Think of it this way. Life is a gift from God. There's no question about that. Life is a gift from God. If God gives you the greater gift, which is life, Do you think he'll not give you the lesser gift which is the sustaining of that life?
food. Of course.
So don't worry about that. Yeah. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. From time to time, maybe you've had the thought, if I just had a little more money in the bank, if my paycheck was just a little bigger each month, my worries would be over.
But as savings and salary go up, do financial worries really go down? Consider that today on Grace to You as John MacArthur continues a look at biblical principles that we all need to be reminded of on a regular basis. The title of his study, What Did Jesus Really Say About Financial Worry?
So if you're able, follow along now in Matthew chapter six as John begins the lesson. Matthew chapter 6 verses 25 To 34.
Now you'll notice in the passage that an oft-repeated phrase is the theme. Be not anxious. In fact, it appears in here four times. Anxious is a word that simply means to worry. Don't worry.
That is the heart and the soul of the passage. The Lord is calling for us to cease from worrying. He gives three reasons why he shouldn't worry. Number one, it's unnecessary because of your father. Number two, it's uncharacteristic because of your faith.
And number three, it's unwise because of your future. Why you should never worry about finances, why you should never worry about the basics of life, why you should never worry about what you eat or drink or wear. It is unnecessary because of your father. And yet how Often. We fail to believe that God's going to provide for us, and we worry.
Anxiety is foolish. And the Lord gives three illustrations. One from food, one from the future, and one from fashion. Food, the future, and fashion. And these are related to him as our father.
First of all, the one on food, verse 26. This is really fabulous. I think the Lord is standing on the hillside there, up in Galilee, looking down over that beautiful north end of the sea. The breeze was rippling across. The sun was bright in the sky, the people were all gathered at his feet.
Lovely time of the year and a lovely place to be. And I've stood there myself several times. And I think as he was speaking to them, Some birds flew across. One writer said that the north part of the area of Galilee. Is the is the crossroads of bird migration.
It's a very special place where the birds migrate in that part of the world. And Jesus. probably saw them fly by and he said in verse 26, behold, Look. The birds of the air. Very common.
They don't sew. And they don't reap, and they don't gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Listen. Every bird that lives in this world lives because God gave it life, right?
God gave life to every bird. And if God gives life to a bird, He doesn't say, All right, bird, I've done my thing, I've given you life, now you figure out how to keep it. No, birds don't get together and say, no, we've got to come up with a strategy to keep ourselves alive. Birds have no self-consciousness, no cognitive processes, no ability to reason, but God planted within birds something called instinct so that birds. are planted If you will.
With a divine capacity to find what is necessary to live. God doesn't just create life, He creates life and then sustains life. In Job, for example, chapter 38 and verse 41, it says, Who provideth for the ravens his food when his young ones cry unto God? In other words, when the little birds cry unto God, isn't that interesting? The little birds actually look to God, the Creator.
Says Job. It is God the Creator who gives the mother the instinct to bring the food. It is God the Creator who gave the mother the instinct to build the nest. and to migrate to a new area at the exact and precise time. To the young ravens which cry out, he gives food, says Psalm 147, verse 9.
God feeds the birds through the process of their own instinct. And the Bible calls it crying out to God. It says the birds cry out to God.
Now, if God's going to take care of irrational birds. Who cry out to him through their instinct? Is not God going to take care of his own children? At the end of verse 26, are you not much better than birds? Arthur Pink said.
Here we may see how the irrational creatures, made subject to vanity by the sin of man, come nearer to their first estate and better observe the order of nature in their creation than man does. For they seek only for that which God has provided for them, and when they receive it, they're content. This solemnly demonstrates that man is more corrupt than other creatures, more vile and more base than even the brute beasts. Birds God takes care of. Don't you think he'll take care of you?
Now, by the way, this is not an excuse for idleness. He says in 26, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, but your heavenly father feeds them. And somebody says, Oh, that's the idea. I'm just going to stand out there on the edge of a tree with my mouth open.
Now listen, it never rains worms. Never. Birds, God feeds through an instinct that tells them where to find that food. And they go for it. They work for it.
They're busy searching around. Gobbling up little insects, worms, preparing their nests, caring for their young, teaching them to fly, pushing them out at the right time, migrating with the seasons. They They work hard. All this work is to be done if they're going to eat, and yet they do it by instinct. And they never overdo it.
They don't say, I'm going to build bigger nests. I'm going to store more worms. I'm going to say to myself, bird, eat, drink, and be merry. They work within the framework of God's design for them. And they never overindulge themselves.
Birds only get fat when People put them in cages. Birds don't overdo a good thing. It's men who have enough and they go for more and they stockpile and they stuff and they hoard. and they ignore God's priorities and his promises and they forfeit the carefree heart. The birds just fly.
They don't worry where they're going to find the food, they just fly until they find it. And God provides it, and birds can't plan ahead. And birds have no reason to worry. And if birds don't have any reason to worry, what are you worrying for? Are you not much better than a bird?
How silly. How silly. You don't think he'll feed you? Listen, no bird was ever created in the image of Christ. No bird.
No bird was ever made in the image of God. No bird. No bird is ever designed to be an Joint air with Jesus Christ throughout eternity. No bird ever has a place prepared for him in heaven in the Father's house. No bird.
And if God sustains the life of a bird, You think he'll take care of you? Think of it this way. Life is a gift from God. There's no question about that. Life is a gift from God.
If God gives you the greater gift, which is life, Do you think he'll not give you the lesser gift which is the sustaining of that life? Buy food? Course.
So don't worry about that. If God lays it upon my heart to take my resources that I have right now, that I've planned for the future, and he says, John, in my heart, I want you to do this with all of that. I don't have any right to say, but Lord, if I do that, what am I going to do tomorrow? I won't have any food or anything to clothe my children. Wait a minute.
If God asks for this now, it becomes his responsibility to feed me tomorrow. And he will. If he gave me the greater gift of life, will he not give me the lesser gift to sustain that life? The gift of food? And so I, like a bird, have to work.
God has designed that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his what? Of his brow. And if I don't work, I don't... Eek. Paul Singh.
So, just like the bird, God provides but through instinct, so man, God provides through his effort. And if God gives me the gift of life, then God will sustain me. Martin Luther said, God wants nothing to do with the lazy, gluttonous bellies. He was pretty vivid. Who are neither concerned nor busy, they act as if they just had to sit and wait for him to drop a roasted goose into their mouth.
That isn't what he's saying. He's not saying, do nothing. He's saying through your effort God will provide.
Now, people say, oh, yes, but we're running out of resources. I hear this all the time: the world has no food. And listen, there's so much food in this world. God is always in the business of an abundance. Did you know that?
An abundance. There's plenty of food. God will provide. as we're faithful. to believe his word.
So The thought is simple then. You should never worry about Your food? Because it is unnecessary. Because of your father. He provides food.
Then he takes a second illustration. I call it the future. Verse 27. I think this is kind of graphic. Which of you by worrying can add one cubit unto his stature.
Now a qubit It was the distance from your elbow to the tip of your finger. And it's approximately 18 inches, give or take, depending on the individual, but about 18 inches a cubit.
Now The verse says, which of you by worrying can add one cubit? And the King James says unto your stature, well, frankly, folks, nobody would want to add a foot and a half to his stature. I'd be 7-10 and that would be a little unnecessary.
So there's a better way to translate the word stature, Elikia. And that is the word is used sometimes to mean span of life. And what he's really saying is, which of you by worrying can lengthen your life? Listen, not only will you not lengthen your life by worrying, you'll probably what? Shorten it.
You can't lengthen your life. You know, but boy, we live in a day when everybody wants to do that. I mean people are in a panic delivery in their life. I mean we're a wacko about vitamins. And health spas.
And exercise. We're cultic about the body, beautiful. We were coming to church this morning, and I looked out of the window of the car, and here was this little old granny. I mean, she was up in her 60s, late 60s. And she had on her little jogging shorts.
And then she had on little jogging shoes and what looked like a road map going down both legs, you know. She was old. And she had a little visor on, and she was huffing and puffing. down the street. I mean, she was going to lengthen those years.
She'd have been better off to get in her car and come to Grace Church. Because the spiritual is the issue.
Now, I believe God has determined the times of the nations and bounded the life of a man. And I believe that God has designed how long we live. You say, are you saying exercise is useless? No, as long as I'm going to live, I'd like to increase the quality of my life. And if I get exercise, I function better, my brain works better, and I'm happier, and I'm in control of things.
But I'm not going to kid myself that by running down the street every day, I'm going to force God to let me live longer. I mean, when the plan says, MacArthur, you're out and somebody else is in, I'm out. And so Our world has missed the point. I mean, we spend a literal fortune joining spas. Buying vitamins by the tons, incredible.
Visiting every doctor in sight to get a physical, every special diet conceivable. And all we want to do is lengthen our life the fear of death. Don't want to die. Want to live longer and longer and longer, and you worry and worry, and instead of going that way, you're going this way. And you're going to make yourself miserable in the process.
Charles Mayo at the Mayo Clinic said, Worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands, and the whole nervous system, and I never met a man. or knew a man to die of overwork. But I've sure known a lot who died of worry. You can worry yourself to death, but you're never going to worry yourself to life. And yet that's what people do.
And when you worry about how long your life is, and when you fret and fume about how long you're going to live, and when you worry about adding on to your life, you are distrusting God, and that's foolish because God, if you give Him your life and you're obedient to Him, will give you the fullness of days. I believe that the gift of life is a gift that comes because God wants you to live for spiritual reasons. In the Old Testament, it was obedience that lengthened life. It was obedience that God promised to give long life. And so as we live a righteous life, there's a reason for us to be around.
So God gives us life. And where is children? And he bounds our life by his sovereign decree. And he wants us to live that life to its fullest. And sure, exercise helps, and health helps because it keeps us alert and alive to the limits of our capacity while we're living that span.
But we can't worry ourselves into a longer life. What are you worried about? You're going to live the fullness of life if you're obedient to God. He'll give you all your days. All your days The third thing.
The third illustration of the first point. The first point is it's unnecessary because of your father. And the first illustration is food, and the second is the future or the length of life, and the third is fashion. And this is very graphic and it really hits us all. There are some people who live for their clothes.
The most important place in their whole world is the closet. The classic. They go in there and they open the door and phew. You know, just It's so jammed together you can't keep it from getting wrinkled. The closet.
They live for clothes. Verse 28, and why are you anxious for raiment?
Now, in those times, if you were really poor and you didn't have any resources and the streams dried up and the crops didn't come and you got no money, you couldn't buy anything. And in our day, maybe it isn't that we're so worried that we can't have anything, but in our society, we worry about the fact that maybe what we wear isn't really what's in. Uh I mean, you hear the kids, I can't wear that, mother. They don't, the pants don't go like that anymore. Or you wear that.
I can't wear that. I wore that last Tuesday. People live for clothes. They manifest a carnal, selfish, worldly, materialistic care for clothes. It isn't so much that they are afraid they'll have nothing to wear it's that they'll they're afraid they won't be able to stand up and look their best and Feed their pride.
Lusting after costly clothes is a sin, and it's a sin in our society. All you have to do is walk through a mall. It's it's unbelievable how much stuff is hanging on those racks. Unbelievable. I don't know how those stores can sustain the inventory.
We've made a god out of fashion. We sinfully indulge in a money-mad spending spree to buy ourselves things that drape all over this body and have nothing to do with the beauty of the character. That's why in 1 Peter chapter 3, it says that We're to be adorned with things, not gold and plating and braiding and fancy garments, but the heart. And we worry we don't have enough, we don't look good enough. When the Lord Jesus, who owned only what he wore on his back, was the loveliest who ever lived.
And he speaks to the issue. Look what he says in verse 28. Consider The lilies of the field. Take a look at the field lilies. Look at them.
Now, if you were to look at the field lilies, you'd say, well, what are they?
Well, there's a lot of discussion about this, but the best thing is this: that they're no particular flower at all. That field lilies is just a general term for all of the wildflowers that grace the rolling hills of Galilee. And there were many. There were the anemones and there were the gladiolas and the iris and the narcissi and what they called the little cap lilies that were such lovely little things. And all of these flowers were all over those hillsides.
They even had what I think It might be the prettiest of all, little scarlet-colored poppies that would grow for such a brief season. But the hillsides of Galilee at the right time of year would be dotted with all the brightness of these lovely flowers. And there's such a wondrous beauty about a flower. He says, take a look at the field lilies. I'm sure he just turned his arm as they were sitting right there on the grass, right on the grass on the side of the hill.
And he said, look at the field lilies. Look at them.
Uh uh they don't And they don't toil, they don't make fancy thread and hang it all over them. And say, I've been scarlet. For two days, I think I'd like to be blue tomorrow. You know, I read recently where people have gone into business and you go there for a consultation and they tell you what colors you should wear. Did you hear Reid?
Yeah, they give you a chart. You're a definite this bracket thing, and you go out and buy all of that color, and it brings out your lips, and your eyes, and your hair, and your. you know Look at the little flowers in the field, he says. They don't bother to spin and they don't bother to toil over it. There's a free and an easy beauty.
And I'll tell you, you can take the glorious material, the most beautiful thing that was ever made for the greatest monarch like Solomon, and put it under a microscope and it'll look like sackcloth. And you take the petal of a flower and put it under a microscope, and you'll see the difference. I've seen plastic flowers. I've seen Silk flowers, I've seen paper flowers. I've never seen anything come close to the petal of a flower.
Nothing. Nothing. There's a texture and a form and a design and a substance and a color that man with all of his ingenuity can't even touch. How do they grow? He says.
How do they grow? Easily, freely. Gorgeously, effortlessly they flourish. Oh, the stupidity of pride in your dress. It's an indictment of our day.
We spend so much time and effort, and they keep changing the fashion on us all the time. You know that? Just, you know, this is out and this is in, and it goes so fast that you cannot keep up with it. You know, say, oh, you can't wear that tie. That's a thick tie.
There's thin ties in there. I just watch what's going on and pull out the old batch. Right? But they keep changing it on us to force us to be preoccupied. And you go into a store, you go into a store, a clothing store, a department store, and it is literally an assault on your mind and your eyes, isn't it?
Oh, look at that one. And they're, boy, they're everywhere. And they got spotlights on them like it was some fabulous. Things. Just, it's an enticement to the lust to have and possess.
And when you got it all on, folks, and you've dialed up and done the best you can with what you got to work with. You're not close to a flower.
Now I'm not saying look seedy and tacky. That's a negative distraction, makes people think you have no care for yourself. But I am saying you can lose your sense of perspective. And when you get all said and done, You're one step short of real beauty. that only God can give.
Verse 29. He says, look. Even Solomon. And Solomon was the greatest and the richest and the wisest in all his glory. was not a raid.
like a wildflower. He had no garment with that texture. He had no way to approximate the fragile Beauty. incredible design. of a flower.
And what he's saying is when you've done it all to yourself, You can't do what God can do with one little tiny flower. Why do you spend such an effort? for such a result. And then he makes the point from the lesser to the greater in verse 30. Wherefore?
If God so clothed the grass of the field, And the grass here, by the way, compasses all the flowers and the grass, all that grows on the field. On the hillside. If God does that for the flowers and the grass of the hillside, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown in the oven. Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? You know what they used to do with that old grass?
The women in that part of the world had these little hearth Situations where they cooked and they had a fire. And they had an oven, which was basically a thick For clay oven. Made all the way around the little door. And they would build a fire and they would take this thick earthen oven and they would place it on top of the fire. And they would let the fire heat that earth until finally it would seep in and heat the inside.
And then they'd open the door and put in whatever they wanted to cook. But if the fire had grown low, or they were in a kind of a hurry and they couldn't wait for all the heat to get inside, they would start a fire on the inside of that little oven. And the historians tell us that they had a very simple way of doing it. They would go into the field and they would find the dried grass that had become brittle. They'd find the flowers that had died and fallen over.
And they would gather the little stalks of the flowers and the grass, and they would use that. Putting it into the oven. And lighting it on fire to start a fire on the inside that would move out, that would meet the fire coming from the outside to evenly warm the oven. That is exactly what our Lord is saying. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven.
Shall he not much more clothe you? Oh, ye have little faith, Don't worry about what you wear. Don't worry about how long you live. Don't worry about what you're going to eat and drink. God takes care of all that.
That's his category. A God who would lavish such beauty on a flower of a day. Will he not lavish Necessary clothing. On one who is his eternal child. Beloved, this is practical stuff, you know that?
Really practical stuff. The Bible and what the Lord says here is not pie in the sky. He will give you food, he will give you clothing. He will determine the length of your life. and sustain it.
That's very tangible stuff. You have no grounds for financial worry. If your heart is right. The key is you seek first verse 33. The kingdom of God.
and his righteousness. And all this stuff will be added. The key is you put your heart and your treasure in heaven, and God will take care of all the earthly things. You know, I just believe in my heart that I don't want to give. One Minute a day thinking about physical, mundane, earthly things.
God's going to take care of that. Said the wildflower to the sparrow, I should really like to know why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so.
Well, said the sparrow to the wildflower, friend, I think that it must be that they have no heavenly father such as cares for you and me. Maybe we ought to learn from the birds and the flowers how to live life. The sum of it is clear. Jesus says. Don't worry.
It is unnecessary. Because of your Father. Let's pray. Lord, we do not want to be those of little faith. We do not want to be those.
who don't believe. We want to be those who are Free. Free to soar the heights, free to walk in the heavenlies. Free to invest in eternity. Because we Take no thought.
for what we eat or drink. or with what we shall be clothed. That's your area. Thank you for that. Speak to each heart.
And make application, Lord. Where it's needed. May we, each of us, come to a practical way in which we can implement what you've taught us today. In Christ's name. Amen.
You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current series is titled, What Did Jesus Really Say About Financial Worry?
Well, finances are certainly one of the major reasons for stress in our lives, but money isn't the only area that we might worry about.
So to help you keep worry in check and to cultivate a lasting attitude of contentment, we want to send you a free copy of John's booklet titled Anxiety-Free Living. It provides practical help for dealing with even the most difficult trials. If you'd like a copy, just ask for it. It's yours with our compliments. The title again, Anxiety-Free Living.
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Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. Be back tomorrow when John MacArthur continues to help you deal with money worries. It's another half hour of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on grace to you.
