The Righteousness of Those

The Righteousness of Those Whose Live’s Are Ruled By God - 5:17-7:12

2 • Character: (5:3-12) • Influence upon the world: (5:13-16) • Righteousness MUST EXCEED the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees: (5:17-20) • Dealings with others: (5:21-48)

3 Jesus strikes at the heart of hypocrisy - Pride & Worldliness!

4 Three Areas of Religious Piety: Benevolence – Man-ward Prayer – God-ward Fasting – self-ward

5 True righteousness & piety rest not upon our relationship with people and things - but our relationship with God! The “first” commandment is essential to the “second” - (Mark 12:29-31)

6 • True righteousness & piety reaches to heart depth - (Deut 10:12; 30:6; Mat 22:37-40; Mark 12:29-31; Rom 2:29; Eph 6:6) • True righteousness & piety has the right motive & attitude - NOT merely right words and deeds! - (1 Tim 1:5; 1 Thes 4:1; Eph 4:1-3; Col. 1:9-12)

7 “Mere worship and generosity do not give a man sure refuge from evil. Satan will follow right into the place of prayer and turn his very worship into sin. A man must keep his heart pure and his love true. God must be the object of everything!” [Paul Earnhart, Invitation To A spiritual Revolution; page 71]

8 Matthew 6:1–4 (NKJV) 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.2Therefore, 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.

9 Matthew 6:1–4 (NKJV) 3But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,4that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • Religion can be easily corrupted into acts of self-righteousness and pride. • "Practicing your righteousness" all acts of obedience & service to God. • “Before men, to be seen by them” - in order to receive human acknowledgement and praise for ourselves. • When our religion is motivated by pride and arrogance - even the right and good things we do are corrupted - (Amos 5:21,22; Mic 6:8)

11 Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • Jesus condemns ALL hypocritical acts of righteousness! (2,5,6,16) • If, in the innermost being of our heart, we do not mean to please and glorify God, HE WILL NOT REWARD us! • The end does not justify the means OR THE MOTIVE!

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” 57.111δικαιοσύνηd, ης f; ἐλεημοσύνηa, ης f: to give to those in need as an act of mercy—‘acts of charity, alms, giving to the needy.’. . . your prayers and acts of charity have gone up as a memorial before God’ Ac 10:4. Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.). New York: United Bible Societies.

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” 1. “mercy, pity” . . ., especially “as exhibited in giving alms, charity”: Matthew 6:4; ποιειν εληεμοσυνην, to practise the virtue of mercy or beneficence, to show one’s compassion (A.V. “do alms”) (cf. the similar phrases δικαιοσυνην, αληθειαν, etc. ποιειν), Matthew 6:1 . . . εληεμοσυνας, acts of beneficence, benefactions (cf. Winer’s Grammar, 176 (166); Buttmann, 77 (67)), Acts 10:2; εις τινα, Acts 24:17. Hence,2. “the benefaction itself, a donation to the poor, alms”Thayer Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • It’s not a matter of “IF” but “When!” • "That you do not do your charitable deeds (acts of righteousness) before men, to be seen by them . . ." - (1) • “when you do a charitable deed” - (2) • “But when you do a charitable deed” - (3) • “That your charitable deed may be in secret” - (4)

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” Psalm 41:1 (NKJV) 1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Blessed is he who considers the poor; The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” Proverbs 21:13 (NKJV) 13 Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor Will also cry himself and not be heard.

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” James 2:15-16 (NKJV) 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” 1 John 3:17-18 (NKJV) 17 But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • An individual’s charity • Not limited to church contributions - (1 Thes 5:15) • Not limited to brethren - (Luke 6:35; Gal 6:10) • Not limited to money - (Mk 3:4; Acts 3:3:6) • Not limited to the rich - (2 Cor 8:2) • Governed by principles - [doing good may be just the opposite of what they want] - (2 Thes 3:10; Eph. 5:7,11)

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • The warning is to the “How” & “Why!” • “do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them” - (1) • “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.” (2) • “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; “- (3,4)

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • Do not advertise your good deed! • It is possible to do GOOD things for corrupt reasons! (that they may have glory from men) • Pride, one’s ego, is responsible for the problem of self promotion. • “Pride dies ONLY when self is forgotten” “as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets”

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • Do not advertise your good deed! • Not forbidding doing good while in the sight of others - 5:13-16; Phili 2:15; Ac 2:44-45; 4:34-37 • Striving for godly character that cannot be hidden in contrast with the hypocrites, who seek for merely a reputation for piety! “as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets”

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” “Does this mean that it is wrong to give openly? Must all giving be anonymous? Not necessarily, for everyone in the early church knew that Barnabas had given the income from the sale of his land (Acts 4:34–37). When the church members laid their money at the Apostles’ feet, it was not done in secret. The difference, of course, was in the motive and manner in which it was done. A contrast is Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–11), who tried to use their gift to make people think they were more spiritual than they really were.” - Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • Do not glory in your charity! • Not forbidding us to reflect upon our actions – 2 Cor 13:5; Gal 6:4 • But - Our reflection must delve beyond our actions into the MOTIVE for our actions! - 1 Tim 1:5; 1 Jn 3:20,21 • Forbidding the attitude of self-righteousness - Luke 18:9-14- “that your charitable deed may be in secret”

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • Do not glory in your charity! • "The right [hand], [represents] me with my good deed; the left, me with my good opinion about my deed." (LENSKI) • “As much as possible a person must keep his voluntary contribution a secret not only to others but even to himself; that is, he should forget about it, instead of saying in his heart, 'What a good man, woman, boy, girl, am I!'" (HENDRICKSEN) “that your charitable deed may be in secret”

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • A sincere desire to be pleasing to God • The Lord’s disciple is not concerned that others are aware of the good done - nor does he / she become lifted up with self-righteousness – • The Lord’s disciple just wants to be an extension of God’s love and mercy - 2 Cor. 1:3,4; 8:1-9

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” Jesus Condemns Both The spirit that seeks praise from others OR self!

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love”

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” Jesus strikes at the heart of hypocrisy - Pride & Worldliness! Selfishness Greed Materialism Worry Luke 16:19-31 Luke 18:18-23 Ego Arrogance Self Righteousness Judgmental Luke 18:9-14 Matthew 23:5-12

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • Benevolence – 2-4 • Prayer – 5-15 • Fasting – 16-18 • Covetousness -19-23 • Divided heart - 24 • Anxiety – 25-34

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” • Jesus didn’t die so you could seek the praises of men or that you may be honored by men. • Jesus didn’t die so you can feel good about yourself and think about how good you are! • Jesus died that you may be reconciled to God and live with Him forever! Will you forfeit the eternal for the temporary?

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Corrupts Acts of Love” Matthew 16:24–27 (NKJV) 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Will you forfeit the eternal for the temporary?

Charitable Deeds - “Pride Can Corrupt Acts of Love” Charts by Don McClain Prepared August 1 - 4, 2012 Preached August 5, 2012 West 65th Street church of Christ P.O. Box 190062 Little Rock AR 72219 501-568-1062 Prepared using PPT 2010 Email – donmcclain@sbcglobal.net More PPT & Audio Sermons: http://w65stchurchofchrist.org/donmaccla/2010SermonPage.html Note – Many of the transition effects used in this presentation may be lost using PPT 2007 Viewer http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=cb9bf144-1076-4615-9951-294eeb832823&displaylang=en

Matthew 25:31-40 (NKJV) 31 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

Matthew 25:31-40 (NKJV) 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'

Matthew 25:31-40 (NKJV) 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40 And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'

The Righteousness of Those