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THE LAWS OF THE KINGDOM                         Lecture 11.

                       THE LAW OF MOTIVE.
MATT. 6:1-18

INTRODUCTION.

As we read this section we are confronted with one most important
question - What is the place of the reward motive in the
christian life?

Three times Christ speaks of reward to those who have given him
the kind of service He desires - MATT. 6:4,16,18.

Jesus speaks about reward.

The right kind of almsgiving;
The right kind of prayer;
The right kind of fasting, will all have their reward.

It is obvious the rule of life is that to every action there is
an equal and opposite reaction. Whatever is sown will be reaped.

A.  THE CHRISTIAN IDEA OF REWARD

    1.  When Jesus spoke of reward, He definitely was not
        thinking in terms of material reward. He promised trail,
        tribulation, suffering, persecution and death.

    2.  Jesus reveals that the highest reward never comes to him
        who is always seeking reward, if he is always reckoning
        up that which he believes himself to be earning, then he
        will in fact miss the reward for which he is seeking. He
        will miss it because he is looking at God and life the
        wrong way. Life is not a debit and credit balance. A man
        cannot think of presenting an account to God and saying,
        "I have done so much, now I claim my reward."

        This is the great paradox of Christian reward. The
        paradox is this - the person who looks for reward, and
        who calculates that it is due to him, does not receive
        it. The person whose only motive is love, and never
        thinks that he deserved any reward, does in fact receive
        it. The strange fact is that reward is at one and the
        same time 'the by-product and the ultimate end of the
        Christian life.

B.  THE CHRISTIAN REWARD

    The rewards Christ speaks of are only rewards to a
    spiritually minded person. To the materially minded, they
    would not be rewards at all.

    1.  Satisfaction.

        The doing of the thing, obedience to Jesus Christ, the
        taking of it His way, whatever else it may not bring it
        always brings satisfaction. And no money on earth can buy
        that.

    2.  More work to do.

        In the parable of the talents, the reward of the faithful
        servants was still greater responsibility. MATT. 25:14-
        30. The teacher will always give the brilliant scholar
        more work. The brilliant young musician is always given
        harder music to play. The harder and more the work we are
        given to do, the greater the reward.

    3.  The vision of God.

        For the worldly man this would be a terror. The man going
        his own way, the gulf between him and God becomes wider,
        until in the end God becomes a grim stranger whom he only
        wishes to avoid.

        But the man seeking and obeying God, grows closer and
        closer to God until he passes into God's nearer presence
        without fear and with radiant joy - and that is the
        greatest reward of all.

C.  RIGHT THINGS FROM THE WRONG MOTIVES - MATT. 6:1

    These three things - Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting - to the
    Jews were the three great pillars on which the good life was
    based. Jesus was not disputing that, what troubled him was
    that often in life the finest things were done with the wrong
    motive.

    Jesus saw that Almsgiving, Prayer and Fasting do receive a
    certain kind of reward.

    Three times he uses the phrase, as the authorised version has
    it, "verily I say unto you they have their reward" - MATT.
    6:2, 6:5, 6:16. A better translation would be, "They have
    received their payment in full."
    ALMSGIVING.

    Almsgiving means, "The giving of our substance to those who
    are in need. "This is a fulfillment of the second part of the
    4th law. "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that
    would borrow of thee turn not thou away"MATT. (5:42).
    Whenever there is a need presented to us, and it is in our
    power to meet that need, we should do so. This is almsgiving.

    The Jews saw this as the most sacred of all religious duties.
    This fact can be seen by the very usage of the word
    "almsgiving." The Jews used the same Greek word for
    almsgiving and righteousness. To give alms and to be
    righteous were one and the same thing. It also means
    kindness, kind acts, and compassion. It was the word used
    concerning Dorcas in ACTS 9:36. "This woman was full of good
    works and almsdeeds which she did'.

    The wrong attitude to almsgiving is illustrated by
    J.J.Wetstein. He quote an eastern custom from the ancient
    days, "In the east, water is so scarce that sometimes it has
    to be brought . When a man wanted to do a good act, and to
    bring blessing on his family, he went to a water-carrier with
    a good voice, and instructed him 'Give the thirsty a drink'.
    The water-carrier filled his skin and went to the market
    place. 'O Thristy ones,' he cried, 'come to drink the
    offering' and the giver stood by him and said, 'Bless me, who
    gave you this drink.'

    That is precisely the kind of thing that Jesus condemns. He
    talks about the hypocrites who do things like that. The word
    "Hupokrites" Is the Greek word for an actor. People like
    that put on an act of giving which is designed only to
    glorify themselves.

    PRAYER - MATT. 6:15

    He lays down four principles which should guide us in our
    Prayer Life:

    1.  Prayer must be in secret

    2.  Prayer must be in faith

    3.  Prayer must be modelled on the pattern prayer. We are
        taught to approach God:
        a)  As Sons - "Our Father"
        b)  As Priests - "Hallowed be thy name"
        c)  As Servants - "Thy will be done on earth"
        d)  As Suppliants - "Give us this day"
        e)  As Sinners - "Forgive us"

    4.  Prayer must be with a forgiving spirit. This prayer of
        forgiveness is not of salvation but of fellowship. It is
        the prayer used by the disciples. He is telling us if we
        don't forgive others God won't forgive us.

    The Jews saw prayer in the highest ideal. Because prayer was
    taken with the greatest seriousness, there came faults of
    misguided devotion.

    It tended to become formalized.

    The Jews had two things prescribed for them daily to observe.

    1.  Shema - This consisted of three short passages of
        scripture.

        Deut. 6:4-9;  Deut. 11:13-21;  Num. 15:37-41

        Shema is the imperative word to "hear". The full shema
        had to be recited by every Jew - morning and evening. It
        had to be said as early as possible and in the evening it
        had to be said before 9:00 p.m.

        Many fell into the trap of mumbling it like spell or
        incantation. Perhaps for some of us, like grace before
        our meal.

    2.  Then every Jew also had to respect what was called
        "Shemon ehesreh". Which means "the eighteen". It
        consisted of eighteen prayers; and was and still is
        an integral part of the synagogue service. Most are
        short, but nearly all of them are lovely.

    The Jewish liturgy supplied prayers for all occasions. There
    was hardly an event or a sight in life which had not its
    staged formula of prayer. So at times they would fall into a
    formal duty of glibly stating the right prayer at the right
    time with no meaning at all.

    FASTING - MATT. 6:16-18

    Fasting is detaching ourselves from the things of this earth
    and in prayer attaching ourselves to God. Jesus was not
    knocking fasting. What he was concerned about was the parade
    of piety in fasting.

    The Jewish days of fasting were Mondays and Thursdays. These
    were the market days. So many people would crowd into
    Jerusalem on those days from the villages and outlying
    country. The result was that those who were ostentatiously
    fasting would, on these days, have a bigger audience to see
    and admire their piety. Many took deliberate steps to see
    that other could not miss the fact that they were fasting.
    they deliberately left their hair unkept and dishevelled,
    clothed soiled and disarrayed. They even went to the length
    of deliberately whitening their faces to accentuate their
    paleness. This was no act of humility, it was a deliberate
    act of pride and ostentation.

    Although Jesus was condemning the wrong kind of fasting, His
    words imply that there is a wise fasting, in which he
    expected the christians to take part.

    Do the utmost amount of good with the least measure of
    appreciation - aiming to secure simply the observation of Him