well today is a Bittersweet day if you have been with us for the last several months you will recognize the bitterness of this day the bitterness of this day is that we are not going to be looking into the life of the man who I hope has become our our dearly beloved friend Abraham it has been several months now that we've been preaching through the life of Abraham and we have come to the end of the life of Abraham so therein lies the bitterness however it is as I said a Bittersweet day and the sweetness lies in the fact that now for the next several months we will spend our time in The Sermon on the Mount we will look at Matthew chapters 5 6 and 7. and look at this most in-depth teaching this most in-depth message that we have from our Lord and Master Jesus Christ here in The Sermon on the Mount we we will delve into subjects of all sort as we wrestle with The Sermon on the Mount but my job today um is twofold number one to set the tone for us and give us an overview of this next preaching segment and number two also to offer us a sort of theological Foundation from which we can understand what we are about to hear over the next several months first let me say a word about why we preach the way we do now many of you already know this but that's okay we can't say this enough we we practice systematic exposition and there are two words there that are are meaningful and there are a lot of people who practice Exposition or expository preaching um to expose it simply means to take out of we come to a passage of scripture and we take out of it what it is there and present it first of all to ourselves and then to you so in in the simplest and most basic terms that's what it means to do Exposition systematic Exposition is a bit differently expository preaching is merely taking a passage of scripture in its context and preaching that passage of scripture in its context as opposed to something topical where we would take um multiple verses or portions of scripture and put them together in order to make a comment about a certain subject or topic thus the name topical preaching now we don't argue that there is never um that it's never appropriate to do topical preaching for example if we were doing a doctrinal study if we were instead of going through the life of Abraham or going through The Sermon on the Mount If instead we were looking at the doctrine of Christ and let's say we were to preach a series of messages on the doctrine of Christ then we would be topical because we would take all of the key passages and key verses that teach us about the doctrine of Christ and build those together in our messages and there may be times when we do that and that is completely appropriate however there's a difference between a topical series that is doctrinal in nature and a topical series that is felt needs and man-centered in nature which is what we object to and so you may hear topical message on the doctrine of Christ or the doctrine of the church but you won't hear topical messages on six ways to have a happy life and five ways to reduce stress and so on and so forth ad nauseum at infinitum okay so there's a difference what we practice here is systematic Exposition and what that means is we do expository preaching but we do it systematically through portions of scripture for example we went through Genesis 1 through 11. that was a portion of scripture that we taught through systematically now before we did Genesis 1 through 11 we did the gospel of Mark before we did the gospel of Mark we did Ephesians okay and so systematically we're preaching through the scriptures what you'll notice there is that there's a pattern we started with an epistle then we went to a gospel then we went to the law Old Testament so we went New Testament New Testament then Old Testament went to law then we came back and we went through John or with remark an epistle came back to the Old Testament then we went through first John an epistle came back to the Old Testament there's a pattern there there's an intentional pattern there we believe that God has called and commanded us to teach the whole counsel of God we have to preach the Old Testament we have to preach the New Testament not only that but in the New Testament we can't just preach the Epistles because that's just that's cherry picking for preachers that's the easiest preaching there is in the whole Bible especially the Pauline Epistles Paul just he's a preacher and the stuff that he writes is just preachable you can go to a passage in Pauline scripture and it just falls into three or four points they're just right there you know and you just walk through that it's cherry picking that's the easiest Exposition you'll ever do is preaching Pauline Epistles all right and that's fine there's nothing wrong with that but you can get real lazy preaching through Pauline Epistles all the time the other thing is we need the Old Testament as much as we need the New Testament because we know that Jesus himself said that the entire Bible is about him so we have to preach Christ from all of scripture and that's what we've been attempting to do let's preach Christ from all of scriptures so as we looked at the life of Abraham it wasn't just here's five things Abraham did therefore you go and do them so that you can be more like Abraham it is how do we see Christ in the life of Abraham so systematic Exposition is about a balanced diet by the way you may not know this but we use the same approach for our scripture reading in the mornings so we don't just read New Testament and in Old Testament but as we read through we're about to finish Revelation and before we read through Revelation I believe we did John so we did a gospel now we did appalling epistle um I believe we've read through does that say Revelation I meant Romans Romans we're at the Romans so we did it we did a gospel we did an epistle before that we had done um Revelation I believe you know so now we're probably gonna I mean we're through acts as well so we'll probably go read through another gospel at this time or something but the whole idea is a balanced diet for us to hear the word of God when it comes to the Old Testament we're in Jeremiah we'll be in Jeremiah for a while reading a chapter a week it takes almost a year to read through Jeremiah okay so it will be a whole year reading through Jeremiah well after we've read through Jeremiah we've read through one of the prophets we've also also read through one of the books of the law we'll probably go to some wisdom literature and we'll preach through some wisdom literature okay so let me go Proverbs or Psalms or something of that nature Song of Solomon no not with the little ones in here we may read some of Solomon with yeah yeah never mind all right and so again a balanced diet of the word of God so you you see that more readily as we read through these books in our new testament reading in Old Testament reading because we do that a lot faster than we preached through these books but so now we've been through the life of Abraham after having gone through first John after having gone through Genesis 1 through 11 after having gone through Mark after having gone through Ephesians we're going to come back and we're going to pick up with Isaac and we're going to go through Isaac's life after we've done The Sermon on the Mount which gets us back into gospel again and we'll go back and we'll do Isaac's life and then we'll come back and we'll probably do I believe it's the book of Acts we've talked about or something we talked about but again we we talk about our preaching schedule years in advance because it takes years for us to do all of these things and to do them well so that's why we're doing what we're doing that's why we're in this book and we're going to go back to another book and we have Old Testament we have new testament the whole idea is to give a balanced diet and to demonstrate the fact that Christ is present in all of scripture now having said that we're coming to The Sermon on the Mount and I want you to understand not just what we're going to be teaching but why we're going to be teaching teaching it and the theological underpinnings for what we're going to be teaching now Sermon on the Mount starts in Genesis chapter 5 or Matthew chapter 5. now in order for us to understand The Sermon on the Mount properly it'll probably be good for us to understand what happened before that in Matthew chapters 1 through 4. so first let me give you an overview of Matthew chapters one through four in fact let me back up even further and give you an understanding of the Gospel of Matthew we have four Gospels and a lot of people run into the four gospels and say why do we have four gospels I don't mean to just have you know one gospel well the gospels were written by different authors and they were written to different audiences and they were written for different purposes uh in fact when we looked at the gospel of Mark for example we talked about the characteristic of Mark and Mark's favorite word being straight away or immediately that if we were talking about this in terms of movie genres that Mark was an action film you know that quickly goes from one point to the next Mark was trying to tell the story of Christ to a particular audience probably a gentile audience in a particular way Matthew on the other hand is a different writer Matthew has a different perspective and a different audience in mind Matthew's audience is a Jewish audience Matthew's audience is a Jewish audience so because Matthew's writing to a different audience he is writing a different gospel and he emphasizes different things for example John John's gospel way different than the other three so much so that the other three gospels are called the synoptic gospel gospels kids you can use your context clues there alone Mom and Dad teach you all the time about your context clues there's sin in there like synonym and things like that so they're kind of the same yes absolutely and there's a lot of information that's shared within the synoptic Gospels John's gospel is much different he organizes his gospel around seven signs and his goal is to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah because of the Miracles that he performed Matthew's goal is to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah because of his fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies so we find more illusion the Old Testament prophecy there in Matthew than we find in other places because that's what Matthew is all about in fact we see that here in the beginning Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1. notice what he says the book of genealogy of Jesus Christ by the way that word that he uses there for genealogy of Jesus Christ actually hearkens back to Genesis the beginning the genealogy the beginning so just like John when he says in the beginning was the word he's hearkening back to Genesis Matthew here is also hearkening back to Genesis with what he says and by the way there's some good news here remember I said that it was a Bittersweet day bitter because we've left the life of Abraham well let's not altogether true the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of altogether now Abraham remember we told you the life of Abraham was about Christ the significance of Abraham was too twofold number one Abraham being in the lineage of the promised seed Jesus Christ and number two Abraham being this picture for us of justification by faith so we see here that Matthew is making a connection between Jesus Christ and Abraham now in Luke's genealogy he goes further not just the son of David the son of Abraham but he goes back the son of Adam and the Son of God why Luke's trying to do something different than Matthew Matthew wants to make a very simple point and his very simple point is this Jesus is the promised seed now if you've been here for the last several months you've almost gotten tired of hearing of that Jesus is the promised seed you probably wake up with him and I'm like Jesus prophecy okay okay okay we've said that over and over and over and over again what we see in the Old Testament lineage what we see in Genesis 1-11 what we see in Genesis chapter 5 in those 10 Generations that go from Seth to Noah Adam's line from Seth to Noah and ten Generations what's that all about that's all about the promised seed what promised seed the seed that was promised in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. when the gospel is first preached Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. the proto-uangelion the first proclamation of the Gospel says to that old serpent I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman in between your seed and her seed your seed is going to bruise him on the hill however her seed's going to crush his head that's the first proclamation of the Gospel there is a promised seed of the woman who is to come and that promised seed of the woman is the one who is ultimately going to destroy this serpent okay that's the message so when we look there in the life of Abraham we're just a few Generations away from Noah who according to Genesis chapter 5 is 10 Generations away from Seth who's the son of Adam who gets us all the way back to the beginning and their lineage is not important because it just gets us to the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob but it's important because it gets us from there to the law Giver Moses and from there to the King David and from there to the ultimate Messiah and King Jesus okay so we've left the life of Abraham but we haven't left his story because his story is ultimately the story of Christ okay again Christ in all of scripture then we have the genealogy so after this introduction to the promised seed we have the line of the promised seed that's in Matthew chapter 1 verses 2 through 17. and we won't read through all of that we don't have time to read through all of that then we have the birth of the promised seed this happens in Matthew chapter 1 verse 19 through Matthew Chapter 2 and verse 12 or chapter 118 rather and look at it look at chapter one verse 18. now the birth of Jesus took place in this way what an understatement Matthew says the whole Bible has been about getting us to this point I love the way Paul puts it in the fullness time in the fullness of time Christ came into the world born of a woman born under the law in the fullness of time and here Matthew says birth of Jesus Christ happened like this after all of that I mean come on man can we get just some crashing symbols and some no this is really not about his birth that's just a small part of it Jesus didn't come just to be born so that we could finally say the promised descendant is here his name is Jesus because he will save his people from their sin he's the deliverer we see the birth of the Messiah there birth of the promised seed then we see the enemy of the promised seed in 213 and following and here's what's interesting we've alluded to this before the gospel is proclaimed now who's the gospel first proclaimed to it's first proclaimed to the serpent in Genesis chapter 3 15 Jesus is talking to the serpent he preaches the gospel to the serpent first in other words he's not preaching the gospel so that the serpent could get saved that's not the only purpose of the Proclamation of the Gospel let me say that again salvation is not the only purpose of the Proclamation of the Gospel he proclaims the gospel to the serpent to just announce the Judgment that is to come and unfortunately for many people if not most people that's what the proclamation of the Gospel is it is a pronouncement of the Judgment that is to come so he says listen here serpent there's a seed that's going to come crush your head it's going to be the seat of the woman so that happens in chapter three what does the serpent work out in chapter four Cain kills Abel why the serpent is after the sea that's fine God you just told me how you're going to try to get me I know okay I know how to get around it I'll just kill the seed if I kill the seed of the woman I'm fine that's why the next thing you see is the birth of Seth the promised seat well then later on what happens when we get for example to Moses I know how to get into all of this I'll just get rid of Moses Pharaoh will just make a decree and he will kill all of the firstborn Sons why the serpent is still after the seed now in Matthew we see Herod and what does Herod decree the same thing that Pharaoh decreed kill all the first born male children why because the serpent is after the seed so it's interesting we get to the Life of Christ and we're still in Genesis amen by the way that's what helps us to interpret Genesis what's Genesis about Genesis about all this stuff right here Genesis is not just about legalisms and moralisms Genesis is about how God gets the promised seed and so we see that there then in chapter three we see the Forerunner of the promised seed the announcer of the promised seed well why is that important well because at the end of the Old Testament we are told that there's going to be a forerunner who will announce the coming of the promised seed and the spirit of Elijah he's going to go out and do that in the wilderness and now we have a guy who has the same diet as Elijah the same type of ministry as Elijah and he is pronouncing the coming of the Messiah so we see that in chapter three then in Chapter 4 verses 1 through 11 the Messiah the promised seed goes through the same thing that he went through when he was still in Israel let me say that again okay the promised seed has been born now in Matthew where's the promised seed before again Earthly speaking humanly speaking we know Jesus is and again the pre-incarnate Christ has always existed but we're talking about this physical seed he's a hundred percent man he's 100 God we understand that of his nature so where's the promise C well first the promise sees there in Seth then the promised seeds there you know down to Noah then the promises there in Abraham then promise he's there in Isaac promises there in Jacob so the promised seed goes to the Wilderness for 40 years well when Jesus is born where does he go to the Wilderness for 40 days why because the Wilderness wandering wasn't about Israel the Wilderness wandering was about Jesus that's why again Christ says he's in all of scripture 40 years they wander in the desert 40 years they wander in the wilderness the promised seed is born for 40 days he wonders in the wilderness for 40 days and then what happens there is a showdown between The Serpent and the promised seed you guys see how good this is Showdown right there in chapter four God's made a promise he proclaimed the gospel first one he proclaims the gospel to is the serpent tries to kill the seed again and again and again and again and again can't do it so if I can't kill the promised seed I'll corrupt the promised seed so he tempts him in the wilderness Jesus is tempted in every Point as we are and yet without sin after that we see the ministry of the promised seed Chapter 4 verses 12 and following what is this about well if you look in your Bible you'll see all of these quotations from the Old Testament how are we going to know the Messiah when he shows up we're going to know the Messiah when he shows up because of the ministry that he does because of the things that he does and the blind will see and the lame will walk and the mute will speak these are the things that the promised seed that the Messiah is going to do so in Chapter 4 verses 12 and following we see him doing those very things and at the end of that we get to chapter five because the other way we're going to know the promised seed is not just through his ministry but through his teaching and that brings us to The Sermon on the Mount and the teaching of Christ now in order for us to grasp this there are a couple of things that we're going to have to be clear about in order to understand The Sermon on the Mount because we've talked often about how difficult it is to preach Christ in the Old Testament to preach the gospel even when we're on in the Old Testament because what we usually want to do is we want to go and do character studies in the Old Testament and we want to say here are the character traits that these individuals in the Old Testament had you work real hard to have these character traits we've talked about that and how important it is that we recognize that we're called to preach the gospel amen the Bible is about Christ not about you working hard enough to be like Christ which you can't do well if you thought it was hard in the life of Abraham would you see how hard it is in The Sermon on the Mount because if we're not careful we get to The Sermon on the Mount and here's what we do there's a list of rules there's law Jesus is even elevating the law Old Testament law said this I say that you thought the Old Testament law was hard to meet I got a law that's even harder for you to meet The Sermon on the Mount is an introduction to Christian ethics an introduction to Christian ethics and in order for us to understand Christian ethics we must understand the Christian gospel we have to get it we have to understand that the gospel is about a pronouncement of the work that God has done in Christ it's a pronouncement of the coming of Christ The Life of Christ the ministry of Christ the proclamations of Christ his death his burial his resurrection and Ascension and his coming again it is the pronouncement of that good news the pronouncement of that message man has a sin problem there is but one answer and that answer is the person and work of Jesus Christ that's the gospel that we Proclaim unfortunately we are hardwired for Works righteousness we're hardwired for Works righteousness especially in this culture man what you know what what it means to be an American or at least what it used to mean to be an American was all about rugged individualism pull yourself up by your own okay we know these things I'm looking out for number just worried about me myself okay we're Americans man we're hardcore not only are we Americans but we're out here toward the west where rugged individualism was born who went West the most rugged of the rugged individuals I'm going out west to stake my claim I'm going out west to make my mark I'm going out west to be dependent upon myself just me my rifle my horse and we're gonna make it so rugged individual individualism the further you go west the more deep-rooted rugged individualism is and here in Texans the Lone Star State are you kidding me we're about as rugged and individual as they come and as a result of that here's what we do when we come to the Bible we look for rules that we can keep so that we can be identified as rule keepers and if we're not careful that's all The Sermon on the Mount will be rules that we can keep so we can be rule Keepers Keepers or the flip side rules that other people aren't keeping that we can become informed about so that we're just when we condemn them if you can't say Amen you ought to say ouch okay that's all we get we get here and we say see see he's not righteous she's not righteous cesso right here they don't live like that so we need to understand something about the gospel we need to understand something about justification we need to understand something about sanctification so that we can then understand Christian ethics understand that justification is a declaration that God makes of our righteousness it is a declaration that God makes of our righteousness justification is not something you or I achieve justification is a declaration made by God and we don't understand justification that way that's why we always like to ask questions that begin with this can a person be a Christian if they dot dot dot we love that question hey can a person be a Christian if they just fill in the blank whatever it is can a person be a Christian if they you know what I love when people start asking me a question like that you know can a person be a Christian if they I stop them right there wait a minute don't finish your question let me answer your question before you ask it if what's about to come out of your mouth is something other than can a person be a Christian if they are not completely trusting in justification by faith alone by grace alone through Christ Alone to the glory of God alone and understanding that from the scripture alone if anything else is about to come out of your mouth the answer to the question is yes a person can be a Christian if they whatever the only thing a person can do and not be a Christian is not come to God through his son Jesus Christ by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone and understanding that from the scriptures alone can a person be a Christian if they kill somebody I don't know ask Paul when you get to heaven ask Moses he's a murderer too well well can a person be a Christian if they whatever homosexual what about homosexuality can a person be a Christian if they struggle with homosexuality I don't know we can ask Paul that one too because in First Corinthians chapter six he gives us a whole list of things that people were before they washed and sanctified homosexual is one of them here's why we like to ask that question we like to ask that question because we do not understand the doctrine of justification a person is a Christian because they've been Justified by God they have been declared righteous by God well yes but what if they sin news flash who told you you don't amen yeah but you know what I mean yeah I know what you mean you mean the sins that you happen to not commit you ever notice that people don't ask that question you know can a person be a Christian if they dot dot dot like I do no it's always about stuff that those people do I've heard about a person who did so and so can that person be a Christian listen if you could think what you thought on yesterday say what you said on yesterday do what you did on yesterday and still have hope of Heaven of course a person can do whatever that is out there and still be a Christian you're a ranked sinner from the word go you're Justified not because of your own internal or inherent righteousness but because of the righteousness that is imputed to you and it's Christ's righteousness not your own it is an alien righteousness it is an alien righteousness okay understand this doctrine of justification that's how we're saved that's how we're saved through justification by faith alone only by faith not faith and not Faith plus but by faith alone that's all that's all well yeah well what about what about what about what about what about you know all these things and you know can we just live any way we want to I didn't say that but that's the doctrine of sanctification which is evidence of justification not a means of justification let me say that again sanctification is evidence of justification it is not a means of justification well what's the difference the difference is if I believe sanctification is a means of justification then I answer the question are you a Christian like this yes I'm a Christian because I don't whatever sitting in a service once listening to a testimony and this man was giving it standing up and he was giving his testimony and going on and on and I you know I was relatively new to the ministry and I was uncomfortable you know but I'm like okay it's it's testimony but I really couldn't put into words why I was uncomfortable and I was sitting with a man who's kind of a mentor to me at the time and this guy's standing up there and among the things that he talked about was how how God had delivered him from alcoholism how he fell on his knees prayed to receive Christ asked Jesus into his heart and from that moment to this he's never had a taste for alcohol again and I'm sitting there and I'm kind of going wow that's pretty interesting doesn't happen like that for most people um although he kind of presents it as though it's supposed to most people if you struggle with alcoholism you come to faith in Christ you probably still struggle with alcoholism a little less as you grow in Grace that's this process called sanctification okay but I didn't know I'm sitting here maybe I'm just being judgmental or whatever this older Sage minister kind of leaned down and he said to me interesting isn't it makes you wonder did God deliver him from alcoholism or did the devil just trick him into trading Pride for alcoholism I don't drink anymore but I'm so proud I stink to high heaven but I don't drink anymore don't even have a taste for it good for you and there are a lot of people out there they think they're saved because of what they don't do anymore or because of what they do I have my quiet time regularly good for you I do this I do that I do the other regularly good for you but when you stand before God if you stand before him with quiet time and witnessing and not drinking and so on and so forth what you will hear very clearly will be depart from me I never knew you you worker of iniquity let me say something to you there are people who outwardly do a whole lot better than you do who are going to go to hell when they die and there are people who outwardly do a whole lot worse than you do we're going to go to heaven sanctification is a process it is evidence of our justification it is not means of our justification we must understand that we have to understand that we have to grasp that listen to this this is from the Belgian confession and they put this so well we believe that true Faith being wrought in Man by the hearing of the word of God and the operation of the Holy Ghost doth regenerate and make him a new man causing him to live a new life and freeing him from the bondage of sin therefore it is so far from being true that this justifying faith makes men remiss in a Pious and holy life that's so far from true if you're truly Justified you're going to be sanctified sanctification follows justification as inexorably as growth follows birth kids born kids going to grow it's going to happen may not get as big as everybody else the kid's going to grow it's gonna happen so to answer the question well does that mean we can just live any way we want to live no you don't understand justification nothing could be further from the truth if we are truly Justified that's the only way we have access to a holy and righteous life sanctification grows out of justification it's the fruit of justification think about justification being this seed that's planted and sanctification growing out of it it's going to happen listen to this that on the contrary without it that is without true justification and true sanctification without it they would never do anything out of love to God but only out of self-love and fear of damnation let me say this here's the Belgian confession just said without true justification and true biblical sanctification the only things we will ever do we will do either out of pride or fear if you don't understand justification you will go through The Sermon on the Mount finding things for yourself to do out of Pride and fear that's all you got without justification and sanctification that's all you got all you've got is pride and fear I do this this this this and this so that I can say this is what I do I don't do this this is so that I can say it's not what I do that's Pride it's rank Pride or it's fear I'm scared of not going to heaven when I die so I worked really hard to find the things that I'm supposed to do so that I don't get to heaven and God says yeah you missed one that's a complete lack of understanding of the doctrine of justification it's a complete lack of understanding of the doctrine of sanctification by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God unless anyone should boast there's Pride Pride's gone boastings gone it's absolutely gone I want you to see something here look with me in the Book of Romans Romans chapter three this is an extensive passage but we have to get this if we're going to understand Christian ethics and The Sermon on the Mount we have to we've been through this before and we'll probably be through this again and again and not no probably we will be through this again and again and again and again because we are hardwired for Works righteousness okay we're hardwired for legalism every last one of us we're hardwired for it we're hardwired for going to the scriptures and doing one of two things either in Pride finding the stuff that we do and saying yes you see I'm a Christian because I do or finding things that we don't and out of fear promising that we will that's why most services in most churches you know what do we do what do we do at the end of it you know give people a chance to come up and run and cry you know I feel guilty I wanna read dedicate my life that crawls all over me makes me want to spit every time I hear that rededicate my life can I tell you how doctrinally corrupt that is number one the act of going up and rededicating my life first of all that's not what we're called to do we're called the repentance in faith not rededication secondly the act of rededicating my life means that what I did at first was not repent and place my faith in Jesus Christ as the only ground for my salvation but I dedicate dedicated myself to trying as hard as I could to live like he wanted me to live that's not true justification so using the term rededication actually undermines the very doctrine of justification itself it's corrupt it's corrupt you don't go to heaven because you dedicated your life to Christ you go to heaven because you were justified by the finished work of Jesus Christ and his finished work alone here's the other problem with the whole concept of rededication I tried really hard and I failed so now I'm saying this time I'm going to try harder that's not gospel living people and I said to myself first that's not the gospel it's just not the gospel is about the finished work of Christ so as we go through The Sermon on the Mount this is not about heaping guilt on Christians for not having done enough it's not it we do that we completely miss the doctrine of justification altogether and what we do we will do either out of Pride or out of fear one of those two things that's all we got so listen to this in Romans chapter three let's begin in verse 9. here's the other thing when we're preaching the law and we should preach the law the law and the gospel we have to but what's the purpose of the law Paul tells us in the Galatians that the law has two purposes number one the law is a mirror the law is a mirror we look into the mirror and we see ourselves for Who We Are we look at the law of God and we say oh woe is me I am undone or I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among the people of unclean lips and God comes back and says I'm glad you see your lips I wish you could see the rest of you okay we're ruined from the word go that's what the law does that's what the law does and the other thing Galatians says law the law is a tutor to lead us to Christ so it shows us that we're ruined and undone and secondly it leads us to Christ here's the problem if all we preach is the law and not the gospel if all we preach is the law you don't do this you must do this then what I've done is I've hardened a sinner and I made him more reliant on their cell on themselves than they were before I've said here's the law see how bad you are you need to go back to the drawing board and you need to try harder no it must always be law and gospel here's the law see how ruined you are and oh by the way I know your first tendency is to say I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna do that but before you do let me remind you you can't you never will you never ever ever will but the good news is that's why Christ came to die law gospel so the center comes to the end of himself not to try harder and rededicate but the sinner comes to the end of himself and can finally see Christ God forbid that we should preach Through The Sermon on the Mount and ever just give law in that gospel and I say that for myself and all the other preachers who are going to be joining me and preaching through this it's not just law it's law and gospel the law is a mirror and the law is a Tudor the law allows us to see that we're ruined and the law drives us the faith in Christ and if we don't preach both we're merely hardening people in their sin condemning people in their sin we're just telling them to run faster and faster on the hamster wheel that goes absolutely nowhere it goes nowhere Romans chapter 3 beginning verse 9. and listen to this and think how foolish it is to tell unbelievers to keep the law what then are the Jews any better off no not at all for we have already charged that all both Jews and Greeks are under sin as it is written no one is righteous no not one no one understands no one seeks for God so no we will not be starting a Seeker service here no one seeks for God the only Seeker in the Bible is God we see that in John chapter 4. he seeks worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and truth so I guess I just lied because we do have a secret service because it's a god-centered service and he's the only Seeker in the Bible all have turned aside together they have become worthless no one does good not even one think about that for a moment no one does good not even one now here's the response that often comes from people now wait a minute there are a lot of people out there who do good things I broke down one day and a lost person stopped and they helped me change my tire how can we say no one does good just hold on I'll explain that to you in a minute their throat is an open grave they use their tongues to deceive the Venom of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of curses and bitterness their feet are Swift to shed blood and their past are ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God for by works of the law no human being will be justified in this in his sight by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight none none none none not one will be justified in the sight of God because of works of the law since through the law comes the knowledge of sin there's the mirror the law lets you know you're a sinner the law awakens that sin in you don't believe me a couple of tests we're all walking together strolling through a park to beautiful lovely spring day and as we're walking together through the park we see bench after bench after bench in the park we never once have an inclination to touch the bench until we see one that says wet paint do not touch foreign what's that the law awakens sin in you you didn't even think about it until you find out it was unlawful you didn't think about it but as soon as you find out it was unlawful you just wanted to do it why is it that when we're traveling down the highway okay and all of a sudden the speed limit says 65 and I'm going 70. 71. and I'm fine I feel comfortable 70-71 I feel good I'm going fast enough however the speed limit now goes up to 70. now at 65 I was going 70 and I never thought about speeding up I felt comfortable now the speed limit is 70 what do I have to do I got to Crank It Up 75. about 70 was enough 70 was enough until they told me I could go 70. again if you can't say Amen you ought to say ouch okay anybody feel like crawling under something right now you're a law breaker just embrace it it's who you are but now verse 21 the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God all are justified by his grace as a gift through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to receive by faith that was to show God's righteousness because in his Divine forbearance he passed over former sins it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just in the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ then What Becomes of our boasting it is excluded by what kind of law by the law of Works nope but by the law of faith for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law or is God the god of Jews only is he not the god of Gentiles also yes of Gentiles also since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith do we then overthrow the law by this faith there's the question everybody wants to ask when you preach the doctrine of justification by faith alone immediately immediately immediately people still want to start saying wait a minute are you saying that we can just do anything nobody ever said that but that's the immediate question why because we are hardwired for Works righteousness that's why we have to ask that question because the old man in US wants credit and the biblical doctrine of justification slaps him in the face and says you get no credit and we come back and we say well well I got to find a way around that how about I ask an absolutely absurd question like well what if I just go on a killing Rampage are you saying that I could still that's the old man saying I refuse to give up my credit you got to give it to me I Gotta Have It give me my credit I must have something wherein to boast I have to I work too hard to become a law keeper for you to not give me credit for it it's the old man by no means on the contrary we uphold the law let me say something to you you cannot do anything good until you've been Justified let me say that again you cannot do anything good until you've been Justified let's read these first few verses in chapter one again I'll explain that in a minute What then shall we say in chapter four rather was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh for If Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God for what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness now to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but as as his do and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one whom God counts righteous apart from works verse 7 blessed are those whose Lawless Deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin amen hallelujah praise the Lord so what about this Christian ethics stuff glad you asked back here in The Sermon on the Mount I want us to get this and again we must understand justification we must understand sanctification if we don't we will never grasp Christian ethics okay we won't we're talking about what makes something just what makes an action just three things first of all let me explain this well I'll explain that later let me give you three things number one it has to be a right action it has to be a right action and by right action I mean it has to be an action that is right as defined by God it has to be a right action okay if God defines it as wrong it can never be right so it has to be a right action secondly it has to be done for a right motive it has to be done for a right motive and thirdly it has to be done for the right goal for the right goal in order for an action to be ethical from the standpoint of Christian ethics you have to have right action right motive and right goal an unbeliever will never have the right motive and will never have the right goal therefore he will never perform an ethical action from a Biblical perspective that's why Paul can say there's no one who does good let me paint this picture for you there's a war going on and here's the war and there's a a unit and this unit in the midst of this war is fighting a battle and as this unit is fighting a battle all of a sudden a grenade comes and there is one in the unit who throws his body over the grenade now for the most part we look at that and we would say that was an ethical action what if he threw his body on the grenade because he wanted a Purple Heart he wanted glory for himself now his motives and his goal were completely sinful therefore his action was unethical what if he's just sick of fighting and he wants to die and this is a quick way to do it now his motives and his goals were sinful and unethical therefore his action can never be deemed ethical do you see what I'm saying we must have right action and right motive and right goal in order for an act to be ethical so as we go through The Sermon on the Mount here's the picture that Jesus is praying Jesus is saying basically in The Sermon on the Mount time and time again you know what you guys have heard that all you had to do was this action but I've come to tell you that you do those actions and your goals and your motives are completely off base therefore it's still not ethical and it's still not pleasing to God Sermon on the Mount is about this only through the Justified and Sanctified life can we ever do anything that is ethical that's the simple message in The Sermon on the Mount only through a Justified and Sanctified life can we ever do anything that is ethical let's look at a couple of these we we understand this idea of right actions it has to be doing what God said let's look at right motives right motives Romans Chapter 2 verses 6-9 he will render to each one according to his Works to those who by patience and well-doing seek for Glory and Honor and immortality he will give eternal life but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness they will be wrath and fury in other words if you're self-seeking that two people do the same thing but one of them is self-seeking Gotta Have right action right motive right goal ah look at Romans 14 23. but whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin if you needed any more evidence that an unbeliever cannot perform ethical actions there it is right there whatever is not from faith is sin can an unbeliever who has not placed faith in Jesus Christ ever do anything from Faith No so whatever he does is sin because he's not doing it from the proper biblical motive of faith okay which again is why Paul can say no one does good from our Earthly human perspective we see things all the time that are good again that's common Grace folks total depravity radical depravity doesn't mean that man is as bad as he can be and we can praise God for that all right that's the grace of God but that does not make his actions ethical there are a lot of motivations for it but it's not faith Philippians chapter 2 verse 3 and 4 do nothing from rivalry or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourself Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interest of others if I'm doing it for self-interest and not for the interest of others it's unethical look at another motive look at Ephesians 5 and 21. submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ as a wife who submits to her husband because she's awed by her husband committing an ethical act when she submits to her husband no she's supposed to submit on a reverence for Christ her motives are impure if they are anything other than reverence for Christ is a woman who's submitting to her husband just so she can manipulate him and get something from him performing an ethical action is she being obedient no submit yourself to one another out of reverence for Christ is a child who submits to their parents for something other than reverence for Christ committing an ethical act from a Biblical perspective no it must be out of reverence for Christ by the way all of this stuff that we're learning on The Sermon on the Mount has huge implications for the way that we teach our children because for most of us we're just teaching our children to be self-righteous law Keepers who believe in Works righteousness do it because it looks good do it because it'll embarrass me if you don't do it oh we're building self-righteous law keepers and teaching them to rely on Works righteousness as opposed to the finished work of Jesus Christ not only right motives but right goals listen to some of these goals so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God Amen that's a right goal the glory of God why'd you do that that God might be glorified that's why okay that's why then it was an ethical action I gave money to the poor and then I told everybody that I did it what was your goal to bring glory to myself because I gave to the poor Jesus says then you got your reward nothing waiting for you in heaven you got exactly what you were after people patting you on the back he talks about this in a Sermon on the Mount when you fast put lotion on your face don't be all you know magic and everything people look what's going on I'm fasting Colossians 3 17 and whatever you do and word or do do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him Colossians 3 23 whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not for men to write goal first Peter 4 10-11 as each has received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied Grace listen to that it's a couple of goals number one I want to be a good Steward of the grace of God in my life and number two I want to serve my brothers whoever speaks as one who speaks Oracles of God whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him be belong glory and Dominion forever and ever amen those are right goals okay right action right motive right goal folks The Sermon on the Mount is not a list of things for us to work hard to do The Sermon on the Mount is a mirror that reflects to us one of two things for those of us outside of Christ it reflects to us that we are ranked sinners in need of a savior and that even our righteousness is but filthy rags on the sight of God yes but I did ABC and XYZ don't care didn't have the right motive didn't have the right goal it was sin it was either Pride or fear so The Sermon on the Mount is going to expose that in all of us and the other thing is The Sermon on the Mount is going to show us how desperately we all need Christ now let me say a word about these two principles and then we'll look at an overview of what we're going to study there is a difference between indicatives and imperatives indicatives and imperatives I know it sounds like we're in English class but this is very important folks indicatives and imperatives all right well what's an indicative an indicative is this is a chair that's an indicative I just told you what that was I indicated what it was what's an imperative sit in this chair I just told you what to do there's an indicative and an imperative I want you to notice something in the New Testament whenever you find imperatives you find indicatives in other words Peter says you are a holy nation you are a royal priesthood that is in indicative that's who you are then he says be holy as I am Holy that is and imperative but the two of them come together can you be holy in and of yourself no you can't you can only do it because of the indicative it's because of who you are in Christ that you are able to do this remember it's God who works in us both to Will and to do his good pleasure we have indicatives and imperatives now I want you to look at something look at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount we have there in verse 2 the Beatitudes blessed are those who blessed are those who blessed are those who blessed are those who are they Beatitudes indicatives or imperatives they're indicatives but we usually preach them like imperatives Jesus says blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted and we come back and say we've got to be like the people who it's an indicative it's not an imperative he's painting a picture of who Christians are okay so The Sermon on the Mount starts off with indicatives not with imperatives then look with me after he finishes the indicatives and the Beatitudes look at what he does beginning in verse 13. more indicatives you are the salt of the earth verse 14 you are the light of the world is he telling us something to do there no he's telling us who we are there okay and it's only after we have those indicatives that we come down and he teaches us about the law and we begin to see some imperatives do not think I've come to abolish the law I haven't come to abolish it I've come to fulfill it which is very interesting Jesus says I haven't come to abolish the law I've come to fulfill it and we take that to mean I got stuff for you to do huh Jesus says I've come to fulfill the law we say yeah Jesus come on let's go fulfill the law no no no no no I've come to fulfill the law I know Jesus come on let's go fulfill the law okay wait a minute remember remember when I said you can't fulfill the law yeah Jesus but come on my old man needs something to boast about you see how ridiculous that is then he comes and he shows us a picture of the law you've heard it said but I say unto you what's he doing there is Jesus trying to make us feel guilty if we've ever said something bad to our brother is Jesus trying to say you know you need to be very careful and not say you fool to your brother because if you say you fool to your brother then all of a sudden you've committed a sin that is worthy of death and then what do we do we go around saying well wait a minute can a person who does that go to heaven that's right back where we started people that's not what Jesus is saying just throw justification right out the window it's meaningless it means absolutely nothing when you get to the imperatives Jesus says do this and our next question is oh does that mean that if somebody doesn't do that that they're not a Christian forget the doctrine of justification just throw it out trample it underfoot and let's go right back to work's righteousness again shall we because that's exactly what we just did are you guys seeing this because we all do it we all do it you don't want to hear stuff from when I first started preaching trust me and even if you do want to I don't want you to okay but that's what we do and so here after that we have this law outlined and what Jesus does here beginning in verse 7 17 verse 17 he makes a statement about Christian ethics I haven't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it this is not about antinomianism Jesus says statement about Christian antinomianism is lawlessness there is no law just do whatever you like do whatever feels good no no no no no Jesus says I come to fulfill it and I'm upping niani on the law you've heard it said don't kill I'm saying don't even hate your brother that goes beyond just the rule that you thought you've kept and what Jesus does in every one of these with murder and then with adultery um and then with divorce um and then you know with swearing falsely um you know the eye for an eye two for tooth all of these things with all of these things Jesus UPS the Andy and he says basically every one of you is the Rich Young Ruler and every one of you would look at me and say I've kept the Ten Commandments I haven't killed anybody and Jesus says to every one of us whether it's murder or adultery or lying whatever it is Jesus gives us those examples and he looks a square in the eye and says you think you can look at me and say you're not guilty of this that's because you don't understand righteousness you are absolutely guilty of this you're an adulterer because you've looked at a woman lustfully and you're just as guilty as a man who's gone to bed with a woman who's not his wife you're an adulterer in other words here in this sermon in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is saying yes you too need a savior all you who point fingers at people who have this you know open outward gross sin and stick your chest out because you don't Jesus says in this section yes you too need a savior don't you dare think you're any better than those people don't you dare think that because you haven't pulled out a gun and shot somebody dead that you don't need somebody to rescue you and save you just like somebody who has don't you dare think that for a moment that's what he's doing in this section that's what he's doing in this section then we get to chapter six and in chapter six he talks about these outward things that we do he talks about giving to the poor and being seen when we give to the poor talks about fasting and being seen when we fast he talks about praying and being seen when we pray talks about all of these things and basically says you know what keep that to yourself keep that to yourself does Jesus say that there's never to be a prayer that's offered in public no that's not what Jesus is teaching we have examples of such in the New Testament okay in the New Testament Church and the Epistles we have these prayers that were read publicly so that's not what's being said here he's talking about our private prayer life that's what he's referring to and basically what he's saying is if you turn fasting or giving or praying or any of these sort of things into a means by which people can see you and give glory to you then you've completely missed the boat you don't get it you don't get it after that he moves into this section about us having our treasure in heaven and not being anxious for anything and then we get into chapter seven and in chapter 7 we look at judging and judging rightly judging a tree by its fruit now here's what's interesting if we're not careful we get to chapter seven and this whole thing about judging a tree from its fruit and we think that chapter 7 is about you and me looking and pointing fingers and things of that nature but if you remember what we've done with the indicatives and the imperatives and you remember what Christian ethics is really all about then basically here's what Jesus says you know what's in a person basically by what comes out of the person the reason that you know you're a Justified person is because of the sanctification that the spirit Works in you not because of your outward efforts that's why in verse 23 many will say to me Lord Lord do we not prophecy on your name and your name perform many miracles and cast out demons and I'll say depart from me I never knew you you worker of inii but wait a minute I did the right stuff no you didn't write action right motive right go it's not there it's not there now here's what's interesting and we'll see this when we get to chapter seven but we think you know you'll know a tree by its fruit according to verse 23 those are individuals who from an outward perspective were bearing fruit that looked pretty good but that's just to us the ultimate fruit only Jesus can judge we don't know we don't know does that mean we don't make judgments absolutely not we're taught how to make judgments there and then finally where do we end up building your house on the rock two types of individuals both built houses one on sand one on Rock what's the difference between the two well you have to take the whole Sermon on the Mount in the consideration in order to understand the difference between the two on its face we may think that the difference between the two is one individual took the Bible and used it as a rule book and built this house based upon the rule book in fact you've probably heard it that way okay one individual took the Bible and basically the Bible was his blueprint the other one the Bible wasn't his blueprint the one who used the Bible has his blueprint that's the one whose house stood the one who didn't use the Bible as his blueprint that's the one whose house didn't stand folks in order to understand what Jesus is talking about with the house on the rock and the house on the sand you got to go all the way back to the indicatives and the imperatives at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount my house doesn't stand because I used the Bible as a blueprint I can be lost and do that my house stands because the imperatives that I perform in my life flow out of the indicatives because justification is the fruit of my sanctification and not the other way around I can be as lost as a Goose and use the Bible as a rule book and completely miss the point it's not what it is and the fact of the matter is there are people all around us who are absolutely unequivocally lost headed for a Hellfire indemnation and nothing but but if you speak to them about the gospel they'll get offended why because they've been there they've done that they prayed the prayer they asked Jesus into their heart and now they're on to the imperatives never mind that none of the indicatives are true of them how do you know someone's truly a Christian because of the imperatives or because of the indicatives folks it's because of the indicatives we grow in our performance of the imperatives hopefully you're doing a lot better today on the imperatives than you were five years ago does that mean you weren't saved five years ago but you are now now again assuming you've been in Christ that long okay if you're a Christian here today I would expect that 10 years from now 20 years from now you'll be a lot further along on the imperatives than you are today does that mean you're not truly a Christian now it's the indicatives it's who God says we are in Christ that works itself out that grows in these imperatives and by his grace he grants us both to Will and to do his good pleasure but even that's from him so it's not this picture of being saved by grace and then kept by works we're justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone and here's a news flash we're all so Sanctified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God Alone it's not just my sanctification that is of god my my justification that is of god my sanctification is with God as well what does that mean that I don't have to do the imperatives no that means you get to do the imperatives did you catch the difference I have to do the imperatives means sanctification by me and my works I get to do the imperatives means Christ has made me a new creature and because I'm a new creature in Christ I am finally now and only now no longer a slave to sin by the way that ought to make more sense to you now too well how does the Bible say I'm a slave to sin I didn't just always go around sinning I did some things that were ah no you didn't you were a slave to sin everything you did you did for sinful motives and for sinful goals even though outwardly it looked better than the way most people lived are y'all seeing this now so as we go through The Sermon on the Mount we need to come in here every week gird it up coming here every week ready to see both law and gospel coming here every week looking for the indicatives and the imperatives coming in here every week understanding that we're going to see a mirror and that mirror is going to show us some horrible things about ourselves and some glorious things about Christ that mirror is going to show us how desperate we are and how desperate everyone around us is for Jesus Christ and if we come away with anything with anything anything from The Sermon on the Mount I Hope We Come Away with this I hope we can wait no longer boasting number one and secondly I hope we come away no longer as people who thrust the imperatives on the Lost let me say that again I hope we come away no longer being the people who thrust the imperatives on the Lost so in other words we we say to the drunkard stop being a drunkard instead of saying you are what you are because of your sin and Christ Alone can deliver you not just from that sin but from all your sins we don't say to the homosexual you stop being a homosexual he can't oh wait a minute does that mean that Pastor voting believes that homosexuality is something that's biological instead of a choice and yada yada listen I don't believe that homosexuality is a choice any more than I believe being a liar is a choice we're slaves to sin our sins just have different titles amen there's the homosexual have to stop being a homosexual before they can be a Christian here's my question why do we ask that but we don't ask if the warrior worry w-o-r-r-y because the Bible says be anxious for nothing how come we don't say does the person who suffers with worry have to stop worrying before they can be justified how come we don't ask that because all of us are guilty of that one and we're only concerned about the sins that other people commit that we tend to be free of does the alcoholic have to stop being an alcoholic before they can become a Christian listen to how ridiculous that is the Bible tells us no one does good and we're slaves to sin the alcoholic can't stop being an alcoholic the liar can't stop being a liar the homosexual can't stop being a homosexual all of those individuals may get the imperatives and work real hard to suppress their sin and not do those things anymore but their actions are not ethical right why because they don't arise from right motives and they don't arise for right goals and I'm afraid that many of us myself included have been guilty for a long long time of preaching Works righteousness to people instead of the Gospel truth be told there are a lot of our family members and I'm just going I'm gonna say this I'm gonna be finished there are a lot of us who look at our family members and we're much more interested in getting them to homeschool we're much more interested in getting them to go to family integrated Church we're much more interested in getting them to discipline their children or whatever than we are in them getting saved because that's how we talk to them about you need to do this you need to do this you need to do that you need to do the other and it just breaks our heart that they don't live the kind of life that we live but we haven't shared one tear over the fact that they have not been born again shame on us shame on every last one of us for putting me imperatives before the indicatives and for actually believing that we're something that we absolutely are not there is none righteous no not even one you are who you are indicatives because of the finished work of Jesus Christ in your life and it's only because you are who you are that you are able by his grace to do what he commands we get that We Got The Sermon on the Mount let's pray father we confess to you that we are arrogant egocentric narcissistic rule keeping Works righteousness prideful sinners and most days instead of acknowledging it we actually boast about the pitiful things that we think we've mastered apart from your grace and then turn around and point fingers at other people who don't have our level of outward conformity would you crush that in Us by your grace would you allow us to come face to face with your law and our sin so that we come to the end of ourselves and see the Beauty and the Majesty that is only found in the person of Jesus Christ I pray for those under the sound of my voice whom the enemy has Tangled Up in knots so much so that they aren't even Christian but think they are all because of work's righteousness those individuals under the sound of my voice who work hard to keep the imperatives and perhaps have have have have have shaved a few of the rough edges off of their own life by their own effort and the enemies got him right where he wants them because they believed that they are Christian because of the meager things that they've learned to accomplish in their flesh not realizing all the while that their motives are corrupt that their goals are bankrupt and that they have absolutely no share of any inheritance with Christ because their trust is in themselves and not in him I pray that today you would bring every one of us to the end of ourselves that we would grasp biblical justification and biblical sanctification and completely and utterly reject this pitiful excuse for a gospel that our culture has embraced and that we might leave here in Repentance and faith faith trusting in Christ alone not what we do but what he has already done and in doing so may we never ever belittle the imperatives may we never ever Embrace lawlessness but may we by your grace grow in our sanctification and bring glory and honor to you as you work in us both to Will and to do your good pleasure and when we accomplish those things may we be so careful to give your name all the glory and all the praise recognizing that there is nothing good that comes or dwells in our flesh everything praiseworthy in US is direct result Christ who sanctifies Those whom he justifies may we get this may we grasp this may we walk in this may we rejoice in this to the glory of Our Lord Master Savior and King Jesus who is the Christ amen