O Ye of Little Faith

Introduction to Anxiety and the Christian Life

0:04 Will you turn again, please, to the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 6.

0:12 The sixth chapter, as we have been reminding you week by week, is divided into two main sections. Our Lord's teaching concerning the Christian and his religious life, his giving, his praying and his fasting. And then beginning with verse 19 to the end of the chapter, the Christian and his life lived in the world under the eye of his heavenly Father. The Christian as a man or woman involved in the world of physical necessity, food and clothing and meat for the body.

0:54 And in dealing with this latter part of the Christian and his practical life or his life lived in the world, our Lord gives us two very clear prohibitions. He first of all forbids a positive love of the world in verses 19. Through 24, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break through and steal. But he also, beginning with verse 25 to the end of the chapter, deals with another and more subtle problem, that of sinful anxiety about the things of this life.

1:31 And where most of us have been spared perhaps the sin of the positive love and desire to accumulate, things, who among us dare lift up his head this morning and say we are free from sinful anxiety about the things of this life? And so our Lord commands us three times in this passage, verses 25 to 34, be not anxious. The King James translation, take no thought, is a poor translation for us in the 20th century. It was good for them in the 17th century when this translation was made.

2:08 But for us, the better translation. The better translation would be, be not anxious, be not overly concerned. Don't allow your mind and your life to be preoccupied with the matters of eating and drinking and raiment. And then our Lord gives us some very specific reasons as to why the children of God become sinfully anxious.

Reasons for Sinful Anxiety: Worth and Futility

2:30 And we've looked at three of these reasons so far in our studies. He says the first reason is that you fail to realize your worth. Isn't your life more than the food that sustains it? Isn't your body a greater thing than the raiment that clothes it?

2:49 And if I realize my worth in contrast with the things that sustain my life, then I can't be frustrated and worried, for if God has given me the gift of life, He will give me all that's necessary to sustain life. If He's made my body with all its intricate, harmonious complexity, if we can put those two things together, harmonious complexity, all the complexity yet a harmonious organism, working, moving, acting, if He's given the body, then certainly He'll give whatever's necessary to protect it and preserve it in the way of raiment.

3:27 And so the first reason why we do not rest in the Lord in these areas is that we don't realize our worth, contrasted with the things that sustain life, and then compared with the other forms of life. Looking at the birds, God cares for them. Looking at the flowers, He adorns them. Are we not of much more value than they?

3:50 If so, then what am I worrying for? For the God who clothes the grass of the field will clothe me. The God who feeds the birds of the heaven will feed me. Now I realize that for some of us, as one of the elders said in our prayer meeting yesterday morning, he said, Well, I really don't have...

4:06 I don't have much need for this kind of teaching. I know where my bread's coming from, and most of us could say that's true. But remember, the time may come when all of us will desperately need this teaching.

4:20 Some of us may live to see what others of God's children have lived to see and experience, where we will literally have to pray, give us this day our daily bread. And so hide this teaching in your heart, even though it may not meet a present and an immediate need. When we went off for a few days, we were in a hurry. We had a few days of vacation up in the woods in Pennsylvania.

4:41 One of the first things I usually do when I go into some place, maybe it's because I... No, I don't think so.

4:46 I don't think that's the reason. I was going to say maybe I've got a little bit of the hypochondriac in me, but I check the medicine chest to see what's in there. Because if I cut my finger or stub my toe later on, it does no good to go flurrying around then. It's too late if the medicine chest doesn't have what it ought to have.

5:02 And when we went up in the mountains there, there were a lot of snakes around. I noticed there was a snake bite kit. And I took it apart, opened it up, read all the instructions, what to do. It would have been too late if I was caught out in the woods and didn't know a snake bite kit was there and didn't know how to handle it.

5:16 By the time I got around to getting one and learning how to use it, I might not need it. The undertaker might have to take over. And so we in life continually are taking measures to acquire knowledge in the present which will help us to face a future emergency. Airline pilots do this constantly.

5:36 They go through the emergency procedures. If they have an engine failure, as they're about to take off, so that in that emergency when it happens, their reactions are just reflex automatic reactions and the safety of those in that plane is dependent upon the preventative learning of those that sit at the control. Now this is true in the Christian life. I don't have much use for the Christian who neglects his Bible week after week and then in a problem or a situation runs to the Bible like some kind of a magic Christian Ouija board.

6:11 I'm hoping somehow his hand will be led to a promise. That's dangerous business, dear one. That's dangerous business because you'll find what you want to find in a case like that. But the path of safety is the day-by-day systematic reading of the Word of God, hiding its precepts in the heart, even though there seems to be little relationship between what I read today and my situation today, then I'm able to handle that passage objectively.

6:41 Because it isn't relating to a present need, I'm able to let it say what it says. But when you have a problem, you're always going to look at that passage in the light of your problem and make it say what you want it to say. Now what is true in Bible study is true in preaching. If a pastor simply preaches on passages of Scripture that deal with needs that he's aware of, he's poorly and inadequately preparing his people for the circumstances of life that they're going to face.

7:09 That's why there's no substitute. For systematic preaching right through a chapter, right through a book, moving through, hiding the Word in our hearts. Now I felt it was necessary to say that, lest we view this message this morning as something rather irrelevant to us, let's hide it away, it's God's truth, we need it, and perhaps sooner than we think, we'll desperately need the precepts of this passage. So our Lord tells us, failing to realize our worth is why we become anxious, and then failing to realize the absolute futility of this anxiety.

7:45 Verse 27, Which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to his stature, or one day to the length of his life? One author said, and I think very accurately, Our Lord tells us that sinful anxiety is first of all needless. If He gives us life, He'll sustain us. It's senseless.

8:07 Look at the birds and the flowers. If He takes care of them, He'll take care of us. Thirdly, it's useless. Anxious thought does nothing.

8:15 So, if I have only one life, I have only one day to live today, 24 hours, and I'm going to give an account before God, how foolish to be involved in that which is needless, senseless, and useless. I don't think we can give a very good account before God in the judgment seat of Christ, when we have sapped our energies and poured out our thoughts and our concerns about that which is needless, senseless, and useless. And that's what our Lord says is the very nature of anxiety about the things of this life. Now we come to the fourth reason for sinful anxiety, and it's the little phrase at the end of verse 30.

Little Faith: The Core Problem of Sinful Anxiety

8:58 We did not expound it last week, and I want to do so today, the Lord helping us. Verse 30, Wherefore, if God so clothe 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? Our Lord brings all of the reasons for sinful anxiety into this focal reason, and probably the one which underlies all of the others. He says that sinful anxiety is not only needless, senseless, useless, but it is faithless.

9:39 Shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? When we condense all that our Lord has said in this passage, I believe we can accurately state that the basic reason for sinful anxiety is the problem of unbelief or of little faith. I want us to consider the problem of little faith or of unbelief. And to think our way through the subject, we want to first of all consider the problem stated, then the problem analyzed, and the problem solved.

10:16 Now let's see the statement of the problem. Shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Now, who were the possessors of little faith? Well, they were the children of God.

10:32 They were people about whom the Lord could say, notice carefully, in verse 26, Behold the fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather to barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. These are people who are the children of God by faith in the living God and in His Son, Jesus Christ. Only saved people can be guilty of little faith. For unsaved people have no faith.

11:02 They are guilty of that cardinal sin of unbelief. Now I had naively thought that the old line liberal doctrine that we are all the children of God by birth had long since gone by the boards with any thinking people, but it hasn't. I was reading an article that someone gave me by Reverend Martin Luther King, who's been a leader in the civil rights movement, and in this article, three or four times, he asserts in no uncertain terms the old line liberal doctrine that all men are the sons and children of God simply because they are the creatures of God. And he said the reason Christ was crucified was because the Pharisees couldn't stand his teaching

11:46 that all men are the sons of God. And I wrote in the margin of the article, that's not true. The reason they crucified him is he said, ye are of your father the devil. That's why they couldn't stand him.

11:59 He said even though you're the children of Abraham and have all this religious heritage and have all this religious dogma and all these regulations, you are the sons of the devil. Oh, they didn't like this. Couldn't stand him. That's why they put him to death.

12:16 Not because he said all men are the sons of God, but because he said that until there is this encounter with himself in submission and in faith, we are the serfs, the slaves of the devil, who so committed sin is the bondservant of sin, and that we are the children of God only by faith in Jesus Christ. So the people who have the problem of little faith are not unsaved people. They are not people who have never come in repentance and faith to the Lord Jesus. They are those whose heavenly father, or whom God is a heavenly father to.

The Essence of Little Faith: Failure to Relate Faith to Present Need

12:54 They are those who are born of the Spirit. Now what is the essence of this matter of little faith? It's interesting when you look up the word little faith, it's used four other times in the book of Matthew, and in every instance, the problem is brought out as to its basic essence. Let's look at these other instances very quickly.

13:17 In Matthew chapter 8 and verse 44, I'm sorry, verse 26. Matthew 8 and verse 26, there is no 44. Our Lord is out in a boat with his disciples. He's sleeping.

13:36 And the ship begins to be filled with water, and they come to him in verse 25 and say, Lord, save us, we are perishing. And he said unto them, Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? What was their problem? Keep that in mind.

13:52 He uses the word here in a circumstance where a ship is filling with water. They're about to go down, and they say, Lord, save us, we perish. And he says, You're guilty of little faith. Then in Matthew 14 and verse 31, here's the circumstance of Peter walking on the water.

14:11 And he's doing well until he begins to look at the waves and the tempest, and he begins to sink. And we read these words. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now get the circumstance.

14:29 Peter's walking, doing well, begins to sink. The Lord says, You're a problem, Peter, little faith. Then one other instance in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 8. They're going out to another place, and they have no bread with them.

14:46 And the Lord warns them about the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees, talking about the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. But they're concerned about physical bread. And he says in verse 8, which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? In each circumstance where this word little faith is used, here's the essence of the problem.

15:16 These were believing men and women.

15:21 But believing men and women who failed to relate their faith to the need that was present before them. Let me repeat. They were people who had a strong faith in many areas. But our Lord accused them of being guilty of the sin of little faith when they did not relate faith to the present need.

15:47 Matthew 6, the passage we're looking at, here's a child of God. And he does not see where tomorrow's bread is coming from. So what does he do? He pushes the panic button.

15:59 And he begins to say, What am I going to eat? Where am I going to meet my bills? He begins to get panicky and throw his hands up. The Lord says, O ye of little faith, you trusted me for the salvation of your eternal soul, but you can't relate that faith to putting a little bread in your belly tomorrow.

16:20 That's what our Lord is saying. You've trusted me for the greatest need you'll ever have to take away the mountain of your iniquity, but you can't trust me to fill the little cavity in your stomach. Our Lord said, This is the problem of the little faith. They're out in the boat.

16:39 And here the Lord of heaven, who made them, who by His grace had saved them, is lying in a boat fast asleep. And what happens? They say, Lord, we're going to die. We're going to perish.

16:49 No, if they perished, He'd have to perish. That's the folly of the whole thing. They could no more perish than He could. Because if they perish, He'd have to perish.

16:56 They're all in that same boat together. And the Lord said, Don't you see this? See, the problem of little faith was they didn't relate their faith in the great Son of God to the present circumstance of the waves and of a ship filling with water. And you trace it through.

17:10 We don't have time. The other two instances, this is the problem of little faith. It was the problem of believing men who had faith in greater areas, past or future, but who failed to relate their confidence in God to their present circumstance. And that's exactly what our Lord is dealing with here.

17:32 Now, if that's so, then I think maybe the Lord's talking about something that applies to you and me. Are you saved by His grace? Have you been brought by the Holy Spirit to see that there's absolutely no hope of your ever being saved by your own effort? Has the Holy Ghost stripped you down and left you wounded and bleeding and, well, my dead, conscious of your absolute emptiness?

18:02 Then has the same Holy Spirit pointed you to the infinite fullness in the Lord Jesus, that all the forgiveness needy sinners will ever need is found in Him, that all the grace that guilty sinners will ever need is found in Him? And has God enabled you to embrace the Lord Jesus so that the salvation of your immortal soul has been gladly rested in His hands? You can honestly say, nothing in my hands I bring simply to Thy cross I claim. You've been brought to trust your immortal, never-dying soul's well-being into the pierced hands of the Son of God.

18:41 You've been brought to that place. You've trusted Him for the greatest thing. Yet now be honest this morning. How many times have you pushed the panic button when you saw a load of bills coming and you just couldn't see, how in the world am I going to meet it?

18:58 And you began, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? How shall we pay the bills? That's the problem of little faith.

19:06 You see, you're not a total unbeliever. No, you've planted faith firmly in the Lord Jesus, and He's your only hope of mercy. And yet when it comes to this temporal, physical need, there's the unrest, the disturbance, that cloud of oppression that comes. This is the problem stated.

Analyzing Little Faith: Its Language and Likeness

19:29 Now let's move to the problem analyzed. And to help us to do so, let's look first of all at the language of little faith. Little faith has its own language. And our Lord gives us that language in verse 31.

19:44 Having said, O ye of little faith, then He says, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And what is occupying your heart will generally spill out of your mouth. And when we are in the situation of little faith, or of unbelief, in a given area, unbelief has its own language, and the language of unbelief here is found, described by our Lord, in terms of what shall we eat, what shall we drink, wherewithal shall we be clothed.

20:23 Notice, it's not the language of how shall we eat the bread of life, what shall we drink to assuage the thirst of our souls? How shall we be clothed with a righteousness that will make us at home in the presence of God? These are people who've had those questions wonderfully answered. They know that to feed the soul they must have the bread of life.

20:45 They know that to meet the thirst of the soul they must come to the water of life, the Lord Jesus. These are people who know that to stand before God they must be clothed in a righteousness not their own. You see, the language of little faith is not the language that cries out concerning the deep matters of the soul's relationship to God, but concerning the incidental matters of temple existence. What shall we eat?

21:12 What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed? And that's what's almost so ridiculous about this. If you and I have been brought to the place where the questions about the soul have gripped us and burdened us and pressed us down, we've found the answer in the Lord Jesus, the bread of life, the water of life, and in the righteousness with which He clothes penitent believing sinners, then isn't it ridiculous that we should ever be fretful about these little temple needs, and yet such is the language of little faith?

21:45 Now, our Lord gives us not only the language of little faith, but the likeness of little faith. What is little faith like? Our Lord tells us in verse 32, For after all these things, do the Gentiles seek? The likeness of little faith, he says, it makes you like the heathen.

22:06 It's a heathenish sin. Well, you see, the Gentiles, as the nations then were in the time of our Lord's utterance of these words, they had no written revelation from God. They were sunk in the darkness of heathenism. Read about it in Romans 1 and chapter 2.

22:27 Romans chapters 1 and 2. And their concept of God was either a God who was so far above them and beyond them as a tyrant who ruled with a cruel fate that they could never come to Him and have any confidence, or their concept of God was so debased that He was a God filled with human passions and lusts like unto themselves. And so, because they had no concept of God being Father through a covenant relationship with Him, a God who could be trusted and relied upon to meet the temple needs because He had met the eternal needs, their whole lives then were geared to this life, its appetites, its passions,

23:11 its needs. And so the whole philosophy was, this is life. Let's eat, drink, be merry. Let's accumulate all that we can.

23:18 Let's get all that we can for the physical, for the temporal. And the Lord says, when you and I begin to push the panic, begin to push the panic button and become fretful about temporal needs, we are like the heathen. We are testifying by our anxiety that we don't have a God who can be trusted. We're testifying that we have a God who's so distant and beyond us He can't be concerned.

23:46 We're testifying to the world about us that which is contrary to our profession in our sober moments. And so the language of little faith is, what should we eat? How should we pay our bills? How will we meet this need?

24:02 That frantic, fretful frenzy of concern. The likeness of little faith, it's like the heathen. So instead of being a light in the world, we become the very darkness of the world about us. We lose our ability to stand out as utterly different from the rest of the world.

24:24 And the church is never mighty in reaching the world unless she is unusually different from that world which she attempts to reach. How can you witness to your neighbors when they see you fretful about temporal things? Because that's their life. Their whole life is one whirl of activity to buy things on time and then to meet the time payments and keep the creditors off their back.

24:52 And when they see you in the same whirl of frenzied activity, what have you got to tell them about God and about a heavenly Father? Nothing. You have nothing to tell them. Nothing to tell them.

25:06 So that's their whole life. And when that becomes our life, we are no longer light, but we are darkness. The Lord says you're like the heathen. And when I'm like them, I can't minister to them.

The Living Roots of Sinful Anxiety

25:18 Can't do it. I didn't say this to the Lord. He said after all these things to the Gentiles. Further analyzing it, we have not only the language of sinful anxiety, the likeness of sinful anxiety, but I want us to consider in the third place the living roots of sinful anxiety.

25:45 What is the root of this unbelief? If we don't go down and clip it at the roots, if we merely work at the surface, it's going to be there as a continual nagging problem. And I would submit to you three basic roots of this sinful unbelief, this anxiety. The first one is a distrust or an ignorance of the character of God.

26:11 A distrust or an ignorance of the character of God. Our Lord hints at this when He says, notice carefully, in verse 32, For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. But your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things. Unbelief that doesn't relate this present need to my heavenly Father is saying in essence, God doesn't know about this need.

26:42 Or if He doesn't know, He doesn't care. And ignorance or distrust of the character of God is always one of the roots of unbelief. God doesn't know, God doesn't care, or God doesn't have the power to meet this need. That's a terrible thing because that's touching three of God's key attributes.

27:04 He doesn't know. That's His omniscience. He says He knows all things. And yet here I am in a need and I say God is too busy.

27:12 He's ignorant of this need. Or He doesn't care. That touches the attribute of His love. He cares for the fowls of the air.

27:19 He cares for the flowers of the field. And yet when I become filled with this sinful anxiety, I'm saying, God, You don't care. I'm casting aspersions upon the genuineness and the depth of His love. Or I may say, since I see no way that this need can be met, it can't be met, what am I doing then?

27:39 I'm limiting the power of God. I'm touching His omnipotence. Beloved, that's serious business. When you and I get fretful about our temporal needs, we are actually casting aspersions upon the omnipotence, the omniscience, and the love of God.

27:56 That's what makes it such a serious thing. That's why our Lord takes a great segment out of this Sermon on the Mount to deal with this problem of little faith as it relates to sinful anxiety. So the first living root to this unbelief is a distrust or an ignorance of the character of God. The second root is a misunderstanding on the fact of the implications of the salvation of God.

28:22 A distrust of the character of God, a misunderstanding of the implications of the salvation of God. We read a wonderful verse this morning, Romans 8, 32. He that spared not his son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Do you get the logic of that verse?

28:49 What is the greatest need that you and I will ever have? This is a good indication where you stand spiritually. What's the greatest need you've ever been conscious of? If you're a Christian, you can say without any hesitation, the greatest need I was ever conscious of was the need that somehow my sins which rose up like a mountain before God, that that mountain of sin be somehow blotted out that I might enter into fellowship and relationship with God.

29:22 If you're a Christian, you can answer without hesitation in words similar to that, maybe not those exact words, that that's the greatest need you were ever made conscious of, your need of being right with God. All right, let me ask you a second question. What's the greatest thing God ever did for you? If you're a Christian, you can answer without any hesitation, He loved me and He gave Himself for me.

29:49 My greatest need demanded God's greatest gift. Now, if to meet my greatest need God has acted with the greatest demonstration of His love and His mercy, He spared not His Son but delivered Him up, how can I doubt Him for any other need? That's the logic of this verse. Paul says it's absolutely ridiculous.

30:12 If I have confidence in this great God who met my great need with His greatest gift, how should I not with Him freely give us all things? And so the second root, a living root of little faith, failure to believe God in a present trying circumstance, is that I don't understand the implications of the salvation which He's offered to me. And then the third living root is we question the validity of the promises of God. Ignorance of His character, misunderstanding the implications of His salvation, questioning the validity

30:56 of His promises, we read in 2 Corinthians 1.20 that all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Peter talks about exceeding great and precious promises. Our Lord talks about if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Spirit to those that ask?

31:17 We're going to look at another one next week. If you seek first the kingdom, these things shall be added. Beloved, either that's a lie or it's true. And if it's true, then I have no place to fret.

31:30 No place to fret. And yet, we push the panic button. Why? Because there is a questioning of the validity of the promises.

31:41 They say they make nice plaques to give for Christmas presents to hang on a wall. Beloved, they need to jump off that plaque into your heart in that present circumstance in which you find yourself. That's why God gave them. So these are the living roots of sinful anxiety expressed in little faith, trust or ignorance of His character, misunderstanding of the implications of His salvation, a questioning of the validity of His promises.

Overcoming Little Faith: Thinking Rightly About God

32:09 Now, quickly, the problem overcome. How do you replace little faith with great faith? How do you move from a state of unbelief into a state of faith? Some would say, just believe God.

32:23 I tell you, that gets me angry. Well, I've got a problem with unbelief, and I want to know how to come to a place of faith. People say, just believe, just believe, just believe, God's got some power to just sort of turn a crank and out will come some faith. That's a terrible thing to tell someone.

32:38 Yet, I've had people tell me that. Just believe God, just believe God, just hand it over to the Lord. You see, faith doesn't operate in a vacuum. Faith does not operate in a vacuum, either in salvation or in the Christian life.

32:51 You look at me like maybe I said something strange. I'll say it again. Faith doesn't operate in a vacuum. Faith is the response of the heart to some facts.

33:05 And there'll never be any response of the heart to the facts to the facts written as facts. So the way out of unbelief into faith, the way from little faith to strong faith, is to do what? It's to use your head and start thinking. You see, little faith is a problem of the heart.

33:30 Now, you want to cure that problem of the heart, how do you do it? You don't start with your heart, you start with your head. That's right, you start with your head, as the Lord does here. Now, where do you mean?

33:41 What do you mean, start with your head? Well, let me explain. If you're going to come from little faith to more faith, in this passage it's clear, the first thing you've got to do is remember and think upon your work before God. Consider the question, is not the life more than meat?

33:58 Now, you've got to sit and ask yourself that question. Here you are, all in a frenzy, all in a tither, you've lost your joy, you're as ugly as a bear to live with, I wouldn't be found in the same block with you, you just see the bills piling up and the problems here and all the rest, and it's terrible. You're just bound up in this problem, it haunts you from day to night. Now, what are you going to do?

34:22 Well, just don't get on your knees and start praying, oh God, give me faith, oh God, help me to trust you. Sometimes our praying about these needs is nothing but a frenzied glop of verbiage before God. There's no sense to it. We just come whimpering to God and we don't get quiet and get our right perspective and we just blurt out our problems and run out of His presence and go on back with the same problem.

34:44 No, the Lord says, you've got to sit and first of all, remember your work. Remember your work. How do you do that? You consider that question.

34:51 He asks, isn't your life a more precious thing than the food that keeps it alive? And you sit there in your closet and you say, well, Lord, of course, how stupid. Why, this is absolutely ridiculous. Here I am worrying about the fuel for the body and I've got a body.

35:07 I've got life with all its intricacies and all its mystery. Lord, this is stupid. Unbelievable. This is stupid.

35:15 And you'll talk yourself right into faith. Certainly. As you pray, you ask that question. Isn't my life more than the food that sustains it?

35:24 Isn't my body more than the raiment that clothes it? You've got to consider your work by asking that question and you've got to do as we saw last week. You've got to obey those two commands. Behold the fowls, consider the lilies.

35:37 You've got to go out and do some spirit-directed bird watching and some spirit-directed watching of the flowers and learning a lesson. What happens when I look at the birds? I don't see any lines of concern upon their face but I see them diligent. I see them working hard.

35:55 But somehow God sees to it that there's enough for them to scratch or pick out of the earth or He touches the hearts of some people to put some food out in the bird feeder. And as I sit and I look at the birds I realize how stupid is unbelief, why it's the most unreasonable thing in all the world. Here I have trusted Him, my Heavenly Father, to bear my sin away. I've trusted Him to take me through the jaws of death into His everlasting presence made like unto His own beloved Son.

36:23 I'm trusting Him that He's going to take my body out of the dust of the earth though it be scattered to the four winds and give me a resurrected body. And I can't trust Him to put bread on my table for tomorrow? Why that's so stupid. Look at what He does for the birds.

36:38 They're never going to be resurrected. When they die they've had it. They live for a couple of years they're gone. They've got no soul.

36:45 No blood was shed for them. No Holy Ghost was sent for them and yet He feeds them. How stupid for me to be concerned. And as I behold the birds what happens?

36:55 Faith begins to mount in the heart. Why? Because faith doesn't operate in a vacuum. Faith responds to the revelation of the character of God as I see it in the birds as I see it in the flowers.

37:09 Faith is natural response to right thinking about God and my worth before Him. So, if you don't have faith it's because you're not thinking right. So if you get your head straightened out your heart will follow. Then you've got to remember not only your worth but you've got to remember God's character.

Overcoming Little Faith: Remembering God's Character and Futility of Anxiety

37:29 The Lord reminded us of this. He says, Your heavenly Father feeds the birds takes care of the lilies. Are you not of much more value? Your heavenly Father knows you have need of such things.

37:42 I've got to sit and meditate on the character of God. That's the way out of little faith to great faith from unbelief to faith. I've got to sit and remember He knows my need. The beautiful descriptions of this is found in the Old Testament.

37:57 You remember the story how that Hagar the handmaiden of Abraham had been cast out of the household of Abraham and Sarai. Her name had not yet been changed to Sarah. There she was out in the wilderness and it says an angel of the Lord came and by that place where God met her she gave God a name and that compound name means Thou God seest me. Thou God seest me.

38:24 He knows my need. He cares. A little bit later in Genesis 21, 16 she's cast out with her son and she puts him under a bush because all her food and drink is gone and she thinks he's going to die. So she puts him under the bush to die and she goes off so she won't have to bear the sight and it says the Lord heard the cry of the Lamb.

38:48 One of the most tender verses in all the Bible. Genesis 21 in verse 16 The Lord heard the cry of the Lamb. He not only knows but he cares. And God came and tenderly provided for Hagar and for her son Ishmael.

39:03 He knows. I need to stop and remember this. He knows. Read Psalm 139 Thou Lord knowest my down sitting my uprising you understand my thought afar off.

39:14 If I ascend up into heaven Thou art there if I make my bed in hell and I've got to meditate on the glorious truth of God's omniscience. He knows. He cares. He cares the glorious truth of His love and then I need to remember His omnipotence.

39:32 He's able no matter what my circumstance of temporal need He's able. What did He do for His people Israel? They needed water and the only thing around was a rock so God says alright bringing rock out of the water is as easy as bringing water out of the rock is as easy for me as bringing water out of anything. So Moses take your stick hit the rock and he said let me make food for you every morning so he sent down the man.

40:05 God was able God was able they come up to a sea nowhere to go God says that's no problem for me just parts the sea sends them through the dry land they come up to the river Jordan time to get over parts the water sends them over what's God trying to teach us? He's trying to teach us that there is no need of temporal nature God is not able to meet that need according to His will and His purpose. You see, the problem with Israel's unbelief was just this. They didn't believe God knew or God cared or God was able.

40:40 When they came out of Israel and came up to the Red Sea, what did they say? They said, God's brought us out of Egypt to kill us here in the wilderness. What a terrible God they had. Imagine thinking thoughts like that about God.

40:53 But He came down into Egypt, all the miracles, all the plagues, to move the heart of Pharaoh to finally say, take that crowd out of there, Moses. It's going to be better off without them. Take them out. And now they say the only reason God did it was to kill us.

41:08 Isn't that a terrible thing to accuse God of? Of course, you've never done that, have you?

41:17 God brought you out of your homeland. Mom and Dad brought you off to school. Now, it looks like He's left you. You're behind in your bill.

41:28 And you don't know how in the world it's ever going to end. You don't know how you're going to be met.

41:32 So God brought you there to disgrace you, right? To make a fool out of you.

41:37 Oh, isn't that what unbelief says? Isn't that what unbelief says? We doubt the character of God. That was Israel's problem.

41:46 He's brought us out here to kill us. And again and again, that's what the thing they threw up to Moses. Later on, no food. And they say, God brought us out of Egypt, sure.

41:55 Not to kill us by the Red Sea, but to get us to the other side of the Red Sea, and then to let us starve in the desert. So they begin to complain. They say, God brought us out here to let us starve to death.

42:05 Oh, beloved, this is in all of our hearts. All of our hearts.

42:11 And the only way back to faith is to remember the character of God. The reason we don't trust Him is because we don't think rightly about Him.

42:21 And then the third thing we've got to remember if we're going to overcome this problem is to remember the absolute futility of this sinful concern and this unbelief. Let me ask you something. Did unbelief ever do anything for you?

42:40 No, all it'll do is send you down beneath the waves. Just like it did Peter. And you look at the waves of physical necessity and temporal needs. And you look at the storm that rages about you.

42:51 And if you give in to it and just give up in unbelief, it'll do something for you. It'll swallow you up like it did Peter. That's all it can do. The absolute futility.

43:02 And our Lord would have us realize this. Which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to the measure of his stature? And then next week, we'll see the fourth way that we overcome the problem. In verse 33.

Overcoming Little Faith: Seeking First the Kingdom

43:13 But that's a message in itself. And that's the positive aspect of this whole teaching. The greatest antidote to sinful anxiety is to be so wholly occupied with things eternal that I've got no time to fret about things temporal. And lo and behold, as I set my goals on the eternal, God will see that the temporal is met.

43:35 And this is basically the problem of some of you here today. I'm confident of this. If you would just stop fretting and fussing about things, and get involved in the power of the Holy Ghost with the one thing necessary, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, it's amazing how all the other little things would fall into line. Beloved, there are many areas where I know I haven't proved God, but I can say to His praise, this is one area where we've proved in time after time after time after time.

44:06 When we were in the traveling ministry, made it a policy that we would never, never make finances an issue of where we'd go, and the men would write, and say, we'd like you for meetings, what's your financial policy? I'd write back and say, if God wants us, whatever your financial policy is, that's ours.

44:23 There are times we can say to the praise of God when I wouldn't be in meetings for three or four weeks, because I refused to go where the message wasn't wanted. And it meant turning down messages, turning down opportunities of ministry. When men would write and say, we're having a week of evangelistic meetings, will you come and preach? I'd write back and say, I don't know you, brother, and I don't think you know me.

44:43 If you want somebody to come and preach, a little ditty about, trust Jesus, give a 20-minute invitation, and get people to raise a hand and walk an aisle and tell them they're all right. I said, you've got the wrong man. If you want someone to come and declare a little bit about who God is, what sin is, and that men must repent and turn from sin and bow to Christ as Lord and then trust the Holy Spirit to do His work, then we'll pray about coming. It meant turning down some meetings.

45:10 We had rent money to face every month, bills, car payments.

45:17 God honored that. And seeking first His kingdom, I can say to His praise, never were we a month behind in rent, never were we a month behind in a car payment, and when God led us to come here, I paid an $18 bill at a bookstore and left Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and could face anybody, not only my family. And I don't say that to my praise, beloved. I say it to His, that this is true.

45:41 I know it's true not only because it's in the Bible, but because by the grace of God we've proven it. Seek first the kingdom and these things. Things will be added unto you.

45:54 Are you in the place of little faith this morning?

45:58 Is the language of little faith upon your lips? What do we eat? What do we drink? Where are we going to get clothes?

46:06 Then you need to analyze that problem and realize the reason you're in that position of little faith is because, first of all,

46:15 there's something about God's character you don't understand.

46:19 There's something about the implications of His salvation you don't understand.

46:24 You're not trusting in the absolute trustworthiness of His promises. Now, how are you going to get back to the place where in the midst of your circumstance there can be a confident faith? Don't go home and just try to crank faith up. You need to, first of all, observe your worth before the Father.

46:41 You need to meditate upon the character of God. He knows, He cares, and He is able. And then you need to just convince yourself afresh of the absolute futility of anxious care until you realize this is the stupidest thing in all the world.

46:58 And then, as we'll see, next week, become so involved in seeking the Lord and His righteousness and His kingdom that, like Elijah, who found that seeking the kingdom meant God would send ravens to feed him, and like a Paul who found that seeking the kingdom would mean that God would move hearts everywhere and every place he went to meet his temporal needs, so we as God's people can prove this lesson. Don't be like the heathen. This is their life. Eating, drinking, clothes.

47:28 That's their life. And in God's kingdom, in God's name, don't be like him at this Christmas time. If you get yourself into debt to buy things that aren't needed for people who don't need them, don't you claim this passage. You better get on your face and repent of the sin of downright presumption.

47:48 Beloved, I mean it. I'm grieved in my spirit as I feel the pressure upon me to do this and get this and get that. Not a pressure from God or the Bible, but from a corrupt, materialistic society. May God help us to resist it.

48:03 Don't be like the heathen. That's all the heathen can have at this season is the kingdom of God. Don't be like them. Don't be like them.

48:12 But seek first his kingdom.

48:15 In the wonder of wonders, there's a bliss that things can never break. Is that true? May God help us to prove it. Let us pray.