Matthew 6

It is the mark of a hypocrite, he has a squint eye, he looks more to his own glory than God's glory. Our Savior deciphers such, and gives a warning against them (Matthew 6:2). When you give alms do not sound a trumpet.

3. It must be done to a right end: Finis specificat actionem; The end of obedience is glorifying God. That which has spoiled many glorious services, is when the end has been wrong (Matthew 6:2). When you do your alms do not sound a trumpet as the hypocrites do, that they may hav…

Do all to the glory of God. That which has spoiled many glorious actions, and made them lose their reward, is when men's aims have been wrong: the Pharisees gave alms, but blew a trumpet, that they might have glory of men (Matthew 6:2). Alms should shine, but not blaze.

Response: It is true, God has told you to take pains in a calling, but not hurt your neighbor; he has told you to provide for your family, but not by oppression (Leviticus 25:14): "You shall not oppress one another." He has told you to look after a livelihood, but not with the n…

But (Psalm 147:5). His understanding is infinite. He has a grate (Crates) that looks into men's breasts: he has a key for the heart, he beholds all the sinful workings of men's spirits: As in a glass hive we can see the bees working in their combs (Matthew 6:4). he sees in secre…

Having (through the good providence of God) gone over the chief grounds and fundamentals of religion, and enlarged upon the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, I shall now at the close, speak something upon the Lord's Prayer. Matthew 6:9. After this manner therefore pray you, Our Fat…

Such professors are to be disliked, who talk of living by faith, but live out of a calling. They are like the lilies which toil not, neither do they spin (Matthew 6:28). 'Tis a speech of holy and learned Mr. Perkins: Let a man be endowed with excellent gifts, and hear the Word w…

[reconstructed: Vis unita fortior] (Matthew 18:19). 7. Private prayer; when we pray by ourselves (Matthew 6:6). Enter into your closet.

Let us press forward with the greatest diligence to this Kingdom: and here let me lay down some powerful persuasives, or divine arguments, to make you put to all your strength for the obtaining this blessed Kingdom. 1. This is the great errand for which God has sent us into the…

Fear not death, but rather let your hearts revive when you think these rattling wheels of death's chariot are but to carry you home to an everlasting kingdom. Matthew 6:10. Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. We come next to the third petition, Your will be done on e…

The Apostle tells them what to do: namely, Do good, and be rich in good works, and be ready to distribute, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may obtain eternal life: that is, that they so spend their riches in holiness and ch…

A worldly man would judge the rich man in the Gospel, a most happy man, that said unto his soul, by reason of his great abundance of outward wealth, Luke 12:19, Soul, soul, you have much goods laid up for many years, live at ease, eat, drink, and take your fill: yet because here…

To them therefore here is matter of good advice. Let such a man learn but one promise of God out of the holy Scripture, as this; Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all things else shall be given unto you, Matthew 6:33: or this; Cast all your care on him, for he careth for you, 1…

But, when David entered into himself, and considered the words he had so presumptuously uttered; upon better advice he confesses, and writes it up for all posterities to God's glory and his own shame, that it was in passion, I said in my fear all men are liars: This he said in h…

- The one is to believe that God can grant our requests, because he is almighty, and thus much is signified when he is said to be in heaven. - The second is to believe that God is ready and willing to grant the same, and this we are taught in the title father, which serves to pu…

Thus we see what the Father is. Now to believe in the Father, is to be persuaded, that the first person in Trinity, is the Father of Christ, and in him my Father particularly (Jeremiah 3:4, 19; Matthew 6:4), and that for this cause I intend and desire forever to put my trust in…

As the silk-worm, while she weaves her curious works, hides herself within the silk, and is not seen: so we should hide ourselves from Pride and Vainglory. 'Twas the sin of the Pharisees while they were distributing Alms, they did buccina canere, blow the Trumpet, Matthew 6. 2.…

Paul says (Romans 2:14), The Gentiles that have not the law do the things of the law by nature, that is, by natural strength: and he says of himself, that before his conversion touching the righteousness of the law, he was blameless (Philippians 3:6). And for this external obedi…

Objection 3. We are taught to pray for the pardon of our sins day by day (Matthew 6:12), and all this were needless, if we could be assured of pardon in this life. Answer: The fourth petition must be understood not so much of our old debts or sins, as of our present and new sins…

Which of these shall I charge upon him? Not the first: 'My Father knows what I have need of' (Matthew 6:32); my condition is not hidden from him. Not the second: 'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness of it' (Psalm 24:1); his name is God All-sufficient (Genesis 17:1).

As a bull by wrestling and straining in the furrow may make his yoke more heavy, gall his neck, and spend his strength sooner, but in no way helps himself — so it stands with you, if you are as a bull unaccustomed to the yoke. What Christ says of anxious care we may say of griev…

Our life and treasure is there. (Matthew 6:20) Lay up treasure for yourselves in heaven. Our [illegible], our city-dwelling and our haunting is in heaven (Philippians 1:21).

He does all, in inviting sick sinners to come and drink life and salvation at Christ the Fountain of life, which expresses with men who speak as they think, their sincere intention, but he intends no such thing. Answer. Make the comparison run as it should do, and it makes more…

Certainly when we pray we should turn our backs upon all earthly things, and have our hearts and minds carried up to him to whom our prayers are directed, and that place where he dwells. 2. Secrecy is necessary for this duty, partly to avoid ostentation (Matthew 6:6). When you p…

For in every command of God, general or particular, there is a promise expressed or implied of all things necessary (Deuteronomy 28:5): "Blessed shall be your basket and your store." And (Matthew 6:33): "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things…

Oh then let your hearts be upon it, desire must go before delight. 2. To move us to labor for it, and seek it in the first place, and to get it assured that we have a part in this blessed and joyful condition (Matthew 6:33), seek you first the Kingdom of God, and the righteousne…

1. Sufficiency (Genesis 17:1): "I am the almighty God, walk before me and be you perfect." (1 Timothy 4:8): "Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come": of heaven and of earth (Matthew 6:33). "Seek you first…

We should in our whole conversation live as in his sight, and live as those that remember God stands by, and sees all that we are about: but especially in our worship, we then set ourselves as before the Lord. Pray as to our Father, that sees what we do, (Matthew 6:6). Pray to y…

I will pray with understanding: For blind devotion is not pleasing to God: 2. A sensible feeling of our wants, we must come weary and heavy laden (Matthew 11:28). Pressed with the guilt of sin, pinched with want of grace: 3. Fervency of spirit (James 5:17), arising from a consid…

I answer, we may use it as other prayers in Scripture; but, I conceive, the principal end of it, is not to be rehearsed every time we pray, but an example, platform, or directory, according to the contents of which we must direct our prayers. Therefore for the further help of yo…

For they are praised and magnified of men. So says Christ also (Matthew 6:2), that hypocrites do all things to be praised of men. And in (John 5:44) he sharply reproves such: "How can you believe (says he) which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes of…

God and the Lamb are all things to all the Elect in the kingdom of heaven (Revelation 21). Here we see the right way to become rich: and that is, above all things to seek to be true and lively members of Christ: for if he be ours, we can want nothing (Romans 8:32; Matthew 6:33;…

Objection. The Pharisee considered himself, when as he said, Lord, I thank you, that I am not as other men, thus, and thus, or like this Publican (Luke 18:11), and yet he is reproved by our Savior Christ. Answer. True it is: for he only considered his own supposed virtues, which…

For the multitude are always blind of themselves, as the rest of the common sort are: but if the eyes be blind, what shall become of the rest of the parts of the body? If the light, as Jesus Christ says, be turned into darkness, how great is that darkness? (Matthew 6:23). This i…

For he might conceive hope from there, that his successors should in the end be partakers of this favor and mercy. Some think he rejoiced for this delay, because we ought not to care for tomorrow, considering that the day has enough with its own grief (Matthew 6:24). But this su…

For how comes it, that almost all resort to wicked contrivances, to robbery and to fraud, but because they ascribe to Satan what belongs to God, the power of enriching whom he pleases by his blessing? True, indeed, with the mouth they ask that God will give them daily bread, (Ma…

"provide for honest things, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men," (2 Corinthians 8:21.) The command, which he gives shortly afterwards, to seek concealment and a retired situation for their good works, (Matthew 6:4,) is intended only to forbid ostentation.…

MATTHEW 6:1-4 Matthew 6:1-4

Matthew 6:14-15 14. For if you shall forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Matthew 6:16-18 16. Moreover, when you shall fast, be not, like the hypocrites, dejected:

Matthew 6:19-21 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where rust and the moth consume, where thieves break through and steal.

Matthew 6:22-24 22. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye shall be simple, your whole body shall be luminous.

Matthew 6:25-30 25. Therefore I say to you, Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat and drink, or for your body, what clothes you shall wear: is not the life of more value than food, and the body of more value than clothing?

Matthew 6:31-34 31. Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or with what shall we be clothed?

Matthew 6:9-13 9. Pray you therefore thus: Our Father who art in heaven, may Thy name be sanctified.

"You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts." (James 4:3) Instead of good things in the last clause, Luke says the Holy Spirit This does not exclude other benefits, but points out what we ought chiefly to ask: for we ought never to f…

We thus ascertain Christ’s meaning to be, that they who are bad stewards of earthly blessings would not be faithful guardians of spiritual gifts. He next introduces a sentence: You cannot serve God and mammon; which I have explained at Matthew 6:24. There the reader will find an…

And in this way he confirms his own saying, that to those who seek the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, all other things will be added, (Matthew 6:33.) We have no right, indeed, to expect that Christ will always follow this method of supplying the hungry and thirsty with f…

Nor is this said of the whole body, but of the three whom Christ had selected to be his chief companions; and what shall we say of the greater number, when this happened to the flower of them? Now the repetition of the same words was not a vain repetition, (battalogia) which Chr…

So it was with the hypocritical Jews, Isaiah 57:5. And so Christ tells us it was with the Pharisees, Matthew 6:16. But it is contrariwise with true Humility: They that have it, are not apt to display their Eloquence in setting of it forth, or to speak of the Degree of their Abas…