Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture from The Book of Matthew.
Matthew 6:1-6 (KJB) Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, 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 alms, 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. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
First of all Jesus warns In this passage about hypocrisy which has been defined in many places as claiming to have feelings or virtues that you really don’t possess inside of your heart. It is to possess duplicity, deceit and insincerity. Clearly, there are many people who can be involved with all kinds of different works, but at the same time they really do not possess any sincere faith in God. Consider all the people who feed the hungry or reach out to help the poor, but those works in and of themselves do not necessarily mean that they have been motivated by a genuine faith in Christ Jesus. Think about all the people who like to hand out money to somebody on a street corner, just for the purpose of being seen by others as they do it. In their own vanity they even post these activities on the internet for everybody to see. Think about all of the people who want to get involved with ministry just so they can be seen in a fancy robe or clerics outfit. Think about the many community members who do nice deeds so they can become recognized as an upstanding citizen, and draw more attention to their places of business. What we are discussing here is the motive why people do the things that they do, something that is integral in understanding if what you possess is actually biblical faith.
A motive is defined as, that which causes a person to act a certain way, or the reason behind what drives them to achieve a specific goal in their life. It is the “why” behind the things that you do.
For example, a husband might claim that he dearly loves his wife, and then purchases her a brand new four wheeler. But 95% of the time, he is the one who is driving it around out in the woods, and leaves her at home doing the dishes. So you see, the true motive behind what he did was not a genuine love for his wife, it was a love for possessions. A woman might claim that she loves her boyfriend so much that she wants to marry him, but the real reason is that she has her eyes on his big house, a very large bank account, and a future inheritance when he departs from this Earth. Once again, the heart was not motivated by a sincere love for him, but the acquiring of Earthly gain. Even in the Scriptures, people would come out and hear Jesus preach and teach the Word of God, but their actual motives behind doing it was because they wanted to find any kind of fault with Him. They really didn’t love Him, they were just filled up with jealousy towards Him and all of His abilities.
So you see, many people can be filled with all kinds of religious activities that are not sincerely motivated out of a genuine love for the Lord Jesus. Nowadays people will have huge prayer rallies in public places, such as county fairs and even in the parking lot at schools. But do people like these think that God doesn’t hear prayer when they are gathered together in a basement somewhere? It is done to be seen by others, and the evidence of open hypocrisy towards Christ Jesus. Hypocrisy is bad enough, but religious hypocrisy is by far the worst of all. This is because people think that they are spiritual, but the truth is they really don’t know God at all. This is the kind of blindness that Jesus warned his disciples about.
Matthew 15:12-14 (KJB) Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Jesus knew the hearts of the religious leaders, and exposed the real motives behind many of the things that they were doing.
Matthew 23:25-28 (KJB) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Whether it’s spoken to the Jews or to the gentiles, listen to how the Lord Jesus feels about insincerity, pretense and hypocrisy.
Matthew 23:32-33 (KJB) Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Luke 12:1-2 (KJB) In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
People may appear very religious on the exterior, but God knows the hearts of everyone, and His eternal judgment will be decreed upon all of those, who were nothing more than,…..
……A Big Phony
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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