Matthew chapter 5 and If you'll stand I
want to read a little out of it
And we are going to do just to
tell you what's happening here.
You're looking Matthew 5.
Wait a minute Here's the point.
If you don't do it, right the first
time you have to do it over again
So we're gonna start all over No, actually,
I'm tonight in next Wednesday.
I'm gonna do an overview of the entire
sermon tonight chapter 5 next week Six and
seven we've been in it for so long
I just kind of want to take a
couple evenings and wrap it up by going
back in and doing a thing through it
But I just want to read What we
know of course is the Beatitudes and but
verse chapter 5 verse 1 and seen the
multitudes He went up unto a mountain and
when he was set his disciples came unto
him and he opened his mouth and he
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 Father we thank you
for this Unbelievably wonderful and awesome sermon and
Lord we pray that as we just kind
of wind it up that you would just
bring to the forefront of our thoughts on
this sermon things that are Critical to our
lives and our understanding of it We thank
you for it.
We asked Lord you'd write this very sermon
in Wonderfully in the tablet of our own
heart.
We ask it in Jesus name.
Amen Well, the sermon on the mount is
I think I probably said more times that
I even could recall in one sense it
to me It is truly Truly an awesome
sermon I suppose if there's any time you
could really use the word awesome in in
a way that have really been held in
awe of Something I believe that's the way
we ought to be about the sermon the
mount in the sense that it's it's awesome
in its simplicity You don't have any trouble
figuring out in a sense of what it's
all about.
It's awesome in its clarity It's awesome in
its power.
It's awesome in its truth It's also an
awesome in its wisdom in its ministry to
us here in these three chapters.
I personally believe there is more To chew
on in these three chapters, I suppose in
any other three chapters in the Bible.
That would be my own assessment of it
and You can it's a you need the
rest of the Bible I think to meditate
on it and to be able to put
it together in a sense But once you
begin to see the message and see its
flow it to me.
It's absolutely awesome And it's also though to
me a message that when a person begins
To hear it begins to listen to it
there.
The difficulty isn't following the sermon to me
at all The difficulty is never an understanding
the sermon sometimes I think we sometimes in
life, you know We just have a difficulty
tracking with something or we have a difficulty
understanding or Comprehending or well, what do we
do with this?
Well to me the sermon the mound it's
it's none of that The only real difficulty
I suppose to me that there is in
the sermon the mound is the issue of
the human will The will to once you
understand it, it's so clear.
It's so simple But then to follow it
then to adhere to it then to love
it to agree with it to let the
sermon do its work To long that its
message would truly be written in the sense
You might say on the tablet of our
own heart That there were the will to
love the sermon and to have it come
to life in in our lives And I
suppose that's to me one of the great
issues of the issue of the will and
One of the things to me about the
human will that's always interesting to me a
little bit is sometimes I listen to people
and they'll Talk about their life and their
struggles in life, and they say well my
problem is I'm a strong-willed person And
or you know, we there's all sorts of
books and psychologists have picked up on this
thought, you know of being strong-willed and
strong-willed children and raising Strong-willed children
dealing with strong will and I don't know
about everybody else particularly But I know a
little bit about myself I suppose and I
think I'm somebody that could easily fall into
that category of having people think you can
be strong-willed But in my own personal
estimation, my problem has never been being strong
-willed It's been weak-willed in the sense
of where when God's will is laid out
And when God's will is made known when
it's right in front of me.
I know what it says.
I understand it It's clear.
It's simple.
It's obvious but to having my will so
weak so Lack of courage within my own
heart there within my own life to determine.
Yes.
I don't care what it cost I don't
care what the issue to me That's not
when I go off and do my own
thing that isn't a strong-willed or a
rebellious will it is that I suppose But
it's a weak will It's having a will
on one hand, you know to to want
to do something But yet not having the
will to truly follow up on it and
to carry it through And to me, I
think one of the great issues in the
Sermon the mount is when I look at
something and I read it do I truly
want this more than anything in the world
and Or is my will so weak That
I just kind of end up going wherever
anything else is going around me And not
to say that the will is the answer
in and of itself or it certainly is
Paul says in Romans 7 18 for I
Know that in me that is in my
flesh dwelleth.
No good thing But how dare he says
but how to perform that which is good
He says I or that that which is
good.
I find not he says to will is
present within me I just don't know how
to do it.
And so Paul though was a man.
He was to me I suppose you could
call him a strong-willed man and in
the right sense of the word He was
a man that when you look at Paul,
whatever it was that he believed God wanted
him to do and be He did it
He was a man the law as concerning
the law or keeping the law or a
Pharisee and the level of will no matter
what it Took he would live up to
it with everything that there was within him
It's just that how to perform that which
is good.
He didn't know he had the will to
do it He didn't know how to do
it and to me There's a huge difference
one when Paul finally found out the message
of the gospel and he found out how
to perform it And then you take a
will that was truly a strong will like
Paul's not a weak-willed person a strong
-willed man And then you take that will
and then when he found out how to
perform that which is good And you mix
those two things together.
You've got a fabulous Christian experience ahead of
you.
You've got a wonderful Life that's going to
be laid out but more often than not
our problem is being strong-willed.
It's being weak-willed It's knowing it's all
there.
God's made it known now.
Do I want to do it?
But the wonderful thing I suppose about the
Sermon the mount is that it tells us
how to perform that which is good When
I look there and say God, I want
to live a godly life.
I want to live righteously before you I
want to live the way you want me
to live.
I really and truly do Then is when
this wonderful message begins to come together and
I believe lays it out And here is
Jesus.
It says seen the multitudes He went up
unto a mountain and when he was said
his disciples came unto him and he opened
his mouth and he taught them Here looking
once again at the crowd Seeing the crowd
he goes up into a mountain sits down
as disciples come and he begins to me
to unfold to them Graham Scroggie once wrote
a series of books.
I liked it was called the unfolding drama
of redemption I love that title and I
and to me the Sermon on the Mount
is almost like the unfolding drama of redemption
how does God bring me into a great
sense of redemption in my life and Here
in the the Beatitudes are where it's all
starts Seeing the multitudes he goes up and
he sits down and they open his mouth
and he taught them and he said blessed
her Oh, how happy are the poor in
spirit here?
He looks in the very first quality of
somebody that wants to know how to perform
they want to live they want to fulfill
It's coming to that place that they can
look at their own sin nature and we
realize it's there.
We realize how sinful we are We realize
that our inability to live righteously to live
pure to live godly to live morally to
live spiritually We don't have it and we
find ourself becoming Spiritually poverty-stricken we look
around and say God what went wrong and
then Jesus said oh how happy them are
the meek when somebody there He can just
be honest about himself And the wonderful thing
about being immensely happy.
There's no task to it.
There's no job to it There's nothing you
got to do other than then will to
be honest And if you and I can
be honest with ourselves, we won't have any
trouble being poor in spirit All it does
to be poor in spirit is just require
honesty No more superficiality and thinking of ourselves
more highly than we ought to think but
just cutting it down to the real truth
of what?
We are and then it's when I say
well then I've got to admit I'm poor
in spirit And then he says oh how
happy are they who mourn?
Somebody there they see that poverty-stricken state
of their life and they mourn over it
there's a genuine grief as you may recall
even when a loved one has died a
Sorrow that a death has occurred and I'm
looking there in a sense outside myself into
my own heart and I'm saying this is
so sad Somebody created in the image of
God and yet something has robbed me.
I'm Spiritually poverty-stricken.
I was made to be like God and
look at me It's tragic and I begin
to mourn I sorrow is at the death
of a loved one But then that produces
a meekness.
Oh, how happy are the meek now that
there is something that occurs instead of coming
before God and shaking my fist at him
and tell him you owe me this or
this isn't fair or all the other things
that in life That we can so often
and so easily say I just gent Humbly
and meekly I come before God and as
the publican who couldn't even so much as
look up and lift up his Head under
heaven and he smote himself on his breast.
He says God be merciful to me a
sinner I've blown it.
I don't deserve anything and I hope you
won't give me what I deserve I just
asked for your mercy and Jesus said this
is gonna be an immensely happy person poor
in spirit They mourn over it They become
meek before God and that will always Produce
you take three things like that and you
drain a man and drain a man and
drain a man you let somebody Get reduced
down to next to nothing and it produces
it in an intense Hunger and here Jesus
said oh, how happy are they that hunger?
After it and thirst after righteousness They're not
they're not hungry for the old life, they're
not hungry for the nature of the flesh
their own weaknesses don't carry God I'm I'm
hungry for an entirely different diet than myself.
I'm hungry for righteousness And of course, there's
none righteous No, not one save Christ himself
and I begin to be hungry for God
and hungry for his spirit and hungry for
his kingdom I begin to have something happen.
I realize God I truly want you In
my heart and in my life, there's a
hunger.
There's a thirst it pulsates It's something that
just as you wake up every day hungry
and you go through the day even have
to eat you're hungry again Routinely and a
person just because they're hungry.
It doesn't mean they didn't eat It just
means that they're creating an atmosphere of hunger
by their by their lifestyle And to me
that when I look and say God, I'm
hungry for you And I'm constantly hungry for
you in longing for you And when somebody
has that I hope it's something every one
of us tonight within our heart.
We can realize God I do want you
and I want to be hungry for you
thirsty for you And Jesus said they'll be
filled Of course God only has one thing
to fill anybody with one thing that he's
interested in filling anybody with himself To think
of it tonight that God wants to fill
you Fill me more than I even want
to be filled more.
I don't have to come and beg him
God, please please fill me Well, I don't
know You know, I I just don't know
about it.
You're just I just don't like filling you
You're just no fun to fill or something
like that.
God isn't that way he is.
Do you realize how?
Deep his desire is longing to touch and
to fill your heart Even a night so
we sit here and realize God the only
qualification you got to be hungry You got
to be thirsty for him.
There's got to be something happening.
Well, what I really want isn't something from
him.
I want him And then is when God
begins to fill somebody and then he goes
on and he says oh how happy are
the merciful that now God begins to so
fill and so live within me that one
of his deepest of all of his attributes
deepest of his Characteristics one of the most
profound things that there isn't all the world
that we'll have all eternity to contemplate is
God's mercy That the likes of you and
me loved us and he redeemed us and
he sent his son for us.
He blotted out our sins Conforms us back
into his image and why did God do
any of this?
It's his mercy It's his desire to look
at us where he in realizing this pity
that he has I know who you were
I know what you were made to be.
I know what I long to see you
again And I want to fill you with
myself and when I do I want to
give you a merciful heart Towards others, you
don't have to live high with a hostile
heart or an angry heart Frustrated heart God.
Just give me your mercy No, I happy
are the pure in heart somebody whose heart
Is now be you know becoming pure Not
a you know a divided heart and a
defiled heart But something there to where we
find ourself God.
Give me a pure heart Give me a
heart that is just holy for you Jesus
and when that's happening within somebody there on
the road to intense happiness great happiness to
an intense joy That they can have when
we find ourself God fill me Give me
a merciful heart and give me a pure
heart And then she said oh how happy
are the peacemakers here is somebody now that
simply God has taken our own heart our
own Emptiness our own sinfulness our own guilt
our own inadequacies our own frustrations And he
has given us peace within our heart as
Christ begins to reign and after he gives
us peace Now we begin to have a
message to bring peace to other people's lives
Don't you love that when you see these
things happening within your own life?
You begin to you come to the Lord
He shows you the way of peace and
of hope and of joy He shows you
the way of his love you begin to
submit to him and you know his lordship
And then you begin to see other people
whose lives are troubled and messed up and
all of a sudden you know Oh, hey,
I know what's wrong with you You're messed
up And but that's okay.
I was messed up Almost as bad as
you not quite that bad Though in all
honesty, we just aren't prepared to tell him
the whole truth But there we look at
him and we but but God can fix
all of that There's nobody can't think God
is not willing that any should perish, but
all should come to repentance God loves you
He wants to forgive you the battle isn't
with your husband or your wife or your
job or your health and upon the battles
with God You've got to submit to God.
You've got to be hungry for him You've
got to let him take over your heart
in your life.
And if you will, you'll know peace Just
like that bumper sticker that's been or you
see it come and go through the years
kind of it's it's you know No, Jesus,
no peace.
No Jesus no peace, but it's spelled different
each time.
No Jesus there is no peace Kno Jesus
know Jesus and you will Kno peace you
if you know him You know peace and
the peacemaker is somebody that he knows that
and he's usually seen the bumper sticker, too
But anyway, but something where we find ourself
to where we look say God give me
This peace and then let me begin to
share it with others And then he goes
on though now after this time when somebody's
giving their life, they're following the Lord.
They're serving the Lord They're thrilled about who
the Lord is and what he's doing Amazingly
enough instead of the world being so happy
that they're now on the planet So happy
that we're saved and we're converted and we've
given our life to Christ and we're sharing
it instead of that There's many in the
world that look and say I don't like
that.
I don't agree with that The Bible says
men love darkness for their deeds are evil.
There will be some that'll look there and
won't go for it Jesus said, you know,
he says the servant is not greater than
his master He says they've hated me and
they'll hate you.
They persecuted me.
They'll persecute you And he says don't be
surprised when this happens And but nonetheless he
hearing so he Jesus good now goes on.
He says blessed or oh, how happy are
they?
That are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven He says you'll
even be happy when you go out and
you share and you live your life For
me and for the kingdom and even when
people reject it Even when people don't like
it, but if you've got the courage and
the will To surrender and to live this
life you will be happy These are promises.
Oh how happy is how?
Intensely happy this is a promise.
This is a truth not a maybe and
That real happiness and we're looking for when
I will God.
This is the happiness I will to know
and to know it all I don't have
to learn Greek in Hebrew I don't have
to become a great Bible student All I've
got to do is be honest with a
few verses and I'm on the road Where
the gospel and the most wonderful things are
laid right out there that you can have
walked in here tonight Not be a Christian
not know anything at all about the gospel
not know much about religion But I believe
if you're an honest person you can say
I'm poor in spirit.
I Am there's something wrong And also in
and hopefully if you're honest, you can be
sorry about it.
You say it's my fault I take the
blame and I mourn over it and it
can produce a humility a meekness within our
heart and out of that and begin to
have a hunger for God and These are
things that set a person immediately down the
road to service and the living before God
and then Jesus he goes on He says
blessed are ye You know when men shall
revile you and persecute you and say all
manner of evil against you falsely for my
sake Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for so
persecuted.
They the prophets that are before you Jesus
looks and he says you'll even be happy
when you just go out and you can
be exceedingly glad When people don't agree with
it and they don't want it, but nonetheless
to realize Lord I'm included in a great
company of prophets and of witnesses that have
lived before and And serve the Lord and
now I'm included in them Jesus now he
goes on and he looks at us and
he says after a person has now gone
through these beatitudes poor in spirit Mourn over
it become meek before God hunger and thirst
after righteousness a merciful heart a pure heart
become a peacemaker a Willing-to-be-persecuted
for righteousness sake I even rejoice when it
happens Jesus now looks and he says you
are the salt of the earth And if
the salt has lost its savor Where was
shall it be salted is henceforth good for
nothing but to be cast out and trodden
under the foot of men He now looks
at every one of us In the night
if you're a Christian and you have given
your life to Christ, you're the salt of
the earth This isn't something where some people
are.
You're the salt of the earth if you're
a child of God And the thing here
is that so often we forget that because
we think we're other things But I'll tell
you the greatest thing you are is to
be the salt of the earth and the
light of the world You may be other
things But it ought to be compared to
being the salt of the earth It's nothing
you might you know that you may be
a butcher or a baker or a candlestick
maker You know or something or you may
be a doctor or a lawyer or well
I don't know if you can be a
lawyer But anyway, but I'm just kidding but
the but you may be something else and
that you do but that is not what
you are She said you are the salt
of the earth and when you and I
will to do that Wherever you go and
whatever you do so often so many of
our problems are because we go out in
that world thinking I am something else I'm
a butcher a baker or a candlestick maker
You know, or I'm a something else out
there rather.
No, I'm salt who happens to butcher Whatever
a butcher or bake or make or whatever
else you do I just happen to do
those things.
But what I am while I am doing
them all of them.
I'm the salt of the earth I'm the
light of the world While I'm doing them
and to the degree that I'm experiencing the
beatitudes I'm experiencing Christ in my life having
him enthroned in my life And here this
is what the beatitudes are all about just
simply the mature Christian life somebody that says
I want the Lordship of Christ I want
to be mastered by Christ.
I want to be a follower You can
call it the spirit-filled life the victorious
life the deeper life though There's all sorts
of things people want to call it But
all of this is just as I think
watchman knee you're called it the normal Christian
life Just the way the Christian ought to
be is that I look sir.
I am the salt of the earth I
am it and And then he goes on
he says you're the light of the world
He's a city that is set upon a
hill cannot be hidden neither to been light
a candle put it under a bushel But
rather on a candlestick that it giveth light
to all that are in the house So
let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and glorify
your father, which is in heaven He says
you are the salt of the earth You're
the light of the world And he says
in it and you need to let that
light and shine Go to work go to
school be in your neighborhood with the opportunity
Looking for any and every opportunity God I
want to be a friend and I want
to be a neighbor and I want to
be a good person But I'm not a
good friend and I'm not a good neighbor
and I'm not a good person if I
have the cure For eternal separation from God
and don't care for my neighbor enough to
shed and I know why the Tendency the
reason I believe Jesus said neither do men
light a candle and put it under a
bushel as we do that very easily You
can be a Christian and yet at the
same time.
You're kind of what they used to call
The Lady Clairol Christian, I guess that's what
it was, you know, we're With Lady Clairol,
I think the advertisement used to say nobody
knows, but your hairdresser, you know And a
lot of Lady Clairol Christians, nobody knows but
God knew you know But here it ought
to be that everybody in the world we
come across We long that no matter what
else you may know about me whether you
think I'm a good butcher or baker or
candlestick maker I don't care about that.
I want to know do you know I'm
a Christian Do you know that my life
belongs to God?
That as much as you maybe think you
need some meat from the meat market or
you know So loaf of bread from the
bed from the baker what you really need
is life in Christ You know the meat
and the bread will get you through another
meal But the life of Christ will get
you through eternity and when we realize this
is why I am alive Yes, I've got
other things to say and other things to
do, but I want to be the light
of the world I want to be the
salt of the earth and when Jesus is
saying these things I suppose the people must
have almost as they would ponder this if
this is a new religion I've never heard
anything like this.
What's he doing?
And And so Jesus almost has to put
a little parentheses here in his sermon and
sidestep it a little bit when he says
by the way He says think not that
I've come to destroy the law of the
prophets I haven't come to destroy it but
to fulfill it.
He says verily or truly I say unto
you There won't be one jot or one
tittle that will pass away until all be
fulfilled He's looking there and he says this
this is what I'm telling you about This
is what God wanted through Moses and through
the law and through the prophets It's the
Beatitudes to tell a human being if you
can come before God Offer him your life.
Let him take over.
Let him fill you Live in his grace
live in his power Know his mercy.
This is what you're alive for This is
why all human beings remain Jesus and I'm
not that what I'm telling you right here
is new and as radicals It sounds this
is the law.
This is the prophets.
This is the central message of history to
man Who God is and who they ought
to be before him and here as he
shares these things, you know He's so clear
on and he goes on He says whosoever
Therefore shall break one of the least of
these commandments and teach men So the same
should be called the least in the kingdom
But whosoever shall do and teach men so
the same should be called great in the
kingdom of heaven He says I'm telling you
you want to know how to be great
in the kingdom.
He says do these things Believe these things
you're you'll find a greatness before God.
You'll find a greatness in life.
You'll find a greatness in existence And if
you don't to the degree you don't and
you break it is the least down you'll
go into it the the you're the experiencing
the doldrums of Christianity, but the more that
you long to do it and to follow
it is Is how your life was gonna
be enriched and So then he turns and
he said I think not that I've come
to destroy the law of the prophets I
haven't come to destroy it, you know, but
to but you know to fulfill And after
this he then after that now they're thinking
maybe of the Pharisees and then he says
I'll tell you something He says except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and
the Pharisees You'll in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven now he turns and
he says listen folks What I'm talking to
you is so important that these people out
here that think they're living such wonderful lives
They're not impressing God at all if you
want to think you're righteous don't look at
the Pharisees because you got to be far
more righteous than them and Now to me
Jesus now shifts over at this point to
get to the real message You might say
of the of the Sermon on the Mount
in the sense now the the practical aspects
of it Because here he's looked there and
through the Beatitudes he's saying the whole issue
of the Christian life is first to get
you out of it and to get God
in it and That's what to happen in
the Beatitudes when you're poor in spirit and
you mourn and we're meek before God We're
getting out and through being hungry and thirst
after righteousness through becoming merciful pure in heart
and a peacemaker Standing before God be the
salt of the earth and the light of
the world through this price is beginning to
live in me And now that you might
say I've given my life to him and
there's an exchange that's happened and Jesus is
being enthroned within my life Now comes the
critical things of the tests of life.
Did it really happen?
Am I really doing it and now in
the rest of chapter 5 that will you
know finish off the evening with here?
Jesus gives us six illustrations Very real things
in every one of our lives that we
have to deal with and if it's me
and my flesh that is still living I'll
know it If it's Christ by his spirit
that is really ruling.
I'll know it For now he turns he
said you have heard that hath been said
by them old time thou shalt not kill
and whosoever shall kill She'll be in danger
of judgment And he said I know you've
been told these things now.
I want to test you on something And
he says but I say unto you That
whosoever is angry with his brother without a
cause is in danger of judgment and whosoever
Calls his brother Raka or worthless fellow is
in danger of the council and whosoever shall
say thou fool is in danger of hellfire
He looks there and he says do you
think that simply because you haven't killed anybody
that you're doing fine?
I'll tell you you're not If Christ is
really in your life The evidence isn't the
fact that you haven't murdered anybody.
The evidence is you don't care about murdering
anybody You don't have the anger towards anybody.
You don't have the hostility towards other people
You aren't out to look at people and
there's nobody worthless to you Because Christ died
for them all and now Christ is ruling
in his reigning and he's living in your
heart And if you find yourself walking around
and you can write somebody off and say
worthless fellow that one's a fool I'm angry
at this one Then he says now you
got a product now that the the lordship
hasn't happened you need to go back to
the Beatitudes You need to go back and
realize I'm really not very poor in spirit.
Am I I Can I'm still going on
here and I'm looking at people and here
Jesus said if you Can just carry on
in your life being hostile being angry looking
down on people Calling them worthless and he
said yeah, that's not the the transfer of
power hasn't happened Jesus isn't enthroned.
He isn't sitting in a heart the way
in the place that he wants to have
I'm still there and this weak pill-willed
person now when somebody comes along and now
there's that guy is makes me so mad
Why do I have to work with him?
Why do I have to live near him?
Why do I have to deal with him?
But when Christ is enthroned, there's a merciful
heart.
There's a pure heart There's a peacemaker's heart
and now that very person I couldn't get
along with I was so angry with Now
there's something I find there there with the
desire to work it out I didn't want
to now come before God and worship and
he says Therefore he says if you come
to the altar to worship and there you
remember that thy brother hath ought against thee
And he says there first he says go
leave your gift He said I'll first go
and be reconciled in your brother and then
come back And offer your gift And he
says there's something that if you find in
your heart God, I don't love I don't
care That right there Something stops and says
I can't go on And I want to
go and get it right I want to
be reconciled to my brother I want to
get it right with that person as much
as I can And then he then goes
on as a proscript and he says now
be here I also suggest you agree with
your adversary while there are the quickly while
there are and in the way with him
Less than adversary turn thee over the judge
and the judge turn thee over the officer
and the officer throw you in prison And
he says I tell you you won't get
out from thence until you've paid the uttermost
farthing He looks there and he says you
will put yourself in a in your own
prison You'll put yourself in your own jail
when you've got people you don't like because
there's a heart in you that knows I
love people I Ought to be caring and
yet there's somebody you don't love and you
can spend the whole day telling God why
he should hate him, too You ever do
that?
God, I don't know why you're not mad
at him because I'll tell you God if
you knew him like I knew him You'd
be really sore.
You know, you'd fix him.
You really smack him around, you know And
then do some work on him and God
says I'm glad I don't know him like
you and you should be glad I don't
know you like he knows you too Because
you know and so often how we look
at people and we write them off and
then when we do that Now we all
go to jail You all go to prison
You remember that mean to me the thing
is is you may have never been to
court You may never have been to jail.
You may never been thrown in prison on
the outside But I the average Christian I
think is in court half the day Fighting
the case God or you know, we're too
with you Do you know I can't why
that you know trying the case presenting it
before an audience that isn't there doesn't care
to hear it But we're still trying to
driving down the street talking about him thinking
about him telling other people you want to
be a witness for him I'm looking for
to put together a jury trial and I
want to stack the jury, you know And
we're doing all this stuff wanting to take
people down So often and then we end
up by then we get thrown in prison
We sit in our own little incarceration in
jail of the loneliness of our own heart
because we have written off people The flesh
doesn't care about people God does and if
God is ruling then I'll care Then I'll
care And the next thing he goes on
The secondary there he says, you know, you
have heard that hath been said by them
all time, you know that thou shall not
commit adultery and But I say unto you
that whosoever, you know looks at a woman
to lust after her has committed adultery with
her already in his heart and Now Jesus
looks at another area if the flesh is
in control If the if I have really
given my life to Christ Then I'll know
it if I haven't Then I'll know it
Simply by walking around the planet Just by
going to work Because of you know, the
natural man, he will lust he will covet
the natural person will want people they will
want Sexual desires they will want stuff They
will want things give it to me and
he'll be wrapped up in craving for it
The spiritual man is worried about them and
here Jesus looks he says, you know I
know you've heard that you just don't actually
go commit adultery I'm saying to you that
if you're having to live under your own
skin Fighting these battles of lust and of
the covetous heart all the time That is
what the flesh is and that ought to
tell us that the flesh is still ruling
The flesh is still quite alive the flesh
is on the throne and the flesh is
in control if I'm hating and or if
I'm Coveting or lusting it's something there that
just simply says these are the byproducts of
the flesh The spirit has no problem coveting
doesn't do it in interest.
It doesn't lust It's pure but my flesh
is completely impure and These are the places
that we ought to be looking at wanting
to you know to deal with within our
lives And coming to grips and saying God
this is a problem This morning usually Brian
and John and Chuck and myself will meet
together on Wednesday mornings for a while and
Brian and John were gone today So Chuck
and I met together and I get in
there and Chuck sits down.
He wants to show me a video and
so I said sure so we sit down
and we start watching this video and the
video was done by Bill Gallatin's fellowship back
it in Calvary and Finger Lakes, New York
And it's we ought to get it and
let people watch it it's short but it's
tremendous that they evidently they went out to
a College campus it looks like and they
interviewed college students That's who it looked like
and they're just interviewing Non-believers just standing
there who are willing to answer some questions
in a microphone and they asked them.
Is there are you a good person?
And virtually all of us.
Yes.
I'm a good person.
I'll you over and over of all of
them I'm a good person as they just
kind of bunched all that part of the
interview one after another and then they came
back and Asked them all okay, you know
ask them another question, you know, do you
you know believe that the Ten Commandments are
from God?
Yes.
Yeah.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
They're good.
They're good and then it's good.
That's good And then they said do you
believe that you should live by the Ten
Commandments?
Yes.
Yes, I do I really do I know
one after another all these interviews stacked one
after another packed in and yes.
Yes.
Yes Every and I'm a good person.
Yes Ten Commandments are good.
Then they asked him.
Have you ever lied?
They said they disliked it he stopped for
me.
Oh, yes Now, what does that make you
in one afternoon's liar?
Liar liar liar they all eat a virtual
all of a liar and then they you
know ask you to another one You know
Bible says that if you lust after a
woman you've committed adultery.
Have you ever lusted after anybody?
Yes.
Yes Now what does that make you Adulterer
adulterer and one after another they say, you
know and liar adulterer now Have you did
the Bible says I should not steal have
you ever stolen?
And they're looking Yes.
Yeah, I stole.
Well, what does that make you thief?
You know?
The Bible says that you're not to take
the name of the Lord your God in
vain one after another did you stack these
up?
It's absolutely fabulous to watch you to say
and they said you to ever take the
Lord's name in vain yes, you know and
the Well, what does that make you and
one guy he's sitting there after he said
gone.
I said I'm a good person I'm really
a good person the Ten Commandments are real
and usually but those are from God and
then after a few minutes He's sitting there.
Well, I'm a lying thieving adulterer blasphemer and
we've just started, you know I mean in
here the guy but amazingly Amazingly after the
full admission a number of them said but
I'm still a good person Hello, what do
you mean in other words?
There is not something that has happened where
there is there there's a poverty of spirit.
There's a mourning nature over There is a
meekness before God fill me with another nature.
I am tired of being a lying thieving
Adulterous blasphemer, you know, I'm tired of having
these things within my nature and within my
life I am tired of my hatred.
I'm tired of this murderous heart I've got
I'm tired of this lustful heart and the
only escape for that that God gives anywhere
in the Bible is his spirit The Bible
says by this spirit you mortify the deeds
of the flesh The only answer ever given
anywhere in the Bible.
There's not a verse in the Bible that
says well Let's see if you don't want
to have victory through the spirit I guess
maybe if there's a 10-step program You
know that we can put together for the
people that don't want to have victories through
the spirit And maybe if you try real
hard you try harder I mean we kind
of did the Holy Spirit here for people
that weren't really willful But if you can
really be willful then maybe you can have
victory without God Or else we realized no
God made me I fell I now have
a nature that is With without the potential
of correction of Reformation of repair it is
something there that is merely now to be
rejected and And can be and ought to
be rejected as I want Christ to be
enthroned Jesus saved me from the worst enemy
in the world myself That's the person now
Jesus.
He said it looks there and he says
you have heard thou shall not you know
kill You have heard that thou shall not
commit adultery and he says I tell you
he says cut it out He says if
you're right I offend they pluck it out
Therefore it's more profitable for thee that one
of thy members should perish that the whole
body should be cast into hell He says
if thy right hand offend thee cut it
off cast it from thee for it is
profitable for thee that one of thy members
Should perish then that the whole body should
be cast into hell and you hear Jesus
said you won victory here it is You
have heard that hath been said You know
that if a man put away his wife
let him give her a writing a divorcement
you know and and but I say to
you that whosoever puts away his wife saving
for the cause of fornication causes her to
commit Adultery and whosoever marries her that is
divorced Committed adultery Here Jesus now looks and
he says if you really have the will
to live the Christian life if you here's
the battleground Here are the issues that every
Christian of every generation and kindred and tribe
and tongue will have to deal with He's
gonna have to be confronted.
Do I truly want Christ to reign in
me?
Do I will to have his life in
his power?
Flooding and filling my heart in my life
so much.
So I want to be poor in spirit
I want to cry out to God.
I want to mourn over my sinful state
I want to grieve of it that I
can be free of it and be filled
with him And if I truly mean it
the evidence of it will be that when
I see somebody that my nature would be
angry with but I see a love I
See there a desire to get right with
them.
I want to agree with my adversary That's
the evidence Christ is beginning to rule when
I see there that my own nature that
would reach out and covet and In lust
and there's something that God I don't like
that.
I don't want that.
I Want you to take out of my
heart this this flesh that rules and reigns
and Jesus you be enthroned in his place
And now he looks there.
He says no day and you'll also know
the difference in your relationships in your commitments
and the commitments of life there as he
looks there, you know at the third one
here where he looks at marriage and The
issue of the will again to me You
don't have most people at any rate You
don't have to be married very long to
you come to find that to make a
marriage work it takes a sense of will
That I had a longing God.
I want your will I Want you to
be the one to work in this marriage
and to save this life and to save
our home to build our That is something
there to realize the only way that I
can keep this commitment The only way I
can keep this thing called marriage Is there's
God you've got to do a work It's
a supernatural work of God because you don't
have to get married very long until you
realize how selfish you are Did he had
did how many of you thought you were
selfish before you got married?
I never I was not a selfish person
before I got married but boy, did I
find out how selfish I was when I
got married and Basically when I was not
married, I just did what I wanted to
but I didn't drag anybody with me And
then if I wanted to ask somebody to
go and they didn't want to go that's
fine I'll ask somebody else and so I
could be selfish all day long I could
go everywhere and if somebody else didn't like
my selfishness, that's okay I can replace you
with anybody else and Somebody else and I'll
sort you through and you just live your
life.
However, you want to live it and Then
you meet somebody that say you're pretty you
want to marry me and you talk him
into it This is wonderful.
I just want one person I want to
you know, all this and you know to
all these many many relationships.
I want one, you know strong relationship I
think the Lord looks and smiles He says
this will be a good test of if
I'm king or not, you know, and you
know if I'm really Lord of your life
You get married.
It's very God's very tricky about a lot
of things the way he snags us He
wraps it up and he's beautiful wedding gowns
and he's pretty flowers and a lot of
presents Meantime, I think the Lord's sitting there.
This is gonna be good, you know You
know, it's like now the gloves come off
and we really find out if you really
want to be a Christian if you really
want to get down into because you get
married you find out how willful and how
selfish and how Proud or arrogant and demanding?
Unloving you can be in here.
Jesus said, you know, and it's easy just
to put it away This is the undead
I quit I'm out of here, but one
of the great tests of character is when
you get married and now There is this
is the the issue of the will to
say God.
This is your life and our marriage is
yours We gave it to you.
Just like we gave our lives individually to
you.
And now we've given our home to you
and God by the will of heaven Will
make it true And you begin to pray
and you begin to seek and you begin
to ask God to work and to build
it and now it's one of the great
tests of human will Do I will to
have the Lord really?
Enthroned in me so much so as I
can share my life with another human being
and minister to him And one of the
interesting things is God was real open right
at the out front when he created marriage
God looked and he says I want to
create a help me Says help me but
in the green Hebrew it means mate.
I'm gonna make a helper You hear God
puts two people together because he says you
both need help You know in the end
when we'd stop and realize I mean, that's
one of the things that's going on, you
know in a marriage You need help in
fact just a little little test here if
you're if you happen to be here tonight
with your spouse Just take a moment.
Just very quickly five seconds.
Just turn two seconds Look at the other
person say you need serious help.
Go ahead do that.
Just look at him say you need serious
help That's what God said.
He looked at Adam.
He says you need help fella in that
He says you need help, you know in
in the Genesis 2 18 The Lord God
said is not good that man should be
alone.
I will make and help me for him
He needs help And when you get married
you need you need help Now hopefully I'd
like him now to turn to that same
person that you just said you need serious
help and now say to him And I'm
the one to give it.
I mean, that's what it's all about But
see we'll all agree they need help God
they need help.
You will tell everybody at work.
My wife needs help My you'll go to
the neighborhood the leather.
My husband needs help.
This guy really needs help And he thinks
you know what he thinks about he thinks
I'm his nursemaid.
That's what he thinks He thinks he wants
a nurse.
He wants a mother.
No, he just wants to help her Well,
we want he'll never go to me.
So, you know some my husband thinks I'm
his helpmate You don't do that because that's
what he thinks and that's what the Bible
says I'll tell you my wife.
She needs this.
She that she thinks I'm her helpmate.
That's exactly what we are and the great
test of it is In marriage to where
we find ourself.
We make a commitment and it's so easy
to walk away from it and here Jesus
He looks there and he says if I'm
enthroned and if I'm King you find yourself
doing things differently And he says and again
you've had heard that hath been said by
them of old time thou shall not forswear
thyself But shall perform to the Lord thy
nose He says but I say unto you
he says swear not at all neither by
heaven It's God's throne or by the earth
for it's his footstool or by Jerusalem.
It's to say the great king And here
Jesus looks he says, you know people we
we have this Another area that if Christ
is really King If he's really on the
throne if I'm really filled with him if
I'm really the salt of the earth I'm
really being this the light of the world.
I'm really having my life dealt with Then
there's there's something he's dealing with my with
other people and my love for people and
my lack of anger towards him he's dealing
with with my Lustful heart he's dealing with
making commitments and keeping looking at the world.
I'm here to help you I'm here to
serve you.
That's why I live That's why every one
of us is alive We're all help mates
for somebody in one sense We all ought
to be here to minister and to care
and to think of it particularly though in
a marriage And then he says the next
thing you notice about the evidence of a
Christ is really in throne is when they
speak When they open their mouth, you don't
have to say now.
Do you swear swear to tell the truth?
Do you mean that really?
Come on, tell you know, you know cross
your heart.
Hope did I stick a needle in your
eye, you know or something?
We're here, you know sort of a thing.
I want to know that you really mean
that truth But here Jesus says that you'd
be let your yay be in your navy
name for what cometh the more of this
cometh of evil He says if you've got
to look at somebody every word that comes
out they ought to but they ought to
know that you're telling the truth Yes, I'll
be there.
I'll be there tomorrow.
Really Will you?
You told me that yesterday in the day
before now, do you really mean it?
Yeah, I really mean it Okay, he doesn't
show up.
Well, you're gonna be a yes.
Yes.
Oh really this time on your mother's grave,
you know Well, yes all my mother's grave
Never did like the woman anyway, or whatever
else somebody may think because if you don't
intend on keeping your word But when somebody
looks there and they find the capacity to
to live and whatever they say It's the
truth It is whenever they make a commitment
Whenever they make a promise It's something that
can be trusted and Jesus says this is
something that's the evidence of being in Christ
enthroned And he said, you know that you
have heard, you know an eye for an
eye and a tooth for tooth But I
say do you resist not evil?
He looks there and he said, you know
you anytime somebody, you know does something, you
know It's always a tit-for-tat always
you did this Kevin then this is you
know, you know Responding to whatever it is
that happened But one of the wonderful things
about the Christian if Christ enthroned when something
happens to him They don't have this immediate
knee-jerk reaction, you know, that's just gotta
come back gotta get even And rather than
that, there's a brokenness.
There's a humility within them.
They know what it is to turn the
other cheek To walk the other they are
they, you know, they're sued they sue you
and you know And for your coat giving
your cloak also if and if you they
compel you to go with a mile go
with them, too When there's this desire now
that looks there.
Hey, this is a wonderful opportunity.
They just hurt me They just said that
about me They just did this to me
and this is a wonderful opportunity to be
salt and to be light and To go
rather rather than reacting there, you know to
it to find herself.
They're wanting to to Respond in love that's
salt.
That's light, you know Peter He says that
about Jesus who that when he was reviled
he reviled not again And when he suffered
he threatened not but he committed himself unto
him that judges righteously There when anything could
happen Jesus just said father.
This is in your hands You'll take care
of this I don't have to worry about
it and These are the great evidences and
then lastly where we'll hold it off tonight,
you know that You know that you have
heard that it hath been said, you know
that thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate
thine enemy You know, you've heard that any
you just love whoever it is You want
to love and then who you don't like
it's okay to hate him And as Jesus
looks at this he says this is not
the way heaven operates This isn't the way
that the Holy Spirit operates.
He says I send you love your enemy
You know the wonderful thing I mean on
one hand the Bible in Romans 5 it
tells us about that if when we were
enemies we were Reconciled to God through the
death of his son Well much more being
reconciled shall we be saved by his life,
but he says, you know every one of
us We were once an enemy of God
And yet Jesus looked at that and he
says Not from my side Maybe from your
side you resist God and you fight God
and you just in the end and you
argue against God and you think he's a
non-issue and You write him off, but
we'll never write you off in one by
one.
We're sitting here tonight because though we were
once enemies That God looked at he says
no Over my dead body And then we
won't be enemies He looked there and Jesus
gave his life his dead body for if
when we were enemies We were reconciled to
God through the death of his son and
here Jesus looks and he says, you know
You've heard it's okay to love your neighbor
and hate your enemy He's I'll tell you
the wonderful thing is is that when Christ
is enthroned your enemy becomes your friend before
he knows it And you're willing to give
your dead body in his place You're willing
to pray for him and to love him
and to find yourself, you know, caring in
ministering and When you and I when we
look there and says God this is what
I want.
This is what Sermon on the Mount is
all about Next week we'll pick up and
we'll do we'll do the last two chapters
But the thing to me is maybe tonight
as we as we close it maybe in
your own heart You you have an issue
with the will I?
Hope none of us have struggled with understanding
this last what 50 minutes.
I Hope every one of us realize I
see what the gospel is Now I understand
it now the issue is what do I
want to do with it?
Do I look for example at my hatred
that I can have towards my brother?
And do I want to keep that hatred
more than I want Christ enthroned in my
life?
Because that's the choice with every one of
us tonight Do I want you know The
the pornography on the internet or the affairs
or these other things more than I want
Christ to be enthroned in my life Those
are the issues Do I want to break
off this relationship more than I want to
see what God can do to fix it
and to heal it And make me a
helpmate Do I want to break my word
and go do these other things more than
I want Christ to be King and Lord
of my life and hopefully we look there
and you and I we look and say
God I want Jesus Christ to be king
and I realized the battleground of where his
kingdom really is is in my mind It's
in my heart.
It's in my anger.
It's in my lust It's in all the
things that every human being has to deal
with always has And when I realized this
is where the throne wants to be established
and God do I want it so much
so as I will I've got to mourn
over it God, I am sorry.
I Am this way the weak-willed person
will just say well It's the way it
is.
Isn't it?
I don't have the courage to do much
about it.
I just keep doing it But the strong
-willed person God if you have an answer
and now I know how to perform that
which is good.
I've found it in Christ Jesus be enthroned
Jesus deal with my heart Jesus take this
anger out Jesus whenever I find myself lusting
coveting Lord be enthroned Enemies tempting drawing me
away.
There's the battleground be king And whenever I
find myself looking and saying no, I don't
need this marriage who needs this This man,
I don't even think God could fix this
woman.
I don't even think God could fix this
man.
Are you sure about that?
I'll bet he can But when you and
I realize it's gonna take God it's gonna
take you to do it he says that's
true That's true on the throne of your
heart and I can do a lot of
things But you've got to be one that's
committed to it like I am Then is
when I'm enthroned This is what the chapter
5 is all about.
Let's pray dear father how we thank you
and we praise you for the simplicity and
the Awesome nature of this sermon the clarity
of it the power of it And Lord,
I pray that you would help us to
do battle where it really is and maybe
tonight some whether it's just keeping their word
whether it's Loving their enemy Whether it's really
looking at their marriage and being a helpmaker
all these areas All different in all of
our lives and yet the issue is the
same in every one of us Jesus Will
you be king or not?
Well, I let you be enthroned or not
Well, I let you work well, I look
in realizing I married to somebody that needs
help And then look at you and you
say that's exactly why I created you To
be a helpmate for them Now help them
It's your call It's how you're sold.
It's how your light.
I'll give you all you need and Lord.
I pray that whatever it is Maybe some
of us being drawn away by our own
lusts Whatever it may be angry at people
Jesus take these things out, but may we
realize they're only taken out as you're enthroned
To want those things to be absent without
wanting you to be present cannot happen Lord
I pray that tonight we'd find ourself fill
me Fill me with your righteousness fill me
Lord with a life in such a way
as the anger must leave Fill me with
your love fill me with your strength in
such a way is the last has no
place Lord, may you help us.
May you strengthen us in Jesus name?
Amen