You may be seated. Well, there are six words that children can be listening for in my sermon this morning. The words kingdom, warning, religion, motive, piety, and grace. Well, friends, when it comes to the posting of video content online on social media platforms, you know, platforms like Facebook or TikTok or what have you, one popular trend that I've noticed recently is the posting of videos where the content creator of the video performs a random act of kindness or charity to a total stranger. And so, for example, there are videos out there of the video creator offering food or perhaps offering a new item of clothing to a random homeless person. Other acts of kindness that these videos feature include such things as giving a huge tip to the pizza delivery or DoorDash delivery person, or perhaps paying for a stranger's grocery at the checkout line at the local grocery store, or paying for a stranger's gas at the gas pump, and the list goes on and on. Now, I'm no expert on such video content, but I have to wonder if these kinds of random kindness videos may even be competing in their popularity with the ever-popular funny cat videos that are out there. I mean, who doesn't love a funny cat video? But in any case, these random acts of kindness videos, they can often be very touching and uplifting and heartwarming. I've found myself drawn in to some of these videos as well as I've watched them. And often the recipients of these random acts of kindness that are featured on such videos are genuinely appreciative, genuinely thankful, even sometimes touched to the point of shedding tears. But having said all of that, I have to be honest with you, friends. In the case of at least some of these types of videos, I have to wonder about the actual heart motivations that lie behind the video recording of such random acts of kindness. Now, if the video creator is simply doing this to try to encourage others to be generous and kind and give random acts, do random acts of kindness to strangers, then okay, that's one thing. But are these recorded acts of kindness and charity primarily motivated by a pure heart desire to actually benefit strangers in need? Or are they merely acts of performative theatrical charity? Acts of charity designed to make the content creator look good to others in order to get more clicks, more likes, perhaps more subscribers to his or her page, and perhaps as a means of psychological self-validation. Well friends, obviously there was no such thing as the internet in our Lord's day and thus no such thing as social media in the days of Christ. But nevertheless, our Lord Jesus had to confront similar types of performative kindness in his own day and among his fellow Jews. There was a tendency among certain Jews in our Lord's time to perform acts of mercy and piety hypocritically and for the primary purpose of making themselves look good before others. There was a tendency back then, as there is even today, to be more concerned about pleasing man and making themselves look good to man than to be pleasing to God and to genuinely show love to their neighbor. In our passage for this Lord's Day morning, we see the clash between the hypocritical performative religion that characterizes fallen humanity on the one hand, and the pure piety that is displayed by those who through God's sovereign grace have become citizens of the kingdom of God on the other hand. Now our passage for this morning is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of Matthew has rightly been called the most Jewish of all the Gospel accounts. It seems to have been written to a Jewish audience, an audience of Jews whom Matthew was trying to convince that Jesus is the Messiah, or Jewish Christians. to quote from the Bible Project's excellent introduction to this gospel, and I quote, Matthew shows how Jesus is the continuation and fulfillment of the whole biblical story about God and Israel. First of all, Matthew's gospel shows that Jesus is the Messiah from the line of David. Number two, that he is a new authoritative teacher like Moses. And thirdly, that Jesus is God with us, he is Emmanuel, God in the flesh. Under the Holy Spirit's inspiration, Matthew structured his gospel to include five blocks of our Lord's teaching materials. And the passage that we are considering this morning is taken from the first major block of our Lord's teaching material presented in Matthew's gospel. Because of these five blocks of teaching materials, some Bible scholars and commentators believe that what Matthew is doing in structuring his gospel this way is he is mirroring the five books of the Torah, the five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy. Now, as we work our way through Matthew, in chapter four, we see our Lord Jesus beginning his earthly ministry. And he begins his earthly ministry by announcing the coming of God's kingdom, by calling his first disciples, and also by beginning to minister to the crowds with supernatural signs of the kingdom, such as the miraculous healing of the sick and the casting out of demons. Well, that brings us to chapter five. Chapter five begins our Lord's famous Sermon on the Mount. And this Sermon on the Mount extends all the way through chapter seven. Now friends, in this section of Matthew's gospel, Jesus is presented by Matthew as a new Moses. He is presented as a greater than Moses figure. Not only that, there is a parallel between God's revelation at Mount Sinai on the one hand and our Lord's revelation on this unnamed mountain as he delivers his sermon on the mount to his disciples on the other hand. Just as Yahweh declared his law to his people who were gathered around Mount Sinai in ancient times, so our Lord Jesus declares to those who are blessed to be citizens of God's kingdom and who are gathered before this unnamed mountain. He declares to them the ethic of God's kingdom and the lifestyle of discipleship that is expected of his people in the kingdom of God. And it's interesting, while it's not an exact parallel in terms of wording and concepts, we do see that there is a parallel between the preface to the Ten Commandments on the one hand, and our Lord's opening statement in the Sermon on the Mount. Let's just briefly go back to Exodus 20, and let's look at verses one and two. I read this a little bit earlier in the service, but let me reread it. Remind you of the context. Remember, Yahweh the Lord had rescued the children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. By a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, he had saved his people from slavery. Now he has brought them through the Red Sea on dry land, brought them to the foot of Mount Sinai, and here he audibly declares to them his covenant, his Ten Commandments. And we read these words, and God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. As we learned a number of Lord's days ago, as I preached on the purpose of the law, we see that the law of God was revealed in the context of grace. God had rescued his people. He doesn't say, do this so that you can become my people. He doesn't say, keep the 10 commandments as a condition for being my people. He says, no, I've already taken you to be my people. Therefore, this is how I want you to live. Now turn to Matthew 5, and let me just read the opening verses of Matthew 5. It says in Matthew 5, and this is after Jesus has called his first disciples and crowds begin to follow him, it says, seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. Think you see the parallel? God speaks his law to his people from Mount Sinai here. Jesus is going up to a mountain, and when he sat down, that was the posture of the rabbi, of the teacher back then. When he sat down, his disciples came to him. As the children of Israel were gathered before God at Mount Sinai, so Jesus' disciples, his professed disciples, are gathered before him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, And then we get the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The Beatitudes are not law, they're not conditions that we need to follow in order to become citizens of God's kingdom. Rather, they are characteristics of those who through grace have become members of the kingdom of God. That's why Jesus declares the Lord's blessing upon them. just as the Lord from Mount Sinai reminded his people of the blessing of grace and deliverance that they had received. Well, in any case, here they are gathered before the Lord Jesus on this mountain, this unnamed mountain. And our passage for this Lord's Day morning is found in the midst of this famous Sermon on the Mount, and it focuses on acts of righteousness that are part of the kingdom lifestyle. In particular, Jesus gives three examples. He gives the example of giving to the needy, of prayer, and of religious fasting. We focus in particular on the opening section of chapter six today. And what we find here as we turn our attention to the first two verses of our passage for today, we find here, first of all, a serious warning against performative religion. Jesus here issues a serious, almost stern warning against what might be called performative or theatrical religion. He says, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. He doesn't say it's wrong to practice righteousness in public, but he says it's wrong to practice righteousness before others in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." Here in verse one, we have Jesus presenting us with this general warning. Now, I would remind you, brothers and sisters, understand that in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord is addressing his professed followers. He is addressing professed believers, those who by grace through faith have been made citizens of the kingdom of God. In the opening Beatitudes, which I just referred to, our Lord had described the blessedness and the characteristics of those who, through sovereign grace, have been made members of God's kingdom. In this passage, found here in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus confronts head-on the ostentatious and hypocritical practices of piety that were common among some of his fellow Jews. Perhaps he had in mind, in particular, the scribes and the Pharisees of his day. It's interesting, what does Jesus say in verse one? He says, beware of doing what? Practicing your righteousness. The Greek word is dikaiosune. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people. And we find a link here between this verse and what Jesus said about the so-called righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees back in chapter five, verse 20. If you turn to that verse, Jesus says, for I tell you, unless your righteousness, your dikaiosune, exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God. It might be tempting as Protestants to think that Jesus in that verse is speaking about the need for the imputed righteousness of Christ, and of course that is true for our justification. But Jesus rather is pointing out that the so-called righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, many of whom were unconverted, many of whom had not been born again by the Spirit, their righteousness was a merely external form of righteousness. They did works of righteousness that were good on the outside, but their hearts were corrupt and sinful. And so Jesus is saying, if your righteousness proceeds from a sinful heart rather than a heart renewed by the Holy Spirit, then you will not enter the kingdom of God. This is another way of Jesus saying what he said to Nicodemus. that unless you are born again, you will not see, much less enter into the kingdom of heaven. And so getting back to this warning in chapter 6, verse 1, Jesus is here saying, basically, he's saying to his professed disciples, look, don't imitate the so-called righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. In other words, don't engage in acts of quote righteousness hypocritically, merely or mainly to be seen by other people, to get accolades and praise and acclaim from other people. Don't seek glory and recognition from men, but instead Seek to honor God in your practices of piety and your acts of righteousness. Avoid performative, show-off religion, religion which is motivated by a sinful, unregenerate desire for human acclaim and praise. Instead, seek first God's kingdom and God's righteousness. In fact, Jesus will go on and say that later on in this chapter. If you skip down to Matthew 6, verse 33, Jesus says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Now, the fact that Jesus gives this warning to his professed disciples, what does that teach us? Well, that teaches us that this tendency, brothers and sisters, towards show-off religion, towards performative piety, this is not just a problem among the unconverted, among unbelievers, though it certainly is a problem in the case of those who do not know Christ as their Savior. But it can also be a temptation for the true believer as well. So yes, we need to take this warning to heart. And what is the consequence of practicing performative piety? Well, Jesus says, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Show off religion results in no reward from God. Now let's step back a second. Some of you might be wondering, well, why does Jesus talk about a reward? Is Jesus here preaching works righteousness? Is he preaching salvation by works? Is he saying that we can somehow put God in our debt so that he has to reward us? Why does Jesus use this language of reward? Well, understand, beloved, Jesus is not preaching a merit theology simply because he uses this language of reward. He's not preaching a works righteousness or merit theology as if by our works we could somehow put God in our debt. The fact that he is not preaching a merit theology can be seen on the face of it when you notice that Jesus speaks of God as your Father who is in heaven. In other words, those whom he is speaking to have a relationship with God as their loving Heavenly Father. They've already experienced God's grace in their lives. Contrary to the common view out there that says everybody is a child of God, the Bible doesn't teach that. Jesus said of his enemies, you are of your father the devil. Now everyone is a creature of God. Every human being is related to God as a creature to his or her creator. And so in that generic sense of creator and creature, we could perhaps say that God is the universal father of all humanity in that generic sense. But in terms of a spiritual saving sense, not everyone is a child of God. If you are outside of Christ, if you have not received and rested upon Christ alone for your salvation, you are not a child of God in the spiritual sense. You are spiritually a child of the devil. And it is only by the grace of God that you can be brought out of the devil's household and adopted into the household of God as a child of God by grace through faith. So the point here is that as disciples of Jesus, we are related to God as our Heavenly Father. And that is a relationship not of merit, not of works, not because we are worthy of it. That is a relationship of grace. It is a gift of God. not a fruit of our good works. But as our heavenly Father, God graciously chooses to reward our kingdom service done in faith. So again, when Jesus uses this language, he has in view a reward of grace, not a reward of merit. So he says, again, he gives the general warning in verse one, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. And then he gives us three examples. He gives us the example we're considering this morning, giving to the needy. He also mentions the example of prayer and the example of religious fasting. But we focus on the first specific example that he gives here in verse two. He says, thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward." Again, Jesus here gives the first of these three specific kinds of examples of performative religion. And here he gives instruction on giving to the needy. And he mentions those who are hypocrites. The Greek term is hypocrite. And it's interesting, friends. In the older Greek, the word hypocrite meant an actor. It was a term that applied to the theater. And so ancient actors, ancient hypocrites, if you will, Perhaps a lot of actors today are hypocrites too, but hypocrisy is something that extends beyond any particular calling in life. It's very common among fallen mankind. But in the ancient world, these hypocrites, these theater actors would often change masks when they played different roles on stage. And so this term came to evolve and came to expand to include beyond the theater to include those who play roles in life and who see the world as their stage. In other words, those who are inauthentic, those who live their lives to get acclaim from others and they pretend to be that which they are not in fact. Again, Jesus says of such, truly I say to you, he says amen or verily, truly I say to you, They have received their reward. They desire human acclaim. They desire human recognition and human praise. That's all they're gonna get. They're not gonna get divine approval, divine recognition. They get human praise alone. That's it for their reward. And Jesus repeats this warning two more times in this section. He had made the warning in verse one. He repeats it here in verse two. He also makes the warning down in verse five when he talks about prayer. He says, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. And then skip down to verse 16. Jesus says in verse 16, and when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. You get the point? He drives the point home through this repetition. Now, important clarification that needs to be made here. Is Jesus saying that it is somehow wrong or sinful to give to the genuinely needy? And by the way, when Jesus talks about the needy, he's talking about what they used to call the worthy needy. He's not talking about people who are needy because they've made sinful choices or because they're lazy or because they're entitled and they're gaming the system. He's talking about those who are in genuine need. Well, it should be obvious, brothers and sisters, that our Lord is not here condemning acts of generosity toward the needy. Rather, he is pointing out that God is concerned about the heart motivation behind giving to the needy. He's not only concerned about what we do for the needy, although he certainly is concerned about that, but at a deeper level, our Lord is even more concerned about why we do what we do for the needy. But having said that, understand that generosity to the needy, the genuinely needy, is itself commanded in God's law, and it was reinforced in the prophets of God in the Old Testament. Just to give you a couple samples of that, let's go to Deuteronomy 15, Deuteronomy chapter 15, and let me just quickly read verses seven through 11. Prophet Moses, as he's instructing the children of Israel as they are preparing to go in and conquer the promised land, he writes this. under the Spirit's inspiration, he says, And notice that even Moses, under the Old Covenant, he speaks to the heart here. He says, And you say, the seventh year, the year of release is near. And your eye looked grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing. And he cried to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. you shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land, therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land. So again, God's law expects this kind of generosity from God's people. After all, God has been so generous to us. If we have received the gracious generosity of God, that generosity should flow out of our lives and be expressed to others as well. And as an example of the prophets taking the people of God to task for their lack of generosity for neglecting the poor. Let's turn to Amos 2 and let me just read verses 6 and 7. Amos 2, verses 6 and 7. Hosea, Joel, Amos 2, verses 6 through 7. The Lord says this, it says, thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not revoke the punishment because they sell the righteous for silver. In other words, they oppress and the needy for a pair of sandals who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted and so forth. And not only that, not only does God's law expect generosity from God's people, not only do the prophets enforce generosity, but generosity toward the needy will also be brought forward on the judgment day as evidence that our faith in Christ was a true and living and genuine faith. As we are here in Matthew, let's turn to Matthew 25, and let me just quickly read verses 34 to 40. Matthew 25, verses 34 through 40. And here, Jesus is painting the scene of the final judgment, and he talks about the separation of the sheep, who are the righteous, the saved, and the goats, who are the lost. And here's what he says. about those on the right hand of King Jesus on the day of judgment. Verse 34, then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous," I love this answer, then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you and naked and clothe you? In other words, when did we do all these great things you say that we've done? All we remember being were dirty, rotten sinners. You were so gracious to us. When did you see us doing these things? And Jesus says, Verse 40, and the king will answer, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Now many folks misread this passage or misunderstand this passage as if Jesus was saying that deeds of charity are a condition for entering into heaven. But the fact that that's not what Jesus is saying here is made very clear in the opening words of the King, recorded in verse 34, where the King, Jesus, says, come, you who are blessed of my Father, they've been blessed with the blessing, with the gift of salvation, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. In other words, they're chosen, they're elected from before the foundation of the world by his grace. But because they are blessed and chosen, this is how they showed the reality of their faith. And so the generosity described in this judgment passage is a generosity that was produced by grace, not a result of works. But what do we learn from this warning? A couple quick things by way of application. Dear listener, are you a man-pleaser or a God-pleaser? Are your acts of charity and piety motivated by a desire to seek human praise, human acclaim, or by the desire to glorify and please your loving Heavenly Father for the gracious generosity that He has showered upon you through your Savior, Jesus Christ? May God grant us the grace to be God-pleasers, not man-pleasers. And that leads to my next and final point. It'll be a brief one, I assure you. Consider next an earnest call to pure kingdom piety. An earnest call to pure kingdom piety. Jesus says in verse three, But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And here's the promise, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Don't look for validation and accolades from man, from your fellow men and women. Look for the approval of God. And as you do these acts with self-forgetfulness, you do them for the glory of God. Now in verse three, think of it, think of the context. Our Lord Jesus has seriously warned us against the pitfalls of performative religion. But now, having warned us and told us what to avoid, He now gives us instructions on how we are to give in a manner that aligns with the values of God's kingdom. Now, notice the language. First, notice that he says, when you give to the needy. He doesn't say, if you give to the needy, this is how you are to give. No, he says, when you give to the needy. to the needy. This is how you are to give. You see, showing generosity and kindness to the genuinely needy is a kingdom value. It is a value of the kingdom of God. And our Lord Jesus expects that his disciples will be characterized by such kingdom generosity. And then he says, he explains what this looks like. He says, when you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, as if each of our hands has a brain of its own and can act on its own. Obviously, Jesus is speaking figuratively here, but the point that he's making in this language is that genuine generosity to the needy ought to be done in a manner that is as self-forgetful as possible. When you give to the needy, you shouldn't be thinking, ah, I'm such a good guy. I can pat myself on the back. Aren't I wonderful? Aren't I great? Instead, you should give spontaneously and then move on to the next thing. as Jesus goes on to say in verse four, so that your giving may be in secret. In other words, genuine kingdom generosity is not done to show off, it's not done to get attention or validation or praise from others, it's certainly not done to get clicks or likes or subscribers online, as seems to be the case with some of these random acts of kindness videos that I mentioned at the beginning of my sermon. Instead, it is a generosity that flows naturally and spontaneously out of a heart and life that have been touched by the amazing, forgiving, justifying, transforming grace of God. The grace of God that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has secured for us by His redeeming work, His life and death and resurrection. The grace of God. that has been sealed to us by the Holy Spirit who has caused us to be born again and to become followers of Jesus. Such kingdom generosity is the fruit of divine grace and not the product of human worthiness or human will or human effort. And that is why our Heavenly Father graciously rewards it. For in rewarding such acts of self-forgetful, secretive generosity to the genuinely needy, God our Father is rewarding the fruits of his own transforming grace. Dear listener, the only way to avoid the pitfalls of performative religion and to practice the pure piety of God's kingdom is to be a part of God's kingdom, to be a citizen of the kingdom of God. Are you a citizen of God's kingdom, dear listener? In other words, have you accepted and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ alone as your very own Savior and Lord? Christ who died upon the cross, Christ the God-man who died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and who rose from the dead so that whoever believes in him by faith might not perish but have life everlasting. Come to Christ today, receive him as your Savior and Lord, and you will experience the divine generosity in your own life. And the outflow of that generosity, that divine generosity, is that the Lord, in his sanctifying grace, will make you more and more generous toward others. Amen. Let us pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, we thank you for your divine generosity to us in Christ. We ask that you would grant us the grace to demonstrate kingdom generosity to others, that we might bear good fruits and bear faithful witness to our Savior. For it is in his name that we pray, and all of God's people said, amen. As we respond to the preaching of God's word, let's rise and we'll sing him 488. May the mind of Christ my Savior.