Can You Keep a Secret?

A father complained about the amount of time his family spent in front of the television. His children watched cartoons and neglected school work. His wife preferred soap operas to housework. His solution? “As soon as the baseball season’s over, I’m going to pull the plug.”7051

1 Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 201.

Hypocrisy can or from the Greek “play acting” can be found everywhere. It is much easier to appear to be righteous than to be righteous. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed this kind of plastic fake religion by first of all calling out the religious leaders.

Matthew 5:20 KJV

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

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As we continue our study “Inside Out: The Pursuit of Genuine Christianity” we move on to . Here Jesus exposes three different things that Hypocrites do as they seek more to appear righteous than to be righteous. This morning we are going to discover that when we give sacrificially to the poor, we need to keep it secret.

Don’t Give Charity In Order To Be Seen By Others.

Matthew 6:1 KJV

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Take heed

prosecho (προσέχω, 4337), “to take heed, give heed,” is said of the priests who “gave attendance at the altar,” . It suggests devotion of thought and effort to a thing. In (in the exhortation regarding the public reading of the Scriptures), the rv translates it “give heed,” for the kjv, “give attendance.” In , “to give heed” (for kjv, “attended). See beware, give, No. 17, regard.1

1 W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 44.

eleemosune (ἐλεημοσύνη, 1654), connected with eleemon, “merciful,” signifies (a) “mercy, pity, particularly in giving alms,

Motive Matters

Matthew 5:16 KJV

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Secondly, and more importantly, this passage is about a deliberate search for public recognition, whereas 5:16 summed up a searching character-study of true disciples which focused on essential qualities; those who live like that will inevitably be “a town built on top of a hill which cannot be hidden,” whether they like it or not. And whereas the outcome of religious ostentation is the desired “reward” of human applause, the result of the shining light of the disciples’ lifestyle is that people glorify God, not them.1

1 R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007), 234.

 When Howard Carter and his associates found the tomb of King Tutankhamen, they opened up his casket and found another within it. They opened up the second, which was covered with gold leaf, and found a third. Inside the third casket was a fourth made of pure gold. The pharaoh’s body was in the fourth, wrapped in gold cloth with a gold face mask. But when the body was unwrapped, it was leathery and shriveled.

Whether we are trying to cloak a dead spiritual life, or something else, in caskets of gold to impress others, the beauty of the exterior does not change the absence of life on the interior.7041

1 Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 201.

Put Your Trumpet Away

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Matthew 6:2 KJV

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.

When not If

Matthew 5:42 KJV

Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Matthew 25:35 KJV

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Deuteronomy 15:7–11 KJV

If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

deut

Alms/ Charity is Not Tithing

Thus, when you give alms is given in more contemporary language by TEV: “So when you give something to a needy person.” NEB (“Thus, when you do some act of charity”) and Brc (“When you are going to perform an act of charity”) are similar. GeCL translates “When you help someone.” However, this and Phps (“So, when you do good to other people”) may not emphasize enough that what is involved here is giving help to the needy. Other than in , , the word alms is found in the New Testament only in the Lukan writings: ; ; , , ; ; , , ; 24:17.1

1 Barclay Moon Newman and Philip C. Stine, A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1992), 159.

Alms / Charity is Personal, not Governmental

Trumpet = Metaphor for making a racket about your good deed

According to Reuters news agency, on April 28 at the 1992 Galveston County Fair and Rodeo, a steer named Husker, weighing in at 1,190 pounds, was named grand champion. The steer was sold at auction for $13,500 and slaughtered a few days after the competition. When veterinarians examined the carcass, said a contest official, they found something suspicious. They discovered evidence of what is called “airing.”

To give steers a better appearance, competitors have been known to inject air into their animals’ hides with a syringe or a needle attached to a bicycle pump. Pump long enough, and they’ve got themselves what looks like a grand champion steer, though of course it’s against the rules.

The Galveston County Fair and Rodeo Association withdrew the championship title and sale money from Husker.

A pumped-up steer is like a hypocritical person. Hypocrites appear more virtuous than they are.1

1 Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 258.

Hypocrites Reap a Temporary Reward

Keep It Secret

Matthew 6:3–4 KJV

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Again When not If

Secret Righteousness Is Not Hidden From God.

Deuteronomy 29:29 KJV

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

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Matthew 19:29 KJV

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

Matthew 25:21 KJV

His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

 The Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans when it was launched in 1936. Through four decades and a world war she served until she was retired, anchored as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, California.

During the conversion, her three massive smokestacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But on the dock they crumbled.

Nothing was left of the 3/4-inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed. All that remained were more than thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. The steel had rusted away.

When Jesus called the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs,” he meant they had no substance, only an exterior appearance.1

1 Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 259.

As representatives and ambassadors of Jesus to the world, we need to be generous and charitable. We must however, guard against simply doing so in order to impress other… while others may be in awe, God is not. So the steps are simple, When you give charity, check your motives. Do not do it to be seen. When you give, put your trumpet away, do not proclaim loudly to others what you are doing. When you give charity, the best way to check your motives is to keep it secret.