Let us turn again to God's Word
and I want with the Lord's help this morning to direct you to
words that we find in the sixth chapter of the Gospel according
to St. Matthew. In Matthew chapter 6
I'll read verses 5 and 6. 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 and
it is in particular this sixth verse that we take for our text,
that thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when
thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret,
that thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. The Lord is speaking very much
of prayer as we see from the following verses and then of
course we come to that pattern prayer. that we know as the Lord's
Prayer. Prayer, in many ways, is the
chief part of our worship, the chief part of that religion that
is real. It is one of the marks of the
Godly. In Genesis, remember how after the fall of man, we read
immediately of the first murder, came slew his brother Abel but
then we're told at the end of Genesis 4 out that another son
was born unto Adam and Eve and it was Seth who then has a child
himself a son that he calls Enos and there at the end of that
chapter Genesis chapter 4 we're told, then began men to call
upon the name of the Lord. Abel, the godly seed, had been
killed. There was ungodly Cain, but now
there are those who begin to call upon the name of the Lord. And this is what we do when we
come to pray. And it is that sort of religion,
that hidden religion, that is being spoken of here in our text. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet. 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. The secret place
of the Most High. But first, before we come to
consider what is said in this verse, I want us to observe something
of the context and the contrast that the Lord Jesus Christ is
drawing. In verse 5 we have a different
religion, not that hidden religion, not that religion that is wrought
of God in the soul of a man, but in verse 5 we have that religion
that we can only describe as hypocritical. We read of the
hypocrites, They are not named. When thou prayest thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are, says Christ. But we do know who
these hypocrites were that the Lord so often has to rebuke.
And surely we saw that in that 23rd chapter that we read, that
terrible chapter in many respects, those awful woes that Christ
is constantly declaring, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, that refrain that keeps on occurring in the chapter. And then also in Luke chapter
12 we're told of an occasion when the multitudes were gathered
together and the Lord turned and spoke to his disciples and
warned them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which
is hypocrisy or how we see then that the Lord exposes and speaks
sharp words to those whose religion is nothing more than a pretense
and so when he comes to his own disciples how he warns them so
solemnly they're not to make a display of religion We see
it here in this chapter, take heed that you do not your arms
before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward
of your father which is in heaven. And the child of God is to be
one who doesn't let his left hand know what his right hand
is doing. And here we see the Lord constantly giving this word
of warning. Here in verse 5 then He says,
When they pray, they shall not be as the hypocrites are. For
they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corner
of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say
unto you, they have their reward. Or we are to take heed, we are
to look to ourselves. Examine yourself, says the Apostle,
whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you're
not your own selves. Know that Jesus Christ is in
you. Except ye be reprobates. Well, I want to observe a number
of things concerning the prayer of these hypocrites. And first
of all, look at the place, the place where they like to make
their prayers. The Lord says they love to pray
standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets
that they may be seen of men. The synagogue, the temple, was
of course very much the place of prayer. It was the place of
public prayer. We see how the Lord Jesus Christ
on occasions goes into the temple and he rebukes those who are
abusing that place there were the the money changers, there
were those buying and selling doves and how the Lord drives
them out of the temple and tells them that the temple was meant
to be a house of prayer and they were making it a den of thieves. There is a place for public prayer
when we come together as we do this morning. We gather to pray
as well as to read the Word of God and to hear the preaching
of the Word of God. There is that part of our worship
wherein we come and we in an immediate fashion call upon God.
One stands to pray as the mouthpiece of the congregation. but there's
a difference between that public prayer and what is being spoken
of in the words of our text and we need to mark that difference
real religion is very much a private thing it's the believer alone
with his God so often and yet also there will be those occasions
when we gather for the corporate worship and it is interesting
to observe how in that document that was produced by the Puritans,
one thinks of the Westminster Assembly of Divines in the 1640s. They produced of course the Westminster
Confession of Faith and the Psalm of Saving Knowledge and the longer
and the shorter catechisms but there was also another work which
was called the Directory for the Public Worship of God. Directing people as to how they
were to conduct themselves in the public worship of God. And they make the point there
that all the preparation for that public worship was to be
done beforehand in private. They were saying it was wrong
for people to come into the public place and to bow their heads
and to engage in private prayer. They come in and they come for
public worship. They've done their preparation,
as it were, beforehand. And those Puritans, you see,
made the distinction between what was private and what was
public. And if I remember right, those
New England Puritans, remember those Pilgrim Fathers persecuted
here in England, first of all they go to to Holland but they
don't want to lose their English identity and so they make their
way over to the New World and they settle there and establish
worship in New England amongst other places. It's interesting
how when it came to the matter of the Sabbath day they always
measured that day from sunsets The sun sets. The Sabbath in
New England would begin on Saturday evening as the sun sets. And
that in many ways is biblical as we see from Genesis chapter
1. It says there how the evening and the morning were the first
day. The evening and the morning were
the second. Those Puritans, they measured the day then from the
setting of the sun, and what would they do? Saturday evening
was that time of preparation, private preparation for the services
that would follow, when the day dawned, and they went into the
public place. But there was no private prayer
when they gathered publicly. But here you see, with regards
to these hypocrites, All their private devotion is done in the
presence of men. They want to make a show of their
religion. They love to pray, it says, standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets. And the
word that we have here for corners has to do with those broad places,
broad streets, the places where people would be congregating,
be it in the synagogue, be it in these parts of the town or
of the city, where there would be many gathered together. All the place, you see, tells
us something of what was in the hearts of these men. Their religion
is nothing more than a show. It's a piece of play acting.
It's hypocritical. That's what the Lord calls it.
And it's not just the place where they do these things, a public
place, but also when we consider the posture of these people.
They love to pray, it says, standing. Now, there's nothing wrong, nothing
improper with regards to a standing to pray. In many ways, we have
to say it is certainly better to stand than to slouch. and
as you're probably aware in Scotland the Free Church and the Free
Presbyterians would stand for public prayer. There's nothing
wrong but it's not absolutely necessary that we stand to pray.
There's nothing improper with sitting in prayer. In 1st Chronicles 17 16 we see
how David sat before the Lord as he engaged in prayer. With
regards to the posture we might stand, we might sit. It could
be argued that the most appropriate posture of all is that we should
kneel when we come to pray before God. In fact we see the Lord
Jesus Christ himself prostrate there in the garden as we have
it later in this Gospel of Matthew in chapter 26 how he falls on
his face. as he engages in those agonizing
prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus prostrates before
his God. But what of the posture of these
hypocrites that are spoken of here in verse 5? They love to
pray standing. This standing in these men suggests
a vain self-confidence. They are so full of themselves
as they come before God. All we see is in that parable
that the Lord tells concerning those two men who go up to the
temple at the hour of prayer. Remember, one is a Pharisee and
the other a publican. The Pharisee was so highly respected Oh, these are the men as we saw
in chapter 23. They sit in Moses' seat. They are to be recognized for
who they are. And yet, the other man is a publican. In other words, he's a tax gatherer. He's employed by the occupying
forces of Rome, so despised because he's working for the Roman Empire. And not only that, those publicans,
those tax gatherers would often take more than was required by
the authorities. They sought to feather their
own nest. One man then so respected, the other so despised. And yet what does the Lord say
when he speaks of those two men? How different they are. Or the
Pharisee is so full of himself, the Pharisee the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself I thank thee that I am not as other men are
and the poor publican he stands afar off he cannot lift up his
eyes to heaven he smites upon his breast and he cries out God
be merciful to me a sinner or the the postulacy the way in
which They come before God, not just a place. This hypocrite
here in verse 5, then he stands, he stands in the synagogue, he
stands in the corner of the street, he's full of himself, he's full
of vain self-confidence. And then, furthermore, with regards
to this hypocritical religion, what is the purpose of it? Well,
the Lord says quite clearly here, It's in order that they may be
seen of men. That's what it's all about. They
want men to see them in their religious devotions. That they
may be seen of men. And Christ says, verily, I say
unto you, they have their reward. Men see them. Men see them, but
what of God? All their religion, you see,
it's nothing more than that outward shell. It's all activity it's
all a matter of doing certain things and we see it in that
portion that we did read that 23rd chapter and look at the
language there where the Lord pronounces his fearful woes he
says at verse 5 all their works they do for to be seen of men
They make broad their phylacteries, enlarge the borders of their
garments. You know those phylacteries, they would have the scriptures
and they'd have them in little boxes and they'd bind them to
their wrists and bind them to their foreheads. And they make these things so
obvious. Again the Lord says here at verse
25, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye
make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within
they are full of extortion and excess. It's all outward. Verse
27, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye
are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, that have
all uncleanness, even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto
men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." All
their religion, you see, it's an outward show. It's something
for men to see and to take account of, and they want the congratulations
of men. Well, we need to be aware, friends,
not to be those who are so busy doing various things that there's
no time for any inward religion. But, says the Lord, but thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. 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. All we have to be
aware that our religion is not just a round of duties, a round
of services. I remember someone remarking
on one occasion as they walked past some evangelical church
and looked at the notice board and what was it? It was services
every day. Something to be doing all the
time. Activism, the doing religion. Now there is something to be
done of course. The believer is known by his fruit. There
is a place for those good works, those charitable works. But we
need to be aware that we must find time for the secret place.
If we are those who are such as truly know the Lord. What
is the exhortation of the wise man in the book of Proverbs?
He says, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it
are the issues of life. how our hearts need to be kept,
how we need to examine ourselves, how we need to come to that place
where we can see God's face, read His Word, meditate in His
Word. The Lord Jesus says, Behold,
the Kingdom of God is within you. It's an inward work. Oh,
but these, you see, these hypocrites, what do they want? They just
want that that's on the outside. They want to impress others.
But it's not only the impressing of others, it's also that desire
to impress themselves. Again, those words that the Lord
speaks concerning the Pharisee, in that parable that we referred
to just now in Luke 18. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, it says. He prayed with himself. His prayer
went no further than himself. Why? His whole religion centers
in himself. His religion is really summed
up in pride. And how solemn it is. The pride
can even manifest itself when we come before God. Those words of Joseph Hart on
pride, against its influence, pride mingles with the prayer.
against it preach, it prompts the speech to be silent, still
it's there. Or we can be proud, you see,
of our religious performances. Or John Bunyan knew something
of it. And he was a remarkable preacher. The great Dr. John Owen said he would forfeit
all his great learning if he could but preach like the tinker
from Bedford. And we're told out there, was
that occasion when Bunyan had preached and coming down from
the pulpit someone approached him to congratulate him on the
sermon he'd just preached and he turned and he said, ah, he
says, the devil's already told me that. The devil's already
told me that. So aware, you see, of pride.
How it manifests itself. Here is the hypocritical religion
there. He doesn't just want to make
a show before men, he wants to please himself and to congratulate
himself. But let us turn more particularly
to what I said we would consider here in verse 6 of that hidden
religion. 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 the open. Real religion
is a personal matter, said William Tipton. Now, as I've already
intimated, there is a place for that part of our religion that
is public. As we see there in Hebrews chapter
10, we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is. We're to meet together, we're
to exhort one another, to encourage one another. We do believe in
the communion of saints. We believe in the gathered church
and we come together Lord's Day by Lord's Day in this fashion
principally to worship God. That's the chief part of our
coming together. We come to call upon the name
of the Lord. But having said that, what lies
at the root of all that is real is very much a personal thing
and a private thing. And we see that here. What is
this hidden religion? Well, it's detached. There's
a separation. Enter into thy closet, says the
Lord, And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father
which is in secret. Is it not interesting to observe
the ways of the Lord? How God deals with His children
when He will teach them, when He will bring them to a knowledge
of themselves, a knowledge of Himself. Doesn't God so often
take His people apart? He separates them. We see it
in his dealings with believers, with the saints in the Scriptures.
Think of Abraham. Abraham the father of all, them
that believe. The great exemplar of saving
faith. And what does God say to him
there in Genesis chapter 12? Get thee out of thy country and
from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that
I will show them. He is called out. He is separated. God does it in this fashion.
He separates His people. He brings them apart in order
that He might instruct them. And it's not only the case in
the experience of Abraham. It was also the case with Jacob. Jacob must leave the land of
Canaan. in all God's dealings. Remember
how He is brought to that place called Bethel, the house of God
and the gate of heaven in Genesis chapter 28. But how is it that
He comes to that place? Well, we're told at the beginning
of the chapter, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged
him and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters
of Canaan. Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the
house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee away from
them to the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother. And then
we're told verse 5, Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Padan
Aram. And as Jacob goes, he lights
on a certain place, And he tarries there all the night and he takes
one of the stones of that place for his pillow and lies down
to sleep. The Lord has brought him out.
And what does the Lord do? The Lord appears to him. He sees
that ladder set up upon the earth and its top reaches to the heavenly
space. And God's in it. God has called
him out. God has separated him. and it
was so also later in the experience of his son Joseph oh and what
a remarkable experience was Joseph's he must be sold into slavery,
he must be taken into Egypt and there he must languish in prison
and yet in all of this you see the Lord is separating him the
Lord is taking him into that secret place that he might instruct
Just the other day at home we were reading again that record
that we have concerning Joseph in the Psalm, in Psalm 105. There at verse 17 we are told
how God sent a man before them, before the Israelites. He sent a man before them, even
Joseph, who was sold for a servant whose feet they heard with fetters,
he was laid in iron, or as the margin says, his soul came into
iron. Until the time that his word
came, the word of the Lord tried him." God had given his word,
God had given his promise, God had spoken to him by those dreams.
And yet all of this, you see, the Lord takes him apart. Why his father thinks he's long
since dead and gone. All the remarkable ways of God. We see it, I say, so many times.
We could multiply Moses. Moses also. He used to be the
deliverer of the Hebrews, the children of Israel, after that
awful bondage that they were having to endure in the land
of Egypt. And where does God take him? There in Exodus chapter
3, he's in the backside of the desert, caring for the sheep
of his father Jethro. And the Lord appears to him in
the burning bush. God separates His people. Multitudes
of examples there in the Old Testament. Let me just mention
one here in the New Testament, Paul. the great apostle to the
Gentiles and how he tells us of something of his experience
here in Galatians 1 we often quote those words at
verse 15 when he pleased God who separated me from my mother's
womb and call me by his grace to reveal his son in me that
I might preach him among the heathen Immediately, he says,
I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem,
to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia. The Lord separates him. Not only
separates him from his mother's womb when he is born, but when
he is born again of the Spirit of God, then he is also separated.
As the Lord calls him so, the Lord also prepares him to be
that one who is to be the apostle to the Gentiles. The Lord does
it, it's so in church history. It's very striking when you read
that memoir of J.C. Philpott that was gathered together
by his widow shortly after his death, the memoir and the letters,
and there we see that he was at Oxford, he had obtained an
excellent degree he was waiting for a fellowship and then all
of a sudden this opening comes up to go to Ireland to be buried
in the country instructing the children of a great dignitary,
a high court judge preparing those young boys to go off to
the university and he takes the position He's buried there in
Ireland and there the Lord deals with him. There the Lord meets
with him. How the Lord separates his people.
This I say is the way of God and we see it even in the experience
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The great pattern to believers. Here in this Gospel of Matthew
in chapter 14 Verse 22 Straightway Jesus constrained
His disciples to get into a ship and to go before Him onto the
other side while He sent the multitudes away. And when He
had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart
to pray. And when the evening was come,
He was there alone. He is apart. Apart to pray. He is alone. And all of this,
you see, is so necessary, although he were a son, yet learns the
obedience by all the things that he is suffering here upon the
earth. The Lord Jesus, being prepared
for that great sacrifice, the purpose of His coming into the
world. Oh, how He is alone. There are
these scriptures in that and throw so much light upon what
the Lord is saying with regards to that hidden place. When thou
prayest, enter into thy closet. When thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret. There's that passage
that we have at the end of Zechariah chapter 12 where all the families
of Israel are called out they are all every family alone look
at the language there Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 12 the land
shall mourn it says every family apart the family of the house
of David apart and their wives apart the family of the house
of Nathan apart and their wives apart the family of the house
of Levi apart and their wives apart The family of Shimei are
part, and their wives are part, all the families that remain,
every family are part, and their wives are part. Strange words,
but it reminds us, you see, of this personal aspect of that
that is real religion. Or the Swami says, I watch and
am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. Often we have to find
ourselves in that spot where we are alone, we're cut off.
But the Lord's in it. Oh, and we should desire that
the Lord would instruct us in it, show us Himself, draw us
nearer to Himself, make us ever more aware of our complete and
our utter dependence upon Him and upon Him alone. because this
is what we also see here, it's not that these people are separated
and detached from all others but these people that we're reading
of in our text are ever a dependent people and how is that dependence
expressed? it's expressed in prayer, when
thou prayest it says when thou prayest pray to thy father which
is in secret. It's not a prayer to ourselves,
it's not like that of the Pharisee in Luke 18, who prayed thus with
himself, and all he can thank God for is that he's not like
other men and he's so much better than the poor publican. Our prayer is not addressed to
self, it's not addressed to others, like this prayer of the hypocrites
that we have in the previous verse, They like to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they
may be seen of men? We don't pray to men. We don't make a display before
men. No, we're to pray to God. Thy Father, it says, which is
in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret, he shall reward
thee openly. enter into thy closet, into the
private place, the separated place. But is there not a sense
here in which we can say that the closet into which we enter
is the Lord Jesus Christ and we have to enter into Him if
we would pray. It has been observed that when
we're poor and wretched sinners in our feelings or then we must
enter into the Lord Jesus Christ that is the only safe place of
refuge we enter into Him the Lord says in the course of His
own ministry at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and
ye in me and I in you that's union Well, that's experimental
union. There is an eternal union. All
those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ are such as were chosen
in Him before the foundation of the world. But now they must
come into that union. They must experience it. Ye in
me, it says, and I in you. There is that believing into
the Lord Jesus the hymn that we're going to sing just now
that speaks of the various degrees of faith the last verse says
this or the last but one verse I should
say, verse 3 but he that into Christ believes what a rich faith
has he in Christ he moves and acts and lives from self and
bondage free He has the Father and the Son, for Christ and He
are no but One. All to enter into the closet
to be those who are entering, as it were, into the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. This is prayer. God hath raised
us up together, says the Apostle, and made us sit together in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is prayer, to enter into
that within the veil. It's all through Christ. It's
through Him that we have access, by one Spirit, unto the Father. And how remarkable really are
those words of the Apostle in Ephesians 3.18. Because we see
all the persons in the Godhead, it's not just a union with the
Son of God, it's It's the blessed ministry of the Spirit of God
in our hearts. It's that coming to the Father,
that meeting with the Father. Through Christ we have access
by one Spirit onto the Father and so we address Him as our
Father which art in heaven. Why, here you see, as I said
at the outset, the whole context of our text this morning is that
of prayer. does he not go on ultimately
to that great pattern prayer where the Lord instructs his
disciples after this manner therefore pray ye our Father which art
in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be
done in us as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. It's all prayer. And that prayer
we make only as we come by and through Him who is alone the
mediator. One God and one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. We enter into Christ. Christ
himself is that great hiding place. Christ himself is that
rock of our salvation. Look at the language of the Psalmists. Psalm 27 he says, In the time
of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret place
of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. Or that we might be those then
friends who know what it is. to have this religion, this hidden
religion, to enter into Christ and in and through Christ to
come to God with our prayers. Again, the psalmist tells us
he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall
abide under the shadow of the Almighty. This is where the wherewith
it cometh. O God, grant that we might know
something of this religion. But thou, says Christ, 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. We cannot pray in vain God will
hear such prayers as these. God will answer these prayers.
God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
O God, grant that we might know such faith as that, such confidence,
that our God never says to his seed, to the seed of Jacob, seek
him, I face, in vain. O the Lord then be pleased to
bless this word to us. Amen.