Sermon on the Mount Lesson 15

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Slide 5	1 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. 2 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. 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Slide 6	•Chapter 5 we have Jesus describing the characteristics of Believers – The Beatitudes•He declares that He came to fulfill the Law and that obedience to the law was required•Corrects the false teaching of the religious leaders•Attitudes, motives, actions are the same•Anger and murder•Adultery, lust and divorce •Taking oaths and swearing•Revenge and loving your enemies•He ended the chapter with the reason - so that we be like our Father which is in heaven
Slide 7	•In chapter 6 He turns from false teaching to hypocrisy•6:1-18 Jesus gave three areas in the practice of righteousness, wherein the Pharisees, by overt display, perverted true worship and turned it into an effort to gain public approval: •Almsgiving (vv. 2-4), •Prayer (vv. 5-15), and •Fasting (vv. 16-18). •Verse 1 states the general principle regarding the motive of righteousness, which is then developed by these three examples. Motives that underlie deeds or words give to them their true moral quality.
Slide 8	•“Take heed…” Pay attention, watch out , beware•Beware of what?:•“Doing your good deeds before men to be seen of them”•We have a seeming contradiction – In chapter 5 He says:•5:16 let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.•6:1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them:
Slide 9	•Jesus is speaking against different sins•“It is our human cowardice that made Him say let your light so shine before men…”•“It is our human vanity which made Him tell us to beware of practicing our deeds before men”•A. B. Bruce “show when tempted to hide and hide when tempted to show.”•Our good works are to be public so that our light shines and our religious devotions must be secret lest we boast about them•Jesus did not say If you give, pray, and fast then this is how you should do it but “when” you do – it was expected that they would.
Slide 10	•1 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. •6:1 Alms dikaiosunē - General righteous deeds, acts•Even more in favor of “righteousness” is the idea that the first verse then becomes a general heading for this whole section dealing with acts of righteousness (verses 1-18) of the discourse, inculcating unostentatiousness in all deeds of righteousness—almsgiving, prayer, and fasting being in that case but selected examples of this righteousness; whereas, if we read, “Do not your alms. . .,” this first verse will have no reference but to that one point. •6:2 Alms eleēmosunē - Specific righteousness, deeds, acts of compassion, acts of righteousness•To be righteous is to be like God•Matthew 5:44 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: …•48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Slide 11	•2 “Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do…”•The expression is to be taken figuratively for announcing it. Hence our expression “to trumpet” or “blow your own horn” as the hypocrites do•Hypocrite:•One who feigns to be what he is not; an actor one who plays a role; one who acts a part•One who has the form of godliness without the power, or who assumes an appearance of piety and virtue, when he is destitute of true religion. •Righteousness is a matter between a person and God•One’s acts should not be demonstrated before others to gain their attention, their approval - for then his reward has been received – from men and not God. •The Pharisees made a great show of their giving to the needy- their acts of righteousness - in the synagogues and on the streets, thinking they were thus proving how righteous they were.
Slide 12	•Spurgeon: “To stand with a penny in one hand and a trumpet in the other is the posture of hypocrisy.”•What does the Bible say about Hypocrites?
Slide 13	•Job 8:13 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:•Job 13:16 He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.•Job 15:34 For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.•Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?•Job 34:30 That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared.•Pro 11:9 An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.
Slide 14	•Isa 32:6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.•Mat 6:2 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.•Mat 6:5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Slide 15	•Mat 6:16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.•Mat 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.•Mat 16:3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?•Mat 22:18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
Slide 16	•Mat 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.•Mat 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.•Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Slide 17	•Mat 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.•Mat 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.•Mat 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.•Mat 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Slide 18	•Mat 24:45-51 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; 49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Slide 19	•Mar 7:6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.•Luk 6:42 Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.•Luk 12:56 Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?
Slide 20	•Luk 13:15 The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?•1Ti 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Slide 21	•“The trouble with the religious hypocrite is he lays aside his true identity, assumes a false one, and deliberately sets out to deceive people.” (John Stott)•They have their reward•All they wanted was human applause, and they have it—and with it, all they will ever get. •*The verb translated have* was used in receipts and is similar to “paid in full.”**
Slide 22	•3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: •4 That thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.•“In secret” does not mean that public acts of mercy, fasting, and prayer are to be avoided. •This section has a lot to do with our motivations – wh yare we doing it?•Rather, Jesus admonishes those for whom public display is a temptation, to practice their acts of piety in secrecy.•“…as soon as the giving of a gift is decided and done…forget it. We are not keep recalling it in order to gloat over it, or to preen ourselves on how generous, disciplined or conscientious our giving may have been. Christian giving is to be marked by self sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, not by self-congratulation.” (Stott)
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