0:00 So we had a couple of weeks break and continue those of you who were not here for the earlier studies. We saw in Matthew chapter 5 6 and 7 when we looked at it overall that Jesus spoke about nine wrong attitudes 0:20 sorry nine right attitudes and then nine wrong attitudes. And so we saw the wrong the right attitudes first of all in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 3 onwards right up to verse 12 0:41 and very quickly poverty of spirit mourning for sin being meek not fighting for our rights hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Number five being merciful to others. And number six, being pure in heart. Number seven, being 0:55 peacemakers. Eight being willing to stand up for righteousness. And number nine, being unashamed to confess Christ. These are the nine right attitudes by which we can be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We 1:09 already covered that. And then we move on to the nine wrong attitudes that go on till the end of the chap end of the sermon on the mount right up to chapter 7. And so as an introduction to that, Jesus says in Matthew 5 and verse1 17, 1:27 do not think I came to abolish the law of the prophets. In other words, he's saying, I did not come to lower the standard. The standard in the law was very, very high. And if I were to paraphrase Jesus' words, don't think I've come to lower 1:44 the standard. And yet the life of many Christians, even those who say they are born again, is much lower than the standard of many people in the Old Testament. Can you compare yourself with John the Baptist or Elijah? 2:03 Jesus said the least person in God's kingdom is going to be at a higher level than John the Baptist. Is it really true? Why is it not true in your life? I'll tell you why. Because all your life you've heard a gospel that's enabled you to live at a low 2:19 standard and say Jesus will forgive you. Live as you like. Just confess your sin. Live to make money and live to enjoy yourself. Confess your sin and you'll go to heaven finally. That is a deception. And it's better to discover it now than 2:31 to discover it at the judgment seat of Christ and be lost eternally. So we proclaim um exactly like it says here. And at the end of it, Jesus said, "If you hear these words of mine and you find some excuse not to do it, you're 2:47 building your entire life on sand and one day it'll collapse. But if you hear these words of mine and do them, you'll build your house on the rock." And for those who did not follow that earlier on when we studied it, please read that in Matthew chapter 3:05 7 and verse 24- 27. There are only two options. At the end of the sermon on the mount, he said you either listen to it and don't do it. You listen and understand, get excited, but don't do it. Another person, he doesn't 3:24 just listen, but he does them. Verse 24, he's the only one who builds his house on a rock. There are people who say, "I've accepted Christ, so my house is on the rock." In one sense, yes. But if you're not obeying what's written here 3:38 in Matthew 5:6 and 7, I want to tell you in Jesus name, you are building on sand. And I want to ask you a question. Those I often say this in when I speak, we think think of physical health is 3:56 something very important for all of us. Education, that's something important for all of us. We want our children to be educated. We want physical health for ourselves and our children. Okay. There are three areas. One is health. 4:13 The other is education. And third is our spiritual life. For health, we have hospitals that keep us healthy. For education, we have schools and colleges. And for spiritual health and all, we have the church. 4:31 Now, I want to ask you a question. If all the hospitals offered free treatment, no payment at all for consultation or admission, anything, 4:49 and you got sick, which hospital would you choose? Would you choose the hospital which had the highest standard of hygiene or some which had the a little lower standard of hygiene? Everything is free. Remember, 5:06 I know what all of us would choose. We want the highest standard of hygiene. Would you choose a hospital where the doctors are very strict on standards of health, extremely strict to eliminate all germs in cleanliness at the highest standard 5:25 or would you chase choose a hospital which is not so clean? You know the answer. Okay. Education. Supposing all the schools and colleges education was completely free. Would you send your child to the best 5:44 school in college where the highest standard of education or would you send say it doesn't really matter let him go to some school. We all know what you would choose. The best hospital, the best school, the best college. Why is it when it comes to a 6:02 church we say it doesn't matter which church we go to they're all talking about Jesus like saying every school teaches ABC that 2 plus 2 is four is that all there is why is it in the area of church I'm talking about what I've observed in many 6:19 countries and many many people why is it only in the matter of church we say let's go to some church which doesn't raise the hand it's too standard too high it's like saying let's go to a hospital where the standard the hygiene 6:33 is not so such a high standard. Let's go to a school where they don't have such high pass marks. Why is it? I'll tell you why. Because we are all downright selfish when it comes to making money, when it comes to education, when it 6:46 comes to health, we are very very serious about our needs. But when it comes to our spiritual life, we say well it doesn't really matter. And that shows that we we don't really fear God. We don't really feel that our spiritual life is the most important 7:05 part of us more than our physical health, hospitals, more than our mental education, schools and colleges. Now, if you're a true disciple of Jesus Christ, if you're a true Christian, you should be saying, "My spiritual life is 7:21 far more important to me than my education or my physical health. I'm not I'm not saying we shouldn't care for that. I believe in uh being physically healthy and being well educated. But I believe it's much more important to be 7:35 spiritually zealous and live by the highest standards. And that's the reason why some people don't take Matthew chapter 5 6 and 7 seriously. They say the standard is too high. It's like saying this hospital is too far too hygienic for me. Let me go 7:52 to one which is a little dirty. Can you imagine anybody you think that person is crazy talking like that or let me go to some school which they don't where pass marks are 10%. This school standard is 90% pass marks but I don't 8:06 want to go over there. It's amazing how we don't see the stupidity and foolishness but it proves one thing and I know all of you are not like that but if you examine yourself and you find that you're not serious about your spiritual life I would 8:23 seriously ask you to consider whether you're a Christian at all. Even if you claim to be born again, whether you're really born again or you've only got a whitewash of Christianity. So Jesus said, "I have not come to 8:42 abolish the law and the prophets. Everything will be fulfilled. And if listen to this verse 19, Matthew 5:19, if any of you cancels one of the least of these commandments, I mean, forget the big ones. If you cancel even the least of these 9:01 commandments and you teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in God's kingdom. But whoever keeps and teaches the least of these will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now, if you read verse 19, 9:19 it's a very simple way to be great in God's kingdom. And here you can find out whether you're going to be the least or the greatest. Very simple. Do you try to keep the least commandment? There are some commandments 9:37 that are more important, some which are not so important. For example, we teach in our church that women must wail their heads. That's not the most important commandment. Why do we do it? Because it says if you teach the least of these commandments in 9:53 the last part of verse 19, if you teach the least of these commandments, you're great in God's kingdom. I want to be great in God's kingdom. So I don't I want to teach not only the important commandments, I want to teach the least 10:05 commandments, too. And if someone says, "Oh, that's not such an important commandment." You know, there are so many Christians who have told me when it comes to something, oh, that's not important. Uhhuh. Well, they qualify for 10:18 the first part of verse 19. Whoever cancels some of these commandments, saying that's not so important, and teaches others to do that, that person, he may enter heaven, but he'll be for all eternity, he'll be called the least 10:30 in the kingdom of heaven. Do you believe this? There's only one person who knows about eternity who walked on this earth, and that's Jesus Christ. And he has taught us here how it's going to be in eternity. I take the Bible very 10:41 seriously. I take Jesus words very seriously because my eternity is dependent on this. It's not I'm not concerned about how I live for the 5000 years on this earth. I'm concerned about how it's going to be for millions and 10:53 millions of years in eternity. And I do not want to spend all my life not just it's not a matter of being great or least in heaven. It's a matter of having whether I please the savior who came to earth to give his life for me and lay 11:07 down his uh life on the cross for me. How do I show my gratitude to him? It's by saying, "Lord, I want to do everything that you have told me to do." Jesus says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." And there's no other way to prove our 11:23 love for Christ except by keeping his commandments. And the more you love the Lord, the more you'll keep his commandments. That's what I I've discovered. That's why I read the New Testament very very carefully especially 11:33 the gospels especially the sermon on the mount even the least ones because I say I want to prove Lord Jesus that I love you I don't want to just simply sing I sing I love you I love you Lord in the in the meeting the only way to prove it 11:46 is by keeping all your commandments even the smallest ones and I want to do it that's why we study the sermon on the mount seriously and those who take it seriously they'll prove their love for the Lord And now he goes on to say in verse 20 12:02 that unless your righteousness exceeds and surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Okay, let's think of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees because ours must 12:16 go beyond that. Otherwise, he said you won't even enter God's kingdom. Now, if you were to ask me, how can I enter God's kingdom? Some people take that easy verse which says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be 12:29 saved and that belief is only in their head. But you know the Bible speaks about belief as something that changes our life. So we must compare scripture with scripture. You remember that even the devil quoted a verse to Jesus. You 12:42 know that the devil quoted a verse to Jesus to obey. Here is a verse. Jesus, he said in the temptation, his angels will take care of you so that you don't dash your foot against a stone. So why don't you jump off the temple and claim the promise of 13:01 God? And Jesus said, "It is also written, you should not tempt the Lord your God by doing such stupid things." So what is the what is the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees? You know, we think that everything the 13:20 Pharisees did was wrong. They were hypocrites. They pretended on the outside to be very religious, but inside it was it was like a fruit that looked beautiful on the outside, but absolutely corrupt inside. Most so-called Christians are like that. They 13:38 present an image before others as very holy and very zealous and zealous to follow Jesus. But inwardly in their private life, their home life, their financial matters and things in other areas of their private life, it's 13:51 corrupt. Now the Pharisees were like that. Now I want you to see what were the two good qualities in the Pharisees. Do you know the Pharisees had some good qualities? Many people think the Pharisees were just rotten through and through. They 14:05 were not. Let me show you the two good qualities of the Pharisees because I'll tell you why. Because Jesus said here in verse 20, your righteousness must go beyond that. So let's see what is the standard of the Pharisees. Turn with me to 14:19 Matthew chapter 23 and you'll see here the first good quality of the Pharisees. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 23 verse 2 and 3. The scribes and the Pharisees are sitting in the chair of Moses. And listen to this. Read 14:36 carefully. Everything that the Pharisees tell you to do, do. That's what Jesus said. Everything that the Pharisees tell you to do, do because they taught God's word. Exactly. But he says, don't do 14:54 like they do. They're hypocrites. They teach something, but they don't do it. So don't follow their actions. You can follow their words. Exactly. So what was the first good quality of the Pharisees? They taught correctly. The only problem 15:10 was they didn't practice what they preached. Okay. The second good quality of the Pharisees, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 23 and verse 25. Sometimes we think there was nothing good in the Pharisees. Here's one. We've already found one. Here's the 15:26 second one in verse 25. You scribes and Pharisees, here's the good quality of the Pharisees. You clean the outside of the cup. The inside is all dirty of course, but the outside, in other words, their external life was righteous. 15:45 Just like your external life is righteous because you don't want a bad testimony before people. You're always very nice when you speak to them and your in your surroundings. You always want people to think highly of you 15:57 because your external life is good. So what are the two qualities the Pharisees had? They taught the right doctrine. Their external life was good. But their thought life was corrupt. Their private life at home, husband and 16:12 wife, was absolutely filthy and corrupt. Anger and fighting and quarreling and all that, but externally it was very very good. And Jesus said, "Now your righteousness must exceed Matthew 5:20, we are back in Matthew 5:20, must 16:26 surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees." How does it surpass it? First of all, it's not only that my teaching must be correct, that I must obey that teaching in my private life. And secondly, it's not just the outside 16:41 of the cup that must be clean, but the inside too. In other words, the reputation you have before your friends as a good Christian, as a holy person, it must be exactly the same or more inside. Ask yourself now, 17:00 do people have a better opinion of you than you really are in private? Do people have a better opinion and of you looking at your outward actions than you are in your thought life, than you than you are in the way you live at home 17:15 with your wife and your husband? Do they have a better opinion about you, about your public life, than the way you are in in your dealings with money? Ask yourself, I don't know. I don't know how you handle money. I don't know how 17:29 upright you are. I don't know whether you love money at all. I don't know whether you're loving from whether you're living for money or for God. You can give the impression that you're living for God. Ah, that's easy to fool. 17:40 People are easily fooled in this area. But you alone know whether what you're living for. And you alone know whether you're absolutely upright in the smallest little thing in your private life or you're only giving an impression. 17:55 The Pharisees gave an impression. And they went to churches that preach the truth, the right doctrine, external life clean. What is the problem? Their inner life was corrupt and they did not practice what they preached. Now keeping that in 18:12 mind Jesus said your righteousness must exceed that mean your righteousness must go way beyond what they had and then he goes on to give the nine wrong attitudes. Okay you can say that you know Jesus came to with you know John the Baptist said 18:31 Jesus came with a root with a sorry an axe to hit the root of the tree. All the prophets in the old testament could not hit the root of the tree. The root of the tree is our self-life which is inside. And Jesus came with the the when 18:45 it says take up your cross and follow me. He was hitting the axe to the root of the tree which no prophet in the old testament could speak of and they could not do it because they did not have the holy spirit's power within. The holy 18:58 spirit only came upon people in the old testament. In the new testament the holy spirit comes within and helps us to put our selfife to death so that we can follow Jesus. So we can say the Old Testament prophets were came with a pair 19:12 of scissors. Any bad fruit, cut it off. Another bad fruit, cut it off. Cut it off. Cut it off. The Old Testament, the best of the Old Testament prophets could only come with a pair of scissor. And I tell you, a lot of today's preachers are 19:24 going around with a pair of scissors where all the people in the church look very nice on the outside. They speak nicely. Nobody knows what their private life is. Nobody knows whether their thought life is filthy. Nobody knows how 19:36 they live at home with their husbands and wives. Nobody knows how they handle money in private. Nobody knows whether they are righteous in their private life. But external life, anything that comes up, they cut it off. But a true 19:46 servant of God, a true prophet comes with an axe to hit the root or to use a modern illustration, he's like a surgeon who comes with a knife. Not the knife of the murderer. No, the knife of a surgeon brings life. He cuts. It pains. Sure, it 20:06 pains. People take sometimes two, three months to recover from from a surgery, but it gets rid of the cancer. That's a true prophet. That's the only type of church any of you should attend where somebody uses the knife to cut and 20:23 remove the cancer, not just put some cream on you and make you look nice. So, first wrong attitude. Jesus said, "Your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees." The righteousness of the Pharisees was external. Jesus said, 20:42 "Yours must be inward." In other words, it's no use looking nice on the outside. Your health must be good inside. A lot of people look nice on the outside. They are not healthy. So Jesus was talking about inner health, spiritual health. And first example, in 20:59 the Old Testament, the law said you shall not commit murder. That's external. In the New Testament, the equivalent of it is don't get angry. Verse 22. In the Old Testament, if you commit 21:18 murder, you're guilty. In the New Testament, verse 22, verse 21, sorry. If you commit murder, you're guilty. In the New Testament, if you commit, if you get angry, you're guilty. You see the standard world of difference. And anger is the 21:35 root from which murder comes. Why does a man go and kill somebody? Because in his heart, he's angry with that man for some reason. And Jesus said, "I have come to deal with the root of the sickness." What does an antibiotic do in the Old 21:52 Testament? I mean, not Old Testament. In the olden days, if you got an injury on your hand and or some disease spreading on your hand, they'd put some ointment and keep on putting the ointment and you it would look out nice on the outside, 22:04 but the root of the disease inside, nobody could touch until man discovered an antibiotic and an uneducated person will not understand. He go to some uneducated villager and he has a problem in his skin and the doctor says take this 22:20 tablet in your mouth and he kind of why he said problem doctor my problem is not in my mouth my problem I had he says I know that I know that eat this and that will go but that uneducated illiterate person doesn't know why but the 22:33 antibiotic is supposed to hit the root of the problem which is causing this disease on your hand that's exactly the New Testament gospel Jesus came with a message that would hit the root that would cure. And yet most Christians only want to look nice on the 22:50 outside and not hit the root of the sickness. So anger is the root of murder. So he says and there are stages in anger and you all know there are stages in anger. You don't immediately get burst into a temper. Stage one, stage two, 23:09 stage three. And Jesus says that first of all you're angry with your brother just in your heart. You're already guilty. Verse 22. And then your anger goes one step further. You say something to him. You know how it is. You get 23:24 angry with your wife or you're angry with your husband and initially it's only in the heart. Nothing comes out and then suddenly you know the temperature goes up and it boils over and you say something and then okay stop there. Then 23:37 after some time you keep thinking about it boils more and more and it boils right over. So he says there are three stages. If as soon as it begins it's angry you're already guilty. And if it comes out in some word that you say to him or her 23:52 you're guilty to the Supreme Court. And if it goes on still further third stage is hell. There are three steps to hell. Now many people say if you don't accept Christ you go to hell. Well, I'll tell you another way to go to hell. Three 24:08 stages in anger. When anger comes up in your heart, you ignore it. It comes up still more. You ignore it. The third step is to go to hell. I don't know whether you've heard any preacher tell you that anger can take you to hell. In my entire Christian 24:24 life, let me tell you my testimony. I've been a Christian for 66 years. Been to all types of churches. I never heard one preacher till today who said that anger can take you to hell. They say, "You've accepted Christ, you're okay." I'll tell 24:39 you, you're not okay. If you accept Christ and you get angry, stage one, stage two, stage three, you're going to go to hell. Whatever type of testimony you say, you accepted Christ. Who was Jesus speaking to? Was he speaking to unconverted people? Please 24:55 read verse one and two. Whenever you see the teaching of Jesus, ask yourself, who is he speaking to? Matthew 5:1. And he saw the crowds. He was not speaking to the crowds. He went up to the mountain and he called his disciples and he 25:11 opened his mouth and taught whom? He taught the disciples. He wasn't teaching the crowds. He left the crowds behind and went up and with the disciples and told the disciples, "Hey, you guys are the ones who have given up everything to follow me. I want 25:25 to tell you disciples something. If you get angry and get continue to get angry and continue angry, you Matthew, Peter, James, John, you'll go to hell. Now, if Jesus could say that to Matthew, Peter, James, and John, what do you think he's 25:37 going to say to us? My dear brothers and sisters, many of us have been fooled in other churches by not they're not taught you what is written in the Bible. Am I teaching something strange? It's here, right here. And so Jesus said, "Think about that 25:55 seriously. when you come to pray verse 23 and you're presenting your offering at the altar in the old old testament it was an offering in the altar in the new testament is prayer and there you remember that you hurt your brother with 26:10 your anger you said something to hurt him or you did something to hurt him stop praying what is the meaning of verse 24 leave your offering there at the altar in modern terms stop praying can imagine Jesus saying Stop praying. 26:28 Have you ever heard a preacher tell you to stop praying? You hear a lot of things in this church because we quote the Bible. Exactly. Stop praying. Go first to your brother. Apologize. Set matters right with him for getting angry with him, for getting 26:45 upset. Then come and pray. This is the reason why so many prayers are not answered because something has not been settled between you and your wife or you and your husband and you go to pray and you sound so holy your pious prayer and God 27:04 says it's all garbage. He doesn't even listen. He doesn't pick up the phone. You ring prayer is like calling up God on the phone and he says, "Yeah, I know that guy. I'm not going to pick up the phone." That's what God says. I know how 27:17 he he's talking to his wife. If I know how she's talking to her husband and I know how he's dealing with his neighbor, I know how he's dealing with somebody in the office, I'm not going to listen to that phone. Let him go and set those 27:29 things right with the people he has hurt, then I'll pick up the phone. Do you know that I believe that 99% of people when they call up God, God doesn't pick up the phone. They they keep on speaking like little little children. You know, you got a 2-year-old 27:42 child, they pick up the phone and keep on talking. Nobody's at the other end. That's exactly how 99% of prayers of Christians are. Jesus said, "First go and settle those matters, be reconciled with your brother, then come 27:58 and offer your offering." And he said, "Do that quickly because if you don't make friends quickly, you see the word quickly there in verse 25, make friends quickly with your opponent at law." Your opponent means what? He's got something 28:14 against you because you hurt him. Whoever it is, whether it's wife or husband or somebody in the office or somewhere else, some neighbor of yours, some relative, some mother-in-law perhaps who you hurt or some daughter-in-law 28:27 whom you hurt. Go quickly and settle matters with him, lest one day you're taken before the judge, and that is God. Verse 25, and you're thrown into hell. Is it that serious? 28:46 Yes. Truly I say to you, you will not come out from there. And you can't pay the price in on a in earth. On earth you can pay a price and pay your fine and come out. When you go to hell, there's no coming out at all. My dear brothers and sisters, 29:04 the Christian life is far more serious than what you've been taught. Is salvation by grace? 100% by grace. But grace is God's power. Not only God's mercy to forgive us our sins, but God's power to keep us from falling. If you look at the standard of the Old 29:26 Testament, do you believe that the standard in the New Testament should be higher? Jesus said the standard of the New Testament should be far higher than even John the Baptist. Can you can you imagine the type of life John the 29:37 Baptist lived? And we are called to live higher than that. That is because John the Baptist could not have the Holy Spirit within him. We can have the Holy Spirit within us. There's a lot of argument about the Holy Spirit. I'll 29:52 tell you one thing that'll make you drive you to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit. Read the sermon on the mount. When I read the sermon on the mount, I became desperate to have the power of the Holy Spirit within. Nobody had to exhort me. I said, "Lord, 30:05 I cannot live this life." And yet this is the standard you're expecting. That made me seek God for the power of the Holy Spirit. And God baptized me, the Holy Spirit and fire and began to lead me more and more into this life. And I 30:19 want to encourage all of you if you hear the word of God and accept the challenge of it. I'll tell you what it'll do. It'll make you cry out to God for the power of the Holy Spirit to live the type of life you lead here. And you'll 30:32 find you will come into this life. It's like a sick person getting healthy. I I really believe that. I mean, I remember my life when I was defeated by sin. It was like being sick with this sickness and that sickness and the other 30:46 sickness. Always constantly getting sick. And then as I began to overcome that, it was like getting healthy. And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit does. I want to encourage all of you to seek God for the power of the Holy 30:57 Spirit to live the life that Jesus describes here. Amen. Let's pray. So while our heads about in prayer, I want you to think about what you heard. You can dismiss it all as being extreme teaching, but you're going to be the 31:13 loser when Christ comes back. Take it seriously, my brothers, sisters. Don't think that being in this church preserves you. Not at all. Your private life before God is what matters. So ask the Lord to help you because when 31:28 he puts a standard before you, he says, "I'll give you the power to live up to that standard. Seek for the power of the Holy Spirit from today. Heavenly Father, help us all. We pray. You never tell us to do something which you don't give us 31:40 the power to fulfill. Thank you, Father, in Jesus name. Amen.
