AM I A “SERMON ON THE MOUNT” CHRISTIAN?
REVIEW SOM 5-7, PART 4
SELF-EVALUATION OF MY BIBLICAL WISDOM
INTRODUCTION:
For I tell you that unless your righteousness (dikaiosune) surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (5:20) But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (dikaiosune), and all these things will be given to you as well (6:33).
Our Lord is telling us in SOM what true inner goodness, moral excellence looks like.
TABLE ACTIVITY: Read through the 15 statements carefully. Write CL in front of the statement if you feel clarification of the statement would be helpful. Write MC in front of the statement that is most challenging.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mind and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Mt. 7:24)
Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart. . . . Examine me, God, from head to foot, order your battery of tests. Make sure I’m fit inside and out (Psalms 26:2, NLT, The Message)
Never (0) Rarely (1) Sometimes (3) Generally (5) Always (7)
46. I carefully help to remove moral specks, sins from the lives of fellow believers. (7:5)
“Judge” (krino) in Mt. 7:1-5 has many shades of meaning, e.g. separate, choose – that must be decided by the context. Mt 7:1-5 is one of the most misquoted, misapplied and misinterpreted passages in the Bible. It certainly does not mean that we are not to judge in the common sense for Mt. 7:6 tells us to judge between dogs and pigs and we are commanded to judge in many other Scriptures.
The command is against judgmentalism, a condemning spirit that springs from a self-righteous heart and shows itself as censorious, hypercritical and fault- finding, generally of another’s motives. The antonym for judgmentalism is generous, big-hearted, accepting.
Brotherly love forbids censoriousness and judgmentalism but does not excuse us from helping remove a speck from a brother’s or sister’s eye. “A bit of dirt in his/her eye is, after all, rightly called a ‘foreign’ body. It doesn’t belong there. It is always alien, usually painful and sometimes dangerous. To leave it there, and make no attempt to remove it, would hardly be consistent with brotherly love.” (Stott, 179)
SO WHAT?????
1. We have a corporate and individual responsibility for the spiritual and moral growth in grace of every member of the body of Christ.
2. We must do careful self-evaluation and self-criticism before we try to aid another in removing a moral speck from his/her life.
3. The major plank we always need to be aware of and deal with is self- righteousness and a judgmental/censorious spirit. The presence of these planks in our eyes disqualify us from being able to serve a brother/sister in speck removal.
4. We must possess a gentle, unbiased spirit that is full of mercy and grace when seeking to help others confront moral flaws and sin in their lives.
47. I value highly the ‘pearl of great price,’ the Gospel, and share it wisely with others. (7:6)
“It ought to be understood that dogs and swine are names given not to every kind of debauched men, or to those who are destitute of the fear of God and true godliness, but to those who, by clear evidences, have manifested a hardened contempt of God, so that their disease appears to be incurable.” (Calvin as quoted by Stott, 182).
1. Dogs – Not lapdogs but junkyard dogs indicating those hardened by sin, vicious and strongly opposed to divine truth.
2. What is Sacred – Meat offering made in the temple and a referring to the Kingdom’s Message – the Gospel.
3. Pigs – The most offensive of all animals to the Jewish people, referring to those who are incapable of discriminating between what is holy and unholy, stupidly obstinate (pig-headed) and vicious towards the Kingdom and Kingdom’s Message.
4. Pearl – An item of great value and superb beauty – referring to the value and beauty of the message of the kingdom
“The first thing (Mt. 7:6) means …. Is that all the truth of the Bible is not for the unbeliever. In fact, the only truth that is for him is the truth of his own sinfulness coupled with the offer of salvation through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that some will answer, ‘Do you mean to tell me that the ethics of Christianity are not for unbelievers, that we are not to preach love, sacrifice, mercy, and other things to everyone?’ That is exactly what I mean.” (Boice, 231)
“Someone else will say, ‘But what about prayer? Can’t we teach the non- Christian about prayer?’ Again the answer is No. There is not a line in the bible to support the idea of the value of prayer for any unbeliever. In fact, the Bible explicitly states that God will not hear the prayer iof unbelievers. In fact, ‘When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen’ (Isa. 1:15). The only prayer that God will ever hear from an unbelievers in the prayer that asks for salvation on the basis of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this doctrines in the only one that we have authority to prach to anyone who has not already become a child of God by believer it.” (Boice, 232)
48. I pray with perseverance for the burdens on my heart. I never stop asking, seeking, knocking. (7:7-8)
We have long accepted the understanding that God, in giving us free will, has limited Himself in human affairs in order to honor and protect our freedom.
How do we get God to “violate” our freedom, to interpose Himself into our world, into human affairs. Prayer is the means, prayer is the necessary opening. Through our fervent and persevering requests God allows Himself to be persuaded to act on our behalf. Prayers are our ways of allowing God to “violate” our human freedom and intervene in our affairs.
ILL: Do you come back to our Father again and again and again …. Until maybe He says, “You again?!, Not that same request!? Won’t you ever stop pestering me?!”
Someone said that there are three rules for prayer: (1) Keep it honest; (2) Keep in simple; (3) Keep it up!
KEY LESSON: Prayer is not just subjective, e.g. changes us. If that were all it was, prayer would be absurd. How would a prayer sound if it said, “Lord, I don’t expect my prayer to influence you in the least but at least I am experiencing a change in my own heart.” Prayer does influence God. It does change situations (not just me). Prayer is not just subjective. It is also objective. God does answer prayer. If we did not believe in the objective influence of prayer there is no way that prayer would have a subjective influence on us. The “Friend at Midnight” was not hoping for any subjective influence. He wanted bread!!!!! And he got bread!!!
“In the Greek there are two kinds of imperatives; there is the aorist imperative which issues one definite command. ‘Shut the door behind you,’ would be an aorist imperative. There is the present imperative which issues a command that a person should always do something or should go on doing something. ‘Always shut doors behind you,’ would be present imperative. The imperatives here are present imperatives.” (Barclay, 272)
The ‘present imperative’ tells us the importance of continuance and constancy in prayer – keep on asking, seeking, knocking.
If you are instructing your child on how to cross a street you would always use the present imperative which would indicate always look before you cross the street and not just today. “Look (always look, continue to look, keep on following this command) before you cross a street.”
A person who prays could be described as “the always asking one,” “the always knocking one,” “the always seeking one”!
J.C. Ryle wrote that words without heart, just lip-work and tongue-work will not be heard by God.
One person wrote that voice and words cannot reach heaven but groans and sighs can.
49. Selflessness marks my life. I seek to live by the ‘Golden Rule.’ (7:12)
“The Golden Rule is the most universally praised statement Jesus ever made.” (James Boice, 241
It is a “sister” commandment to the Second Great Commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Some have claimed that the Golden Rule is a summary of how we should live together, how we treat others. It is all the ethical wisdom of the world in one in one short sentence. John Piper calls it the “Spring of persistent public love.”
READING: When this rule is put in its negative form, when we are told that we must refrain from doing to others that which we would not wish them to do to us, it is not an essentially religious rule at all. It is simply a common- sense statement without which no social intercourse at all would be possible. Sir Thomas Browne once said, “We are beholden to every man we meet that he doth not kill us.” In a sense that is true, but, if we could not assume that the conduct and the behavior of other people to us would conform to the accepted standards of civilized life, then life would be intolerable. The negative form of the Golden Rule is not in any sense an extra; it is something without which life could not go on at all. (Barclay, 275)
The minute change from the negative to the positive in the Golden Rule, was an earth shattering change in ethics.
Bishop Ryle wrote, ‘It settles a hundred difficult points . . . It prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for conduct in specific cases.” (Stott, 191) ( John Charles Ryle (May 10, 1816 – June 10, 1900) was the first Anglican bishop of Liverpool.)
“. . . The negative form of the rule involves nothing more than not doing certain things; it means refraining from certain actions . . . . A person might for ever refrain from doing any injury to anyone else, and yet be
a quite useless citizen to his fellow-men. A person could satisfy the negative form of the rule by simple inaction; if he consistently did nothing he would never break it.” (Barclay, 275)
The Negative (Silver) Rule makes you obey traffic signs. You don’t want to be hurt so you don’t take a chance at hurting others. The Golden Rule / the ‘Love your Neighbor’ commandment compels you to stop and help a stranded motorist … or as Rich does, change a tire.
1. The Golden Rule is the summation of the ethical teaching of the Bible in a nutshell.
2. The Lord Jesus turned common ethical behavior on its head by turning the “Silver Rule” based on self-concern to the “Golden Rule” that is truly altruistic, focused on the needs of others.
3. Our Heavenly Father is our model in practicing the Golden Rule.
4. What is a Christian like? He/she is a counter-cultural individual who practices self-giving, selfless love as defined in the Golden Rule.
5. It is impossible for anyone to truly fulfill the Golden Rule apart from an on-going infilling of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis.
50. Through total brokenness, humility, spiritual destitution and spiritual hunger I have entered the narrow gate. (7:13)
Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), a great Baptist preacher, pictured the two side posts of the gate to be the first two Beatitudes, e.g. the need for a consciousness of spiritual bankruptcy (poor in spirit / beggars) and sorrow over sin (Blessed are those who mourn).
So we could translate Luke 13:24 as follows: “Make every effort, labor fervently, fight, agonize, force yourselves through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try (but will not agonize enough) to enter and will fail.” (Luke 13:24, paraphrase).
READING – FROM JOHN MACARTHUR, A STRONG CALVINIST: “The term agonizomai (“strive”) indicates that entering the door to God’s kingdom takes conscious, purposeful, and intense effort. That is the term from which we get agonize, and is the same word Paul uses to describe an athlete who agonizes (“competes”) to win a race (I Cor. 9:25) and the Christian who “fights the good fight of faith” (literally, “struggles the good struggle,” (I Tim. 6:12). The requirements for kingdom citizenship are great, demanding, clearly defined, and allow no deviation or departure. Luke 16:16 says, “Everyone is forcing his way into [the kingdom],” implying conflict and effort (cf. Acts 14:22). (John MacArthur, 455).
1. The Gospel message is narrow and exclusive only because our Lord proclaimed it to be so.
2. Total brokenness, humility, spiritual destitution and spiritual hunger are required to get through the gate.
3. Our Lord Jesus is the gate that all must pass through.
4. Eternal salvation is of such importance that we are challenged to agonize and struggle with all our might to get through the gate.
5. No matter what effort we expend to get in our theme song throughout eternity will be “Amazing Grace.”
51. I am conscious every day of God’s grace in guiding me to the narrow gate and making me one of the few on the narrow way of salvation. (7:14)
Our Lord knew that people would praise this Sermon but not act on what it taught and thus at the end of the sermon he challenges people to enter the narrow gate!
We are not to admire the gate. We are to enter the gate. The narrow gate is nothing more than obedience and this is also the mark of those on the narrow way – obedience.
Hell will be filled with people who have admired the Sermon on the Mount but did not search for and squeeze through the narrow gate.
1. The road we are to follow on our path to heaven is a narrow, restricted road based on the special revelation God has given us in His Word.
2. The broad road is easy, attractive and permits me to be the king of the road, the Master of my fate, the Captain of my soul!
3. Those who find the narrow gate and enter it are few in comparison to those traveling on the broad, wide road. There will be millions in heaven but still not a large percentage of the world population.
4. The decision our Lord sets before us are clear and precise concerning the gate to enter, the road to travel, traveling companions and destination. The choices are plain and clear.
52. I am vigilant and evaluate all Bible teaching I hear to make sure it does not contain false teaching. (7:15)
Our Savior does not give false warnings.
1. Because most people do not prefer the truth and because in one sense it is not easy to get through the narrow gate, we need true teachers and leaders to point the way.
2. False prophets plagued the New Testament church, plagued the church through history and are with us today.
3. We must pay close attention to warnings our Lord gives us. He plainly warns us to beware of, be vigilant concerning false teachers. Are we vigilant?
4. We cannot be passive and easy going, complaisant and laid back about the warning about false prophets because these people are very difficult to spot.
5. Just because a person seems harmless and gives a positive appearance does not mean he is not a false prophet.
6. Our Lord gives us some keys to detecting false prophets, keys that we need to use.
53 I evaluate a person’s ministry based on a character test and not just on their personality. (7:17)
Is he greedy, deceitful, secretive???
READING: The Didache on a true prophet: A true prophet was to be held in the highest honor; he was to be welcomed; his word must never be disregarded, and his freedom must never be curtailed; but “He shall remain one day, and, if necessary another day also; but if he remain three days, he is a false prophet.” He must never ask for anything but bread. “If he asks for money, he is a false prophet.” Prophets all claim to speak in the Spirit, but there is one acid test: “By their character a true and false prophet shall be known.” “Every prophet that teacheth the truth, if he do not what he teacheth, is a false prophet.” If a prophet, claiming to speak in the Spirit, orders a table and a meal to be set before him he is a false prophet. (W. Barclay, 282-283)
QUESTION # 1 – Are the first four beatitudes evident in his life?
QUESTION # 2 – How does he line up with the ethical teaching in the Sermon on the Mount?
QUESTION # 3 – Is his life focused on the external (form) or on the internal (spirit)?
QUESTION # 4 – Are the fruit of the Spirit evident in his life? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? (Gal. 5:22-23)
QUESTION # 5 – – Is it clear that the primary goal of his life is to glorify the Triune God or is his goal to feather his own nest and gain position and power?
SO WHAT?
1. We, as the body of Christ, the family of God, are challenged by our Savior to watch for false prophets, make judgment calls about false prophets.
2. Like a wolf, a false prophet / false teacher will tend to be deceitful, secretive and greedy.
3. Since it is very difficult to counterfeit virtue, we need to evaluate the character of a perceived false prophet.
4. Evaluating a person’s character based on the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount and the nine Fruit of the Spirit will help us to discover a false prophet.
54. I don’t only evaluate what a church teaches but also watch for “doctrinal gaps” in teaching. (7:16-19)
CLASS ACTIVITY: What four doctrines should we see in a pastor’s teaching that would assure us that he is not a false prophet?
READING – FOUR DOCTRINAL TESTS:
First, “the false prophet avoids preaching on such things as the holiness, righteousness, justice, and wrath of God.” He does not want to be accountable to God himself, so he instructs others in a concept of God that is like a giant marshmallow in the sky. It’s not that he admits disbelieving these things; he just will not teach them. Yet these attributes of God are found throughout Scripture.
Second, “he avoids preaching on the doctrine of the final judgment.” He does not want to offend by such a subject so he can talk about heaven and leave his hearers with the idea that all will eventually make it. Much of this has crept into the evangelical world.
Third, “false prophets fail to emphasize the fallenness and depravity of mankind.” This is quite popular in our day, especially in the church growth movement, as many have followed the lead of Robert Schuller and others who avoids preaching on sin. They don’t want people to feel badly of themselves, and they certainly don’t want people to realize their helplessness so that they cry to God alone for mercy. They seek to make people feel good about themselves so that they attract more followers.
Fourth, “false prophets de-emphasize the substitutionary death and atonement of Christ.” They may talk about the cross but not as the place where God’s wrath was poured out upon His own Son to atone for our sins [The Sermon on the Mount, 250-251].
55. While counseling and guiding individuals in spiritual matters, I avoid providing them with false assurance of salvation. (Matthew 7:21-23)
Self-Delusion: Satan seeks to deceive us and keep us from the narrow way but we also need to be aware of self-deception, self-delusion. Millions of American “evangelicals” are deluded because they are hoping in a salvation based on intellectual assent to the Gospel but that does not include repentance nor produce the fruit of obedience. We help ourselves avoid delusion by rigorous self-examination of our spiritual state
Contributors to Self-Delusion: Salvation without repentance, a false doctrine of assurance, faith that is not linked to obedience, focused concentration on religious activity, trusting in the “fair exchange” or “Balanced Approach” for assurance, The failure to self-examine our spiritual state.
1. Satan seeks to deceive us and keep us from the narrow way but we also need to be aware of self-deception, self-delusion.
2. Research indicates that there are millions of deluded “evangelicals” within the evangelical church in America today.
3. Evangelical salvation always includes repentance and produces the fruit of obedience.
4. We must avoid giving people false assurance of salvation.
5. We can deal self-delusion by rigorous self-examination as to our spiritual state.
56. I continually seek to do the Father’s will by living according to the ethical code taught by our Savior in the Sermon on the Mount. (7:21)
Incredulity: Many will be incredulous and disbelieving “on that day” to learn that all of their confession in Christ’s name and religious activity did not guarantee eternal salvation. Although correct belief is needed for salvation the true proof of salvation is obedience to the teachings of Christ. So it is true that no person enters the kingdom because of their obedience; but it is equally true that every person who enters the kingdom leans towards and strives to be obedient.
It is the “will of the Father” to carefully incorporate all of the teaching of the Son given in the Sermon on the Mount into our lives.
57. I rigorously examine my heart to make sure that I am not self-deceived and deluded concerning my personal salvation. (7:21-23)
We avoid spiritual delusion by evaluating our relationship to Christ, checking to make sure we have embraced the Gospel through faith accompanied by true repentance and obedience to the teaching of Christ.
Many “Christians” will be incredulous on the Day of Judgment to learn that they are classed with evil doers, have never been known by Christ and are excluded from his presence.
58. My assurance of salvation in Christ by faith alone is reinforced by my conscious and constant effort to obey him. (7:21-23)
The words of an engraving from the cathedral of Lubeck, Germany, beautifully reflect our Lord’s teaching:
Thus speaks Christ our Lord to us: You call Me master and obey Me not, you call Me light and see Me not, you call Me the way and walk Me not, you call me life and live Me not, you call Me wise and follow Me not, you call Me fair and love Me not, you call Me rich and ask Me not, you call Me eternal and seek Me not, if I condemn thee, blame Me not. (MacArthur, 480)
59. I regularly and conscientiously review the commands of the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and consistently seek to obey them. (7:24-27)
In the building of our Christian lives, our spiritual lives, there is absolutely no substitute for obedience to the commands of Christ.
The bottom line proof of being a follower of Christ is obedience to the Word of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount.
What Jesus is saying to us is that if we do not practice His saying, if we do not work the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount into the warp and woof of our lives we are like this stupid, foolish builder. Do we want to be classed with him? The only way to avoid that is to put into practice the words of Jesus.
It is interesting that in the Lukan episode re building this house Jesus says, “Why do you call me Lord! Lord! and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)
In the Jewish tradition a wise person was one who obeyed the Torah. It seems that Jesus launches his application on that principle and says that a wise person is one who obeys His teaching. You are considered a “wise” person if you practice the ethical precepts taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
Again, we come to the question. We have studied not the wisdom of Solomon, but the wisdom of Jesus, an analysis of true inner goodness, moral excellence, Biblical righteousness. We have set at the feet of Jesus, the expert, telling us how we ought to live. Will we live right? Will we make every effort to put into practice the words of Jesus?