Sermon: Blessed are the Meek
Scripture: Matthew 5:5
In this week’s lessons, we discover how the Bible defines meekness, and what is promised to those who possess it.
Theme: The Meekest Man
Sermon: Blessed are the Meek
Scripture: Matthew 5:5
In this week’s lessons, we discover how the Bible defines meekness, and what is promised to those who possess it.
Theme: To Inherit the Earth
Sermon: Guaranteed Satisfaction
Scripture: Matthew 5:6
In this week’s lessons, we learn of our need to hunger and thirst after righteousness, which only God through Christ can fully satisfy.
Theme: God’s Answer to Our Need for Righteousness
Sermon: Guaranteed Satisfaction
Scripture: Matthew 5:6
In this week’s lessons, we learn of our need to hunger and thirst after righteousness, which only God through Christ can fully satisfy.
Theme: True Righteousness
Sermon: Guaranteed Satisfaction
Scripture: Matthew 5:6
In this week’s lessons, we learn of our need to hunger and thirst after righteousness, which only God through Christ can fully satisfy.
Theme: A Perfect Righteousness
Sermon: Guaranteed Satisfaction
Scripture: Matthew 5:6
In this week’s lessons, we learn of our need to hunger and thirst after righteousness, which only God through Christ can fully satisfy.
Theme: Hunger and Thirst
Sermon: Guaranteed Satisfaction
Scripture: Matthew 5:6
In this week’s lessons, we learn of our need to hunger and thirst after righteousness, which only God through Christ can fully satisfy.
Theme: Christ, Our Satisfaction
Now the conclusion of this study is that where there is this desire for righteousness there will be filling, and the filling will be a filling with Christ.
Sermon: Three Virtues
Scripture: Matthew 5:7-9
In this week’s lessons we look at three beatitudes that describe our Christian character, which other people must observe and experience.
Theme: A Turning Point
Sermon: Three Virtues
Scripture: Matthew 5:7-9
In this week’s lessons we look at three beatitudes that describe our Christian character, which other people must observe and experience.
Theme: The Quality of Mercy
Sermon: Three Virtues
Scripture: Matthew 5:7-9
In this week’s lessons we look at three beatitudes that describe our Christian character, which other people must observe and experience.
Theme: Which Comes First?
In yesterday’s devotional we said that mercy is grace in action, love reaching out to help those who are helpless and need salvation. Mercy identifies with the miserable in their misery.
Sermon: Three Virtues
Scripture: Matthew 5:7-9
In this week’s lessons we look at three beatitudes that describe our Christian character, which other people must observe and experience.
Theme: Purity of Heart
Sermon: Three Virtues
Scripture: Matthew 5:7-9
In this week’s lessons we look at three beatitudes that describe our Christian character, which other people must observe and experience.
Theme: Peacemakers for Christ
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: Persecution Inevitable
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: The Biblical Pattern
We said in yesterday’s study that the natural implication of the wording of this beatitude is that the one who reflects Christian character will be persecuted.
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: For Righteousness’ Sake
Thus, there is no promise of happiness for those who are persecuted for being a nuisance, for Christians who have shown themselves to be objectionable, difficult, foolish, and insulting to their non-Christian friends. This is not the thing about which Christ was speaking.
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: Persecuted for Being Like Christ
Sermon: Persecuted for Christ
Scripture: Matthew 5:10-12
In this week’s lessons, we learn that persecution is to be expected when we live a distinctively Christian life after the pattern of our Lord.
Theme: Happiness Through Persecution
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Knowledge
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Purification
The second part of a Christian knowledge that will help him to rejoice in persecution is the knowledge that God often uses persecution to perfect the believer. In the great wisdom of God persecution is often the means by which the Christian is helped along the road to practical holiness and thereby made a little more like Jesus.
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Identity with Christ
In yesterday’s study, we concluded that in trying to respond rightly to persecution, you cannot trust your own feelings.
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Radiant Christianity
Sermon: Rejoice in Persecutions
Scripture: Matthew 5:12
In this week’s lessons, we learn what is necessary in order to rejoice in persecution.
Theme: Rewards in Heaven
Sermon: Do You Make Men Thirsty?
Scripture: Matthew 5:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means for a Christian to live for Christ in the world.
Theme: From Abstract to Function
Sermon: Do You Make Men Thirsty?
Scripture: Matthew 5:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means for a Christian to live for Christ in the world.
Theme: A Decaying World
Sermon: Do You Make Men Thirsty?
Scripture: Matthew 5:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means for a Christian to live for Christ in the world.
Theme: Uses of Salt
All of this falls into much clearer focus when we consider the actual uses of salt, particularly those that were most valued in ancient times.
Sermon: Do You Make Men Thirsty?
Scripture: Matthew 5:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means for a Christian to live for Christ in the world.
Theme: Source of Flavor
Sermon: Do You Make Men Thirsty?
Scripture: Matthew 5:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means for a Christian to live for Christ in the world.
Theme: A Common Substance
Sermon: Light of the World
Scripture: Matthew 5:14-16
In this week’s lessons we learn that as Jesus is the light of the world, so he calls us to be lights as well.
Theme: A Darkened World
Sermon: Light of the World
Scripture: Matthew 5:14-16
In this week’s lessons we learn that as Jesus is the light of the world, so he calls us to be lights as well.
Theme: Christ the Light
Now it was the particular achievement of Jesus Christ that he exposed the nature of the darkness in a way that had never been done previously. And of course, men hated him for it. One commentator has written:
Sermon: Light of the World
Scripture: Matthew 5:14-16
In this week’s lessons we learn that as Jesus is the light of the world, so he calls us to be lights as well.
Theme: “Ye Are the Light”
Sermon: Light of the World
Scripture: Matthew 5:14-16
In this week’s lessons we learn that as Jesus is the light of the world, so he calls us to be lights as well.
Theme: Turning Toward the Light
Sermon: Light of the World
Scripture: Matthew 5:14-16
In this week’s lessons we learn that as Jesus is the light of the world, so he calls us to be lights as well.
Theme: Walk in the Light
Sermon: Christ and the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20
In this week’s lessons, we see what Jesus’ view of Scripture was and how he used it in his ministry.
Theme: Jesus and the Bible
Sermon: Christ and the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20
In this week’s lessons, we see what Jesus’ view of Scripture was and how he used it in his ministry.
Theme: Absolute Authority
Sermon: Christ and the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20
In this week’s lessons, we see what Jesus’ view of Scripture was and how he used it in his ministry.
Theme: Christ’s Use of Scripture
Sermon: Christ and the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20
In this week’s lessons, we see what Jesus’ view of Scripture was and how he used it in his ministry.
Theme: Fulfillment of Scripture
Sermon: Christ and the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20
In this week’s lessons, we see what Jesus’ view of Scripture was and how he used it in his ministry.
Theme: Allegiance to Scripture
Sermon: Christ Fulfills the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means that Jesus fulfilled what was written in the law and the prophets.
Theme: Christ and the Law
Sermon: Christ Fulfills the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means that Jesus fulfilled what was written in the law and the prophets.
Theme: Why Sacrifices?
Sermon: Christ Fulfills the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means that Jesus fulfilled what was written in the law and the prophets.
Theme: Christ and the Prophets
Sermon: Christ Fulfills the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means that Jesus fulfilled what was written in the law and the prophets.
Theme: David and Isaiah
Sermon: Christ Fulfills the Scriptures
Scripture: Matthew 5:17
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means that Jesus fulfilled what was written in the law and the prophets.
Theme: “For the Sake of the Son”
Sermon: Have You Earned Heaven?
Scripture: Matthew 5:20
In this week’s lessons, we see that no amount of human righteousness can ever please God, but only the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ will lead to eternal life.
Theme: The Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees
Sermon: Have You Earned Heaven?
Scripture: Matthew 5:20
In this week’s lessons, we see that no amount of human righteousness can ever please God, but only the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ will lead to eternal life.
Theme: External Righteousness
Sermon: Have You Earned Heaven?
Scripture: Matthew 5:20
In this week’s lessons, we see that no amount of human righteousness can ever please God, but only the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ will lead to eternal life.
Theme: Lowering God’s Standards
Sermon: Have You Earned Heaven?
Scripture: Matthew 5:20
In this week’s lessons, we see that no amount of human righteousness can ever please God, but only the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ will lead to eternal life.
Theme: A Different Kind of Righteousness
Sermon: Have You Earned Heaven?
Scripture: Matthew 5:20
In this week’s lessons, we see that no amount of human righteousness can ever please God, but only the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ will lead to eternal life.
Theme: From Paul’s Righteousness to Christ’s Righteousness
At the very end of the Sermon on the Mount we read that the people who heard Jesus “were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matt. 7:28-29). The statement indicates that the unprecedented authority of the Lord Jesus Christ was startling to his contemporaries.
The first of Christ’s examples is based on the sixth commandment, which said, “Thou shalt not kill [meaning murder].” For years, ever since the giving of the law to Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai, this commandment had stood in the Decalogue and had been known to Israel.
We said in yesterday’s study that Jesus’ definition of murder extends beyond the unlawful taking of another person’s life, but extends even to our hateful and angry attitudes toward other people.
The second step for those who wish to overcome their anger is to correct the injustice, for there is always injustice on both sides in any normal dispute. Thus, Jesus said, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee: leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift” (Matt. 5:23-24).
The fourth step in the cure of anger must be added to these three obvious steps on the basis of all that Christ is saying. We must ask God to change our heart because only God is able to do it.
Sermon: Sex and the Christian Marriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how contemporary culture approaches sex, and see how Christians are to think and act differently, as Jesus taught.
Theme: A Playboy World
Sermon: Sex and the Christian Marriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how contemporary culture approaches sex, and see how Christians are to think and act differently, as Jesus taught.
Theme: The “New Morality”
Sermon: Sex and the Christian Marriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how contemporary culture approaches sex, and see how Christians are to think and act differently, as Jesus taught.
Theme: Is There a Cure?
Sermon: Sex and the Christian Marriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how contemporary culture approaches sex, and see how Christians are to think and act differently, as Jesus taught.
Theme: He Who Runs Away
Sermon: Sex and the Christian Marriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how contemporary culture approaches sex, and see how Christians are to think and act differently, as Jesus taught.
Theme: Christian Marriage
In the final analysis, however, even running is not the solution. For although it will help for the moment, it will not do so permanently. Real and lasting victory requires a more powerful and more vigorous philosophy to defeat it.
Sermon: What Makes a Marriage Christian
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we see that marriage is established by God, and serves to illustrate the relationship of Christ with His Church.
Theme: A Divine Institution
Sermon: What Makes a Marriage Christian
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we see that marriage is established by God, and serves to illustrate the relationship of Christ with His Church.
Theme: Body with Body
Sermon: What Makes a Marriage Christian
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we see that marriage is established by God, and serves to illustrate the relationship of Christ with His Church.
Theme: Soul with Soul
Sermon: What Makes a Marriage Christian
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we see that marriage is established by God, and serves to illustrate the relationship of Christ with His Church.
Theme: Spirit with Spirit
Sermon: What Makes a Marriage Christian
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we see that marriage is established by God, and serves to illustrate the relationship of Christ with His Church.
Theme: Christ and the Church
Sermon: Husbands, Wives, and Children
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how a family is to function, and what the responsibilities are of husbands, wives, and children.
Theme: God’s Word to Wives
Sermon: Husbands, Wives, and Children
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how a family is to function, and what the responsibilities are of husbands, wives, and children.
Theme: The Meaning of Submission
Sermon: Husbands, Wives, and Children
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how a family is to function, and what the responsibilities are of husbands, wives, and children.
Theme: God’s Word to Husbands
Sermon: Husbands, Wives, and Children
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how a family is to function, and what the responsibilities are of husbands, wives, and children.
Theme: Parents and Children
Sermon: Husbands, Wives, and Children
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how a family is to function, and what the responsibilities are of husbands, wives, and children.
Theme: Life Out of Death
We have touched on many things in this study of the home, but it will be of little benefit unless each of us will put it into effect practically.
Sermon: Divorce and Remarriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we look at the subjects of divorce and remarriage, and learn what the biblical standards are for those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: The Key Passages
Sermon: Divorce and Remarriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we look at the subjects of divorce and remarriage, and learn what the biblical standards are for those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: Permanency of Marriage
Sermon: Divorce and Remarriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we look at the subjects of divorce and remarriage, and learn what the biblical standards are for those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: What Is Fornication?
Sermon: Divorce and Remarriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we look at the subjects of divorce and remarriage, and learn what the biblical standards are for those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: Deuteronomy 24
Yesterday, we concluded with the first reason why the exception clause of fornication in both Matthew 19 and Matthew 5 does not refer to adultery.
Sermon: Divorce and Remarriage
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we look at the subjects of divorce and remarriage, and learn what the biblical standards are for those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: God’s Standards
Sermon: For Time and Eternity
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.
Theme: Hosea and Gomer
Sermon: For Time and Eternity
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.
Theme: Gomer and Her Lovers
Sermon: For Time and Eternity
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.
Theme: Gomer the Slave
Sermon: For Time and Eternity
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.
Theme: God’s Faithfulness
Sermon: For Time and Eternity
Scripture: Matthew 5:31-32
In this week’s lessons, we learn what faithfulness in marriage means through a dramatic illustration from the life of the prophet Hosea.
Theme: True Marriage
“In the light of this story we see the inner meaning of marriage as set forth in the Word of God. Marriage is the union of Christ and the Church.
Sermon: To Tell the Truth
Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37
In this week’s lessons, we see the importance of telling the truth, and of the need to cultivate a godly heart and mind.
Theme: The Need for the Truth
Sermon: To Tell the Truth
Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37
In this week’s lessons, we see the importance of telling the truth, and of the need to cultivate a godly heart and mind.
Theme: The Taking of Oaths
Sermon: To Tell the Truth
Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37
In this week’s lessons, we see the importance of telling the truth, and of the need to cultivate a godly heart and mind.
Theme: Man’s Oaths
Sermon: To Tell the Truth
Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37
In this week’s lessons, we see the importance of telling the truth, and of the need to cultivate a godly heart and mind.
Theme: Evasive Oaths
Sermon: To Tell the Truth
Scripture: Matthew 5:33-37
In this week’s lessons, we see the importance of telling the truth, and of the need to cultivate a godly heart and mind.
Theme: Control of the Mind
Sermon: Have We No Rights?
Scripture: Matthew 5:38-42
In this week’s lessons, we see that we are not to demand our rights, but instead, like Jesus, we are to pattern his self-sacrifice and service.
Theme: Eating Loss
Sermon: Have We No Rights?
Scripture: Matthew 5:38-42
In this week’s lessons, we see that we are not to demand our rights, but instead, like Jesus, we are to pattern his self-sacrifice and service.
Theme: The Right to Retaliation
Sermon: Have We No Rights?
Scripture: Matthew 5:38-42
In this week’s lessons, we see that we are not to demand our rights, but instead, like Jesus, we are to pattern his self-sacrifice and service.
Theme: Our Great Example
Sermon: Have We No Rights?
Scripture: Matthew 5:38-42
In this week’s lessons, we see that we are not to demand our rights, but instead, like Jesus, we are to pattern his self-sacrifice and service.
Theme: The Right to Our Time and Money
Sermon: Have We No Rights?
Scripture: Matthew 5:38-42
In this week’s lessons, we see that we are not to demand our rights, but instead, like Jesus, we are to pattern his self-sacrifice and service.
Theme: Cross-Bearing
Let me close by making this personal. What is your attitude toward all that I have been saying? Are you still dealing with the questions of your rights and your wrongs? Or are you learning to live the kind of life lived for us by the Lord Jesus?
Sermon: Love Your Enemies
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-47
In this week’s lessons, we learn how to love our enemies with the divine love that only God gives us in Christ.
Theme: Divine Love
Sermon: Love Your Enemies
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-47
In this week’s lessons, we learn how to love our enemies with the divine love that only God gives us in Christ.
Theme: Love on the Cross
Yesterday we looked at the first Greek word for love, which does not appear in the New Testament. Today we will look at the other three.
Sermon: Love Your Enemies
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-47
In this week’s lessons, we learn how to love our enemies with the divine love that only God gives us in Christ.
Theme: Dying for Sinners
Sermon: Love Your Enemies
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-47
In this week’s lessons, we learn how to love our enemies with the divine love that only God gives us in Christ.
Theme: Loving, Not Liking
Sermon: Love Your Enemies
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-47
In this week’s lessons, we learn how to love our enemies with the divine love that only God gives us in Christ.
Theme: Christ in You
Sermon: Perfection for Saints
Scripture: Matthew 5:48
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to be perfect as God is perfect, that it is a work of God that involves the past, the present, and the future.
Theme: The Most Important Verse in the Sermon
Sermon: Perfection for Saints
Scripture: Matthew 5:48
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to be perfect as God is perfect, that it is a work of God that involves the past, the present, and the future.
Theme: God’s Working
Sermon: Perfection for Saints
Scripture: Matthew 5:48
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to be perfect as God is perfect, that it is a work of God that involves the past, the present, and the future.
Theme: Growing in Perfection
Sermon: Perfection for Saints
Scripture: Matthew 5:48
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to be perfect as God is perfect, that it is a work of God that involves the past, the present, and the future.
Theme: An Inflexible Purpose
Sermon: Perfection for Saints
Scripture: Matthew 5:48
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to be perfect as God is perfect, that it is a work of God that involves the past, the present, and the future.
Theme: Until the Day of Jesus Christ
Sermon: How to Invest in God’s Program
Scripture: Matthew 6:1-4
In this week’s lessons, we learn about the principle of giving, and the blessings that come from the Lord upon both the giver and the recipient.
Theme: The Source of Charity
Sermon: How to Invest in God’s Program
Scripture: Matthew 6:1-4
In this week’s lessons, we learn about the principle of giving, and the blessings that come from the Lord upon both the giver and the recipient.
Theme: A Matter of the Heart
Yesterday, we concluded by saying that the charity of the early Church was a new and amazing thing to its contemporaries.
Sermon: How to Invest in God’s Program
Scripture: Matthew 6:1-4
In this week’s lessons, we learn about the principle of giving, and the blessings that come from the Lord upon both the giver and the recipient.
Theme: First Given to the Lord
Sermon: How to Invest in God’s Program
Scripture: Matthew 6:1-4
In this week’s lessons, we learn about the principle of giving, and the blessings that come from the Lord upon both the giver and the recipient.
Theme: Spiritual Giving
Sermon: How to Invest in God’s Program
Scripture: Matthew 6:1-4
In this week’s lessons, we learn about the principle of giving, and the blessings that come from the Lord upon both the giver and the recipient.
Theme: Sacrificial Giving
Sermon: How to Pray
Scripture: Matthew 6:5-8
In this week’s lessons, we learn three great principles of prayer, and how we can pray with confidence.
Theme: A Confusing Subject
The second great example of godly living discussed by Jesus Christ in the second chapter of the Sermon on the Mount is prayer. It is an important subject, for prayer is at least partially confusing to us all.
Sermon: How to Pray
Scripture: Matthew 6:5-8
In this week’s lessons, we learn three great principles of prayer, and how we can pray with confidence.
Theme: Praying to God
Sermon: How to Pray
Scripture: Matthew 6:5-8
In this week’s lessons, we learn three great principles of prayer, and how we can pray with confidence.
Theme: Through the Lord Jesus Christ
In yesterday’s study we concluded by talking about the necessity of recognizing that when we pray we are coming into God’s presence.
Sermon: How to Pray
Scripture: Matthew 6:5-8
In this week’s lessons, we learn three great principles of prayer, and how we can pray with confidence.
Theme: In the Holy Spirit
Sermon: How to Pray
Scripture: Matthew 6:5-8
In this week’s lessons, we learn three great principles of prayer, and how we can pray with confidence.
Theme: Praying with Confidence
Sermon: Our Father, Our Daddy
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we see how we are enabled to approach God in prayer because of the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: The Lord’s Prayer
Sermon: Our Father, Our Daddy
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we see how we are enabled to approach God in prayer because of the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: Our Father
The first words of the Lord’s Prayer are an address to God as our heavenly Father. For Jesus said, “After this manner, therefore, pray ye: Our Father, who art in heaven.” These words tell us who can pray and what the privileges of access are for them.
Sermon: Our Father, Our Daddy
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we see how we are enabled to approach God in prayer because of the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: God’s Children
Yesterday we said that during the time of Jesus, the distance between God and man seemed to be widening, such that the names of God were increasingly withheld from public speech and prayers.
Sermon: Our Father, Our Daddy
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we see how we are enabled to approach God in prayer because of the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: Abba, Father
Yesterday we concluded with the tense exchange between Jesus and his opponents in John 8, in which we saw that not everyone who was related to Abraham by birth was truly a child of God.
Sermon: Our Father, Our Daddy
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we see how we are enabled to approach God in prayer because of the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: My Daddy
Sermon: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we learn more of who God is, and what it means to hallow His name.
Theme: What God Desires
Sermon: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we learn more of who God is, and what it means to hallow His name.
Theme: The Meaning of “Hallowed”
Sermon: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we learn more of who God is, and what it means to hallow His name.
Theme: God’s Names
Sermon: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we learn more of who God is, and what it means to hallow His name.
Theme: None Like Him
And what about that greatest name of all, the Lord Jesus Christ? In Him all other names are combined. In Him all of the characteristics of God are made manifest. One hymn writer has written:
O could I speak the matchless worth,
O could I sound the glories forth
Which in my Savior shine,
Sermon: Hallowed Be Thy Name
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we learn more of who God is, and what it means to hallow His name.
Theme: Creator and Redeemer
Sermon: Thy Kingdom Come
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what the kingdom of God is and how it manifests itself on earth.
Theme: God’s Kingdom
Sermon: Thy Kingdom Come
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what the kingdom of God is and how it manifests itself on earth.
Theme: God’s Kingdom on Earth
Sermon: Thy Kingdom Come
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what the kingdom of God is and how it manifests itself on earth.
Theme: How the Kingdom Does Not Come
Sermon: Thy Kingdom Come
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what the kingdom of God is and how it manifests itself on earth.
Theme: Parables of the Kingdom
Sermon: Thy Kingdom Come
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what the kingdom of God is and how it manifests itself on earth.
Theme: The Coming Kingdom
Now it should be evident from the imperfect nature of the kingdom of God, as we see it today, that there is yet to be a kingdom in which the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ is totally recognized.
Sermon: Your Will, Or God’s?
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to pray that the Lord’s will be done, rather than ours.
Theme: Many Wills
Sermon: Your Will, Or God’s?
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to pray that the Lord’s will be done, rather than ours.
Theme: When Wills Collide
Yesterday, we concluded by looking at the first two expressions of Satan’s will over against God. Today, we begin by addressing the other three.
Sermon: Your Will, Or God’s?
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to pray that the Lord’s will be done, rather than ours.
Theme: God’s Word
Now someone will say, “That is all very well and good, but what does that have to do with me?” Well, it has everything to do with you. For happiness and joy will come to your life only as you allow God to bend your will to His.
Sermon: Your Will, Or God’s?
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to pray that the Lord’s will be done, rather than ours.
Theme: God’s Will for Christians
Sermon: Your Will, Or God’s?
Scripture: Matthew 6:10
In this week’s lessons, we learn what it means to pray that the Lord’s will be done, rather than ours.
Theme: Thy Will Be Done
Sermon: What to Pray For
Scripture: Matthew 6:11
In this week’s lessons, after first praying for God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will, Jesus also taught us how to pray for things that pertain to our own interests.
Theme: Our Willing God
Sermon: What to Pray For
Scripture: Matthew 6:11
In this week’s lessons, after first praying for God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will, Jesus also taught us how to pray for things that pertain to our own interests.
Theme: The Need to Be God’s Child
Sermon: What to Pray For
Scripture: Matthew 6:11
In this week’s lessons, after first praying for God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will, Jesus also taught us how to pray for things that pertain to our own interests.
Theme: Our Daily Bread
When we say that this prayer is a simple prayer for the things that we have need of every day and that God invites this type of praying, certain great truths emerge from it.
Sermon: What to Pray For
Scripture: Matthew 6:11
In this week’s lessons, after first praying for God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will, Jesus also taught us how to pray for things that pertain to our own interests.
Theme: Spiritual Necessities
We must not leave this request for our daily bread without pointing out that we need spiritual nourishment also. This is the third point. We need to feed spiritually on God.
Sermon: What to Pray For
Scripture: Matthew 6:11
In this week’s lessons, after first praying for God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will, Jesus also taught us how to pray for things that pertain to our own interests.
Theme: Praying for Others
Sermon: Forgiveness Guaranteed
Scripture: Matthew 6:12
In this week’s lessons, we see the connection between the Christian’s continuing need of forgiveness from God, and our need to forgive others who wrong us.
Theme: Our Need for Forgiveness
Sermon: Forgiveness Guaranteed
Scripture: Matthew 6:12
In this week’s lessons, we see the connection between the Christian’s continuing need of forgiveness from God, and our need to forgive others who wrong us.
Theme: Forgiveness for Believers
Sermon: Forgiveness Guaranteed
Scripture: Matthew 6:12
In this week’s lessons, we see the connection between the Christian’s continuing need of forgiveness from God, and our need to forgive others who wrong us.
Theme: Assurance
Sermon: Forgiveness Guaranteed
Scripture: Matthew 6:12
In this week’s lessons, we see the connection between the Christian’s continuing need of forgiveness from God, and our need to forgive others who wrong us.
Theme: Forgiveness in Advance
Sermon: Forgiveness Guaranteed
Scripture: Matthew 6:12
In this week’s lessons, we see the connection between the Christian’s continuing need of forgiveness from God, and our need to forgive others who wrong us.
Theme: Debtors
Sermon: How to Defeat Temptation
Scripture: Matthew 6:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what temptation is, where it comes from, and what we are to do in order to defeat it.
Theme: Deliverance from Temptation
At the very end of the sixteenth century, after the Protestant Reformation in Europe and the wars that had followed upon it, an anonymous Christian wrote some lines that aptly summarize much of what the Bible has to say about temptation. He wrote:
In all the strife of mortal life,
Sermon: How to Defeat Temptation
Scripture: Matthew 6:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what temptation is, where it comes from, and what we are to do in order to defeat it.
Theme: Types of Temptation
In yesterday’s study, we concluded by saying that the word “temptation” can have two meanings. It can denote a tempting to sin—which is what we commonly understand by the word—or it can refer to the idea of a trial, ordeal, or testing.
Sermon: How to Defeat Temptation
Scripture: Matthew 6:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what temptation is, where it comes from, and what we are to do in order to defeat it.
Theme: Submit and Resist
Sermon: How to Defeat Temptation
Scripture: Matthew 6:13
In this week’s lessons, we learn what temptation is, where it comes from, and what we are to do in order to defeat it.
Theme: The Lord’s Example
I want to give you one final example of how temptation can be resisted, and the best example I can give is the account of the temptation of Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew 4.
Let me ask the question again that I asked yesterday. How did Jesus resist the temptations that are recorded in Matthew 4? Well, in the first place, He had just spent forty days in fasting and in prayer. In the second place, He replied to the devil in every instance by quoting Scripture.
The first two examples of Christian piety that Jesus gives in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount do not seem particularly difficult. They are giving to the poor and praying. To most people, almsgiving and prayer make sense and are familiar, even though they may not understand them completely or practice them. This is not true of Christ’s third example. The third example is fasting, which means abstaining from food for some spiritual end. Not only does this not seem necessary to most persons, to many it even seems quite foolish or absurd.
The first real clue to what fasting should mean today comes from a study of the Bible. For the clue is seen in the fact that in the Old Testament period fasting had an entirely different purpose than it does in the New. What is more, the pivotal text upon which this change takes place is the text we are studying in Matthew.
Sermon: Fasting
Scripture: Matthew 6:16-18
In this week’s lessons, we learn what Jesus said about fasting, and consider its implications for us today.
Theme: New Testament Teaching
Here is a great change in the use and purpose of fasting, and the change may be traced to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are studying. What did He say? He did not say that fasting was a form of outward piety. He did not consider it an exercise for the subjection of the body. He did not hold it forth as a means of social protest. He taught that it was to be a personal exercise between the individual soul and God.
Sometimes, our fasting will lead us away from such things as entertainment, perhaps from television. This was the experience of David Wilkerson, whose story is told in the best-selling book, The Cross and the Switchblade. Wilkerson had been the pastor of a small Assemblies of God church in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, but although the church had grown and the congregation had been able to erect several new buildings, the pastor himself was restless. One night as he sat watching the “late show” on television, the idea came to him that he might profit from spending the time he usually spent watching television, praying. In other words, he might fast from television and then see what happened.
After the great teachings in the first half of Matthew 6 about the spiritual life of the Christian, the Lord Jesus Christ turned to warnings about the personal failures that most often deprive a believer of spiritual victories and nullify his witness. In these verses (Matthew 6:19-7:5), Jesus warns against a love of possessions, anxiety, and a judgmental attitude toward others.
In this, as in all other areas of the Christian life, the true solution does not lie in abstinence or withdrawal. It lies in the proper use and the proper estimate of the things that God has provided. In other words, we are not called upon to relinquish things but rather to use them under God’s direction for the health and well-being of ourselves and our family, for material aid to others, and for the great task of proclaiming the Gospel and promoting Christian verities.
In yesterday’s study we said that it is not a requirement that Christians give up their possessions; rather, we are to use them for the benefit of others and for the advancement of the Gospel. This is precisely what Jesus himself was teaching in the verses concerned with money and possessions from the Sermon on the Mount. For Jesus was not speaking against possessions. He was speaking against a ruinous preoccupation with them. He said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:19-21).
The third reason Jesus Christ warns His followers about an improper concern for possessions occurs in verses 22 and 23. It has to do with our spiritual vision. Jesus said, “The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be healthy, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
The final verse of our section deals with the mutually exclusive nature of serving God and riches. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Nothing could be said more clearly, or be more obvious. And it should be a heart-searching question for us all. Could anything be more insulting to God, who has redeemed us from the slavery of sin in Christ and has given us all things richly to enjoy, than to take the name of our God upon us, to be called by His name, and then to demonstrate by every action and every decision of life that we actually serve money?
In March 1961, Time magazine published a cover story on the presence of anxiety in America. The article was entitled, “Guilt and Anxiety.” The point of the study was that the breakdown of faith in God (in the nineteenth century) and in reason (in the twentieth century), coupled with the accelerated pace and high tension of modern life, has produced intense anxiety in many millions of people. So much so, in fact, that it is correct to call worry one of the most widespread and debilitating characteristics of our time.
In yesterday’s study, we saw that Jesus provided a cure for anxiety by what He said in Matthew 6: “Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on… For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (vv. 25, 32-33).
Now what are those three teachings? The first is found in verse 24, which is, properly speaking, the conclusion to Christ’s words about money. In that section of the Sermon Jesus taught that a love of money was harmful because it is impossible for a person to serve God and money at the same time. Now He says that for the same reason His followers are not to be anxious about some future happening or provision.
The apostle Peter was one among many Christians who have learned this lesson. In the early days of his association with Jesus he was worried about many things. After he first had courage to walk upon the water he began to look at the waves and became so worried that he began to sink (Matt. 14:30). He was worried that Jesus might not pay taxes (Matt. 17:24ff.). At one point, He was anxious about who might betray Him (John 13:24). He was worried that Jesus might have to suffer and so rebuked Him on one occasion (Matt. 16:22), and sought to defend Him with a sword on another (John 18:10). Peter was a great worrier, but after he had come to know Jesus better he learned that Jesus was able to take care of him
Sermon: Free from Worry
Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34
In this week’s lessons, we learn that not only does Jesus warn us not to worry, but he also provides us with a cure in commanding us not to do it.
Theme: The Man Who Never Worries
In the second half of Matthew six, in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had been talking about failures that will render a Christian apathetic in regard to Christian service. They are a love of money and anxiety. Both of these will have a desensitizing effect on his witness, for if a Christian has his mind centered on things (either to accumulate them or to worry about them) he will not see God and, hence, he cannot serve Him. At this point, however, Jesus goes on to show that there is also a type of zeal that will ruin his witness. This is a zeal for judging others. It is harmful because it will turn a believer into a sharp and unjust critic of his Christian brothers.
In the second half of Matthew six, in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had been talking about failures that will render a Christian apathetic in regard to Christian service. They are a love of money and anxiety. Both of these will have a desensitizing effect on his witness, for if a Christian has his mind centered on things (either to accumulate them or to worry about them) he will not see God and, hence, he cannot serve Him. At this point, however, Jesus goes on to show that there is also a type of zeal that will ruin his witness. This is a zeal for judging others. It is harmful because it will turn a believer into a sharp and unjust critic of his Christian brothers.
Now we are going to see as we go on in our next study that none of this is meant to encourage laxity in regard to sound doctrine. We are to discriminate doctrinally. What is more, no congregation will ever be strong unless it is filled with persons capable of leadership who have drunk deeply at the fountain of God’s Word and who are therefore able to do this. It does not support error. But it does mean that we are to be most careful in regard to our attitude to those who appear to us to be erring.
Now all of this really leads up to one great final point, and that is the need for love. We all need love. We need to love. And the reason is simply that when we are filled with love we will find ourselves uninterested in finding a speck in the eye of the other person.
If you discover that a beam is blocking the flow of God’s love in your life, as these beams were blocking the river, then you must know that the only solution is the one to be found in Jesus. He is the Great Physician, and He is able to extract both motes and beams because there is nothing to hinder His vision. Besides, he will give you a vision of His glory, as you look to Him, that will then be reflected from your purified eye to others.
In yesterday’s devotional, we concluded by saying that the Bible teaches that not everyone will be saved. Moreover, among those who will not be saved are some who are so opposed to God’s truth that the Christian should have no dealings with them.
We said yesterday that the only prayer God will ever hear from an unbeliever is the prayer that asks for salvation. Moreover, isn’t this precisely what we have in the example of the Lord Jesus Christ? There are persons who think of Jesus as going about the countryside preaching the Gospel to everyone who would listen and telling them all about His kingdom. However, this is inaccurate. It is probably closer to the truth to say that Jesus was the most discriminating of all preachers in terms of what He taught and to whom He taught it.
Besides wrongly admitting people into church membership without a clear statement of faith, I am afraid, too, that there are many persons in our day for whom the Lord’s table has become a curse rather than a God-given blessing. For it has led many a person to think that he is right with God merely because he has followed some rite of the Christian religion.
Now I have really dealt with the problem of spiritual discrimination, unpleasant as it may have been. But before we end this study we can note a few entirely different but very pleasant things suggested by the word “pearls.”
If a young man wants to ask his father for something, he will pattern his request on the nature and the temperament of his father. If the father is ill-tempered and stingy, the young man will ask for little. He will take care to present his need in the most winsome and unobjectionable manner. If the father is good-natured and is generous, the child will present his need openly and with great confidence.
If we are to exercise the spiritual discrimination and judgment that Christ was talking about in verse six (“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine”), then we must apply verses 7-11 to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ only. We must read the verse this way: “Ask [you who are born again], and it shall be given you [who are born again]; seek [you who are born again], and you [who are born again] shall find; knock [you who are born again], and it shall be opened unto you [who are born again].” Prayer is for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ only.
The second obvious teaching of these verses is that even if we are Christians, we must ask for the thing that God promises. This section of God’s Word contains the positive statement of the principle (“Ask, and it shall be given you”). James 4:2 contains the negative statement (“Ye have not, because ye ask not”). But the teaching of both texts is identical. God delights to give good gifts to His children. Hence, if we do not have them, the fault does not lie in God. It lies in our failure to ask things of Him.
What else do we need in our churches that we are not receiving? Do we lack suitable candidates for church office? Or those for missions? Do we lack Sunday school teachers or church workers? If so, it is because we are not asking. Jesus said, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into the harvest” (Matt. 9:37-38).
I know that there is something about the idea of prevailing prayer that, at least on the surface, seems contrary to a Calvinistic way of thinking, but the conflict is only superficial. In two of the parables of the Lord Jesus, there is the story of a person who prevailed in a request by means of perseverance. In Luke 11:5-10, there is the story of a man who lacked food to feed a guest who arrived at his home at midnight. He went to his neighbor. At first the neighbor did not want to be bothered, but at last he gave the things that were needed because of the man’s persistence.
The Golden Rule, which is found in the seventh chapter of Matthew, verse 12, is probably the most universally praised statement that Jesus ever made. It has been called “the topmost peak of social ethics… the Everest of all ethical teaching.”
At this point, then, we have actually reached the first great statement of the solution to the problem of human morality. But before we pursue it, it is necessary to see that the major effect that the Golden Rule was intended to have on human goodness was to condemn it. It wipes it out. By this standard, all natural human goodness is condemned, and being weighed in the balances, is found wanting.
Yesterday, we concluded by saying that if we think of a ruler as a straightedge, as the British call it, we then have the idea that what we call the Golden Rule shows us how morally crooked we are, compared with the perfect straightness of God’s moral purity.
Now at this point many very good studies would stop. For this is the Christian Gospel, and it lies at the heart of all Scripture. It is a good place to end. However, I believe that if I were to end here, I would be untrue to this text before me. For the Sermon on the Mount was given, as we saw in one of our earlier studies, not merely to drive a man to Christ (although that is the first thing necessary), but also to set forth that standard of morality to which God is constantly leading the Christian.
God will not quit. Hence, the Golden Rule (as well as all of the Sermon on the Mount) is as much a statement of where God is taking the Christian as it is a standard by which the goodness of the natural man is judged. What will it be? Will you flail away at that or some other standard, and be judged by it? Or will you surrender to Christ, letting God enter your life and remake you into His image?
The Golden Rule is the concluding verse of the major part of the Sermon on the Mount, for all the verses that follow it are but a long, although significant, postscript. Like Matthew 5:48, the verse that concludes the first chapter of the sermon, the Golden Rule aptly summarizes all that has gone before it and then lifts the eyes of the reader to Jesus Christ, who is the only possible source of such goodness. From this point on, Jesus turns to a series of warnings designed to keep His listeners from falling by the wayside through unbelief, apathy, deceit, hypocrisy, or discouragement.
Now if all this is true—that is, if these verses (Matt. 7:13-27) are primarily a warning to those of Christ’s time to keep on until His death and resurrection brought His ministry to completion—then it is also clear how we must understand the first of these four warnings.
Another truth also lies at the heart of His warning, the truth that salvation is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ only. What is the gate? What is the way that leads to life? The answer is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). These verses throw the only proper light upon our text. For they show that Jesus was speaking of faith in Himself when he told the Galileans, “Narrow is the gate, and hard is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” The way to heaven is as narrow as Jesus.
Do not make the mistake of counting upon your moral record as a way of coming to God. It is your record that gets you into trouble in the first place. Your record will condemn you, no matter how good you think you are or how good you appear in other men’s eyes. Count on the fact that Jesus paid the penalty for your sin, that He did what no other person would do. And accept the fact that He by His death provided the way for simple, sinful people like you and me to enter heaven.
We need to see one more great truth from this passage. Jesus said, “Enter in at the narrow gate” or, as the parallel saying in Luke’s Gospel puts it, “Strive to enter in” (Luke 13:24). Clearly it is not enough merely to listen to preaching about this gate or to study its architecture. It is not enough to praise it. It is not enough to stand by it. It must be entered. And this means that there must be a personal decision to enter into Christ by everyone who comes under the preaching of the Gospel.
Some time ago a person commented on the theme to which we now come in our studies, saying, “If you are going to place poison on a shelf where you have healing medicines, you had better label it clearly.” Someone was discussing the presence of false teaching and false teachers in the Church, and he was recognizing that if false teachers are going to be present in the Church, as the Bible teaches they will be, then they must be clearly identified before they do harm.
Now someone will ask, “Do you mean to tell me that God will allow men who are influenced by Satan to become church members?” The answer is “Yes, indeed.” And not only that, He will also allow them to become ministers and speak from the pulpit. This is the real meaning of 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 which says, “For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.”
All of this brings us to the main point of Christ’s teaching, of course. For at this point we should correctly ask: How can we recognize false teaching? How can we detect a wolf in sheep’s clothing? There are several answers.
The second test does not come from the Sermon on the Mount itself—although Jesus Christ also referred to it elsewhere—but from the writings of Jeremiah. False prophets do not have disturbing doctrine in their messages, even though the true state of man demands it. Instead, their message is one of false peace.
Finally, there is the test of good works, which is the test that Jesus Himself gives in this sermon. He repeats it twice, once at the beginning of this section, and once at the end. In between he illustrates what he is saying. “Ye shall know them by their fruits… by their fruits ye shall know them” (vv. 18, 20). He shows that men are like fruit trees. Good ones only produce good fruit, and bad ones only produce fruit that is bad.
I do not like the phrase “cheap grace,” which Dietrich Bonhoeffer has made popular and which he deplores. For grace in a very real sense is cheap, or, what is even better to say, is without cost entirely. It is true that grace cost God the Father the death of the Son. But for us grace is bestowed totally without payment, and it is abounding even though we fall back into sin or abuse it. I believe that without an explanation the term “cheap grace” obscures this. Nevertheless, the phrase has some value. We can refer to it profitably now at this point in our studies on the final verses of the Sermon on the Mount.
In the light of these truths it is evident that Christ’s words are a particularly pertinent warning to those who blithely believe a few doctrines or who perform a smattering of so-called good works, and yet have never entered into that kind of true commitment to Christ which results in increasingly costly obedience and in true discipleship.
Because a man can believe certain Christian doctrines with his head and yet still not be converted, there will always be counterfeit or nominal Christians in Church circles. Some of them will be dangerous, for they will be planted there by the devil to deceive the unwary, like tares in fields of wheat. Others will only be self-deluded. Whatever the case, however, the world will be able to point to them and say, “Ah look at those hypocrites; that’s why I’m not a Christian.” Don’t be discouraged by that. Just be sure that you are not one of them. If you are not to be, you must ask the Lord to reveal the state of your own heart before Him and lead you to the fullness of belief in Christ and commitment to Him.
Doctrine is only the first area in which many persons find a false spiritual confidence. A second area is works (v. 22). For there will always be somebody to say, “It’s not just that I believe these things and hear sermons about them. I really serve Christ. I prophesy in His name (it is preaching today). I cast out demons (it is revolution today). I have done many wonderful works (these are the good deeds of Christianity).” Jesus says that it is quite possible for a person to be baptized in the Christian Church, to be confirmed, to take communion, to serve on the church’s boards, even to be a missionary, and still never have come to the place where he is born again.
What matters is the reality of your own personal commitment to Jesus. Are you a Christian? Is it real? The answer to that question does not depend upon your intellectual beliefs (“Lord, Lord”) or upon your good works (“Have we not prophesied in thy name?”), but upon your relationship to the Lord Jesus. Have you ever asked Him to be your Savior? Have you ever said, “Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to enter my heart?” If you have never done that, then you must know that this is the gate to salvation. If you have, then you can be assured that He has entered your life. For He has said, “Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6). He says, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).
We come to the very last words of the Sermon on the Mount, the section in which Jesus Christ pictures the difference between those who hear His teachings and do them and those who hear His teachings and do not do them as the difference between a wise man who builds his house upon a rock, and a foolish man who builds his house upon sand. It is a picture that all people know. And it is one that most of us have sung about, in one hymn or another, since the time we were children.
In these closing words of His sermon Jesus was stressing the importance of an adequate foundation, and He is asking the question, “What is your foundation? On what do you build?”
The second important point to be seen in these verses is this: A life built upon Jesus Christ will stand. That is a simple point, of course, but we need to have it clear in our thinking and to get it planted deeply in our minds. A life built upon Jesus will stand, even in the midst of the tribulations of this life or the judgments of eternity.
Now there is one last point here, and it is a point for Christians. What are you building? Oh, you are on the foundation all right. Christ is your Savior. But do you know that it may be possible for Him to be your foundation and yet for you to go through life building things that are worthless and that will not remain as fruit for eternity, even though you will be saved personally?
What are you building upon the foundation that is given you by God? Are you living to yourself? It is entirely possible for Christians to do that. Or are you living for Him? Are you using the talents, blessings, opportunities, influence, and wealth that He has given you to build Christian character and bring men to the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior?
Everyone knows the difference between a person who speaks out of a vast and accurate knowledge of his subject and one who merely repeats what he has heard from others. The one is the voice of authority; the other is the voice of a parrot. The first is the sound of the fountain bubbling forth freshly from the ground; the second is the empty sound of the cistern.
Christ’s most startling revelation was Himself. As early as the Beatitudes, in His words about persecution, Jesus assumed that the persecution His hearers would experience would be persecution “for His sake,” not for His teaching’s sake but because of their relationship to Him. In the next section of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus set Himself up as the authoritative expounder of the law. He repeatedly said, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, Thou shalt do so and so. But I say unto you…” thereby placing Himself above the rabbis and scribes and doing so without the slightest apology, reserve, or qualification.
But Jesus did not only speak with authority. He also acted with authority. And thus, His works serve to substantiate His claims. What were His works? By the time of the preaching of this Sermon, according to Matthew (4:23-25), Jesus had already healed various types of sickness among the people and had cast out demons. They were yet to see lepers cured, the eyes of the blind opened, the dead raised to life, the storms stilled, water turned to wine, thousands fed from just a few shreds of lunch, and heaven opened. These works were meant to accredit Him by revealing the source of His teaching. We cannot study them candidly without coming to the conclusion reached by Nicodemus: “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him” (John 3:2).
The final and in many ways the conclusive bulwark of the authority of Jesus Christ is His resurrection from the dead. At the time of the preaching of this Sermon, of course, Jesus had not yet died, let alone been raised from the dead. But we remember that He was ending His Sermon with an encouragement for His hearers to keep on as His disciples until they came to that point. And, whatever the case may have been for them, for us the resurrection is paramount. Did Jesus rise from the dead? If He did, then His authority is established. His teaching is established. His deity is established. And Christianity rests upon an impregnable foundation.
What is the most important message of this Sermon? Certainly, it is the person of Jesus of Nazareth Himself, the Son of God, who spoke as no man had ever spoken before or since, who lived as He preached, and who then died and rose again that He might offer us a full and perfect salvation. Do you believe that? Have you committed your life to His care?
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