CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD - Matthew 6:1-4

Is it good to be in the house of the Lord? Yes, all right. Well, I just want to say welcome to to those of you who are able to gather with us this morning on The Lord's Day and it is a beautiful thing as we always remind ourselves of the writer of Hebrews, right?

Not to neglect the gathering together not to neglect coming together and worship and corporate worship to our great God and.

And.

One of the purposes of that is how God has prescribed it to be a time of encouragement a time of Admonition and growth in the Christian life for each of you. So so I hope that this morning God uses this his word this common means of grace of gathering to To cause your soul to rejoice.

For you to be encouraged in the gospel of Jesus Christ for you to go out and be able to Sojourn to be a foreigner out in a foreign land. As you go through this life. Knowing that you have brothers and sisters that are with you and and going through the same Stuff and to be able to walk with you and this is what part of this is.

So thank you to our covenant members for bringing your gifts and abilities. You see all the different people with name tags this morning a serving. It's kind of limited because nobody wants to go outside.

I noticed all everybody's kind of gathering inside. It's a little cold out there, but everyone is here to serve. So thank you for that. You are loved and we love that you are willing to serve the body.

Because to be a part of a covenant body of believers means that you are bringing your gifts and abilities to the table. There is no such thing as a Christian who doesn't serve in the church no such thing and.

So thank you for doing that proving that you truly love the Lord Jesus Christ and his bride. But I also want to say thank you to our guest. Some some regular attending guests. Thank you for being here.

We desire that all of us would grow in the knowledge and fear of the Lord as we gather today and grow in his word. So before we start we always pray for another local church. We like to to make sure that we understand that we're not the only Saints in this town that are gathering in this world that are gathering.

There are other brothers and sisters and and so we've chosen Central Baptist this morning to pray for them. I have reached out to one of the pastors over there Don Blackmore and and Let him know that we are praying for them and they are encouraged by that and we're so grateful For how God does use them and.

And so let's bow our heads now and pray for the that group of believers that are gathering today. Lord thank you for our brothers and sisters at Central Baptist. Lord, thank you for the pastors there.

Thank you for the members there the people that serve you. God I pray that you would work in their midst. Father, I pray that as they come together this morning that that. That the Saints among them would truly be encouraged.

That the Saints among them would grow in the fear and knowledge of you. Father, I pray for whoever's preaching this morning. If it's if it's brother Archie or whoever God I pray that you would Work in their heart allow them to speak boldly from your word from truth.

I pray that that your word would go forth and Penetrate into the hearts and minds of of your people. We thank you for For the relationship that we get to have with them. We pray that they would be encouraged by it know that we do care and love for them dearly in Christ's name.

Amen. Amen. Let's stand as we prepare to start our service with a call to worship. Our call to worship comes from Psalm 149. It's a sing to the Lord a new song praise the Lord where the psalmist says sing to the Lord a new song.

Let Israel be glad in his maker. Let them praise his name with dancing this psalm doesn't seem to be a Baptist psalm. Does it? All right. I love it. It challenges us for the Lord takes pleasure in his people.

They exalt in glory let the high praises of God be in their throats. Execute vengeance on the nations to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. This is honor for all his godly ones.

Praise the Lord. Well, we are the godly ones. Aren't we not because we are godly but because Jesus Christ has made us Godly has made us righteous. Amen. Amen. That's why we gather this morning. So let's pray a prayer of adoration to our great King.

Dear Heavenly Father. Lord, we come to you once again, and we thank you. We thank you for bringing us together. We thank you for not leaving us to ourselves but allowing us community. Allowing us the the church the Bride of Christ.

The very body of Christ the representative of the king here on earth. And Lord, we pray that you were honored in it. Well, we know that we are not a perfect bride in the sense that we do not always act perfectly.

We know that all of the parts of this body are not Always living as we ought. Oh, but our our great Savior the head of that body bathes this body in the word and has has given Us his righteousness And so we pray that.

We pray that we would stand in light of that righteousness. That we would be reminded of that righteousness that we would be pointed to the only righteousness that we know which is King Jesus,. I pray Lord that you would be honored this morning father.

I pray that that we would Sing praises to your name. There's a sweet-smelling aroma up to you King Jesus, we pray that you're honored this morning and our worship to you of.

The.

Glorious Victory that you have purchased for us and brought us into and Holy Spirit. We long to worship you this morning as you work in our midst in our hearts. We pray that the triune God would be the center of this gathering.

Not us not the music not the lights not the room not the the people but the triune God. As he dwells amongst his people we thank you in Christ's name. Amen.

My God have saved my soul. I am yours forever. More I won't be moved of this. I'm sure you're my God. You've saved my soul. Aim for me. Held in chains by the enemy. But you broke them in victory. Now, I'm free.

I am free. You're my joy.

Hold tightly to him because one of the ways that we are reminded of that is at the Lord's table every we do this after The sermon but today we thought we would Do it before the sermon as our hearts are focused on the the glory of the cross.

The Savior that has purchased us the blood that was shed the body that was given over for us. The one that holds us fast. So if if you're a guest with us and you are in Christ and you are in good standing with an evangelical church.

You're welcome to the table we We come around the outsides here take up the elements pastor Jeremiah be on one side. I'll be on the other and We go back to your seat through the center and then you can pray and pray together as a group as a family and then partake of the elements we will sing and And continue on with our time of worship.

But I would give you a challenge as the Apostle Paul challenged the church in Corinth. Do not come to this table in an unworthy manner for some of you are sick and ill and have even died. This is a very serious matter.

It is not a time for penance. It's not a time right now in this moment I better I better ask forgiveness for all my sins and then I go to the table. No, this is this is a time where you can come and be reminded of the one that has paid for those sins.

And if you're truly looking to the cross if you're truly looking to Christ. You will not be able to look at sin. You will not be looking that direction. You will have a repentant heart looking resting in Christ.

But if there is sin in your life that is unrepentant and you refuse to let go of it, please abstain from this table. Until you can lay that down before Christ. And turn from it. Let's now pray for our time of at this table.

Dear Heavenly Father. Be honored in our worship. But we know we are not worthy. We know that we do not hang on to you. If our connection to you Christ is dependent upon us.

We will let go but you.

Have not lost one. You will not let go you will hold fast. We're so thankful for the sacrifice of the cross and shed blood and the body given over for us as a propitiation as a sacrifice as a Substitute for us.

I pray that you're honored as we come to this table in Christ's name.

If you would sing this with me as we go through the line and Take the elements Sing an old hymn here and I'd love y 'all to sing it. Join in and sing with us as y 'all make your way through back to your seat Take my life and let it be.

Consecrated.

Lord to take my moments and my days Let them flow.

In.

Endless praise. Let them flow in endless praise.

Sing.

Always only for make my lips and let them be.

Filled with.

Messages from thee.

Filled with.

Messages from thee take my will and make it It shall be No longer Take my heart it is thy known It shall be thy.

Royal it shall be thy role. I pray this morning Jeremiah as he comes before us.

Pray that you would just give him the words to speak Lord. I pray that you would open our hearts open our minds our ears this morning Lord. I pray that you would bless this offering this morning. Bless this offering Lord as we give back what is rightfully yours Father we love you.

We praise you ask all these things in Jesus precious and holy name.

Amen. Well, if you've been.

Attending 12 five for very long in the past year. We have been still in the book of Ephesians and Last week pastor Nathan preached on the kingdom of God we came to a part in Ephesians chapter 5 where it talks about the kingdom of God and Christ and so we thought it necessary to expound a little bit more on what the kingdom of God looks like.

Last week pastor Nathan talked about how the kingdom is where the king is. Right. The kingdom is where the rule and reign of the king is with his reign and authority that goes over all of creation the kingdom is in heaven where Christ sits on his throne next to the Father on high and The kingdom is in believers, right?

This is the church. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And so it is Jesus Christ who is king of kings and he is the true and better Adam. Last week pastor Nathan talked about how in the beginning there was a kingdom on earth and Adam was given dominion over it to Subdue the world and what happened on his watch the enemy came in Satan came in and he attempted Eve and sin happened with Adam and Eve and the kingdom of man fell.

And so when we start talking about the kingdom of God Jesus is a perfect King who establishes his kingdom perfectly and he crushed the enemy. Amen. He crushed Satan. He crushed sin and death at his resurrection.

And so we are a part of a kingdom that cannot perish and so this morning I want us to talk about citizens of the kingdom of God. We've been in the book of Ephesians, but I want us to take another pause this morning.

I'd like to take your attention to Matthew chapter 6. And so if many of you are familiar with this passage. This is right in the heart of the Sermon on the Mount this is the greatest sermon ever preached by our Lord many have said and Right before the Sermon on the Mount he says these profound words in Matthew chapter 4 verse 17.

He says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So we're gonna see kingdom of heaven kingdom of God if you were a part of our sermon discussion last week. These are synonymous terms when we say the kingdom of God in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He says it is near it is right here in your midst. Later in Matthew's gospel He says you can know that the kingdom of God is here among you when you see demons being casted out.

You know what Jesus was actually casting out demons when he said that he's telling us that the kingdom of God. The sphere of salvation is here and you must repent right turn from Looking inward and looking at yourself and turn to look to the only King the only one who can save.

Right before the Sermon on the Mount Jesus the the Matthew. Matthew tells us that he went through all of Judea teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and so the entire Sermon on the Mount is an exposition of what Jesus meant when he said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and So he begins his discourse with the Beatitudes.

I just want to draw your attention if you're there in Matthew chapter 5 verse 3 the first Beatitude. He says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is telling us that citizens of this heavenly kingdom the kingdom of God are those who are poor in spirit.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven for those that are the blessed men and women of God. They don't look to themselves. They see their spiritual bankruptcy before God and they look to Jesus in faith and faith alone.

Another Beatitude if you look down at verse 8 blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Citizens of the kingdom believers have had a heart change. They are salt and light in this decaying and perishing world.

And so we're called to be salt and light and then Jesus says this profound statement in Matthew 6 33. He says that this is the heart of believers of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. When this world is sinking around us when we see sin, we see decay we see evil.

We see the enemy at work. What do believers do? We seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things will be added to you. So this morning as we're talking about citizens of the kingdom of God I actually want us to talk about something we need to be on guard something that we need to be watchful for.

Because there are people that claim to be citizens of the kingdom of God and they are not. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 verse 20 for unless your righteousness Exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Okay, so he gives us a strong warning there and here in Matthew chapter 6. He expounds more on that warning and what that looks like. And so this will be our main passage Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 4 where Jesus says 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.

Let's pray this morning Heavenly father. We just want to lift your name on high and God I just pray that this morning that our hearts would be illuminated with your truth God. I pray that we would be citizens of the kingdom of heaven God that we would not be deceived by the enemy and look inwardly to our own Righteousness God, but that we would be transformed by the gospel the gospel of the kingdom God.

Please give us new hearts purify our hearts God. Give us a heart that desires of your righteousness and to seek first your kingdom. We love you Lord and praise things in your name. Amen. So hopefully from that passage you caught that Jesus is telling us that God is concerned with the intentions of our hearts that leads us to actions.

And so verse 1 Jesus begins with a strong warning be on guard pay careful attention. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. Okay, Jesus is saying we have to be extremely careful about doing good works not to receive praise from men in order to be seen By them and then we're gonna have these literalistic mindsets.

I'm guilty of being a very literal person. But my thought is does that mean I can't do anything to help someone because if they see me do it. Then am I receiving praise from him? Absolutely not. That's not what he's saying here.

In fact, that would be absurd. Jesus just finished in Matthew 5 16 Telling us let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. So what's going on here?

Jesus is telling us to do good works in one verse and the other one. He's telling us to beware. Yes, these actually fit harmoniously together in one sense. We are to do so many good works. So the other people see our lives and see that we're doing it to the glory of God.

But he is warning us those that claim to be citizens of the kingdom of God those that are doing Self-righteousness works to receive glory from men. We have to be watchful for them. And so we must pray for these opportunities to show the love of Christ and to proclaim this gospel of love to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom.

So back in verse 1 Jesus warns us about the motivation for doing good works or righteous deeds. And it's the Pharisees that we have to be Mindful of this is what Jesus is warning us about and let me just say all of us have to war against our fair Pharisaical tendencies we can all easily fall into this category.

The Pharisees motivation for obeying the law of Moses and doing pious religious acts wasn't to glorify God. But they wanted to receive the attaboys. They wanted to receive the props and the pats on the back.

And so later in Matthew's gospel Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and says this people honors me with their lips. But their hearts are far from me in vain. Do they worship me and the teachings that they have are the doctrines and commandments of men?

So what I'm wanting you to see is God is not impressed About the this list of accomplishments that you think you're doing really really well. He most want he most importantly wants us to look to him in love with all of our heart.

With all of our soul with all of our mind and all of our strength. And so if we are helping other people and doing good works. And it's not coming from a heart that desires to glorify God if it's not coming from a heart that that has faith in King Jesus then it's vain.

It's detestable in his sight. Romans 14 tells us for whatever does not proceed in faith in Christ is sin. Scripture tells us that our righteous deeds are like filthy rags before God if it's not in faith to him.

And so many false religions and worldly philosophies will often say as long as you're doing the golden rule Right do unto others as you would have them do unto you then it doesn't really matter the reason why you're doing Right.

I want to say that that is absolutely wrong. It definitely matters the intention of your heart why you are being kind and loving to other people. And there's only two reasons you're either doing it for yourself for your glory to receive praise for men.

Or you're doing it for the one true God and for his glory. So I had a conversation Many months ago with a professing believer and he said a very interesting statement and I thought we were on the same page.

He said we should encourage other people especially this younger generation. It was an older fellow. He said we should encourage the younger generation to tip our servers two or three times more than we actually do and In this conversation, I thought how can I argue with them?

That is such a wonderful thing to say and I said that would be nice. I guess it is a matter of the heart and he said I believe to whom much is given much is required. Yes, and amen. I was like that's I think that's a Bible verse somewhere and he said Yes as we were talking about this I said yes.

We should seek to glorify God through blessing others. Not helping others for the sake of being a good person because that would be vain and empty. So at this point, I thought we were on the same page and then he said something that caught me off guard.

He said well if I'm trying if I'm being a good person and that's vain then I guess I'm vain and I was like Oh hold the brakes. I was like, what are you talking about? And he said well, I want to help others for for being a better person and being moral and being good.

I'm like, yes, but the heart must be always fixed and trying to glorify God with our lives. This is what Humanism worldly philosophy says that man's mankind's goal is to become better for the sake of being better and we don't need God for them.

Humanism says just be good for goodness sake and when I hear that I'm like, well who gets determined? What is good you know man doesn't get to determine what is good. Goodness reflects the standard and character of God.

He gets to inform us what is good. And so as Christians citizens of the kingdom of heaven We have an underlying reason for why we ought to do good works like tip our servers more and to help others in need.

It's always pointing back to God. Scripture declares so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God. Amen. And so I'll spare you all the details to this conversation. But I just simply said when we get when we help others when we give others.

We want to worship and honor God in our hearts. And I thought I would receive a resounding amen from this individual and he just said well I just don't think about it as deeply as you do. Friend for someone who is resting in King Jesus and he is Lord of our life someone who is filled with the Spirit we are actively praying for opportunities to bless other people and We thank the Lord in our hearts when we get to actually experience these opportunities.

The Christians heart is to always glorify God in whatever we do to honor and praise him. So I want us to ask this question to ourselves this morning. What is our motivation? What is the reason why we treat others the way we want to be treated and why do we do good works?

Is it to be seen by God or is it to be seen by man? You may be able to fool those who are around you with what you do. But God knows God knows the motivation intention of your heart. God sees the heart and so look back with me in verse 1 Jesus says 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. That phrase to be seen or to be noticed in the Greek is Theomine. This comes from the same root word theatron in the Greek where we get in our English theater.

And so this imagery is really brought out in verse 2 because Jesus goes on to say 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. And so Jesus is painting a picture. He is saying imagine someone who is on a stage in a theater and he says now you have a hypocrite. This word in the Greek is literally one who puts on a mask.

In classical Greek refers to an actor on a stage someone who masks their real identity and assumes a role. Who plays a part that isn't truly who they are. And so Jesus is pointing to the Pharisees. This is the greatest example of somebody who conceals their true identity and the way that he depicts them is almost not even real.

He says thus when you give to the needy sound no trumpet before you. The Pharisees were so self-deceived and twisted in their self-righteousness. That they would actually go to a street corner and they would play a trumpet basically saying hey everybody your Savior is here.

Here's some money. Here's some food. Go be well come to me next time I come around. And that is so ridiculous. I was trying to think what would be a modern parallel of that? It's like if we have the offering plate and I just started pulling out that money and just dripping it in there saying everybody I'm given and I'm probably given more than you and you really need this one.

That is the heart and the mindset of a Pharisee is everybody look at me and what I'm doing.

It's wild.

This kind of person is a Pharisee someone who is putting on a mask because the inwardly their true identity is that they do not Love God, they love themselves and their performance back in verse 2. Jesus says truly I say to you They have received their reward and you may say so if I'm a Pharisee Jeremiah I can actually get a reward out of this deal.

Yeah, you can it's an earthly reward. It's an earthly treasure that has no eternal value something that is vain and fleeting and will not last. This reward is receiving praise from people and that's it.

Let's be honest people don't really like someone who's a show-off or brags about themselves and puffs themselves up in that way, right? So what a futile reward. So if your heart is set on pleasing yourself and replete Receiving praise from others Jesus said back in verse 1 then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven.

He is saying that you've missed everything. You may be going to church and doing all the right things putting on a show for everyone else. But you've missed what it means to truly serve the Lord and be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

Friend, please do not tell yourself. Well, I'm glad Jeremiah is talking about to all these other Pharisees in the room. I know he's not talking.

All right.

Because I just want to say the person who thinks that they are not a Pharisee in any way shape or form is probably the biggest Pharisee of all right. I've heard pastor Nathan say that we are all Recovering legalists, right?

We have to war against the flesh someone who's truly in Christ a true citizen wars against those pharisaical and legalistic Tendencies and so when we want to help somebody in a way that glorifies God, how can we do that?

Jesus says in verse 3, but when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Now it's pretty obvious that sounding a trumpet when you're helping somebody to receive attention that's wrong, right?

That's not the way to glorify God, but oftentimes when we help people there's a less obvious trumpeter going on. What am I talking about? A lot of times when you're helping somebody there's a trumpet sounding in your own heart in your own mind.

You're oftentimes saying hey Jeremiah, you're doing a really good job here, right? Let me let me make a little note of how good you're what you're doing right now. And so we got to be on guard from this founding that kind of trumpet.

Saying things like look what I've accomplished. You are so great. And so this is something that we are all guilty of is proclaiming our our so-called goodness to ourselves. Jesus says do not let your left hand.

So he's speaking on the personal level. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. This was probably a proverbial saying in this ancient time and so in the Sermon on the Mount we see that this ancient culture saw the right side as predominant and Honorable.

Jesus talked about the right eye the right hand the right cheek. And so the right side was preferred in this culture. And so the idea is that you as you are going about your daily business. You use your right hand and when someone is in need you use your right hand.

You don't use the left hand which gives more attention to yourself almost like sounding a trumpet. It's just something that the Christian does we use the right side the preferred side and we don't give it any more special attention.

And so for my super little or people out there It's almost like what is he talking about using your luck not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. He is simply saying this is an overflow of a Christian's life.

And guess what? We're not going to receive people telling us. Thank you. Always we don't do it for that reason, right? We are called to be salt and light. We are representatives of the King. So when we help somebody whether they thank us or not We go on our daily walk because we serve them with the right hand.

It's something that we just do a part of our daily lives and we don't give it any special attention. So in the New Testament Jesus says in verse 4. Sorry, I got ahead of myself on my nose. Look back with me at verse 3 Jesus says 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.

Now I just want to review briefly two extremes that we can fall into number one. Giving for show like the Pharisees to draw attention to themselves. That's an extreme. That's not what Jesus is aiming at or the person that feels guilty if they were to actually help somebody out and People actually give them some sort of praise or say thank you.

Some people say well if I can't give anonymously, then I'm not going to give at all. Well, that's an extreme. Remember what Jesus said back in Matthew 5 16? He says let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works.

It's okay that they see your good works, but they need to know the reason why to give glory to your Father in heaven. So it's a matter of the heart, right? Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 9 7 let each one give as he has decided in his heart.

Not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. This is the huge difference between a true citizen of the kingdom of heaven and Pharisees. Believers, we have a transformed heart. We have a heart righteousness, right?

That seeks the kingdom of God in his righteousness and we desire to give him glory with our lives, right? And we also have an imputed righteousness. We have a righteousness. That's not our own. It's the righteousness the perfection of King Jesus credited and covering our account perfectly by faith.

The Pharisees said oh we can do this, right? We give lip service. We love God. We say all the right things. We do all the right things, but Jesus says your heart is far from me. And so Jesus says so that your giving may be in secret in the the quietness of your heart.

And then he goes on to say and your father who sees in secret will reward you. God the Father sees all things, right? This is the doctrine of omniscience. God knows everything he sees all things and his presence is felt by all things.

Hebrews 4 13 says that there is no creature that is hidden in his sight. But we are all naked and exposed to the eyes of him whom we must give an account one day. God sees all things and his presence is felt by all of his creation.

And that even means to the depths of hell is felt by his presence. Because those that have died in their sin will receive the full wrath of God in his holiness and his justice. The old testament says the psalmist says where shall I go from your spirit?

Where where shall I flee and from your presence if I ascend to heaven you are there if I make my bed and she'll. You are there. Jesus in the new testament said don't fear man that can kill the body but fear God who kills body and soul in hell.

And so i'm getting at is is God sees all things. He even sees the quietness of your heart the motivation for why you are doing something. And so what i'm discouraged a lot of times is i've been to those church plays in town around uh.

The the halloween season and it's kind of the church's opportunity to do a fall festival and some of those plays I've seen you know. The whole the whole drama of people going to hell that didn't respond to the gospel and faith and what I see being depicted.

Is that satan has that pitchfork and he's about to torture them in hell and it's like no no God is sovereign over a hall overall. He is omnipotent. He is omniscient and he is the one that is executing judgment.

Perfectly, and so I just want us to be reminded that God sees all things. He knows all things and this is these are attributes of the sovereign eternal triune god. And so also with this if we wake up every morning.

And we immediately reminded of the fact that God sees my entire life. I believe that that ought to fuel us to live differently to live as he is holy for us to be holy. Constantly reminded that there is nothing that he doesn't see and doesn't already know.

Friend if we meditated on this truth all throughout the day, this would revolutionize the way that we live. We are ever in the present gaze of our creator and for unbelievers. They are constantly under the rock the watch of their creator who is the righteous judge and he will not be mocked.

But friends Saints those of us that are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are in christ. We are under the care and the provision of our creator who is also our loving heavenly father. Jesus says and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

So I made no. I just wanted to ask the question. What kind of reward is he talking about here? I think this reward includes both a temporal blessing and eternal blessing. So if you have a king james or new king james this verse reads a little bit different.