I appreciate Pastor Mark and Pastor Jeff kicking
off Chapter 5 for us.
I kind of knew we weren't going to
get through Chapter 5 on just one Sunday.
However, I am going to endeavor to go
through Chapter 5 this morning, not commenting as
much on the first few verses because I
think Mark and Jeff really did some wonderful
studies on those first 17 verses or so.
But let's open to 5 and just get
the context and get the flow and go
through it because this is such a critical
portion of Scripture.
You know, we're looking at the first sermon
that Jesus, that we have recorded of Jesus,
and it's not like an evangelical sermon in
Madison Square Garden.
He's taking His 12, He's taking His disciples,
that group of just a few guys and
bringing them aside and instructing them because He
knew the time would be soon that He
wouldn't be here anymore.
So He was imparting into them these truths.
And as we open up the Beatitudes, we
start looking at the Sermon on the Mount,
we begin to realize that this is what
a disciple is to be.
If we say we're following the Lord, these
are the character traits that we should be
seeing in our own lives.
So this is a good self-examination.
And maybe you can look at those and
go, and I'm learning that, I'm learning that.
Or you're looking at and going that, I'm
convicted by that.
And if you're convicted by that, then you
need to repent.
Because this is, this is not option, this
is not just what super spiritual people do.
This is what a normal disciple looks like.
These are the characteristics of a disciple.
So seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up on
a mountain, and when He was seated, His
disciples came to Him.
And then He opened His mouth and He
taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The entrance into the kingdom of heaven, we
realize, is not just sweet by and by.
It's not just when we die, it's what's
happening right now.
If we're born again, and Jesus is our
King and our Lord and our Savior, then
we're living under His rule now, and will
be forevermore.
So this is the beginning.
And poor in spirit, or poverty of spirit,
comes as an inevitable consequence of seeing the
Lord.
When you see the Lord, when you realize
what God has done for you, the sacrifice
that has been made for you, when you
begin to catch a glimpse of how holy
and awesome and powerful God is, you don't
have any room to boast.
And so one who is pompous and thinks
he is something, hasn't seen the Lord.
A true vision of the Lord is always
humbling.
And really what it is, is I see
the truth about me in the light of
His holiness.
I see how holy God is, and I
realize, I fall way, way short of that.
And I really believe that humility is essential
to all future growth in the Lord.
You've got to be poor in spirit.
You've got to have that broken and that
contrite heart.
So blessed, you're blessed and happy and full
of joy are the ones that are, and
that do see themselves that way.
It's a great blessing to know the truth
about yourself and to be utterly in awe
of the Lord's grace and mercy towards you.
You know, it's one thing to have the
truth about yourself revealed and then have your
face rubbed in it.
Amen?
I mean, really.
But to know the truth about yourself and
then to realize that God loves you, that
God has poured out His grace and His
mercy, you realize you don't deserve anything from
Him.
But He loves you so much that He
wants to give of Himself to you.
And what should that do to us?
Lord, I'm not worthy.
Lord, that humbles me.
And that's when you know you're really starting
to walk with the Lord, because you realize
you don't deserve any of this.
If you're still kind of thinking like, well,
yeah, I'm a pretty good person and, you
know, and yeah, you know, I've got this
down.
I think Jeff pointed it out last week.
You haven't even begun yet.
Because when you really know the Lord, there's
a brokenness towards yourself, particularly.
And God forbid that you boast in front
of others like you're somebody, because we're not.
He's everything.
We're saying praise and glory, wisdom and honor,
power and strength and thanksgiving be unto me.
No, thank you, brother.
Be unto God.
Amen.
I'm going to sit down.
Thank you, Lord.
So we need to be in awe of
what God has done.
Verse four, blessed are those who mourn, for
they shall be comforted.
And this is not, I think Mark pointed
this out a couple of weeks ago.
This is not talking about, you know, when
you go through hard times and you grieve
through loss and so forth, but rather it's
more of seeing the truth about myself brings
me to tears.
That's more what he has in mind here.
Seeing the truth about myself creates that brokenness
in my heart, a repentance, a repentant heart
over my sinfulness.
And the wondrous promise is given.
I will be comforted.
Not crushed.
Isn't that amazing?
Because we deserve to be crushed.
And yet instead of being crushed, the Lord
wants to comfort us.
That's sweet.
What comfort is forgiveness and salvation?
Blessed are the meek.
Verse five, for they shall inherit the earth.
And one commentator said meek is the combination
of two words, meek.
I can relate to that because meekness is
an absence of boastfulness.
Meekness is an absence of boastfulness.
In the light of the Lord, I have
the proper estimate of myself.
In the light of the Lord, I say,
woe is me.
I'm undone.
I'm a man of unclean lips.
But look at the promise.
When I'm out of the way, there's this
promise of inheriting the earth.
How different that is from the way the
world operates today.
World operates based on, you know, you got
the most, the more experience you have, the
more you're going to inherit.
You know, the more power you have, the
more money you have.
But here the Lord is saying, the more
meek you are, the more the inheritance is
yours.
First Timothy 6 says, Paul said there, now
godliness with contentment is great gain.
I think we need to learn that.
The idea of inheriting the earth.
One of the brothers in the church, Chris,
I can't pronounce your last name, Chris, if
you're here, but he sent me a study
on this and a Greek study a little
bit on what it meant to inherit.
And he said, it's the ability to enjoy
to the fullest, whatever material and spiritual blessings
God permits us to have here on the
earth.
The ability to enjoy to the fullest, whatever
he gives us.
And I think Mike was speaking of that
a little bit when he was talking about,
you know, experiencing what he did over in
the Philippines and, you know, sometimes thinking, this
is so hard and I'm struggling so much.
And here's people that have absolutely nothing, at
least compared to what I've got.
And they're rejoicing in the Lord.
They're just so glad.
I think the Lord wants to bring us
to a place where we're not caught up
with the seductiveness of covetousness, where we're always
looking at the things that the world hasn't
taken.
Oh, that's going to make me happy or
that's going to fulfill me.
Or if I just have that, I'll have
made it.
I'll be somebody.
But rather, the Lord wants us to learn
to be content with whatever he blesses us
with, whatever you have right now.
You can walk in the fullness of God
right now.
You can walk in the joy of the
Lord right now.
You can have a thankful attitude and heart
towards what you have right now.
Lord, thank you for what you've given me
today.
Thank you for the circumstances that I'm in
today.
Lord, you're at work in my life.
What a difference in attitude that makes rather
than saying, oh, you're doing this.
This is all falling apart.
That's not them.
They're doing this.
And it's just you get around a person
like that and you go, oh, look at
the time.
Got to go.
You know, you don't want to hang out
with that because it just drains you.
And I want to learn to be that
way, you know, to have that meekness of
attitude of wherever I'm at.
Thank you, Lord.
I want to learn to be content in
that.
So in light of the recognition of the
truth about me.
It creates within me a hunger and a
thirst.
After righteousness, we can see each of these
characteristics kind of progressing in a logical order.
So verse six, blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be
filled.
You know, I realize that in my flesh
dwells no good thing, but in seeing the
Lord and seeing him, I hunger and thirst
after him.
So you see the flow here.
First, you're poor in spirit.
Then you're mourning over your sin and you
find yourself meek.
And now that you've gotten rid of all
that self-grandeur and self-glory, you find
yourself hungering and thirsting after the Lord and
the things of God because you're emptied of
all that other junk.
All the things that don't really satisfy.
What does satisfy the believer?
It's not the things of the world.
It's the things of God, hungering and thirsting
after him.
I think it's true.
You can't really be filled until you're first
emptied.
And these first three or four beatitudes really
speak of that emptying process.
As a believer, I need to be emptied
of me that I might be filled with
him.
Because it's only him that's going to change
people for eternity.
Oh, I can affect people, you know, maybe
today I can get them mad at me
or they could give me an attaboy or
something.
But that has nothing to do with eternity.
And God has saved us that we might
impact people for eternity.
So blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness.
Blessed are the merciful, verse 7, for they
shall obtain mercy.
And again, Mark pointed out a couple of
weeks that the word for mercy is really
a word that we get our English word
empathy from.
And to empathize means to completely identify with
the plight of others.
Mercy is the...
Chris, our Greek scholar, shared this with me,
too.
He said mercy is the voluntary desire to
experience the suffering of others and then seek
to do for them what we would like
done for ourselves if we were in a
similar plight.
Should I say that again?
Okay, I will.
It's a long sentence.
But mercy is the voluntary desire to experience
the suffering of others and then seek to
do for them what we would like done
for ourselves if we were in a similar
situation.
That's powerful.
So powerful.
And you know what?
It's not only powerful, but it's necessary.
It pays to be merciful because each of
us will be judged by the same measure
with which we judge others.
Jesus said that in showing mercy and kindness
and forgiveness.
You know, it may be possible that you're
showing it to someone who doesn't deserve it.
But I would rather err on the side
of mercy than on the side of judgment.
You know, if I'm going to make a
mistake, I'd rather it be because I was
merciful.
And I think that's a good rule to
follow.
So the progression seems to continue here because
the more you're emptied and seeking the Lord,
truly, folks, the more merciful you'll be.
The more sinful and prideful a man is,
the more harsh and critical he will be.
Blessed is he, Psalm 41 says, who considers
the poor.
The Lord will deliver him in time of
trouble.
A great blessing promised.
Verse 8.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.
You know, God does search our hearts.
And because God search our hearts, we need
to be sure our hearts are pure.
In fact, the very word, the word pure
there means to have a clean house.
So part of our work as believers is
let's make sure the house stays clean and
keep it open and yielded to his searching.
A pure heart is a simple heart focused
on the Lord, undistracted by that which has
nothing to do with seeing God.
Psalm 51.6, David said, behold, you desire
truth in the inward parts and in the
hidden part you will make me to know
wisdom.
And we'll see as we go through the
Sermon on the Mount, particularly the latter part
of this chapter, that the Lord is really
dealing with matters of the heart.
He's really dealing with the condition of the
heart, not what you're saying on the outside,
but what's going on, on the inside.
And so we need to examine our hearts
continually.
Say, Lord, search me, test me, try me,
know me.
Lord, I want to be pure before you.
As we're aware of God's presence and his
hand everywhere and in every situation, the flow
continues here.
We find ourselves at peace.
And not only are we at peace, but
we bring peace.
Verse 9, blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called sons of God.
You know, as a Christian, as a follower
of Jesus, I should be a peacemaker, not
a troublemaker.
When I'm in a situation where there's conflict,
I should seek to resolve that conflict peacefully.
Notice that this is an active, observable characteristic
and activity of the disciple.
The disciple is observably a peacemaker.
And the greatest peacemaking work, of course, is
introducing people to the Prince of Peace, that
is Jesus Christ.
Because people, so many people are not at
peace with the Lord.
And it doesn't matter what philosophy that they
might be into.
If they don't know Christ, if their sins
are not forgiven, they're not at peace with
God.
And you may want to wonder, well, what's
next after all of these things?
Where does one who possesses these characteristics go
from here?
Moreover, how do you think the world responds
to such a man or a woman as
this?
Do you think that possessing these characteristics would
lead to popularity?
Probably not.
Instead, they often produce enemies.
Notice what Jesus says in verse 10.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, and we know when he's speaking of
righteousness, he's speaking of that right relationship with
Jesus Christ.
Because we're walking in fellowship with him.
It doesn't say, you know, blessed are you
if you're persecuted because you're obnoxious and weird.
You know, and some people do get really
off the boat on these things.
But the righteousness that we're going to be
persecuted for that God looks at as righteousness
that will make us blessed is that which
is because we're being conformed to the image
and likeness of Jesus.
And we are walking poor in spirit, with
meekness, showing mercy, walking humbly before our God.
The world persecutes such a person.
Why?
Because he makes the worldly person feel very
uncomfortable.
Not so much by design, but just by
who he is.
Later on in the next few verses, it
talks about you are the light of the
world.
Pastor Jeff talked about that last week, about
being a light.
What does light do?
It exposes darkness.
So if you're just a light bulb, you're
not going around going, you're in darkness, you're
in darkness, you're in darkness, you're going to
hell, you're going to burn.
No, you're just, I'm in love with Jesus.
You know, you're a light.
How can I help you?
How can I serve you?
Oh, the Lord loves you so much.
And somebody that's in the world is going,
why?
Because that light of the love of Jesus
is exposing their sin and they're reacting to
that.
They're not reacting to you, they're reacting to
that light and that love that's in you.
And they want to run, they want to
hide.
John chapter three, Jesus said this.
He said, this is the condemnation that the
light has come into the world and men
loved darkness rather than light.
Why?
Because their deeds were evil.
For everyone practicing evil hates the light and
does not come to the light lest his
deeds should be exposed.
So a person living in sin is very
uneasy around a person who is pure in
heart.
And you've perhaps experienced that when you come
into work or you go into a situation
where people know you're a believer.
And as soon as you walk in the
room, it's like they go, shh, preachers are,
you know, kind of a thing that happens,
happens all the time.
I like to have breakfast early in the
morning on Sunday morning at one of the
restaurants in town.
And there's these guys that sit at the
bar, they're always there, 6.30 in the
morning, they're always there.
And they're just going on and on and
on about their adventures over the previous weekend,
you know, and, and so forth.
And I kid you not, every week, every,
every Saturday, I walk in and there's just
a hush that comes over the thing, you
know, and I tell them I'm praying for
them and stuff.
But you know, it's, it's like, they know
there's something about, I never, I'm not condemning
them.
I'm not laying a trip on them.
You know, I'm not, you know, insulting them.
I'm just walking in with my Bible.
That's all.
Hallelujah.
So Jesus is saying, be happy, rejoice, because
your reward in heaven is going to be
great when men persecute you, and they will.
And I might point out that this persecution
is not restricted merely to the outside world.
Because it can happen within the church itself.
It can.
Think about your response.
Think about it just for a moment.
Your response to the brother or sister who
is really pure in heart, and all they
can think about or want to talk about
is Jesus.
Do you crave fellowship with that person?
Or do you avoid them and write them
off as too spiritual?
I think we need to be careful about
that.
I want to be with people who love
Jesus.
I want to be in that place where
I can be challenged and edified.
There's a lot of things going on in
the world that we can spend time talking
about, right?
A lot of things.
Christians can get together and talk about everything
but Jesus.
And then when somebody says, well, let's talk
about what Jesus said in the Sermon on
the Mount, and people are going, keep it
in church.
But we are the church.
Everywhere we go, we're the church.
This isn't the church.
Like Jeff said last week, this building isn't
the church.
We are.
So blessed are you, verse 11, when they
revile and persecute you and say all kinds
of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is
your reward in heaven.
For so they persecuted the prophets who were
before you.
And Jesus said in John chapter 15, verse
20, he said, remember the word that I
said to you, a servant is not greater
than his master.
If they persecuted me, they'll persecute you.
If they kept my word, they'll keep yours
also.
But all these things they will do to
you for my name's sake, because they do
not know him who sent me.
So just get used to that.
You know, you're going against the flow when
you're walking with the Lord.
You're going against the flow of this world.
And becoming a Christian does not mean you're
politically correct.
It's just the opposite.
You're biblically correct.
You're right on in giving God the glory
and fearing God.
The world generally is not going to respond
positively to that unless the Lord has already
prepared somebody's heart to come to him.
So as Christians, we've got to understand we're
not here to let the world look at
us and go, look how great you are.
We're here to live for Jesus Christ.
Some will glorify God.
Some will.
And others will persecute because they can't stand
the light.
So let's understand that as we're walking with
the Lord, this is not just a bless
me club to give me gain that I
can be more popular and more successful in
this world.
No, we're to be broken to this world
and to be sold out for the Lord.
So we summarize the Beatitudes.
These are the attitudes that characterize the true
follower of Jesus Christ.
And which will lead to a real fulfilled
life in the Lord.
Be exceedingly glad, the Lord says here.
I think believers are to be exceedingly glad.
The word there in the Greek means to
jump for joy, to exalt poverty of spirit,
mourning over sin, meekness, which no longer struts
but submits hungering and thirsting after righteousness, mercy,
purity of heart, peacemaking and persecution.
These are the marks of the follower of
Jesus.
Now, Jesus instructs his disciples in verse 13
on the influence they are to have in
the world in which they live.
Given all of these things, we are to
be an influence.
You are the salt of the earth.
Verse 13.
If the salt loses its flavor, how shall
it be seasoned?
It's then good for nothing but to be
thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
Jeff pointed out the things that that salt
does last week.
Well, salt makes people thirsty.
Ask yourself, are people thirsty, people around me,
around us?
Are they thirsty for the living water of
Jesus?
Do they see something in you that creates
a thirst for what you are enjoying?
Salt makes people thirsty.
Salt also preserves.
Heavily salted meat killed the surface bacteria to
prevent the spoiling and the rotting of the
butchered meat.
Are we a holy influence in our society
and culture, retarding the rottenness of the world
around us?
So that's what the Lord calls us to.
We're not to be just, you know, subtly
doing the same things the world is doing,
just not as upfront as the world is.
But we're to be different so that our
difference is having an effect.
I like what I think.
I'm not sure which service there was that
Jeff mentioned this last week, but he talked
about how the moon reflects the sun.
But it's not just a reflector.
It also has an influence on the tides
and the weather systems of the earth.
We are in our reflecting of Jesus.
We also are influencing this culture around us.
So be salt.
Be salt.
Don't let the rottenness creep into your turf,
into your sphere of influence.
Be a purifying influence wherever you're at.
And obviously, that means, well, I got to
have a pure heart in myself.
I've got to be seeking purity and walking
in purity myself if I expect to have
a godly influence and a purifying influence in
the world.
You understand that?
You know, I can't just say, well, you
know, as long as I'm not hurting anybody
else, it's okay.
No, because if you're not walking purely, you
will not retard the rottenness that's around you.
The power is letting the salt do its
work.
Salt also promotes healing.
It stings when it touches a wound.
When it's put on, it has a cleansing
and a purifying effect on a wound.
Some of us had a chance to go
to Israel a few years back, and we
went to the Dead Sea.
And in our hotel, which was right on
the Dead Sea, they had the Dead Sea
water pumped into one of the pools.
So we decided, well, let's go soak in
the Dead Sea water.
And sure enough, you got in, and the
chemical consistency of the water is so different
from even normal sea water, and you actually
float.
You can't stay down.
It's like trying to hold a cork underwater.
You go down, and it pops right back
up.
You can sit back and just read a
paper.
You know, that's how buoyant you are in
that water.
But if you've shaved, you know, or ladies,
and you did that a couple hours earlier,
and you get into that, everything's tingling.
Any little bite you had, but it's amazing
what it does to your skin.
Because when you come out of it, there's
just like, hey, it doesn't itch anymore.
It's not red anymore.
It's just had kind of a healing effect.
And a lot of people go there and
like to soak in those heavily salted things
as a healing thing.
But that's what salt, that's what we're to
be in other people's lives.
Not opening up the wounds, but healing.
It's a great picture the Lord gives us.
And it talks about losing its flavor, becoming
insipid, flat, tasteless.
And interestingly, it's the same word that in
other places in the Bible is translated to
act foolishly, losing its flavor to act foolishly.
And that's interesting because Jesus, in effect, is
saying, either be a purifying influence, or you're
going to be trodden under and crushed by
a rotten world.
May be an influence in that world.
And I think it is.
It's indeed, it's a foolish thing if we're
salt to have lost our savor.
That's a foolish thing.
To say you're a Christian, but not be
influencing the world around you.
But God calls us to this.
And it's true of us as individuals, and
it's true of the church as a whole.
Verse 14, you're a light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be
hidden.
Brothers and sisters, you can't really hide a
true relationship with God, nor are you to
hide it.
Your relationship with God is not something you
keep in your closet.
It's not something you just do at church.
And I know a lot of people in
the world would say, hey, whatever you do
at church, that's fine.
Just keep it in church.
Don't bug me with it.
But you got to say, I apologize.
I'm sorry, but I'm a light.
The light's on.
You know, I can't do anything else, but
be the light that God's called me to
be.
And that's why Christianity is just so despised
and so resisted.
But folks, that's what we're called to be.
To be a light.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life.
And no one comes to the Father but
by me.
The world's in darkness, and we have the
light.
We have to let our light shine.
Nor do they light a lamp and put
it under a basket, but on a lampstand.
And it gives light to all who are
in the house.
So the purpose of life is to give
light.
It's to give.
It's not to keep and hide.
It's to give.
So, verse 16, let your light shine before
men, that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father in heaven.
Your light shines in your good works.
And when men see those good works, they
don't glorify you, but they're drawn to God
himself.
Whenever Jesus would work his miracles, you read
this in the Gospels, whenever Jesus would work
his miracles, the people would go away glorifying
God.
Oh sure, there were those that would look
at the miracle and go, we're in trouble.
We got to eliminate this guy.
He's going to erode our power base.
But as you read the general accounts, the
people saw what Jesus did, there was a
glorifying, not of Jesus, but of God.
They'll know we're Christians, the Bible says in
John 13, because of our love one for
another.
And that should be what they, when the
world looks at the church, they should see
the church as that influencing of the world
for the glory of God, not for the
glory of our own church.
And sadly, many religious kind of organizations and
churches have made that mistake of the glory
coming to them and look how great we
are, rather than humbly and brokenly serving others.
And then when people see that true service,
they know, hey, there's something different about that
person.
That's real evangelism.
And that's how our work should shine.
Now in verse 17, Jesus said, do not
think I came to destroy the law or
the prophets.
I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For assuredly I say to you, till heaven
and earth pass away, one jot or one
tittle will by no means pass from the
law till all is fulfilled.
And a lot of people say, well, I'm
not under the law, I'm under grace.
Excuse me.
Jesus said something real important here.
Jesus had a very high respect for the
law.
In fact, fulfilled the law.
And he said, whoever therefore breaks one of
the least of these commandments and teaches men
so shall be called least in the kingdom
of heaven.
But whoever does and teaches them, he shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Now the term law here is used for
the first five books of the Old Testament,
what's called the Pentateuch.
And the issue of the law was a
major concern to those who heard Jesus teach.
Because he was not a traditional Pharisee who
were typically, the scribes and the Pharisees were
the typical teachers of the law.
He wasn't a doctor of the law.
He hadn't gone to the appropriate schools, nor
rose through the traditional ranks.
And yet he taught the people with great
authority.
Because of that, his relationship to the law
was a matter of great concern.
And we read here that Jesus not only
believed and taught the law, but made it
clear that what the Pharisees and scribes were
teaching was not the law.
They thought it was, but it wasn't.
So he specifically states that he did not
come to destroy the law, but rather to
fulfill or complete it.
Again, that's not replacement theology.
Many today speak ill of the law, stating
their opinion that they're no longer under the
law, but under grace.
And they look at the law in a
negative way.
But the Bible tells us the law of
the Lord is perfect.
Psalm 19, the law of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul.
The testimonies of the Lord are sure, making
wise the simple.
I mean, the law is good.
There is nothing wrong about the law of
God.
The only problem with the law is we
can't keep it.
That's not the law's fault.
It's ours.
The law is good for the purposes for
which God intended the law.
And God intended the law to expose man's
sinfulness.
And toward that purpose, it is very good.
It was never intended by God to make
you righteous.
You see, by the law, we have the
knowledge of sin.
The law cannot save us or make us
righteous.
It can only expose us in our state
of sin and thus condemn us.
And it's very good at that, isn't it?
Because you think through the Ten Commandments.
If you've ever bothered to learn the Ten
Commandments, and you think about that, and you
go, whoops, blew that one, messed up that
one, lost that one, disobeyed that one.
And what does the law do?
It says, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
Galatians 3.24, when I look at my
life with the standards God has set for
me, I realize I'm a sinner.
And then I will seek God for his
help because I sure can't keep them as
he requires.
So what does the law do?
Galatians 3.24, the law was our tutor
to bring us to Christ that we might
be justified by faith.
The law says we're guilty.
It drives us to the Messiah.
It drives us to the Savior.
Romans chapter 3, verse 20 says, therefore, by
the deeds of the law, no flesh will
be justified in his sight for by the
law is the knowledge of sin.
So a proper understanding of the law always
brings us to the cross.
It always drives us to Jesus.
John 1.17 says the law was given
through Moses, but grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ.
Now, note that though the grace and truth
that comes through Jesus Christ does not negate
the law.
Jesus said, I didn't come to destroy the
law, but to fulfill it.
The ceremonial law, for example, the principles of
worship before a holy God still applied, but
not specific practices.
Procedures for sacrifices, for example.
The idea was always to bring alienated man
into fellowship with God again.
But now, because Jesus became the sin offering
for us, that's why we no longer take
a lamb before the priest.
Once and for all, he paid the price
for our sin.
If you walked in here with a little
lamb and saying, Pastor, could you sacrifice this
lamb for me because I'm a sinner?
I would say the lamb has already been
sacrificed for you.
The lamb of God has already bled for
you.
Put your trust in him.
Again, there's no fault in the moral law.
Really, is there?
I mean, loving God, having no other gods
before you, you know, not taking the name
of the Lord your God in vain, keeping
the Sabbath day holy, don't steal or kill
or commit adultery.
There's nothing wrong with the law.
It's all good.
Amen?
Those are all good commands.
So grace is no excuse for not keeping
the law.
Just because you say you're a grace doesn't
negate the law.
That's okay.
I'm under grace, as if grace was some
kind of an indulgence card, a get out
of jail free card.
No, it's not.
We find that we're really called to walk
the walk and not just talk the talk.
The point of the law was obeying it,
not just explaining it.
Pharisees and scribes are really great at explaining
it, but were they living it?
And Jesus is going to expose that they
weren't.
And I can tell you from experience that
it's much easier to study God's laws and
tell others to obey them than to put
them in practice.
And as believers, we always have to be
on the guard for that.
It's easy to study about it.
It's easy to point out the faults in
others.
It's a whole lot harder to live it
and commit yourself to living it.
So I would ask you this morning, how
are you doing at obeying God yourself?
I can pick out the faults in a
lot of other people, but isn't it interesting
when you notice the faults of others, that
it's usually something that you yourself have a
problem with, and that's what you're quick to
judge in others.
Ask yourself, am I obeying God in here?
I don't know what you're doing.
I don't know what you're doing, but what
am I doing?
Am I walking with him?
Oh, that just so ticks me off when
I see that impurity on the television or
this, that, or the other thing.
And that ticks me off and I rave
about it, but in my private heart, when
I'm by myself, what am I dwelling on?
What am I thinking about?
Am I allowing those same impure thoughts to
be taking over in my mind?
Then I'm not walking.
God said God wants me to purify the
inside, and that's so critical.
So now the shocker, verse 20, he says,
for I say to you that unless your
righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and
the Pharisees, you will by no means enter
the kingdom of heaven.
The Pharisees spent their whole lives trying to
keep the most minute details of the law,
and they added all kinds of things onto
it just to try to show how perfect
they were in keeping the law, how possible
it was to keep the law.
But here the Lord says, and then to
the average person, you got to understand, didn't
have the scriptures like we do.
I mean, the scrolls were very rare.
The common person didn't have a pocket New
Testament or a pocket Old Testament.
They had to rely on what the teachers
were teaching them.
They didn't have the access to that.
And so for them, for Jesus to say
that your righteousness needs to be more, it
needs to exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, the average common man would
say, well, there's no hope.
I guess I'm not going to enter the
kingdom of heaven.
How can I possibly do that?
They're the closest thing to perfection that exists.
But what Jesus is really saying is, you
know, if you think you can make it
into the kingdom without me as your savior,
you better be awfully good.
In other words, you better be perfect.
And neither of us are.
We fall so short.
And one of the problems that I often
see is that rather than dealing with the
issues of our own heart, we get a
pharisaical kind of an attitude at times because
we look at others and we look at
the failures of others and then we kind
of say, well, I'm not that bad.
And that's what the Pharisees did compared to
everyone else.
They thought they looked pretty good.
But compared to the standards Jesus presented, the
Pharisees were spiritual runts, just like everyone else.
The problem with their righteousness was that it
was all outward.
It was all a show.
Their hearts and attitudes were rotten.
How quickly they sought to kill Jesus because
of his popularity with the people.
They weren't really walking with a pure heart
to please God.
Now, in the last part of the chapter,
Jesus compares six teachings of the law and
contrasts with what contrasts them with what the
Pharisees were teaching to God's intent behind the
law.
Again, he starts this section off by saying,
so you have heard, because many of them
hadn't read.
They'd heard.
And so he says, you've heard that it
was said of those of old, you shall
not murder and whoever murders will be in
danger of the judgment.
And that's true, the law does teach that.
Verse 22, though, but I say to you
that whoever is angry with his brother without
a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment.
And whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall
be in danger of the council.
And whoever says you fool shall be in
danger of hellfire.
What's Jesus telling us here?
He's saying that it's anger towards a person
that leads to murder.
It starts in your heart.
Murder always begins not with the physical act,
but with the attitude of the heart and
the boiling over that happens inside.
And then it manifests itself with that act.
The Lord is saying you already committed it
if it's going on in your heart.
If you look at somebody and go, you're
a vain, worthless, empty-headed, sorry excuse for
a person.
And you look at another person and not
regard their rights.
Be careful of that.
Be careful of anger.
If anger is brewing inside you, it'll lead
to danger.
Anger leads to danger.
And it's not just beating someone to death
or shooting them, but it's having disdain for
that person.
That's the seedbed for murder.
Not having a high regard for life, bigots,
those involved with genocide, ethnic cleansing.
It all starts from folks having a low
or non-existent regard for the sanctity of
life.
Guard your heart.
When you get ticked off somebody, you know,
when you find that anger brewing and, you
know, road rage, you know, somebody cuts you
off.
I'm amazed the stuff that comes up in
my heart when I'm on the freeway.
I'm just amazed at it.
I've preached about it so many times and
yet, but where does it start?
It starts in here.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the
altar and there remember that your brother has
something against you, an unresolved issue, go first
to them.
Leave your gift there before the altar and
go your way.
First be reconciled to your brother and then
come and offer your gift.
Make things right with your fellow man and
then you can make things right with God.
Agree with your adversary quickly while you're on
the way with him.
Lest your adversary deliver you to the judge,
the judge hand you over to the officer
and you're thrown into prison.
Assuredly, I say to you, you will by
no means get out of there until you've
paid the last penny.
So what's the counsel?
Make peace quickly.
Settle your differences.
Get it right before you end up in
court.
And in the legal system of that day,
if you had something against someone, it'd be
your job to find him and drag him
in physically and forcibly before the judge.
So here the Lord is saying within that
understanding, that system that they had to learn
to apologize quickly and do your best to
make things right.
Little issues tend to grow into huge crises
if not dealt with quickly.
Stubborn pride can so complicate and confuse circumstances
that you often end up with no way
out.
So agree with your adversary quickly.
Somebody has aught against you.
You take the initiative and make it right.
Don't wait for them.
Go.
I'm not going to forgive them until they
do.
You know, some people are that way.
I'm not going to.
I'm not going to go to them.
They're the ones that messed me up.
I'm not going to go to them.
They need to come to me.
Be careful.
Agree with your adversary quickly.
You take the initiative to heal that and
then look at the attitudes.
Look at the characteristics of a disciple.
You'll find that God will give you the
grace to step into those situations and bring
peace and healing.
Second issue here.
You have heard it said of old that
you shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you that whoever looks
at a woman to lust for her has
already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The issue isn't what you're doing outwardly.
It's what's going on in your heart eternally
and internally.
Sin begins in the heart, men, women.
Sin begins in the heart.
And I'll talk to the fellows just briefly.
Guys, we cannot spiritualize what Jesus is saying
here.
First Corinthians 6 13 tells us that the
body is not for sexual immorality, but for
the Lord and the Lord for the body.
Verse 18 of First Corinthians 6 says, Flee
sexual immorality.
Men, I'm talking to you.
There is no place for sexual immorality in
a believer's heart, and you need to take
steps immediately to deal with that.
And if you think you can handle it
on your own without surrender to the Lord,
you're only fooling yourself.
And he'll address some of the seriousness of
that going on.
But I got to tell you, as godly
men in the 21st century, we cannot let
our eyes go where the world's eyes go.
We cannot allow things to come into our
home through our computer or through our televisions.
We can't allow our eyes to roam, men.
And ladies, please be aware of that, that
guy's eyes do roam.
And it is summertime in Southern California, so
please be modest.
But gentlemen, you need to learn to bounce
your eyes.
And that is like, don't have laser vision,
where you see a pretty girl and you
lock and load.
You know, because if you do, men are
stimulated sexually by their eyes.
All they got to do is see it
and they're off.
So what do guys need to learn to
do?
They need to discipline their eyes and they
need to discipline their mind and they need
to discipline their heart.
And I want to encourage you.
I want to encourage you guys.
Trust what the Lord is saying here.
It's very serious.
And your effectiveness in the kingdom of God,
your effectiveness as a man of God, in
your home and in your community is just
squashed if you're allowing sexual impurity to rage
inside you.
You got to deal with it.
And we're here to help you because we've
battled it too.
But I can stand here and tell you
that there is victory and you can walk
free from it.
But you got to look at what Jesus
said here.
If you don't look at it like Jesus
looked at it, you're going to be in
bondage to it.
If you don't approach it the way the
scripture says to approach it, then it's going
to eat you up.
These are serious issues.
And so Jesus gives some radical examples for
shock value.
And they are shocking to show us how
important it is that you keep your heart
and your mind pure.
So he says, if your right eye causes
you to sin, pluck it out and cast
it from you.
Now, are we to take that literally?
I think we're to take the warning literally.
Otherwise, we'd all be walking around with sockets.
And you know what?
We'd still be sinning in our heart.
Remember the whole context of this passage is
that it's the matters of the heart.
You can cut off your hand, but you
can still sin.
But what he's telling us through plucking it
out, saying that if one of your members
perish, it's more profitable to you than your
whole body being cast into hell.
What he's saying essentially is deal violently and
directly with any part of your being.
That is your activities, your hobbies, your schedule,
which is leading you into sin.
Don't take it lightly.
Get rid of it.
Sin is so destructive.
So deal with it decisively.
Don't play around with it.
We're out of time.
Wouldn't you know it?
Verse 31, whoever divorces his wife, dealing with
the whole issue of divorce, is that a
problem today?
Jesus says, I say to you, whoever divorces
his wife for any reason except sexual immorality
causes her to commit adultery.
And whoever marries a woman who is divorced
commits adultery.
I think we'll start there next week.
What do you say?
I mean, it's only going to get better.
Honestly, I'm just so grateful for this passage.
Because the world tells us everything opposite.
The world says it's no big deal.
And Satan is so manufactured it that we
live in a day where the things that
are right are looked on as wrong.
And the things that are wrong are looked
on as right.
There's been a flip-flop.
And I'm thankful for the word of God
to bring us back to where we need
to be.
And I hope you are, too.
There's nothing more important than being a disciple
of Jesus Christ and recognizing that that walk
of discipleship begins in your heart.
And so I would ask you this week
to review these passages, to look through chapter
5 and chapter 6 and chapter 7, because
we'll be in that for the next few
weeks.
And examine your heart.
And where there is sin, where you find
yourself way far away from what God has
called you to do, then be courageous and
take the steps to draw near to God
and to turn from your sin.
To confess your sin.
You know, the Bible says, confess your faults
one to another that you might be healed.
It says that in the book of James.
And so we realize that there is an
importance of us holding each other accountable.
You got a problem?
You got an area that you're struggling with
that you know the Bible tells you that's
not what pleases God?
But are you too proud to come and
confess that to me or somebody else in
the body?
What, because we'll think, well, because you've been,
we thought you were a Christian.
That was, that was certain.
We thought you were above that.
Tell you what, I know me good enough.
I know myself good enough that I could
never say that.
I could never say that.
Oh, I'm above you.
And you thought you could talk to some
of the men in this church and the
leaders and the other pastors.
And I've got to be an open book
before them.
We need to learn to be that way
with one another.
Is that risky?
Yeah, yeah, it is.
But if we're walking as disciples of the
Lord, along with the honesty, there's going to
be mercy.
And there's going to be meekness.
When we see someone, we have another brother
come and confess their sin.
We're not going to both go, no way
you did that.
Oh, I can't believe it.
I'm never going out to lunch with you.
I'm not going to Rubio's with you again.
Forget it.
Bible says not to dine with, you know,
some, you know, no.
No, rather it's going to be, you know
what?
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord that you would confess, that
you would be man enough, be woman enough
to confess your sin and your utter, absolute
need for the power of God to work
in your life.
That's starting to grow in the Lord.
You're afraid to confess your sin.
You're walking in fear, not in faith.
And the Bible says without faith, it's impossible
to please God.
We want to be disciples.
We want to be the people that kind
of what Jesus is doing with us this
morning.
He's taking us aside.
We're by and large, the group here, we're
believers.
If you're not a believer, God bless you
for being here.
And I pray that before we leave, we
get a chance to talk and you will
surrender your heart to the Lord.
But see, this is instruction for believers, for
disciples, not for the masses as a whole,
but it's for us.
That we might be the people God's called
us to be.
I love the Gospels.
I love this particular passage.
I pray that you will fall in love
with it too.
Oh, it might.
It might stir up some things, but stir
it up, Lord.
Because the last thing we want to be
is stagnant.
Last thing we want to be is, you
know, kind of like having the sin of
Achan.
Remember Achan?
You know, when the children of Israel came
across the Jordan and they defeated Jericho and
the Lord said, don't take anything from it.
This whole thing is going to be an
offering to me.
And brother Achan, he decided to take a
bar of gold and a Babylonian garment, a
couple other things and buried them under his
tent.
A couple of days later, they go up
to a piddly little town called Ai.
They sent 6,000 or so troops up
there and they get wiped out.
They get wiped out.
And Moses is on the ground.
Oh, what's that?
Or Joshua.
What's happening?
And the Lord says, get up.
There's sin in the camp.
What are you whining to me about?
There's sin in the camp.
And God just said, take this tribe and
this family and this, and it narrowed it
right down.
And it was judged and it was dealt
with.
But the armies of Israel were powerless while
there was sin in the camp.
Church, do we want to make an impact
in our community?
A continuing impact?
I believe we've made some good impact, but
I believe there's a whole lot more work
to do in our families, our neighborhoods, our
community as a whole.
Get right.
Whatever you do, determine today that I am
not going to let sin reign in my
mortal body.
I'm going to present my body as a
living sacrifice to the Lord.
I'm going to present my instruments as an
offering to the Lord, not my guitar or
harmonica, but my being to the Lord.
And I learn as I'm going through the
sermon in the mouth that it begins in
my heart.
Search our hearts, Lord.
Deal with us as you would.
Because we know God loves us.
Hey, if he's going to be convicting you
of sin, it's not to crush you.
It's to bring you to a place of
peace and victory.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for the time this morning.
God, we ask your blessing.
We ask you, you're searching, you're working in
us as we go from this place today.
Lord, you've got so much more that you
want to teach us.
So many more things you want to do
in our lives, Lord.
God, we just ask you to do that
work.
And we fall before you, Lord.
We come before you.
We know that the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, that outward show, we can put
on an act, but you see the heart.
And you came, Lord, that our hearts would
be born again, that we might have the
life of the spirit in us.
And that's not something of our doing.
That's a surrender to you.
And you do it in us.
Well, Lord, help us not to be afraid
to surrender.
Lord, may we come before you and honestly
confess and deal with those matters of the
heart, that we might be the light in
the world, and that you might use us
for your glory.
And we ask this this morning in the
powerful and precious name of Jesus.
Amen.
Can we stand together?
The pastors will be down here at the
front to pray for you.
The ushers will be in the back to
pray for you.
People at the donut table will be there
to pray for you.
Wherever you're at here, you'll find people who
will pray for you.
If you need prayer, if you need to
confess, fellows particularly, not saying that ladies don't
have a problem with this sexual immorality stuff,
but guys particularly do, and Christian guys do,
and we as Christian men need to deal
with it.
And so we would be here to pray
with you and for you and guide you
and disciple you and show you that there
is victory.
Let's deal with sin in the camp, folks.
Amen.
That we might be the people God wants
us to be.
The Lord bless you and keep you and
cause his face to shine upon you.
May he be gracious to you.
May he lift up his countenance in you
and give you his peace.
God bless you richly as you serve him.
You're dismissed.
You need prayer?