Sep. 25, 2016 Afternoon Service Beatitudes Part 11 by Pastor Josh Sheldon

These people he was largely preaching to, and he speaks first of giving, which will be our topic this afternoon. He speaks then of praying, and then he speaks of fasting. So this week and the next two weeks, Lord willing, we'll go through these one at a time.

Our text is Matthew 6, 1 through 4, and as a way of reminder for us, as I have been each week since we've gotten to that point, I will start us with Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20, the verse that I think is key to understanding the Sermon on the Mount.

So Matthew 5 chapter 20, the Lord says, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Now remember, as I read these verses and preach through them, that what we are seeking to understand from the Sermon on the Mount as a whole is this righteousness that exceeds that of the champion righteousness bearers of the day, or so it seemed.

The scribes and the Pharisees, who as we now know, having gone through enough of the Sermon on the Mount, we know their righteousness was an outer righteousness. It was one, as we are making clear as we go through these three sections that we're starting this afternoon, that that's as far as the righteousness went.

It was for your sake, or your sake, or your sake, that I would practice these things, so I would look holy and pious and righteous to you, or to you, or to you. So we're looking for a righteousness that exceeds that, that is better than that, qualitatively better.

Giving to the Needy Without Hypocrisy

So Matthew chapter 6, in the first four verses, 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. May God bless the reading of his word.

Again let's once more ask God's blessing. Heavenly Father, again open our ears to your word, open our hearts to your spirit. May the words of my mouth be found acceptable and pleasing in your sight, O Lord our Redeemer.

It's in your name that we come together, Father. It is your scripture we must attend to. It is you, Father, we must know and your will for us. So we pray that you in your goodness and your mercy and by your spirit would reveal these things to us.

In Jesus' name, Amen. So why do we give? Why do we give? Why are we generous? Why are we generous to this church as so many of you are? Why are we generous to the poor and to the needy that we see on the street?

Sometimes people we know who are poor and needy, sometimes those we don't know, strangers on the street. Why do we give? Why does our hand reach for our wallet or open our purse? Why do we look to see if we've got something smaller than a 20 or a 50?

Do we do it to please God? This is really the big question before us. Do we do it to please God? If so, is it because we love the God who saved us by his son or is it because we hope by this to remain in his good graces?

Is that a sheer dedication and devotion to Jesus Christ, the son of God who saved us? Or do we think by doing this we somehow impress God? We somehow say to God, we send this message that see what I've done Lord, now keep me in your graces.

Or don't forget me Father when paradise opens. Remember me because of this deed that I just did. Is that the reason? Maybe some of us give simply because we think charity is expected of us as Christians.

And so we have these perceived societal pressures forcing our hand. Last week the message was on verse 6 -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 who is in heaven.

And we preach that with this focus on hypocrisy, on having an intentional outer shell that belies what is within. Not that we really know what is within us, but understanding that we want just to look good to others.

And that is then the reason for this. This is what Jesus is speaking against, this sort of hypocrisy. That message also had quite a bit about rewards, mainly that the hope for reward is for one thing certain and for another it is to be realized when we see Jesus.

So the reward is a matter of faith. Might he reward us in this life? He might. There's nothing in scripture says he will not. We do know though, we do know that if we're in Jesus Christ there is a reward that comes when we see him in heaven.

We know that for sure. The rewards in this life, they're not negated. I don't eliminate them. Neither are they promised. It's left to God and his wise counsel which he keeps with himself. Today I want to look at the act of giving.

Acts of charity from we who have been blessed by God to be able to take care of our own families and then still have something left over for someone else in need. I hope then to cover Jesus' next two examples, praying and fasting, in separate messages as we go.

So these three activities, charity, prayer, and fasting, as I said they were pillars of religion in Jesus' day. Everything else for them in their mindset, these ones Jesus is preaching to, thought they all flowed from these three.

And so they may well be, but only if we understand just what Jesus is requiring of us. In a way this message will have a lot of doing in it. It'll have a lot of doing, do this, give to the needy, do be generous, that sort of thing.

But with God's help we will understand from the context just how this is to be done. I'll put it this way, you'll hear something very similar for the next two examples in the coming weeks, but I hope you'll see the continuity.

Charity that pleases God is that which comes from a heart that has been changed by God's spirit. What charity pleases God? What makes God from heaven as it were smile upon this deed that we do? Simply this, if it comes from a heart that has been changed by the spirit of God, if it comes from a heart changed by the spirit of God, we often speak from Ezekiel 36 of the heart of stone being replaced by the heart of flesh.

That heart, this heart that God gives, this regenerated new man that wishes only to do those acts which bring honor to God's name, whether I know about it, or your neighbor knows about it, or even your closest person, your husband, your wife knows.

The goal of this heart-led person is God's pleasure. If that is it, this pleases God, if that is the motive behind us. Not a resentful compliance to a rule, not a giving that hopes that a lighter wallet will impress God.

We know from last week the message on hypocrisy that it must not be for the sake of brandishing my own reputation, and so the desire for a congratulatory amen is eliminated. So what is it to give? What does Jesus want of us here?

First, let us understand that charity is expected of the Christian. We could go to the Old Testament, we could cite the various laws in this subject. I think Deuteronomy 15 verse 11 is typical. And Psalm 41 declares in a manner much like the Beatitudes, it says, and then it says in Deuteronomy, excuse me again, one more, Proverbs 19, 17, The law in Deuteronomy and the generalizations of the Psalm and the Proverb, what are we to make of all this?

Add to this that Ezekiel 16, 49 says, but did not aid the poor and needy. Setting aside our diverse views on where the Old Testament law stands in the life of the New Testament believer, it comes down to this, the last verse of chapter five of Matthew, the one I started with, you shall, excuse me, I didn't start with, but the last verse of chapter five then after these three says, therefore you shall be perfect as your that is inferior to that demanded by the kingdom of God and his subjects.

And also looks ahead to these very verses that we're in this afternoon. Back on September 11th, I preached that verse and I pointed at the word as, I pointed out that the word as does not mean equality, it means by comparisons, you shall be perfect as, not qualitatively as your father in heaven is perfect.

By comparison, almost metaphorically doing the same kinds of work, the same nature of work, reflecting God's person in the works that we do. That's how we're perfect as our father in heaven is perfect, not complete perfection in this life.

We all know that. Our works by way of comparison are perfect. We do the types of things that God does. We do them the way he does, but by analogy. Not quite literally. So charity is expected of the Christian because we represent a charitable God.

Charity expected of us because a charitable God has saved us, made us his people. Let me take a brief excursus, time out. I see more than a couple of fans moving. Did it get very warm in here? And if it has, somebody can just turn the thermostat down.

There's an arrow, an up down arrow. I think it said at 70. If you just push it a couple times, it'll go down to 69. I think it can't go lower than 67, but it will come on right away. So I see a lot of people look very warm.

So and I'm warm up here. Do you see the down arrow there, Sue? There you go. Thank you. Thank you very much. He sends rain on the just. He sends rain on the unjust alike. He is merciful towards his enemies, which is what each of us were.

We were his enemies. We must all say with Paul that we were blasphemers, insolent, but I received mercy. As in the Beatitudes, mercy is shown the merciful because they are acting in a God imitating way when they are being merciful.

It is the same with charity. It's a reflection of God in us to simply be charitable, to be generous, to be open-handed. And a second, I want us to look at. So that's its duty. That's first. It's our duty to be charitable because of who we represent.

But second, let us look how the Lord says what we're not to do and then what to do. He says, when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. One man told me that a friend of his would only give cash.

We're talking about a church, of course. Would only give cash because he didn't want his right hand with which he would write the check to know what the left hand had done, which is to give the money somehow.

He hadn't used one hand to get the checkbook out and the other hand to write it, and he didn't want the two to be coordinated or something like that because of this verse. Well, we will hear in this place, Lord willing, not come away with so silly an understanding of what Jesus is saying here.

It's not a matter of your physical right hand or your physical left hand and saying that one can't know. One has to be ignorant of what the other is doing. What has been the point from the beginning in this Sermon on the Mount?

The heart. The heart. The renewed spirit. The changed person. The new man created by God in true righteousness and holiness. That's been the point from the beginning. So to take this left hand, right hand as literally our hands, not knowing what one or another is doing, cannot be what Jesus is talking about here.

You see, your right hand cannot have any idea of what the other is doing. They're both acted upon, not by some force or some will or some intellect intrinsic to them, but by the dictates of the heart.

And isn't this exactly what Jesus says later in this Gospel of Matthew? This from the heart flows, and I won't quote the whole verse for the sake of time, but from the heart flows every bad word we say, every good word we say, every bad deed we do, every good deed we do.

It's all from the heart, not from parts of our body knowing what the other part is doing. So what does Jesus mean? Context is, of course, always the safest way to interpret Scripture as the surest path to a correct application.

So consider these statements, one from each of the Lord's three examples. In each case, the negative example was provided by the hypocrites. And in each case, their error was that what they did was not for the good of the recipient or for the honor of God.

The prayer was not meant to edify anyone. The fasting had nothing to do with any unique and intensive devotion to God. It was all for show and for the praises men can give. It had nothing to do with God by analogy, by comparison, not in any way at all.

So back to the left hand, right hand, the Lord's meaning and context is simply this, do not enter into these duties of religion and faith with an eye to your own glory. Do not enter into the duties of religion and faith with any sense that you are increasing your own glory, expanding your own reputation, impressing me or anyone else at all.

So this is pretty simple. If it is not a work meant to shine forth so that men will give glory to your Father in heaven, what do we do? Stop. Just stop. I might go on to say, yes, do help that needy person, toot your own horn if you must, just don't pretend it's from a Christian spirit.

If that person needs help, then yes, we want them to have help, don't we? But let's not carry the game on further and say I did this in the name of Jesus when we really did in the name of self. Be honest enough to admit, if only to yourself, that your hope is to gain admiration from men.

Maybe the only one who knows that poor guy who needs that five or ten or one dollar bill, whatever it is, and you want him to know what a grand person you are, but not God. You see, sometimes it has to be known.

Sometimes your charity must be known by the recipient. Sue and I once inherited a van that we didn't need very much and we didn't use very much. We decided to give it away. And at our church at the time, there were people who needed a reliable vehicle with lots of seatbelts, which this one had.

So I went to our elders and I asked them to take title to it and then give it to whoever they thought best. I was simply going to sign it over to them and be done with it and have no idea where it went.

I didn't care where it went. What they thought best was that one particular single mom should get it. And they also thought it best that I personally hand her the title. So I can honestly say Sue and I wanted no glory, but following the elders' counsel, secrecy was impossible.

So in that sense, the right hand, left hand, I couldn't accomplish this the way some people interpret that verse. But as I said, Sue and I wanted no credit, no glory, went to the elders and said, you can have this.

We want to go to somebody who needs it or whatever you think best. And that's how they thought it was best to do it. I'm not making any judgment on that being right or wrong. That's not the way I would handle it here as a pastor now.

I think what they did was fine. My point is simply, sometimes the recipient knows who it came from. The practical considerations of the matter, if they're going to get the charity, they need to have that knowledge.

It happens. This church recently helped a pastor out of a pretty good jam that he got into. And he knew where the check came from. He was grateful. He said, thank you. And that was the end of it, as it should be.

It was a fairly large sum. It helped him. We knew of his need. I presented it to the membership. They said, yes, let's help him. He said, thank you one time. And that's done. I think that honors God. I think that is a God honoring, a Christ honoring way for that sort of charity to occur.

Right hand, left hand means only that as much as you can be as private as you can. That's the practical side. The other side is do it for the sake of God's glory. Do it because you are his ambassador and you are being perfect as he is perfect.

Cheerful Giving and a Converted Heart

Third point is that we can find examples of charitable giving that is well pleasing to God in the New Testament. So we know that this is a duty of the church as a whole and individuals within the church.

Let me read to you from 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and the first seven verses. Emphasis mine, but I think Paul would favor that. Notice that Paul does not cite any law that would demand this of them. They are moved only by the grace of God in them and their ability to address the need that had come up.

They gave from extreme poverty from which we learn that it is the heart, not the amount. It's the heart behind it and not the amount that matters. God will look to quality over quantity every time. The heart, always the heart.

God loves a cheerful giver. A saying by Paul with which we will actually close and then go to the Lord's table. God loves a cheerful giver. Many of you have heard this that cheerful comes from the Greek hilaros.

That's where we get hilarious. Sometimes we get totally carried away with this grand discovery and we decide that giving must be accompanied by this exuberant humor, this Holy Spirit laughter as some have called it.

Something approaching, side-splitting guffaws as though it's funny, it's hilarious if you will, that God would even make you able to give. But that's not at all what Paul meant. That's not what Paul meant.

At his simplest, simplicity being as great a safety net as context. At his simplest, he meant to be willing. God loves a willing giver. No resentful compliance, no rueful expectation, no rueful extraction of the wallet and then heaven and earth holding its breath to see if the wallet will actually come apart or if it does, if the contents will actually be removed.

It's a willing heart. It's the kind spoken of in Exodus 35 24. Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's contribution. And everyone who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it as the Lord's contribution.

As the Lord, it says four times in that very passage, as the Lord stirred the heart or stirred up the spirit or moved the person. This is possible only by the working of God's spirit. Just a few verses before 35 21.

And they came everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting and for all his service and for the holy garments.

Stirred up by the Lord. This is what I was speaking of before, the heart, the change, the converted heart, the heart that has none of self in it, the heart that wants only to bring honor to God, to do a perfect work as God is perfect in the manner of God's charity, his charitableness, his graciousness.

What charity does God regard? That which comes from the converted heart. There's a reason Paul cites no laws and it has nothing to do with debates about the place of the laws because he is writing to people who have been converted to the gospel.

He writes to a people who are not looking for a reward from man especially or even from God, but whose desire is to show forth God's glory and to do works which are perfect as he is perfect. How does this converted heart become charitable?

I think we join the psalmist. Psalm 40 verse 17. He says, as for me, I am poor and needy. We don't see ourselves as above that person whose job doesn't pay what we've got, who didn't get the education we have so we have better job continuity than they do or anything like that.

We look at ourselves as in the same boat. As for me, I am poor and needy. Is this not Paul like or similar to Paul where he says, the chief of sinner, God saves sinners as whom of whom I am the chief.

He's not artificially lowering himself from this high status and saying, oh by the way, I happen to be in the boat with you. Oh no, he's the anchor on the boat. He's the one dragging the rest of us down.

If you ask him, say we're all in this together is the way to look at this in the spiritual sense of course. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought of me. You, speaking out of the Father, are my help and my deliverer.

Do not delay. Oh my God. Remember when the humble sees it, they will be glad. You who seek God, let your hearts revive, for the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

I think this is the kind of heart that God would have regard for. This says, this man has less money than I do, but you know together in God's sight, both poor and needy. That's the kind of humility I think that would commend us to Christ in this sort of thing.

And then it has so much less to do with the actual giving of the charity and so much more to do with our heart, with our status before God because of our faith in Jesus Christ. Then it has to do with the riches of heaven, our inheritance being won for us by Christ, that we who are poor made rich in his name.

Then it has so much more to do with our love for our Father because of our love for his Son. There's no call today to strip off your jewelry, pile it up here in front, but there is a call that this table before us, to which we come in a few moments, that this table be taken by those whose hearts have been stirred.

I speak of conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Has God given you a new heart, one which believes on the Lord Jesus Christ? So contributing none, he doesn't prove it. And I don't want to watch and see if somebody goes and slips something on our offering box and then comes back and says, okay, now you can partake of the communion.

That's not it at all. It is a matter of the closest intimacy between you and God. Have you repented of your sins, of your sinful nature? The willing spirit, the spirit converted by God must answer yes.

Do you believe your soul to be eternal and its fate to be solely in the hands of a wise and loving God? Is all your hope for eternal life invested in Jesus Christ, God's eternal Son, he without beginning or end, him alone?

Is all your hope in his cross and that alone? Have you followed the Lord in baptism? Is that your outward symbol of the true and lasting faith of the converted heart? Do you live for him each day? Do you put off the old man and steadily conform yourself into the image of him whose salvation is your only hope?

I speak of course of the Christian, which is the base of entrance to this table. And I think this is a fair transition to go from the preaching in Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount on charitable giving to coming to the table, because both demand of us this one act of God.

Conversion, new heart, a new heart that seeks God's glory and therefore gives as God gives in the same way, in the same manner, because it looks at that person and says, I too am poor and needy, therefore I will be charitable as God is charitable.

Only that heart is one that pleases God. If that is your heart, because God has given you that new heart and given you faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we come to the table to commemorate his sacrifice from which we attain that new heart.

We come to this table to remember that Jesus Christ died for me. As Paul says in Galatians chapter 2, we come to this table, the broken bread. Do you believe Jesus' body was broken for you? Do you know that the torture he endured was the torture that you eternally deserve?

We will serve the broken bread symbolic of that. Is your heart converted to the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you see the wine in the middle, the fruit of the vine? Do you see that and know that it symbolizes a life poured out, a death he died that is a death we deserved?

This table is for you. We open this table to those who are here this day. If this is you, if you are a Christian, if you've been born of the Spirit of God, been baptized in obedience with the Lord's ordinance, if you're a member of good standing of a true church, then as our guest we invite you to partake with us.

We ask you to join at this table. We ask you to have an easy conscience and a willing spirit. Remember that this is a charitable God, a loving God, a giving God who has by his Son ordained this table to us.

So with that let us close this portion. We'll close with a final hymn and then we'll partake together.