Title: Seek First God’s Kingdom
Text: Luke 12: 13-37
Date: April 25, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Luke 12: 13: And one of the company said unto
him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.
Is
there anyone here like this person? Christ
Jesus, the Pearl of great price, was in his midst face-to-face. The Master was declaring the riches of God’s
glory, the exceeding riches of God’s grace, the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God, the unsearchable riches of Christ
Yet,
this man had his mind set on a worthless earthly inheritance.
We
spend all week listening to the words of men.
We come here to hear the word of God.
That is why I almost always begin by reading the word of God to you
first. If I give an introduction it is
short so we can get to the word of God. This is the word of the true and living
God. We need to hear what Christ says. Now, what is your mind set on while we
hear Christ speak? The Lord rebuked this
man.
Luke 12: 14: And he said unto him, Man, who
made me a judge or a divider over you?
Christ
Jesus is not a temporal king. His kingdom is not of this world. This man had
need of an inward work of grace which no settling of secular matters could
resolve.
Therefore,
Christ would not be turned from the kingdom of God and his righteousness, to this
man’s trivial, civil matters. Christ’s
business involves far more important matters than anything we deem important in
this world. Eternal matters: matters of how
God can be just, how he can execute fully the judgment of eternal death upon
his guilty elect children for breaking his law. And yet justify his children
and shower us with the mercies of his grace.
The gospel is the message of the righteousness of God. Any earthly matters this book deals with are
for the sole purpose of teaching us how to have no distractions from focusing
our full attention on Christ and him crucified.
While
this world’s preachers are turned aside by every trivial matter that sinners
can present to them, God’s preachers follow our Master and will not be turned
aside from declaring the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus which is
exceedingly and preeminently more important.
The one
reason this man desired to disrupt Christ’s work was because his heart was
filled with covetousness for silver and gold which in no way profits a sinner
eternally. Therefore, Christ rebuked him sharply.
Luke 12: 15
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a
man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Instead
of setting our hearts on perishing things of clay—take heed-listen up, pay attention with every ounce of your being-to the word of God our Savior. Nothing
is more valuable than the gospel of Christ. He said, “the words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (Jn 6: 63)
And
beware of covetousness. Covetousness is more dangerous than cancer. An
abundance of possessions will not profit you spiritually, but they will steal
your heart, eat you up and harden you so that you can never know Christ who is
Life!
Illustration: Men sank with the Titanic because they would not let go
of their possessions. Some here are
sinking. Yet, your mind is on things
that will only take you to the bottom faster. Take heed and beware of
covetousness!
For a
man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Can
possessions put away your sins? Can
possessions justify you before God? Can
possessions make you righteous and holy and accepted of God?
God
gives eternal life freely to whomsoever he will and this life is in his
Son. But those he gives eternal life, were
“not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,…but with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1
Pet 1: 18-19) Life does not consist in
possessions, life is in Christ Jesus.
Luke 12:
16: And he spake a parable unto them,
saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
Here is
what a covetous heart does:
1. It
steals away your thoughts from God—V17: And
he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room
where to bestow my fruits?
2. A
covetous heart steals away your time from seeking Christ and his righteousness while
you prepare a place to save your riches—v18:
And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater;
3. A
covetous heart steals away your generosity to your brethren for whom Christ
died, as you save all for self—v18: and
there will I bestow ALL my fruits and my goods.
4. A
covetous heart steals away your faith in Christ to save you by giving you a
false sense of security—V19: And I will
say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
5. But
that very God from whom a covetous heart turns you, can take all away in a
moment—Luke 12: 20: But God said unto
him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then
whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21: So is he that
layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Every
treasure a man can lay up for himself by the work of his own hands shall not
last. Be it works of righteousness by which
he expects to be justified, sanctified and accepted of God. Or the earthly possessions he obtained by the
work of his own hands.
Only
the riches God gives freely by his grace in Christ Jesus through faith in his
Son shall never be taken away from the believer—not ever!
Mary sat
at Christ’s feet believing every word of her Savior? Christ said, “One thing is needful: and Mary
hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Lu 10:42)
Colossians 3:4: When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Luke 12: 22: Therefore I say unto you take no thought
for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23:
The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.
The
Lord is not forbidding us from having good food and nice clothes. He is not
forbidding a savings account. Nor is the
Lord exhorting us to live in reckless abandon. The Lord is commanding his child
to give Christ your primary focus in life, rather than your temporal needs. The Lord is telling his child the only way we
can do so, is to cast all our care into his hands to provide for us, otherwise
we won’t focus on Christ for being fearful and worrying about food and raiment.
The Lord is commanding his child to be content with what the Lord provides rather
than seeking to have more or better than what he provides.
If
Christ Jesus is truly your Bread: your Bread from heaven—God the Son; Bread
freely given from your Father in heaven—by free electing grace, by free
redeeming grace, by free regenerating grace, by free preserving grace—freely
given; Bread which giveth life unto you—who gives eternal life to as many as
the Father has given unto him, who has given you life; Bread who promises, “he
that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst.” (Jn 6: 32-40) Then there is
more to your life than what you stuff in your face, your life is Christ the
Bread from heaven. Therefore seek him
first!
If
Christ Jesus is your Raiment: the fulfillment of the law in precept and penalty—all
your Righteousness; if you have been justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Rom 3: 24); if the Spirit of God has quickened
you and given faith to believe that Christ has made propitiation—atonement,
pardon, reconcillation—for you (Rom 3: 25) so that right now there is no
condemnation for you, because Christ has condemned death for his children by
dying under the curse of the law for us. Then your life is more than the
clothes on your back it is the raiment of Christ’s righteousness. The life is
more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.
I. WHEN IT COMES TO OUR FOOD-V24: Consider the
ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn;
and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
Believer,
you are worth much more to God than an old crow? We are no better by nature. But like the old
crow is fed by God from what someone else planted and harvested so we are fed
by of God by the work Christ did.
The
raven does not sow. We were dead in trespasses and in sins—we had nothing to
sow with. But God provides for the crow
from another’s hand and God has provided for us by the hand of Christ—the Seed
of Abraham has been sown into our hearts. So then God shall provide temporal
food: opening every door, dropping every crumb from the Master’s table, he
shall see to it that his seed is never found begging bread.
The old
crow does not reap and by nature we could not reap—we brought forth fruit unto
death. But God provides for the crow by
another’s hand and God has provided for us giving us the harvest Christ wrought
for us—full acceptance with God—what a harvest!
So Christ is able to make the harvest of temporal food to abound to meet
our needs.
By nature we have no storehouses—but God feeds the crow
out of his storehouse and God has feed us from his abundance of free grace.
II. CONSIDER THE HEALTH OF OUR BODIES—V25: And
which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
By
taking thought—worrying, being anxious—can you make food nourish your body? Can
you keep yourself from getting sick? Or can you add one minute to your life? No. Yet,
Christ says these are matters of least difficulty for him to take care of.
Luke 12: 26: If ye then be not able to do
that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
He is
not saying we should not take care of our bodies. We should eat good food,
exercise and so on. But do not put the health of your body before the health
and nourishment of your soul—feed the inner man first.
This we
cannot do if we are worried over these other things. But if we must depend upon God to do that
which is least, also depend upon God to do the rest. If we trust God, we can
spend less time worrying about our needs, and we can focus our hearts on
Christ, his word, his gospel, on walking in communion with him.
III. CONSIDER OUR RAIMENT—V27: Consider the
lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you,
that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
We are like
the flower—“all flesh is grass.” How do wildflowers grow? They toil not and spin not—the flower does no
anxiously labor and fret; they do not run about from here to there all in a
tissy, they are fixed.
The
flowers beauty is not manufactured, not man-made. It is not the adorning of
gold and silver and clothing but all is God given. Yet, Solomon, in all his glorious, man-made
apparel could not compare with the beauty of one of the wildflowers which God
adorns.
Now, if
we watch the flowers throughout the day we get the Lord’s point. How do they get
their beauty from God? In the morning
they all point east as God’s sun arises with healing in his wings. At midday they all point up to soak up the
light of God’s sun. In the evening they
all point west to get every last ray of light from God’s sun.
Luke 12:
28: If then God so clothe the grass, [after
this manner] which is to day in the
field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe
you, O ye of little faith?
Brethren,
if you would be arrayed in true beauty, spend every waking hour looking less
toward the beauty you put on by your toiling and spinning and spend more time
looking to God’s Son, the Lord Jesus. God’s Son will adorn you freely with
beauty which excels any beauty you can get from diamonds and other raiment.
1 Peter
3: 3: Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the
hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 4: But let it be
the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great
price.
IV. AND BE NOT LIKE THE WORLD—V29: And seek not
ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30:
For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father
knoweth that ye have need of these things.
The worldly
man lives to eat and drink and his mind is full of doubts and worries about
earthly things. God our Father chose us
in Christ to be holy from this world. God
the Son poured out his blood to redeem us from the bondage of this world which
is a slave to worldly things. God the
Holy Spirit sanctified us from this flesh in the new birth, purging our
conscious from dead worthless, works of the flesh such as these. Believer, you have a Father in heaven with
all power in heaven and earth and all deep places to provide everything you
need. And your Father knoweth that
ye have need of these things. So Christ
says seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of
doubtful mind like the worldling.
Luke 12: 31: But rather seek ye the kingdom
of God; [Matthew wrote, “Seek ye FIRST, preeminently,
the kingdom of God”] and all these
things shall be added unto you.
In
everything the Master has said this is the point: have our minds set
preeminently on Christ and on his brethren—rather than coveting earthly things.
And as you do, know, that God shall provide all the things you need.
Luke 12: 32: Fear not, little flock; for it
is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
We are
a little flock—but we have a mighty and faithful Shepherd. It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you
the kingdom.
The man
in the beginning was troubled because it was not his earthly father’s good pleasure to give him the
inheritance. His father gave it all to
his brother. And his brother would not
divide the inheritance with him.
But our
heavenly Father gave the whole inheritance to our Elder Brother Christ Jesus
and it was our Father’s good pleasure for Christ to divide it all with those
for whom he died---and “the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in Christ’s
hand.”
Isaiah 53: 12: Therefore will I divide him a portion
with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath
poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and
he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Romans 8: 15 For
ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,
that we are the children of God: 17: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God,
and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we
may be also glorified together.
Epheians
1: 11: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will:
Do you believe God?
Or are we like the rich young ruler.
By his works of righteousness, he coveted Christ’s glory because Christ
is the one by whose obedience his people are made righteous. And he coveted his riches more than Christ’s
brethren. He loved his righteousness
rather than Christ. And he loved his riches rather than Christ’s brethren. Therefore,
he could not heed Christ’s command. Can
we? If we believe Christ we will love
our brethren. This is what we will do.
Luke 12:
33
Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not
old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth,
neither moth corrupteth. 34: For where your treasure is, there will your heart
be also.
The
treasure of the believer is Christ in heaven.
Our treasure in earth are those for whom Christ died, our brethren. Therefore, believing Christ has provided us
all Righteousness and shall provide all lesser needs, we freely, cheerful give
to help our needy brethren: for the furtherance of the gospel and for their
temporal needs.
One of
the ways our Lord provides our needs so we can all keep our focus on Christ is
through our brethren. He always has saints believing him so as to help take
care of those fretting and doubting. Thus when we are the one doubting, he
makes us see that he indeed does provide. Once again he strengthens us in faith
so that when that brother who helped us is in need, we can help him.
Do you
see how faith and love are united together in what the Lord Jesus is teaching
us?
1 John 3:23: And this is his commandment, That we should
believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us
commandment.
1 Timothy 6: 17: Charge them that are rich in this world,
that they be not HIGHMINDED, NOR trust in UNCERTAIN RICHES [be not highminded
in the riches of self-righteousness nor trust in earthly treasure which moth
and rust and thieves destroy] BUT IN THE LIVING GOD, who GIVETH us RICHLY ALL
THINGS to ENJOY; 18 That they DO GOOD,
that they be RICH IN GOOD WORKS, READY TO DISTRIBUTE, WILLING TO COMMUNICATE;
19: LAYING UP IN STORE FOR THEMSELVES A
GOOD FOUNDATION against the time to come, that they may LAY HOLD ON ETERNAL
LIFE.
Luke 12: 35: Let your loins be girded about,
and your lights burning; 36 And
ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from
the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
37 Blessed are those servants,
whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that
he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth
and serve them.
Brethren,
this is our inheritance which surpasses in value all the riches of this world
combined. One day we shall sit at
Christ’s table in his kingdom and he will serve us. Simply put, it means we
shall each one have everlasting, eternal communion with our God and
Savior.
·
Seek Christ first—he is the true Bread
·
Seek Christ first—he is our raiment of
Righteousness
·
Seek Christ first—the beauty he adorns you
with is better than any man-made adornment.
·
Seek the good of those in need, especially
those for whom Christ died.
·
This is what it is to seek first the kingdom
of God.
·
He shall provide every other need.
May the
Spirit of God make this word of our Redeemer effectual in our hearts to do his
will.
Amen!