Living For The Pleasure Of God - Matthew 6:1 Series

Matthew 6:1-18 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

…16 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Introduction: No fire on the altar

It has to be one of the most gripping and dramatic scenes in all of Scripture. The place: Mt. Carmel. On one side, four hundred fifty prophets of Baal – trying to prove Baal is God. On the other, the Prophet Elijah – claiming Yahweh is supreme. The contest: both sides will arrange a sacrifice on an altar and call upon their God to send down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice. The prophets of Baal cried out from morning till night – no response. Elijah called out to Yahweh and fire came down and consumed the sacrifice and the altar and everything around it. A.W. Tozer contrasts modern evangelicalism with Elijah:

“Current evangelicalism has … laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel. But God be thanked that there are a few who care. They are those who, while they love the altar and delight in the sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continued absence of fire. They desire God above all. They are athirst to taste for themselves the "piercing sweetness" of the love of Christ about Whom all the holy prophets did write and the psalmists did sing.”

What he is saying is the fire represents the nearness of God. And the altar represents the forms of religion. And the moment we get to the point where we are content to busy ourselves with all the external forms of religion, and we become so enamored with the programs and processes that we become oblivious to whether God is even at work in those forms – that is a sad and tragic day. There is a place for the forms, without question. And we will explore that in the weeks to come. But for this morning I would like to fix our attention on the fire. What does Jesus teach us to do about the problem of empty religion – an altar with no fire?

Context

We are in the midst of a verse-by-verse study of the Sermon on the Mount, which is a sermon about righteousness. The King has arrived, He has inaugurated His kingdom, and now He is telling us what righteousness looks like in His kingdom. Chapter 5 was about righteousness in relationships. He talked about anger, unfaithfulness, dishonesty, retaliation – all the various areas where we struggle with unrighteousness in our relationships with people. Today, as we arrive at chapter 6 we start a new section of the sermon. This part is about righteousness in religion or worship. Chapter 5 showed us what righteousness looks like in our interactions with people; this section shows us what righteousness looks like in our direct interactions with God.

Another difference in these two sections is that chapter 5 teaches about the “thou shalt not’s” in the Law and in this section Jesus teaches about the “thou shalt’s.” Chapter 5 – Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not divorce, do not break your oaths, do not take revenge – all the bad things we are not supposed to do. This section focuses more on the good things we are supposed to do – giving, prayer, and fasting. We need instruction on that because if we do the good things in the wrong way they become evil things. They become an altar with no fire, which is a very bad thing. Jesus’ word for it is hypocrisy.