Introduction

Driving home: But the word unique literally means one of a kind. There is no other like it.

Compares the unique setting forth of God's moral standards in the Ten Commandments to the unique presentation of truth in the Sermon on the Mount, even though the truths themselves are found elsewhere.

Perhaps I could parallel it this way. God's moral standards are recorded throughout the breadth and length of the Scriptures. And yet, when God puts His moral standards in what we call, the Ten Commandments, He's done it in such a way that makes those Ten Commandments recorded in Exodus chapter 20 perfectly unique, one of a kind. There is something about that setting forth of the standards of God that does something and says something that no other setting forth of the standard of God does.

2:25 - 2:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second reason to study the sermon is the current condition of the American church, specifically its 'externalism' – a preoccupation with outward appearance and actions rather…

Illustrates 'externalism' by describing how cheap products are made to look expensive with paint and veneer, only to reveal their true poor quality later, paralleling superficial Christianity.

First of all, our terrible condition of what I will label for the sake of putting a tag on it, our condition of externalism, our condition of externalism. We are becoming increasingly a nation of paint and veneer. We're masters at taking a cheap piece of nothing and making it look like an expensive piece of something worth an awful lot until you get it home and use it for a couple of weeks and then the real thing comes through the door. You take the veneer and the paint and the varnish and there you are stuck with it.

15:12 - 15:46 Read in full sermon

The point: For an age of externalism, a serious study of this sermon is absolutely necessary to realize God's concern about the heart, not just outward appearances.

Uses the example of young girls' increasing preoccupation with external appearance (makeup, masks) as a societal manifestation of externalism that has infiltrated the church.

This is true in the production realm. It's true in the realm of our even personal appearance. I get amazed over the past five years as I look at young girls that at the age of 14 or 15 used to have a little bit of country blush on the cheek and a little bit of shine on the nose and were the epitome of wholesomeness. They're a rare bird now.

15:46 - 16:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now this spirit of antinomianism, a desire to throw off the restraint of law, is common in the church in America.

Presents a hypothetical scenario where someone feels 'prompted by God' to kill a backward child, demonstrating the danger of antinomianism and the necessity of objective moral law ('Thou shalt not').

That's the only law we as Christians have. Well, wait a minute now. You come knocking on my door tomorrow night and say, Pastor, I've got a problem. And I say, yes, what's your problem?

23:00 - 23:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But if the basic bedrock desire of your heart is not that you want to please Him who loved you and gave Himself for you, you've never been born of God.

Shares a personal anecdote about wanting to please his wife but failing because he didn't know her specific will, illustrating the need for God's expressed will (law) even when the heart's desire is right.

I remember many times in our early married life, especially before I really knew my wife as I know her now, that the desire of my heart was right. I wanted to please her, but the thing I did was wrong. It didn't please her. Why?

24:32 - 24:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second guideline is to seek the underlying principles behind specific applications (e.g., going two miles, turning the other cheek), enabling broader application across one's…

Tells a story about his son Joel and a neighbor boy fighting over toys, where Joel obeys specific instructions (share wheelbarrow, sandbox) but misses the general principle (share everything), illustrating the need to find principles behind specific applications in the Sermon on the Mount.

as we move into some of the specific instructions of the Lord, we want to study them trying to discover the principles behind the specific application. Let me illustrate. We have a neighbor who have, they have neighbors who have a little boy that's six months younger than Joel. And they get together out there, and though there may be a wheelbarrow, two or three little carts, and a swing, and a sandbox, and a shovel, and a rake, oh, eight, ten different things, it's amazing how that there must be some kind of a magnet in each one that at one given time strikes a response in each of those boys, ...

36:34 - 37:15 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second guideline is to seek the underlying principles behind specific applications (e.g., going two miles, turning the other cheek), enabling broader application across one's…

Uses the examples of going two miles and turning the other cheek to show that literal, specific applications are less important than discerning the underlying principle of self-sacrificial love and non-retaliation.

Jesus talks about going two miles with someone, and turning the other cheek. Now, do we have to wait for an instance where somebody comes up to the front door, and knocks on it, and says, look, I want you to go out and walk with me, and say, oh, wonderful, now I've got a chance to obey the Sermon on the Mount. I'll go too! No.

38:42 - 38:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Come Sunday by Sunday expecting that God is going to answer some of the problems and questions you have.

Compares the atmosphere in a church service to a 'climate' or 'atmosphere of expectancy and openness,' where a pastor feels liberty to preach when the congregation is eager to hear and obey.

Go home and begin to search this passage. Come Sunday by Sunday if God spares us, allows us to meet together, expecting that God's going to answer some of the problems and questions you have. Any man who couldn't preach in that kind of an atmosphere, he's in bad shape. I can sense when you've come expecting.

42:46 - 43:09 Read in full sermon