Coram Deo

Your father sees you

Good morning. One of my favorite parts of our service is our singing together. It's amazing how we can publicly unite our voice to praise God together, to encourage one another with the gospel truths, to share as one voice a witness to the world that can hear the gospel sung. It's one of the many things we do in public together. I highlight this because we need to make sure we understand the importance of the Christian faith as a public faith. It must do works in public. Baptism is a public proclamation of someone leaving the world by faith in Christ and coming into his kingdom. They were dead, but now they're alive in Christ. the Lord's Supper that we'll celebrate tonight at our members meeting in a very unique way that you will not want to miss if you're a member. Remembering Christ, rejoicing in his salvation together as we affirm each other as fellow believers, taking this supper together that we all participate in because we all are united with Christ. Make sure we understand that Christianity is a public religion. There's been an odd sentiment of a personal belief that's merely personal and a private religion that comes somewhat out of revivalism and individualism. Christianity is at the heart a union, a relationship with Christ that unites us with other believers, other members who have believed in him. It does require what we do in private. but it also requires we do in public. This week's passage, we're gonna look at just that repetition. Do not do in public before men, but do in secret before God. That was a repeated pattern I hope you heard and that you will see over and over again. Be warned of what you do regularly in public before men. Be focused on what you do in secret for the glory of God. As we wrestle with this, I wanna make sure we remember Matthew 5, 16.

Let your light shine before the world so they will see your good works and glorify God.

We have to hold these two teachings of our King together. There's an importance of why we worship and how we worship and what we do in secret, and there's an importance of what we do in public and how we do it in public and why. We do it in public. There's an important calling for us to wrestle with the particular problem he's warning us of and why we worship. A long one-sentence summary of our text, do not practice righteousness for the praise of man, but practice for your Father who always sees us and rewards obedience. Do not practice righteousness for the praise of man, but practice for your father who always sees us and rewards obedience. If you look at our text, verse one is really a summary statement.

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. for then you'll have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

There's the summary principle that Jesus is teaching. Then he gives us three specific ways in which we might practice righteousness before men, not for the Father. Two to four is giving to the needy. Five to 15 is praying. 16 to 18 is fasting. Now I'm going to take 7 to 15 and look at that next week because that's his own section on praying more specifically. I want us to see the pattern of what Christ is warning us against, warning us of, and pushing us toward. He's telling us be careful of how you might worship for men rather than worshiping God. The structure of the sermon isn't going to be give to the needy prayer and fast. Rather, I want us to look at the pattern of each one of these particular ways in which he gives us instruction. What are we practicing? For whom are we practicing? Why are we practicing? What are we practicing for whom and why? Before we jump into 2 through 18, let's just look at verse 1. The simple summary will give us this understanding of structure and emphasis of what he's giving us. The first word, beware. It's a warning. Caution ahead. Be careful what you're about to do. Be aware and be careful. Watch out for yourself here. Beware. Be warned of practicing righteousness. We are all called to practice righteousness because we're supposed to be getting better at righteousness. We're called here to recognize a warning, to get the full heave-ho of this important warning. The emphasis, beware of practicing righteousness before men, before your fellow humans, before your neighbor, He just finished saying you should love your neighbor. Here it's a warning about what you do with your neighbor, before your neighbor. Be careful of practicing righteousness before them, and the purpose is where it's at, in order to be seen by them. That's the rub. If you remember Matthew 5.20, your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisee. Here's one of the key clues as to knowing what that means. It can't be merely external. It can't be purely performance of outward behavior. It must be internal. It must relate to your heart. Not just the murder, but the anger. Not just the adultery, but the lust. The Pharisees were all about practicing righteousness, but they did not have a love for God. a desire to worship him, a desire to know him and make him known. Rather, they wanted to be seen. We see here in this passage, there's two ways to live. Your best life now, gathering all the different treasures on earth that you possibly can have by getting attention to yourself, are treasures in heaven. Confident that your heavenly father, he's not distant, he sees you, and he rewards Obedience. A key question that comes out of the verse one, what are you practicing? There's a warning or an encouragement because the reality is whatever you're practicing, you're getting better at. That's either a great encouragement or it's terrifying. What are you practicing? Because by God's design, you are getting better at what you practice. Before we move on to the outline, I also want to make sure we see there's a wonderful theology of God presented here. God is our Father in heaven who sees us. God is our Father in heaven who sees us. He sees us when we do in public. He sees what we do in private. His eyes are turned towards us. Just like we're encouraged in prayer that his ear is always ready, his eyes are always watching, his children, all children want to be seen by their father. A good father is paying attention to their children and wanting to delight in the fun activities and their growth and their wisdom and their learning to be wise according to God. God is the perfect father who's always paying attention. God is the good father who delights in his children, who longs to see his children. God is our father because we are united with Christ and therefore adopted in Christ by the father and the Holy Spirit resides in us. All of God has turned his direction towards us. Christian, your father sees you. What a glorious, truth to embrace as one of the most significant truths you can understand and seek to live your life under, your father sees you. That's so comforting in trouble. Your father sees you. It's terrifying in sin. Your father sees you. But it's helpful to see every part of life is worship. Every thought, every deed, every word, your father is longing to see you walking in his ways because of his son and his spirit. Your father sees you. And he rewards obedience. Look at the word reward repeated. Verse one, they then will have no reward. Verse two, I say to you, they have received their reward. Verse four, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Verse five, truly I say to you, they have received their reward. Verse six, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Verse 16, truly I say to you, they have received their reward. And guess what verse 18 says? Your father who sees you in secret will reward you. That repetition is important. Father who sees you as a generous God who rewards obedience. The father who has given you generously by sending his own son to give you salvation, rewards obedience generously. So our outline now as we think through this big picture, what are you practicing? For whom are you practicing? Why are you practicing? First, what are you practicing? Now, we were in the Sermon on the Mount. We're walking through the Gospel of Matthew. We've been really slowing down through Matthew. We could go back and we look at the different blessings of Christ. He's our king, telling us what it means to be citizens of his kingdom. He relates himself to the law, he is the fulfillment of the law, he is the teacher of the law. He then tells us these six different teachings, we finished last time we were together, about anger and lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, love your enemies. He had been correcting a wrong view of sin and a wrong interpretation of scripture that was seeking to find ways around obedience. For example, Love your neighbor, well that also includes your enemy or the person you think is your enemy. Adultery, that's also lust. Murder, that's also anger. He's correcting wrong behavior and wrong interpretation of the law. Chapter six is a different direction, a different correction. Here he's challenging the sin of self-righteousness. He's challenging the sin of false religion. Here he's calling out those who would want to be religious before men and want to get the praise for being super religious and great among the religious people. Do not practice for the sake of man. Whatever you practice, it must be for God. Now, let's just be very clear though, the things they're practicing are good. Give to the needy. That's true and undefiled religion, right? James 1. Care for the widow. Care for the orphan. We could go through all the scripture and see that command regularly patterned as something good, that is a good practice. Prayer. Jesus already commanded that you would pray for your enemy. He's going to go into a long teaching on how exactly you should pray. We have 150 Psalms, they're prayers. How good is it that God doesn't just give us commandments on what to hear and believe and do, but he even gives us prayers back to himself. That's how important prayer is. It's impossible to be a Christian without prayer. Prayer is a good practice. Fasting. There's numerous fasts described in scripture. Here it's assumed it might be prescribed, that you would be doing it. Prayer is a more intense form of, fasting is a more intense form of prayer that also includes self-denial. It's giving the time you would have for eating and consuming strength and food to seeking God in prayer and finding strength from God. It adds to prayer an element of denial of yourself. All these practices are good. There's nothing wrong with what he's describing as unique to what the Pharisees are doing, or the hypocrites are doing. So if you think about these things, they're supposed to be practiced the right way. But if you think about what you're practicing, Christian, let's just pause here and ask, how is your prayer life? Prayer is how we Seek to align ourselves with God, his goodness, his truth, and his will. It's seeking to lift up our desires to God and let them be refined. It's seeking to not inform him of something new, but to know he is a good God and we can trust him. He already knows what we need before we ask him. Prayer is essential for Christian living. And I believe it's something trained more than taught. It's caught more than taught. Prayer is essential for us as a church because we must unite together in prayer. We must pray together to be united in the mission of Christ, be united in our love and care for each other. Fasting. Again, scripture describes different kinds of fast. There's not one prescribed kind of fast. I remember the first time I tried fasting, I didn't really know what it was, so I just thought I wouldn't eat. I was really hungry that day, and I gained no spiritual good from it. And understand, you're setting aside that time and energy to depend upon God in prayer. Fasting is committing yourself to trust God, and you're wanting to lift up something. It's especially uniquely helpful in a trial, in a temptation. It's a way of denying yourself of something basic that God has designed you to need, food, to lean in on Him and trust Him and depend upon Him uniquely. Fasting is prayer with a self-denial. Giving to the needy. Jesus talks about money regularly. How little we want to actually talk about it, Christians give. Here it's a call to give to the needy. There's other commands where you're giving for the purpose of kingdom building. Christians are called to be generous because they know their Heavenly Father is generous. We seek to be generous because we know God is not stingy. We want to make sure we understand that the things they're doing are good. The things they're doing are commanded and expected of God. Christian, we must understand we must practice these things, but practicing them according to God, according to his word, and together is necessary. Second section, the second point that we will consider. For whom are you practicing? So what they're doing isn't the problem, it's why. or for whom, this is the heart of the passage. Motivations matter. Your motivation in obedience matters. Why are you praying, fasting, and giving? Who is your intended audience? Are you doing it before men or are you doing it for God? Religion isn't just doing the right thing, it's doing the right thing according to God's way. Worship is worshiping the right God according to his word. We see here that faith is required to have a true worship. That is unique to Christianity. Other religions can tell you if you do this, this, and this, then you are worshiping. No, it isn't the mere practice. It's leaning toward and moving towards God in obedience because of his grace. Now, if we look at the real problem, look at verse two, when they give the needy, they sound a trumpet, they make everybody's looking, as the hypocrites do in the synagogue, and that purpose clause, that's the key, that they may be praised by others. They give the needy so that they might be praised by others. Look at verse five, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites who love to stand and give long elaborate prayers in the street corner. Why? The purpose, that they may be seen by others. And then verse 16, they disfigure their face when they're fasting, that their fasting may be seen by others. Those three purpose clause, they put their finger on the problem. They're seeking to do good things, but they have the wrong audience in mind. They have the wrong direction. This is really scary and disturbing. You can sin by praying. Let that sink in, how twisted we are in our sin. how we can take everything God has given us that's good and twist it and ruin it, degrade it. And here, this religious sin is the most twisted and terrifying. Self-righteousness in this form is so terrifying because it is, in its most basic form, self-deceiving. Because we pretend we're good, we're doing all the right things, and we do it before others, so they come along and say, way to go, you're doing amazing. Oh, the terrifying way that self-righteousness and false religion twist us. This is why Jesus warns us in this threefold way. He's repeating four different times the problem. because it's dangerous. There's layers and complexities with our sin. So we must, Christian, test what we do and why we do it and how we do it. True worship is being obedient to God according to his word for his glory. Jesus is warning of a false worship of ourselves. Now, I want to speak to you, church. I don't see this as a prevalent sin among our church. I praise God for the sincere faith of seeking to practice righteousness, but this sin must be on our radar because a church that seeks to be obedient can find this temptation too alluring. If there's a sin we're going to lean towards, it's doing what is good for the praise of man, not for the praise of God. I praise God for the desire to do what is right, to practice righteousness that I do believe comes from sincere faith. But I wanna make sure that this warning is good for us. It's mindful to be understanding what we might lean towards. We see other kinds of problems all over the place out there. I wanna say this is the sin we need to be worried about in what we do and why we do it. Now here's the main rub, we can look at verses two and three. When you give to the needy, be warned of practicing your righteousness before people. Don't sound a trumpet. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand's doing. Make sure you're not doing it to be praised by others, but do it for God. Now that left hand not knowing what the right hand's doing, I think that's just for your own pride. You're not letting yourself buy into the lie of what pride is and why you're giving, much less seeking to let others build up your pride. The righteous man, he does not do it for the praise of man. He does it for the praise of God. Now, just wrestle with how weird that is. I want to give to the needy so that man will praise me. There is one God and he alone should be worshipped. This false religion is a God problem. This false religion is a God problem. It's thinking I should be praised. They're wanting to draw attention to me in this kind of sin. They've gotten worship upside down, that's what's wrong. They're not doing it for the glory of God, they're doing it for their own, they're glory thieves. Five and six, prayer.