Matthew chapter 6, and we'll
be looking at verses 1 through 4 this evening, and the title
of the message tonight, The Worship of Alms. The worship of alms. Matthew chapter 6, and beginning
in verse 1, it says, Jesus said, Take heed that ye do not your
alms 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 the trumpet before thee,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they
may have the have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, they
have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let
not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. that thine
alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth thee in secret
himself shall reward thee openly." Now, in the previous chapter,
we had discussed the Lord Jesus Christ and how He has exposed
the true nature of the law. how He had revealed to us the
justice and holiness of God and His law, and all that His law
demands is both inward and outward perfection. He ended the discourse
in chapter 5 by saying, Be ye perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect. Now, it is then easy to see by the
Lord Jesus Christ and what he had taught, what the Apostle
Paul meant when he said this in Romans chapter 3, that by
the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. No flesh shall be justified in
the sight of God by the law because we cannot keep the law. We cannot
keep the law. We know that Jesus Christ came
not to destroy that law, but to fulfill the law. And He has
by His faithfulness obtained righteousness, the very righteousness
of God. He in His every thought, in His
every word, in His every deed, His every action, His every motive
was geared only and solely for the glory of God and the obedience
of the law of God. That's what He came for. That's
what He came for. And so then, everyone that believes
on Him, everyone that rests on Him completely, all of their
soul, they rest on Christ. You see, they have the righteousness
of God imputed unto them and imparted unto them by God. And
so then, the demand is what? The demand is what? Be ye perfect. Well, guess what? All who believe
are perfect in the sight of God. We are. We're perfect in the
sight of God. And so now in chapter 6, Jesus
begins to teach us, not concerning law, but concerning worship. So now He's shifting the focus
of law to worship. To outward, obedient worship. In this chapter, as you read
this, you will see that the Lord Jesus Christ is again exposing
something false and revealing something true. He's going to
expose false, hypocritical worship. And then He's going to reveal
to us the true nature of worship. The true nature of worshiping
God. Now, our Lord here reveals three
areas of true worship, true worship that is easily perverted by the
hypocritical showmanship, and these three areas are giving
alms, praying, and fasting. Now, the Pharisees in our Lord's
day You see, they were very anxious for these things. They were on
top of these areas that the Lord is going to preach about worship. These men were very faithful
in the practices of praying, in the practices of giving alms,
and they were very They were very motivated to fast. These men were highly zealous
in all three of these areas. And you couldn't say they weren't.
Paul said, I bear my people their record. They have a zeal for
God. They have a zeal for God. They make great efforts to fast
and to pray. Flip real fast to Luke chapter
19. We're going to see one of these guys and the Lord gives
us the example of this guy, this Pharisee in Luke chapter 18.
And verse 11, remember that Pharisee and the publican went up to pray.
And the Lord Jesus Christ tells us what the Pharisee prayed.
And I think this is typical of all the Pharisees. He summed
up all the Pharisees in one Pharisee. Isn't that amazing? Only he could
do that. He said, the Pharisee stood and
prayed thus with himself. Look at that, he prayed. He prayed. Prayed thus with himself. I thank
thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even this publican." Now, in chapter 5, we went over that. He's all of those things. He
was all of those things, yet he thought himself to be okay. He said, I thank you I'm not
like these other guys, even that other publican over there. And
the Pharisee, he said, I fast twice in a week and I give tithes
of all that I possess. See, he prayed. He fasted, and
not only did he fast, he fasted twice in a week, two times a
week. I'll tell you what, I have, and
I don't think I've fasted twice in a week. It's tough. This guy fasts twice in a week,
and he says, I give tithes of all my possessions. But I want
us to notice that this so-called act of worship by this Pharisee,
was not accepted of God. That's why he said he prayed
thus with himself. Because it was not accepted of
God, because it was not really directed to God. He said, if
you'll notice in that passage, he mentions God one time in the
whole prayer, and I five times. He mentions God once, and he
said, God, I thank You that I am not like these people. I fast. I give my tithes. I'm not like
this." You see, his prayer was directed not toward God, but
toward himself. These men, my friends, had all
the right religious moves of worship, but it was all directed
in the wrong place. It was not directed for the glory
of God, but rather for the applause of men. These came to worship
so others would see them and say, oh boy, now look at that
person. That's a religious person. That
sure is a good Christian. Look at that person. He prays,
oh he fasts and he's not like sinners. This is what Paul says in Colossians
2.23 when he says, Which things have indeed a show of wisdom
in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body, not
in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. This is nothing
more than will-worship. This is nothing more than will
worship and it looks good on the outside, it looks acceptable
on the outside, but men who are worshipping for the wrong reason,
for the reason of applause, their worship is not accepted. This
is what Christ is exposing. These men were making a public
show of worship and not for the glory of God. Not for the honor
of Christ, but they did these things to satisfy their own fleshly
desires. And I would like to take a look
at each of these aspects of worship. I'm not going to have time, so
I'm going to do one at a time. I want to do this right. I don't want to fast and rush
through it. So I want to do this one at a time. And tonight I'm
only going to take the matter of giving alms. And I want to
show us how they did it and how it's not to be done. And I want
us to know how it is to be done, how it is truly worship. Now, I tell you that every true
believer in Christ, all who have been redeemed by the blood and
righteousness of Christ and regenerated in the Spirit, they will, by
their new nature, do these things naturally. These things, to a
believer, are something that will come naturally to the new
nature. Giving, praying, Fasting, these
things will come as worship. We will naturally worship our
God as naturally as we breathe. I noticed this. I have a brother
who's addicted to all kinds of things, alcohol, drugs, you name
it, whatever it is. And he lost his job, came to
my parents and they put him up for a certain period of time.
And it wasn't long before he got antsy, looking to get out
as fast as he can and run to whatever it was that he loved. And I'll tell you this, you can't
stop a man from worshiping his God. You can't do it. You can't stop me from worshiping
mine, and I couldn't stop him from worshiping his. A man will
worship something, and whatever he worships, he'll run to it
and he'll worship. You'll worship God. If you serve
the true and living God, you can't stop you. Nothing will
stop you. You'll love to worship God. You'll
want to worship God. And these three parts of worship,
I want us to know that they're not just specific things. So
when you think about alms and praying and fasting, these cover
a larger area than just what is mentioned here. If you think
about alms or giving, that has to do with the worship of the
believer with his estate. You see, we worship God with
not only coming to church, we worship God with our estate,
with everything we have. Prayer is mentioned because we
worship God from the soul, the worship of the soul. And fasting
is the worship of God with our bodies, our bodies. our instruments
of worship. Tonight we're going to just look
at the alms. Jesus here in our text, look at this. He said,
take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of
them. Jesus begins with a warning,
a warning concerning almsgiving, that we don't do it as a show. In verse 2, Jesus reveals to
us how the Pharisees did it. How they gave their alms of worship. He said, When thou doest thine
alms, do not sound the trumpet before thee. These men actually, really blew
a trumpet. This is not figurative. They
actually would stand in the most prominent place in the temple,
and when they felt like giving alms, they would actually blow
the trumpet so that the poor could hear them and come their
way. That's the excuse they used.
They said, we blow the trumpet so we can get the poor's attention.
No, they really didn't care about the poor. They didn't care about
giving money to the poor. What they cared about was blowing
the trumpet so that the others around them would come and look
at them while they gave. They wanted the attention of
men. But Christ expressly tells us
that they didn't mean to call the poor at all. They just wanted
the glory of men. Is this not even true in our
religious age? Can you not see the same thing
happening today in churches, so-called, that beat their drum
with advertisements concerning their fundraisers? Concerning
their giving? Concerning their bazaars or their
food markets or selling their t-shirts for Jesus? Whatever the gimmick is, it's
the same thing. It's the same purpose. And that
is to draw attention from this world to themselves. They want
the world to say to them, wow, what a good church. Look at that
church. That's something. Well, that church really just
gets out there in the community. That church is really a community-based
church. They even name their churches
that now. They don't even have anything that deals with teaching. They don't want to be associated
with anything that has to do with teaching. They just want
to be a community organizer. They want to get out and give
things to the people. They even put those little thermometers
on the wall, you know, those little... big thermometers and
they say, we're going to raise $10,000. And every time they
get a dollar, they'll color it in. And what are they doing?
But pounding the drum, look at me, look at us, look at what
we're giving, look at all we're doing here. It's the same thing
as blowing the trumpet. The same thing. It's desiring
for men of this world to see them. And our Lord Jesus Christ
gives a very devastating response. He says, they have their reward. That's what you want? There you
go. There you go. Friends, if men are giving to
be seen and spoken well of by other men, then they will have
their reward, they'll feel comfortable all the way to hell with their
false religion, they'll feel good about themselves, and they
will have a good standing in this world. They'll have a good
name in this world. They'll be looked upon well.
And the world will treat them well. They'll do them well. Jesus said, if I came in my own
name, if I came seeking praise of myself, you would accept me. But because I seek the praise
and glory of God, you won't. And friends, if we seek the praise
and glory of God in our worship and our giving, this world won't
know about it. This world shouldn't know about
it. This type of worship is rewarded by men, but it will not be rewarded
by God. Why? Because it does not give
God glory. If our worship does not give
God glory, then it is not worship at all. If our giving is not
for the glory and the purpose of God through Jesus Christ,
then it is not worth giving. Don't do it. You seek the applause
of men. Everything should be for the
glory of God. The worship of giving is not only to the poor,
but this idea of alms is larger than that. It's any support of
the ministry of God. It is any support of God's pastors. It is the support of the local
church and the outreach of the Word of God. That's what it is. It's giving at any part of the
worship of God. Giving is how we may worship
God with our estate and our possessions. False religion worships by giving
without sacrifice. You know that? All false religion
worships God by giving without sacrifice. You see, to give is
one thing. But God requires sacrifice in
our giving. Sacrifice. Go to Mark chapter
12. Look over Mark chapter 12. I
want you to see what the Lord's response is to watching people
give. Mark chapter 12, verse 41. I love this. When I read this,
just to picture this was awesome. The Lord Jesus Christ, He said,
the Lord sat over against the treasury. He just got done preaching.
And He sat down right there by the treasury. And beheld how
the people cast money into the treasury. And many that were
rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor
widow, and she threw in two mites. which make a farthing. And he
called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I
say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than
all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did
cast in of their abundance. But she of her wont did cast
in all that she had, even all her living. Friends, two mites was the poorest,
the smallest amount of money. The mite was the smallest and
you put two of them together, you get a farthing and a farthing
would buy you a dove for a sacrifice. That's all it would buy you.
Now, you've got to understand that this wasn't part of this
woman's living. This was all she had. She didn't
have anything else. Her husband was dead. She didn't
have any way of living. What did she do? She took all
that she had and she threw it in the treasury. She threw it
in. Friends, this is faith. to set God in His glory above
all earthly wealth. And that's exactly what she did.
She set the glory of God above herself and her own needs. And the Lord Jesus Christ, now
I'll tell you, these people gave in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
These were very wealthy Jews at this time. And they cast in
so much. And God said she cast in more
because she cast in all. And friends, when we worship
God, we must worship God with everything. Everything. We cast everything on Christ. All of our self and all of our
wealth and all of our possessions, they belong to Christ. They belong to Christ. She gave
out of her need. Now friends, I don't speak much
on giving here because you do so well giving. But this is important
for us to take heed that we do it not before others. I know you give liberally, even
to your own suffering and doing without the gospel. I know that. But to us who believe, to give
is not grievous. To give is not grievous. It is
a joy and a privilege to give. And friends, we don't give because
we have to, we give because we want to, because God is our God
and we desire to worship Him with everything we have. We give
not to be seen of men and not to be applauded by men. Why do
we give? Why do you give? Why is it so
prominent in Scripture concerning giving of our earthly possessions?
Why does it take so much prominence in the Word of God? Because we
give because God gave the greatest gift to us. Friends, He gave His Son. The
Son of God He gave to us. And the Scripture says in Galatians
1 verse 3, Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself. Friends, Christ didn't give part
of Himself. He gave all of Himself. He gave
all of Himself. He being God, blessed forever,
having all praise and all glory from all eternity. And what did
He do? He came down to be a man, to
be a servant of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, and became a curse for us. so that we might
go free and have the righteousness of God. Now, is that not a gift?
Is that not the greatest gift of all? That he took our sins
on himself and gave us his righteousness. He gave us eternal life. He gave us heaven and himself
forever. Is that not the greatest gift
of all? and gave Himself that we might
be delivered from this present evil world according to the will
of God the Father to whom be glory forever and ever. Christ gave Himself and suffered
such pain and death for us. He who knew no sin bore our sin
to become a curse for us. And He gave all of Himself for
our sins. How is it then How is it then
that we are followers of Christ, would not give up all we have
to follow Him? Is it not made easier for us
by looking at the cross? Of course it is. These things
are meaningless. These things are worthless. These
things have little or no value to us. I'll tell you this, many long
for heaven and eternal life, but they also want the things
of this life, don't they? You can't have both. You can either have the things
of this life or Christ, but you can't have Christ in the things
of this world. Jesus said, you cannot serve
God mammon You can't serve them both Remember that rich young
ruler when he came to the Lord. He wanted eternal life, didn't
he? He wanted eternal life and Jesus said obey how he said what
I got to do He said well you want to do something obey the
law. So I did that. Oh Yeah, okay. Give up all your
earthly possessions and come and follow me. Oh, I can't do
that Well, you can't have me You can't have me You see, true
giving requires sacrifice. With true faith and true repentance
will also come true sacrifice. If a man cannot hold to Christ
and on to this world, he will either love the one and hate
the other or despise the one and cleave to the other. To truly
worship God, we must and shall worship Him with all we have. All we have. Because He gave the greatest
gift, how shall we not freely give the lesser of the things? These temporal things. Believers
in Christ will worship, they will worship by giving, but then
how do they give? How is it that we are to give?
We're going to give, but how do we do it? How is it that the
Lord commands us to do it? Look at this back in our text
in verse 3. He said, but when thou doest thine arms. Now He
didn't say if, did He? He said when. He said when you
do your arms. And thou doest thine arms, let
not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Now I thought
about this. My hands have no brains. They really don't know
anything, do they? The only way my left hand knows
what my right hand is doing is because it goes through here.
And how can you keep something from yourself? It's not literal. Don't take that literally and
try to figure that out. It's an expression. He's using
the expression to teach us about secrecy of giving. The secrecy
of giving. When we give, we are to give
in secret. In secret. He's talking about
the secret so we hide it from the eyes of men so we are not
given any temptation to have others look upon us. It's tempting, isn't it? If the
Lord gives us something and we give to the church, sometimes
it's tempting to tell others. The Lord said, don't do that,
don't get into that, because it's our human nature to glory
in ourselves. We should give and give it unto
the Lord and glory in Him. And this is how we do it. Just
give it. Give it and leave it alone. That's
the best way to do it. Leave it alone. You know what
about this alms treasury, I thought about this, it was really kind
of amazing to me. When they put the money in, you
know they really never knew who it went to? Who do they trust
for that? God will do with it. God will
do with it what He pleases. God will do with our giving what
He pleases. God knows, and this should comfort
us in giving. God knows. God knows. And that's all that really matters,
doesn't it? When we give, And the Lord knows what we give.
And the Lord knows what we sacrifice to give. It's only good that
He knows because He's the only one that'll ever reward us. And
we recognize that even in giving, we're not rewarded because we're
giving. Our reward comes from the Lord Jesus Christ and we
give because of Him. And because of Him, we shall
receive the inheritance or the reward. It is from God true believers
seek their reward, not because of giving, but because of Christ.
We do not give seeking covetous nature to get more. Now this
is some people's attitude of giving, is that they give thinking
God is some Wall Street executive, that He's going to multiply your
money. You give, and he said, okay,
I'm waiting for the returns and God's going to give me more than
I gave. No such scripture anywhere in
the Bible. Don't even look at that. They say, oh, press down,
run over, God will give. Yeah, God will give to you. Do
you breathe? Do you eat? Do you have lights over you,
a roof over you? Those are gifts of God. Believe
me, you receive a heck of a lot more than you ever give. I promise. You receive a lot more than you
ever give. But some people look at it that way, and that's evil.
That's not worship. Some people look at giving like
this, that it's going to make me holier. That I'll have some
kind of favor with God. If I give to God, then somehow
He's going to give back to me somewhere along the line. That's
not worship. How many people go and give thinking
that they have a disease or have some kind of ailment and then
they give money or their possessions and then they think God's going
to come along and heal them? Because they gave. No. No, that's not worship. That's
giving to get and that's covetousness. That's covetousness. We do not
give to give gifts to get gifts from God. We give Because we
love Him. It's very simple. I love Him. Therefore, I give. What I have of mine is His. All
of my things. Everything I have is His. We give freely. But if you give
to get, you're nothing more than Simon Magnus. You remember he
tried to pay for an apostleship. And what did Peter say? Thy money
perish with thee. Thy money perish with thee. Take
your money and go on. God don't need it. God don't
need it. Believers, let us give freely
as we have been given, as Christ freely gave Himself. So let us
give in worship and service to God. Now in closing, I want to make it clear. God
does not need our money. Isn't that silly to think that
God needs our money or our possessions? I'm going to give you a little
hint. It all belongs to Him anyway. How did you get it? How did you
come by it? The hand of God. God gave it to you. It's all
His anyway. God does not need your money.
And I'll tell you this. If you don't feel like giving,
please don't. Don't. Don't give grudgingly
or of a grudging spirit. I do believe that those that
see clearly the alms of Christ and what He has given, I know
they'll freely give. And the closer we are to Christ,
the more open our hand will be. The more closer we are to see
the cross of Christ, the more open we'll be to give. Whatever
it is He puts on our heart to give. Believers will then flow generously
with the things they have. Robert Hawker wrote this, he
said, what flows from God will tend to God. Jesus is then in
all and a respect to Him is the aim
of all. We give to God because we recognize
where it came from. We give to God because we recognize
it belongs to Him anyway. Beware, my friends, of the leaven
of the Pharisees, to be seen of men in giving, and let this
not be named among us. Let us give with our aim to honor
Christ, our aim to reach the lost, our aim to call out God's
elect by the gospel, and never, never, never to promote ourselves. Always for the glory of God.
In that song we just sang tonight, in Don Fortner's book there,
it says, let us sing as we give, my life, my all, I now resign
to you, my Lord and God. Nothing I ask or seek except
the glory of my God. The glory of my God. Friends, when we give, it is
an act of worship. Giving is an act of worship.
It is an act of worship with our state. And if a man will
keep his estate, and say he worships God, he's a liar. God's people
freely own that everything they have is His. And if He asks of
them to give, they will gladly, gladly give for the glory of
God. I pray this will be a blessing
to your hearts and the Lord use it according to His will and
purpose, the edification of His people. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.