Thank you, Andrew. It is a pleasure to be here. All his good traits come from his mum, and all his bad traits come from me, so you'll forgive me for that this morning. It's a pleasure to be here. I'd like to thank the elders and office bearers for their kindness in bringing us out. It's always a joy for us to come and see the family and particularly the grandchildren and to enjoy them for this week.
As Andrew said, I'm president of the Association of Irish Baptist Churches. It's not quite as impressive as it sounds. You know, we only have 120 churches throughout the length and breadth of Ireland. But it will be an honor for me to serve in that capacity. Would you turn in your Bibles, please, to Matthew's gospel, chapter 6? Matthew chapter 6, and we'll read from verse 1. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 1. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 1.
(Scripture reading) "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.
Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go into your room, and shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Pray then like this, Our Father 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, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Amen. (End)
And we know God will always bless the reading of His own inspired Word. Let's just pray.
(Prayer) Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for its inspiration. We thank You for its reliability. We thank You that it does cut to the very heart and that it does expose our sin and our need of a Savior. And we do pray that as we turn to it now, that you would speak to us, that You would speak into all our hearts, that You would increase our affection for the Lord Jesus Christ and that we might leave this place just a little bit more in love with Him and a little bit more determined to live for His glory, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. (End)
So, the passage that we read together is described by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones as the most uncomfortable and searching in the whole realm of Scripture. And it is because here our Lord not only defines and exposes what hypocrisy is but gives us an acid test to detect hypocrisy in our own hearts.
We're cutting into the Sermon on the Mount, and the great theme of the Sermon on the Mount is the kingdom. In chapter 5, 1 to 12, our Lord describes the citizens of the kingdom, that they're poor in spirit, they mourn, they're meek, they hunger and thirst after righteousness, they're merciful, they're pure in heart, they're persecuted, and peacemakers. In the second half of chapter 5, He speaks of the righteousness of the kingdom. And the key verse there is verse 20, when He says, "except your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees you'll certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." Now, in chapter 6, our Lord deals with what we might call the piety of the kingdom.
Now, the word piety is not a popular word today, probably because it's misunderstood as something sanctimonious and insincere, but as we shall see, that's the very antithesis of what a true piety is. Our Lord is dealing with, in these verses, what we might call religious duties, not all duties are religious. They're done in the presence of God, and they ought to be done for the glory of God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, “whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.” But our Lord is concentrating on that narrow sphere of duties that are specifically religious—the giving of alms, prayer, and fasting.
And in this section, as in the previous sections, our Lord tells us that His followers are to be different. Different from the great body of the professing people of God, and different from the popular superstition of the religion of the man in the street, those He calls pagans or Gentiles. Do not be like them, He says. As My followers, you are to be different. Different not so much in what we do, for like these others, we will give, we will pray, and we will fast. But our Lord is concentrating on the way that we do these things, our motives, and our goals. And these, He says, are to be utterly different.
I want you to notice three things this morning. The description of hypocritical piety, the mark of an authentic Godly piety, and then, by implication, the importance of a genuine Godly piety. So, first of all, then, the description of hypocritical piety. In the passage, Jesus selects the three chief duties of personal religion when it came to the Jews, giving, praying, and fasting. And He warns His followers, do not be like the hypocrites.
Now, both in English and in Greek, the word hypocrite comes from the word actor. In English, it was used of those traveling theater companies that moved around the south of England, small companies, and because they were small, one actor would play many parts.
And in order to make the transition from one character to another, an actor would hold a mask up, porcelain mask, on a stick to his face, and when he changed character, he would simply change the mask. And that's what a hypocrite is, someone who acts the part, who hides behind a mask. It's being something on the outside that you're not on the inside.
A hypocrite is an actor. Now, what does an actor do? Well, an actor takes something that is unreal, he pretends that it's real, and he seeks to present it to us in such a way that it seems real to us. So, when we watch that play or that film, we don't perceive its unreality. We think to ourselves, this is actually happening.
Then again, the actor gives his performance in public. He has an audience, he expects an audience, and it is the audience that he is seeking to impress and persuade. And then thirdly, an actor is motivated by the desire for applause, the recognition of his peers, the nomination for an Oscar, the popular acclaim of the people.
These, says Jesus, are the characteristics of hypocritical piety. It's unreal. It's usually performed in public, and it's done with the intention of winning the approval of others. And that's what our Lord is warning us against in this passage. Now, the structure of the passage is simple. Jesus announces His text in verse 1.
"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father in heaven." That's a better translation than the authorized versions, the giving of alms, because in verse 1 our Lord's not speaking specifically of giving, it's this general prohibition on these acts of piety. In fact, that's how the RSV translates it, “beware of practicing your piety before men.” And then in the rest of the passage, our Lord gives three very funny and penetrating examples of such hypocritical piety. In verses two to four, he deals with giving. "Thus, when you give," look at verse 2. "Thus, when you give to the needy sound no trumpets before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets that they may be praised by others."
Here Jesus pictures the Pharisee announcing his giving with a trumpet or trumpets. They may have been literal trumpets that sounded from the temple, perhaps each afternoon as the sacrifice was being made and he can be seen hurrying towards the temple with his gift in his hand. The speed and timing draws attention to the gift that he's about to offer. The trumpets may have been a reference to the 13-brass trumpet-like receptacles that were mounted at the entrance to the temple that were replicated in most of the synagogues. And the Pharisees pictured coming forward, jingling his bag of shekels, he opens the string, he pours them into the trumpet from a great height, so they rattle down the throat of the trumpet with great noise, drawing attention to himself.
His giving is ostentatious and public. He's not acting out of a genuine love for God and for men, but he's acting to gain a reputation for himself. Like a little child who has acquired a new toy or a new skill and excitedly turns to his parents and says, “look at me, look at me.” So, the Pharisee, the hypocrite by his action and demeanor says, “look at me, look at me. I give tithes of all that I possess.” Matthew Henry says, "he turns an act of charity into an act of vanity."
Then in verses five to six, our Lord moves to that second great spiritual duty, that of prayer. Look at verse five, “and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.” In the synagogue, a man was often asked from the congregation to come and read the law and lead the congregation in prayer. In Jerusalem, at times of special feasts, a trumpet would again sound from the temple, and these hypocrites would fall to their knees, face the temple, much the way that Muslims do towards Mecca, but face the temple, and in the street, pray. The word, street, here in verse 5 is a different word that's used in verse 2. It refers to a wide thoroughfare, an intersection, a corner. The ASV translates it as street corners.
And these hypocrites deliberately placed themselves in these busy places so they could publicly display their piety by considering carefully the words that they were using, by dropping in a popular cliche, by increasing tones of fervency, they were thinking of the effect that their prayers were producing in all who could see and hear them. They wanted to do well. They wanted to make an impression. They wanted to win men's approval. They were supposed to be coming to God in prayer, but they were putting on a performance for all who could see and hear them. Jesus says these hypocrites loved to pray, but unfortunately it wasn't prayer that they loved, nor was it the God to whom they prayed that they loved, but it was the platform that prayer provided for them to parade themselves that they loved.
Then thirdly, Jesus speaks of fasting in verses 16 to 18. Look at verse 16, “and when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.” Now, the practice of fasting was given, and let me say is given, to the people of God for two primary reasons.
Firstly, it was used to express humiliation for sin, repentance, and a brokenness before God. And secondly, when circumstances changed or were changing, it was used to express dependence upon God. It was a cry for help and direction for the future. And so, either overwhelmed by personal guilt or needing guidance for the future, the worshiper abstained from food that they might stand in the presence of God undistracted. But these hypocrites had completely reversed the purpose of fasting. Instead of promoting humiliation, they used it to promote pride. Instead of an expression of dependence upon God, it was an expression of self-sufficiency.
You remember the boast of the Pharisee in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican going up to the temple to pray, I fast twice a week. The Pharisees had the practice of fasting on Mondays and Thursdays. And Mondays and Thursdays just happened to be the two major market days when the towns and cities were filled with shoppers, merchants, and farmers.
And these hypocrites were glad of the increased audience in order to parade their piety. They made their faces unrecognizable, screwing them up, perhaps smearing them with ash. And if somebody said to them, they were looking a bit off color or they looked unwell, they would say in the most pietistic of terms, “well, I'm fasting for the Lord, you know.” All for the praise of men. Now, that's the piety of the hypocrites.
Now, all these activities were good activities. It was good to give, it was good to pray, and it was good to fast. The religious community would have approved of this behavior because this was acceptable Godly behavior. Their consciences of the hypocrites would have approved to this behavior because they were acting in obedience to Scripture, and the recipients of their charity would have welcomed their sacrificial giving. And so, these hypocrites could engage in all of these activities surrounded in a warm sea of commendation and praise. What possibly could be wrong with any of these things? How can you give wrongly? How can you pray wrongly? How can you fast wrongly?
Jesus in these radical and shocking statements says that you can, because the great flaw in their piety was that it was totally man-centered rather than God-centered. They didn't really give for God. They didn't pray to God, and they certainly didn't fast before God.
It was all for the love of men. It was preeminence. It was self-glorification that they are looking for. In each of these three cases, Jesus speaks of others, or men, and the motivation that others brings, to be praised by others, verse 2, to be seen by others, verse 5, and to be seen by others, verse 16, in giving, praying, and fasting, all for the praise of men. Now, we as Reformed believers are often criticized for our ethos, for our background, for our tradition. And to be sure, I'm sure, to be sure, there are lots of faults, and we have many shortcomings and failures, and yet I think within our Reformed evangelical fellowship of churches, we have been protected to a great extent from some of the cruder forms of this play-acting, this desire for self-promotion and self-glorification.
Stories told of a person, a Pentecostal person from the south of England who was visiting in the highlands of Scotland, and on the Sunday, they went into one of the churches, a free church, a psalm-singing church. And he was mystified, you know, when the Beadle, what they call the Beadle, came in parading the Bible and put the Bible in the pulpit. And then the minister came in, and the Beadle symbolically locked him into the pulpit for the preaching of the Word. And then they had four Psalms, unaccompanied Psalms. And he thought, what on earth have I come to? This antiquated form of worship. But when the minister began to preach, he lifted him up to the very gates of heaven.
And in the middle of the sermon, this American, sorry, South of England, I shouldn't have said American, South of England Pentecostal person shouted out, praise the Lord! And somebody tapped him on the shoulder and said, “we don't praise the Lord in here.”
And that's not a bad thing. Understanding, you know, what we mean. We're suspicious of show and, as they say in Ireland, blarney and fulsome compliments, of egos unleashed, of performances, of drawing attention to oneself. And yet we need to realize that there is a never-present danger in us all, the danger of a piety that is man-centered rather than God-centered.
The preacher is thinking of the impression that he's making on his congregation and waiting for their words of commendation and praise rather than thinking of the master and his verdict. The person who engages in public prayer, how difficult it is not to want to impress or parade your knowledge through prayer. The person who stands and sings praise to God, and it's so mechanical, so outward, so routine that it makes little or no impression upon the memory. Can you remember the song that we sang just before the preaching of the Word? What was it? Our duties so often are routine and no more than a performance.
Now, Jesus says of such piety, they have received their reward. “Those who give,” verse 2, “those who pray,” verse 5, and “those who fast,” verse 16, have their reward. Now that phrase, have the reward, is a technical expression used on the completion of a commercial transaction and carry the idea of full payment. You have received it, paid in full.
There's nothing more to come. And Christ says, when you've received your little bit of praise and appreciation, the clapping of hands, the commendation of men, that's it, over. God doesn't regard it. God doesn't accept it. He has nothing to say. He has nothing to give. Your piety begins and ends with yourself. It's worthless in His sight. You want men's applause? That's exactly what you get. He gave them the desires of their heart and sent leanness to their souls. The piety of the hypocrite. The description of hypocritical piety. The second thing I want you to notice is the mark of an authentic Godly piety.
Like these hypocrites, the true disciple, the true follower of our Lord will also give, will also pray, and will also fast. Jesus doesn't say if you give, if you pray, and if you fast, but when you give, when you pray, and when you fast. These are religious duties that the Christian the true disciple of our Lord will regularly engage in giving, praying, and fasting, but it's different from that of the hypocrite in that it's God-centered rather than man-centered. Remember, Jesus announces His text in verse one, before He gives these three examples. Beware of practicing your righteousness before others, other people, in order to be seen by them. If the hypocrite does his acts of righteousness before others to be seen by them, then the opposite must be true of the true Christian, the true disciple of our Lord, that he does his acts of righteousness in private, to be hid from others. Now, that's demonstrated in the three examples that Jesus gives.
In verse 4 and verse 6 and verse 18, we have this repeated phrase, in secret, so that your giving may be in secret. Verse 4, verse 6, "but when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen and your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Verse 18, "so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." Do you see that?
In secret, in secret, in secret. We are to give in secret, we are to pray in secret, we are to fast in secret, and we are to carry out other religious duties in secret. One commentator says the secret of religion is religion in secret. And that's what Christ is saying here in secret. Resist the temptation to display, to drop the casual hint, to try and make an impression, to mention the latest book you've been reading, or the witness that you've been carrying out, or the growth that you have experienced. We know the many subtle ways in which we can do this, how devious and deceitful our hearts can be. And Jesus says the answer is just to be alone, to cut off the opportunity for self-promotion, just in secret, where there can be no phoniness, no pretending, no promoting oneself, no seeking the applause of others and the motivation that that applause brings.
That's the mark of the true disciple. He secretly worships the Lord. The Christian, when he gives, he doesn't let his left hand know what his right hand is doing. His giving is quiet and private. There are no trumpets blowing. He doesn't blow his own trumpet. He secretly gives to the Lord. The fewer that know, the better, not because he's ashamed of his offering, but he doesn't want to draw attention to himself.
Calvin says, “he means that we ought to be satisfied with having God as our only witness.” Are you satisfied with that? God is your only witness. Spurgeon says, “it's the mark of a hypocrite to have a penny in one hand and a trumpet in the other. Well, we might want to increase that amount from a penny to maybe a hundred dollars, but that's the mark of the hypocrite,” says Spurgeon. We've got to be so careful.
The true Christian, when he prays, he goes into his room, he closes the door—verse 6—he closes out prying eyes, and he shuts himself in with God, just himself and God. That's when his prayers are real, when he is free from the applause of others and the motivation that that applause brings. There's no contradiction between his prayer life in public and his prayer life in private. He prays as frequently and as fervently when he's alone with God as he does in the public prayer meeting. He loves to pray. Not because of the platform that prayer provides for the opportunity to display his piety, but he loves to bring his petitions before God.
And of course, it's in this context that we have what's known as the Lord's Prayer. Thirdly, the Christian, “when he fasts, he doesn't screw up his face and display his pain, but he washes his face, he puts oil on his head, and he goes about fasting in normal, in secret.” Verse 17.
When we were at seminary, we used to have these tables, these long trellis tables where maybe four on each side, and one at the end, so maybe nine people. And if you were sitting at one end, the food was set down, and it was your job to serve the food. And the girls were great at that, because they could portion out the food exactly. The men were hopeless, you know, and you always served yourself last, and when it came to the end, there was very little food left for yourself, because you got the proportions all wrong. But then as you were carefully serving out this food, you would come to someone and they would say, not for me, I'm fasting today. But why were they in the canteen? And why were they sitting at the table? Why not go off to their rooms and pray and use that time in a profitable way?
So, the Christian is distinguished in his piety from that of the hypocrite in these things are carried out in secret. That's the mark of a true Godly piety. He gives, he prays, he fasts in secret and he avoids ostentation. He resists this temptation to display, and he seeks to do as many things in private as he can in public.
Now, there are obvious limitations to what Jesus says here. You can't preach a sermon in secret. Well, you can. I preach a sermon in secret in the car often, but it doesn't do anybody any good except me and sometimes Gail. You can't engage in visitation and encouragement in secret.
And if Jesus is forbidding public prayer, clearly then the early church didn't understand what he was speaking about. In fact, earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 5 and verse 16, let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Our piety is to be visible at times.
D. A. Carson very helpfully says that sometimes our Lord speaks in absolute categories in order to expose our weakness. So, we mustn't, in any of these things, have an absolute prohibition. Sometimes we have to let people know, especially the person that we're giving to, how much we give. Sometimes we, well, a lot of times we need to pray publicly for others and for the work of the church, and sometimes even it's necessary, I think, for a church to engage in corporate fasting. Our Lord is laying down a principle, and the principle is this, that the mark of an authentic Godly piety is the presence of an authentic godly piety in secret.
You remember our threefold definition of an actor. He takes what is unreal and he seeks to present it as real. He performs in public. And thirdly, he is motivated by the desire for the recognition and applause of others. In contrast, the true Christian, the citizen of the kingdom, is real. There's no phoniness about him. There's no contradiction between what he professes to be in public and what he is in private. And supremely, he is motivated with a desire for the glory of God rather than to glorify himself. That then is the mark of an authentic Godly piety. He is as Godly in private as he is in public.
What about you? What are you like in private when you're away from public scrutiny and from the public eye? Are you as fervent in prayer in private as you are in public? Are you as gracious and tolerant to your wife and to your children as you are to your fellow members on a Sunday morning?
These are the tests. This is an acid test to detect a hypocritical piety. And that's very important because hypocrisy is not always easy to detect in others or in ourselves. John Milton in Paradise Lost describes hypocrisy as the only evil that walks invisible, and sometimes it is invisible even to the person who possesses it. There is a hypocrisy that deliberately sets out to deceive others, but there is a hypocrisy in which we ourselves are deceived. Hypocrites are not always consciously insincere.
When you read the biographies of the great actors, you discover that a good actor will get himself so into the part that he becomes lost in the part. He loses himself in the part. It's the whole process of method acting. He becomes the character that he is portraying.
So, when he trembles, he's actually frightened. When he raises his voice, he is actually angry. When he weeps, and sheds tears, he sheds real tears. You know, when we were young and watched those old black and white films, when somebody cried, we imagined that the director had said, cut, and an assistant had run in with an eyedropper and put tears in their eyes and then withdrew, and the director said, action, and there were the tears, no, not at all. The actor cried real tears. He becomes lost in the part. At that moment, he doesn't believe he's acting a part.
And the same is true of us as professing Christians. We can believe ourselves to be citizens of the kingdom when we're no more than empty hypocrites. Well, how do I know? How do I know if I'm the real thing, the genuine article? Well, Jesus gives us a test.
What are you like in secret? Do you pray in secret? Do you read the Bible in secret? Or do you read the Bible or take out the Bible just on one Sunday to the next, never opening it during the week? The mark of an authentic Godly piety, the description of hypocritical piety, the mark of an authentic Godly piety, and then the importance of a genuine true piety. Why is it so important that my piety, my acts of righteousness, my religious activity spring from a sincere heart and are as genuine and private as they are in public?
Well, in each of the three examples, you have this repeated phrase, “your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Did you notice that in verse 4? Verse 6 and verse 18, giving, praying, and fasting your Father who sees. When you give, when you pray, and when you fast, your Father sees.
In other words, nothing can be hidden from Him. He sees all, and we will be rewarded on the basis of what He sees rather than on what we pretend to be. He sees every action. Well, the psalmist tells us, “before a word is on our tongue, He knows it completely.” Nothing can be hidden from Him.
He knows our hearts, we can deceive others, we can even deceive ourselves, but one thing's for sure, we will not and cannot deceive Him. It was Abraham Lincoln who said, “you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.” I'm not so sure he was right on that. Some hypocrites are pretty good at fooling all of the people all of the time, but one thing's for sure. We cannot fool God. Your Father sees. He knows. He sees. He is not fooled.
Do you remember Jim and Tammy Baker, the televangelists that were disgraced in the, I suppose, the early 80s? And I remember seeing a documentary, it was a British documentary on British TV, and Tammy was being interviewed after Jim had gone to prison. You remember they founded Heritage Land, or USA, where you could go and enter the ark and you could be swallowed by a whale and like Christian alternatives to Disney.
Anyway, Tammy was being interviewed and she said, in the course of the interview, “Jim has never seen me without my makeup on.” Now, I don't know how she did that. They must have gone to bed together, and then after Jim fell asleep, she must have got up, took off her makeup, and then went back to bed, got up before him, and put it back on again. But she said, “Jim has never seen me without my makeup on.” God sees you without your makeup on. He sees you as you actually are. You remember Hagar? “Thy God seest me. He sees, he knows.”
Do you remember Peter after the resurrection and when he was restored in the shores of the Sea of Galilee? Our Lord comes to him, and he asks him three times, he says, “Peter, do you love me?” And he says, “yeah, I do. Peter, do you love me? I do.” Third time, “Peter, do you love me?” And Peter responds in this way.
It's really quite remarkable. He says, listen to these words. "Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you." Now here's Peter, failed and failed miserably, but he's standing before the omniscient Christ who knows all things, who can pull apart the veneer of his outward profession and look directly into his heart and say, “Lord, you know, you know that I love you.” And here we are in Trinity Bible Church this morning and God sees right into our hearts.
Nothing is hidden from Him. He can pull apart the external veneer. We're not perfect. We have failed. We have fouled up. We have messed up repeatedly, but He looks right into our hearts Can we honestly say, Lord, You know that I love You. I'm not all that I should be. I'm not all that I could be.
But you know, you know that I love you. Do you love Him? Do you really love Him? Is He your passionate desire to walk humbly with Christ, to know Him better, that Christ in you is the hope of glory, the great raison d'être for your living, you just love him passionately and enthusiastically. And you look over this last week, and you've fouled up and you've sinned, but Lord, Lord, you know, you know that I love you.
Can I just finish just with, I don't want to discourage anybody this morning, and I just want to say that hypocrisy isn't the unforgivable sin. It's not the unforgivable sin. There's only one unforgivable sin according to Jesus, and that's the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It's not an unforgivable sin.
And maybe we have gone through this barren period where we've been going through the motions and just doing the things that we have to do, and even praying in public and putting on a performance for others, but we know that our hearts are cold and indifferent and far from God, and we're not reading and praying at home, we're not acting the way we should act at home when it's just ourselves and God, when there's no funniness and no pretending.
Well, there is a fountain that is open for sin and uncleanness. There is a way back to God from the dark path of sin, even the sin of hypocrisy. There is a way that is open that we may go in. And Calvary's Cross is where we begin when we come as sinners to Jesus.
And I would encourage you just to confess that sin, that sin, the sin of hypocrisy. Confess that sin. Plead the forgiveness that is found in Jesus Christ. Repent, and repent means to turn around, to do the opposite, to move in the opposite direction, to repent and seek the Lord. In private. And just remember, remember please that hypocrisy isn't unforgivable. There is always forgiveness with God. So, do you remember our text?
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. And so, the opposite must be true, that the true believer, the true citizen of the kingdom, will be rewarded on the basis of the fact that he is as genuine in private as he is in public. The description of hypocritical piety, a piety that is simply a performance, the mark of an authentic, Godly piety in secret, in secret, in secret, and the importance of a genuine, true piety. Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Amen. Let's pray.
(Prayer) Heavenly Father, we feel the weight of Your Word upon our conscience today. And we do pray that You would forgive us when we simply go through the motions, when we put on our performance, and we pray, oh God, for hearts and minds that truly love You. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we pray, O God, that we might be passionate lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that love for Him would drive us to not only feed the sheep, as our Lord said to Peter, but to seek you in the personal private place too. For we ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. (End)
