Matthew chapter six, and I had
a couple titles that I put on this, whichever one strikes you
the most. First one is why we do what we
do. And the other one is motive is
everything. Why we do what we do is far more important than
what I do. God looks on the heart. We've
seen, we saw that last week. God looks on the heart. God hates
hypocrisy. God demands true worship. True
worship. God is a spirit and he's to be
worshiped in spirit and truth. And it says he's sick as such
to worship him in spirit and truth, not in pretense, not in
hypocrisy. Our Lord gave us in chapter five,
we saw this last week, the spiritual application of the law, that
to be angry with the brother without a cause, he said is murder. To be angry with my brother without
a cause, the Lord said it's murder. To look on a woman to lust after
her, he said, is to commit adultery. He gave us the spiritual application
of the law. The law goes straight to the
heart. God looks at the heart. He looks at the heart. Now, the
laws that we have, that we make, it doesn't matter what I think
as long as I obey the law. You know, back in the 70s when
Jimmy Carter was president, made it a law that you couldn't drive
over 55. I think Van Halen made a song, said, I can't drive 55. And I hated that law. I hated that speed limit. On
64, well, 64 home where I live, interstate, you couldn't drive
past 55. And I didn't like it. But as
long as I drove 55, it didn't matter. They could not give me
a ticket as long as I drove 55. And I could stand there and tell
them, Police officer all day long, I can't stand this law.
I hate it. Well, as long as you drive 55,
you're OK. I was working for a man one time.
And he was the boss. And he had a guy that worked
for him who wasn't there anymore. And they didn't get along. And
they were in the office, and he was chewing him out over something.
And he says, can I get in trouble for what I think He said, no,
you can't be in trouble for what you think. He said, well, I think
you're an SOB. And he said, you know what? He got me. He said,
because I couldn't do anything. Because he asked me what I think.
But I tell you what, with God's law, with God's law, yes, you
can be in trouble for what you think. You're in trouble for
what you think. It reaches to the heart. It goes to the heart. Our Lord
showed us that, we saw that last week. The law reaches the heart
where sin originates. The root of sin is in the heart.
That's where it is, it's in the heart. Now our Lord's going to
deal with this matter of giving, praying, and fasting. And these
are matters of the heart. And they are matters of worship.
Giving is a response. It's a response of the heart.
Now it can be done either hypocritical or it can be done sincerely.
But it's a form of worship. Giving it, praying is a form
of worship. And so was fasting back in that
day. They were matters of the heart
and they were to be done in spirit and in truth. And he starts here
with this matter of giving. And keep this in mind. The one
who's giving this sermon is Almighty God. Almighty God came into this
world, took upon Him flesh, and preached this sermon to us. And it says here, he says, take
heed that you do not your alms, your righteousness, you're giving
your acts of mercy. You know, there's a lot of ways
to give besides just money. We give of ourselves, we give,
we don't help someone, we give of ourselves to help someone.
But take heed that you do not your alms or righteousness before
men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward
of your father, which is in heaven. It is a given that his disciples,
his people give. He's not telling us to give,
he's saying when you give, because it's a given that God's people
give. It's an act of being merciful.
God has shown mercy to you, you will show mercy to others. When
you find someone in need, you are compelled, you're compelled
to help, to do something, to do something. The scripture says here in Ephesians
4, verse 28, it says, let him that stole, still no more, but
rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which
is good that he may have to give to him that needeth. that need
it. The scripture teaches us over
in 1 Corinthians 16.2, we are to give as unto the Lord as he
has prospered us. We are to give as he has prospered
us. We're not to go out and charge.
Don't put it on a credit card. You know, you see these guys
on these, these hooksters on television, they'll have you
to charge it on your credit card. Don't ever do that. Don't ever
charge on a credit card to give. If God hasn't prospered you and
enabled you to give, then don't go borrowing. Now, if he's enabled
you to give $1,000, if he's enabled you to give $1, God looks at
the heart. You remember that woman that
came in and they were putting money into the treasury? And
that woman came in and she put in what we would consider a penny.
A penny. You say, well, that'd be embarrassing.
She gave, the Lord said, now he, look, he took notice of this.
The God of heaven and earth took notice of this. He said, she
gave of all her living. He said, they, the rich, they
gave of their abundance, but she gave everything she had and
he took notice of that. We are to give as the Lord has
prospered us. And we are to give willingly. Not grudgingly, willingly. That's
over in 2 Corinthians 8, 12. I can't turn it all day, it would
be too long. But you can write it down if
you want. But we are to give from the heart and we're to give
willingly. Willingly. Not grudgingly. Not saying, well, I guess I'm
gonna have to give something today. No, if that's the case,
keep it in your pocket. Give willingly. And we are to
give cheerfully. Over in 2 Corinthians 9, verses
6 and 7, to give cheerfully. God, He said, loves a cheerful
giver. A cheerful giver. Glad to do
it. Glad to do it. We were to give. Now He says
here, take heed. Can giving or acts of mercy or call over here
of righteousness, can any of that be wrong? Absolutely. Rolf Barnard called it sinful
praying and sinful giving. That's what he called it, sinful
praying and sinful giving. If it's done with the wrong motive,
God sees the evil of it, and you know what? However God sees
it, that's exactly the way it is. However he sees it, that's
exactly how it is. Whatever we do, we are to do,
it says over Colossians, as unto the Lord. Take heed that you do not your
arms before men. Listen, it's not take heed that
you don't do anything before men because people are going
to see. They're going to see you give,
they're going to see you do something for somebody. They're going to see
that. But he's talking here about the motive. that you do not your
own before men to be seen of them for the purpose of waiting
till somebody's looking. Do you have somebody's attention?
Then you then you do what you do. Otherwise, you have no reward
or no blessing. The Father, which is in heaven.
Do not your acts of mercy to be seen of men for the purpose
of them seeing you. If we do, if we do, it's evident
God's not in it. God's not in it. Over in Philippians 2, 5 and
8, it says, let this mind be in you. Let this attitude. Cultivate
this attitude. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself. of no
reputation. Of anyone that's ever walked
on this earth that could have and had a right to, to make themselves
a reputation, it was him. He's God. But he didn't. He didn't. But he took upon him
the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man. The very purpose for giving is
because we have received mercy. God's given to us. He's given
us grace, He's given us forgiveness, pardon, justification, righteousness,
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, everything I need
to stand in God's presence, God has given it to me. And everything
I need in this life, God's given it to me. And all I'm doing is
returning just a portion of what God's given. And I pray. Can God give me a
right heart, a right heart to give what I give? The right motive,
a genuine, out of love to Christ. Paul said at one place, the love
of Christ constrains me. That's why I do what I do, is
out of love to Christ. A sure way to kill any blessing
from God is to do what you do for somebody else to see, to
be seen and met. Or to sound a trumpet. He said,
don't go sound a trumpet. To have a gift in one hand, getting
ready to drop it in the plate, and a trumpet in the other one.
He said, everybody turn this way and look. Our Lord is telling us this. This is not an opinion. He's
telling us here how to give. and the right motive in giving.
The sounding of a trumpet comes from a hypocritical spirit. Do not sound a trumpet before
thee. This shows here, this shows that we are, if I do this, if
I do this, this shows that I am the sole object for doing what
I do. I'm the object. I'm the object. Self-glory is the reason. Don't sound the trumpet as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. They're out
there just blowing their horn. Hypocrites look for an audience
where they can perform their deeds. It's an act of self-righteousness,
not an act of righteousness. Verily I say unto you, they had
their reward. They got what they were after.
And that's all they're gonna have. The praise of men. Now, when you have the praise
of men, seriously, what do you have? You got one worm clapping
for another worm. What do you have when you have
the praise of men? I'd rather have the praise of
God. I'd rather have recognition from God. We have to fight this matter
of self-recognition all the time. That's why our Lord says to His
disciples and to us, take heed. Take heed. But when thou dost
alms, let not thy left hand know what your right hand is doing.
Don't publish, He said, what you're doing. But especially
this, don't let yourself boast inwardly about what you're doing,
what you're giving. A true spirit of giving is of
God. It's of God. It's a work of grace. It's a
real work of grace is what it is. But don't let yourself, and
this is the hardest, this is one of the things, you know,
I'm my worst problem. I have to fight myself more than
I do anything. Indwelling sin, that old Adamic
nature I'm born with. And the hardest thing to do is
not to boast inwardly. That's hard. Let not thy left hand know
what thy right hand doeth. In other words, just keep it
quiet, that thine arms may be in secret. And thy Father, which seeth in
secret, which sees the heart, which sees the motive, Himself, he seeth in secret himself,
shall reward thee. Oh, he'll bless thee openly.
He will. When you give from the heart,
God will bless it. He'll bless it. And it'll be
the best blessing you could have. It'll be the best. Now he comes to prayer. First
he was talking about almsgiving, dealing with one another and
the motive for it. Now he's going to talk about
dealing with God. Now we're going to deal with God. It's a given that his disciples
pray. A prayerless man, a prayerless woman is a godless, graceless
man or woman. God's people have to pray as
much as you and I have to breathe. It's that necessary. It's that necessary. You're compelled
to pray. You must pray. You must pray. And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are. Again, we're warned about being
a hypocrite here. He despises a hypocrite. Hypocrisy always starts in the
heart. He said, well, they love to pray standing in the synagogues. It's like call on me. And I'm
not. After this, you guys are going
to have a hard time praying, aren't you? I'm going to ask
one of you to pray and you're going to say, don't call me.
I know we have public prayer. I know that. And we do. There
is a place for public prayer in the service like here today. But the motive for doing it is
what our Lord is driving at. They love to pray standing in
the synagogue. They're the ones raising their
hand. Here, let me pray for you. You know, they give you a hotline.
Give you a hotline, call this, I'll pray for you. We have any
idea what it is to call on God? Do we have any idea? To call
on God Almighty, to invoke the name of Jesus Christ, for God
to do something for whatever it is we're praying about. It
doesn't get any more serious than that. But they love to pray
standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets,
public attention, that they may be seen of men. I say to you, they have their
reward. It ain't much, but they've got it. But we have to fight
the spirit of being seen of men, impressing men, impressing one another. We should not hold men in such
high esteem who hate God. We shouldn't hold them in such
high esteem. True prayer comes from a regenerate
heart. It comes from the work of grace,
but the hypocrite, he does what he does from an evil motive to
be seen of men. Forget God, forget God. Listen to this in Luke 18 in
verse 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. God wasn't involved in it at
all. God was nowhere to be found. He prayed with himself. His prayer
was for himself. It was with himself. And the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I bet he said that real deep voice,
probably trying to sound real religious and real spiritual. God, I thank thee. That's his first line. He didn't
think God alone, he was thinking of himself because he prayed
thus with himself. That I'm not as other men are. He called him extortioner. He's telling everything he is.
He's just repeating everything he says he's not. The greatest
extortioners were the Pharisees. He said that I'm not as other
men are extortioners, unjust. Can you imagine to say that you're
not unjust, that you've not done anything wrong? You've had a
perfect day today. You've had a perfect life. You've
not done anything wrong. I am not unjust. Adulterers, that's what the Lord
accused him of. Or even as this publicist, I'm
not like these people I'm preaching to. That's the attitude he had. That's the attitude he had. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, get off to yourself, 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. True prayer. It's to God. It's to God, our
father. It's not for an audience. It's to God, our father. It's
not to men, it's to our father. We go to him seeking grace. We
go to him seeking mercy. We go to him casting all our
cares upon him. We go to him for communion, prayers,
communion with God. What do men have to do with that?
Huh? But when you pray, use not vain
repetitions. Well, I tell you what, go say
50 Hail Marys and you'll be all right. Just say it over and over
and over and over and over and over and you'll be okay. No,
you won't be okay. You won't be okay. He said, God,
don't you do, when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the
heathens do when they pray to their gods. They say the same
things over and over and over. They think they shall be heard
for their much speaking. Just add a lot of words to it
and they're going to be heard. I tell you what, the truest prayers
that we've ever prayed are ones that we can't put words to. This Holy Spirit, it says, prays
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And you and I actually
really, really don't know to pray. We don't know what to pray
for as we are, as what the scripture says. We don't know what to pray
for as we are. But the Holy Spirit does. He
knows the mind of God. He is God. And the will of God. He knows exactly what to intercede
for. Our Lord knows exactly what to
intercede for. Exactly. We don't know. We don't know. I may pray, I
may pray, you know, Billy may be sick and I may pray, Lord,
give Billy healing, you know, bring him back, bring him back
to his feet. He might need to be more sick. He might need to
be more sick. You pray God raised someone up
and he may need to lay them lower. He may need to break a person. See, we don't really know what
to pray for as we ought to. I tell you, I do know this about
prayer. I do know one thing about prayer. And we all and we all
should pray this. If we don't pray anything else,
we don't know what to pray for. Lord, thy will be done. There
it is. When you don't know how to put
it into words, there's the words. I will be done in this matter.
I don't know what to say, don't know how to pray, don't know
how to pray for that person. It may need to get worse before
it gets better. I don't know. Prayer is not a rehearsal. And
prayer is not a sermon. It's not a sermon. You know,
if you ever sit down and talk to someone, and I've had people
talk to me, you know, a thing, different things, problems and
stuff. Talk to God the same way you
talk to me. You don't have to say thee, thou, and talk to him
just like you talk to one another. Just like a husband and wife,
you sit down and you got bills to pay and talk to God just like
you talk to one, well, I don't know about that, but that's the
way you talk to one another sometimes, too good. But talk to one another. I mean, talk to God like you
would talk to one another. Like you ought to talk to one
of them. Sit down and talk to him like
a child would talk to his father or his mother. Prayer is not to be rehearsed. It's not a sermon. It's a heart
opened up before God. That's what it is. And we are
heard, listen, we are heard for Christ's sake, not many words,
not for many words, but for Christ's sake. Be not ye therefore like
unto them, for your father knoweth what things you have need of
before you ask him. Don't mimic unbelievers in anything.
But remember this, prayer is not informing God of a matter
that he doesn't know about. He already knows about it. He
already knows the end of it before you even say anything. He's already
purposed it. The end of it is already on its
way. Prayer is more for me and you than it is for God. It brings
us into submission to God's will. It shows our dependence on our
Heavenly Father. That's what it shows. It shows
my dependence on Him. And I tell you this, true prayer
is of God because God moves us to pray for what he's gonna give
us. It's not me trying to convince
God to give me something. If I pray for something, if it's
laid on my heart, if it's a burden on my heart and I pray for it,
God has already purposed to give it to me. He just moved me to
pray for it. Be sincere, he says, when you
pray. Now, I'm going to come back next
week, Lord willing, on this disciple, what we call disciple's prayer.
It's not the Lord's prayer. In verses 9 through 13, it's
the disciple prayer because he teaches them how to pray. So
I'll come back to that next week. But I'm gonna close with this.
And fasting is not something, you know, prayer is something
we do. You're gonna do it. Giving is something you do. And
fasting is something that they did back in the Old Testament.
But here's what this is. Here's what, he says, moreover,
when you fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance,
whenever anybody's looking, they just figure their face, that's
what he said, they just figure their face, kind of frown, and
I'm hoping they're looking, I mean, that's exactly what he's saying.
Or if anybody's looking, if nobody's looking and it's like, what am
I doing this for? That they may appear unto men
to fast. They won't appear to be, appear to be fasting. They're
probably not, they're probably going home and slipping a sandwich
in or something. They're just lying. They're just
lying. Because he said they appear to fast. I don't trust, I tell
you what, you can't trust unbelievers. You can't trust them. It's like
Satan, he said to the Lord, he said, worship me and I'll give
you the kingdoms of the world. He's a liar, he don't own them,
they own, God owns them. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof and they who dwell therein, he doesn't own
them. And here they disfigure their faces, they're just trying
to make it look like they're just so religious and so pious
and they're just hypocrites. It's like, the Lord's like, I
see you, I see you. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. They got the attention of men. Somebody clapped for
them and they got what they was after. But here's what fasting
is. Fasting is subjecting the desires
of the body to the burden of the heart. When someone is so
stressed about something, they're so stressed about it. that they
forego satisfying the appetites of this flesh, that they may
be able to lay themselves prostrate right before God and lay their
heart out. But the Pharisees turned it into
this show. He just turned it into a show.
He says here, but when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face,
and just walk out like you're having a good day. You know, in Christ every day
is a good day. It really is. It really is. Don't make a show of self-denial.
True religion is not a show. It's not a show. It is heart
worship before God. That's what it is. He said, wash your face, anoint
your head, wash your face that thou appear not unto men to fast. God knows the heart, what's it
matter if you know? We can call on one another to
pray for one another, we do that, we already do that. But this
here, this is not a show, we're not here for show, this is not
show and tell. This is true worship. that ye appear not unto men to
fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret. Thy Father which
seeth in secret. He sees your heart. He sees your
pain. He sees your need. He knows what
you have need of before you ask him. He knows that. And he'll
reward, he'll bless thee. He'll bless you openly. A true
fast is between you and your Father. That's what it is. Keep true worship between you
and your Heavenly Father. We must strive against a hypocritical
spirit in anything, especially when it comes to worship.