Let's take our Bibles and turn
back to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. Our Lord is continuing. He's
preaching. He's preaching on the mount. And He's dealing in this passage
of scripture and in the next few with a subject that I'm going
to just say it like this. He's dealing with our attitude
toward exercising our obedience before Him. And when I say exercising
our obedience, there's things that we do, things that are actually
done. The Lord refers to these acts
as Alms, alms. If you have a margin in your
Bible, mine says righteousness. Whenever you do your righteousness
before men, there's a warning that the Lord has given. Now,
He deals in this passage I read, verses 1 to 4. Actually, the
warning is actually set forth in verses 2 to 4, but he's going
to deal with what I'll deal with tonight concerning giving. And then Lord willing, next time
we're going to do with the next one, which is verses 5 to 15,
which is actually concerning praying. And then he's going
to deal with the subject that he sets forth his fasting, which
is actually done. Verses 16 to 18. Now, in his
teaching, he gives us a warning concerning these different areas
of alms, things that we do. And this warning, we all need
to hear. Obviously, the Lord taught on
it. And the warning is doing these things. The first one,
as I said, the first one is giving. And he gives us a warning about
being careful that we don't do these things, these alms, these
righteousnesses, for the wrong reason. He said, take care, take
heed, that you don't do them to be seen of men. Now, obviously
there's some things that we do that you can't help. Lord willing,
next time I'm going to deal with prayer. And we have men that
come up here and they'll read some scripture and they lead
in prayer. They do it openly. And that's a hard thing. I've said that. You want to isolate yourself, but how do
you isolate, you know, a house full of people listening to you?
But the Lord warns against doing these things, giving, fasting,
praying, to be seen of men. He warns against that. Now, I
want us to deal tonight with this first of His instructions.
That instruction which appears to be primarily, they're called
alms, But in the description, when we start looking at verses
two to four, we're gonna see what he's talking about. He's
talking about giving, giving. And we need to remember that
these scriptures right here are the only source of instruction
that we have or need. 2 Timothy 3, 16, 17 says, all
scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's breathed of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works." Now, if we learn
the things of God, we're going to learn them through the Word
of God. And scripture must not be neglected. As I said before,
the means of God's grace, the Lord has given us some means
of growing, growing in grace. We hear the scriptures. What we're doing tonight, I'm
gonna tell you right now, what we're doing tonight is the most
important thing that's done this side of glory. This is the most
important thing, this side of glory. Nothing is more important
than hearing the word of God. Searching the scriptures. Those
at Berea, they search the scriptures daily to find out if these things
be so. I often tell you, I'll look up
a word, and I'm going to use a word, and I'll describe it.
Like last time, we prepared ye the way of the Lord. And you
know we all think we know what prepare means. But obviously
we didn't. Word didn't mean what we think
prepare means or make ready. It didn't mean that. It means
look at it. Consider it. Turn the attention to. Prepare
the way of the Lord. So anything that we learn, we're
going to learn from God's Word. And I've heard men say as an
excuse, well you know the Bible was written by men. It was penned
by men. It was penned by men. The scripture
says 2 Peter 121, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved, born, carried,
by the Holy Ghost. These Scriptures are God-breathed. So, as we consider this passage
of Scripture tonight, I pray that the Spirit of God bring
back to our memories that the glory of God in the face of our
dear and precious Savior is the only thing that matters. Not
what we do, not what we think, not what we say. The Lord is
dealing with something. Now He's gonna deal with this
now and remember the warning concerning doing our alms. Doing
alms, giving, tonight. And we are to be careful that
we remember when we do giving. The Lord said in verse 1, take
heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them.
Now that verse of scripture right there covers all of those verses
that I told you next week and Lord willing the following week
that I'll deal with. Tonight giving, praying next
time, fasting next time. Those all encompass alms doing. Take heed that you do not your
alms before men to be seen of them otherwise. Now listen to
these next words. Otherwise. Ye have no reward
of your Father which is in heaven. I'm gonna say something on that
in just a few minutes, but I wanna make a point. We're going to
be dealing with giving. And in our dealing with giving,
the first thing that I want us to remember is when we give,
We are to remember our God, our Father who gave. The scripture
said, for God so loved the world that He gave. His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life. God gives. God gives. God gives. And we're moved to
remember the praise and the blessing that's due unto the Son, who
gave Himself for His bride. Christ gives. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church. and gave Himself for it, that
He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish." So, I know this, when it comes
to giving, when we give, there is a blessed remembrance of the
Father who gave, His only begotten Son. the Son who gave Himself
for His bride, and we bless and honor the Holy Spirit who gives
life unto God's people, who seals and teaches and leads the vessels
of God's mercy. So God, Jehovah, Father, Son,
and Spirit, God gives. So as we consider giving, Let's
take our eyes off of the money and look to the one who gives. And we're reminded, we're to
be reminded of these things. Now, take heed. Take heed. Pay attention. Be cautious that
you do not your alms, your righteousness before men in front of men. To be seen of them. To seek their
praise only is what the Lord is warning. Otherwise, you have
no reward of your Father, which is in heaven. The same warning
is given, all right, look in verse five. And when you pray,
when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are,
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, in the corners
of the streets, they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward. Look in verse 16, moreover when
you fast, be not as the hypocrites or sad countenance. They disfigure
their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say
unto you, they have their reward. So we're warned against doing
what we do, our alms, And as I said before, some of these
things are done, but we're warned against doing them to be seen
of men. The warning is to make us aware
that if there is no desire, no desire for God's glory, if there's
no desire for the glory of God, then we've got a problem. If we do these things, and let
me explain it to you, I'll explain it to you so I can understand
it too. We've got an old man in us. Every believer's got an
old man there. And let me tell you what that old man wants.
He wants the praise of men. That's what he wants. They want
the praise of men. That's what my old man and your
old man wants. I want to be patted on the back.
I want you to tell me what a good job I've done. I want you to
tell me all kinds of things and I want you to puff me up and
give me all kind of honor and glory and praise. That's what
I want. That's what I want. And that's
what your old man wants too. That's what you want. But in
every believer there's a new man. And let me tell you what
that new man wants. That new man that sinneth not
wants God to be honored. He wants the glory to be to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He wants the glory Praise to
be unto him to whom it's due. That's what he wants. But if
there only is one man there, that man wants only the praise
of men. So therefore, this is the point
that the Lord is making. If what we're doing, now there's
going to be a struggle. I'm going to tell you right now,
you know this, you understand this. There's gonna be a struggle
in everything that we do. There's a war going on inside.
And that old man lusts against that new man, the flesh wars
against the spirit, one against the other, and it's always gonna
be like that until the Lord takes us home. But if there's only
that desire for the praise of men, to be seen of men, if that's
the only one there, that's what I'm talking about when there's
a problem. There's a problem. So that warning is to make us
aware that if there's no heart or no desire for the glory of
God, then it's nothing more than a show. It's hypocritical. It's a hypocrite. That's all
it is. So God's people are instructed We're instructed. Now we do give.
There's no doubt about it. It's ordained of God that we
give. The believer gives. I want you
to hold your place and turn to 1 Corinthians 16. What does God
have to say about giving? 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verses 1 and 2. Now concerning
the collection For the saints, as I have given
order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye." Now here's what
the Apostle Paul is going to give some instruction on giving. that every one of you lay by
him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings
when I come." Now here's what was happening. The Apostle Paul,
there was poor churches. There were some people that were
in need. They were believers. And they
were needy. They were poor. And they would take an offering.
And that's what we do. When we see a need here at this
assembly, what do we do? We do what we can. We do what
we can to help them. And so Paul was given some instruction. We do give. There's no doubt
about it. Gifts are collected for the help,
for the maintenance. As I said, this building, you
know, these lights cost some money. And everything else, so
what do we do? We give for the maintaining of
this ministry. But now listen to what Deuteronomy
15, 7 and 8 said. If there be among you a poor
man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine
heart, nor shut thine hand of thy poor brother, But thou shalt
open thy hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient
for his need in that which he wanteth. Listen to what Scripture
says, 1 John 3, 17, Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth
his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from
him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? But now, hearing
this commandment in the law, are not our hearts made to consider
the Lord who has shown mercy and compassion to us when we
give, when we give to those that we know about, that are in need. Let me tell you what we're doing.
We're setting forth the glory of the Lord who gave unto us
who are the poor. who didn't withhold His hand
of mercy and compassion. We poor vessels of mercy. Hear the word of David, King
David, as he magnifies the Lord Jesus in the Lord's sufferings. Now David is gonna say something,
it's in Psalm 40. And you know Psalm 40 is that
messianic psalm And it's speaking all of the Lord. It's concerning
Him. Mine iniquities, take and hold
of them, they're more than the hairs of my head. You know, listen
to this psalm. Now here, David's talking. And
David is expressing it when you read it concerning David. But
really, it's talking about the Lord Himself. So listen to it.
Psalm 40, verse 7. But I'm poor and needy. David
could say that, but that's the Lord saying that. The Lord. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me,
thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrying, O my God. That's
the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ as he humbled himself
and made himself of no reputation. So when we give, our giving is
for the help and the sustenance of the physically poor. That
is absolutely right. But when we do it, our Lord gives
us instruction. Back in Matthew chapter 6, and
he gives us instruction that when we do it, we're to do it
not to be seen of men. That's a hard thing. Talk to some of you guys and
say, can we help? Can we do this, that, and the
other? Well, somebody's going to see it. Somebody's going to
hear it. Somebody's going to know about
it. But we're warned against doing our alms only for men's
eyes. Remember, when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. What glory
are we due anyway? What glory can someone who is
nothing but a worm like I am, what can he do for me? The Spirit's
instruction on giving is explicit. 1 Corinthians back in there,
the gifts were to be brought. How do we do it? Upon the first
day of the week. And you know, we come here, we
got a little old box back over in the box, we don't pass a plate,
nothing wrong with passing a plate, I know some that do, and that's
fine, we just don't do it. You know, put a little box back
over here, and I've seen some of you, some of you have walked
up, and I've seen you walk over there and put something in it.
So it's not that you're doing it where people can't see what
you, but the motive behind it, what the Lord is talking about.
We come on the first day of the week when the saints meet together.
That's when we give. You don't have to come up here
on a Tuesday morning. The box will be here, but whenever the
church meets is what Paul was talking about. And the gifts
were to be given by every believer. Here's what it says. Upon the
first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store. Who's to give? Every believer.
Every believer is indebted. We're debtors to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And believers are to give in
proportion to the Lord's blessing. How much should I give? Here's
the answer. As God has prospered him. As
God has prospered him. The scripture says when we give,
we give it consistently. We give it on the first day of
the week. lay it by, we give every one of us as the Lord has
prospered us. And the collection of these gifts,
universal among the members, each one sustains it his duty
and his privilege to be able to give for the needs of the
assembly. It's not to be confined only
to the rich. Well, you know, he's so and so
eager for it. He's got it. I'm going to tell
you something. We may not all be able to give
the same amount. but every believer gives. Every believer can give. And
all that was given was to be to the glory of God. Whether
you eat, drink, whatsoever you do, do it to the glory of God. Now, there's the foundation.
That's verse one. Two, three, and four is gonna
be very quick. That's verse one. Take heed that you do not your
alms before men to be seen of them Otherwise, you have no reward
of your father which is in heaven. Verse 2, therefore, when thou
doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues, that they may be seen of men. Now, I'm sorry. as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and the streets, that they may have glory
of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. Now, whether that sounding of
a trumpet was literal or figurative, I could find nothing that actually
said, but what the Lord was saying is this. Shun giving that requires
your distinct announcement to others. I, years ago, I was living in
Louisiana and there was, I remember, I can remember about how old
I was. I can remember I was probably
six, seven years old. I was young. And there was a
fund that was being given to And I remember it had a kind
of a set of lights, light bulbs, that I can remember they were,
the way they'd come on, you'd turn them, you know, they would
just set in, they weren't turned in the socket for it, but when
you turned it all the way, the light would come on. And what
would happen was, every time that a hundred dollars was given,
a light bulb would come on. They'd turn a bulb on. And a
hundred bucks, a hundred bucks. I calculated it. From 1955 to
2019, right at a thousand dollars now. So I mean, you know, for
a kid, you know, six years old, a hundred bucks is a lot of money. I remember to this day a woman
coming up to my mother and my mother telling me what this woman
said to her. The woman that they were well
to do. She said, well, I think I'm going to go turn a light
bulb on. And you know the first thing that comes to my mind when
I hear that? To this day, many, many years later, well, you have
your reward. You've got your reward. Well,
I think I'll go turn a light bulb on. Well, why didn't you
just go do it and not say anything? This is what the Lord's warning
us against. Whenever you give, don't be as
a hypocrite. Don't sound a trumpet. Well,
I tell you, I have to go just a minute. I've got to go over
here and turn one of these light bulbs on. I'll be back in just
a few minutes. That's what it is. When thou
doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet as the hypocrite. It's
hypocritical. You do it in the streets, synagogues,
that they may have glory of men. They have their reward. But when
thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right
hand doeth. The Lord in Luke 21. Let's look at this and I'll wrap
this up. Luke 21. The scripture says that one day
the Lord was there in the temple. Luke 21 verses 1 to 4. And he
looked up. and saw." That word there, saw,
it's in verse 1 and verse 2. He looked up and saw the rich
men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also
a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And so
he's looking. But here's what the scripture
says he did. He saw. And I looked up that word. He
knew. He knew. He knew the heart of
those that were given. He knew. He knew what was going
on. He saw these rich men casting there, and he saw this certain
poor widow casting in through the two mites, and he said of
a truth, I say unto you, this poor widow hath cast in more
than they all. He knew. He knew what her bank
account looked like. He knew it was nonexistent. He
knew what theirs was like. For all these have of their abundance
cast in unto the offerings of God, but she of her penury hath
cast in all the living that she had. He said this woman put two
mites in. This woman gave more than all
of them. It wasn't the amount. We do give as the Lord prospers. It wasn't the amount, it was
the attitude of the heart. The Lord saw, the Lord knew. So he says, when thou doest alms,
let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Let me
tell you something that is unbelievably amazing about that scripture,
what he just said. How secret. are we to be. When thou doest alms, let not
thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Running that passage
of scripture and just looking at the wording and the interpretation
of the wording of it, it set forth, let us give, ever seeking
to not even appeal to our own carnal pride. Give not allowing our very conscience
to know. Now let me ask you something.
Has any of us ever given anything a right? No. We've never given anything
as we ought. It's not by works of righteousness
that we've done. I can tell you that. Men will
stand and say, well, I tell you what, I've given so and so, and
this is how much I gave last year. That's wonderful, wonderful. You got your reward. Everything
that we do, whether we eat, whether we drink, we're to do it to the
glory of God. And when we give, let us be seeking
the Lord's will and direction, seeking His eye only. that thine
alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret
himself shall reward thee only. I'm sorry, openly. Now, I go back to that first verse
in closing to say this. Take heed that you do not your
alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise you have no and
I underline this word, no. No reward of your father. I'm talking about if it's given
even if our left hand knows what our right hand did and we were
to be judged on that, we would have no reward. Now what reward
are we talking about? Here's the closing thing that
was so Heart-wrenching to me, the reward. Here's the reward. Turn to Matthew 25, and I'm going
to close. Matthew 25. Here's the reward. Matthew 25. Verse 31 to 34. Before I read this, let me tell
you where the preciousness of it is. Before the foundation of the
world, We were all chosen, all God's people were chosen in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has ever
lived for all of His elect. His righteousness before God,
His almsgiving. And He did these things, He gave.
Everything that He ever gave, the honoring of the law, He honored
the law in every jot and tittle. What He did, in secret, in absolute obedience to God,
was accepted of God Almighty. And everything that he's done
has been charged and imputed to God's elect. We of ourselves
have never obeyed this. That little four verses of scripture
right there in Matthew chapter 6, those four verses, If we stand
before God based on those four verses of scripture, we would
be cast into hell. We've never obeyed God. Never. We've never done it. But being
found in Him, we've all obeyed this. He did it. And His righteousness
has been charged to us. So somebody says, have you ever
truly, truly given as you ought? Have you ever truly given, have
you ever really prayed as you ought? And fasted as you ought? Yes, in Christ I have. In myself, no, no. I'm an utter
failure. But in Him, yes, I have. I've
obeyed this in Christ. Now here's the reward. If we
have only that attitude to do things to be seen of men, if
that's the only attitude, that's where I started out, I started
in this message. If that's the only attitude we
got, we have no reward of our Father, none, if that's the only
one. But if we be found in Him, here's
our reward. Matthew 25, 31-34, when the Son
of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with
Him, Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before
him shall be gathered all nations. And he shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. And
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
his left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,
come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom. Here's the
reward, prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Here's our reward. It's the Lord to be with him,
eternally to be in him. All because of being found in
him. His righteousness answering for
us. His righteousness imputed to
us. May the Lord bless our hearts
as we look again unto him who has given and given all for us
in Christ Jesus. Amen. All right, Gary.