All right, we'll stay right there
in Matthew chapter 6. As many of you know, in the last
few messages in our worship services, I took the time to preach through
what I call the Lord's Prayer, which is in John chapter 17. And I told you that many people
refer to this prayer here in Matthew 6 beginning in verse
9, Our Father which art in heaven. Many people refer to that as
the Lord's Prayer, but it's really not. This is the disciple's prayer
actually. It's the model prayer, you might
call it that. In fact, I'm going to show you
that it's really a prayer our Lord could not have prayed himself.
Forgive us this day our our trespasses, all of that kind of thing. But
we'll get into that. My goal is I wanna go through the model
prayer here, verse by verse, but I wanna, today, talking about
the manner of true prayer. I wanna start here in chapter
six, leading up to that. And I wanna talk about what I
believe is one of the most important parts of a true believer's life,
and that's prayer. And there's so much false teaching, misunderstanding. There's so much mythology actually
revolving around a lot of people's understanding of prayer and what
it is. You know what prayer is? It's
a child of God speaking to his father, his or her father. And
it's an intimate thing. It's a special thing. It's not
just in certain times. I used to joke around. I'd say
like the most popular prayer of young people. You know what
it is? Lord, if you get me out of this one, I'll never do it
again. It's not that kind of thing. I prayed that prayer plenty
of times in my youth. But what is this thing about
prayer? Every true believer, you may
have studied this before, but every true believer needs a primer
on this often. I do. And I believe the Lord
convicted me over this when I was going through his prayer in John
17, and I wanted to do this on the model prayer. But I'm going
to tell you beforehand, I'm going to forewarn you that I'm going
to say a lot of things that are not traditional or conventional
or thought of acceptably as prayer. And the reason I'm going to say
those things, and it may kind of go against the grain a little
bit because we're just taught from our youth up certain things
about these issues that are not scriptural. And the reason I'm
going to say them is because I'm going to first read them.
here in the Word of God. The manner of true prayer. And
as Brother Jim said, this is part of the Sermon on the Mount. I love to preach from the Sermon
on the Mount. You know, a lot of people, they
misunderstand this whole sermon. Growing up in my youth, hearing
preachers preach on this, I often heard that this is a
sermon that tells a believer how to keep the law. or it's
telling how believers should live. But really what it is,
it's a sermon that tells us that we cannot keep the law and we
need Christ. That's what the Sermon on the
Mount's all about. But here in this part of the
Sermon on the Mount, the Lord mentions what you might call
three virtuous acts or exercises that are common to, if not all,
most religions, even false religions. And that is charitable giving,
for one, when you give your alms, charitable giving, that's what
he's talking about. Most every religion has some
form of charity, giving to the poor. And then prayer, or meditation,
Most all religions have some form of that. Teach praying to
their God or their gods. And then even the part that Brother
Jim didn't read was in verse 16 and 17, it talks about fasting
and that would come under the heading of self-denial. Most all religions teach some
form at some stage of self-denial. And so the Lord himself takes
these three virtuous acts, what people would call virtues, morals,
dedication. And of course, if you know what
they mean and understand the reality of what they are, these
are Christian virtues too. We're to be givers. Christians
are. We're to give as the Lord gives
to us and leads us liberally. and to help the poor, to support
the gospel, all of these things, that we are to be givers. And
then prayer, obviously, we're to pray, we're to be people of
prayer. That's a command. You're gonna
notice here that the Lord tells his disciples that he says when
you pray, he didn't say if you pray. He says when you pray,
because that's a given. And then fasting, we're not required
to fast physically under the new covenant. We can if we want,
that's fine. But we certainly are commanded
to deny ourselves. And first of all, when we come
to believe the gospel, we deny ourselves and we look to Christ
and all, you know, we can talk about that. But these are virtues
that are common to just about every religion. But let me give
you several things, just by way of laying the foundation here,
an introduction about these things. Number one is this. The Lord
teaches that the importance of these acts, this almsgiving,
prayer, and fasting, lies not only in the manner that we do
them, but also in the motive and the goal which drives us
to do them. What's your motive in prayer
and giving? What's your goal? And for example,
look at charitable giving. Look at verse one. Take heed
that you do not your alms before men. And let me say, now, if
you have a concordance in your Bible, and a lot of Bibles do,
mine does, you might have a number one by
that word alms, and in your concordance it might say righteousness. Now, that is not the case. That
word alms is not the Greek word for righteousness. I think 31,
32 times in the New Testament it's translated alms and should
be. I think two or three times it's
translated almsgiving. It's never translated righteousness.
Now why did the printers, the publishers of this Bible that
I've got up here put righteousness there? Well, they probably think
that the almsgiving is the equivalent of righteousness, but it is not. It's an act of godliness. It's
an act of charity. But what is righteousness? Well,
you know, Christ said back in Matthew 5 and verse 20, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven. You mean I've got to have a righteousness that
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
the most religious men of their day? And he says, yes, well,
how righteous do I have to be? Well, do you know what he starts
doing in Matthew 5.21? He starts telling us how righteous
we have to be. You know how he does it? He says this, you've heard it
said by them of old, it's sin to kill, to murder. Well, I'm
telling you, it's sinful to even think it. To even think it. to be angry
enough to wish somebody dead. You know what God calls that?
Murder. And he said this, he said, you've
heard it said by them of old that it's sinful to look upon
a woman and lust after, he said, or to commit adultery, he said,
well I'm telling you it's a sin to think that too. To even lust
in your mind. It's sinful. Wow. You mean the law condemns even
the thought? Yes, it does. Well, it's like
somebody, like I told a fellow I was eating lunch with one time,
he said, he was talking about how he thought he'd done enough
to meet the requirements for God to save him. And I asked
him, I said, well, what do you think God requires? And he looked
at me, he said, well, I really don't know. I've just been trying
to do good. I said, well, I'll tell you what
the Lord requires. He requires perfection. And his eyes got
real big, and he said, well, nobody can do that. And I said,
yes, that's right. That's why salvation is by grace,
through the righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Sermon on the Mount
teaches us that God is holy and just and righteous, and we're
not. And we cannot make ourselves
so by our works. We cannot make ourselves so by
our almsgiving. You cannot make yourself right.
You can give away everything you have and it still won't do
enough. You cannot make yourself righteous by praying. You cannot
make yourself righteous by fasting. Only God can make a sinner righteous
by his grace through the righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where am I gonna find perfection in Christ? Look to him, rest
in him, believe in him. He's my righteousness. And that's
his righteousness imputed, charged to me, accounted to me. So it's
not almsgiving is not righteous. So if you've got that in concordance,
I would suggest that you do what I did, scratch over it. It's
not a good translation. It's almsgiving. And he says
this, he says, when you give your alms, don't do it before
men to be seen of men. He says, otherwise you have no
reward of your father which is in heaven. He says, verse two,
therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet
before thee. Well, you know, they didn't get
out with literal trumpets and sound them before. He said, hey,
look at me, I'm giving. as the hypocrites do in the synagogues
and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily
I say to you, they have their reward. Well, what's their reward?
They want to be seen of men, they want the applause of men,
they have it. That's their reward. But he says, he says, but when
thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right
hand doeth. That's just a metaphorical way
of saying, do it secretly. That's what he's saying. Don't
do it openly, above board, where everybody can see you. That thine
alms may be in secret, that thy father seeth in secret, himself
shall reward thee openly. So, in other words, don't do
it to be seen of men. And then he says the same thing
about prayer. Verse five, when thou prayest, thou shalt not
be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in
the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may
be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. They want the judgments and the applause of men. Thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. Now he's talking
about private prayer. We're met here this morning in
corporate worship with the people of God and we pray. Jim just
prayed, I prayed. Leading the people of God in
prayer for worship. There's nothing wrong with that.
He's talking about our private individual prayers. And he says,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou shut
thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. You see that. Don't make a display of it. Now,
y'all know, when you're with your families and before you
sit down to eat, you pray with your family, that's fine. But
I've come to the point, and this is me, now you may have a different
view, and that's okay, we're not going to debate over it or
park company over it. I just don't believe we ought
to be praying out in public. Now I don't. And I remember I
was eating lunch with a local pastor here. And we ordered our
lunch, they brought the lunch, and I just started eating. He
looked at me like I had a third eye, and he said, aren't you
gonna bless this food? Aren't you gonna pray? I said, I already
did. That's what I told him. Because
I do. I pray. In secret. In my mind, God hears
me. And I said, I already did. And
he said, well, I didn't see you. I said, thank God. Thank God you didn't see me.
Because that's what the Bible says here. My old pastor said
he was eating lunch with a fellow one time, and he did the same
thing. And that guy said, aren't you going to pray? And he told
him the same thing. I already did. You know, when they say,
aren't you going to bless the food? No, we're not going to
bless the food. God's already beat us to that. He's already
done that. We thank him for the blessing. And I do thank him.
Every time I eat, I thank God. But he said, well, I wouldn't
put a bite of food in my mouth unless I prayed over it. That's
superstition. Do you know that? That's superstition. I'm afraid I won't choke on it
or something. See what I'm saying? Now, he
says the same thing down here about fasting. Look at verse
16 down there. Moreover, when you fast, be not
as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces,
that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you,
they have their reward. That's to be seen of men. But
thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face. In
other words, fix yourself up so that you won't look like you're
fasting. If you, I know if it were me, and let's say if I fasted
four or five days, I'd look miserable. But he says, fix yourself up,
that you don't appear that way. And he says, verse 17, but when
thou fastest, anoint thine head, wash thy face, that thou appear
not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret,
and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
There's a fella over in Africa who will post on the internet
about his fasting. And he'll post something. He
said, I'm in the fourth day of my fast. And finally, I got the
nerve up and I wrote him. And I just put these verses down
here. And I never heard from him again. You're going to announce
that you're fasting? Well, doesn't the Lord say here,
don't do that? I mean, you think I'm being too
literal? I think I'm just believing what it says. But let me caution
you about this thing of being seen of men. Let me give you
a caution here. To be seen of men, if that's
your motive, it can range from one who hypocritically wants
nothing more than to make a vain show of piety. That's to be seen
of men, and that's what a lot of these Pharisees were doing.
But it can also be one who's sincerely seeking these acts
to be their witness before men. Now hear me out here. Our almsgiving and our praying
and our fasting is not our witness before men. Somebody sees you praying and
says, well I know he's a Christian, well he may be praying to Allah.
Or to Buddha. Or to himself. Or he may be a
teenager saying, Lord get me out of this. That's not our witness before,
you know what our witness before man is? The Gospel. Preaching and witnessing the
Gospel. That's our witness. Telling sinners
who God is and who we are and who Jesus Christ is. Our charitable giving doesn't
prove we're Christian. Should Christians give charitably?
Yes, but that doesn't prove anything. Our praying doesn't prove we're
Christians. Should we pray? Yes. Our fasting
doesn't prove it. But now you preach the gospel.
of God's free and sovereign grace and tell sinners who Christ is
and what he accomplished. Tell them of his righteousness
and that our almsgiving and our prayers and our fasting can't
even come close to the perfection of righteousness that we can
only find in Jesus Christ by the grace of God. That if God
gave me what I've earned and deserve, even in my best prayer,
it will be eternal damnation. The only reason I have to pray
is because I'm saved by the grace of God through the blood of Jesus
Christ. That's our witness. Look back across the page or
turn back a page to Matthew 5 and verse 16. People use this verse. to promote what I think is one
of the most popular false adages that Christians sometimes carry,
or so-called Christians. And they'll say something like
this, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one. Well let me tell you something,
if all that sinners see is how I live, and that's all they see,
they'll die and go to hell. Somebody says, well, God may
use that to draw you, draw them to the gospel. Well, that's okay
if that's God's will. That's all. The sinners aren't
gonna be saved by, if you don't hear a sermon, a gospel sermon,
the Bible says this, doesn't it? That the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. It says faith cometh by what?
Hearing? What are you gonna hear? Somebody
praying? No. The coins clinking as their
almsgiving? No, hear the gospel. When God
gives you ears to hear in the new birth. But look at Matthew
5, 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see
your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. The
light there is the gospel, it's Christ. It shines on us as we live our
lives. And it testified the good works
of God that he does through us. Paul said, I don't do it in my
own strength and power, it's Christ in us. And it also, the
same light that exposes the good works of a believer, a sinner
saved by grace, which God does through that person by his power
and grace, it also exposes the dead works of people who are
unbelievers. That same light, this is the
condemnation, John 3, 19, that light has come into the world
and men love darkness and hate the light because of what? Their
deeds are evil, their almsgiving, their praying, their fasting,
their religious activity. Without Christ, what is it? It's
evil. That's our witness. That's why
Christ told the disciples, marvel not if the world hates you. He
said, it hated me before it hated you. And what did he tell them
in John 16? He said, they'll throw you out of their bars.
Is that what he said? What did he say? Anybody remember?
Throw you out of the synagogue. They'll throw you out of their
church services. Why? Because they don't know the father
nor the son. So I hope I'm making that clear. This issue is so
important. Let me give you another thing
about this, back here in Matthew chapter six. Christ also says
here that when people do these acts to be seen of men, they
have their reward. And what is their reward? The
applause of men, the judgments of men. Somebody says, well,
I want people to see that I'm a Christian. All right? Well, how are they going to see
that? Think about it. First of all, the Bible tells
us the world doesn't even know what a Christian is. They think
anybody who lives a good life, as they see it, and is sincere
and dedicated, and especially as a regular church attender,
is a Christian. But John said in 1 John 3, he
said, the world will not know us because it didn't know our
Savior. My former pastor, he used to
Talk about the song, let others see Jesus in you, and he said
they didn't even see Jesus in Jesus. They called him a winebibber
and a blasphemer, and he was a perfect man. Now think about
that. Isn't that amazing? Here's the only one who never
did any sin, committed any sin, or ever was defiled by sin, and
we, the world, in our natural, we called him a winebibber, a
drunk, Never got drunk, but that's what we called him, because he
made wine and he drank wine. We called him a wine-bibber and
a blasphemer. That's why Christ said that it
hated me before it hated you. Now does that mean we have liberty
to be wine-bibbers and blasphemers? Absolutely not. We ought to strive to be the
best people that God ever put on this earth. because we're
so blessed and graced. We don't want to deny or dishonor
our Heavenly Father and our Savior. He said they have their reward.
When we as believers do these things, as we're moved by the
Holy Spirit from the Word of God, and do them as motivated
by grace, love, and gratitude, that's our motivation. Our motivation
is grace. Thank you, Lord. for saving my
soul. Grace and gratitude and love
to God. Not to be seen of men, not to
be made righteous. Christ is our righteousness.
Our goal is what? To glorify our Father which is
in heaven. I want to glorify God. And he says the Lord will
reward us. Now when we come to that word
reward, we've got to interpret scripture with scripture in the
context of what God's word teaches. concerning our salvation and
all the blessings and benefits of salvation. And what does the
Lord teach us about salvation and all of its blessings and
benefits? It teaches us this, that all of salvation that we
possess is by God's sovereign grace, which means we never do
anything to earn it or deserve it, and it's through the Lord
Jesus Christ, conditioned on him alone and that we're blessed. The Bible says this in Ephesians
1, 3, we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. How many spiritual blessings
are we blessed with in Christ? All spiritual blessings. And again, that means we don't
earn them or we don't deserve them. They're all freely given. So the reward that he's talking
about for his people and he rewards us openly, is the reward of grace. It's the reward that we have
in Christ. It's not of works. Now, is it true that God blesses
us in the acts that we do, our almsgiving, our praying, our
self-denial? Yes, but because he blesses us
freely in these acts of obedience, they're the means by which God
blesses us. When we come to church, we're
blessed. Not because we earned it by our attendance. Not because
we're gonna give you a Sunday school pin. No, we still don't
deserve it. But you know what? He freely
gives it. Thank you, Lord. Is it too much
to ask that we come to worship service and thank him? Is it
too much to ask that we pray to God and thank him? Is it too
much to ask that we give out of our abundance that He's freely
given to us? You know, it's kind of like that
prayer, if you remember that old movie, Shenandoah, Jimmy
Stewart, Shenandoah. And they sat down to eat, and
he prayed this way. He said, Lord, we plowed the
ground, and we planted the seed, and we watered it, and we weeded
it, and we did all the work, but we thank you anyway. The old boy wouldn't have any
ground if the Lord hadn't given it to him. He wouldn't have any
strength to plow it if the Lord hadn't given it to him. That's
the way most people think. Well, if you don't give, God's
going to curse you. If you don't do this, if you
don't do that, that's legalism. God blesses us. Now here's another
thing. about this. Another thing about true prayer,
now that's what we're going to hone in on in the coming weeks,
prayer. It says, the true prayer of a
child of God, the Father, is stated here. As stated here in
Matthew chapter six, look at verse six. He says this, look
at it now. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray
to thy Father in secret, and the Father which seeth thee in
secret shall reward thee openly, the reward of grace that comes
to us by virtue of Christ and his righteousness. And he says,
look at this now, verse seven. But when you pray, not if you
pray, but when you pray, Use not vain repetitions. As the heathen do. What do the
heathen do? They use vain repetitions. Because
they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. And he says in verse eight, be
not ye therefore like unto them. Don't be like the heathen. For
your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask
him. Vain repetitions. Many false Christians vainly
repeat this prayer here, Our Father which art in heaven. You
know, many false Christians vainly repeat that prayer and they don't
even know what it means. Nothing wrong with repeating
this prayer now if you know what it means. But not just through
vain repetitions. Many false religions, they use
mantras, chants, repeated words, thinking that there's some power
in these repetitions to bring about worship and fulfillment
of their desires. If I say it enough. You ever heard of the modern
word of faith movement? Or word faith movement? They
teach that Christians can access the power of faith through speech
or speaking certain words. And then if they can get another
one to join them, or two or three, or a thousand to join them, then
it's gonna really have power. And they renounce poverty, they
renounce physical suffering, and contend that being a Christian
means that you have enough faith as expressed in these words that
you'll be rich and you'll never get sick. Not true. That's a lie. The Apostle Paul. He had some
problem, physical problem, I believe, called the thorn in the flesh.
Some people think it was his eyesight. Other people think
it was his inability to communicate in preaching. Some people think
it was just a physical ailment. I don't know. But listen to what
Paul says about that in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 8. He said, for
this thing I besought the Lord thrice, three times, that it
might depart from me. And the Lord said unto me, my
grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness. I'm weak, he's strong. And then Paul went on to say,
when I'm weak, I'm strong because I look to him more. Most gladly,
therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I'm weak, then am I
strong. Words are important now, don't
get me wrong. We preach the gospel. That's
words. Peter told Christ, he said, thou
hast the words of eternal life. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
he that is of God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear them
not, because you're not of God. Words are important, but there's
no magic words. There's no magic in repeating
a word. No power in repeating a word.
The gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit is what brings sinners
to salvation. And so, we're told in Ephesians
6, 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
of the saints. There's no salvation and no blessings
simply by repeating certain words. But let me tell you something
else. Stay away from these prayer chains. Oh, if I can get 100 people to
pray, you think you're going to change God's mind? You think
then you yell loud enough? There's nothing wrong with us
praying for one another. We should pray for one another.
But these prayer chains, I see them on the internet all the
time. If we can get a national day of prayer, all of us praying
to a different God, Think about it. That's not the way of Christian
prayer, folks. And then lastly, what is the
power of prayer? Well, the power of true prayer
is in the one to whom we pray. And the one upon whose merits
we pray. Turn to Hebrews 4. Let me give
you this and I'll close. The power of prayer is not in the prayer itself. You say, well, it's in our sincerity. Well, we should be sincere, but
that's not what gives prayer its power. The power of prayer
is in the one to whom we pray. He's the power. And here it says
in Hebrews chapter 4, look at verse 14. Listen, seeing then
that we have a great high priest. That's Christ. that is passed into the heavens.
He went unto the Father because He satisfied the justice of God.
He brought forth an everlasting righteousness upon which we stand
before God. One of the things I'm going to
bring out when we start the model prayer there is you know what
our Father means? That means we have a right relationship
with God. That's the basis of prayer. And
how do we as sinners have a right relationship with God? By His
grace through the righteousness of His Son freely imputed to
us. and by the power of the Spirit to give us a heart that desires
to glorify God. Oh, He's passed into the heavens.
He's seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavens,
making intercession for us when we pray, at all times making
intercession, but when we pray. And then He says, Jesus, the
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. What is our profession?
Christ and Him crucified and risen from the dead. God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross. And he says, for we have
not in high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are yet
without sin. Let us therefore come boldly,
confidently unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. Now that's the foundation
of the manner of true prayer.