Part of the chapter that I want to preach on tonight is the first half of the chapter,
beginning in verse number one, where the Bible reads,
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.
And what I want to preach about tonight is desiring to be seen of men,
doing your good work so that other people will see you, glorify you, praise you.
Jesus spends quite a long time here talking about the fact
that when we do righteous acts or especially charitable acts and help other people,
we should not do it publicly and openly,
hoping to receive some kind of a reward from men in this life.
He says that we should do it in secret,
and that our Father in heaven will see in secret and reward us openly.
The Bible says in Proverbs 27, you don't have to turn there, but it says,
Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips.
And here Jesus is talking about people who would give alms
and then sound a trumpet before them.
That people literally did that in his day, as ridiculous as that sounds.
Now we probably can't really picture that,
but probably the modern day equivalent of this would be to maybe do a Facebook status
about the alms that you gave, you know, a little tweet or whatever,
you know, would be the 2015 equivalent.
But what does it mean to do alms?
Alms is when you give to the poor.
This isn't talking about giving to church or anything.
This is talking about giving to someone who needs help,
you know, giving some money to a poor person.
He's saying when you do it, he says,
Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.
Verse four, that thine alms may be in secret,
and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Then he says in verse five,
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 has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret,
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
See, prayer is something where people don't really know whether you're doing it or not.
There's really no outward manifestation.
Now, we can tell who's reading their Bible and who's not,
because when you talk to some people, they clearly know the Bible,
and then other people have no clue what you're talking about
when you refer to certain Bible stories.
So that's something that can be outwardly seen,
but really, prayer is one of those things
where no one has any way of knowing whether or not you pray.
And really, the only motive to pray is that you actually have faith
that the Lord is going to hear your prayers and answer them
and do something for you.
Really, it's never to be seen of men unless you're just doing it in public openly,
and Jesus is saying that our prayers should be done in secret.
Now, obviously, there is a time to pray publicly.
The Bible says, I will therefore that men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting, in 1 Timothy chapter 2.
But the Bible talks about people making long prayers in public,
just in order to be seen of men, just in order to put on a big show.
You know, there is a time to pray publicly,
but public prayers should be brief, and they should be from the heart,
not, you know, okay, let me pray, you know, let's pray.
You know, you have it all printed out like these politicians
and these, you know, big name televangelist types do.
You know, when we pray publicly, it should be from the heart,
it should be short and sweet.
You know, the real prayer that we spend time with God
should be privately in the closet, door shut,
where no one knows that we're praying except us.
And then the Bible says that God will see that in secret and reward us openly.
We should not seek to exalt ourselves and boast and show everybody,
hey, look how spiritual I am, because that is what hypocrites do, the Bible says.
We should not be concerned with showing everyone all of our righteousness
and how good we are and how holy we are.
And when you see a person that goes around doing that,
they're usually a bad person.
According to the Bible, these are hypocrites.
These are bad people who are just putting on a fake show.
The Bible says in verse 17,
but thou when thou fastest anoint thine head and wash thy face,
that thou appear not unto men to fast,
but unto thy father, which is in secret
and thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
Here we're talking about fasting, which is abstaining from food
or even abstaining from food and water for a short period of time.
And the Bible is saying that when we fast,
nobody should know about it.
We should anoint our head, wash our face, not walk around with a sad countenance,
just making sure that everyone knows how much we're suffering
for Jesus right now when we're fasting.
Now flip over to Matthew chapter 23, if you would, Matthew chapter 23.
And look at verse number five.
This is talking about the Pharisees who were big hypocrites of Jesus's day.
And being a hypocrite simply means that you're an actor.
You're putting on a show for people and you want people to think highly of you.
And the bottom line is it only matters what God thinks of us,
not what our fellow man thinks of us.
We shouldn't go around trying to impress other people with how great we are.
The Bible says that we should humble ourselves and let God exalt us in due time
as he sees fit, but not to exalt ourselves.
The Bible says he that humbleth himself shall be exalted,
but he that exalted himself shall be abased or brought down, the Bible says.
Look at Matthew 23 verse five.
It says, but all their works they do for to be seen of men,
they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments
and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues
and greetings in the markets and to be called of men, rabbi, rabbi.
See wicked people, such as the Pharisees that he's referring to,
they revel in being a big shot, right?
Making sure that everybody knows how important they are.
They've got the clothes, they've got the attitude, they've got the titles,
and they go around making sure that everybody knows how righteous, how holy they are.
Instead of just going around with a humble attitude,
just being a normal down to earth person with a servant's heart, okay?
Flip over to Luke chapter 14, if you would, Luke chapter number 14.
And we always need to be careful that this doesn't creep in to our attitude
where we start doing good things for God and we start achieving something for God
and then we want to go around and brag about it
or make sure that everybody sees what we're doing.
You know, if we go out soul winning,
want to make sure everybody knows that we were out soul winning,
everybody sees what we're doing,
anything that we do shouldn't have to be publicly shown.
In fact, if you do something for God and no one knows about it,
then you're getting a greater reward, the Bible says,
because he says the ones who sound the trumpet to be seen of men,
he said, verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
That's the reward.
Everybody's seeing you do it, all the accolades you get,
that's your reward and the Bible says you have no reward of your father which is in heaven.
Is that really a trade-off that you're willing to make?
Just that moment in the sun where everybody sees how righteous you are
and then you're losing out on what God can give you which is a much greater reward.
You know, there are a lot of people who do a lot of good works in this church
that are unseen, they're behind the scenes.
Obviously I'm up here preaching the sermon,
that's front and center in the spotlight,
everybody knows that I'm here three times a week preaching,
but what about the people who clean the building?
You know, what about the people who are running the sound and video equipment?
What about the people who put together the bulletin
or put together all the different activities that we do in the plant?
There's a lot that goes into this church that isn't readily apparent,
but yet people are working hard
and it could even come into those people's minds,
I'm not being appreciated.
You know, here I am vacuuming the carpet, sweeping the floor,
washing the toilets, you know, planning this activity,
planning the meals for the pregnant ladies or the ladies who've just given birth
and here I am doing all this work,
I'm making the bulletin, I'm doing whatever
and nobody sees the work that I'm doing,
but if that thought comes into your mind
and you start feeling sorry for yourself
because nobody appreciates what you're doing,
you know, you're looking at it all wrong,
you should be rejoicing,
hey, nobody sees what I'm doing,
but God sees what I'm doing,
God appreciates what I'm doing
and in fact I'm getting a maximum reward in heaven
because I'm working behind the scenes,
humbly doing my job,
being a part of the team, a part of the church,
making things happen,
you know, that's the attitude that we should have.
We shouldn't go through life expecting to be rewarded right now all the time
and to be recognized and thanked for everything that we do
because we should know that God's always watching,
he's going to thank us,
he's going to reward us and that's better anyway.
Look at Luke chapter 14 verse 8,
it says,
When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding,
sit not down in the highest room,
lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him.
And he that bade thee and him,
come and say to thee,
give this man place,
and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
But when thou art bidden,
go and sit down in the lowest room,
that when he that bade thee cometh,
he may say unto thee,
friend, go up higher,
then shalt thou of worship in the presence of them
that sit at meet with thee,
for whosoever exalted themselves shall be abased,
and he that humbled themselves shall be exalted.
Then said he also to him that bade him,
when thou makest a dinner or a supper,
call not thy friends, nor thy brethren,
neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors,
lest they also bid thee again,
and a recompense be made thee.
But when thou makest a feast,
call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind,
and thou shalt be blessed,
for they cannot recompense thee,
for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
The Bible is saying here,
that if you do things for people
that are never going to do anything for you in return,
that's the best good deed you can ever do,
because God must reward you for that.
The Bible says,
he that giveth unto the poor lendeth to the Lord,
and that God will pay back that which is lent.
And so when we are doing things with an attitude that says,
I want something in return,
it's the wrong attitude,
and we're losing our reward in heaven.
Here he talks about a guy who goes to a wedding
and takes the chief seat,
sits down in the best place,
always going to the front of the line.
God's saying that even on this earth,
that's eventually going to get you humiliated,
because somebody's going to tell you,
hey buddy, there's somebody here more important than you,
you need to back down,
you need to go to the back of the line,
and then you're going to be embarrassed and humiliated.
It's always better to take the most humble seat
and have someone ask you,
step forward, you know,
go to the front of the line,
or here, sit in a better place.
Then he goes straight into this story about,
you know, making a dinner and inviting rich friends,
because you're thinking,
hey, I want them to invite me over,
I'm going to give these people a gift
in order to give a gift in return.
And what he's saying here is that we should do things
for people that can't return it to us,
because they're poor, they're lame,
they're blind, et cetera.
And you know, especially around Christmas time,
this really bothers me,
when people have this attitude
where they're going to give gifts,
but then they expect gifts in return.
And I think it's a terrible attitude
when we ever expect gifts from anyone.
I mean, the whole point of a gift
is that it's not something that's earned,
it's something that's given for free,
just like salvation is a free gift.
And the Bible teaches that it's not of works
lest any man should boast.
So it's not something that we work for,
it's just given to us.
And you know, I go into Christmas with an attitude
that I don't expect anybody to give me anything.
And you should go into your birthday,
not expecting my son's birthday tomorrow,
so this is for you, son, all right?
But you should go into your birthday, son,
expecting nothing, all right?
Honestly, that is the right attitude,
because nobody owes us a living,
nobody owes us gifts.
And I do like Christmas,
and I do like birthdays,
because it's a nice time to be able to do nice things for you,
it's a good excuse to be able to give gifts to people
and have fun and rejoice and everything like that.
But I don't like it when I feel obligated
to give gifts to people that I don't want to give gifts to.
It's just an empty feeling.
You know, it's just like, wait a minute,
why am I feeling like I have to give someone a gift?
You know, if I give somebody a gift,
I want to feel like I'm doing it
out of the goodness of my heart.
And the Bible says, you know,
not by constraint, but willingly,
let every man give as he purposes in his heart.
It says, because God loves a cheerful giver.
So it's great when we give something as a gift,
because we want to,
because we love someone and want to show them affection.
That's why sometimes I prefer to give people gifts
just at off times, not even at Christmas or birthday,
just because then it's more sincere that way,
like you're just giving it from the heart.
But I can honestly say that I go into each birthday
and Christmas expecting nothing,
because if you expect nothing,
then anything that's given to you is a bonus.
It's extra instead of going into it
and then getting disappointed because, you know,
I wanted something bigger or grander than what I got.
It's a horrible attitude to have.
We should give people something at Christmas
or at a birthday not thinking,
well, if I give them X,
then I'm going to receive Y.
Or even this attitude that tries to calculate
how much is being spent.
Well, I don't want to spend more or less.
It kind of just ruins the whole spirit of it.
And sometimes I've gotten phone calls from relatives,
what are we doing for Christmas?
How much are we spending?
I'm like, whoa, nothing.
Just because I don't like that.
It ruins it for me.
And Jesus is teaching here that when we give,
whenever we give anything, it should be from the heart
and it should be with no strings attached.
I mean, isn't that how salvation is?
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
And there's no strings attached.
He gives you the gift of eternal life.
And even if you do nothing for him,
you still have that gift.
All you have to do is just receive it.
Now you receive it by believing.
You know, you do have to take the gift.
You can't reject the gift or ignore the gift.
But when the gift of salvation is offered to you,
you receive the gift by believing in Jesus Christ.
And then once you've received it, it's yours now.
And he doesn't say, okay, now you have to give this to me or else.
No, no, no.
It's just a free gift, no strings attached.
And then if you turn around and do good deeds for the Lord,
he'll reward you for those because they have nothing to do with your salvation.
Salvation is purchased as a free gift by the blood of Christ.
Now, even in marriage, this is something that can creep in.
An attitude that says, well, I did this for you.
So now it's your turn to do this for me.
This is how a lot of people approach marriage
with a quid pro quo kind of attitude,
a tit for tat mentality that says, well, I did this for you.
Now I expect you to do X for me, right?
I gave you this.
Now, well, why don't you give me this?
Now, when we, you're going to be a lot happier in marriage
if you learn as a husband to just give something to your wife
or do something for your wife, expecting nothing in return.
And this attitude where you get angry at your spouse
because you're giving so much and you're doing so much for them.
And, and this is a one-sided deal.
And you know, maybe you just need to give less.
Maybe you just need to do less.
If you can't give and do from the heart,
expecting nothing in return, you know,
you shouldn't give more than you can give
without expecting anything back.
And then the same goes for wives.
Obviously, you know, if you're a wife and,
and you do a lot of nice things for your husband,
you know, when you get an attitude,
I do all this for him and he doesn't do anything for me.
You know, you're doing it for the wrong reason.
You should do things for people out of a heart of love
and expect nothing in return.
Now, I think that when somebody does something for you,
you should thank them, right?
Somebody gives you something or does something nice for you.
You know, ideally you should thank that person
and maybe even do something nice for them in return would be great.
But you know, this attitude that just demands that is a bad attitude.
You know, and I've had people give me a gift, okay.
And then I didn't thank them for it.
And they just turned around and hated me
and just, just vitriol and anger.
And it's like, wait a minute.
Why did you even give me this?
I didn't ask for this gift.
Why are you hating on me?
Because I did not properly thank you for this gift
because sometimes I'll get a lot of gifts
because I'm a pastor,
because I'm, I have a lot of people who look to me
and, and so all people will send me
all kinds of stuff in the mail.
Sometimes I'll just get the mail
and just there's all kinds of stuff showing up.
Whoa, where did this come from?
Cool.
Yeah.
Okay, great.
But you know, sometimes I can't even keep track of stuff
that people give me sometimes.
And so I don't always have a chance to sit down
and you know, properly thank every,
especially when it's from someone that I don't even know.
You know, it's hard to remember who stuff came from
if you don't even know who they are,
if you've never met that person.
But you know, I appreciate it.
And honestly, I just, I just kind of look at it
every good gift is from above
and coming down from the father of lights
with whom is no variable
in the sight of the shadow of eternity.
And you know, in a perfect world,
yeah, you know what?
I'd be better at, at thanking people.
I'd be better.
And I'm not saying that I'm perfect here.
Obviously this is something that I can improve on,
but you know what?
It shows just a wrong spirit
when you give something to somebody
and then you just want to be recognized.
And that's what it's all about.
I mean, is that why you give things to people?
I mean, if I gave something to somebody,
you know, I'm not just looking for recognition.
And if I am, then my spirit is in the wrong place.
So if you can't give something to somebody
just because you love them
and care about them and want them to have it
and expect nothing in return,
then just stop giving
because you should be able to give with that attitude
or not at all
and not hang things over people's heads
and get angry at people
because they didn't give you enough credit
or accolades or thanks for what you gave unto them.
The Bible says in Luke chapter six,
if you'll flip over there,
just a few pages to the left in your Bible
from where you are.
It says in Luke chapter six, verse 34,
and if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive,
what thank have ye?
For sinners also lend to sinners
to receive as much again.
But love ye your enemies
and do good and lend hoping for nothing again.
And your reward shall be great
and ye shall be the children of the highest.
Watch this for he is kind unto the unthankful
and to the evil.
So the Bible is saying here that when you give,
when you lend hope for nothing again,
expect nothing in return.
Don't do it with this attitude of
you better recognize what I gave.
You better mention me from the pulpit
or put my name in the bulletin
or print my name on the golden plaque of donors
and you know,
make sure that I get all the credit
and all the accolades.
Is this what the Bible teaches?
No, go to Acts chapter five,
Acts chapter number five.
Acts chapter number five,
the Bible says in verse number one,
but a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira,
his wife, sold a possession
and kept back part of the price,
his wife also being privy to it
and brought a certain part
and laid it at the apostles feet.
Now just to give you the context
at the end of chapter four talks about
how a lot of the believers in the early church,
because there were a lot of people who had need,
they were going out and selling pieces of property
that they had and just bringing all the money
and just laying at the apostles feet
so that they could make distribution
to the necessity of the saints.
Well, here's a guy who sells a piece of land
and kept back part of the price
and he brings part of the price,
but he puts it forth as if it's the whole price.
Like I sold the land and here's all the money.
Now, why is he doing that?
Because he wants to receive recognition and accolades.
He's doing it to be seen of men.
Verse three, but Peter said, Ananias,
why has Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost
and to keep back part of the price of the land?
Walls it remained, was it not thine own?
And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?
So what's he saying?
You didn't have to give anything.
You didn't have to give any money.
You didn't have to bring any.
It was your land.
It was in your power.
You can do whatever you want,
but why has thou conceived this thing in thine heart?
Thou is not lied unto men, but unto God.
Verse five, and Ananias hearing these words
fell down and gave up the ghost.
And great fear came on all them that heard these things.
And the young men arose, wound him up,
and carried him out and buried him.
And it was about the space of three hours after
when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
And Peter answered unto her,
tell me whether you sold the land for so much.
And she said, yay for so much.
Then Peter said unto her,
how is it that you've agreed together
to tempt the spirit of the Lord?
Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband
are at the door and shall carry thee out.
Then fell she down straightway at his feet
and yielded up the ghost.
And the young men came in and found her dead,
and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
And great fear came upon all the church
and upon as many as heard these things.
So why is it that God punished this so harshly
where these people died for lying about this?
It's because God didn't want this attitude
to creep into the early church
where people are just putting on a big show
and hey, look at our good works that we're doing.
And they're showing off.
These people are clearly doing it for the wrong reason
because they're lying about it,
trying to make it sound like they're doing even more
for God than they're really even doing
just to be a hypocrite.
Now look at Luke chapter number six.
Because not only does the Bible teach over and over again
that when we do good deeds,
we shouldn't do it to get something in return.
We shouldn't do it to get accolades and glory of men,
but we should rather do it
so that God will be pleased with us
and that we'll be rewarded of the Lord
and just let him be the judge
and let him exalt us as he sees fit.
Let him reward us.
But also the Bible warns us about preachers
who receive a lot of accolades of men
where they're glorified of this world
and loved of the world.
And let me tell you something.
There are many preachers who go into preaching,
pastoring in order to receive glory of men,
in order to be seen of men,
in order to be a big shot.
I mean, preachers are often big shots.
You know, there are preachers
that are really popular and well known.
And in fact, they even hobnob with, you know,
the mayor of the city and the police chief
and they're in the ministerial association
and then they go to the presidential prayer breakfast
and they hang around with the other big shot preachers
and they go to the big conferences
and they preach at the conferences
and they get the steak and the lobster dinner
and they're glorified of men and lifted up and exalted.
They're handed all kinds of awards
and titles and doctorates and what, you know, PhD
and all this stuff.
It's so funny, these titles that a pastor use,
PhD, DD, MA, MS, BS, okay?
And they use these titles, right?
Why is everybody laughing at that one?
But anyway, you know, they use all these titles.
Why?
To be seen of men, to be glorified of men.
I mean, you think Jesus went around
with a bunch of titles like that, doctor?
I mean, look, unless you're wearing a stethoscope
around your neck, don't call yourself doctor.
It's just all it is is just foolish pride and vainglory.
The Bible says, let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind,
let each esteem other better than themselves.
Didn't Jesus take upon himself the form of a servant
and was found in fashion as a man
and he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross?
Didn't he put off his robe from him
and wrap himself in a towel and wash the disciples feet?
Or was he going around calling himself master of theology,
doctor of divinity?
I mean, these titles are ridiculous and stupid.
I mean, look, to get that many titles,
it's like you're a professional wrestler or something.
The master of disaster, the doctor of divinity,
you know, all these masters of the all masters
of the universe, He-Man and She-Ra, it's foolishness.
It's ridiculous.
And some of these guys that call themselves doctor
are as dumb as a brick anyway.
And then they're like doctor so and so.
You know, I gotta say one of the biggest examples,
I got this newsletter from Sam Gipp.
The guy literally could not, he couldn't even form
the whole, it was a two page letter.
There was not one paragraph that was in proper English.
It was like reading an Uncle Remus story
to read this newsletter.
And it's like, Sam Gipp PhD.
It's like, whoa, get a proofreader, buddy.
You can't even form one good sentence.
And there's not a single paragraph in here
that's in proper English.
Just, it was like just a butchery
of the English language, but he's a language expert.
He only speaks one language, English,
but he's an expert on translation
of the King James version.
But anyway, it's just like, whoa, buddy.
Why don't you take it down the notch
and why don't you remove those three stupid letters
after your name because you look like a fool
when we're looking at your newsletter.
See, the proof is in the pudding.
You know, if somebody is a language expert,
we could probably tell that by the language that they use.
And if somebody is an expert,
we probably need someone else to tell us that, not you.
To tell us that you're an expert
on the King James Bible.
I'm an expert on language.
You know, did I mention that I'm a PhD doctor of divinity,
master of theology, bachelor of science?
Okay, it's dumb, you know, but the world,
the world, they take this stuff seriously.
But you know what?
God's up in heaven, not impressed.
People who really love the Bible
aren't really impressed by these titles
that are given by man.
You know, the only titles that really mean anything
are the titles that God gives.
You know, God gives titles of pastor and deacon,
bishop, elder.
Those titles actually mean something
because they're actually given by God.
And they're not titles that have to do
with exalting yourself.
You know, the only person who was ever called a doctor
in the Bible were the Pharisees.
That's it.
Only the Pharisees use that title, doctor.
But these preachers, doctor, so and so, you know.
Whoa, where are you getting that title, buddy?
From Gamaliel himself?
But look what the Bible says in Luke chapter 6 verse 26.
It says, woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you,
for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
Now the Bible is telling us here
that there's nothing new under the sun, okay?
And he's saying in the past,
all men spoke well of the false prophets.
And he's basically saying it's no different today.
He's saying, woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you.
Now he's saying, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
The people today that are praising the false prophets
are the children of the people who praise the false prophets of the past.
And false prophets have always been spoken well of by the world.
Jesus said, if the world hates you,
you know that it hated me before it hated you.
He said, marvel not my brethren if the world hates you.
He said that the world, he said they are of the world,
therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them.
Okay?
The world loves its own.
The preacher of the word of God that is a true prophet,
he's not of this world.
So he's hated of this world.
He's not going to be accepted of the world.
Now I love this phrase in 2 Corinthians 6.
You don't have to turn there, but in 2 Corinthians 6,
the apostle Paul is talking about some of their trials and tribulations as apostles.
And I love this phrase that he says to describe himself and his fellow preachers.
He says, as unknown and yet well known.
I love that phrase as unknown and yet well known.
What does he mean by that?
He's saying, we're not famous and popular in the world circles,
but we're well known in God's sight.
We're well known amongst God's people.
We're not looking for accolades on this earth.
We're unknown.
We're unknown preachers, but we're wrong.
Now look, is Paul unknown today?
No, because God exalted him in due time and he's immortalized in scripture.
Right?
We can look in the Bible and see all these great prophets of God by name lifted up
because God exalted them in due time.
But there are a lot of prophets in the Bible that are unnamed.
When you're reading the old Testament, it'll just say a man of God came and preached
or the spirit of law came upon this prophet and he preached.
But that guy, even though he's unknown is well known because we're reading about him in the
Bible and someday in heaven we'll meet that guy and he will be exalted and lifted up
and we will see who that great preacher was.
Now think about this.
This is a very important point between the Bible times of the new Testament
and the day that we're living in right now.
Don't you think there have been a lot of faithful preachers and great men of God
that have been raised up over the last 2000 years?
I mean, there have probably been all well, not probably most certainly there have been
men of God in every generation, missionaries, preachers, pastors, and even just church
members who weren't pastors, but that were great soul winners and preached the gospel
unto many people and had many people say great Christian men and women through the
years, great preachers, but they're unknown unto us.
We do not know their names.
They're not in the history books, but yet their reward is great in heaven.
On the other hand, we have a lot of famous preachers of the past over the last 2000
years, and these famous preachers are the preachers that the world has chosen to
exalt and lift up for us.
And according to Jesus, these men are false prophets.
That's why all men speak well of them.
That's why they're lifted up as being great men of God.
Now listen to this scripture.
Don't turn there.
But in Ecclesiastes 9 verse 14, it says there was a little city and few men within
it and there came a great king against it and besieged it and built great bulwarks
against it.
Now there was found in it a poor wise man and he by his wisdom delivered the city.
Yet no man remembered that same poor man.
Then said I, wisdom is better than strength.
Nevertheless, the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.
The words of the wise are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among
fools.
The Bible is telling us that what the world looks at is the guy who's got the money and
they want to hear his wisdom.
The poor man's wisdom is despised.
What the world wants is the shiny TV preacher and evangelist.
That's who they're looking to as a great man of God.
The man who saved the little city throughout history over the last 2000 years is unknown
and despised and we won't know his name until we get to heaven.
Now the reason that this is so important to understand is that many people today are
misguided in this thing of, you know, being a historic Baptist.
And so instead of just reading the Bible in our generation, right, this living, breathing
document, the Bible, God's holy word, which liveth and abideth forever with the Holy
Spirit that lives in us right now on September 27th, 2015, we can open this book with the
Holy Spirit and today read this book and understand it and allow God to speak to us
and we can get a full understanding of sound doctrine from the Bible and the Holy
Spirit today.
And then we can go to church and in real time sit and listen to a preacher who has
the Holy Spirit living inside of him preach the word of God to us today and we can
just look at the Bible, listen to the preaching, and the Holy Ghost is there as
our teacher and that's all we need to understand everything that God has in
us to understand in the year 2015.
But there are many people who have this idea that we need to go to preachers of
the past in order to somehow validate and vindicate what we believe today.
And that basically in order to show that what we believe is right, we have to go
dig up some preacher from the 16, 17, 18, 1900s, right?
And he's going to vindicate what we believe just to show that we're preaching
the historic Baptist position or whatever.
Now let me just tell you right now, I don't care what the historic position is
on anything.
All I want to know is what does the Bible say right now?
What does the Bible say right now?
Because I don't know what was happening in the 1800s.
No one does.
Now, the reason that sometimes people can get mixed up on this is because we live in
a day where everything is being documented, everything.
I mean, every sermon that I preach is being recorded, audio, video, then the text is
being transcribed and uploaded to the internet and it's just immortalized.
It'll never go away.
I could say, that's it.
I'm deleting all my sermons.
I'm deleting all this text.
I'm deleting all this video.
It'll never go away because the internet never forgets anything.
Okay.
And you know, I feel bad for the kids that are growing up.
Every stupid thing they do is being uploaded and enshrined forever.
Whereas when we were kids, we did stupid stuff and people just forgot about it after
a while.
You live it down.
Nowadays, it's hard to live anything down because it's always going to be there when
you Google it.
But the thing about it is that because we live in a day where every baby that's being
born is photographed like every day of its life, as opposed to the previous generation,
I mean, we have a couple pictures from each year of our life, right?
We've got a couple pictures here and there.
We got a couple home movies that are clicking on silent film, you know, home movies of
us when we were kids on those silent videos and everything.
And we just have a little bit.
And if I were to ask you about your grandparents and your great grandparents and your great,
great grandparents, you know, you'd be like, whoa, I don't really know.
I mean, you know about your grandparents if you spend time with them, but your great
grandparents, you could hardly even tell me their names probably.
You could hardly tell me anything about their life.
Now, my great grandchildren are going to know who I was.
If they want, they can listen to me preach for thousands of hours.
They can watch just thousands of hours of video, picture, documentation.
They can look at all this, but that's not the way it's been throughout history is what
I'm trying to say.
See, nowadays, any preacher who's preaching in Podunk Hall or to 10 people, you know,
all of his sermons could be on the internet and enshrined and immortalized and it's all
there.
What you have to understand is that in the past, because there wasn't all this technology
and all this video and audio recording, the only people whose words have survived are
pretty much the popular preachers.
Because the only way that you'd really be enshrined from the 16 or 1700s all the way
until today is if somebody was printing a book that you wrote or printing a sermon,
then that would only be the very popular because that'd be so expensive.
Think about today.
Who is preaching today on mainstream TV media?
Whose books are being sold at Barnes and Noble?
Okay, that's the type of people that we would have stuff from in, from the 16, 17, 18,
it's only the big shots of the big shots because there's so little that survives from
several hundred years ago because printing was so expensive that it was super expensive
just to print one book.
And then if we go back to before the printing press, when things were handwritten, I mean,
it's, you know what?
You think that every godly preacher had his words etched in stone for all those
hundreds of years?
So all we have are the most famous, biggest name preachers of the past to go on.
And the question for you tonight is this.
Are the big name preachers today, are any of them preaching the truth?
Are any of the TV preachers serving God faithfully?
No, because today who are the big preachers?
Who are the famous theologians whose words would have been immortalized in the past?
Oh, men like Pope Francis, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, you know, these big, the Kenneth
Copeland, TD, Jake, Joyce Meyer, right?
These are the people that are popular today.
And what people don't, Billy Graham and what people, yeah, John Hagee.
And what people don't understand is that there's nothing new under the sun, friend.
The big famous preachers of today are phony.
But guess what?
The big famous preachers of the past were phony too.
And you are making a big mistake when you want to dig these guys up.
You want to dig up these preachers from the past and let's figure out what they
believed.
You know, when the Bible says, I will get me unto the great men who've known the way
of the Lord, it's talking about people that are alive.
He didn't say, I'm going to get me under the great man and go to a graveyard
with a shovel.
Okay.
When he said, I'll get me under the great man who've known the way of the Lord.
He's talking about people that are alive because people that are alive, we can actually
know what they're like because they're here.
We see them, we hear them.
These people from the past, all we know is that they were big names, that they were
popular, that they were loved of the world.
And that's everything we need to know about them.
They're the wrong people to be listening to.
And we need to honestly just get to the place where we listen to the Bible, number
one, and living, breathing preachers.
Number two, people that we actually can know what they're about and not be stuck
on preachers from hundreds of years ago.
By the way, preachers from hundreds of years ago, they're not preaching on the issues
that we need today anyway, because they dealt with the issues of their day.
Now, the reason I bring this up is because so many people will point to the greats
of the past, like men like Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Billy Sunday, D.O. Moody, you
know, and bring out all the carcasses of these so-called great preachers.
But here's the thing about it.
The true story is that Billy Sunday was the Billy Graham of his day.
He was an ecumenical preacher that was bringing all denominations together that he
would not, if he showed up in a town to preach, his stipulation was that all the
churches in the town had to cancel their Sunday services and all come to his meeting
or he won't come to the town.
He'll go to the next town.
So that way they put pressure on each other.
Hey, we want the we want the big shot to come, the big baseball player, big shot.
I don't even think he's that good at baseball, but, you know, you know,
Christians just love to fall all over themselves when a celebrity turns to Christianity.
It's like they get all starstruck, even though God's not a respecter of persons.
But, you know, they had to cancel.
So basically so that the Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, Baptist can all worship together.
And then he'd show up and preach his false doctrine, false gospel, wrong salvation,
not a Baptist by any stretch of the imagination.
OK, and then at the end of the sermon, this is what he would say.
Pretend like I'm Jesus.
If you want to be saved, come down and shake my hand and you'll be saved.
If you come shake my hand, it's like you're taking Jesus's hand.
So I'm like I'm representing Jesus.
Come on up here and shake my hand and you'll be saved.
OK, and so everybody would line up and shake his hand.
And it was known as the hand that shook a million hands.
And it's quoted today as one million saved.
Billy Sunday had one million saved under his ministry.
But really, it's just probably a lot of people just want to shake his hand because
he's a celebrity.
And you know what?
That's not what the Bible says anywhere.
Shake a preacher's hand and thou shalt be saved.
Where is there anything like that in the Bible?
Hey, pretend like I'm Jesus and come shake my hand.
And if you shake my hand, you're saying I accept you, Jesus.
Come shake my hand.
And he's shaking his hand.
His hand's getting all sore and whatever from shaking so many hands.
The hand that shook a million hands.
But wait a minute.
This is a guy who was a super left-wing preacher of his day, pushing hard for feminism,
women's rights.
Women's rights.
Are these the type of things that we as independent fundamental Baptists have as our values today?
But yet we will promote this guy.
Oh, great preacher of the past and everything.
And don't destroy our heroes.
Hey, I'm not trying to destroy your heroes, but you should have two kinds of heroes.
Heroes in the Bible and people that are actually alive so we can actually see what
they're really like.
Not these people from the past, especially that aren't even the same belief as us.
They're coming from these other, uh, denominations that are in serious doctrinal error.
I mean, we're talking about some of these guys are from denominations that baptize babies.
Is that what we believe?
I mean, we're talking about some of these guys that are lifted up and exalted are from
denominations that believe you can lose your salvation.
I mean, is that the gospel that we preach?
Salvation by works?
You know, people will bring out Charles G.
Finney.
I mean, I've heard this in independent fundamental Baptist churches where Charles G.
Finney is brought out and lift up his heroes of faith.
This is a guy who believed that to go to heaven you have to stop sinning, not even
just be sorry or try not sin.
No, no, no.
He believed in sinless perfection and that you had to be perfectly sinless in order
to be saved.
You cannot be saved if you sin at all.
And he wrote plenty of books about it.
There's plenty of information out there, but yet this guy is lifted up as Charles G.
Finney, the great man of God.
Total fraud.
And the list goes on and on.
You go down the list of these people and you see that these guys are not what they're
cracked up to be.
But yet these people will be lifted up as proofs of certain doctrines.
Well, of course this is the right doctrine.
It's what Charles G. Finney preached.
It's what D.L. Moody preached.
It's what Billy Sunday preached.
And you know, and if it's good enough for Charles Wesley and Spurgeon and it's good
enough for me.
But but a lot of times people don't bother to look up the doctrine.
What about what about John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress when he teaches that you can lose
your salvation?
What about that?
When he explicitly states in Pilgrim's Progress that you can lose your salvation.
But yet that is lifted up as one of our heroes of the faith.
You say, well, why are you doing this pastor?
Why are you bringing that up?
Because we need to we need to understand this.
That the preachers who are exalted of the world and lifted up past, present and future
are the wrong preachers.
And we need to be aware of false prophets, the Bible says.
And we need to say woe unto those preachers where all men speak well of them, because
that's what was said of the false prophets.
Now I'm going to read you this one quote.
There are a lot of quotes like this that I could read.
And these quotes are really telling.
Because you'll have people try to say, well, none of the great preachers of the past
believe this or believe that.
But there are a lot of quotes where you can kind of read between the lines and figure
out that there were a lot of unknown, faithful men of God of the past who've always been
preaching the truth.
You know, one of the issues is repentance.
Where there are those who think that repentance is this thing where you have to give up
your sins to be saved, or be willing to turn from your sins in order to be saved.
And everybody will say that's the historic position.
You know, this new thing of salvation being by faith alone.
That's what they'll try to say.
And it's funny because in this quote from Spurgeon, who's on the wrong side of this,
you know, preaching that, hey, you got to turn from your sins to be saved.
And by the way, he's also teaching Calvinism.
But you'll read quotes from Spurgeon.
Like, for example, there's a quote from Spurgeon where he says, well, you know, there are
a lot of people out there, a lot of preachers out there who are saying that Romans
9 isn't talking about personal salvation, but that it's rather talking about the nations
of Israel and Edom, which is the truth.
If you actually look up those references in the Old Testament, that is what Romans
9 is talking about.
The nations being chosen.
It's not talking about God choosing Jacob to go to heaven and Esau to go to hell.
It's talking about the nation of Israel and the nation of Edom.
Look up the scriptures, look up the references that are referenced in Romans 9.
But see, he teaches the opposite.
But here's what he says.
He says, oh, there's a lot of preachers out there, a lot of preachers out there who are
teaching that this is about the nations, not the individuals.
But what's interesting is you can't find the writings of those guys.
You can't find all the quotes to show that, hey, historically, look at all these
Baptists who believed it right, who were right about Romans 9 or right about that.
You know why?
Because it's gone.
Because nobody cared because they were real men of God who were hated of this world.
And it's funny how, you know, Charles Adams Spurgeon said this, because when it comes to
repentance, the true meaning of repentance in the Bible in regard to salvation is a
change from unbelief to believing on Christ or a change from trusting in one thing to
get to heaven to now trusting in Jesus to get you to heaven.
Maybe you were trusting in your works and then you switched to trusting in Jesus
Christ and his finished work on the cross.
Or maybe you were trusting in, you know, your religion of Buddhism or Hinduism or
Catholicism, and then you turn to the Word of God and Jesus as your savior.
That's the true meaning.
It's a change of mind about, you know, what saves you, for example.
Well, listen to what Spurgeon said.
This is in like 1872.
Just now, some professively Christian teachers are misleading many by saying that repentance
is only a change of mind.
It is true that the original word does convey the idea of a change of mind, but
the whole teaching of Scripture concerning the repentance, which is not to be repented
of, is much more radical and complete change than is implied by our common phrase about
changing one's mind.
The repentance that does not include sincere sorrow for sin is not the saving grace that
is wrought by the Holy Spirit.
You know, it's this Calvinist thing of, well, repentance when you're really sorry
for your sins and that you're so sorry that you're not going to do them anymore
and you're willing to change and you're going to turn your whole life around.
So instead of it being what the Bible says that salvation is by believing in Christ,
now it becomes this whole thing of turning over a new leaf and so forth.
But I just love how he says, oh, there are these preachers out there that are deceiving
many people and saying that repentance is just a change of mind.
But where are all their books?
Where are all their writings?
You know, I mean, I've got the Spurgeon devotional.
I can Google Spurgeon sermons and find every single one of them in triplicate online.
Why?
Because he was pastoring the biggest Baptist church in England at that time.
What about all the other Baptists who were actually preaching sound doctrine,
who he's constantly criticizing?
Those are the real preachers, and we don't know their names and we never will know their names.
We don't know who the faithful preachers of the 1800s were, the 1700s were, the 1600s were,
because if they're not in the history books and if they are in the history books,
they're probably being slandered and lied about.
Oh, man, this weird cult, these evil people, these horrible, you know, wicked sect or
cult or whatever, you know, we don't know the true story.
And what we need to understand is that the only thing we really know for sure is what
we live in right here in 2015.
What's the lay of the land right now?
The real preachers are hated of the world.
The false preachers are exalted and lifted up on TV and media.
What did Jesus say?
The exact same thing, case closed.
We don't need to, and to get this idea that back in the 17 and 1800s, all the popular
preachers were great men of God, but it's just now that it's different.
No, no, no, you're wrong.
It's always been that way.
So all that to say this, go to Ephesians chapter 6, lastly Ephesians chapter 6, all
that to say this, we should not seek to be recognized by man because that recognition
is something that Jesus says that we should avoid.
And the Bible says that that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight
of God.
So if we're going to be one who is lifted up and loved of this world and receive
all the glory and accolades, we're going to have to become an abomination to God.
So the question is, do you want to be an abomination to God?
And do you want to be loved of the world?
Or do you want to be loved of God and an abomination to this world?
Because those are pretty much the two choices.
You can't please both.
And as we go through our lives, we need to check our motivation.
Anytime you're doing alms, anytime you're praying, anytime you're doing good deeds
for the Lord and, and working hard for the Lord, you need to check your motivation
and ask yourself, am I doing this to be Saint of men?
And when you give someone a gift or do something nice for someone, even if it's your spouse,
you know, why are you doing it out of love with a sincere heart?
Are you doing it to be rewarded of the Lord?
Are you doing it so that he'll be pleased with you?
Or are you doing it because you want to get something in return and you want to be
Saint of men?
The Bible says in Ephesians chapter six, verse five, servants, be obedient to them
that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness
of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers,
but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with good will,
doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing
any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
So this can encourage us that when we do good deeds and nobody sees what we've done,
we know that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be bond or free.
There's no doubt you're going to be rewarded for the good things you do.
So you don't have to go out and make sure, hey, everybody, everybody see what I'm
doing here?
You know, everybody see the good deeds?
No, no, no.
God sees no matter what he will certainly reward you.
And that's the only reward that really matters because at the end of the day,
the praise of man is very hollow.
That's why God calls it vain glory.
Vain means empty and worthless.
Glory of man is empty and worthless.
But you know, the praise that comes from God only is worth something.
It's very valuable.
And that's what we should strive for in our lives.
You know, that's what should motivate us, not this thing of, you know, I want to make
sure that I can be a big shot someday and rub elbows with important people.
You know, everybody's important if they're saved.
They're a child of God.
I mean, you can't, you know, rub elbows.
Who are the important people?
We're all important.
We're all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Don't get this big shot attitude and don't get this attitude of quid pro quo where
everything you do, you want to be recompense for right here and right now.
And you know, if you're one of the people that helps make this church a success, if
you're one of the people that pitches in and does your part and you feel like you're
not being recognized, then you know what?
You ought to jump for joy that you're not being recognized because the less that
you're recognized, the more of a reward you're going to get.
That's the right attitude.
That's a humble attitude that we should all have.
And if you plan to be a preacher one day, I know there are a lot of guys in this
room that want to be a pastor someday, want to be a preacher.
You need to get this settled in your mind.
Why you want to be a pastor?
Why do you want to go into the ministry?
What is the purpose?
Because if the purpose is to be a big shot and a big name and well known and loved,
then you know what?
You're going to preach the wrong message because the temptation is going to be there
to get popular and take the shortcut instead of just getting up and preaching that,
which is true, whether it's in season or out of season and letting the chips
fall where they may.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for your words in this scripture, Lord, where you taught us not
to do our righteousness to be seen of men.
Lord, help us to be righteous, but help us to be righteous in your sight and not
seek to put on a hyper-spiritual facade to impress those around us, Lord.
Help us to be humble people.
Help us to be lowly of heart.
Help us to be servants, not big shots, Lord,
because the big shots of this world are an abomination to you.
And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.