The sky's lofty high, I view
my home and take my plow. This robe of flesh, how drop
and dry. The everlasting bride. I like that second verse there.
It says, To him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting
soul to bless. That's Christ, our mediator,
who said, Ask anything in my name. Father will hear you. You'll receive it. To him whose
truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless, and
since he bids me seek his face, believe his word, and trust his
grace, will I cast on him my every care in that sweet hour of prayer. Prayer is a portion of our subject
tonight in Matthew 6. Matthew six. And in the first
six verses, our Lord deals with two subjects, really. Almsgiving and prayer. Charles Spurgeon in his commentary
on the book of Matthew, the only commentary he ever wrote, he
wrote it. He wrote it. It was the last
thing the last written work Charles Spurgeon performed before he
died. He just finished the last chapter.
And in his commentary on the book of Matthew, he entitled
the Lord's Sermon here on the Mount, he entitled it, The King
and His Rules for His Kingdom. And every time he mentions the
Lord, he says, And the King says, I thought that was good. And
the King says, This is the King's commandment. And that sounds even more authoritative. We've been talking about the
lawgiver and his law. That sounds even more authoritative,
doesn't it? The king. Kings don't make requests. Kings make command. Whatever,
we have our Lord, once again, magnifying the law and showing
us what is required of his true and loyal subjects. And I remind
you again that he prefaced all of these remarks beginning back
in chapter five by talking about the law when he said, I'm not
come to destroy the law or the prophets are not come to destroy
but to fulfill. And he said, Verily I say unto
you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. And then he
warned of breaking these commandments and anyone teaching men so. And
then he said in verse I say in you, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. We know that
spiritually speaking, our Lord is talking about our need for
that righteousness that exceeds all righteousness, that perfect,
imputed righteousness of his that he gives us. And because
all of our righteousnesses are filthy rags, our best deeds are
a stench in God's nostrils. They're filthy rags, but they're
tainted with self and with sin. But when the Lord saves and regenerates
someone, he does that by imputing his righteousness to them. When
he saves, when he justifies, he does that by his imputed righteousness.
When he sanctifies, he does that by imparting or giving to them
a new nature, which you could call a righteousness. It's not
their own any more than that first one is, but it's a gift. It's a gift. Nevertheless, that
spirit of righteousness, that new creature created in them,
is in them, working, doing acts of righteousness. All right? And our Lord says at the beginning
he's dealing with these self-righteous Pharisees. I remind you because
it's been a few weeks since we've been here in this passage. He's
dealing with the perversion of his law by these wicked Pharisees,
scribes and Pharisees, who took the law and just made an outward
show of it. But on the inside, there were
such hypocrites, and all that they did was a hypocritical outward
show, and they were merely professors of religion and not possessors
of Christ, of the Redeemer. And our Lord warns of this. He
warns. And he gives example after example
of how these religious professors, Pharisees back then, and we have
Pharisees today. Everyone's religious. We're living
in the most religious time. ever, in my opinion. And our
Lord gives example after example of how not only the religionists
of his day, but of our day, do what they do only outwardly for
a show, and not for the glory of God and the good of the people,
especially these ones that are leading religion, these proselytizers,
soul winners are doing what they're doing, not for the glory of God,
not for the good of the people, but as an outward vain show and
for their own vain glory and for themselves. But our Lord says in the same
words as the Apostle Paul, a similar word, he says to the believer,
don't let it be named once among you as become a saint. Remember, Paul said that over
Ephesians three is don't let it be named. Once among you has
become a saint. Our Lord says, don't let this
ever be in a believer that you do anything, anything in the
name of God. But in reality, you are taking
the glory and the credit and doing it for a show before me
and. God, God is highly displeased with that. It's hypocrisy, it's
the worst form of hypocrisy, it's blasphemy, and ultimately
it robs God Almighty of his glory. And he deals with this thing
of almsgiving. Look at verse one. This thing
of almsgiving. Take heed that you do not your
alms before men to be seen of them. Do you have a marginal
reference there? Does it say righteousness? So
what this is talking about is any religious act, any act that
goes under the name of Christian kindness, compassion, charity,
any acts of public worship, whatever it may be, prayer, fasting, worship,
whatever, anything, any good work, any good work, it's not
a dead work, but any good work you do, to be seen of me. He says, Take heed that you do
not any of these things to be seen of men. Otherwise, you have
no reward of your father, which is in heaven. Take heed, he says. Take heed
that you do not these things, almsgiving, to be seen of men. Now, let me ask you a personal
question. Who in here does not have a problem with this? There's
nobody in here can say with a clear conscience, I never do that.
Can you? Everyone in here has a problem
with this, doing what we do to be seen of men, to be heard. It's one of the most difficult
things of all for this proud self-righteous, vainglorious
nature of ours to do anything without wanting to take some
of the credit for it. Right? It's not within us. It
is not to be found in our nature, which wants the glory for itself.
That's the way the fall started. Adam wanted to be God himself,
to pull God off of his throne. And we do it in so many other
ways. little way, subtle ways, but it's the same, it's the same
principle. Everyone in here has a problem
with it. So the king says, and he knows what's in us, doesn't
he? Remember that verse where it
said he did not commit himself to men because he knew what was
in him. He needed not to know any man should testify of him.
He knew what was in him. So the king says, you take heed.
It's the first thing out of his mouth. about doing any acts of
religion. Take heed. You be careful. Take
heed means to be careful. Watch out. Be cautious about
what you do. Whatever you do, make sure your
motive is right. And the only way, and you say,
how can we ever have a pure motive? We can't. The only way we can
have any semblance of a pure motive is to ask God for help,
isn't it? If we enter this thing in the
flesh in our own strength, we're going to fall into that pitfall
of pride and doing what we do to be seen. But if we ask the
Lord, Lord, remove, get the self out of me, get the pride out
of me, let me do this for your glory, whatever it may be, we
have to invoke the help of our great God. And he said, I give
more grace. Aren't you glad about that? Anything
we do, we're going to have to ask him to help us do it with
it for the pure motive, because we have such a struggle with
it. He give us more great. Let me remind you of Christ,
who not only is our great substitute who imputed that righteousness,
but he's also our supreme example. In worshiping God and doing what
we do in almsgiving, even our Lord never took the glory to
himself, although he could have, couldn't he? He could have. And in the end, he was to get
all glory. He is to get all glory, equal glory with the Father.
He thought it not robbery to be equal with the Father, but
he did humble himself. And whatever he did, Terry, if
you'll recall, he said, you go and tell what great things the
Lord has done for thee, what God's done for you. Remember,
every time he'd heal somebody, He'd say, don't make it known. You remember that? Until after
he was arisen. He said, don't make it known.
Don't go telling everybody, but you go tell them what great things
God has done for you, the Lord. He sought to give God all the
glory for what he did, didn't he? And that's what we're to do.
All right, verse two, he says, therefore, when thou doest thine
alms, Do not. Sound the trumpet before that
he says, when thou do is thine own. Now, this all this thing
of all means in the first part of everybody I read on this seems
to agree that the first word there is kind of a general term
talking about anything, any religious act you do. Now, the second time
he uses it is in the form of giving or doing things for the
poor. acts of benevolence or kindness,
charity, compassionate acts of mercy and so forth, especially
to the poor. You know, the helping of the
poor, I was astounded. Turn with me to Deuteronomy fifteen.
I was astounded how many verses of scripture there are concerning
this thing of helping the poor. Many, many commandments to us
to relieve the poor. I know we like to use as an excuse
at times what our Lord said about when the disciples said this
could have this alabaster box of ointment could have been used
to feed the poor. He said the poor you have with
you always. But she had done a good work. She was anointing
me for the burial. He wasn't saying don't help the
poor with that. You just say you have them all
where you don't have me with you always. She's done a good
work. She's annoyed me. But look at
this Deuteronomy fifteen verse seven and eight. If there be
among you a poor man of one of thy brethren. Now I remind you
what Paul said. He said do good unto all men,
especially them that are of the household faith. So that's where
you start, right? In your own house. Any man you
read it to me a while ago. Provide not for his own household. He's worse than in today. Now
that. That's talking about not your own personal home. This
is our home, right? Isn't this our family? All right,
versus seven and eight, if there be among you a poor man of one
of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land, which
the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart
nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother. But thou shalt
open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient
for his need." That word lend doesn't mean loan it to him. It means give it. And in that
which he wanted. Turn over to Leviticus 25. I'll
just give you a couple to look at. Leviticus 25. Look at this. Leviticus 25, 35. Look at this. This is even stronger
language. Leviticus twenty five thirty
five if my brother be waxen poor and fallen in decay with the
then should bow shop relieve him yay though he be a stranger
or sojourner that he may live with the take him in your house. And many other like scriptures.
Blessed is he that consider it the poor the Lord shall deliver
him in time of trouble. Here's another one. He that hath
pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord. Does that ring a bell,
Vicki? Do you remember when Christ said
that? I was poor, and you fed me. You took me in. Naked, you
clothed me. Poor, you took me in. Right? As much as you've done one of
the least of these, my brethren, you've done another big. But
you better make sure, our Lord is saying, do these things. It's
right. It's good. It's commanded. But
you better make sure you don't do it to receive praise and honor. You better make sure you don't
do it so as to receive honor to yourself, because what do
you have that you have not received? Oh, we have such a hard time
doing anonymous things, don't we? We want so badly for somebody
to find out about it. This generation, it makes me
sick when I see some of these things called acts of charity
in a paper. Have you seen them? I know you've
seen them. It's a so-and-so organization or a little business going to
give a donation to the hospital or the church or whatever. And
I have a front page picture of this guy handing somebody a $25
check or something, a great big check they've blown up, you know.
My, my, you've seen those things. And in churches, so-called churches,
this goes on. The only way, Henry, the only
way they can get people to give in these congregations is to
promise to put a plaque on a pew or something, you know. Give
a thousand dollars, we'll put your name and a plaque, or the
name of your mother, or you can buy a brick. I forgot to do that, folks. Sell
you bricks to put in our building down there. Jerry Falwell did
it. So bricks, to give you a matching brick, you know, that don't match.
A matching brick, just like the one they put in the building
with your name inscribed on it. That's a stench in God Almighty's
nostrils, isn't it? Recognition, plaques, memorials,
and so forth. They even named church buildings
after Mary Jane Johnson Memorial Church. You know, my soul, I
thought it was Christ's church. I thought it was God's church. Well, Christ said they have their
reward. They have their reward. That's what they're looking for,
and they've got it right. Praise of men, little recognition,
a name for themselves, and they've got it on a plaque up front and
the name in the bulletin. I gave so much. And God will
give them reward later, too. Hail. Exactly right, because they're
taking glory for what he has done. They're taking glory for
what God gave them, and they're acting like they're the ones
that gave it. Verses three and four, when you do your own, but
don't let it be named, once among you has become a present. Verse
three and four, when you do your own, when you do your own, and
the instance he gave here is a hypocrite in a synagogue on
the street. Do you remember when the The Pharisees made a great show
of everything they did. Much like the, well, I ought
not to mention the denomination, but I will anyway, Catholicism
and some of these real outward, showy religions, you know, do
all that they do in such a big way, such a big show, you know.
The Pharisees were the same. Whatever they did, if they tithed,
meant, announced, been coming, a little pinch of peppermint
bomb out of the garden. Ten percent. They'd make a big
show of it. Here I am coming to bring this before the Lord.
Big deal. The Lord was standing up there
one day. You remember when he was standing up by the treasury and
watching what people were given? And he disdained every gift but
one. A little widow. Two mites. And that was more than, that
was her whole Social Security check. And he disdained the rest
of those gifts. He said, you've given of your
abundance, but she has given of all she had. All she had. And I might add, they did what
they did to be seen of men. But he says, when you do your
alms, verse 3, not if, but when. When. When you do your alms,
don't let your left hand know what your right hand doeth. Turn
over to James chapter 2. James chapter two, I remind you,
our Lord said when, not if, these are commandments. When you do
your alms, not if. Now, people stop by the church
here all the time asking for handouts. People call nearly
every other day. Had a lady call me today, and
some of them are so brash. You know, there are professional
beggars. They look in the yellow pages.
I experienced this a long time before I came here. I saw it
and heard it every day. There are people who are professional
beggars that go through the Yellow Pages and get all the names of
all the churches and call them or go by or whatever, seeking
hands out. That's crooked. Those people
don't need anything. And some of them get so proud,
they're so proud even in their begging. A woman called me today
and said she was chewing chew gum. Blow gum is Johnny Bell
called. Yeah, you know, yeah, you know,
people you like their electric bills. If I've heard that one
time, I've heard it a hundred. It's not like, sorry to bother
you. I hate to ask you this, and I really, I feel embarrassed
about this, but I'm really in a bad way. You help people with
electric bills? Well, thank you. Well I hear
that all the time. People stop by for handouts.
Usually what I tell them is what the apostles said to that man
who was begging from the temple. Because usually I don't have
much silver and gold on me. And I say silver and gold I don't
have much of. But what we have here we'd sure
like to give you. And usually I tell them this.
You come And you hear the gospel, you come over here. I said, we've
got needy people in our own congregation. We're just a working class congregation.
We have some needy people here. We try to help out if they need,
have a need. But you come, you sit, you listen,
and you hear what you really need. The one thing needful,
the gospel and all. We get to know you and see you
have a need. I can just about guarantee you
we'll help you out. Just about guarantee you. You come, I said,
because who do you trust? Because you've got these people
calling all the time. I said, you come. That's all
we're asking. You come, you see it, you hear
the gospel. Show us you're serious about this, and we get to know
you, and we'll, I guarantee you, we'll help you out. Hadn't seen
a one yet. Oh, OK, what time are you servicing? And I wouldn't mind so much even
if they came to get a little handout, you know, just so they
came. But James commands this here. Look at verse fourteen through
seventeen. What does it profit my brethren though a man say
he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother,
a brother there, you see where the need must start. See what
I said there to that, what I say to these people is biblical scripture.
We deplete our resources fast, Jerry, if I gave to everybody
that came along. We be more than willing to give
to a needy and worthy cause. But if a brother or sister be
naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say, I'll
pray for you. That's hypocrisy. That's what
it means. Depart in peace. Be warmed and
filled. I'll pray for you. That's not
where the rubber meets the road. That's not faith. Faith works,
James said. Notwithstanding, you give them
not those things which are needful to the body." What is it, Prophet?
Faith. If it hath not worked, it's dead. It's dead. We should seek out the needs
of our brothers and sisters and alleviate those needs. I wrote
this down. It's worth remembering. Nothing
the Lord loves more than generosity. Scripture says He loveth a cheerful
giver. Doesn't that describe our Lord
to a T? Huh? Oh my, he despised the shame
for the joy that was set before him, despised the shame endured
to cross, and gave that unspeakable gift, the gift of himself, his
very life's blood, unsearchable riches, emptied himself, emptied
himself of his riches, his glory, his honor, everything that was
his, and gave it to worms, to beggars, like us, so that we might be rich. he
became poor. Well, but nothing the Lord loves
more than generosity. It's Christ-like. There's nothing
the Lord hates more than hoarding things for your own self. Those of you who have children,
you've experienced it. Whenever you experience or see
a little stinginess in your children, doesn't it infuriate you? Doesn't
it You gave those children everything they had, and for them to go
out and be stingy with it and not share it with other children,
it makes you angry, doesn't it? And the Lord, it does the same
with the Lord. He said, How hardly shall they
that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven. He said, It's easier
for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than a rich
man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples got worried,
as we should. We live like kings. There's not
a person in here who doesn't live better than the average
person or the richest person even back in those days. We live
like kings. Some of us have three and four
cars. We have all the food we could possibly want in our cupboards,
refrigerator. We live like kings even compared
to people now. Manny was talking a while ago
or later earlier about complaining about the air conditioning in
our car when I asked. And she felt convicted by that, because
wouldn't some people love to have a car? People down in Mexico
and Africa that walk for miles in the hot, blaring sun, wouldn't
they? At least we can roll the windows down. We've got 460 air
conditioning, you know. We've got it fixed, you know.
We're spoiled rotten. Years ago, nobody had air conditioners
in their car, and you didn't complain about it then. We're
spoiled rotten. We live like kings, don't we? Everybody in
here. From the poorest widow to the
richest man, we live like kings, don't we? Our houses are full
or cluttered to the fullest with everything to satisfy the flesh. And if we don't have anything,
we can sure get it fast enough. Somebody will meet that need.
We live like kings. And the Lord said, How hardly
should they that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven?
And the disciples said, Oh no, who can be saved? And then, thank
God, he added this, how hardly shall they that trust in riches
enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, that's the distinguishing
mark. There's nothing wrong with having
riches. James, except that they bring
a snare, and not very many people can handle them. They bring a
snare. How hard it is for them to trust
in riches or lean upon them? Or what about this? Worry about
them. Isn't worrying about riches?
Isn't that trusting in it? Huh? Worry about what? I'm worried I'm going to get
the money. You have a little money saved up, you know, and you say
you need it and I can't give that. Where am I going? How am
I going to make it? That's worrying about riches,
isn't it? Who gave you that to begin with? Well, I earned it
with the sweat of my brow. Who gave you the sweat? Who gave
you the ability? Who gave you the job? My soul. Isn't that trusting in riches?
Huh? He had cast your bread upon the
water. You'll see it after many a day. We've said this so many
times. How many times have you proved the Lord? Has the Lord
proved himself to you? You give a gift and later on
it'll be returned to you with interest. How many times? How
many times? Our treasurers, they see this
all the time. We get low on, how are we going
to do this? Is the need, have we ever lacked, have we ever
failed to pay a bill? No, not at all. And although
Armenians like to use the phrase, they didn't coin it, you can't
out give God. They didn't coin that phrase.
You cannot out give God. God's the one that coined it
in so many words. He said, cast your bread on the
water, You'll see it after many days, give, I'll return it to
you a hundredfold. He loves a cheerful giving and
not a worrisome one. And he said, let not your right
hand do or know what your left hand doeth, that thine arms may
be in secret, verse four, that they may be in secret. And thy
father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. All right. Let me read Brother
Arthur Pink here, he put this as good as it can be said. He
says, let not your right hand know what your left hand does,
that your all may be in secret. Here's another instance, this
is quoting Arthur Pink, where the language of Christ in this
discourse must not be taken literally and absolutely. Now, there's
a real problem with literalizing Every portion of Scripture gets
you seven tremendous trouble that way, literalizing everything
like a woman. This is unbelievable, I know,
but people, this is what you do. The spiritual, see, those
are spiritual, understand, discern all things in spiritual life.
First of all, a woman read this where it said, if your right
hand offended, cut it off. She did. I read or Can you imagine? That's literalizing,
see? And our Lord, literally, He's
kind of speaking in a parable here. Let not your left hand
know what your right hand doeth, that your own may be in secret.
And and pink says here it's not to be taken literally and absolutely
otherwise any act of mercy which came under the cognizance or
the notice of our fellows any act of mercy would thereby be
prohibited. Can do it. He might say you can't
do it again. And the primitive Christians,
he said, did not always conceal their donations, and I looked
up a verse. The church came together and took up a collection and
sent it to various churches, public giving. So he's not secrecy. Listen to this, and I've touched
on this myself before. Secrecy itself may become a cloak
for our own avarice. Under the pretense of hiding
good works, we may hoard up our money to spend upon ourselves.
And I use this, did you hear that? Secrecy itself may be a
cloak, a pretense of hiding good works that we may hoard up our
money to spend upon ourselves. And I used it in light of giving
cash as opposed to writing a check. You remember me dealing with
that before? That's what Brother Pink is saying here. I've done this. You see, cash
that comes in, in the treasury, you don't know who gave what.
And those who claim they give cash, and you know, you may have
a good motive and you may give a lot of cash, but nevertheless,
the weakness of the flesh is such that you give just a little
bit of cash and thereby nobody knows not how much you give,
but how little you gave, you see. That's what he's saying
there. Did you follow me? Huh? Is anybody guilty of that? One person in here guilty of
that? I am. Give cash and thereby nobody
will know what you gave. Nobody knows what you gave anyway
but the treasurer. I don't have any idea what anybody
don't want to know. It affects my preaching. And
nobody knows but them. And they don't even know when
cash is given. Five dollars comes in in cash. Somebody didn't give much cash. See, secrecy itself may, under
the pretense of, well, I don't want anybody to know how much
I'm giving, so I'll give cash. How much did you give? It didn't
go away. Like the little boy that went
away from the church service, you know? And if Daddy was complaining
about the preacher, you've heard this a thousand times, Daddy
would always have a lousy sermon. He's no good preacher, this and
that and the other. And Mama would say, would you see his
wife and this and that and the other. The little boy would say, well, Mom,
Daddy, it's a pretty good show for a quarter, wasn't it? Pretty
good show for a quarter. You pretty much get out of things
what you put into them. Well, we must not understand
Christ here is forbidding all charitable actions which may
be seen by others, but rather understand him to mean that we
should perform them as secretly as possible, making it our chief
concern just to do it for the glory of God and not to be seen. He puts this here, and I put
a note out beside it. He said, There are times when
a person of prominence may rightly excite his backward brethren
by his own example of liberality. There are times when a person
of prominence may rightly excite his backward brethren by his
own example of liberality. I'll give you an example. He
wouldn't want me to tell you this, but I'm going to tell it
anyway. Brother Todd Nyberg. They're building a building themselves.
And they need some sacrificial giving. They've got they've got
a bar of sharing. They've got to borrow one hundred
thousand dollars. We don't have much to worry about.
Todd is losing sleep, as you can see, and his treasurer, I'm
sure, is that. It should be the Lord to meet that need, too.
Like L.R. Shelton said in his letters,
you read it, he said, Lord can provide a million as easily as
he can a thousand. All the gold and silver and all
of mine. And that's no excuse to go way above your means and
all, but that's another story. But anyway, Brother Todd is very
liberal, and he said, and they gave pretty much their savings,
all of their life savings toward this building. He said, I don't
know if I should tell my people that or not. I'm trying to encourage
them. to give sacrificially, and I
want to set an example. I want to show them that I'm
doing, I'm not asking them to do what I'm not doing myself.
He said, I don't know if I should tell. I don't want it to be,
I said, tell them. You tell them. And I don't know if he has or
not, but that's what Brother Pink is saying here. Perhaps
everybody will be inspired. There are also times when you
do things for other people. And there are times when you
do it anonymously, and there are times when you want them
to know how much you love them and care for them. Right? You've
got a gift, and you want them to know who gave it, not for
your glory, but just to tell them, I love you and I appreciate
you. It's not nearly as much as I'd like to give you. I want
to do it because I love you. And you want to tell. There's
nothing wrong with that motive. Nothing wrong with that motive at all.
OK? So our Lord is not condemning everything done in public. Now,
that's giving of all. Now, it gets on the subject of
prayer. And we're just going to touch
on two verses here. Verse five. We'll get into the
very meat of prayer next week. Verse five. When thou prayest.
And once again, it does not say if. It says when. Not if, but when. No one is a
child of God who does not talk to their Heavenly Father. forget
it is the first sounds of a newborn baby baby makes in this world
is the first thing that a regenerated born from above child of God
does when he is brought into God's family and he continues
to do it now. There are times if we don't do
it every day every child of God prays and it's not a. And we'll
get in all this later, but it's not. It's not a position. It's not a mode. It's not a form. It's not. It's just a pouring
out of one's heart to the father. The old Puritans writer writers
talked about ejaculatory prayer. In other words, just the outpouring
of a heart at any time, anywhere to God. And it doesn't have to
be on your knees, your eyes closed, your head bowed. And so many
words and no particular link. form anything like that. No,
it's just just talking to God. Right. Talking to your heavenly
father, if we don't do that every day, we can expect his displeasure. Right. Once again, you parents
in the morning, your children wake up and run by you to turn
the TV on or whatever. What do you do? What do you do,
Deborah? Hey, wait a minute. And don't I do this to you all
the time, Andrew? You better speak to me. Don't
I? These kids run by and say, wait a minute, I want you to
speak to me. Right? Don't I do that all the time,
Hannah? I make her speak to me. I want to speak to her. I love
her dearly. I know she loves me. I know she's
a child. She's got other things on her
mind. She's busy, you know. I don't necessarily hold that
against her, but I sure am displeased when she does not recognize me,
her father. God's the same way. Right? Recognize him. Thank you, Father.
Thank you. You know, and he'll hide his
face from you. If your children ignore you long
enough. They'll incur your displeasure
and you'll hide your face. They'll find out won't together.
They'll find out that what's wrong. What's wrong. They'll find out soon enough.
Well. Communication breakdowns. Communication
breakdowns are the chief source of all problems in every single
relationship. Right, you husbands and wives?
You know it's so, don't you? When you stop talking, nothing's
going to be solved. Never will. Communication breakdowns
are the chief source of all problems in every relationship. Husband
and wife, child and parent, believer and his God. Chief source of
all problems. So he says when, when you pray,
don't be as the hypocrites are to be seen of men, when you pray. Now listen to this. These are our Lord's first words
recorded in all the scriptures about prayer. The first words
that our Lord records in all the scriptures about prayer.
You know what the first thing he says is? He gives a warning,
when you pray, watch out. Take heed. You better be careful. Take heed. He said that to begin
these things, prayer, alms, and fasting. Take heed, beware, watch
out that you don't do what you're doing, that you're not praying.
There's a warning against hypocrisy. The first thing he says about
prayer is warning us of hypocrisy. That puts a more serious light
on this thing, prayer, doesn't it? Now, alms. He talked about alms. I've got
five more minutes. Give me five more minutes. He
talked about alms, and alms are what we do for people. Prayer
is totally toward God, right? It may be on behalf of people,
but we're praying, we're talking to God. I'm not talking, I'm
not praying so you can hear it. I better not be. I may be praying
on your behalf. This is the difficulty of public
prayer. But you're talking to God. Talking to God. Now, to do something toward men,
to do, to give alms toward, to men, to people with a vain personal
motive, that's one thing. But to be talking to God under
the pretense of talking to God, but you're doing it for your
own, that's a whole other thing. And it angers God. It angers. Saying of prayers and pouring
out your heart to God are totally different things. Saying prayers
is not praying at all. You know, the Pharisees were
the best at praying. I can hear them now. I've heard people change the
tone of their voices when they start praying. You ever heard
them? Why are they doing that? You know, get deep and religious,
and if anything, rather than change the tone of their voice
to sound more religious and devout and stuff, well, they ought to
get more childlike, do a little more gooing in God or stuttering
and stammering. That's the kind of prayers the
Lord did. Pharisees were the best prayers, the best prayers. My, my. You know, men can't always
make distinctions between prayer. God always can. God always can. In other words, the finest prayer
you've ever heard may be. May God may not even listen to
that thing, it may be a stench in his nostril. May be totally
rejected by God, the finest prayer you've ever heard or prayed.
Right. Or the worst, the simplest, stuttering,
stammering prayer that you may have heard by somebody, just
a few words, that may have been the one that God opened the gates
of heaven to receive. Yes, sir. You know, prayer is
more praise and repentance than anything. Prayer is more praise
and repentance than anything. You're going to see that when
our Lord gives the example with disciples' prayer. Prayer is
the expression of a needy and dependent creature talking to
his God, who he has to receive everything from. And therefore,
it's utterly inconsistent with thoughts of pride or self. Prayer
is the expression of a needy and dependent creature. And therefore,
it's utterly inconsistent to have any pride or self in it.
But we're so full of pride, aren't we? And the Lord knows that,
and he says, you take heed, you be careful. It's for this reason
that I feel so strongly against prayers in public places, that
is, restaurants and so forth. I've taken a strong stand against
it, if anything, based on this scripture alone. Most prayers
we pray at any table, whether it be at our home or in a restaurant,
are usually half-hearted and brief and hurried things anyway. I want to eat. You're hungry.
Why do you come to the table? You're hungry. Let's get this
praying business out of the way so we can get to the food, right? Most prayers, even in our homes,
are half-hearted, hurried things anyway and generally vain repetitions. God is great. God is good. Let
us thank him for his food. or many like such things, you
know. Sometimes I do without it completely
at the table, but I don't want to make a vain repetition. I
say in my own heart, Lord, thank you, I just thank you. Isn't
that a good enough prayer at the table? If you can mean it,
one word from the heart. Better a heart without words
than words without heart. Wouldn't that be sufficient at
the table if it was from the heart and sincerity? Thank you. Thank you. Now, I'm not saying
someone can't pray sincerely in a restaurant. But it's nearly
impossible to be unconscious of everybody around you, nearly
impossible. And thus the need for caution,
that's the reason the Lord said, you take heed. Didn't he preface
all of these with that statement? Take heed, beware, watch out.
If you think there's any possibility you're doing what you're doing
to be seen and met, don't do it. Isn't that what he's saying,
Rick? any possibility. Therefore, I disdain this thing
of public prayer and restroom among the clatter and clamor
of dishes and the talking. You look around, see if anybody's
looking, and well, you want people to let your little light shine.
That's not having a thing to do with praying. Having a thing
to do with praying. Praying is talking to God, and
you're never to pray in such a way that men see you talking
to God. You're talking to God. What does
man have to do with it anyway? You're talking to God. Barnard,
I love that old man's brashness. I tell you, he was John the Baptist,
and we need more like him. Several instances of prayer,
you know, he got it. He's everywhere. And I'm not
saying there aren't people out there who can sincerely pray
in public in a restaurant. I don't know many, but Lord knows,
but Barnard. God used him as much as anybody
in the twentieth century and Barnard. One time they sat down
to pray in a restaurant or sat down in a restaurant to pray
and one of the men and Barnard sat down and started eating his
food immediately. And one of the men looked at
him and said, Brother Barnard, you know one of these pies. My brother
Barnard, aren't you going to pray before you eat? And Marnard
looked at him again, he put those glasses down the end of his nose
and said, How do you know I didn't? Huh? If I'm praying, I'm not
doing it for you to see me do it anyway. Right? I'm doing it
so God will hear me. I can do that without bowing
my eyes. Another time, another time, Marnard
went into a restaurant and he sat down to eat and the men said,
Brother Barnard, would you lead us in prayer? He said, no. He said, y'all go ahead and pray.
I want to eat. I came here to eat. Another time, he went in a restaurant
and in this business or this meeting of religious preachers
and all that, you know, and they said, I've told you this, too,
but it's worth repeating. They said, Brother Barnard, pray
for us. And he said, all right, they want me to pray, I'll pray.
So he said, Lord, they want me to pray for them. But they're
butchering your gospel. They're preaching a false gospel.
They're lying on your son. They're lying to men. He said,
I'm not going to pray for these men. I'll pray for myself. Lord,
bless me. Boy, I love that. Don't you love
that brashness? Huh? Lord bless me. Don't bless
them. Shut their mouths. Oh, we need. You can imagine that dinner was
I bet not very many people ate their dinner. Barnard did, but
the rest of them did. Seething, you know. The Lord
is not condemning all public prayer. He did it, but he did
it with his disciples. I looked up every instance of
public prayer that I could find. And nearly every one of them,
everyone I found was in the context of the church. Look it up. Look it up. He said, be not as
a hypocrite. Will you pray, enter into your
closet, verse six, and I'll quit. Enter into your closet. Again,
I say he's not forbidding public prayer. He prayed with other
believers and so forth. But our Lord is talking about
personal prayer, personal prayer here. That's the reason I disdain
or hate so much altar calls and all this stuff down front. You know, to be seen, it's all
to be seen, don't do it. Nowhere to be found in scriptures
that you make a public display of committing, dedicating, consecrating,
redeeming this, giving your life to Jesus in the morning and the
evening and so on. We've got an altar, don't we, Terry? It's
Christ. And he's sitting at the right
hand of God. He's not down here in front of the pulpit. You go
home in your closet. This thing of salvation is between
a man and his God. Get the soul winner and the mourner's
bench out of the way. Go home, get in your closet.
When that's settled, when the issue of your relationship with
God is settled, then come and right there is where you let
men know of your profession of faith. He said, and then in this thing,
a personal prayer, the Lord says it's not to be done in public,
but in the Pharisees, once again, they got out on the street corner.
And I saw not too long ago, a bunch of church folk, they had to be
church folk, they're praying, meeting on the courthouse steps,
they're all standing around holding hands, you know, praying. My, my. The Lord said, the Lord Forbids
that. When you pray, you take, you
can take this literally. Except in the context of the
church, you know. Collective prayer among believers.
There's no way that this old proud heart can do something
like that in public without being conscious of and thoughts of
people seeing you and thinking, well, like, well, there's a good
Christian. He's praying. You've lost your reward. A high boy said the father would
see it in secret. You pray in secret, he'll reward
you openly. How's that? But he rewards you
for your prayers. No. Reward me for thanking him. Isn't that ridiculous? Rewarding
me for repenting? Rewarding me for my prayers?
That'd be like rewarding me for breathing. Oh, it's my, it's
my, it's my, it's a natural workings of a regenerated child, they
don't reward me for my prayer, but he's going to reward me in
the end and that great day with himself. I am the exceeding great
reward, he said. He'll reward me openly. He himself
with actual, with actual communion with him actually in his presence. That is the reward I'm looking
for. And that should be what we're looking for while we're
praying. seeking out the presence of God, not the stairs and the
approbation of other people. Right, and he says you pray in
secret, the Lord will reward you openly, not for your prayer,
but he'll reward you in the end with himself openly. All right, I sure don't feel
like praying right now, but before you, after this, but let's stand
and I'll dismiss this in prayer. It's such a serious thing. Our Lord, we fall so short of
these commandments of yours, how we thank you for your mercy
that you know our frame, you remember we're but dust. And
as a father pitieth his son, even so the Lord pitieth them
that fear him. Lord is a fearful thing to enter
into the presence of God, and we're such fleshy, proud, worldly
creatures. We find this is hard to do. We
pour out our hearts before you and ask you to give us the grace
to worship you in spirit and sincerity and truth in the right
way. Do all that we do, whether it
be singing, praying, reading, preaching, whatever it may be,
for the glory of our God, and not for us vain glory or our
selfish motive to be seen of men. Lord, forgive the sin in
our best prayers, according to the blood and the righteousness
of your precious Son, who did all things with a pure motive.
Receive our petitions through His blessed name. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. You're dismissed.