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| SERMON #94 "Take heed 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. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly, MAT 6:1-4. In Vol. III of our study on the Sermon on the Mount, we have gone through MAT 5:21-48 which dealt with the true spirit of the second table of the law. The law of God is the law of love. Let's think about that law of love. The first table of the law is to "...love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," MAT 22:37. The second table of the law is "...Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." MAT 5:21-48 dealt with the true spirit of the law in loving your neighbour as yourself. As we have pointed out, that word neighbour has to include every human being. We are to love our enemy; we are to bless those who curse us, i.e., we are to speak well of them. We are to overcome their bitterness with love. "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good," ROM 12:21. All through MAT 5:21-48 Jesus taught how we are to love our neighbour under the second table of the law. In MAT 6:1-18 the Lord Jesus is teaching the first table of the law, i.e., the motive of the heart. The scribes and Pharisees did their alms to be seen of men rather than out of a self- sacrificial spirit of love to God. We are to love Him above all with our hearts, souls, and minds. Our text says that when we do alms, we don't do it to exalt ourselves. We do alms out of love to our neighbour and for God, for His glory, not ours. Our text deals with the first table of the law, or the motive of our heart. If we do alms to our fellow man, to the poor, we are not to do it to receive the praise of men, but we are to do it out of a self-sacrificial love for God. We do alms because we love God, because we are God's creatures. The Lord is teaching us the spirit of the first table of the law. MAT 22:37 is the first table of the law: "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." The Lord is now looking at the intent of our heart; He is looking at our motive. He is looking at what prompts us to be kind to our neighbour, what prompts us to bless them when they curse us. Do we wish to stand out as the tremendous Christian in the community? If so, our motive is wrong by the first table of the law. Even if we seem to be adhering to the second table of the law, if the motive is wrong, it is transgression of the first table of the law. Our motive should be that our good works glorifies the Father. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a call to repentance. There is something important here. We must understand what we mean when we speak about the gospel. Many people misunderstand the gospel by attempting to distinguish between the law and the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is the preaching of the law. You cannot preach the gospel without preaching the law of love. The first four commandments in EXO 20:1-11 are to love God above all, i.e., we are not to have any other gods before Him, nor sacrifice unto other gods; we are not to take His name in vain, and we are to remember His day to keep it holy. The next six commandments in V:12-17 pertain to the second table of the law which is the love we show to our neighbours: we are not to kill, covet, commit adultery, do those things that would be a transgression against our neighbour. It is the law of love. The Lord Jesus is teaching us in the Sermon on the Mount that the gospel is the preaching of that love. Jesus came to save His people from their sins, MAT 1:21. Jesus is teaching that to be saved means to be saved from sin. What is sin? Sin is the transgression of the law. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law," 1JO 3:4. The gospel is a call to repent. When Jesus began to preach His gospel He began with the word "Repent." MAT 4:17 says "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Repentance means a remorse over sin and turning from sin. Turning from what? It is turning from the transgression of the law. We are to have a remorse for having worshiped that ugly monster, "I," ahead of God. Serving our flesh instead of serving the Lord is a sin against both tables of the law of love. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ says our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees or we shall in no wise enter the kingdom. Then Jesus teaches the contrast between the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees ("An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth") and His teaching of the spirit of the law in MAT 5:17-6:18. Do not seek revenge; pray for our enemies; do good to them who despitefully use us. That is the gospel. What does He teach us about the first table of the law? He says that we don't do these things for our honor, we don't do them to be seen of men; we do these things to glorify God. He is looking at the motive and the intent of our heart. Why do we do these things to our neighbour? We do them to glorify God. Until we have a right understanding of the righteousness of God, we can never understand the gospel. ROM 1:16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ [I want to show you what the gospel is, what it means to preach the gospel]: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed...." God's righteous demands under the law, how we have transgressed these righteous demands, and how you and I are no longer capable of perfect obedience under the law are all revealed in the gospel; that brings us to the need of a Saviour. When we see that we have transgressed the righteous demands of the Father, then we realize we need a Saviour. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. The gospel teaches that God made His own Son to be made sin for us, i.e., He would take the condemnation of that law as our substitute. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel which teaches that God is so displeased with the slightest violation of His law that He sent His own Son to pay the penalty of His law rather than to let one sin go unpunished. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," 2CO 5:21. This teaches God's righteous displeasure upon sin. When God's righteous displeasure upon sin is not preached, the result is complacency; we become content to live in sin. There is no repentance or remorse. If we don't understand God's wrath upon sin and how displeased God is with sin, we will never turn to Christ. That is why the gospel must show the righteousness of God. ROM 1:16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ..." and V:17 says, "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed," that is the preaching of the gospel. Those who do not preach God's displeasure upon sin are not sent by the Lord. JER 23:21-22 says, "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel [Now watch this!], and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings." If they were truly sent by the Lord, they would stand in His counsel. They would show His righteousness; they would show His displeasure upon sin, and they would cause the people to turn from their evil ways. They would have caused the people to repent if they were truly God-sent ministers; that is what Scripture is teaching us here. Those who preach peace through the blood of His cross without repentance, i.e., without turning from sin, are described very clearly in JER 6:13-15, "For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness [this is talking about the pastors]; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. [Any pastor who does not preach repentance deals falsely.] They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. [They are preaching peace through the blood of the cross, saying all you have to do is believe. No! You have to repent and turn from your sin.] Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush." The preaching of the gospel preaches remorse over sin, repentance, and turning from sin. The gospel of Jesus Christ reveals God's just wrath upon sin. Look at ROM 1:17, "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed..." In the preaching of the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. See what it says in V:18a, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men...." When the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, the first thing revealed is the wrath of God upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness. God's wrath is not upon us; His wrath is upon sin. The Lord has such wrath upon sin that when His own dear Son was made to be sin for us, His wrath came down upon Him. Jesus, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us. What happened? The wrath of the Father came down upon Him in the Garden of Gethsemane; there Jesus sweat great drops of blood. The God of heaven had such wrath upon sin that He would appease it in His own Son rather than let the slightest sin go unpunished. The gospel teaches that God's just wrath "is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." What is ungodliness? Ungodliness is every violation of the first table of the law. Anything that you and I do that is not motivated by love to God above all with our heart, soul, and mind is an act of transgression against the first table of the law. His wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness. What is unrighteousness? That is any act against the second table of the law. Where Jesus says our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees in MAT 5:20, He follows it up with those six contrasts between their attitude to their fellow man and the spirit of the law. Another Scripture that establishes this principle is 1JO 3:10, "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." See the context in the two following verses, "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous," 1JO 3:11-12. Any act that we do that is not for the love and the welfare of our fellow man displeases God. In the preaching of the gospel, this must be brought forward. Every act that we do that violates the first four commandments, any act that we do that is not loving God above all, is ungodliness. Any act we do against our fellow man is an act of unrighteousness. God's wrath from heaven is revealed against these sins which are against the law of love. How did He reveal that? He revealed that when He came down with His wrath upon His own Son; He showed the burning anger of His wrath that comes against sin. Jesus taught that unrighteousness lurks in the human heart by nature in MAT 5:21-48 so we would understand what He meant in MAT 5:20, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." That is important to understand. We must turn from this unrighteousness of men and these acts against our fellow man. If there is no turning from the sin against the second table of the law, if there is no repentance, then we will in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. Now that becomes very serious, doesn't it? It becomes a personal matter for you and me. We have to examine our hearts often. Often we must say that we did speak a harsh word about a person, but we excuse ourselves by saying that person was cursing us. Oh, no, the Lord Jesus says we should bless those who curse us and speak well of them because if we don't, it is an act of unrighteousness. Now we see how we come so short, how impossible it is for us to fulfill that law. Now we understand why we need a Redeemer. This understanding is what brings us to the foot of the cross. We need that righteousness of Christ. We confess we are guilty, guilty; "Lord, I have violated thy law of love!" This confession brings us to see our need of a Saviour and brings us to understand the gospel. We come condemned before the gospel call. We have to say, "Lord, I'm guilty." Oh, beloved, how often we have to confess that we have violated the first table of the law and that every thought, word, and deed was not for the glory of God. This knowledge of ungodliness should bring us to the foot of the cross where we see the perfect Godliness of the Son of God. We see He was made sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That is the gospel. Jesus taught that ungodliness lurks in the human heart by nature in MAT 6:1-18 so we can further understand the righteousness that excels. He says, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." If we are going to sin willfully, there is no way we will ever enter the kingdom of heaven. HEB 10:26 says, "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." However, if it is our desire to do God's will, and we know how short we come, then we have to come, bending, before the Lord Jesus Christ asking that His righteousness might become ours and that the perfect robe of Christ's righteousness might clothe us. Then we may stand righteous before the Father in the perfect atonement of the Son's sacrifice. We must understand God's wrath upon sin before we can truly see any beauty in the Man of Sorrows. We are talking about the self- sacrificing love of the Son, but thinking also of the love of the Father who sent His Son. He looked upon His people who had transgressed His law, and He looked upon those who were unrighteous and ungodly, but He still loved them. He loved them so much that He sent His own Son. "Herein is love, not that we loved God,[Watch this.] but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins," 1JO 4:10. "...the propitiation for our sins," means the appeasing of His wrath upon our sins. There is the gospel. When we start to understand the gospel, we begin to understand what it means when the Lord says the image of Christ must be formed in us. We must have a heart's desire to do His will. We cannot walk in perfect conformity to the law of love, but every transgression should cause us to mourn because we have sinned against such a loving God. Jesus saw His Father's just wrath upon sin as He interceded for His church just before He stepped into His Father's wrath upon sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was preparing to hang on the cross, and He was praying for you and for me. He said, "O righteous Father..." He saw the righteous demands of the law and the righteousness of the Father who could not let one sin go unpunished. He stands before His holy Father saying, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me," JOH 17:25. He saw the righteous demands and was prepared to go upon the cross to pay the penalty of our sins, to become the propitiation for our sins. "O righteous Father..." What does He mean when He says Father? He is speaking of that tender love of the Father who sent Him. Can you sin against such love? We must examine our own hearts. Can we sin lightly against such love when He has sent His own Son? When the Holy Spirit works grace and regeneration in the heart, His first work is to convict the soul of God's righteous wrath upon sin. Then we can understand what Paul said in ROM 7:13, "Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. [He is talking about the law.] But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." Now we see the sinfulness of sin, how displeasing it is unto God, and how His just wrath comes upon it, and we can begin loving God above all and hating sin. Every transgression that might be working in our heart causes us to mourn before God. After we see how hateful sin is, and how hateful it is in the eyes of God, our hearts will go out unto the Lord, seeking to be washed from our sin. He will wash us in that precious blood, that perfect sacrifice that He made for sin. The Apostle John said in 1JO 3:4, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." You cannot separate the law from the gospel. It is the transgression of the law from which we must be delivered. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in His Sermon on the Mount in MAT 5-7 reveals the transgression of the law. He is showing what is needed. The good news of the gospel is how we are saved from sin, i.e., the transgression of the law. We know that salvation is not merited by the keeping of the law, but a heart filled with Godly fear has a holy reverence for God's will. Do we have a holy reverence for the revealed will of God? That is Godliness; that is loving God from our heart. His will brings a holy reverence in our heart. 1JO 3:10 says, "In this the children of God are manifest [revealed as a light that shines forth], and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." In other words, whosoever does not have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, is not of God. Are we going to heaven or hell? Are we preaching the gospel or the law? To preach the gospel, we cannot skip the law. The gospel is a deliverance from transgressions of the law. It is to be delivered from sin. It is to be in Christ; "...and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins," MAT 1:21. The gospel begins with "Repent" in MAT 4:17, "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and ends with "Repent" in LUK 24:47, "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Notice that repentance comes before remission of sin. Without repentance there is no remission of sin. Until sin becomes exceeding sinful, there will never be a true evangelical repentance. Grace is not a license to continue in sin. Yes, we are saved by grace, but that is not a license to continue in sin; it is to be saved from sin. In ROM 6:1-2 we read, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" The gospel of Jesus Christ taught the spirit of the first and second table of the law. The Lord wants the whole heart. There is a difference between thinking we are going to earn heaven by keeping the law, and our holy reverence for, and our desire to keep; obedience to the law is an evidence of our being saved. If we have been saved from our transgressions, can we continue, transgressing willfully? The fear of the Lord is a holy reverence for God's will. PSA 112:1 says, "Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments." If we want the Lord to look upon us in His condescending love, then listen to what this Scripture tells us. ISA 66:2 says, "For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word," ISA 66:2. The word poor means that we are not rich in ourselves, coming with all the good things we have done; we are poor, and we come as beggars. A contrite spirit means a heart that is in unconditional surrender to the will of God. Trembleth doesn't mean a slavish fear; it means that we have a holy awe, a holy reverence or respect for His Word. If we want the Lord to look upon us in His love, then we have to come as a humble beggar with a complete and unconditional surrender to the will of God. Godliness, which is loving God "...with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," is included in the righteousness that excels. When the Lord Jesus Christ says, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven," MAT 5:20, He is talking about both tables of the law. He is telling us that we do not go out and sin against our neighbour, and also that we have a love for God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. This is a self-sacrificial love. We are willing to be looked upon as the offscouring of the earth in order that we might glorify God. We are not looking for honor for ourselves; we want to honor God. It is God's glory which motivates our desires and actions. Love is a spirit of self-sacrifice with regard to Godliness, as well as righteousness to our neighbour. Satan is so crafty, and I'm not a stranger to his tactics. He will come in, use, and excite the fountain of corruption that is in our own heart arousing spiritual pride which desires that men should see our spirit of self-sacrifice. We have to think about this. I am not pointing a finger at anyone. I am talking about what comes from my own heart. If I have done something to help some soul, I sometimes find that when I tell about it, old Satan breathes in a little humble pride. Satan wants to use it to bring self-exaltation so people will see what a Christian I am. This is a confession of mine, but don't we all have a little bit of that in us? When we tell the things we think are our noble deeds, Satan loves to splice in a little self-honor. Are we telling something to glorify God, or are we boasting? Satan is so crafty; he will catch us in a transgression of the first table of the law by our telling what a tremendous thing we did in obeying the second table of the law. Jesus is cautioning us about this. By this deadly twist, Satan uses our strict adherence to the second table of the law to snare us into the ungodliness of loving the honor of self. The motive of self- honor and glorification before God and man is a hypocritical sin. MAT 6:1 is a connecting verse between the fifth and sixth chapters. Chapter 5 tells of the need of obedience to the second table of the law; it tells us what we must do to help our fellow man, and then MAT 6:1 is a connecting link that tells us to be careful that we don't do this to be seen. Jesus admonishes us, "Take heed," that when one-sided love is extended to a neighbour, we must guard our hearts against the ungodliness of self-love and self-exaltation for our own glory. Our text says, "Take heed." This ungodliness is a snare deserving special mention! The Lord Jesus is asking us to take heed, take notice; we should take special notice. "Take heed 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," MAT 6:1. The word alms in V:1 comes from a totally different word in the Greek than the same word in V:2. In V:1 the word alms comes from the Greek word Dikaiosune which means, "Good works--or acts of piety, or mercy and compassion." In the first verse alms refers to the things we have done under the second table of the law, the things we have done to help our fellow man. It does not mean charitable donations; it means good works. We should not do our good works to be seen. We don't help a neighbour so he will think we are somebody great; V:1 is speaking of the acts of piety, mercy, and compassion that we do for others. Verse 1 is an admonition to be careful; do not perform your good works publicly to be noticed by the people, or else you forfeit your reward from "...your Father who is in heaven." The Lord says that He will reward, i.e., repay you according to your doings. If you have the praise of man, you already have your reward, and you will lose the reward of God. The admonition is that your motive must not be self- glorification, or else our text would seem to be a contradiction with what Jesus said in MAT 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Let them see your good works with no motive of self-glorification. If we do not see this point, the two teachings would seem to be a contradiction. The Lord Jesus is saying, "...that they may see your good works," however, our text says, "...that ye do not your alms [your good works] before men, to be seen of them." He is saying that our motive should not be to be seen. This teaching is synonymous with the teaching of PRO 26:4-5, "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit." What does this mean? First we are told, "answer not a fool according to his folly," and then the very next verse turns around and says, "answer a fool according to his folly..." Don't be stooping to his level, don't be foolish like he is being foolish, but answer him according to his folly, i.e., show him his folly. Our text, MAT 6:1,is an admonition that the motive of our heart must be God's glory and not our own when we show love to our enemies--when we bless them who curse us, when we pray for them which despitefully use us, and persecute us, MAT 5:44. In MAT 6:2 the word alms comes from the Greek word Eleemosune which means to show love to the poor by charity, alms, or deeds. That means financial help. Here, Jesus says, "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." Don't blow the trumpet before the people so that everyone knows how much you have given. Don't even let your left hand know what the right hand is doing. Jesus centers His emphasis on the word reward which comes from the Greek word Misthos which means, "To pay for service, good or bad:--hire, reward, wages." His emphasis is on what reward we are going to receive from our Father which is in heaven. There is a reward for Godliness: loving "...the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" and having a Holy reverence for God and His Holy Will! There is also a reward for ungodliness, i.e., slighting any one of the least of God's commandments. MAT 5:19 says, "Whosoever therefore shall break [The word break is taken from the Greek word Luo which means to abolish, to relax the meaning of, or to slight the authority of] one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." We do not keep the commandments with a legalistic fear in an attempt to earn salvation; we do so out of a holy, reverent respect for God. The gospel does not abolish the need for obedience. 1PE 4:17-18 says, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? [We must obey the law of the gospel!] And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" The obedience of the gospel is the law of love, loving our neighbour as ourselves and loving God above all. "...if the righteous scarcely be saved," where will the ungodly, i.e., those who do not love the Lord above all, appear? Our text speaks of the ungodliness of seeking praise of men. MAT 6:2, "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." What reward is this? The story of the rich man tells us. The rich man had his reward in his lifetime because he had the honor of men and all the things that pleased the flesh. LUK 16:25 says, "But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." The rich man had his reward in his lifetime, but he will spend eternity in hell. The Lord Jesus is cautioning us; the rich man had his reward: the praise of man, the good things in his lifetime. If all we are seeking is to be glorified by man, then we have had our reward. The Psalmist most blessedly sets forth God's rewards for the Godly and for the ungodly in this lifetime. The Godly are blessed and are to have a reward in this life and hereafter. PSA 1:1-6 says, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. [Now see his reward in this life as well as hereafter.] And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. [That is their reward in this life, but see what their reward is for hereafter.] Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish." This one Psalm sets forth the rewards for both the Godly and the ungodly. The alms spoken of in our text are our acts of self-sacrificial love to God. Think about this as we read in MAT 25:35, "For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them [Listen!],+ Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." We must learn to understand this about the second table of the law; those acts of love that we do to our neighbour, to our fellow man, we are doing to the Lord Jesus Christ. PRO 14:31 says, "He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor." The Lord is very jealous over His poor people, over those who are His. Those who have mercy on the poor honor the Lord. PRO 19:17 tells us, "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again." When we can give something for the benefit of a poor person, we are lending to the Lord. The Lord will reward those who do what is pleasing to Him, and He will pay them according to what they deserve. The Father is highly glorified by seeing the image of His Son in our Godly reverence for His will. Did you ever stop to think that you and I can do something that will glorify God? God is glorified by seeing the image of Christ in what we do for our fellow man. Our motive is not to gain praise of men, but that God may be glorified. God is greatly glorified by those who reverence His will. What was it that glorified God in Christ? It was His obedience even unto death. PHI 2:8 says, "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." That is where the Father was so glorified. It was for such humble obedience that the Father glorified the Son with the glory spoken of in the following verses. See that connecting word, "Wherefore." In other words, it is because of, or on account of His humble obedience. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," PHI 2:9-11. Our text says in MAT 6:3-4, "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth [Don't make a big public show of it]: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." The Lord will reward us openly. However, He doesn't want us to seek glorification by men, but to glorify Him. This reward of the Father shall be both in this life and in the life to come. It is a blessed thing when He will not forget our work and our labors of love that we do to glorify His name. HEB 6:10-15 tells us, "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. [God is so pleased with our labors of love that He will not forget us, and He will reward us.] And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end [We have the full assurance of the Lord if we are diligent in doing those things; see 2PE 1:5-10]: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. [Why? `...because thou hast obeyed my voice,' GEN 23:18.] And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." Wherein was it that God was so pleased with the obedience of Abraham? He took his own son, Isaac, and put him on the altar to offer him as a burnt offering to the Lord because the Lord had commanded it. When Abraham got to the point that he was ready to slay his son, the Lord said, "Abraham, Abraham...And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me," GEN 22:12. Abraham was willing to put everything, everything he had, on the altar; that is what we must understand. We, too, have to be willing to put everything on the altar and obey Him. Then the Lord says, "Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee...because you have obeyed my voice," GEN 22:17-18. Abraham obeyed. He had patiently endured such a sacrifice of self; he had to take everything that was near and dear to him and put it on the altar. That is what the gospel teaches you and me: everything of self must be put on the altar as a sacrifice that is well-pleasing unto the Lord. When we can sacrifice everything of ourselves for our fellow man and for the honor of God, when we can put it all on the altar, we will receive our reward. HEB 6:15 says, "And so, after [Abraham] had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." Our faith must be the faith of our lovely Saviour who "...through faith and patience inherit[ed] the promises." Do you realize that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to inherit His promise through His obedience of faith? We are going to walk in the footsteps of our Saviour. That means by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ imparted to us, we are going to be able to put everything on the altar. What did Jesus put on the altar? He put himself on the altar; He put himself on the cross to be crucified. Watch what it says in HEB 12:2 about the faith of our lovely Saviour, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him [Now watch that! His obedience of faith was for the reward; it was for that bride which He was going to receive! He] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." For the joy, it was the promises that were set out before Him: the joy of the bride, the heavenly bride that He would receive which is His church. For the joy of you and me being able to become His heavenly bride, He endured the cross. Look at the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ as He took up His cross. This is what you and I must do; we must take up our cross and follow Him, and put everything of self on the altar. We must give up every sin that is close to our heart. We must see God's wrath upon sin; this wrath is what brought the condemnation upon Christ. He took our condemnation at such a cost. We should see the condemnation there is on all the sin that the Lord Jesus took upon Himself so we, too, might have the joy of being brought in as the heavenly bride of the Son of God. Our text says, "Take heed..." This is important; the Lord Jesus is giving us an admonition. He says, "Take heed..." this ungodliness of spiritual pride is a snare deserving special attention. MAT 6:1 says, in effect, take heed that ye do not do your observances of the second table of the law in violation of the first table of the law, "...otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven." The Lord Jesus Christ points out in Matthew 5 that He had told them of the righteousness that excelled in the way of dealing with our neighbour. Now He says to "Take heed..." that you are doing it not for your own glory, but that it is done out of love to God from your heart and soul for His glory. The motive, the purpose, the intent behind your deeds of love unto your neighbour must be for God's glory. Amen. |
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