Anxiety-Free Living, Part 2

Anxiety free living, worry free living fear free living is part of what the Lord offered those who put their trust in him. It is not just heavenly bliss in heavenly peace and heavenly joy.

But here and now, there is peace and joy to be found. Anxiety is trickling through the mind.

If you encouraged it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained so how do you stop even that first trickle of worry how you keep concerns about sickness, your income, more paying your bills from consuming your thoughts and robbing your joy in curbing your passion for God is a life free from anxiety truly within your reach right now. Keep those crucial questions in mind today. As John shows you from God's word. How to experience anxiety free living, that's the title of our current study and with today's lesson here is John MacArthur's return in our study to the 12th chapter of Luke Luke chapter 12 and we are looking at verses 22 through 34 under the title anxiety free living, there is in the chapter 12 a very long discourse given by Jesus that actually starts in chapter 12 verse one and runs all the way to chapter 13 verse nine that is one event one place one discourse with a couple of interruptions to add answer some questions, but nonetheless this is one long teaching time with the Lord Jesus. And here, in his teaching in verses 22 to 34.

The issue is in the kingdom of God.

We can have anxiety free living, our Lord told people they should not be anxious, they should not worry, and they should not be afraid, anxiety free living, worry free living fear free living is part of what the Lord offered those who put their trust in him. It is not just heavenly bliss in heavenly peace and heavenly joy. But here and now, there is peace and joy to be sound if you will notice the emphasis of this passage comes in three particular commands. Verse 22.

Do not be anxious. Verse 29. Do not keep worrying verse 32.

Do not be afraid they could all be translated with the word stop stop being anxious.

Stop worrying stop being afraid this passage by the way, parallels our Lord's teaching in the sermon on the mount back in Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 through 34 where he said, essentially, these very same things. On another occasion much earlier in his ministry in a different place. This is in Judea that was up in Galilee and I simply say that to remind you that these are crews that our Lord taught many, many times not just the few times that are recorded in Scripture, but these are the things that he taught day after day after day through his ministry.

Now he is calling here for worry free anxiety free and fear free living, he is saying that it is possible to rise above all the troubles of this life to have what the apostle Paul called the piece that passes understanding. That is the piece for which there is no human explanation that calls for an end to anxiety and fear and worry and panic and all those things that can be so debilitating, so disturbing and so depressing and distracting in life. There really are only two categories in which you can direct your worry or fear in your anxiety either into the material side or the spiritual side right. You're either going to be concerned about something physical, material earthly are you going to be's concern about something spiritual immaterial and heavenly those of the only two categories. You are a physical being in a spiritual being and that since your two, an inner man in an outer man and worry can be attached to both, but in the case of one who belongs to the kingdom of God.

Worry in either sense is unnecessary in regard to our material needs. Verse 30 says your father knows that you need these things in regard to our spiritual needs.

Verse 32, says your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. He will give you whatever you need to sustain your life in this world and he will give you all that you need to sustain your life in his kingdom. Worry then is unnecessary worry is a result really of the of two things. It is a result. First of all, of ignorance and/or unbelief. There are insured people who worry not, because they don't believe what God's promise, but because they don't know God's promise in the greatest way you could cheat a believer greatest way could cheat anybody is to limit God or to teach them things about God that are not true or to give them a diminished view of God. In fact, this is a form of idolatry. Any misrepresentation of God is an idol and worshiping and giving homage to a mist represented God is a form of idolatry.

It is incumbent upon all who teach the Scriptures and all who possess the Scriptures meeting both us and you as well to come to a true understanding of God so that we worship him, not just in spirit that is not just with our emotion and all of our faculties mind and soul as well as every physical part of us. But they worship him in truth, it is critical that we understand who our God really is. And so it is possible to worry your way through your Christian life simply because you are ignorant and that unfortunately is the legacy of many many people where ministries do not weigh heavily in on the nature of God. The character of God. The promises of God and the purposes of God. There people are treated very often don't understand the greatness of God. The glory of God. The commitment of God. The compassion of God, the power of God. The omniscience of God the wisdom of God and all the rest in which we rest in the promises of God. There are many people Christian people who have no idea what their God is really like, and the level of commitment is made to them and so they live in fear.

Fear of circumstances. Fear of Satan. Fear of failure, fear of you name it. So it is possible that your life is full of fear and anxiety and worry because of ignorance that can be dispelled simply by reading the Psalms. If you think it's a long course if you have to go to seminary to get to know God, you're wrong. Just start and someone and 150 days later finished some hundred and 50 and you will have come to know your God, and of course all the rest can be filled in with that. That's why we read the Psalms because we come to worship God and we need to know the God we worship. If you do know your God and you worry anyway this is not about ignorance. This is about distrust. This is a sin to be needlessly ignorant is sinful, but to be willfully distrusting of the God who has revealed himself, his serious sin. So when you look at your life and you see anxieties and fears and worries. The question then is my ignorant of my God, or do I just not trust him. So let's go back to some basic things okay in this passage our Lord unfolds this whole issue of why we are not to worry and be anxious and be afraid, either in the material of the immaterial physical or the spiritual, the earthly or the heavenly rooms number one worry is a failure to understand God's priority. Worry is a failure to understand God's priority verses 22 and 23, said to his disciples. For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life as to what you shall eat, nor for your body as to what you shall put on for life is more than food and the body than closing. And here's the point here. God didn't create you just to survive. God didn't create you just have you eat and where close so you could make it. God did not create you to fulfill some physical goal or objective or purpose or design your life is far more than eating your life is far more than closing God's purpose in giving you life God's purpose in giving you a body is not material, it's not physical and it's not earthly is immaterial, spiritual and heavenly. We were made for his glory. We were made to serve his glory, to serve his purpose to honor him to bring attention to him, to proclaim the gospel to live out Christ and the power of the spirit in the world and as long as that's the divine priority. That's God's priority or purpose for us. He will sustain us to the end of his purpose. In fact you you can work hard and save in the Bible says you should save and you and you you should work hard and you should be a good steward and make good investments in all of that but in the end it wouldn't matter what you did that, or gave it all away.

As far as the divine priority is concerned because whatever you wear and whatever you eat isn't the reason God put you here. There is a completely different reason you're here and it's a spiritual one. So you could give it all up and you're not going to have until God wants you to and he will provide whatever it is that you need to get you to the place where it's your time on the other hand, you could save a fortune, you could amass a huge estate, you could build bigger barns everywhere and you not only one day pass when God determines that your ministries over that kind of thinking tends to make you rich toward God and put your treasure in heaven rather than here. So, worry, anxiety and fear fails to understand the divine priority that God has a purpose for your life and he's going to make sure you live to fulfill that purpose.

Second, we said, worry is a failure to understand God's provision that is to say that everything you have comes from God. It may come through your work and through your savings and through your diligence and through your talents and your training and all that but in the end it really is God's pledge to you that sustains you and the point is made in verse 24 consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them.

Here's the point. How much more valuable you are than the birds and that leads to the third point which I just introduced last time. Worry is a failure to understand God's privilege. Worry is a failure to understand God's privilege verse 25 and which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his lifespan.

If, then, verse 26. You cannot do even a very little thing. Why are you anxious about other matters. What is about. This is about the idea that somehow you control the length of your life day. Which of you by being anxious is going to add a single cubit to his lifespan that you have to see the cubit is used here sort of metaphorically or analogically cubit is a measurement from the elbow to the end of the fingers. About 18 inches. They use this as a unit, a unit of measure one cubit would be a unit of measure in ancient times and so it's not the idea of adding to your physical stature.

May nobody particularly wants to go from 510 to 76 and if you did, it wouldn't be a small thing. Verse 26. If you cannot even do a very little thing that would be a little thing to be a huge thing that's not what it's about. It's using a cubit metaphorically or analogically you can add a unit to your life. You can't add to the years of your life that God has determined for you can't do it. So if you can't do it if you can add a single unit to your life if you can't even do that very little thing by all your worry and fear. Then what you doing worrying and being anxious about all these matters like body and your clothing in your food people in our world today are consumed with this idea of health will get sold on.

This is not how long a person lives, but how they live right, but we have literally made a God out of health and longevity in our sterile modern world where we managed to conquer bacteria and virus and things like that really created this sort of an antiseptic antibiotic environment were very concerned about being able to prolong life and everything we need.

You know has this carafe of percentages and amounts of all these the UD code everything you eat you you you gotta get the code on what you're eating, so you can check out all these ingredients and who cares where it with your you add the life to your predetermined plan by God.

You can't do that and I can ability that this is just the sign of the time it's infiltrated the evangelical world this generations engaged in health mania. It's not wrong to be disciplined. It's not wrong to be moderate. It's not wrong to avoid the sin of gluttony is not wrong to be wise, it's wrong to be foolish about what you eat. You want to take care of yourself. God created a wonderful, wonderful food world for us so that we can make good choices and unlock and add to my life but I would like to live my life with a measure of strength so that I can serve the Lord. The ways should be served.

I don't want to fall into sin by being gluttonous and overindulging and lacking discipline but I'm not going to add one day to my life.

The optimum of my life is been determined by God and with certain reasonableness. I just want to maintain my strength but I'm not going to add to my life makes me want you to be plate of cheese fries. You get the point. Worry doesn't help if you worry about how long you live and you spend all your money on that you waste all your money really waste all your money being unable to add anything to your life.

That's not good stewardship and I'm not talking about being healthy. You need to be healthy. You need to beat your body into subjection you need to be reasonable and how you conduct your life and how you use the resources that God gives you, and not be dissipated and gluttonous and all that kinda stuff that steals your energy and robs you of the strength of the Lord desires to use, but you're not gonna do anything to add to your life is his privilege to determine where were born.

To whom were born when were born and how long we're here God has given us life, they will sustain that life until our services done. Worry makes no contribution. The Lord gives the Lord takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. If we live obediently to his word, he will sustain our life to the end. You can lengthen it beyond the purposes of God. So verse 26 is if you cannot do even a very little thing like add a unit to your life where you worrying about what you going to eat and what you are unaware this is a failure to understand God's priority, and that is that your life matters spiritually and achieve a spiritual end God's provision that he will sustain that life to fulfill that end and God's privilege.

It is God's to determine when we live in when we die and how we fit into the redemptive scheme for the advancement of his glory and his kingdom number four. Worry is a failure to understand divine preference. It's a failure to understand divine preference. I know we live in a society that it teaches evolution and you know were disposed to be the latest form of an eight were just the last monkey at least the newest monkey at this particular point in the evolutionary process and I were no different than anything else were just animals and these environmentalists and these lovers of animals get all caught up in this but look where Christians and you can look at the world of God's creation and you will see a massive gap between everything he created. And man created in his image and we bear the divine preference. Look at verse 27 here's an illustration consider the lilies how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, but I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory didn't clothe himself like one of these. If God so arrays the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace. How much more will he clothe you, all men of little faith. Now we get to the sin partier, our Lord turns from the issue of food to the issue of clothing here in the physical world is of the two things people are concerned about their are concerned about nourishing their body and protecting it any makes a comparison the reveals his preference for people, especially of course his own children, and he says consider the lilies of the word lilies is not something to be understood in a technical sense, because in verse 28. He says God so arrays the grass lilies and grass are basically synonyms the word lilies is broad enough. The word grass is definitive enough to let us know these talking about the wild grasses that grew all through the Middle East and the land of Israel that's lowered in various ways. In the first Peter 124 Peter quoting from Isaiah.

All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers and the flower falls off so this is just Jesus saying he may of pointed as he may have to the burgeoning consider the wild flowers growing all over at the end of the stems of grass.

There were so many different kinds of them in Israel. There were did you see terms in in the land of Israel, even in ancient times, like Iris and Mr. Sherman gladioli. Those are more modern terms Latin derivative terms to describe various kinds of flowering plants even had certain kinds of daisies and and poppies such as we have a Californian Lilies. It's just the general grasses that flower look at them, how they grow, they don't toil, they don't spin they don't labor over their clothes. They don't labor over their beauty.

And yet if you take a paddle off of the flower.

Even a wildflower and and you look under a microscope at its intricate texture, color, design, form staggering. You can take the most beautifully manufactured garment out of wool or or out of cotton or out of some synthetic and look at it under a microscope and looks rough. Look at a flower petal and is a refinement there that only God can make choices looking at work to get their closing. I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory didn't clothe himself like one of these the best dressed man in the history of Israel will Solomon if you read first Kings 10 and second Chronicles 9 you read about the lavish attire. The lavish life of Solomon and is the best dressed man. He had the finest garments, but even Solomon in all his glory didn't wear things like the petal of a flower, and you know you if you love flowers and Patricia keep such a beautiful garden in our house we we love those files. I never walk through our garden in the front of the back of the side without thinking about the amazing creativity of God and his obvious love for beauty because they're here and they're gone.

They live and they die and they they serve no spiritual purpose other than to give this little brief testimony to a god of beauty and a God of order and the God of design in a God of infinite variety and the point is this if God verse 28 so arrays the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace. How much more will he clothe you omit a little faith, do you understand God's preference. This is the issue, folks fear, worry, anxiety is about a lack of faith, lack of faith in Jesus use this a lot. Matthew 630, Matthew 826, Matthew 1431 Matthew 16 eight even refer to it back in Luke eight when he when he said to the disciples were worrying about drowning you know where is your faith into God of the universe to call you to be his apostles and preachers can let you drown when you being anxious about what you fearing what you worrying why panic if you know my promise and you know my power that's a question of trust and if you don't trust me. I got a sin problem.

Do you not trust my knowledge, do not trust my wisdom. Do not trust my compassion. What is it about me you don't trust you not trust my power do not trust my care. What is it about me you don't trust or maybe you think the devil stronger than me. There's a blasphemous thought. Now he's not saying these people didn't have any faith he call them men of what little faith they they're the ones who believe in him he's directing this. It says in verse 22 to his disciples. Those who are true believers and those who are becoming true believers. NDE said it's possible for you. He says that to worry and fear and be anxious, but understand this if that is the case you have a problem with trusting me as a serious problem because, would you review this.

He's worthy of our trust right interest you been listening to John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University in seminary here on Grace to you his current study anxiety free living is showing you that in every circumstance, every relationship and every season of life. God has provided what you need to drive away worry John, you made it clear today that worry is a sin that must be dealt with what one thing that a Christian can be tempted to worry about boils down to this question is my salvation.

Sure, John. We understand right that Christians do have those times of doubt, you just don't want to live there. Well, of course, there are times when we doubt our salvation. Because Satan is tempting us to doubt that the strategy of the devil to cause us to doubt, to use things in our lives that may may be make it appear as if either God is not on our side or God is not with us or were somehow disconnected from him, and it's also very true that you cannot lose your insurance you can become a doubter, even as a true believer in times when you're you're sinning in some kind of a pattern because assurance of salvation is a gift from the Holy Spirit to an obedient faithful godly believer, you don't need to doubt if you're a true believer and when you find those times of temptation of those times of sin that that lead you into doubt you. You know the way of escape, of course, and that is prayer and repentance and obedience.

Perhaps the what's at the root of your doubt may be a failure to actually understand the reality of your salvation.

That is to understand that it is an eternal salvation, so we would love to send you a free booklet titled a believers assurance. This is a universal problem with Christians. Obviously there are some Christians who worry about it more than others because they have bad theology but every Christian faces a moment or two, or perhaps the prolonged period of doubt and you can have an answer from the word of God that is provided for you in this little booklet called a believers assurance. It identifies eight reasons that people lack assurance and it talks about those reasons and that it gives you a solution to looking at the doubt in your own life and how to deal with it have a catechism for dealing with doubt. 12 part question-and-answer to help you think through why you're doubting and where is the path to victory.

It's a quick read but powerful and effective. And it cuts to the issue its title a believers assurance available free of charge. All you have to do is requested.

Do it today yes do. Perhaps you don't doubt your salvation but you know someone who does a believers assurance would be an ideal gift for that person again is free just request a copy when you contact us today our number here 855 Grace or go to our website TTY.org a believers assurance will help you answer questions like do I have a saving relationship with Christ.

What are the marks of a faithful Christian and how do you come to Christ in the first place again to request this booklet called a believers assurance call our toll-free number 855 Grace or go to the website TTY.org. Also keep in mind that you can listen to or download all of John's sermons for free@tty.org that includes every lesson from this current series titled anxiety free living, and to keep up-to-date on the latest radio series or books or free offers from Grace to you. Make sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Just search for Grace to you now for John MacArthur and the entire staff.

I'm Phil Johnson encouraging you to watch Grace to you television this Sunday. Check our website to see if it airs in your area and then join us tomorrow when John continues his series anxiety free living with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to you