“Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
In
speaking from these words I propose to consider:
I.
WHAT WE SHOULD UNDERSTAND BY THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
II.
WHAT IS MEANT BY THE INJUNCTION TO SEEK THIS FIRST.
III.
POINT OUT SOME OF THE REASONS WHY THIS SHOULD BE DONE.
IV.
NOTICE THE MEANING OF THE ANNEXED PROMISE, “ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED TO
YOU.”
I.
WHAT SHOULD WE UNDERSTAND BY THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
This
kingdom is not an outward and visible kingdom.
The true kingdom of God “comes not with observation”, as Christ said,
but it is a spiritual kingdom set up in the hearts of His people. It consists in establishing His dominion in
their hearts. “The kingdom of God is
within you.” (Luke 17:21) Although an outward and visible Church
expresses this kingdom on earth, the kingdom intended here is not a visible
Church, but an internal and spiritual kingdom.
By the righteousness of God, we will understand these two things: First,
the method by which He pardons and justifies us, and second, the way in which
He makes us personally holy. Faith in
Jesus Christ is God’s method of justifying us and bringing us into a state of
acceptance with Himself, and faith in Christ is also God’s method of making us
personally holy. It is the faith that
works by love; for this faith, from its very nature, purifies our heart.
II.
WHAT IS MEANT BY THE INJUNCTION TO SEEK THIS FIRST?
Let
me say here, we must understand that the injunction means: 1) that we must make
this the first business on our agenda, and we can’t allow anything else to take
precedence. 2) There is nothing more
important than this. We must not
consider anything equal or more important than this. 3) This implies that religion is to be the great business of our
future lives; that it is always to be considered as the most important thing to
attend to, and our first concern of life.
This leads me to consider and point out:
III.
SOME OF THE REASONS WHY THIS IS TRUE.
First,
let me say that God cannot accept anything else from us until we do this. As long as we neglect this great salvation,
as long as we have not secured our justification by faith in Christ; as long,
indeed, as we are not interested in this kingdom of God by actually embracing
it, and receiving its laws into our hearts, nothing that we do can be
acceptable to God. We can’t fulfill any
requirement of God until we have done this, and He can accept nothing from us
until we have done this for “whatever is not of faith is sin”. Whatever does not imply faith in us is sin,
and therefore, as long as we neglect this as of primary importance, nothing
that we do can be acceptable to God.
People may have all the outward forms of morality and goodness, but if
they have neglected this, no matter what they do, God will not accept
them. He will not and cannot accept us
if we are putting that last what He has put first, and we put first what He has
put last. God requires us to put
seeking His kingdom first, and if we do not put things in the order which He
has commanded, if we do not make this our great business, the first and most
important business of our lives, why, nothing that we do is acceptable to God.
Let
me say, not only is nothing acceptable to God, but seeking God is our most
important business, and it should, therefore, claim our first attention. I say that this is our most important
business! What can compare with its
importance to us as individuals? Why,
if we secure an interest in this kingdom of God, if we become subjects of this
government, whatever else we fail to secure is of little importance. Whatever else we don’t secure we will hardly
regret in the future; but if we do not secure this, whatever else we do secure
will only increase our responsibility and our guilt.
People
should understand this, that nothing is of any real importance to us unless it
is connected with this as an end, and enables us to obey this command more
effectively. Now, if we regard anything
to be important to us that is not related to seeking God’s kingdom, we
completely pervert things. But, let me
say again, that this is most important, not only to ourselves, but also to our
families, most important to all who have any relationships with us, and have
any claims on us. Who does not understand
and believe this? Now, suppose a man
neglects God and religion for the sake of his family. Does he really benefit his family by doing this? No, indeed!
The real and best interests of his family require that he should first
pay attention to this great requirement of God. Who can doubt this? No
man truly helped his family by not obeying God. Such a thing never was and never can be; and by neglecting to
make religion his first duty, who can tell how much his family may have to suffer?
It
is more important to a man’s creditors.
If a man disobeys God, God’s curse is on him and on all that he does and
has; but if he obeys God, he may expect a blessing on his business; and if a
man seeks to please God, he is sure to be an honest man. If a man owes me money, and that man seeks
to obey and please God, I have reason to believe that he will be enabled to pay
me sooner than if he did not regard the commands of God at all. Therefore, even if I were a selfish man, I
should say to my debtor, “Whatever else you do, don’t neglect to obey God, don’t
neglect your duty to Him”. It is most
important to our neighbors, our friends and connections, everyone around us,
the world at large, and the Church of God, that we should not neglect to regard
religion as the first, great, and principal business of our life. Who can doubt this? No one who believes in the reality of
religion can doubt it! No person, who
believes that God governs the world, can doubt it!
Another
reason is that it is most dangerous to neglect this business. It is more dangerous to neglect this than
anything else. Why, suppose we
neglected everything else, what then?
Why, it would be an evil in some sense, but, in comparison, it would be
no evil at all. Who does not believe,
that it is infinitely dangerous for a man to neglect his eternal
salvation? And if he does not give this
first place in his life, he may never attend to it at all, and every moment he
delays increases his danger of dying, or being given up by the Spirit of God! Why, there is nothing so dangerous in the
universe, as for a man to put religion off, or to not put it first. Suppose he should gain the whole world and
lose his own soul, what value would the whole world be to him? All other dangers are nothing in comparison
with this!
It
is not only most dangerous to ourselves, but as far as we sustain relations to
anybody else, it is most dangerous to them.
The fact is, if we neglect this great business, if we neglect to make
religion our great principal business, we jeopardize their souls as well as our
own, and often bring down on them the curse of God as the result of our
neglect. Who does not know that this is
true?
Another
reason is that if we will neglect this, we must inevitably lose our souls. “How shall we escape,” says the apostle, “if
we neglect so great a salvation”? Men
don’t have to do a lot to ruin themselves; their ruin is inevitable if they
neglect to take the salvation that God has provided for them. Let them be good wives, good husbands, good
parents, good children, good citizens, say prayers, go to church, and give
money to send the Gospel to the heathen.
Let them do anything else in the world, if they neglect this salvation
in such a sense that they don’t make it the great business of their lives, they
will lose their souls! There is a deadly
error on this subject, or else the Bible is not true. There is a deadly error on this subject, or else our own natures
lie to us. Our own natures affirm that
sin is an evil from which we ought to escape.
We should make it the most earnest and solemn business of our lives; and
the Bible tells us to run for our lives, to “so run that you may obtain”, “so
fight that you may obtain”, “gird up your loins”, address yourselves to it as
if you were about to make it the great present and perpetual business of your
life.
Now,
don’t think that I am critical if I tell you that the great majority of
professing Christians are not making this the great business of their
lives! It seems as if they attend to it
just enough to entertain a hope that they shall be saved, but they never attend
to it in such a sense as to manifest much solemn earnestness about it. The fact is, such people know nothing at all
about religion, and the natural result will be that they will lose their
souls! They never get rid of their sins. They never become sanctified, and therefore,
they never become fit for heaven.
Honestly, a great many people seem to think that they can live in sin
until death, and then all at once they will become sanctified and prepared for
heaven.
Now,
the Bible never says that death will sanctify men, or that they will go to
heaven even if they are not sanctified in this world, by the renewing of the
Holy Ghost because of their belief in the Gospel. Many professing Christians don’t understand the phrase; “the kingdom
of God and His righteousness”. They
regard the righteousness of God as imputed, not imparted righteousness. They imagine that somehow or other, the
righteousness of Christ can be dumped into them without their being personally
holy. They don’t come into sympathy
with God. They neglect to have this
kingdom of God established in their hearts.
God’s government has no dominion over them. How, then, do they expect to get to heaven? What can they understand by the phrase, “the
kingdom of God and His righteousness”, which they are required to make it the
business of their lives to seek?
It
is better to leave everything else undone than to leave this undone. How memorable and decisive are Christ’s
teachings concerning this. He will not
allow us to be anxious about other subjects.
Nothing is to take precedence over this. When one said to Jesus, “Let me first go and bury my father”, Jesus
said to him, “Let the dead bury their dead”.
(Matt 8:21-22) Your own father,
and the duties you owe to him as father, must not stand in the way of your
seeking eternal life. “Seek first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness”, nothing should be allowed to take precedence
over this!
Now
is the only sure time that we have, therefore, we should make this our immediate
and first concern RIGHT NOW. The Bible
always says NOW! “TODAY, if you will
hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
(Hebrews 3:7-8) Why? Because you may die, or if you don’t die the
Holy Spirit might abandon you!
Every
moment's delay makes the matter worse!
Every moment's delay increases your sins, increases the hardness of your
heart, and increases the probability that you will be lost. If you continue to reject the great
salvation that is offered, you may soon come into such a state that the truth
will no longer affect your minds and hearts.
Your conscience will become “seared as with a hot iron”, and your words
will constantly be, whenever the truth is spoken, “When I have a more
convenient season I will call for You”.
And it is almost certain that that season will never come, because the
longer you delay, the more hardened you will become. If you are not ready to make this the business of your life
today, chances are that you will lose your soul!
Let
me say, procrastination is another great evil.
Perhaps this form of iniquity has lost more souls than any other. The devil is constantly suggesting reasons
for delay, reasons why you should not obey God, and give your whole heart to
Him. Satan’s plan is not to try to make
infidels of you, but he suggests that the present is not the time to attend to
your souls; remember that if you listen to his suggestions, procrastinate, put
off your concern for your soul, you may be lost, and are almost sure to
be.
Unrepentant
people, even religious people, are constantly in danger from the fact that
there are so few people that are serious about this subject: they are in great
danger of not feeling the unspeakable need of a present and solemn earnestness
on this great subject. With respect to
professing Christians, unless you make it the great business of your lives, you
are a great cause of stumbling to those around you and you are misleading them
in a most effective manner. You are
saying by your works that there is no need to make this the great and solemn
business of your life; that there is no need to be particularly anxious about
your soul.
Another
reason why you should attend to this first, in the sense I have explained
today, is that you will never effectively attend to it at all, until you come
to that place where you make it your number one priority. When you consent to postpone anything until
tomorrow, it will never be attended to effectively, and you will be continually
misleading those around you. I suppose
that all of you intend to make this the most serious business of your lives
sometime. Let it, then, be your first
business from this moment, or you may lose your souls. I have known many cases where people
suddenly realized that this was true, that they were likely to lose their souls
because they did not come to the place where they obey God by seeking his
kingdom first.
In
religious revivals, I have seen many cases, where people finally felt, that if
they procrastinated any longer, they would lose their souls, and they resolved
that nothing should hinder them, that nothing should grab their attention or
stand in the way of giving themselves up to attend to it. I could share many instances where people
became aware of this, when the providence of God aroused them from their sleepy
state, and grabbed their attention. In
such cases, they made up their minds that nothing should, by any means, stand
in their way; that nothing should, by any means, be allowed to hinder them
making religion the great business of their life. I will mention one fact. A lawyer, who had a large legal practice, had been awakened in a
revival; he went to his office with a resolution to attend to his soul at the
risk of neglecting everything else. As
soon as he had reached his office, some individuals called on important
business, to whom he had promised his assistance. “Gentlemen”, he said, “I can’t attend to your business now, I
must first attend to my soul; I have neglected this business too long already,
that if I allow myself to neglect it any longer, I will lose my soul for all
eternity. Will you excuse me for a
while, or get someone else to attend to your business”? They left the office, and took their papers
with them. He stayed alone in the
office, resolving that he would not leave until he had given his heart to God;
and the fact is, that he did give his heart to God, and found peace.
My
dear listeners, what an awful game you have been playing with your souls, if
you have been neglecting the business that God sent you into this world to
attend to. He made it your great,
solemn, and only business, and yet you have neglected it. I say that the care of your soul is your
only business, to which all other things are only helps; and are you attending
to this great business, or are you neglecting it, and thus traveling down the
road to ruin? God is speaking to you by
His word, by His Spirit, and by His ministers, saying, “Seek first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness”! This is
the errand that God has sent you into the world, and you have allowed yourselves
to neglect it! Have you been wandering
around and forgetting the errand on which you were sent? Did your Father commit a soul to you, and
tell you to take care of it; and are you running about thinking of everything
but taking care of it, and by so doing disobeying your Father, and ruining yourselves? Now, is it not true that you have been
acting foolishly and wickedly? Oh,
think of your guilt in neglecting your soul and disobeying God, and resolve now
to procrastinate no longer!
If
someone totally neglected their physical affairs, refused to eat, wash, and
wear clothes, people would think that he’s mentally insane. But it’s moral insanity that makes people
neglect the business of their eternal salvation. It is madness in the heart.
Suppose a man neglects the most important part of his worldly business,
the neglect of which would ruin all his worldly prospects, why everybody would
say he was insane. Who can doubt
this? Now, what higher evidence can a
man give of insanity, who admits his guilt and danger in words, and yet
systematically neglects to save himself from ruin. If a man denies the whole matter, and says there is no truth in
the statement that he is in danger by his neglect, why, what higher evidence
could he give of being insane? Let any
one answer if he can!
IV.
Finally, let us look at the meaning of the annexed promise, “And all these things shall be added unto
you”. You notice in the context of our
passage, Christ is speaking about worldly things. He tells us not to be anxious about these things at all, but to
let our anxieties be about the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and when
we do, all these worldly things that He is referring to shall be added unto
us. The word ‘added’, here means thrown
in, something added over and above.
Now, what Christ means to say is this: that it is unnecessary that we
should be anxious about worldly things, because, if we seek first “the kingdom
of God and His righteousness”, He will see that we are fully supplied with what
we need in relation to our bodies. Let
the great business of our lives be spiritual concerns, and He will take care
that we need concerning physical matters.
The promise is, that if we give our supreme attention to spiritual
matters, our physical needs will be supplied.
A
few remarks must conclude what I have to say.
First,
from what I’ve said, it is clear that we can all very well afford to obey God
in this respect, for He will take care of our temporal needs, if we will only
pay supreme attention to our souls.
Therefore, we can very well afford to thoroughly obey God. You see, He has not placed us in such a position
that we must starve to death if we seek the salvation of our souls, that our
families must starve, or our fellow-creatures must suffer, or that the ruin of
our physical concerns must necessarily be the result of our determination to
attend to religion.
God
is infinitely kind to give us the assurance that He will take this obstacle out
of our way, if we will only attend to the salvation of our souls, and make
religion and the glory of God our number one priority. He very kindly says, “If you will take care
of your souls, I will take care of your bodies. You have an immortal soul to be saved, let My kingdom be set up
in your heart, seek your own salvation, work it out with fear and trembling,
and don’t be anxious about your body, for I will take care of that.”
I
have become acquainted with many interesting facts illustrating God’s care for
the physical interests of His devoted servants, for those who obey this
requirement. I also know a lot of cases
where people have said that they could not attend to religion without ruining
their worldly prospects. A barber, who
had been in the habit of shaving on Sunday, became awakened, began to reflect
on his sins, and felt the importance of attending to religion. He had a dilemma. A great many of his customers were ungodly men, who always came
to be shaved on Sunday. Therefore, he
did not see how he could close his shop on Sunday. Yet, how could he be a Christian, and not close his business on
the Sabbath? He spoke to his customers,
and many of them said, “If you close your shop on the Sabbath, we must go to
another barber”. He finally decided,
however, that he would rather to starve to death than disobey God. He decided to tell his customers that, from
now on, his shop would be closed on Sunday.
When he had fully resolved to do this, some of them asked if he would
shave them on Saturday night. “Oh, yes,
until midnight”, he replied. And he
did! He shaved until midnight on Saturday,
but steadfastly closed on the Sabbath.
I saw him some years later, and I asked him, “How are you getting
along?” “Why, sir”, he replied, “My
business has been better than ever; a great deal better”. This is only one of many similar instances
that I could mention, where individuals thought that they were about to
sacrifice everything by becoming religious, but, on the contrary, they’ve
received much benefit, sometimes receiving a hundred fold more in this present
life, plus the promise of life everlasting.
Let
me say that paying proper attention to business is really paying attention to religion. If you make your business God’s business,
transact it on right principles, and get your heart into a right state, so that
you do everything from religious motives, why, your business is then as much a
part of religion as praying and going to church is.
The
promise that God gives here is designed to leave men completely without excuse
for neglecting to attend to their eternal salvation.
Many
men reverse God’s order time wise, and instead of putting religion first, they
put it last. First place is given to
the world. All their attention is
focused on the pursuit of wealth. Those
people want to place themselves in a position to be independent of God; they
must get their fortune first, and then they will attend to religion. And then there are a great many people who
not only reverse God’s order time wise, but there are multitudes who reverse
the importance of God’s order. How remarkable
that many people think that they are religious, while they really place more
practical stress on the most trifling things around them, than they place on
the great questions of salvation. As a
result, they disobey God. Instead of
making religion the greatest and most important practical business, they make
it the least important. The people I am
talking about do not completely neglect it, but they pay so little attention to
it that everybody knows that they care very little about it, and do not rest on
it.
Those
who do not make religion their number one business, tempt God. Many souls are lost by tempting God in this
way; they are living worldly, selfish, and ungodly lives, and yet they try to
make themselves believe, and make the world believe, that they are going to
heaven in spite of what God has said to the contrary. They live in disobedience to God, but others claim they are
Christians, and these same people will proclaim that they died in the faith,
and these same people charitably hope that they went to heaven. It was Dr. Doddridge, I think, who so
extensively investigated the results of deathbed impressions. Out of two thousand people, who, when they
thought they were dying, expressed their faith in Christ, only two afterwards
gave evidence of true conversion. Don’t
trust deathbed repentances. “Seek first
the kingdom of God.” If you don’t do
this, you may never be saved at all.
A
great many people seem to say, “I don't care how many sins I commit, if I can
only get to heaven”. They go as far as
to think that they can continue in the service of the devil, and dishonoring
God; but let me tell you, if you put God’s arrangements out of order, the
probability is that your souls will be lost.
God says, “Put religion first”.
You say, “Not so, Lord, let me put it last; there’s so many other things
I need to do first”. God says, “Seek
this first”; and let me ask, is it not in your best interest to seek it
first? Then, if for that reason alone,
why don’t you seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first?
In
conclusion, let me ask you one question, Will all of you who are in this house
tonight, make up your minds now to seek this kingdom first, that it may be set
up in your hearts? Will you pray for
this? Will you make it your business to
pray? Will you begin tonight? Now that the Lord says, “Seek My face”, does
your heart reply, “Your face, Lord, I will seek”? If you delay, your soul may be ruined! Lost forever!