Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Matthew chapter 6? And as you do so, you'll be turning to a new section in the Sermon of Jesus Christ, the Sermon on the Mount. It is the shortest of his three main points after his introduction. But it's the most important because he deals here with the heart of all true religion, including gospel religion. He deals with the two issues of piety and hypocrisy. Now, piety is not a word we use a whole lot, although we've heard it before in this pulpit. We've preached about it before and we'll talk about it again. Piety is a good thing. Piety means that we simply have a reverence for God and the things of God. It's defined in the dictionary as a reverence for God, a devout fulfillment of all religious obligations, a quality or state of being pious or saintly, a duty of respect for God, in parents and homeland, all veneration for God and the things of God. It comes from the Latin word pietos that means to respect those things that are honorable and reverence those things that are sacred. The Greek word used here, Yosebia, can be used to mean religion or devotion to God or godliness or piety. It means that we have what today we call authentic religion. That's always a great need. And it's always the great criticism of the church, isn't it? People who are not members of the church, maybe not even Christian, say, well, the reason I don't go to church because it's full of hypocrites. Well, you know it is. It always has been and it always will be. Because we always know more than we can live. We always have greater aspirations than we have lives. Our sin nature gets in the way. And as long as people are sinners, then hypocrisy will always be the religion of choice for sinners. It's easier than piety. It's also the cry of the youth. I don't care what generation it is, we always look at our parents' generation and say, you know, they just don't have authentic Christianity. I can remember saying that in my late 20s and early 30s when I became a Christian. And I hear it today. It's not true. God, I believe, encounters each generation in their space and time and history and does profound thing in their lives. But it's not always easy to maintain that urgency and that zeal and that energy that you first have when you're converted. I can remember when I became a Christian in the 1970s, we were on the verge of having a fifth-grade awakening in America. It was amazing how many millions of people were saved between the years of 1969 and 1980. And it had a radical effect upon my generation's lives and upon the church and upon politics even. But now perhaps, as I have grown in age and my peers have done the same, maybe our piety is not as strong as it was when we first believed. But you know, it's also a problem with the youth. The youth often think that energy, engagement and worship, they use that phrase a lot. I think mainly means that they sway when they sing or they cry when they sing or they have goosebumps when they sing. They often think that these things are authentic religion. But they're not. They're external things that reveal a heart yearning for a moment, but they seldom follow through into the aspirations of the young heart. John Piper, in talking to young people at a passion conference said, this generation has some loose wires dangling that threatens to blow apart what God is doing in this generation. The loose wires of worldliness, big thoughts about God and a big appetite for beer, longing for the purity of God and also the lure of pornography, passion for the majesty of Christ, and at the same time, the careless default attending of a weekend movie and thinking, so what? White hot, all satisfying and divine holiness, and hypocrite genes with plunging necklines, bellies, and cleavage, and sanctity all muddled into one. And that my young people is just a description of hypocrisy. Jesus has a lot of difficult things to say to people who are hypocrites. He would say in Matthew chapter 23, the scribes in the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. Word you scribes in Pharisees, hypocrites, you tithe, mint, and dill, and comeon, and yet you neglect the weightier measures of the law. Word you scribes in Pharisees, for you shed the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Word you scribes in Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across the sea and the land to make a single proselyt, and when it becomes a proselyt of yours, you make him twice as much a child of hellage yourselves. Word you scribes in Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence. Word you scribes in Pharisees, hypocrites, fewer like white wash tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all in cleanness. Word you scribes in Pharisees, you hypocrites, you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the mountains of the righteous, you serpents, you brute of vipers. How are you not to escape being sentenced to hell? I don't know if Jesus ever speaks, so frankly and candidly so harshly is when he speaks about hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the opposite of piety. It is quite frankly pretending to be something that you're not. It comes from the words hoopo crino under judgment, to have people render a judgment if you under false pretence. Hypocrite tastes, from where we get the word hypocrite, was a pretender or actor in Greek, or one who wore a mask. That's still the symbol of Fesbian arts, the happy face and the smiling face, the sad face and the smiling face, and the actor would put on the mask to reflect the character with he was portraying. He was a pretender, wearing a mask and Jesus says, that's what many religious people are. It is the greatest weakness of our church in America, and it was the greatest weakness of the church in Jesus Christ day. And it will always be the greatest weakness of every single religion, whether it's Christian religion or some other religion, but it is the death knell to gospel religion. Hypocrisy is at the heart of Jesus Christ's sermon on the Mount. It's here that both in space and the actual working through the chapters and in content, in emphasis, reach the centerpiece of this sermon, where its most glorious climax comes in the Lord's Prayer. Where Jesus Christ will talk to us about true piety, true religion, set over against hypocrisy, false religion. And he will do so by covering three main aspects of outward piety and inward devotion to God, charity, the giving of self and wealth to other people. Prayer, the expression of our hearts, desires, and our sentiments to God, and fasting, the denial and discipline of our bodies in order to sharpen our souls for spiritual work. He could use other examples about hypocrisy and true piety, but he chooses those three. And I ask you to read with me as we read through chapters 6, 1 through 8, and then verses 16 through 18. 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 isn't heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do, in the synagogues and the streets that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward, 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 your father who sees in secret will reward you. When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward, but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to our father who isn't secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him, for 16. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they just figure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward, but when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who isn't secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Now Jesus Christ picks three common religious activities for Jews and Christians and for other religions, prayer and giving and fasting. And he shows how these things that could be used for other people's benefits and for God's glory are often distorted for our own benefit and our own vain glory. Jesus Christ message is simply going to be this, this is the essence of hypocrisy. Whatever is intended for the glory of God and for the good of other people if twisted for your own glory and your own good becomes hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is exchanging the glory of God for the vain glory of yourself. Hypocrisy in essence is robbing God of His glory and describing it to yourself. And that is why it is so reprehensible to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now follow His train of thought and He tells us first of all the three basic motivations behind hypocrisy. Why are we hypocrites? Why is it so difficult for us not to be hypocrites? Because we are driven Jesus Christ says by three basic motives. Christ is reminding us loved ones that our personal religion will affect every aspect of our sinful life. And hypocrisy becomes a problem that is invasive and that is permeating the three layers of our being. Our reputation? What others think about us? Pride? What we accomplish and accumulate? And ambition? What we think is really important. Each one of these seminal issues Christ will unveil in this section on the seminal amount. Look how he does it first of all by asking us to examine what others think about us. That is the essence of reputation. The issue behind reputation. The drive to look good and to be considered good in the eyes of other people even when we know we're not. The question, who is really the good person? Is the good person the one who gives a whole lot of money to the poor? Is the good person the one who can stand and pray very erudite and theologically tight prayers? Is the good person the guy who fasts two and three times a week? Well, men seem to think so, but not Jesus. Did you notice the little repetition in each one of these examples of giving and praying and fasting? That you might be seen by others. That you might be noticed. That others might praise you. You see, that's the essence of reputation. What people think about me to be seen by others is that the good person, the godly person, the pious soul. Jesus says, no. That's the proud soul, the hypocrite. I experienced it coming in the back doors of the church this morning. I went over to the Sunday school class in the high school. So by the time I got over here, there was like 15 minutes left and I'm walking through the doors and I said to myself, Lord, I hope these people don't think the senior pastor cut Sunday school today. You know why I was thinking that? Because I thought everybody else coming in with me at cut Sunday school today. And I was judging them, assuming they were judging me. And this kind of despicable, isn't it? Kind of embarrassing that I care so much about what other people think. And that finds its way into the church, folks, and you have to admit that much of our Christianity, they is rooted in performance and in cultivating a tailored image for others to see, which is fake. It may happen most, quite frankly, honestly, in the pulpit, in the past, where a person known as a shepherd cultivates his personality and his persona to give you the impression that he really is just as great as he sounds. And it's a sad thing. I remember Chuck Swindall sharing the story in Leadership Magazine, the very first issue of it back in the early 80s, where he was a young pastor in a small church in Texas and he was getting in the car and driving home one day and he does what every pastor does. They'll lie to you, but I'm telling you this is what they do. They don't get out of the park a lot until they say, Jane, what do you think of the sermon? And of course, they went there alive to say, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard in my life since last Sunday. So he said to Cynthia, what do you think of the sermon? And she said, Chuck, I didn't hear much of the sermon. He said, oh, you were distracted no doubt? She said, yes, by you. I was trying to figure out which one of you who were you were today? Were you Dr. Hendrickson or Charles Rirey or C.H. Spurgeon? She said, you know, Chuck, I don't know if I've ever seen you in the pulpit. And when you start preaching like yourself and not pretending to be somebody else, maybe I'll remember your sermons, the wounds of the faithful friend. But it was a turning point in Chuck's window's life. And he made the comment that I never want to hear people say of me, I've grown tired of his pretending to be someone he is not. That's what reputation and the pursuit of reputation will do for you, if you leave it outside of a life of Christ. Second seminal issue, what we accomplish and accumulate, this is the issue of pride, the drive to look and feel better than other people. And the primary struggle with success and pride usually has to do with money. It is amazing how many times Jesus Christ interjects money into our spiritual. Now he doesn't in these 18 verses, but he sure does in verse 19 if you look. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The problem, I think folks, here is Jesus Christ says, you know, pride and the pursuit of success will always drag money into our spirituality in an inappropriate way. Why? Well, because the Jews in Christ day and the Americans in our day assume that financial success indicates the favor and the need for success. Turn over to Matthew 19 for just a minute and we can prove this with just three or four verses, where Jesus Christ is preaching, he has this encounter with a rich young ruler, the guy is told to leave his money and follow Jesus Christ as a cant. And Jesus Christ says in Matthew 19 verse 23, truly I say to you only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you it is easier for camel to grow through the eye of a needle then for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Listen carefully loved ones. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished saying, well then who then can be saved? You see wealth is always associated in our minds with money but not in the mind of God and his son Jesus Christ. And wealth is not money. You can have all the money in the world he says in another parable and be not rich toward God. It's not your money that you earn, something that certainly could make you proud, that is the indication of God's favor. It's the gift in graces that you could never earn that are the indication of God's grace and favor and the measure of priceless wealth. He said to them in another place, be on your guard and be careful against all covetousness for one's life does not consist of his abundance or possessions. Fear not little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with treasure in heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The pursuit of status and position and power and honor is often associated with money. And there's even the thinking that if we give more money to the church than other people one, we're better than they are. Number two, we have more privilege than they deserve. And Jesus Christ says that is not so. That is pride, a surefire way to kill religion of the soul. The third seminal issue is the question, what is really important? And this is the issue of ambition, the drive to outperform other people and to be a winner. And in all the sorted ways, it manifests itself here, believe it or not, it comes through the discipline of fasting. You say fasting, well yeah, the Pharisees fasted twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. And they therefore thought that they were more successful Christians, more successful believers, more outperforming Jews than those who didn't. It may take another form in our walk in life. In fact, in evangelicalism, it always takes the form of size. Who's got the biggest church? Who's preacher is the most famous? Where is all the money going? How influential are we in the King of God? How much of an impact on our culture are we having? Sometimes not for good reasons, we ask those questions. And we encourage it. I'm always amazed at Christian schools when they give out awards for the most Christian student. My daughter, Joanna, got that for the eight years that she went to this elementary school in Myrtle Beach, South Korea. Every year she was elected by the faculty and her peers as the most Christ-like student in the school. And when they gave out awards at the end of the year, of course everybody had to stand. Everybody who was on the deans list, everybody who had straight A's, everybody who got a trophy, and the culminating award was the most Christian student in this school. How were they able to assess that? They didn't live with that little girl like I did. And you know, after the first time we stood, she was five years old on the way home, she said, daddy, is it okay if I not stand if I ever get this award again? And I said, I think it's probably better you not stand. Five years old, she said, you know, I agree. Because if you're really the most Christian person, you shouldn't have to have a piece of paper to tell other people about it. We can turn Christianity into a contest, into a win-lose situation, we can compete in every way possible. I'm here to tell you that competition is contrary to Christianity. And that Christianity is centered on cooperation, not winners and losers, the better and the less fortunate, those who can't perform as well as others, but as brothers and sisters, from the heart helping one another, move towards Christ-likeness. And when we turn Christianity into competition, I fear to say it's not Christian anymore. These are the three seminal issues. Reputation, a false sense of goodness, pride, a false sense of self-worth and ambition, a false sense of accomplishment. And they are the breeding ground, the three triangles, so to speak, three angles of this thing called hypocrisy. James Bryan Smith says in the Good and Beautiful Life, a little book about the Sermon on the Mount. The kingdom narrative of Jesus Christ is always opposed to the world's narratives. You are valuable to God. God loves you no matter what. Your worth is not dependent on your performance on what others think of you. Your worth is found in the loving eyes of God. If you win, God loves you. If you lose, God loves you. If you fast and pray and give your money to the poor, God loves you. You are sinful and selfish and lazy. God loves you. He is a covenant God and love. His love never changes. You are valuable and precious and worth dying for just as you are. You have, as I say, gospel value. Despite your reputation and despite your accomplishments and despite your accumulated wealth. Christ deals with these three motivations of hypocrisy, reputation, pride, and ambition by showing three common practices of hypocrisy. He says, once again, the basic plan of hypocrisy is, I take what is meant for God's glory and use it for my own, like giving to the poor. I take my gifts and I give them so that other people will see how much I give and say, my, what a reputation this man deserves. My brother for years was the treasure of his church. And in his church, they don't take up an offering to the service. They have a offering box in the foyer in the lobby where the people come in and they give their money. And he said, you know, Mike, I learned, I learned an interesting thing that the people who had a little envelope and walked over and put it in the collection block and moved on gave more than the guy who took out his under dollar bill and cracked it and walked across the lobby like this. So people would see him and put it in there. And he said in this church, they had dozens of people who were owned restaurants and real estate. They had a lot of wealthy people and they said, you know, I found that those wealthy business owners were hundred dollar bill men, but nothing more. People who you never thought would give in that little envelope gave sacrificially and only I and God knew it. There is a tendency, folks, to think that if we give more money to the church, that we have a right to have some leverage at the church, that somehow we've purchased or earned something. We defuse that here. No one knows what you give, humanly speaking, except a guy named Sandy Spitz. And I think that's why he's such a serious fella. He's looking at your giving record. You know, the staff jokingly refers to the father of the son and the Holy Spitz, okay? Because nobody wants Sandy's job. One surefire way to think of someone's reputation falling is to have access to their giving record. And Jesus Christ says about money. If you think that what you give will leverage leadership and influence others, that won't work in the kingdom. Because what you give, no one should know. Then he talks about prayer, praying in such a way that people are given a false impression of your true spirituality. He talks about two things. They pray in public so they can be heard and they pray out in the street corners with many words so they can be heard. They want to be seen as both pious and profound. And he says, you know, they're neither. Because talk is cheap and it's never cheaper than in prayer. Anyone can talk a good line, few people can lead a good life. And he says in so many words, there's something nauseating about the white beater who stands up to pray in the prayer service and uses such reformed and evangelical piety in his words. Or the singing of words that give us goosebumps and tears, but we don't mean what we're saying and we never intend to do it. Or the preaching to listen to response, to play on your emotions. For the preacher think they got a good cry today. That was a good sermon. Or worse yet to use the fake quivering lip and the crackling voice to make people think, oh, he's deeply moved. I feel your pain. Have we had enough of that in Washington, DC? It's so easy to use words to deceive even to try to deceive God. But I will remind you that the Lord said to an old judge named Samuel, you men look at the outward appearance, but the Lord judges the heart. He really doesn't assess your words. He incises your motives in prayer. And thirdly, he talks about performing religious duty in such a manner that you appear burdened for the Lord. Look again to verse 16 and when you fast do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they just figure the faces that they're fasting may be seen by others. This week they did this, Mondays and Thursdays. And twice a week they wore it like a badge of honor. They looked gone and tired. What's wrong, Mike? Just fasting today. But I do it for the Lord. I'm suffering for somebody has to do it. Folks, let me say something blunt to you. There's no joy in you serving the Lord, then don't do it. Because serving God is not a burden. It's a benefit. You're the one who benefits from fasting. I can assure you that. Not God. And if I hear one more missionary tell me that they've suffered for 30 years in the hardest place in the world to be a missionary, I'm going to send it back there for another 30. We're not doing God any favors by acting like serving him is a burden. That just gives us glory and robs him of the same. Weeks and full hypocrites have twisted the ability to turn tithing and prayer, him singing and playing on their instruments, worship, preaching, fasting, the Lord's Supper, ministry, baptism, service, witnessing into some way in which we bring glory to ourselves and give none to God. And that is hypocrisy. Our goal should be not that men think how great a Christian we are but how great a Savior we have. Our goal should be that people say in spite of that wretch, look what a great and gracious God is doing in and through their lives. And so Jesus Christ says, if these are the three seminal issues that we struggle with, reputation and pride and ambition, and if they manifest themselves in three things that are publicly easy to pervert giving and prayer and fasting, then there are three solutions. Here they are. You ready for them? Ignorant hands, secret places, and happy faces. He says, when you give, make sure that your left hand doesn't know what your right hand is doing. Why would Jesus say that? Is it possible for the left side of my brain to not know what the right side is doing? I think not. But since the offering box was at the right hand side of the entrance to every synagogue by prescription, Jesus meant when you come in and put your offering in, just do it in such a way that those to your left never see what goes in the box. And your father who sees in secret what you gave will reward you in secret. Don't turn your giving into some pompous show of false piety. Just give because you love God. J.C. Ralph says, let us observe that our Lord takes it for granted that His people who call themselves His disciples will give to Him. He assumes as a matter of course that they will think of a solemn duty to give. According to their means to relieve the wants of others, the only point He handles is the manner in which that duty is performed. This is a weighty lesson. It condemns the selfish stenchiness of many in the matter of giving money. How many are rich towards themselves but poor toward God? How many can never give a farthing to do good to the bodies and souls of other men? And have such persons any right to be called Christians in their present state of mind it may well be doubted a giving savior should have giving disciples. We give to the Lord not in some ostentatious show of how much we are blessing God but in some humble quiet response to how much God has made us wealthy in Jesus Christ with His unsearchable riches. So do it in a way that no one knows except God and God will get the glory for you giving not you. Second solution is secret places and when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Once prayer becomes a public performance it's no longer a prayer it's a performance. And how easy it is for us to turn prayer into some public show of our performance of God in us. I think Jesus Christ's point is not don't pray in public because He expects us to in the church or don't pray in small groups because He expects us to. Or only pray when you can go on a closet in your bedroom locked the door so nobody including your mother knows where you are that's not what He's saying. He's using this language to indicate that we ought to pray in public the same way we pray in private humbly honestly straight forwardly to the point. I can assure you that when I have my quiet times in the morning I don't say heavenly phovel I don't start like that it's usually something like father I'm in big trouble again. And now I know that your private prayers are not the same as your public prayers that's not the point either. The point is what a w pink says entering the closet and closing the door was a figurative way of saying shut out from the mind all thoughts of the creatures and men in respect to God alone. Be not occupied with those present and what they think of your prayers but with him who is invisible who's really listening to your prayers. He is saying what the old Puritans used to say play to the audience of one. Who is the one person you really want to hear your prayers. Is it not God alone through Jesus Christ and that should be foremost in your mind just as it is when it's just you and Jesus in your prayer closet at home and thirdly happy faces but when you fast anoint your head and watch your face. In other words don't let people know you're fasting and if you are fasting put on a happy face. If you can't avoid a business luncheon with a colleague on a day you're fasting and you have iced tea and he has a meal and he says what's wrong Mike you're not eating today you just simply say no I've chosen to be a day of fasting and prayer it's always great for me to do that and you just change the subject and move on. You don't do it so that people say my how much you love God that you're willing to deny yourself a meal. You know I was sick the other day and couldn't get out the luncheon. Kim said pastor are you not going to eat lunch and I said I don't think I need to worry about starvation anytime soon. I could live off this reserve like a squirrel does for 30 days and only lose one inch off my waist. I'm not doing any big deal when I fast you know who gets the benefit when I fast I do and when you think about it God doesn't need my money does he? Not really the earth is the Lord's and all it contains he's rich enough and you know what he doesn't need my prayers. I've been walking with the Lord now for 34-35 years and he's never asked my advice I've given this to him many times thinking someday he'll need it. But he's never said Mike pray about this I just don't know what to do and you know what he doesn't need me to remind him how serious things are by denying myself food. As if somehow we would look down and say Mike what are you doing? Well I'm skipping a meal because this is more important than you think. You're right organ on it right away ridiculous it is ridiculous and even we who are evangelicals who seldom fast can use that as a badge of honor when we do. John Stott says most Christians lay stress on daily prayer and sacrificial giving but few lay any stress on fasting. John Jellic of Christians in particular whose characteristic emphasis is on the inward religion of the heart and spirit does not readily come to terms with an outward bodily practice such as fasting. But I want you to notice what Jesus Christ is saying about our piety about gospel religion about grace that permeates the soul it goes down to the motives of the heart and why we give. The words coming out of the soul and how we pray into the discipline of the body to get it in alignment with spiritual priorities whether it's heart or soul or body. Piety runs the gamut just as hypocrisy does. The issues in Claire Ferguson says is not so much that Jesus Christ is saying don't do these things because he is he's assuming we will and he's not saying don't do them with other people. He's not even saying don't do them in public. He's saying when you do them don't do them to be seen by men play to the audience of one. That is the repeated refrain of the hypocrite in order to be seen by men that they might be praised by others that they might be seen by others. The mantra of the pious person is he goes in secret and his father who sees in secret rewards him. Jesus addresses in another parable in the gospel of Luke. He told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. He went up to the temple to pray. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give ties of all that I get. There they are. Giving prayer, fasting, one, two, three, but the tax collector would not even lift his eyes to heaven but beat his chest saying, God be merciful to me the sinner. I tell you this tax collector went down to himself justified rather than the Pharisee. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. This you see is the ultimate question. Who will be justified and the answer is the man or woman who gives to and prays to and fast for the audience of one. God and God alone. I here think in these short verses, Jesus Christ strikes at the heart of gospel religion which is always the motives of the human heart. And he says in effect, once Jesus Christ and his kingdom get a hold of you, everything about you changes perspective and everything drives towards one goal which is the glory of God alone. All that you are and all that you have your money, your words, your food, your body, all of these are at his disposal. And called in you're being martyled as a package of great spiritual power for one purpose, the glory of God. And all the other things, how many people you've led to Christ and how many years you served on the field and how much money you gave and how many people come to your Sunday school and how many radio stations you're on, all these things mean nothing even at the best. They are breeding grounds for reputation and pride and ambition. One thing. And one thing only means something, whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God, listen loved ones, someday all giving will be unnecessary. Someday all prayers will cease, someday there will no longer be any more fasting. But between this day and that day, we should not use our ties, our prayers or our fastings or any other Christian duty or spiritual discipline to compete with one another when we compete with one another, we rob God of glory. We take what belongs to him and we give it to ourselves. And to rob God of glory is the essence of hypocrisy. Someday we will stand with a countless number of redeemed souls. And we will sing for eternity, worthy are you or Lord in our God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you was slain and by your blood you ran some people forgot from every tribe and language and people and nation worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing worthy is the lamb that was slain. Reputation belongs to God pride is in Jesus Christ alone. And success is always the domain of the Holy Spirit. There's nothing we do in the church, nothing we do in the church that calls us away from ourselves and into this glorious presence of the hero but all like this table. The Christ died for sinners once for all the just for the unjust. The pious man for the hypocrite in order to bring them to God. This table is not for hypocrites. It's for people who have put their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation who've been born of the spirit. The people who followed Christ commandment and been baptized and joined a Christ honoring Bible preaching church for people who have led consistent lives and not been disciplined by their church and who in their heart of hearts bear no hateful grudge towards another Christian. We're hearing what spiritual state you're in. If you meet those qualifications, your pious man, a God fearing woman. You have a Godward life in perfect though it is and you're welcome to the table. If not, I'm asking you while we take the supper to bow your heads, turn to those prayers in the bulletin and ask Jesus Christ to come in your life in a saving way. And remove the roots of hypocrisy, reputation and pride and ambition and put in there this one all-consuming passion. Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Let me pray for us. Father, now we go to this table. This sacred table. There is no more holy moment in the life of the church each week, each month, each quarter. When we come and feast on the body and blood of Jesus Christ, who was spiritually and really present with here this morning and represented by this bread and wine, we in faith come to Him. Asking that His grace, the grace of the Spirit, He causes to dwell in us, might bleed out of us more and more these seminal issues and practices of hypocrisy and give us gospel religion, a grace driven in gospel blessed faith and with it genuine piety, love and devotion and honor for Jesus Christ and for all He has done for us. We ask now, even as we sing to prepare our hearts to receive this sacrament and with it a blessing from Christ, that your grace might have bounded us more and more and we might do all we do for your glory, not for our own and for Jesus' sake in whose name we pray. Amen.