Authentic Hypocrisy

Praise the Lord.

Amen. Your Bibles, if you would look with me to Matthew's Gospel Chapter number six, Matthew six. And when you find your place, we'll stand in honor of God's word and read verse one down to verse number four.

which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee is 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 you do, when thou doest alms, let not thy hand know what thy right hand doeth, thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Verse four, that thine alms may be in secret and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Father, we are so joyful to be saved today, to know the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and that all who would come today and confess Christ as Lord, who would bow their knee in humble repentance and surrender their life to you could be saved. Father, I pray if anyone today doesn't know Jesus, Lord, that they would come and trust in Christ. I pray for Christians that you, Lord, you would search us, know our hearts, try us, and know our thoughts, and if there is any unclean or wickedness in us that you would lead us in the right path. And God, I pray that you would allow us to be a pure people who loves you sincerely and loves one another as ourself.

We ask it in Jesus' name and God's people said, Man, you may be seated this morning. So faith, religion, and truth so necessary to our lives without real authentic worship on the inside of a person will always lead to hypocrisy. External faith without internal faith always ends in hypocrisy. Consider the word motive and what does that mean to you in regards to your worship?

How essential is motive in our worship and can we ever have right worship if we have a wrong motive? And the day when faith and religion became external, which was clear in the Lord's day, it was a show, the whole society had become infected with hypocrisy. And it was the religious leaders that sadly were in the front of the line parading the false teachings of hypocrisy. And when asked by our Lord what is the greatest commandment in the law, it's very interesting that Jesus did not point to some external observance, but rather he said it is to love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He went straight into the heart and soul of the person instead of the external because even an atheist can play the part.

But an atheist cannot love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. One thing hypocrites like to do is to make a big deal out of externals. They focus on outward acts. And they do that because it is only the external that will pay them the reward that they are so desperately looking for, which is the applause of men.

They want to be noticed. It is their man-centered religion that creates a man-centered motive. The true religion that is undefiled seeks only the eyes of God, though it lives in a world of men, it lives for the audience of one.

It has little concern what men think of it. It cares deeply for what God thinks of them. And it knows that the piercing eyes of God look beyond the external shell of man into the inward fabric of their soul. God sees the motives.

And a true believer is deeply concerned with that. In Matthew 6, Jesus begins to assault hypocrisy because it is indeed hypocrisy which assaults true religion. And my prayer today is our hearts and lives would be purified from any and all hypocrisy.

That we would not be those who simply would look good externally, but we would look better internally. And what our Lord would find here would be true worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth. And that we would not live for the praise of men, but for the praise of God. And so today, let's look at what our Lord confronts here in a message I've entitled Authentic Hypocrisy. There are three acts of hypocrisy Jesus confronts in Matthew 6. The first is in verse 1 through 4, He confronts the hypocritical giving. In verse 5 down to verse 15, He confronts hypocritical praying. And then in verse 16 through 18, He confronts hypocritical fasting. And so He starts by warning against hypocritical giving and the first thing we see here is the wrong motive of an authentic hypocrite.

And in verse number 1 it says, Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. The phrase there, take heed, is from a Greek word that it is a warning against something. It is to say give careful attention to something that you could be pulled into, that could cause you a great problem. He uses the same word in Matthew 7.15 when He says, Beware, it's the same Greek word prosetko, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly ravening wolves. He uses the same word in Matthew 10 when He says, beware there is coming persecution. He gives them also the warning in Matthew 16.16, beware of the false teaching of the scribes and Pharisees. So it is a word that is designed to tell someone that there are some things that you need to be on alert for, that you don't get pulled into, something that could cause great ruin to you. And so He's giving them this word and it's also in the present imperative tense which means it is something we are to continually be aware of, that we are to be on guard for this, that we don't get pulled down by this danger.

And what He says here is, take heed, beware, make sure you don't get pulled into this, that you do not your alms before men. Now the word alms here is a word ilei masuna and it comes from the root word ileios which is translated in the English as mercy. It is showing mercy or pity. It is the idea that one who is a superior in some fashion would look upon someone who is an inferior, some soul that's in an inferior situation, that they are struggling, that they are hurting, that they are in need and you would have mercy. You would show pity to them and that would be revealed through acts of kindness such as caring for their physical needs, showing them just like the Good Samaritan, He had pity on the man who was beat up and He cared for him, dressed his wounds, put him on his own donkey, took him to the inn, paid for him and that's an act of mercy. God shows us mercy, He pities our soul the Bible says, He sees us in our wretched condition and He extends mercy to us. Now the acts of mercy here is the word alms ilei masuna and Jesus says don't do these acts of mercy before men.

Now what does that mean? It says do not your alms before men. Are we supposed to not help someone if somebody else can see us? So if you're out somewhere and you see a dear person who fell on the street and you say well there's several people around that could see me do this act of mercy and kindness so I don't want to extend this alms deeds to this person because I will be seen. That's not what He's saying. What He's saying is it's not wrong to be seen but it's wrong to desire to be seen. Notice what verse 1 says, take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Being seen of men is not the problem.

To be seen of men is the problem. To be seen is actually a Greek word theomai where we get the word theatrical from. And it's interesting because if somebody is doing something theatrical they're doing some external act of extravagance. They're trying to call attention to themselves. It would be like some dear lady fell on the street and there's several people around and I will get her everybody stand aside.

I will be the one to extend my hand and pull this helpless child of God from the ground and bring her to the other. That's the kind of theatrical extravagance that was being played upon by the spiritual leaders of that day. They were doing it to be seen of men.

Now here the Lord is dealing with our motive and ministering to others, caring for others, showing mercy and pity to them and making sure our desire is pure. Now the reason I call this the motive of the authentic hypocrite is because this was genuinely their motive. This was authentically their desire. They didn't have like a true motive. They got pulled into a false motive. I mean they wanted to be seen by men.

They wanted the attention. They wanted other people to say, you know what, you're just so generous. I don't know anyone who's as kind as you. Boy if the whole world had people like you, imagine what the world could be and instead of saying, you know what, you're over praising me. I'm nothing without Christ. For me to think myself to be something without Christ, I've deceived myself. And we're but treasures and we have this treasure and earthly vessel that the excellency of power would be of God and not of us. And we're not sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves.

Our sufficiency is God. So instead of replying like that, they say, oh well thank you very much. We had a president who would act that way.

I won't name who he was. Love the praise of men. And so secondly, the reward of an authentic hypocrite. What is the reward of a authentic hypocrite? Well, it tells us in verse number one, it says, take heed that you do not your own before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your father, which is in heaven. Their reward is totally lost because their pursuit is totally earthly.

Charles Spurgeon, I like what he said. He said, you cannot expect to be paid twice. If therefore you take your reward in the applause of men who give you a high character for generosity, you cannot expect to have any reward from God. And where do you want your reward to come from? God knows our true motives. First Corinthians chapter four, verse five says, Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord will come and will bring both to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the councils of the external works.

Is that what he says? What's it say, church? Of the hearts. God's going to reveal to everyone in the day of judgment the exact motive of everything we did.

It will be revealed in that day. You know, every single thing we've ever done for God will be revealed, not only the act, but also the motive. You think it's important for us to have pure motives these days? God will eternally reward those who serve him for the right motive. In Scripture, God offers salvation to those who are lost as a free gift of his grace. And to the saved, he offers reward for faithful service.

Did you hear that? God extends salvation to the lost, and he extends rewards to the saved. You want to be faithful? There are great rewards he will give you. Well, I don't think I should serve God for rewards. Well, that's a great heart and spirit. You and I should serve God because we've already been eternally rewarded with salvation, right?

That's enough. But the Bible tells us here in Matthew 6, verse 19 and 20, Jesus said, Lay not up for yourself treasure on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay it for yourself treasures where? In heaven.

You know what he's saying? Lay it up where it's eternal. Lay up treasures in heaven. He's calling us to pursue an eternal reward. Matthew 25, 21. What did the Lord say to the faithful servant? Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of thy Lord. Anybody want the Lord one day to say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Amen. 2 Timothy 4, 7, and 8. Paul says at the end of his life, he said, I fought a good fight.

I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me in that day and not to me only, but unto all them also who love his appearing. 2 John verse 8 says, Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we would receive what kind of reward? Do you know you and I could lose rewards because we don't do it for the right motive?

Or we get sidetracked. Or we get caught up in building earthly sandcastles instead of laying up treasure in heaven. Will you lose your eternal reward for some earthly desire? Hebrews 6 10, the Bible says God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.

God's going to reward you faithfully. And sometimes people say, Oh, you know, one day we get to heaven and we're going to be rewarded only to cast all of those rewards back at the feet of Jesus. They get that out of Revelation chapter number four. What that is a display of, the Bible tells us multiple times in the book of Revelation, we will reign with Christ as kings and priests of God.

That's during the millennial kingdom. He's going to give you crowns for faithful service in different areas of service. And as they cast their crowns down, it's saying, Jesus, you are the king of kings and Lord of lords.

That's what that's displaying. But Jesus doesn't give us rewards just to take them back. He is giving rewards because he says, even in Matthew 25, he says, have thou be thou over 10 cities, be over 10 cities and cast that back to me.

No, that's not what he's saying. So there is rewards that you will receive. And believe me, whatever work you and I have ever done on this earth, we will receive magnanimous rewards for what we have done. Paul said it this way in Romans eight, he says, the suffering that I've gone through is not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in me then. Some of you don't even think about eternally setting yourself up in heaven in a place of honoring God with your faithful service.

We get so focused on the earth. Live for heaven. We're citizens of heaven.

The Bible says our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so thirdly, let's look at the example of an authentic hypocrite. We've seen the motive, we've seen the reward, but let's look now at the example of an authentic hypocrite, verse number two. It 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. Let me give you a little bit of a history about almsgiving among the Jews. This will be helpful because we are not Jewish people and most of us would not be, and we would not be familiar with their culture at that day. The Jews held almsgiving in an extremely important category, much more important than what we hold. It was so sacred that the Hebrew word for righteousness, which is seruke, is actually also the same word that they use in translating the word for alms, for acts of mercy and kindness. They saw being righteous and giving alms as the same thing. They believe that by giving alms, which again was an act of mercy, such as helping the poor, giving food, money, clothing, leaving the corners of your field, that you would not harvest that so that poor could come ministering to their needs. This was a way that they said that you could have your sins forgiven. Among the Jews, they believe that giving was a way to have your sins removed.

In the Jewish apocryphal book of Tobit, it states, prayer with fasting is good, but better than both is almsgiving with righteousness. It is better to give alms than to lay up gold, for almsgiving saves from death and purges away every sin. That was according to the Jewish apocryphal book of Tobit. William Barclay says there was a rabbinic saying, greater is he who gives alms than he who offers all sacrifices, and it stood first in their catalog of works. Now the greatest of the rabbis' teachings actually were the same as what Jesus taught here in Matthew 6. They actually said, he who gives alms in secret is greater than Moses. They weren't promoting, the traditional rabbis were not promoting to be external and extravagant and trying to draw attention to yourself.

They actually taught that you should do them in secret. They said, quote, these are the rabbis' statements, when the recipient does not know from whom he gets it, and when the giver does not know to whom he has given it, it is that kind that saves from death. There was a rabbi who when he wanted to give alms in that day, he would drop money on the ground and not look behind him, so whoever who picked that money up, he would not know who they were and they would not know who he was.

It were better, they said, to give a man nothing than to give him something and they put him to shame, so they believed that there should be a silence in giving and a silence as well in receiving. There was even in every town what was known as a chamber of silence, where people could come and drop alms off in secret. And it was also a place where the poor would come when nobody knew and they would receive those alms so the giver never knew the recipient and the recipient never knew who the giver was.

They had this set up in every one of the Jewish towns. It was called the Chamber of Silence, also called the Chamber of the Essenes. But silent giving is not what the hypocrites wanted to do because it wouldn't pay them the reward that they were looking for. In the east, water was so scarce that sometimes it had to be purchased and when a man wanted to do a good act and to bring blessing on his family, he would go to one of the water carriers and he would say with a loud voice, give the thirsty a drink. The water carrier would go fill his water skin up with water and he would bring it and as the giver stood by him, he would say with a loud voice, bless me who gave you to drink. This is the kind of trumpet sounding that was going on in our Lord's day.

Ron Matten says there was a custom in the east similar to this. The dervishes would carry horns with them which frequently they would blow when anything was done to them as an act of mercy. They would blow the horn in honor of the donor. It was not impossible that some of the poor Jews who begged alms might have been furnished with the same kind of horn like the Persian dervishes who were a sort of religious beggar. The hypocrites might have even only gave to those who were carrying around the horns so that they could have their and that perhaps is where don't toot your own horn came from. A.T. Robertson told of a missionary who said in India the Hindu priest did not indeed sound, did actually in India the Hindu priest would sound a trumpet to get a crowd when they were about to give alms. There was also a story of a Hindu priest who had set in ashes and he had done this for a long time and there was a traveler that came by him and he said is it okay if I took a picture of you and he said wait just a moment let me rearrange my ashes.

And sadly sometimes there's this rearranging of ashes that goes on in the culture. We need to understand it is not about what people see that we should desire it's only for God. Jesus says to not be like the hypocrites. The word hypocrites comes from the Greek word hypocrites. The words they used in that day the hypocrites was a stage actor.

Somebody who played a part, you read a script, you performed in front of an audience. That was the literal word hypocrites translated as hypocrites in our English. And Jesus Christ was very strong against the hypocrites. And quite frankly it wasn't always the actions in that day that were hypocritical. They fasted twice a week I mean they prayed, they gave, they did a lot of stuff externally. The hypocrisy that Jesus is land-blasting here was not simply some external thing.

It was their internal motive that he's assaulting. Because in the eyes of the world they all saw these guys as the most spiritual but in the eyes of God they were the most wicked because they were totally hypocritical on the inside. You know we're living in a moral society today people trumpet their sins don't they it's amazing. Used to be a day where people would trumpet their righteousness now we're trumpeting our sins. We're bringing drag queens into schools across this country to teach little children. That's how messed up America has become.

So tragic, so tragic. But there's also a problem when when a society becomes extremely moral. When a society becomes extremely moral what can become begin to happen is self-righteousness grows. Judgmentalism, boasting, critical spirits. Some of you perhaps grew up in churches back in the 50s 60s and 70s and even 80s that were extremely critical. They preached external messages to their congregation. They preached a little more about men with long hair or women wearing jeans than anything else. They were fire and brimstone about men should not have facial hair because if they have a goatee they're looking like Satan.

I've heard guys get fired up about silly things and if you didn't grow up in that generation with those kind of messages that's good. There were some guys that preached solid messages but in such places you have seen such works dry up as the desert. And they should dry up because they got away from the gospel and they got on the external systems.

That is an extremely dangerous thing to do. When you begin to place morality only externally without looking at the heart of a person. You need to be clean on the inside. And so you can be you can be very you can look very good on the outside and be completely corrupt on the inside. And I can tell you this Jesus Christ was very severe with the hypocrites. In fact I would say he was more severe with the spiritual hypocrites than he was anyone else in the world.

Did you hear me? There's no one he was more severe with. I mean he hammered them he says don't give like the hypocrites in verse 2 chapter 6. Don't pray like the hypocrites in verse 5.

Don't fast like the hypocrites in verse 18. He goes on and begins to blast them he says don't judge like the hypocrites in Matthew 7 verse 5. Matthew 15 verse 7 don't be insincere like the hypocrites. Matthew 16 3 don't be spiritually blind like the hypocrites. And then just read Matthew 23 sometime this week and he absolutely blasts the hypocrites.

As strong as you will hear him blast anyone. Just totally verbally assaults them. And in Matthew 25 24 verse 51 listen to what Jesus says will be the outcome of the hypocrite. He says and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. According to Jesus hypocrites will be separate from God in hell forever.

That's what God does with hypocrites. In Acts chapter 5 it wasn't long for the hypocrites to enter the church. A couple named Ananias and Sapphira came in. They were giving people were giving great amounts of offering to the church to be able to distribute to the needs of the Saints.

Many poor impoverished Saints in the early church in Jerusalem. Ananias and Sapphira paraded themselves in and said we have given everything. And they didn't have to give anything they could have gave a little bit but instead they came in and acted like they gave everything.

But in behind the scenes they were holding back a large portion. God saw that and killed both of them on the spot. In church what happens when a lie causes you to die? You think God's serious about it?

You think God's serious about pure motives? I can tell you friends you want to know what really upsets the heart of God it's hypocrisy. You know what the Jesus said to the cities of Tyre or Sidon? You know what he said to Capernaum? He said Capernaum you are exalted to heaven and you will be thrust down to hell. He said you are like whited sepulchres you look so good on the outside but inside you're full of dead men's bones. He said and I say unto you. He said it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah.

Two cities that were known for homosexuality and rape. He said it will be more tolerable for them than you hypocrites. You hypocrites who put on an external show. You look good on the outside but inside you're full of dead men's bones. You've never truly accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. You've never bowed your knee to the Lordship of Christ. You will be judged more severely than homosexual rapists. Did you hear that this morning church?

That's the B-I-B-L-E 101. God judges hypocrites. Listen to me very close young people. Some of you this morning come here because you love Jesus Christ. Some of you are so thankful because your parents bring you to church.

But there are people that come to churches because mom and dad made them. And you've played the part. You've gone through the show. You may even bring your Bible.

You may even act like you're listening while you're playing on your phone. You begin to do all these things just as an external show. But in your heart you desire to go out and live like the world. You can't wait to get out of mom and dad's house so you can put full expression to your sinful desires. Your desire is to go into the world and to sin.

And boy if you could get off to college and go sleep around and party around to do what the world has. I can tell you. You're a hypocrites. You're a hypocrite. And you will not enter into the kingdom of God. You sit in church and it's make believe and it's not real. Praise God for parents that still bring you. But I'm going to tell you something.

You will stand before God and God will shred that external shell. And he knows exactly who's saved and who's not. That goes for child, adult, grandma, grandpa, whoever you are today.

We can put shows on. God looks right to the heart. That's the truth.

And we need to know that. I was a hypocrite growing up. I remember sitting in churches and I'd go along with the show but all I wanted was my sin.

All I wanted was to go out in the world and do my thing. But when I got saved God so revolutionized my soul that I could not wait to sit in church and listen to the word of God. I never wanted the things of God. I never wanted church before I was saved.

What changed me? Salvation changed me. I prayed little prayers when I was young. None of those little prayers saved me. You know, not everyone who calls on the Lord shall be saved. Not everyone who calls on the Lord shall be saved. Many will say, Lord, Lord, haven't we done all these wonderful things? And he said, I never knew you.

I never knew you. So listen to me. If you're sincere, if you're real, if that salvation is genuine, then if you call on the Lord you shall be saved.

But I can tell you there's a lot of false professors that don't truly possess him. And so examine yourself as Paul says, are you truly in the faith? I like the story that Our Daily Bread shared. They said one of the one of the weakest arguments and the most foolish excuses that unbelievers share these days is, well, I don't go to church and I'm not going to give my life to Jesus because the church is filled with what?

Yeah. And there was a story of a unbeliever who was so upset that he began to share with a believer. He says, the reason I'm not a Christian, because so-and-so is a very prominent, well-known Christian who fell into sin and just a gross sin and horrible. And the Christian told him, he says, do you really think that guy was a believer? And the unbeliever said, there's no way he was a true Christian. He said, exactly. The man was in church parading himself among the believers because he was never really one.

Let me tell you something. The Bible says they went out from us because they were never of us. If they were of us, they no doubt would have continued with us.

But they went out that it might be made manifest. Do you know why if you love Christ and you're still here, why you're still here? Because you're kept by the power of God and the salvation and he who began a good work in you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ. It's not our goodness that brought us here this morning. It's the grace of Christ that brought us here. Amen.

Anybody with me? That's that's what God does. We're drawn to this. We love this. But before I was saved, I didn't love this. And we go through an external show.

I can tell you this is essential to understand. Am I real today? Am I genuine? Does Christ sit on my heart?

Do I love him? And parents, please never tell your kids, do as I say and not as I do. If you ever want to ruin the faith of your child, do something like that.

What you need to do if you want them to do something that you're not doing, say, listen, honey, I have set a terrible example for you. And I need to ask you forgiveness and I need to go before God and ask God forgiveness. And let's both begin to live for Jesus right in this area that needs to be changed.

And you join arms with them. As one preacher said, my best preaching. Is done outside of the pulpit and would to God, that would be true of every preacher and may pray that that would be true of myself. What is the core problem of the hypocrite? Well, verse two says, Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet. And it says they do this, that they may be seen of men.

Man's glory was their motive. And I'm gonna tell you, it's easy for Christians to fall victim. You know, even Peter fell victim to this strong, godly Peter. Remember in first Galatians chapter number one, he's sitting with Gentiles. And in that day, Gentiles and Jews were not supposed to mix among the Jewish teachings. And so there was a bunch of Judaizers, a bunch of strict Jews who were coming up from Jerusalem to Galatia. And when Paul, when Peter saw them, he got embarrassed and he got ashamed of eating with the Gentiles. So he got up, went over and began to eat with only the Jews. Where Paul walks in and he sees this, he's like, wait a minute, Peter. He says, how is it that you being a Jew call them to lift after the Gentiles and you don't even live after the Jewish teachings? And he began to rebuke Peter to the face in front of everyone because Peter sinned in front of everyone. And he rightly rightfully did that.

But even Peter got swept up in hypocrisy. Paul made it clear that, he said, if I were yet to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. We must be careful that we don't seek to please men. We cannot be people pleasers. We may do things that please people, but that cannot be our motive solely that I would seek their praise, that I would seek their desire for them to honor me. How often our motives can turn from being vertical to horizontal instead of giving and living for God, we seek the praise and approval of men. Sometimes people say stuff like this over the years. I've heard this in churches. People say, well, you know, I'm the only one doing anything around here.

And what things do I get? You know, my wife and husband, they don't notice what I did for them last week. Why should I still go out of my way to serve them?

You know, my boss doesn't take notice of the things I do. I'll tell you something, friends, that's having an earthly motive, seeking an earthly pat on the back. In Colossians 3, after Paul addresses the role of the wife and the role of the husband and their relationship to each other, after in Colossians 3, he addresses the role of the parent and their responsibility to the children, also the children to the parents. After he addresses the responsibility of employers to employees, he says in Colossians 3, 23, to cap that teaching off and says, Whatsoever you do, let's all read this verse together, actually, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men.

And let's read that next verse as well. Knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ. At the very end of all them, why should a husband and wife love each other in such a way of submission and sacrifice?

Why should parents lead their children and children, submit to the leadership and obey their parents? Why should employees be such faithful employees to their employers? Because you are not serving men, you are serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

You and I need to understand the weight and magnitude of that. For as long as you have an earthly motive, you only have an earthly reward. You then become a slave to the responses and appreciations of people. Why would I base my rewards upon the appreciation of people?

Why would I base my rewards upon the response of people? Our motives make us a servant to men's applause. Stop serving men with the motive and realize you're serving Christ. The problem so often people think is, you know, these people don't appreciate me. God would come and say the problem is not outside of you. The problem is inside of you.

It's a hard issue. You know, you have a man centered motive. Listen to me, when you're willing to quit serving God because people are indifferent towards your service, when you feel underappreciated, then you know your motive has become earthly.

I can tell you, if I had an earthly motive, I would have stopped preaching year one. I mean, you are, the people of this church speak too well of me. There are those who I'm like, you need to back that thing way back because if you knew me as well as God did, you would not think so highly of me.

That's the truth. I'm a man, nothing more. And understand this. There are also people who have slandered me all through these 13 years of ministry here in Xenia in unfair ways as well. But listen, I'm not serving people for praises or for criticism. I'm serving the Lord for his sake. And if you begin to base your response and service to God based on those things, it'll manipulate your ministry, your message, your service and all these things.

We must serve God for God's sake. Do not focus on man's response. And you know there's a lot of husbands and wives who would have a wonderful marriage if they quit waiting for the response to be what they thought it should be. Why do you still love your husband in such a way and take care of him and do all these things? Because I'm serving Christ. Why do you love your wife even when she could be difficult in these situations? Because I am loving her like Christ loved the church. When's the last time, husband and wife, let me ask you, when is the last time you did something for your spouse thinking only that you're serving Christ and doing it? And if you've not thought about it, I can tell you you've probably been living with the wrong motive.

Because you're like me. We become, we become, we put a I'll love you if instead of I love you because. And so let me give you not only what the Lord says as a encouragement to avoid authentic hypocrisy, but now let's look at the Lord's encouragement of authentic giving in verse three and four. First of all, we have the example of an authentic giver. Look at verse three. He says, but when thou doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.

What does it mean? What is the what is the word when presuppose in that verse? Jesus says, but when thou doest thine alms, what's Jesus presupposing that you're going to be giving, right? He's presupposing that you will have acts of mercy and pity and kindness on others. I can tell you, friends, Christianity and true Christianity should be a merciful Christianity, should be a giving Christianity. James 1 27 says, pure religion and undefiled before the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.

It is to to care for them. Luke 19 8 and the story of Zacchaeus, it says, Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. I mean, this guy just got saved and he became an extravagant giver.

Why? Because he received the giver. And how could we be selfish when the ultimate giver comes inside of us?

Generously flowed out of the heart of Zacchaeus because Christ flowed in. Christian, are you generous? Are you willing to care for those in genuine need? There are some times that some great needs arise. I do, I do understand that you need to wade through those waters in America today because sometimes people don't have genuine needs. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 10, for even when we were with you, this we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he what? So according to the Bible, those who we help should not be those who have the ability to help themselves.

So, you know, it's one thing to give somebody a fish, it's another thing to teach them to fish. And anybody drive around and see all the we are hiring signs? I mean, even at a funeral Friday, even at the funeral, it's like they're hiring.

I mean, you know, groundkeepers. I mean, everybody's hiring. And so when people stand out and want help all the time, we need to understand that sometimes there's better ways to help. You're not helping your 25-year-old who's living in your basement playing video games, okay? You say, but oh, if they don't stay with me, they'd be on the streets.

You put them on the streets for a day or two, they'd end up working. You know why? Because when a dog's hungry, guess what he's going to do?

He's going to go hunt. And I'm not trying to be insensitive. I'm actually being very loving. Sometimes love enables, doesn't it?

Sometimes it's hard to navigate those waters. And I understand, too, that the welfare system of America has totally corrupted our ability to give in our country because in a desire for the government to try to care for people in different situations, it's also enabled a large majority of people in America in that system to begin to have unhealthy mindsets about that, that they would just live off the government and not work and things like that. And it's important that you would understand the Bible expects you to work, to labor. And the Bible also says in the book of Ephesians that if you work, that he'll give you not only enough to care for you, but also to give to others in need. That's what Ephesians chapter 4 tells us. It says, he that stole let him steal no more, but labors with hands that which is good, that he not only would have to have for himself, but also to give.

So he's going to give you not only press down, but also running over. You'll be able to take care of others. Now, one place I believe the Christians should be generous in giving is to the church. I believe it's a joy to be able to give to the things of the church, to advance the gospel all around the world. I'm so thankful that as a boy, my father taught me to begin to set aside 10 percent of what came into me to give to the Lord. And he taught me that principle, and it was so important.

Now, let me say something that some of you may disagree with, and that's OK. But I do not believe the New Testament commands us to tithe 10 percent. I believe it's a biblical pattern and a principle to follow. But it is not a New Testament command that is underneath the Old Testament law of God. In the Old Testament, Abraham, before the law even came, though, that he gave 10 percent.

There was never commanded anywhere that you saw that. But he did it because 10 percent always represented the whole. And if I gave a tenth that represented, I I surrendered all that to God. Jacob gave a tenth of all before the law ever came in the Book of Malachi.

They broke that command that God gave in Leviticus 27, verse 30. You say so you're saying I shouldn't give 10 percent. I think 10 percent should be a good starting point.

I think that's a good place to start, but that's not a good place, in my opinion, to end. I think I think, hey, we're that are under grace should give more than they that were under the law. And so you probably have been coming here for a year and never heard me once preach on giving.

If you're a visitor today, this is not normal. OK, and so should we in the New Testament give less under grace? I think in the New Testament, how the poor widow gave all she had. I think about the early church in Acts two through four. They surely gave more than 10 percent, didn't they? Zacchaeus did. The second Corinthians eight nine.

You read about the churches of Macedonia. They were extravagant givers. You know what happens if if you whatever you love, you give for. You know, if you love something, you give for that. And if you don't ever give anything to the church, you don't love this place. You don't love what we're doing.

You don't. I don't care what you say. It's not the words that mean something. It's our actions. Jesus said, if you love me, feed my sheep, Peter. Your words, your words are not sufficient. There needs to be something behind that.

So you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. If I love to play golf, I will go out and buy good golf clubs. If you love hunting, anybody hunting, yeah? Beautiful weather to hunt. All the hunters are like, hey, man, you know, pretty cheap, pretty cheap. But if you love to hunt, you're not going to go out and wear the junkiest stuff that smells like a human.

Right? You're going to put urine on yourself. I mean, you're going to do everything. You know, you'll go the extra mile.

You know, I mean, but you'll really go out of your way and spend the money. And whatever we value, you know, we spend money on. Most of the time, that's ourself.

We clothe ourself in the nicest. We do these things for ourself. And what we need to do is realize, you know what? God's given us an opportunity to give to a ministry that's seeing souls saved weekly. I praise God this morning. We have over 50 missionaries that are preaching the gospel all around the world, and we have invested in that. Amen?

Isn't that good? And because of your giving, because of your faithfulness, thousands of dollars every week go out to those missionaries. I've just received this morning, there's $18,000 of different needs at several churches. We're going to present those to the church next week. And I believe we could take on a large majority of that and send tens of thousands of dollars out to help those that are in need.

What great opportunity. We sit so wealthy in our world, don't we? And so we need to be able to help provide. And even today, after church, there's a dear lady in town who's a widow, and we have five guys from our church who are going out and picking up a bunch of sticks and brush from her. She doesn't have a husband. She doesn't have people to help take care of that. The city's given her a few days to be able to remove this stuff.

She was desperate in need. And people going out, I'm not going to name who they are so that they don't lose their reward, but they're going to go out and minister and care. And what a blessing that is.

What a blessing that is. We provide meals for people in town for funerals. We provide free funeral services for anybody that would ever come to us. We provide transportation for families and children throughout this city. Even Thursday, we provided a meal for the Xenia football team.

No wonder they beat Tip City in our 6-0. We fed them good, baby. Fed them good.

They said, boy, we come to Lighthouse. They always feed us good. I said, that's right.

We know how to eat around here. But you know what? That's only possible because people like you are willing to roll your sleeves up, work behind the scenes, and bring in food, bring in cookies, bring in things that are and give of your resources. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 9-7, every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly. If it angers you to give, then don't give.

Please, keep that in your pocket. Be a slave to your resources. If God moves you to help somebody in need and you're like, oh, probably help him. He'll probably take advantage of you. Get your heart right.

The problem is not with them. It's with you. Say, God, whatever they do with that is between them and the Lord. I want to do this because I'm moved and compelled. It says God loves a cheerful giver. What does your giving say about you? And I think something that all of us could do, a way of generosity, is just have a $10 or $20 bill sitting in your pocket and just walk through the week and say, this week I'm going to look for somebody who could be blessed by that, somebody who that would be a blessing to. You know, you find out somebody in our church has cancer and they're driving up to Cleveland Clinic. You know what it would be good to do? Send them a $100 bill or a $20 bill and say, hey, I know there's a lot of gas expenses, gas prices going up, and I was just thinking about you having to drive all that way, and I just want you to know you're in our prayers.

And I can tell you much more than that money will do is that somebody cared enough to give. I'll never forget when I was about 10 years ago, we were out of state. Me and my wife were eating at this restaurant. We were on a little trip and somebody paid for our meal. And it was a nice like Japanese steakhouse.

It was really good. And I don't know who it was. And somebody paid for our meal. It was out of state.

We had no idea who they were. And I was thinking, man, I ought to order dessert. No, I wasn't going to think that. Ain't that terrible? I'm just totally teasing you.

But I thought I was so moved. Even 10 years later, I remember that. And you know what? I guarantee you they would have no idea if somebody brought that up. They'd be like, I don't remember doing that. You know, because givers like that, they just don't remember.

It's just the flow of their life. We've had people, I've had multiple people come to Lighthouse, this church, who said, you know what, how'd you hear about Lighthouse? Somebody paid for my meal from your church. They said, I don't know who it was, but somebody paid for my meal and left it.

We have this little ministry at our church, a little card. You can leave and go pay for somebody's meal. Stranger, you can grab those out at the welcome center. Go do some act of kindness. Say, you know what? I ought to be generous to this person. I want to be kind to that person. Learn to hold loosely all that's not eternal so that you can lay up treasures in heaven for the glory of God and the kingdom of Christ and love of God and love for others and serve. Begin to minister. I can't help but to share with you, I had a man who passed away.

I was just thinking about this this morning. I had a man who passed away this last year on March 30th. His name was Wayne Osborne, and some of you may have known him by the gentleman who sat in a wheelchair, and he'd be in the back. And his health was bad.

He hurt so bad. A lot of times he would get in tears by sitting in church, and his health was really declining. He passed away on March 30th, and he wrote this letter to me on March 6th, three weeks or so before his passing. And he says, I need to write you and express my love and appreciation for you and all that you do for LBC, and he says, and for all the many brothers and sisters that love me at Lighthouse Baptist Church.

And I'm not going to name the people, but I just want you to give, I want to give you an idea of how this church family thing works. He says, so-and-so gave me a $350 check in a time of great need. He says, and then another individual took me to a physical exam in my two cataract surgeries. Another individual came over, and because I had four different HVAC companies who came in and told me I need a whole new HVAC system, and there was a gentleman here who does that kind of work, went and found out about it, went over there, and it was just one wire that needed fixed. He said, they saved me $6,000 to $10,000 because everyone else said I needed a new system, and now my HVAC is working perfectly. He says, another individual came over and replaced a kitchen sink fixture, fixed four of my fans.

Another individual fixed a network problem I had because Spectrum messed some stuff up, and they let that get going again. And another individual came over and fixed my snowblower, and this is over the course of a couple years. He said another individual who knew that I was, you know, my health condition, they came over when it snowed really bad, checked on me, so they had one of the guys in church come out and they plowed the lot for me in my driveway. Another individual came by, and this is literally 10 different people.

They didn't even know about each other. Another individual came out, trimmed my bushes last year, did a great job. Their wife came in and cleaned my house, organized my kitchen, and he just goes on and on and shared with tears about how greatly he appreciated that.

Let me ask you a question. When's the last time that it could be said of you that, and I didn't know about all these people doing this. Nobody knew three weeks later he's going to pass away. You know, church is not about just us walking in and finding our seat and listen to his sermon.

It's about saying, man, is there somebody here I could minister to? I mean, in the early service this morning, I think about one of our veterans. This man fought in war. He come down with, like, Agent Orange because of it.

He got saved just a few months ago, got baptized here about a month ago. He's going through chemo, feeling so bad. They've only given him a few months left to live. He's just feeling rough, man. Him and his dear wife married about 60 years, and he's sitting in the front row, and he just – all he could do is kind of sit down like this, and he's like, I'm not sleeping. I'm just, you know, not – and he won't hardly say anything.

He's not feeling good. And I just think, you know what, just to be able to minister to people like that. What in your – look for those situations saying, hey, who is that individual? What could I do to minister? What could I do to pray for? What could I do to – you know what blesses my heart is when I find out somebody got sick and somebody went out and mowed their yard, somebody brought them a meal, somebody did some act of kindness. That's what mercy means. You show pity. You show compassion. When's the last time you were walking out and you saw somebody on a cane and you say, you know what, I'm going to hold this door for them, even if it takes me five minutes. I'm going to – and it's starting to drizzle. I'm going to go – wouldn't it be great if some of these young people – I'm going to go grab one of these umbrellas, and I'm going to walk that dear old lady out to her car and open the door just to let her know, I appreciate you. Because I can tell you something. When you're 78, 89 years old, your body walking in, it's a long trek to go from out there into here. And us young bucks – well, the young buck, I'm not so young anymore. I'm kind of in between her, you know. Everybody always tells me how much more white hair I'm getting. I'm like, stop it.

I don't need to know. Just take it over, baby. Acts of kindness, acts of mercy, acts of love. And you do that from a pure heart. You do it as you would do it to Jesus. Let me ask you, if Jesus Christ was on crutches, would you help him out to his car?

If Jesus Christ were in need, would you help him? Let me give you a sixth and closing thought, the reward of the authentic giver. Look at verse 4. And he says, that thine alms may be in secret. And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

And it needs to be done in secret. So that he says in verse 3 that your left hand would not even know what your right hand does. That your right hand would be so generous that you would see a need that you would give that it would not even have time to consult with the left hand. Your giving would be in such a manner that you wouldn't even fully consult with yourself about it.

That a portion of your own body would not even know that that's going to happen. So much so that if that were true of yourself, then you wouldn't be spreading it around everywhere, letting everybody know the things that we've done. And so we have to be careful and guard that our motive's pure.

Sometimes people can struggle with this. You know, I want to share a praise this last week. The Lord let me bless so and so by doing this for them.

We have to be careful of that. God was able to really use me this week. God used me to meet that person's need.

You know, God really used me. And we've got to be careful of that. And so our acts of mercy and kindness need to be done with a pure heart. And when you do that, verse number four, let's just know that who sees this in secret?

Notice what he says. And thy father would seeth in what? In secret. God sees it in secret.

Matthew Henry said it like this. When we take least notice of our good deeds, God takes most notice of them. Three times in this chapter, verse four, verse six, verse 18, he says, your father sees it in secret. Every time you do something, I can tell you God's eyes blaze into the heart. He sees exactly what you've done. There is not ever going to be one act of kindness, mercy, generosity, giving anything you've ever done that God does not notice.

Isn't that wonderful? Live for the audience of one. Do it only for him. And he says, and he shall reward thee openly. God will be the one who rewards you. What's interesting is the word here in verse four, shall reward, is a word that means that like you're obligating, it's an obligation to like pay them. It's an expectation that you are to reward them. And what's so interesting here is Jesus saying that God is literally obligating himself to reward you for this.

He doesn't have to, but he's chosen to obligate himself. And Hebrews captures that truth in Hebrews 610 by saying, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And so, friend, today, who do you want to reward you, earth or heaven? Do you desire to be noticed for your giving or your acts of mercy? Are you displeased if man didn't recognize your efforts? I've had people through the years come up to me and do stuff like this.

Please never do this to me. I don't count money. I don't know who gives what. I'll never know.

But I've had people come up and say, hey, Pastor Josh, here's my tithe. I want you to know I'm going to be a faithful tither. And I'm like, don't tell me that. Don't tell me that. I don't need to know.

I never need to know. That's between you and the Lord. You want praise from me, that's a very shallow pool that you're pulling from.

Paul tells us in First Corinthians four or five, therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come and will bring both to light the hidden things of darkness, will make manifest the counsels of the heart. Then shall every man have praise of God, how eternally rich the believer who ministers for the glory of God. I was at a church one time where they literally had cushioned seats in the church. And I said, like really nice, like separate from the rest. I said, what are these seats over here? And they said, oh, those are for the people who gave like these special building funds. And like we gave them special seats in the sanctuary.

Yeah. So I went over and threw up on them. They're like, what's wrong? I'm like, I'm vomit.

I'm vomiting all over this. You know, I didn't actually throw up, but what do you ever been to a church where this is the worst? They have the they have the pastor spot. Like, I mean, like here's the senior citizens in front of them is the pastor spot. The staff, you know, and they're they're up there. They got gold letters and, you know, the special part. I'm going to pull in those parking spots sideways, you know, and like run over the sign.

It's like that. As long as listen, when I die, I need to put this in the Constitution. No pastor is allowed to put their name on the sign on the side of the building. Better that people come in here and say, I never got your pastor's name.

Who is that? And be like, it doesn't matter. Jesus Christ is great, isn't it? Forget who I am and you are. Forget who the leadership are. It's all about Christ. Forget ourselves. Let God deal with that stuff and let us just worship from a sincere heart.

Does that make sense this morning? We are not at Josh Bevin Ministries here. OK, how disgusting is that? You ever see these guys name their ministry after themselves?

I think, well, you got your reward, buddy. Maybe they have a pure heart. I don't know. I shouldn't say, but I would not want to tempt myself with that. But Matthew 5 16 says this. Let your light so shine before men that they would see your good works and guess what they would do. They would glorify your father.

It's not wrong if somebody saw you do something. An act of mercy and kindness, but make sure that's not your motive and let God get the glory. And if somebody ever says something to you of all yours is so you make sure you let them know that God's the only by God's grace.

So what is your motive of worship today, friend? What is your motive in serving? And I believe there's some people who've also set serving aside because they got hurt in the past. Sometimes friendly fire hurts, doesn't it? Sometimes you serve in church and somebody hurts your feelings and things, you know.

Did you know what? People hurt your feelings at home, too. But it doesn't make us stop being parents and children, right? And so inside of a church, we need to say, you know what? I'm going to serve. And if you quit serving because of people, your motive was wrong. Don't let Judas stop you from serving Jesus. We don't follow Judas as we follow Jesus, right? If somebody is a false believer, somebody hypocritical, somebody treats you real bad, some kind of a Judas situation.

You just say, you know what? I'm going to leave that between them and the Lord. Why on earth would I allow them to have more control over my service than the Lord Jesus Christ has control over my service?

Does that make sense? And so do it for the glory of God. Joy and service comes when our motive is vertical and lack of joy comes when our motive is horizontal. Let's leave today with a vertical motive as arrows pointing glory to Jesus Christ as we love one another. Amen.

And as we close, I would like to also encourage you today. If you were to stand before God and he said, why should I let you into heaven? You're not sure what you would say today.

If you examine your heart, say, you know what? There are some things in my life that I can see very hypocritical. What I am on Sunday is not what I'm on Monday through Saturday. My life is not genuine.

It's not real. I've been going through the motions. I don't want to stand before God and find out that I'm not going to heaven. I can tell you, friends, God knows and we love you and I love you and I'll be down front.

We'll have men and women stand at these doors today. You can come and trust in Christ. Don't like don't be like me as a young guy that I was going through the motions being a hypocrite.

I wasn't real. The church wasn't what I wanted, but after I got saved, he changed my life. And today you could have your life changed if you would surrender to him. Let's all stand this morning with heads bowed and eyes closed. The altar is open. If God's spoken to your heart, friend, you can come. Maybe Christian, maybe today you just want to come and spend a moment in prayer.

The altar is open. Maybe you're here today and you say, you know what? I need to make a spiritual decision, maybe to be baptized, maybe to surrender your life, recommit your life to Christ. But if you're here today and you say, you know what? I'm not sure of my salvation. If I stood before God, I don't know if heaven's my home. But today you realize you need to be saved. I'm going to be down front, friend.

I'd love to meet you. We have folks that could pull you aside. They'll just pull you aside in one of our prayer rooms right off the sanctuary. And they'll share with you from the word of God how you can know today that you'll be in heaven. What a great, great promise.

Don't lay that today. Father, we thank you for your word today. What a joy. What an honor it is to be saved. With your grace, we rejoice in Christ. I pray today that you would examine our hearts, cleanse us from all impurity. Let our outward reflect our inward. May we do it all for your glory. Let us save anyone today, God, who's lost. Amen.