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1845
Lecture XV
Seeking the Kingdom of God First
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Text.--Matt. 6:33: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
The Jews were greatly mistaken in respect to the nature of that kingdom which
their Messiah was to set up. They expected a kingdom like the kingdoms of this world,
invested with earthly splendor, fitted to aggrandize their nation, and minister to
their national pride. Christ sought to undeceive them. He told them that His kingdom
did not come with outward show--that it must be within men, and that it was not of
this world. He would have them understand that it was spiritual, and not temporal;
demanding the homage of the heart, and not the pomp and pageant, so commonly rendered
to royalty. The simple idea of this kingdom is that Christ Himself reigns in the
hearts of His people, securing the perfect submission of the will, and the consecration
of every power to Himself. Thus His kingdom is within; it is invisible. It puts on
no outward glare. In the hearts of men He writes His laws by His Spirit, and thus
rules over them to deliver them from Satan and sin, and translate them into His own
kingdom of peace and love.
The subjects of this kingdom are shut up to no particular location. Each in the sphere
where providence has called him to reside and to his master's will, may there be
truly a member of this invisible kingdom. Christ may be reigning over him, and he
may be indeed a subject and a citizen of this kingdom of God.
This is the kingdom we are required in our text to seek. To seek it implies that
we seek to belong to it--seek to know Christ's will and to do it--seek to be recognized
by Christ as one of His subjects, and seek to promote the interests of this kingdom,
as all true subjects of any kingdom do, and should do if the government deserves
their support. He who truly seeks first the kingdom of God, seeks to be as really
and perfectly governed by Christ now, as the holy in Heaven are. He would have Christ
living and reigning within him so that every thought shall be brought into obedience.
We are required, not only to seek the kingdom of God, but also "His righteousness."
The original word here rendered righteousness, is sometimes rendered justification.
The radical idea seems to be simply this--being right with God--coming into a state
of acceptance with Him. This we know must in our case include both the free pardon
of past sin and the being sanctified so that we are not actually sinning. So long
as His law condemns us for unpardoned sin, or so long as we are actually sinning,
it would be monstrous to suppose that God can accept us as righteous, and that we
are right in His sight.
Hence, when the righteousness of God as in our text, is spoken of as a thing for
us to seek, it must include both pardon and sanctification.
The command to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first, enjoins upon
us to treat this subject as of absolute and supreme importance. This must be the
great business of our lives. Nothing else is allowed to have any practical importance
compared with this.
The injunction--seek God's kingdom first, implies that we seek it first in point
of time. It should be the first thing attended to. It is not merely to be admitted
as of first importance, but should really be put first in point of time. The first
thoughts of each morning should be given to it. And whenever God's word, or His providence
brings before our mind the invitations or the claims of this kingdom, we are to remember
that now is the accepted time. Now, first in order, before anything else, let the
concerns of your soul with the kingdom of God and His righteousness have the first
regard.
It is also implied that we seek this kingdom with supreme earnestness. This is fully
involved in the points just spoken of. We are required to agonize to enter in at
the strait gate--to press hard for entrance, with the greatest earnestness, and the
most strenuous efforts. Let the soul be indeed in agony to carry the point and make
sure of admission into the kingdom of God. To the same purport are very many passages
which I might quote from the Scriptures, all going to show that God requires us to
seek with all our hearts, to lay out the utmost strength of our souls, if we would
successfully resist the devil, and really break the chains of sin, and secure so
great a treasure as eternal life.
It is also implied that we seek the kingdom of God with perseverance. We must press
on till we obtain. This is the great business of life--to get back from revolt, to
obedience--from our state of rejection, cast out from God, to a state of acceptance,
where we shall be sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Then let us persevere
in seeking the whole of this change until it be completely effected. The nature of
the case demands such perseverance. The blessings within reach are too great and
precious to be lost for want of perseverance in the pursuit. They will amply reward
you for a whole life of most earnest seeking.
Again, the kingdom of God would be the object of supreme engrossment. You must bring
all your powers into action. Your intellect must be thoroughly awake--your sensibility
to the claims of truth must be all alive, and your will must act with inflexible
decision. Absolutely your whole mind must be aroused to its utmost exertion.
Still again, the command implies that everything else must be postponed to this.
The spirit of the precept demands that everything else be thrown into the back-ground,
and this be placed foremost of all.
When Christ was upon earth, He admitted no apology for delay--would allow nothing
to interpose between the soul, and its present duty. On a certain occasion, Christ
called a man to follow Himself. The man replied, "Suffer me first to go and
bury my father." No, said Christ, "leave the dead to bury their dead"--the
dead in sin to bury the natural dead--"but go thou and preach the kingdom of
God." One might suppose that if any circumstances would justify delay, these
would. God has said, "Honor thy father;" and the instinctive feelings of
propriety, as well as respect for the dead are wont to secure a prompt regard to
these last offices which we can pay to the departed. Shall we then forsake a father's
burial, and leave to others, yea to wicked men, these last obsequies? Yea, let the
dead bury their dead; thou hast a call from God--go thou and preach the kingdom.
But "let me go first and bid them farewell which are at home in my house."
No; said Christ, no man putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for
the kingdom of God."
Now it is plain that our Savior puts these strong cases for the very purpose of enforcing
strongly this point--that nothing else whatever may be placed before prompt obedience
to this great precept, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness."
The spirit of the text requires that everything shall be promptly sacrificed that
comes in competition with this. Let nothing else come up to crowd this aside; seek
this first; make this your present business; if your father is dead, no matter, attend
to this; cut off your right hand if it interfere with this work--make any sacrifice
whatever which needs to be made in order to your successful prosecution of this great
work of seeking first the kingdom of God. No consideration whatever may be allowed
to divert the mind from this subject.
To this command Christ has annexed a promise. This next claims our attention.
You will observe that the condition of this promise is, "Seek first the kingdom
of God;"--as if He had said "If you will seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, you shall have all these earthly things of which He had been
speaking. You shall be fed as surely as I feed the ravens, and clothed as well as
I clothe the lilies. You need not be anxious for these things. It is my business
to provide them. Mark the lilies of the field; how they grow--they toil not--they
spin not; yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. And if
God so gloriously attires the grass only for a day, and is burnt tomorrow, will He
not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" Therefore, be not anxious about
these earthly things. Let the Gentiles who know not their Father on high, seek after
these things anxiously--but remember that your Father knows your wants and will take
care to supply them. Only, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you.
Consider also that your anxieties about these things can do no good. Which of you
by ever so much anxiety can add to his stature one cubit?
We are to understand this promise as including all that is necessary for us, either
in time or eternity. The connection however, shows that Christ had principal reference
to provisions for our earthly wants. He knows what these wants are. He formed the
constitution which creates them; and He passed through this very state of physical
want Himself. He understood how strong the tendencies of our minds are to excessive
anxiety about the requisite supply. Hence He says--I will take away from you all
apology for neglecting the things of My kingdom--you shall have no excuse for not
making religion the chief thing; let it be your first business--first in point of
time--first in your esteem--first in the earnestness with which you seek it; then
trust Me to make up all the other things that you need. Do My business and I will
do yours. Take care of My kingdom--throw your whole soul into its interests, and
I will supply your physical wants. Do your duty as I enjoin it, and I will be responsible
for these lesser things.
It is very easy to see that for Christ to take this course, and require us to seek
the kingdom of God first is very reasonable, even though He had annexed no promise;
because,
We cannot know where this point is. It may be this hour, this moment. This sinner, may be your last opportunity. If so, how important that Christ should require you to seek salvation now! And how vital that you should heed and obey the call!
Now it were better for this man to let the subject entirely alone than to attend to it in this sleepy, profitless, heart-hardening way. It is better also for the sake of others that he should let the subject alone than give it only such attention; for he will greatly stumble others and lead them down to perdition. His example induces others to follow him; and if his course is the most ruinous that can be for himself, so will it be for his followers. But it was in view of this very influence that Christ said of some, "I would that thou wert cold or hot; because thou are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." Christ therefore prefers that you would let the subject entirely alone, rather than attend to it just enough to quiet your fears, evade conviction, harden your heart, induce others to ruin, and never do your duty.
It would be supreme folly to grasp the lesser good so eagerly as to lose that which is infinitely greater. How much more now, since to him who seeks first God's kingdom, the promise is given--all these things shall be added unto thee. Indeed we have no reason left us for neglecting obedience to this great and good command.
REMARKS.
1. The command and promise in our text strongly illustrate God's great care for our
souls. If God had no care for us, or but little care for us, He would not use so
much effort to urge us to secure salvation. Why is it that God reiterates these commands
so incessantly, giving line upon line, and precept upon precept? Only because He
would awaken and urge us to those efforts which our case demands. But especially
I ask, Why does God append to His commands to great and precious promises? He knows
our circumstances. He sees how great our wants are, and how many, and therefore He
says--your soul is in danger and will be lost if you suffer your chief attention
to be engrossed in cares for earthly things. I entreat you, therefore, to take care
of your soul, and I will see to your physical wants. Do you by all means seek first
My kingdom and righteousness, and I will see that your "bread shall be given
and your water shall be sure."
This is just like an infinite Father. It is as if a father should come out from the
East to visit his son in Ohio, and should find him almost worn down with toil, laboring
hard to get in his wheat and his hay that he might feed his family and pay his debts--but
his great labor and care are crushing his health and putting his very life in peril.
See, he raises blood, and his cold night sweats but too plainly show that he must
change his course and get relief, or his wife is a widow and his babes are orphans.
The father sees all this in an instant. My son, he says, attend first to your precious
health and do all you can to restore it and prolong your life; I will take care of
your hay and your wheat; I will see that all the other things you need shall be added
if you will only secure your precious life. So he writes home to his distant family
that they need not expect him home again for a long time yet;--he finds business
with his son of more importance than anything else can be.
Now this would be a striking case of parental sympathy and interest--just such a
case as we have in our text of the parental care of our great Father for our salvation.
2. The disinterestedness of God is very affectingly manifested in this command and
promise. What would you say of a father who should do as I have just represented?
Just leave all care of your business to me, he says to his son; go at once into your
house and take your bed as much as your health needs; and he sends home to the dear
ones there that they must forego the pleasure of seeing him for some months yet,
for here are other interests not his own which his heart will not allow him to leave
neglected; this father you would say manifested a most admirable degree of disinterested
affection. You might perhaps naturally expect all this of one who was really a father,
yet it would show that indeed he had a father's heart. So of God. In making these
provisions for supplying our earthly wants and in taking from our minds the burden
of earthly cares, He has shown Himself a God of love. That He should be so careful
to urge us up to duty and to remove all hindrances so that nothing need divert or
interrupt us--this indeed shows us a God full of goodness and rich in love.
3. To refuse to be diverted from God's service by worldly cares and to give our whole
heart to the Lord, is the only way to make sure of earthly good. If any of you would
make sure of whatever temporal good you need, seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness. Then you shall have a promise which is infinitely more secure than
any stocks or deposits in all the land. It will be safe to trust God. He who makes
the rain and the sunshine;He who clothes the lilies and feeds the young ravens, knows
how to reach your wants and fulfill His own promises. He cannot lack either the resources
or the will.
4. Unbelief urges a very different course from this. Unbelief always professes to
be sorely afraid of tempting God by neglecting temporal matters. So much afraid is
it of overdoing this thing of having faith in God's explicit promises!
Now it cannot be doubted that the Savior meant to rebuke this unbelief and urge strongly
the duty of casting all our care upon God, only taking care on our part that we seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He meant to show us that we have
no room for fear about earthly good, provided we take all due care of our souls and
of all the things of His kingdom.
And this was in our Lord a most wise and beneficent foresight. For who does not know
that for one reason or for another, almost all persons are excusing themselves for
neglecting the soul. The student must study. Most certainly, and without doubt, he
must now get his lessons. What! do you call him away from his lessons to seek the
kingdom of God first! What! he cries out, shall I not lose my education if I listen
to such a call? Now is my harvest time--now is the time to cultivate my mind--I came
here to study--it were a pity if I may not get my lessons first, and seek the kingdom
of God when I have a convenient season!
Yet let me say here that ever so much proper attention to religion can never be any
loss to us. It never robs us of other things which are really better. The student
who seeks first the kingdom of God rationally, will not need to neglect any useful
study. He cannot lose anything on the whole by putting each and all things in their
proper places, and giving to each its due measure of attention. The wise-minded student
may not know so much of Shakespeare or of Byron--may have less to do with Homer or
with Virgil; but he will not therefore fail of learning the things that are most
useful. I do not hesitate to say that the student who shall obey this precept will
come out ahead of all his fellow-students who disobey it; he will not be an intellectual
drone, a lounging idler, only half awake to the value of knowledge, and only half
alive to pursue it. No, his mind will apprehend the value of truth and will press
forward with quenchless longings to attain it. Hence his mind will move under such
impulses and be encompassed with such an atmosphere of light that he will be a better
man, will have more of all useful knowledge, and will have a better balanced mind
than any of his associates who seek first something else and not God's kingdom.
The same may be said of men of any condition in life--of those who till the ground--of
those who fill the shop, or move behind the counter. Let a man anywhere obey this
precept you will find that his temporal wants will be supplied. He may not get so
rich or get rich so fast or by such means as shall load himself down too much to
run the Christian race at all--so much as to crush himself down to hell--this may
not be his course, but he will have all real good.
5. Everything really valuable must be lost by disobeying this command. If a man neglects
the kingdom of God, nothing which he can obtain is really valuable to him. Suppose
he gets an education. This will only aggravate his final condemnation.
I wonder if this is usually understood. Do these young men and young women understand
this principle? It is plain and undeniable. Our future happiness and misery will
be as our mental cultivation and as the development of our intelligence. The more
mental power and the wider range of views we have, the larger is the scope for bitter
reflection, and the keener the pangs of self-reproach and remorse in that world where
the wicked become their own worst tormentors.
Did you ever consider what Byron's state of mind must have been when he spent whole
nights in writing poems to save his soul from the unutterable agonies of reflection
upon himself--to keep himself from rolling in hell while he yet lived upon the earth!
And do you ask, why was this? Because his mind was highly cultivated, and its original
endowments were of the very first order--because he saw truth and its relations clearly,
and felt its force deeply--and therefore could not bear the terrible reactings of
such mental powers when they turned in upon his soul to scourge and lash himself
as the guiltiest being on earth. In mental power and in self-inflicted torment too,
he is like the devil. Perhaps one more like the devil never trod the earth.
Sinner, if you don't mean to serve God, I advise you to be as near an idiot as possible.
Keep away from knowledge; go beyond the Rocky Mountains--go and fish for whales--shut
off every flashing ray of light you can--contract your mind within the narrowest
possible compass; don't seek knowledge unless you mean to pile up a mass of fuel
that shall burn your soul forever. Keep away from knowledge and mental cultivation.
What have you to do with an expanded mind, and sharpened intellect? It will only
inflict the keener stings of remorse and furnish you the more scope for everlasting
self-torment.
I said, nothing is valuable to you unless you mean to seek first the kingdom of God.
Every enjoyment, even life itself, is a curse to him who is treasuring up wrath against
the day of wrath. Every abused mercy augments that fearful treasure of wrath. The
sooner you stop eating and drinking and breathing the better. "Every beating
pulse you tell" will rise up in the judgment against you to swell the evidence
of your great guilt in not seeking life when God besought you to live. It were better
for you not to have lived at all unless you seek first the blessing of God and eternal
life.
Hence, if you neglect to seek first the kingdom of God in pretense of seeking other
good first, you are infinitely mistaken. You will lose the good you seek, and also
the greater good you would not seek but should have sought. Let me tell that student
who neglects the kingdom of God and drives his studies that he may keep up with his
class or keep before them; that he drives on upon his own ruin. The good you seek
to gain will be an infinite curse to you. If it should prove a blessing, it must
be in spite of God's threatened curses; and surely you ought to know that it is a
vain thing to fight against God. Surely whom the Lord blesses is blessed, and whom
the Lord curses is cursed. You will find it so.
6. Again, it is plainly implied that if we seek first the kingdom of God, we shall
not only have these other things promised, but have the kingdom of God too. Certainly
our Lord meant to imply that we should have the very thing we seek first.
7. If we really obey this command, it will be manifest in all the arrangements of
our common life. Observe a business man who obeys this command. He never takes upon
himself any business which must crowd out a proper attention to religion. You will
see in all his arrangements, that he makes provision for religious duties as much
as he makes provision to eat his daily meals. When did you ever know a man lay out
his business so as to reverse no time for his daily food and nightly sleep? Go into
any house and you see provision made for sleeping and eating. You will see perhaps
articles of food and means of cooking it. You will say--well, these people expect
doubtless to eat and to sleep. This enters into their arrangements. So of every man
who means to seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness. Whatever his principle
business is, you will see his arrangements made accordingly. So long as he has his
reason, he never can make his arrangements for his time so as to leave his principal
business unprovided for. If his principal business be to seek the kingdom of God,
everything will be shaped accordingly. He will no sooner fail to do this than fail
to make his family arrangements for eating and sleeping.
But let us go into that student's room. We can probably learn what he is seeking
first. The door opens; we pass along in; there are his books; there lies Byron and
Shakespeare; let us look for his Bible. Aye, his Bible is not there; we look for
it on the table, for possibly he keeps it there and goes to it regularly for his
spiritual bread--but no, it is not there. Look under his pillow. Alexander the Great
is said to have slept always with his Homer under his pillow--but not so with this
student. You find no Bible there. At last it is found in the bottom of his trunk.
It has not been opened since his mother put it there on the very day he left that
home of his childhood. It was his mother who put it there we know; for see, she has
marked many passages with her tears. O, she did hope this dear son would ponder and
learn to love those blessed pages. With what throes of heart, such as none but a
parent feels, did she send him away and commit him to her own Father and Savior.
O, has he forgotten all a mother's prayers?
But perhaps the Bible has been taken out of his trunk, but has lain on his shelf
unmoved until the dust has coated it over--a witness against him that he heeds not
the words of eternal life. Or you find it at last on his table, but under his Cicero
and a huge pile of newspapers and novels--ah, that youth is not seeking first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. His arrangements are not made at all for this
end.
But there is another scene. Here is a student's Bible worn with much and constant
use--wet with many tears--Oh, how often has his soul been feasted as with angel's
food from those exceeding great and precious promises!
It is said of one of the Apostles that after his death his knees were found to be
callous from his frequent and long-continued kneeling in prayer. So it might be with
you if you were really given to prayer and mighty wrestlings with God.
8. When persons are really engaged about their souls, they will not suffer themselves
to be placed in circumstances so engrossing as to be crowded away from seeking God
supremely. They would dread such a state worse than death.
9. Many hold this truth in theory who after all utterly deny it in practice. Almost
everybody will admit that we ought to seek first the kingdom of God, and that religion
is the supreme business of life; yet how almost constantly is this denied in practice?
As I have kept my eye upon the course of things in this community, I have seen almost
everything crowded in here to draw men away from God. The students get up society
after society to cultivate the intellect; but where are the societies got up to cultivate
the heart? If all were right here, should we not see a different course of things;
should we not see something crowded in almost everywhere to make the heart better--to
awaken religious feeling and arouse attention to religious truth, and carry abroad
a religious influence over all hearts. O, if this truth were really believed, we
should see it reduced to practice by the students and by all the church, let their
vocation be what it may. But now we see a great many students constantly pressed--full
of engrossing business and wasting care--and why? What are they doing? Are they making
ceaseless efforts to promote their own or others spirituality? Their efforts surely
are ardent and vigorous enough to lead you to suppose so. O, if such were only the
fact!
But judging from the actual life of many of these students, one would suppose that
Christ had said--Seek first to get your lessons--seek first to master your Algebra
or your Latin. And the course of things in the business community is such as it might
rightly be if Christ had said--Seek first to get your business done in good time
and in the most perfect manner;--first see to it that your crops are duly sown and
timely gathered; then shall all needful things be added to you.
Such is a very common state of things in this community. It is such also with many
of the students, but not with all as I am happy to know. There are some here who
show that their hearts are upon the Zion of God. But having made these exceptions,
the rest seem to live as if Christ had said to the student--Get your studies first,
and you shall lose nothing in point of spirituality.
The fact is, if we are ever going to be seriously and thoroughly pious, we must make
all our arrangements accordingly. Wherever you see a man thoroughly pious, you see
a man who in fact does make all his arrangements with a view to this great object.
He will not let labor or business of any kind interfere with his going to meeting,
when he can go without fearing to displease God by neglecting some other apparent
duty. His seasons of prayer are too precious to be lost. He cannot on any account
forego the pleasure of meeting with God a few times at least each day. He is conscious
that he needs to be strengthened daily with might in the inner man. Hence he cannot
live without prayer.
10. No Institution can do much to bless the world unless it practically sets religion
foremost. I mean what I say--practically; not in theory only, but in practice. An
Institution which takes some other practical ground, may make students intellectual--may
train them well enough for the bar or for medicine; but students so trained, must
suffer fearfully in their spirituality, and if they go into the ministry, they can
do little indeed to promote the salvation of souls. They cannot have power without
deep piety, and they cannot have this unless they seek it first. The first place
is its only right place. Make piety a secondary thing in any Institution, and the
Spirit of God feels Himself dishonored, and cannot bless.
Oh, brethren, let us anchor this Institution fast to this only right principle--religion
the chief concern--seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
GLOSSARY
of easily misunderstood terms as defined by Mr. Finney himself.
Compiled by Katie Stewart
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