Now, as you are, if you would turn with me in your copies of God's word to the scriptures, Matthew chapter six, Matthew six, and we'll commence our reading there at the first verse. Matthew six and verse one. "'the word of the living God. "'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. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do. For they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Ye not ye therefore like unto them? For your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. Amen. And thus far, the reading of God's holy word. May he bless us richly under its sound this afternoon. Our text this afternoon is what you find in verses five and six. When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites. Friend, when you and I take up this text, we are taking up a profound, really a profound statement of biblical religion against false religion. In fact, what you and I enter into as we take up this part of Christ's discourse, is really that age old, that ancient struggle between spiritual devotion to God and false, between that worship that primarily seeks self-gratification and that which seeks God's glory. And the Lord Jesus, he opens that ancient conflict for us in this text. I say it's ancient, friend, because it stretches all the way back to Cain and Abel. The difference between false and spiritual worship. And it carries through the ministry of the prophets. As so often the prophets had to go to the people of God, to the church underage and say, your devotion, your empty devotion is not true worship. And now the Lord Jesus, he comes to his generation in the first century and he says exactly the same thing. Your empty ritualism is simply vapid. There's nothing to it. Oh, and by the way, that's why there was a reformation. where spiritual worship was set against empty ritualism again. And by the way, that's also what we need today, isn't it? We still need the warning. We still need the direction that's in this text, where spiritual worship is set against the false. But where are we here? As we look at the sermon in its totality, we recognize that the Lord Jesus, he's continuing what he began. In chapter 5, you remember, the Lord tells us that He came to fulfill the law and the prophets. And you remember, the word fulfill there means to show out the fullness of the meaning, both of the law and of the prophets. And in chapter 5, we saw how He did that with the law. He shows to us the law's spirituality, that it transcends what the natural man imagines. It goes beyond what men would like the law to go. It touches the heart. And as we saw at the beginning of chapter six, some weeks ago, the Lord Jesus now begins to insist on what were the principal themes of the prophetic preaching. That is devotion to God, love to one another spiritually, and of course, the worship of God from the heart. So he is showing us, if you like, friend, the fullness of the prophetic preaching. When they insisted on spiritual worship, he intends to show us what they mean, what they meant rather. And in verses five to 13, he does that primarily looking at prayer. He looks primarily at the worship of God, and friend, he centers principally on this aspect of worship, prayer. In fact, you could say that this is the largest sub-theme in the entirety of the sermon. In our text, he sets true prayer against false. In this case, against the Pharisees. He says there is something different that the scriptures command than what you see in the rituals of the Pharisees and the scribes. And then we'll see God willing next week in verses seven to eight, he sets his gauntlet against heathen prayer as well. So in the first case, verses five to six, he sets himself against false religion informed by scripture. In verses six and seven, sorry, verses seven and eight, he sets himself against false religion as abused from the light of nature. So take verse five with me if you would. He says, and when thou prayest, note friend, you immediately encounter that form and when. The form is what you and I will encounter throughout the sixth chapter. Christ begins with a precept and that is a precept. He doesn't say if you pray, When you pray, his people will be a praying people. There's a command there. Secondly, he moves from there to a warning against hypocrisy. And he shows us the hypocrisy, first of all, just as he did in the case of almsgiving, with the reward. And he does that to condemn it. Hypocritical worship to God, he says throughout this text, is not worship at all. And it receives no blessing from God's hand. But then he sets against that genuine devotion to God with its reward. And he, of course, commends that to us. That's the form that you and I found in verses one to four. That's the form you find in our texts. And we'll see subsequently throughout chapter six. But in our texts, I want you to notice something. The way the Lord Jesus presents to us the case of prayer, it's, in some sense, it's quite graphic. You almost can see two images, can't you? You see the one, the Pharisee, garbed in his phylacteries, standing either in the street or in the synagogue. And with many words, with his voice projected, he commands the admiration of the men around him. A picture of piety, a very clear emblem of religiosity. He stands there in broad daylight, and perhaps even a crowd thronging, admiring. That's one image. The other image, though, is of another man. He retreats into his own home. He goes in, as we've told, to his closet. The word there means his inner room. It's the inmost room of his house. It's far from the exterior, as far as you can get from the exterior world. It's secret. And then he closes the door, that's important. He's doing all of these things though that he cannot be seen. And there he prays, not to the admiration of men, but as Christ tells us in this text, but to his father, which sees in secret, hears in secret, and rewards him openly. Those are the two images. that you have here. And friend, as you look at this text, it's profound, isn't it? It's profound because in just these two verses, you have, if you like, epitomized that ancient struggle between true and false worship. Between that which is genuinely spiritual and that which is simply formal, empty and vapid. In two verses, he takes us all the way back to that controversy that you and I see inaugurated between Cain and Abel. that worship that is pleasing to God and that which is false, that which has the blessing of God and that which does not. And in these two verses, friend, he takes us through this theme in so many ways. There's so many implications that come to us from this text that inform us about the nature of God, about the nature of man, of course, about the nature of true religion, and as well as man's inclination to the false. It's all in these two verses. But what I want us to do this afternoon is I want us to walk through this text, seeing how the Lord Jesus narrows his focus on three agents, or more accurately, three persons who are acting. There's the formalist. He does what he does in religion to be seen of men. Then there's the faithful, the one who approaches his father in secret. And then there is, of course, the Father, who sees, who hears in secret, and who rewards openly. I want us to walk through that, friend, in those ways, because I think for you and I, it's important to catch how personal the Lord Jesus makes this. Prayer is not an abstract thing in the preaching of the Lord Jesus. It is personal. you and I have to go to a living God. We will either go as the formalist or as the faithful. In this text, our theme, friend, is that Christ's people pray spiritually. That's obviously what the Lord Jesus commends. His people will be a people who approach God, not as the formalist, but as those who approach him from the heart. But first of all, what about the formalist? What about the first instance that we encounter in this text? It's really important that we review what the Lord Jesus calls the scribes and the Pharisees in this text, because he calls them not just scribes and Pharisees, he calls them hypocrites. Now the word hypocrite in our generation, it has a certain connotation, doesn't it? Somebody who is intentionally deceiving somebody else to set themselves forward as something that they are not. I want you to know that that is not how the text originally read. That's a connotation we've added to it. The word literally means play actor. It's the word that you would use for somebody who's performing on a stage. It didn't have all of those negative moral connotations that we have now. And I say that to you because it's very important we see that here, because these are stage actors. They're simply putting on a show. And in fact, as you look at the text, you notice this, they have a stage. They make a performance. They have an audience and they receive wages. The Lord Jesus is drawing a direct connection between the actor on the stage who has all of those things and the formalist who approaches God just with empty ritual. These are stage, That's what the Lord Jesus tells us. And they're doing these things to be seen of men. They have their reward. Again, the word reward there is they get their wages. That's what the word is in the original. They get what they worked for. So what is this? Well, the formalist, he's somebody who engages in prayer publicly simply for the sake of self-gratification. His focus is principally on his audience. He longs only really for man's appreciation and admiration. He's a stage actor, nothing more, nothing less. And what the Lord Jesus does here is he takes us, friend, back to the idea that that true discipleship is diametrically opposite to that. You remember in verses 1-4 when he deals with almsgiving, the point of that is that you're not even to be giving charitably for your own honor or reputation. You're to do it not with self-interest, you're to do it principally for the glory of God and for the good of others. And when he turns to prayer, he's saying exactly the same thing. His people. The true believer, he is not going to be doing this for reputation among men. That's the work of a hypocrite, the work of an actor. What you see in this text is he's telling us pointedly that unspiritual prayer, it's false. It's false. In fact, you could even say it's a monstrous thing. It's an adulteration of what is. As you look throughout the scriptures, friend, this is not a new concept. You remember how the prophets came to their generations and said exactly the same thing in different words, but in substance, precisely the same thing. This people, Isaiah says, drawn near me, that is the Lord, with their mouth and with their lips do honor me. There's this external show of piety. They have this kind of religiosity that men might see, but then note what the Lord says. He says, but have removed their heart from me. In the law, folks, in the law, there was never a place where God allowed for empty ritualism. I think that's worth repeating. Never has God commanded and never has God allowed worship without the heart. Never. And the prophets excoriated their generations because that's precisely what they offered. Empty ritual, they went through the motions. Zechariah puts it this way. When you fasted and mourned, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? Fasting is that moment, of course, where the body, typically the church corporate, gathers together and humbly lays low before the Lord God, confesses their sin and seeks his mercy. And what Zechariah says is that in his generation, there were people that fasted, but they did not fast to God. They were the stage actors of our text. Though the prophets had the same problem in their generations. Friend, I suppose that's a question for you and for me, isn't it? The question is, why are you here? I know that's a searching question. I know that's somewhat of a jolting question, but why are you here? And you don't have to tell me. You don't have to tell anyone else actually. God knows. But in our texts, we're told very pointedly, if you're not here for his sake, if you're not assembled this morning as before the face of the living God, you're a stage actor. What are the symptoms of somebody who just engages formally in worship? Well, I'll give you just one example. Again, going back to the prophets. This example of formalism is drawn primarily from Malachi. The prophet goes to his generation and the Lord says through him, he says, ye said also, behold, what a weariness is it? He's referring to the worship of God. He's saying there's a generation that is engaged in the worship of God and they're saying it's a weariness to them. They're tired of it. The Lord asks then, should I accept this of your hand? Well, that's a solemn question, isn't it? You're here, he says, you're doing all of these things that I've commanded in the law, but you have no heart for it. It's a weariness to you. Should I accept this from your hand? Folks, again, let me reiterate what the scriptures are saying here, They're saying the same thing of our texts, that without the heart and worship, there is no real and biblical worship. God himself says it so in his prophet. Go through the motions all you like, mutter and murmur and have the admiration of men if you like, but it's nothing before God. But odious, a performance for men, but an abomination to the Lord. That's what the scriptures are teaching. These, friend, these truths that we're looking at here, these are that which so diametrically stand against the religion of man. Man will offer God all kinds of things. He will do all kinds of external labor. He will work tirelessly and lead his throat nearly to dryness, but he will not give God his heart. That's the one thing the natural man can't do. That's the one thing God says he requires overall. The hypocrite, the stage actor, he doesn't realize that. My friend, what you notice in this text, and you could miss it, couldn't you? Is that these folks, they actually get their reward. Did you catch that? Men actually admire them for it. This showy religion, this kind of religiosity that's external, They gain what they looked for from the beginning. Because men have a propensity. They actually enjoy watching religiosity. The natural man has an inclination to false worship. And so friend, here's what they do. The natural man begins to think. Well, if so-and-so looks in a certain way, gestures in a certain way, has a certain tone and uses certain words, that must be godliness. And so just because they possess this external form, they admire them. That's the natural man with regard to religion. No reference to God, no sense that one can have the form of godliness without its power. That's the formalist as we see it in the text. Can I just make a note friend for us before I press forward? How evil, how evil is this performance? I don't know if we really feel the weight of it. God, he allows us time to go about our necessary duties. He gives us six days by which we are to be employed in securing for ourselves that which is necessary and for our wellbeing. But he reserves to himself, of course, one day in seven. And then he also commands for himself time in our lives throughout the day where we are specifically devoted to his worship. He gives us so much time. so that we can be engaged in what we need to to live. But he says, in these times, it's just me. And yet what does man do? He makes it a performance for other men. I don't know if that sends chills down your spine, friend, but I think it should. That's the formalist, but what about the faithful? In verse six, he turns to his disciples, the Lord Jesus turns to his people and he says, but thou, and the point here is that there is a clear distinction between the Pharisees, the hypocrites, and who are his disciples indeed. And it's an absolute distinction. There is a real mark, a black and white mark, if you like, between these two categories of people. When thou prayest, he says, there's an assumption, isn't there? You're going to pray. Christ knows of no disciple who doesn't pray. When thou prayest, he says, go into that closet and shut thy door. The point is, is that they are going to engage in this secretly, not the ostentation of the Pharisees. These ones are going to do as much as they possibly can to be alone with God. Get the thrust, friend, of what Christ is saying here. They want to be alone with God. Pray to thy father, which is in secret. He and he only is their intended audience. They come in their closets to have an audience with the living God, with him alone, and for his sake alone as well. What you learn in this text, friends, the Christian, contrary to the formalist, he engages in secret spiritual duties. He does, he is one who is pleased, friend, to go into the recesses of his own home, to shut the door and to be, as it were, in the dark and alone with God and to be entirely overlooked by the world. That's the Christian. What you and I see, friend, in this text is a wonderful Biblical reiteration of that theme, certainly variations of phrase on the theme that integrity is what a man does when no one's looking. Religion is what a man does when no one sees. Well, in this case, Friend, our text comes to us and says, true and spiritual worship. You see that if a man is pleased to be alone with God. Yes, he will be in public worship as well. He will be. But the question is, do you also see him in the closet with the door shut and alone with God? That's where true spiritual worship friend is manifest clearly. I want you to notice a few things from this just as we press forward. As you look at the text, there's something more than just the idea that they're going to be a genuine, a genuine worshiper of the living God. I want you to notice, friend, that there is an assumption that Christ's people will engage in stated times for these spiritual works. There is this kind of myth that goes about that all of life is worship. And yes, I know what people mean by that, but I also want you to hear me When I say that the scriptures do not know, they do not know of a doctrine which would lead men to the conclusion that they don't have to have any stated times of private or public devotion. Here, the Lord Jesus tells us specifically, there will be times where his disciples will retreat from all of their other necessary duties and to be alone with God. You cannot get away from that in the text, you can't. My friend, why? The answer is simple, isn't it? Because Christ's people, they are being made into the likeness of the Lord Jesus. So what does the life of the Lord Jesus look like with regard to prayer? Let me just rattle off a few texts for you. At the commencement of Christ's healing ministry, we're told this, in the morning, rising up a great while before day, Jesus went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. He had been healing all day the previous day. And he rises out early in the morning after a grueling, a grueling period of ministry. And he goes into a solitary place. He leaves his disciples alone. He goes out into the mountains while the dew, perhaps, is still in the grass. And he goes and he lays himself before his father, alone, with every other concern set aside. We can go further. And the calling of the disciples. Before that, we're told in Luke's gospel, he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer, stated times of prayer alone, out in the wilderness place. When he had sent the multitude away, this is after the feeding of the 5,000, he went up into a mountain apart, apart to pray. And when the evening was come, he was there alone. Friend, do you see what the gospel, and we could go on by the way, do you see what the gospel writers are saying to us? They're saying that if you want to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, you will pray. These secret, these private devotions, they will become a part of your life. My friend, that's non-negotiable. If you remember in this text, the whole purpose that Christ drives out here is that these are the marks of a disciple indeed. Christ's disciples are people who will engage in this work. There is no Christ likeness, friend, without secret stated times of prayer. There is none. I want you to notice something else in the text as well. We're told something about the manner in which they approach the Lord. They go to the Father, which is in secret. Striking that preposition there, because in verse four, What you find there is actually that, well, you give alms because the father sees in secret, but that's not what he says in our text. Thy father which is in secret, that's where he begins. He is there. The Lord Jesus tells his disciples clearly, when you go into that closet, when you go into that place secluded from all other men and no one else sees you, Your father is there in the secret place. What you notice, friend, in this text is wonderful, isn't it? The Lord Jesus is telling us that he's not only in synagogues, not only on the streets. Of course, ours is the omnipresent God. But there's something that he drives home here. This disciple, he prays to his father, which is, in secret. He knows that whenever he prays, he's not speaking to himself. He knows that he is before the face of the living God. When he goes into the closet, friend, he knows that God is there. And he prays that way. Friend, what I want you to remember is that, of course, our God is present everywhere. You know, Coram Deo, we are always before the face of God. And so it's like, if you will, like we're in the throne room all the time. The presence of the King is always there. But in prayer, when true and spiritual prayer, friend, when that happens, yes, you're in the presence of the King like you have been all day, but now you're addressing him. Now you're turning to him. drawing near to him. That's a solemn thing. The Lord Jesus in this text tells us that that's precisely what his disciples do. In the quiet, in the secret place, they do go to their father, which is in secret. But then finally, friend, as we close, what of the father? What of his agency and his activity in the text? Well, we're told that he sees in secret. So he's not only in secret, but he also sees in secret. We're reminded, of course, that he is the omniscient God. But as you look at the text, you recognize that there is an emphasis on the seeing here. It's not just that he is cognizant, if you like, but that he marks it. If you like, he registers it especially. And then we're told this, not only does he see it, but he will reward the openly. Now here's a really, really important point because I think we could miss it if we don't pay attention closely to the text itself. The Lord Jesus is setting the reward of the hypocrite against the reward of the faithful disciple. Men give the hypocrite their reward. The father gives his disciples their reward. So there's obviously a contrast. But in the original, in the Greek, the two words for reward are different. They're not the same words. For instance, whenever you're looking at the hypocrite and his reward, The word there is misthos. It's the word for wages. It's the idea that they have worked for, as it were, under contract to get a particular form of payment. And in this case, the hypocrite, he worked for the admiration of men and he got it. Those were his wages. The Lord Jesus says he worked for it and he got it. But then I want you to notice this. Whenever you look at reward in our text with regard to the faithful, to the true, the spiritual disciple, It's not misthos, it's apodidomai. Now, didomai, that's the root word there, is the word for gift, not for wage. And what that tells us, friends, that when the disciple is rewarded by the Father, it's not because he has merited anything from God's hand. It's not like he's under contract and he's waiting for his wages. That's not what the scriptures are saying at all. And the Lord Jesus in the Greek is very clear. That's not what he means. But rather this, that our God, he is pleased to replenish with gifts of his free grace, those who are his spiritual disciples indeed. In other words, he tells us here, it's not merit. It's not something that they've earned. Rather, it's this. He gives freely to show that they would not lose their labor by pursuing Him really. It's an important point in the text, friend. As you look at the text, what are we told then? We're told that spiritual prayer is blessed indeed by God. It's the same idea that the prophet gives to us in Isaiah. God says through Isaiah, he says, I said not under the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. What he's saying there is, I've never said to you, seek me for nothing. Seek me and be as it were a loser. Somebody who would gain nothing from my hand. That's not what the Lord ever has said to his people. He's never said, seek me in vain. Instead he says, seek me and ye shall live. To seek the Lord is also, friend, to know his blessing. The Lord has annexed these commands with those promises. And what he tells us in this text is the same thing. No one will be a debtor by earnestly seeking him in the secret place. No one will lose their time. No one will lose their labor by doing so. As you look at the text as well, friend, you recognize that That's actually part of spiritual prayer. You and I, when we go into the secret place and we make application to God, you're called actually to believe that. You're called to believe, and that's why the Lord Jesus tells us in this text that when you approach Him really, He is pleased to bless. Why do I say that? Why do I say that it's necessary, part of prayer, to have that faith? Well, because the scriptures tell us that directly. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Friend, that promise is necessary to be believed. According to Hebrews 11, if we're to approach him right. So we close. And we close with those two images once again. We have the formalist in the synagogue on the street and the man in the solitude of his closet. One man will get reputation from men. The other man will walk with the living God. That's the option set before you now in this text. What do you desire? A form of religion, friend. or communion with the triune God. Christ's people, they pray spiritually. Can I ask you a question, friend? Do you have an ambition to secret prayer? In the Reformed tradition, we have a tendency, I think, to emphasize mostly reading. Reading's good, it has its place, and it should be emphasized. But how few are there that really have an ambition to grow more and more in secret prayer. How many, friend, really long not just to have knowledge so they perhaps can confound others, so they can gain a reputation of being learned men? How many have a real ambition to be alone with God, to follow the pattern of their Savior? It's an important question, friend, because it comes to us from this text. But I also want you to notice in this text, beloved, even though this is a mark of a disciple, it's important to say that the Lord Jesus never tells us that the disciple always finds it easy. To be alone with God is something that the flesh absolutely hates. We're told in this text, all that we're told in this text is that the believer, he will do it. Not that he will always find it easy. So the question here is not, do you struggle with secret prayer? That's not the question at all. The question is, do you engage in it? Do you engage in it? And friend, if you do engage in it, then the promise of this text belongs to you. Even in those times, friend, whenever you find it most difficult, the Lord is pleased still to bless those who do seek him spiritually. So this is a time to check ourselves. Are these spiritual exercises happening? Are they? And are they spiritual? Do you do it as approaching the living God? And then secondly, friend, there is an exhortation here as well. The obvious exhortation is to pray. And we need to be marked by this, according to the Lord Jesus. We need to be striving to set times apart daily, just to be in the closet with the Lord alone. That's something we should be working toward. And friend, that's true of a private person, that's true in a family, there should be stated times for family prayer throughout the day. Not just at meal times, but times really to devote ourselves to approaching the Lord. but obviously as a congregation as well. Friend, that's necessary too. The Lord requires those who name the name of Christ to engage together in this labor too. And so strive friend in all of those ways, strive privately to grow in this, as families to keep this. And certainly as a congregation, we too need to grow in this as well. May we know the Lord's help in this as well and for his sake. Amen.