Matthew chapter 6, in the beginning of this chapter,
you know, Matthew 5 is where we were for quite a few weeks
that started the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord in Matthew 5,
6, and 7 is preaching this message, the Sermon on the Mount. And
here in chapter 6, in the beginning of it, He is preaching on giving. praying and fasting. And with each one, he very consistently
says that these things ought to be done in secret, before God and not before men. And let me show you each one
of those before we start in on the text. Look at verse one.
It says, he said, 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. 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
their reward. So he said, don't do it to be
seen of men, because that's the only reward that'll come from
it. Verse five, concerning praying, he said, 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 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 then concerning fasting,
if you look at verse 16, he said, moreover, when you fast, be not
as the hypocrites of a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces
that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward. So we said the same thing in
all three cases. And he's saying these things
that God's people are commanded to do. And that's the first thing
that I wanna point out about this. God's people are commanded
to do these things. He did not say, if you give. He's not told us how much, and
we're gonna talk about giving just a little bit this morning,
but he said, do it. He didn't say, if you give, and
he didn't say, if you pray. He said, pray without ceasing,
didn't he? So we're commanded to do these
things and he is saying we need to take heed that we don't do
them before men. They need to be done before God
alone. Now last week we opened the Bible
study talking a little bit about the difference in preaching and
teaching. preaching concerning Christ and
teaching concerning us in light of Christ. And I want to preach
for just a second. I wanna open this Bible study
by preaching a little bit. And then if the Lord will enable
me to, I wanna teach a little bit what he has to say right
here. So let's read the first four verses together. Matthew
6, one to four. It says, 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. 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
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 in secret
himself shall reward thee openly. Now, if you have a center margin
in your Bible, you'll see that the word alms in verse one translates
righteousness. That's what that word means.
But when you look it up, it also means mercy. It means righteousness. It means mercy. It means compassion. It means pity and it means love. Alms. It is a benefit given or done willingly and freely. Alms, alms for the poor. Do you have a benefit? Can you
do something for me willingly and freely expecting nothing
in return? So he said, this is what he's
saying. When you do your righteousness, And when you show your mercy
and your compassion and your pity and your love, make sure
that it's not just an empty show before men. Make sure that it's
done in absolute sincerity before God. Now, who comes to mind when
we say this? Our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. the only man who did his alms
completely to the Father. He did alms. He came and did
righteousness and showed mercy and love and compassion and pity. And not only did he do it not
to be seen of men, he did it in such a way that he was not
even known of men. All right, now let's think about
this because I'm about to teach myself something. about giving. And we know our flesh, we know
how we are when it comes to giving. Well, now, if I'm going to do
something, I want you to at least recognize it and acknowledge it. But God,
God did alms for somebody. And He did it in such a way that
not only did He not receive any recognition for it, He did it
in such a way that he wasn't even known of men as he was doing
it. He humbled himself and made himself
of no reputation. This blesses my heart. We've
known men throughout the years who have been great, great supporters
of the gospel. And a lot of times there's somebody
over in some place that you don't even hear of. You don't even
know about them. The average congregation doesn't even know
about them. Our Lord made Himself of no reputation,
so much so that this is what John 1 verse 10 says. It says,
He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world
knew Him not. That's amazing. You know, all He has to do is
reveal Himself and everybody will know who He is. That's all
He had to do, just reveal Himself. Isaiah 42 said that He would
come and do this for His people. And this is what it said, He
shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in
the street. And He didn't. He did not announce
who He was giving His righteousness to. He did not come and tell
everybody, y'all see this wretched person in the gutter? Let me
tell you what all I'm gonna do for this person. He did not announce that.
He did not announce who He came to show mercy to. His blood was
shed for a particular people. He gave that and He shed that
for a particular people. Christ died for a particular
people. But everything that he did and every soul that he did
it for, he did it in secret unto his father. He did not do it
in a way that was openly seen of men. Somebody asked Charles
Spurgeon one time. They said, if you believe that
only God's elect are gonna be saved, why don't you just preach
to God's elect? And he said, I would if they
had a big E on their forehead. God has not made it openly known. Christ has not shown openly what
He has done for who. He reveals it in time. He calls
His people out. But He did that work, when He
was doing it, He did that work to God alone. That was between
Him and God alone. And I don't even see how it's
possible to do something in such a way that your left hand has
no idea what your right hand's doing. With man, that is impossible. We read things that with man
is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. And we can rest assured of the
fact that Christ did it in that very way. I don't even know how
that's possible, but he did it in that very way. But even though
His alms to His Father that He did and gave for His people,
even though His alms were done in secret between Him and His
Father, His reward is no secret. God the Father has rewarded Him
openly. God the Father has raised Him
up and highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above
every name." Every place on earth knows the name Jesus Christ. Even on this earth, His name
is more known than any name. You think about heaven. And He has seated Him on the
throne, and He has put the crown on His head. And now every knee
bows and every tongue confesses that He is Lord, He is Lord,
He is risen from the grave and He is Lord. Every knee shall
bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So Christ
has already fulfilled this commandment for us eternally. That's great
news, isn't it? Christ did this for us before
the Father. But there is still a physical
application here. Brother Henry used to say that
the scriptures are bifocal, and they are. And what that means
is there's a spiritual application, an eternal application, and there
is a physical application. There's a right now temporal
application. And what our Lord has said will
hold true. He is literally saying this to
us. You know, talking about giving
is, that's the most difficult subject I could talk about for
obvious reasons. I, every time I do it, I try
to really go into this elaborate, you know, you know, I'm trying
to do this in the right motives. I'm not going to do that this
time because I don't have time. It's obvious why it's so difficult
for me to talk about giving, but. And my thought is, well,
I'll just skip it. God's people know that. But here's
the thing. I feel like I need to know this.
And if I feel like I need to know this, I feel like you need
to know this. We need to know this. So what he has to say,
he's saying this to us, and we need to know this. What he's
saying right here is if we do anything that he commands us
to do, with a wrong motive, there won't
be any blessing in it from the Lord. And that's really serious
to me. We want the Lord to bless the
things that we do out of obedience to Him. I am preaching right
now out of obedience to Him. That's why I'm doing this. There
is a fear in me. He's put a fear in me. I feel
like He's called me to do this. And I also feel like woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel. I'm doing this out of obedience.
I'm doing it out of love. All kinds of reasons, but I'll
tell you this. If I'm going to preach the gospel,
I want the Lord to bless it. There are men who stand up and
preach and the Lord doesn't bless it. That's just so. You want the Lord to bless it.
We want the Lord's blessing on this. We just read it. The next thing that he mentions
is prayer. Don't we want the Lord to bless
our prayer? Wouldn't it just crush us, honestly,
to think that we were praying to God and His blessing was not
on our communion to Him? It really wasn't making it past
the ceiling. Wouldn't that be awful? So he says if we do these things
with the wrong motive, His blessing is not on it. We would be so
wise to really, really hear and learn what he has to say about
all of these subjects this morning is giving, all right? I'm gonna
try to teach this with whatever ability he'll give me. Verse
one. He said, take heed that you do
not your alms before men to be seen of them. He is not saying
that no man can see what we give. He's not saying that. We have
some treasurers here who count the money. They have to see what
we give. If you're gonna give something,
you're gonna put it in that box and it's gonna go to the treasurer
or you're gonna hand it to the treasurer, one of the two. We're gonna read, if we get there,
we're gonna read about some believers who gave and it was such a great
blessing to all who knew about it. So he's not saying that if
another man sees what we give, the whole thing is ruined. He's
not saying that. What he's saying is, take heed
that you don't give to be seen of men. And I'm gonna turn this
to me. I'm gonna turn this to me. Take
heed that you don't give to be seen of men, wanting men to see
it. I'm gonna give this, but I want
somebody to see it. wanting it to get out, wanting
it to get talked about, wanting that pat on the back. Do we all
acknowledge our flesh? Honestly, do we acknowledge motives
in us that we don't even recognize in the moment? But looking back
on it, it's like, yeah, that kind of is me. He said, if that's
our motive, that pat on the back, there you go. That's what you
get. That's the reward we have. 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. 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
their reward. If we do something just for the
purpose of somebody saying back to us, wow, good for you. Yeah. Good for you. That's it. That's. That's all the blessing
that'll come. Verse three, 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 in
secret himself shall reward thee openly. Our bodies are one being. There is no physical way that
my right hand can do something without my left hand knowing
about it. There is no physical way. But one way we can look
at that is, after we have done something in sincerity, after we've done something with
the right hand of sincerity, don't let the left hand of pride
ruin it. Guard against that, be aware
of it. Sometimes we mean so well in
the beginning of doing something. It starts out with a true motive,
a true heart. But this is what we'll do. I'll
just tell you, this is what I'll do. I will sit here and have
a conversation with myself in my mind. I'll think about what
I did. I'm glad I did that. That was good. As soon as the left hand of self-righteousness
and arrogance and pride hears what the right hand did in sincerity,
it's ruined. It's ruined. So here are some
wrong motives in giving. Let me just convict all of us
here with some wrong motives in giving. A pat on the back. Lord, help me be aware and guard
against it. and appeal to our pride and our
self-righteous flesh. Lord, help me to be aware. Help
me to be aware. An investment. We hear, we hear, but if I'm
ever speaking of myself, This is what we hear. Give and it'll
be given unto you. Pressed down, shaken together,
running over. And this is what we think. Huh. Maybe I can help myself financially.
If I'll give, that's a promised return on investment. Just ruined
it. It is so. God cannot lie. Give, it'll be given unto you.
Press down, shaken together, good measure. But Lord, help
me to guard against that selfishness and that greed. Help me. I'm telling you, with man, this
is impossible. Maybe what I should say is, Lord,
forgive me. Forgive me, please. Our Lord said, that is not how
it works. Don't do that. Another very wrong
motive would be giving because you think it will save you. That most definitely is not the
case. The only thing that can save
a sinner is the precious, priceless blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only thing. But people
do see giving as insurance for salvation. I knew a woman a long
time ago, I was a young kid, She won $1,000, and this woman
had no, I mean, to say no heart for the gospel, this woman had
no heart for church. This woman had no religion whatsoever. And she won $1,000, and we were
talking about it, and she said, I can do a lot with $900. And
I said, 900? I thought it was 1,000. She said,
10% belongs to the Lord. And even as a kid, I thought,
give me a break. people think that's insurance
for salvation. They do. But it's not. Not only are they just giving
their money away in the process, but they're giving begrudgingly. And our Lord said, most definitely
don't do that. Don't do that. If that heart
creeps in with like, I have to, don't do that. You're better
off just keeping it. So our Lord said, take heed that
you don't give with any of these wrong motives. All right, well
then what would be right motives? There's really just one. Turn
with me to 2 Corinthians 9. 2 Corinthians 9. Verse 15, it says, Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. You know, that's all the motivation
a believer needs. As soon as you hear that, grace wells up. Love, pity, compassion. It makes a believer want to give.
The heading at the top of my page right here says that Paul
is exhorting to bountiful almsgiving. He's telling them give bountifully. Why? He sums it all up in verse
15. He says, thanks be unto God for
his unspeakable gift. Why would we give to him? Look
at everything he's given to us. Everything that we have to give
to Him, He's given to us. Look at chapter 8, verse 9. 2
Corinthians 8, verse 9. It says, For you know the grace,
the favor, the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He
was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor. that you through
his poverty might be rich. He gave it all. He gave it all. When God's people get a hold
of everything that Christ has given to them, they don't say,
now do I really have to give 10%? They don't do that. When God touches the heart, they
say, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. How much can
I do? How much can I do? Forget about
a number. More than 10, less than 10, forget about a number.
How much can I do? What can I do? Just to say thank
you. So because our Lord said that
we should take heed on our giving, I want to, for the last section
of this study here, End with this question. How should we
give? What does God say is the right
way to give? Go with me to 1 Corinthians 16.
1 Corinthians 16. Verse 1, it says, now concerning the collection
for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia,
even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week,
let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered
him, that there be no gatherings when I come. How do we give? Well, he said the first day of
the week, Sunday, the first day of the week, week after week,
it's a good thing to consistently, the first day of the week, give
unto the Lord. Now here's what I want to say
about that. Some of you get paid every other week. Like I just
kind of want to go through a few details. Some of you get paid
every other week and you wanna, you get your check and you know,
our Lord said, give your first fruits and you wanna give and
you give every other week, that's fine. Some of you may get paid
once a month and you wanna do your giving and you give once
a month, that's fine. It does not matter. We're not
hung up on a day, we're not hung up on a week, none of that matters.
There is no bondage to giving every Sunday morning. We're not
under bondage, we're not under law. This is not a law. It's a commandment of love, but
it's not a law. And we're not under bondage to
give every single week. That's not what the exhortation
is about. It is just a safe way to guard against the sinfulness
of our flesh, because there is a warning that we should take
heed of. Let's guard against and let's recognize in ourselves,
if we see this happening, let's guard against holding back on
purpose so we can give a large sum at one time. This is just
safer for us. It's just safer to very humbly,
very smallly, simply just give. There's always a need, always,
but we're not given for a need. were given to say, thank you.
There may be needs that come up. There may be something, you
know, throughout the years, there were needs that came up in Mexico.
Brother Walter Gruber, they, and so the churches would say,
brethren, can we give? And people would, at one time,
they weren't doing that to be seen of men. They were doing
that to help the brethren in Mexico. And there may be times like that,
but if we will just humbly, simply, consistently give, we can guard
against the pride that comes with giving a large sum of money,
even if only the treasurer sees it. Just knowing, well, somebody
has seen this, you know. Let's guard against waiting for
a need or waiting for an event so that I can, you know, let
me just take care of the big portion of that, boom. Let's
just guard against that. Our Lord said that credit and
pat on the back, that's all that's gonna come from it. I believe
this with all of my heart. We would be better off to give
$5 a week. And I did the math, that's $260
a year. The reason I tell you this is
because I believe with all my heart, the Lord provides for
his ministry. He's either gonna send it one
way or another, but if it's His, it's coming. And I believe we'd
be better off giving $5 a week than holding out to give one
$5,000 check if the motive is to be seen of men. If the Lord
gives you $5,000 and lays it on your heart to give, great.
Thanks be unto God. But I believe we'd be better
off giving $260 a year with no, nothing behind it than a big
lump sum of money with my sinful flesh attached to it. I just
believe that with all my heart. So remember the widow who gave
two mites, two mites. Those men were coming in with
their big, they had that big checkbook, writing those big
checks. And the Lord said, do you see that woman right there?
Now she outgave all of them because she gave all she had. Could you
imagine opening up your checkbook and seeing how much money do
I have in it? And to the penny, writing every dollar out of it.
You talk about faith. That's of God, not of her. But
my point being is it's not the amount. It's not the amount. It's the heart toward God out
of love and thanks for everything that he's done for us. So I gotta
stop, but let me just finish. First day of the week, verse
two, it's 1 Corinthians 16, verse two. Upon the first day of the
week, let every one of you lay by him in store. I wanna say
this while we're here. He said, every one of you, men,
women, but here's what I wanna emphasize, children. We have
a lot of children here. There's a lot of children in
many places under the gospel. Let's teach our children to say
thank you. Not grudgingly. Not grudgingly. I've known men and I've heard
of men who have literally stolen 10% from every gift from a grandparent
or every little job or who knows what that their child has gotten.
You give me 10%. Not grudgingly. Not grudgingly. That's not what I'm talking about
at all. What I'm saying is, We have teachers in these classes
teaching our children the gospel because it's important. This
is important. And as we teach our children
the gospel, let's teach them to be thankful for the gospel.
Let's teach them not to just take this for granted. Let's
teach them that we don't even give because we have to. There
are a lot of things that I could buy if I didn't give to this
congregation. But that's okay. I don't give
because I have to and you don't either. We give out of love. We're given because of love.
We love our Lord and what He's done for us. We give joyfully. We do. We're so happy to give. We give willingly. We want to
say thank you. Let's teach our children. Honey,
if you would like to say thank you also, we're saying thank
you. And if you would like to say
thank you for all of His goodness to you in giving you health,
in giving you a mind, in giving you this job, this little job
you're working. If God didn't give you health
and a mind or this job, you wouldn't have it. And if you wanna say
thank you for what he's done, you're welcome to do that, and
you should. You should do that, especially if God reveals salvation
to him. If he reveals salvation to him.
Let's teach them, if you love this gospel, say thank you for
it, and support the ministry of the gospel. We're gonna be
gone soon. We're almost gone, all of us,
we're almost gone. Like that, we're gonna be gone. And our
kids, God willing, if he tarries, will be this church. And they
will have spouses, and they will have children, and they need
to know this is life. This is all that matters. Support
it, love it, say thank you for it. Teach your children, generation
after generation. Let's teach them to be givers. So verse two says, upon the first
day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, how
much? As God hath prospered him. As
God has prospered him. I still got too much to say.
Let me just, hold on. Whatever God lays on your heart
to do. Back in, don't turn, back in 2 Corinthians 9, he said,
Paul was exhorting, bound to forgive me. He said, know this,
whatever man sows, that's what he's gonna reap. If you sow bountifully,
you're gonna reap bountifully. If you sow sparingly, you're
gonna reap sparingly. It's just so. You say, well,
Gabe, that sounds like religion. Doesn't matter. It's just so.
That's what God said. And he said, Paul exhorted them,
he said, I want you to know that I'm telling you not to just give,
give all you can, give bountifully because the Lord loves a cheerful
giver. It's pleasing to the Lord. He's
not gonna let you go without food. He's not gonna let you
go without shelter. He's gonna take care of you. He knows what
things you have need of. You give, it'll be given unto
you. Pressed down, shaken together, running over, it will. And Paul,
for an example there, he said, let me prove that to you by telling
you about the Macedonians. Oh, they blessed me. I'll close.
Go to 2 Corinthians 8. Go to 2 Corinthians 8. I'll close
with this. Every time I read this, it blesses
my soul. 2 Corinthians 8, verse 1. It says, "...Moreover, brethren,
we do you to wit, we want you to know of the grace of God bestowed
on the churches of Macedonia," this region that had these churches
in it, "...how that in great trial of affliction," those churches
were in great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy while
they were in great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and
their deep poverty." He said, you can't imagine how poor these
people were. Think about those brethren in
Mexico. You can't imagine how poor these people were. He said,
their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their
liberality. For to their power, I bear record,
yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves,
praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift
and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints."
He said, they gave a gift and they wanted us to take it to
other brethren and disperse it among other brethren. And we
were saying, In better terms, you're too poor, it's okay. And
they entreated us, they were praying us. We want to take part
in the fellowship of the ministry of the saints. Let us help in
ministering to the saints. Verse five, he said, and this
they did, not as we hoped. We hoped there'd be grace in
their hearts and giving in their hearts. But he said, it wasn't
as we hoped. They first gave their own selves to the Lord,
and then they gave their selves to us. by the will of God, and
he said, they didn't have anything, and they were given all they
had, and God blessed them. And Paul said, God blessed me
through them. So, may God teach us how to be
givers. May God teach us, honestly, something
about this, to give in a way that's honoring to Him and pleasing
to Him, and to give in a way that's joyful to us, and a real
blessing to us. And just to say thank you for
his unspeakable gift. All right, you're dismissed.
We'll have a very, very quick turnaround. I'm sorry.