In 'The Community of the King,' Scott Brown expounds on the Sermon on the Mount, emphasizing Jesus' teachings in Matthew 5-7. Jesus begins by blessing those who embody qualities like meekness, mercy, and purity. He redefines the law, emphasizing its spiritual depth beyond mere actions, addressing issues like murder, adultery, and oath-taking. Disciples are urged to be 'salt and light,' influencing the world positively. Jesus critiques religious hypocrisy, urging sincerity in practices like prayer and fasting. The sermon highlights the importance of inner transformation, urging believers to seek the kingdom of God and righteousness. Jesus contrasts the narrow path to life with the broad road to destruction, underscoring the need for true conversion and heart change. The sermon ultimately calls for reflection on one's spiritual state, challenging believers to live authentically in alignment with God's kingdom.

Matthew chapter 5 And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket.

But on the lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill For assuredly I say to you till heaven and earth pass away One jot or one title will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so 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. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard it was said to those of old, you shall not murder and 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 whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council.

But whoever says, You fool, shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly while you're on the way with him. Lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.

Surely, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin plug it out and cast it from you For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell and If Your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Furthermore, it has been said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.

But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you not to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks of you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you and Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you that you may be sons of your father in heaven For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?

Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Chapter 6 Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in Heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory for men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. That your charitable deed may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, For they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly I say to you, they have the reward.

But you, when you pray, go into your room, And when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as they heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things that you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our deaths as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever.

Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, That you do not appear to men to be fasting, But to your Father who is in the secret place, And your Father who sees in secret, will reward you openly. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. For the lamp of the body is the eye.

If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by wearing can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so closed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat?

Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Chapter 7, Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured back to you and why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but do not consider the plank in your own eye. Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your eye? Hypocrit, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will seek clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be open. Or what man is there among you, who if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will he give him a serpent? If you Then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.

How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Therefore, Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way, which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbishes or thicks or thistles. Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Therefore By their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall.

And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. We've just been considering what is considered to be the greatest sermon ever preached. And the Lord Jesus Christ brings this sermon out in a moment that really is a striking contrast to everything before it and everything after it. In the first chapter, the genealogy of Jesus is given. Then in chapter 2, the birth of Jesus is explained.

In chapter 3, the whole ministry of John the Baptist, his manner and his effect and his message are explained, and then Jesus is baptized. And then in chapter four, there's the narrative of the Lord Jesus encountering the devil in the wilderness and that great conflict there in the wilderness. And then Jesus departs to Galilee and he begins to preach the same thing that John the Baptist preached, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so he's now going about Galilee, healing the sick, raising the dead, and preaching the gospel of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this sermon appears really in kind of a sharp contrast.

It's this determinative sermon. It's a didactic section that appears in the midst of long narratives. And it really, it should strike us, it should sort of stop us up to say, oh, look, And that's what we've been doing for the last 16 weeks. And what a joy it has been. The sermon opens with, and seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain and he began to teach them.

He opened his mouth and he began to instruct them. And so this is a sermon delivered to disciples, a small group with a larger group there in the midst of them as well. That's the setting. And It's being delivered by a shepherd. He is the good shepherd.

And he's gathered his disciples together to instruct them. And he really establishes the way that he will continue to operate. And it really is the way that the church is meant to operate. And that is to gather together for the instruction from the Word of God. And so Jesus does this.

The church always makes its way through the Word of God by the instruction from the Word of God. That's the only hope of the church to find itself having any direction at all. People say, where is this church going? Well, hopefully it's going in the direction of the Word of God as we bring it before one another. And, you know, God has always desired that His people would be sitting at His feet so that he could instruct them.

And this sermon is for that exact purpose. And so we really ought to, we ought to be coming so hungry to receive instruction, so desiring to have him teach us that we say, Oh Lord, speak now for your servant is listening. I delight to do thy will. That's the whole scene that's happening here. A shepherd is teaching his flock.

And I pray that as we've kind of sat on that hill before the Lord Jesus, that in our hearts We're saying, oh Lord, I want to be on that hill with you. I want to be like a lamb before you to receive your instruction, to hear your words from your mouth. I've heard everything that the world has said. I've heard everything that the religious leaders have said. But what I want to hear you say is, but I say unto you.

And that's what the whole sermon on the Mount is all about. You have heard that it was said, but I say unto you." So there's this beautiful picture of instruction, which is the way that we always ought to be. We ought to be like that weaned child before its mother, ready to receive the Word of God, the sustenance and the nourishment that we have. Now, this sermon also is just a continued application and demonstration of the whole message of Matthew up to now, and that is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so this whole sermon has its central message as the kingdom of God.

And I titled the sermon the community of the king because Jesus is explaining to his disciples what the community looks like. What are the gathered people like? What are they in their hearts? How do they act in the world? How do they operate with one another?

What do they think about their money? How do they deal with one another when someone has a speck in his eye? How do they grapple with all the weaknesses and imperfections that they find when they gather at the feet of Jesus together? How do they do that? How do they even see their whole path through life?

How do they even know if they're lost at all? How do they know where they're going? So Jesus is answering all these things under the great heading of repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He mentions the kingdom of heaven eight times in these three chapters and he mentions it in every single chapter that we've just read. And so what Jesus is doing is he's explaining what the community of the king should look like.

And the community of the king has been corrupted. And so, Jesus is instructing his disciples how to break free from the corruptions of the religious community. Hey, let's be really clear about who he's talking to. He's not talking to crack addicts. He's not talking to serial adulterers in the classic way of understanding it.

He's not talking about people who are slobbering in the gutter out of their alcoholism. He's talking to religious people. He's talking to people who've been trying to understand the law. They've been applying it in some way. They're standing on the laws of God, all of the Ten Commandments.

This is written, Jesus is speaking to people who believe all the Ten Commandments. And they've hung their hat there. So we have to understand that Jesus is coming to a people who are in need of reformation, even though they're well-mannered people, even though they're theologically oriented, they understand the Word of God, even though they've been participating in the religious system, even though all those things are true, Jesus is saying, you have been corrupted in your thinking. And now let me explain the beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven. That Kingdom that you have been dealing with and living in is an alternative, bankrupt, sham Kingdom.

It's not my kingdom. But here is my kingdom. Here's what it looks like and here's what the members of that society look like. So he's establishing the whole ethic and structure of this society and how it operates. And he, as we've spoken in the past, he begins from the ground up.

He begins with the heart. Blessed are the poor in spirit. He begins really at the most fundamental, foundational level, and that is the heart that sees itself as completely bankrupt. So there's this whole deliverance from dead religion and correcting the false teaching that was in the church at that time. We are not anything different than these disciples.

We have many errors that come from what we've heard. We have many departures that we're not even aware of. Even now, you might think, well, we have just been so reforming ourselves. That's absolutely not even true. We haven't even started.

At least in relative terms. There is so much more. How far are we from the perfections that we will finally be delivered to in heaven? We are so far from those perfections. So in one sense, we've really hardly started at all in the Reformation that God has for us in this world.

And all of us have adopted and embraced many things that are actually wrong. And Jesus is here to teach His disciples that principle. And what we learn is that Jesus doesn't trust a whit for outward appearance. He doesn't care hardly a thing about what you say, because he sees deeper than that. He goes way down deeper than the outward appearances and the ways that we are posing, the way that we posture ourselves.

And so Jesus doesn't allow us to just live in the realm of appearances. And what we find here is really just, It's a summary of true Christianity. That's what the sermon is. And there's so many elements to it and so many critical phrases that are in here to help us understand what Jesus is trying to communicate. Now, you have an outline, hopefully, before you that shows you the progression of Jesus' argument.

And I'm just going to walk through this this morning. And my prayer really is that as we review the words and revisit the principles that the Spirit of God would help us to make more progress, you know, in this whole area and and that we would we would be spoken to by His Spirit so clearly. And so what we find here in verses 1 through 11 is really an explanation of who we are before God and man. And Jesus is dealing with the inner life that ends up creating the outer life. And the attitudes really set forth a beautiful picture of what it means to glorify God, that they may glorify your Father in heaven when they see your good works, because you're seeking first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness.

So he's giving this picture of who you are before God and man. And as we have observed in the past, it's broken up into two parts. The first part speaks of your love toward God. And this covers from verses 3 to verse 6 and this beautiful phrase, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And here's a picture of someone who recognizes the greatness of his sinfulness.

And he says to himself, I am bankrupt before God, and so I must trust in someone who is infinitely wealthy. And then he says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." This is a picture of a true believer who mourns for his sin. This is the person who encounters sin in his life, and he mourns for it. One of the brothers here sent me something yesterday, written by John Owen, about people who are just constantly digesting sin. In other words, it's okay for them to ingest it and digest it.

That's not a picture of a Christian. A person who can digest filthy songs and watch filthy films, that is not this person who mourns for his sin. If you find yourself not mourning for your sin, but just wanting more of it, you need to really question whether you've entered the kingdom of heaven. Because the true Christian mourns for his sin. And if you're not mourning, you have to ask that question, have I been converted?

Am I still imbibing, digesting, drinking, eating it in, you know, to my life, or do I despise it when it's there? That's the whole point. And then he says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. That's the person who desires the control of God, not the self-driven person who's out making his way in the world, but this is the person who desires to be under the control of God. Meekness is power under control.

Under control of what? Not yourself, but God. And so this is the tamed man. This is the person who is sitting at the feet of Jesus on the hill and says, teach me, oh Lord, the way in which I should go. So this is a picture of true Christianity.

This is a picture of conversion. And then, and this conversion results in something, and you see that in verse 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. So There's this turn in emphasis in these first four beatitudes to the positive. When you are poor in spirit, when you are mourning, when you are meek, then it turns to a positive force in your life.

You begin to hunger and thirst. You begin to desire the things that really are good. That's a picture of a true believer before God. They're meek, they mourn, and they are tamed, and they hunger and thirst. And then he turns to the second part and that is who you are with people.

And he begins in verse 7, blessed are the merciful. So something happens in your whole outlook regarding other people. Instead of being such a hard-bitten, critical, censorious person that always has a problem with somebody else, you become merciful. Your whole disposition changes. And then, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

This is the person that has no pretensions with other people. And then, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. You become a peacemaker. And then, blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. So this life before God has a particular result in persecution.

And then when you're persecuted, what do you do? You rejoice and be glad. We're not like the Muslim martyr who goes down and kills everybody around him with a bomb on his body. That's not what Christians do. Christians rejoice when they're being persecuted.

There's a completely different kind of martyr in Christianity than you find in the other religions. And so here, this life with God though, it stands in contrast to the world. And while it is so sweet and so good to the heart, it does cause tumult in the world and you are hated for this heartfelt devotion that you have toward God. So those are the beatitudes. And then Jesus teaches us what we are in the world.

We are salt and we are light. And this just speaks of who we are as a church. This is a picture of the corporate body of the people of God together, and that they are salt and they are light. Now, while you have favor with God, you will not always have favor with man. And so that salt and light causes difficulty.

But salt is a preservative, and it's also a purifier, as we learned, that it draws out the putrefication. It doesn't just preserve. It does something. It goes far beyond just being a preservative. In other words, it doesn't just leave society in a steady state as it is.

Let's just preserve this. No, that's not Christianity either. Preserving who we are and what we have in our city and our nation and our world. We're not preservers in that sense only. But we are purifiers.

That's also what salt does. So we have a positive effect in the world rather than just kind of holding the line, holding everything together as it is now. Absolutely not. But we're far more than that. We're actually purifiers.

And so the Kingdom of Heaven is being built. And so we're salt and we are light. We're shining the light of everything that's true and everything that's lovely in the world. That's our job. We have a job.

Somebody's got to do it. And that's it. To be salt and light in the world. And then the Lord Jesus, as He speaks of who you are in your heart before God, who you are with people, and who you are corporately in the world, then He turns to how you live. How are you supposed to live in this world?

And you live by the law of God, by obeying the law of God. And Jesus, of course, he says, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And he goes on to explain in detail how the law of God is something that we should be obeying. And he continues this theme throughout the sermon.

He actually ends the entire sermon with this same thing. Those whose houses are built on the rock are built on obedience to the law of God so this he launches here a theme that will continue we'll click on it you know throughout the sermon but he's speaking about the perpetuity of the law of God that we don't set aside the law of God. In fact, he actually talks about, he supersizes the law of God rather than minimizes it. And he makes, he's helping his disciples to understand that the law means more than it looks on the surface. Like with the law of adultery.

You would think that adultery is just a physical act. He says, no, it's a matter of the heart. You would think that murder is just a physical act where someone dies, you did the wrong thing. No, murder is actually hating your brother in your heart. So Jesus actually takes the law and he says, no, this is the true meaning of the law.

This is what I meant when I spoke it through Moses, because it was every word of Scripture is a word of Jesus Christ, and every word of the law of Moses is a word of Jesus Christ. So Jesus is saying, this is what I meant. Now the Pharisees are saying something completely different. They're taking sort of a wooden interpretation of the law. That the law just means one single thing.

He says, no, the law is spiritual and it has far broader application than the Pharisees are pretending. Because it's so easy to have a law-keeping religion. You can just click off the Ten Commandments. I'm pretty confident most people here could come out looking pretty good on the Ten Commandments if you interpreted them the way that the Pharisees were interpreting them. Well they felt like they were keeping the whole law themselves.

And maybe some of you feel like that. I'm a law keeper. Well Jesus says you're actually not a law keeper and you've actually broken every law. You break them in your heart before you even are able to break them physically. So the law's not wooden, it's actually spiritual.

And so, then Jesus gives six examples of how He has not abolished the law. Two of those six examples are in the Ten Commandments, and the others are laws that are scattered through the Pentateuch. And so, Jesus is not just isolating the Ten Commandments as what survives, but the entire Law of God. If anyone could read this and say that Jesus is setting aside the Law of God, they're just not reading it very carefully. I did not come to destroy the Law or the prophets.

I don't know how much clearer I can get than that. So Jesus is not making less of the laws. He's making more of them. He's making more Moses more applicable, more relevant, more street level than the Pharisees ever pretended that could be. So he goes to the heart of the law and he speaks of murder and adultery and divorce and swearing with oaths and retaliation and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and also the whole matter of love and hate.

That should we hate our enemies? And Jesus says, no, we shouldn't hate our enemies. The law doesn't mean to hate your enemy. It means something far better and far more wonderful. And the whole purpose of this instruction is stated very clearly in the last few verses of chapter 5.

So if you look at verse 45, he gives the reason why all these things are so important, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his Son rise on the evil and the good and sends his reign on the just and on the unjust." And then he speaks about just loving those who love you, just greeting those who greet you and how that's what the Pharisees are satisfied with. They're just satisfied with surface things. Jesus says no, it's far deeper than that. And then he says in verse 48, therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

This statement takes us right to the heart of the doctrine of salvation. And that is that when a person repents and believes in the gospel and is truly converted. There's a new desire set in their hearts, and that is to be like their father in heaven, to quit being like themselves. That's the whole heart of the Christian life, is to be converted, to repent. For you're going one way, away from your Father in heaven, and repent means to turn around.

And you come back, and you start running toward Him, day by day. So this last verse really gives a picture of the gospel and really the blessing of what happens to all those who had been converted. They become like their father in heaven. What an amazing blessing that is. Look at what Christ is doing.

He is saying, I'm going to make you like my Father in heaven. What a wonderful and amazing promise. And of course it brings us face to face with how far we are away from that. But Jesus places before us this wonderful blessing that we can continuously quit being like ourselves. Do you want to be like yourself?

Do you want to just, I mean, do you like yourself? I mean, do you think you're just all that hot? Do you think you're, I mean, I mean, really, are you as loving? Are you as, are you as wise as you would really like to be? Well, Jesus engages us, you know, right on that level, in the level of our sheepdom, you know, and he's instructing his sheep.

And he's saying, you sheep, I'm going to make you like my father. It's a wonderful thing. We transition into Chapter six. Well, while Jesus has dealt with, you know, who you are in your heart before God, and who you are with people, what you are in the world, and then how you live. You live by obeying the law of God.

He's covered that. And then he brings up critical areas of spiritual life in chapter 6. And you can see it. There is the whole matter of religious religiosity and giving in prayer, in fasting, and also in possessing things. What do you do as a possessor of material goods?

How do you think about it? How you feel about it? So he's dealing with all these religious matters. They're all quite religious. And so Jesus, in bringing us here, he's just assuming that we're giving and we're praying and we're fasting and we're accumulating.

He's just assuming that all that's happening. Now this is a really wonderful section for many, many reasons, But the heart of this section is that Jesus is putting his finger on the pretentious, self-satisfying, self-congratulatory, and self-sufficient way that we want to engage this world. We want to be seen praying by men. We want to be seen by men to be praying. We want to be seen by men to be giving.

We want to be seen by men to be fasting and we want to be seen by men by how successful we are in how we've collected all these possessions. We want to be seen by men. We want to have this outward life that tells the world that we're something else, that we've got it, that we're successful. And so we do it by all these religious things. Now there's much that we can say here, and I really struggle with what to focus in on here.

But one thing I want to leave us with in considering this section is that there are people who think that the answer to your spiritual problems is to get back on the spiritual disciplines. Just get back on them. You just got to get back. You got to get back having your quiet time. You got to get back given.

You got to get back fasted and praying. And that your whole, the answer to your whole thing is just to get back discipline again, get back on the disciplines. And Jesus is saying, that's absolutely not true. These people are doing the disciplines. They're praying, they're fasting, they're giving, they're doing, they're due.

They're doing it, right? And he's saying, well, no, there's something more. He's asking, why are you doing that? Why are you doing that? Is it because you love the secret place with your Father?

Is it because you love to make a beeline to prayer because you cannot wait to be in that place where you cry out to Him, you bear your heart, you tell Him your sins, you pray for those who are suffering around you, you care so much about that person who's dying or who is sinning or something that you cannot wait to get before the face of your Father in heaven because you love His face and because you love those people as well. Jesus is speaking about something far, far deeper than getting the spiritual disciplines hummin in your life. Far, far deeper than that. He's really asking us to consider whether we love to be in the secret place with our Father. Not whether we want to get a tune-up, but whether we desire to be with our Father.

And then in chapter 7, And then in chapter 7, the Lord Jesus takes us into some of the most difficult and intimate matters of personal relationships, of the implications of being part of this community of the King. Because, you know, you're there on the mountain, you're with your brothers and sisters, you're being taught, you're there together. I mean, You can see each other, you know each other, and things like that. And you begin to make observations. You start looking at specs in your brother's eyes.

You start noticing, hey, everything is not right about my friend. You might have gotten to know your friend. You thought he was just absolutely the most amazing person in the world. After about six months, you're maybe thinking, he's just a regular guy. And then after about a year, you're thinking, he's an idiot.

Then after about two years you're thinking, I've got to get away from this guy. And so when you finally get to that point you say, I'm going to fix this guy. This has gone on for two years. How much longer do I have to observe all these problems than my friend? If I don't do something, he's just going to stay exactly like he is forever.

And I'm going to have to keep putting up with him. Look at everybody else that has to suffer with it too. So I'm going to do my duty. I'm going to go to my brother." And Jesus says, it really matters how you go to your brother. Because what we want to do when we go to our brother is we want to nail Him for His sin.

And we don't go through the process that Jesus has designed us to go through in dealing with our brothers. And what Jesus is saying is that when you see a speck in your brother's eye, quite likely, and I'm going to just say that real casual, quite likely, there's a plank in your own eye. There's actually something worse in your own eye. So while it's right to go to your brother, and while we need to go to our brothers, while our brothers need us to come to them, Jesus is not arguing against that. He's not arguing against judging your brother.

He's against judging your brother without repenting of your own sins. He's against men and women going to one another as the superiors in the whole relationship. Here, I'm going to come and tell you. It's how we do our counseling. Here, come into my office.

Sit down, lay down. Tell me your troubles. I will tell you how to fix it. I will tell you how to fix all these problems that have been going on. We do need counsel for one another and things like this.

I'm not belittling that. But there's this whole ethic, there's whole mentality in the way that we deal with one another that puts one person above the other. Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have to repent of your sins. You have a log in your eye.

And it's so big that your repentance that's required is actually greater than what your friend needs. He only has a speck. You have a log. So Jesus, as He brings His disciples together, is telling them how they should deal with one another when they see the specks in one another's eyes. They first of all have to deal with their own sin, or they should not go to each other.

Usually when we see a speck in someone's eye, it's the same thing that we've got in our eye except it's a log. And that's the whole logic that Jesus is using with his disciples. So he's teaching his disciples how they should go to their brothers when there's a speck in their brother's eye. Because you gather people in close proximity, they get to know one another, and they go through this, you know, process of relationship. God forbid that that happens to us here.

But that we are repentant people, self-conscious of our own sins, more conscious of our own sins than our brother's sins, more concerned about our own sins than our brother's sins, more detailed in inspecting them, and more careful in dealing with them. When we deal with our brothers, we want to do slash and burn. But when we come to ourselves, we want to use tweezers. Because we're so hypocritical, And Jesus is attacking that in chapter 7. And so, and that's why he says, Judge not that you be not judged, for with the judgment with which you judge, you will be judged.

And the measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. So if you have something that you want to point out in your brother, just understand that the road goes both ways with God, with God, because he knows, He knows what's running on that road. And so, and then he says, and why do you look at the speck at your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank? So Jesus is trying to teach his disciples to consider the plank in their own eye. So that they come to their brother's right, so that they come as fellow repenters rather than superiors to inferiors in that sense.

And so having given this instruction, he says, Hippocrates first removed the plank from your own eye, and he says, do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine. Because there are certain kinds of people that we should not be pointing out the specks in their eyes. Because they're so hardened, they're so evil, they absolutely are blind and they cannot see it. So we have to use discernment in that. And perhaps it implies the way that we even deal with the gospel.

But what we know for sure is that this is a verse about discernment, about using discernment, about who you talk to. How broadly it applies, I'm not exactly sure. And then the Lord Jesus begins to conclude the whole sermon beginning in verse 13, answered by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way to life.

And there are few who find it So after after walking through all these different areas that are so important for us to understand the Lord Jesus Comes and he's he's now into a a time in this sermon where he's separating the sheep and the goats. He's been giving lots of criteria by which you can understand whether you're a sheep or a goat. Are you poor in spirit? Do you mourn? You know, are you meat?

Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? He's been giving all these critical matters that we would consider So that we can begin to think about whether we are sheep or goats. And so from this verse, from 13 to the end, Jesus is separating the sheep and the goats. And so he speaks about the narrow gate and the wide gate and the narrow way and the broad way. And he's making it very clear that there really are no lost people in the world.

Everybody's on one of those roads. No one's lost. You're either on that road or the other. And you must consider what road you're on. Don't think that there's a middle road.

There's no golden mean. There's no happy medium. There's no balance at all. There are only two roads that you're on. One leads to life and the other one leads to destruction.

And then the Lord Jesus makes it very clear that there are false prophets who will cause some to be on the broad road, and I think by implication who think they're on the narrow road. But you'll know them by their fruits. You'll be able to tell because good trees don't produce bad fruit and bad trees don't produce good fruit. In one way it's easy to tell. We can nuance about how it's difficult to tell in other ways, but Jesus is saying, it's easier, it's easy to tell.

You know them by their fruits. So we can have some understanding about that. And then the Lord Jesus, in his final words, says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but He who does the will of my Father in heaven." Jesus is very reductionistic in these final statements, and He brings us down to ways that we can understand whether we've really been converted or not. Last week we talked about nine objective proofs of whether you are converted or not out of 1 John. But we always have to, when we're gathered as a church, we always have to ask that question because the church today is not that much different than it was in the days of Jesus where it was a mixed crowd and there were many, There were many who were saying, Lord, Lord, but not doing what He has said.

And then He speaks of, in verse 23 in chapter 7, of the heart of the person who says, Lord, Lord, but does not do what he says, and that is it's a heart of lawlessness. We observe that Jesus uses the word ahnomia, no law, no law. And when you find people who say the law doesn't apply to me, You should help them to be terrified for their souls. When you run into an antinomian person in the church, you should preach this gospel to them, that they are deceiving themselves to think that by saying, Lord, Lord, that they will enter the kingdom of heaven. Because what they say doesn't matter.

In fact, it doesn't even matter what they believe theologically. They believe Lord, Lord. They believe orthodox doctrine. But they don't do, they don't have a heart to do what He says. That's why Moses said, oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they might fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

Because it's one thing to say, Lord, Lord. It's one thing to pray. It's one thing to give and fast and have possessions. And it's a completely another thing to have a heart that seeks after God. And that's why Jesus says, let's see first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, He blows away all pretensions, all outward manifestations. He takes away our professions and our intellectual musings about God. He takes them and He says they don't mean anything. But what does mean something is when you hunger and thirst for righteousness, when you're poor in spirit, when you mourn for your sins, when you are meek, and when you repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." So here in the midst of these narratives is this beautiful diamond of didactic instruction to help us keep our wits about us in this world so that when the philosophies are running through our heads and we're trying to figure out how to live, Jesus has made some very, very clear statements that we can stand upon, that we can know are true about our lives before God, before the world, and with one another. And so there's such help here.

It's such a blessing to have it. And so God is here in this place doing the same thing that he was doing with his disciples on that mountain. He was equipping them for the work of the ministry. He was preparing them to be His servants in the world so that they would be salt and light. And He gathered them together on that hill.

And as He looked out over His disciples, He knew that there was one whose heart was hard. It was actually a satanic heart. And yet he taught them all together, and they were a mixed multitude. And I pray that as we consider all these things, that we would not pass through this sermon and go on to the miracles and the other things that Jesus has done without so carefully considering our eternal state and the condition of our hearts, whether we love the secret place, whether our hearts mourn for our sins, and whether we really, truly have been born again. Because Jesus Christ is building a kingdom, And he's just explained the way that the community of his kingship should operate, how the members are in every possible category of life.

And so as we move on, you know, in the Gospel of Matthew, let's don't lose the value that's been here as we've walked through this slowly. To consider our latter end and to consider so great a salvation that Jesus Christ offers to all those who repent and believe in the gospel, for all those who find in their hearts mourning, for all those who find in their hearts a meekness, for all those who find in their hearts a hunger and a thirst after righteousness. And that you're the kind of person who says, I cannot go on except to have that. I am seeking the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says there are few who find it.

And if you're one of those people who is seeking the kingdom of heaven, to take it by violence, by force, because you cannot live, you cannot conceive of living without Jesus Christ and becoming like your Father in heaven because you are so bankrupt because you are so shortfalling before God because your sins are so great then you've entered the kingdom of heaven. And if not, mark this day. And please consider the repentance that's necessary for your salvation. Let's pray. Oh Lord, you've delivered such amazing and wonderful words now as we contemplate them, as we have considered them so many times here over these last four months.

You have given us four months of considering these things and reviewing them over and over again. We've spoken them, we've prayed them, we've sung them, We've recited them, we've memorized them, and now, Lord, let it not be so. Let it not be so here in this congregation. O God, that you would save any who are lost, that no one would be saying, Lord, Lord, and not into the kingdom of heaven, but that you would give us disciples who say, Lord, Lord, and enter the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

In.