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Living For God
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Living For God
Welcome to the next week of our small group 52 GREATEST CHAPTERS OF THE BIBLE class. This is a small group, weekly study, we do on the road as we travel. I’m posting this for all of you, but especially we have captured the study for our group of prayer warriors and key ministry supporters. They pray us through each month’s assignment as we serve as missionaries to the NextGeneration of Christ’s Church.
Bonnie & I are just finishing up our month of classes in Old Testament Prophecy. It has been an immense joy to teach and minister to the 200+ registered students. Starting in July we are teaching the classes for the course “HERMENEUTICS–How to Interpret the Bible Correctly”. This is one of the foundational courses that the missions we serve want to be taught to these FrontLine missionaries, and NextGeneration nationals that are already serving the Lord in their own countries. So far we have students registered from Canada, the UK, Netherlands, Australia, Croatia, and South Africa. Please pray for us as we travel between studios in 4 states over the next month.
Praise the Lord for the amazing outpouring of gifts from so many of you in June. Every studio expense, broadcast, and travel EXPENSE WAS COVERED. We are so amazed at the way the Spirit of God stirs the hearts of saints that want to invest in partnering with us, as we train missionaries globally for Christ’s Church.
Here’s the Matthew 5-7 intro: Jesus sat down on a hillside early on in His ministry and taught a huge crowd of ordinary people—the Fact of Life. He told them how to live for God, and explained why it was so hard at times.
When you step back and look at the topics Jesus covered in this His longest message it is quite surprising. He explained salvation, then He taught about prayer, fasting, giving, avoiding lust, anger, and materialism.
Jesus sat down and shared with us His disciples the facts of earthly life. That’s how I describe the Sermon on the Mount. The Facts of Earthly Life. How to live for the Lord in a way that pleases Him and reaps eternal rewards. These three chapters contained Jesus explaining the basics about salvation, prayer, relational dynamics, and earthly treasures.

Transcript

Welcome to Matthew chapter 5 through 7, if you grab your Bibles, we’re in the Sermon on the Mount.  This is such an exciting lesson. We’re going on the 52 chapter journey. You can see on the slide in front of you that we’re at the halfway point, we’re on week 26. We’ve entered, if you were with us last week, into the New Testament. We’re in the second passage there, Matthew 5 through 7. There are so many things in this section. This is Jesus’ longest message, His longest public sermon. If you could see all the pages of my Bible for these chapters, it’s full of truth and far more than anything we could do in the time that we have in this overview.

Remember, what I’m doing with you is sitting across the table going through a small group study. For many years of my life, the joy of the pastorate was the small group meeting with a group of men. Once I even met with a group of women, a neighborhood Bible study of one of our dear saints who had been leading her neighbors to the Lord. Many of them from so many different backgrounds had questions and she said, would you just do a small group Bible study with us and answer their questions? Over the years the study has primarily been with men. For whoever is watching this, you are my small group today. I hope you take your Bible and go to Matthew 5 through 7.

If you remember in the description of this video, I tell you all the components that you need. They’re also listed on our website discoverthebook.org and also on our Facebook page 52 Greatest Chapters. If you go to either one of those sites you find what I have taped here in the front of my notebook. You find the description of the course and the key materials you need. Then you find those 52 passages. They’re not all chapters, as today we have three chapters, it’s a huge portion of God’s word. I want to show you how I chew through them and digest them.

The front slide here: Living for God. Why Is It So Difficult? This is the method we’re using, surveying the whole Bible by the 52 greatest chapters using the devotional method. There are many ways to study the Bible, but all the resources I have listed. Today I added a brand new one, if you look in that description, I have the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. My Bible has, down at the bottom, cross-references and you’ll find the same thing in the MacArthur Study Bible. All Bibles are limited by space with how many references they can put in. This book that I just listed in the description, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, has every biblical cross-reference. There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible. There are 500,000 cross-references in this book so every verse of the Bible will show where it’s quoted or alluded to in every other verse of the Bible. Fascinating. That’s why in the book of Revelation there are over 800 quotations and allusions to other parts of the Bible. You’ve probably heard me say that over the years and you wondered how did he know that? How did he count that? It’s from that resource, the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

When you have the scriptures in front of you, there are three things we’re trying to do. Number one, we make a title. We read the passage through the very first time and summarize what we read in a sentence. The summary today for the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ longest sermon. About the fifth time I read it through I summarized it as Jesus Giving the Facts of Life, How to Live Life on Earth. That’s a fascinating study that I’m going to show you in my notes in just a bit. If you think about it, Jesus was trying to teach that huge group of people how to have the best life possible. He summarized it in a way none of us would have ever done. That’s what’s so powerful.

The second thing we do is as we’re reading, we look for lessons and note as many lessons, truths and doctrines as you can find. Let me give you an example. I’m going to type these out and show them to you on the screen, but I’ll just read to you from mine. Another title I wrote is Living For Jesus, The Impossible Life as the Title. Then in the lessons I said verses 1 to 12 are the nine blessed’s and Jesus has two types of lives. The blessed life and the unblessed life. It’s a choice. You can either have the blessed life that we learn about in the scriptures, write down the lessons, how you live that blessed life. Or you have the unblessed life, the life that you don’t need God and Jesus shows what that looks like. Verses 13 to 16, how to shine for and point to Christ. Verses 17 to 20, salvation is impossible, this is still in the fifth chapter. Verses 21-26, beware of anger and hatred. Verses 27 to 30, avoid sexual sins at all costs. Jesus gives two points. He says to stop any enticement and stop any involvement. That’s an example of writing down lessons. I could read all of them, but I typed them out for you. You put them in your own words. You’re not trying to write something that you’re going to publish as a poem. It’s a description of what you see as you’re studying.

Then, remember I talk about investing time reading the MacArthur Study Bible or any study Bible, but my favorite is a MacArthur Study Bible, and it has those 25,000 notes. Like the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, it gets you into other portions of scripture to see how Jesus reflects from the Old Testament as He’s teaching. His favorite author was Isaiah, we learned that a few weeks back when we were in the book of Isaiah. Also, it shows how others quote the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ earthly brother, do you remember him, James? Jesus has two brothers He had five brothers that are listed, but two of them wrote books of the Bible. The book of James and the book of Jude are by two of Jesus’ earthly brothers. James writes his whole epistle reflecting the Sermon on the Mount. You can see that through studying Bible notes and also the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

Here is the most important part. We’re not supposed to merely be hearers of the word, but doers also. Not just hearing. How do we keep from just hearing and how do we do it? Right here, write a prayer in which you ask the Lord some specific things. For example, on this particular day, the page I’m looking at now is my prayer. Lord, I want to live a life You will be blessed. That’s simple. Blessed are those beatitudes. I just said, Lord, I want to live the kind of life that You bless. Help me to shine. Then I wrote verse 16, that’s in chapter 5. I want to live the life that You bless. Help me shine. Keep me from sins enticements. Then from chapter 6 I wrote, You expect me to be giving, and fasting, and praying. Those are all elements. Jesus put it this way; when you pray, when you fast, when you give. What that means is He expects me to be giving, and praying, and fasting. All I do in this prayer is I say, Lord, I want to do those things. I want to give. I want to pray. I want to fast. I want to just limit all enticements and stop any involvement in things that displease You.

Now, remember where we are. Last week we were on week 25. That’s when we looked at God becoming a man, God the Son, Jesus Christ, His birth, the Magi, Herod, and all that. Look where we are now. This is Jesus’ longest public message where He sat down and He began to explain to the people that were seated in front of Him how to live the best life possible, how to live the life God blesses. That’s called the Sermon on the Mount. Next week, we’re going to look at the resurrection, get right to the heart of the Gospel, and sharing the Gospel. On from there will be the good Samaritan, the prodigal son then we’re going to get into the Gospel of John.

I introduced this to you last week, but I want to underline it in your mind. Do whatever it takes to be in the scriptures each day. For me, I grab my journal and I read the passage through each day. Some days though, if I’m traveling, it’s hard to sit there while you’re driving and underline. Look at what’s in front of you. I listen to the audio Bible. I’ve shown you all the different versions that I use in different ways as I study. My main workhorse is the New King James here. The Old King James I love to listen to just because of the poetry, the symmetry. It’s the finest rendering of the Bible in the English language, as far as easy to memorize because of the cadence, the way it was written. A lot of people can’t understand the words, so they need a modern translation as in the NIV or over here in the English Standard Version. Last week I went into that in depth, but I encourage you to use those tools.

I also introduced to you last week 250 events in the life of Christ. Look where we are right here on that chart. We’re at event number 49, the Hill of Beatitudes. See Matthew 5? Look at all the different little sections that we’re studying. Jesus teaches about salt and light. He teaches about the law. He teaches about anger, loss, divorce, vows, retaliation, loving enemies, giving to the needy. Mark doesn’t record any of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke, on the other hand, jumps in and does a little section here, a little section here, like summaries. Then he ends with the same basic events that Matthew has. You say, what’s going on here? This is an example of what we call these three Gospels, these are called the synoptic Gospels. Syn, syn, that word means seeing together. Syn in Greek means with and optic means to see. The first three Gospels see together but look at this, John doesn’t cover it at all. John was writing around seven mighty signs, seven titles of Christ, and His miracles. He doesn’t at all get involved in a lot of the things that the synoptic Gospels get involved in.

What’s fascinating is if you do come across something like Matthew 12, it is also in Mark 2 and Luke 6. If you read all three, you’ll find the different angles. It’s almost like when you get one of those camera apps that kind of pulls out all the lights and emphasizes a picture or you get a stereo system that has all the surround sound. That’s what the synoptic Gospels do by having three different vantage points looking at the same event. You can see where we are right here in the book of Matthew. This is immediately following event 45 up here, the disciples pick wheat on the Sabbath. Jesus heals a man’s hand, large crowds, and Jesus calls the 12. Then He gives the beatitudes.

Let me show you something else. Chapter 12, chapter 5, 6, 7. What’s going on? Matthew doesn’t follow a chronological order. Do you remember what Matthew was? He was an accountant, a tax collector. He was always putting figures into books in columns. How much the caravan had. How much the tax was. How much he charged and how much the government. He loved to put things in groups, in columns, so the whole book of Matthew hardly follows a chronology. He groups together miracles, like chapters 8 through 10 are built around all these miracles. Then he puts together big teaching discourses of Christ, like Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Another one is in chapter 13. Then another one is his final teachings in Matthew 24 and 25. Matthew groups things together even though they’re not in order of when they happen.

Mark, though, follows almost a strict chronological order and so does Luke so we get the chronology of events. The reason we knew this event in Matthew goes where it does is that we tied it to where it shows up in Luke. That’s how you use that chart and remember to download it. I print a small copy and keep it in the back of my journal. Every time there’s a passage in the Gospels, remember this is only for the Gospels, I always look up where else it occurred to get all the insights possible.

Back to my journal, here it is typed out for you. In the journal at the top, I actually put the week we’re on, week 26, the passage we’re in, Matthew 5 to 7, and all of these different titles: Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ Longest Sermon, Living for Jesus, The Impossible Life. I’m only showing you one of the days of my study. Here’s a summary I wanted to share with you for you to see the immensity of what’s going on. Jesus sat down. It says in chapter 5, “And seeing the multitude, He went up on a mountain,” chapter 5 verse 1, “and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.” Jesus is seated on the mountainside or the hillside around the sea of Galilee sloping down to the sea. This spot is still a site that you visit when you visit the Holy Land, because it’s a natural amphitheater. Here’s the sea of Galilee. This sloping hillside goes up to the Mount of Beatitudes.

I remember one tour group going there. I think it was one of the famous groups like Chuck’s Swindoll or some huge group. They all went. Hundreds of people spread out on the hillside. They had a message. Standing at the road for hundreds of feet up that amphitheater built into the hillside naturally, people could hear just like in the time of Christ. Jesus said and shared with His disciples, us included, what I call the facts of earthly life. One fact of earthly life is how to live for the Lord in a way that pleases Him, in other words, the blessed life. That’s what we’re going to be studying all week long. This is a passage to really immerse yourself in, to spend each day reading through and marking things that you see. Things that are grouped. Like you’ll find in my Bible, there’s so many contrasts between two. The two roads, the two trees, the two types of fruit, the two destinies, the two foundations. It’s just fun to find these.

These three chapters contain Jesus explaining the basics. Remember most of the people that followed Him were laboring people, farmers, simple people. Not really the rich and the mighty, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians, not many rich, not many mighty, not many noble are called. There are few of those who follow Jesus, but the simple people gladly listen to Him. Look what He teaches them. Salvation, prayer, relational dynamics, how to get along with your enemies, how to invest in your friends, how to be happily married. All of these different points show how to have a life that God blesses and how they can bless your relationships. Then, how to have earthly treasures.

Now, that first one. Look at Matthew 5 verses 1 to 8. How do you have Jesus explaining salvation in the Sermon on Mount? It’s fascinating. If you step back and look at the order that He says, Blessed are the poor in spirit.” That’s verse 3. If you go into some of those resources I’ve told you about online like The Blue Letter Bible, or Logos Bible software, or even in the MacArthur Study Bible, it will talk about this word in Greek. This word poor in spirit literally means a beggar. In Christ’s day, there were three groups of people: the rich, the working and the beggars. The beggars didn’t have enough food to make it through the day. The working people earned enough money that day to buy tomorrow’s food, so they had today’s food. Then, they earned enough money working that day to buy food on their way home to eat tomorrow. They always had in store tomorrow’s food, those were normal people. Then the rich people are the ones that had stuff laid up for a long time, for days, weeks, months, years. There were levels of richness. Jesus calls them the poor, that’s the beggars, the normal people, and the rich people.

This is the word for a beggar. He said, how do you come to Me? How do you have a blessed life? By being a beggar in spirit, realizing you’re impoverished before God, no hope of personal righteousness, that I’m never going to be good enough. When I share the Gospel with people, do you know what they say? Oh, I hope I’m good enough. I always say, I’ll never be good enough. I’m the worst sinner that I know of in the whole world. That’s how we start our relationship with God, we’re poor in spirit. Then look at verse 4, we mourn, we’re sorry for our sin. Then we’re meek, we submit to Him, we fall before Him. That’s in verse 5. That starts the work of God inside of us. He causes us to, verse 6, hunger and thirst after Him.

He changes our whole way of treating people. This is what salvation does to us. We become merciful and God starts purifying us. We become pure in heart, and we want to be peaceful. Why? Because that’s the fruit of God’s Spirit in our lives. Do you see right here? Jesus starts talking about salvation. Then He goes into chapter 6 about prayer and all about how we get along with others. Then earthly treasures all the way through chapter 7. These themes just keep weaving back and forth. It’s like a tapestry when He gets all done.

Here are the lessons I’ve found. If you could read my journal over my shoulder this is what I have. The beatitudes, the salt and light, law and righteousness, murder begins in the heart. Adultery begins in the heart. Jesus teaches about marriage and divorce, oaths. You’ve heard of this, going the second mile. If someone compels you to do something you don’t just do the minimum, you do more to show the love of Christ. He was talking about the occupying Roman soldiers who legally could make you carry their backpack, which was very heavy. You would carry it to the next mile marker. What the people would do is they would throw it on the ground or drop it right at the mile marker. Between this one and this one. Jesus said if you want to share the Gospel with them, carry it to the second mile marker and they’ll say, why did you do that? Then you can tell them about Christ.

Matthew 6’s lessons are like a goldmine. Chapter 5 gets us started. We’re looking at salvation and our hearts, but look at chapter 6. Do good not for others, but to please the God who watches everything, that’s what verses 1 through 4 say. Your Father, who is in Heaven, sees you. Then starting in verse 5, pray to the God who watches and listens to everything. We’re doing good for God who watches, we’re praying to God who is watching. Do you see the big red box? Do you know why that’s there? This is one of my favorite parts of the Sermon on the Mount. Starting in verse 9 Jesus gives a model prayer guide for me all about how to have this blessed life, how to surrender to Him. I wrote I want to be focused, surrendered, following, trusting, forgiven, protected, and emptied. In just a minute I’m going to show you that on a little card that we offer on our website, but I put the box around it to remind you. This is really almost the most well-known part of the Bible. More people have this part of the Bible memorized than any other verse or group of verses. This is, “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.”

Jesus said, “when you fast.” I wrote I want to be fasting for God’s glory. Next, Jesus said “when you lay up,” what you do with your treasures? I want to be laying up my treasures with God so my heart will be anchored to Him. Remember, Jesus said where your treasure is your heart will be. Matthew 6:25, I want to banish worry by faith, and anxiety by meditating upon the faithfulness of God. Again, this is after reading and reading. I realized that all of us know how to meditate because when we meditate on our problems it’s called worry. When we meditate on the faithfulness of God and His goodness it banishes anxiety and worry from our lives.

Next, this is a little card that you can get if you go to discoverthebook.org and it’s also on our 52 Greatest Chapters on Facebook. Either one of those websites, you can download this. I keep this in my wallet. This is printable down to a little credit card-sized, two-sided card. If you want to print it off and laminate it, stick it in your wallet or purse. This is the Lord’s prayer. “In this manner, therefore pray: Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” That’s the first petition of the Lord’s prayer, I need to focus on who You are as God. See how it starts focusing on God. He’s our Father. He’s in Heaven. Jesus spent so much time in the Sermon on the Mount describing Him. He’s the one who watches the birds. He’s the one who watches over the lilies, but more than all that He watches us. That’s the beginning, the first petition.

Then, “Your kingdom come” in verse 10. What is that? That’s me asking God to control me because You have a plan for my life. Have you ever watched someone running a drone or running one of those remote control race cars, or playing a video game and they have in their hand the controller? That guides what the plane, or the drone, or the cars doing, or the game is doing. Did you know we hand over the controller of our life to the Lord and we say, I want You to control me. Why? Because that’s best. You have a plan for my life. I surrender to Your plan.

The next petition in verse 10 is “Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” That’s me asking the Lord to lead me because I want to do His will every day of my life. This seven petition prayer is a pattern that Jesus said we should all follow, not reciting this per se. It’s okay to recite it, but not mindlessly. It’s to recite it and say, Lord, focus me on You. I want You to control me today. I want You to lead me today. Then, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This means I want You to supply me. Why would I ask the Lord to supply me? Why do I ask God to work in providing things that I need in my life? What’s the reason? So I can see Your hand in my life. Did you know most people have too much money and too much financial security that they never need God for anything? They don’t need to say, God, help me. Provide, please. I need You to intervene so many people never see God. They never see Him intervening and providing.

I remember my very first mission trip in 1977. I was in my sophomore year in college. I remember praying and saying, Lord, I want to go on this mission trip, but my parents can’t afford it. My dad worked for General Motors, and they were on strike. They didn’t even have money for food. I could barely make it through college. I said, how can I go on this trip? I said, Lord if You want me to go provide in a way that will make it so clear that only You could do it. Wow. When you start asking God to do stuff like that it’s amazing. I went to my post office box, those little boxes with a lock that you open, where your mail was put. I started getting anonymous notes in my post office box from people saying, I heard that you’re going on a mission trip, that you’re going to Haiti. On that trip, I was going to Haiti in the Caribbean area. I was going to be preaching in the mountains and village churches, doing street meetings, evangelism. Then, they said we can’t go. Haiti’s too dangerous and there are too many diseases. There’s political unrest. If you’re going, we’ll send money like you’re going for us, like we’re going with you. Everything I needed plus extra that I was able to use to help others on the trip came in, almost all of it anonymously. God touched the hearts of the people that heard about the trip, and they gave. The same thing happened the next year when I started taking Bibles to believers behind the Iron Curtain. Everything that I needed was provided so that I saw God’s hand in my life. Those early mission trips are part of the fabric, the foundation, of my whole Christian life as I learned to ask God to supply so I could see His hand in my life.

The next part of the prayer says, “Forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.” That’s me saying, Lord cleanse me so I keep Your blessing in my life. Jesus said if I regard iniquity in my heart, Psalm 66:18, He won’t hear me. He won’t hear my prayer. I want Him to cleanse me so I can keep His blessing. Remember the whole Sermon on the Mount is about the blessed life and the unblessed life. The Lord’s Prayer is how we stay in that blessed life. How God’s blessing is on our life as we focus on Him. As we ask Him to control and lead and supply and cleanse us. Then look at the next part, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” That’s me saying, Lord protect me so I don’t lose Your power in my life.

Then, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” That’s me saying, Lord, empty me. This is to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and clothe yourself with humility, so You get all the credit for my life. God wants to do something in your life and my life that when people see it, they know we couldn’t have done it. That only He could do it and then He gets all the credit for it. See, I told you there’s a lot in this section.

Chapter 7, here are the lessons I found. The speck and the beam, and the pearl and the swine. The ask, seek, and knock prayer. How much more will our Father give us? That’s in verses 7 to 12. The narrow gate and the few who find it. Jesus describes salvation, the necessity of fruit. Sheep’s clothed wolves, in other words, wolves that look like sheep. By your fruit you’ll know them. Lord, not sayers, but doers. I never knew you. I’m going to talk about that in a minute. Then build your life on the rock. Someone who hears Christ’s words, the scriptures, and does them, that means obey the Lord. It makes my life stormproof, quakeproof, fireproof. It was a great section.

Here’s a summary of all my prayers and I’ll read it to you. Lord, I want to be pure in heart to see You. Help me hunger after You today. Lord, You’re watching to see if I am moved with compassion. I seek Your compassion to motivate me today. I want to pray the way that pleases You. Focus me, control me, lead me, supply me, cleanse me, protect, and empty me. Teach me to deny my appetite so I can seek You. Guide my investments to go your way so my heart will follow. Increase my faith so I trust You more. Banish anxiety. Show me the beams in my own eyes that You and others see I’m walking with you. I want to follow You through that narrow gate. Help me to persist in asking, seeking, and knocking, bearing Your fruit, doing Your will, knowing You more today. I seek to build my life on Your word, so I trust and follow You, my life is storm proofed. Amen. That’s a whole week of prayers, but each day it’s not about writing a long prayer or a flowery prayer. It’s about targeting as you’re reading the word and asking God to do that in your life today. See that’s spiritual growth.

We’re just starting into the New Testament. I wanted to show you that the New Testament is divided into three parts. First are the historic books, which are the four Gospels and Acts, that’s the first five books. Next, teaching letters. There are 21 of them split into two types: Paul’s epistles and the Hebrew Christian epistles. You say Paul only wrote 13. Some scholars believe that Paul might’ve written Hebrews and that makes it 14 and 7. It could be 13 and 8, but there are these teaching epistles. Then a book totally unlike any other book, the book of Revelation, 5, 26, 27, that’s how many New Testament books there are.

Now, if you look at the Gospels, it’s very interesting to see how they’re designed. Matthew was designed by the Lord to present Christ as Messiah, Mark as the servant, Luke, as the Son of Man, and John is the Son of God. The Messiah emphasizes in the genealogy, Abraham, and Adam in the Son of Man. What’s interesting is a servant doesn’t even have a genealogy and so, Mark doesn’t have a genealogy. Matthew is what Jesus said, Mark is what He did, Luke is what He felt. Over and over it says, Jesus was moved with compassion in the book of Luke. Look at John, it is about who He was. He’s the eternal, preexistent, God. John was written to the whole church. His first miracle is the water into wine, which is such a picture of Jesus giving that endless joy in our life that never runs out. Matthew was written for the Jews, Mark for the Romans, and Luke for the Greeks. What’s the first miracle in Matthew? A leper is cleansed. To a Jew, leprosy was a picture of sin. In Mark, demons expelled, Luke demons expelled. The first miracle in John was water into wine. By the way, these are called signs through the book of John.

How does Matthew end? The resurrection. Mark, the ascension. Luke, the promise of the Holy Spirit and it goes right into the book of Acts. Luke is tied to Acts. Then, John ends with a promise of Christ’s return and it introduces the book of Revelation because John wrote both books. Also, it’s interesting, Matthew, the Messiah, is like the lion of the tribe of Judah. Mark is like the humble serving ox. Luke is the man and John is the eagle. You say, what are those? Those are the faces of the cherubim. See, in the Old Testament, the cherubim are described, they’re also in the book of Revelation, as having the face of a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle. The cherubim, those four faces, parallel the four Gospels, which give the complete picture of Jesus Christ. That’s just something for you to think about that Bible scholars have found.

Where we are is right here. Just to remind you of what’s going on before we get to the Gospels here and the life of Christ. In the Old Testament, we ended with the exile in Babylon, then went into the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire. Look what happens right here, the Septuagint. For just a minute I want to talk to you about the Septuagint and the history of the English Bible. How do you know what you’re reading is the word of God? We left off in the Old Testament with God having Ezra copy those scrolls, the Hebrew scrolls. Remember from Psalm 119 if you were with us all those months back that Ezra took the unreadable, Egyptian kind of hieroglyphic writing of Hebrew. Then, the Phoenician writing from the time of David writing and put it into what we call modern biblical Hebrew. Those scrolls were affirmed at the council of Jamnia, and they became the Masoretic text, which is what we find when we get the Dead Sea Scrolls. They come to us in modern time, but the scrolls that Ezra copied, all the Old Testament, are translated into the Septuagint before the time of Christ, this is the birth of Christ.

The Septuagint is a Greek version of the Old Testament. It’s translated into Latin and made the vulgate. Then from Jamnia we get the old scrolls. Those are all taken together with the Masoretic text and the Septuagint, plus the Greek scrolls that were affirmed at the council of Jamnia, and the Vulgate. All these give us our earliest translations of the Bible. Here is to show you how we got all the different translations. In the 14th century, Wycliffe. In the 16th century, Erasmus. Then, Tyndale you’ve heard of, Luther, Coverdale, Matthew Bible, Great, Geneva, Bishops, Douay/Rheims, that’s the Vulgate rendering and the King James version. This is the evolution of our English Bible, but what was it tied to? It was tied to the original autographa, the Greek manuscripts that were inspired with no errors, that were faithfully copied. That’s what that chart was; of how it was overseen in the Old Testament by the prophets and the priests. Then, in the New Testament, Jesus affirmed the Hebrew Old Testament in the Septuagint. Jesus said that it is absolutely accurate. I’m going to guide My apostles to write down and that’s what we have translated. That’s a brief one minute history of our Bible.

What did Jesus believe about the Bible? Chapter 5 in Matthew gives us His view. Jesus believed in the verbal, that’s every word; plenary, that means the full. He believed in every word and the entirety, that’s what verbal and plenary means. He believed in the inspiration, that means breathed out by God of the scriptures. Where’s that? Right there in Matthew 5:18. Jesus said “Truly, I say unto you, until Heaven and Earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke will pass away from the law.” He said, it’s not just great literature. It’s inspired. It came from God, and it is My revelation. When Jesus is confronted in chapter 23 of Matthew, we’re not going to cover that one specifically, but what that chapter’s about is Jesus is confronted by the religious leaders. They’re really on Him and He denounces them answering some of their questions and looks at what He says. He says, “that on you”, religious leaders that are going to destruction, “may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel.” That means Jesus believed Genesis 3 and 4. He believes that Cain killed Abel, the righteous blood of Abel. “To the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” That’s in 2 Chronicles. Jesus said everything that the Bible says I use as my authority to answer those big questions, like what He believed, He used the scriptures.

We could go further. These were Christ’s convictions about God’s word. What did Jesus believe? Every word of God is eternal. Remember what He said? Until Heaven and Earth pass away. In fact, Peter who heard Jesus say that, wrote at the end of his life in 2 Peter 3, “the present Heavens and Earth by His word”, that’s the Bible, “are being reserved for fire kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” Peter said the Word is going to outlast the universe, so every word of God is eternal. Jesus said it and the apostles affirmed it. Every word of Jesus is equally authoritative. Jesus said Heaven and Earth will pass away, but look, My words shall not pass away Jesus said. This is reaffirming to us that He was guiding the writing down of the Gospels, as well as all those epistles I showed, the three divisions of the New Testament.

Every letter, Jesus said even the smallest letter, remember not one jot or tittle. Look at this. The smallest letter of the Greek alphabet is the yodh, or iota. It would have been represented by the yield, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It looks like an apostrophe or a stroke. Keraia literally means little horn. Remember I told you the difference between this Hebrew letter and this Hebrew letter is this little stroke on the corner. That’s what this keraia was, it distinguished one Hebrew letter from another. Jesus said all those are inspired and they’re going to be preserved to come to pass. Jesus was just reaffirming what it says in Psalm 119, “Forever, oh LORD, Your word is settled in Heaven.” God has staked His name, His truth, and His honor to this book. He’s watching over even the minutest parts to bring them to pass, that’s what it says in Jeremiah 1:12, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.” God knows what His word says and He’s going to bring it to pass.

Number five, every book of God’s word is true. Jesus referred to the Old Testament, at least 64 times, the different books of the Old Testament. Always as authoritative truth in the course of defending His messiahship and divinity before the unbelieving Jewish leaders. When Jesus had to prove Himself, He used the Old Testament and reaffirmed the authenticity. Even the verb tenses, look at what Jesus said, “You are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God.” When God revealed Himself in Exodus, He told Moses not that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He said it’s not that the verb tenses don’t matter. He said even when God said, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that present tense was inspired. Every verb tense in the Old Testament Jesus was affirming is true.

Finally, every biblical doctrine Jesus was affirming. Jesus confirmed that the standard of marriage was established by the Creator Himself in Eden, He said that in Matthew 19:4. The murder of Abel was accurately recorded, Luke 11. Knowing the flood is in Matthew 24. Abraham is in John 8. Sodom, Lot, and Lot’s wife is in Luke 17. The call of Moses, Mark 12. Manna from Heaven, John 6. The brown serpent, John 3. All of those stories of the Old Testament, Jesus said, are doctrine. Those are messages from Me and they’re all true.

I’m going to conclude the Sermon on the Mount with this: Jesus is opposing religion. Religion even in Christ’s time, in the New Testament world, was normal people earning their way to Heaven. The Pharisees said you were born as a sinner, but when you were circumcised. Later religion changed that to baptized, it gives you a fresh start. Then you have to keep working on your sins and trying to balance them. When you do really bad things you’re setback. Religion, especially Roman Catholicism, began to teach that only saints went to Heaven. Everybody else goes to purgatory so you could purge your sins by others offering indulgences for you and finally get to Heaven. That’s religion. Whether it’s doing the five pillars of Islam or Roman Catholicism or Jehovah’s witnesses or Mormonism, all the religions of the world are always human achievements that I have to achieve. I have to merit God and I have to work hard. That’s not salvation. Salvation is a divine accomplishment. Jesus paid it all. He did it all. He paid the price. He accomplished salvation for me. That’s what’s presented in the scriptures.

Jesus believed in Heaven and Hell. Not that you were working your way, but He said you are on one of two roads. There are only two trees, those that bear fruit and those that don’t. There are only two relationships, those that know God and those that don’t. There are only two destinies, Heaven and Hell. This is a summary of the Sermon on the Mount. There’s the wide road and gate, the narrow road and gate. The destination is death or life. We’re surrounded by many who are on the wide road and are surrounded by few on the narrow road. I trust my own merits, my human achievement and that’s religion or, I trust divine accomplishment, that’s the work of Christ. That’s the revelation of the cross. Salvation is by works in religion. It’s by grace through faith, Jesus said. All religions teach salvation by works, only God’s revelation teaches salvation by grace through faith.

I was born following the old way. I do nothing to get on the path to destruction. If I don’t trust Christ, I have to pay in full for my sins. That’s why Hell is forever. If I do nothing, go with the flow, I’ll end up thrown in the Lake of Fire. Jesus said, no, you have to be born again, follow a new way, repent. Your sins are paid in full by Christ and because you’re saved you want to listen to God’s word. You want to call on the name of the Lord, repent by faith, get forever forgiven and secure. That’s the narrow road and the question of the Sermon on the Mount is which road are you on? Are you headed to your Father’s house or are you to the Lake of Fire?

From all week long you spend in God’s word, from all week long that you spend jotting, and studying, and reading your study Bible and looking at that chart of all the events in Christ’s life and cross-referencing, I challenge you to find someone that you can share your findings and application prayer with. I wish that you could just be talking on the other side of this table and tell me what you’re learning, but we can’t do that. The next best thing is for you to find a small group to share with. To share what you’ve found and to even start a Bible study and say hey, can we all study Matthew 5 to 7 this week and then get together and discuss it? Then close with our prayer. That’s number one.

Number two, how about starting to memorize scripture? Remember if you look on our YouTube channel lesson zero is about how to study and the second lesson zero, double O, is about how to memorize. I show you how I cut out a printed copy of the verses I’m working on and tape it on my phone and I work on memorizing that. If you don’t like taping on your phone, in the description of this video is a link to this, it’s the Navigator Topical Memory System. Every time I travel, and even today, I pull out my verse cards and I keep them right here. I keep my verse cards on my phone. When I want to study, I’ll show you, right here they are. I don’t know if you can see them, right there is one and there’s one. I’ve taken pictures of my verse cards from this topical memory system. I put them on my phone. I don’t have my verse taped on the back of my phone anymore because of my battery case. I couldn’t open and shut my phone with this new one, so I took pictures and now I look at these cards right here, this Topical Memory System. Just some ideas. Lastly, this is one of my cards, the physical card that I had taken pictures of. I use the first letter of each word, see, T L O T L I P, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. That’s how I memorize.

One last thing. If you remember us, Bonnie and I are traveling right now, I’m starting into teaching Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah. That’s the month of June and you can pray for us as we teach. See right here, we’re equipping and mobilizing partners and we’re seeing more and more Asians reaching Asia, Europeans reaching Europe, and Africans reaching Africa. We’re helping frontline, often by vocation, servants of the Lord as they live in their own country. They study the word of God as we teach in these Bible institutes as well as these classes you see online. We equip them to live the Christian life and share the Gospel.

I hope you have an incredible week in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and I hope that you find a lot of truths to write down. I hope that you spend a lot of time underlining and mastering this section of this passage of the Bible. Most of all I hope you are applying it to your life. Then when we come back next week, we’re going to look at, and I’m going to introduce to you, the ending of Matthew. The resurrection and then the Great Commission and seeing how Jesus applied the whole book of Matthew. It’s going to be a great time. This week, spend it in the Sermon on the Mount. I’m praying that the Lord will greatly use this in your life.

God bless you. See you next week.

Slides


Check Out All The Sermons In The Series

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