Hypocritical Worship Rebuked

Transcript

GRM 1032
5/31/2009
Hypocritical Worship Rebuked
Matthew 6:1-7; 16-18
Gil Rugh


We're studying the Sermon on the Mount together in Matthew 5-7. And we are ready to begin chapter 6 so turn to Matthew 6. The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has come as the Messiah of Israel. He has been preceded by John the Baptist who called the nation to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, the coming of the Messiah is near. When Jesus came on the scene He began to continue preaching that message with the declaration, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repentance calls the nation Israel to an acknowledgment of their sin and a turning form their sin and placing their faith in God and the Messiah that He would provide.

The Sermon on the Mount is talking about those who will be part of His kingdom, what will be required to be part of His kingdom. There is a clear emphasis through this sermon that external conformity to certain rules and regulations does not make you acceptable before God. In chapter 5 verse 20 we have the key theme that pervades this whole sermon, for I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. How are you going into the kingdom? You will need a greater righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees thought that they could acquire righteousness by doing their best to do what God had commanded them to do. But it became a matter of externals. Salvation was never attained, acquired, possessed by doing something to please God. All we could do is believe what God had done, what God had revealed, what God had said. But over time things degenerate and Israel began to view salvation as a matter of conforming externally to what the Law said. So in Matthew 5:21 ff Jesus gave six examples of how mere external conformity to the Law of Moses was not what God was looking for. There had to be a change of heart. An external conformity to the Law, external obedience had to come from a heart of obedience and submission to God.

Now as we come to chapter 6 the subject of worship is addressed by Christ. Worship is a great honor and privilege. Worship has to do with our coming before the living God and being accepted by Him, honoring Him in a way that is acceptable to Him. The theme does not change. Jesus is still going to be addressing the matter of external righteousness in contrast to internal righteousness. And going through the forms of worship is not what makes a person acceptable to God. It's a matter of internal change. The externals must come from internal.

Turn to John 4. This is record of an event during the earthly ministry of Christ. Jesus is leaving the southern portion of Israel, down where Jerusalem is and Judea, and He is going to travel north to Galilee. To do that He is going to go through the territory of the Samaritans. Normally the Jews would want to avoid the territory of the Samaritans because the Jews and the Samaritans didn't have any dealings with one another. The Samaritans were mixed-blood Jews. Back in the days when the northern kingdom was conquered and the ten tribes were carried into captivity and some of the poorest were left in the land, during those times some of the Jews intermarried with Gentiles. So you have this mixed raced of Samaritans. And over time they developed their own religious system, an amalgamation. They had their own worship center in Samaria at Mt. Gerizim, the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem at Mt. Zion. The Samaritans established a worship center in Samaria at Mt. Gerizim. Now as Jesus travels through Samaria He stops at a well and there He has a meeting with a woman. Verse 9, therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, how is it you being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? Verse 7, Jesus had asked her to give Him a drink as she drew water from the well. And then you have that parenthesis, for Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. She is amazed that a Jewish man would be willing to receive a drink of water from her, a Samaritan woman.

He goes on to tell her about the water of life. How directly Jesus moves the conversation to matters of eternal importance and significance. Then He tells her to go and call her husband. And the woman, verse 17, said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have correctly said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands. And the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly. I give you credit, you answered honestly. You don't have a husband, you have had five and now you are living with your lover who is not your husband. The woman says to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. That's great insight.

But you'll note what she does, let's turn the attention and discussion away from my sin, let's talk about how you should worship and where you should worship. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain and you, referring to you Jews, say that in the Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Let's talk about worship, let's not talk about my life and my multiple marriages and my present relationship with a man I'm not married to. Let's talk about worship and who is right and who is wrong.

Jesus said to her, Woman believe Me. An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. Let's set something straight. The key issue is not where you worship and shortly you won't be worshiping either here at Mt. Gerizim or in Jerusalem. Now He does leave her with a misunderstanding, however, that the difference between the Jews and the Samaritans is not significant because it is significant.

Look at the next verse, you worship what you do not know. You Samaritans don't have any idea what you are worshiping. We Jews worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. So you can see His answer. First He makes clear the place of worship is not the issue, but to answer your question the Jews are right and salvation is from the Jews. And you Samaritans are in ignorance but you worship. Things for us to learn, we don't want to imply to people that it doesn't make a difference on certain things. So He tells her the place of worship is not the major issue, but you understand the Jews are right and salvation comes through the Jews.

Verse 23, but an hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is Spirit, those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. This is true for Samaritans, this is true for Jews. True worship has to take place in the context of your spirit and in the context of the truth of God. It's not a matter of external form, external place, it's a matter of condition of the heart. God is a spirit, He must be worshiped in the context of your spirit, it must come from your heart, your inner person, what you are. It's not the form.

You know 2000 years later people are just as confused as the Samaritan woman. They think they go to church to worship and because they went to church they worshiped, and they went through certain activities. They stood at the right time, they sat at the right time, they sang, they did whatever else you are supposed to do and then they went out, they worshiped. Jesus said, that's not what God is looking for, those are not the worshipers that are accepted by Him. And if you're not worshiping in a way that is accepted by the God who is being worshiped, nothing is being accomplished. God is Spirit, those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. And the amazing thing is, verse 23, such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God desires people to worship Him, but it has to be worship in His way—in spirit, that's the inner person, according His truth.

Worship is intensely personal but it does not have to be private. And that distinction is going to be important in our discussion today. Worship is intensely personal, it does not have to be private. We are gathered together as a group of people to worship God, but not everybody gathered here will worship. It comes from a heart that has been changed. So it is private even though it is going on corporately, as hearts that have been changed join together we have what we call corporate worship. We have sung together, we now submit ourselves to the Word of God and the ministry of the Spirit of God together. But some may come and their heart and mind is someplace else. And they are off to what they are going to do this afternoon and can't wait to get done to get there. That's not worship, it's not taking place in that context.

The Jews got so confused, they thought that be going through forms they were pleasing God. Like we can come and think, we came to church today, I'm sure God was pleased with that. I've had a busy day and I've had a busy weekend, but I got to church, as though by showing up and taking up a spot God has been pleased that He has been worshiped. That's the point, it's not external form or activity.
Come back to Matthew 6. We noted in chapter 5 verse 20 the theme, for I say to you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Chapter 6 verse 1, beware of practicing your righteousness before men, to be noticed by them. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Practicing righteousness. You know you get into areas of the Jews' worship in Matthew 6. He is going to use three areas as an example, and again it's going to be the same point as He made regarding the Mosaic Law. If you only do it and conform externally, it has not been acceptable to God. Only that which comes from the heart, only worship offered to Him from the heart is received by Him. He'll cover three areas of the Jews practicing righteousness—the giving of alms which was giving to the needy, support of needy people in Israel; prayer and fasting. In each of these He will drive home the point. If you do it just externally before men there is no reward from God.

Matthew 6:1, beware of practicing your righteousness before men, now this is key, to be noticed by them. Doesn't mean we can never do anything of these things in a public setting. We have already prayed together, for example. We can give in a public way and we have. Doesn't mean these kinds of things can never be in a public setting, but they cannot be done with the motive or a desire to be noticed by men. So beware of practicing these things before men to be noticed by them. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. This is key. Remember the topic of the Sermon on the Mount is addressing who will go into the kingdom. He started out with the beatitudes, some of those address what? Those who will go into the kingdom, He directly stated that. So to have no reward from your Father who is in heaven is a way of saying you would be excluded from the kingdom.

There is a recurring theme on each of these three subjects He addresses—alms, prayer and fasting. Look in verse 6, when you give to the poor do not sound a trumpet before you, now note this expression, as the hypocrites. You may want to highlight that. As the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. Note this next statement, so that they may be honored by men. Those two statements, as the hypocrites and so that they may be honored by men. He's addressing hypocritical behavior, religious practice done to be noticed by men. That makes you a hypocrite because you are implying you are doing it for God, but you are really doing it for the acclaim of men.

Down in verse 5 when He talks about prayer, the first example was with alms giving. When you pray you are not to be like the hypocrites. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Again the two expressions, like the hypocrites and so that they may be seen by men. Down in verse 16 on fasting, when you fast do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men. As the hypocrites, so that they will be noticed by men. That's reoccurring, and at the end of each of these verses, verse 2, truly I say to you, they have their reward in full; verse 5, truly I say to you, they have their reward in full; verse 16, truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. The acclaim of men is what they wanted, the acclaim of men is what they got, account paid in full. The end of verse 1, they have no reward with their Father in heaven. That's the theme He is developing. What is acceptable, what results in reward from God, which in the context here will be a place in the kingdom, and what results in nothing but men patting you on the back.

So beware of righteousness men to be noticed by them, otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. When you get to verse 2 He picks up with the word hypocrites. When you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites. This is the first use of the word hypocrites in the gospel of Matthew. It will be used a number of times subsequently, and it is consistently used in Matthew of the Pharisees and their allies, the scribes. They were part of the Pharisaical group. We'll pick out just some of the examples. Look in Matthew 15, note how the chapter begins. Verse 1, then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus. You see the people who are addressing Christ. Then you come down to verse 7 what does He have to say to them? You hypocrites. Hypocrites, sad to say, becomes a synonym for the religious leaders in Israel, particularly the Pharisees and scribes. You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you. And He quotes from Isaiah 29. This people honors Me with their lips but their heart is far from Me. You see that. A hypocrite was one who was playing a role. It would have been used of an actor. In and of itself the word was not a bad word, did not have a negative connotation as originally used. An actor was playing a part, they do that still today. We give awards for doing it, right? So being a hypocrite was not bad because it was when you were playing a role on a stage. But then it came to mean somebody who was playing a role in their life, pretending to be something or someone that they were not. Here, this people honors Me with their lips but their heart is far away from Me. They are pretending to honor Me but their heart is far away from Me. They don't belong to Me, they don't have an interest in Me, they are going through the external motions.

In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Note this, they are going through the motions of worship but God says it is empty, it is worthless because they are following the commands of men, not Me. Remember you have to worship God in spirit and truth. They thought they were worshiping God, they were following the precepts of men, the scribes and Pharisees.

Look over in Matthew 22:15, then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they may trap Him. So they sent their disciples along with the Herodians to try to trick Jesus with certain questions. In verse 18, Jesus perceived their malice and said, why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? Who is the prime group in view here? The Pharisees and their disciples.

Look in Matthew 23, a chapter we've been to a number of times. One of the most scathing chapters in all the Bible and it is directed toward religious people, religious leaders. Verse 13, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; verse 14, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; verse 15, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; verse 23, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; verse 25, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; verse 27, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; verse 29, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Consistent through the gospel of Matthew when Jesus is talking about hypocrites, the prime people in view are the scribes and Pharisees. So anybody who follows their pattern is also a hypocrite, but they are the particular ones in view. So we're back to Matthew 5:20, you must have a righteousness that supersedes the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees or you'll never see the kingdom.

So when you come back to Matthew 6 Jesus says in verse 2, when you give to the poor, a word that means to give alms. We have a word in our legal terminology, eleum mossinary, which is just the Greek word here and is deeds of mercy. It was money given to help the needy in Israel. And so alms giving. We still use alms giving, the translation we have of this word here for giving to the poor. This was not to be done, and in Israel, Israel was responsible for caring for the poor. They were an earthly nation, they were God's people, they were responsible for the poor in Israel. And part of their worship of God. So you had at the temple an alms box, we might call it, where you could put your money in as you came to worship the Lord. So the problem is it had become a matter of show. So when you give to the poor do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets so they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. Any time they were going to be doing these acts, where they were doing them, they did it for show.

Now there is some discussion, did they actually blow a trumpet? Some say there were small silver trumpets that were sounded when something like this was done. Others connect it to an alms box like at the temple that had a small, miniature trumpet kind of opening there and when they threw the money in it would rattle. It may be just like we would say, don't blow your own horn, don't toot your own horn, don't draw attention to yourself, don't be magnifying yourself. The point is clear, if you have done this, even the giving to help somebody in need and people need, but you've done it so people will notice, you got your reward. They noticed. They thought, my isn't he a generous person. My isn't he .......... If that's what you did it for, you have your reward. They have their reward in full.

But when you give to the poor, do not let our left hand know what your right hand is doing. That's another way of keeping it in secret, the one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. So that your giving will be in secret and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. In other words you don't have to do it with display so God will take notice, God sees what is done in secret. So if you are doing it to please God, you don't have to do it for show before men. Now let me note here, this doesn't mean you can never give in a public way anymore than it means you can never pray in public, the next example. What He does mean, if you do it that you may be honored by men, the middle of verse 2.

And that word translated honored. Come back to chapter 5 verse 16, let your light shine before men in such a way they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. You see the ultimate goal in what we do? That God is glorified, that men will bring glory to God. So that word translated in chapter 5 verse 16, glorify. In chapter 6 verse 2, so that they may be honored. That's the same exact word. A from of the Greek word doxapadzo, to glorify. So that they may be glorified by men. ________ _________ our good works will be seen by people, but they've been done so our Father will be glorified. It's a by-product whether people notice or not. It wasn't done to be honored by men, to be glorified by men. So crucial here, the motive is what is being evaluated, the condition of the heart. Just like it was in the example in chapter 5 relating to the Mosaic Law. So here in matters related to worship and our spiritual service for the Lord, these Jews, it's a condition of the heart. Did you do it so men would give you praise, give you glory? Well then you got the reward you were working for. You gave money and you did it in a way that men would give you credit for it, you got your credit, your got your reward. There is nothing from God. And people going through the motions of serving the Lord with this kind of heart have no reward from the Lord. For the Jews, they would understand. No reward from the Lord in this context, we're talking about you're not going to be part of the kingdom. I've been preaching repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, but you understand you have to have a greater righteousness than that of the scribes and Pharisees or you'll not go into the kingdom.

Now you may be giving to help the poor in Israel, but if you are and you're doing it with the desire to be noticed by men, you understand you have had your reward in full. That in no way will enable you to go into the kingdom. So you come with the desire and attitude of doing it secretly, doesn't mean we can never give publicly.

Turn over to II Corinthians 8. We want to be careful we don't take truth of scripture and distort it. This is an example of public giving but with the right heart, giving that has an impact on others. In II Corinthians 8:1 he starts our here, now brethren we wish to make known to you the grace of God. II Corinthians 8-9 are about giving, financial giving, and they use the word grace more often than any other chapters in the Bible. You might think they would be one of the great chapters on substitutionary atonement or the work of Christ. But the word grace is used more often in these two chapters than any other place in the Bible. Now brethren we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia. Grace has been given, it was money given but the money is a by-product. It was a result of the grace of God working in the hearts of the Macedonian believers, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy, their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. So I testify that they gave beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, verse 3. This came from their hearts, their own desire. They were begging for the privilege of being involved in this ministry. So Paul uses them as an example.

Verse 5, they gave not as we had expected, they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. You see their giving was a result of hearts that had been given to the Lord and a desire to please Him and honor Him and glorify Him and have Him honored. But it doesn't mean Paul doesn't use them as an example here for other Corinthians. We say, it should have been secret, Paul shouldn't ......... No, it's the Spirit of God directing Paul to record it and we are encouraged by it. So it's not that giving can never be done in a public way, but it can never be done with a desire to be honored and recognized by people.

If the Macedonians had given because they wanted Paul to hold them up as an example so they could get credit for it, it would not have had any spiritual value. But they gave themselves to the Lord and this was something they wanted to do in a response to the work of the Lord in their hearts. Now whether it became known publicly or was publicly known is an irrelevant issue. The motivation of the heart.

Come back to Matthew 6. For matters here it is hard for us to judge others in that individually. I'm preaching a sermon, I'm teaching you the Word of God. You can't see my heart. If I do this because I want people to say he's a good teacher, I want people to pat me on the back and say that was a good sermon, things like that, then I've had my full reward. I did it for men and I got credit from men. If I do it out of a desire to please the Lord and honor Him by faithfully handling His Word so that people will know Him better and honor Him with their lives, then God is pleased with that. That's true in all of our service. We all sit here looking about the same, some a little more tired than others but we look about the same. And it's hard for us to look into the heart of a person sitting several rows away. I don't know what's going on in their heart. They sit taking in the Word and have a heart's desire to submit to it and then have the Spirit of God apply it to them so they can live more pleasing to Him. We can't see that going on in the heart and mind. But the Lord does and that's what we're talking about here.

Verse 5, the next example. When you pray do not be like the hypocrites. Why? They love to stand and pray in the synagogues, on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Hypocrites, they do it to be seen by men. Why are they hypocrites? They are playing a role. They are acting like they are doing it for God, but they're really doing it for men so men will look at them and say, look how spiritual they are, look how godly they are. They have a real relationship with God, look at them pray. Well they did it with the desire that men would see them. They have their reward.

I'll never forget, the first time we went to Israel we were at the Wailing Wall. Some of the more orthodox Jews there in their outfits and their ringlets on the side of their foreheads. They come to the Wailing Wall and they pray, and you can tell they are praying. I start to get dizzy, can't watch them. What is this for? You come up here and are dressed a certain way and you stand at the wall and you stand out from everybody. Maybe some of them are genuine, that's just the motion they go through. But you draw attention to yourself that way. I mean, we know what it's like. Perhaps most of you don't have to be up in front of people to speak and so it can be awkward, you're not used to standing in front of people and speaking. And so if somebody calls on you to pray and you have to pray audibly with people around you feel awkward. But stop and think about it, we're just talking to God. Why do we feel awkward if we're going to pray audibly in a group or Bible study or Sunday School class? Well other people are listening. But I have to remind myself, I'm not praying to them, I'm not looking to please them. I'm talking to God. I mean, isn't that what we're doing when we're praying? We're supposed to do? I mean, when you go into your room and you close the door and it's just you and you're praying, you're talking to God. You're not impressing anyone, right? Because there is nobody else there. We need to be careful. There is a place in public worship for prayer. I have to be careful that I don't forget, I'm doing the same thing I do when I'm in secret.

Now I have to take into consideration, I may pray about things in my secret prayer time that when I'm leading perhaps the congregation in prayer, I pray for things differently. And that's fine. In personal conversation our conversation is adjusted toward the appropriateness of the time, right? I mean you would wonder if I got up to lead in prayer here and I started to pray about my kids and grandkids and ........... You say, maybe he ought to have done that when he was praying privately, because I ought to be sensitive. But still what am I doing? Am I praying so that when I get done people say, our pastor can pray.

I can say this now, I've been here 40 years so this goes back long enough. I used to dread the pastoral prayer time in our home church. It never stopped. I wasn't quick enough to be familiar with verse 7 and too many words. I said, does the pastoral prayer have to be 20 minutes? But it is appropriate, there is nothing wrong with a long prayer. We're going to talk about that in our next study. But we have to be careful, do we pray to impress people? Long prayers may be sincere prayers, short prayers may be sincere, but we're going to get an example of what prayer ought to be like in our next study when we study the Lord's Prayer. I have to be careful I'm not doing it for men. That will help relax you.

I've used the example of the elderly professor who was at the Bible college I went to and he'd call on different men in the class to open in prayer for every one of his classes. Then when he got done he would say, ladies and gentlemen, you have just had a perfect example of how not to pray in public. I still remember walking down the hall with my friends to his class trying to figure out who was going to get called on today. It didn't work to think, I'll go late after the opening prayer. He didn't miss it. Oh, Mr. Smith, you've been late in joining us today. That was just so you knew he knew you missed the prayer time. You could get called on three times in a row for that. But it was good because he reminded you that prayer, is that the way you talk to people? I mean, that's the way you talk? I mean you were going on, do you realize some of your sentences didn't make any sense? Do you realize you referred to Father 32 times in that short prayer? Do you say now Bill, I'm glad to talk to you, Bill. I hope, Bill, we can have this conversation, Bill, when we meet again, Bill. And why do you think you just keep saying Father, we're glad we're here, Father. And we hope, Father, that you're listening, Father, so that Father, you'll be paying attention, Father, and know we ........ ___________________ you're talking to God? What kind of nonsense is this? I didn't appreciate it, but it made me more sensitive that indeed I am talking to God. There ought to be order ............ When I went and talked to my father if I wasn't making sense he'd just say now stop, you're not making any sense. Sometimes we think God ought to knock us on the head and say, you're not making any sense. And it's worse when we pray audibly because somehow we're mindful everybody is listening.

A little bit of a sidetrack. Men (men are the ones responsible to lead audibly in prayer), sometimes it's good just to practice, if I can us that word, by praying audibly when you're alone. When you're in your room, close the door and you don't have to pray audibly, God can hear you, He's a Spirit. We communicate with our minds, right? But sometimes it's helpful just to pray audibly right there. I like to go in and close my door and talk to the Lord out loud. Because you know what happens sometimes when you pray audibly you get up and there are people there and all of a sudden you hear these words coming out of your mouth and it's not me. Just like the first time you got up if you public speak and you start to talk. All of a sudden I'm hearing myself. It's good to hear yourself, it doesn't have anything directly to do with what Jesus said except it ought to come from the heart. And so I want to do that. He's not necessarily talking about audible prayer here, in our private prayer. I don't have to let people know I'm a prayer warrior, I'm a prayer giant. Just the other day when I was spending three hours in prayer talking with the Lord. I work these things in. Why? I don't want to spend three hours in prayer in my closet and not have anybody know. I mean, how are they going to know how spiritual I am. That doesn't mean there can never be a time you don't tell someone that you felt burdened. We admire Martin Luther, he said he couldn't start his day without four hours of prayer, there were too many things in his day to be praying about. I don't know that he was doing that to impress men, he was just telling you the facts. With a day as busy as I have, I have so many things to bring before the Lord it takes me a while.

That's fine, but we need to be careful. We find little ways to be recognized as spiritual. And that's what was going on here. When you're doing it for that, your prayer life is zilch. You prayed to people, people honored you for your prayer, there is no other reward. When you pray, verse 6, go into your inner room, close your door, pray to your Father in secret. Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. When you pray don't use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose they will be heard for their many words. Guidelines here. Doesn't mean we can never pray in public, but even the most public prayer is a private prayer, it's coming from my heart and mind to the Lord. Sometimes I am leading others in prayer, but I'm not talking to them. That doesn't mean my prayer ............. It should take into mind I am leading these people, I want to pray for what is appropriate in this context. I go to pray at a funeral, I don't thank God for all the weddings that are taking place today and bless them and the children who will be born of them. Amen. I say, what does that have to do with why we are here and talking to the Lord about. So I bring order and some thought to my prayer life, to be sure.

Just like when I was going to talk to my father. We have causal conversation but I wanted to put it in an orderly way. I just didn't go gibberish. So we're going to talk more about this when we talk about the patter of prayer with the Lord's Prayer, but we're going to save that for next time. The point here is prayer has to come from the heart to God. Alms giving is ultimately a matter between a person and God. The fact that poor people are going to benefit from it in Israel didn't change anything. I'm giving this as an expression of my love for the Lord, my desire to please Him and honor Him and be used of Him to care for His people in Israel that are needy. My prayer is a conversation with Him, not to draw attention to myself.

And the third area, down in verse 16, whenever you fast do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men. Same thing. Hypocrites, they do it to be noticed. That's the key, it's the motive. They do it to be noticed, they do it to be noticed. Now the fact that somebody might do this and be noticed, that's not the issue. But the desire to be noticed. They have their reward in full.

What do they do? They put on a gloomy face, they neglect their appearance. But you when you fast. The Old Testament doesn't require fasting in the Law, there is only one fast required in the Old Testament in the Mosaic Law and that's on the Day of Atonement. But fasting became a regular practice and we find it repeatedly in the Old Testament. It is a sign of humbling yourself before God, of times of great need, fasting, repentance, mourning. Fasting would take place in that context. Nothing wrong with fasting. Jesus doesn't say you shouldn't fast because the Law only requires it on the Day of Atonement. The point is when you fast you are doing this as an act to humble yourself before the Lord, in seeking His mercy, or something like that. You don't do it to show before men. Anoint your head, wash your face. In other words fix your hair, wash your face so that men aren't looking. There is a holy person, look at him, he hasn't combed his hair, washed his face. Obviously he's hungry, he has his hand on his stomach. But he is just so spiritual, he's just foregoing the normal things. Well you did it to be noticed, you got credit for being in the eyes of men especially spiritual, you got everything you're getting.

What is Jesus saying? These kinds of people aren't going into the kingdom. You have your reward in full. The reward of the kingdom that we've talked about, you're getting nothing from the Father. The idea, this kind of religious activity does not bring reward from the Father. You do it so that you are not noticed by men. Verse 18, your Father who sees in secret what is done in secret will reward you. This constant pattern, this constant emphasis. There are times of fasting that take place in the New Testament. Acts 13, the church in Antioch, they fasted and prayed and then they set Paul and Barnabas apart for the ministry. In Acts 14:23 you have them fasting and praying before they appoint elders. There is nothing wrong with fasting, it is not a major thing covered in the New Testament. If you want to fast that's fine. Most of the calls we get for fasting are drawn from the Old Testament and what the nation Israel did. That's not a necessary foundation for what we do. Our nation is not the nation Israel, nothing wrong with praying for the nation.

We have to be careful with any of the things we do religiously. Just like the Jews in these things we're not doing them for show. I mean, get up and come to church but didn't feel like it, didn't want to. That's all right, sometimes we have to do what we don't want to. But if I begin to do it, I want to get there because I want them to see me. In my church way back when, when we were living on the East Coast sometimes people would come early and sit in the auditorium and pray for the service. That was fine, but if you showed up early in the auditorium and why were you there? I want people who come to see I was one of the early ones sitting in there praying. Then I did it for show. There were dear saints who were there early because they were sincerely praying for the service and the ministry. And there could be others who came and did it for the wrong reason. Why are you here today? Well if I didn't come, people would wonder where I was. Why didn't I come? And maybe I'm having a spiritual problem so we better go, because they know where we sit every week and if we don't go ........... Wait a minute, why am I doing it? Do I come to worship God? Why do I go through these things? Why do I give? Why do I even go to church? Why do people go? We like to squeeze it in Saturday night, we like to squeeze it in another time. I like to have the whole day free. I like to worship the Lord but I like to do it at a time and a place where it doesn't interfere with other things. Like the Lord is a sideline for me. I have a lot of important things to do and He'll be happy just as long as I fit Him in someplace. And shorter is always better than longer. And it's just something I want to get through. At least I go through all the required motion, if I can do all the required forms quicker I get the benefit because I did what God said and I got it done quicker.

You know all these kinds of things, how do we end up this is worship? I mean, that God is pleased as though He is sitting up there, if anybody would come for any reason and whatever they are thinking and how haphazard and whether they want the approval of men. Just as long as they come, I'm so relieved that someone would pay attention to Me. I mean, is that not close to blasphemy, that that's the way my attitude toward God is? I have Him on the clock and whatever He is looking for in worship He ought to be able to get it this time. We need to stop and say, do I come with the right attitude? You know the most important thing I do is I join together with other believers or if I can worship God at other times, we're talking about here where other people are __________________ to prepare my own heart. You come and you're all upset, but what other people do doesn't affect my worship of God. __________ irritated me, my wife got on my nerves and so just ruined by worship today. Or my husband did this and I find it hard to worship God. Wait a minute, what does that have to do with my heart? We come to worship God. I let these trivial things distract me, upset me and so now I can't worship God. Maybe I need to back up, what's my heart like? Do I prepare my heart at all? We plan for having company, we plan for doing things but for worship we just hit it on the fly. We come in, we're so frazzled, we have so many things on our minds, we are so distracted, we're two-thirds of the way through our supposed worship before we even have our minds settled down. Maybe I ought to think this is important enough as I join together that Lord you have my full attention and I've prepared my heart for worshiping you. You are the center of my attention, I come with a heart focused on you, Lord. ___________ flow into the songs, I didn't come here and that's a time for me to help get settled down for when the preaching ............... I've prepared my heart and I've planned for this because we come together and it's important, Lord.

And it's true for my life. Come to Hebrews 10 and we will be done. We will come back and do the Lord's Prayer in our next study. This is true in the Old Testament and the New Testament. There were external manifestations, forms that Israel was to go through. That was fine but the external form didn't make it worship. It had to come form the heart. Hebrews 10:19, therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus. I mean, what an honor, a privilege, we're coming into the very presence of God Himself. Only the high priest could come into the Holy of Holies here. We can come in by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh. Since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart, a true heart in full assurance of faith. You'll note what is required here. We are drawing near to the very presence of God, we have to come with a true heart, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, the inner defilements cleansed away, our bodies washed with pure water, external cleansing from the defilement of sin. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as the habit of some. Already at this time some people had gotten the idea, worship is a private matter, it's a personal matter, I don't have to get together with other believers to worship. I do. Why? Because God said I do, and part of my responsibility as one coming.

You know where this all connects to, verse 19, we have confidence to enter the holy place because of the finished work of Christ. And out of that then flows my relationship with others. So it starts there, having a true heart, a heart that has been cleansed, a life that has been cleansed. Now I'm concerned how to demonstrate love to other believers and encourage them. The word stimulate often used to antagonize people, here used in a good sense—stir them up to love and good deeds. Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day approaching. See how our worship joins together, comes back to this basic issue of a heart relationship with the living God.

In Christ we have experienced that cleansing, that access. Now we draw near with God. What a privilege. The very presence of God I come with a heart that is acceptable to Him because He has cleansed it. And now we join together in worshiping Him and encouraging, stirring one another up to be pleasing to God so God can be glorified, which is what we saw in Matthew 5:16 in the Sermon on the Mount.

I think it's a serious matter, I think it is a great tragedy. So many people are going through the motions of worship but they have no reward from God. We don't want that to happen, we want to be people that come with clean heart and hands, pure hearts to worship the living God.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace, a grace that has brought cleansing and forgiveness. We who were defiled within and without, depraved, disgusting hearts, vile. And yet you cleansed our hearts. Had lies, given over to sin, the pursuit of sinful things. You cleansed us, you washed us clean, you made us new. Now we are privileged to come before your throne, personally and individually, together as your people to offer you worship and praise. Lord, may we be careful that our worship comes form the heart, hearts that have been cleansed by faith in the finished work of your Son, hearts committed to honor you, to bring you glory so that our worship might be acceptable. Thank you for this privilege. In Christ's name, amen.