Tonight we have the Sermon on the Mount.
What a fantastic portion of scripture.
Matthew 5, And seeing the multitudes, he went
up into a mountain.
And when he had sat down, his disciples
came unto him, and he opened his mouth,
and he taught them, saying, The first thing
to notice is that this Sermon on the
Mount is not for everybody.
This Sermon on the Mount was not for
the multitudes.
Jesus is not here talking to the multitudes.
He is talking to his disciples.
And unless a person is a disciple of
Jesus Christ, they're going to have an extremely
difficult time with the Sermon on the Mount.
Because it really doesn't have application to them.
It has application only to his disciples.
So, seeing the multitudes, he left the multitudes.
He went up into a mountain.
And when his disciples had come unto him,
he opened his mouth and taught them.
Jesus was sitting down.
This is the posture of a teacher.
In those days, the teachers would sit, the
students would stand.
Somehow, things have become all twisted.
When they would stand, it would be to
herald or to proclaim, as a herald, a
truth.
Now, Jesus, when he was on the Temple
Mount in John chapter 5, stood and cried,
saying, If any man thirsts, he's heralding a
glorious truth to all people.
The proclaiming of the truth.
The preaching of the truth.
That, they would stand.
But in teaching, they would sit.
Now, Jesus, in the beginning of this message,
is describing the people that he is addressing
the message to.
For he is describing the child of God.
Later on, he says that you might be
the children of your Father.
And he talks about your Father.
But here is the description.
And it is in the form of what
are known as Beatitudes.
Or the pronounced blessings.
Now, the word blessed literally means, oh, how
happy.
And because that is the literal meaning of
the word blessed, it seems paradoxical immediately to
say, oh, how happy are the poor in
spirit.
Somehow, we don't think of the poor in
spirit as being very happy people.
And yet, Jesus, in beginning his description of
the child of God, declares, oh, how happy
are the poor in spirit.
Now, notice, and there have been some moderns
who have sought to translate this or interpret
this, because it isn't a translation, but an
interpretation.
Blessed in spirit are the poor.
But that is not necessarily a truth.
I know many poor people who have a
very bitter spirit.
And poverty does not make for a blessed
or a happy spirit, necessarily.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus said.
First of all, he's not talking about physical
poverty.
Poor in spirit.
This is in opposition to being proud.
And this is always the inevitable consequence of
a man coming into a personal, real confrontation
with God.
If you have come into a true confrontation
with God in your own life, the result
immediately, always, is that of poverty of spirit.
You see a person who is proud and
haughty, he is a man who has not
had a true encounter with God.
In Isaiah chapter 6, upon the death of
the popular King Uzziah, when the throne of
Israel has been emptied of this great popular
monarch, Isaiah writes, and in the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting
on the throne, high and lifted up, and
his train did fill the temple.
Then said I, woe is me, for I
am undone.
I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips.
That's always the result of a man seeing
God in truth.
Woe is me, I am undone.
Daniel, when he saw the Lord, said, my
beauty was turned into corruption.
When Peter had his confrontation, he said, depart
from me, for lo, I am a sinful
man.
The man who truly sees God, sees himself
in truth.
Jesus said we do err because we so
often are comparing ourselves with others around us.
And when I look at you, I don't
look near so bad.
When I look at your flaws and your
faults, I feel, well, I'm not too bad.
Look at them.
But when I look at the Lord, that
purity, that holiness, that righteousness, I say, oh,
God help me.
Woe is me, I'm undone.
And that is what poverty of spirit is.
It's a true evaluation of myself, not in
the light of man, but in the light
of God.
Where I see the real truth about me,
and it brings me to that, oh, God
help me, I need help.
The same thing that Paul said, oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me
from this body of death?
And so that's always the beginning.
The beginning consciousness of a man who has
a true relationship with God.
But Jesus said, really, happy is that man.
Why?
Because he has had a true encounter with
God.
And as a result, the kingdom of heaven
belongs to him.
He's no longer living in just this temporal,
material realm, but he is now transferred into
the kingdom of heaven and is a child
of God and a citizen of the eternal
kingdom.
Blessed are they that mourn.
Now that really is even more paradoxical, isn't
it?
Happy are they that mourn.
But having come to a real awareness of
myself in the light of God, coming to
that poverty of spirit, my heart is broken
over my own condition.
I mourn over my failures, over what I
see of myself and in myself.
But the promise of the Lord is, they
shall be comforted.
As the Lord begins to minister to me
the power of his Holy Spirit and his
strength.
And I begin now to experience those victories
of Jesus Christ in my life.
And that makes me indeed happy.
But that doesn't come until I've come to
the end of myself in that place of
just mourning in the fact that I have
no strength, no ability, no power.
I feel that helplessness.
I cry out from helplessness.
And then I begin to experience the glorious
power of God doing in my life what
I could not possibly do for myself.
And that leads me then to a true
evaluation of myself and Jesus.
Blessed are the meek.
Now that is seeing myself in truth.
No longer am I puffed up.
No longer am I deceiving myself about myself.
And that's an easy thing for people to
do.
The word meek can probably best be defined
by putting a hyphen in the middle of
it.
Meek.
It is again looking at myself in the
light of the Lord and realizing that I
am nothing.
Now it is interesting that these are not
characteristics that are really admired by the world.
The world admires the aggressor.
You see, if this were being written by
man, the blessings would be given to completely
different kind of attributes within a man.
But because Jesus is describing the child of
God, he's describing those characteristics that are admirable
by heaven.
The meek, they shall inherit the earth.
This earth is not the earth that God
created.
This earth has been spoiled by rebellion against
God.
But God is going to restore this earth
to his original divine intention.
Wars are going to cease.
Man is going to dwell together in righteousness,
in true justice, in peace.
And God's kingdom will come to earth.
And those who are the children of God
will inherit the earth.
Jesus said, and I will say to them
in that day, come ye blessed of the
father, inherit the kingdom that was prepared for
you from the foundations of the earth.
Revelation tells us concerning the body of Christ
and they shall live and reign with him
a thousand years on the earth.
Blessed are the meek.
They shall inherit the earth.
What a glorious place this earth could be
if it weren't for the pollutions that man
has brought.
If it weren't for the wars, the hatred,
the greed, but we will see the earth
as God intended it.
We will inherit the earth as God intended
it.
Now these are more or less what we
might call negative characteristics.
Now we get into more or less, well,
the fourth of the Beatitudes is the benchmark.
It's the sort of the center, the top
of the shed, seeing myself in the light
of God, recognizing the truth of my own
weakness, having a true evaluation now of myself,
I begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
As Paul, the apostle expresses, I saw the
ideal, Romans chapter seven.
I consent to the law that it is
good, but how to perform it.
I can't discover for the good that I
would do.
I'm not doing and that which I would
not allow.
That is the thing I'm doing.
Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from this body of death?
And in there is that cry.
Oh God help.
I hunger.
I thirst after the ideal, but I haven't
been able to attain it.
Who will help me to find the ideal?
And Jesus said, blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after the ideal, where they
shall be filled.
If you're hungering and thirsting after righteousness, surely
God will answer that hunger and thirst of
your heart and you will be filled with
the righteousness of God.
Now we come into more positive kind of
characteristics.
Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain
mercy.
Now Jesus actually declares that our having been
forgiven so much should be the incentive for
our forgiving.
Having obtained the mercy of God, then we
indeed should be merciful.
But here he puts it the other way.
Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain
mercy.
Well, we have obtained mercy and that's really
what makes us merciful.
Blessed are the pure in heart where they
shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be
called the children of God.
Now, this basically ends the description of that
child of God.
Now in the next beatitude, he more or
less declares what will be the response and
the reaction toward that kind of person from
the world.
Now reading these characteristics, you'd say, hell, that
guy ought to be, you know, just well
accepted anywhere he goes.
Well, he would be in any church, but
when he gets out in the world, it's
another story.
Jesus said, don't be surprised that men hate
you.
They hated me.
Don't be surprised if they don't receive you.
They didn't receive me.
Now, each of these characteristics were surely manifested
in the life of Jesus Christ and the
world crucified him.
And he said, this will be the response
of the world towards that kind of person.
So he said, blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness sake.
If you are this kind of a righteous
person, you'll be persecuted for being that kind
of person.
People will take advantage of you.
People will run all over you and people
will resent you because you will make them
uncomfortable when you're around them, because you are
doing the right thing and they're wanting to
do the wrong thing.
Thus, they'll begin to project against you, their
feelings of guilt.
Now, notice Jesus didn't say, blessed are ye
when men shall revile you and persecute you
and shall say all manner of evil against
you falsely because you're doing something weird.
And unfortunately, there are some people who take
the name of Christian and then in the
name of Christianity do weird things.
And because of the weird things they are
doing, they come into a certain amount of
persecution.
When I was going to Bible college in
Los Angeles, I was working downtown in the
title insurance and trust company.
I had to ride the streetcar back to
my apartment in the evening.
Now, we had one gal in a class
in Bible school who was a real problem
to me.
She was extremely loud and weird.
You know, the kind that wore the long
skirt with the dark cotton hose and the
hair pulled back straight and no makeup.
And she had sung at one time in
opera and had a voice for opera.
She was loud.
I mean, there was nothing moderate about her.
When she laughed, she laughed louder than anybody
else.
When she talked, she talked louder than anybody
else.
And she was just purely obnoxious as far
as I was concerned.
And every once in a while, she evidently
worked downtown LA someplace too.
And she got on the streetcar after I
did, but she get on the streetcar and
she looked back and spot me.
And in that loud operatic voice, she would
say, praise the Lord brother.
And here's this weird looking gal, you know,
and everybody turns to look who she's exhorting.
And I would turn and look too, you
know, and just sort of to the people
around me, sort of sad, isn't it?
So I went up to her because of
the embarrassment she was causing me.
And I told her that I didn't appreciate
her loud exhortations on the streetcar and in
the classroom also, because she was very loud
in the classroom.
And I showed her the scripture, let the
women keep silent in the church.
And she walked away saying, thank you, Lord,
for the persecution, you know.
Well, the Lord doesn't say that you're blessed
when you're persecuted for being an oddball, but
for righteousness and for his namesake.
And so check out in that persecution that's
coming your way.
Make sure that it is for the sake
of Jesus Christ that the persecution is coming,
not just because of some weird characteristic.
And Jesus said, rejoice.
Now that's a difficult thing to do when
you are being reviled and persecuted for the
sake of Jesus Christ.
It's awfully hard to rejoice.
In fact, our natural tendency is to mope.
Well, Lord, all right, if that's the way
you're going to let people treat me, I'm
just going to keep quiet, you know, and
just to sort of sulk, because we don't
like to be reviled.
We don't like to be persecuted.
But Jesus said, rejoice.
Can you?
Peter and John in the book of Acts,
when they were going into the temple and
through the faith of Jesus Christ brought healing
to the lame man, and as the result
were arrested and brought to trial.
Those men that were trying them beat them
and warned them not to speak anymore in
the name of Jesus Christ.
And it said, and they went their way
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer
persecution for Jesus Christ.
Classic example of this text being fulfilled in
the life of the disciples.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad.
Why?
Well, first of all, great is your reward
in heaven.
And secondly, you're in good company for so
persecuted they, the prophets that were before you.
As Stephen, when he was standing before the
council said, which of the prophets have you
not slain?
You talk about your father's being so great.
Our father's this, our father's that, but your
father's killed those prophets that God sent into
them.
In fact, which of the prophets did they
not kill?
And you are even worse than your father's
because you killed the one that the prophets
were all telling was going to come.
Now, Stephen points out that the prophets of
God were not really accepted.
So rejoice, be exceeding glad you're in good
company.
They persecuted all of those true prophets of
God, false prophets.
Oh, they were lifted up.
They were heralded.
Oh, they had it comfortable and nice.
But the true prophets of God ran into
real problems because people just don't want to
hear God's truth.
They would rather be lulled into a false
sense of security.
Oh, everything's fine.
God wants you to all be prosperous.
God wants you to all drive Mercedes.
So who wouldn't like that doctrine?
That sounds great.
Hooray, hooray.
Go out and order my Mercedes.
But the true prophets of God do not
sit in such a popular seat.
Now, Jesus next of all declares the influence
of the child of God in the earth
by declaring you are the salt of the
earth.
Now, salt in those days was used basically
as a preservative because they lacked vacuum seal
packing and because they lacked refrigeration.
Whenever they butchered their meat, that portion that
they did not roast immediately would have to
be salted well.
And the salt killed the surface bacteria on
the meat and had a preserving effect.
It kept the meat from rotting or putrefying.
And Jesus is saying to his disciples, ye
are the preserving influence in a world in
which you live.
You're the preserving influence.
You are the salt of the earth, that
preserving influence.
And surely, true Christianity, wherever it has gone,
has been a preserving influence in that society.
Wherever there is a strong Christian emphasis and
a strong Christian voice, that society is being
preserved and maintained.
But whenever the Christian voice begins to wane,
that society begins to deteriorate and ultimately be
destroyed.
And take a look at history and notice
the preserving influence of Christianity as long as
it remained strong and a dynamic influence within
the community.
The community was strong and powerful.
Look at the United States.
We were formed on Christian principles, tremendously heavy
Christian influence in the forming of this nation.
And thus, written into our very constitution, those
safeguards to protect that religious freedom of worship
and assembly and all, because the Christian influence
was strong.
And we weren't afraid to say one nation
under God.
But through the years, the Christian voice has
been weakened in its influence upon our society.
And we can see those rotting forces that
are beginning to erode away the very foundations
of our democracy as we see children being
exploited for sexual purposes, as we see child
pornography being produced and purchased.
Now, there's an interesting thing about child pornography
and about many of these other horrible things
that are happening, and you should know it.
A man in our church who is the
head of the Los Angeles Police Department in
the Division of Child Exploitation told me personally
that whenever they make a raid on any
of these child pornography places where they're taking
the pictures or where they're publishing the material,
he said, whenever they make a raid, they
always find an abundance of satanic literature and
the aspects of satanic worship there.
And he said, it is also true in
the homicides, in those vicious homicides.
He said, we so often discover satanic literature
and evidence of satanic worship.
He said, Chuck, it is a spiritual battle
that we are in.
It's just not men who have given themselves
over to perverted thinking, but it is satanic
in its origin.
And we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities and powers.
And if we don't become aware of that,
we're not going to be properly equipped for
the battle.
We're going to be making the mistake of
trying to fight the spiritual battle with carnal
weapons, writing our congressmen and things of this
nature.
What we need to do is get on
our knees before God and begin to pray
and seek God's power and seek a spiritual
revival that will turn this nation right side
up once again, because it is a tremendous
spiritual battle that we are in.
And the forces that we are fighting are
actually demonic in nature.
And the weapons of our warfare cannot be
carnal, but they are spiritual and they are
mighty through God to the pulling down of
the strongholds of the enemy.
But that's prayer.
And we need to be doing it more
and more and more.
You're the salt of the earth.
You're the preserving influence.
But if the salt has lost its savor,
it is if it's no longer doing its
job, then it's good for nothing.
If the church is not being a purifying
influence within the community, then it's good for
nothing.
Those churches that seek to exist as social
centers are good for nothing.
The church needs to be a dynamic spiritual
influence within the community and seeking to bring
a spiritual, godly influence within the community.
The salt has lost its savor, it is
good for nothing, but to be cast out
and trodden under the foot of man.
When the salt became unusable, old, unusable, they
would throw it out on the pathway so
that the rain would dissolve it and the
sodium chloride would kill the vegetation.
And so they used it to kill the
vegetation to keep the pathways clear from weeds
and grass.
And thus the salt was trodden under the
foot of man.
And Jesus is saying, look, the church is
to be the salt of the earth.
If it is not the salt of the
earth, it's good for nothing and it will
be trampled under the foot of fallen man.
And so when Jesus said, yeah, the salt
of the earth is not just a challenge,
it is an ultimatum to the church.
You either be what God intends you to
be or you're not going to be.
You'll be trodden under the foot of man.
Then he said, ye are the light of
the world.
Now here are those disciples, Peter and John
and James, and they were fishermen.
They didn't have much of an elaborate background.
And Jesus is sitting there in the Galilee,
which is far away from metropolitan Rome and
all of the powers of Rome and the
Grecian culture centered around Athens.
And there on the hillside above the Sea
of Galilee to this sort of motley little
crew, Jesus says to them, hey, you are
the light of the world.
Marvelous.
I love it.
Oh, the influence that the church should be
having in this dark world today.
You're the only light.
You're the only hope.
Paul, when he is describing his commission before
Agrippa and talking about his conversion on the
road to Damascus, declares that the Lord called
him to deliver, really, the Gentiles from the
power of darkness and to bring them into
the kingdom of light.
And so that is constantly the mission of
the church, to open their eyes, to turn
them from darkness to light and from the
power of Satan unto God, that they might
receive the forgiveness of their sins and an
inheritance among them that are set apart.
And so the mission of the church, to
turn them from darkness to light.
You are the light of the world.
Probably referring to Soffit, up on the hills
above the Galilee there, Jesus said a city
set on a hill cannot be hid.
And neither do men light a candle and
put it under a bushel, but on the
candlestick that it might give light unto all
that are in the house.
A little fellow had just accepted the Lord
and was heading off for a summer camp
that did not have a religious base, and
he went in to talk to his pastor
about it.
And they prayed together that his life might
really be strong for Jesus while he was
there in in the camp with all of
these other kids.
And so after he'd come back from his
camping experience, the pastor said, well, how did
it go, Johnny?
He said, it went great.
He said, oh, that's good.
He said, yep, nobody found out.
But the Lord said, you don't light a
candle to put it under a bushel, but
on the candlestick that it might give light
to all that are in the house.
The one purpose of light is to give
light.
Therefore, the one purpose that God has for
you is that you might give light to
the dark world.
Now, there is a way in which you
are to let your light shine.
There are many ways by which you can
let your light shine, but the way you
are to let your light shine, let your
light so shine before men that when they
see your good works, they will glorify your
Father, which is in heaven.
Now, it is possible for a person to
so let their light shine that when people
see their good works, they glorify them.
Oh, isn't he wonderful?
Oh, did you see that?
Oh, isn't that marvelous?
Did you hear what he did?
And there is a way by which we
can do our good works before men to
draw attention to ourself and to bring honor
to ourselves.
And there is something very perverse in our
flesh that wants to bring attention and honor
to ourselves.
It's much easier to be a hero before
a lot of people than it is to
be all by yourself, but nobody knows it,
you see.
It's very easy to do good and magnanimous
deeds when everybody is watching.
Oh, did you see what he did?
My, isn't that marvelous?
But when there's no one watching and no
one knows that you did it, that's just
a different story.
When we lived in Huntington Beach years ago,
we lived right across from the Edison plant
where the guys would come who did all
of the repair work for Edison and so
forth.
And of course, there were often foggy mornings
where you turned your lights on not to
see, but just to let other people see
you.
And whenever you're driving in those conditions, it's
very easy to forget that your lights are
on and just to walk away and leave
your lights on.
And so on those foggy mornings, I would
go over to the Edison plant and I
would go around and turn off the lights
of all of these cars.
Because, you know, I figured, man, if they
come back this evening, then they're going to
have dead batteries and everything else.
So I would go around and turn off
the lights in all of these cars.
But I always thought, how sad it is
that they don't know how nice a fellow
I am.
You know, when they get back, they're going
to fire up their cars and drive off,
and they'll never know that if it weren't
for my kindness and my goodness, they would
have had dead batteries when they got out
here.
I was almost tempted to write little cards
and say, did you know you left your
lights on this morning and you would have
had a dead battery tonight, but I came
over and turned them off for you.
I live right across the street.
Somehow we want recognition from man for our
good deeds.
But Jesus said, let your light so shine
that when men see your good works, they
will glorify your father in heaven.
Now, as we move through the gospels and
we studied the ministry of Jesus Christ, so
often we are going to be reading where
the multitudes came to him and he touched
them and he healed them.
And it said, and they went away, glorifying
God.
You see, he did it in such a
way that God was glorified as the people
saw the good works that he did.
So the Christian life is a fine balance.
You're the light of the world, but you
are to let your light so shine before
men that when they see your good works,
they won't be praising and glorifying you, but
they will be praising and glorifying your father,
which is in heaven.
Now, Jesus moves into the next section of
the sermon on the mount as he talks
to them concerning the Christian's relationship to the
law.
And he declares, do not think that I
have come to destroy the law or the
prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfill.
Now, the law required death for
disobedience.
Jesus came to fulfill the law by dying
for our disobedience.
He came to fulfill the prophets where Isaiah
said, all we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned every one of us to our
own way.
And God laid on him the iniquities of
us all.
He came to fulfill the law and the
prophets.
I haven't come to destroy it.
I've come to fulfill it.
And that is why Paul, the apostle wrote,
Christ is the end of the law to
those that believe because he has brought us
into a new relationship with God that involves
our faith in Jesus Christ as the basis
for our righteous standing before God for he
fulfilled the law.
He did not come to bring an end
to it, but to fulfill it.
And he fulfilled the requirements of the law
for us dying in our place.
He said, for barely I say unto you
until heaven and earth shall pass, not one
jot or one tittle shall in any wise
pass from the law until it is all
fulfilled.
Now the jot and the tittles were the
little punctuation marks and so forth that were
placed there just in the Hebrew letters, those
little small little marks that give the the
vowel pronunciation.
Not one jot or tittle will in any
wise pass until it is all fulfilled.
Whosoever, he said, therefore shall break one of
the least commandments and shall teach men so
he shall be called least in the kingdom
of heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in
the kingdom of heaven.
Now, one day Jesus was asked the question,
what is the greatest commandment?
And Jesus answered correctly.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, with all thy soul, with
all thy strength, and with all their mind.
And Jesus added, and the second is just
like it.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
And he said, in these two are all
the law and the prophets.
This is a summary, a very short summary
of all the law and the prophets.
Love God with all your heart, love your
neighbor as yourself.
Paul the apostle said, for love is the
fulfilling of the law and he who loves
has fulfilled the law.
Now, the law was given in negatives.
Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt
not.
Jesus turned it around to the positive.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
And therein is the fulfillment.
And if a man would teach others to
break the commandments, he will be called the
least in the kingdom of heaven.
But he who teaches those to keep the
commandments shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven.
But then Jesus said something that must have
just absolutely blown their minds.
For he then said, for I say unto
you that unless your righteousness shall exceed that
of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will
in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now that must have been a tremendous shock
to his disciples because as far as they
were concerned, no one was more righteous than
the scribes and the Pharisees because that's all
these men lived for.
And these men were constantly displaying how righteous
they were by the types of robes that
they wore, by the types of borders around
their garments and all.
And just by their actions, they had special
little actions in their prayers and all that
really indicated a tremendous depth of righteousness.
I mean, these are the guys that Jesus
said you strain at a gnat.
Why would they strain at a gnat?
Because the law said you're not to eat
anything with blood.
And so you'd see a Pharisee out on
the corner putting his finger down his throat
and gagging and straining and pushing and trying
to throw up.
You say, what's wrong?
Oh, I was running along and this gnat,
you know, flew in my mouth.
You know, he's strained to get rid of
the gnat because, of course, he didn't want
to eat any meat that wasn't, first of
all, thoroughly bled and kosher.
And now Jesus is saying you've got to
be more righteous than those guys if you're
going to enter the kingdom of heaven.
But these guys were practicing righteous constantly, this
righteous standard of the law.
But then Jesus goes on to illustrate what
he meant by that.
For he tells them, now you have heard
that it was said by them of old
time.
You see, the disciples could not read Hebrew.
They only knew what the law said by
the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees.
The common people did not know the Hebrew
language.
When they came back from Babylon, they spoke
Chaldean.
Aramaic was the common language at the time
of Christ, Greek.
But Hebrew was only for the scholars.
Therefore, they really couldn't read the scriptures in
their own languages, in their own language.
And so they had to depend upon the
scribes and Pharisees teaching them.
And thus, you have heard that it hath
been said.
You have heard that it was said.
It has been said.
And Jesus gives here five of the teachings
of the scribes and Pharisees concerning the law
as they were interpreting it and as they
were teaching it to the people.
And Jesus shows, first of all, how they
were teaching it.
And then he declares what was intended when
God gave it.
And the basic difference between the way they
were teaching it and the way God intended
it to be was that they were teaching
it as purely a physical thing to be
fulfilled in a physical way.
And Jesus is declaring that God intended it
to be a spiritual thing governing the spiritual
attitudes of man.
And that God is more interested in your
attitudes than He is the actions.
Now, there are many people today who are
trying to be so careful in their actions,
but their attitudes stink.
And God is interested in the attitude from
which actions spring.
And thus, what a person does can be
thoroughly disallowed by the attitude in which he's
doing it.
A person can be doing all kinds of
magnanimous works for God in the church.
Just busying himself and doing so many marvelous
things around the church.
But his attitude can be bad and God
totally disregards the things that the man is
doing because of the attitude in which he
is doing it.
God is far more interested in the attitude
in your heart than the actions of your
outward life.
And they had been interpreting the law to
govern the actions of man where God intended
the law to be speaking to the attitudes
of man.
Thus, in the way that they were interpreting
the law, they were able to fulfill it.
But in the way that the law was
originally intended because it was intended to govern
the spirit of man, the law was actually
intended to make the whole world guilty before
God and to show man's guilt.
But rather than their reading the law and
feeling guilty before God, seeking the mercy and
the grace of God, they were so interpreting
the law as having fulfilled the law and
thus being very pompous and very righteous and
very critical of everybody else.
And they were interpreting the law so that
they were having this tremendous attitude of self
-righteousness and pride looking down then upon everybody
else.
And it was manifested, as Jesus said, when
the Pharisee went into the temple and said,
Oh Father, I thank you I'm not like
other men, for I fast and I pray.
And you know, he's telling God all of
his good things.
And Jesus said there was a sinner that
went into the temple and he wouldn't even
lift his eyes toward heaven, but with head
bowed, he just smote on his chest and
oh God be merciful to me a sinner.
And Jesus said he went away justified or
forgiven.
Where the first guy, you know, his prayers
meant nothing to God.
Now that's because they were interpreting the law
in a wrong way, only to govern the
outward actions of man and not to deal
with the spirit at all.
And as you see Jesus making the contrast,
he first of all teaches it as they
were teaching or shows how they were teaching
it.
But then he shows the original intent of
the law.
And thus, as we see the original intent
of the law, we are all made guilty
before God.
First of all, you've been heard, you have
heard that it was said by those in
the old times that thou shalt not kill.
Actually, literally thou shalt not murder and whosoever
shall murder shall be in danger of the
judgment.
Now, doesn't the law say that?
Yes, it does.
Thou shalt not murder.
That is the law.
Then why does Jesus have any controversy with
that?
You know what God intended when he said
that?
You know what constitutes the violation of thou
shalt not murder?
Not just taking a club and beating the
guy over the head until he's senseless.
Not just putting a chokehold on until he
can't breathe anymore.
Not running your sword through his heart.
But Jesus said, I say unto you, this
is what they've been teaching you, but this
is what I say.
This is what the law was intended to
say.
That whosoever is angry with his brother without
a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment.
You see, it is this ungoverned and unreasonable
anger that leads to murder.
Now, you may have an ungovernable, unreasonable anger,
but you may have been able to control
it.
But you go around constantly seething, constantly angry,
boiling inside.
Jesus said, hey, you've violated that law already
in your heart, in your spirit.
But because you've never taken a 45 and
blown a guy's brains out, you think, oh
man, I've never murdered.
No, I feel pretty righteous, you know.
And yet, all of this horrible anger can
be boiling inside of you.
Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raka, that
is you vain fellow, shall be in danger
of the counsel.
But whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be
in danger of hell fire.
Therefore, if when you are bringing your gift
to the altar and you suddenly remember that
your brother has ought against you, leave there
thy gift before the altar and go thy
way.
First be reconciled to thy brother and then
come and offer thy gift.
Now, in geometry, I learned that the shortest
distance between two points was a straight line.
And that may be true in geometry, but
not necessarily true in your getting to God.
Quite often in our approach of God, bringing
to the altar our gift.
The most direct approach to God is not
a straight line, but it is by an
offended brother.
Go first, be reconciled to your brother, then
come and offer your gift.
Now he said, agree with your adversary readily,
quickly while you are in the way with
him.
Less than any time, your adversary deliver you
to the judge and the judge deliver you
to the officer and you'll be cast into
prison.
Verily, I say unto you, you will not
come out until you have paid the uttermost
farthing.
Of course, he's referring there to the debtor's
prison and all.
So get along with people, love people.
Now you've heard that it was said by
them of old time, thou shalt not commit
adultery.
But I say unto you that whosoever looketh
on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Now the first part, a lot of you
can just, you know, square back with self
-righteous and say, well, I've never committed adultery.
But when Jesus interprets it as God intended,
but I say unto you, whosoever looks upon
a woman to lust after an art, then
suddenly the chest is sucked in and we
think, wow, that desire constitutes guilt in the
eyes of the Lord.
And you see the difference where the way
Jesus was interpreting it, it made us all
guilty before God.
The way they were interpreting it, it made
them very pompous and self-righteous.
But the way Jesus was interpreting it, it
makes us all guilty.
And that's exactly what the law was intended
to do to make the whole world guilty
before God so that we would not seek
to come before God in our own righteousness,
but that we would seek that righteousness that
God has provided for us, that we might
have that standing before God in the righteousness
of Jesus Christ.
So the law was a schoolmaster to drive
us to Jesus Christ.
Now, Jesus said, if thy right eye offend
thee, pluck it out and cast it from
thee.
For it is profitable for thee that one
of your members should perish rather than that
your whole body should be cast into hell.
And if your right hand offends you, cut
it off, cast it from you.
For it is profitable for thee that one
of your members should perish and not that
your whole body should be cast into hell.
Now, let me say that interpreting the Sermon
on the Mount or the words of Jesus
Christ, that we must take care in interpreting
because if our interpretation of a passage makes
the passage ridiculous, then we have the wrong
interpretation.
And in noticing this, if your right eye
offends thee, pluck it out and cast.
He's not speaking literally of just plucking out
your eye and throwing it away because through
that eye, you looked at a gal and
you thought, you know, that'd be nice.
Because even if you plucked out your right
eye and cast it from you, you still
got your left eye.
If you're a thief, pickpocket, use your right
hand.
It offends you.
Cut it off.
If that were literal, you'd develop the skill
with the left hand.
So he's not talking literally of plucking out
your eye or cutting off your hand, but
he is just trying to show to you
because to every one of us, the thought
of plucking out our right eye is a
very repugnant, repulsive.
Oh, you know, my eye shudder at that,
you know, gives me the chills thing of
plucking out my right eye or taking and
running my hand through a bandsaw.
Whoo.
You know, that gives me the chills thing.
You know, my hand lying there on the
table of the saw, picking it up and
stuffing it in my pocket, you know, and
it's repugnant to me.
The thought is repugnant, but Jesus by this
deliberately speaking of things that are so repugnant
to us is just seeking to show the
importance of entering the kingdom of heaven.
And in reality, the most important thing for
any of us, more important than a whole
body, more important than having all the members
of my body intact is that I enter
into the kingdom of heaven and I need
to have that kind of a primary emphasis
in my life.
The kingdom of heaven is the greatest goal,
the greatest desire, and thus should bring into
my life the greatest sacrifices.
And I should not be concerned with what
sacrifice I may make in a temporal way
because I'm seeking the eternal kingdom of heaven.
Now the third illustration, he said, it hath
been said that whosoever shall put away his
wife, let him give her a writing of
divorcement.
But I say unto you that whosoever shall
put away his wife, except it be for
the cause of fornication, causes her to commit
adultery.
And whosoever shall marry her that is divorce
commits adultery.
Now the issue of Jesus and divorce is
a very interesting issue, and it is one
that is very relevant for today because of
the high incidence of divorce.
And under the law it said if a
man be married to a wife and he
finds an uncleanness in her, let him give
her a writing of divorcement.
In those days, the woman really did not
have many rights.
If her husband wanted to divorce her, he
could divorce her, but she could not divorce
him.
There was no provision for a wife getting
a divorce from a husband.
But the husband could get a divorce, and
they began as they do today to interpret
the law, you know, how that our laws
have been so interpreted now by the courts
that they become more liberal all the time.
So that if the officer, when he arrests
you, does not have a probable cause to
search you, but without the probable cause he
searches you and finds in your possession a
.45 and ballistics tests prove that it was
the gun that was used to murder that
man just down the street and you have
the man's watch and wallet in your pocket
and all.
But the officer didn't inform you of your
rights or he didn't have probable cause of
searching you, you can get off free because
we've, you know, so interpreted the law.
In fact, I saw the other day where
they let a guy off free because he
wore jail clothes when he was on trial
and it gave a presupposition of guilty.
And though he was guilty, and they had
all the proof to prove that he was
guilty, because they did not let him wear
a business suit when he stood before the
jury, but he was in jail attire, they
set him free.
The liberalizing of the law through interpretation.
Now, this law of divorce had been extremely
liberalized through interpretation.
What did the law constitute if he finds
an uncleanness in her?
And there was one school of rabbis under
Hillel who interpreted that very strictly as being,
he found that she wasn't a virgin when
he married her.
But the other school of rabbis had begun
to liberalize that law to the extent that
if you found an uncleanness in your wife
could constitute that she just didn't fix your
eggs the way you liked them in the
morning.
And that would be an uncleanness in her.
I don't like the way she cooks.
Here, you're through, woman.
Writing of divorcement.
And they just write out the divorcement and
hand it to her.
And she had no, she had no alternative.
I mean, he did that, she was gone.
She had no recourse.
She was out.
That's why this custom of dowry became popular.
For dowry was actually alimony in advance.
It was paid to the girl's father and
he would keep it for her in case
her husband ever put her out.
Then she's got her alimony already set.
He paid it before they got married.
And dowry is really alimony in advance.
Not such a bad deal when divorce is
so easy and so liberalized.
So this is the background.
A very easy divorce.
Just give her a writing of a bill
of divorcement.
Any excuse, you know, any uncleanness.
And that could mean anything.
Didn't like the way she combed her hair.
Didn't like the way she looked in the
morning when she first woke up.
And so they had so liberalized the divorce
laws.
And so Jesus is going back more towards
the original.
But we'll get more into this when we
get to the 17th chapter or the 19th
chapter.
And we look at the law of Jesus
and divorce there.
Because Jesus does then begin to amplify it
there a bit.
And we'll not cover it tonight fully, but
we'll wait till chapter 19.
Again, you have heard that it hath been
said by those of old time, thou shalt
not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the
Lord thine oaths.
But I say unto you, don't swear at
all.
Neither by heaven, for it is God's throne,
nor by the earth, for it is God's
footstool.
Neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city
of the great king.
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because
you cannot make one hair white or black.
That was before Clairol.
But let your yes be a yes.
Let your no be a no.
And whatever is more than this is deceitful.
Now Jesus is talking about that deceitfulness of
being able to say no, though it sounds
like yes.
Or saying yes, when you really don't mean
yes.
Basically, Jesus is saying you should be a
person of your word.
You should not have to take an oath.
You should not have to swear to the
truth that you are declaring.
I swear in the Bible, I'm telling you
the truth, man.
Well, you only have to do that if
you are basically an untruthful person and nobody
trusts you.
But you should be a person of your
word.
And when you say yes, you should mean
yes.
And when you say no, you should mean
no.
Let your yes be yes and your no
be no.
And don't get into these long, deceitful kind
of, well, I would be very happy to
do it.
And I'll tell you what, I'll pray about
it, brother.
But you're really saying no.
I really don't want to do it.
I have no intention of doing it, but
I don't want to tell you no, because
it may offend you.
But Jesus said, be a person of your
word.
If you say yes, mean yes.
If you say no, mean no.
Anything that is more than this is just
deceitful to cover up the truth.
Now you've heard that it hath been said,
an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth.
But let me explain the way they were
teaching this law.
First of all, this law was not given
to the common people.
This came under the law when God was
instructing the judges concerning their judgment in the
cases that were brought before them.
And there should be equity meted out from
the judges.
And He uses the eye for an eye,
tooth for tooth to show that when you
judge, make the judgment equitable.
Make the judgment fitting the crime.
Let the judgment be fitting the crime that
was committed.
Let it be an eye for an eye,
a tooth for tooth.
So He's just talking about equitable judgment, but
it is addressed to the judges, not to
individuals.
In that portion of the law, He is
instructing judges how they are to judge when
they are sitting in the judgment seat.
But they had begun to interpret it in
a personal way and they had liberalized it.
So it was, you know, now to you,
an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth.
But not only were they teaching an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth as the possible judgment, but they were
saying that it is an obligation.
Now, even today in many of those families,
you have these feudal things going on.
The eye for an eye, tooth for tooth
thing.
And these family feuds go on for generations.
You know, they killed a member of our
clan.
We're going to kill a member of their
clan.
They beat up a member of our clan.
We're going to beat up a member of
our, and we're duty bound.
We're honor bound.
And they looked at it as something of
which you were duty bound and honor bound
to do.
And it was a violation of honor if
you didn't take the eye for an eye
or a tooth for a tooth.
And they were really, you know, go at
it, go get it.
You're honor bound to do it.
But Jesus said, oh, not so.
First of all, it doesn't have a personal
vindictive within it, but it is something that
the judges were to meet out equitable judgment.
But Jesus said, I stand to you, don't
resist those that are evil, but whosoever shall
smite thee on the right cheek, turn to
him the other also.
Now there are those who take this resist
not evil as a case against police departments,
but that is a ridiculous, foolish interpretation.
And thus it is not the correct interpretation
because Jesus didn't say anything that was ridiculous
and foolish.
Again, he's talking to us and just saying
that we aren't to be seeking vengeance for
ourselves.
Whosoever smite thee on the right cheek, turn
to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at
the law and take away thy coat, cloak
also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a
mile, go with him too.
In those days, the Roman soldiers could compel
you to carry their backpacks a mile.
Under Roman law, you could be walking down
the road and a Roman soldier come to
you and he had his backpack on and
all he could say, carry this thing for
a mile.
And you had to carry the thing for
a mile.
And of course, the Jews hated that yoke
of Roman control and government.
They were constantly rebelling.
And boy, it used to really gall them
to have to carry that load for that
Roman soldier for a mile.
Jesus said, look, if they compel you to
go a mile, go too.
Think of what opportunity you'd have to witness
to him in the second mile.
He'd wonder, hey, you're different, man.
What's going on here?
Give to him that ask.
And he that would borrow from thee, don't
turn away.
Now, you've heard that it hath been said,
thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine
enemy.
But I say unto you, love your enemies.
Bless those that curse you.
Do good to those that hate you.
Pray for those which despitefully use you and
persecute you, that you may be the children
of your father, which is in heaven.
For he makes his son to rise on
the evil and on the good.
He sends rain on the just and the
unjust.
God treats all men alike, whether good or
bad.
Gives rain to the good and bad people.
Causes his son to shine on good and
bad people.
God is impartial in these things.
So be like your father, which is in
heaven.
Bless those that curse you.
Pray for those that despitefully use you.
Love your enemies.
Now, I say, Jesus said, you know, this
they say, this is what I say.
Now, as I pointed out in the beginning,
the way they were interpreting the law, the
people could feel self-righteous because they were
keeping the law.
But the way Jesus interpreted the law, they
were all guilty.
Now, as you look at the way Jesus
has interpreted the law, do you feel righteous
or guilty?
And thus, you see, the true intent of
the law was to govern over the attitudes
of man.
And when your attitude was wrong before God,
you were guilty before God.
And you should then be seeking God's forgiveness
and God's help.
But it's all in the way that they
were interpreting the law and the way the
law was intended.
Intended to govern the attitudes of man.
Now, Jesus concludes, if you only love those
that love you, so what?
It's no big deal.
Don't even the rank sinners do the same?
You know, it's no big deal if you
just go around loving all those that love
you.
Oh, I love you people so much.
Oh, you know, big deal.
You love me, so it's only natural that
I love you.
But Jesus said, if you only love those
that love you, what are you doing?
If you only salute your brothers, you only
greet your brothers, what do you more than
others?
If you're only friendly and kind and helpful
for those that you know, those that are
your brothers, then what are you doing more
than anybody else?
If you're only loving those that love you,
what are you doing more than anybody else?
Now, the inference here is that as a
Christian, you should be doing more than anybody
else.
And if you're not doing more than anybody
else, then how can you really boast of
being a Christian?
The whole question is, what are you doing
more than the person who is not a
Christian?
You should be doing more.
And if you only love those that love
you, you're not doing any more than anybody
else.
If you're only greeting those that greet you,
or only greeting your brothers, you're not doing
any more than anybody else.
If you're only friendly to those that you
know, you're not doing any more than anybody
else.
And then comes the capper.
And if you haven't felt like a sinner
yet, Jesus said, be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect.
So, strike one.
I didn't make it.
I've come far from making it.
Therefore, I need help.
And thank God He has provided that help
that I needed through forgiveness, through Jesus Christ,
through His shed blood for me.
We'll wait until the next session to go
on with six and seven, because we'll never
make it.
There's so much to be said.
And if the Lord comes before we get
there, I'll wave at you
across the room as we're sitting at the
feet of the Master, learning more and more
of God's love.
For God, through the endless ages to come,
shall be revealing unto us the exceeding richness
of His love and grace towards us in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
And what a glorious day that will be
when we all stand before Him complete in
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And now unto Him who is able to
keep you from falling and to present you
faultless.
That's perfect.
That's just the way He's going to present
me before the Father.
Isn't that neat?
Not because I am perfect, but because I
am perfect in Him.
The Bible says, the fullness of the Godhead
bodily dwells in Christ and you are perfect
in Him.
It's the same Greek word that is used
here, be therefore perfect.
Same Greek word.
You are complete or you are perfect in
Him to present you faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy.
That's just how He's going to present you
when you stand before God, complete in Jesus
Christ.
Only the grace of God could do that
for us.
You see, the law of God condemns us
all to death.
But Jesus said, I came to fulfill the
law.
Thus He died for us.
You see the whole section here now as
Jesus is speaking about the law.
I didn't come to destroy.
I came to fulfill the law and the
prophets.
And that He did in His death for
us who are guilty because the law is
spiritual and I am carnal and thus the
law condemned me.
Paul said, when the law came, sin was
revealed and I died.
It destroyed me.
It condemned me to death because I was
guilty.
So if you are reading the law in
such a way as you feel very smug
and self-righteous and say, well, I'm glad
I'm not like other men.
I've never done those horrible things.
Look again.
What has been the attitude of your heart?
That's what God is looking upon.
For man may look on the outward appearance,
but God is looking upon your heart and
that's what God is interested in tonight.
A heart that is broken before Him.
A heart that grieves over its own sin
and iniquity.
A heart that hungers and thirsts after God.
For they will then be filled with that
mercy of God and they will become pure.
The pure desire of their heart for God
and for the things of God.
Praise the Lord.
Father, we just thank you for the guide
to life, the lamp unto our feet, a
light unto our path that we might walk
in thy path of righteousness for thy name's
sake.
Thank you, Father, again for this privilege of
being here tonight and sharing in thy word.
And now, Lord, may thy Holy Spirit be
with us as we go.
Watching over, keeping.
And Father, we know not what the day
is going to bring forth, but in the
midst of the turmoil that is now engulfing
the Middle East, midst of the bombs and
the artillery, rockets, we pray for the peace
of Jerusalem.
Oh God, we pray more that thy kingdom
will come and thy will shall be done
here on the earth even as it is
in heaven where men will no longer be
killing and destroying men through hatred, greed, and
war.
But where you might all sit down beneath
our own vine and big tree and live
in peace in thy kingdom, in the world
that you've desired for us.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.