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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Alms, Prayers and Fasting

Father in heaven, thank you so much for watching over us.

Thank you for being with us this past week.

And I want to thank you that you've brought us to this time where we can study together online.

And we're just asking for a blessing of your Holy Spirit that you'd please lead us and guide us, and I pray that you'd help us to understand your word and inspire our hearts and minds now we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

So we are continuing our study in Matthew chapter 6 this evening.

We've been looking at the Beatitudes and you've heard it had been said of all time.

And then we ended last week with be ye therefore perfect.

And that was what Jesus was referring to there.

But now we are in the beginning of Matthew chapter 6.

So let's turn our Bibles there, Matthew chapter 6.

Oh, by the way, let me just share 1 more praise.

I've been having a sore throat for the past 2 days and I just thank the Lord for charcoal.

I praise the Lord for this spray, iodine spray.

I just praise the Lord that I am still able to share with all of you.

So just pray for me as we're going through this study together that the Word of the Lord and His glory might not be hindered from this weak instrument.

So let us turn to Matthew chapter 6 and we're going to start in verse 1.

Matthew chapter 6, we're starting in verse 1.

The Bible says, Take heed that ye do not your arms before men, to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore, when thou doest thine arms, do not sound 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 their reward.

But when thou doest arms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." So what are we talking about here originally?

It means good works, your acts of pity, your compassionateness.

And look, this is a good text for us to look at in this time.

Why so many people out there doing seemingly good works for all those that are on the front lines or different people.

And we just had a photo that was passed around in our pastors chat this past week about a person who's giving food and then they're taking a selfie.

You know, it's so easy to be out there and tell everyone, hey, this is all my good works.

You don't need to tell the whole world what you're doing for your acts of mercy.

And look, in context, what was he talking about in the previous chapter?

So he's saying, look, you don't need to tell the whole world that you are loving your enemy.

So when he's talking about these arms, these acts of love and kindness, you don't need to tell the whole world how good a person you are.

Therefore, when thou doest thine arms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets.

So these people, they were in the church, but they're called what?

Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 23, Matthew 23, and we're gonna read verse 13 to 15.

Matthew 23, let's have a look at these hypocrites.

I hope you're following with me in your Bibles.

The Bible says, But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, For ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, there you go again, for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer.

Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

And then verse 15, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you compass sea and land to make 1 proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourself.

It's so interesting that when Jesus was talking about the hypocrites, he very clearly in Matthew, the book of Matthew, calls out who those hypocrites were.

It was not just a person that says and doesn't do, but it was someone even in the church.

He's not talking about the Red Cross out there or non-Christian organizations that are charitable, that don't know God at all.

When he comes to Matthew chapter 6, he's talking about those that know God.

And this is very important for us to understand.

So when Jesus is saying, don't do your good arms before men, he's talking to the Christian.

Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you, hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but what?

So there's this group here that's doing all these seemingly good things, but what Jesus is saying about these hypocrites is, even though you're seemingly doing all these good things, your heart really is very far from Jesus.

So when he's talking to this group of people, even in Mark, he calls the Pharisees and the scribes as we saw in Matthew 23, 13 to 15, is talking about the religious leaders.

The scribes and the Pharisees, they were being called hypocrites.

And so sometimes when we look at these people that seemingly do good works, the thing that we have to talk about here is motive.

You know, it's so easy to advertise your goodness.

It's so easy to tell people, hey, hey, I'm feeding the homeless.

And we just have to stop and take a picture as if we're going to make sure that the whole world knows.

But friends, in this day and age of Instagram and Facebook and people just pasted to their pictures we just want to get a good like.

Ah, this person must be good because of what they do.

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Alms, Prayers and Fasting

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