Matthew 06 - An outward show is shallow



We must put more focus on God's eternal Kingdom than on our own short-term circumstances.

First published on the 21st of September 2019 — Last updated on the 1st of August 2020

In Revelation Chapter 4 John saw four beasts around the throne of God. A lion, a young calf or ox, a man, and an eagle.

REVELATION 4:2   And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

REVELATION 4:6   ... and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

:7   And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

 

These represent the four Gospels that surround the Book of Acts which is the Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit within God’s church.

It took three steps for God to get into His church.

1.  As the Father, God had been ABOVE the Jews in the Old Testament.

2. As the Son, God was WITH the Jews (as Emmanuel, God with us) since the

fullness of the Godhead dwelled bodily in Jesus (Colossians 2:9).

3. The final stage in God’s plan with mankind was when God, as the Holy Spirit, would

be IN His believers.

God’s indwelling Holy Spirit would then guide His born-again believers through 2000 years of turbulent church history and all the religious deception, political involvement, and Big Money evil wherewith Satan would undermine the church during the 7 church ages.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John thus represent the four guards around God’s throne, the Lion, young Ox, Man, and Eagle.

They tell the church how to believe and behave in order to spread God's Kingdom and not human church denominations.

Matthew, the first Gospel, illuminates the Lion-like characteristics of Jesus Who is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

The lion is the king of the beasts.

Matthew wants Jesus to be in full control of our beliefs as the only Head of the church.

The king is the supreme authority.

Jesus is the Word. Thus Jesus is revealed in the King James Version of the Bible as that tells us the way that Jesus thinks.

If Jesus was on earth today, He would only say what is already written in the Bible.

Matthew thus represents Jesus Who was born as the King of the Jews.

MATTHEW 2:1   …there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

:2     Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews?

This terrified Herod. He was from the country of Idumea, south of Israel. Thus he was not really a Jew. His father Antipater had done Julius Caesar many favours, and this resulted in Herod being artificially made king of the Jews by the Roman rulers.

Now a natural-born King was appearing.

Herod, the fake man-made king thus sought desperately to destroy Jesus, Who was the true Word.

So, the Life of Jesus would be a continual clash between Bible Truth as Jesus fulfilled prophecy and the unscriptural human organizations and beliefs that had arisen to benefit their religious human leaders.

At the end of His ministry, Caiaphas the High Priest had to get Jesus killed because Jesus was a threat to the place that the Jewish priesthood and the religious leaders held.

The entire Life of Jesus on earth was thus a desperate struggle between Himself as the Word and human religious leaders who were focused purely on the self-gain (money and power) which their place in the religious organization gave them.

The high priest Caiaphas said:

JOHN 11:48  If we let him [Jesus] thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.

He admitted that ordinary people would believe in Jesus if they were given a chance. Thus the religious leaders had to destroy the faith of the people in Jesus.

Today the church leaders have to destroy the faith of the people in the King James Version of the Bible.

They say that it is out of date, full of mistakes, and has many contradictions. Church leaders refuse to admit that the King James Bible is perfect, our Absolute.

Caiaphas was more worried about the loss of his place as the high priest than the loss of the Jewish nation.

So the biggest evil in the days of Jesus came from the religious leaders.

This was reflected in the disciples where Satan had to enter Judas, who was an apostle and church leader, in order to kill Jesus.

LUKE 22:2   And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.

:3   Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.

:4     And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.

:5     And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.

Love of money is the downfall of religious leaders.

Paid to prattle the denominational or church viewpoint.

Matthew, in presenting Jesus as the King, requires Him to have all the power in His Kingdom.

All human beings must be subject to Him if they want to be in that Kingdom.

But ambitious human leaders would lead people astray by getting people to follow human leaders.

They just had to wait until the original apostles had all died. Most of the apostles were dead by the year AD 70.

The word “pastor” is only mentioned once in the New Testament and condemned or criticized by God six times in the Old Testament in the Book of Jeremiah.

JEREMIAH 23:1   Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.

:2   Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.

Such are the dangers of human leadership in the church.

Paul called the elders of Ephesus and placed the leadership of that local church in the hands of that group of local elders, not in the hands of one man. He did not appoint a pastor to be in charge of the church.

Paul, speaking to the elders of Ephesus, said:

ACTS 20:28   Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

:29     For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

:30   Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

Follow a human leader. The biggest mistake in the future church.

But, after all the turbulence of church history, ultimately Jesus will spread His supreme Kingly authority throughout all nations on earth, as well as in Heaven.

At the end of his Gospel Matthew says:

MATTHEW 28:18   And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

:19     Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

The disciples were to teach all nations that all power and authority belong to Jesus alone.

Jesus is the Word of God.

JOHN 1:14   And the Word was made flesh,

Thus the disciples were to establish the New Testament and the believers were to be taught from the written Word of God only.

Because the written Bible tells us the way that Jesus thinks.

And Jesus is the only supreme authority.

Nobody can improve on what Jesus has said.

I CORINTHIANS 2:16   For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

If the mind or spirit of Christ is in you then you will only say and believe what is in the Bible.

GALATIANS 1:8   But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Any human religious leader that changes anything in the Bible is in deep trouble.

 

So Matthew sets out to establish Jesus, Who is the Word of God, as the supreme King.

Our first lesson on this path is to realize that humans must not proclaim their own good works.

If you give to the poor, which is excellent, make sure that nobody knows about it.

MATTHEW 6:1  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.

Alms are things or money that are given freely to the poor.

People will look up to you for your generous behavior towards the poor. While they are looking at you they are taking their eyes off Jesus.

Eventually, they will be prepared to follow you for any material benefits. Then they are no longer following Jesus.

MATTHEW 6:2   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.

People love to be praised by other people. People are prepared to be generous in order to win the praise of others.

“Blowing your own trumpet” over your good deeds and talents will draw attention to yourself.

But the only reward you will ever get from God is when you draw attention to Jesus.

You can only draw attention to Jesus when you fade off the stage.

Our digital age works on two numbers, 1 and 0.

You have to decide who is number 1.  Self or Jesus.

If Jesus is number 1 in our lives, then the only number available for self is 0 or zero.

But if self is number 1 in my life, then the only number left for Jesus is zero.

If Jesus is not Lord of all, then He is not Lord at all.

If He is not number "one" in your heart, then He leaves you. Nowhere in the Bible is He called the second Person.

Paul said it well:

I CORINTHIANS 15:31   I die daily.

We do not draw attention to a corpse. We bury it out of sight.

A corpse has no human rights, other than to be buried and thus disappear from everybody’s sight.

If we are dead to self, then we will have no desire to be noticed.

Jesus said:

JOHN 12:32   And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

If we only uplift Jesus and do not speak about ourselves, then we draw men unto Him. That is the only way we can serve God’s Kingdom, by pointing people to Jesus. We must not point people to ourselves.

MATTHEW 6:3   But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

Keep your financial generosity top secret. If people know you are generous they will befriend you and follow you for their own self-gain. Humans are always greedy. But while they look to you, they no longer rely on Jesus.

MATTHEW 6:4   That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Help people with no thought of benefiting from your actions. Seek no praise, no fame.

Leave God to reward you in whatever way He sees fit.

We must learn to give secretly and hope for nothing in return. Then only do we give out of genuine love, rather than a desire for self-gain.

God wants nothing to do with human self-will.

The self must die. Our "self" must not want benefits for its service.

God’s Kingdom is not a business.

Matthew was a tax collector.

He knew that people bought and sold in the real world just for their own selfish gain. Everything was done in business with an eye to making a personal profit. We spend money only if we can earn back more money than was spent. That was how the natural kingdom of Caesar, who ruled the Roman empire, worked.

Now Jesus was introducing the new Kingdom of God. Not based on Roman greed.

Paul said:

ACTS 20:35   I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

The Kingdom of God is based on the love of God and love of our fellow man. Not on the love of self.

The Kingdom of God puts God’s Will first. Self-will must die.

Paul served God and got whipped, shipwrecked, stoned, robbed, bitten by a snake, etc.

Job lost all except his wife.

Neither of them served God in order to achieve material gain.

They simply obeyed God and put God first in their lives. They served God for the love of God. Whatever it cost them.

MATTHEW 6:5    And 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.

Being noticed for prayerful activities encourages us to put on an impressive religious show. This simply draws attention to self. We must never desire to be noticed. Human vanity is not part of God’s kingdom.

MATTHEW 6:6   But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Prayer should be in secret. We should not try to impress others with our spirituality.

The more we are unnoticed, the more effective we are.

If we are not the focus of attention, then there is a better chance of Jesus being the focus of attention.

The Kingdom of God puts God first in everything.

MATTHEW 6:7   But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Repeating an official prayer often is not a good idea. God is not impressed when we simply repeat what other people have said. He wants us to speak to Him from our own hearts.

God is not swayed by some clever language. He knows our thoughts and needs before we ever express them. God wants us to be in direct communication with Himself.

God does not want some human to come between us and Him as if we need some person to have to guide us in how to speak to God in prayer.

MATTHEW 6:8   Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Basically, we need to keep other people’s ideas out of our prayer life.

We must not pray to God in order to impress some person or persons.

We must pray to God honestly and sincerely from the deepest depths of our own hearts. We are not supposed to model our prayers on the way that other people pray.

Using a rosary made up of beads to say a number of “Hail Marys” and “Our Fathers” is not a Scriptural method. Learning a prayer off by heart often results in the prayer being repeated word-perfect but the person’s thoughts have drifted away and focus has been lost.

Parrots are never mentioned in the Bible.

God does not want us to parrot other people’s prayers.

God will not judge our prayers by our eloquence and clever use of language skills.

When we are isolated and unnoticed in prayer, there is no emphasis on self. Then God is free to act.

Now we come to the most famous prayer of all.

You must decide whether this prayer is just to be repeated or whether it lays out a framework that all our prayers should be based on.

Jesus is introducing the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

Point one. God, Himself must be the central focus of our prayer.

Prayer is not just a shopping list of what we want.

MATTHEW 6:9   After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Notice, God is in Heaven. He is way above us. We have to tune into His way of thinking.

ISAIAH 55:9   For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So every prayer should start with a request for God to teach us His ways so that we can help to establish God’s Kingdom and not our own selfish will.

God’s name must be praised and honoured above all.

But the churches have introduced a Trinity and have thus effectively lost the name of God. They say, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” but cannot tell us what that name is.

There is no name given in the Bible to the Holy Spirit.

GENESIS 1:26   And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

Trinitarians claim that the three Men in Heaven created two people on earth, Adam and Eve, as their image. That is not possible, especially when one of the two humans was a woman.

Trinitarians split up the Father and Jesus into two separate People.

But look at the problem that this creates.

COLOSSIANS 3:17   And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Then God has to be a separate Person from the Father.

“Whatsoever ye do in word or deed” means every religious activity.  Everything must be done in the name of Jesus.

So every prayer must be prayed in the name of Jesus, which is the human name of God.

MATTHEW 6:10   Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

First, the focus was on God Who is in Heaven and Who is far, far above us, and should then obviously control us.

Secondly, we must magnify the name of God which is Jesus.

PHILIPPIANS 2:10   That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

Prayer is powerful when done in the name of Jesus. Every demon has to bow and submit to the name of Jesus.

Thirdly, the focus shifts to God’s Kingdom.

"Thy kingdom come".  God's Kingdom will finally triumph.

If we want to score points with God then we must labour for His Kingdom.

But then that requires us to know what God is trying to achieve in this last church age.

MATTHEW 6:33   But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

We are not on earth to build up our own empires and ambitions.

The Roman Empire that ruled the world when Jesus was alive was not going to last much longer.

Since then there has been no other kingdom that could rule the world.

That just shows how inadequate we humans are.

So, when we pray, our focus must be on God’s Kingdom because that will be the final Kingdom on earth.

We are in the seventh church age of the Laodiceans where Jesus says, in Revelation Chapter 3, that He stands outside the church door and knocks.

So God is not impressed with our modern-day churches. He, as the Word of God, is no longer welcome in the churches.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write

:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:

Our prayers should be focused on what God wants to achieve in this final church age. That is going to take a lot of searching through Scripture.

Once we are saved, the churches are of little use in helping us to establish God's truth.

“Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”.

In Heaven, there are four beasts around God’s throne as shown in Revelation Chapter 4.

The Lion represents the true Word of God established by the apostles for the early church.

The young Calf grew into an Ox during those long centuries of the Dark Ages when Bibles were banned and tens of millions were killed by the official Roman Catholic church. The Ox is the beast of sacrifice and slaughter. Oxen are killed for their valuable meat.

The Man represented human scholarship that was blessed by God as the Word of God began to be restored. Martin Luther in Germany restored salvation by faith. The 47 scholars translated the King James Version of the Bible and It was checked for over 150 years until published in 1769.

John Wesley in England preached holiness and outreach which led to the great missionary age.

The wings of the flying Eagle represented the Pentecostal revival in Azusa Street, Los Angeles, in America in 1906. Then the famous Eagle eyesight represented the insight given to the American prophet William Branham who revealed the mysteries of Scripture between 1947 and 1965 so that the Bride could be restored back to the New Testament church beliefs of the apostolic fathers.

Then Jesus catches up the true church to meet Him in the air. And the Gospel returns to the Jews in the Tribulation where the two wings of the Eagle represent the two prophets, Moses and Elijah. They protect Israel and guide the Jews back to Messiah as shown in Revelation Chapters 11 and 12.

Thus the pattern on earth must follow the pattern that is in Heaven if your prayers are to line up with God’s Will.

We must recognize the day that we are living in and focus on understanding Scriptural patterns and symbols.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth

This is the evidence of the Holy Ghost baptism.

Your ability to understand the mysteries of Scripture.

We must pray to be guided into all truth rather than just ignoring and rejecting parts of Scripture. We must never be fooled into believing that parts of the King James Version of the Bible are mistakes, myths, or contradictions.

If we are fooled into thinking that the King James Bible has any faults, then we join the foolish virgins. And we pay the price in the Tribulation.

Fourthly, at last, Jesus gives us permission to pray for our own needs or wants.

Just seven words.

MATTHEW 6:11   Give us this day our daily bread.

"Daily bread" actually means the Word of God revealed in our day, the church age of the Laodiceans.

We need to know where we are in the plan of God. Only then will we know what to do.

We are waiting for the resurrection of the New Testament saints that occur at the last Trump.

I CORINTHIANS 15:51   Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

:52   In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

President Trump is thus a sign of the times.

An incredibly brave man who stood against the whole world to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This fulfilled prophecy. God is turning back to the Jews.

Message pastors are so out of tune with God that they loudly proclaimed that Donald Trump would lose the 2016 presidential election. But message believers were too blind to notice.

President Trump's bravery to stand up for Israel is an example to us that we need to stand up against the church world (including message groups) who believe doctrines that cannot be proven just by following the ideas through the verses of the King James Bible. If you dare to disagree with church leaders and their man-made doctrines, they pour their wrath and scorn and vilification on your head. But as long as you prove what you believe from Scripture then you must stand with the same courage that President Trump displayed.

Thus the Lord is about to come and we must search the Scriptures so that we can recognize the seven mysterious Thunders when they utter in order to show us how to change our bodies.

At the first miracle of Jesus at the wedding in Cana, six vessels were filled to the brim with water.

Then, unnoticed, Jesus transformed the water into wine.

We need to be filling our minds with the water of the Word by understanding the mysteries of Scripture.

Then, after the dead rise, the Scriptures that we understand will enable us to recognize what Jesus is doing, and thus He will be able to transform us into glorified bodies.

We do not want to be found opposing God's mysterious last moves in the way that message pastors opposed Trump's election.

 

We can, of course, interpret "Give us this day our daily bread" as an excuse to pray for our physical needs.

Being only 7 words, our prayers should be minimally focused on our human needs.

“Our daily bread”. Just what we need to sustain life for one day.

No luxuries. No prosperity Gospel.

And when we die we can take with us only what we have given away.

MATTHEW 6:12    And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Then, fifthly, a far more important issue which is expressed in ten words. Our sinfulness. We need forgiveness.

We are so busy pointing out the failures and sins of others because there is abundant sin in our evil age. But we are warned, first, we must be honest to admit our own sins. We must not be like Adam and Eve and try to cover up our sins with man-made aprons (representing man-made excuses and doctrines). We need to repent.

Message-people are too busy sewing quotes together like a garment of fig leaves. It will not work.

We must be able to fit Bible verses together to prove our beliefs.

To the last church of the Laodiceans, which is our present church age, God says:

REVELATION 3:19   As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

The true believers whom God loves are only fit to be rebuked and punished.

That means our church world is way out of tune with God’s way of thinking.

We must not only repent. We must be zealous to repent.

That means we are doing and believing a lot of wrong things.

REVELATION 3:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock

Jesus is no longer in our modern-day churches.

The Word of God has been rejected by denominational creeds and man-made church doctrines.

Try finding the words Trinity, Christmas, 25 December, Pope, Cardinal, Archbishop, Lent, Good Friday, Easter eggs and Easter bunnies, in the Bible.

LUKE 18:8    I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Modern-day church-goers are convinced that it is impossible for God to give us a perfect Bible.

Thus they loudly proclaim that there have to be translation faults and contradictions in the Scriptures.

When you criticize the Bible then you criticize Jesus. That is dangerous.

Jesus is the Word of God.

MATTHEW 6:13   And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Our temptation is to huddle in the church for group-safety and trust the nice charismatic church leader to show us the way.

In that way, we actually believe the church leader before we believe what God said in the Bible.

But pagan traditions, political involvement, and Big Money demonology have embraced the church systems. Evil has infiltrated the church.

People think God is in the church. Thus they follow the church leader into certain deceptions of Satan, thinking that God is leading them.

When asked about the end time, the first answer that Jesus gave was:

MATTHEW 24:4   And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

This is the evil of our age. Deception.

The unscriptural errors that have taken over the church.

There are 45000 different types of denominations and churches. There are over 100 different translations of the English Bible. The church world has become a spiritual swamp.

The church, which is supposed to be a place of safety leading us to the full truth, has become a trap that is partly Scriptural and partly unscriptural. Eve only got one revelation wrong and was condemned.

Each church that is partly right and partly wrong will answer for their errors, which unfortunately are numerous because God describes our last church age as blind.

Then Jesus concludes by saying that the Kingdom belongs to God, not some church, not some man.

If you want the truth, you can only read it in the King James Version of the Bible.

Any person saying something different to the Bible is not talking about the truth.

Man is rather disappointing, so our attention must remain fixed on God. All power and glory are in God’s hand.

The next comment of Jesus hits at the heart of prayer.

Our sinfulness and our need to be forgiven.

MATTHEW 6:14   For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

God can only forgive us by the same amount that we have forgiven others.

We see other people’s sins against us far more clearly than we see our own sins.

So God sees far more sin in us than what we see in ourselves.

MATTHEW 6:15   But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

If we feel we cannot forgive another, it just means that God has not forgiven us.

If I can fully understand that God, by His grace, has undeservedly forgiven me my sins, then I can fully forgive another even if he also does not deserve to be forgiven.

Forgiveness can never be deserved.

It is a pardon that is freely given which can never be justified nor earned by any action of the sinner.

MATTHEW 6:16   Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

God does not want us to attract attention to ourselves. Serving God must not be agonizing.

We must not put on a religious act.

MATTHEW 6:17   But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

Do the opposite. Fasting is difficult, but look cheerful, not sorrowing.

MATTHEW 6:18    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.

We can take this lesson one step further.

When something goes very wrong we should not publicly lament the loss.

Rather regard it as a necessary change of direction and a chance for God to teach us something of value.

ROMANS 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

A sign that we love God is to rejoice in hardships. They do us good. It is God's way of calling us according to His will, not our own will.

This is not an easy test to pass.

MATTHEW 6:19   Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

God’s Kingdom is not a prosperity doctrine.

God’s Kingdom is not about getting rich.

The more wealth you have the more you have to worry about it.

Possessions require maintenance. Wealth fluctuates with the Stock market. Thieves prey on the rich.

MATTHEW 6:20   But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

PROVERBS 19:17   He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD;

The treasure that you can take with you in your coffin is that which you have given away to the poor.

MATTHEW 6:21   For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Your heart has to choose between material benefits and spiritual insights into the revealed Bible mysteries.

Which means more to you? Money and praise or a spiritual revelation of Bible truth?

MATTHEW 6:22   The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Light enters the eye. We should only believe in the Bible that we read. Our spiritual eye must be single.

There is only room for one single Person, Jesus, Who is the Word.

That means there is only one single perfect Bible, the King James Version.

As we believe and quote Scripture, then the Body of the Lord which is made up of His true believers is bathed in Light.

MATTHEW 6:23   But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

When your eye takes in unscriptural doctrines like Eve ate an apple, Trinity, celebrate Christmas, 25 December, seven-year Tribulation, the mighty Angel of Revelation Chapter 10 came as a supernatural cloud in 1963 etc, then these errors stop you seeing many truths. Thus you walk in the darkness of human opinions and traditions.

You must choose. Either follow Jesus through the pages of the Bible or be popular in a church with its unscriptural errors.

The choice is yours.

But once you are building your faith on errors, you will get more and more wrong.

What is worse, you will end up condemning truth as an error.

MATTHEW 6:24   No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

This is the fundamental question.

Who comes first in my life? God or material success?

When you focus on material blessings, God fades from your life.  [self 1, God 0]

When you focus on God, material gain fades from your life.           [self 0,  God 1]

Who is number one in your life? God or self?

MATTHEW 6:25   Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

God’s Kingdom is all about serving God today and leaving God to provide for us tomorrow.

You as a person are more important than your food and clothing.

MATTHEW 6:26   Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Birds fly out each day to find food. They do not have to plant and harvest seeds.

God somehow has a natural cycle going where each day the needs of the birds are met.

God can do likewise for humans who decide to serve in God's Kingdom, as humans are more important than birds.

MATTHEW 6:27   Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

We think we are clever. But thinking cannot make us grow.

God has put each one of us into a certain body that only grows to a certain height. Making us grow is a miracle that science cannot understand nor imitate.

Making a person grow is incredibly complicated.

So if God can make each person grow, then it is a much easier task for God to just have to provide food and clothing for a person.

But be satisfied with your height.

Women must not wear high heels to look taller.

Women must not wear high heels to look fashionable. That is just elevating self.

It is the spirit of Roman Catholicism.

The map of Italy looks just like a woman wearing high heels and pants. Both are wrong.

The island of Sicily (in red) looks just like the stone that will smite the feet, as Daniel saw in the dream of the Gentile image of Nebuchadnezzar.

We are warned.

Jesus is Coming to destroy our world system.

MATTHEW 6:28    And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

Humans always worry about what to wear. But God even clothes flowers with great beauty. So surely God can look after us too?

MATTHEW 6:29   And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

MATTHEW 6:30   Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Grass has its own beauty even if it is soon to be burned or eaten by cattle. As God looks after the cycles of nature, so He can look after the needs of His people who serve His Kingdom.

We should seek to serve God with what we have today.

God can re-supply us tomorrow.

MATTHEW 6:31   Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

Self-obsession is mainly concerned with carnal needs like food, drink, and clothing. Clothing styles easily deteriorate into worldly fashions that reveal the body in order to draw attention to self.

Our main focus should not be on our material needs. These are a distraction that makes us stray off the path that leads to our spiritual destiny.

MATTHEW 6:32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Food, drink, clothes.

If this is the main aim of our prayers and concerns then we are operating at the same level as the pagan Gentiles.

We should be paying attention rather to the revelation of deeper Bible truths.

Finding out where we actually are in God’s great plan for His church.

MATTHEW 6:33   But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

This is the secret to prayer.

We must not be obsessed with our own needs.

We must be zealous to fulfill God’s plan.

We must be about His business and then leave Him to run our lives and provide for us what He thinks we need.

MATTHEW 6:34   Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

This modern age is evil.

Each day is evil as a tidal wave of unbelief in Scripture sweeps over the church world. Thus we cannot worry about tomorrow as this will cause us to make wrong decisions today. We cannot predict the future so we must just serve God one day at a time.

Unknown to us, much of what we do and believe today is wrong.

Speaking to the Laodicean church at the end time God says:

REVELATION 3:17   Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

The church has prospered in the material realm and can boast about its wealth.

But Christians "knoweth not" what a miserable spiritual state of unbelief that they are in.

They cannot even believe that the KJV of the Bible can be perfect.

The church is blind to the light of Scripture.

They keep changing the Bible translations and getting into deeper darkness.

They say their new translations are an improvement but admit that they are not perfect.

The church builds its faith in Bible versions that are not perfect. What a fraud.

So their attempts to safeguard their future are built on an unsure foundation.

 

The world is subject to a frightening amount of change.

The future is not going to go along the path that we predict.

Remember how message pastors got Trump's 2016 presidential election wrong. Some of those message pastors had also claimed that Jesus was coming in 1977. Some said He had come in 1963.

We humans can be slow learners.

Our predictions are too simplistic and reality is too complex.

Our ignorance of what is going on in the world and behind the scenes in the church is too vast.

Tomorrow God will teach us something new from the Bible and we must be flexible enough to adapt.

We do not know it all.

We have much to unlearn.

Then there is also much to relearn.

The more we repent and admit we are flawed, the better.

The 2020 coronavirus shut down the churches. That just shows what God thinks of our churches. Only fit to be shut down.

We need to sit at home and study to become more Scriptural, not more churchy.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” — 1 Corinthians 16:23