Matthew 6:1
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them;
else ye have no reward with your Father Who is in heaven.
Now, in the better manuscripts, the word alms should be righteousness. So let us read it again:
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them;
else ye have no reward with your Father Who is in heaven.
Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other;
or else he will hold to one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Shall we pray?
Lord, our hearts do rejoice in Thy presence. We do thank Thee for what Thou hast done among the children. We do thank Thee for giving us a spirit of praise, because Thou art worthy. And we thank Thee for gathering us together tonight to look into Thy Word.
Lord, we do ask that Thy Holy Spirit will breathe upon Thy Word and quicken Thy Word to our hearts, that we may not just hear with our outward ear, but that we may really hear it with our inward ear. Lord, we do look to Thee to make Thy Word real, living, active, and practical to our daily lives, that Thou mayest be glorified.
So we just commit Thy Word back into Thy hand and ask Thee to break it to us. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We were together last night, and we mentioned that the burden for these two evenings is how to live in the kingdom of God today.
We realize that when the Lord saves us, He has delivered us out of the authority of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, it is more than just a matter of having our sins forgiven, which is great; more than a matter of having the assurance that one day we will be in heaven, and that is great.
But when we believe in the Lord Jesus, He has done something even greater: He has delivered us out of the authority of darkness. In other words, before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we belonged to the kingdom of this world. The ruler of this world is Satan, the adversary, the enemy of God, and he uses darkness to rule over this world. We were under that authority; we were under that rule.
But thank God, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, He has delivered us out of the authority of darkness. So we are no longer of this world; we are no longer under the authority of darkness. He has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Now, that is something already done. Do not think that it is something to be done in the future. Just like some people think that eternal life is something for the future and not for today. But remember, it says that He has delivered us. It is something already done.
He has translated us into a new kingdom: the kingdom of God’s Son, the kingdom of the beloved Son of God. So, brothers and sisters, we need to understand where we are today. We are today no longer in the kingdom of darkness. Even though we still live in this world, we are not of this world.
We today belong to the kingdom of God, to the kingdom of God’s Son, the kingdom of love. That is where we belong, and that is where we are today. We need to underline it, reinforce it, and make it sure and firm in our conviction that this is something God has already done in Christ Jesus.
We are today in the kingdom of God, in the kingdom of the heavens. That is where we are today. This is our position.
And if we are clear on this, then our question will be: since He has translated us into the kingdom of His Son, and that is where we are, now we need to learn how to live in that kingdom.
To be in the kingdom is one thing; to live in that kingdom is another thing. We can be in the kingdom and yet really not live according to the kingdom. Why? Because we do not live there. Our life seems still to be living in that old kingdom instead of really living in this new kingdom that we are in today.
So that is our burden for this time: how to live in the kingdom of God today. We know that one day the kingdom of God shall be publicly manifested upon this earth, and we are all looking forward to that day.
But before that day comes, so far as we are concerned, the kingdom has already come, and we are already in that kingdom. So we should not wait until future days to learn how to live in that kingdom. We need to learn right now, today, how to live in that kingdom.
We mentioned last night that this kingdom of the heavens is so different from the kingdom of this world. It is heavenly, it is spiritual, and it manifests the character of God. It expresses the very character of our Lord Jesus.
For us to live in that kingdom, we need to have that character built up, developed, and manifested in our daily lives. But this, in a sense, is impossible with men.
When you read the Sermon on the Mount, if we are honest, probably our first reaction will be, “Well, I’ll try. I’ll do it.” But perhaps the second thought—or after you have tried for some time—you discover that the requirement of that kingdom is so high, the standard is so high, that it is impossible with men.
Not only is it impossible with you; it is impossible with all men, no matter who they are. You begin to realize that the only One who can live such a life of the kingdom, and the only One who has manifested it, is our Lord Jesus.
When He was on earth, He lived in that kingdom, and He was that kingdom. The character of God was fully manifested in Him, and He lived in absolute obedience to the Father.
So now we come to see the secret of living in the kingdom of God today. The secret is not I, but Christ.
If we try to live in that kingdom by our own life, we find it impossible. No man can do that. But if we realize that it is the life of Christ that is in us, and that He is going to relive, as it were, His life in each one of us, and if we allow Him to live in us, the result is that we are living in the kingdom.
Now, we will not be able to go back and cover the whole ground, but that is what we covered last night. This evening we would like to go a step further. We have known the secret now: it is the kingdom life that enables us to live in that kingdom, and we must allow that life to live through us.
The way of allowing that life to live out through us is through the cross. We have to learn to deny ourselves, to take up the cross, to follow the Lord, and to learn of Him. That is where His character is built up within us.
Now we know that we have that kingdom life in us. How are we going to have the kingdom living? Even though the Lord has delivered us out of this world, we mentioned last night that we are in a colony, a heavenly colony upon this earth. In that colony, the rule is heavenly rule, and everything in the colony is heavenly.
What is the church? The church is a heavenly colony upon this earth. Here and there you find those who are called out of this world, gathered together unto the name of our Lord Jesus, under the authority of God’s Son. Here you find a colony, a heavenly colony upon this dirty earth.
In the church, the rule is not the rule of this earth. It is heaven that rules over us, and our lifestyle is not following the fashion of this world. Our lifestyle is according to heaven. So, in the church, you find that everything is according to the kingdom of the heavens.
But the church is upon this earth. In the church, we learn to love one another and try to do everything according to God. But physically, we are still in this world. Our environment has not changed.
This world is as corrupt as it ever was, and probably it is more corrupt. The pressure upon us is even greater than it was, probably, in the first century.
Thank God, one day even our circumstances and our environment will change. That is when our Lord Jesus shall come back and establish His kingdom publicly upon this earth.
When that day comes, even our environment will be completely changed. When you read Isaiah, you find that the lion will eat grass as the ox, children can play at the hole of the serpent, and nothing in the holy mountain hurts anybody, because the knowledge of the Lord fills the earth as the waters fill the sea. At that time, everything is changed.
But today our environment, what surrounds us, has not changed. We are in the kingdom, but this kingdom is upon this earth. So we need to live the kingdom life today in this environment.
The Word of God is not only spiritual; it is practical. It is not theological or theoretical. It is real and practical even today. So when you turn to Matthew 6, you find that the whole chapter deals with our practical daily living: how we live our kingdom life in our common daily living.
In a sense, you find that our life upon this earth is composed of two different areas. One is what we call the devotional aspect of our life—perhaps we would call that the spiritual side. The other is the mundane, everyday, secular aspect of our life.
As a matter of fact, with a believer there is nothing spiritual or secular; there is no such difference. These two sides affect each other, and they are part of one whole. But, for the sake of convenience, we may say that there are these two aspects of life: the devotional, or spiritual, side, and the mundane, everyday side of our living.
That is what you find in Matthew 6. From Matthew 6:1 to Matthew 6:18, you have the devotional side. From Matthew 6:19 to Matthew 6:34, you have the mundane, secular side of our life.
But before we enter into these two sides, there is an overall governing principle that we have to understand first. In order to live kingdom living today, we have to live in the presence of God our Father.
We say that we live that life because we have that kingdom life in us. Thank God, it is already there. But for that kingdom life really, in a practical sense, to live out today, you need to be in the presence of God our Father.
This life is nourished, supported, sustained, maintained, encouraged, and strengthened only in the presence of our Father. Or, to put it another way, unless we are in daily communion with God our Father, we will not be able to maintain kingdom living today, in spite of the fact that we already have that kingdom life in us.
So, brothers and sisters, there is a fundamental principle which is basic, but something that sometimes we forget because it is too elementary. Daily, we have to maintain an uninterrupted communion with God our Father.
Look at our Lord Jesus. When He was on earth, how did He live the kingdom life? You find that in the life of our Lord Jesus there was uninterrupted communion between Him and the Father. There was not a moment when that communion was cut.
His whole life on earth was governed by one principle: the pleasure of His Father. His life was very simple. He lived for the will of God: “Lo, I am come to do Thy will.” All He asked was, “Does it please the Father?” And that is kingdom living.
He did not think of Himself. He did not think of what the world would think of Him. All that He was thinking was, “Does it please the Father?” If it pleased the Father for Him to go to the cross, there He would go. If it pleased the Father for Him to drink that bitter cup, He would drink it.
He would drink it not because it was a bitter cup, but because it was the will of the Father. It pleased the Father. So the whole life of our Lord Jesus was in uninterrupted communion with His Father.
That communion was broken only for a short time on the cross. In a sense, that hurt Him most.
When He was crucified on the cross, from nine o’clock to twelve o’clock—the first three hours—He was crucified, rejected by men, mocked by the people, and the kingdom of darkness was surrounding Him and trying to devour Him. He suffered physically, mentally, and to such a degree.
But during those three hours He was able to pray, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” He was able to commit His mother to John. He was able to tell the robber that he would be with Him that day in paradise. He was not thinking of Himself. The suffering was tremendous, but there was strength. Why? Because His communion with the Father was uninterrupted during those three hours.
But when He came to twelve o’clock, the sun was darkened. It was a sign that, from that point until His death, for three hours, He was separated from the Father. So His cry was not “Father,” but, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
In other words, during those three hours He was made the sin offering of this world. He Who knew no sin was made sin for us. Because He was made sin for us, God, being a righteous God, had to turn away from His beloved Son.
In Isaiah 53, you find that it was God the Father Who crushed Him. It was the Father’s hand—not man’s hand, not Satan’s hand—but it was the hand of the Father that crushed Him. Why? Because He offered Himself to be the sin offering of this world.
That was the taste of eternal death. In a sense, our Lord Jesus tasted eternal death for every one of us. Separation from God is eternal death.
But thank God, when the work was done, He said, “It is finished.” Then He committed His spirit to His Father. The communion was restored.
So you find that during the life of our Lord Jesus, whatever circumstances He was in, under whatever conditions He might be, He was able to live the kingdom life. It was because not only was He the Son of God, but there was also that uninterrupted communion with the Father.
So, brothers and sisters, we have to come back to the basic. Sometimes we think that because we believe in the Lord Jesus, and perhaps have begun to see that we were crucified with Christ, everything is all right and we are able to live that kingdom life from now on.
But, brothers and sisters, unless we abide in Him, make our home in Him continually, be in Him and have Him abiding in us, we have no strength. We cannot bear fruit.
The important principle is that we have to be always in the presence of God our Father—never, for a moment, going away from that presence.
It is true that sometimes, so far as our feelings are concerned, we may not sense the presence of the Lord. That is where we need to exercise faith, because we live by faith, not by sight.
But, on the other hand, sometimes there are things that come into our lives which interrupt that communion. We know it, and we need immediately to confess and let the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ restore our communion and fellowship with the Father.
That is most basic. It is a daily thing, and we cannot afford to be forgetful of it.
Having said that, then we can come into this practical kingdom living of Matthew 6. Chapter 6, verse 1, is actually an introductory word to what follows through verse 18.
The Lord said:
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them;
else ye have no reward with your Father Who is in heaven.
The consciousness of being in the presence of God the Father is always there. If it is there, then you will not try to live before men, but you will live before God.
Now, the righteousness here is not Christ our righteousness. We had no righteousness of our own. Our righteousnesses were as filthy rags, just like the fig leaves that Adam and Eve put upon themselves. They thought they were covered, but when the wind blew, it did not cover them at all. When the Lord came into the garden, Adam said, “We were naked,” and that was true.
We had no righteousness of our own. We thought we were righteous, but our righteousnesses were as filthy rags. But when we come to the Lord Jesus, God puts upon us the best robe. When the prodigal returns, the rags are taken off and he is clothed with the best robe.
What is the best robe? The best robe is Christ our righteousness. God clothes us with Christ, and because of that, when God looks at us, He sees Christ and not us. That is the reason why we are justified before Him, as if we had never sinned.
But the righteousness here is not that, because He says, “Do your righteousness.” After we are saved, after we have Christ as our righteousness, the Lord says, “You need to do your righteousness.”
The righteousness here is practical righteousness. How are we to do righteously before God every day?
To do that kind of righteousness is to put on our wedding garment. We have to wear two garments. Christ our righteousness is the first garment. But if you read Psalm 45, you find that the queen is dressed with a golden garment, and over it is an embroidered garment. That is the wedding garment.
The golden garment speaks of Christ our righteousness. It is all gold. But over it there is an embroidered garment, and the embroidered garment speaks of how the Holy Spirit, Who is so patient like an embroiderer, uses stitch after stitch to build into us the character of Christ.
It is tedious work, but He is so patient. Because the life is already there, the Holy Spirit has ground to work upon. With the life of Christ in us, the Holy Spirit comes and begins to stitch Christ into our life. This is to do righteousness.
Outwardly, we are doing righteousness, but actually it is the Holy Spirit Who is building out the character of Christ within us. So it is really Christ Himself and not us, but we cooperate. We allow Him to do it. We allow that life to be manifested in righteousness.
This kind of righteousness is character building. It is the wedding garment of the bride that you find in Revelation 19. The bride has made herself ready, and she was given bright, shining, pure linen, which is the righteousnesses of the saints.
It is considered as the righteousness of the saints, but of course we know it is Christ being formed in us.
This is what it means here, and it is the righteousness that you find in 1 John. God is righteous; therefore, we have to be righteous. It is practical righteousness.
The scribes and the Pharisees had their righteousness, but our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
The devotional life of the scribes and Pharisees was threefold:
How did they practice these righteousnesses? They gave alms, but they gave alms to be seen by men.
The Bible says, “Do not, when thou doest alms, sound a trumpet before thee.” Some people interpret this literally, saying that in the old days, when a scribe or Pharisee was going to give alms, he blew a trumpet so the poor would come. Then everybody would see and know who was doing this good work, and he would receive the praise of men.
Others say that the offering boxes in the temple, in the court of the women, were shaped like trumpets. When people dropped their offering in, they made such a noise that everybody knew who was giving and how much was being given.
You remember how the Lord was watching there. Perhaps they lifted their coins very high, so that the drop would make a bigger noise, to be seen by men. But the poor widow came in quietly, because she had little to give, and she probably dropped it very quietly. Yet the Lord said she gave more than everybody else.
So the Lord says, when you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Taken literally, that seems impossible. How can you do something with your right hand and your left hand not know about it?
But there is a spiritual meaning. When you are going to give, do not deliberate so long, struggle so long, and give reluctantly and unwillingly so that everybody knows you are giving. When you give, give secretly, willingly, before the Lord.
Why? Because this is what God is. Our God is the greatest Giver. He gave to such a degree that He gave His only begotten Son. He gave His best. He gave us all. He gave willingly, voluntarily, and generously. He gave without demanding anything. He gave out of His love for us.
That is the kingdom character, and that is the character of our Lord Jesus. He came willingly to this earth. No man could take away His life. He laid it down Himself for our sake, and He gave His all for us. That is what He is.
So we who are the Lord’s, He wants us to be like Him. Giving is part of our devotional life, and He wants us to give willingly, liberally, and voluntarily.
In the early church, giving was part of their devotion. You remember the church in Jerusalem and the many widows there, and how they took care of them.
When Paul and Barnabas came to Jerusalem, the pillars of the church—James, Peter, and John—gave them the right hand of fellowship. They said, “Now you go to the uncircumcised, and we go to the circumcised.” But there was one thing they wanted them to remember: “Remember the poor.” Paul said that was just what they had been doing.
The Gentile churches gathered money to help the poor in Jerusalem and Judea when there was famine. So, in the early church, giving was part of their devotional life.
In Hebrews 13:15, it says:
Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually,
that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to His name.
But immediately following that, there is another sacrifice: “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Giving in Scripture is part of our devotional life.
Freely you have received; freely give. That is the principle of the kingdom. We cannot be receiving all the time, keeping everything, and not giving. That is not the kingdom character.
If you read 2 Corinthians 8 and 2 Corinthians 9, you find that such giving is grace. It is called grace because it is by the grace of God that we are able to give. Humanly, we want to receive but not to give. Yet it is a blessing to give.
So, brothers and sisters, part of our devotional life is in this area of giving. We give what the Lord has given to us, and we give quietly and secretly. This is part of our hidden life with the Lord. We want the Lord to know—that is all. We are not trying to let everybody know.
The righteousness of the Pharisees was giving, but that giving was for people to see. Our righteousness has to surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
The second part of our devotional life, of course, is prayer. We all recognize that prayer is part of our devotional life. But how do we pray?
The Lord says, “Do not pray as the hypocrites, because they pray to be heard of men.” In the time of our Lord Jesus, the Pharisees wanted to show how pious, religious, and godly they were. They wore their phylacteries with the Scriptures in them upon their foreheads and tied them upon their arms. They went to the temple to pray.
We are told that some were so anxious to show how pious they were that on their way to the temple, before they arrived, they stopped at a street corner and began to pray, to show how pious they were. That kind of prayer is to be seen by men.
You remember the parable in Luke 18. A Pharisee came to the temple to pray. He probably marched as far into the temple as he could go, lifted up his head, and said, “O God, look at what a wonderful person You have. I tithe, I fast twice a week, and I am not like that publican.”
It was not a prayer; it was a report. God never accepted such a report. People might hear about it and say, “Oh, look how pious, how godly that man lives.” But that is hypocrisy. Do not do that.
Neither are we to pray as the Gentiles. The Gentiles do pray. When they are in difficult situations and need help, they know they have to pray, but they pray to their gods. Their gods are reluctant and cruel, so they must repeat many words and use long reasonings to persuade their gods to listen to them.
But before you pray, your heavenly Father knows what you need. Do not use vain repetitions. Prayer is not for men to see or hear. You are praying to your heavenly Father.
If you are praying to your heavenly Father, you do not need to reason with Him. He knows even before you pray what you need. But what is really prayer?
Prayer is not just making our needs known to God. Prayer is actually to stand with God and pray that His needs will be met first. Real prayer is to know the mind of heaven and pray that the will of heaven may be done upon this earth as it is in heaven.
God is so pleased that there are His children who are in one heart and one mind with Him. God says, “Well, I’ll do it.” Now, that is prayer.
So the Lord says, “When you pray, go into thy inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father Who is in secret.” It may not be literal, but surely it is spiritual.
In other words, it is just between you and God. You cannot put too many people in that closet. It is just you and your heavenly Father. You shut out the world outside of you—not to be seen by men, but because it is between you and God. That is your devotional life between you and God.
When you pray, you pray for God’s needs first, and then your needs.
Our Father Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
Your name is sanctified in heaven, but Your name today is being despised and blasphemed on earth. May Your name be sanctified upon this earth. May Your name be sanctified in my life as it is in heaven.
May Your kingdom come—first to me today, and one day upon this earth. May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven: in me, and one day in the whole earth. In other words, prayer is being one with your heavenly Father.
Then the Lord says:
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
“Give us this day our daily bread” concerns our physical needs. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” concerns our soulish needs. “Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” concerns our spiritual needs.
This is the way we maintain our devotional life with the Lord, and this is kingdom living. We have to live it every day. Prayer life is a daily life, and this is part of our devotional life that we have to maintain every day.
The third thing is fasting. In the inward sense, fasting means denying self.
Fasting is more than just abstaining from food and drink. Abstaining from food and drink is fasting, but fasting is deeper than that. It is actually abstaining from yourself.
In the Old Testament, you find that the children of Israel were commanded to fast only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. In Leviticus 23:27 and Leviticus 23:29, you find the phrase, “Ye shall afflict your souls.” That is fasting.
On that day they literally fasted. They afflicted their souls by abstaining from food and drink. That is the only command for fasting that you find in the Old Testament.
When you come to the time of our Lord Jesus, you find that the Pharisees had legalized fasting and made it twice a week.
You remember the story of the disciples of John who came to the Lord Jesus. I think it is in Luke 5. They said, “The Pharisees fast, and we fast. Why is it that Your disciples do not fast?”
The Lord said, when the bridegroom is with the sons of the bridechamber, they do not fast. But when the bridegroom is taken away—and in the original Greek, that means violently taken away—then they will fast.
In the New Testament there is no command for us to fast, but the Lord does tell us that there will be times and occasions when we shall fast: to afflict our souls and to deny ourselves.
The children of Israel fasted in times of national crisis. There will be occasions in our lives, individually or as a church, when we have to fast.
You find examples in the book of Acts. After Paul met the Lord on the Damascus road, he was in Damascus three days without eating or drinking. In Acts 13, the prophets and teachers ministered to the Lord and fasted. After the Holy Spirit said, “Separate unto Me Barnabas and Saul,” they fasted, laid their hands on them, and sent them out on that commission.
There are occasions of fasting in Scripture. But we need to remember that fasting is part of our devotional life. Whether you do it physically or not, there should be a continuous fasting, spiritually speaking.
In other words, if we do not deny ourselves, where is our devotional life? We need to deny ourselves constantly before the Lord in order to maintain a life with the Lord.
There will be occasions when we may have to abstain even from legitimate food and drink, to afflict ourselves and humble ourselves before the Lord, to seek His face and His mind in order to overcome a certain situation. But fasting is also part of our devotional life.
That is how to live kingdom living: giving in a way according to the character and nature of the kingdom; praying kingdom prayer, not just our own prayer, but praying for the kingdom first; and fasting, denying ourselves, so that the will of God may get through.
Then, from Matthew 6:19 to Matthew 6:34, you have the second part. We are still living in this world. Of course, we live in the presence of God, and there is a devotional, hidden life with the Lord that we have to continually maintain. But there is also a public, open life.
We are in this world, and we touch worldly things. We touch mammon every day. It would be nice if we did not need to touch it, but unfortunately, we are in this world and we have to touch it.
We have to live. We have to eat, drink, and be clothed, just like the rest of the people in this world. Because our circumstances and environment have not changed, we still have to live our normal life as everybody else does.
We have to touch mammon. We have to maintain our living by making a living. Eating, drinking, and being clothed are all things we have to do, like the rest of the people.
And yet we are different. How can we be different? The difference is not that we do not need to touch mammon, but in the way we touch it. The difference is not that we do not need to eat, drink, or be clothed. The difference is our attitude toward eating, drinking, and clothing.
In this section, there are two key words. One key word is found in Matthew 6:24:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other;
or else he will hold to one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
The key word is serve. Whom do you serve—God or mammon?
The second key word is seek, in Matthew 6:33:
But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
We are still living in this world. We have to make a living, and we have to touch mammon.
As real children of God, our problem is often not a lack of mammon, but too much of it. Are you surprised at that? People in this world earn and then spend carelessly, in sins and pleasures. But after you believe in the Lord Jesus, you are different.
When you earn, you do not waste money on ungodly things, pleasures, and sins. So, invariably, you begin to accumulate.
John Wesley was very wise. His advice to the Methodists was: “Earn all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.” That is good advice.
Even the Friends, the Quakers, had the same problem. George Fox and the leaders knew that the Quakers would accumulate much because they were honest, did not drink, did not smoke, and lived carefully. Their problem with mammon was too much of it, not too little.
So the Lord says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth.” If you do not have anything, how can you lay up? It shows that you are accumulating, right?
There is nothing wrong with laying aside savings. The problem is where you lay it up and for whom you are laying it up. That is the problem.
The Lord says not to lay up treasures upon this earth for yourselves, because on this earth there is rust, decay, moth, and thieves. What you have accumulated will age and decay. If you accumulate for yourselves, thinking you can depend upon those things, you will discover that they are not dependable.
Does it mean that we cannot save for a rainy day or save for our old age? I do not think so. I think what the Lord is trying to tell us is this: if you think that you are the possessor of your wealth, then you are in trouble.
You think these things are yours, and you want to lay them aside just for yourself. You remember the story our Lord told of the rich man. He gathered such a good harvest and said, “My granary is too small to put all these things in. I will tear it down and build a bigger one. I will put all my harvest into it and say to my soul, ‘Be at rest, because you have enough for your whole life.’”
But the Lord said he did not know that that very night his life would be taken away. All that he had laid aside for himself—who would have it? That is foolishness.
We need to remember that we are not possessors of the wealth that the Lord has given to us. We are stewards. If the Lord gives us anything, we are stewards, and we need to be good stewards of the Lord.
We need to use mammon, our wealth, wisely. We need to use it for the Lord, not just for ourselves.
I remember one sister. She was a millionaire, a titled Englishwoman. Her physician was the queen’s physician.
When I met her, I went to her home in India. I was a refugee there—that is another story. I was a refugee fleeing from Singapore during the Second World War with my wife, and we landed in India, knowing nobody, in a sense.
I knew of a sister, a fellow worker, an English lady who was staying with this lady in India. So I sent that sister a cable and said, “I am here in Madras, in a hotel, and I want to see you.”
While I was waiting for her return cable, that lady cabled me back. I had heard of her, but I had never known her. She said, “King, my home is yours. Come immediately.” That touched me very deeply. We were refugees at the time.
So we went there. I thought, being a wealthy and titled lady, of course there would be a certain impression. But when I arrived, I saw an elderly lady, very plainly dressed, standing there. I thought she must be one of the maids, because she had many servants. But that was her.
I spent about half a month with her. She told me, “All that I have belongs to the Lord. I am a steward. I have to be very faithful and wise.” She would not spend wantonly or carelessly, because she considered herself a steward.
That is the way we should live: not laying up on earth for ourselves. But if we lay up anything on earth, remember, we are stewards. If we take that kind of attitude, then we will not serve mammon.
The question is: whom do we serve? In a sense, you have a choice. You either love the one and hate the other, or you hold to the one and despise the other.
Brothers and sisters, mammon is to be despised. We have to handle it and touch it, but we should despise it. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. If you love it, you are finished. You have to hate it. It is something you have to touch, but you despise it.
Why can you despise mammon? Because you hold on to God. Why can you hate mammon? Because you love God. You cannot serve two masters.
We can use the mammon God has put in our hands to serve God. Even in that difficult parable of the unrighteous steward, he used the wealth of his master to prepare for his future, and the Lord said that he was wise. He used mammon to provide an eternal habitation. We should do that.
That is the way to treasure up our treasure in heaven. We serve God, not mammon. That is the way we touch the world, touch mammon, and touch wealth. Whatever comes into our hand, we offer it back to God for His service.
The second matter is eating, drinking, and clothing. We have to eat, drink, and be clothed. We are just like other people.
One day, when we are raptured and have a spiritual body, we will not need to eat, though we can eat. We will not need to be clothed, because we will be clothed with glory. But today we are still in this mortal body and still live upon this earth. We have to eat.
The first part of this passage concerns having too much and how we deal with that. The second part concerns anxiety. We are worried. It seems that we lack. “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we be clothed with?”
To the people of this world, that is normal. That is what they should do, because there is no one to worry for them. They have to take care of themselves.
But, brothers and sisters, we forget that we have a Father, a heavenly Father. Even an earthly father will take care of his children. How much more will our heavenly Father take care of us?
So the Lord says, “Do not be anxious.” Do not be careful about these things. Even if you worry yourself to death, worry will not bring you to sufficiency.
The Lord says, “Look at the birds.” They do not sow, they do not reap, and they do not gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father takes care of them. How much more precious are you to your Father than the birds?
Observe the lilies of the field. They do not toil, neither do they spin; yet the heavenly Father clothes them with such beauty that even the glory of Solomon cannot be compared with it. How much more will the heavenly Father clothe you?
Do not be of little faith. Trust in God.
But what is the secret? We have to eat, drink, and be clothed. Where will these things come from?
There is a difference here. The birds do not sow or reap. The lilies do not toil or spin. But we are commanded to work.
After man sinned, the Lord said that he had to sweat to make a living. Even in the garden of Eden, God put man to work. So it does not mean that because we have a heavenly Father, we do not need to work and He will provide everything for us. No. He says we have to work. If you do not work, you do not eat.
I came from a big family, an old-fashioned Chinese family—four generations living under one roof. My grandfather took care of everything for us. We did not need to work. My grandmother cooked everything, and we just ate and enjoyed. We went to school, and grandfather paid for everything. We married, and grandfather paid for the wedding.
But the result was that some people became black sheep. If you do not need to work, where do you spend your time? Gambling, opium smoking, and so on. Father knows best. The Father says, “You work, but do not worry.”
There is a secret:
But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
You have to work, because sometimes you work and it does not work. You find that you still lack. Why? It is because you do not seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first.
If you seek Him first—His kingdom and His righteousness—the Lord says all these things will be added unto you. It is not without work; it is with work, but added nevertheless.
Brothers and sisters, that promise is true. That is the way we live our kingdom life upon this wretched world.
When people are anxious or worried, usually it is not for today but for tomorrow. You borrow tomorrow’s evil for today. The Lord says, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Life on earth is not easy. Every day has its own evil, and you will find that His grace is sufficient for today’s evil. But He does not want you to worry about the evil that will come tomorrow.
Live day by day in the presence of God your Father. Brothers and sisters, that is the practical way of living our kingdom life.
Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, we do thank and praise Thee that Thou hast not only put that kingdom life in us, but Thou hast also shown us the way to let that life live in this sinful, corrupted, ruined earth, that we may truly be different. We may be light and salt on this earth.
So we come again and ask Thee that Thou wilt imprint Thy Word upon our hearts and, by the working of Thy Holy Spirit, make it our daily living. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.