If I told you we live in a day and age that is not very different from this passage, how would you respond? That there is a form of right-doingness or righteousness that is done in the public square, that we are a people that want to be seen. Would you agree or disagree? My argument this morning is that we are one and the same. We have a plethora of YouTube videos, TikToks, and influencers and celebrities giving away millions of dollars in lavish gifts, all to be seen as generous, kind, and good. If you look up the most subscribed to YouTuber, MrBeast, you'll find a catalog of 985 videos, majority of which focus on him giving money away. He's accrued for himself 500 million subscribers, all who love to watch him give money away in a variety of ways. And is this content that has made him the most loved and watched YouTuber of all time? It's not only for him a monetary benefit that he does this, but there's a societal one. We all look at him and be like, oh, he's a pretty good guy. He's not just out for himself. But doing public acts of righteousness do have their benefits. But Jesus gives us a warning in verse 1. Jesus clearly takes issue with doing public acts of righteousness for wrong motivation. He says and he warns against this false motivation by telling us, if your motivation, he does the wrong motivation is to be seen by others. And if this motivation colors our practices of righteousness, then we are in grave danger, is what Jesus says. He highlights the practices of praying, fasting, giving. And if these are done in a posture to just be seen by others, there's a problem. And so this morning, we must see that we are not to engage in righteousness for the wrong reasons. Jesus begins with a warning. Then he provides three religious practices that would have been tainted by this motivation to be seen by others. Then he provides how these three actions can be actually participated in authentically. Lastly, he tells us where the true reward is found and that it's given by God. So this will serve as our outline this morning. We'll take this passage in four parts. The warning, the heart of the hypocrite, the faith of the authentic, and the rewards of God. Please look at me at our first point. The warning, this outline is printed for you in your bulletin right beside the scripture reading so you can follow along part by part. So what is Jesus' warning? Look at me at verse one. He says, beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. This verse serves as an introduction to this whole section by giving this warning of practicing righteousness to be seen by others. In each of these case studies that follow, Jesus gives us, or Jesus comes back to this idea, that the hypocrites partake in these religious actions to be seen and praised. We see this at the end of verse two. We see this in verse five and we see this in verse 16. Jesus says, if you operate with this motivation, God will not recognize you, nor will he reward you. Jesus is concerned with the common religious practices of the day being done for the sake of being seen by people instead of being seen by God. All of these actions like praying and fasting, we associate with the religious. But why giving to the needy? Throughout the scriptures, we see that how the needy are treated is tied to faith. Whether it is the book of Isaiah as we've read, the acts of righteousness that should be done, or the minor prophets that seem to call out Israel for not caring for the needy. Or even the book of James that we have read week over week in our most recent worship services, that James says that true religion is one that cares for the fatherless and the widows. All the scriptures seem to come back to this idea that the reflection of our faith must be embodied in this work. There are many scriptures that support this idea, but none capture it most clearly as Proverbs 19-17 does. Where it says, our generosity to the poor is as though we are lending to God. Jesus sees these acts of righteousness as acts of worship that have become more of a spectacle for personal benefit than true worship to God. But you must be wondering, why is this such a big deal? Didn't Jesus earlier in Matthew's gospel tell us that he wants us to have our good works shine forth before other people? So what's the difference here? The difference is the motivation. In this instance, the motivation is to be seen by others. But in Matthew 5 verse 16, Jesus says, Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. In these three case studies Jesus gives us here, we see that these people are participating in good works to receive praise for themselves, not for God. In short, God is not interested in a form of righteousness or religion that is about us, that is somehow elevates us and makes us look good. Jesus is not so much concerned with people seeing these righteous practices as much as he is concerned with who is glorified. Does it make much of our spirituality? Or does it make much of the Spirit? Does it make much of me or you or does it make much of God? When coming back to this idea of Matthew 5, A.B. Bruce sums it up while he says this, Show when you are tempted to hide and hide when you are tempted to show. Meaning that when you are in a posture of pride and you're like, I'm doing all the right things, that's the time where you should hide. The times where you are low and you are in a posture of like, I'm just here seeking to serve. Those are the times in which we should show. We'll spend some more time unpacking this in the following points, but let's move to our second point, the heart of the hypocrite. Jesus does not want his disciples to be like the hypocrites. Don't give like the hypocrites, don't pray like the hypocrites, don't fast like the hypocrites. In these three case studies, Jesus exposes the heart of the hypocrite. He tells us what they do, why they do it, and ultimately what they get from it. But before we go through each of these case studies with greater depth, we must understand what Jesus means by hypocrite. The Greek word means actor. It means that these people had become performers. They were wearing the mask, they were doing the deeds, they were playing the part. In the best case scenario, someone was, these people were participating for the wrong reasons. They were just there. But in the worst case, they are faking it to make it. Most commentators believe that these people were not only playing the part for others to see them the right way, but they themselves had fallen to their own make-belief. The level of method acting had gotten so bad that they couldn't escape the loop. This is what Jesus means by the hypocrite. So let us look at our first case study that Jesus gives us. He points out to his disciples that they should not give like the actors. In verse 2, he says that they are not to give in a way that draws attention to their generosity. He tells us that the trumpets are played and the giving is done. It is this idea that the offering plate exists in the back, or the offering box exists in the back, and the person as they give, they either chant or they look or they go, and they give. Many commentators doubt that trumpets were actually played, but Jesus seems to be using hyperbolic language to speak about how people are drawing attention to themselves as they gave. And why did they do this? They did this so that they would be praised by others, so that people would say, whoa, did you see how much they gave? Did you see how much she put in? The motivation was neither to meet the needs of the needy, or was a means of giving to God out of the abundance that God had given to them. Instead, it was to be noticed by onlookers. The heart of the hypocrite wants recognition and renown. And church, the sad reality is that our hearts are not very different. Let's look now at our second case study, prayer. Look at me at verse 5. Jesus says, do not pray like the actors who love to stand in the synagogue or in the street corners and pray. Jesus here is not taking issue with their posture of standing or even their position at the street corner or the synagogue. He is more concerned with the heart of wanting to be seen. These are public areas where these individuals would have been heard and that they would have been noticed. He is not only taking issue with their desire for recognition among the community, but he is also taking issue with the prayers of the pagans of that day. Look at verse 7 with me. This could either mean that Jesus is taking issue with chant-like prayers, ones that are repetitive, or ones that are overly elaborate. Trying to impress God and others with their quality of words. And all of this can contribute to us wanting to be noticed by people around us. The hypocritical heart is primarily concerned with prayers being heard by others than they are with them being heard by God. It should be kept in mind that the inverse can be true. Many of us, we don't pray so that we would not be heard or seen by others. Not because we actually want to obey what Jesus says here, because we fear being judged. We fear embarrassment that our prayers are not in the right tone, that they aren't elaborate enough, they don't have enough scripture, I don't know enough. As we run this cycle in our hearts and our minds, we must ask, are our prayers truly for God, or are they for men? The last case study that Jesus provides is fasting. Look at me at verse 16. Jesus, to his disciples, says, do not fast in a way that those around you would be aware of your abstinence. It was a normative practice to put ash on one's head and to wear sackcloth while fasting in the first century. But Jesus says, do not do this. Do not make this spectacle. Do not draw attention towards yourselves. Jesus, like in the previous case study, says this is the motivation to be seen by others. This action of dressing up is motivated by being seen by others. The hypocritical heart desires to be seen as pious, to be seen as a good person. But that kind of motivation, that kind of righteousness is truly just for other people, it's not really for God. It's just to be put on display, to play the part, to just play dress up and act, to say the right words in the right intonation, all to be perceived in a specific way. But why do they do this? Why do they act so they can be seen? This acting would have gained them some sort of favor in society. When Jesus taught this, these three case studies, these three actions were the hallmark of religious disciplines. And by partaking in them, you gained a social status among the people. Those who gave the most, prayed the loudest, fasted the longest, gained the social benefits and blessing. They're acting for social benefits in society, and it was not for God at all. You can think of this motivation as a social credit score. The social recognition was their reward, but it was temporal. It does not last longer than the moment that they receive it. And this is why Jesus says they received their reward, and he repeats this after every religious practice that he's described. He says they received their reward, they received their reward, they received their reward. They've received their social recognition and nothing more. There are many ways that we can fall into having a hypocritical heart church. Maybe you feel that if you give a certain amount that others will treat you with greater respect, with greater honor, or maybe you'll have greater say in decision making, that if you maybe pray in a certain way that you'll be selected for leadership, that if you fast and regularly tell people about it, that you'll be noticed as the one who is holy amongst this congregation. The church, this is the hypocritical heart at work. Maybe this feels particularly relevant to me, given that these religious activities have much to do with my job. To be seen as competent in my job is to model giving, to model praying, to model fasting, and throw preaching into that, it gets even harder. And the temptation is to pray and preach in a way that gains your respect. And when that temptation is not acknowledged and confessed and put to death, I'm in grave danger. Because my piety will become a performance. And as I've considered this, I think this is where many pastors can fall and fail. Where you are just playing the part, you're acting the act, but it's no longer authentic. And I ask, church, that you would pray for me, your pastor, that I would not fall to hypocrisy, that I would not do these things just to be seen by you or do the public act, but instead, even in the private place, my worship would be true. The words that I preach to you are ones that I have to preach to myself. Some of you might say that this feels so culturally far from you. Thinking, Jim, I'm not very tempted to make people think about me being seen as righteous, or I don't really care if people see me pray. I actually would rather they don't. So why does this matter to you? To you, I would say, the motivation to be seen by others as righteous is so subversive. In our day and age, this takes place in the act of virtue signaling. This is what takes place in our culture. That to be seen as good, we need to use a series of words. We need to believe some certain beliefs, all to gain status, whether online, at work, in our homes, neighborhoods, or schools. And if we raise the right flag, if we say the right words, then we will gain social, we'll have some sort of social gain. It's a mass that we are all tempted to put on and to pick up. And so may we not fall to its allure. Instead, would we know that there is a correct way to practice righteousness, one that is truly for God and not for others, which leads us to our third point, the faith of the authentic. Jesus not only tells his disciples how not to live out their righteousness, but he tells them how they should. In this point, we'll look at how Jesus tells his disciples to live in honest faith, not hypocritical one, one that is authentic, not acting. Jesus tells of this authentic faith by using the word, but. He used this contrast of words to tell us what we should do. But as for you, you should partake in this way. And like our last point, we'll look at these religious practices and see, we'll look at each of them and see what Jesus says about them. Jesus says that authentic giving is one that is not seen by others. It's not even seen by you. Look at verse three. What does Jesus mean by this idiom of right hand gives and your left hand doesn't know the right hand was the act of hand, the dominant hand and the left hand was the passive one. Jesus is saying that we ourselves should not be con we should not know what we are giving. To not be self-conscious of it or where it can lead to not be self-righteous about it or at worst self congratulatory about it. Jesus says that we are to give and forget about it. It is tempting to play back what we've done and say, oh, I did the good thing. How good of a person I. And Jesus encourages us to not live that way. He encourages us to give in a way that is private and not proud. So what does this mean? What it does not mean is that you start giving blank checks to people or covering your eyes when you're sending an e-transfer. God has given you this money to be wise stewards and to be generous. It's not to be illogical. But what Jesus is saying here is that you are to give not to be seen by people or even to somehow bolster your self-identity. You are to genuinely give out of a love for God and a love for people to meet a need. That is authentic faith in action when it comes to giving. Authentic faith is marked by a private, humble, loving obedience to God. Not only is our giving to be private, humble and loving, but so also our prayer. Look at me at verse 6. Jesus says, go into your room and shut the door and pray. John Sott explains well that we are to close the door against disturbances, distractions, but also to shut out our pride, to shut out prying eyes of others and to shut ourselves in with God. This quote emphasizes how prayer is to be an act of seeking God. We are to pray in secret as our God is in secret. And He is to be sought. He is to be looked for. He is to be found. He is to be enjoyed. He is to be loved. And the act of seeking God and knowing God and worshiping God, thus we are loving God. Unlike these other religious practices, Jesus actually gives us an outline of what to pray in verses 9 to 15. These are words that we pray week over week in our worship service. And given the emphasis of this sermon, I will not go through this line by line, but what we should see is that these words are God word prayers. They are words that were exalting God, seeking God, and not oneself. One day maybe we will go through this petition line by line, but this morning we'll just see that Jesus gives us this prayer that we would love God. Lastly, we are to fast in a private way, one that is not noticed by others. Look at me at verse 17. Jesus calls us to be showered and put together when fasting, not being disheveled or destitute. Fasting the Bible was usually done with prayer. It is fasting and prayer. And in fasting, we see not just our hearts engaging with God in prayer, but also our bodies, where we abstain from food for spiritual purposes. And for those times when we grow hungry, it is our prompt to pray. There are a variety of reasons that we might fast, whether it's to seek God's guidance in a particular issue, maybe to repent of a specific sin, or asking for deliverance, or simply wanting more of God longing for the return of Jesus Christ. And as I say this, this is likely the practice that we partake in the least. But Jesus here assumes that we will fast. He doesn't say, if you fast, he says, when you fast, fast like this. Some of you might not be able to fast from food for medical reasons. But you can still abstain from food for the sake of prayer. Sorry, you can still abstain from other things other than food for the sake of prayer. Maybe you can abstain from TV, or YouTube, or music, or podcasts, or social media. The Scriptures even tell us that for those who are married, for a time, maybe you abstain from sex so that you can pray and seek God. In all the times where you want to watch that show or listen to that song, these are the moments that you are to pray, to pursue God with fervor and focus. As I'm saying all this, you might be wondering, what does this mean? To have an authentic faith, do I need to start living like a monk? Is any form of public righteousness or religion, is that all tainted? Does that mean that maybe even this morning, as we've gathered, that our worship has been contaminated because we've had public prayers? No, that's not what Jesus is saying here. Be reminded of verse 1, Jesus' whole thesis is correcting righteousness, being done for the sake of people's recognition. That these religious actions are done for the audience of many, instead of the audience of one. And this is why Jesus says that these actions are to be done in secret. That they're done unto the Lord, not for others. Giving to the needy is an act of worship to God. Praying is an act of worship to God. Fasting is an act of bodily longing for God. These are all Godward actions that will be done in public settings. The first century church, we know for a fact, fasted, prayed and gave in public. We know this because it's recorded for us in the book of Acts. But they were not fasting, praying and giving to be seen by one another. Instead, they were giving, praying and fasting in authentic faith as an act towards God. The mark of authentic faith is seeking after God, not being seen by others. In church, so often we want to just play the part, do the performance and receive a reward from one another. But God promises a greater reward as we seek Him, which leads us to our last point, the rewards of God. What is God's reward? Throughout this passage, Jesus has told us that when we seek our Heavenly Fathers, if we seek our Heavenly Father, then we will be rewarded. One that is different than the crowd's reward. We see this in verse 4, we see this in verse 6 and we see this in verse 18. The words are identical. And your Father, who is in secret, will reward you. You might be wondering, what are these rewards? Is it the fact that we have answered prayer? That we have more financial blessing? That somehow we are satisfied? Maybe. The text doesn't actually tell us particularly what the blessing is. So it's better for us to not impose what God's reward should be. Instead, most commentators agree that we don't know what the reward is. Which I must say is not a very satisfactory answer. But maybe this is. Let us hypothesize what it could be. Most believe that the reward is God. That as we worship Him, we know Him. That we get Him. We receive Him. The reward may be that we get God, but also God changes us. The last way that people think about this is that the reward may be just simply participating in the action itself. This is what C.S. Lewis, commenting on his passage, believes. It's printed on the front of your bulletin. It says this. There are different kinds of reward. There is a reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it. And it's quite foreign to desire that ought to accompany those things. Money is not the natural reward of love, but marriage is the proper reward for a real lover. The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but the activity itself in consumption. Meaning, what Lewis is saying is that the activity itself can be the reward. By giving to the needy, we see a need relieved. By praying and fasting, we love God and enjoy Him and know Him more deeply. The action itself can be the reward. So what the reward is, we don't definitely know. But in addition to all these possibilities, whether it be getting more of God, God changing us, or the action itself being the reward, the next section in the Sermon on the Mount might give clarity to what this might give us an answer to this question. In the section that followed, Jesus teaches that we are to be a people that lay up our treasure in heaven. The treasure in heaven is accrued and gained in waiting for us in the new heavens and new earth. What those treasures are, we don't know what they are. But we know that there is eternal blessing and benefit and reward that the Father gives to His children. Not a reward or treasure that can be taken from us, like fame or wealth or recognition. This reward is eternal, kept for us in heaven. And so may we be people that look for this reward, not one that is temporal, one that is fleeting. Instead, would we see God's reward. But as I say this, you might be sitting here and be like, I'm actually pretty happy with the temporal. All I want is praise. All I want is to be seen as a good person. Jesus says elsewhere to a person in this posture, He says in the last days, these people come to Him and be like, I did all the right things, I said all the right words. He says to them, I never knew you. When they recounted their good works, they said, I prophesied your name, I cast demons out your name. He says to them, I never knew you. Friends, pretending does not lead you to paradise. The consequences for hypocrisy is hell. And if you are wearing a mask today, I encourage you to take it off. God sees through our charade. And so would you turn to Him in faith today? In many ways, this sermon has felt like inside baseball. It's dealing with all these religious practices and religious hypocrisies. But there is still a problem for those who are irreligious. You are still tempted to somehow perform your way into heaven. That there is a long list of actions that might not exist in the scriptures, but they exist to you. That if you do them, then maybe you're tipping the scales in your favor that God will accept you. That if you do the right actions, say the right words, then you'll go to the good place. Friends, if even the religious actions can be done for the wrong motivations or the wrong reasons, should we not be aware... should we not be in some way fearful that non-religious actions can be done for the wrong reasons? That they can be participated in wrongly? That they aren't going to be the thing that's tipped the scales? Let's ask this. Are these actions being done for you to maybe feel like a better person? Maybe just feel better on the inside? Maybe to alleviate guilt? Or are you trying to tip those scales? Whichever one it is, God sees past the performance and he sees your heart. And whether you are religious or irreligious, often our motivation is not to love God. It is to love ourselves. So we need our hearts to be changed from hypocritical ones to authentic ones. As you would have realized now, wanting to be seen as righteous is not just a temptation of TikTokers and YouTubers. Doing acts of righteousness with the correct motivation is not something that we naturally do. The hypocritical heart is ever lurking. But even if we continue to struggle with this, we have a God who forgives us of our false motivations. This is why Christ came because he knew that we could not live the lives that we should. He is aware of our weakness, died for our failures, and gave us his spirit so that we would be changed from the inside out. If you have yet to ask God for forgiveness for these sins of the heart today, seek him and ask him so that you would know his grace. If you already have, continue to ask him to change you so that you would be as he is, by his grace through his spirit. Let us pray.