0:02 So, let's turn to Matthew's gospel chapter 5 and continue our study in the Sermon on the Mount. >> [clears throat] >> You remember that I said that we have here nine >> [clears throat and cough] 0:20 >> wrong attitudes and nine nine right attitudes first and then nine wrong attitudes. So, >> [clears throat] >> I didn't encourage you as you get time to remember those nine right attitudes from verses 0:37 3 to 12. I just want to emphasize one of those before I move on. Blessed are the pure in heart verse 8 for they shall see God. Now, how do I understand that? The Bible 0:54 says no one has seen God at any time. But, I understand it like this that if my heart is pure, it means free from not just free from sin but free from seeking my own. See, the root of all sin is that I seek 1:13 my own, my own honor, my own comfort, my own will and ignore others. So, if I'm free from seeking my own then I'm pure, what will happen is every in every circumstance that happens in my life 1:31 I will see God. That's the meaning here. If my heart is pure, I will see God everywhere. So, if does somebody ill treat me, I'll see God there. Allowing something to happen to me to make me a better Christian. Somebody cheats [clears throat] me, 1:45 somebody does something wrong to me, I'll never have a complaint about anything because I see that God is working all things to make me like Jesus. And how can I have a complaint against that? It may be a difficult circumstances but 2:00 difficult circumstance but I see God there. And if you are facing some circumstance today where you don't see God, it proves your heart is not pure. You may say I'm not committing any sin. But, your heart is occupied with 2:17 yourself. You can be free from external sin and you're occupied with yourself. >> [clears throat] >> That's not pure. A pure heart is one that is not occupied with oneself. The wonderful life is if you [clears throat] live like that, you'll 2:32 never never have a complaint against anybody in the world. You'll never have a complaint about any circumstance. It's only then >> [clears throat] >> that you can obey the Bible which says, "Rejoice always. Be anxious for 2:46 nothing." Just think of those two commandments in Philippians 4. Be anxious for zero and give thanks for everything. Rejoice always. >> [clears throat] >> That is only possible if I see God in every single situation. 3:05 So, think of some situation you face in your home or office with your relatives or unconverted people or difficult neighbors or whatever. If you see God there you will have no complaint. You will only give thanks. So, this is a great verse. Blessed are 3:24 the pure in heart, they shall see God. And so, if I don't see God, it means there's something in my heart where I'm not pure. Let me explain that again. That means something in my heart where I'm seeking my own satisfaction, my own 3:38 pleasure, my own comfort, my own gain, my own profit, my own name or whatever it is. Something to do with mine. And wherever I'm seeking my own, I'm not pure in heart. See, in the world, they have a very low standard of pure in heart. 3:52 >> [clears throat] >> But, that what I proclaim to you is the real purity of heart and the proof of that is that we'll see God in all situations. Okay. Now, then the other thing I want to mention is we talked about salt. 4:05 And I mentioned as we just heard how one man could accomplish in the Old Testament Elijah more than all the thousands of people who had a negative testimony. In the same way, man like Paul in the New Testament, one man Paul. Just think if one man Paul 4:23 had not lived. Can you imagine what a tremendous loss it would have been to Christianity just by the loss of one man. There are 10,000 other Christians if they had not lived our Christianity would not have been affected. 4:40 Our I'm talking about us today. But, if that one man had not lived our Christianity today would have been affected. That is an example of how God what God can do through one man. So, why can't that one man or woman be you? 4:58 All I'm trying to say is your don't think your life is unimportant. Every single life counts for God. And you may not be an apostle. That's a calling but your life can count for God just as much 5:14 as the Apostle Paul's. That means God's some part of God's purpose would not have been fulfilled if you were not there. And that's why it's important that all of us be wholehearted Christians especially in these days and we determine to eliminate from our 5:30 life all seeking of our own. The great secret of Paul's life was he did not seek his own. And the great secret of Jesus life was he did not seek his own and Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." And so, anyone here who can stand before 5:48 God and say I'm not seeking my own is following Paul and following Christ. It doesn't matter who you are. You could be a young teenager, you could be a woman or a man. If you can say I'm not seeking my own in any area. I want to seek the glory of 6:01 God alone for Christ's purposes to be fulfilled. So, that's a true disciple. So, that is, you know, salt is like that. If salt is very small in quantity, that's why I was emphasizing the fact that one person. So, you could be one person among one 6:20 relative in your or one person in your office, just one person and the light of God can shine through you. I have many times I thought of that when I was in a ship and I was the only Christian in the whole ship. I said, 6:30 "Lord, you kept me here so that I can be a light for you." Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Um the Bible says that the whole world the next illustration here is of you are the light of the world. And the Bible says in another place, the 6:46 whole world is full of darkness. And here and there God has put lights and it's very important that nothing hinders that light. Because if God has placed you, there are not there are not so many wholehearted Christians in the world. 7:01 So, it's very important that each of us seek to be the light. And what is that light? That's described here if you read in verse 16. What is that light? Verse 16, "Let your light shine before men that they may see not what you 7:20 preach." Not the correctness of your doctrine. So often we emphasize correctness of doctrine. There are a lot of people who got their doctrine right whose life is wrong. And there are other people whose doctrines may be a little wrong but 7:34 whose life is much more right than those whose doctrines are all right. "That they may see your good works and glorify your father." It's not your good preaching, it's not your right doctrine. The light is very clearly mentioned here 7:49 in verse 16 as good works that glorify God. So, it's by my life and not by my words. Like I heard this statement where somebody says, "I can't hear what you're saying 8:07 because your life is speaking much louder than your words. So, when you preach the gospel to me, I can't hear it because your life is speaking so loud that it's shutting down the what you're saying about Jesus Christ." So, very often that is the case. A 8:22 person's life is shouting out something else and he's trying to witness for Christ and these two things are in complete opposition to each other. So, that's important to remember that. And >> [clears throat and cough] >> Jesus said here, it's a very important 8:38 statement if you look at it. You know, if people were to ask you what would your answer be to this question? If someone were to ask you, "Who is the light of the world?" I think most Christians would say Jesus. But, Jesus said you. 8:57 How many of people have the boldness say somebody asks, "Who's the light of the world?" Say, "Me. You know, I'm the light of the world." You'll think that's arrogance. Okay. Now, let me show you what Jesus said. Please turn with me to John 9:10 chapter 9. John chapter 9 >> [clears throat] >> is a very clear statement. Verse 5. "While I am in the world 9:30 I am the light of the world." So, Jesus was the light of the world as long as he was here. And then someone will argue, "Well, Jesus is still here." To that also there is an answer in John 9:50 17:11. In John 17 verse 11, Jesus says, "I am not in the world anymore. I'm leaving in a few days. After that, I am no longer in the world. So, Jesus is no longer in the world. He's in heaven. And as long as he was in the world, he 10:09 said, "I'm the light of the world." So, strictly speaking, who is the light of the world? It's supposed to be you and me. Why don't we acknowledge that? Because the challenge is so great to be able to stand up to someone in our 10:25 office or in our relatives and say, "I'm the light of the world." It sounds like arrogance, but it's not that. It's it's like if somebody if [clears throat] you say, "I've got a driver's license." Is that something to be 10:40 that you're boasting? No, you got a driver's license, you can show it. It's like that. I'm a certified driver in California. It's like saying, "I'm the light of the world." That's what Jesus said. He's given me that title. 10:53 How do I take the title I'm a believer? Who called you a believer? The Bible says you're a believer. Who said you're a child of God? It's from the Bible. If I don't go to the Bible, I can't myself can't call myself a child of God or a 11:04 son of God or a daughter of God or or a believer or any such thing. The same Bible says I'm the light of the world. It's very important to see the tremendous responsibility I'm not asking you to go around boasting saying I'm the light of the world, but 11:17 I'm trying to let you see the tremendous responsibility that is yours that Jesus puts upon us to be the light of the world. And the light is not very often people think of the light as a doctrine. They've got wrong doctrine, they're in 11:34 the darkness. No. It's not a doctrine, it's a life. And then his his life was a light of men. Turn with me to John's Gospel chapter 1. Yeah. 12:12 >> [clears throat] >> Verse 4. John 1:4. In him was life and that life was the light of men. It's not the words he spoke. So often we have in Christendom an emphasis on rightness in doctrine. Very, very important. 12:30 I stood and fought for correct doctrine so many years. There are so many things we keep saying that are things being done in other churches which are not in the Bible. For example, take a simple thing like a salaried pastor. 12:43 A pastor who gets a salary. Where do you read that in the New Testament? Which apostle got a salary? And yet multitudes of Christians just accept it as if it is a biblical truth. It's absolute heresy. It's not found in the Bible. 13:01 So, I'm just trying to tell you how ignorant people are about scripture. So, >> [clears throat] >> it's a life in him was [snorts] life and that life was the light of men. And now he said, "I'm no longer in the world. You are the light of the world." Please 13:17 keep that in mind. As we go through the Sermon on the Mount, there's some very strong statements here. >> [clears throat and cough] >> Jesus never said, "Don't look at me." And we must not also say, "Don't look at me. I'm I'm I'm nobody." Well, you're 13:29 the supposed to be the light of the world, people are supposed to look at you. Very often Christians say, "Don't look at me, look at Jesus." Then what am I supposed to be? If I'm the light of the world, I'm not just to point supposed to point 13:41 to the Lord. It's very important to see because Christians evade that responsibility. "Oh, don't look at me. Uh my life is a bit of a mess and I don't live properly at home, but look at Jesus." That is a completely wrong statement. 13:55 Because if I am the light of the world, people are supposed to look at me. If I am supposed to be the salt of the earth, I'm supposed to bring taste into it. You know, when you read the Sermon on the Mount, you find a tremendous 14:05 challenge. And it's because people are don't not willing to face that challenge and want to live a third-rate, good-for-nothing, useless Christian life where they fight and quarrel and love money and all tribal earthly ambitions. And to evade all that, they 14:20 say, "No, this is not for us. We can't live up to the standards. So, Christ is my righteousness." It's one of the greatest deceptions that's going on in evangelical Christianity. Just to say, "Christ is my righteousness, so don't look at me." 14:33 No apostle would say that. Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." And that's what I want to say to you, my brothers and sisters. That's what every one of you should say. If you're a wife, you should be able to tell all other 14:47 wives in the world, "Follow me. Follow my example, the way I live at home as a wife." And you'll see what it means to be a Christian wife. If you can't say that, go and hang your head in shame before the Lord and say, "Lord, please forgive me. Fill me with 15:00 the Holy Spirit so that I can be a Christian wife." The same way, if you're a husband and you're not living as a husband should be, then go before God in repentance and say, "Lord, I'm not the head of my home. I'm just letting my wife run run the 15:14 home as she's the head of the home because I'm a good-for-nothing, useless, lazy fellow and I just want to be a follower." You're not supposed to be a follower, you're supposed to be the head of the home. You're supposed to be an 15:24 example, you're supposed to be the one who tells your wife and children, "Follow me." So, I'm just saying how there are things in scripture which many Christians don't take seriously and that's one of the reasons why we 15:38 have such a lot of third-rate Christianity today. These amazing statements, "Let your light so shine before men that when they see you, they will not glorify you. They'll glorify God." That's the other thing I want to emphasize in verse 16. 15:53 That one when we say that we are the light of the world, we're not seeking glory for ourselves. We're always pointing to glorify God. If that means we give the credit to God for what he's done in our life. I could not live this life by 16:07 myself. I could not overcome dirty thoughts by myself. I could not overcome my anger by myself. So, I give glory to God. So, it's very important because giving glory to God, I mentioned the other day how there's one thing God 16:22 will never give to us, that is his glory. He never allows us to take credit for the life we live. If we are if we want to give people the impression that I'm living such a good life and you take credit for it, you're a thief. I'll tell you that directly, 16:38 you're a thief. You're taking credit for what God has done. So, the do you let this let them see your good works, verse 16, and let them glorify your father. So, we don't stop with they see my good works and my good life. At the end of 16:55 that, the question is, do they just admire you or do they glorify God? Maybe you're having a wonderful testimony in your place of work or with your relatives. And do they all they say is, "Oh, what a great person he is. What a good person 17:10 he is. What a lovely life he lives." Or do they say, "He's a Christian. That's why he's like that." And if he they don't say that, it's perhaps I'll tell you why. Because you don't make it clear to them that you're a wholehearted Christian and 17:25 that's why you live the way you live. You want to take the credit for yourself that you're such a wonderful, godly person. Then you're drawing attention to yourself. You have to make it clear to your relatives and to your place of work that 17:40 the way you live the reason why you you live this way is because Jesus Christ is your Lord. There's no other way. And that they can come into that life themselves so that they may see your good works and not glorify you, 17:54 but glorify your father in heaven. Don't get your wife to admire you. That's a crime. It's idolatry. >> [clears throat] >> Let them glorify your father. Don't get your husband to admire you as a great wife. That's idolatry. It's like 18:10 getting someone to bow down before you. Glorify your father in heaven. It's so important that we don't draw attention and don't And if you see if the danger is if I keep meditating on what a good person I am, you will unconsciously get people to admire you. 18:23 Or people in the church. Don't get people in the church to admire you. What a God godly person. Point to Christ. We are only called here to like we read in that verse the other day, they heard him speak and they followed Jesus. They heard him speak and 18:37 didn't follow him, they followed Jesus. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Then the next sentence, verse 17. Jesus said, "Don't think I came to abolish the law of the prophets. I did not come for to abolish, but to fulfill." See, because he had come to start a new 18:55 covenant, people begin to think, "Oh, well, what about the old covenant? Is going to be abolished? Get rid of it completely?" No. What does it mean when it says Jesus saying, "I came to fulfill"? And he comes later on to it. 19:09 He explained what the law really stood for. They didn't understand it properly and we'll come to that in a moment. So, we can say that the to use an illustration, the law was full of commandments pointing to Jesus. So, in other words, 19:28 it's like a photograph of Jesus, but not Jesus himself. So, when I have Jesus himself, I don't need the photograph. I mean, if your wife is traveling with you, you don't need to carry her photograph. Jesus is the only pictured in the law, 19:46 but it's fulfilled. And that's why we don't need the law today, we live under grace. If you understand it like that, you will see that what he says here, I I came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Okay, now let's go on to verse 18 and 20:04 19. Not one letter or stroke will pass from the law till all is fulfilled. And so, here's a very important verse. How to be great in God's kingdom? And who is in God's kingdom? 20:23 That's explained in verse 19. And the answer is very, very clear. Whoever cancels one of these commandments will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. You know, there are many, many churches. I noticed one thing when I see pictures 20:40 of uh brothers and sisters in America in the early 1900s in churches, every woman covers her head. In every church. But after 19 After the Second World War, I don't know, something happened. I don't know, a whole lot of demons came 20:59 in and you go to most churches, no woman covers her head at all. What happened? And the We have the same Bible that's been here 2,000 years. There was a certain reverence for scripture at that time. Now, you may say covering the head is 21:16 one of the least commandments. Agreed. It's not as important as the commandments of don't kill, don't steal, don't borrow. Covering the head is not an important commandment. We can Let's call it the least of the commandments. Among 21:30 if there are so many commandments, that's the least. Okay. If you cancel the least of these commandments, you'll be given the title, you are the least in God's kingdom. Do you want that title? That you're the last person fit to go 21:47 into God's kingdom. You're absolutely the most useless person, but you somehow scraped it into God's kingdom. Why? Because you say, "Oh, that that is the least commandment. That's not important." The woman veiling the head is not 22:01 important. It could be something else. Borrowing money, for example. Do you know the multitudes of Christians who have no conscience about borrowing money and no conscience about returning? Even when they can return, they don't 22:14 return it. Romans 13:8 is a very clear statement. Owe no man anything except to love one another. There is a debt we owe others, and that debt is I'll tell you what it is. Romans 13:8, 22:34 "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another." What that means is God has flooded my heart with so much love of His love for me, and He's told me, "This is not only for you. I'm asking you to pass this on to others." Supposing you're given a whole 22:51 lot of tray of cookies or chocolates or anything to distribute and keep it all yourself. You think such a person is a very selfish person. But that's exactly what a Christian is who's received the love of God in his heart and he doesn't show love to other 23:06 people. There's a debt that I owe to others, and it's called here the debt of love. If Christ has come into your heart and you're really born again, and God has filled you with the Holy Spirit, it says here, "I have a debt 23:23 to love others." That's the meaning of Romans 13:8. But I must not owe others any money. I've found very few Christians who are serious about this. Even in many CFC churches, I find that people are not serious about giving back what they borrowed. Could be 23:41 not It may not be money. Could borrow some item that you borrowed You borrowed maybe a screwdriver you borrowed from someone and you forget to give it back. I don't believe you're a serious Christian. Think right now. Have you borrowed 23:54 something from Have you borrowed a book which you never bothered to return? These are the small things which indicate whether you're a radical, wholehearted Christian or a person who doesn't care about these things. And 24:05 that's the reason why God also doesn't care about leading you to a higher life because He sees something He shows you, you don't take seriously. God says, "Why should I show him anything else?" And I believe this is the reason for the 24:16 shallowness of so many believers who sit even in CFC churches. They're not serious about small things. Owe no man anything. I stand before God today and I say I have never been in debt to anybody in all my 86 years. 24:35 Even before I became a Christian, I said, "I'm not going to be in debt to anybody." Yes, when I was unconverted, I was in debt to the government in India because I when I was on the ship, I cheated on paying customs duty and all when we came 24:49 back from abroad. But then when I got converted, as soon as I got converted, I paid it all back. You know, I had to pay 4 months' salary back to the government. I saved up, saved up, saved up, saved up, saved up for many years, 25:02 and I said, "Lord I Lord, I'm going to The government doesn't know that I cheated them on customs duty, but I God knew and I knew, and I took that money and paid it all back, and my bank account was empty, but my heart was 25:13 full." And I remember the Lord telling me years later, years later, "If you had not done that 50 years ago, you'd have been walking with a chain on your leg all the time. You would not have made any progress in your life." 25:29 And I believe that's true of many Christians. There's something unsettled in the past. They say, "Oh, that happened so long ago. Let's forget it." You Well, God hasn't forgotten about it. You've done something wrong, and you've not settled it, and that's 25:42 why you're not making spiritual progress. You got a chain on your leg. And until you get rid of that chain, I'll tell you you will not make progress. You could have been a man of God, a woman of God by now, but you're not 25:54 because you're carrying a chain, an unsettled matter from the past. And it's so easy to settle it. You just got to deny yourself a little bit. Maybe you got to go and apologize to somebody. But don't take any of these things as 26:12 unnecessary or least. There is no such thing as a least commandment. If God has commanded it, it's important. The point is not uh how important the commandment looks. The point is who gave the commandment. That's what makes the commandment 26:28 important. God gave the commandment, then it's important. It doesn't matter whether you think it's least or big or small. And so, if you want to be the least in God's kingdom, see, there I'm not saying people go to hell because they didn't veil their 26:43 heads. A woman didn't veil her head, so she'll go to hell. That's not my my teaching. But what I do say is if if a person ignores that teaching, when he gets to heaven, he'll found his he's way down at the end. I don't know 26:57 what it means to be least in the kingdom of heaven, but it it must be a very shameful thing. And I suppose there'll be more than the shameful, there'll be a tremendous loss that's going to come to me if I'm going to be the last in God's kingdom. I don't 27:09 want that spiritual loss in God's kingdom, but you will be there if you ignore something you know. Now, if you don't know that, then it's a different thing. But if you know it, that in the church a man is not supposed to veil his head 27:26 because his head is Christ. A woman is supposed to veil her head because her head is the man. That's the simple meaning of it. And if you call that an unimportant commandment, you'll be least in the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, if 27:41 you take a small commandment in scripture, and you keep it, let's see the second part of verse 19. Take some very, very small commandment in scripture. You keep it, and you teach it to others. Owe no man anything. 27:59 Sisters must veil their heads. Men must not veil their heads. Teach it. You will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Do you want to be called great in God's kingdom? Here's the prescription for it. Anybody here wants to be great in God's kingdom? 28:15 Share with others the smallest little thing. Children, obey your parents, that it may go well with you. Teach your children that. >> [clears throat] >> Then we go on to verse 20. Unless your righteousness exceeds 28:37 the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So, what does that mean? That I cannot enter God's kingdom. I mean, do I enter God's kingdom by the blood of Christ or by my righteousness 28:56 exceeding the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? We We don't enter heaven by good works. It's by salvation. It's by repentance and faith in the blood of Christ. That's correct. But what he's saying here is one particular thing that right and I'll 29:15 point that out to you. What is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? If you turn with me to Matthew's Gospel chapter Sorry. Mat Yeah, Matthew 23. You'll find that the righteousness of the Pharisees is described by Jesus. 29:33 Then we will understand this verse. We don't go to heaven by good works. So, what does it mean when it says your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees? Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 29:46 23, "You blind Pharisees." Matthew 23, verse 25, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! You clean the outside of the cup, but the inside is full of robbery and self-indulgence." 30:05 Connect that with the verse we read in Matthew chapter 5, then you understand it. In other words, the Pharisees had a righteousness that was on the outside. There were two good things about the Pharisees. Do you know that? 30:20 One is they clean the outside of the cup. Isn't that a good thing to have a good external testimony? Yeah. They had a good external testimony. That's what the certificate given by Jesus. You clean the outside of the cup. 30:37 Another good thing Jesus said about the Pharisees is earlier on in that chapter, Jesus told his disciples, Matthew 23 and verse 2 and 3, "The scribes are seated in the chair of Moses. Everything they tell you to do, do." 30:56 Can you imagine Jesus telling his disciples, "Whatever the Pharisees tell you to do, you can do." What does that teach us? That teaches us that the doctrine of the Pharisees was right. And we read in verse 23, the external 31:12 life of the Pharisees was right. What was wrong with the Pharisees? Their doctrine was right. The external life was right. There was only one thing wrong. Inwardly, they were filthy. So, you have a Christian today who perhaps comes to CFC. 31:31 The doctrine is absolutely right, down to the last letter. And external life is they don't go to the movies, they don't smoke or drink. Their external life is so good. There's only one thing wrong with them. Their inner life, their thought life, 31:47 their inward life is corrupt. That's a Pharisee of today. And that is what Jesus meant in what Matthew 5:20. "If your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, you will never enter God's kingdom." 32:07 So, let me apply that to us sitting here. We're not talking to people in other churches, in our midst. If your doctrine is 100% right and your external life is 100% pure, and the only thing wrong with you is your inner life, your thought life and 32:26 your inner attitudes, you will not enter God's kingdom. Those are the words of Jesus because your That is the righteousness of the Pharisees. You know, this is the reason why many Christians never want to study the Sermon on the Mount. 32:43 And that's the reason many of them are going to hell. It's almost as though three chapters have been removed from their Bible. They don't take it seriously. Their Bible is all God's word except Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Do you know there are 32:57 Christians who believe that. There was a man I I remember when I was in another country, one of the leaders of the Brethren Assembly there, uh I was telling him about this. We were having a discussion because he thought I 33:12 was a heretic for proclaiming that Jesus was tempted like us and he never sinned and we can follow him. And I said, "What about the Sermon on the Mount?" He said, "The Sermon on This is what he said. The Sermon on the Mount 33:23 is not given to us to obey. It is given to us to show us the God's standard is so high that you'll never reach it, and therefore you just accept Christ and let him be your righteousness." Can you believe that somebody teaches 33:38 that? This is the amount of deception going on in Christendom. And this is supposed to be a Brethren Assembly leader. That's why in such those churches they never preach Sermon on the Mount. You go around and see how many churches 33:55 preach the Sermon on the Mount with great detail like we did. This is the first thing we studied when CFC started way back 50 years ago. We first studied the conditions of discipleship in Luke 14, the three conditions. We spent a lot of time 34:09 studying that. And immediately after that, the next studies we had in I'm talking about 1975 when we started, was the detailed study of the Sermon on the Mount. And then much later we did it again in the series called All That Jesus 34:23 Taught, which is on our CFC website. So, we major on that because because we wanted every one of our believers to have their life founded on the rock. Whereas all Christians say, "Christ is the rock on which I stand." 34:42 Yes, I'm also standing on the rock of Christ as far as forgiveness of my sins is concerned. Definitely. There's no other rock I can stand on, but I also believe that the man who obeys what's written in the Sermon on the 34:55 Mount, he's building his house on the rock. And the man who doesn't obey what's written in Sermon on the Mount, he's building his house on sand. So, I can't just say I'm on Christ and so I can ignore Matthew 5, 6, and 7. 35:08 I'm just telling you some things by which we can easily deceive ourselves. So, the Old Covenant could only clean up a person's external life like the Pharisees. The standard of life of a good Pharisee was much better than that of anybody else in 35:26 the whole world during the time of the Israelites because they had so good external life. They didn't kill, they didn't steal, they didn't There's everything so many things were upright in their life. But their inner life was corrupt. 35:43 And then John the Baptist came and he said, "Now the Jesus is coming with an axe to the root of the tree." So, in the Old Testament, the prophets came with scissors. If there was a bad fruit that come out, you cut it off. Another bad fruit comes 36:01 out, cut it off. So, always the bad fruit was getting cut off. You know, don't tell lies and don't commit adultery. It's all being cut off, cut off, cut off. And they looked very holy. But inside was corrupt like the Pharisees. 36:14 And Jesus came with an axe to the root of the tree, John the Baptist said. So that the whole tree is uprooted and another tree is planted which is got good from a good seed. And that is what we see here where that's why we say we must be born again 36:34 where the Holy Spirit comes in and brings another life into us. So, Christianity is not just a external reformation. It is a completely another life coming inside. And there are many people who call themselves Christians, even those who 36:49 say they are born again Christians. Another life has not come in. Another life that desires to be pure, desires to be humble, desires not to take advantage of others. Not that we had to be taught, "Don't take advantage of that." It's like 37:02 training a child to behave in a good way. You know, like you train a dog. If you want to pee, go outside, not here. You train, train, train. Like that you can train Christians, don't do this, don't do that. They're still dogs. 37:16 The dog hasn't changed just because you trained it to, you know, until I tell you don't eat the food. You can train a dog with all that. And then Christians are sometimes being trained. That's not Christianity. The person's not changed himself. The dog 37:29 doesn't become a human being just because you train it to behave like a human being. It's another life that makes a person a human being. And that's that's the Christianity we need where another life has come in and given us a passionate desire to live 37:45 like this. So, if that life has not come in giving us a passionate desire to live like what we read here, to be absolutely pure within, I would say to such a person, you need to receive Jesus Christ as your savior and ask him to fill you with the Holy 38:03 Spirit. Then you will come into genuine Christianity. Then the axe would have been laid to the root of that old life that you inherited from your parents, the life of Adam. So, >> [clears throat] >> when people can't live up to these 38:18 standards, what they say is um you know, there are commands like I'll give you an example so that you can see how Christendom is deceived. Turn to Philippians and chapter 4. We're doing a little longer 38:37 study this time and I'm a man under authority. I've been told by the elders that I can speak a little longer today. Uh Philippians 4, take just two commands here. Um [clears throat] 38:55 rejoice, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Always means 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Verse 6, be anxious for nothing. Nothing means zero. 39:15 Or 1 Thessalonians, yeah, verse chapter 5, verse 18, "In everything give thanks." Now, these commands were never found in the Old Testament. Why are these commands found in the New Testament? When people read that, 39:35 they say, "Yeah, it says rejoice in the Lord always, but always doesn't mean 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And what does it mean? What does it mean if it doesn't mean 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? So, this is how people modify God's 39:52 standards and say always doesn't mean always and things like that. So, the same thing people do to the Sermon on the Mount. It doesn't really mean that. I want to warn you, dear brothers, be careful. Allow the Lord Jesus to lay an axe 40:10 to that root of self in your life which tries to find an excuse for not obeying what God has commanded. We got to be really careful about it. Okay. And now we can move on to one 40:32 uh sorry, Matthew chapter 5. After having said all this, then he said, "Okay, now I'll give you an example." The law said, Matthew 5:21, "Don't commit murder." But I say to you, 40:51 if you're angry, you're guilty. The law said, "If you commit murder, you'll be liable to the court." But I say, "If you get angry, you're guilty liable to the court." Can you see how the standard was raised? Can you see Can you Can you live Can 41:10 Think of the level a man is living not committing murder even once in his entire life. Everybody passes that test here, I think. And then, never getting angry. What a difference in the standard there 41:32 is. And as soon as you see that, you say, "That's impossible." The moment you say it's impossible, you have said Jesus is a liar. I don't have faith. 41:51 I'll tell you it will be impossible for you. Anyone who says that what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount is impossible, it will be impossible. According to your faith, be it unto you. Your faith is what? It is impossible. It 42:06 will be impossible for you. But another person sitting on the other side says, "It is possible." According to your faith, be it unto you. You know, like we just heard mentioned. When Jesus asked the blind person, "Do you believe I can do this for you, open 42:20 your blind eyes?" If he had said, "Lord, I believe you can open one eye." According to your faith, be it unto you. And he goes out of the room with one eye open. The other fellow goes into the room and he says, "Lord, I believe you can open 42:32 both eyes." And both his eyes are open. Because it's according to his faith. And he comes out of the room and the man with one eye open says, "Hey, how in the world did you get both eyes open?" That's a false teaching. You have to go 42:45 around with the false teaching that Jesus can open both eyes cuz he's opened only one eye of mine. Why did Jesus open only only one eye of his? Because he had faith only for one eye. And so, whenever you see somebody two 42:56 eyes open, he said, "No, no, no, that's false teaching." Let me apply it to this. Jesus Supposing that one fellow's standard is yeah, we'll get angry once in a while. Another person's standard is, "I will never get angry." 43:10 No, no, no, that's a false teaching. No, no, no, that can't happen. But he had faith for that. He had faith that both eyes will be open. But the person with one eye open is critical of the person with both eyes open because he doesn't have faith for 43:22 it. This is the problem with Christendom today. And it can happen within a church where you can say, "I cannot live up to this standard." Be honest and say, "I don't have faith for it." Why stop somebody else who has faith for 43:37 it and who's experiencing it? My dear brothers and sisters, I spent enough time in my life moving around in Christian churches where people were defeated, fighting, quarreling, going to court, and all types of things. And I got fed 43:55 up because I saw that it was not what I read in the Bible. And I said, "Lord, I don't want that Christianity." There's no difference between that and the heathen. And I want what the Bible teaches. And that's how God gradually led me to 44:10 more and more of this. It didn't happen overnight and won't happen overnight with you. But if you take it seriously, let's read it. The Old Testament laws are "You shall not commit murder." That's a certain standard. Do you know there are people 44:25 who live below that standard? There are lots of people today who don't think that killing others is wrong. There are people who go and kill. There are You read stories about somebody who kills his wife or kills her husband. They don't take it 44:39 seriously. But here's someone who says, "No, no, no, that's wrong. I will never kill anybody." That's a better standard than the other person who says, "If you're put in a tight spot, you have to kill." Or if somebody cheats you, you must kill 44:52 him. But here's a person who's higher than that saying, "I will never commit murder." I think all of us are at that level. We'll never commit murder. But there are people who goes to Jesus' standard and say, "I don't even get to get angry." 45:07 And it's a question of whether you respect the teaching of Jesus. I believe that essentially it's a question of whether you take the words of Jesus seriously. You know, in the military, the reason why they put us as soon as we 45:26 joined the military, right from I joined when I was 15. So, from a very young age, we were taught to go on parade every day. And the main purpose of parade is to teach us instant obedience. Because in the in the military, when 45:42 you're out at war fighting with the enemy, and you have to obey instantly if you want otherwise the enemy will defeat you or you you'll lose your life if you don't act instantly in war. So, they teach you that in the parade 45:55 ground. When the parade commander says, "Left turn." You cannot even wait 1 second. You have to turn left immediately. Or right turn, immediately. And if you delay, they used to teach us such a lesson that you'll never make that mistake again in 46:12 your life. They'll make you run around the parade ground for 1 hour. You'll never make that mistake again. One with a rifle over your head. So, instant obedience. So, that's how they taught us obedience in the military. 46:30 Now, people out in the who are not in the military, they they don't care. They don't have to take it seriously. So, the same way, I find here also there are people who really want to be part of the Lord's army. I And Lord, I want to obey instantly. 46:43 When you say left turn left turn, I turn immediately. I don't think about it and say, "Well, okay, let me think about it and slowly do it." You'll never be in the military that way. You'll be thrown out. The Lord's servants are also part of an 46:57 army. And when the Lord says, "I say to you." It's like a command from the parade commander saying, "Left turn. About turn." The Lord says, "I say to you." Matthew 5:22, "Everyone 47:16 who's angry with another person is guilty. And if you say to your brother, 'You good-for-nothing' or call him some bad name, you're you're more guilty. And if you go one step higher and call him by a much worse name, you're ready 47:35 to go to hell." Verse 22. Who believes that? Those who fear God believe it and I'll tell you, they will come to such a high standard of life that God will use them to bless thousands. 47:52 He can use you to do that and make you like a shining light for him on this earth. I want you to think about I don't want to go too much, but I want you to think about that when you go home. Read those verses and ask yourself Just read that one 48:11 verse which I read just now in Matthew 5 and ask yourself Meditate on it. It's worth meditating. Maybe you should really need to meditate on it the whole week. And ask yourself just one question. I've had that verse in my Bible for 48:26 years. And I say I was born again so many years ago. How seriously have I taken that verse in relation to this that anger equals murder. If you're a Jewish person living under the Old Covenant, 48:45 don't get don't kill. If you're a Christian living under the New Covenant, the equivalent is don't get angry. That's the plain, simple statement that we read there just now in Matthew chapter 5. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 49:03 Let's pray. Heavenly Father, please help us to take your word seriously because we know that if we do it, our life will become unshakable. And we know the devil doesn't want us. The devil wants God's children live shaky lives all 49:22 along. Please help us to take your word seriously. To take up the cross and die to ourself, so unto our opinions, so that can we can live by your commands and not by our opinions. We pray in Jesus' name. 49:40 Amen. Amen.
