We'll try to speak a little bit,
and I also was thinking of our dear pastor that's away. I really
miss him, and I know you folks do. But I'm getting ready to
speak, and I was thinking since there are three hours behind
us on the West Coast, he's got three more hours to fret and
to bite his fingernails, don't he? So I know what they go through
with a little bit. This is a serious place to be
to instruct eternity-bound souls. We go into two different places,
everyone is, either heaven or hell. And either one of those
places are going to be forever. It's going to be forever. That being said, let's read the
first four verses of Matthew chapter 6. I want to try to say
a few words concerning these four verses. Our Lord speaking
here, He said, 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. Therefore, when thou doest thine
alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory
of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
the reward. But when thou doest alms, let
not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. that thy arms
may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly." Here in this first verse, the first
two words here, the first three especially, take heed that ye,
that should throw up a red flag to us to take heed to what our
Lord is getting about ready to say here. Take heed that you
do not your arms before men. And he tells us why to not do
that. To be seen of them. Otherwise
you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. We have in
this chapter here before us three primary areas that the Lord warns
us of hypocrisy. And these four verses here is
in giving. He warns us how to not do when
we give. And then verses 5-15 of our praying,
how we ought to pray. Not pray to be seen, as the hypocrites
did. And verses 16-18 in fasting. When you fast, don't fast to
be seen, amen. Do all that we do, the scripture
tells us, to the glory of God. Do it to exalt Him and hide ourself
away. And you know what? That is so
hard for the flesh to do. It wants to jump out in front
and be exalted, but the Lord tells us, no, no, no. Christ
is the center of our message, isn't it? Or it ought to be.
He ought to be the center. He ought to be the one that we
exalt. First we have here alms or giving. Then Christ acknowledged that
those he spoke here, they gave. It's not that we don't give.
He said take heed when you give. that you don't do it to be seen.
So the Lord's people do give, don't they? So He acknowledges
that we give. For He said in verse 1, take
heed that you do not your arms before men to be seen of them.
And in verse 2, therefore when thou doest thine arms, don't
sound a trumpet. And we don't, and you know, we
don't have to literally, as these hypocrites did, I think from
the scriptures, it tells us that they literally sounded a trumpet
when they were getting ready to give. But we don't have to
do that to get men's attention. There's other ways that we can
do it, isn't there? And the Lord tells us to not do that. Don't
do it. Don't do it to be seen of men.
Therefore, when I do sign alms, don't sound a trumpet. Then he
says in verse three, but when thy doest arms, so they were
given, but they were doing it for the wrong reason, wasn't
it? Some of the people were, these hypocrites. Look back at
verse one, he said, take heed, take heed. He was warning his
hearers, and he's also warning us as believers. We get caught
up in this thing too. We get caught up in this. Also,
to not give in a manner set before us. And what was that manner?
He said, to be seen of men. We do not do it for this reason,
do we? This is how the hypocrites done. This is what they practiced.
They always sounded their trumpet before they gave. To be seen
of men. Not for any principle. They didn't do it for any principle
of obedience to God or love to man, did they? But in pride and
in vain glory, they done it. They gave their arms that way. They also, they also, they didn't
give it in compassion to the poor, that they might be bragged
on as a good man, and so might gain an interest in the esteem
of the people. This was their reasons for sounding
their trumpet before they gave their alms. To be seen of men,
to be talked about of men, to be esteemed of men, to receive
glory of men. All these reasons were the wrong
reasons, weren't they? They did not give it to the glory
of God for His good, for the upbuilding of His kingdom. And
that ought to be our reason to give it, shouldn't it? Our reason
for giving. It's not unlawful to give, is
it? When men see us, that's going to happen. We can't hardly keep
it from happening, though. But we don't sound the trumpet,
as we might say, for people to see us, to draw attention before
we do it. When we come here to worship,
that is also the time when most of us give and some may see. But that's okay. But let's not
sound our trumpet before we do it, do we? No. We try to hide
this, don't we? We hide it. Christ said, don't
give to be seen of men. That's an excellent reason for
us to not do it that way, isn't it? Because he said so. Because
he said to not do it that way. In verse 2 he said, Therefore
when thou givest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before
thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
the reward. And here we have our second reason,
do not. The Lord said up there in verse
1, do not. Now He's telling us again to
do not. That's a red flag to us, isn't
it? Do not. Do not. Do not. Verse 1, do not. Do not to be
seen of men. Do not, and here He tells us
to do not to have the glory of men. These reasons are heart
sins if we do it for this reason. They are for the wrong reasons,
and they are for the wrong motive. If we do it to be seen of men,
we cannot do it for no other reason, but for the wrong reason. We cannot do it for any other
motive, but for the wrong motive, if we're doing it to be seen
of men. The Lord tells us, don't do that. Don't do that. Do not sound a
trumpet. Don't advertise that you're about
to give. And that's exactly what the hypocrites,
that's what they wanted to do. They wanted to be noticed of
men. They wanted to be, receive men's
glory, their esteem. But the Lord said, do not do
that. One writer said this, sound the
trumpet was symbolic. Maybe so. But as I said before,
you don't have to sound the trumpet. to be sounding the trumpet, if
I'm not contradicting myself or confusing you. And what I
mean by that is, if one of you were going to give some money
to the church, and you take it up to Brother Scott maybe, say,
Brother Scott, I want to give X amount of dollars to the church.
No, no, no, no. Wrong way to do it. Take it and
put it in the box back there, where nobody can see you do it.
Be secret about it. See what I'm saying? That's what
I'm saying. Be secret about it. Don't blow your trumpet. We can
sound our trumpet and yet not sound it, can't we? The Lord
says don't do that. Why? Because we're doing it for
the wrong reason. We're doing it for the wrong
motive. We're to do it for the glory of God when we do do it,
aren't we? That's our reason to do it. Where did the Pharisees sound
the trumpet? The scripture tells us here they done it in the synagogues
and they done it in the streets, didn't they? Why? Because the
synagogues and the streets, these places were where most people
will be likely to be. And that's exactly what they
wanted. The more people could hear them, the better they liked
it. And that's exactly why they done it in the synagogues and
they done it on the street corners, the scripture tells us. That's
where most people will be passing by for these hypocrites to be
seen. And I can see them now, and I
know you do think this way too, looking for the biggest crowd
that they could find before they would give. They wanted people
to hear them, didn't they? Why did they do this? That they
may have the glory of men. They love the glory and praise
of men, the scripture says, rather than of God. If we're not praised
of God, if the Lord does not honor what we do, why does it
matter what men say? I don't have to answer to men,
but I do Him. So let's give it for that reason,
for His glory, for His honor. Did they get what they sought
after? The glory of men. Our Lord said they did, didn't
He? Look at the last part of verse
2 there. He said, Verily I say unto you, they have the reward. When they sound this trumpet
before they give alms, the Lord says they have the reward. They're
receiving honor and glory. They got men's attention. Just
exactly what they want. And the Lord said that's their
reward. They've received their reward. Present tense. They have. They
have. And if they have, they don't
have any more. There's not any more that follows.
He said they have. If they have their reward, they
have enough. And there is none reserved for
them in the future. The Lord says they have the reward.
They have all that they're likely to have from God. You want praise
of men given this way? I'll let you have it. But they
don't have no reward from the Lord, do they? They don't. They have the reward here, and
they have none to hope for hereafter. The Lord says they have the reward. And if they have it now, that
tells me that there's nothing else for them later on. Unless
God would work a work in their heart. Who's our reward though? You
know, I think it was Abraham said in Genesis, the Lord told him, I am thy exceedingly. great reward. Christ is our reward,
isn't He? Christ is every believer's reward. Anything else here in this world
that we have, we could just call it fringe benefits maybe. It's just a plus, isn't it? Anything that the Lord gives
us, Other than Christ, if I could put it that way, it's a plus. But Christ is the believer's
reward. You know what? That's all I want,
too. That's all I want. That's all I want. I want Christ,
nothing else. And look at verse 3 here. He
said, But when thou doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know
what thy right hand doeth. Let not thy left hand know what
thy right hand doeth, means to strive for secrecy in doing this
almsgiving. Do not let others know of your
giving. We should, these things here
that the Lord's talking about, this giving, this praying, this
fasting, We should seek to be as private about our giving that
we do not see our own virtues. And if you look at Matthew chapter
25, the Lord gives us a good example of this here about what
I'm trying to say, to be secret in these things and not sound
a trumpet as the Pharisees did, the hypocrites. He says in Matthew
25 and verse 37 here, Then shall the righteous answer him. The
Lord had been talking to them here. And here it says, Then
shall the righteous answer him, Lord, when saw we hunger? You know the Lord had just told
them that that you fed me when I was hungry, you gave me drink
when I was thirsty, and you visited me, you saw me when I was a stranger
and took me in, you clothed me when I was naked. And they asked
him here about this. He said, Lord, when saw we thee
hungry and fed thee, or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw
we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed
thee? We don't remember doing this. Or when we saw thee sick,
or in prison, and we came and visited you. What they were telling
the Lord, we don't remember doing this. But we find in these words
here, we find these had their good works remembered to their
honor, who had themselves forgotten them. And that's what I'm talking
about our giving here. We give so secretly that people
don't know it. That they don't know it. But
you know what? The Lord tells them here that He remembered
it. He said when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was naked,
you clothed me. When I was in prison, you visited
me. But they didn't remember these things. See what I'm saying?
See what I'm saying? We do not dwell. We do not dwell
on our giving. Don't think about and do not
praise yourselves of what you have done. We don't do this,
do we? We do it to the glory and honor
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then look here in verse 4,
back in our lesson. He said, that thine arms may
be in secret, and thy father which seeth himself shall reward
thee in secret. I'm sure we've all had secrets
that we've told someone. We say this is a secret, don't
tell anybody. Why? It's because we don't want everybody
to know it, do we? We don't want everybody to know it. It's the
same secret. Who do we tell about giving?
Nobody. Don't tell nobody, do we? We're
to do this in secret. Even though we give in secret,
what did the Lord say about it? He knows, don't He? He knows. That's all that matters, didn't
it? He knows. That's what Christ said here.
Thy Father which seeth in secret. In secret. He sees how secret
we have been or how we've not been. Everything
is open and naked before the eyes of Him with whom we have
to do it. There's nothing hid from Him.
Why should we try? Why should we try? Those whose motive in giving
is to the glory of God, the fruits of needs supplied. In Proverbs 11, verse 24 and
25, we find these words. There is that that scattereth,
and yet increaseth. That seems odd, doesn't it? We're just casting? We're just
casting? And we could say, we'll just
give and give and give. And yet, the Lord still increases. And there is that withholdeth. We may withhold, say, I need
this, I need this, I need this. But it tendeth to poverty. It tendeth to poverty. The liberal's soul shall be made
fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 19, 17. He that hath
pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given
he will pay him again. We cannot, we cannot out give
the Lord, can we? I think that's what he's talking
about there in Proverbs when he said, that scattereth, yet it
seemeth to increase. We give and yet the Lord still
increases us, doesn't he? It's because that we're doing
it for his honor and for his glory, for the To magnify the
Lord. That's the only reason that we're
gathered here. To tell of Him. To what He's done for sinners.
To exalt His name. Not only will the Lord supply
our need here, we shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the just
with eternal riches. Eternal glory with the Lord. to be with Him forever. In Luke 14, 14, And thou shalt
be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just. Well, that's all that I have.
May the Lord Bless his word. I hope it's been
a blessing to you.