Sermon for MHBC (21 August 2022). You can watch on our website or on Facebook or YouTube.
A. W. Tozer famously said that the most important thing about a person is what comes to mind when they think about God.
It’s true. Our life is driven by what we think about God—by what we really believe about God. The whole of the Christian journey is about coming to truly worship God. And we do this despite the current difficulties and despite the fact that such worship doesn’t always result in immediate gratification. In other words, we are counting on the future. It’s a form of delayed gratification.
There’s this famous experiment known as the marshmallow experiment. Children are placed in a room with a marshmallow in front of them. They are told that they can eat the marshmallow then, or if they choose to wait fifteen minutes, they can have two marshmallows.[1]
All the essential practices of the spiritual life are about delayed gratification. Charitable giving requires giving up something. Prayer requires waiting in faith. And fasting means denying ourselves in the present. Even the principal virtues require delayed gratification. If I’ve been humble, it doesn’t exactly work to make others aware of my humility. If I haven’t gossiped or said something unkind, I don’t usually receive praise because nobody knows about my virtue.
All this delayed gratification is done for the sake of knowing and enjoying God more fully. We delay the gratification of being praised by others in order to more fully enjoy God. So it’s about delayed gratification, but there’s a more important point to this. It’s really about the goodness of God. In fact, all of Matthew 6 is grounded in the goodness of God. Because God is good, we are called to spiritual habits that rely on his goodness. Jesus teaches that we should live with a view to the future rewards from our heavenly Father.
The Goodness of God in Secret Giving
Let’s begin in Matthew 6:1. Look at v. 1: Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. This first word is variously translated. The KJV and NKJV have “Take heed.” ESV has “Beware.” NLT has “Watch out.” Others have “Be careful.” The point is clear: Pay special attention to the reason for your actions. That’s the general idea.
Notice Jesus isn’t criticizing charitable action. Not at all. In fact, Jesus endorses every one of the practices in chapter 6 by giving directions to his disciples. He says, “When you give; when you pray; when you fast.” The issue is the motivation—the reason. Look what Jesus says. “Do not do your charitable deeds to be seen by them.”
The consequence is missing out on the reward from our Heavenly Father. The sinister part in the human heart desires the praise of others as its reward. The problem is that when the praise is our desire, we are missing the best thing.
Look at v. 2: Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
He says, “Don’t be like the hypocrites (we’ll talk about that word in just a second; we see it in every example). “Don’t be like the hypocrites who make a big spectacle out of their giving.” Why do they do this? Because they want people to look at them and say, “You’re such a generous person. You have such a kind heart.” They are doing a wonderful thing by giving, but they don’t give for the right reason. They give to be applauded by others. In Jesus’s day giving a large gift might land you a seat at a special table. We do the same today. If you go to a charity function, you’ll often find either a list of the biggest doners or those doners will have seats at a special table. In Jesus’s day a large gift might stop everyone in the temple so that the gift could be announced. It’s similar to giving something so that your name can be put on it and everyone will know you gave it.
Jesus calls these people hypocrites. He uses this word in all three examples. The word originally referred to actors in the local theater. It later meant something like “pretender.” These people were obsessed with being adored. They lived for praise and applause. Jesus takes this term and applies it to the religious folks. He says, “Don’t be like those religious actors. They’re only concerned with doing good things so that people will be impressed.” So Jesus says at the end of v. 2 that they already have their reward. The reward is the praise they wanted, but that’s all they get. He will repeat this line in all three examples.
The next part is the positive instruction. Look at v. 3: But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Jesus assumes that his followers will give. He says, “When you do a charitable deed.” “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” That’s not really possible. Jesus is speaking in an exaggerated way. We should be so unconcerned for praise that we give in a way where we aren’t even patting ourselves on the back. Sometimes we give to gratify ourselves, to hope in our own righteousness. That’s dangerous because it is the opposite of the gospel.
Instead, we give because we long to please God. Look at v. 4: that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. Jesus instructs his followers to do all these practices for the eyes of God. We do them secretly, but notice what Jesus says. “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Now notice how the goodness of God is highlighted. Just like the marshmallow experiment, we are offered something so much better than human praise. We are offered a reward from the Lord of the universe.
Let’s consider the opposite side of this. What makes us want to be praised by others? It is actually a failure to grasp the goodness of God. Why do I say that? Because we are unwilling to wait for a reward that is currently unseen. So we often take the instant gratification.
I sense there’s a great deal of doubt here as well, at least in my own heart. Sometimes the Christian walk feels so difficult and unsatisfying and hard, that my faith is too weak to bet my whole life on the goodness of God. So I take the easy and cheap rewards of praise and immediate gratification.
But Scripture repeatedly reminds us of the unrestrained goodness of God. Psalm 16:11: In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 36:8: They feast on the abundance of Your house, and You give them drink from Your river of delights. Listen to Jesus later in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:11: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! One more example, which is breathtaking, in Romans 8:32: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
When my faith is weak, I need to be reminded of God’s unbreakable commitment to me in the gospel. The goodness of God is on stunning display in the work of Christ. He who did not spare his own Son. The Lord of glory stooped for me. He was humiliated for me. In Christ, I am called righteous. I am called holy. I am an heir of God’s Kingdom. My treasure is forever secure. My future is good because every ounce of goodness in this universe radiates from the triune God. Why would I ever hope in anything less? Why would I desire a reward from anyone else’s hand?
C. S. Lewis has a famous quote that captures this point: “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
The Goodness of God Private Prayer
Next, Jesus moves on to prayer. Let’s look at v. 5: And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. Once again, the issue is not prayer. And it’s not public prayer. Jesus prays publicly. The issue is prayer in order to be seen. They position themselves in public spaces so that people will see how religious they are. The heart of the issue is that their prayer is not actually to or for the Lord. As Matthew Henry observed, they love to pray in public; they do not love to pray.
So Jesus gives us the following instruction in v. 6: But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. The room here refers to a private place on one’s property. There’s not necessarily anything significant about which room. The idea is to be alone with the Father. Prayer, even public prayer, must arise out of time spent with the Lord.
Again, this goes back to relying on the goodness of God. Prayer is seldom instantly gratifying. It’s quite difficult. And again, doubt can be a real struggle. Everything about private prayer is trusting in God’s goodness. It is trusting that he hears. It is trusting that he is good. And it is trusting that he will respond in goodness.
Daniel is such a good example of this. You may recall the story. He prays three times a day, but some of his opponents coerce the king into making a law that all prayer must be offered to the king on penalty of death. Daniel is hardly interested in immediate gratification. He puts his very life on the line by continuing to pray. That is a picture of trusting in God’s goodness.
The Goodness of God in Fasting
Let’s jump down to the last practice Jesus discusses. Look at v. 16: Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. Again, the issue is not with fasting. Jesus does this. He expects us to do it in the next verse. But the issue here is in order to be seen fasting. The reward is that people will be impressed with our spirituality.
But there’s a better way. The benefit of fasting is lost when we do it for the praise of others. Look at vv. 17–18:But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Fasting is another example of relying on the goodness of God. I love the description of fasting that John Piper offers. We are denying ourselves food in order to feast on the Bread of Life.
When Jesus is tempted by Satan in Matthew 4, we are told that he had been fasting for forty days and he was hungry. Satan offers him instant gratification. “Turn these stones into bread.” Jesus certainly could have done that. But he responds with an unflinching trust in the Father’s good provision: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt 4:4). He knew there was a better reward ahead.
Applications and Conclusion
Now these verses are part of the whole Sermon on the Mount. In vv. 19–34 Jesus talks about our treasures, and we will look at those verses in upcoming weeks, but v. 21 of this chapter is especially illuminating for us this morning: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If we treasure the perceptions of others, our hearts will crave their praise. If we treasure the provision of God, our hearts will crave his goodness.
Let me give you four observations to apply. First, we must remember that our religious actions should be motivated by a desire for God’s glory. We want to point to him. It’s not about us. “He must increase. We must decrease.”
Second, we need to focus on becoming the type of people who care more about God’s desires than our own. We too often forget that Christianity has a fundamental message of transformation. Jesus disciples are not what they once were. Come as you are, absolutely, but you won’t stay that way. Jesus shows us a new and better way. And God hasn’t left us on our own. We have been given the Spirit who works in us to make these changes possible. Jesus went so far as to say that the Spirit’s presence within us is better than having Jesus beside us. That’s a strong statement and it should give us great confidence that God will complete a good work in us. Look to Scripture for transformation. Figure out what Jesus expects from his followers and then strive to do it, knowing that the Spirit is shaping you and molding you into something new—a “little Christ” to use the C. S. Lewis phrase.
Third, we need to be discerning about our own motivations. We spend a lot of time critiquing everyone else. I doubt we spend enough time looking at our own lives. Start questioning your motivations. We have some pretty dark stuff going on inside our heads and our hearts. We need to work on exposing those dark places in our heart and then uprooting them. It won’t be fun or easy, it may even be painful. Pulling up roots is hard, and it’s painful if you’re the root. Question the reason you do things. And, as always, give it back to God. Read through this passage slowly, thinking about it and praying about it, asking God to make you the type of person Jesus describes.
Lastly, behold the goodness of God in Christ. He who did not spare his own Son will give us more than we could ever imagine. So we behold Christ daily as God’s covenant commitment to us. The Spirit at work in us is God’s sure bond and nothing in all the world can break it.
This is what motivated those saints of old spoken of in Hebrews 11—the so–called “faith chapter” (aka “Hall of Faith”). The whole chapter is about people who trusted in God’s goodness even if they didn’t receive it right away. Just take one example from the chapter. Hebrews 11:8–10:
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
God’s promises are sure to us in Christ. This gives us the courage to trust in his good rewards rather than seeking them in the praise of others. Listen to what the author of Hebrews says just verses later: These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. The promises of God have been made clear for the world to see. The death and resurrection of Jesus have shaped the world more radically than any other event in human history. If this is so, we have a sure witness to the goodness of God. We can bet the house on God’s goodness. This frees us to live in this world not for the acknowledgment of others but for the enjoyment of God.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment; https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/55weem/method_marshmallow_test_the_one_skill_that_makes/