Matthew 5, 1.
And seeing the multitude, he went up into
a mountain, and when he was set, his
disciples came unto him, and he opened his
mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you
and persecute you, and shall say all manner
of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is
your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they
the prophets which were before you."
Now, just by way of introduction, I think
we should remind ourselves tonight that Matthew's gospel
has a distinctly Jewish flavor to it.
The purpose of Matthew's gospel is to present
our Lord Jesus Christ as King of the
Jews, and this will help us in reading
and studying this wonderful book.
For instance, the first chapter opens the gospel
with the lineage of the King, and that
shows him to be descended from David, which
was absolutely necessary.
Then we have the birth of the King,
and then we have just a brief reference
to the early life of the King.
You have his forerunner, John the Baptist, introduced,
and then, interestingly enough, you have the temptation
or the testing of the King.
And now we come in chapter 5 to
the Sermon on the Mount in which the
Lord Jesus sets forth some of the principles
which will be guiding rules in his kingdom.
Now, I think that we all realize that
the Lord Jesus came 1900 years ago and
offered himself as King to the nation of
Israel.
He came unto his own, but his own
received him not.
The nation of Israel wanted a mighty military
deliverer, but they didn't want to give up
their sins.
They wanted a Messiah, but they didn't want
to repent.
And so when the Lord Jesus presented himself
to them as King, their answer was, we
will not have this man to reign over
us.
And God said, in effect, if you don't
want him, I do.
And God took his blessed son back to
heaven.
Now, in a coming day, the Lord Jesus
Christ is going to come back to the
earth, and he's going to set up his
kingdom, the kingdom that Israel refused in that
day.
And the principles that we're going to be
studying in these three chapters are principles which
will hold sway when he comes to set
up his kingdom.
But just a minute, these principles apply to
us, too, because the kingdom of heaven, the
kingdom of God exists in a spiritual way
wherever Jesus Christ is acknowledged as rightful ruler.
If you're saved tonight, you bow to the
sway of our blessed Savior, and therefore these
principles are for you.
Now, in studying the Sermon on the Mount,
one of the first things that we'll notice
is that the teachings here are humanly impossible.
And I like to say that, and I
like to shock people by saying that, because
it's good to remind ourselves all the time
that the Christian life is a supernatural life.
It's a life that cannot be lived in
the energy of the flesh.
If my life is no different tonight than
the life of ungodly, unfaithful people around me,
then I'm not living the Christian life.
You can be sure of that.
The Christian life is absolutely different.
Make no mistake about it.
Now, for instance, in the Sermon on the
Mount, the Lord Jesus said, If somebody slaps
you on this side of the cheek, you
turn that side, too.
Now, that isn't human.
That isn't just the way your flesh reacts
when somebody slaps you on that side of
the face, is it?
And what I'm trying to say is that
it takes divine life to live the Sermon
on the Mount.
It's only as the life of the Lord
Jesus can be lived out in me than
anybody will ever see the Sermon on the
Mount practiced before their eyes.
And this is what makes it so ridiculous
when you say to a person, Are you
going to heaven?
And they say, Oh, yes, I'm going to
heaven.
And you say, Well, how are you getting
to heaven?
And they say, Well, I'm getting there by
the Sermon on the Mount.
I think we want to remind ourselves right
at the very outset that the Sermon on
the Mount is not the way of salvation.
The Sermon on the Mount is for those
who are already saved.
You know, it's a good thing in studying
your Bible to watch out to whom the
Lord Jesus is speaking.
And you'll notice that in this passage we
read, he's speaking to his disciples, not to
the multitude.
In fact, I don't know any key that
will help you in the Gospel of Matthew
better than that.
So look and see, is the Lord Jesus
speaking to a mixed multitude?
Is he speaking to saved and lost, or
is he only speaking to saved?
Well, here he's only speaking to saved, as
it were.
He's only speaking to the disciples.
The multitude wasn't here when he spoke these
words.
And it presupposes that the ones to whom
he is speaking have divine life.
Verse one, Seeing the multitude, he went up
into a mountain, and when he was set,
his disciples came unto him.
Somebody has said, Each time you look within
this book, five things observe with care, of
whom it speaks, to whom it speaks, and
how, and when, and where.
Well, you know, I try to follow that
little rule in just a simple way, because
I'm just a simple fellow.
And every time I open my Bible and
read a passage of scripture, I try to
remember of whom it's speaking, to whom it's
speaking, and how, and when, and where.
And this helps me greatly in my study
of the word.
Now, these verses we read tonight are known
as the Beatitudes.
It's a big word.
Don't be afraid of it.
It's just a Latin word for blessings.
Notice that each one begins with the word
blessed.
Well, the Beatitudes, that's just another way of
saying this is a list of blessings that's
all.
Now, what they do is describe the ideal
man in Christ's kingdom.
Now, mind you, this isn't the ideal man
in Durham today.
If I were to go down and interview
some of your great business executives and say,
how did you get to the top?
They wouldn't say to me, well, I just
humbled myself under the mighty hand of God,
would they?
Well, it might be the occasional one that
would, but that isn't the rule today.
That would be the exception today.
When the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and
sets up his kingdom, it's going to be
the rule and not the exception.
In fact, if you were to interview these
great business executives and say, how did you
get to the top?
He'd say, the story of my success is
written on every flinging door, push and pull,
and that's about it.
But that isn't what you read in the
Sermon on the Mount.
It's very, very different from that.
For instance, the Lord Jesus said, first of
all, blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
What does that mean to be poor in
spirit?
Does it mean to be down in the
mouth?
No, it doesn't mean that at all.
It means to have a right appraisal of
ourselves, to realize that we are nothing, to
realize that in us that is in our
flesh dwells no good thing, to realize that
Christ is everything.
That's what it means to be poor in
spirit.
To be poor in spirit is to be
a broken man before God.
You know, the longer I live, the more
I feel that two of the most important
words in the Christian life are love and
brokenness.
And I've lived the Christian life quite a
few years now, and it wasn't until two
years ago that I ever heard anybody pray
this prayer, Lord, break me.
And I have never prayed it myself until
then, even.
And you know, I'm just going to, in
a passing way, suggest to you tonight, as
we begin the study of the Sermon on
the Mount, I don't tell you to do
it carelessly.
But as you search your soul before God,
and as you get down on your knees
in the next few days, maybe you'd like
to weigh in the balances of the sanctuary
whether you'd really Lord.
You know, that's what it's got to be
if we're going to be the ideal man
or woman in the kingdom of heaven.
I often think in this connection of a
cult.
You know that a cult is never of
any good as far as service is concerned
until it's first broken.
It isn't.
It's just a wild beast careening over the
pasture.
You take that cult and you break it,
and then you can put the harness on
it and use it in service.
You know, there's a spiritual principle involved there.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed is the man whose spirit has been
broken by God.
His is the kingdom of heaven.
You know, when the world wants to paint
the portrait of a great man, you've seen
these portraits, haven't you, in the huge gold
frame.
They take a man and they see him
behind a mahogany desk, and there's all the
gold-plated fixtures on the desk and all
the brocaded curtains behind him.
That's a picture of finery.
And there he sits, Mr. Big himself behind
the desk.
He's at the pinnacle.
He's at the top of the ladder.
You know, when God wants to paint the
portrait of a great man, he shows you
a man on his knees.
And of the two portraits I know which
I like the best.
I'd like to suggest to you tonight, my
dear friends, that man is at his best
when he's on his knees before God.
Something to think about, isn't it?
Man is at his best when he's on
his knees before God.
I don't know why we spend so little
time on them.
Garvey said once, the greatest glory of the
creature is subjection.
Wonderful, you know, wonderful.
The greatest glory of the creature is subjection.
And we show our subjection when we're bowed
in the dust before God.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
It's going to be nice in the millennium
when Christ reigns and you look around and
most of the people you see will be
poor in spirit.
People who don't have an exaggerated idea of
their own importance, but people who see themselves
as nothing before God and realize that all
their sufficiency is in Him.
And then the second beatitude says, blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
So that is what the world says.
The world says, blessed are they that are
out having a gay time.
Blessed are they that are out living it
up to the hilt.
Those are the ones who are happy in
the world's estimate of things, but not in
God.
He said, blessed are they that mourn, for
they shall be comforted.
What does it mean?
Dear friends, it means that this man is
a believer.
He's in a world of sin and sorrow
and suffering and death, and he's affected by
it.
And he mourns over his own sin and
the wasted years of his own life.
And he mourns over the adversities that are
coming upon the people of God.
And he mourns over the terrible condition of
sinners that are going down to the pit
of hell.
And he cries unto God that he might
never get used to seeing people going down
to hell.
And he mourns over the terrible condition of
affairs in the world.
And he mourns over a rejected Christ.
And God looks down from heaven, and he
says, it doesn't seem so now in this
world.
You'd never think that this was a blessed
man in this world.
But I'm looking down, and I know what's
going on.
And I say, blessed is that class of
people who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
And it says, blessed are them each, for
they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are the meek.
What does it mean to be meek?
Does it mean to be just a softy?
Does it mean to be a sissy?
No, it doesn't mean that.
To be a meek man is to be
a man who doesn't bite back.
You know, when somebody says some sharp-cutting
thing to you, it's easy for the tongue
to just snap out like fangs, isn't it?
You have to be careful of the tongue,
because it's a slippery plate, and it's apt
to slide at any time.
A meek man is a man who can
take abuse and show nothing but kindness.
There was a dear man of God in
England some years ago, and it was said
of him that the surest way to receive
a kindness from him was to show him
a discourtesy.
Isn't that wonderful?
The surest way to receive a kindness from
this man was to show him a discourtesy.
Dear friends, that's the Sermon on the Mount.
That's living Christ before men.
And I tell you, that's what this poor
old world of ours is looking at.
The world can't stand it.
It breaks the heart of the world when
it meets that kind of behavior.
The world expects us to fight back, and
when they find that we don't fight back,
it takes the wind out of their sails.
It pricks their balloons, and they have no
more ammunition.
God knows what he's saying.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.
And this will be literally true when the
Lord Jesus Christ comes back in his second
advent.
This is a class of people who will
enter the millennium with Christ, when righteousness shall
cover the earth as the waters cover the
sea.
And then it says, blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled.
Well, if you were writing that the way
it is in the world today, you'd say,
blessed are they who hunger and thirst after
bribery and greed and corruption, for they shall
be filled.
Isn't that the way it is?
Well, it may be not in Durham, but
it is in Chicago.
But God knows.
He said, no, that's not according to my
plan.
Blessed are they that have an insatiable appetite.
You know, dear friends, it befits us as
children of God to be righteous in all
our ways.
I'm sure that all of you who are
in business today realize that Satan is at
your front door every day with all kinds
of temptations to compromise.
I was in a Christian home recently, not
here, and it came out that a man
who ran an oil business offered this Christian
a reduction of a couple of hundred dollars
on his real estate tax exemption if the
Christian would merely give his oil business to
this man.
What do you do in a case like
that?
Is it righteous?
Dear friends, it isn't righteous.
It isn't righteous.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
And this is just typical of what's going
on in the world today.
You do this for me, I'll do this
for you.
And this type of cooperation, as they call
it, is the rule.
It won't be in the millennium when the
Lord Jesus Christ reigns, ruled, it says, with
a rod of iron, and unrighteousness will be
put down.
There'll be no room for grafters and bribers
then.
And then it says, blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.
Now, what is a merciful man?
Well, a merciful man is a man who
has an adversary in his clutches and could
really give it to him and doesn't.
That's really what it means.
It means someone has wronged you, and now
the tables have been turned, and you're able
to get your knife in now, and that's
being merciful.
It's treating others the way the Lord has
treated us.
And God says, I'm looking down, I'm looking
for the ideal population in my kingdom, and
this is what it's going to be made
up of, those who treat others the way
they would want to be treated.
And then I love this next beatitude, it
says, blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God.
Dear friends, we live today in a monstrous
system of impurity.
Everything in life about us is calculated to
drag us down into sin.
The modes and fashions of the day have
no other purpose than to trip up the
child of God.
And I want to tell you, it's just
as possible for a Christian, humanly speaking, to
walk on water as it is to pass
through this scene without falling into sin.
But God has made provisions.
God has given us his Holy Spirit, and
as we stay close to him and the
power of the Holy Spirit, we are able
to walk on water.
As long as we keep our eyes on
the Lord Jesus, we're able to live the
supernatural life.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.
And this not only has to do with
pure thought, it has to do with pure
motive, too.
It has to do with motive, a single
eye for the glory of God, putting the
Lord Jesus first, and ourselves last.
And then it says, blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of
God.
You know, isn't it wonderful to see someone
who, before he was saved, was nothing but
a troublemaker, and after he's saved, he devotes
his life to making peace.
Peace in the home, peace in the church,
peace in the community.
God says, that's the type of man that's
blessed, a man who makes peace.
There's an interesting proverb in the Old Testament
that says, only by pride cometh contention.
You ever notice that?
Wherever you find contention among people, watch out.
It's pride, you can be sure of it.
When we're really broken and humbled before the
Lord, when we're willing to take the lowly
place, there's no room for contention.
Take two to make a fight.
That is a good Irish fight, and one
can't do it.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called the children of God.
And then it says, blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is
the kingdom of God.
Now, of course, in the world today, the
general idea is to get through life as
comfortably as possible, and don't do anything for
which you'd have to bear reproach, and for
which you'd have to suffer shame, and certainly
nothing for which you'd have to suffer persecution.
And God says, yet in my kingdom, just
to the very nature of things, my people
are in a scene that is hostile to
them.
They're surrounded by enemies, and they're going to
be persecuted.
If they live godly in Christ Jesus, they
will suffer persecution.
He said, blessed are they who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
Sometimes we're persecuted for our own ignorance.
Sometimes we're persecuted for our own folly, for
our own stupidity.
There's no reward in that.
If we're persecuted for wrongs that we've done,
we're only receiving what we richly deserve.
But this is persecution as a result of
testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was talking to a brother just today,
and he said that he had been put
in a certain job as a spike job,
and yet he was carrying it out to
the glory of God.
That's the type of thing that you have
here.
You know, it's wonderful, the testimony that Christians
can bear in business today and show these
principles to the world about.
And I'll tell you, if we do that,
people come to us and say, why is
it you're different?
And then the door is open, and all
you have to do is walk in for
the glory of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Some of you know Howard Bosworth.
He used to be at the canteen in
Fayetteville.
Last summer, he and I and two others
were driving back to Dr. Woodring's funeral, and
as a result of Howard's testimony for the
Lord Jesus Christ, a police officer on the
Pennsylvania turnpike took very unfair advantage of him.
And as a result of a minor traffic
skirmish, Howard was taken before a justice of
the peace, and he was fined seven dollars.
And when he came back to the car
and we had asked him what had happened,
he said this, and I'll never forget it
as long as I live.
He said, I don't have any bruises or
scars on my body for the name's sake
of the Lord Jesus, so I guess seven
dollars isn't too much to pay.
And we all knew why he paid the
seven dollars.
It was because of a faithful, sincere witness
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and God so
blessed it is that type of a man.
And you know, it takes backbone, doesn't it?
It takes spiritual fortitude to take a stand
like that.
One of the most pathetic things in Christendom
today is the lust that Christians have to
be like the world.
And I think this is especially strong among
our Christian young people.
It makes me sad, although I feel the
same motions working in my own life.
And yet it's so contrary to the mind
of God.
As I read the Sermon on the Mount,
what stands out to me in neon letters
is that God wants me to be different.
God doesn't want me to be like the
world.
He wants me to stand out from the
world, and my ways are not to be
the ways of the world.
That's the whole idea of the Christian life.
They think of a friend in Holland, Michigan.
Before he was saved, Paul Fredrickson asked an
atheist to go to church with him, and
the atheist said, why should I go to
church with you?
Your life is no different from mine.
He wasn't so dumb, was he?
Why should I go to church with you?
Your life is no different from mine.
You know, that was the first step in
Paul's conversion.
That started him down the road, the conviction
of sin.
And before very long, he was a child
of God through faith in the Lord.
And then it says, blessed are ye when
men shall revile you and persecute you falsely
for my sake.
Dance in that day, you might just as
well say, and be exceeding glad, for great
is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you.
In other words, what the Lord Jesus is
saying here is, when men persecute you, and
when they revile you, and when they say
all manner of evil against you falsely for
my sake, mind you, not for mistakes you've
made, for my sake, rejoice and be exceeding
glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
Why?
Because you're in good company.
This is the way they treated the prophets
all down through the centuries.
And it is, too.
Why, it's wonderful to go back down to
the Old Testament scriptures and see how those
prophets stood out, embodied consciences.
They'd rather die than lie, and they cried
out against sin and corruption, but the people
started pelting them with stones.
And so the Lord Jesus says to his
people, now when that happens to you, just
remember you've joined a valiant band of martyrs
down through the centuries.
Then in verse 13, the Lord Jesus says,
He is the salt of the earth.
Now, you know, I can think of at
least three purposes for salt.
First of all, salt is good in your
food, isn't it?
It kind of adds zest to living, and
I believe that Christians fulfill that function in
the world today.
You know, it would be a dreary world
without Christian people in it.
The world doesn't think so.
They think they'd be glad to get rid
of us, but I want to tell you,
it'd be a pretty bad world without the
Christians in it.
And then salt prevents the spread of corruption,
doesn't it?
And in the old country, they used to
take codfish, and they'd put so much salt
on it that the fish would stay on
forever.
You know what I mean?
It would just preserve that salt, and if
you wanted to soak it for a few
nights and get the salt out of it,
you could eat it the next day if
you borrowed it.
Well, salt has that function, too.
It prevents the spread of corruption, and it
adds zest to living, and then something else
it does, it whets your appetite, or at
least your thirst.
The more salt you eat, the thirstier you
get.
And I believe that Christians are in the
world to prevent the spread of corruption, and
when the church is taken out of the
world, then begins the tribulation period and begins
a time of trouble in this world that
the world has never seen or ever will
see thereafter.
And then I believe that Christians are here
so that people will say from the bottom
of their heart, I'd like to have what
you have.
So the Lord Jesus says, You're the salt
of the earth, but if the salt had
lost its flavor, for which shall it be
salted.
It tends forth good for nothing but to
be cast out and underfoot.
Now, this salt in your table tonight was
pure salt, and it can't lose its flavor.
If it lost its flavor, there wouldn't be
anything left.
It's pure salt.
But back in the old Bible times, salt
was mixed with all kinds of impurities.
When you put salt in your potatoes, you
get a little sand, too, and a few
other things.
And it was possible for the salt to
lose its flavor, and you'd still have something
left.
But watch out.
What you had left was good for nothing.
You couldn't put it out in the fertilizer
pile because it would make the land well.
It just wouldn't help at all.
You put it in the ground, oh, it
doesn't help the ground a bit.
In fact, the only thing you could do
with it was make a little walk up
to your door so people could walk on
it.
That's the only thing it was good for.
And what does it mean?
Well, I believe it means this, that the
Christians are the salt of the earth.
Now, the Lord Jesus has just been telling
us how the salt can have its flavor
in the Beatitudes.
This is how the salt has its flavor.
Now, he says, if you lose your flavor,
you've lost the purpose for which you've been
saved.
And the world has nothing but contempt for
a half-hearted Christian and walk on you.
In other words, they trample your testimony underfoot.
The world is going to love you anyway.
But I do believe this, that if I'm
out and out for Christ, although they might
not love me, they'll have respect for me.
But if I'm a world-borderer, if I'm
trying to live for two worlds at the
same time, if the salt has lost its
flavor, the world has nothing but contempt for
me.
And as I say, they put my testimony
down and just walk all over it.
Isn't that what it says?
Ye are the salt of the earth.
If the salt has lost its flavor, wherewith
shall it be salted?
It stands for it's good for nothing but
to be cast out and to be trodden
underfoot.
I notice this several times in the Bible,
that the Christians are put in the world,
they have a function.
If they don't perform that function, there's no
other function.
I'm thinking now of John chapter 15, he
said, I am the vine and ye are
the branches.
Do you ever think about the branches of
a vine?
What are they good for?
Dear friends, they're only good for one thing,
for bearing fruit.
You can't take the branches of a vine
and make a good Duncan Spice set of
furniture out of it.
Haven't done it yet.
You can't take the branches of a vine
and even make a good fire out of
it.
It isn't even good for a good fire.
All it's good for is for bearing fruit.
And that's why God put us down here
with the branches of the vine.
Let's perform the function he gave us.
Then he says, ye are the light of
the world.
What does that mean?
Well, it means that the Lord Jesus didn't
intend that we should be the terminal of
our blessings.
He didn't intend that he should pour down
blessings upon us and that they should come
in and flood my soul and stop there.
He intended that I should be a channel,
that the blessings should come down to me
and flow out to others.
In other words, as the light of the
world, I'm intended to propagate the truth of
God.
I'm intended to shine forth the word of
truth to others.
It says a city that's set on a
hill can't be hid, and that's our function,
to be like a city set on a
hill.
You know, light is a wonderful thing.
I was thinking of when John Glenn was
orbiting the earth.
Remember how the people in Perth, Australia put
on their light and he went over at
night?
And I don't know, I forget how far
up he was, but he could see the
lights of Perth.
And the darker the night, the brighter the
light.
How that's exactly the case with us as
Christians.
The dark, and it's getting pretty dark, I
want to tell you.
And this poor old world of ours, well,
the brighter the light should shine.
We're the light of the world.
Those of us who are believers in the
Lord Jesus, a city that set on a
hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men take light a candle and
put it under the bushel.
That's a funny thing to do, isn't it?
You go into your home at night, everything's
dark, and you light a candle and you
hurriedly put it under that bushel basket.
Well, you say nobody would do that?
No, nobody would do it.
The people do it.
What do you think that bushel basket refers
to?
Well, a bushel basket was a measurement used
in business.
And you know, it's possible for us to
become so occupied in business that people don't
see the candle burning.
Isn't it?
I just wonder if that isn't what this
means here.
Lighting a candle and putting it under the
bushel, it means that the light of your
testimony isn't visible because the cares of this
world and the pressures of business have crowded
out the things that really count.
Well, he said, no man lights a candle
and puts it under a bushel, but on
a candlestick and he gives us light unto
all that are in the house.
That's what he wants us to do.
He wants, he shines in our hearts for
the outshining of the gospel of the glory
of Christ.
Let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good work and glorify
your Father, which is in heaven.
I've noticed this about a candle, that the
function of a candle is not to light
itself.
The function of a candle is to throw
the light around it, isn't it?
And that's true of us.
The purpose of our shining as lights in
the world is not to attract attention to
ourselves.
It's to attract attention to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
True Holy Spirit ministry always exalts the Lord
Jesus Christ.
That's the test of ministry that's really in
the spirit of God.
The candlestick is shining a light over on
the ark.
And then the Lord Jesus says in verse
17, Think not that I am come to
destroy the law or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass away from the
law till all be fulfilled.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments and shall teach them so, he shall
be called the least in the kingdom of
heaven.
But whosoever shall do and teach them, the
same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven.
For I say unto you that except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise.
In the Old Testament, God gave his people
the law, and the law enshrined God's principles
for his people.
The law included not only the Ten Commandments.
It included the ceremonial law and various other
legislation for the people of God.
When the Lord Jesus came along teaching the
principles of the kingdom of heaven, the obvious
response from the scribes and the Pharisees were,
Oh, you've come to destroy the law.
You're saying the law is no good.
You're putting an end to the law.
And so the Lord Jesus utters these words
that we've just read.
Think not that I'm come to destroy the
law or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfill.
Now, this portion of scripture does not teach
that Christians are under the law.
A lot of people take these verses and
say, See, they teach that you're under the
law after you've been saved.
And if you're under the law, then you
ought to be keeping the Sabbath, because that's
one of the Ten Commandments.
Remember, the Sabbath is to keep it holy.
Now, what does the Lord Jesus say in
this passage of scripture?
Did he say in these verses that the
law would never pass away?
Did he say that?
No, if you look carefully, he didn't say
that.
The Lord Jesus doesn't say here that the
law would never pass away.
It says the law would never pass away
until all was fulfilled, and that's just exactly
what he came to do.
It's just exactly what he came to do.
He fulfilled the law in his life, and
he paid the dread penalty of the law
in his death for us on Calvary's cross.
And now we read that we are not
under law, but under grace.
So the Lord Jesus didn't come to destroy
the law.
He magnified the law and made it glorious.
He insisted that the law must be fulfilled,
that the penalty of the law must be
paid, and he paid it, and he fulfilled
it.
It says not one jot or tittle will
pass.
You know, the jot or the jod was
the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and
the tittle was just a little dot, like
the dot on our eye.
And so he's taking the smallest letter and
the smallest mark in the Hebrew alphabet, and
he's saying it must be fulfilled to the
utmost.
And then he came and actually fulfilled it.
And notice that last verse in that section,
verse twenty.
He said, For I say unto you that
except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise
enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Now, what does this mean?
Well, dear friends, the scribes and the Pharisees
were very careful to observe the smallest details
of the law in an external, outward way,
but their hearts were full of corruption and
greed and bitterness and malignity and all the
rest.
See if I could give you an illustration
of that.
Well, it's going on in Israel today.
You know, God told the Jewish people that
they should let the land lie fallow every
seven years.
Well, now there are Jewish farmers over there
in Israel today, and the law says now
don't cultivate for seven years.
You know, they take the land and they
go down to some legal office and they
transfer the title of that land to an
Arab, and then they go ahead and cultivate,
and it isn't their land anyway.
Of course, if the Arab tried to get
it, pity him.
But what does it mean?
Well, it means it's kind of an outward
observance, and so the Lord Jesus said, I'm
not mocked.
He said, your righteousness has to be more
than an outward righteousness.
It has to be an internal righteousness.
These scribes and Pharisees had an outward show
of religion, but they denied the power thereof,
and the Lord Jesus says that will never
do.
God desires truth in the inward part, and
I think it's good to emphasize that at
the close of our meeting tonight that God
is not a ritualist.
People think that by going through religious ceremonies
and religious rituals that they please the heart
of God.
God isn't pleased by that.
God's pleased by the inward type of faith
that's taught here in the Sermon on the
Mount.
He wants reality.
He wants a life that's on the beams
for him, and not just a religion of
externals.
May the Lord help us to be real
before him.
You know, one of the wonderful things about
going through a portion of Scripture like this
is that in the days to come, the
Spirit of God will bring these things back
to us.
You think, well, I didn't hear anything tonight
that I didn't know before.
Well, that's true.
But you know, it's wonderful how the Lord
can use it to refresh our minds, and
then in work, when somebody treats us unkindly,
what a joy it'll be to think, now,
how can I reward that with a kindness?
It'll be wonderful to see souls saved and
a work done for God as a result
of this type of Christian living.
Shall we look to the Lord?
Father, we come to thee tonight, and we
thank thee for thy precious word.
Every word of God is pure.
How we realize it as we go over
it here tonight.
We thank thee for the cleansing power it
has in our lives.
We realize that just walking through this world,
we pick up defilement.
Our feet become dirty, and so do our
hands, and so do our minds.
Oh, God, how refreshing it is to come
to the word of God and to know
the cleansing of the word of God.
And Lord, we've been dealing with some very
real principles tonight, the principles which should guide
those who are subjects of Christ's kingdom.
And Lord, now we just pray in a
simple way at the end of the meeting
that thou wilt help us not only to
be hearers of the word, but doers also.
We pray to thee that we might be
pioneers, that thou wilt give us ingenuity as
we go forth to manifest Christ to others.
Help us not to pattern our lives after
other Christians.
Help us not to look at the other
saints at the gospel center and say, well,
that's what a Christian should be, but help
us to go to the fountain himself, to
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And as we study his life in the
gospel, oh God, by thy power, may it
be reproduced in us.
And Lord, we do ask for any who
might be here tonight with burdened, troubled, sad
hearts.
Perhaps some are here under the load of
sin.
They still do not know forgiveness of sins.
Oh God, we pray tonight that they might
come without any delay to the feet of
the Lord Jesus and turn their lives over
to him and begin this supernatural life empowered
by the spirit of God.
We do ask it as we give thee
our unsainted thanks in the worthy and precious
name of the Lord.
Thank you very much.