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Voddie Baucham - Sermon on the Mount Overview · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Well, today is a bittersweet day. If you have been
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Speaker 1: with us for the last several months, you will recognize
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Speaker 1: the bitterness of this day. The bitterness of this day
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Speaker 1: is that we are not going to be looking into
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Speaker 1: the life of the man who I hope has become
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Speaker 1: our dearly beloved friend, Abraham. It has been several months
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Speaker 1: now that we've been preaching through the life of Abraham,
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Speaker 1: and we have come to the end of the life
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Speaker 1: of Abraham. So therein lies the bitterness. However, it is,
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Speaker 1: as I said, a bittersweet day. And the sweetness lies
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Speaker 1: in the fact that now, for the next several months,
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Speaker 1: we will spend our time in the Sermon on the Mount.
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Speaker 1: We will look at Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7,
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Speaker 1: and look at this most in-depth teaching, this most in-depth
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Speaker 1: message that we have from our Lord and Master Jesus
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Speaker 1: Christ here in the Sermon on the Mount. We will
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Speaker 1: delve into subjects of all sort as we wrestle with
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Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount, but my job today is twofold.
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Speaker 1: Number one, to set the tone for us and give
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Speaker 1: us an overview of this next preaching segment. And number two,
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Speaker 1: also to offer us a sort of theological foundation from
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Speaker 1: which we can understand what we are about to hear
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Speaker 1: over the next several months. First, let me say a
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Speaker 1: word about why we preach the way we do. Now,
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Speaker 1: many of you already know this, but that's okay. We
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Speaker 1: can't say this enough. We practice systematic exposition. And there
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Speaker 1: are two words there that are meaningful. And there are
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Speaker 1: a lot of people who practice exposition or expository preaching.
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Speaker 1: To exposit simply means to take out of. We come
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Speaker 1: to a passage of Scripture and we take out of
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Speaker 1: it what it is there and present it first of
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Speaker 1: all to ourselves and then to you. So in the
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Speaker 1: simplest and most basic terms, that's what it means to
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Speaker 1: do exposition. Systematic exposition is a bit differently. Expository preaching
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Speaker 1: is merely taking a passage of Scripture in its context
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Speaker 1: and preaching that passage of Scripture in its context, as
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Speaker 1: opposed to something topical where we would take multiple verses
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Speaker 1: or portions of Scripture and put them together in order
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Speaker 1: to make a comment about a certain subject or topic,
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Speaker 1: thus the name topical preaching. Now, we don't argue that
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Speaker 1: it's never appropriate to do topical preaching. For example, if
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Speaker 1: we were doing a doctrinal study, If we were, instead
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Speaker 1: of going through the life of Abraham or going through
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Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount, if instead we were looking
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Speaker 1: at the doctrine of Christ, and let's say we were
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Speaker 1: to preach a series of messages on the doctrine of Christ,
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Speaker 1: then we would be topical because we would take all
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Speaker 1: of the key passages and key verses that teach us
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Speaker 1: about the doctrine of Christ and build those together in
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Speaker 1: our messages. And there may be times when we do that,
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Speaker 1: and that is completely appropriate. However, there's a difference between
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Speaker 1: a topical series that is doctrinal in nature and and
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Speaker 1: a topical series that is felt needs and man-centered in nature,
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Speaker 1: which is what we object to. And so you may
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Speaker 1: hear topical message on the doctrine of Christ or the
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Speaker 1: doctrine of the church, but you won't hear topical messages
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Speaker 1: on six ways to have a happy life and five
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Speaker 1: ways to reduce stress and so on and so forth
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Speaker 1: ad nauseum ad infinitum, okay? So there's a difference. What
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Speaker 1: we practice here is systematic exposition. And what that means
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Speaker 1: is we do expository preaching, but we do it systematically
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Speaker 1: through portions of Scripture. For example, we went through Genesis
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Speaker 1: 1 through 11. That was a portion of Scripture that
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Speaker 1: we taught through systematically. Now, before we did Genesis 1
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Speaker 1: through 11, we did the Gospel of Mark. Before we
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Speaker 1: did the Gospel of Mark, we did Ephesians, okay? Okay?
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Speaker 1: And so systematically, we're preaching through the Scriptures. What you'll
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Speaker 1: notice there is that there's a pattern. We started with
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Speaker 1: an epistle. Then we went to a gospel. Then we
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Speaker 1: went to the law, Old Testament. So we went New Testament,
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Speaker 1: New Testament, then Old Testament, went to law. Then we
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Speaker 1: came back and we went through John or went through
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Speaker 1: Mark and epistle, came back to the Old Testament. Then
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Speaker 1: we went through 1 John and epistle, came back to
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Speaker 1: the Old Testament. There's a pattern there. There's an intentional
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Speaker 1: pattern there. We believe that God has called and commanded
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Speaker 1: us to teach the whole counsel of God. We have
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Speaker 1: to preach the Old Testament. We have to preach the
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Speaker 1: New Testament. Not only that, but in the New Testament,
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Speaker 1: we can't just preach the epistles because that's just, that's
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Speaker 1: cherry picking for preachers. That's the easiest preaching there is
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Speaker 1: in the whole Bible, especially the Pauline epistles. Paul just,
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Speaker 1: he's a preacher. And the stuff that he writes is
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Speaker 1: just preachable. You can go to a passage in Pauline
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Speaker 1: scripture and it just falls into place. three or four points.
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Speaker 1: They're just right there, you know? And you just walk
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Speaker 1: through that. It's cherry picking. That's the easiest exposition you'll
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Speaker 1: ever do is preaching Pauline epistles, all right? And that's fine.
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Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with that. But you can get real
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Speaker 1: lazy preaching through Pauline epistles all the time. The other
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Speaker 1: thing is we need the Old Testament as much as
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Speaker 1: we need the New Testament because we know that Jesus
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Speaker 1: himself said that the entire Bible is about him. So
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Speaker 1: we have to preach Christ from all of Scripture. And
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Speaker 1: that's what we've been attempting to do, is preach Christ
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Speaker 1: from all of Scripture. So as we looked at the
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Speaker 1: life of Abraham, it wasn't just, here's five things Abraham did,
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Speaker 1: therefore you go and do them so that you can
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Speaker 1: be more like Abraham. It is, how do we see
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Speaker 1: Christ in the life of Abraham? So systematic exposition is
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Speaker 1: about a balanced diet. By the way, you may not
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Speaker 1: know this, but we use the same approach for our
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Speaker 1: Scripture reading in the mornings. So we don't just read
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Speaker 1: New Testament and then Old Testament, but as we read through,
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Speaker 1: we're about to finish Revelation. And before we read through Revelation,
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Speaker 1: I believe we did John. So we did a gospel.
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Speaker 1: Now we did a Pauline epistle. I believe we've read through,
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Speaker 1: did I say Revelation? I meant Romans. Romans. We read
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Speaker 1: through Romans. So we did a gospel. We did an epistle.
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Speaker 1: Before that, we had done Revelation, I believe. You know,
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Speaker 1: so now we're probably going to, I mean, we've read
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Speaker 1: through Acts as well. So we'll probably go read through
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Speaker 1: another gospel at this time or something. But the whole
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Speaker 1: idea is a balanced diet for us to hear the
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Speaker 1: Word of God. When it comes to the Old Testament,
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Speaker 1: we're in Jeremiah. We'll be in Jeremiah for a while.
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Speaker 1: Reading a chapter a week, it takes almost a year
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Speaker 1: to read through Jeremiah, okay? So we'll be a whole
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Speaker 1: year reading through Jeremiah. Well, after we've read through Jeremiah,
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Speaker 1: we've read through one of the prophets and We've also
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Speaker 1: read through one of the books of the law. We'll
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Speaker 1: probably go to some wisdom literature, and we'll preach through
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Speaker 1: some wisdom literature, okay? So maybe we'll go Proverbs or
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Speaker 1: Psalms or something of that nature. Song of Solomon. No,
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Speaker 1: not with the little ones in here. We may read
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Speaker 1: Song of Solomon with, yeah, yeah, never mind. All right,
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Speaker 1: and so, again, a balanced diet of the Word of God.
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Speaker 1: So you see that more readily as we read through
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Speaker 1: these books in our New Testament reading and Old Testament reading.
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Speaker 1: Because we do that a lot faster than we preach
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Speaker 1: through these books. But so now we've been through the
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Speaker 1: life of Abraham. After having gone through 1 John. After
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Speaker 1: having gone through Genesis 1 through 11. After having gone
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Speaker 1: through Mark. After having gone through Ephesians. We're going to
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Speaker 1: come back and we're going to pick up with Isaac.
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Speaker 1: And we're going to go through Isaac's life. After we've
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Speaker 1: done the Sermon on the Mount. Which gets us back
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Speaker 1: into gospel again. Then we'll go back and we'll do
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Speaker 1: Isaac's life and then we'll come back and we'll probably do,
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Speaker 1: I believe it's the book of Acts we talked about
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Speaker 1: or something we talked about. But again, we talk about
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Speaker 1: our preaching schedule years in advance because it takes years
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Speaker 1: for us to do all of these things and to
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Speaker 1: do them well. So that's why we're doing what we're doing.
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Speaker 1: That's why we're in this book and we're going to
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Speaker 1: go back to another book and we have Old Testament,
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Speaker 1: we have New Testament. The whole idea is to give
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Speaker 1: a balanced diet and to demonstrate the fact that Christ
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Speaker 1: is present in all of Scripture. Now, having said that,
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Speaker 1: we're coming to the Sermon on the Mount. And I
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Speaker 1: want you to understand not just what we're going to
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Speaker 1: be teaching, but why we're going to be teaching it
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Speaker 1: and the theological underpinnings for what we're going to be teaching. Now,
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Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount starts in Matthew chapter 5. Now,
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Speaker 1: in order for us to understand the Sermon on the
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Speaker 1: Mount properly, it'll probably be good for us to understand
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Speaker 1: what happened before that in Matthew chapters 1 through 4.
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Speaker 1: So first, let me give you an overview of Matthew
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Speaker 1: chapters 1 through 4. In fact, let me back up
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Speaker 1: even further and give you an understanding of the Gospel
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Speaker 1: of Matthew. We have four Gospels. And a lot of
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Speaker 1: people run into the four gospels and say, why don't
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Speaker 1: we have four gospels? Why don't we just have one gospel? Well,
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Speaker 1: the gospels were written by different authors, and they were
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Speaker 1: written to different audiences, and they were written for different purposes.
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Speaker 1: In fact, when we looked at the gospel of Mark,
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Speaker 1: for example, we talked about the characteristic of Mark and
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Speaker 1: Mark's favorite word being straight away or immediately. That if
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Speaker 1: we were talking about this in terms of movie genres,
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Speaker 1: that Mark was an action film, you know, that quickly
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Speaker 1: goes from one point to the next. Mark was trying
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Speaker 1: to tell the story of Christ to a particular audience,
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Speaker 1: probably a Gentile audience, in a particular way. Matthew, on
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Speaker 1: the other hand, is a different writer. Matthew has a
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Speaker 1: different perspective and a different audience in mind. Matthew's audience
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Speaker 1: is a Jewish audience. Matthew's audience is a Jewish audience.
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Speaker 1: So because Matthew's writing to a different audience, he is
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Speaker 1: writing a different gospel, and he emphasizes different things. For example, John.
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Speaker 1: John's gospel, way different than the other three, so much
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Speaker 1: so that the other three gospels are called the synoptic gospels. Kids,
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Speaker 1: you can use your context clues there. I know mom
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Speaker 1: and dad teach you all the time about your context clues.
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Speaker 1: There's sin in there, like synonym and things like that.
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Speaker 1: So they're kind of the same. Yes, absolutely. And there's
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Speaker 1: a lot of information that's shared within the synoptic gospels.
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Speaker 1: John's gospel is much different. He organizes his gospel around
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Speaker 1: seven signs. And his goal is to demonstrate that Jesus
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Speaker 1: is the Messiah because of the miracles that he performed.
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Speaker 1: Matthew's goal is to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah
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Speaker 1: because of his fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies So we
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Speaker 1: find more illusion the Old Testament prophecy there in Matthew
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Speaker 1: than we find in other places Because that's what Matthew
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Speaker 1: is all about. In fact, we see that here in
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Speaker 1: the beginning Matthew chapter 1 in verse 1 Notice what
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Speaker 1: he says The book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, by
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Speaker 1: the way, that word that he uses there for genealogy
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Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ actually hearkens back to Genesis. The beginning,
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Speaker 1: the genealogy, the beginning. So just like John, when he says,
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Speaker 1: in the beginning was the word, he's hearkening back to Genesis.
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Speaker 1: Matthew here is also hearkening back to Genesis with what
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Speaker 1: he says. And by the way, there's some good news here.
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Speaker 1: Remember I said that it was a bittersweet day? Bitter
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Speaker 1: because we've left the life of Abraham? Well, that's not
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Speaker 1: altogether true. The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
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Speaker 1: the son of, altogether now, Abraham. Remember, we told you
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Speaker 1: the life of Abraham was about Christ. The significance of
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Speaker 1: Abraham was twofold. Number one, Abraham being in the lineage
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Speaker 1: of the promised seed, Jesus Christ. And number two, Abraham
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Speaker 1: being this picture for us of justification by faith. So
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Speaker 1: we see here that Matthew is making a connection between
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ and Abraham. Now in Luke's genealogy, he goes further.
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Speaker 1: Not just the son of David, the son of Abraham,
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Speaker 1: but he goes back the son of Adam and the
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Speaker 1: son of God. Why? Why? Luke's trying to do something
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Speaker 1: different than Matthew. Matthew wants to make a very simple point.
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Speaker 1: And his very simple point is this, Jesus is the
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Speaker 1: promised seed. Now if you've been here for the last
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Speaker 1: several months, you've almost gotten tired of hearing of that.
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Speaker 1: Jesus is the promised seed. You probably wake up and
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Speaker 1: then you're like, Jesus is the promised seed, okay, okay, okay.
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Speaker 1: We've said that over and over and over and over again.
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Speaker 1: What we see in the Old Testament lineage What we
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Speaker 1: see in Genesis 1 through 11, what we see in
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Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 5, in those 10 generations that go from
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Speaker 1: Seth to Noah, Adam's line from Seth to Noah in
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Speaker 1: 10 generations, what's that all about? That's all about the
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Speaker 1: promised seed. What promised seed? The seed that was promised
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Speaker 1: in Genesis chapter 3 in verse 15, when the gospel
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Speaker 1: is first preached. Genesis chapter 3 in verse 15, the proto-Evangelion,
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Speaker 1: the first proclamation of the gospel is says to that
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Speaker 1: old serpent, I'm gonna put enmity between you and the
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Speaker 1: woman and between your seed and her seed. Your seed's
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Speaker 1: gonna bruise him on the heel. However, her seed's gonna
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Speaker 1: crush his head. That's the first proclamation of the gospel.
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Speaker 1: There is a promised seed of the woman who is
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Speaker 1: to come. And that promised seed of the woman is
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Speaker 1: the one who is ultimately going to destroy the serpent, okay?
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Speaker 1: That's the message. So when we look there in the
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Speaker 1: life of Abraham, we're just a few generations away from Noah,
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Speaker 1: who according to Genesis chapter five is 10 generations away
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Speaker 1: from Seth, who's the son of Adam, who gets us
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Speaker 1: all the way back to the beginning, and their lineage
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Speaker 1: is not important because it just gets us to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac,
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Speaker 1: and Jacob, but it's important because it gets us from
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Speaker 1: there to the lawgiver Moses, and from there to the
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Speaker 1: king David, and from there to the ultimate Messiah and
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Speaker 1: king Jesus. Okay? So we've left the life of Abraham,
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Speaker 1: but we haven't left his story. Because his story is
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Speaker 1: ultimately the story of Christ, okay? Again, Christ in all
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Speaker 1: of scripture. Then we have the genealogy. So after this
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Speaker 1: introduction to the promised seed, we have the line of
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Speaker 1: the promised seed. That's in Matthew chapter one, verses two
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Speaker 1: through 17. And we won't read through all of that.
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Speaker 1: We don't have time to read through all of that.
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Speaker 1: Then we have the birth of the promised seed. This
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Speaker 1: happens in Matthew chapter one, Verse 19 through Matthew chapter
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Speaker 1: 2 and verse 12, or chapter 1, 18 rather. And
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Speaker 1: look at chapter 1, verse 18. Now the birth of
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Speaker 1: Jesus took place in this way. What an understatement. Matthew
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Speaker 1: says the whole Bible has been about getting us to
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Speaker 1: this point. I love the way Paul puts it. In
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Speaker 1: the fullness of time, Christ came into the world. Born
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Speaker 1: of a woman. Born under the law. In the fullness
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Speaker 1: of time. And here, Matthew says, birth of Jesus Christ
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Speaker 1: happened like this. After all of that, I mean, come on, man.
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Speaker 1: Can we get just some crashing symbols and some... No.
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Speaker 1: This is really not about his birth. That's just a
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Speaker 1: small part of it. Jesus didn't come just to be
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Speaker 1: born so that we could finally say the promised descendant
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Speaker 1: is here. His name is Jesus because he will save
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Speaker 1: his people from their sin. He's the deliverer. We see
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Speaker 1: the birth of the Messiah there, birth of the promised seed.
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Speaker 1: Then we see the enemy of the promised seed in 2.13
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Speaker 1: and following. And here's what's interesting. We've alluded to this before.
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Speaker 1: The gospel is proclaimed. Now, who's the gospel first proclaimed to?
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Speaker 1: It's first proclaimed to the serpent. In Genesis chapter 315,
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Speaker 1: Jesus is talking to the serpent. He preaches the gospel
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Speaker 1: to the serpent first. In other words, he's not preaching
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Speaker 1: the gospel so that the serpent could get saved. That's
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Speaker 1: not the only purpose of the proclamation of the gospel.
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Speaker 1: Let me say that again. Salvation is not the only
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Speaker 1: purpose of the proclamation of the gospels. He proclaims the
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Speaker 1: gospel to the serpent to just announce the judgment that
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Speaker 1: is to come. And unfortunately for many people, if not
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Speaker 1: most people, that's what the proclamation of the gospel is.
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Speaker 1: It is a pronouncement of the judgment that is to come.
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Speaker 1: So he says, listen here, serpent. There's a seed that's
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Speaker 1: going to come, crush your head. It's going to be
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Speaker 1: the seed of the woman. So that happens in chapter 3.
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Speaker 1: What does the serpent work out in chapter 4? Cain
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Speaker 1: kills Abel. Why? The serpent is after the seed. That's fine, God.
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Speaker 1: You just told me how you're going to try to
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Speaker 1: get me. Okay, I know how to get around it.
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Speaker 1: I'll just kill the seed. If I kill the seed
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Speaker 1: of the woman, I'm fine. That's why the next thing
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Speaker 1: you see is the birth of Seth, the promised seed. Well,
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Speaker 1: then later on, what happens when we get, for example,
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Speaker 1: to Moses? I know how to get into all of this.
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Speaker 1: I'll just get rid of Moses. Pharaoh will just make
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Speaker 1: a decree, and he will kill all of the firstborn sons. Why?
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Speaker 1: The serpent is still after the seed. Now, in Matthew,
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Speaker 1: we see Herod. And what does Herod decree? The same
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Speaker 1: thing that Pharaoh decreed. Kill all the firstborn male children. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because the serpent is after the seed. So it's interesting.
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Speaker 1: We get to the life of Christ and we're still
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Speaker 1: in Genesis. Amen? By the way, that's what helps us
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Speaker 1: to interpret Genesis. What's Genesis about? Genesis is about all
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Speaker 1: this stuff right here. Genesis is not just about legalisms
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Speaker 1: and moralisms. Genesis is about how God gets the promised seed.
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Speaker 1: And so we see that there. Then in chapter 3,
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Speaker 1: we see the forerunner of the promised seed, the announcer
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Speaker 1: of the promised seed. Well, why is that important? Well,
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Speaker 1: because at the end of the Old Testament, we are
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Speaker 1: told that there's going to be a forerunner who will
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Speaker 1: announce the the coming of the promised seed and the
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Speaker 1: spirit of Elijah. He's going to go out and do
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Speaker 1: that in the wilderness. And now we have a guy
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Speaker 1: who has the same diet as Elijah, the same type
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Speaker 1: of ministry as Elijah, and he is pronouncing the coming
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Speaker 1: of the Messiah. So we see that in chapter three.
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Speaker 1: Then in chapter 4, verses 1 through 11, the Messiah,
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Speaker 1: the promised seed, goes through the same thing that he
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Speaker 1: went through when he was still in Israel. Let me
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Speaker 1: say that again, okay? The promised seed has been born
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Speaker 1: now in Matthew. Where's the promised seed before? Again, earthly speaking,
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Speaker 1: humanly speaking, we know Jesus is, and again, the pre-incarnate
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Speaker 1: Christ has always existed. But we're talking about this physical seed.
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Speaker 1: He's 100% man. He's 100% God. We understand that. No
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Speaker 1: commingling or commixtures of his nature. So where's the promised seed? Well, first,
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Speaker 1: the promised seed's there in Seth. Then the promised seed's there,
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Speaker 1: you know, down in Noah. Then the promised seed's there
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Speaker 1: in Abraham. Then the promised seed's there in Isaac. The
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Speaker 1: promised seed's there in Jacob. So the promised seed goes
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Speaker 1: to the wilderness for 40 years. Well, when Jesus is born,
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Speaker 1: where does he go? To the wilderness for 40 days. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because the wilderness wandering wasn't about Israel. The wilderness wandering
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Speaker 1: was about Jesus. That's why. Again, Christ says he's in
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Speaker 1: all of scripture. 40 years they wander in the desert.
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Speaker 1: 40 years they wander in the wilderness. The promised seed
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Speaker 1: is born. For 40 days he wanders in the wilderness.
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Speaker 1: For 40 days. And then what happens? There is a
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Speaker 1: showdown between the serpent and the promised seed. You guys
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Speaker 1: see how good this is? There's a showdown right there
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Speaker 1: in chapter 4. God's made a promise. He proclaimed the gospel.
22:13
Speaker 1: First one he proclaims the gospel to is the serpent.
22:16
Speaker 1: Serpent tries to kill the seed again and again and
22:19
Speaker 1: again and again and again. Can't do it. So if
22:24
Speaker 1: I can't kill the promised seed, I'll corrupt the promised seed.
22:30
Speaker 1: So he tempts him in the wilderness. Jesus is tempted
22:34
Speaker 1: in every point as we are, and yet, without sin.
22:41
Speaker 1: After that, we see the ministry of the promised seed.
22:43
Speaker 1: Chapter 4, verses 12 and following. What is this about? Well,
22:50
Speaker 1: if you look in your Bible, you'll see all of
22:52
Speaker 1: these quotations from the Old Testament. How are we going
22:55
Speaker 1: to know the Messiah when he shows up? We're going
22:57
Speaker 1: to know the Messiah when he shows up because of
23:00
Speaker 1: the ministry that he does. Because of the things that
23:03
Speaker 1: he does and the blind will see and the lame
23:06
Speaker 1: will walk and the mute will speak. These are the
23:08
Speaker 1: things that the promised seed, that the Messiah is going
23:11
Speaker 1: to do. So in chapter 4, verses 12 and following,
23:15
Speaker 1: we see him doing those very things. And at the
23:20
Speaker 1: end of that, we get to chapter 5. Because the
23:25
Speaker 1: other way we're going to know the promised seed is
23:28
Speaker 1: not just through his ministry, but through his teachings. And
23:32
Speaker 1: that brings us to the Sermon on the Mount and
23:34
Speaker 1: the teaching of Christ. Now, in order for us to
23:38
Speaker 1: grasp this, there are a couple of things that we're
23:41
Speaker 1: going to have to be clear about in order to
23:44
Speaker 1: understand the Sermon on the Mount. Because we've talked often
23:48
Speaker 1: about how difficult it is to preach Christ in the
23:52
Speaker 1: Old Testament, to preach the gospel even when we're in
23:55
Speaker 1: the Old Testament. Because what we usually want to do
23:57
Speaker 1: is we want to go and do character studies in
23:59
Speaker 1: the Old Testament and And we want to say, here
24:01
Speaker 1: are the character traits that these individuals in the Old
24:03
Speaker 1: Testament had. You work real hard to have these character traits.
24:07
Speaker 1: We've talked about that and how important it is that
24:10
Speaker 1: we recognize that we're called to preach the gospel. Amen?
24:15
Speaker 1: The Bible is about Christ, not about you working hard
24:17
Speaker 1: enough to be like Christ, which you can't do. Well,
24:21
Speaker 1: if you thought it was hard in the life of Abraham,
24:26
Speaker 1: would you see how hard it is in the Sermon
24:29
Speaker 1: on the Mount? Because if we're not careful, we get
24:32
Speaker 1: to the Sermon on the Mount, and here's what we do.
24:35
Speaker 1: There's a list of rules. There's law. Jesus is even
24:41
Speaker 1: elevating the law. Old Testament law said this. I say that.
24:47
Speaker 1: You thought the Old Testament law was hard to meet.
24:49
Speaker 1: I got a law that's even harder for you to meet.
24:55
Speaker 1: The Sermon on the Mount is an introduction to Christian ethics.
24:59
Speaker 1: an introduction to Christian ethics. And in order for us
25:03
Speaker 1: to understand Christian ethics, we must understand the Christian gospel.
25:08
Speaker 1: We have to get it. We have to understand that
25:11
Speaker 1: the gospel is about a pronouncement of the work that
25:15
Speaker 1: God has done in Christ. It's a pronouncement of the
25:21
Speaker 1: coming of Christ, the life of Christ. The ministry of Christ,
25:26
Speaker 1: the proclamation of Christ, his death, his burial, his resurrection
25:31
Speaker 1: and ascension, and his coming again. It is the pronouncement
25:34
Speaker 1: of that good news, the pronouncement of that message. Man
25:38
Speaker 1: has a sin problem. There is but one answer, and
25:41
Speaker 1: that answer is the person and work of Jesus Christ.
25:43
Speaker 1: That's the gospel that we proclaim. Unfortunately, we are hardwired
25:49
Speaker 1: for works righteousness. We're hardwired for works righteousness, especially in
25:57
Speaker 1: this culture. Man, what it means to be an American,
26:02
Speaker 1: or at least what it used to mean to be
26:03
Speaker 1: an American, was all about rugged individualism. Pull yourself up
26:08
Speaker 1: by your own. Okay? We know these things. I'm looking
26:13
Speaker 1: out for number. Just worried about me and myself. Okay?
26:18
Speaker 1: We're Americans, man. We're hardcore. Not only are we Americans,
26:22
Speaker 1: but we're out here toward the West. where rugged individualism
26:25
Speaker 1: was born. Who went west? The most rugged of the
26:29
Speaker 1: rugged individuals. I'm going out west to stake my claim.
26:34
Speaker 1: I'm going out west to make my mark. I'm going
26:37
Speaker 1: out west to be dependent upon myself. Just me, my rifle,
26:44
Speaker 1: my horse, and we're going to make it. So rugged individualism,
26:50
Speaker 1: the further you go west, the more deep-rooted rugged individualism is.
26:55
Speaker 1: And here in Texans, the Lone Star State, are you
26:59
Speaker 1: kidding me? We're about as rugged and individual as they come.
27:08
Speaker 1: And as a result of that, here's what we do
27:11
Speaker 1: when we come to the Bible. We look for rules
27:14
Speaker 1: that we can keep so that we can be identified
27:17
Speaker 1: as rule keepers. And if we're not careful, that's all
27:24
Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount will be. Rules that we
27:27
Speaker 1: can keep so that we can be rule keepers. Or
27:30
Speaker 1: the flip side, rules that other people aren't keeping that
27:34
Speaker 1: we can become informed about so that we're just when
27:37
Speaker 1: we condemn them. If you can't say amen, you ought
27:40
Speaker 1: to say ouch. Okay? That's all we get. We get
27:47
Speaker 1: here and we say, see, see, see, see. He's not righteous.
27:51
Speaker 1: She's not righteous. Cesar right here. They don't live like that.
27:56
Speaker 1: So we need to understand something about the gospel. We
27:58
Speaker 1: need to understand something about justification. We need to understand
28:01
Speaker 1: something about sanctification so that we can then understand Christian ethics.
28:06
Speaker 1: Understand that justification is a declaration that God makes of
28:12
Speaker 1: our righteousness. It is a declaration that God makes of
28:17
Speaker 1: our righteousness. Justification is not something you or I achieve.
28:22
Speaker 1: Justification is a declaration made by God. And we don't
28:29
Speaker 1: understand justification that way. That's why we always like to
28:32
Speaker 1: ask questions that begin with this. Can a person be
28:35
Speaker 1: a Christian if they dot, dot, dot? We love that question. Hey,
28:41
Speaker 1: can a person be a Christian if they just fill
28:44
Speaker 1: in the blank, whatever it is. Can a person be
28:47
Speaker 1: a Christian if they, you know what I love when
28:49
Speaker 1: people start asking me a question like that? You know,
28:52
Speaker 1: can a person be a Christian if they, I stop
28:55
Speaker 1: them right there. Wait a minute, don't finish your question.
28:59
Speaker 1: Let me answer your question before you ask it. If
29:02
Speaker 1: what's about to come out of your mouth is something
29:04
Speaker 1: other than, can a person be a Christian if they
29:10
Speaker 1: are not completely trusting in justification by faith alone by
29:16
Speaker 1: grace alone, through Christ alone, to the glory of God alone,
29:21
Speaker 1: and understanding that from the Scripture alone, if anything else
29:24
Speaker 1: is about to come out of your mouth, the answer
29:26
Speaker 1: to the question is yes. Yes. A person can be
29:33
Speaker 1: a Christian if they whatever. Whatever. Whatever. The only thing
29:41
Speaker 1: a person can do and not be a Christian is
29:44
Speaker 1: not come to God through his son, Jesus Christ, by
29:48
Speaker 1: grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the
29:50
Speaker 1: glory of God alone and understanding that from the scriptures alone.
29:56
Speaker 1: Can a person be a Christian if they kill somebody?
29:57
Speaker 1: I don't know, ask Paul when you get to heaven.
30:03
Speaker 1: Ask Moses. He's a murderer too. Well, can a person
30:10
Speaker 1: be a Christian if they... Whatever. What about homosexuality? Can
30:18
Speaker 1: a person be a Christian if they struggle with homosexuality?
30:22
Speaker 1: I don't know. We can ask Paul that one too.
30:23
Speaker 1: Because in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, he gives us a
30:27
Speaker 1: whole list of things that people were before they washed
30:30
Speaker 1: and sanctified. Homosexual is one of them. Here's why we
30:38
Speaker 1: like to ask that question. We like to ask that
30:41
Speaker 1: question because we do not understand the doctrine of justification.
30:51
Speaker 1: A person's a Christian because they've been justified by God.
30:57
Speaker 1: They have been declared righteous by God. Well, yes, but
31:02
Speaker 1: what if they sin? Newsflash. Who told you you don't? Amen. Yeah,
31:11
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean. Yeah, I know what
31:12
Speaker 1: you mean. You mean the sins that you happen to
31:16
Speaker 1: not commit. You ever notice that? People don't ask that question.
31:20
Speaker 1: You know, can a person be a Christian if they dot, dot,
31:23
Speaker 1: dot like I do? No, it's always about stuff that
31:27
Speaker 1: those people do. I've heard about a person who did so-and-so.
31:31
Speaker 1: Can that person be a Listen, if you could think
31:35
Speaker 1: what you thought on yesterday, say what you said on yesterday,
31:39
Speaker 1: do what you did on yesterday, and still have hope
31:41
Speaker 1: of heaven, of course a person can do whatever that
31:44
Speaker 1: is out there and still be a Christian. You're a
31:48
Speaker 1: rank sinner from the word go. You're justified not because
31:54
Speaker 1: of your own internal or inherent righteousness, but because of
31:59
Speaker 1: the righteousness that is imputed to you. And it's Christ's righteousness,
32:04
Speaker 1: not your own. It is an alien righteousness. It is
32:08
Speaker 1: an alien righteousness. Okay? Understand this doctrine of justification. That's
32:14
Speaker 1: how we're saved. That's how we're saved. Through justification. By
32:20
Speaker 1: faith alone. Only by faith. Not faith and, not faith plus,
32:28
Speaker 1: but by faith alone. That's all. That's all. Well, yeah, well,
32:34
Speaker 1: what about, what about, what about, what about, what about,
32:36
Speaker 1: you know, all these things and you go, can we
32:38
Speaker 1: just live any way we want to? I didn't say that.
32:41
Speaker 1: But that's the doctrine of sanctification, which is evidence of justification,
32:49
Speaker 1: not a means of justification. Let me say that again.
32:53
Speaker 1: Sanctification is evidence of justification. It is not a means
32:58
Speaker 1: of justification. Well, what's the difference? The difference is if
33:02
Speaker 1: I believe sanctification is a means of justification, then I
33:05
Speaker 1: answer the question, are you a Christian like this? Yes,
33:08
Speaker 1: I'm a Christian because I don't whatever. I remember sitting
33:15
Speaker 1: in a service once and listening to a testimony. This
33:19
Speaker 1: man was standing up, and he was giving his testimony
33:21
Speaker 1: and going on and on. I was relatively new to
33:25
Speaker 1: the ministry, and I was uncomfortable, but I'm like, okay,
33:28
Speaker 1: it's testimony. But I really couldn't put into words why
33:30
Speaker 1: I was uncomfortable. I was sitting with a man who
33:33
Speaker 1: was kind of a mentor to me at the time,
33:35
Speaker 1: and this guy's standing up there, and among the things
33:37
Speaker 1: that he talked about was how God had delivered him
33:40
Speaker 1: from alcoholism, how he fell on his knees, prayed to
33:44
Speaker 1: receive Christ, asked Jesus into his heart, and from that
33:47
Speaker 1: moment to this, He's never had a taste for alcohol again.
33:50
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting there and I'm kind of going, wow,
33:54
Speaker 1: that's pretty interesting. Doesn't happen like that for most people.
33:59
Speaker 1: Although he kind of presents it as though it's supposed to.
34:03
Speaker 1: Most people, if you struggle with alcoholism, you come to
34:06
Speaker 1: faith in Christ, you probably still struggle with alcoholism. A
34:12
Speaker 1: little less as you grow in grace. That's this process
34:15
Speaker 1: called sanctification, okay? But I didn't know, I'm sitting here,
34:18
Speaker 1: maybe I'm just being judgmental or whatever. This older sage
34:22
Speaker 1: minister kind of leaned down and he said to me, interesting,
34:27
Speaker 1: isn't it? Makes you wonder, did God deliver him from
34:32
Speaker 1: alcoholism or did the devil just trick him into trading
34:35
Speaker 1: pride for alcoholism? I don't drink anymore, but I'm so
34:46
Speaker 1: proud I stink to high heaven. But I don't drink anymore.
34:52
Speaker 1: Don't even have a taste for it. Good for you.
34:55
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of people out there. They
35:02
Speaker 1: think they're saved because of what they don't do anymore
35:05
Speaker 1: or because of what they do. I have my quiet
35:08
Speaker 1: time regularly. Good for you. I do this, I do that,
35:14
Speaker 1: I do the other regularly. Good for you. But when
35:18
Speaker 1: you stand before God, if you stand before him with
35:22
Speaker 1: quiet time and witnessing and not drinking and so on
35:26
Speaker 1: and so forth, what you will hear very clearly will be,
35:29
Speaker 1: depart from me, I never knew you, you worker of iniquity.
35:33
Speaker 1: Let me say something to you. There are people who,
35:40
Speaker 1: who outwardly do a whole lot better than you do,
35:43
Speaker 1: who are going to go to hell when they die.
35:45
Speaker 1: And there are people who outwardly do a whole lot
35:48
Speaker 1: worse than you do, who are going to go to heaven.
35:55
Speaker 1: Sanctification is a process. It is evidence of our justification.
36:00
Speaker 1: It is not means of our justification. We must understand that.
36:06
Speaker 1: We have to understand that. We have to grasp that.
36:11
Speaker 1: Listen to this. This is from the Belgic Confession, and
36:14
Speaker 1: they put this so well. We believe that true faith
36:17
Speaker 1: being wrought in man by the hearing of the word
36:20
Speaker 1: of God and the operation of the Holy Ghost doth
36:23
Speaker 1: regenerate and make him a new man, causing him to
36:26
Speaker 1: live a new life and freeing him from the bondage
36:29
Speaker 1: of sin. Therefore, it is so far from being true
36:33
Speaker 1: that this justifying faith makes men remiss in a pious
36:37
Speaker 1: and holy life. That's so far from true. If you're
36:40
Speaker 1: truly justified, you're going to be sanctified. Sanctification follows justification
36:46
Speaker 1: as inexorably as growth follows birth. Kid's born, kid's going
36:52
Speaker 1: to grow. It's going to happen. May not get as
36:54
Speaker 1: big as everybody else, kid's going to grow. It's going
36:59
Speaker 1: to happen. It's going to happen. So to answer the question, well,
37:04
Speaker 1: does that mean we can just live any way we
37:05
Speaker 1: want to live? No, you don't understand justification. Nothing could
37:09
Speaker 1: be further from the truth. If we are truly justified,
37:12
Speaker 1: that's the only way we have access to a holy
37:15
Speaker 1: and righteous life. Sanctification grows out of justification. It's the
37:25
Speaker 1: fruit of justification. Think about justification being the seed that's
37:29
Speaker 1: planted and sanctification growing out of it. It's going to happen.
37:36
Speaker 1: Listen to this. That on the contrary, without it, that
37:40
Speaker 1: is without true justification and true sanctification, without it, they
37:44
Speaker 1: would never do anything out of love to God, but
37:48
Speaker 1: only out of self-love and fear of damnation. Let me
37:53
Speaker 1: say this. Here's what the Belgian Confession just said. Without
37:57
Speaker 1: true justification and true biblical sanctification, the only things we
38:03
Speaker 1: will ever do We will do either out of pride
38:07
Speaker 1: or fear. If you don't understand justification, you will go
38:14
Speaker 1: through the Sermon on the Mount finding things for yourself
38:17
Speaker 1: to do out of pride and fear. That's all you got.
38:23
Speaker 1: Without justification and sanctification, that's all you got. All you've
38:27
Speaker 1: got is pride and fear. Fear. I do this, this, this, this,
38:31
Speaker 1: and this so that I can say this is what
38:33
Speaker 1: I do. I don't do this, this, this, so that
38:36
Speaker 1: I can say it's not what I do. That's pride.
38:40
Speaker 1: It's rank pride. Or it's fear. I'm scared of not
38:47
Speaker 1: going to heaven when I die. So I work really
38:50
Speaker 1: hard to find the things that I'm supposed to do
38:53
Speaker 1: so that I don't get to heaven. And God says, yeah,
38:54
Speaker 1: you missed one. That's a complete lack of understanding of
39:00
Speaker 1: the doctrine of justification. That's a complete lack of understanding
39:04
Speaker 1: of the doctrine of sanctification. By grace are you saved,
39:12
Speaker 1: through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a
39:15
Speaker 1: gift of God, lest anyone should boast. There's pride. Pride's gone.
39:20
Speaker 1: Boasting's gone. It's absolutely gone. I want you to see
39:28
Speaker 1: something here. Look with me in the book of Romans.
39:30
Speaker 1: Romans chapter 3. This is an extensive passage, but we
39:33
Speaker 1: have to get this if we're going to understand Christian
39:36
Speaker 1: ethics and the Sermon on the Mount. We have to.
39:39
Speaker 1: We've been through this before, and we'll probably be through
39:41
Speaker 1: this again and again. No probably. We will be through
39:46
Speaker 1: this again and again and again and again. Because we
39:51
Speaker 1: are hardwired for works righteousness, okay? We're hardwired for legalism.
39:57
Speaker 1: Every last one of us, we're hardwired for it. We're
40:01
Speaker 1: hardwired for going to the scriptures and doing one of
40:03
Speaker 1: two things, either in pride, finding the stuff that we
40:06
Speaker 1: do and saying, yes, you see, I'm a Christian because
40:09
Speaker 1: I do, or finding things that we don't and out
40:12
Speaker 1: of fear, promising that we will. That's why most services
40:17
Speaker 1: in most churches, you know, what do we do? What
40:20
Speaker 1: do we do at the end of it? You know,
40:22
Speaker 1: give people a chance to come up and run and cry.
40:24
Speaker 1: You know, I feel guilty. I want to rededicate my life.
40:34
Speaker 1: That crawls all over me. Makes me want to spit
40:38
Speaker 1: every time I hear that. Rededicate my life. Can I
40:42
Speaker 1: tell you how doctrinally corrupt that is? Number one, the
40:47
Speaker 1: act of going up and rededicating my life First of all,
40:55
Speaker 1: that's not what we're called to do. We're called to
40:58
Speaker 1: repentance and faith, not rededication. Secondly, the act of rededicating
41:03
Speaker 1: my life means that what I did at first was
41:07
Speaker 1: not repent and place my faith in Jesus Christ as
41:10
Speaker 1: the only ground for my salvation, but I dedicated myself
41:13
Speaker 1: to trying as hard as I could to live like
41:15
Speaker 1: he wanted me to live. That's not true justification. So
41:19
Speaker 1: using the term rededication actually undermines the very doctrine of
41:23
Speaker 1: justification itself. It's corrupt. It's corrupt. You don't go to
41:31
Speaker 1: heaven because you dedicated your life to Christ. You go
41:35
Speaker 1: to heaven because you were justified by the finished work
41:38
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ and his finished work alone. Alone. Here's
41:45
Speaker 1: the other problem with the whole concept of rededication. I
41:48
Speaker 1: tried really hard and I failed, so now I'm saying
41:52
Speaker 1: this time I'm going to try harder. That's not gospel living, people.
42:02
Speaker 1: And I said to myself first, That's not the gospel.
42:08
Speaker 1: It's just not. The gospel is about the finished work
42:12
Speaker 1: of Christ. So as we go through the Sermon on
42:15
Speaker 1: the Mount, this is not about heaping guilt on Christians
42:18
Speaker 1: for not having done enough. It's not it. We do that,
42:24
Speaker 1: we completely miss the doctrine of justification altogether. And what
42:28
Speaker 1: we do, we will do either out of pride or
42:31
Speaker 1: out of fear. One of those two things. That's all
42:38
Speaker 1: we got. So listen to this. Romans chapter 3. Let's
42:40
Speaker 1: begin in verse 9. Here's the other thing. When we're
42:45
Speaker 1: preaching the law, and we should preach the law. The
42:47
Speaker 1: law and the gospel, we have to. But what's the
42:49
Speaker 1: purpose of the law? Paul tells us in the Galatians
42:51
Speaker 1: that the law has two purposes. Number one, the law
42:54
Speaker 1: is a mirror. The law is a mirror. We look
42:57
Speaker 1: into the mirror and we see ourselves for who we are.
43:00
Speaker 1: We look at the law of God and we say, oh,
43:02
Speaker 1: woe is me. I am undone. Or I'm a man
43:05
Speaker 1: of unclean lips and I live among a people of
43:06
Speaker 1: unclean lips. And God comes back and says, I'm glad
43:09
Speaker 1: you see your lips. I wish you could see the
43:11
Speaker 1: rest of you. Okay? We're ruined from the word go.
43:17
Speaker 1: That's what the law does. That's what the law does.
43:19
Speaker 1: And the other thing, Galatians says, the law is a
43:24
Speaker 1: tutor to lead us to Christ. So it shows us
43:29
Speaker 1: that we're ruined and undone, and secondly, it leads us
43:31
Speaker 1: to Christ. Here's the problem if all we preach is
43:35
Speaker 1: the law and not the gospel. If all we preach
43:37
Speaker 1: is the law, you don't do this. You must do this.
43:44
Speaker 1: Then what I've done is I've hardened a sinner, and
43:48
Speaker 1: I've made them more reliant on themselves than they were before.
43:52
Speaker 1: I've said, here's the law, see how bad you are?
43:56
Speaker 1: You need to go back to the drawing board and
43:58
Speaker 1: you need to try harder. No, it must always be
44:01
Speaker 1: law and gospel. Here's the law, see how ruined you are?
44:06
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, I know your first tendency
44:08
Speaker 1: is to say, I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna
44:11
Speaker 1: do that. But before you do, let me remind you,
44:14
Speaker 1: you can't, you never will, you never, ever, ever will.
44:18
Speaker 1: But the good news is, that's why Christ came to die, law.
44:26
Speaker 1: So the sinner comes to the end of himself, not
44:29
Speaker 1: to try harder and rededicate, but the sinner comes to
44:32
Speaker 1: the end of himself and can finally see Christ. God
44:39
Speaker 1: forbid that we should preach through the Sermon on the
44:41
Speaker 1: Mount and ever just give law and not gospel. And
44:45
Speaker 1: I say that for myself and all the other preachers
44:47
Speaker 1: who are going to be joining me in preaching through this.
44:52
Speaker 1: It's not just law. It's law and gospel. The law
44:55
Speaker 1: is a mirror and the law is a tutor. The
44:58
Speaker 1: law allows us to see that we're ruined and the
45:01
Speaker 1: law drives us to faith in Christ. And if we
45:06
Speaker 1: don't preach both, we're merely hardening people in their sin,
45:11
Speaker 1: condemning people in their sin. We're just telling them to
45:14
Speaker 1: run faster and faster on the hamster wheel that goes
45:17
Speaker 1: absolutely nowhere. It goes nowhere. Romans chapter 3 beginning verse 9.
45:24
Speaker 1: Listen to this and think how foolish it is to
45:27
Speaker 1: tell unbelievers to keep the law. What then? Are the
45:32
Speaker 1: Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we
45:36
Speaker 1: have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are
45:39
Speaker 1: under sin as it is written. No one is righteous. No,
45:42
Speaker 1: not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.
45:47
Speaker 1: So no, we will not be starting a seeker service here.
45:50
Speaker 1: No one seeks for God. The only seeker in the
45:53
Speaker 1: Bible is God. We see that in John chapter four.
45:55
Speaker 1: He seeks worshipers who will worship him in spirit and truth.
45:58
Speaker 1: So I guess I just lied because we do have
46:00
Speaker 1: a seeker service because it's a God-centered service and he's
46:03
Speaker 1: the only seeker in the Bible. All have turned aside.
46:08
Speaker 1: Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not
46:11
Speaker 1: even one. Think about that for a moment. No one
46:15
Speaker 1: does good, not even one. Now here's the response that
46:19
Speaker 1: often comes from people. Now wait a minute. There are
46:21
Speaker 1: lost people out there who do good things. I broke
46:25
Speaker 1: down one day and a lost person stopped and they
46:27
Speaker 1: helped me change my tire. How can we say no
46:30
Speaker 1: one does good? Just hold on. I'll explain that to
46:33
Speaker 1: you in a minute. Their throat is an open grave.
46:37
Speaker 1: They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps
46:40
Speaker 1: is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses
46:44
Speaker 1: and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and
46:46
Speaker 1: their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of
46:48
Speaker 1: peace they have not known. There is no fear of
46:51
Speaker 1: God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the
46:54
Speaker 1: law says, it speaks to those who are under the law,
46:56
Speaker 1: so that every mouth may be stopped. and the whole
46:59
Speaker 1: world may be held accountable to God. For by works
47:01
Speaker 1: of the law, no human being will be justified in
47:05
Speaker 1: his sight. By works of the law, no human being
47:09
Speaker 1: will be justified in his sight. None, none, none, none,
47:14
Speaker 1: not one will be justified in the sight of God
47:16
Speaker 1: because of works of the law. Since through the law
47:21
Speaker 1: comes the knowledge of sin. There's the mirror. The law
47:27
Speaker 1: lets you know you're a sinner. The law awakens that
47:31
Speaker 1: sin in you. Don't believe me? A couple of tests.
47:37
Speaker 1: We're all walking together, strolling through a park. It's a beautiful,
47:42
Speaker 1: lovely spring day. And as we're walking together through the park,
47:46
Speaker 1: we see bench after bench after bench in the park.
47:50
Speaker 1: We never once have an inclination to touch the bench
47:53
Speaker 1: until we see one that says, wet paint. Do not touch.
48:08
Speaker 1: What's that? The law awakens sin in you. You didn't
48:13
Speaker 1: even think about it until you found out it was unlawful.
48:16
Speaker 1: You didn't even think about it. As soon as you
48:25
Speaker 1: found out it was unlawful, You just wanted to do it.
48:35
Speaker 1: Why is it that when we're traveling down the highway, okay,
48:39
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden the speed limit says 65
48:41
Speaker 1: and I'm going 70, 71, and I'm fine, I feel comfortable. 70, 71,
48:49
Speaker 1: I feel good, I'm going fast enough. However, the speed
48:57
Speaker 1: limit now goes up to 70. Now at 65, I
49:01
Speaker 1: was going 70 and I never thought about speeding up.
49:03
Speaker 1: I felt comfortable. Now the speed limit is 70. What
49:06
Speaker 1: do I have to do? I got to crank it
49:08
Speaker 1: up to 75. I thought 70 was enough. 70 was
49:14
Speaker 1: enough until they told me I could go 70. Again,
49:18
Speaker 1: if you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch, okay?
49:21
Speaker 1: Anybody feel like crawling under something right now? You're a lawbreaker.
49:27
Speaker 1: Just embrace it. It's who you are. But now, verse 21,
49:36
Speaker 1: the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.
49:41
Speaker 1: apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets
49:50
Speaker 1: bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith
49:53
Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ, for all who believe, for there is
49:57
Speaker 1: no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of
49:59
Speaker 1: the glory of God, all are justified by his grace
50:02
Speaker 1: as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
50:05
Speaker 1: whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood
50:07
Speaker 1: to receive by faith, That was to show God's righteousness
50:13
Speaker 1: because in his divine forbearance, he passed over former sins.
50:17
Speaker 1: It was to show his righteousness at the present time
50:21
Speaker 1: so that he might be just and the justifier of
50:23
Speaker 1: the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. Then what
50:25
Speaker 1: becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind
50:30
Speaker 1: of law? By the law of works? Nope. But by
50:34
Speaker 1: the law of faith. For we hold that one is
50:38
Speaker 1: justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or
50:42
Speaker 1: is God the God of Jews only? Is he not
50:46
Speaker 1: the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since
50:49
Speaker 1: God is one. Who will justify the circumcised by faith
50:52
Speaker 1: and the uncircumcised through faith? Do we then overthrow the
50:55
Speaker 1: law by this faith? There's the question everybody wants to ask.
51:00
Speaker 1: When you preach the doctrine of justification, By faith alone, immediately, immediately, immediately,
51:05
Speaker 1: people want to start saying, wait a minute, are you
51:06
Speaker 1: saying that we can just do anything? Nobody ever said that.
51:12
Speaker 1: But that's the immediate question. Why? Because we are hardwired
51:15
Speaker 1: for works righteousness. That's why. We have to ask that question.
51:21
Speaker 1: Because the old man in us wants credit. And the
51:25
Speaker 1: biblical doctrine of justification slaps him in the face and says,
51:29
Speaker 1: you get no credit. And we come back and we say, well,
51:34
Speaker 1: I got to find a way around that. How about
51:36
Speaker 1: I ask an absolutely absurd question like, well, what if
51:40
Speaker 1: I just go on a killing rampage? Are you saying
51:42
Speaker 1: that I could still? That's the old man saying, I
51:45
Speaker 1: refuse to give up my credit. You got to give
51:49
Speaker 1: it to me. I got to have it. Give me
51:52
Speaker 1: my credit. I must have something wherein to boast. I
51:56
Speaker 1: have to. I work too hard to become a law
52:00
Speaker 1: keeper for you to not give me credit for it.
52:05
Speaker 1: It's the old man. By no means, on the contrary,
52:13
Speaker 1: we uphold the law. Let me say something to you.
52:18
Speaker 1: You cannot do anything good until you've been justified. Let
52:30
Speaker 1: me say that again. You cannot do anything good until
52:35
Speaker 1: you've been justified. Let's read these first few verses in
52:39
Speaker 1: chapter one. Again, I'll explain that in a minute. What
52:42
Speaker 1: then shall we say? Chapter four, rather. Was gained by Abraham,
52:46
Speaker 1: our forefather, according to the flesh. For if Abraham was
52:49
Speaker 1: justified by works, he has something to boast about, but
52:52
Speaker 1: not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham
52:55
Speaker 1: believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now,
52:58
Speaker 1: to the one who works... His wages are not counted
53:01
Speaker 1: as a gift, but as his due. And to the
53:05
Speaker 1: one who does not work, but believes in him who
53:07
Speaker 1: justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just
53:11
Speaker 1: as David also speaks of the blessing of the one
53:15
Speaker 1: whom God counts righteous apart from works. Verse 7, blessed
53:19
Speaker 1: are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins
53:23
Speaker 1: are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord
53:26
Speaker 1: will not count his sins. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
53:35
Speaker 1: So what about this Christian ethics stuff? Glad you asked.
53:41
Speaker 1: Back here in the Sermon on the Mount, I want
53:43
Speaker 1: us to get this. And again, we must understand justification.
53:48
Speaker 1: We must understand sanctification. If we don't, we will never
53:51
Speaker 1: grasp Christian ethics. Okay? We won't. We're talking about what
53:58
Speaker 1: makes something just. What makes an action just? Three things.
54:06
Speaker 1: First of all, let me explain this. I'll explain that later.
54:11
Speaker 1: Let me give you three things. Number one, it has
54:13
Speaker 1: to be a right action. It has to be a
54:16
Speaker 1: right action. And by right action, I mean it has
54:19
Speaker 1: to be an action that is right as defined by God.
54:24
Speaker 1: It has to be a right action, okay? If God
54:29
Speaker 1: defines it as wrong, it can never be right. So
54:32
Speaker 1: it has to be a right action. Secondly, it has
54:36
Speaker 1: to be done for a right motive. It has to
54:40
Speaker 1: be done for a right motive. And thirdly, it has
54:47
Speaker 1: to be done for the right goal, for the right goal.
54:54
Speaker 1: In order for an action to be ethical from the
54:56
Speaker 1: standpoint of Christian ethics, You have to have right action,
55:00
Speaker 1: right motive, and right goal. An unbeliever will never have
55:04
Speaker 1: the right motive and will never have the right goal. Therefore,
55:08
Speaker 1: he will never perform an ethical action from a biblical perspective.
55:14
Speaker 1: That's why Paul can say there's no one who does good.
55:20
Speaker 1: Let me paint this picture for you. There's a war
55:23
Speaker 1: going on, and here's the war, and there's a unit.
55:26
Speaker 1: And this unit, in the midst of this war, is
55:31
Speaker 1: fighting a battle. And as this unit is fighting a battle,
55:34
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, a grenade comes. And there is
55:41
Speaker 1: one in the unit who throws his body over the grenade. Now,
55:46
Speaker 1: for the most part, we'd look at that, and we
55:48
Speaker 1: would say, that was an ethical action What if he
55:55
Speaker 1: threw his body on the grenade because he wanted a
55:57
Speaker 1: purple heart? He wanted glory for himself. Now his motives
56:05
Speaker 1: and his goal were completely sinful, therefore his action was unethical.
56:09
Speaker 1: What if he's just sick of fighting and he wants
56:12
Speaker 1: to die? And this is a quick way to do it.
56:16
Speaker 1: Now his motives and his goals were sinful and unethical,
56:21
Speaker 1: therefore his action can never be deemed ethical. You see
56:25
Speaker 1: what I'm saying? We must have right action and right
56:29
Speaker 1: motive and right goal in order for an act to
56:34
Speaker 1: be ethical. So as we go through the Sermon on
56:40
Speaker 1: the Mount, here's the picture that Jesus is painting. Jesus
56:44
Speaker 1: is saying basically in the Sermon on the Mount time
56:46
Speaker 1: and time again, you know what you guys have heard
56:50
Speaker 1: that all you had to do was this action? But
56:53
Speaker 1: I've come to tell you that you do those actions
56:56
Speaker 1: and your goals and your motives are completely off base. Therefore,
57:03
Speaker 1: it's still not ethical and it's still not pleasing to God.
57:06
Speaker 1: The Sermon on the Mount is about this. Only through
57:22
Speaker 1: the justified and sanctified life can we ever do anything
57:28
Speaker 1: that is ethical. That's the simple message in the Sermon
57:32
Speaker 1: on the Mount. Only through a justified and sanctified life
57:37
Speaker 1: can we ever do anything that is ethical. Let's look
57:44
Speaker 1: at a couple of these. We understand this idea of
57:46
Speaker 1: right actions. It has to be doing what God said.
57:48
Speaker 1: Let's look at right motives. Right motives. Romans chapter two,
57:52
Speaker 1: verses six through nine. He will render to each one
57:55
Speaker 1: according to his works. To those who by patience and
57:58
Speaker 1: well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will
58:01
Speaker 1: give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and
58:06
Speaker 1: do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, they will
58:10
Speaker 1: be wrath and fury. In other words, if you're self-seeking,
58:14
Speaker 1: two people do the same thing, but one of them
58:16
Speaker 1: is self-seeking. Gotta have right action. Right motive, right goal.
58:23
Speaker 1: Look at Romans 14, 23. But whoever has doubts is
58:28
Speaker 1: condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith.
58:32
Speaker 1: For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. If
58:36
Speaker 1: you needed any more evidence that an unbeliever cannot perform
58:40
Speaker 1: ethical actions, there it is right there. Whatever is not
58:43
Speaker 1: from faith is sin. Can an unbeliever who has not
58:47
Speaker 1: placed faith in Jesus Christ ever do anything from faith? No.
58:51
Speaker 1: So whatever he does is sin. Because he's not doing
58:55
Speaker 1: it from the proper biblical motive of faith. Okay? Which, again,
59:00
Speaker 1: is why Paul can say, no one does good. From
59:05
Speaker 1: our earthly human perspective, we see things all the time
59:08
Speaker 1: that are good. Again, that's commonplace. grace, folks. Total depravity,
59:13
Speaker 1: radical depravity doesn't mean that man is as bad as
59:16
Speaker 1: he can be, and we can praise God for that,
59:19
Speaker 1: all right? That's the grace of God, but that does
59:23
Speaker 1: not make his actions ethical. There are a lot of
59:26
Speaker 1: motivations for it, but it's not faith. Philippians chapter two,
59:30
Speaker 1: verse three and four. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit,
59:33
Speaker 1: but in humility, count others more significant than yourself. Let
59:37
Speaker 1: each of you look not only to his own interest,
59:39
Speaker 1: but also to the interest of others. If I'm doing
59:43
Speaker 1: it for self-interest and not for the interest of others,
59:46
Speaker 1: it's unethical. Look at another motive. Look at Ephesians 5
59:53
Speaker 1: and 21. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
1:00:02
Speaker 1: Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Is
1:00:06
Speaker 1: a wife who submits to her husband because she's awed
1:00:10
Speaker 1: by her husband committing an ethical act when she submits
1:00:13
Speaker 1: to her husband? No. She's supposed to submit out of
1:00:16
Speaker 1: reverence for Christ. Her motives are impure if they are
1:00:19
Speaker 1: anything other than reverence for Christ. Is a woman who's
1:00:22
Speaker 1: submitting to her husband just so she can manipulate him
1:00:25
Speaker 1: and get something from him performing an ethical action? Is
1:00:29
Speaker 1: she being obedient? No. Submit yourself to one another out
1:00:32
Speaker 1: of reverence for Christ. Is a child who submits to
1:00:36
Speaker 1: their parents. for something other than reverence for Christ, committing
1:00:42
Speaker 1: an ethical act from a biblical perspective. No, it must
1:00:46
Speaker 1: be out of reverence for Christ. By the way, all
1:00:48
Speaker 1: of this stuff that we're learning on the Sermon on
1:00:50
Speaker 1: the Mount has huge implications for the way that we
1:00:52
Speaker 1: teach our children. Because for most of us, we're just
1:00:55
Speaker 1: teaching our children to be self-righteous law keepers who believe
1:01:00
Speaker 1: in works righteousness. Do it because it looks good. Do
1:01:07
Speaker 1: it because it'll embarrass me if you don't do it.
1:01:15
Speaker 1: We're building self-righteous law keepers and teaching them to rely
1:01:22
Speaker 1: on works righteousness as opposed to the finished work of
1:01:26
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Not only write motives but write goals. Listen
1:01:35
Speaker 1: to some of these goals. So whether you eat or
1:01:38
Speaker 1: drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory
1:01:41
Speaker 1: of God. Amen. That's a right goal. The glory of God.
1:01:48
Speaker 1: Why'd you do that? That God might be glorified. That's why, okay?
1:01:53
Speaker 1: That's why. Then it was an ethical action. I gave
1:01:56
Speaker 1: money to the poor and then I told everybody that
1:02:00
Speaker 1: I did it. What was your goal? To bring glory
1:02:05
Speaker 1: to myself Because I gave to the poor. Jesus says,
1:02:09
Speaker 1: then you got your reward. Nothing waiting for you in heaven.
1:02:13
Speaker 1: You got exactly what you were after. People patting you
1:02:16
Speaker 1: on the back. He talks about this in the Sermon
1:02:18
Speaker 1: on the Mount. When you fast, put lotion on your face.
1:02:25
Speaker 1: Don't be all, you know, magnet and everything. People look
1:02:28
Speaker 1: at you, what's going on? I'm fasting. I'm fasting. Colossians 3.17,
1:02:39
Speaker 1: and whatever you do in word or do, do everything
1:02:41
Speaker 1: in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
1:02:43
Speaker 1: God the Father through him. Colossians 3.23, whatever you do,
1:02:49
Speaker 1: work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.
1:02:53
Speaker 1: It's the right goal. 1 Peter 4, 10 through 11,
1:02:59
Speaker 1: as each has received a gift, use it to serve
1:03:01
Speaker 1: one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Listen
1:03:06
Speaker 1: to that. There's a couple of goals. Number one, I
1:03:08
Speaker 1: want to be a good steward of the grace of
1:03:11
Speaker 1: God in my life. And number two, I want to
1:03:12
Speaker 1: serve my brothers. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles
1:03:16
Speaker 1: of God. Whoever serves as one who serves by the
1:03:19
Speaker 1: strength that God supplies. In order that in everything God
1:03:23
Speaker 1: may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory
1:03:27
Speaker 1: and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Those are right goals. Okay?
1:03:35
Speaker 1: Right action. Right motive. Right action. Right goal. Folks, the
1:03:43
Speaker 1: Sermon on the Mount is not a list of things
1:03:47
Speaker 1: for us to work hard to do. The Sermon on
1:03:52
Speaker 1: the Mount is a mirror that reflects to us one
1:03:57
Speaker 1: of two things. For those of us outside of Christ,
1:04:00
Speaker 1: it reflects to us that we are ranked sinners in
1:04:04
Speaker 1: need of a Savior and that Even our righteousness is
1:04:08
Speaker 1: but filthy rags in the sight of God. Yes, but
1:04:13
Speaker 1: I did ABC and XYZ. Don't care. Didn't have the
1:04:18
Speaker 1: right motive. Didn't have the right goal. It was sin.
1:04:24
Speaker 1: It was either pride or fear. So the Sermon on
1:04:33
Speaker 1: the Mount is going to expose that in all of us.
1:04:35
Speaker 1: And the other thing is the Sermon on the Mount
1:04:37
Speaker 1: is going to show us how desperately we all need Christ. Now,
1:04:42
Speaker 1: let me say a word about these two principles, and
1:04:45
Speaker 1: then we'll look at an overview of what we're going
1:04:46
Speaker 1: to study. There is a difference between indicatives and imperatives.
1:04:55
Speaker 1: Indicatives and imperatives. I know it sounds like we're in
1:04:58
Speaker 1: English class, but this is very important, folks. Indicatives and imperatives,
1:05:05
Speaker 1: all right? Well, what's an indicative? An indicative is this
1:05:11
Speaker 1: is a chair. That's an indicative. I just told you
1:05:14
Speaker 1: what that was. I indicated what it was. What's an imperative?
1:05:18
Speaker 1: Sit in this chair. I just told you what to do.
1:05:22
Speaker 1: There's an indicative and an imperative. I want you to
1:05:25
Speaker 1: notice something. In the New Testament, whenever you find imperatives,
1:05:31
Speaker 1: you find indicatives. In other words, Peter says, you are
1:05:40
Speaker 1: a holy nation. You are a royal priesthood. That is
1:05:43
Speaker 1: an indicative. That's who you are. Then he says, be
1:05:48
Speaker 1: holy as I am holy. That is an imperative. But
1:05:52
Speaker 1: the two of them come together. Can you be holy
1:05:54
Speaker 1: in and of yourself? No, you can't. You can only
1:05:57
Speaker 1: do it because of the indicative. It's because of who
1:05:59
Speaker 1: you are in Christ that you are able to To
1:06:02
Speaker 1: do this. Remember, it's God who works in us both
1:06:05
Speaker 1: to will and to do his good pleasure. We have
1:06:08
Speaker 1: indicatives and imperatives. Now I want you to look at something.
1:06:11
Speaker 1: Look at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
1:06:14
Speaker 1: At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, we
1:06:16
Speaker 1: have there in verse 2, the Beatitudes. Blessed are those who.
1:06:27
Speaker 1: Blessed are those who. Blessed are those who. Blessed are
1:06:33
Speaker 1: those who... Are the Beatitudes indicatives or imperatives? They're indicatives,
1:06:41
Speaker 1: but we usually preach them like imperatives. Jesus says, blessed
1:06:48
Speaker 1: are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And
1:06:51
Speaker 1: we come back and say, we've got to be like
1:06:53
Speaker 1: the people who... It's an indicative. It's not an imperative.
1:06:59
Speaker 1: He's painting a picture... of who Christians are, okay? So
1:07:06
Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount starts off with indicatives, not
1:07:09
Speaker 1: with imperatives. Then, look with me, after he finishes the
1:07:15
Speaker 1: indicatives in the Beatitudes, look at what he does beginning
1:07:18
Speaker 1: at verse 13. More indicatives. You are the salt of
1:07:23
Speaker 1: the earth. Verse 14, you are the light of the world.
1:07:29
Speaker 1: Is he telling us something to do there? No, he's
1:07:32
Speaker 1: telling us who we are there, okay? And it's only
1:07:36
Speaker 1: after we have those indicatives that we come down and
1:07:41
Speaker 1: he teaches us about the law and we begin to
1:07:45
Speaker 1: see some imperatives. You're not thinking I've come to abolish
1:07:50
Speaker 1: the law. I haven't come to abolish it. I've come
1:07:53
Speaker 1: to fulfill it, which is very interesting. Jesus says, I
1:07:56
Speaker 1: haven't come to abolish the law. I've come to fulfill it.
1:07:58
Speaker 1: And we take that to mean I got stuff for
1:08:01
Speaker 1: you to do. huh? Jesus says, I've come to fulfill
1:08:07
Speaker 1: the law. We say, yeah, Jesus, come on, let's go
1:08:09
Speaker 1: fulfill the law. No, no, no, no, no. I've come
1:08:12
Speaker 1: to fulfill the law. I know, Jesus, come on, let's
1:08:14
Speaker 1: go fulfill the law. Okay, wait a minute. Remember when
1:08:19
Speaker 1: I said you can't fulfill the law? Yeah, Jesus, but
1:08:22
Speaker 1: come on. My old man needs something to boast about.
1:08:26
Speaker 1: You see how ridiculous that is? Then he comes and
1:08:32
Speaker 1: he shows us a picture of the law. You've heard
1:08:36
Speaker 1: it said, but I say unto you, what's he doing there?
1:08:40
Speaker 1: Is Jesus trying to make us feel guilty if we've
1:08:42
Speaker 1: ever said something bad to our brother? Is Jesus trying
1:08:47
Speaker 1: to say, you know, that you need to be very
1:08:49
Speaker 1: careful and not say you fool to your brother because
1:08:52
Speaker 1: if you say you fool to your brother, then all
1:08:54
Speaker 1: of a sudden you've committed a sin that is worthy
1:08:56
Speaker 1: of death. And then what do we do? We go
1:08:58
Speaker 1: around saying, well, wait a minute. can a person who
1:09:01
Speaker 1: does that go to heaven that's right back where we
1:09:05
Speaker 1: started people that's not what Jesus is saying just throw
1:09:13
Speaker 1: justification right out the window it's meaningless It means absolutely nothing.
1:09:20
Speaker 1: When you get to the imperatives, Jesus says, do this.
1:09:24
Speaker 1: And our next question is, oh, does that mean that
1:09:26
Speaker 1: if somebody doesn't do that, that they're not a Christian?
1:09:30
Speaker 1: Forget the doctrine of justification. Just throw it out. Trample
1:09:35
Speaker 1: it underfoot. And let's go right back to works righteousness again,
1:09:38
Speaker 1: shall we? Because that's exactly what we just did. Are
1:09:42
Speaker 1: you guys seeing this? Because we all do it. We
1:09:50
Speaker 1: all do it. You don't want to hear stuff from
1:09:54
Speaker 1: when I first started preaching, trust me. And even if
1:09:58
Speaker 1: you do want to, I don't want you to, okay?
1:10:03
Speaker 1: But that's what we do. And so here, after that,
1:10:05
Speaker 1: we have this law outlined. And what Jesus does here,
1:10:08
Speaker 1: beginning in verse 17, verse 17, he makes a statement
1:10:12
Speaker 1: about Christian ethics. I haven't come to abolish the law,
1:10:16
Speaker 1: but to fulfill it. This is not about antinomianism, Jesus says.
1:10:20
Speaker 1: Statement about Christian, antinomianism is lawlessness. There is no law.
1:10:24
Speaker 1: Just do whatever you like. Do whatever feels good. No, no, no, no, no.
1:10:27
Speaker 1: Jesus says, I come to fulfill it. And I'm upping
1:10:30
Speaker 1: the ante on the law. You've heard it said, don't kill.
1:10:33
Speaker 1: I'm saying, don't even hate your brother. That goes beyond
1:10:36
Speaker 1: just the rule that you thought you've kept. And what
1:10:39
Speaker 1: Jesus does in every one of these, with murder, and
1:10:43
Speaker 1: then with adultery, and then with divorce, and then, you know,
1:10:50
Speaker 1: with swearing falsely, you know, the eye for an eye,
1:10:54
Speaker 1: tooth for a tooth, all of these things. With all
1:10:57
Speaker 1: of these things, Jesus ups the ante and he says, basically,
1:11:03
Speaker 1: every one of you is the rich young ruler. And
1:11:07
Speaker 1: every one of you would look at me and say,
1:11:10
Speaker 1: I've kept the Ten Commandments. I haven't killed anybody. And
1:11:14
Speaker 1: Jesus says to every one of us, whether it's murder
1:11:17
Speaker 1: or or adultery or lying, whatever it is, Jesus gives
1:11:22
Speaker 1: us those examples and he looks us square in the
1:11:24
Speaker 1: eye and says, you think you can look at me
1:11:28
Speaker 1: and say you're not guilty of this? That's because you
1:11:31
Speaker 1: don't understand righteousness. You are absolutely guilty of this. You're
1:11:35
Speaker 1: an adulterer because you've looked at a woman lustfully. And
1:11:39
Speaker 1: you're just as guilty as a man who's gone to
1:11:42
Speaker 1: bed with a woman who's not his wife. You're an adulterer.
1:11:45
Speaker 1: In other words, here in this portion of the Sermon
1:11:48
Speaker 1: on the Mount, Jesus is saying, yes, you too need
1:11:51
Speaker 1: a Savior. All you who point fingers at people who
1:12:00
Speaker 1: have had this open, outward, gross sin and stick your
1:12:05
Speaker 1: chest out because you don't. Jesus says in this section, yes,
1:12:10
Speaker 1: you too need a savior. Don't you dare think you're
1:12:14
Speaker 1: any better than those people. Don't you dare think that
1:12:20
Speaker 1: because you haven't pulled out a gun and shot somebody
1:12:23
Speaker 1: dead that you don't need somebody to rescue you and
1:12:26
Speaker 1: save you just like somebody who has. Don't you dare
1:12:29
Speaker 1: think that for a moment. That's what he's doing in
1:12:32
Speaker 1: this section. That's what he's doing in this section. Then
1:12:36
Speaker 1: we get to chapter 6, and in chapter 6, he
1:12:40
Speaker 1: talks about these outward things that we do. He talks
1:12:42
Speaker 1: about giving to the poor and being seen when we
1:12:45
Speaker 1: give to the poor. He talks about fasting and being
1:12:48
Speaker 1: seen when we fast. He talks about praying and being
1:12:51
Speaker 1: seen when we pray. He talks about all of these
1:12:54
Speaker 1: things and basically says, you know what? Keep that to yourself.
1:12:58
Speaker 1: Keep that to yourself. Keep that to yourself. Does Jesus
1:13:03
Speaker 1: say that there's never to be a prayer that's offered
1:13:05
Speaker 1: in public? No, that's not what Jesus is teaching. We
1:13:08
Speaker 1: have examples of such in the New Testament, okay, in
1:13:11
Speaker 1: the New Testament church. In the epistles we have these
1:13:14
Speaker 1: prayers that were read publicly. So that's not what's being
1:13:17
Speaker 1: said here. He's talking about our private prayer life. That's
1:13:22
Speaker 1: what he's referring to. And basically what he's saying is
1:13:25
Speaker 1: if you turn fasting or giving or praying to or
1:13:32
Speaker 1: any of these sort of things into a means by
1:13:36
Speaker 1: which people can see you and give glory to you,
1:13:39
Speaker 1: then you've completely missed the boat. You don't get it.
1:13:47
Speaker 1: You don't get it. After that, he moves into this
1:13:53
Speaker 1: section about us having our treasure in heaven and not
1:13:55
Speaker 1: being anxious for anything. And then we get into chapter seven.
1:14:00
Speaker 1: And in chapter seven, We look at judging and judging rightly.
1:14:05
Speaker 1: Judging a tree by its fruit. Now here's what's interesting.
1:14:10
Speaker 1: If we're not careful, we get to chapter seven and
1:14:12
Speaker 1: this whole thing about judging a tree from its fruit,
1:14:14
Speaker 1: and we think that chapter seven is about you and
1:14:17
Speaker 1: me looking and pointing fingers and things of that nature.
1:14:20
Speaker 1: But if you remember what we've done with the indicatives
1:14:23
Speaker 1: and the imperatives, and you remember what Christian ethics is
1:14:25
Speaker 1: really all about, then basically here's what Jesus says. You
1:14:30
Speaker 1: know what's in a person basically by what comes out
1:14:33
Speaker 1: of the person. The reason that you know you're a
1:14:35
Speaker 1: justified person is because of the sanctification that the Spirit
1:14:38
Speaker 1: works in you. Not because of your outward efforts. That's
1:14:45
Speaker 1: why in verse 23, many will say to me, Lord, Lord,
1:14:47
Speaker 1: do we not prophesy on your name, and in your
1:14:49
Speaker 1: name perform many miracles and cast out demons? And I'll say,
1:14:51
Speaker 1: depart from me, I never knew you, you worker of iniquity.
1:14:53
Speaker 1: But wait a minute, I did the right stuff. No,
1:14:58
Speaker 1: you didn't. Right action, right motive, right goal. It's not there.
1:15:07
Speaker 1: It's not there. Now, here's what's interesting, and we'll see
1:15:10
Speaker 1: this when we get to chapter 7. But we think,
1:15:13
Speaker 1: you know, you'll know a tree by its fruit. According
1:15:17
Speaker 1: to verse 23, those are individuals who from an outward
1:15:19
Speaker 1: perspective were bearing fruit that looked pretty good. But that's
1:15:25
Speaker 1: just to us. The ultimate fruit only Jesus can judge.
1:15:35
Speaker 1: We don't know. We don't know. Does that mean we
1:15:39
Speaker 1: don't make judgments? Absolutely not. We're taught how to make
1:15:41
Speaker 1: judgments there. And then finally, where do we end up?
1:15:49
Speaker 1: Building your house on the rock. Two types of individuals
1:15:54
Speaker 1: both built houses. One on sand. One on a rock.
1:16:00
Speaker 1: What's the difference between the two? Well, you have to
1:16:04
Speaker 1: take the whole Sermon on the Mount into consideration in
1:16:08
Speaker 1: order to understand the difference between the two. On its face,
1:16:12
Speaker 1: we may think that the difference between the two is
1:16:15
Speaker 1: one individual took the Bible and used it as a
1:16:19
Speaker 1: rule book and built his house based upon the rule book.
1:16:23
Speaker 1: In fact, you've probably heard it that way, okay? One
1:16:27
Speaker 1: individual took the Bible and basically the Bible was his blueprint.
1:16:30
Speaker 1: The other one, the Bible wasn't his blueprint. The one
1:16:33
Speaker 1: who used the Bible has his blueprint. That's the one
1:16:35
Speaker 1: whose house stood. The one who didn't use the Bible
1:16:37
Speaker 1: as his blueprint, that's the one whose house didn't stand. Folks,
1:16:42
Speaker 1: in order to understand what Jesus is talking about with
1:16:45
Speaker 1: the house on the rock and the house on the sand,
1:16:47
Speaker 1: you got to go all the way back to the
1:16:49
Speaker 1: indicatives and the imperatives at the beginning of the Sermon
1:16:51
Speaker 1: on the Mount. My house doesn't stand. Because I used
1:16:57
Speaker 1: the Bible as a blueprint. I can be lost and
1:17:01
Speaker 1: do that. My house stands because the imperatives that I
1:17:09
Speaker 1: perform in my life flow out of the indicatives because
1:17:13
Speaker 1: justification is the fruit of my sanctification and not the
1:17:17
Speaker 1: other way around. I can be as lost as a
1:17:25
Speaker 1: goose and use the Bible as a rule book and
1:17:33
Speaker 1: completely miss the point. It's not what it is. And
1:17:43
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is there are people all
1:17:45
Speaker 1: around us who are absolutely unequivocally lost. headed for a
1:17:52
Speaker 1: hellfire and damnation and nothing but. But if you speak
1:17:59
Speaker 1: to them about the gospel, they'll get offended. Why? Because
1:18:05
Speaker 1: they've been there. They've done that. They prayed the prayer.
1:18:09
Speaker 1: They asked Jesus into their heart. And now they're on
1:18:17
Speaker 1: to the imperatives. Never mind that none of the indicatives
1:18:20
Speaker 1: are true of them. How do you know someone's truly
1:18:24
Speaker 1: a Christian? Because of the imperatives or because of the indicatives? Folks,
1:18:28
Speaker 1: it's because of the indicatives. We grow in our performance
1:18:34
Speaker 1: of the imperatives. Hopefully you're doing a lot better today
1:18:38
Speaker 1: on the imperatives than you were five years ago. Does
1:18:41
Speaker 1: that mean you weren't saved five years ago, but you
1:18:43
Speaker 1: are now? Now again, assuming you've been in Christ that long, okay?
1:18:48
Speaker 1: If you're a Christian here today, I would expect that
1:18:51
Speaker 1: ten years from now twenty years from now you'll be
1:18:55
Speaker 1: a lot further along on the imperatives than you are
1:18:59
Speaker 1: today does that mean you're not truly a Christian now
1:19:02
Speaker 1: no no It's the indicatives. It's who God says we
1:19:15
Speaker 1: are in Christ. That works itself out. That grows in
1:19:25
Speaker 1: these imperatives. And by his grace, he grants us both
1:19:32
Speaker 1: to will and to do his good pleasure. But even
1:19:36
Speaker 1: that's from him. So it's not this picture of being
1:19:41
Speaker 1: saved by grace and then kept by works. We're justified
1:19:46
Speaker 1: by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to
1:19:49
Speaker 1: the glory of God alone. And here's a newsflash. We're
1:19:53
Speaker 1: also sanctified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ
1:19:58
Speaker 1: alone to the glory of God alone. It's not just
1:20:04
Speaker 1: my sanctification that is of God, my justification that is
1:20:08
Speaker 1: of God. My sanctification is with God as well. What
1:20:14
Speaker 1: does that mean, that I don't have to do the imperatives? No,
1:20:17
Speaker 1: that means you get to do the imperatives. Did you
1:20:23
Speaker 1: catch the difference? I have to do the imperatives means
1:20:30
Speaker 1: sanctification by me and my works. I get to do
1:20:33
Speaker 1: the imperatives means Christ has made me a new creature.
1:20:37
Speaker 1: And because I'm a new creature in Christ, I am
1:20:39
Speaker 1: finally now and only now no longer a slave to sin.
1:20:46
Speaker 1: By the way, that ought to make more sense to
1:20:47
Speaker 1: you now too. Well, how does the Bible say I'm
1:20:50
Speaker 1: a slave to sin? I didn't just always go around sinning.
1:20:53
Speaker 1: I did some things that were, ah, no, you didn't.
1:20:57
Speaker 1: You were a slave to sin. Everything you did, you
1:21:03
Speaker 1: did for sinful motives and for sinful goals, even though
1:21:07
Speaker 1: outwardly it looked better than the way most people lived.
1:21:11
Speaker 1: Are y'all seeing this now? So as we go through
1:21:21
Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount, we need to come in
1:21:24
Speaker 1: here every week, girded up, come in here every week,
1:21:28
Speaker 1: ready to see both law and gospel. coming here every
1:21:31
Speaker 1: week looking for the indicatives and the imperatives, coming in
1:21:34
Speaker 1: here every week understanding that we're going to see a
1:21:37
Speaker 1: mirror and that mirror is going to show us some
1:21:40
Speaker 1: horrible things about ourselves and some glorious things about Christ.
1:21:49
Speaker 1: That mirror is going to show us how desperate we
1:21:52
Speaker 1: are and how desperate everyone around us is for Jesus Christ.
1:21:58
Speaker 1: And if we come away with anything with anything, anything,
1:22:01
Speaker 1: anything from the Sermon on the Mount. I hope we
1:22:03
Speaker 1: come away with this. I hope we come away no
1:22:06
Speaker 1: longer boasting, number one. And secondly, I hope we come
1:22:10
Speaker 1: away no longer as people who thrust the imperatives on
1:22:17
Speaker 1: the lost. Let me say that again. I hope we
1:22:23
Speaker 1: come away no longer being the people who thrust the
1:22:27
Speaker 1: imperatives on the lost. So in other words, we say
1:22:33
Speaker 1: to the drunkard, stop being a drunkard, instead of saying,
1:22:37
Speaker 1: you are what you are because of your sin, and
1:22:41
Speaker 1: Christ alone can deliver you not just from that sin,
1:22:45
Speaker 1: but from all your sins. We don't say to the homosexual,
1:22:49
Speaker 1: you stop being a homosexual. He can't. Oh, well, wait
1:22:55
Speaker 1: a minute. Does that mean that Pastor Votie believes that
1:22:57
Speaker 1: homosexuality is something that's biological instead of a choice and yada, yada, yada? Listen,
1:23:01
Speaker 1: I don't believe that homosexuality is a choice any more
1:23:04
Speaker 1: than I believe being a liar is a choice. We're
1:23:07
Speaker 1: slaves to sin. Our sins just have different titles. Amen.
1:23:18
Speaker 1: Does the homosexual have to stop being a homosexual before
1:23:21
Speaker 1: they can be a Christian? Here's my question. Why do
1:23:24
Speaker 1: we ask that, but we don't ask if the worrier, worry, W-O-R-R-Y,
1:23:31
Speaker 1: because the Bible says be anxious for nothing. How come
1:23:35
Speaker 1: we don't say, does the person who suffers with worry
1:23:39
Speaker 1: have to stop worrying before they can be justified? How
1:23:43
Speaker 1: come we don't ask that? Because all of us are
1:23:47
Speaker 1: guilty of that one, and we're only concerned about the
1:23:50
Speaker 1: sins that other people commit that we tend to be
1:23:52
Speaker 1: free of. Does the alcoholic have to stop being an
1:23:59
Speaker 1: alcoholic before they can become a Christian? Listen to how
1:24:02
Speaker 1: ridiculous that is. The Bible tells us no one does
1:24:06
Speaker 1: good and we're slaves to sin. The alcoholic can't stop
1:24:10
Speaker 1: being an alcoholic. The liar can't stop being a liar.
1:24:14
Speaker 1: The homosexual can't stop being a homosexual. All of those
1:24:18
Speaker 1: individuals may get the imperatives and work real hard to
1:24:22
Speaker 1: suppress their sin and not do those things anymore, but
1:24:26
Speaker 1: their actions are not ethical. Why? Because they don't arise
1:24:30
Speaker 1: from right motives, and they don't arise for right goals.
1:24:36
Speaker 1: And I'm afraid that many of us, myself included, have
1:24:39
Speaker 1: been guilty for a long, long time of preaching works
1:24:44
Speaker 1: righteousness to people instead of the Gospels. Truth be told,
1:24:51
Speaker 1: there are a lot of our family members, and I'm
1:24:54
Speaker 1: going to just go on, I'm going to say this,
1:24:55
Speaker 1: and I'm going to be finished. There are a lot
1:24:58
Speaker 1: of us who look at our family members, and we're
1:25:01
Speaker 1: much more interested in getting them to homeschool. We're much
1:25:06
Speaker 1: more interested in getting them to go to family integrated church.
1:25:09
Speaker 1: We're much more interested in getting them to discipline their
1:25:11
Speaker 1: children or whatever than we are in them getting saved.
1:25:18
Speaker 1: That's what we talk to them about. You need to
1:25:20
Speaker 1: do this. You need to do this. You need to
1:25:22
Speaker 1: do that. You need to do the other. And it
1:25:24
Speaker 1: just breaks our heart that they don't live the kind
1:25:26
Speaker 1: of life that we live, but we haven't shed one
1:25:30
Speaker 1: tear over the fact that they have not been born again.
1:25:38
Speaker 1: Shame on us. Shame on every last one of us
1:25:46
Speaker 1: for putting the imperatives before the indicatives. and for actually
1:25:51
Speaker 1: believing that we're something that we absolutely are not. There
1:25:59
Speaker 1: is none righteous. No, not even one. You are who
1:26:06
Speaker 1: you are, indicatives, because of the finished work of Jesus
1:26:13
Speaker 1: Christ in your life. And it's only because you are
1:26:18
Speaker 1: who you are that you are able by His grace
1:26:23
Speaker 1: to do what He commands. We get that. We got
1:26:29
Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount. Let's pray. Father, we confess
1:26:41
Speaker 1: to You that we are arrogant, egocentric, narcissistic, rule-keeping people
1:26:51
Speaker 1: works righteousness, prideful sinners. And most days, instead of acknowledging it,
1:27:06
Speaker 1: we actually boast about the pitiful things that we think
1:27:11
Speaker 1: we've mastered apart from your grace. And then turn around
1:27:18
Speaker 1: and point fingers at other people who don't have our
1:27:22
Speaker 1: level of outward conformity, would you crush that in us
1:27:31
Speaker 1: by your grace? Would you allow us to come face
1:27:36
Speaker 1: to face with your law and our sin so that
1:27:45
Speaker 1: we come to the end of ourselves and see the
1:27:49
Speaker 1: beauty and the majesty that is only found in the
1:27:53
Speaker 1: person of Jesus Christ. I pray for those under the
1:28:08
Speaker 1: sound of my voice whom the enemy has tangled up
1:28:14
Speaker 1: in knots, so much so that they aren't even Christian
1:28:18
Speaker 1: but think they are. all because of works righteousness. Those
1:28:23
Speaker 1: individuals under the sound of my voice who work hard
1:28:27
Speaker 1: to keep the imperatives and perhaps have shaved a few
1:28:32
Speaker 1: of the rough edges off of their own life by
1:28:34
Speaker 1: their own effort, and the enemy's got them right where
1:28:38
Speaker 1: he wants them because they believe that they are Christian
1:28:41
Speaker 1: because of the meager things that they've learned to accomplish
1:28:46
Speaker 1: in their flesh. Not realizing all the while that their
1:28:53
Speaker 1: motives are corrupt, that their goals are bankrupt, and that
1:29:01
Speaker 1: they have absolutely no share of any inheritance with Christ
1:29:06
Speaker 1: because their trust is in themselves and not in Him.
1:29:09
Speaker 1: I pray that today you would bring every one of
1:29:14
Speaker 1: us to the end of ourselves. That we would grasp
1:29:21
Speaker 1: biblical justification and biblical sanctification and completely and utterly reject
1:29:29
Speaker 1: this pitiful excuse for a gospel that our culture has embraced.
1:29:38
Speaker 1: And that we might leave here in repentance and faith,
1:29:43
Speaker 1: trusting in Christ alone. Not what we do, but what
1:29:51
Speaker 1: He has already done. And in doing so, may we
1:29:58
Speaker 1: never ever belittle the imperatives. May we never, ever embrace lawlessness.
1:30:10
Speaker 1: But may we, by Your grace, grow in our sanctification
1:30:15
Speaker 1: and bring glory and honor to You as You work
1:30:18
Speaker 1: in us, both to will and to do Your good pleasure.
1:30:21
Speaker 1: And when we accomplish those things, may we be so
1:30:24
Speaker 1: careful to give Your name all the glory and all
1:30:27
Speaker 1: the praise, recognizing That there is nothing good that comes
1:30:34
Speaker 1: or dwells in our flesh. Everything praiseworthy in us is
1:30:44
Speaker 1: a direct result of Christ who sanctifies those whom he justifies.
1:30:55
Speaker 1: May we get this. May we grasp this. May we
1:31:01
Speaker 1: walk in this. May we rejoice in this. To the
1:31:06
Speaker 1: glory of our Lord, Master, Savior, and King, Jesus, who
1:31:12
Speaker 1: is the Christ. Amen.