Father as we come to your word. We pray that you would open our eyes and hearts help us to understand What you have for us this morning and ask that you would? Bless us with your presence in Jesus name amen I Apologize I have a cold and I will need to do this occasionally In our study of the Sermon on the Mount we've come to a new section in verse 21 before we move on is probably a good idea to Connect these verses to the ones that went previously in the Beatitudes Jesus describes what is true of a person whose faith is in Jesus Christ It's not a list of things. We strive for it's a it's characteristics of things that should be true of every Christian at least to some degree We're poor in spirit because we were humbled at by the perfection of Christ and the offer of His grace in the gospel We mourn for our sinfulness and desire to repent and be cleansed We're meek because we know we should be humble with other people no matter what their station in life Because God is greater than us and he has been gracious to us We hunger and thirst for righteousness because we want to be with Jesus who is righteous We're merciful to others Because we receive the greatest mercy in the gospel of Jesus We're pure in heart and being purified in heart as we long to see God And we are peacemakers first of all between persons if there's a conflict to help them be reconciled But most of all we should be peacemakers between God and others To help them be reconciled to God And to come to faith in Christ Now if these things are true of us we will be persecuted by those who hate Christ Some of us for following Jesus and some of us when we fail to follow Jesus and we'll be called hypocrites And that given is a reason for people not to come to church But as you and I know we are all hypocrites at some point in some ways it sometimes But despite this persecution whether mild or serious we're called to be salt and light in the world as First Peter chapter 2 says But you're a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession And here's the point that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light For once you were not a people But now you are God's people Once you had not received mercy But now you have received mercy Beloved I urge you as sojourners and exiles to obtain from the passions of the flesh Which wage war against your soul Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers They may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day of visitation Then once we Come to verse 21. I'm sorry verse 17 Jesus explains His relation to the law he tells Everyone that I've not come to Abolish the law no matter what I've been accused of I come to establish the law to fulfill the law And now we come to verse 21 and Following Where Jesus will correct the interpretation of the law that's been handed down from Pharisee to Pharisee over hundreds of years People had come to understandably rely on the Pharisees to tell them what the law said and what it meant Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones points out that it's not unlike the situation in the church before the Reformation At that time many people were illiterate The scriptures were written in Latin. They were read to people in Latin even though they couldn't understand it So people had to rely on the priest to tell them what the scriptures said and what it meant And if you had a tender conscience and you were concerned about Whether you were believing what was true You were told that if you believe what the church teaches You're safe even if you don't know what they believe This was referred to as a sending to the faith In Theological circles they call it no Tizia a census See, but if I just said that nobody would know what it meant As the believer you were a sending to the faith that the church taught even if you didn't know what it was You were trusting that The priest knew and they were reliable And so you believed what the priest believed Somebody were to ask you do you believe? The true gospel you would say I believe what the church believes I believe what the priests believe Even if you weren't sure exactly what that was And as the history of the Reformation and the church shows us there were many things that were taught that were not biblically sound Praying to the Saints the veneration of Mary the worship of sacraments just to name a few The church have with these teachings clouded the simple gospel and the way of salvation Now that's the situation in the first century With the Jews and the Pharisees You see the Pharisees had the word they had the scrolls they would read them Nobody had a book of the Bible They interpreted them they taught them So now Jesus has come to the point where he's saying I've come to fulfill the law to establish the law And so he's going to interpret the law by doing so he corrects the Pharisees interpretation He does this several times you'll notice with the formulaic saying you have heard it said But I say to you What I want you to notice here is that Jesus makes no appeal to any authority He doesn't say but I say to you because or Based on the teachings of so-and-so I say to you So when Jesus says but I say to you he is claiming authority a Lot of people today have various opinions about Jesus I mean if you Recent up until very recently if you talk to most people they would say Jesus is a good man Maybe a prophet maybe a wise teacher. I mean in recent history although they've sort of gone by the wayside the the new atheist were fond of saying Jesus never existed or That he if he did he was a charlatan. There were things like that Those who argue against the gospel will say that Jesus never claimed to be God But here as in many other places he claims the authority that only God has See the Pharisees appeal to previous Pharisees Jesus appeals to no one he says I say to you There are many places in the Bible where Jesus claims to be God. I'll mention a few John 858 after an argument with the Pharisees Jesus says that Abraham longed to see his day and they said to him you're not yet 50 years old. How do you say? Abraham longed to see your day And Jesus responds before Abraham was I am John 14 Jesus said I'm the way the truth in the life no one comes to the father But through me if you had known me you would have known my father also for now on you do know him and have seen him What's the implication? If you've seen Jesus you've seen the father But Philip said Lord show us the father it's enough for us Jesus responded have I been with you so long and you still do not know me Philip? Whoever has seen the father whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say show us the father? Jesus is claiming authority He's claiming Internality when he says before Abraham was I am he's claiming that he and the father are the same They're one Peter Begins his second letter with these words Simon Peter a servant of an apostle of Jesus Christ To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ There it is Hebrews 1 First verse long ago at many times in many ways God spoke to us To our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by a son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world remember John chapter 1 begins with The statement that in the beginning was God and he was with God and he was God referring to Jesus Goes on to say he's the radiance of the glory of God the exact imprint of his nature he upholds the universe by the word of his power and After making purification for sins. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on I So when Jesus says to the disciples to the Pharisees to anybody that's listening You've heard it said but I say to you he is claiming authority of God because that's who he is The reason that Jesus has the authority to Reinterpret the word of God or interpret it rightly is because he is the word of God And the one who created everything We're going to look at the first three reinterpretations this morning The first you have heard it you've heard it was told to those of old you shall not murder Now apparently the Pharisees interpreted this to say that if you have not actually Killed somebody physically you're not guilty The Pharisees were very fond of adhering to the letter of law, but missing the spirit And yet we know the scripture says the letter kills, but the spirit gives life Jesus says hold on a minute. He didn't really say that but that's the gist That might be the letter of the law, but let me tell you the spirit of the law Let me tell you the spirit of the law. I say to you Whoever is angry? Whoever insults whoever says you fool to someone is liable liable to judgment liable to the council and liable to the hell of fire Jesus is saying you can have murder in your heart toward someone and even if you don't act on it you are still guilty Anger can cause grievous sin I Want you to think of Jonah if you remember the story? God told him to go to Nineveh and to preach to them Tell them to repent What did Jonah do? Jonah got in a boat Went to sleep in the bottom of the boat and headed for Tarshish But God caused a great Storm to come up Finally Jonah admitted that the he was the cause of the storm because he had disobeyed God they threw him overboard Big fish swallowed him and he was spit out three days later Why was Jonah afraid to go to Nineveh no He hated the Ninevites He didn't want to go preach to them the gospel. He didn't want to go tell them to repent He didn't want to go tell them of God's mercy because he wanted God to judge them and to smite them Jonah chapter 4 admitted as much saying that he knew God would be gracious Ecclesiastes 7 9 says be not quick in your spirit to become angry for angry lodges in the bosom of fools Many people say that Anger resentment bitterness Hurts the person who has anger resentment and bitterness more than it does to anybody they're angry bitter toward or resentment of resentful of because oftentimes the person Who's causing this or who's the target doesn't even know That you're angry doesn't even know that you're bitter doesn't even know that you resent them And if they do they don't care Glenn read that all bitterness and Anger and wrath and clamor and slander if you put away from you along with all malice be kind to one another Tender-hearted forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you When I was a church planter in Indianapolis We started in 1995 with about 12 people By 1997 we had 200 60 people had professed faith in Christ I Was being invited to all kinds of church planting conferences to tell people how I did it Which was kind of a joke because I had no idea How I did it I didn't do it All I did was preach the gospel and people came to faith God did it Well after we had grown a Couple of the newly elected elders decided that the church needed some major changes and That resulted in conflict which led to people leaving which in the minds of the two men who caused the conflict Prove that they were right Many of the people who stayed were so angry with those who had caused the trouble And the anger and the bitterness and the resentment became the topic of too many conversations Hebrews 12 15 says see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and then no root of bitterness Springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled That's what happens Bitters and bitterness and anger do more damage to the person or the persons Who are bitter and angry than to the people they're angry with You can see this with people who have been hurt in a relationship Whether a man or a woman If you're in a relationship, let's say a woman this time if you're in a relationship with a man It's for some reason that man ends up hurting you and you feel jilted Who pays for that Probably the next man And if that doesn't work out you get to the point where I was talking to a Woman at the gym who works there and she basically said all men are awful And There are too many Women who think that Conversely, there are too many men who think who have had experienced the same thing on the other side and they think all women are awful Bitterness angry anger It can all cause more harm to the bitter and angry person So What is the solution that Jesus offers First if you first you admit your sin Second if you have something against someone or know that they have something with you Go to them in humility and try to be reconciled Romans chapter 1 says if possible so far as it depends on you. I'm sorry. That's chapter 12, I think As far as it depends on you live peaceably with all Now sometimes it isn't possible Sometimes despite your best efforts with the other person. They don't want to reconcile in That case you've done what you could But you should do what you can as far as it depends on you Excuse me Now the second thing Jesus talks about is adultery and Again, he uses the statement you have heard it said but I say to you and he elaborates on the prohibition against adultery To include adulterous thoughts and desires Apparently according to Jesus desiring to commit adultery Makes you just as guilty as if you physically committed adultery The Pharisees again were adhering to the letter of the law But the letter kills and the Spirit gives life You might think well then who can be saved Almost no one has avoided looking at someone else lustfully So Almost everyone is guilty of this sin along with the sin of coveting and the sin of having an idol And that is the sin that makes us all adulterous Listen to the words of God in Ezekiel chapter 16 as he condemns Israel He Says you have slain my children and delivered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire That's not different than us We've delivered our unborn children up to the idol of convenience He says besides all your abominations in your holla trees You have not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare and were polluted in your blood After all your wickedness woe woe to you says the Lord God You also built for yourself a shrine and made yourself a high place in every street You have built yourself a high place at the head of every street and you have made your beauty to be aboard And you have spread your legs to every passerby to multiply your harlotries This is what God said about Israel You Have also committed fordication with Egyptians your lustful neighbors and increased your harloty trees to provoke me to anger You have been a wife who commits adultery who takes strangers instead of her husband Now these words were spoken by the Lord against Israel, but they could be spoken today As I've said, we've slain many children on the eye on the idol of convenience While trumpeting a woman's right to choose to choose murder with the help of her doctors and A government that not only sanctions it but approves of it and boasts about it See we're not innocent of breaking these commands But just because we haven't broken them in letter only and As such Jesus says we are liable To the fire of hell not my words. These are the words of Jesus Finally not finally in the Sermon of the Mount but finally in this sermon Jesus talks about divorce Divorce has become common in our culture. I Remember the late 80s When it was first reported that 50% of all marriages end in divorce. How many people have heard that? I mean that just has become ubiquitous in our culture 50 of all marriages end in divorce Well in 1989 There was a gallop poll That indicated that 89 percent of ever married people were still married to their first spouse How do those two things coexist if 50 percent of all people who are married get divorced How are 89 percent still with their first spouse? Well, this is what happened One year this is in the u.s Two million people got married In the same year one million people got divorced and somebody said well Half of all marriages are ending in divorce Now if you know anything about statistics, you know, you can't do it that way First of all, you'd have to add the numbers together and then it's only a third but even that What if I said one year two million people were born and one million people died? Would I then be able to extrapolate that half of all people who were born will die Doesn't work that way So why is divorce viewed as common what's why the enormous disparity What's the motivation behind trumpeting something that is so blatantly false or at least it was And I think it's because satan and those whom he controls whether they know it or not hate marriage Because earthly marriage is meant to illustrate the marriage between christ and the church Between god and his people Excuse me Isaiah 62 4 and 5 says this You shall no more be termed forsaken nor shall your land be termed desolate For you shall be called my delight is in her and your land married for the lord delights in you and your land shall be Married for as a young man marries a virgin. So your son shall marry you As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride So your god will rejoice over you See the picture is that god is in such an intimate relationship with his people that the only earthly thing that Can possibly begin to illustrate it is the relationship between a husband and a wife in the marriage bed As a as your god read i'm sorry as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride So your god will rejoice over you And if you think that's not what it means listen to what paul writes in eph. Five For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall be one flesh This is a great mystery, but I am speaking about christ and the church Christ and the church are supposed to be so intimately Compassionately lovingly united That marriage Is best illustrates it is the best parable of it on earth which is why satan hates it Which is why he wants to destroy marriage Verse 33 says let each of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see to it that she respects her husband Satan wants to destroy marriage. He wants people to get divorced He wants people to think that it's common He wants people to think that it's just as common as anything else But even worse than that now people aren't even getting married I mean the number of children born out of wedlock Is increasing It's since it's astounding What Satan's motivation he wants to destroy marriage because of what what it represents christ and the church The fact that he can make you miserable is just icing on the cake Now If you've paid attention I don't think any of you could truthfully say that you've escaped unscathed But somewhere along the line You've been able to say yeah, that's me So, what do we do what do we do Well, we repent We admit our sin We turn to jesus that's why he came So Trust in him and him alone for your salvation Ask him to change you endeavor to follow him In other words believe the gospel Because it's our only hope let's pray Father in heaven as we Conclude our time of worship we pray that you would burn these words into our heart That we would see ourselves for who we are sinners in the need of grace And that we would endeavor No matter how we have followed up to this point that we would endeavor to follow you with all of our heart And if we've realized this morning that we never have Really trusted you I pray that even now We would That we would repent of our sin That we would turn from it That we would throw ourselves on the mercy of christ And that we would experience his forgiveness and love in jesus name we pray amen