Preamble
The Sermon on the Mount was our Lord's ordination sermon for His apostles.
The theme is God's righteousness, as contrasted with the hypocritical righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
The Sermon is not a Second Law with new commandments.
No, it goes much deeper than the Law, because it deals with internal attitudes as well as outward actions.
It presents a picture of a truly righteous person and shows the spiritual principles that control his or her life.
Jesus opened the sermon with a description of a truly righteous person, then He defined what sin is and what real righteousness is in the areas of worship and wealth.
He concludes with warnings against making hypocritical judgments, following false prophets and failing to obey God's will.
You are not saved by trying to obey the Sermon on the Mount, any more than you're saved by keeping the Ten Commandments.
Because they involve inner attitudes, the demands of the Sermon on the Mount is much more difficult than those found in the law of Moses.
Only the true believer in Jesus Christ can put the Sermon on the Mount into practice.
Israel: the Jewish people, who were awaiting their saviour.
Matthew chaps 5-6 (Tuesday, Jan 6th)
We're going to read about citizens.
We enter the Kingdom through the new birth, but we enjoy the kingdom by living for those things that please God the most.
The world and worldly believers will disagree with Christ's description of a blessed happy person, but the description is true just the same
God majors on character and so should we.
We'll read about salt and light here in Matthew 5
Tasteless salt and hidden light are good for nothing.
They don't accomplish anything.
Salt arrests decay in our world and light banishes darkness.
Salt is hidden but light is visible.
Both are needed in the world and both must give up themselves in order to serve.
And we will read about worshipers.
If you bring anger to the altar, you cannot worship God. So get rid of the anger quickly.
Angry feelings lead to angry words and deeds, and the result could be murder, because in anger is the spirit of murder
We will read about surgeons.
Obviously Jesus is not suggesting literal surgery.
The real problem is in the heart.
This is a vivid reminder that sin is terrible and reaps terrible consequences, and we're better off maimed than whole and going to hell.
Deal drastically with sin and don't let it have a foothold in your life - it comes to destroy.
We will read about the children of the Father.
What do you do more than others?
We must measure ourselves not by others but by the Father.
This includes our words, our responses to injuries and our dealings with our enemies.
It was Francis Bacon who wrote, 'In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy. But in passing it over, he is superior.'
We lay up treasures in heaven when we consider that all we have belongs to God, and we use it to magnify His righteousness and advance His kingdom.
It means much more than merely giving offerings to God, although that is important.
It means total stewardship of life, so that God is in complete control and our one desire is to glorify Him.
This is the secret of the unified life – free of worry.
We read about praise .
We should give only to please God and receive His praise.
If we give to win the praise of others, or to be able to complement ourselves - we get the immediate reward, praise.
But we lose the eternal reward.
We cannot get our reward twice – so we must decide which one we want.
We will read about prayer.
Our public praying is only as good as our private praying, and our private praying should be secret.
It should be sincere and systematic.
The Lord's Prayer is a pattern for us to follow so that we'll put God's concerns first, and not to forget to forgive others.
We will also read about possessions.
We need things to live of course, and God provides these things for us.
But acquiring things must not be the main goal of life.
You are living for things when they capture your heart, divide your mind and control your will. And the result of this is worry.
The solution is to put God first, and start living with eternity's values in view.
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