Do Not Your Alms Before Men

Driving home: And I would remind you that no one is a Christian who does not have these character traits inscribed in the Sermon on the Mount. He is inscribed upon his heart and life by the power of God.

Martin compares the Sermon on the Mount to a grand symphony or a beautiful painting, where individual parts are beautiful but gain double beauty and impact when understood in relation to the whole work. This illustrates the importance of understanding individual texts within the broader context of the sermon.

I am thrilled the more I study in preparation for these Sunday morning expositions with the wonderful symmetry of God's truth, the wonderful unity of all that God has revealed in His own precious Word. And increasingly I have little patience with those who would chop up my Bible into dispensational piecemeal and throw away so much that God has for my profit and for my good. Matthew chapter 5 and this morning we are going to begin our studies of chapter 6 after spending just several minutes to try to catch again something of the pulse of the whole of this sermon. Like a grand symphony that may....

0:15 - 1:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not think that giving, praying, and fasting can give you spiritual life; life comes only by looking to the Son of God in faith.

He uses the analogy of trying to sustain physical life in a corpse by cramming food into its mouth and wiggling its arms. This illustrates that giving, praying, and fasting cannot give spiritual life, but only sustain it once it has been imparted by God.

But these things do not mean to give spiritual life, they merely sustain it. Let me illustrate from the physical world. Food and exercise sustain physical life, among other things. But they have no power to give life.

8:56 - 9:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not think that giving, praying, and fasting can give you spiritual life; life comes only by looking to the Son of God in faith.

Martin cites Luther and Whitefield's intense fasting, watching, and praying as examples of men who initially sought life through works, only to discover that life comes by looking to Christ. This reinforces the point that spiritual disciplines sustain, but do not create, spiritual life.

But you'll come to find, as did Martin Luther, who by his fasting and his watching and his praying, or George Whitefield, who spent literally nights and sometimes weeks prostrated on a cold floor praying, pleading, fasting, denying himself, trying somehow to come into fellowship with God. You'll find, as they found, dear ones, that life does not come by giving, by fasting, by praying. Life comes by looking to the Son of God. For the Scripture says, Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved.

10:43 - 11:20 Read in full sermon

The point: It's not just what you're doing, but why you're doing it; examine your motives in all your actions, especially religious ones.

Martin describes two hypothetical men who perform every action in a church service identically (singing, praying, giving, listening, greeting the pastor). This illustration powerfully demonstrates that outward actions mean nothing if the underlying motive is wrong, with one man's actions being pleasing to God and the other's a 'stench'.

What's your motivation? May I take two hypothetical people? One here, one there. They both sit.

25:37 - 25:44 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The Lord affirms that the motive behind religious deeds is paramount. Martin illustrates this with two hypothetical churchgoers who perform the same actions but with vastly…

He uses the mundane example of a shaving routine (always starting on the same side) to illustrate how people can perform religious duties out of habit, without conscious thought or genuine heart engagement, just as the second hypothetical churchgoer did.

This man, he got up Sunday morning. Well, for years, he's been going to the North Caldwell Alliance Church. It's part of his life, just as much as getting up and shaving. Why do you always start on this side when you shave?

27:49 - 27:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Never conceive of Jesus Christ in a way that robs Him of His right to expose sin, even if it makes people angry.

Martin explains that the Greek word 'hypocrite' literally means 'play actor,' someone who wears a mask to play a part. This metaphor clarifies Jesus' condemnation of those who perform religious deeds for outward show rather than genuine devotion.

Here our Lord is speaking to the multitudes there upon that mountaintop for when the sermon closes, it says that those multitudes were astounded at his teaching and among them were these scribes and Pharisees, literally play actors. When Jesus uses the word hypocrite, he uses the word which means the man who comes on the stage and if he's supposed to play the part of a devil, he puts a mask on and he becomes a devil. Then he goes off into the wings of the stage and if he's supposed to play a kind father, he puts on a different mask and he plays the part. That's exactly the word Christ uses her...

33:54 - 34:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of projecting an anemic, always 'sweet and nice' view of preaching onto pastors; faithful ministry includes confronting sin.

Martin quotes A.W. Tozer's classic answer to those who say 'go positive' in preaching: 'everything in the human life has a polarity. I can't inhale all the time. I've got to exhale.' This illustrates the necessity of both negative (exposing sin) and positive (giving instruction) teaching in ministry.

We just, you know, go positive. As Tozer said in that record we heard. People come to him all the time saying, go positive. Go positive.

36:24 - 36:32 Read in full sermon