Priorities-03 Matt 6 — William MacDonald

Security and the Christian Life

I've been thinking about priorities in the life of discipleship, and increasing the questions have been zeroing in on the security. So I thought we could spend the time just now speaking about security.

I think most of us have been taught from our earliest days that the wise and prudent thing is to lay up a nest egg for the rainy day. Isn't that right? I was taught that. I was brought up in a Scottish home, and it says something in there.

One of our mottos was, wise bees save honey, wise men save money. Because it rhymes to a Scot, it must be true. And we just know that instinctively, that you do, that you have to set aside money for the future, don't we?

And if you don't do it, you're imprudent, you're reckless, and all the rest. Then you come to Matthew chapter 6 and verse 19, and it says that's all wrong. That's all wrong thinking, and the sooner you disabuse your mind of it, the better it will be.

I'd like to read Matthew 6, beginning with verse 19, down through the end of the chapter. Lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye.

If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.

No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and men. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on.

Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? Why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore if God so ploughed the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more plough you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And there you see it in bold letters. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth.

We all know it's the thing to do, and Jesus says don't do it. Somebody has said that if a man lives for the rainy day, God will be sure that he'll get it. And another said, God has no blessing for the man who esteems the rainy day above the present agony of the world.

God has no blessing for the man who esteems the rainy day above the present agony of the world. Security in laying up treasures on earth. The Bible says it isn't so. Actually the only security we have is the Lord, and he's sufficient.

But there's no security in material things. There's no security in money, and stocks, and bonds, or anything else of this transient world in which we live. All my banking background tells me that if I just have enough substantial reserves, all will be well for the future, and I can rest in peace.

But as I look carefully at these verses, I find that the man who really has the life of contentment and peace is the man who doesn't lay up treasures on earth. That's a conundrum, isn't it? And I can hear the arguments going on in your minds right now.

If you look carefully at verse 19, you can find three nervous breakdowns there. Laying on up for yourselves treasures on earth were moths. You see, in the ancients, one of their forms of wealth was clothing.

Well, the moths will take care of that. Rust, decay, corruption, metallic substances, and thieves break through and steal. Just before the meeting, I was talking to some young fellows about the desirability of having a trade.

I was mentioning that yesterday I was walking along Federal Avenue or whatever it is in Denver, and a truck passed me and it said locksmith. And I said, well, there's a trade a fellow could have. He'd never be out of work.

Locksmith. The way things are going today, we need more and more locksmiths, don't we? And isn't this the truth? Really, the Bible is a wonderful book. When you lay up treasures on earth, those treasures are assailed by moths and rust and thieves.

Treasures in Heaven and Investment in Souls

Jesus said, don't lay up treasures on earth. Lay up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves do not break through and steal. How do you lay up treasures in heaven? By sending it on ahead.

How else? It's the only way I know. Sending it on ahead. By investing in souls and investing in eternity. The greatest investment there is in the world today. And then Jesus adds a very perceptive note there.

He says, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. How true. And that tells me today that my treasure is either in heaven or in a safe deposit vault. My heart is there too. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

It seems that the Lord Jesus has changed the subject in verse 22, but he hasn't. He's still going on. And just like a diamond shows the light in different facets, that's exactly what he's doing here. He's saying here, the light of the body is the eye.

The lamp of the body is the eye. Through some mysterious way, the light and images come into our heads through the eye. It's a lamp. And the image is projected on a screen. I don't understand the complexities of it, but here it is.

And Jesus is saying here, if your eye is single, that is if it's healthy. And of course, the healthy eye here is the eye that's living for the glory of God and not for material things. That's the healthy eye.

He says, if your eye is single, your whole body shall be full of light. That means your whole life or being will be flooded with illumination. You'll never lack the guidance of God. He'll lead you on in a sure, straight path.

If you have a single eye for the glory of God, and you're willing to obey his word, you come to a verse like verse 19. You say, well, I don't understand, and I don't see people doing it, but it's what the Bible says, and that's what I'm going to do.

That's the single eye. God really loves that. More and more, I realize how true it is that obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge. And that as I see something in the word of God and obey it, God opens his treasures in a new way.

Verses come to life that never came to life before. For the lamp of the body is the eye, if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. This is true physically, and it's true spiritually, too.

Physically, if my eye is healthy, I don't walk along and stumble. I see where I'm going. Spiritually, it's exactly true. And the healthy eye in this verse is the eye of the man in verse 20, the man who lays up his treasures in heaven.

Right? But if thine eye be evil, that means diseased, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. That means if I'm trying to live for two worlds, if I want to have one foot in the church and one in the world, if I want to have one foot on earth and the other foot in heaven, if I'm trying to live for God and for man, that's really the diseased eye here.

Thine eye be diseased, thy whole being shall be full of darkness. That means you lack guidance. It means illumination won't be given to you until you stumble and grope on. If therefore the light that's in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.

That is, if God has revealed light to me on this subject and I refuse the light, there's no darkness worse than that. Which is a terribly solemn thing that if I really come to the teachings of discipleship in the New Testament and give mental assent to it and don't obey it, it really becomes harder for me to enter into the things of God from that time on.

Isn't that what it said? It's not very pleasant, but it's true. Light rejected is light denied. It's really a serious thing to trifle with the word of the living God. Well, then the Lord Jesus goes on to explain it further in verse 24.

Serving God Rather Than Mammon

No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and men. Of course, we know this is true. You know it's true in your businesses.

It's bad, really, to have a secretary working for two bosses, isn't it? It's a case of kind of divided loyalty, divided allegiance. And I mean that both of those men have a letter to get out immediately at five o 'clock.

And who's she going to serve? You know, this type of thing. It sets up tensions within the organization, and it's true spiritually, too. You can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and men. Remember, the context is laying up treasures on earth and laying up treasures in heaven.

So Jesus says, Therefore I say to you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on it. The context here, the subject here is laying up for the future.

And he says don't take anxiety. The problem here is, you know, okay, there you are, McDonald's, you know, and you're able to travel around now and you receive ministry and all the rest, but what's going to happen to you when you're 75 and you're arthritic and rheumatic and a few other things and blind and you're not able to get around?

Who's going to take care of you then? And so the light bulb goes on and says, Better set up some reserves, McDonald's, you know, better have a cushion and some pillows and be all set. And Jesus says don't do it.

Seems strange, doesn't it? So unnatural and so contrary to everything that my common sense tells me. He says don't do it. Life is more important than the food you eat and the clothing that you wear. Is not the life more than food to the body than raiment?

In other words, he's telling me that I mustn't live as if those were the important things in life. He didn't put me here to be a clothes horse or a connoisseur of fine foods. I'm here for bigger things than that.

God's Care for Birds and the Necessity of Faithful Work

And then he tells me that as I go through life, he has placed little messengers all through life that are preaching sermons to me all the time, and one of those messengers, the bird. Behold the fowls of the air, the birds of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Are ye not much better than they? Behold the fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do they reap. That doesn't mean we shouldn't. They can't. We can. You mustn't use this verse to justify allergy to work.

It never was intended to teach that. The birds can't sow. They can't reap. It says, nor gather into barns. Well, that is an interesting thing, isn't it? Many of you men, I'm sure, have barns and silos that you store your grain in, but you've never seen a bird's nest with a silo next to it.

Why? Well, you look out your breakfast window there, and you're eating your breakfast, and there's the little sparrow, and it's scratching around in the dirt there, and it's getting its food for the day.

It doesn't worry about tomorrow. No psychiatrists for worried sparrows. They have a God in heaven who takes care of them, and really, he does a marvelous job of logistics, and I say that reverently, too.

You know, when you think of this universe that we live in, and you think of the marvelous way in which God provides the needs for his creatures. You say, well, tell me that. Starvation and poverty, I know it.

Every bit of it is the result of man's greed. If you sent grain to India today, many of the merchants would be really upset to give grain away for you. It would ruin their business, even if it means saving lives.

And much of it is due to false religions. We send billions of bushels of grain there, and the rats eat more than the men do, because they won't kill a rat, because their grandmother might be reincarnated in the rat.

So Jesus said, don't take thought for your life. Don't be worrying about 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now. The birds don't worry. The fowls of the air don't worry. And your heavenly Father feeds them, and he does.

And you're worth more to him than many sparrows and many birds. That's wonderful, isn't it? And then he says in verse 27, and this is a favorite verse of mine, And which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature?

A cubit is about 18 inches. It's the distance from the tip of your finger to the elbow. It's about 18 inches. And Jesus is really rather humorous, almost ridiculous. He says, now think hard, and add 18 inches to your height.

You say, ridiculous. Why would Jesus ever suggest that? Well, there's another translation. Maybe you'll like it better. Some of your Bibles say, which of you, by taking thought, can add a cubit to, what does it say, the length of his life?

Lifespan. Lifespan. Their life is viewed as a journey of so many miles. And Jesus said, now worry, and by worrying, add 18 inches to those miles. You can't do that. Anxious thought won't add height, and it won't add length to your life.

And that's exactly right. That's exactly what Jesus is saying here, that taking anxious thought for tomorrow, that's not going to give you security for the future. Take my case. Supposing I were to set off today on a spree of laying up treasure on earth to provide for my uncertain future, how much would be enough?

Can somebody tell me? How much would be enough? There's absolutely no way of answering that question. You don't know what the dollar is going to be worth 10, 20 years from today. You don't know how long you're going to live, you know, whether your reserves would last.

You don't know what retirement homes will be costing by then. There's absolutely no way in guaranteeing your future security, and that's exactly what Jesus is saying in verse 27. Taking anxious thought will never solve that problem any more than you can increase your height or the length of your life by the mere process of thought.

And then he says in verse 28, why take any thought for raiment, for clothing? That means what am I going to wear 20 years from now, you know? Consider the lilies of the field. And incidentally, I often point out that lilies here don't mean calla lilies, they don't mean lilies of the valley, they don't mean Easter lilies.

The word here, it refers to the wildflowers that grow by the millions on the hillsides of Israel. It really refers to anemones, wild anemones. And so there they are out in the hillside born for but one brief day.

And yet they really are beautiful. Take the time to look at the flowers sometimes and see the infinite care with which God has designed them. And the closer you look at them, the more beautiful they are.

Look at them with a powerful microscope and they're even more beautiful. And God takes such infinite care for a little bit of a wild anemone that's out there on the hillside and then is cut down and cast into the oven, as we're going to see.

And the argument here is, if God is that interested in a flower that's flowed more gloriously than Solomon was in all history, why should I ever worry about what I'm going to have to wear, what covering I'm going to have over my head 20 years from today?

This is the life of faith and God calls us to the life of faith. He says, I feel uncomfortable, I'd rather see it in a bank account. I know that's what most of us feel. Most of us feel if we just have it in our hands and hold it, it would be far more valuable than the promises of God.

But that's really an evil heart of unbelief, isn't it? An evil heart of unbelief. Okay, consider the lilies of the field. They grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. They can't. It doesn't mean we shouldn't toil and spin, but they can't.

I say to you that even Solomon in all glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

This verse took on new meaning to me a few years ago when I was over in Israel and I was visiting a little city of Acre, Acre, it's the Ptolemaeus of the New Testament. It's actually an Arab city surrounded by walls of the Crusaders built.

And we were staying with some Arab Christians there. It came time for a meal. And we went down to the local baker. There in that Arab community, all the women make their own dough and knead it. And then they send one of the little boys down to the community baker.

And the baker is there and he has an open hearth. And all the people are sending their bread and he bakes it for them for a cent or two. He has a big pile of grass there beside the oven. And if you look carefully at the grass, it's filled with these wild anemones.

I mean, they just go out on the hillsides and cut down the grass and take all the flowers along with it. And every once in a while he reaches his hand into the grass and he just throws it into the oven.

And the oven blazes up and these flat loaves of bread are baked. Arab bread, not wonder bread, Arab bread. And the argument here is that their god has taken such care and such precision in designing these anemones, no two alike.

Millions of them. And no two alike. And yet they have a very short lifespan. And then they're cut down and they're thrown into the baker's oven. And he says, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of Leviticus.

Working for Present Needs and Trusting God for the Future

Well, I come to the Lord and I say, Lord, really, you've cut away all my crutches, all my canes, all my props, all my pillows, all my cushions. I have no reserves. What's my security? And I really believe what the Lord is teaching here and throughout the New Testament is this.

I know this will shock many of you. And yet I really believe it. And it answers some of the questions that were passed in this morning. I believe this passage of Scripture is teaching that you and I should work hard for the supply of our current needs and the needs of our family.

Are you with me? Okay, so far. Put everything above that in the work of the Lord and trust God for the future. That's where the life of faith comes in. My dear friends, if you can see, you can trust. And Robert Little used to say, God wants our lives to be a perpetual crisis of dependence upon him.

That's what he wants. So let me say it again. God's will for you and for me is that we should work hard for the supply of our current needs and the needs of our family. That we should put everything above that in the work of the Lord and trust God for the future.

You say, it'd never work. The trouble with that is, it is working. The trouble with that is there are Christians who are living this life. And their lives are powerful for God. And when they touch other people, something happens for God.

There's a power in a life like that. Why? Because they've been obedient to the Word of God. While all the rest of the people stand by and say, it's imprudent. It'll never work. It'll bring disgrace in the name of the Lord.

God's way is best. And so Jesus says in verse 31, Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.

And how true that is. That's just the way the world is living today. The world today is on one gigantic spending spree and security spree. And you know, we're being bombarded with it all the time. We don't realize.

I turn my radio on and Citizens Federal Savings and Loan comes on and says, The good life, the better life you've always waited for, it's yours today. It's citizens, you know. And what they mean is just, you know, come and buy some of our long-term certificates and all will be well.

Your security is guaranteed. Your hopes, your dreams, the better life you've waited for, are yours today. That's citizens, something like that. Jesus says, After all these things do the Gentiles seek.

This is human activity today, enjoying life and laying up for the future. And the Lord says, Your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things. That's touching to me. God knows that we have need of food.

He knows we have need of clothing. We're more precious to Him than the wild anemones and the birds of the air. And He's saying this. He's saying, I hope you get this. I want to make an agreement with you.

This is my security program. You seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and you never lack the necessities of life. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Do you believe it? It's a hard saying, isn't it? It's really a hard saying when we've been brought up in the society we've been brought up in. Underline your Bible. Underline two words in verse 33. First, God.

And if those words are underlined in your life in practical obedience, all will be well twenty, thirty, forty years from today. And then he closes this wonderful little section with verse 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow.

You see, he's speaking about the future here, not about today. Work hard for today. Don't worry about the future. The morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

It's really a wonderful thing to think we have a God in heaven, and He enters into this covenant with us, that if we will work hard for the supply of our current needs, the needs of our family, but everything above that, the work of the Lord, He'll take care of our future.

Just think what that would mean in the evangelical church today if people took these verses literally. Man, what a gigantic forward step the work of God would take throughout the world. It really would.

What power there would be in the lives of Christians. What revival we would experience in our local fellows. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

God's social security program. Shall we sign up? Shall we pray? Thank you for your precious word. It's truly a sharp, two-edged sword. But Lord, it's true, and your way is best. We just pray that you'll give us the grace to break at the foot of the cross, just to acknowledge how warped and crooked our thinking has been, and to launch out on full surrender's tide.

Questions About Debt, Housing, and Saving

We ask it in the Savior's name. Amen. The message stirred up further questions about that. If we don't plan for future needs, then have to borrow at high interest rates, is that losing what God has given us wisely?

Well, of course, I hate, loathe, despise and abominate high interest rates. And certainly I don't agree with borrowing on the installment plan, buying on the installment plan and all those. Sometimes I think that we take matters in our own hands and decide that things should be done that might not be the will of God for us.

And in so doing, we really have to pay through the nose. However, there's another question here that's related to, what is your opinion on owning property such as a home as opposed to renting, assuming that to buy requires borrowing and financial liability?

In some cases, it's a better stewardship for a family to own a home than to rent. In some cases, the total payments might even be less than rent, and in the meantime they're building up an equity in the house.

So a person really has to use the judgment that God has given him in these areas. And if that house is going to be used as a Bethany, as a home where Jesus loves to be, I can see why it'd be much better stewardship to own the house than to rent it.

At the end of ten years, you might own the house, and if you rent it, you might have a handful of rent receipts and nothing more to show for it. In the case of a person like myself, it's certainly a better stewardship to rent than to own.

What do you think about saving money for such future needs as your children's education or a nest egg for beginning their lives in a trade? Also, what about saving for a vehicle, home, or similar needs?

Well, the rule I lay down in which I believe the Scripture teaches is, work hard for the supply of your current needs. If you can convince yourself that any of these things are current needs, I think that's perfectly all right.

I'm not completely in favor of handing everything to young people on a silver platter, taking care of all their educational needs and all the rest. It's a very good thing if they can work for at least a portion of it, and also for starting off in a trade.

And I certainly am opposed to the whole idea of laying off a fortune and leaving it to ungrateful children. I can see no Scriptural authority for parents spending the better part of their lives laying off a fortune to leave to their children.

I see no justification for it in the Word of God, and I've had some very sad things happen in my life that shows me how wrong it is. I might have told some of you years ago I was asked to take the funeral of a lady in the Midwest, and she had scrimped and saved.

She had one son, an unbeliever, married to a girl from a false church. This woman had really salted it away, and on the day she died, her son called me. He said, I understand you knew my mother, and I said yes.

He said, I wondered if you'd take the funeral, and I said yes. I said yes, it would be a privilege for me to take the mother's funeral. He said, how long is your service? I said, about 30 minutes. He said, maybe you could make this one 15, he said to me.

And that was the kind of negotiating that went on. She couldn't get her body put away fast enough. You know, you get at the will. And yet she was a Christian woman. Do you think she's not going to have to give an account for something like that on the coming day?

I believe that's the evil eye that we read about in Matthew chapter 6. The trouble is we pattern our thinking after the thinking of the world and not after the Word of God. Is not giving up possessions another form of living by sight and a subtle way of bringing attention to yourself and what you're doing instead of glorying Christ in what he has done for you?

Of course, it all depends. I think a person could forsake his possessions and do it in such a showy way that there'd be no glory for God in it. It's as good as true of anything you can do. Well, you can pray that way, too.

What do you mean you shouldn't pray? What we have to do is obey God. That's our first responsibility. And no doubt people will criticize. And maybe some people will feel uncomfortable. But our responsibility is still to obey God and leave the consequences with him.

Guidance Into Full-Time Christian Service

In your experience, how does the Lord lead one out from his secular occupation into full-time work? There isn't any one way. Generally, I feel that our responsibility is to be completely yielded to the Lord at all times.

I believe our responsibility is to have no will of our own. The Lord knows he can have me at any place at any time to do anything he wants me to do. Mobile for God. Then I believe my second responsibility is to do the work that my hands find to do where I am.

Not just to sit and drink Coke. But to do the work that my hands find to do. My third responsibility is to wait patiently on the Lord. And if he wants me to step out from what we call secular work into full-time service, the tap on the shoulder will come.

But I believe we should wait until the guidance is so clear that to refuse would be positive disobedience. And usually in a situation like that, I ask the Lord to confirm the guidance in the mouths of two or three witnesses because the scripture says, in the mouths of two or three witnesses shall everything be established.

And he does. Basically, I believe that if a Christian is yielded and clean, the responsibility is up to God to issue the orders. And he will. And if I'm praying about something and no guidance comes, God's guidance is for me to stay right where I am doing the thing that I'm doing.

What do they say? Darkness about going is light about staying. And it really is true. So those are just some keys that might help in this. But I dare say that if you were to talk to six different men who had been led out in this way into full-time work, as we say, their experience would be all different, and yet that would be the basic pattern, being yielded, doing the thing God gives you to do at the time, waiting upon the Lord, receiving the tap on the shoulder.

Using Bible Translations Wisely

Would you give us your advice concerning use of new translations? Well, my advice is to use new translations, to use them carefully and prayerfully. I think there's good in all reputable new translations.

If you take a book like Phillips, even his paraphrase of the New Testament, some of those verses are really worth the price of the whole book. The book of James never opened to me until I read it in Phillips.

And I'll never forget what a joy it was. And I believe that God really gave that man special help. It's a great help. And I would advise you this. Don't start going off on tangents, railing against translations of the Bible.

Remember that when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, he used the Septuagint, which was a version. He used—it was. It was the Hebrew translated into Greek. And he quoted from it, and he said, This, the word of God says.

That's been a terrific help to me. And I can go to people and present the gospel to them from these modern translations and tell them how to be saved. Truly a sharp, two-edged sword. The Lord is true, and your way is best.

We just pray that you'll give us the grace to break at the foot of the cross, to just acknowledge how warped and crooked our thinking has been, and to launch out on full surrender's tide. We ask it in the Savior's name.

Amen. The message stirred up further questions about that. If we don't plan for future needs, then have to borrow at high interest rates, is that using what God has given us wisely? Well, of course, I hate, loathe, despise, and abominate high interest rates.

And certainly I don't agree with borrowing on the installment plan, buying on the installment plan, and all those. Sometimes I think that we take matters in our own hands and decide that things should be done that might not be the will of God for us.