The Sermon on the Mount XIII

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites IV

Matthew 6:16-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 3, 2024.

Today, we will finish this central section where Jesus corrects the righteousness of the hypocrites for his followers.  We will particularly be looking at fasting.

Let’s look at our passage regarding the way we should fast.

The way of righteousness in fasting (v. 16-18)

As Jesus has said in the other issues of charitable giving and prayer, so he says here.  The hypocrites are only fasting in order to be seen by others.  They want the glory and praise that comes from people.  It is an interesting thing that, in all the ways we shouldn’t be focused on others, we generally are, and in all of the ways we should be focused on others, we generally are not.  Of course, this is the tendency of our sinful nature.

I will give a caveat up front in this passage.  It is clear that Jesus is talking about a private fast that you may do on your own and not a group fast for a specific purpose.  Israel did have a fast on the Day of Atonement, in which everyone would fast.  We see some similar things among the early Church.  Acts 13 shows us that Barnabas and Paul were called into their missionary work during a time of group prayer and fasting.  Later, in Acts 14, they had been able to build many groups of converts.  We see Barnabas and Saul fasting and praying as they commended elders in each new church.  So, there is a time and a place for fasts within a community for specific purposes.  In such things, others will know that you are fasting, but generally so are they.

Jesus is not making a new law in which no one can ever see you fast, or you are in trouble.  The true point is that the hypocrites “love” others seeing them, rather than God.  There is no fundamental relationship of love to their times of fasting.  Thus, such group times of fasting should be the tip of the iceberg.  Ice bergs always have much more mass under the water (that you can’t see), then what is above the surface.  In fact, icebergs that have large chunks drop off under the water can even flip over. 

Again, Jesus is showing us how to please God in our personal times of fasting.

Last week, I mentioned The Didache, a document for new disciples whose title means “The Teaching.”  In this manuscript, new converts are told not to fast on Monday and Thursday like the hypocrites.  This may seem odd, if you don’t know the cultural dynamics in Israel at the time. 

The religious leaders had developed the tradition of fasting on Mondays and Thursdays.  It wasn’t required, but if you wanted to be seen as a righteous leader, then you pretty much needed to do so.  The idea is that new Christians who continue to fast on Monday and Thursday are doing so in order to avoid persecution.  You would look like you are following the traditions of the elders, and no one would suspect you are a Christian.  The point is not the day, Monday and Thursday.  The point is the reasoning of your heart.  What are you after?  They wanted people to see them fasting, and this is hypocritical.

Jesus is able to judge this because he knows what is in their hearts.  Yet, he doesn’t point to this.  Instead, he points to some external acts that they do, which reveal their hearts.  It wouldn’t take divine omniscience to recognize something was wrong with these guys who were always looking for attention.

Jesus points to their sad countenance.  They would walk around with a sad countenance when they were fasting, and most likely acted a little more weak than they needed to do.  Of course, it is not about sadness.  We may sometimes fast following a sad event, like the death of a loved one.  The point here is about drawing attention to the fact that they are fasting.  Jesus further describes them “disfiguring” their faces (NKJV).  Here is the idea of the Greek word behind this.  Whatever you are talking about will have something that is considered to be nice-looking, presentable condition of it.  When that is spoiled or ruined, this word would be used of it.  Thus, a person goes to bed at night not looking so bad,  but then wake up in the morning not looking so good.  We usually fix ourselves up to go out in public.  These guys would purposefully not fix themselves up, of course, because they were fasting.  This also drew attention to them.

I remember one time in grade school where a friend and I walked off of campus to his house in order to play video games.  The school called the house and my friend answered the phone.  We were busted of course and told to come back to school (where his mom worked no less).  As we headed to school, we figured our best excuse would be to say that we were feeling sick.  And, guess what, I had no problem looking pale and sick when I arrived at the principal’s office because I knew I was in trouble when my parents found out.  We should never underestimate the power of a hypocrite to put on an act that is worthy of an Oscar Award when they desperately want to do so.  I was powerfully motivated by my flesh.

However, God was not impressed with what these hypocrites were doing- I’m back to talking about the religious leaders of the days of Jesus.  Many people were impressed with their sheer volume of fasting.  However, I wonder if there were some people who were turned off by this? 

Jesus then tells us that “Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.”  God doesn’t owe them a red cent.  They want the praise of people and that is all they are going to get.  However, they probably vainly imagine that God is impressed with their works, like the praying Pharisee in Luke 18:12.  “I fast twice a week…”

Yet, in Isaiah 58, we are told that God is more interested in the heart that is behind the fasting.  If your heart is oriented towards God, then your fasting will become focused on the things that are important to God.  You will be focused on honoring His Name, living out His Kingdom rule and doing His will.  Yes, Isaiah speaks about helping the poor, but think about what that means in light of honoring God, His rule and His will.  We can help the poor out of a wicked heart as well.  We can do it as a moral cloak for selfish reasons.  However, when we love people as God loves them, it then becomes a clean thing.  They had gone without food, but the fought with one another and ripped off their employees.  They weren’t fasting for God, but for their own glory.  Am I working for the glory of God and His purposes?

All of this begs the question, why should we fast at all?  Fasting is a way to bring  your fleshly desires under control.  They are a battle for everyone who wishes to become like God, like Jesus.  We do not want to be ruled by our flesh and its desires.  We don’t want to be a person of the flesh, but a person who is led by the Spirit of God.  James used the analogy of a wild horse.  Breaking in a horse so that it is useful is essentially a battle of will, and it requires wisdom.  Our flesh is naturally hostile to the things of the Spirit of God (His purposes).  Fasting is a mechanism by which we put a bridle in our flesh, so that it can be useful for the work of God’s Kingdom.

This brings us to a second purpose.  It not only brings our flesh under control, but it also orients and focuses us towards the things of Christ, of His Spirit.  Fasting is always accompanied by increased prayer.  We are telling ourselves that we would rather have God than a full belly.  God means more to me than food.  “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  This is essentially at the base of all true fasting.  It is a worship of God.

Of course, we must avoid thinking that God is impressed, i.e., answers our prayers, for the sake of a quantity of days we fast.  In fact, we should be careful that our fasts are not driven by a single-focused prayer for a particular item or act that we desire from Him.  Ultimately, we come as beggars to God asking for wisdom to live out His purposes in this life.  “Lord, please lead me by Your Spirit!”

Jesus tells his disciples to fast in order to be seen by the Father, and not men.  In fact, he just assumes his people will give charity, pray and fast in this section.

The Father who is in the secret place will see your fasting and reward you.  This is different than prayer.  We don’t have to go into our closet to fast.  However, we should keep our private fasts hidden as we go about our day.  In this way, the “secret place,” or “hidden place,” is a spiritual place before God, no matter where we are.  No one can tell your belly is empty as you walk around.  We are to squelch the desire of our flesh to obtain credit and praise from the people around us.  This is what makes it a hidden place before God.

Jesus tells us to do the opposite of the hypocrites.  Instead of looking sad and a “disfigured” face, we should do all the things that we would normally do when we go out in public.  Jesus tells them to anoint their head and wash their face.  You might even want to slap your face a couple times to combat that pale look you might get when you are not used to fasting.  The whole point is to make sure that you do not stick out, so that people won’t ask if you are fasting, or guess that you are.

By the way, don’t be a person who is always asking people if they are fasting, or other such things.  Don’t be a guesser.  We are to be brothers and sisters walking together with the LORD.  We will have different expressions of love for God at different times, and that is good.  Let it be what it is.

Let me just say a few more things on our reward for fasting.  You may not receive everything that you want, or even prayed for.  Fasting is not the secret to receiving everything you want.  It was never about that.  In fact, we don’t always know what is good for us.  Sometimes, God is saying no to the thing we asked for, but giving us something greater (like intimacy with Him).

In Psalm 106:15, the psalmist says of the LORD, “He gave them their request, but He sent leanness into their soul.”  When Israel was in the desert, they began to complain to the LORD that there was no bread and meat.  God gave them what they wanted, but then sent leanness into their souls.  Why?  When things become more important to us than the presence and love of God, then they essentially become our God, even when we pray.  The life that we think we are deriving from them, however, always fails to satisfy the heart.  Our soul was not designed to be satisfied with anything less than the presence of God, relationship with Him.  Until God means more to us than bread, meat, water, gold, wealth, fame, glory, etc., our soul will always be spiritually starving and lacking the good thing it needs, God Himself.

If we will listen to the wisdom of Jesus in this sermon, then we will not be men and women driven by our flesh.  We will be a people who would rather have leanness of flesh, than leanness of soul.  It is not that there is always a choice.  I do believe God would have provided bread and meat for them, just as He did for Jesus when he fasted in the wilderness.  However, it would have happened in a way that was good.  Yet, sometimes you have to make a choice.  Fasting helps us to have a better grip on the lusts of our flesh so that we do not displease God, and miss what He has for us.

We are very blessed in these United States of America.  Perhaps, you have nothing that you need and would ever fast for.  How about just to know Jesus more?  Maybe, we should fast to ask God whether we have grown complacent and blind to all the things we should be fasting and praying for?  The Laodicean believers thought they were rich and in need of nothing.  If they had spent more time in fasting and prayer, they may have been enabled to see how spiritually poor they had become, how naked they were, and how spiritually blind they were.  Do not trust the eyes and the mind of flesh when it comes to spiritual matters.

Lastly, let me add that some people have medical conditions that make fasting hard, or even dangerous.  They may get the shakes, or have a glucose imbalance.  We must understand that this is not a contest and a necessity in order to please God.

I have a brother whose adult life has been one physical battle after another.  Essentially, he has battled lupus and the variety of ways that it attacks his body.  He has been physically challenged his whole adult life.  He has other brothers who haven’t ever had a thing wrong all of that time.  On the one hand, a person can beat themselves up emotionally because they are so weak and think that God doesn’t care, and on the other hand, a person could think that God is quite pleased with them.  God knows your heart and He knows your physical frame.

I say this to challenge us in the area of fasting, and yet not to place a burden on those to whom this cannot happen, at least not in the traditional way of going without food.  It can be tough to accept our lot in life without blaming God.  It is even tougher to catch the vision and to rise up to the calling that is in those things we call weakness.  Sometimes it is our weakness that enables us to do the greatest spiritual good in the lives of others.  However, we have to learn that by the help of the Holy Spirit as we fight against the mind of flesh and bring it to heel.

This brings us to the third section.  Jesus begins to reveal areas that are pitfalls for becoming a hypocrite.  If you do not want to be an actor, a spiritual poser, then listen up as Jesus teaches us how to avoid it.

Revealing Areas that are Pitfalls for Hypocrisy

Our relationship with things (v.19-21)

Jesus first speaks to our relationship with things (verses 19 to the end of the chapter).  Chapter 7 will open with a look at our relationship with difficult people.  It will then move to our relationship with God.  Hypocrisy grows out of improperly relating with things, people and God.  He spends most of his time on this topic looking at things.

Before He gives us direct teaching on what to do and what not to do, Jesus deals with three images that ask a question.  This first one has to do with what our treasure is, and what our heart loves.  What’s your treasure?  We can pray for our heavenly Father to bring His heavenly things down to earth, but is that where our heart truly is?  This tension between loving earthly things versus heavenly things is important to face in your spiritual walk.  Yet, it is not just a metaphor, but more on that later.

Jesus commands us not to be laying up treasure on the earth.  The focus here is in storing up treasure, literally treasuring up treasure.  It does beg the question of what qualifies as “storing up,” but let’s hold on to that for a bit too.

Jesus gives us one immediate reason for not laying up earthly treasures that has leverage on a natural minded person.  It has to do with the threats that exist on the earth to the treasure that we store here.

He gives three different kinds of threats: moths (sentient but animal), rust (the laws of nature) and thieves (sentient beings).  If you want to retain wealth, then you will have to plan against these categories. 

Moths could just as easily be mice or rats, etc.  How many clothes, bins of grain, etc. have been ruined by such critters.  They have the ability to break past many of the best attempts at stopping them.

Rust is not even sentient.  It represents things that have no mind, but we might be angry with God about them.  Why would God create a universe where my hard earned stuff rusts, rots, essentially falls apart and is ruined?  This is why certain things have risen over time to be a better store of wealth than others.  Gold resists tarnish more than many other metals, and it also has a rarity that is enough to be desirable, but not so rare as to not be obtainable to use as money. 

As if animals and the laws of nature aren’t bad enough, then we have to deal with thieves.  In general, these are other humans who work extremely hard at stealing the accumulated hard work of others.  For some reason, they get excited at stealing from others rather than putting their hard work to honest ends.

For every thing a man does to make his wealth safe, another man can figure out how the safe works and see a way around it.  It is not hard to see that if one man can create something, another man can figure out how to dismantle it.

Today, we are being sold on digital currency because of the great trouble with scammers and thieves.  Yet, digital currency is just another mechanism created by a man.  It is a lie that it will be impossible to hack.  In fact, the greatest threat to stored wealth throughout all of history has been governments of some sorts.  Either your own government taxes it away, or another government conquers yours and takes it from you.  How much stored wealth was capture for the glory of Rome, or Genghis Kahn and his “Mongol hordes?” 

The main point Jesus is making here is not that you should be fearful of all of these things.  His main point is that you can spend your whole life amassing wealth on the earth, and then it is gone.  What have you obtained?  He doesn’t mention the ultimate robber of all wealth, death.

Thus, Jesus points us to a wiser plan.  Lay up treasure in heaven.  This continues this tension between heaven and earth.  We tend to think that a lot of stored wealth on this earth will make my existence heavenly.  However, this is not God’s way, and it is a way that causes pain, fighting and sorrow on the earth.  Before He gets into what it looks like to put treasure in heaven, Jesus balances out his argument.

You don’t need risk management plans for treasure that is stored in heaven.  The risks of earth cannot touch wealth stored in heaven.  You don’t need to purchase insurance for things in heaven.  Jesus is not only our insurance, but even more, he is our assurance that our spiritual treasure is safe.  God doesn’t lie, and there is no being in the universe strong enough to take it from Him.  There is no safer place in the universe for treasure.  He is the great Safe of safes.

Yes, there is a thief who dwells in the heavens, the devil.  John 10:10 tells us that he is a thief, a murderer, and a marauder.  Yet, even the devil cannot touch heavenly treasure.

1 Peter 1:4 tells us that God has called us to “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  In fact, this suggests that you “kept by the power of God” are His treasure.  This obviously comports with Malachi 3:17.  There, speaking to those who fear the LORD, God says, “‘They shall be Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘On the day that I make them My jewels.  And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’”  Jewels sparkle when they are in the presence of great light.  Thus, the resurrected righteous are described by Daniel in chapter 12 as shining like the stars.  The reason the battle is down here on the earth is because the devil knows that you are His treasure.

Jesus is teaching us that to make an earthly difference, i.e., cause His kingdom to come, we need to put our treasure in heaven.  So, how do we store treasure in heaven?  We do it by making the Kingdom of heaven our primary purpose: His Name, His Kingdom and His Will.  When we do earthly things for heavenly reasons, God credits it as true righteousness born of the fruit of faith in Jesus.  We can use our wealth of time, knowledge, money, relationships, etc. for reaching the lost and strengthening God’s people.

In fact, two people can do the exact same thing and for one of them it will be earthly treasure and for the other heavenly.  Let’s take as an example the raising of a family.  Two people can raise up the same number of kids into society.  One can do it for the glory of their family name, or their national fame.  The other can do it for the glory of the Lord.  Of course, they won’t do everything in raising those kids “exactly the same,” but you should be able to see the point made earlier.  Raising a family has a natural aspect that anyone can do, but it also has spiritual aspects. 

This brings up another point.  Don’t read this to mean that you will have nothing on this earth.  A family raised for Christ is great heavenly treasure, but it has earthly rewards to it as well.  Often those who try their hardest to obtain earthly rewards, at the expense of heavenly purposes, find that it never turns out as great as they had hoped.  The point is where your heart is.

This is why Jesus says what he says at the end.  “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Who or what has my heart?  What is my heart longing for, and what is it fixated upon?  The Lord’s prayer is a prayer that is focused upon the purposes of Heaven, and yet it still affects this world because God’s purposes are uniquely focused upon this world, particularly His image-bearers that He placed upon it.

He knows that we are flesh and blood, mortal.  As mortals, we will need literal, daily bread.  However, we can live out eternal purposes in these temporary lives.

The point is not about never having a bank account, or saving up to buy a house, etc.  It is asking the deeper question.  Messiah is asking us.  Do I have  your heart?  Or, does this world and the things thereof have your heart?  If you had to choose between Jesus and the desires of this world, which would you choose?

The apostle John reminded us of these questions in 1 John 2:15-17.  There he commands us (in the name of the LORD) not to love the world and the things of the world.  This world is passing away, and the things of it, especially the lusts that we have for things.  However, he who does the will of God abides forever!

This brings us back to the Garden of Eden.  Yes, there is a choice between innocence and knowledge of good and evil.  However, deeper than this is a question of love.  The serpent is tempting their heart away from what they already knew, God loved them greatly.  He tempts them away from the love of God towards the love of things (in fact, they are His things).  How can we be in right relationship with God’s things in our life?  It starts by not making them our treasure.  Instead, God Himself must be our greatest treasure.

God is the greatest good.  He is the source of all things that we might deem as good (and countless others that we are too ignorant to realize their goodness).  He gives us all kinds of things.  Yet, I guess He held back one thing, the knowledge of good and evil.  Have you been seduced by things that become nothing if they are divorced from God?  A love of things that cannot satisfy a soul that was made for the love of God is essentially what Romans 1 pictures.  We worship the creation rather than the Creator who made it all.  In the end, we will be left with things and a very, very lean soul.

God forbid!

Fasting/Treasure audio

Sermon on the Mount X

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites I

Matthew 6:1-4.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 11, 2024.

Chapter six of the Sermon on the Mount clearly moves on to another main point.  Jesus has been looking at the teaching of the Scribes and the Pharisees, the teachers of his day, and showing how it fails to fulfill the Law.

Now, Jesus moves to exposing the problem with the apparent “righteousness” of these “hypocrites.”  However, more than exposing their problem, Jesus shows his followers how to live out true Kingdom righteousness.  Whereas the previous point showed the lack of love for others in their teaching, this point will show the lack of a true heart for God in their righteousness.

In fact, what Jesus shows here is at the root of the common problem that religious institutions tend towards corruption.  If their teaching is superficial, i.e., has no heart, so their righteousness itself is also superficial.  It is generally not for the glory of God.

Jesus will look at three areas of spiritual matters: charity (acts of mercy), prayer, and fasting.  It is not by accident that prayer is at the center of this point, and at the center of the whole Sermon on the Mount.

Today we will focus on the acts of mercy that are often called charitable deeds.

Let’s look at our passage.

The way of righteousness (v. 1)

Though Jesus does not use the word “way” here, it an important theme throughout the Old Testament, and the work of Messiah.  John the Baptist details this when he comes forth as the voice in the wilderness that calls for the way of the LORD to be prepared.  At the end of this sermon, Jesus will point to the “narrow way.”  This is essentially following the teaching of the Messiah, Jesus.

We also know that Jesus is talking about their “righteousness” in this chapter because of his words back in Matthew 5:20.  There is a question in the manuscripts in verse 1 on whether it says, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds…,” or if it read, “Take heed that you do not do your righteous deeds…”  The manuscripts that are older and more reliable actually split about 50/50 on which is original.  The difference is not significant, but if the proper word is “righteous deeds,” then this verse serves as an up front description of what is wrong in the following three areas of righteous deeds.  I believe that is most likely and it would also create a clear tie back to the earlier recognition that our righteousness needs to exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

In truth, deeds of righteousness is the larger category of which charitable deeds is a subset, just as prayer and fasting are other subsets of this larger category.  Historically, these were so close that “righteousness” was often used to refer to them as a synonym.

Let’s tie this into our role as imager of God.  If we will listen to Jesus on this point, we will be able to properly image God the Father to the world around us.

We should also recognize that charitable deeds is not just about money.  It literally means an act of mercy.  If we use the Good Samaritan as an example, you will see that the most important thing that he gave to the ambushed man was his careful attention.  Everything that he did from that man flowed from a heart of compassion, mercy.

Jesus gives us a command.  “Do not do your righteous deeds before men…”  However, instead of putting the imperative upon the verb, i.e., “do not do…,” he puts the imperative on the verb “take heed!”  The effect of this is to intensify the imperative.  Jesus commands us to take up this area of our life and pay close attention to it.  It can be translated as: “beware,” or “Be careful.”  We need to spend time thinking through this any time we go to do an act of righteousness.  In the book of Deuteronomy, this kind of language generally points to an area of sin that we need watch out for or we will fall.

Thus, we are told that our intention must never be about other people seeing us.  If you do that, then you will have no reward from God because He knows that you are not doing it for him, but for them.  We see this in the story of the widow’s mite.  The motive of the rich man will only be rewarded by the adulation of the crowd.  What about the widow?  Most people who saw her probably contemptuously looked down on what she was doing.  Even when she did it in public, she was not in danger of doing it for the praise of man.

Messiah corrects them in their charitable deeds (v. 2-4)

Let’s be clear up front that we are not talking about salvation as a reward for our “righteousness.”  Before we come to Christ, our righteousness is as filthy rags.  However, when we come to Christ in faith, we are now saved.  Yet, through his teaching and with the help of his Holy Spirit, we are enabled to walk out the righteousness of Christ, and even fulfill the Law.  We are enabled to better image God the Father to the world around us.

Of course, walking out the righteousness of Christ is wrapped up in our salvation.  Our salvation in Christ is the foundation upon which we walk forward.  If I don’t keep my eyes upon Christ, and worse, I begin to resist and rebel against the Holy Spirit, then I can harm my own faith in Christ, even to the point of walking away from him.  Thus, on one hand, we can never merit salvation through walking out the righteousness of Christ.  Yet, on the other hand, if I become discouraged and walk away from Jesus, then I can forfeit it.  So, the one is integral to the other.  He has saved me, and that stirs up the desire to image him to the world.

We notice in verse 2 that Jesus describes a trumpet being blown when the hypocrites are going to do a charitable deed at the synagogue or on the streets.  It is unclear whether this was literally being done, or if it is an apt symbol of what they were doing.  Regardless, whether literal or metaphorical, it does serve as a great symbol of a person trying to draw attention to what they are about to do.  They do things that “trumpet” their deeds.  Of course, this doesn’t just happen in religious works among religious people.  The secular world is full of trumpeting one’s own goodness.  But, God’s people should be different.

The point is that they would not give, or do an act of mercy, without having a mechanism by which to draw attention to it.  Why?  It is because they want to be seen by men so that they will receive some kind of glory from them.  If we think of all the inner vices that Jesus referred to in working through the six case studies on the Law, they lust for the attention and glory that people will give them.

It is easy to despise those who give great sums of money in order to get their name on a building when we don’t have enough money to do the same.  The problem is not that they have money, and it is not that they even give it away.  The problem is the intention of the heart is all pointed towards people and not God.  In fact, not all people who give large donations do what we are seeing in these verses.

Essentially, Jesus is speaking to a crowd that most likely does not have much money.  He is telling them that these rich scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees, might appear to be quite righteous, but most of their hearts are not right before God.  They simply lust for the glory of people.

We people are too quick to give glory to others.  Of course, we are not God and cannot see the motives of people’s hearts.  However, that is exactly why we should be careful glorifying the righteous deeds of others.  We are all too ready even to trumpet for them, and to continue to trumpet long after the deed has been done.  This is not about judging them, but recognizing that we do not know the true value of what they have done.

All of this is couched in a negative command.  We are not to draw attention to our charitable deeds.  More importantly, our motivation for giving must not be driven by the recognition we could get from other people for being so righteous.

This brings up the greater issue of why we should give charity.  Notice that Jesus just assumes they will do it.

As I said before, the word basically means “an act of mercy.”  It emphasizes that you do not owe a person anything, but you are touched in your heart (actually deep in your guts) for them.  You have compassion upon them.  In prayer before God, and with the knowledge of my resources, I determine in my heart what I am going to do. 

However, we need to be careful of thinking that God needs to give us a particular number- not that He can’t do that if He wants.  However, He actually wants you to become like Him.  That means your love and compassion needs to be expressed by you.  Perhaps, you could have done more, but what you did was good, if it was done for Him.  An act of love is and act of love. 

Imaging God is at stake here.  No one is more compassionate and giving than God.  Our charitable giving needs to be out of a desire to be like God in this world by helping others.  In fact, it shouldn’t even be about a desire to get God to bless you more in this life.  God is always blessing us.  Why do I crave more?  As God supplies in your life, respond compassionately to the world around you with your time, energy, help, and even giving. 

At the end of verse three, Jesus gives us the command in a proverbial form.  I believe this is all about counteracting our inner desire, even lust, to be recognized by people for our charitable deeds.  All proverbs can be abused.  I’ve heard some justify not telling another family member what they are doing because we are not to let our left hand know what the right hand is doing.  However, verse 4 clarifies exactly what Jesus means.  Do your deeds in secret.

The right hand was typically the hand of giving to others.  Yet, we should recognize that the left hand belongs to the same body.  So, this may actually be saying something that is going on internally within us.  When we give, we should not give a second thought to what a good thing we are doing.  We should not even judge our own works as too how good they are before God.  We should simply do them and move on.  Don’t get a big ego over it.  Don’t even internally trumpet your goodness.  This will only have a corrupting influence in your heart.

Of course, Jesus is not creating a law here, and if someone finds out that you gave a charitable donations, then God will be angry and punish you, or simply not give you a reward.  It is actually quite hard to give mercy to another person without at least them knowing.  Should you hide such things from your spouse?  I don’t think Jesus is trying to create an environment where we are hiding things from our spouse.  The point is to be taken simply, and at face value.  Make your aim to please God and to show His love to others.  Pay close attention to your motivation, the desire that is motivating you.  If you will do this then the details will become immaterial.

Let’s end with looking at the rewards for both the hypocrites and for the followers of Messiah.

The hypocrites are rewarded.  However, it is not by God.  God allows them to have whatever glory people are giving for such things.  They simply get what they were looking for.  God doesn’t owe them anything because it wasn’t done for Him.

Yet, there is a trap in their giving.  The corrupting influence of the glory of the people will continue working in our hearts.  It will continue to corrupt until no good thing remains.  The word here for “rewards” can be used for positive or negative things.  Thus, it can take on the idea of punishment.  Perhaps, the glory of men is a punishment that God gives to the wicked.

How much charity is given out of wrong motives?  How much charity is given from hearts that hunger for something other than God?  Whatever you are hungering for (whether as a giver, or even as a receiver) becomes an idol, and to worship an idol is to become a worthless, vain thing ourselves.

We were not designed to hold up well under the glory of people (just look at the lives over time of those who have it). 

There is nothing wrong with giving honor where honor is due, but we need to be really careful.  We are a people who love to idolize others.  Perhaps, it has something to do with living vicariously through them, even being a part of the group that they came from.  Yet, the adulation of a crowd can never satisfy a heart that was designed to be satisfied by the One True God.  All other things fall short of His glory.

This brings us to the righteous who do their charitable deeds for the right motives and in secret (as best can be done).  Giving secretly leads to a reward from God.  The word “openly” is in question and is not found in the oldest manuscripts.  We should be careful of overemphasizing a reward in this life.  God is constantly blessing us in this life.  But, later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will emphasize laying up treasure in heaven.  Peter speaks to this in 1 Peter 1:4.  There, he calls it an inheritance reserved in the heavens.  If we live for Christ in this life, then He has a great reward for us in the life to come.  Our great reward is to be resurrected and inherit the whole earth with Jesus.  We will serve as the glorified, righteous administration of King Jesus.  It is not yet manifest what we will be, but when Jesus comes, we will appear with Him clothed in His glory!  Now, that is much better than screaming crowds of fallen people shouting our name!

Correcting Hypocrites audio

The Things that God Hates 8: One Who Sows Discord among Brothers

Proverbs 6:16-19; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Matthew 5:9-12.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 3, 2021.

This morning, we will look at the last thing on the list of things that God hates in Proverbs 6.  It ends with describing a person who sows discord, or strife, among brothers.

God hates the sowing of discord among brothers

This image of sowing begs the question, “How does one sow discord, strife, and conflict among brothers?”  Or, we could also ask it this way.  “Just what does a discord seed look like?”

Perhaps it is simply a question about another person in their absence, perhaps about their motives, or a remark about them.  We might tell a story about them that we have heard, maybe even completely slandering them.  It might be less aggressive by stirring up the irritations that others already have against the absent person.  We really are only limited in this hated sin by our imagination, and people have honed this craft to an art.

Today, I want to look at the passage in 1 Corinthians 3 to bring out some things involved in this issue.  Paul is speaking to the conflicts and strife that were going on in the church at Corinth.  He puts his finger on their main problem: spiritual immaturity.  Though a person cannot become any more saved than they are, we may or may not become spiritually mature.

Paul pictures spiritual maturity as receiving nourishment from God’s Word.  Just like a newborn baby cannot digest complex foods and must drink milk, so a new Christian cannot immediately digest much of God’s Word.  They need to feed on the simple milk of the Gospel until they have grown enough to take in the deeper things of God.  The proper effect of God’s Word will be spiritual growth, as opposed to remaining carnal, or focused upon the flesh and its desires.  Thus, spiritual maturity involves putting off carnal motivations, carnal thinking, and the actions that come with them, and putting on the mind of Christ taught within God’s Word.  A spiritually mature person has motivations and thinking that come from God and His Word.  They do the actions that have good spiritual impact upon themselves and others.  Many in the Corinthian church were sowing seeds of conflict among the body of Christ, and Paul knew that this was breaking God’s heart, something that He hated.

Though spiritual immaturity is the main problem for the Corinthian church, there are other possible reasons why a person might sow discord.  A person may simply not be saved.  Jesus speaks in a parable (Matthew 13:24-40) about his enemy sowing “tares” in among the wheat.  These would be people who are carnal because they are not born again by God’s Spirit.  They have not been regenerated spiritually.

Of course, this is often the first accusation against others when you are carnal.  It is easy to always believe the other person must not be saved when there is conflict.  The spiritually mature person recognizes that even godly people can disagree on issues.  However, we would be asleep at the wheel if we didn’t recognize that the external Church has many tares that have been sown into it by the enemy, and some of them are leaders.

Sometimes the sowing originates within the group as we have described, and sometimes it comes from outside of the group.  Paul spoke of this in his farewell message to the elders of the Ephesian church.

“For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.  Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.  Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”  -Acts 20:29-31 (NKJV)

The savage wolves can come in among you, but they can also be government leaders giving decrees that cause problems in the group.  It is easy to miss the true source of conflict and only see the surface reasons.  It is important for us to step into spiritual maturity by checking our own motives first.  Line them up against God’s Word so that they can be purified.  Then, look for any deeper causes for the conflict that are not readily obvious.  Conflict always pushes us to rush our judgments, but this is not the will of God, nor the character of Christ.

In the end, we must learn to see through the schemes of the devil.  Our true enemy is him and his evil spiritual forces.  They are arrayed against the Church, and they use all manner of people: power hungry secular leaders, spiritually immature believers, con-artists, false prophets, etc.  The devil has schemes and a mode of operating that become more evident as we spiritually mature.  Whether whispering into the ear of Cain about his brother Abel, or catching Ahab’s eye with Jezebel, his strategies are generally the same, but his tactics are manifold.

So, what does God love?  Let’s go to Matthew 5:9-12 for that.

God loves those who promote peace between others

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.  Jesus, the Unique Son of God, came to earth on a peace mission, and so we are sent forth as his ambassadors also offering peace.  We are to speak peace from God to those we meet.  It is when we have peace with God that peace with one another is possible.  Do not fool yourself.  True peace is not possible among those who reject God and His Anointed One, Jesus.

There is a kind of anti-peace that is promoted by the antichrist system of this world.  The anti-peace is not a peace at all, but it can result in a cessation of some strife.  The Pax Romana (peace of Rome) protected many nations from invasion by others.  However, they were always under the strife of Roman rule, and were conquered by them in the first place.  If this is your definition of peace, then you can keep it.

True peace is built upon the foundation of a healthy fear of God and His judgment.  It is not a fear that God will be capricious, but that God will not be mocked or fooled.  He is not swayed by our words to Him.  He judges in truth, reality.  Anti-peace is built upon the foundation of the fear of man, and the powers of this earth.

Jesus said that if you stand for true peace with Him, then the world will hate you.  The world offers a false gospel that delivers a false peace.  Look around you.  You see groups trying to build Utopia without God, without truth.  Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “When they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.  And they shall not escape.  But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief!”

When Jesus says that we shall be called “sons of God,” he leaves off just who will call us sons of God.  In fact, the next two verses talk about persecution.  Who is the “they” who will revile and persecute the peacemakers?  It is the world and all those who are one spirit with the false peace.  Christians are makers of true peace, and thus God is not ashamed to call them His sons, but the world that loves false peace uses worse epithets for us.  This persecution will come from outside of the Church and from within it.  It has always been so.  The early Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah were persecuted by other Jews who claimed to love God.  In the Middle Ages of Europe, Christians were often persecuted by other Christians who had power and authority, both religious and secular.

Don’t kid yourself.  A new morality is being raised up even today that is not of God.  Slowly, but surely, many denominations and Christians are moving from God’s Truth, to the anti-truth.  May God help us not to be caught up in our conflicts with one another and lose sight of the true enemy and his tricks.  The enemy is even now coming after believers that cling to the old ways of Jesus.  The heat is being turned up.

Ultimately, Jesus promises a reward for those who promote true peace and pay the price for it in persecution.  Not only will they be called the sons of God by him, but a day of manifesting just who are the sons of God is coming.  We will share in the glory of Christ as he returns to earth in order to set up the kingdom that God has given him. 

Now, your reward comes from the one you are serving.  If we serve ourselves, and thus the world, we will receive the world’s rewards.  The world will call us peacemakers and sons of God, but it will all be a lie.  For those who fear God and work for true peace, God has a reward that outweighs any difficulties, tears, and trials on this earth.

Yes, in some ways, we are already sons of God who are participating in his kingdom.  However, the terminology is “reward.”  Rewards are handed out after a contest, or project.  Jesus is pointing us to a point after the Resurrection in which we will stand beside him in his kingdom, a true utopia that will last for 1,000 years.  The world that has rejected God’s peace offer sees His peace emissaries as those who are obstructing the peace that they envision.  Christian, you must get used to being labeled by this world the opposite of what you truly are.  No, it is not fair, but it is part of the path ahead of us.  We can ignore their aspersions against us not in a sinful obstinacy, but in a steadfast, faithful determination to please our Lord Jesus!

Sowing Discord audio

How Many Camels Can Fit through a Needle?

Mark 10:23-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday March 01, 2020.

In our passage this morning, we have the famous statement of Jesus that involves a camel going through the eye of a needle.  It is given right on the heels of the rich young ruler whom Jesus challenged to sell all his possessions and follow him.  We are told that the young man went away sad because he had a lot of wealth.  We should have that young man walking away from Jesus dejected in our minds as we hear these next words from Jesus.  The young man wanted eternal life and Jesus told him what he needed to do to get it.  Yet, he balked at such a drastic action.

I would like to deal with the idea of a camel going through an eye of a needle up front, so that we can focus on the main point when we get to it.  I am sure that needles and their holes were larger due to the technology employed.  Regardless, it is my contention that Jesus intended this to be a statement of impossibility.  Over the years, various ideas have surfaced as to alternate meanings.  All of them reduce this from a statement of impossibility to one of great difficulty. 

The most famous attempt involves a gate into Jerusalem called the camel gate.  It was apparently so small that the only way a camel could enter is to be unloaded and to crawl on its knees.  This is a great image for coming to Jesus.  However, the problem is that there is no first-hand evidence that this is true.  The Bible makes no mention of such a gate, and the earliest reference to such a gate that scholars have found is somewhere in the 10^th or 11^th century AD.   This gap of a millennium should cause us to balk at jumping on the camel gate band wagon.

Others have pointed out that the word for camel is just one letter different from a word for a rope made from camel hair.  Of course, there is no evidence that any manuscripts used this alternate word.  It is nothing but speculation that cannot be put forth as the true interpretation.

It seems obvious to many others that Jesus is employing simple hyperbole.  Camels going through the eye of a needle is impossible pure and simple.  Just like the Pharisees straining out gnats and swallowing camels, the absurdly impossible is used to press a point that we won’t actually believe or take seriously.  Let’s look at our passage.

It is hard for the wealthy to enter into God’s Kingdom (23-27)

The rich man may still be in their sights as he trails off over the horizon.  Here, Jesus uses the moment to teach an important thing to his disciples.  Jesus makes a statement that it is hard or difficult for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.  I believe that Jesus is connecting the Kingdom of God back to the young man’s desire for eternal life.  Though they are two different concepts, they are very connected.  Those who have eternal life will participate in the coming Kingdom of God, in which the Messiah of God rules over the earth from Jerusalem.  They are one and the same.  We are not just talking about a reward here, but, even more foundational, also salvation.  This is a statement of difficulty that catches the disciples by surprise.

How can it be difficult for rich people to be saved?  They had been taught that good Israelites would be blessed by God with wealth.  Of course, they knew that wicked people could be rich, but our context is about an Israelite who has been observant of the Law of Moses his whole life.  Surely, the wealth of such a man was proof of God’s blessing, favor, and salvation.  This man is the poster boy for what all religious Israelites of the time would aim to be.

It is definitely easier for our age to swallow this statement.  We might be some of the first to say, “Right on Jesus.  Give it to those 1%-ers.”   Riches add temptation and hindrances to our hearts and minds that the lack of them do not.  Yes, riches can be a boon in life, but only if you aren’t a slave to them.  This is much easier said than done.  It is sad that many Christians in the West believe that they will be wealthy if they are truly pleasing God.  We must be very careful about such notions because Jesus never said that.  Yet, Jesus doesn’t stop there. 

They are amazed with this statement, so he turns around and gives them the statement again.  This time Jesus emphasizes that trust in riches is the problem.  As he said elsewhere, it is hard to serve wealth and God.  One of them will win your heart, and you will despise the other.  Our treasure is where our heart lies and the rich tend to have their heart in the wealth of this life.  They trust in riches in the way that they should be trusting in God.  They may desire eternal life, but they are unwilling to divorce their heart from their riches in order to come into relationship with the God of heaven.  Thus, Jesus has made a similar statement of difficulty regarding the salvation of rich people.

If Jesus had stopped here then it would have been a remarkable lesson to absorb for these first century Israelites.  However, Jesus then gives a metaphor that compares something that he has said is difficult to something that is basically impossible.  This is the metaphor of the camel.  A rich man being saved is not just a little difficult.  It is more difficult than a camel going through the eye of an actual needle (no one said the camel had to survive the experience).    That degree of difficulty can only be described as impossible.  Is Jesus really saying that it is basically impossible for rich people to be saved?  Yes, I believe he is.  Hang with me if you can.

We see Jesus using hyperbole in many places.  He told the Pharisees that they swallowed camels as a picture of the size of the false teachings that they had accepted all the while straining out, or rejecting, the smallest of deviations from the Law.  Yes, in the natural swallowing a camel is impossible, but theologically these Pharisees were doing it every day.  We are not intended to minimize the hyperbole, but rather see the contrasting items in a greater light.  The Pharisees were not just a little bit wrong.  They were hugely and absurdly wrong.  There is a part of us that laughingly thinks that we would rather take our chances when it comes to riches.  Like Topol in Fiddler on the Roof, we are tempted to state that if riches are a curse then may God smite us with it…and may we never recover!  Such things make for a humorous play or movie, but this is no laughing matter.  Jesus intends to put the fear of God in his disciples. 

Do I actually believe that being rich makes it so difficult to be saved that it is basically impossible, statistically a zero chance?  If it sounds shocking to you then you are in good company.  The disciples are even more amazed than before.  They whisper among themselves, “Then who can be saved?”  It reminds me of the time that Jesus taught on divorce.  By the time he was done, they were exasperated and stated, “If that is the case then it is better not to marry!”  Even religious communities can inoculate us to the pure or raw truth of God.  The teachings of their day pointed to the rich observant Israelite as a success story.  Were not the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob wealthy men?  Did not the Law of Moses promise wealth and bounty to Israel when they obeyed God?  Yes, all of these things are true.  Yet, we might ask ourselves this.  Did Abraham trust in his riches and cling to them rather than follow God?  Did his riches mean more to him than a relationship with the God of heaven?

It is similar to the wisdom of Solomon.  Many things that seem to be a blessing in this life only add a bigger burden to our task.  If your mission is to enjoy life the most you can then maybe riches can help.  However, if your goal is to come through this life with the assurance of eternal life then many things that we call blessings are actually making it harder.

The point is not that we shouldn’t have wealth or even wisdom.  Rather, we must be wide awake and alert to the difficulties that they present to us.  Jesus gives an answer to the question they are asking (that is, who can be saved), which seems to end up with the answer, no one.

It is interesting in verse 27 that Jesus doesn’t say, “With rich men this is…”  Yes, it can be assumed, but I believe he makes it general on purpose.  It seems that he is expanding the point of salvation being impossible for the rich.  We all have hindrances to trusting God, whether rich or not.  Is grasping hold of eternal life impossible for us as humans?  Our modern sensibilities want to jump in and say, “Of course not!  Don’t worry.  God has made a way.”  Yet, Jesus would rather that we face the hard facts first without mitigation.  The answer is not to diminish the difficulty of salvation by pointing to the grace of Jesus.  Rather, the answer is to absorb the revealing of just how impossible salvation is so that we can then see just how amazing grace is.  If sin is no big deal and if salvation is easy then the grace that God gives us is also no big deal.   No one can save themselves.  It is impossible.  You can do good works until you are blue in the face and it won’t fix your problem before God.  In the end, you will still be a person in love with things of this world more than God.

Jesus then turns the shocking statement on its head.  With God all things are possible, even the impossible.  If I am in relationship with God then my impossible situation now becomes possible.  This is a huge problem.  The average person on the street who isn’t a believer thinks that they are good enough that God sort of owes it to them to let them into his kingdom.  Sadly, many Christians today have an extremely low view of the grace of God because their view of sin is depraved.  God by definition is great at dealing with impossible things.  The Old Testament is full of impossible situations that God made possible.  Thus, salvation takes an intervention from God Himself, and even then, He only makes it possible.  Jesus had made salvation possible for the rich young ruler in that moment, but he went away sad that he couldn’t have eternal life and his love of wealth.

Yes, salvation is as simple as yielding to Christ, and yet as difficult as parting with all your wealth, or parting the Red Sea.  It is a spiritual work that will never happen without the help of God Himself.  Our story is about rich people, but they are not the only ones who find it difficult to obtain eternal life.  Be careful that the things of this world do not get between you and Jesus.  You can be sure of your eternal life, but it won’t be without its difficulties of dealing with temptations and getting rid of things that hinder your relationship with your Father in heaven.

The disciples had sacrificed things to follow Jesus (28-31)

True to form, Peter speaks out about their own condition.  They had left their various lives in order to follow Jesus.  Matthew 19:27 adds the question, “What will we have?”  Up until now, they had been talking about eternal life and participating in the reign of Jesus upon this earth.  Peter wants to know if they will be rewarded for leaving all of their stuff to follow Jesus.  Apparently, he had never thought of that as something righteous.  He had done it for various reasons, but some of it probably had to do with their fascination that the Messiah might actually be here!  They had unwittingly done the most important thing, which is often the case when we simply listen to the Spirit of God.

Jesus makes it clear that those who lose something in this life in order to follow him will be rewarded.  It is important to recognize that only 12 disciples were called to live with Jesus and follow him around all the time.  However, to believe in Jesus, to hear the call of the Holy Spirit, is every bit as real today as it was then.  I am going to have to let go of things in order to follow Jesus, and not just wicked things.  Many good things will have to be left in our wake if we are to stay fixated on trusting the word of Jesus and living the life that he has called us to live.  Yet, notice that Jesus is not promising them only “pie in the sky.”

He gives a list of things that people might have to leave behind in order to follow him: a house, or brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, a wife, children, or even lands.  The list is made of things and close relationships.  The point is not that you must leave your wife to follow Jesus, but that your choice to follow Jesus may not be reciprocated by your wife.  She may try to dissuade you, or hold you back.  She may even lay down an ultimatum, me or this Jesus you want to follow!  What a difficult decision to make, and yet it has happened many times over throughout history.  Oh, how many times family members have thrown down the gauntlet and said, “If you walk out that door to follow Jesus then you are no longer related to me!” 

The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 mentions the case of having an unbelieving spouse.  He counsels the believer to do their best in order to remain in the relationship, short of turning away from Christ.  There is nothing righteous about leaving people behind for selfish motives.  People leave spouses every day in order to follow their flesh. However, Jesus says “for my sake and the Gospel’s.”  That is the key.  We often do the unthinkable by sacrificing things and relationships to follow after sin and pleasure.  This is not that.  This is the choice that must be made when those things present themselves as obstacles to following the commands of Jesus.  An unbelieving spouse is not an obstacle to following Christ, unless they give an ultimatum.

Jesus states that these things and relationships that we lost will be obtained many times over in this life.  If you lose your parents to follow Jesus then you will find many spiritual parents in the group of his followers.  If you lose your job, house, or land (yes, this happens in many places throughout this world) then you will find a community of believers that will love you, shelter you, help you find work.  You will not necessarily own these things, and you will still need to keep your trust in Jesus, not Christians whom you think should give you something.  May God help us to learn to be a better family, a family that is motivated by the Spirit of God.  We are intended to be a blessing to one another in this life.

They will also receive eternal life in the age to come.  This may sound like a lesser prize in comparison to the earlier large list.  Yes, there is a reward in this life, but an even greater one in the life to come.  We will participate in Christ’s rule over this earth and we will have eternal life!  Incidentally, in Matthew 19:28, Jesus tells the 12 disciples that they will judge the 12 tribes of Israel, during the Kingdom Age.  Wow!  Now that is a promotion, from Galilean fisherman to leader of one of the tribes of Israel.  We, of course, do not have a specific word regarding our station and reward in the coming Kingdom.  However, that pales in relation to the fact that we will have eternal life with the One who is the author of eternal life, in fact who is eternal life itself.  What is important is that we will have come out the other side of this side road of obtaining the knowledge of good and evil.  And, in that moment, we will have healing from all that sin has done to us personally, and to us as a human race.  We cannot know the full freedom that we will experience in that moment, as we look at a whole world of endless possibilities and no wickedness in sight, both without and within!  Praise God for His indescribable gift!

Our passage ends with a proverb or adage that points out that many who are first in this life will be last in the age to come, and many who are last in this life will be first in the age to come.  If you were to poll the Israelites of the first century as to who would have the greatest reward, their list would look a certain way.  However, the real list will be created by God.  God does not judge by mere appearances.  By mere appearance, the rich man was high on the list, but his response to Jesus proves that he was not nearly as high as others would think, and even dangerously near the edge of missing out completely.

We must be careful of our judgments about how great people are.  We do not often judge the same way that God judges, nor can we.  Rather, we should let such things go.  I must quit worrying about what I am going to get, and simply work to be faithful to what the Lord is giving me to do today.  Learn to enjoy the work of God that is in front of you.  The work of the future will also have joys, but I needn’t worry about it when I am in relationship with the One who is eternal life itself.  Hierarchy in this life is fraught with impure motives and desires.  In that life, we can’t imagine what it will be like when your eyes are wide open to the evils of sin, and your flesh is not tainted by rebellion.  Oh, what a day that will be!

How many camels audio