We're going to be looking at
a couple of different sections of scripture. Some of you would prefer to look at your
Bibles when we're reading lengthy scriptures. So, if you want to
turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1, we'll be looking at
a lengthy section there. But I also have it in the handout,
if you prefer it that way. And then, of course, we are going
to be looking at our text, which is the 6th chapter of Matthew. Matthew chapter 6. Again, I've
titled tonight's study, The Lord Looketh on the Heart. Salvation
is a heart matter. Salvation is spiritual. When
we turn to Romans chapter 8, and I'll do that now so that
I quote it properly. When we turn to Romans chapter
8 and we read the first few verses there in Romans chapter 8, we
read these words. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. The last verse, this is in our
handout now, beginning at the top of page 1. The last verse
in chapter 5 sums up the whole chapter. It says, Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. That's Matthew 5 verse 48. Now
the Apostle Peter clarifies that statement this way, and I already
gave you that, it's over in 1 Peter chapter 1. He begins with these
words, wherefore gird up your loins, the loins of your mind.
Now that's 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning at verse 13. Gird up the loins
of your mind. Wrap, a girdle was, you would
take a wrap, and you would wrap it around your waist, that's
what the girdle was for, and you would wrap it around tight.
That way when you're marching in your army, or walking from
town to town, or just going out to do work around the farm, you
wrapped it around tight and tied it in a knot so that it would
not come off. That's what this is telling you.
Gird up your loins of your mind. the loins of your mind. That's
our spirit. That's our inner being. Gird
it up. Wrap this up around. Wrap what
the Lord is about to tell us here. Wrap this up of your mind. Be sober. Sincere. Clear-headed. Be clear-headed. Don't be drunken with the things
of this world. Don't be distracted by the sparkly
things, as I say. You know, crows. Crows, they're
attracted to anything sparkly. They'll steal it and take it
back to their nest. Don't be like a crow. Distracted. Be sober. Be sober and hope. What is hope? Hope is something
that we have from within that we cannot see with the eyes of
this flesh. This is our hope. What is to
the end for the grace that is to be brought. Now catch this,
I'm reading it slow, I want this to sink in. Be sober, be clear-minded,
and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Folks, that's where all grace
comes from. He is grace. He is the epitome of grace. Jesus
Christ in the flesh is what grace is all about. Him coming to this
world and laying down His life, giving Himself a sacrifice for
you and I, that is what grace, that is the epitome of grace.
As obedient children, now see I've taken these verses and broke
them up so that you can stay with me with that. As obedient
children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former less,
not walking in, not allowing, putting down that flesh, the
former less, in your ignorance. What was our ignorance? When
it comes right down to it, our ignorance is this, the sovereignty
of God. We all thought we were gods at one time. God of our
own imagination, of our own destination, of our own walk. We knew not
Him as God, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust
and your ignorance, but as He which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy. And this is what I'm talking
about. This is the way Peter clarifies this. Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,
in Matthew 5. But as He which hath called you
is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. And that
means all manner of walk, all manner of the way you walk in
this life. Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. Now
that's the Lord speaking to Israel there in Leviticus 20 verse 7. And if ye call on the Father,
who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's
work, past the time of your sojourning, as you go through this world,
past the time in fear." Now that does not mean in fear of the
devil, the movies that scare us. It's not talking about that
kind of fear. It's talking about reverential fear, in fear of
the Lord. He who is our majesty, he who
is our king. When I was growing up, I think
of how I looked at my father, so tall and so straight, and
how he walked. And I feared, I was in fear of
him, not in fear of his whooping me and what he would do to me
if I did something wrong, but in reverential fear, as in standing
in front of the king. As in going to sit down at lunch
with the President of the United States or whatever, having a
reverential fear of the person that you're with, or the person
you're talking about there. So that's what this is talking
about. Going on, third paragraph from the bottom of page one,
for as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold. from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ." Oh folks, I tell you, God's people love that statement
so much. We know we're not redeemed to
God by anything that's corruptible, by anything of this flesh, this
body of death. In fact, as Paul cries out, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? So does all of God's
people. We know what this body is. We know the flesh that's
in it. We see it every day when we get up and look at ourselves
in the mirror. We know the only way for redemption
for God's people, for anybody, is through the blood, the perfect
righteous blood of the Lord Jesus, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you. Page 2. Who by Him do believe
in God. Now catch this. Who by Him do
believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him
glory." How is it? Did we just start believing?
Was there one day when you said, you know what, I think I'm going
to go to church and start believing God. Do you know how many people
actually say that? I started following Christ in
1972, I've heard people say, or whatever, you put whatever
date you want to there. I started believing Christ when
He came to me and gave me faith. when He gave me the ability,
a dead man who was once dead in trespasses and sin, when He
gave me the ability to believe. Whosoever believeth, all that
the Father giveth him, that's whosoever is, who by him do believe
in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory,
that our faith, that your faith and hope might be in God, That's
the whole point of what that states. That your faith and hope
might be in God and in God alone. Last Sunday's message was, who
then can be saved from Mark 10 verse 26. After our Lord had
told His disciples it is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom
of God. They asked that question. They asked the question, who
then can be saved? After hearing these words, these words that
we read here in Matthew 5, verse 48, Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. After hearing
those words, I ask the same question, who then can be saved? And our
Lord has the same answer. The same answer. With men, impossible. Our brother Norm spoke about
that Wednesday night. With men. In the King James Version,
you'll see in a kind of a lightly highlighted two words. With men, it is. But those two
words weren't in the original Scripture. I took them out of
there on purpose because I wanted you to read it the way the Lord
wrote it. With men, impossible. How then can men be saved? With
men impossible, but with God. But not with God, for with God
all things... Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful all things are possible through Him? That's in Mark 10,
verse 27. Our faith and hope must be in
Christ and Christ alone. The message of salvation is Christ
and Him crucified. It's not Christ and Him crucified
plus this or that. There's no other way, folks.
Jesus said unto him, I am the way, The truth and the life,
no man cometh unto the Father but by me." That's in John 14,
6. What we may have thought as our
righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags of the flesh.
We have no righteousness of this body of death. If we were not
in Christ, in His righteousness, then there's no hope. So as we
go through this chapter 6, This sixth chapter of Matthew, where
our Savior continues in His Sermon on the Mount, let us keep in
mind, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also. That's in Luke 12, verse 34. Now, I've got Matthew 6, beginning
at verse 1, and I've got the entire chapter in our handout,
so you can follow along with that if you'd like. We begin
at 6, chapter 6, verse 1, that ye do not your alms before men
to be seen of them, otherwise ye 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." Now, I've heard someone describe that there was
a pot. You know, sometimes it would
be made out of gold, depending on which synagogue you were going
into and how rich they were. Either way, it was made out of
metal. And in those days, most people
had coins. They didn't have dollar bills
like we have, or checks, or credit cards, or anything else. So as
they would go by, they would walk by a foot or a step or two
away from the pot and flip the coin. So that way, every time
they would go by the entrance there and give their tithing,
everybody would know. verse 3 of Matthew chapter 6,
But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy
right hand doeth. Now I use this as an example
in a lot of times, and it's true to me. I don't know if any of
you folks have to deal with this, but it doesn't take much for
John Reeds to brag. If I hit a golf ball down the
middle of the fairway, Now, that's with both hands. But you get
the point. The reason we don't let our left
hand and our right hand know is because we'll take that and
we'll make something out of it quicker than anything. And the
Lord knows these things. He knows our weaknesses. He knows
everything about us. And He says, "...but with thou
doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand
doeth." Verse 4, "...that thine alms may be in secret." and thy
father, which seeth in secret himself, shall reward thee openly."
Page 3. Brother Don Forker wrote these
words. He said, Our Lord Jesus Christ
is warning us to be aware of and studiously avoid hypocrisy
in all acts of worship and service in the name of God. Hypocrisy
is the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of the outward
religion. If it rains in us, it will ruin us. So we are warned
to beware of it. Hypocrisy is religion that is
only skin deep. It is a religion of words and
works, but not of grace, heart, and spirit. Hypocrisy is a form
of godliness, an outward show of religion, without the life
and the power of God in the soul. We go on in our text in Matthew
6 with verse 5, And when thou prayest, Thou shalt not be as
the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues. You see what our brother Don
is saying there? It's exactly what the Lord's
telling us here. He's warning us of these hypocritical points
that would come to natural men. For they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that
they may be seen of men. They do it for the sake of men.
that they may be heard of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. Verse 6, 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. But when ye pray,
use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that
they shall be heard for there is much speaking. Be not ye therefore
like unto them for your father knoweth what things ye have need
of before ye ask of him." Now it goes on next and it begins
to tell us of what a lot of religious people like to call the Lord's
Prayer. Now I want to If you haven't
heard this before, and this is your first time hearing about
this, this is not the Lord's prayer. This is the Lord instructing
His people on how to pray. Listen to this. After this manner,
therefore, in other words, after this way, Pray ye our Father
which art in heaven. This is how we're supposed to
pray. This is how we're supposed to go into the closet and pray
with reverential fear about who he is that we're praying to.
Our Father who art in heaven, holy, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Religious people have taken this
and made a ritual prayer out of it. I remember growing up
when I was a kid in service. Somebody would get up and say,
we're going to say the Lord's Prayer. And this is exactly what
we'd read. Everybody would say it out loud. All the kids, that
was the first thing they taught us in our Sunday school lessons
was to memorize this as the Lord's Prayer. 11 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. Our Lord goes on after instructing
his people how to pray. For if ye forgive men their trespasses,
verse 14, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if
ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses. Page four. Next, our Lord addresses
fasting. Remember what Don had said, this
is hypocrisy, this is what the hypocrites do. Moreover, when
ye fast, verse 16, be not as the hypocrites of the sad continent,
for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men
to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have
their reward. But thou, when thou fastest,
anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto
man to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Our Master is calling
our attention to these three areas of religious activities
that folks can easily turn into mere acts of religious showmanship. Three areas of religious service
where hypocrisy shows itself. The giving of alms, the matter
of prayer and the practice of fasting. Alms and prayer and
fasting were prominent areas of religious activity among the
Jews of our Lord's day. And in fact, wherever men practice
religion even today, of any kind, it is most natural to make these
three things matters of prominence. Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Christianity,
Protestant, as well as Catholic. All religions encourage the giving
of alms, prayers, and fasting. Men naturally associate these
things with religion. By these three things, it's assumed
that we serve God with our whole being. In the giving of alms,
we serve Him with our estates. In prayer, we serve Him with
our souls. And in fasting, we serve Him
with our bodies. In all our acts of worship and
devotion and service to God, we must avoid seeking to be seen
of men and seek only to be seen and to glorify our Lord God. Next, we read in our text, the
Lord addresses laying up treasures in heaven. In verse 19, lay not
up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, where thieves do not break through nor steal, for
where your treasure is, There will your heart be also. Before
we go over to page 5, I'll share with you once again, I've had
many discussions with my dear brother Bill Silva, who's gone
on to be with the Lord, about what heaven may be like. Laying
up our treasures in heaven was definitely one of those conversations
at one time. Will we have Harley Davidsons
in heaven that don't leak oil? No, that's foolishness. We would
laugh about those kinds of things. And then it would always come
down to this. No matter where our Lord Jesus is, that's where
heaven is. You can describe heaven any way
you want to. I can describe it in one name,
in one person, and that's the Lord, our God, Jesus Christ. That's heaven. That will be an
eternity of heaven that we are promised through our Lord and
Savior. Going on in page 5, verse 6,
or verse 22 of Matthew chapter 6, the light of the body is the
eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light. Meaning of one course, but if
thine eye be evil, verse 23, thy whole body shall be full
of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. No man can
serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love
the other, or else he will hold the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now I want to share with you
an article that our brother Mike Lovelace wrote. It's titled,
When Light is Black. And I believe, if I'm correct,
Mike wrote this sometime after he had been taught Seventh-day
Adventism since he was a young man working for his uncle as
a painter. And one day, the Lord showed
him how dark that religion is when he showed him the true light,
the light of Jesus Christ. And sometime after that, he wrote
these words, what if everything you were ever told about the
Lord Jesus Christ was wrong. What if the only hope that you
ever had, that you ever believed in and counted on turned out
to be a lie and false? How great would be your loss. Matthew 6, 22-23, we just read
a moment ago. The light of the body is the
eye, if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy
whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. How great would
be your loss, writes Mike, All light from God is truth. But much so-called light masquerades
for truth in our day, and belief of that false light runs rampant
in our world. Trusting in a false light is
no light whatsoever. There is no darkness blacker
than a false hope. We live in a time of great deception,
grand delusion, a time when most of the so-called Christian world
runs headlong to hell, singing hymns of worship side by side
in halls of great swelling numbers. This is that time and this is
our world today Revelation 13 3 tells it this way and all the
world wandered after the beast Unless a person is born again,
make your calling and election sure, unless a person is born
again, the eye with which he attempts to view such matters
of faith is evil. He can't possibly perceive the
kingdom of God through a wicked eye. His single source of light
is darkness. Yea, he walks in that darkness
thinking. himself safe, thinking his path
is right. Page 6. Continuing, Mike says,
so then what? Then what? Mike writes, read the word prayerfully,
carefully, and often take God at his word. Cry out for his
mercy. The only hope any of us have
is that God would have mercy on us and give us life. We must
be born again. Make your calling and election
sure. If a man is glorified in any
way whatsoever, then your hope is a false hope. That's an excerpt
from Mike's Free Willard panels by Mike Loveless. Now, our last
section of scripture in our text of Matthew chapter 6, our Lord warns us about being
anxious. In verse 25 we read, Therefore
I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall
eat, or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body. What you
shall put on is not the life more than the meat, and the body
than the remnant. Behold the fowls of the air,
for they saw not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better
than they? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit under your stature? And why take ye thought
for remnant? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet
I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all of his glory, was not
arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God shall clothe
the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith? Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need
of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God, and His righteousness, and all things shall be added
unto you." Page 7. Take therefore no thought for
tomorrow, For the morrow shall take thought of the things of
itself sufficient, and to the day is the evil thereof." Now,
Henry Mahan wrote a lengthy article on this, and I want to bring
out this entire article. I thought it was written so well.
He once said, we have entirely too many fears for a people to
whom the Lord has said these words, fear thou not. for I am with you. Be not dismayed,
for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." This
is what the Lord says to you and I. What do we have? Why do
we fear so much? This section of scripture is
about... Oh, about being anxious. This
section of scripture about being anxious. It's not talking about, folks, it's not talking about
providing for our family. It is talking about our attitudes
towards those things. We're to go out and provide for
our family. That's good to work and work
for the glory of our Savior. That's a good thing. But why
do we fret and worry about things so much? Our Lord's going to
give us what we need. He's going to take care of us
one way or another. This is a spiritual thing. Our
Lord's words are spirit. Why are we so anxious of all
these things? Look what he says next. He says, we have far too
many doubts and fears concerning God's mercy, His love and grace
for people to whom the Lord says these words, Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. What are we doing worrying so
much about whether we're saved or not? If we belong to the Lord,
all the Father giveth me shall come to me. Romans 8.1, there
is therefore no condemnation as I read a little bit ago in
Romans. Paul also writes there in that
same chapter, Romans chapter 8, I'm confident completely confident
that nothing can separate me from the love of God. Well, if
that's true, if that's true, why do we spend so much time
in doubts and fears concerning God's mercy and love? Or the
next one here, Henry Mahan writes, we spend entirely too much time
grumbling and complaining. about our trials and our troubles. For a people to whom the Lord
has said this, he says, in the world ye shall have tribulation. Pastor Gene was speaking to me
today. He said, well, I've got an infection. He said, I've got an infection,
and when you get an infection, it just takes everything out
of you at my age. He goes, but that's exactly what
God has for me right now, and that's good for me. That's exactly
how he put it. He says, that's exactly what
God has for me, and that's good enough for me. Our Lord says,
ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. Pastor Henry Mahan goes on to
say this, we have entirely too much attachment to this world
and to this present life for people who are looking for a
city whose builder and maker is God. That's another thing
I was talking to my sister about today. Being weaned from the
things of this world. You know, that's what the Lord
is doing. He's weaning us from this world. Listen to the words
here. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should, after receiving
for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing
whether he went. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of him of the same promise. For
he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
Maker is God. Another one Brother Henry wrote
was, we have far too much anxiety, too much care and fear, far too
much concern for earthly material things for a people to whom the
Lord has said this, your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need
of all these things. It is written In Philippians
4.19, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory by Jesus Christ. Page 8. Why should I fret when
my God has promised to provide? Why should I concern myself about
that which God has promised to do? This is a continuation of
Henry's statement. Those five heart-piercing statements
are the very matters addressed in our Redeemer's message to
us in this latter part of Matthew 6. If we seek the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, if we truly seek the will of God,
the glory of God, and the kingdom of God in Christ, we have no
reason to be concerned with earthly things. Let me leave you with
some more words of comfort. for you who might need it. I
raise my hand because I'm one who needs it. My Lord says to
me, to the speaker Isaiah, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. that her iniquity
is pardoned. Why is that so comforting to
you and I? Because we're sinners in the
flesh. Because we continue in sin until the Lord delivers us
from this body of death. Until He takes us out of this
world of sin and corruption, we will continue that battle
between flesh and spirit. Everything that we've read in
this Sermon on the Mount My Savior has provided for me as He provided
it for you. I can tell you this, that if
you belong to Him, the answer is yes. Comfort ye, comfort ye,
speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received
of the Lord's hand double of all her sins, The voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall
be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 10, we
read these words. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith
the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind. Did you catch
that? He will put his laws into our
mind and write them on their hearts. And I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to me a people. And then in verse 12
he says these words, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. He who
redeemed us with his own precious blood will never forget to take
care of us. May he give us grace to leave
all of our concerns with him and be anxious only to be found
in His kingdom, robed in His righteousness, and accepted as
one with Him, let us take no thought for tomorrow, knowing
that whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we
die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or
die, we are the Lord's." Romans 14.8. Well, I pray the Lord bless
you folks with that. Next week, we'll take on the
last and final part of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount in Chapter
7.