The Sermon on the Mount, Part 1

In the book of John, there's an episode where one of the leaders of the Pharisees, a man by the name of Nicodemus, came at night to Jesus and professed that he was someone who came from God, and that all that he had done were proofs of the fact that he was of God.

And they got into a discussion about the kingdom of God. And Christ said to Nicodemus that unless you're born of the Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus got into this long discussion about how do you understand and see the things of the kingdom of God. And Christ said that unless you're born of water in the Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

And that is a very interesting encounter that we find there, because Christ addresses the fact that you must be born again or born of the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God, that flesh is flesh and spirit is spirit. And from that, we could go off in one direction, but I'm not going in the direction that you might think that we would go from even a reference to that verse, that section. But I just reference it as an introduction to a topic that I want to get into as a series of sermons that I'm going to give over probably several months' time to finish it, but a series that really helps us to understand the full meaning of that encounter with Nicodemus and Christ for us today and in our life, and how it is that we do see and we do experience the kingdom of God today in our life. We understand that we will, at our transformation and at the resurrection, be fully born into the family of God as spirit beings. That's off in the future in terms of the full measure of entry into the kingdom of God. But scriptures, that scripture and many others, also speak to the fact that we have a new life today. When we are baptized and we receive the Spirit of God, we do have a new life that is given to us. That we enter into. And we begin to experience the kingdom of God in our own life today. The very essence of the message of Christ is that the kingdom of God is here, repent, and believe the message of the kingdom of God. And the opportunity to begin to understand that kingdom, to live by its laws and its principles, in advance of its arrival on this earth, is part and parcel of what conversion and the Christian life is all about. We're flesh, we're blood, we're not fully in the kingdom of God. But we do have God's spirit, and we are to live by the laws of that kingdom. We are to live by its principles. And furthermore, as Christians and as children of God, we are to experience the full measure of that in our own life today in preparation for the roles that we will have as kings and priests later on in the kingdom of God. And the real meaning of what Christ was really saying to Nicodemus there is not just limited to John chapter 3, where that story is, but it begins much earlier in the ministry of Jesus Christ and in what we find in the Scriptures to be really probably the very first full sermon, at least, that we have recorded in the Scriptures, which is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. And what I want to begin today is a series on the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Three chapters that take up this sermon that Jesus Christ gave on the shores of the Sea of Galilee to a group of His disciples. Some say that numbered, or at least, followers that numbered into the possible thousands on that day, that He gathered them on a hillside and spoke to them. What we read in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, that is called the Sermon on the Mount. It's called the Mount because there are little mountains, or part of the Sea of Galilee is ringed by mountains. And there's a traditional site on the Sea of Galilee that if you go there today, the Catholic Church has built a huge complex there.

And it actually forms a depression in the hill, almost like a natural amphitheater. And one of the reasons the traditional site is that you could stand there and you could address hundreds of people who might be ringed around you on this hillside. And without any amplification, one's voice could be heard in that area.

But the truth is, nobody really knows the exact spot on the Sea of Galilee where Christ delivered this. And it doesn't really matter where the exact spot is anyway. What's important is what He said. And what He said was some of the most profound teachings, some of the most basic teachings of Christianity in the Kingdom of God. Now, the connection to the Kingdom of God is very clear when we look at the setting for this. And if you will, turn over Matthew 4. This sermon today is going to be an introduction to the whole topic. And then subsequent sermons will go into the various aspects of it in depth. And so I want to lay a foundation for it here by giving you an overview of this. Rather than just jumping into it in Matthew 5, it's important that we understand that the message and the teaching of Christ in this particular message and this sermon begins even before. It begins, and the understanding of it is led up to from what we read about in Matthew 4. In Matthew 4, we read where Christ was led out into the spirit and into the wilderness and tempted by the devil, verse 1. And he had fasted 40 days, and afterwards he was hungry. And then through 16 verses, the first 16 verses of Matthew 4, we find and read about, or actually the first 11 verses, the temptation that Satan put before him of the three aspects. I'm not going to go through all that today. That's not necessary to introduce this topic. But here is where Christ was tempted by Satan. And in this confrontation, essentially Christ deals with Satan in his ministry in a direct way. And this is a whole subject in itself, and it's a fascinating story. But once this was over, Christ turned his full attention to his ministry. That's what you see from verse 11 to verse 12, because the devil, it says, left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. Christ didn't qualify in any way by doing this. He met Satan's challenges in the flesh, but Christ was already qualified as the Lamb of God. And this was not in any sense how he qualified. To use that term in relation to Christ is not really appropriate. Satan met his match, and Christ encountered him, and he brushed him off, essentially like swatting at a gnat or a fly for us. And he pushed him aside and dealt with him here, and then he moved into his ministry. And he begins his ministry beginning in verse 12 forward. It mentions that Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, and he departed to Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali. And so he came from...if the wilderness in which he was let out in the area was down in the southern area of Israel, and he went into the northern part up by the Sea of Galilee, and he began to preach the gospel that says here in fulfillment of a prophecy by Isaiah the prophet, that the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, would see a great light in verse 16. And they did begin to see a great light in the person, the ministry of Jesus Christ. And light, it says, has dawned. And that was being fulfilled. And now Christ began his full ministry.

And in verse 17, he says something that we read also in Mark chapter 1 and verse 14, But from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He was the emissary and the messenger of the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of heaven was at hand in the sense that he was bringing now a full announcement in person as God in the flesh to mankind of that kingdom.

And from all that we understand in terms of the following history of the church and the development, certainly the church era was beginning. And through that process of calling people into the kingdom of God, into the church, that message was being preached and was being held. But he says to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

And this marks the beginning of his preaching. And he begins to preach about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, and to explain it and to set up for it in a major aspect of the plan of God that was now breaking out within the world. And he began to call his initial apostles or disciples, because verse 18 talks about walking by the sea of Galilee, two brothers, Simon and Andrew, were casting their net, and he said to them, Follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. And these two became among the first of his disciples, and he went on from there, and he saw two other brothers, James and John. They were mending their nets, and he called them. And immediately in verse 22, they left and built the boat, their father, and followed him. So, he begins to preach, and now he begins to gather around him a team of people to augment this work of the preaching, the gospel of the kingdom of God, through his apostles. And then he also begins to go about the region there in Galilee in verse 23, teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them. Great multitudes followed him from Galilee and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond Jordan. And so, in just a few verses, we find the synopsis of the work of Christ preaching the gospel of the kingdom beginning to gear up, calling people who were going to form a foundation for the work, preaching the message, and announcing it with company by miracles that grabbed attention. Sometimes we ask, why don't we have these miracles like this today? That's another subject and another story. Just let me say, this was a major significant event. And quite frankly, when you look and you parse the Scriptures on miracles, miracles were not an everyday occurrence within the whole history of man. What we read in the Scriptures are the various times of various individuals doing miracles. Christ doing them here in his ministry are accompanying a major development in the plan of God.

We read of a time of miracles at the time just prior to Christ's return, connected with certain individuals prophetically. That's another time in the future. But we don't always see, even in the narrative of the Scripture, just the idea that miracles are part and parcel of the church or the people of God on an everyday basis. That's one very important point to understand in regard to that.

But it was here, in dealing with the beginning of the announcement and the call to the kingdom of God, that Christ was making in his ministry. This forms a foundation, and it leads right into Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the three chapters in the Gospels here that detail this sermon that he gave, that include the section on the call to Beatitudes, and many other basic statements regarding the kingdom of God and the way of life.

Now, we know this. We should understand this three-chapter section of the Gospels and understand it as containing what Christ spoke that day in a long sermon. So if I sit to say, this was one sermon. This was not spliced together from multiple sermons that Christ gave over several months or the years of his ministry. This is an account that you can look at and understand this was one sermon.

They gave it on one day there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. So understand that. Again, I'm cutting through a lot of theological discussion and commentary on the subject and arguments and differing ideas, but that's what it was. And the context of the Gospel accounts bear that out. So it was one sermon that he gave. Again, where he gave it, specifically in that region, is not what's important. And I've been to the traditional site, and I can get more out of probably just parking along the road along the hillside around the Sea of Galilee and climbing 100 yards up on one of the hills, and I'd get more out of reading it here than I would at the traditional site because of all the paraphernalia that's associated with the traditional site for the sermon on the Mount.

But here he gave some very profound teaching, basic teaching. This sermon is probably the least understood and the least obeyed of any of the sermons that Christ gave. And yet it's the simplest. It's the most basic. But how many of you profess to understand what he said? How many of us fully have internalized through that understanding the principles, the teaching, the depth of what is here, much less fully obeyed it? When we get into it, and as we will see, there is some very profound teaching. What this is in these three chapters given at this point in his ministry, as he is inaugurating the ministry of preaching the gospel, his ministry, he is giving a manifesto, a manifesto of the kingdom of God.

If you will, these three chapters are the Constitution, the bylaws of the kingdom of God, in its simplest form. They lay out a series of teaching as to what a person who is living by the teaching and the principles, the laws of the kingdom of God, and one who will ultimately be a full-fledged citizen of that coming kingdom, what that person will be like today.

How we would live now. That's what this sermon was all about. He gave it in one sermon, in essence, an encapsulization of the principles by which the citizens of the kingdom of God would live today. And so you can look at it as a manifesto. And that's why it's so important to understand it here at this particular point in time. When we go back to what he said in Matthew 4 and verse 17, he said, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Now that is a very personal message that anyone who comes to understand the kingdom of God and what it will be like, and wants to live by that kingdom's laws and teachings and lifestyle today in this world, will do. The concept of repentance is a complete change of mind. That's what the word repent really does mean in its most basic form.

It is a change of mind. It is a change that we come to when we read and we are convicted and moved by God's Spirit to read something like this and to realize that everything before in our life is over. And now we start a new life.

And this is what it's like to see the kingdom of God today. This is the answer that you and I need to understand, the part of the answer that Christ gave to Nicodemus that is really important to us. How do we see the kingdom of God? By living by the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. By letting that be a light and a reflection of our character for others to see as well. That's how we see the kingdom of God today.

And so it's a pretty basic and very important part of the kingdom of God. Worthy of spending quite a bit of time on, I think, for all of us to look at and to examine ourselves by and to look at as we go into this particular season of our life. The Sermon on the Mount describes what human life and what human institutions would look like if they came under the grace and the rule of God. This is what it would look like.

This is what your life and mine will look like if we are fully under the rule of the kingdom of God. What we see described here. Keep that in mind. Think about that as we get into it. Now, that raises one very important question as we look at this. And I want to lay this out for us to consider because often when we get into... It's the most basic of teaching from the Bible that is the hardest to do. And it is the hardest at times for some of us to focus our mind on because we want to hear other things.

Some want to hear prophecy all the time. Some want to hear doctrine. Some want to hear fire and brimstone. We don't want to hear the basics. We don't want to hear how to live. We don't want to have our lives really examined by probably one of the brightest, most critical lights out of the Bible.

And that would be what we read right here in this. We don't want to hear that because it's too basic. And even some might say it's irrelevant or it's not practical. That can be one of the biggest drawbacks that is thrown up against the teaching of Matthew 5, 6, and 7. It is not relevant to life today in the 21st century. And it's certainly not practical. I mean, let's get real, folks. We live in a very modern technological society, some would say.

Can we really expect people to not lust in their heart? Can we really expect people to turn that off and to not hold anger in our hearts? Can we expect that? That's hard, isn't it? Because we'll walk out of here and we'll get caught up in whatever's going on in our life and what we turn on, what we listen to, what we read, what we'll turn on in our own minds. And within 30 minutes after it's all over here today, we'll be angry. Something, whether from the pulpit or by somebody over coffee, we'll get angry and we'll work ourselves up into anger about something or somebody.

And so we say, is this really relevant? Can you expect a human being to live like this? The answer is, yes. Because this sermon really exposes the character of the citizen of the kingdom of God in relation to God, to mankind, and to the world. And if we can't live by that, if we cannot let that light shine on us and expose our shortcomings, then how can we say that we are truly citizens of the kingdom of God? How can we say that we are in training for the roles that God is going to give to us as kings and priests in that coming kingdom?

Unless today, in our mind, in our hearts, in our families, in our homes, at our job, in our church, and in our communities, we live by these teachings. And we make every effort to live by these teachings. And we make every effort to make them relevant in our life. I want to take the time to answer this question of relevancy and practicality as part of this overview today by looking at seven elements from the three chapters that really do relate to us as Christians.

And just look at it and understand it in that point of view and lay that out before we will spend time over future sermons going back. I'm not going to be just going straight through all of this and finishing it in a whole series of sermons. I expect it will take several sermons to go through, maybe as many as seven or so. And I probably will intersperse other topics in there from time to time.

But it's my goal to completely cover this over a reasonable period of time, over the next few months, to really give us an in-depth examination of this. So I invite all of you to make this a study in your own life as we go along with what is covered in the sermons, because it is very practical and it does relate very much to us.

And we have to understand exactly how. The first way is that it relates to our character as a Christian. In chapter 5, verses 3 through 12, we have what we all know as the Beatitudes. In fact, in your Bible, just like mine, it's probably labeled out here the Beatitudes, or the Be Happy Attitudes, as someone once explained it.

I don't know if that was one of my instructors at Ambassador or somewhere else I read that or whatever, the Be Happy Attitudes. And it's appropriate and kind of makes it a little bit important to understand. But you look at these, and they are blessings, but it deals with character. And they are blessings as a result of the way we are and that deals with our character. Verse 1 of chapter 5, it says, One of the, just a side point when I read this, he says, He went up on a mountain, He was on a mountain, and He sat down and they came to Him. I tend to think that He was not necessarily looking up to everyone, but probably looking out over everyone. In the setting that was probably there, as He began to teach them. But that's just my personal view on that. But He opens up and He goes through, invert through these first twelve verses, Blessings, These deal with our character, and these are blessings because of the way we are.

And so, yes, they are very relevant to us in that we understand from this how we are to be. And if we are like this in the various details, we'll go back more in detail in another sermon, then it will help us in following through what we read in the next section here, beginning in verse 13. Because here, in verse 13, it begins to talk about the influence that we will have as a result of a character that we have in these first few verses. And that's the second area in which it relates to us as Christians. This sermon definitely relates to us because it not only teaches, number one, about our character, but number two, about the influence that we would have. And in verse 13, He talks about being like the salt of the earth.

And if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. And you are the light of the world, and a light cannot be hidden. A light is not put under a basket. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. This speaks to, these verses 13 through 16 speak to the influence that we have as a result of the character that we have by the teaching of the first few verses. We can have a positive influence on other people if we keep the distinctive character of these beatitudes of uniqueness and righteousness and hunger and mercy and being a peacemaker. And all that that involves there. Then we can be an influence. But not before these elements are ingrained in our life and are dominant in our life. If we are a troublemaker rather than a peacemaker, if we have a character or a reputation of causing dissension, creating strife, then how can we be a peacemaker? And what is the influence that we have on people? How many times do we get to the point in our life where we finally grow up and we realize we don't want, we want to stop causing trouble? And so we stop gossiping or we stop accusing or we stop a particular type of trait and behavior that disturbs the peace. It used to be you could be arrested for disturbing the peace. I think it's a little bit harder to get arrested these days for disturbing the peace in our increasingly violent society. But you watch the Old Westerns and that's what they were, one of the chief ways in which they arrested people for disturbing the peace. Spitting on a sidewalk or whatever might have been trumped up in that way. Well, a peacemaker is one who influences and obviously can have a major, major influence on people. And so character and influence are two very important ways by which this deals with our character. Third matter of relation is righteousness. In verse 17, Christ talks about the law. And He says, don't think I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. And so He talks about righteousness and what defines righteousness. And through these verses here, He defines righteousness by the law. He said, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. And so a very plain statement that most people just gloss over or even those who look at will go through and create so many different explanations to say that, well, He was destroying the law. Even though He says He wasn't destroying the law, He was fulfilling the law. They focus on the idea of fulfilling, which means that He fulfilled it for us or you get through any number of permutations of explanation to again allow people the excuse to not obey God's law. And believe me, those are very tricky and intricate. And if a person wants to buy into a way of thinking that relieves their obligation, they'll find it. You can find it if you choose, but that's again not what He was saying. He goes on and gives very specific teaching in verse 19, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments. Not all of them were listed, but the ones that He mentioned here, He says, And if you teach men so, they shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I remember when the law was being done away within the church of God, and I knew that that was finally unleashed and being taught.

I remember this was probably the one verse that came immediately to my mind that I'm not going to be accused of that by Christ. I am not going to be accused by Him of having taught someone to break the commandments of God. And that was as far as I needed to go to deal with the theology that was being taught at that point. I was not going to. And it didn't need to go any further. These statements, very simply here, define righteousness. And He gives six illustrations here through the number of verses as we move forward through the rest of the chapter. On through verse 48, He goes through and He talks about what they are. He said in verse 20, He says, I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So how you live, your right behavior, He said to them, it's got to exceed the scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders who try to define to them and any religious leader that tries to define to us today would fall into that category of the modern-day scribe or Pharisee what righteousness is.

And He goes on to explain what that is. He gives examples. He talks about murder, verse 21. And He said, it starts right in your heart. He said, you've heard that it was said, you shall not murder, but whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And so He magnifies the law. He fulfills the meaning of the law by explaining that there's a spiritual dimension to the law. That it's not just an action, but it's an attitude. And the attitude begins in your heart, in your mind. And it begins with anger. It begins with an emotion. You could also add to that. It could begin with envy. It could begin with the number of aspects of emotional immaturity and behavior, but it begins in our mind and in our attitudes. And He says, we can break that commandment by harboring anger. And He goes on to mention adultery in verse 27. And again, to be even lost after a person in one's heart is to violate the command. So He adds the whole spiritual dimension to the law here. And it's very, very explicit in regard to that. Marriage, verse 31. Oath-taking, in verse 33. And, you know, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, in verse 38. And verse 43 talks about loving your neighbor. You've heard it said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and bless those who curse you and do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. And, you know, this is some very hard sections to get through and to apply and to live by. That's why sometimes it's harder for us to, or it's easy for us to want to just gloss over this and not spend the time on it and not really let the light of God's Word shine on our minds and our lives and our heart as to whether or not we do it. It's easier to go on to worry about this and to worry about other things. Get focused with, like I said earlier, prophecy, or the place of safety. For years, I remember people would have this fascination in our church theology for the place of safety. I know I'm going to give you, I said I'm going to give you a sermon on that once I get prepared, and I will. But it's an escapist theology for people to focus on those things. Because it gets us away from having to face our own lives and to deal with righteousness and character and living rightly among ourselves and according to these teachings from the most basic sermon that Christ gave.

And it's easy for us to just gloss over and go on to something else without mastering this. Because this is really where Christianity gets very, very deep and very important and very vital to our lives, to the unity of the body of Christ and to the work of the gospel. Here through verse 48, Christ defines what righteousness is. And there's no question. He reaffirms the law, the Old Testament scriptures and commandments and teaching. Through these illustrations here, each one of them reaffirms the law and the Old Testament scripture. It doesn't do away with it in any way, shape, or form. And so this is how it relates to us because here this sermon defines righteousness, defines righteousness for us and defines it down to a level that is spiritual in its full dimension. And again, worthy of our examination and study over a period of time. Now the fourth matter in how this sermon relates to us, we can begin in verse 1 of chapter 6. Because here he talks about what we can call piety. P-I-E-T-Y. Piety. You've heard of a pious person. There are a few popes that have been called pious through the years. But one who is pious is one who, by their life, they devote themselves and have religious devotions. They do things that are religious. And you know, you can...we've all probably looked at other people or maybe even had been accused ourselves of being overly pious. And when you accuse somebody of being pious, if you do it in a cynical way, you're really addressing the things that they do. Maybe they pray too much. Or they just look religious. Okay? And it just irritates you to no end. Someone that looks religious. How can somebody look religious? Long skirts, hair pulled up in a bun on top of your head, a little white bonnet holding it all together, a black garb. That's piety. Or being pious by the things that you do or the dress that you affect and can define a person's piety, as we say. Well, the Sermon on the Mount does address that. What we're talking about is religious devotion.

Things that we do in devotion to God that define some aspect of our walk, our religion, our way. And specifically certain deeds. When we keep the Sabbath, when we put bread out of, leavened bread out of our homes in the spring holy days, those are pious actions. When you wash someone's feet at the Passover service and you take a piece of bread and a little vial of wine, that's a pious devotion. It's an act that we do to define our religion, to define our faith, our belief in some way. And there are many different things that we do along from the scriptural teaching to reflect pious behavior and things that we do. And certain deeds. And this is what he begins to talk about in verse 16. So yes, this sermon is very practical because it does define certain things that we should be doing as a pious religious devoted individual to God. And where does he start? In verse 1, by doing charitable deeds. He said, Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, don't sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, say they already have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your deed may be in secret and your father, who sees in secret, will himself reward you openly. So charity, giving to the poor, giving to someone who is in need, providing a service, whatever it might be. You know, cleaning somebody's gutters, mowing somebody's yard, giving somebody $20 so that they can have a good Thanksgiving meal. Whatever it might be in terms of our charity, that's a pious act. That's a very practical, relevant thing to our life today. This addresses this. He talks in verse 5 about prayer. The model prayer, our Father in heaven. He says, you know, when you pray, do it this way. Prayer is an act of devotion as we devote ourselves to God. Now, he says, do it in secret. And, you know, again, go into your secret place in verse 6, and then he gives a model prayer in all of this.

And we know in our tradition and our custom is within the church to follow this. We open services with prayer. We'll open certain ceremonies with prayer. We baptize individuals or we'll pray over a meal.

From time to time, we will even pray within church for individuals in certain unique situations where we may be moved. I've asked people to, you know, just let a whole congregation in prayer. I remember in 19... was it 1967 or 66? I was a teenager in the church and Herbert Armstrong's wife Loma was ill. I think it was a cancer that she had. And we went to church one day and we all got down on our knees in the aisles of the church and we prayed for her. I don't know...

anybody around here at that time, 1966? Do you remember doing the same thing? So there's a time to... there would be a time to do that. I learned that very early. I know it's not a regular part of our custom to bow our heads or to do that, but if it's ever done, if I would ever ask you to do that or we would be in another congregation, another pastor, there's a precedent for it. And I don't think that it's wrong to do in that sense. We don't make a show of it and it's not something where we're lifting up our hands and we're trying to make an emotional show, coupled with prayer, but we'll talk more about that when we get through this.

But prayer is a part of our piety. Fasting in verse 16. When we fast, that is again an act of devotion. So these are things that we do. Giving, charity, prayer, fasting. They're religious deeds. They are good things. Our fifth area of relevance is when it comes to ambition. And that begins in verse 19, because he then moves into talking about what we do with our priorities in our life.

It begins to talk about laying up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. He says, rather, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. And where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That's ambition. That's a very, very key and critical part of our life. We have desires. We have goals. We have things we want to do.

And any young person who doesn't have those is going to settle for less. And hopefully we maintain an attitude of ambition throughout our life. But here Christ talks about an attitude and approach to that. And down in verse 24, he says, don't serve. You can't serve two masters. You either hate one or serve the other. In verse 25, he talks about not being overly concerned about what you eat or what you drink. Don't worry at that part of your life or what you put on, your clothing.

Again, he's speaking to an attitude toward material things and wealth. And he says, watch what shapes your attitude. Watch what shapes your whole approach to these matters. In other words, what do you seek first? In verse 33, this is the key. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Ambition. Ambition. A very important part of life. I kind of look forward to getting into this one in more detail. A very important part of life. But it's important that it's measured and that it's channeled according to the principles of the kingdom of God.

So that part of the sermon is a very relevant sermon to us. The sixth area of relevancy is our relationships. Beginning in chapter 7 in verse 1, he talks about relationships. He says, judge not lest you be judged, but what's sometimes at the very heart of our relationships with other people, but judging. And he says, don't judge. Don't judge in that sense. And when you do make evaluations, be careful because you're going to be evaluated in the same way. And it will be measured back to you in the same proportions. But here in chapter 7 verses 1 through 20, he talks about relationships. He talks about relationships with people. He talks about relationships with God. He keeps talking about asking in verse 7, and the importance of moving through life with a desire there and how we ask.

And the narrow way, verse 13, few people will find the way to eternal life that has to be opened up by God. But here he's talking about the relationships that we have in life and in the church. Once we repent, going back to Matthew chapter 4 and verse 17, once we change our life and we accept and we come into the church, we receive God's Spirit, we commit to the kingdom of God and our whole life along that path, relationships are going to change.

And that's why he talks about judging and serving and seeking, avoiding those who hinder us and walk toward the kingdom of God and make sure that we keep asking, seeking, knocking, in other words, praying toward the Father for our help. Because in this section he's talking about relationships. And those are the things that are going to change throughout our journey on the kingdom of God, not just once we commit. You know, sometimes always, it should be, I've noticed, when you come into the church, many ways your friends are going to change.

You live a life of the kingdom of God and begin to obey God and put Christ first in the way that he teaches. People are going to change toward you. You will change toward your former associations. Sometimes people have lost marriages because of their coming into the faith and their relationships begin to be altered. And we have to adjust to that. But even through the years in the church, relationships are going to change. Even relationships we form after coming into the church are subject to change. Depends upon the decisions that we've made. We get the decisions to marry, the decisions to have as this person or that person as a friend, thinking that this person is a member, thinking that this person is converted.

We make certain assumptions at times and don't always get it all straight. So marriages can be altered even those that are contracted within the church. Friendships that are made within the church can be altered as well. My point is that you spend any amount of time, as so many of us have, you will see that relationships will change. Old ones will fail, new ones will form over a lifetime. That's just the way it is. These principles help guide us through them.

And if we can learn the depths of these principles, then we can perhaps have longer relationships, better relationships, deeper relationships, whether it's in marriage, whether it's in friendships within the faith, in our walk toward the kingdom of God. This section is very, very practical. The last area that we talk about is commitment.

Commitment. In verse 21 through the end of the chapter here, verse 7, he really talks about commitment. Because he talks about, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And then he gives this famous example, the building on a rock, rather than building on sand. The building on a rock so that when the winds come and the rains come, our house stands and doesn't fall. Commitment. Endurance. You can listen and listen and listen and profess obedience and discipleship, but the real proof is in our life.

The real proof is in the fruits of our life. And that, again, I submit, is sometimes difficult for every one of us to really look at in our life and to be honest with ourselves. Without blaming someone else, the church, a minister, someone else in the church from today or 20 years past, the real proof is in the fruits of our life. And this is really what he addresses here. That's the proof of discipleship. Do we mean what we say and do we do what we hear? Do we really mean that when we say we are Christians, do we really mean that?

And we are working toward that and on that, and do we do what we hear? Or do we just listen and take good notes? On this hangs our whole eternal life. On all of these seven points of relevancy to our life today, hang our eternal life. That's why it is important. Now, are they practical? Is this practical? Let me go back to that question. Relevant? Yes. I've given you seven areas of relevancy. But is it really practical to think that we can live this way today, as I said earlier?

Given human nature the way it is, given you the way you are, given me the way I am, is it really practical to think that we can go through our life without passing through a supermarket checkout stand or any rack of magazines and look at whatever is displayed there and not feel lust in our heart?

Or to get entangled with some relationship and not have anger in our heart? I mean, get real. Is it too high an expectation? Some people have thought that. One theologian, as they look at the Sermon on the Mount and their way of trying to explain what Christ said, one theologian said, well, this was just a kind of a last-minute martial law type of sermon because the kingdom of God Christ thought, and this is a very liberal approach to the interpretation of the Scriptures, but Christ thought that and the disciples thought the kingdom of God was going to be right then.

And so this is how they do live just right before the kingdom of God. It's kind of the repent-at-the-last-minute type of approach, which is what, by the way, I used to have when I was a kid when I came into church. And I heard about this way of life, and I heard about the place of safety and tribulation and fleeing. I did the math. I did the math. I said, oh, man, I'm not going to be able to do this or that in my life because we had all this chronology of prophecy.

It's all going to be over. And so I had it all figured out. I was going to live my life and then repent one month before. I had it all figured out. I was going to repent in December of 1971. And that's how some theologians interpret the sermon on the Mount. It was kind of like a martial law that you declare at the last minute to get things in order.

And you live this way at the last minute, but it's not very practical to do otherwise. That's how some say it. In other words, it can't be done. It can't be done except in a dire emergency for a very short period of time, and then you get saved or kingdom comes or whatever.

That's one approach. And people conclude that that way. It can't really be done. It just can't be done. You know, it was a teaching that way that it's not readily attainable.

Then again, it gets dismissed or just glossed over or relegated to something that you kind of fold up and you put on the shelf and say, It's nice. It's an ideal, but I can't do it. We can't do it. And so it's unattainable.

Well, there are two extremes. Not readily attainable nor totally unattainable. And we have to avoid either.

The ideal versus the reality. The standards of the kingdom of God are neither readily attainable by every person, nor are they totally unattainable by any person.

We have to be realistic and practical in our whole approach. They are only attainable by and through Jesus Christ in us. And Christ's help, Christ's Spirit within us. What is described in all of this is an inner righteousness of the heart that is accomplished by and through Christ in us, the Holy Spirit.

It is attainable. It's not something way out there that's so ethereal that it's so unreal. It is attainable, but it's only attainable if we understand the key. And that's why when Paul said in Philippians 4 and verse 13, he said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We look to the author, the giver, the teacher of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, as the one who can help us to attain the spiritual dimension, as well as the physical application of the principles of this sermon in our life.

And so that's what we have to strive for, and it becomes a righteousness of the inner person, the manifesto of the kingdom of God, the way of life of those who will enter the kingdom of God.

That's an overview of the Sermon on the Mount. We'll go into it in more detail. I think that it will be a very instructive series for us all to study and to examine in a journey of the heart.

Well, if you take your time...