive love of things, our Lord moves into another area far more subtle than this, beginning with verse 25, the problem of a sinful anxiety about the things of this life. And where the enemy of our souls cannot get us to the place where we become sinfully desirous of things, he will cause us to become sinfully anxious about the lack of things. We looked last week by way of introduction at the subject dealt with in verses 25 to 34, and that subject is sinful anxiety. The King James translation, should be rendered for our benefit here in the 20th century. These words had meaning back in the 17th century when they were translated this way, not take no thought, but be not anxious. And we have that command three times, be not anxious.

3:23 And so the subject of these verses is that of sinful anxiety. That kind of nagging worry about food and raiment and clothing and bills and tomorrow, that nagging concern that meets you when you wake in the morning, that follows you through the day, and that is so reluctant to leave you when you pillow your head at night. It is this, this very real problem with which our Lord is dealing in this section of the sermon. Then we noticed last week the connection of sinful anxiety about things with the actual prohibition of a sinful desire for things.

4:05 And it's the problem of covetousness in its germ form is found in this matter of anxiety about things. And then we closed our study last week by considering the manner in which our Lord deals with this problem. He deals with it in terms of commanding His people. He says, be not anxious, three times in the imperative, and it comes as a command to our hearts in order to test, and to direct our love.

4:38 And I want to repeat what we said last week. There is a widespread antinomian, a spirit of rebellion against all forms of command and law, not only in society at large, but in the church itself. I was reading a book just Thanksgiving Day when I was with my folks in Pennsylvania, written by a nationally known Bible teacher in which he gave a whole chapter to show that Christians have no right to be afraid of God. They have no obligation to commands of any kind.

5:08 All we need do is follow the promptings of love. Well, dear ones, that's just a lot of religious hogwash. That isn't so. Love is motivation, but love is not direction.

5:20 The Lord Jesus said, if you love Me, keep My commandments. He didn't say, if you love Me, do what your heart tells you. For that's the problem on every hand. People say, well, I'm acting in terms of love and all the strange things that are being done.

5:35 I'm under the name and under the canopy of the motive of love. And our Lord is not only the prophet and priest of His church, but He is the King of His church. And He stands in the midst of His people commanding. Now we know that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

5:53 His commands are not grievous, but they are commands nonetheless. And part of the commission given to the church, having made disciples and baptized them, is that we teach them to observe whatsoever He has commanded us. And we are to instruct men in terms of precepts which come in the form of commandments. And to those whose hearts have been subdued by grace, it is no burdensome thing to look up into the face of their Redeemer, Lord, and say, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?

6:30 It's the delight of love to present itself as an obedient, obedient subject to a gracious King and Lord and to await direction. Is it not? Of course it is. And so if we love Him, we do not resent the fact that He commands us, be not anxious.

6:48 We are glad for this command for our love desires to please Him. And now He spells out in clear precepts how we may please Him. And so it comes in the form of a command. And last of all, we closed our study by seeing that these commands come supported by reasonable and simple observations to help us in our obedience.

Reason 1: Failure to Recognize the Value of Life and the Body

7:15 Now let us consider this morning or begin to consider what are the reasons for becoming sinfully anxious? Why do you become anxious about food and raiment and clothing? Why do I, with this clear command of the Lord before me, be not anxious? Why do I become at times sinfully anxious?

7:43 Why do you? Our Lord is going to give us a number of reasons, the first of which is found in verse 25 and then it's expanded in verses 28 through 30. Let's look at these verses in detail this morning. Therefore I say unto you, be not anxious for your life, what you do, what you shall eat, or yet what you shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on.

8:11 Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment?

8:19 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? Skipping verse 27 for a moment. And why take ye thought, for raiment?

8:36 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?

9:03 What's the first reason for sinful anxiety about things?

9:09 I believe we can state it this way. It is a failure to recognize the value of life and the body. That's what our Lord is saying. Our Lord says, whenever we as His people become sinfully anxious about things, it's because we are failing to recognize the value of the life He has given us and the body He has created.

9:37 And He deals with this in two ways. First of all, by contrasting life and the body with the things that sustain them, and then by comparing the worth of life and the body with other created things. Notice verse 25.

Life and Body vs. Sustenance: The Greater and the Lesser

10:00 Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not life, in the original there's a V there, it should be, translated, is not the life more than the meat and the body than the raiment? What is our Lord saying here?

10:20 He said, which is greater, the gift of life itself or the food which is needed to sustain life? Which is greater, the body itself or the clothing which adorns the body? This is the line of reasoning that our Lord is using. Now, the teaching here is very obvious.

10:45 Life in the biblical teaching is a gift from God.

10:51 And because we live in an age in which we have discovered the biological and physical laws governing conception and life and birth, we are prone to forget that a discovery of the laws by which God works does not give us a right to cause God to take an exit as the One who has made and established those laws and who works by them normally and can work apart from them when and how He chooses. For Psalm 100 tells us that it is He that hath made us and not we ourselves. Life is a gift from God. It is the product of His own exertion of omnipotence. Now, our Lord says, if He has made life, this mysterious thing, life,

11:47 then whatever is needed to sustain it is but a secondary matter. Why are you anxious? If you realize, He says, the value of the life that you have, you won't be fretting as to whether or not there will be enough to sustain it if God gave it. Certainly He is able to sustain what He has made.

12:07 Now He uses the same argument with regard to the body. David said, I am fearful, and wonderfully made. And if He has made this body with all of its complexity, then certainly He can bring whatever is necessary to clothe it and to protect it. Let me use an illustration that may help us to grasp our Lord's reasoning here.

12:31 It was my privilege to speak over in Long Island last night at a youth meeting of some Lutheran churches. And we went over the Throgs Neck Bridge and then back over the George Washington Bridge.

12:44 And I never ceased to be amazed whenever I go over those bridges to see the construction and to realize what's involved, at least in a little measure, in putting up a big expansion bridge like that. Now let me ask you a question this morning. Most of you have seen the George Washington Bridge or the Throgs Neck Bridge or some other suspension bridge. Which is a greater task, to construct the bridge or to keep it painted?

13:14 How many of you would like to set out to construct the George Washington Bridge?

13:21 None of us here qualify. That's a tremendous task that demands a tremendous amount of knowledge of engineering and physics and all of these things that go into it. And yet, out of this congregation this morning, I could assemble a crew that could keep it painted.

13:38 For the little we know, keeping it painted is no problem. Now this is what the Lord is saying. He says, Isn't the life more than the food? What is food?

13:51 That's just the paint. The paint that keeps what God constructed going. That's all. Keeps it in operation.

13:57 To change the figure, some of you have flown and I never cease to be amazed when I get on one of those airliners and realize the miles and miles of electronic equipment and wires and fuel lines and all the rest. Now what's greater? Designing and getting a plane that will fly this hunk of 50 tons of tin and steel and alloys and wires and the rest? What's the greater?

14:22 What's the greater task? Designing and constructing a plane or putting gasoline or jet fuel into it? Why, the answer's obvious. Now that's exactly what our Lord is saying here.

14:33 If I'll just stop and consider the mystery of life and God knows that mystery. He's brought it into being. Then He can certainly sustain it. He's made the body with all of its complexity and harmonious diversity.

14:49 He's the one who's kept this body out of hell where it ought to be. Joined with the soul forever because of sin. It is He who's changed our bodies from the slaves of the devil and the instruments of our body from instruments of sin to servants of righteousness. Then certainly we can trust Him to put clothes upon it and give whatever's necessary to preserve it.

The Biblical View of Man: God's Creation, Not an Accident

15:16 But you see, our Lord's argument here or reasoning is based upon a biblical view of life that life itself and the body are the creation of God. You see, this is modern man's problem. He doesn't view life as the creation of God. Some kind of a biological accident in the dim, murky past where something emerged from a little pool of nothingness and suddenly the inorganic became the organic and then it developed and here we are.

15:49 Listen to me, you young people. As you face in your schools the problem of evolution, it's not just a matter of a theory of where we came from. It's a matter of what are we? That's the real issue.

16:02 Not where we came from, but what are we? Are we creatures who came from the hand of a creating God and therefore of worth to God, obligated to God, under the law of God, slated for the judgment of God, or are we just something that happened? If we're just something that happened, then we need not worry about the laws of God, the judgment of God, death, hell, eternity. Let's forget the whole business.

16:30 And what's behind the moral revolt in our day? What's behind the wholesale giving over to sex and impurity and everything else? What's behind it? It's the view of man that says we are not a creature from the hand of God and therefore obligated to obey God and responsible to God.

16:53 We are not a creature from the hand of God. We are not a creature from the hand of God. We're just something that evolved out of a little pool of nothingness and therefore we're obligated to no one and to nothing. This is the real issue with evolution.

17:04 And don't let any teacher tell you otherwise, kids. This is the real issue. Not where we came from, but what we are. And our Lord says that the way to be delivered from sinful anxiety is to remember the worth of life.

17:21 It's come from God. And the worth of the body, it's the product of His own creative genius.

Learning from Birds: God's Provision for His Creation

17:31 Now He says we must not only recognize the worth of life in comparison to that which sustains it, but He said we must know the value of life in terms of comparing it with other created things. He says, Behold the fowls of the air and verse 28, consider the lilies consider the lilies of the fields. What are we to learn from the birds? You're to learn that you're not to be sinfully anxious about your food.

18:02 Notice, your Father feedeth them. And what are we to learn from the lilies of the field? We're to learn that we're not to be sinfully anxious about raiment. Consider the lilies God clothes them.

18:19 Now it's interesting, this word behold the fowls of the air, it's a story it's a stronger word than simply look up and take a casual observation, but it means to look attentively, to gaze earnestly.

18:35 You know how some of you would get delivered from some of your sinful anxiety? If you'd go out this afternoon and do some spirit-directed bird watching,

18:47 that's how you'd get delivered.

18:52 Some of you've prayed and prayed and prayed and that nagging anxiety is still there within your heart. Now what's the Lord's direction to you? The Lord's direction is behold the fowls of the air. Consider with attention the fowls of the air.

19:11 Now I'm not saying that to be clever. It's simply dealing with honestly with what our Lord has said. He said the reason you're sinfully anxious is you've not heard the message that the birds are trying to tell you.

19:26 You haven't heard it. Now you need to sit down, look attentively, gaze earnestly, and learn. Now what are we to learn from the birds? Well, notice our Lord's instruction.

19:38 They sow not. You never saw a bird going out in one seed at a time putting in a crop. You've never seen a bird out with a little sickle reaping. You've never seen a bird hoarding up for the winter.

19:57 This is unique. Other animals do. Squirrels do. Other hibernating animals do.

20:04 But you don't find the birds hoarding up for winter. They don't sow. They don't reap. And they don't gather into barns.

20:12 And yet what is the wonderful lesson we learn? Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. You see, the thing that's unique about the sustenance of the life of a bird is that he's absolutely dependent upon the providence of God for the supply of his needs. Now that doesn't mean he sits up on a twig and waits for worms to jump out and get up on the twig so he can eat them.

20:37 No, you see the birds. They're out there after a rain going over your lawn, crisscrossing back and forth, listening, picking away at the worm, flying around from morning till night. We had a little birdhouse right outside our kitchen window and I was fascinated watching them from morning till night. Industrious.

20:56 Nothing lazy. But they're absolutely dependent upon the providence of God to put the worm there in the ground. The insects out there in the woods and the grubs in the trees. Absolutely dependent upon the providence of God.

21:13 And our Lord says that the Heavenly Father feedeth them. This truth is mentioned elsewhere in the Scriptures. In Psalm 136 we read He gives food to all flesh. Psalm 147.9 He giveth to the beasts their food and to the young raven its cross. And now our Lord asks a question in the light of this. Are ye not much better than they? Or translated a bit more accurately, are ye not of much more value than they?

21:52 Your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not of much more value than they? It's your Father who feeds them. He's not their Father.

22:04 He's your Father. And if you're a Christian, if He cares for the birds, will He not care for His babes?

22:11 What bird was ever the object of eternal love?

22:16 And yet God says to us, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. What bird was ever the object of God's eternal purpose in grace?

22:32 And yet we read in the Word that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. What bird was ever the object of dying agony?

22:45 And yet of us it is said, having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them even unto the end. What bird was ever the subject of the Spirit's awakening?

22:58 And yet of us and for us it is said, when He, the Spirit, is come, He will recrue the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. What bird was ever brought to brokenness by the Savior's call? Come unto Me, all ye that labor. And yet of us it is said, He hath saved us and called us with an holy calling.

23:22 What bird was ever the subject of the sealing and indwelling and the witness of the Spirit? What bird ever knew anything of access to God in prayer? What bird ever knew anything of the hope of glory? Are we not of much more value than they?

23:40 And yet the Lord says, Behold them. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Little birds with no capacity to know God, no capacity to dwell with Him, no blood ever shed for that bird upon a cruel Roman cross, no thoughts of eternity directed to that bird with redeeming purpose. The Lord says we need to learn something from this.

24:09 How long has it been since you sat down and looked attentively at the birds and got their message?

Man's Greater Value and God's Fatherly Care

24:16 Your heavenly Father feedeth them. And by way of application do you see that again we are faced in this verse as we were in the preceding with the biblical view of man? Modern man says, No, you have no more intrinsic value than a dog. You're a little more intelligent, a little more complex, but there's no more value.

24:38 You're just the highest on the ascending scale of animals. Right? Isn't that what we're told? That's not our Lord.

24:47 He says we are of more value. Why? Because we were made in the image of God. We were made with the capacity to know Him.

24:57 We were made with an obligation to keep His laws and His precepts. We are the objects of His redeeming love and the agonies of a dying Savior. We are of much more value than they.

25:12 In fact, in Romans 8, as we'll see next Lord's Day, all of creation, gets in on the fringe benefits of what God has done to redeem human beings. For it says, The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain waiting for the fulfilled, redemptive purposes of the sons of God. And as the side benefits of all that God has purposed for creatures made in His image, even the creation itself will be delivered from the effects of sin. And of the fall.

25:51 You hear people say they like the Sermon on the Mount because there's such simple teaching in no Christian theology. Well, it's packed full of Christian theology. Are ye not much more valuable than they? Yes, we are.

26:05 Because we did this not evolve from some common mass of organic or inorganic matter. We came fresh from the creating hand of our God.

26:22 Suppose you saw a man who was a Christian. Who was very, very careful to provide food and shelter for his cat, for his dog, who tenderly cultured his plants,

26:37 kept his yard raked, cared for his house,

26:42 and yet would allow his children to starve to death, to walk about with rags on their backs, and never provide food and raiment for him. What would you think of such a man?

26:56 Who showed tender concern for his dog, for his dog, for his cat, for his house, for his plants,

27:04 but nothing but neglect for his children. What would you think of a man like that? You'd say he's a fiend. He's not worthy to be a father.

27:14 That's the opinion all of us would have of him, and rightly so.

27:20 Isn't this exactly what we accuse God of being when we fret about food and about raiment? Isn't this what we say, God, you can't be trusted?

27:34 Because look, look at the birds. No soul, no redemptive purpose is directed to them, and yet he feeds them. Interesting, many times in the wintertime they look more fat than they do in the summer. Maybe their feathers get fuller, I don't know, but he feeds them.

27:57 If you as an earthly father,

28:02 sinful in nature,

28:05 estranged from God, from the womb, if you and I know enough to tenderly care for our children with a greater concern than we show for our cats and our dogs, because our children are of more value to us than these animals, how much more will the Father, who loved us from eternity, who's drawn us in His grace, who keeps us by His power, and this is the lesson that our Lord wants us to learn from the birds, and so the next time you become anxious about food, pray and tell the Lord about it and say, Lord, I'm beginning to get anxious. I've done all I can to get my food, all I can, I've been industrious, and yet I don't see how we're going to make ends meet to provide enough to put food on the table, and you begin to have that gnawing concern that clouds the face of God, that robs you of your joy in the Holy Ghost. What do you need to do? Well, you need to pray. The Scripture says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, but don't stop there.

The Practice of Prayer and Birdwatching for Deliverance

29:14 You need to do something else. Then you need to go out and take a walk in your backyard, and sit down on a bench and start looking at the birds and listening to their message. Now, if you do all birdwatching and not praying, you're not doing what God said. If you do all praying and don't birdwatch, you're not doing what God said.

29:30 God said you've got to do both. You've got to pray and be a birdwatcher.

29:35 And that's the way deliverance will come. Now, most of us, again, according to our temperaments, will either end up doing all the praying and forget the birdwatching. That's unspiritual. Can I trust the Lord if I pray?

29:49 To take away my sinful anxiety? You can't trust Him to do something that He hadn't promised to do. And you can't trust Him in a way of disobedience. He's commanded us, Behold the fowls of the air.

30:01 So we need to pray and we need to look at the birds. Others of us, maybe our temptation would be to go out and sit and look at the birds and not pray. But we have both injunctions given to us in Scripture. Both are there.

Learning from Lilies: God's Adornment of the Transient

30:19 Now, moving on to the next passage, 28 and 29.

30:25 Consider the lilies.

30:28 Why are we sinfully anxious? Because we don't realize our worth in comparison to the birds and in comparison to the lilies. And why take ye thought or why are ye anxious for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field.

30:49 And now we come to a different word and even a stronger word. Only time, it's used in the New Testament. It's used here. It means to learn or observe thoroughly.

31:00 To consider accurately. In other words, the Lord says you've got to think. As you look at the lilies, don't just look there and get a nice sentimental feeling, but think. There's a lesson to be learned from the lilies.

31:14 Now, what is the lesson? Alright, our Lord enumerates the lesson. How they grow. They toil not.

31:21 They do not spin. And in spite of this, even Solomon in all his glory with all the wealth that was available to him was never 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?

31:51 Consider the lilies. They don't toil. They don't spin. And yet, they are invested with a beauty that even Solomon cannot match.

32:03 And yet, where does that lily go? It's part of the grass of the field which today is, tomorrow it's used for fuel.

32:13 And yet, God shows such tender concern to adorn that lily with a beauty that Solomon can't match. Now, if God so clothed the grass of the field, if He shows such concern to adorn that which is so trifling, so transient and temporal with such beauty, what about you? You're destined for eternity. You're destined for immortality if you're His child.

32:40 If you've been born of the Spirit, you're marked and destined for the glory everlasting. And if He shows such tender concern for that which is transient and passing, how much more shall He not take care of you, O ye of little faith? And again, we're struck with the biblical, the biblical view of God. Why is the lily, whatever this lily was, it's not our modern lily, whatever it was, it was a common flower to the people of our Lord's day.

33:10 But whatever that flower was, why was it adorned with the particular beauty that it had? Our Lord says, because God clothes it in that manner.

33:22 It wasn't simply a process of certain cross-pollinations that just made it that way. Our Lord says, if we don't have the biblical view of creation, we can't understand His teaching. Now, what do you see when you look at a flower? Look here today.

33:41 As you look at these flowers, what do you see? You see, I see something with larger, flatter petals and something with more narrow. I see something yellow and something white. Is that all you see?

33:52 Well, you see, I see a nice arrangement of the flowers to make. Is that all? What do you see when you look at those flowers? Our Lord says, every time we behold the grass of the field, the flower, what ought, we ought to see?

34:04 We ought to see an expression of the creative handiwork of God and of the concern of God to clothe that which is transient with beauty. That's what we ought to see. Now, do you see that when you look at a flower? Or do you just see a flower?

34:25 What do you see? What do you see?

34:28 Now, if I see, as I look at these flowers before me this morning, if I see, not God in the flowers, that's pantheism, but the flowers as an expression of God's tender concern to adorn the transient and the temporal with beauty, a beauty that I can't match or you can't match, then I'm going to draw the conclusion which our Lord draws here. If God so clothes these flowers which today are here and by next Sunday they're gone and others will take their place if He clothes them with such beauty. Won't He clothe me?

35:10 For I am of much more value. I am not here today and gone tomorrow. I'm destined for immortality. I am marked for the eternal glory.

35:23 Then he concludes this statement about the flowers with this little phrase, O ye of little faith. This gives us an insight as to how faith can be increased. And when faith is weak and little, you see, faith is rooted in our understanding of the character of God. Our Lord said the reason you're sinfully anxious about your raiment is you don't have an understanding of the character of God.

35:56 For when you understand His tender concern for the inanimate and the transient and realize that this is the One who is your Father, then faith will mount and no matter what need you see in the will of God, you'll be able to trust Him realizing if He does this for birds and plants, how much more will He do that for me, His child.

Discrediting God's Character Through Anxiety

36:26 When you and I as the children of God become sinfully anxious about things, food, clothing, the necessities of life, we are at that point bringing great discredit to the character of God.

36:44 It's like a little boy who would come home every day and say, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. And I'm going to die. And I'm going to die.

36:48 I'm going to die. And as he came into the yard, his little dog would meet him. And when they went into the house, there would be a fresh bowl of water and some little doggy biscuits in the bowl and are laying there on the floor and then a nice bowl of dog food. His mother having prepared it before he returned home, but every day, though he never saw his mother put it there, it was there.

37:12 What would you think of this little boy who saw that concern day after day every time he came home from school and his dog was well cared for, who fretted from 3 o'clock until 6 o'clock as to whether or not mommy was going to have supper on the table for him? How would that make you feel as a mother? If you saw your little son getting old before his years because he was just so worried whether or not you were going to fix him supper and he came out every 10 minutes and said, Mommy, are you going to fix me anything for supper tonight? Mommy, are you going to give me anything to eat?

37:41 Are you going to give me something to eat? I'm getting hungry, Mommy. How would you feel as a parent? Do you get the implication?

37:51 That's what our Lord is saying here. What discredit we do to the character of God when the world looks upon us and we say God is our Father through Jesus Christ and His tender concern for birds and plants is obvious to the whole world, and yet He sees us who claim to be His children fretting about these things, sinfully anxious about food and raiment. What discredit to the character of God. And how?

38:20 How it must grieve his heart if we may speak of God in terms of grief. How it must grieve Him to have us coming like the little boy.

38:31 Mommy, are you going to fix him supper for him? She just would point to her son and say, Son, don't you see every day when you come home, has there ever been a day when there's not been some food for your dog? No, Mommy. Has there ever been a day when there hadn't been fresh water?

38:46 No, Mommy. And she'd say, Well, son, if I show that much concern for that little, that little dog that's only been with us for a year and at best will be with us another seven or eight years, can't you trust your mommy to show that concern for you?

39:03 And if little boy gets the message, he'll hang his head in shame and throw himself on his mother's breast and say, Mommy, forgive me for distrusting your character and your love.

39:16 Now project that upward if you can this morning. The Father showing His tender concern over all His works, and yet we, His children, fretful, fussy. And the world...

39:28 The world looks on.

39:30 And we bring discredit to our God. Not only do we bring discredit to Him, but in essence we become practical atheists when we have a sinful anxiety. We act as though there were no God to care, or at best we become practical deists. A deist is someone who believes God created the world, then washed his hands of it and went off on a vacation.

39:53 No, we believe, if we are Christians, we are theists. We believe that the world God made, He is, sustaining and caring for by His own sovereign power. And if we are His children through Jesus Christ, we have that promise. And so the first reason for sinful anxiety is laid out by our Lord in this passage as a failure to realize the worth of life and of the body in comparison to that which sustains it is not the life more than the meat that sustains it, and the body more, more than the raiment that protects it.

Reason 2: The Futility of Anxiety

40:32 If God has given the greater, He will give the lesser. And then in the second area, a failure to consider our worth in comparison to other created things, the fowls of the air, the lilies of the field. And then we'll just touch briefly on the second reason why we become sinfully anxious. Verse 27, which of you by taking thought or by being anxious can add one cubit, to His stature?

41:02 What is our Lord saying to you? I believe it's this. He says the reason you become sinfully anxious and you allow your mind and heart to become occupied with the fretful concerns expressed in verse 31, what should we eat or what should we drink? Wherewithal should we be clothed?

41:21 Where is there going to be enough for this and enough for that? He said the reason you ever let yourself become involved this way is you fail to recognize the futility of anxiety. What was ever accomplished by anxious thought? Our Lord asks a very simple question.

41:37 Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto His stature or to the measure of His life? Who by sitting down and thinking and worrying and fretting can extend the length of His life one hour, one day, one moment? Impossible. The Scripture says, it's appointed unto men once to die.

42:04 It's appointed unto men once to die. We read in Ecclesiastes, there's a time to be born and a time to die. That which is fixed in the eternal counsels of God. Fretfulness and anxiety and sinful worry cannot change.

42:23 And we just need to recognize this. Every time you begin to get sinfully anxious, just stop and ask yourself, what am I accomplishing by this? I can remember how well this thought used to encourage me. When I was in school, an exam time would come and I'd begin to feel that gnawing in the stomach and that fretfulness that would begin to come.

42:43 Now I've got to stay up late and get up early and skip my time with God and all that business that the enemy would throw at us. Some of you students know what I'm talking about. And how often great comfort would come by just stopping and saying, now wait a minute, this is ridiculous. In a few years from now, maybe sooner than that, by the Lord's grace I'll be in His presence looking upon the face of Jesus, rejoicing that by His grace I'm in His presence and I can love Him with an unsinning heart and world without end worship Him, adore Him, magnify Him with the great multitude of the redeemed.

43:25 How insignificant the difference between an A or a B is going to look in that day. How absolutely foolish it will be if ever there's laughter in heaven, it will be laughter from there, as we look down and see what upset us here. How absolutely foolish. And then I just would get so blessed in my soul, I'd just say, Lord, thank You.

43:45 That didn't mean I'd throw my studies aside, but having done the best I could, Lord, that's in Your hands! Hallelujah! That's it! And the blessed release that would come, because that anxiety never helped you get a better grade.

43:59 All it did was wear you out and make you so ugly to live with, your roommate wished you'd die or go home to glory. That's right. That's all it ever did. Now that's what our Lord's saying here.

44:12 Which of you by being anxious can add one grade point to your report card, to your exam? Which of you by being anxious can add one ten dollar bill to your check account? Which of you by being anxious can put an extra pound of meat upon your table? All that anxiety never did a thing.

44:36 Except maybe take some time off your life from the human standpoint. And so our Lord says, whenever your sin makes you sinfully anxious, it's because you fail to recognize the absolute futility of this sinful anxiety. So the next time you begin to be sinfully anxious, just stop and not only look at the birds and look at the flowers, but ask yourself, what good is this doing? And only a fool gives his mind and energy to that which is of no profit.

45:09 Only a fool does that. Now if you want to be that, then you go ahead and fret. Only a fool gives himself his energies, his mind, his thought, to that which is of no profit. And let us ask the Lord to help us and enable us by the work of His Spirit to trust Him who clothes the grass of the field and feeds the birds of the air that He would provide our needs.

Call to Unbelievers and Concluding Prayer

45:38 Now as we close this morning, I'd remind you that this is children's bread that we've been feeding on. This is the Lord's instruction for those who are His. This is instruction for those to whom He is a Heavenly Father. If you're here this morning a stranger to what the Bible means when it talks about conversion, repentance, faith in Christ, the new birth, if you're a stranger to what it is to see yourself lost and undone and throw yourself upon the mercy of God in Christ, then the occupation of your mind and heart should not be with birds and flowers, this morning, but with the God who sits upon the throne as your judge, against whom you have sinned, whose laws you have broken, the God before whom you will stand in judgment. This God calls upon you to look to His Son who loved us and gave Himself for us and whom He sets before us in the Gospel as the only way of deliverance from the wrath to come. We would urge upon you this morning to consider your state and condition before this God and flee in repentance and faith to His Son, the Lord Jesus, for it's only as men receive Him that they become the children of God, and then the wonderful truths of Matthew 6

47:06 will begin to be your portion as you are a child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus. Let us bow together in prayer. Our Lord, we are grateful for Your condescension to speak to us in such common, everyday terms of birds, of flowers, of the futility of fretfulness and anxiety, and yet we confess in spite of the clarity with which You have spoken to us in Your Word, we are so prone to become sinfully anxious. Lord, teach us how to behold the fowls of the air. Teach us how to consider the lilies of the field. Teach us how to learn from that which is about us.

48:07 Give us ears to hear what You would say to us and make us a people blessedly and wonderfully delivered by the Spirit through these means that we have considered this morning from all that would be a reproach, to Your name and to Your character. Forgive us, Lord, for the times when we know we have grieved You by our unbelief, when we have accused You of being more concerned for that which is transient than for us who have been upon Your heart from eternity. Forgive us, Lord, when we have grieved You by our unbelief, by our unwillingness to rest in Your Father concern for each one of those who are Your own. Seal this word to our hearts for any who are even now in the clutches of this gnawing, nagging, sinful anxiety. O God, bring deliverance even in this hour. And then for each of us who at one time or another to a greater or lesser degree will need the instruction of this passage, help us to come back to it again and again, to obey its commands and to experience that glorious release and deliverance that comes as we have our eyes

49:35 opened afresh to the character of our Father who is in heaven. Thank You for Your concern for us, Lord, and we do believe that having given us life You are able to sustain it and having made these bodies You are able to care for them. Now help us that thus being delivered from sinful anxiety about these things we may seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness knowing that all necessary things will be added unto us that we may serve You effectively and may serve You to Your glory. To this end, seal the word to our hearts, we pray, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.