Righteousness Consisting of Ideas (Attitudes) — Paris Reidhead

Righteousness in the Heart

You turn, please, to the portion that we read as our New Testament reading. Matthew chapter 6, consideration with the 19th verse. We understand this portion, however, by reviewing just a moment what we have seen previously.

We saw in the Beatitudes what he does, gives one this kind of a heart, himself and on the cross, in order that he might fulfill it in us by his spirit. To exceed that of the scribes and pharisees you shall in no case.

Well, their righteousness consisted of ideas. You can miss heaven by 18 inches if your salvation consists merely in ideas. It isn't what's in your head that's going to save you, it's what's in your heart.

What a tragedy it is. Matthew tells us about people that come up to the door and rap on the door and expect to be put in, never made the migration down to their heart. Oh, they were Sadducees. Things they did, they had not liked.

Superficial Religion and the Motives Behind Service

The rest of the sermon, the rest of chapter 5 and chapter 6, is to establish the contrast, the contradistinction between that which is superficial, shallow, and light, that which is vital, real, of being an office giver, insatiably demands approval, recognition, and gratitude for every service presented.

This, one that has been born of God, gives alms, but he doesn't want his right hand to know what his left hand is doing, and because he's not doing it to be seen or known, he's doing it because he loves Christ.

This is Christianity. Two people pray. One person prays to get a reputation of being a prayer. Well, he's eloquent and fortunate. This person prays because he loves God. He doesn't need the approval of men because he has God.

God is the answer to the heartbeat. Status is a spiritual person. The other person prays because he loves God, deeply and earnestly. Now, remember, it's not your responsibility to tell how anybody else is praying.

To sit and take the truth and put the pitchfork under it and pass it back over our shoulders and say, I wish so-and-so were here to hear this, or I wish so-and-so would read this. No, that isn't what he's saying at all.

He's not giving you the standards by which you can judge others. He's giving us the standards by which we can judge ourselves. It's all the difference in the world. So he said this, look well to your motives.

Why do you do what you do? If it's to be seen, to be approved, it has no value at all. Remember, the alms given do help the hungry. There's no value for the fasting. One person fasts to be seen fasting, and the other one fasts in order that he might see God glorified.

He says intention, purpose, motive, changes all religious activities from mere nothing to that which will endure. And so he's taking Christianity away from almsgiving, and away from praying, and away from fasting.

The Heart as the Center of Faith and Transformation

He's putting it down in the heart. Well, that's right. The scripture says, with a heart man believeth unto righteousness. It's the heart. This is where all of our relationship to Christ is when it's vital and real.

Christ comes into the heart, and it's with the heart we believe, with the heart we've committed. What do we mean by heart? That organ that forces blood through our bodies? No. We mean the personality in its total submission to the sovereignty of Christ.

Part of you that thinks, feels, will, gladly, totally, permanently, abandon to the one end of glorifying spiritual activities. Interpretation of the body, working together. I guess that's the worst. When I finish, what are you trying to impress?

Never escape from it, and I'm very grateful for it. To acquire superficial mannerisms and attitudes. There just isn't anyone like him. It's just like him. He comes into the heart, he changes the man from within, and even performs pietistic services.

How God looks on the heart, that you search your heart, you test your heart. Why do you do what you do? Why do you talk the way you talk? Why do you pray? Why do you fast? Why do you give? Why? It isn't what, it's why that makes the difference.

From Religious Service to Financial Stewardship

Well now, if this is true in religious service, don't you expect it to be so true also in our financial life? And he's talked to us now about what seems to be religious, and verse 18 goes right into verse 19, and he immediately goes into another realm, another area.

The practical, the economic, the business. He said this is what a Christian's going to do in relation to the law. This is what a Christian's going to do in relation to fasting and tithing and praying.

This is the kind of a person he's going to be in all of these various relationships, but he hasn't touched one yet. What kind of a person is he going to be in relation to business? That's where he's coming now, and he begins in a very lovely way.

Whenever I read this portion, I think of John Wesley's sermon on it. John Wesley was a wise and good man. God greatly blessed and used him, but he often had unresponsive hearers. They tell about a Scotsman, I do not believe this is true, particularly if I'm speaking of my own when I speak of them, so fellow Scotsman, let's not take offense at this, but a Scotsman came down from Edinburgh and into one of Wesley's meetings.

He just blossomed out and opened up. He said one Wesley's point was, second point was, save all you can. I have never heard such an eloquent and wise man. Mr. Wesley announced his third point. What Wesley said is absolutely true.

In his own words, do you mean to say that the Lord is indicating that a person shouldn't have a checking account or a bank account, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth? Do you mean to say that a person shouldn't have capital with which to conduct his business, or shouldn't have made some provision for the needs of his family for tomorrow and the next day?

I don't believe that. I think that what he is saying here is as clear as his words are, that you lay up treasures. You know, money can be just money. It doesn't have to be a treasure. Do you know that?

Money can be a tool. It depends upon how you feel. If it's just something that's there to be used, like an axe when it's needed, or a shovel when there's a bowl to be dug, your attitude toward it will probably stay right.

Money as a Tool or a Substitute for God

But when you set your love upon it, set your affection upon it, when it becomes a treasure to you, something that you want to hoard, something you want to husband, something in which you find satisfaction, something in which you find pleasure, something in which you find comfort, something in which you find security and find rest, then it has become a substitute, become a substitute for God.

Just as a person needs ease and rest and relaxation and release from tension, so how does he secure it? Well, the unwise person will seek to secure that relaxation and release from tension and ease of mind from a bottle, from alcohol.

What has he done? He is securing by an illegal and forbidden means the kind of ease that can only come to a human being from a right relationship with God. Version of human person. Substitution of character to secure rest and ease and peace and comfort from fermented grain.

The reason for the lack of rest and ease and comfort is that we're not rightly related to God through Jesus Christ. So that person that's come to that proper and whole and entire relationship with God, who discovers all of a sudden that he's not dependent upon these things anymore, he doesn't need them because he has something within, he has something that he's been transformed inwardly, he doesn't need to get his security there.

So it is that that person that's come to see that God is his father, that he's a child of God and that he's a joint heir with Christ and that he's partaken of the divine nature and he has the witness of the spirit that he is born of God and he sees God sitting on the throne as sovereign.

He realizes that nothing can touch the child of God but what the father permits it. All of hell, forces of circumstances and nature because he's born of God. As long as he's walking in obedience and submission and trust to God.

Therefore, security and satisfaction through narcotics can find the future and in such a way it secures himself against dependence upon God. That which has become a tool has become a God. To clear an explicit scene in this light, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.

Treasure is something in which you trust, something from which you find your satisfaction and your wholeness, your happiness as a person. It's like moth and rust are going to take it decently. Neither moths nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is.

You shouldn't have money for tomorrow's bread. It's not the tool, it's talking about the treasure. Now if you turn the tool into a treasure, it's wrong. But if you view it as just a tool, just what it's to be, just it means what's a cowrie shell?

We dealt with cowrie shells. I wouldn't love cowrie shells. They're just as important as the value that you and others attach to them. I'll never forget that little boy out in Dinkeland coming into the school.

The teacher, the principal said to him, now dang you have to take all of ornaments off. See in our country the men may that wear the ornaments. He couldn't do it and he had to reach around and loosen the knot in the back.

The little bead incidentally was part of his dowry. It represented about the third of the price of a wife and here he was about 15 and he already had a third of a wife and he was proud of this and he wanted it.

It was a treasure. So he doesn't pass it to attach no value to it. Lord Jesus Christ, you said your affection on things below. Then it's become lay not up treasures upon her. Don't let these things that you use, don't let the axe with which you chop the tree or the spade with which you turn the earth or the money with which you buy the food where it's just a tool, same as a hoe is.

Don't let it become anything else than a tool. Keep things rightly oriented. Your security is not in the tool. Don't let it get out of place. Wouldn't you think it folly if a man had gilded a hoe and put it up over the mantelpiece?

There it is. What's this well, this is my treasure. Well, it's as much as money is. So he says, keep things in right perspective. See them as they are. Use them properly. Don't let them get out of balance.

Laying Up Treasure in Heaven Through Whole-Life Devotion

Lay up treasure in heaven. What's this mean? Just give. Of course, God says tithe. You know what we've said about tithing? Abraham commenced it. Moses commanded it and Christ commended it. You can't improve on it or get beyond it.

But is that what he's talking about here? No. What he's talking about here is the fact that you realize that what you're putting in heaven is not just your tithe. Because we're coming to another principle in just a moment.

Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, whether you eat or whether you drink, do all for the glory of God. The other 16 hours a day. When it comes to Christ, I signal to his glory.

What is money after all? You work in an office or a shop or a store or a business for eight hours. And the employer, even if you own your own business, you're working for the employer, pays you what he thinks your time is worth.

You may not agree with him, but you're getting what he thinks you're worth. And at the end of the week, he puts into your hand the exchange for time. In other words, money is just fluid, liquid life. Life is made up of time and time is sold for money.

And there it is. But what about the rest of the time? Isn't that valuable? Christ being jealous of what he purchased with his blood says, I want it all, whether you drink. Some dear housewife, you know, you housewives, you mothers with children, you know, your husband couldn't afford you if he had to hire you on the open market, don't you?

You ever thought of that? He never could afford you. Why? You think how much you get as a cook, what your wages would be. And then is how much you get as a babysitter and babysitters don't get anything.

You don't do anything but just that. And you're and how much you get as a housekeeper and then as a chauffeur and as a gardener. And you name the different hats that you have to. He could never afford you if he had to hire you in the open market.

Don't you think that this counts for eternity? You do it word or indeed do all of the name. What do we have here in our next words? The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? Saying if your eye is fixed on the glory of Jesus Christ, all of your whole being is enlightened, is done by the illumination from this one consuming purpose.

When you discover the heavenly economics that's there doing the dishes isn't counting how much you get at a restaurant for the same chore. She isn't figuring how much she'd be her husband have to pay for the services.

She's saying I am doing this as I'm through Jesus Christ. Because I love him and because my eye is single to his glory and my one passion is to please him. Whether I eat or whether I wash the dishes on which others have eaten, whether I sleep or make the beds upon which others have slept, whatever I do in word or in deed, I do it all for one purpose, the glory of Jesus Christ.

Serving One Master in Every Calling

Then notice his words. No man can serve two masters. You can't serve yourself. You can't divide your life up and say I'm working for him now. Now I'm working for me. Now I'm working for the Lord. You hear people say I want to go into full-time service.

My friend, if you aren't in full-time service, going won't help anywhere. Where will you go? You're to be in full-time service, not to go somewhere to do it. You're there. Whatever you do, you're to do to this end.

That means that your tithe is the Lord's, of course, but what about the nine tenths? That's his too. What about the time after you've earned? That's his too. It's all the Lord. You're not serving two masters.

He thinks that you are. You know, he thinks that you're working for him. You're working for him. Now if you work for him, you're going to be careless and shoddy. I've had employers say to me, you know, I just don't like to hire Christians because they don't work hard.

They don't do their work well. They take advantage of the fact that they're Christians and slovenly about their work. Now, I don't think that's true, but certainly it never should be true because a Christian ought to fight with all your heart.

You're doing it as unto Christ. If the whole is being, your eye is single to his glory and the whole body is full. Saying that when I come into a man and I change a man, I immediately break down all delineations between secular and sacred.

I immediately sanctify the whole of life because when I come into the heart, I change all values. You don't just do work for money. No man can work for an employer and for Christ. You can't work for yourself and for Christ.

You can't work for your family and for Christ. The heart may be here, but it's always working for Christ. The whole and the menial and the mundane. Smith has unto him divine service. Every part of you, all your time, all your talent, and everything.

Love the one and hate the other. Hate the one and love the other. One master. Who will make God great? He that loves Christ is just as sincere as the other. And allow the Lord Jesus Christ to be the test.

The Healing of a Unified Life

Other sinners or sick people live to please themselves. Spiritually sick, that's why I've always used the word save. The same word that says heal. Because they think they can be happy in the midst of others' needs.

Live to please themselves. All of us were sinners, Lord. There were so many traits and habits and attitudes of mine that characterized our whole life. When we've come to Christ, we've carried some of them in with us.

We tried to departmentalize our lives, Lord. We tried to work for our employer eight hours and then tried to serve the Lord in our spare time. Show us that thou claim all time and all strength and all thou has said we can't serve two masters.

The only master that we're committed to serve is the Lord Jesus, to whom he sends us the ministry we bring. So to that end, Lord, let the healing that comes from seeing our lives unified in this one grand purpose to glorify Christ.

Let that healing, we pray, to our minds and hearts.