The Meaning of The Promise

We must now seriously consider the meaning of the promise: "And all these things shall be added unto you." Observe in the connection of our text, Jesus Christ is speaking of worldly things. He tells us not to give any anxiety about these things at all, but to let our anxieties be respecting the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then, all these worldly things of which He is speaking shall be added unto us. The word, "added" here means thrown in, something super-added.

Now, Christ says: it is perfectly unnecessary that we should be anxious about worldly things, because, if we seek first "the kingdom of God and His righteousness," He will see that we are fully supplied with what we need in relation to our bodies. Let the great business of our lives be spiritual concerns, and He will take care that we shall not want in relation to temporal matters.

From what has been said, it is plain that we can all very well afford to obey God in this respect; for, He will take care of our temporal wants, if we will only pay supreme attention to our souls. We can very well afford to obey God thoroughly. You see, He has not placed us in such a position that we must starve to death if we seek the salvation of our souls, that our families must starve or our fellow-creatures must suffer or that the ruin of our temporal concerns must necessarily be the result of our determination to attend to the cause of Christ. How infinitely kind of God to give us the assurance that He will take this stumbling-block out of our way, if we will but attend first to the salvation of our souls, and make faith in Jesus Christ and the glory of God the objects of our supreme regard. He very kindly says, "If you will take care of your souls, I will take care of your bodies. You have an immortal soul to be saved, let My kingdom be set up in your hearts, seek your own salvation, work it out with fear and trembling, and don't be anxious about your body, for I will take care of that."

I have become acquainted with many interesting facts that illustrate the care of God for the temporal interests of His devoted servants--those who came right up to obeying the require- ment. I have known, too, many instances in which persons have said that they could not attend to the cause of Christ without ruining their worldly prospects. A barber, who had been in the habit of cutting hair on the Sabbath day, became awakened, and began to reflect upon his sins, and felt the importance of attending to his soul. He was in a difficulty. Many of his customers were ungodly men, who always came for haircuts on a Sunday. He did not see, therefore, how he could close his shop on that day. Yet, how could he be a Christian and not close on the Sabbath? He spoke to his customers, and the great mass of them said, "If you shut up your shop on the Sabbath, we must employ someone else." However, he made up his mind to starve to death rather than disobey God. He resolved to tell his customers that his shop would in the future be closed on Sunday. When he had fully resolved upon this, some of them asked if he would cut their hair on Saturday night. "Oh! yes, till midnight," he replied. And this he did. He cut hair till midnight on Satur- day, but resolutely closed on the Sabbath. I saw him some years later, and I asked him, "How do you get along?" "Why sir," he replied, "my business has been better than ever; a great deal better."

Proper attention to business is really attention to follow- ing Jesus Christ. If you make your business God's business, transact it on right principles, and get your heart into a right state, so that you do everything from Christian motives, why, your business is then as much a part of the kingdom of God as praying and going to church.

God's promise here is designed to leave people entirely without excuse for neglecting to attend to their eternal salva- tion. Many reverse God's order in point of time, and instead of putting loyalty to Christ first, put it last. The first place is given to the world, the attention is wholly given up to the pursuit of wealth.

And then there are many persons who not only reverse God's order in point of time, but there are multitudes who reverse God's order in point of the importance of it. How remarkable that many persons should think themselves religious people, while they really place more practical stress upon the most trifling things around them than upon the great questions of salvation and disobeying God. Instead of making their Christian faith the greatest and most important practical business, they make it the least important. The persons I am speaking of do not utterly neglect it, but they so attend to it that everybody knows that they care very little about it, and do not rest upon it. Those who do not make the kingdom of God their great business, tempt God. Multitudes of souls are lost by tempting God in this way. They are living worldly, selfish, and ungodly lives, and yet they try to make themselves believe and the world believe that they are going to heaven in spite of what God has said to the con- trary. They live in disobedience to God, but profess to be Christians, and it is proclaimed that they died in the faith, and people charitably hope that they are gone to heaven.

It was Dr. Doddridge, I think, who so extensively investi- gated the results of death-bed "conversions." Of two thousand persons who supposed themselves to be dying and who expressed their faith in Christ, only two afterwards gave evidence of true conversion.

Don't rely upon death-bed repentance. "Seek first the kingdom of God." If you will not do this, you may never be saved at all.

Once more, many seem to say, "I don't care how many sins I commit, if I can only get to heaven." They go as far as they think they can go in serving the devil and dishonoring God. But let me tell you, if you put God's arrangements out of order, the probability is that your soul will be lost. God says, "Put Jesus Christ and His kingdom first." You say, "Not so, Lord, let it be put last. I must attend to everything else first." Do let me ask, "Is it not in your best interests to seek it first?" If for that reason alone, why do you not seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first?

In conclusion, let me ask you one question: "Will you decide now to seek this kingdom first, that it may be set up in your heart? Will you pray for this? Will you make it your business to pray? Will you begin now? Now that the Lord says, "Seek ye my face," does your heart reply, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek"? If you delay, your soul may be ruined--lost for ever!

For a person to act thus on any other subject, he would be pronounced insane. And it is moral insanity which makes people neglect the business of their eternal salvation: it is madness in the heart. Suppose a man should neglect the most important part of his worldly business, the neglect of which would ruin all his worldly prospects, why everybody would say he was insane. Who can doubt this? Now, what higher evidence can a person give of insanity if he admits his guilt and danger in words and yet systematically neglects to save himself from ruin by his actions? If a person should deny the whole matter and say there was no truth in the statement, "that he is in danger by his neglect," what higher evidence could he give of being insane? LET ANYONE TELL HIM, HONESTLY, IF HE CAN!