“Discipleship Principles Pertaining To Our Worship”

Matthew 6:1-18

(We defer here to Warren Wiersbe’s usage of the word “Worship” to define the following discipleship principles dealt with in this passage.)

1. The Discipline Of Our Alms To God In Worship(Matthew 6:1-4)

A. The Meaning Of Almsvs. 1

“Righteous acts. The word refers to religious externalities.” (Scofield Note)

Alms – [Greek eleemosune] compassionateness, i.e. (as exercised towards the poor) beneficence, or a benefaction: Rendered as “alms (-deeds).” Cf. Acts 3:1-10

1. Doing A Deed

(Acts 9:36) Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.

2. Donating A Dollar

(Acts 10:1-2) There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, {2} A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.

B. The Manifestation Of Almsvs. 2-4

1. Sanctimonious Almsgiving Is Characterized By The Public Trumpeting Of Goodness

2. Sincere Almsgiving Is Characterized By The Private Trusting Of God

(Honoring God and being rewarded by Him.)

2. The Discipline Of Our Appeals (Prayers) To God In Worship(Matthew 6:5-15)

A. The Solitude Of Prayervs. 5-6

1. Notice The Prayers Of The Actorsvs. 5

hypocrite – [Greek hupokrites] an actor under an assumed character (stage-player), i.e. (fig.) a dissembler (“hypocrite”).

2. Notice The Prayers Of The Ardentvs. 6

(James 5:16) Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

B. The Supplications Of Prayervs. 7-15

1. We Are Depending Upon The Blessings Of The Fathervs. 7-11

2. We Are Desiring The Blessings Of Forgivenessvs. 12-15

3. The Discipline Of Our Appetites To God In Worship(Matthew 6:16-18)

A. God Rejects Hypocritical Fastingvs. 16

1. With Its Deprived Looksad countenance

sad countenance – [Greek skuthropos] angry-visaged, i.e. gloomy or affecting a mournful appearance.

2. With Its Disfigured Look

disfigure – [Greek aphanizo] to render unapparent, i.e. (act.) consume (becloud), or (pass.) disappear (be destroyed):--corrupt, , perish, vanish away.

Disfigure. The idea is rather “conceal” than disfigure. There is a play upon this word and fanoosin (NT:5316) (they may appear) which is untranslatable into English: they conceal or mask their true visage that they may appear unto men. The allusion is to the outward signs of humiliation which often accompanied fasting, such as being unwashed and unshaven and unanointed. “Avoid,” says Christ, “the squalor of the unwashed face and of the unkempt hair and beard, and the rather anoint thy head and wash thy face, so as to appear fanees (NT:5316) not unto men, but unto God as fasting.” Wycliffe's rendering is peculiar: “They put their faces out of kindly terms.”

(Vincent's Word Studies of the New Testament)

B. God Rewards Hidden Fastingvs. 17-18

1. If We Conceal The Look Of Abstinencevs. 17

2. If We Cry To The Lord Of Abundancevs. 18

10417. Lincoln Proclaims National Fast Day

Abraham Lincoln wrote an address to the nation during the Civil War that was at least as important as the Gettysburg Address.

It was his proclamation for a national fast-day, by which he did designate and set apart Thursday the 30th day of April 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer.

Lincoln wrote: “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

“The awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.

“Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

“It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

—The Bible Friend