Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father Who is in heaven.
When therefore thou doest alms, sound not 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 received their reward.
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 Who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.
And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father Who is in secret, and thy Father Who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.
And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.
After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.
The lamp 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 the darkness!
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?
But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow shall be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee that Thou gatherest us together this morning unto Thy beloved Son. We believe that Thou art with us, and Thou alone canst satisfy our hearts.
We bow ourselves before Thee and look to Thee to speak to us. We pray that Thou wilt open our hearts to Thee, and open Thy Word to us, that Thy Word may fall unto good ground—hearts that will bear fruit patiently, a hundredfold, unto Thy glory.
Lord, we confess that we are far from what Thou wouldst have us to be. Yet we want to tell Thee that we are willing. May Thy Holy Spirit work within us and bring us to the place where Thou art. May Thy will be done in us as it is in heaven.
And we will give Thee all the glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We do thank the Lord for gathering us together this morning. We have been sharing together on the so-called Sermon on the Mount.
We know that the Sermon on the Mount was spoken by our Lord to His own disciples—to those who have not only believed in Him, but have also answered His call and have given themselves to the Lord, allowing the Lord to teach them, transform them, and conform them to His own image.
The Sermon on the Mount is not giving us a new law for us to keep. The Sermon on the Mount is of grace. Our Lord has first given His life to us, and then He begins to tell us what that life is.
The Sermon on the Mount actually is a description of the life of our Lord Jesus. He is the heavenly Man Who has come upon this earth, and He lives a heavenly life upon the earth.
He comes to set up His kingdom upon this earth. He is drawing a people unto Himself and transforming them as He is. These will be His kingdom; these will be the people of the kingdom of the heavens. They are the sons of the kingdom of the heavens.
So we do praise and thank the Lord that He is not trying to impose upon us a heavy burden, as if He were setting us a very high standard and then saying, “Try to arrive at it.”
Instead of that, you find He gives us His own life, and He is telling us how glorious, how powerful, that life is. If we only allow His life to live out through us, that will be the way that we shall live.
It is a matter of grace. It is a matter of life. It is a matter of the growing of life. That is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about.
The Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes. There we find that the emphasis is on our being, rather than on our doing.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You see, the Sermon on the Mount begins with the emphasis on being and not on doing. The Lord Himself is the personification of the Beatitudes. This is the way that He is when He is upon this earth.
He is the One Who is poor in spirit. He was equal with God, and that was not something He grasped at. Yet He emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a bondservant. Being found in fashion as a man, He was obedient to the Father even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
That is the meaning of being poor in spirit. Now, brothers and sisters, naturally we find that we are all rich in our soul. We think that we have a lot. We think that we can do a great deal. We are proud of ourselves.
Humility is something beyond us. It takes the life of the Lord Jesus within us, because His life is a humble life. It is a life that empties itself.
Because His life is within us, He is calling us to be like Him. By the working of the Holy Spirit and the working of the cross in our lives, we are gradually being emptied of ourselves.
As we are being emptied, then we are being filled with the life of the Lord Jesus. It is then that we are truly blessed. That is to say, we are really happy in the Lord.
The Beatitudes are a description of the life of our Lord Jesus. The Lord is telling His disciples, “This is what I want you to be. This is the way that you will live upon this earth, and you shall inherit your heavenly inheritance.”
The Lord Jesus tells us that unless our righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, we cannot enter into the kingdom of the heavens.
What is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? It is a righteousness according to law. It is a righteousness according to the letter of the law.
The scribes and Pharisees tried to keep every letter of the law, and yet in doing that, they violated the very spirit of the law. Their righteousness was something man-made. Their righteousness was an outward appearance only. There was no reality within them.
They may have been outwardly right, and yet you find that it was legalistic. It gave them great pride. They boasted of their own righteousness. They were hypocritical and superficial, and yet critical of other people.
In the sight of God, the Bible says that our own righteousness is all as filthy rags. It cannot cover our nakedness and is wholly rejected by God.
As disciples of the Lord Jesus, our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. What is that surpassing righteousness? It is something that comes out from within. It is a matter of life.
By the grace of God, this life begins to express itself. It is of the Spirit, and it is of life. It is above the letter; it is beyond what the letter demands. It goes to the very heart. It is the overflow, the outflow, of the life within.
Our Lord used different illustrations, and through these five different illustrations He shows us what is the righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. These are the things we have covered during the last two days.
This morning we will continue on Matthew 6. As you read this chapter, you find that it can be very clearly divided into two parts.
Matthew 6:1-18 deals with the matter of doing all things in secret. In other words, it tells us of a hidden life in the kingdom of the heavens.
We have a hidden life, a life that is not seen by the world. Yet that life is the very source of what the world can see.
In the second part, from Matthew 6:19-34, the Lord shows us that His kingdom life is a life of faith.
Brothers and sisters, we who are the sons of the kingdom of the heavens have a hidden life. It is heaven living upon the earth. There is a heavenly part that is not seen, as it were; it is to be seen by God alone.
Oftentimes, we Christians tend to live purely an outward life. It is as if there is not that inward or hidden life within us. It is as if we are just living before men instead of living before God.
But as God’s people, we need to remember that we have a hidden life. You remember Psalm 91:1:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
In other words, we need to live in the secret place of the Most High. If we live in the secret place of the Most High, then we will abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
This is the secret of our strength in this world. There is one thing that we really need to seek: we need to seek to live in the secret place of God.
Daily, we should have that abiding communion with the Father Who is in heaven. The more we develop the secret life with the Lord, the more powerful we are able to live on this earth.
He gives us the strength that we may live according to the will of God. We remember when our Lord Jesus came to this world. For thirty years, He lived a hidden life.
We do not know much about those thirty years. But we know that during those thirty hidden years, what communion He had with His Father and how much He developed His life before God.
With those thirty hidden years, when He came forth into public ministry, you find there was such power and such strength.
Brothers and sisters, we who are the sons of the kingdom of the heavens need to develop a hidden life with God. We need to seek His face and live a life that is face to face with God.
With that kind of hidden life, we will have the power to live upon this earth.
Our Lord Jesus, in Matthew 6, begins with an exhortation:
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father Who is in heaven.
In Matthew 5, the Lord said that our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Here He is still talking about righteousness, but with this righteousness He deals with the motive.
The motive of our being right is for God and not for men. Then He uses three illustrations. First, giving alms—our relationship with the world. Second, prayer—our relationship with God Himself. Third, fasting—our relationship with ourselves.
In other words, you see the three dimensions of life. We who live on this earth are related to men, related to God, and related to ourselves. How are we to live in these three dimensions?
Giving alms is considered righteousness. Why? Because our God is the great Giver.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.
—John 3:16
When God gave His Son to us, He gave everything to us. He Who has given His own Son to us—will He not give us all things? Our God is a great Giver. That is what God is.
As God’s people, God wants us to have that spirit of giving. Naturally, we are all receivers. As children, we want to receive, receive, and receive. We are very stingy in giving because we are so self-centered.
But as God’s own people, He wants us to have that spirit of giving. Now, what is the motive behind our giving? As a matter of fact, all that we can give is what He has given to us.
He wants us to give in such a way that we do it in secret, not for the sake of being seen by men.
If we are helping people, if we are giving to people, you find that in the world, when people give, they want people to know about it. They proclaim it. They let everybody know about it: “What a generous giver that person is!” They want to have some kind of memorial for themselves.
The Lord said, “Now, if you give in such a way, you have already received your reward.” Your reward is earthly. You will not receive reward in heaven.
When God’s people give, we need to do it in secret. What does it mean, “Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand is doing”? Is that possible?
Of course, literally it is impossible. But it is possible in this sense: you do not dwell upon what you give. Do not be so self-conscious of what good you have done.
You do it for the Lord. You do it unto the Lord. You do it by the grace of God. There is nothing to boast about, and you do not expect to be known by men.
You do it in secret, and your heavenly Father, Who is in secret, sees it. Then He will reward you from above.
Brothers and sisters, our righteousness is not for men to see. We are not expecting people to praise us. Our righteousness is for God to see, and our Father Who is in heaven will reward us.
Then our Lord Jesus mentions prayer. Prayer is also considered a righteousness.
Now, if all that we pray for is asking the Lord to give us this and give us that, do you think there is any righteousness in it? If our prayer is like this, we are praying like the nations, the Gentiles.
We who are the children of God have a heavenly Father Who loves us and Who cares for us. He knows what we need. Before we ask, He already knows what we need, and He is already ready to give because He loves us so much.
How should we pray? The Pharisees and scribes loved to pray in the synagogues. In private, they did not pray, but they liked to pray in public only.
When they walked on the street and came to the corner, because the corner could be seen by more people, they started to pray a long prayer. The Lord says that they have their reward. Their prayer does not reach heaven.
You remember our Lord tells us a parable. He said two men entered into the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee.
The Pharisee went to the front and lifted up his eyes. He said, “God, I thank Thee, because I fast twice a week. I give one tenth of my income. I am not like that publican behind me.”
That was the way he prayed. Then the publican entered into the temple and stayed at the back. He dared not lift up his eyes. He beat his breast and said, “O God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.”
The Lord Jesus said that when they went home, the publican was more righteous. The Pharisee was not praying; the Pharisee was reporting.
Brothers and sisters, how easy it is for us to be like that. Oftentimes, our prayer is like reporting to God how good we are, instead of being grateful to God as though God needs to be grateful to us.
The Pharisees prayed long prayers, and yet in their hidden life, terrible things were done. Thank God, we have a Father Who loves us. We have a Father Who cares for us. Before we even ask, He knows what we need.
When you pray, enter into your closet and shut the door. Pray to your Father Who is in heaven, and your Father Who is in secret hears you.
Our prayer is for God to hear. Prayer is to express our dependency upon Him. Our prayers show that without Him we can do nothing.
Our prayer is communion with our heavenly Father. Our prayer is that His will may be done in heaven and on earth.
Here again, you find that our Lord Jesus teaches us how to pray. This is what we call the Lord’s Prayer. Actually, it is the prayer that the Lord teaches His church to pray.
Our Father Who art in heaven.
Prayer is based on relationship. As we pray, we are children of God, praying to our Father Who is in heaven. Because there is a relationship, there is confidence. There is prayer with faith.
We are praying with faith within us because we know our Father. Even if we pray wrongly, He will answer rightly.
When we pray, do not just pray for ourselves. Prayer is our righteousness. We are doing something right before God.
First of all, pray:
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
In our prayer, we should not be self-centered. We should pray for God’s name, for His kingdom, and for His will.
His name is honored in heaven, but His name is not hallowed upon the earth. We should have this burden. We should take the interest of God as our interest, and pray that His name will be honored all over the earth.
Of course, if we pray truthfully, we want His name to be honored in our own life, that we will not bring shame to our God, that the name of God may be honored in us.
When people look at us, when people are in contact with us, they come to see God in our lives, and they will glorify God.
“Thy kingdom come” means that we let the kingship of Christ be upon us. We put ourselves under His rule, and His will is done in us on earth as it is in heaven.
Now, brothers and sisters, is this the way that we pray? Or is our prayer just for ourselves, for our family, or for the church? How large is our scope of prayer? What is the priority in our prayer?
But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
—Matthew 6:33
After we have prayed for God’s interest, then we can pray for our needs:
Give us this day our daily bread.
This shows that we depend upon Him for our daily bread—not for bread for tomorrow, but for our daily bread.
Once I read a book on the sermons of Zinzendorf. When he preached on the Lord’s Prayer, he said, “Give us this day our daily bread.” He felt that this daily bread is our spiritual bread. It is not merely natural bread, but supernatural bread. It nourishes our spirit.
Surely we need that. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive others”—this is food for our soul. For our physical body, we need bread. For the welfare of our soul, we need to have forgiveness.
We ask the Lord to forgive our debts and forgive our sins, but on condition: as we forgive others.
Dear brothers and sisters, we find among God’s people today that many have an unforgiving spirit. When our brothers and sisters sin against us, when they offend us, when they do something which is as a debt, we will not forgive.
Because we have an unforgiving spirit, remember, God will also not forgive us.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, when we repented and asked the Lord to forgive our sins, we found that He forgave everything. His blood cleanses us from all sin.
But remember, there is a difference. You have become a child of God. If you want God to forgive your sins and your debts, there is a condition: God wants you to forgive others.
If you do not forgive others their debts or their sins, God will not forgive your debts or your sins. This is something that we need to remember.
From our hearts, we have to learn to forgive. We who have been forgiven so much—how can we hold back forgiveness from our brothers and sisters?
You remember the story of Peter. One day he came to the Lord and said, “Lord, if my brother sins against me seven times and I forgive him, do You think that is enough?”
The Lord said, “I do not say seven times, but seventy times seven.” Brothers and sisters, this is something that we need to learn.
If we forgive others, then our soul will be healthy.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
That is for our spirit: that we will not enter into temptation, but rather be delivered from the evil one. This is the prayer that the Lord teaches us to pray.
Prayer in secret does not mean that we should not pray in public. Corporate prayer is very important. We need to have our private prayers in secret, but we also need to pray in public.
Praying in public does not mean that we come out of our closet. No, no. When we pray in public, we are often very conscious of the people around us. Because we are conscious of their presence, unconsciously we try to pray in such a way as to impress other people.
If we do that, we are like the scribes and Pharisees. Our righteousness does not surpass their righteousness. Even in public prayer, may the Lord deliver us from being conscious of people. In our spirit, we are as if in the closet, and there we commune with our Father.
Then our Lord Jesus tells us about our relationship to ourselves, and that is fasting. What is fasting?
In the Scripture, we are told that fasting is to afflict our soul. In other words, we have such a burden, or we are facing such a crisis, that we deny ourselves to the extent of giving up our legitimate food so that we may concentrate on prayer before the Lord.
It is afflicting our soul. It is between us and the Lord. It is not for people to see.
The Pharisees, when they fasted, purposely put on a disfigured appearance, telling people that they were fasting. People would praise them and say, “How pious they are!”
The Lord says, “Do not do that. When you fast, wash your face, comb your hair, because you are fasting before the Lord. The Lord, in secret, sees it, and He will answer your prayers.”
Here you find this section is a hidden life. We need to have a hidden life before the Lord. We live for God, our motive is pure, and our heart is in heaven.
Then the Lord continues with the second part, the matter of the life of faith. Kingdom life is a life of faith.
Oftentimes we think that only a very few chosen people should live a life of faith. But, brothers and sisters, this is a misunderstanding.
According to the Word of God, every believer, every disciple of the Lord, every son of the kingdom, lives a life of faith.
Why? Because God has already called us out of this world. He has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
As far as the world is concerned, we who live in this world are strangers and sojourners. We are just passing through. We are aliens, so far as the world is concerned.
Like Abraham, who sojourned in the land of promise and lived in tents, we realize that we do not belong to this world. A tent is only temporary. We are just passing through.
Abraham was looking for that city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. This is a life of faith.
Every believer lives a life of faith. We are heavenly people passing through this world. For such people, the only way to live is to live a life of faith.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us correct our concept. It is not that only a chosen few live a life of faith because they have no other business or occupation and must look to God to supply all their needs.
We may think, “We have our own occupation. We supply our own needs. We do not need to live a life of faith.” Brothers and sisters, this is wrong. Every believer, every one of us here, lives a life of faith.
Why? Because we are a heavenly people.
To live a life of faith, you begin with this: “Do not lay up treasures for yourself upon the earth.”
What is treasure? Sometimes we think that treasure is money, and we interpret this verse as saying, “Do not lay up your money for yourself on this earth, because there is moth, rust, and thieves.”
But actually, treasure is more than money. Treasure includes everything that you love, everything that you depend on, everything that you trust in, everything that means life to you.
It can be money. It can be position. It can be people. Maybe your grandson is your treasure. Here is your life.
Brothers and sisters, if we lay up treasures for ourselves, you find that your heart is where your treasure is. You are bound by your treasure. Instead of your heart being in heaven, your heart is on earth.
The emphasis is not the treasure; the emphasis is on the heart. Dear brothers and sisters, God wants our heart.
In Proverbs, you find that He says:
My son, give Me thy heart,
And let thine eyes delight in My ways.
—Proverbs 23:26
Why is it that we do not take delight in God’s way? It is because our heart is somewhere else. If our heart is given to the Lord, then our eyes will delight in His way.
What the Lord really wants is our heart. Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.
For this reason, God commands us to lay up our treasures in heaven. That is to say, we offer what we consider as treasures to God.
Just like Abraham: he offered Isaac, his treasure, to God. He was willing to offer him to God. Because he did that, you find that he looked for the city which hath foundations. He was not tied down by anything on this earth.
When we hear this word, do we find it very difficult? “Lord, all my money? If I give up all my money, how can I live?” Do not worry about that.
The Lord is trying to deliver you from anything that ties you down. The Lord wants you to give yourself totally to Him. Your heart is in heaven; your heart is with God.
How God will deal with your treasures is up to Him.
You remember the rich young man. He came to the Lord with sincerity and said, “Good Master, what can I do to inherit eternal life?”
The Lord looked at him and loved him. The Lord said, “Keep the commandments.” The young man said, “I have kept them from my youth.”
He kept the letter of the law, and yet he violated its spirit, because he was very rich. His riches had captured his heart. The Lord wanted to deliver him.
So the Lord said, “Sell all that you have, give to the poor, then come and follow Me.” He could not do that. By himself, he could not do it.
But then there was another rich man, an older man, much richer than this young man—a tax collector. When the grace of God came upon him, without being asked, he said, “I will give half.”
Whatever he had done wrong, he was willing to repay. That is grace.
Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid. Just give your all to the Lord. Lay it up in heaven. Then you are a steward. Do whatever the Lord wants you to do.
You remember the story of C. T. Studd. He was one of the seven missionaries from Cambridge who came to China. He was a millionaire, but he was led by the Lord to give up everything he had. He came to China, later to India, and finally to Africa. God greatly used him.
Another person, Lady Ogo, was a millionaire. She said, “All mine is the Lord’s. I am only a steward.” That is what we are. All the Lord has given to us is up to Him to decide. His grace is always sufficient.
Do not try to lay up treasure for yourself upon this earth.
Now, by the way, let me add a few more practical words. Does this mean that I have to give everything to the Lord and not provide for my family? Certainly not.
The Bible tells us very clearly that we should provide for our family. Does it mean that you cannot put aside something for your retirement? Certainly not.
The Lord does not want you to depend upon people’s charity, because it does not glorify Him. Does it mean that because of that you do not need to work anymore? Certainly not. If you do not work, you do not eat. That is what the Scripture teaches.
Dear brothers and sisters, remember: it is the heart, that we may be single-eyed and not double-minded.
Our problem is that we are double-minded. We love God, and we love mammon. Mammon is wealth. It may be represented by money, or it may be represented by other things.
We try to serve two masters. It is impossible. A man cannot serve two masters. You either love the one and hate the other, or you either hold to the one and let go of the other.
The Lord makes it very clear to us: a man cannot serve two masters.
What are we going to do with mammon? Mammon should not be our master. Mammon should be our servant. We should use unrighteous mammon to prepare our eternal habitation.
That is the way it should be. That will release us so that our heart may be in heaven.
For this cause, the Lord says:
Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?
Why do we worry about eating, drinking, and clothing? Because our heart and our treasures are not in heaven.
The more you hold on to your treasures, the more you worry about what you eat, what you drink, and what you will be clothed with. There is no end to your anxiety.
The more treasure you have laid up for yourself, the more worried you become. But if you lay up your treasures in heaven, and your heart is with God, then you do not need to worry what you eat, what you drink, and what you will be clothed with.
Why? The Lord said, “Look at the birds.” This looking is not just casting a glance. It is intense looking. Look at the birds—how our heavenly Father takes care of them. How much more precious you are than the birds!
Consider carefully the lilies of the field. How beautiful, how glorious, the Lord has clothed them—more than the glory of Solomon. They are here today, and tomorrow they are thrown into the fire. Yet God gives them such clothing. How much more are you than the lilies!
Do not be anxious about these things. Your heavenly Father knows.
Brothers and sisters, when your heart is in heaven, then you know that your heavenly Father knows everything. You can trust Him.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Brothers and sisters, this is the way we shall live. We should seek the kingdom of God. We should seek His righteousness.
If we do seek first, all these things shall be added unto us. If we do not seek the kingdom of the heavens and His righteousness, then we have to seek all these things ourselves, and we will be anxious about them.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is living in the kingdom of the heavens? What is kingdom life like? The kingdom life within us is a life that lives in heaven, even though our body is on earth.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee, because Thy words are life. We praise and thank Thee that Thou hast already given us that life.
That life is in us, and Thou art going to draw out that life, that it may glorify Thy name.
Lord, we want to ask Thee that Thou wilt continue to teach us, that we may really live out that life for Thy glory.