Introduction

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount Series

0:03 I'm grateful to the Lord that I believe he's given direction in the matter of what our course of study will be in these Sunday mornings for the coming months. As far as I can see now, it will probably be at least the next year. You who were here last week remember that I could not say that, and yet God was so gracious to meet with us and speak to our hearts in his own sovereign way. We're going to begin this morning a series of studies on the Sermon on the Mount, this passage of Scripture, or these passages found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7.

0:47 Now, the truths that I want to bring to you this morning will be of necessity introductory things, but I trust they will not be purely academic or boring, for in no sense are these things that I want to... bring to you unnecessary.

1:07 If I felt they were unnecessary, I wouldn't bring them. We'd plow right in and start digging away at this tremendous gold mine of the truth of God. But if we're to come to this sermon and lay hold of at least in measure that which the Spirit of God intends for us to get, then there must be some guidelines helping us as we move into our study. And so, along this line, I want to think for a few minutes, or ask you to think with me for a few minutes, on the uniqueness of this sermon.

The Uniqueness of the Sermon on the Mount

1:44 There is something about this sermon of our Lord Jesus Christ that is completely unique. Now, when I use the term unique, I'm using it in its proper sense. If you look up the word in your dictionary, you'll find the third meaning, and it says at the end that this meaning is not accepted even by some, where we mean that something is different. We say, oh, isn't that unique?

2:04 We mean it's different. Fascinating. But the word unique literally means one of a kind. There is no other like it.

2:12 Now, when I use the term unique, that's what I mean. This sermon is completely unique as far as what we have recorded in the Scriptures. It is one of a kind. There is no other like it.

2:25 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.

2:58 Well, this is true of the Sermon on the Mount. Any truth that our Lord Jesus speaks about in the Sermon on the Mount can be found not only in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament epistles. But as we'll be seeing, almost all of these truths are clearly found and clearly illustrated even in the Old Testament.

3:20 You say, Pastor, is that so? Yes, it is. And you'll see that as we study. But though the standards and truths of the Sermon on the Mount are found both in the Old Testament and subsequently in the following portions of the New Testament, the way they are set forth in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 presents something.

3:40 Something that is completely unique. Just like the standards of the Ten Commandments are found in other portions of the Word of God, old and new. But when God lays them out in ten specific words as we have them in Exodus 20, there's something absolutely unique, one of a kind. But it's not only unique in this sense, but it's unique in its length.

4:02 Of all the recorded sermons of the Lord Jesus, this is the longest. In fact, this sermon, if you just take the number of lines or columns in your Bible, is longer than many other New Testament books. It's longer than the book of Philippians, 2 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy, and of course some of these one-chapter books. It's about the same length of many of the letters of the Apostle Paul.

4:26 And so it's the longest recorded sermon of the Lord Jesus. It's not only unique in this area of its length, but in the subject matter. Most of the other sermons of the Lord Jesus, and if you want something that will help you, in your study of Matthew, and I was never really aware of this in my own consciousness till I was preparing to teach the Gospel of Matthew, an introductory lesson at the Newark Evening Bible School this past Friday, substituting for Mr. Weber, that the book of Matthew is grouped, all of Matthew's narrative is grouped around five major sermons or discourses of the Lord Jesus.

5:02 Matthew 5 to 7, the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 10, his charge to his apostles. Matthew 13, the parables of the kingdom. Matthew 18, the Sermon on Humility and on Forgiveness.

5:16 Matthew 24 and 25, our Lord's sermons on his second coming or on last things. And each of these other lengthy discourses can be grouped around one or two major thoughts. The parables relate to the kingdom of heaven, what it's like. Matthew 18 relates to what true humility is and what true forgiveness is.

5:40 This long discourse, a little bit shorter than this, not quite as long as the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 24 and 25, the second coming. But when we come to this sermon of our Lord Jesus, we find him covering a tremendous breadth of truth. And so it's unique among the long sermons of the Lord Jesus in that it doesn't focus on one or two basic truths, but it covers a tremendous aspect or spectrum of God's truth. And then it's unique not only in its length and in its subject matter, but it's unique in its position in the New Testament.

6:16 As we open our New Testament, we come through the few introductory chapters relative to the birth of the Lord Jesus. And then his early life passed over in just a verse or two. Then his baptism, his temptation, and then a few words about his first initial preaching ministry. And suddenly we're confronted with this tremendous block of weighty truth right at the very doorstep of the New Testament.

6:40 This is unique in its position. This is unique in its position in the Word of God. It's as though the Lord Jesus is confronting us with these truths to let us know that all that has been leading up to this from the Old Testament Scriptures suddenly finds its fulfillment. And everything that flows after this in the life and death and future ministry of the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit is somehow rooted in what he gave here in Matthew 5 through 7.

7:09 In fact, I would be so bold as to say, that the Sermon on the Mount is the foundation, is the foundation of all that follows in the unfolding of the revelation of God. Why did Jesus live that sinless life and go to the cross? That what we read about in Matthew 5 to 7 might be lived out in everyone who comes to God by way of the cross. He went up to Calvary that what he taught here might be experienced in your life and in mine.

7:40 Why were the epistles written? Why were the epistles written? Basically to explain who the Lord Jesus is and what he has done in order that we might know how to live out the Sermon on the Mount. And so this is basic.

Why Study the Sermon: Christ's Commission Commands It

7:55 It's unique in this sense that it's foundational to much of the truth that flows out in the further revelation of the New Testament. Alright, having considered now for just these few minutes the uniqueness of the sermon, I want to spend a few minutes on this question. Why should we study it? Well, some of the reasons are already given.

8:16 But I want to give several specific ones. I'll break down all that I have to say under two headings. We should study this sermon in detail because the commission of our Lord Jesus commands it and secondly because the condition of the Church demands it. We should study this sermon because the commission of the Lord Jesus commands it.

8:42 Will you turn please to the last verse of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 28. And verse 20. Matthew 28.

8:56 Well, we'll move back to verse 19. Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. The Lord Jesus is speaking and he says to his disciples, Go ye therefore, and the next word is a weak translation, teach all nations. It's the word from which we get the word disciple and it's in a verb tense and literally means go therefore and disciple all nations.

9:23 Make disciples of all nations. That's done by proclamation of the Gospel, bringing men to repentance and faith. Having made them disciples, what are we to do? We're to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

9:39 That's bringing them into identification with the local church. And then verse 20 tells us, teaching them to observe. Now notice. All things whatsoever I have commanded you and, Lord, I am with you always.

9:58 Even to the end of the age. Now let's get hold of several basic principles found here. Principle number one is that whatever the Lord Jesus said in the Great Commission according to Matthew is binding to the end of the age. For he couples with his command a promise that he will be with them in the fulfillment of these commands even to the end of this age.

10:24 You follow me? So whatever he says is binding upon us, until the consummation of the age, until the church of Christ is complete and the Lord Jesus takes us home to be with himself. Now what is that task to be accomplished unto the end of the age? Making disciples of all nations.

10:46 Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Ghost and teaching them to observe everything that Christ himself commanded. So it's not a matter of option that we study the Sermon on the Mount. For this sermon as no other recorded discourse of the Lord Jesus embodies his specific commands to his people. It embodies his detailed outline of what we are to be and what we are to do.

11:17 Now do you claim to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus? Do you profess that through the ministry of his word and of his spirit you have been brought captive to Jesus Christ? That's what a disciple is. That's what true faith does.

11:31 Brings us into captivity to Christ. He becomes the pearl of great price to us for which we are willing to sell all and obtain. Now are you his disciple? Has the Spirit of God effectually moved upon your heart revealing to you your sinfulness, revealing to you the Lord Jesus is the only hope of sinners, enabling you to turn to him in repentance and faith?

11:55 Is he your Lord and is he your Savior? If so, you are a disciple. Now if you are a disciple, if you've come into this relationship, the word disciple simply means a learner, one placed in a position of subjection with eagerness to learn from the Master, then if we are to go on in this experience of discipleship, we must do so in the context of facing the clear commands of the Lord Jesus. Make disciples, baptize them, get them into the church where the word is proclaimed, and when they're there, he says, teach them everything that I have commanded.

12:33 So this is not a matter of option with us. In fact, I'll be so bold as to say that with rare exceptions, anyone who is lacking in an understanding of the basic principles of truth embodied in the Sermon on the Mount will be a very weak and poor disciple. And I have no doubt in my own spirit that much of the poverty of true, mature discipleship in our own Christian circles is that for too long we have neglected that which the Lord Jesus has clearly set forth in this wonderful sermon. So in answer to your question,

Why Study the Sermon: The Church's Condition Demands It (Externalism)

13:16 why should we study the Sermon on the Mount, I answer because the commission of the Lord Jesus demands it, or commands it. Now the second reason, our present condition in the church demands it. And when I make reference to the church, I've stated this before, but for the benefit of those who have not been with us, I want to repeat it. I'm not referring to the Church of Christ generally throughout the world, for there are sections of the world today where Christians are experiencing a degree of apostolic faith and simplicity that we American Christians know absolutely nothing about.

14:00 And so I am not giving a sweeping condemnation or a sweeping declaration or evaluation of all of God's people everywhere. We always tend to judge things, in terms of our own little sphere of context. But when you read and when you talk with missionaries, you realize in certain places of the world today, parts of Korea, parts of Africa, parts of Vietnam and some of the islands in New Guinea, they are experiencing something of vital New Testament Christianity that is so different from what we know that if we hold the two up, it's not a matter of comparing, it's a matter of contrasting. And so when I use the term the condition of the church demands it, I am speaking of the condition of the church

14:42 of which you and I are a part. The people, the professing people of God here in the context of our own American society. And this is where you and I live, and this is where I minister. And so it's into this context that as God's servant I must speak.

14:59 And so I submit to you that a study of this sermon is absolutely necessary because our present conditions demand it. You say, Pastor, in what way? Well, let me break it down for you. For a few minutes.

15:12 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.

15:46 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.

16:09 They're almost extinct. You don't find that. So occupied with the external, putting on this mask. It's true in this area of our personal appearance.

16:23 It's true in the area of production. So few who are concerned with quality now. It's turning out the thing that looks good long enough to get it sold. What it looks like after a month, nobody cares.

16:34 This is the spirit that has worked itself into the warp and woof of our society and curse of curses it's worked itself into our Christianity. So that if we can get a fellow to embrace a couple of verses in his head and hold a Bible under his arm and put a smile on his face and get his body in a building, we're content that we've done a tremendous work and we've really advanced the cause of the kingdom of heaven. We may not have done it at all. And this sermon is geared to exposing the fallacy of this plague of externalism.

17:13 For the minute we begin to study it, as you'll see next week, we come face to face with this that we have learned from our childhood days up, this section that we call the Beatitudes, the blessings of the Lord Jesus. And the minute we begin to read them and study them and ponder them, we come to grips with the fact that the Lord Jesus is not talking primarily about truth that a man has packed into his head. He's not talking about the smile that he's cranked up on his face. He's not talking about the big black Bible he carries under his arm.

17:47 He's talking about attitudes that lie in the deep recesses of his heart, what the man really is. And suddenly we realize that in the presence of God only one thing matters, not this veneer, not the big black Bible, not the cranked up grin, not the bustling activity in the realms of fundamental church. But I realize God's concerned about this thing called the heart. And for an age of externalism, a serious study of this sermon and the mount is absolutely necessary.

18:21 For we begin to study about poverty of spirit, about mourning, about hungering and thirsting, about meekness, about purity of heart. And we find that God's concerned about his working in the deep inner recesses of the heart. And then, under this matter of externalism, most of us are pretty content if we're free from gross sins and thank God if we are. We're fairly well content if we're giving our tithe or if we're praying a bit.

18:58 But we come to chapter 6 and we suddenly discover that God's far more interested in the motive that prompts my praying than in the manner or length of my praying. I suddenly realize God's far more concerned about the motive that prompts my giving than the amount or the manner in which I give it externally. I'm suddenly confronted with the fact that God is concerned about the area of motive. I come to chapter 5 and he begins to deal with murder and lust.

19:30 And those of us who are content that we're free of these sins in the external acts, suddenly the Lord Jesus unzips the heart and he says, if the desire lies resident in the heart, God reckons the desire for the deed. Whosoever looketh to lust hath committed adultery. Whosoever hates is a murderer and is guilty of the hell of fire. And so I submit to you that the condition of the church absolutely demands a sober study of this sermon because we are plagued with the cult of externalism.

Why Study the Sermon: The Church's Condition Demands It (Antinomianism)

20:04 And this sermon cuts through all of this and shows us wherein God's concern really lies. And then there's a second condition in the church which I believe can be greatly remedied by a detailed study of this sermon. And that's the condition, and I'm going to use a big word, I trust you don't get out of your seat and run out the door when I use it, because I want to explain it and it's a word used in theological writing and you ought to be acquainted with it. One of the jobs of a pastor is not only to exhort but to teach and to encourage you to broaden your understanding of truth.

20:37 And you will find this next word in any reading, in a lot of reading, if you do any reading at all about theology, Bible study, the word antinomianism, the word anti-against. I'm anti this, I'm anti that. Someone says, what they mean they're against. Nominism, the Greek word for law, nomos, so against law.

21:02 So the word antinomianism simply means a spirit that rebels against the restraints and dictates of law. As a pastor, what is law? Well, law in its broadest sense is an expression to one of the will of another. What are the laws of the state?

21:21 They are the expressions of the will of the common people, how we will govern our country. Or they may be the laws of our local borough. Or they may be speed laws. What are these laws?

21:34 These laws are an expression to us of the will of another. And we stand in such a relationship that we're obligated to those standards, obligated to keep them. Now this spirit of antinomianism, a desire to throw off the restraint of law, is common in the church in America. Now here again we face two extremes.

22:00 Seeing the marvelous truth that we are not saved by the law, the law can only condemn. Seeing the glorious truth that the righteousness of the law was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus and the punishment of the law was meted out upon him and that I can come as a guilty sinner, actually pleading my guilt before God as the only thing that can commend me to him. Seeing that glorious truth that he accepts me as righteous in his own beloved Son and that the threats of the law have nothing to do with me, the tendency then is to say, well, since the law has performed its function and led me to Christ,

22:44 I can kiss it goodbye. And I have no relationship to law and command and restraint. All I must do now is what my heart tells me. I've had good preachers tell me this and say, Brother Martin, all we need is the indwelling Holy Spirit and we just do what the Spirit tells us.

23:00 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?

23:11 And you say, I've been entrusted with a backward child and this child has begun to be sick. And I've prayed and somehow I just feel God wants me to kill my child. Why let him grow up and experience the shame of being thought different? Why should we have all our financial means sapped from us?

23:32 Money that could go to missions into the church? And I just feel taking all the factors into consideration, I somehow feel prompted of God that we ought to kill our child. We know he'll go to heaven. We know he'll be better off.

23:46 We'll be better off as a family. What do I tell a person like that? They say, well, I've spent days fasting and praying and somehow I feel the Spirit of Christ within me drawing me. I say, wait a minute.

24:00 Thou shalt not. That's all I need. Here is an objective standard. And if this person really wants to follow the Lord and I lay before them the objective standard of the Word of God, then immediately they will see that this thing that they thought was the prompting of God was either the prompting of their own natural spirit or worse yet, the promptings of an evil spirit from the enemy.

24:32 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?

24:48 I did not know. She had not expressed to me what pleased her. And though my heart was right, the thing I did was wrong. Now the minute she gave me some law, she gave some expression of her will, she said, if the basic desire of your heart is not to please Jesus Christ, you've never been saved.

25:12 I didn't say the continual and perfect desire. At times the flesh may cloud it. At times through spiritual carelessness or sloth that desire may be like a slowly burning fire. 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.

25:36 But if you have been born of the Spirit, that's the desire. And so that desire looks up as it did in the heart of Paul. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Paul didn't just get up off the road of Damascus and do what his own heart told him.

25:50 He said, Lord, I'm not directed. And then the risen Lord gave him directive. And so God has given us His law. God has given us principles of truth.

25:59 And in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus shows to us the relationship that exists between the grace of God and the law of God. On the one hand there's that extreme of antinomianism, no relationship to law or whatever. The other extreme is the extreme of legalism where people think, well, God's law is just and holy and good and they come under a slavish thought that unless they're walking in perfect 100% obedience according to their own understanding why then they've fallen from grace or they're under the condemnation of God. Dear ones, neither of these extremes is of God.

26:37 And we need to study the Sermon on the Mount in order that we might have something of the terrible plague of antinomianism removed from us. The moral looseness in our fundamental churches is appalling. The lack of moral fiber is staggering. And one of the reasons is that young people have been growing up for the most part in our fundamental churches without having set before them the clear principles embodied in this wonderful sermon.

27:09 We've suffered from a great host of Bible teachers who've said, well, the Sermon on the Mount is for the Jews in some future age. We can get a little blessing out of it, a little help. But wherever it really pinches you, wherever the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount begin to squeeze in on you and back in the corner and say, now look, this is what you've got to do, well, you can just breathe easy and just sort of pick it up and flip it over on the Jews. It's a very convenient practice, you see.

27:36 We must come with this attitude and say, Lord Jesus, if I'm to be your disciple, I must do whatsoever you command me by your grace. Lord, what's your will for me? We come to the Sermon on the Mount and we find an expression of that. And so the present condition of the church not only in its externalism but in its spirit of antinomianism demands that we study this sermon.

Why Study the Sermon: The Church's Condition Demands It (Materialism)

27:58 And then there's a third condition that has been worked into the life of the church and this study in the Sermon on the Mount I'm trusting will be a great anecdote to this. Antidote to this is the spirit of materialism. Now, we hear a lot about materialism and I'm almost afraid to use the word because it's so easy to go to sleep when you hear it. But materialism is basically this matter of being preoccupied with things.

28:27 Now, in some sense, we've got to be occupied with things. When you got up this morning, you had to be occupied with getting your tie on right. You didn't want it hanging on your ear or around your nose. And even though it's the Lord's day, the day holds holy given over to the Lord. You had to be

28:43 occupied with getting your tie in the right place, getting your food in your mouth, not on your shirt, getting your right shoe on your right foot and your left shoe on your... Now, let's be reasonable. In one

28:53 sense, we have to be. From the time we're born, we can't be occupied with them ourselves, but our mothers and fathers are with our diapers and changing our bed and scraping the cradle cap off our head and putting the little men in baby oil. Occupied with things that are necessary to sustain our lives. From the cradle to the grave, we must be occupied with things in some degree. What's materialism?

29:17 Ah, listen. Materialism is the preoccupation with the world of sense and of time, with things which keeps me from living in the light of eternity and living on the basis of eternal and spiritual values. And the spirit of materialism has infiltrated the church and is wrecking a havoc far greater than any infiltration of communism into the Pentagon or any of our other high governmental ranks. It's this preoccupation with things.

30:00 Do you want to know what you really count of worth and value? The things you count of worth and value are not the things you confess here this morning and say, well, pastor, I confess that eternity and the souls of men and knowing Christ and reading the word and praying, these are the things of value. No. What you confess here this morning as the expressions of what you believe valuable is not a proof of what you really think valuable.

30:27 Do you want to know what you really put value on? Do you want to know? Let me give you a test that you can apply to yourself. When you're free from the necessary pursuit of things, putting a normal amount of food in your stomach and clothes on your back and putting in your 40 or 50 hours a week to feed the family. When you're released

30:50 from the normal, necessary occupation with things, what do you do with your time? Where do your thoughts revert? When you have the chance to sit down in the living room chair and lean back and just muse and sort of turn over your ambitions, in what directions do your ambitions go? Do they fall upon the furniture of the living room, begin to conceive of ways you can pinch and scrape and get a little more? Do you look

31:22 out in the backyard and see the neighbor's boat and say, it'd be so nice to have one in mine? Does it see the neighbor lady driving by in her car and they're a two-car family now and say, you know, we ought to be a two-car family? What do you think about when you're sitting there in the rocking chair and just rocking? Where do your ambitions go?

31:42 Or do you sit there and reflect and say, oh God, oh God, help me to be a better husband. No, like Christ! Oh God, make me a holier man, a holier woman. You begin to think about your children instead of thinking in terms of ambitions in a worldly sense. Does your

32:01 heart go out to God that somehow you might surround them with a climate of spiritual reality in which the Holy Spirit can break through and lay hold of them and set them apart for His service? Those things to which your mind reverts when it's free, those are the things upon which you place value. That's what you really count worthy. And this sermon strikes right through the spirit of materialism, the preoccupation with things.

32:31 For our Lord Jesus initiated one of its most glorious passages by saying, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Oh, it's earthy, it's fame, it's standing, it's fortune, it's pleasure, it's pomp, anything that's of the earth is capable of corruption, moth and rust and thieves. But lay up treasures in heaven. And then he begins to expand upon the two areas of treasure. And he says

32:59 wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart's going to be. If you've got five thousand dollars in the National Newark and Essex Bank, it doesn't bother you too much. If the Montclair National goes out of business, if you let something begin to happen to the National Newark and Essex, and you're going to get concerned, why, where your treasure is, there's where your heart is. That's where your concern is. Sure.

33:21 If you've got something in a safety deposit bank at the National Newark and Essex, it doesn't bother you if the Montclair Bank burns down. If you let it be heard, there's a fire raging down there, and the possibility that some of your things might wear your treasure is that's where your heart is. And oh, as we face this sermon, the Lord Jesus is going to, by His Spirit, show us where our treasure is. And He's going to expose to us the insidious inroads and tentacles of materialism that has made us a people occupied, preoccupied with the external. Well, these three reasons,

How to Study the Sermon: Focus on Character (Beatitudes)

33:59 perhaps there are others, but as I've meditated on this, I believe with all my heart, these are three reasons in answer to the question, why should we study this sermon? Because the command of our Lord, because of the situation in the Church, externalism, secondly, antinomianism, thirdly, materialism. Then I want to close with a few thoughts on how should we study. You say, Pastor, I'm convinced in the light of what you've given us from the Scriptures this morning, and as you've related these matters to our own lives, I'm convinced I need to study the Sermon on the Mount.

34:35 But how should I study it? How should I approach this study? Let me give you several guidelines. We're going to approach this study with the absolute conviction that what the Lord Jesus put at the beginning of this sermon is absolutely foundation to all that follows. And what did He put

34:52 at the beginning? He put these things that we call the Beatitudes, these Blessings. And as we approach this study, we're going to approach it with this basic underlying conviction that what the Lord Jesus taught in these things that we call the Blessings, the Beatitudes, is basic to all else. For it deals with my character, what I am, which is far more basic than what I do.

35:16 What I do is a revelation of what I am. And what I am is the thing that concerns God. What I am. So He doesn't say, blessed are they who do this, blessed are they who do this. He says,

35:30 blessed are those who are this poor in spirit, meek, hungry, and thirsty. So as we approach the study, let's approach it this way. Not as those who are looking out for specific instructions about some external activities, what we should do with that nasty mother-in-law, or how we should act to that nasty boss if we're literally to turn the other cheek and let him slap us. Let's not approach it with that attitude, but let's approach it this way. Lord, You're

36:01 concerned about what I am down here. And Lord, if You can only speak to me and get through to me what You want to make me down here, then I know that all that I ought to be out here in relationship to that nagging mother-in-law, or in relationship to that nasty boss, Lord, that'll take care of itself if You can only get me what I ought to be down here. So that's the way we want to approach the study. With a basic conviction that this matter of a description of Christian character found in the Beatitudes is basic to all else. And then secondly,

How to Study the Sermon: Discover Underlying Principles

36:34 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, and they gravitate to the same thing. There are

37:15 eight or other, but boy, they both go to it, see. And so you'll hear some squealing, some wrangling out there, and so either you go out and try to settle the fuss, or you figure, well, sooner or later you've got to learn how to fight it out and let him go. But now, suppose I should go out to my son and say, now, Joel, you've got to learn to share with Dale. Now, I want you to share your wheelbarrow. If Dale

37:35 wants your wheelbarrow, you give it to him. Now, I want you to share your sandbox. If he wants, you give it. You understand, Joel? He says, that's right.

37:41 All right, I'll do that, Daddy. So I go out a few minutes later, and lo and behold, they're fighting. Not over the wheelbarrow, not over the sandbox, but over the rake. And I say to my son, son, didn't I tell you that you were to share your thing? But Daddy, all you said was share

37:57 the wheelbarrow and share the sandbox. You didn't say anything about the rake. Now, what's he done? Now, get it. This is exactly what we do

38:06 with the Scripture, time after time. He's taken the specific applications of a general principle, and he's got the applications, but he missed the principle. What's the principle? Son, share whatever you have with Dale.

38:21 When I named the wheelbarrow and the sandbox, they were only illustrations of a specific thing. Follow me? And if he really got the point of my exhortation, he would have realized, well, in telling me to share the wheelbarrow and the sandbox, Daddy means share everything. Now, that's what we find in the Sermon on the Mount.

38:42 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.

38:59 Do I have to wait until someone actually slaps me on the cheek? Now, how often have you been slapped on the cheek? Don't answer. It might be embarrassing for some of your wives or husbands. But now,

39:10 not too many of us get slapped on the cheek. Does that mean I have to wait until I'm slapped on the cheek before I can obey that precept of the Sermon on the Mount? No. There's a principle behind these two applications.

39:22 Go two miles with a man who says go one. If he wants your coat, give him your coat also. If he slaps you on one cheek, turn you up. What's the principle behind that?

39:32 That's what we want to discover. I'm not going to tell you this morning, but that's what we want to discover. And when we get the principle behind those specific applications, you've got a principle that you can apply throughout the whole spectrum of your life. And that's the way we want to study the Sermon on the Mount.

How to Study the Sermon: Eagerness to Obey

39:49 Seeking to discover those principles and apply them to our hearts. And then, last of all, how should we study this sermon? Let's study it not only with the convictions that the Beatitudes, this description of Christian character, what I am, is basic to all that follows. Not only seeking to discover the principles behind the specific application, but let's study with an eagerness to be taught of the Holy Spirit in order that we might do what the Lord Jesus wants us to do. For our Lord

40:22 closes this sermon, and this is a good way to introduce it. To introduce it with a conclusion. Notice how he closes this sermon in Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7, verse 24.

40:38 Having given all of these sayings, now the Lord Jesus says, Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken unto a wise man. Verse 26. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, he shall be likened unto a foolish man. As we approach this study, what's our attitude? Is it

41:07 this? Well, you know, I've had a lot of questions about this Sermon on the Mount, and I'm so glad the pastor's going to preach on it. I can have all my questions answered, and I can really know what it teaches. Is that going to be your attitude? Oh, I trust

41:20 you get that far, but you better go beyond that. Whosoever heareth and doeth these sayings of mine, him will I liken unto a wise man. Who's the wise man? The man that comes hearing and leaves doing. Who's

41:39 the foolish man? The man who's too busy to hear? Oh, no. The foolish man, the Lord Jesus said, is a man who also hears, but he doesn't perform. We say,

41:51 hmm, look at those foolish people driving by outside. They ought to be in church. God says, no, there's some foolish ones in the church. People who come in hearing, but do not leave doing. Isn't that

42:05 the Lord's definition of the fool? He that heareth and doeth enough is like the foolish man. How should we study this sermon? We should study it with this attitude, Oh, God, teach me that I might do.

42:23 Praying with the psalmist, teach me thy statutes. I will run the way of thy commandments. And something that will help you along this line, try to read it through at least once a week during the coming year. You'd be surprised, you'd probably most of you committed to memory, good portions of it without even knowing.

42:46 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.

43:09 I can also sense when you've come with that attitude of longing to hear in order that you might obey. Not every individual case, but there's a climate, there's an atmosphere of expectancy and openness in which the servant of God feels great liberty to pour forth his heart when he knows the people before him are sitting there having come with an active heart, longing to hear in order to know, in order to do. And so as we study this passage, let's search it out on our own. Then come expecting week by week that God is going to teach us and then I believe tonight we're going to deal with this third thing in a whole message, so I won't try to do that this morning.

43:50 Immediately implement whatever God shows you. The best way to remember truth is to immediately put it into practice by faith and obedience. And a truth that becomes yours in the context of obedience to a specific issue is a truth that's yours. It's yours.

44:09 And it becomes your presence. We've considered the uniqueness of this sermon. We've spent a few minutes on why we should study and then a few more on how we should study. And I have said most of these things with the assumption that God's going to give us time to study, with the basic attitude of heart that in the will of God we'll do this.

Concluding Exhortation: The Straight Gate

44:41 But I have no assurance that all of us or any of us are going to meet here next week. Listen carefully, I have no assurance that we'll ever complete or even begin to study this passage. I may stand in the presence of God before we ever consider the first beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

45:06 You may stand in the presence of God before you ever get a chance to read it through one time. And so as I bring this introductory message to a close, I want to exhort any of you fellows or girls, men or women, who are outside of Jesus Christ and never come to Him in repentance and faith and cast your helpless soul upon His mercy. I exhort you in terms of the very words found in this sermon, enter ye in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many there be which go in

45:49 thereat because straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. I give you this word of exhortation, fellow girl, man or woman, you're not right with God. Soberly weigh your relationship to Him. The uncertainty of life, the certainty of judgment.

46:13 And may this very day find you obeying the exhortation and invitation of the prophet Isaiah. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and to our God for He will have mercy and abundantly pardon.

46:34 Shall we pray.