Alright, now in Matthew 5, in
verses 21-48, we saw how the Lord Jesus Christ was warning
His disciples about the corrupt doctrines of men, corrupt doctrines
of religious men. They thought that sin only went
as far as the flesh, that it had nothing to do with the heart,
Corrupt men didn't know sin has to do with the heart. And now
in this sixth chapter, the Lord turns His disciples from the
corrupt practices of religion. He's teaching us that our worship
of God, our devotion of God is to be a heart matter. between
us and God. It's not to be a matter that
we perform to be seen of men. That's not the reason that the
believer worships God. He uses three examples in this
sixth chapter. He uses alms, prayer, and fasting. Now last week we looked at alms,
and this week we're going to begin looking at prayer. Just
take these first two verses. And remember now, as we look
at this, the same principle is applied in all three examples.
The believer does what he does in his practice, not to be seen
of men, but knowing that God, who sees in secret, knows the
heart. He sees the heart. The heart's
what matters in our worship. Now, start with Matthew 6, verse
5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they
may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly." Now let's take verse 5. He begins
here, first of all, the Lord says, when thou prayest. Now, he's speaking to believers. He's speaking to those who've
been born with the Spirit of God. And he doesn't say, pray. He says, when thou prayest. It's a given that the believer
prays. The believer lives in prayer. He's constantly, continually
cast upon the care of the Lord Jesus Christ. He lives in prayer. And we stand in amazement that
we have access and approach to God Almighty. That's a very real,
very serious, very dear privilege to a believer. And the reason
it is is because of how we got this access. In order to enter
into God's presence, even into His presence in prayer, a person has to be holy. They have to be righteous to
enter into God's presence. Their sin has to be put away
and they have to be cleansed. It has to be perfect to come
before God. Therefore, we have to come to
God in Christ Jesus, our great high priest. There's no other
way for any sinner to come to God but in Christ Jesus. Now, look over with me at Hebrews
10. These are some things we saw when we were in this study
in Hebrews 10, but I want to recover this. It applies here.
Because God's elect were unrighteous because of the sin of our first
representative, Adam, those sins had to be put away by our second
representative in surety, Christ Jesus the Lord, God's own Son. Look at Hebrews 9 verse 26. It
says here at the second half of that verse, it says, Now once
in the end of the world hath the Lord Jesus Christ appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. That's how the believer's
sin was put away. by the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. And then it says in verse 28,
so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And look over at Hebrews 10 and
verse 10. By the witch will, We are sanctified
through the body of Jesus Christ once, by His one offering. We see how our sins are put away
and we see that we're sanctified by the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ. Verse 14, For by one offering
He hath perfected. forever, them that are sanctified,
them that are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus.
He sanctified them forever. And then the blood of Christ
is applied to us by the Holy Ghost. You remember, we saw this
in Hebrews 9, but Moses, when he joined that covenant to Israel,
He went in and He sprinkled everything with blood. It had to be sprinkled
with blood in order to be purged, in order to be cleansed, to be
washed. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sin, and that blood has to be applied. We saw
in Hebrews 9, it said, How much more shall the blood of Christ,
who offered Himself through the eternal Spirit, purge your conscience? from dead works to serve the
living God. And then we see here that he
witnesses to us, look down at verse Look down at verse 15,
whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that
he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with
them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. The Lord
speaks to the soul of the believer, and He says, your sins and iniquities
I will not remember. And where remission of your sins
is, there is no more offering for sin. There's nothing for
you to offer for sin, nothing. So then verse 19, this is our
boldness. This is our confidence. This
is wherein we're given the assurance. It's through the body of Christ
Jesus, the Son of God who offered himself through the Holy Spirit,
bearing witness in the inner man of the believer. Now we have
assurance. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ, by
a new and living way, not that old priestly way, not the way
of the law, not the way of the covenant, the old covenant, but
a new and living way. which he hath consecrated for
us, he hath newly made this way for us through the veil, that
is to say, his flesh. And we have a high priest over
the house of God. Let us draw near with a true
heart, not a hypocritical heart, a true heart in full assurance
of faith. and having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. This is why prayer is such a
valuable, cherished privilege for a believer. It's because
how we got this access to the Father. It's through our Redeemer.
It's through our high priest. It's through the Comforter coming
to us and applying this blood in our hearts. And so we can
come into His presence. He says, when thou prayest, in
verse 5, Matthew 6, 5, when thou prayest, because you are sprinkled,
because you are purged in the conscience, thou shalt not be
as the hypocrite. First of all, you shall not be
as the hypocrite because you're purged, you're washed. You can
draw near in the full assurance of faith. And that's when we
draw near, that's how we draw near, because it's by His grace
that we draw near that way. And he says, so don't act like
a hypocrite. Don't do things to be seen of
men. And so he says here, how that
the hypocrite loves to be seen, he loves to pray standing in
the synagogue, in the corners of the streets, that they may
be seen of men, verily they have their reward. The believer loves
to pray. He loves to He loves to enter
into communion, heart communion, with God through the Lord Jesus
Christ and speak with His Father and receive peace and comfort
from His Father. The believer loves that. The
hypocrite just likes to pray. He likes the act of praying.
He's a hypocrite because the word means he's an actor. He's
playing a part. And he's playing a part just
like all actors play a part. That is for folks to see, folks
to watch, folks to get to see their show. The hypocrite places
much emphasis on posture. They love to pray standing. The
hypocrite places much emphasis on place. They love to pray in
public places. They love to pray where the most
people can see. And this is because, brethren,
this inner man is born of the Spirit. We worship God in Spirit
and in truth. We really have a spiritual access
to our God. But the man that doesn't have
that, his religion is really just outward. It is just carnal. And so there's no reward for
him to go through these motions if somebody don't see him do
it. That's the reward, that's the gratification, that's the
thing that is His comfort, is having somebody see Him. Because
there's no heart work done, it's not in the heart, and so there
can't be any inward peace brought about by it. It's just a fleshly,
natural, feel-good thing. Well, and they do it that they
might be seen of men, they may have glory of men. Now verse
6, the Lord says, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy
closet. And when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret. And thy Father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Our Lord is teaching
us that when we pray, Pray to your Father. Pray to your Father. The Lord's not forbidding others
to see us pray. We pray here in this place, just
like some would pray in the synagogue. But He's forbidding us to make
an act of it, to make a show of it, to try to be seen of it. Take heed. Guard against that. Guard against that. And the Lord's
not saying that we are to only pray at home in our closet with
the door shut. It wouldn't be very comfortable
for me. I've got shoes in there and lots of things in my closet,
and I just don't want to get in there and shut the door and
pray in that closet. But what He's teaching us here,
He's using an extreme statement to make the point of how important
it is to pray not to be seen of men. You remember back in
verse 3, when we were looking at alms, He said, When thou doest
alms, when you give Acts of mercy and acts of mercy to the poor.
Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. If you
do alms, we saw this, in such secrecy that your left hand doesn't
know what your left hand does, that is top secret. And the point
is, not only do you not let others see you do it, but don't even
dwell on it in your own thoughts. It will tend to spiritual pride. And if you don't realize that,
you don't understand what our Lord's teaching us here, brethren.
That's what our flesh is. That's what we still have to
contend with in this flesh, is spiritual pride. And our Lord's
teaching, He says these things to us, and by His grace, He causes
this to be effectually wrought in us, that He may give us more
grace to behold Him, and not to behold the glorying in the
flesh. He teaches us here to do this
in secret, and He says the same kind of extreme statement here
to teach us just how careful we are to be, that we pray with
a true heart, that we pray not to be seen of men. A long time
before I moved up here, I was in a crowded restaurant with
a friend. I don't, I don't, well let me just say this, I'll just
give you what I'm going to say. I was in a crowded restaurant
with a friend and there was a lot of folks at the table and we
were elbow to elbow in the restaurant. It was loud, you couldn't hardly
hear the folks across the table from you talking and about the
time everybody sat down and everybody was visiting and kind of greeting
each other and what have you. And some got up to go to the
restroom and things. And I thanked the Lord for the
food that I was about to receive. The food wasn't there. I hadn't
even placed my order yet. And I prayed to the Father and
I prayed to Him just as I would have if I would have bowed my
head, closed my eyes, and spoke the words audibly. But I prayed
to him from the heart and thanked him." And one of the men that
was there was obviously a religious man. And I say that because in
the characteristics that the Lord gives of the Pharisees,
this man made sure everybody knew he was religious. Everybody
knew it. You didn't have to ask him. And
he knew I had preached and knew I was traveling around preaching
and what have you. And this fellow asked me, would
I thank the Lord for the food? I said, I already have. And he said, well, I didn't see
you do it. And I said, well, I wasn't thanking
you. I was thanking my father. And I said, it's between me and
my father. And my father, which seeth in secret, he heard my
prayer. Just as real, if I'd have bowed
my head, and spoke it audibly, and everybody else around me
would have known it. He saw it. And that's what matters. That's
what our Lord's teaching us. You know, there's been other
occasions. The Lord, for instance, with
the 5,000 were there. And I'm just using the blessing,
thanking the Lord for our food as an example here. But the Lord
had 5,000 there, and He broke some loaves and fishes and gave
them to them to eat. And he was thankful. He prayed. Well, there's been
occasions where at the job I had former where my manager asked
me at meetings, would you pray? Would you pray? I never had a
manager ask me that before in a public workplace, but he asked
me. Well, everybody in the place is there and everybody in the
place Praying. Everybody in the place is silent. And in that occasion, I'll be
happy to pray. If I can lead the congregation
assembled in the prayer, sure. But very often when our Lord
prayed, most often when our Lord prayed, our Lord went into a
secret place. We read He went to a private
place. He went to a mountain. Even when
He went to the Garden of Gethsemane and He took the apostles with
Him. He went a stone's throw from them and kneeled down and
prayed. It's showing us what our Lord
is teaching us here. And there was no sin in Him. There was no possibility of Him
entering into sin, into hypocrisy. But our Lord shows us, by example,
how intimate this thing is. What a privilege it is to approach
our Father with reverence. You know, You're in a crowded
place and it's so loud and everything's going on. I mean, it's just hard
to audibly speak a prayer and anybody that's sitting around
you at the table hear it anyway. But you can always pray. You can always pray. But the
key is, is don't make a show of it. Don't make a show of it. It's far different than being
embarrassed to pray. That's not it at all. It's being
respectful and having some reverence for our Father and knowing that
this is an intimate thing between my Father and myself. That's what our Lord is teaching
us. The point is, take this utmost heed. Now look at verse 6. I love this. But thou, when thou
prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. When you approach God by His
grace, in the pure, in the true heart and full assurance of faith. You know what you have? Hebrews
10 said boldness. You know what that word is? Open
access. Welcome. Free to enter. Free to come in. That's an open
reward. And we saw with alms, the reward
is that we see, He makes us to see by His grace, see more of
Christ who gave to us poor and needy sinners. Makes us to behold
in our acts of mercy something of what He did for us. And it's
between us and Him we enter into it. And it's the same here. We
are thankful that we have this open, free access to our Father
by the blood of Christ. What a what a wonderful wonderful
wonderful privilege we have what a blessing all right