Beware Of Hypocrisy - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. But if you give a large sum of money to a good cause, be honest. Don't you want someone to notice? You've got to be honest with yourself. You see, I guess. You see, a large sacrificial gift, someone should notice this. Be careful with that.

They'll notice it, but you better be very careful in what you do. He said, because if you do it with the wrong motive, you end up becoming what he said is a hypocrite. It's an amazing thing when you think about it, you know. A New Testament is loaded with this whole idea of our giving being private. In fact, 2 Corinthians 9 says, just as a person's purpose is in their heart.

That's how you give. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. Back in the 1980s, I read a book by Robert McGee, and it was titled The Search for Significance. And the book was enormously successful. It had several printings. He sold millions and millions of copies. And the book deals with how because of our own internal inadequacies, we try to draw our significance by doing outward actions and then trying to get opinions from other people. His formula in the book was self-worth equals performance plus others opinions. And he said, virtually everyone in America is on the same treadmill.

We're all trying to do this. That we think if we do something outwardly and people think well of us with a good opinion, that somehow that makes us feel better. But he said the truth of it is it's just a satanic lie. It's not the way we should operate at all. As all, it's believers. And as I thought about that, there's nothing new about the concept. I mean, people have been trying to press one another with how they do things for all time and all over the world. Most of the religions in the world are purely external.

And the whole idea is to impress people with your external things that you accomplish. Well, when Jesus Christ came as Israel's Messiah, when he came here to be their Messiah, he found out that that's exactly what was going on in the nation Israel. And the irony is this. Jesus didn't call these people significant people. He called these people hypocrites.

And it was probably exactly the opposite of what they thought, the kind of response they were going to get. So I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew Chapter six as we continue a series on the Sermon on the Mount. I've told you before, but I call the series The Disturbing Sermon on the Mount.

We look back at it sort of fondly. The Jews who heard it did not look at it that way. They would have hated everything he said. He is saying things so bluntly and so forcibly that they not only didn't believe him, but their parents didn't believe their grandparents didn't believe him. There was a whole different view of how you get right with God. And Jesus comes and just attacks it, and he's about as blunt as he could possibly be as he deals with these things. And so starting in six, he starts out with an interesting word. He starts out with beware. Now, that that to me is fascinating. Prosecco is the word Prosecco, and it means grab a hold of this.

It means that literally take hold of something, grab a hold of this. And it's not a typical rabbi responding. He he doesn't sound like a rabbi. Sounds like a prophet. So he doesn't sound like he's teaching here. He's more like prophesying. A teacher wants to deal with information, but a prophet wants to deal with transformation. And so he's very blunt, a lot like an Old Testament prophet. He said, beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. Wow.

What's he mean? I think he knows the human heart. We do so many things outwardly so that other people will see it. And it's an interesting thing, because by the time Jesus shows up here, it's an art form in Israel.

They're all doing it. Notice then what he says, though, must have been perplexing to them. He says otherwise. He said, you have no reward with your fathers in heaven. If you practice your faith outwardly to be noticed by other people, the reward you get from God at the end of your life is zero.

That's amazing. You get nothing. And it's like, what? Nothing. But I did this and I did that. You get nothing. All has to do with our motive.

You can see it. You're practicing to be noticed by other people. So then what Jesus does is he takes three things that are absolute bedrock part of the Christian life. Three disciplines that are part of every Christian's life. Three things we all assume.

Giving, praying and fasting. He says, you know what, you can do all those as a hypocrite does it. That's the warning. That's why he says beware.

You can do all these things. So he starts out and he says, so when you give to the poor, that's giving. Do not sound the trumpet before you as the hypocrites do. So when you give to the poor.

His assumption here is an if. He doesn't say if you give to the poor. He said, no, if you're part of God's family, you give to the poor. So when you give to the poor.

But you do it to be noticed by men. See, that's a very different thing. I think in the day we live in, we struggle with believers or followers of Christ with this. This idea of giving to the poor. A lot of Christians have a very jaundiced eye when it comes to giving to the poor.

We've been conditioned for that. I mean, why would I give to the poor? How do you know what they're going to do with it? You know what those people do with the money?

Why would I do that? That's the government's job. Not according to God.

It's our job. Christians should be people that are always willing to help the poor. A man named Snyder wrote a book in the 1980s that I thought was interesting and I read. And the title of the book was Rich Christians in a Hungry World. And he was talking about how self-serving we are with our own money, but we're not helping hardly anyone.

But Jesus assumes it. And then he uses hyperbole. He says, do not sound the trumpet before you.

Now, that's hyperbole, but it's an interesting picture. And then any time you want to give something like to the poor, blow your trumpet first. Now, you know the piercing sound of a trumpet. Okay, so you get...

Here you go. You see, and I think what happens is that was part of the giving. When you went to the temple grounds, for example, one of the areas where you could give was an area that had sort of looked like trumpets.

They start narrow and they get wider and then they go down into the ground. And you could walk to that area and drop in an offering. Well, apparently, the Pharisees would not drop their offering in there unless there was a big crowd. And if there was a big crowd, it was sort of excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.

Walk over, take out your money and look to everybody and then put it in. Oh, look what the Pharisee gave. Look what he did.

Wow, look what he gave. So, Jesus is mocking it obviously with the hyperbole, no doubt about that. He says, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, this is anywhere they help the poor. Temples, synagogue, streets. The word there for streets is not the typical word for a small street. There's a lot of narrow streets in Jerusalem. This is the word for boulevard. If they're going to help a poor person, I want to do it out on a big street.

Why? So everybody sees what I'm doing. You see, and obviously Jesus is calling this hypocrisy. He then says, and so that they may be honored by men.

So they may be honored by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. That's all they get. So the key in giving isn't giving or helping the poor. The key in giving is what's your motive. It's not always even your own fault.

You see, sometimes men want to honor you and it's not part of your motive at all. We had a particular situation with our own church. And we gave a large gift of money to Dallas Theological Seminary. And by the way, we've been supporting on a monthly basis for 25 years, sending money to Dallas Theological Seminary. 25 years. Never heard anything.

I mean, you know, never heard a thing. Just one large check got to Dallas and I got a phone call. And they wanted to do a Zoom call with me. And they wanted me to put me on their website. And I said, for what?

Well, that large check that came in. See, that's the opposite. But it's the same thing. I don't want us to be noticed by men.

Didn't do it for that reason. And we've been faithful supporters for 25 years and didn't hear a thing. And now, you see, there's recognition. Now, I get that. If I ran a nonprofit organization, I would want to recognize certain givers.

I get all that. But it's not just that some people want to be honored. Sometimes people want to honor you.

You see, and that's the danger here in the giving is why do you do it? It's not a matter. You can't do anything as a servant of Christ for others and for the Lord that some people would notice. He's not saying no one should notice anything. But he's saying your motive better be as private as a motive can possibly be. He goes on and explains. He said, when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand's doing.

So that's pretty private. Right hand is the action hand of the Jew. He said, don't let your left hand know. In other words, you just, between you and the Lord, do it and forget about it as soon as you can. He said, so that your giving will be in secret and your father who sees what is done in secret, he'll reward you. You see, the whole question that he's talking about here is pretty simple. What he's talking about here isn't the fact of do we give or not give.

The whole point that he's talking about here is that what's your motive? By the way, that's hard. Don't think for a moment that's easy. Now, it might be easy for some of us because we've never given anything, you know, or we give almost nothing.

That makes it easy. But if you give a large sum of money to a good cause, be honest. Don't you want someone to notice?

You've got to be honest with yourself. You see, I guess. You see, a large sacrificial gift, someone should notice this. He said, be careful with that.

They'll notice it, but you better be very careful in what you do. He said, because if you do it with the wrong motive, you end up becoming what he said is a hypocrite. It's an amazing thing when you think about it, you know. A New Testament is loaded with this whole idea of our giving being private.

In fact, 2 Corinthians 9 says, just as a person's purpose is in their heart. That's how you give. But we have to be careful with this whole idea. It's something Jesus assumes is part of every Christian's life.

Now, I have head over the past. People tell me, as a compliment to the church, and I understand the motive, but they'll say after they've been here a while, one of the things I like most about the church is you never talk about money. And that's an interesting thought. You never talk about it. But the question is, why do you like that?

Purely, it could be a good thing. So many churches are trying to raise money constantly. They never stop. Every single time they get together, they're going to beat the same drum and tell you, you better give more, you got to give more, you got to give more. And we don't do that. Because if you give as purposed in your heart, coercing you into giving is of no good at all, because it's got to be what's your motive, what's the purpose of your heart. But if you like it because now I don't have to give, because this is a great church to go to if you don't want to give.

You see, if you do that, that's completely false. That's not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying, look, when you give, do it in a sense as anonymously as it can possibly be. Then he moves to prayer. He said, when you pray, he said, you're not to be like the hypocrites. Like, did you realize that a lot of your prayers could be hypocritical and that God wouldn't recognize it?

That's an interesting thought. So he says, don't 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. And truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. People pray like that?

Yes. At the time of Jesus Christ, the tradition in Israel would have been the Shema, hero of Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one out of Deuteronomy six. They had they prayed that wherever they were at nine, noon and three. Wherever they were, they prayed that out loud. They prayed the Shema. The Pharisees had added this. Well, the Pharisees always wanted to make sure that at nine, noon and three, they were out there where a lot of people were.

And then they would bellow out their prayer so that all the people said, oh, look at the Pharisee. Look how he's praying. Look at that.

Look at look how spiritual this man must be. And so, Jesus, that's just hypocrisy. That's all that is. There's nothing else.

He said they have the reward in full. Now, we wouldn't ever do that, would we? Let me put it this way. And I've had it happen to me on a couple of occasions. You're in a small group. All of a sudden, the leader of the small group says, there's 10 of you. And the leader of the small group says, OK, here's how we're going to close.

We're going to start with Ralph and end with Ernie. And we're all going to go around and pray. OK, so you think, Ralph, five to me, four after me.

You're thinking. Now, these guys are praying, and you're not listening at all. What are you thinking about? How I'm going to pray. Got to figure out, oh, number two took what I was going to say. I was going to say that, and now he took it.

How can I sound? You see, oh, great God who lives in the glories, who has. I mean, you've got to think. I've got to sound right if I'm praying. That's hypocrisy. Praying is just talking to God, even in that setting. There's a temptation. But they did it so they could actually be heard by men.

And that's the point of it. He said they love to stand and pray in the synagogues on street corner. They'll be heard by men.

I say they're rewards in full. When you pray, go into your inner room, close the door, pray to your fathers in secret, and your father who sees what is done in secret, he'll reward you. Now, Christians have taken that verse, and it was big back in the 80s. The whole idea in that verse is every Christian needs a prayer closet. You have to have a closet, and that's the only way you should pray. Go to your closet and pray. Now, if you have a prayer closet in your home, that's great. There's nothing wrong with that.

But let's put it this way. How many times in the Gospels is Jesus in a prayer closet? He's not. Well, it's Jesus. How could Jesus not have a prayer closet? Not what he means. He means a private place.

It's between you and God. Did Jesus ever wander away from the disciples and pray on his own? All the time.

It was a pattern of his. He prayed privately. I don't have to pray publicly. I don't have to pray eloquently. I'm going to pray honestly and transparently. And that's what he means. And he says, look, your father will hear in secret, and he knows what to be done, and he'll reward you.

That's an interesting thought, a sidebar on this. Prayer is an act of worship. Whenever you pray, you're worshiping God. And it has all the elements of worship. That's why you praise God and thank God for who he is.

And he'll give us a short example of this in a moment. And then you may talk about your own needs that only God can meet in your life. That's all part of your prayer life.

It's an act of worship. Do you need to be verbose to get God to listen? The answer is emphatically no.

Why? He's God. Before you started praying, did God know what you needed? Before you started praying, did God know every word you were going to say?

So what's the point? I'm going to impress him with how many things I can say or keep saying. He said, don't do that. God knows what you need. He's God. Prayer is conversation between me and my Heavenly Father. You see, that's his point. That's what prayer is. He says, so don't get caught up in that.

Notice the next one. He said, and when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do. For they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. That's very common in pagan religions. Repeat prayer. Now sidebar shows you what Christians could be like.

Sideward. Jesus in a moment is going to give us the disciples prayer, not the Lord's prayer. The Lord's prayer is in John 17. That's him praying. This is telling disciples how to pray publicly. That's the Lord's prayer. We call it the Lord's prayer. So what did the church do with this prayer?

He just said, do not, let me read him. Do not use meaningless repetition. So what do we do? Let's repeat the Lord's prayer. And in some disciplines or some views, think of this. On the basis of what you did, you're going to have to do 17 our fathers.

Like what? Yeah, just keep repeating this prayer. He just said, don't repeat prayers. He said, that's meaningless to repeat prayer. The church got a hold of it and said, let's repeat the prayer.

I mean, it's almost stunning that we could interpret his words and come up with that conclusion. He said, so don't be like them. Your father knows what you need before you even ask them. So he says, look, pray in this way. Our father is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors and do not lead us in temptation. Deliver us from evil.

You'll notice in your Bible for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen is in brackets. That means it's not in the oldest manuscripts. That was added by a scribe later. Nothing wrong with the words. The words are fine. It's not in the oldest manuscripts at all.

Just one sidebar on this that might help you. The earlier translations, say from the King James on, the earlier translations are built on the newest manuscript evidence. So the King James is based on newer manuscripts. Now, the translations today are based on older manuscripts.

And so consequently, that's why they put brackets around this. Those manuscripts were found by archaeologists and others after the first translation of the King James version. So when they say when it says it's not in the oldest manuscripts, that's what it means.

It's not in the closest to Christ manuscripts. So you'll see sections like this. Nothing wrong with the words. The words are fine.

But they were likely added, he says, by a scribe. So what he talks to us here is, OK, we're going to show you how I give you a model of praying. Now, this is interesting. There's less than 70 words here. Jesus said, you want to pray in public? Use less than 70 words.

You want a model. This is how short this is. This is not long at all. Now, he's not talking. He's talking about a public prayer. He's not talking about interacting with God. In fact, if you remember, what did Paul say about this on prayer? Didn't he say pray without ceasing? Now, some Christians take that wrong. You mean all I should do every day is get up in the morning and start praying till I go to bed.

No, it's not what he's saying. Paul says pray without ceasing. Constantly, constantly interact with God as you live your life. Constantly.

I don't need a prayer time for this. It's just constant communication. God has communicated to me through his word.

I communicate to him through prayer. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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