The Question A Christian Should Never Ask - Tim Conway

[Music] these three chapters matthew 5 6 and 7. i don't wanna go too slow and i don't wanna go too fast let's pray father i would ask you to help us all of us give us ears to hear give us the ability to properly understand lord i pray that as i preached through this that you would help me to be faithful to lead the people right to not introduce any error i pray that lord where i'm not right just may their ears not even hear it lord where it is right i pray that you would give us indeed ears to hear a determination to run help us as we look to you we pray make father please make make these three chapters a tremendous blessing to this people i pray in christ's name amen okay well let's look at the first verse seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him then he opened his mouth and taught them sane of course after this comes what is commonly known as the beatitudes now i would just say this when moses walked the earth god said to him do you know deuteronomy 18 18 a lot of times for for some reason that stands out in my mind maybe it's the 218s easy to remember but it's the passage where god says that he is going to raise up a prophet like moses now listen to you don't have to turn there i will raise up for them a prophet like you like moses from among their brethren and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them that's what's happening here this prophet has come the prophet like moses moses was a lawgiver god was the lawgiver but moses was the mouthpiece undoubtedly moses went to sinai think about this moses went up on a mountain jesus goes up on a mountain you say well you know maybe maybe there's maybe there's a parallel there maybe there's not but here's what's very very interesting to me do you know moses went through the red sea when you look at first corinthians 10 it says that the people were baptized in the cloud and in the sea it's like there was this baptism moses goes through the sea and then what happens they go out into the wilderness for 40 years jesus goes through the waters of baptism and he goes out into the wilderness for 40 days moses leads 12 tribes jesus leads 12 apostles they both go up on mountains as far as the law is concerned now you can you can look at all of that and you can say well you know i don't know i i don't think i don't think that's random i think what we're supposed to see is the reality that we have a new moses and we have a new sinai and we have a new law we have a new law giver i think that's what we want to see here and with this moses like prophet is that's what he said that's what god said a prophet like you this moses like prophet here he is he's on the scene and i would ask you this when christ came on the scene if we were going to sum up his entire life and ministry the focus like christ came with a focus if you were going to sum that up in one word or three words or five words what would you say what would basically be a summary word or a summary phrase that would capture i mean if if if you left this out it simply would miss the heart and soul of what christ came to do how how could you sum it up love it now here's what's interesting if you just look at the synoptic gospels you know how many times love is found twice a lot in john but twice in the synoptics it would it you'd be hard-pressed to say that matthew mark and luke were trying to bring this emphasis out that the heart and soul of christ listen there's love there there's no question but did they emphasize that specifically not really what is it save souls undoubtedly he came to that he came to seek and to save the loss there's no question about that what's that that's exactly right listen sometimes we miss this because i don't i don't know maybe maybe here in the uk you're more about kingdoms we're not about kingdoms in the us we throw off all that king's stuff so i think it maybe it's easier for you to hear than it is for americans to hear but let me just give you an idea here the the concept of the kingdom of heaven it is found 32 times in your bibles and you know where every one of those is in the book of matthew matthew seems to have been more targeted at the jews i mean if you've really looked at the differences of in the gospels it seems like matthew and there's a number of reasons for believing this we don't need to get into right now but it seems like matthew was specifically meant to be a gospel to the jews and they didn't like to use the name of god now the kingdom of god is found various times in matthew but far far far less and so that's what's absolutely essential that's the that this is the essential aspect of christ's ministry that if you miss it you really miss the heart and soul and if we have eyes to see we just think when john the baptist came on the scene now he was the forerunner but what was the first thing out of his mouth repent why the kingdom of god or in matthew the kingdom of heaven is at hand and then jesus comes on the scene in matthew 4 23 jesus went about all galilee teaching in their synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom when jesus in 4 17 began to preach he said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and many of you know how mark's gospel starts but it's the same idea the kingdom think with me when the 12 were sent out jesus sent them out and commanded them saying this don't go into the way of the gentiles don't enter into the city of the samaritans but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of israel and as you go preach this say the kingdom of heaven is at hand have you ever paid attention to the parables listen to the parables just found here in matthew another parable he put forth saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field again the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field again the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which man took did i do that twice no um i read it twice the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till all was leavened again the kingdom of heaven is like the treasure hidden in a field again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls again the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind therefore this is another verse matthew 18. therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants and again matthew 20 for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning and hires laborers for his vineyard and again in matthew 22 the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son and again matthew 25 the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went and meet the bridegroom and again matthew 25 the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them and i'll tell you this the reason i'm hitting on this is because this is indeed the great theme of the sermon on the mount you don't want to miss that in fact the heart and soul the very backbone of the sermon on the mount and you don't want to miss this because really the whole sermon on the mount revolves around this passage namely chapter 5 verse 20. you can look at it for i say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven that is what this is about now listen you're going to go wrong if you try to interpret this righteousness as the righteousness that christ accomplished that is not what this is about nothing in this sermon on the mount is about christ imputing his righteousness to us nothing in this sermon is about that this is all about our righteousness and you'll see that as soon as he finishes verse 20 what happens well you've heard it said that those of old you shall not murder whoever murders will be in danger of the judgments i say to you that whoever is angry with his brother you see what he does immediately he doesn't go into some some uh you know discourse about imputed righteousness he immediately puts his finger at them and he says i'm going to tell you what kind of righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees and he starts out with a matter that has to do with how the christian confronts law how the christian confronts anger how the christian confronts lust how it's all about our righteousness when you get to chapter six again it's about our righteousness in secret when you pray you should pray like this when you fast you should fast like this when you give alms it's all about our righteousness that's that's what the sermon on the mount is about you don't want to miss that but kingdom you see it there your righteousness if you're going to enter the kingdom this is serious stuff your righteousness better exceed that of the scribes and the pharisees you see kingdom look look at verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven verse 10 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven you go into to look with me at verse 19 whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so you see this has to do with us whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven again it's about doing and teaching what christ is teaching whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven there it is again for i say that to you unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven then when we look at at chapter 6 you can see the absolute emphasis in verse 33 633 seek first we sing this in the us perhaps you do here as well seek first the kingdom of god seek it first that's the priority you don't want to miss that that is the priority of this sermon as we go through it this is this is the issue you want to seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you and then once again seven the well known 7 21. you just let your eyes move down there 7 21. not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven i'll tell you this this sermon on the mount is about entering the kingdom and if your righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and the pharisees you will not enter and it again see that's when you come all the way to the end it's the same thing all the way at the end it's got to do with the way you live the way your life your obedience not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven who will enter he who does the will of my father what is the will of his father obviously you compare scripture with scripture the will of his father is that your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and the pharisees because if it doesn't you won't enter only those who enter who do the will of the father you combine those two passages you see it is the will of the father that you pursue some kind of righteousness that obviously the pharisees and the scribes were did not obtain so the great theme we see it here this this is not a kingdom with geographical borders this is when you think kingdom you hear the king in there you see there's a king you see the king look at the very end verse 24 whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them i will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock do you remember what was said to moses i'm going to raise up a prophet like you and whoever doesn't listen to him god says i'm going to require it of him and that's what you have right here this is the heart and soul and you know sometimes we hear king in kingdom but you ever really focus on the dom that's got to do with dominion you can think king dominion that's what this is about this is about who's going to hear christ and in poor in spirit we're going to resign ourselves to him that's the it is about the reign of christ now let's think about the kingdom of god or the kingdom of heaven for just a second because sometimes when we think about the kingdom of god we simply think about this realm in which god rules you know the reality is the sovereignty of god demands that in the greatest sense of all god is king christ is king all authority has been given to him all are under his rule all are under his reign but that is not what kingdom of heaven and kingdom of god means in the new testament not primarily here in the book of matthew and even more in this sermon on the mount it is used in a limited sense it's true god reigns absolutely over all people all demons all life all creation at all times no one and nothing can escape it that's a reality but in matthew in the sermon on the mount kingdom of heaven kingdom of god it's used in a limited sense and you know it is why the reason we know it is is because the scribes and the pharisees are not in this kingdom right because they don't have a righteousness that gets them in anybody that doesn't do the will of the father who's in heaven doesn't get into this kingdom this kingdom is something that has to be entered and only some enter it so when you think kingdom of god it is in this limited it's kind of a subset it's this brethren i'll tell you it's obvious what it is it's that god has sent his son and he mediates his authority through the son and the son this is god's chosen king and he has come and god basically says you by your knee to my king and you enter the kingdom you resist him you fight against him i'm going to require it of you it's not enough to hear him if you're the wise man you hear him and you do what he says he said one time why do you call me lord lord and you don't do the things i say he's lord he's king he's the lord of lords he's king of kings see this is what the kingdom is all about and how do you get in well i'll tell you this your righteousness better exceed that of the scribes and the pharisees jesus told nicodemus that unless you're born of the spirit and water you will never enter you'll never see the kingdom the kingdom is taken by force is what scripture says so that's what we're talking about here now you know this truly i say to you unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom now i want to show you a pair of verses that's incredibly helpful turn to mark's gospel because you basically i love this kind of thing i love to be able to show you and convince you about things where you know you can get your own eyes right in scripture and you can say yeah there's no question about it what he's saying is right what he's saying is true we don't doubt that we can if you look at mark chapter 9 verse 45. i just want you to see something that happens there's a there's a synonymous word usage here that's extremely helpful mark 9 verse 45 if your foot causes you to sin cut it off it's better for you to now notice these words enter life did you see that okay you just keep that thought in the back of your head it's better for you to enter life lame rather than having two feet to be cast into hell so the difference obviously we've got entering life or being cast into hell now go to verse 47 if your eye causes you to sin pluck it out it's better for you to enter life what does it say the kingdom of god with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire you see what he's just done he's equated the kingdom of god with what life eternal life the opposite of hell so make no mistake about it we now know what it means to enter the kingdom no confusion there never has to be any confusion christ himself defines his terminology for us to enter the kingdom enter life the kingdom see the kingdom of god here is a subset of the universal kingdom and this subset this aspect of the kingdom is exactly what the sermon on the mount is all about it's concerned with entering the kingdom we've got to press into this the way is narrow there's there's all aspects of entering and it's equivalent to entering life that's exactly what it is so the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of god when used in this narrower sense really has to do with the way god's sovereignty bears directly on his saving purposes that's what it's all about all who enter the kingdom they have life and you know what if you don't enter the kingdom you don't have life that's the reality of what we're faced with here now i'm going to come back to this again one of the most important verses in this sermon on the mount is chapter 5 verse 20. look at it again i say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the pharisees you will by no means enter and you know what we can replace here the word that we just saw is synonymous life what he's saying here is the scribes and pharisees don't have life they don't have eternal life they perish jesus said that there's no life for these guys from the days of john the baptist until now jesus said this he said the kingdom of heaven suffers violence the violent take it by force this this is god's kingdom mediated through christ the sermon i i just showed you emphasizes surrender to this not everybody enters the kingdom who enters the kingdom those who do the will of my father who is in heaven now listen i just got a question yesterday about perfectionism listen you have to listen to what christ says that's what i'm calling everybody to do we want to take christ at face value we want to be very careful how we approach this sermon why because here's what christ says he says whoever hears whoever hears and does that's a wise man there's a storm coming it's a storm of god's judgment you want to weather that storm he says i'll tell you exactly who the wise man is who weathers that storm he hears me and he surrenders to my kingship you see it's all about king dominion kingdom surrender do we have ears to hear what christ says because you know what you can you know what the second guy is the fool he's not a guy that never hears he's not the muslim and far off pakistan that never hears you know who he is he's the guy that hears he's the guy that sits right here in this church sister we call her but if her life is characterized you see in the end it's not going to be whether you call brother or sister here and whether you carted your bible around saying the hymns in the end christ knows who has bent the knee to him that's going to be the real issue now there's nothing listen there is nothing more important in the christian life then how we approach our bibles nothing if you are a hearer only you're deceived that's what james says deceiving your own selves there's all sorts of people they they hear the they hear the preaching they argue with it they wanna they wanna they wanna fight listen i'm not preaching through this for us to fight i want us all to just bow that is going to be the safest place listen there's nothing more important than how we approach the bible the way we read it the way we respond to it the way we answer to the authority of it listen we know nothing about god we know nothing about his kingdom aside from this book yes you can look out there but nature may tell us some things about god but the reality is it's it's not conclusive we might be able to draw certain inferences but how do we know if we're right see we know when we come to scripture it's right and here it is it's found this is our authority why we have a prophet that's like moses that has come and god said you need to hear him this is my beloved son whom i'm well pleased you need to hear him i mean that's that's the word today i mean brethren do you realize oh do you realize as you drive home today you're going to go down this street you're going to see all these people walking because it's locked down time everybody wants to get out and they want to see the snow and we saw a bunch of people out there they're not even hearing i have often thought the most miserable people in the entire world are not the people out there who are living it up in this world it's the halfway christian that makes it all the way here and hears the word and then doesn't do it if there's anybody that's most miserable in all the world they're living it up but you know you try to live that halfway christian life and you know you make certain sacrifices and you live a certain way and you try to put on a certain morality but then if you don't make it you don't enter and jesus said it's going to be more tolerable for certain people in the day of judgment than these people that come under the sound of the gospel what i'm driving is this listen we have to admit that it's not enough to merely read our bibles and it's not enough to simply hear the preaching that's not enough both groups here that's not we can't stop with that we you know we can read in such a mechanical aspect and manner that we really derive no benefit or there's this you come to the word of god with your presuppositions you've got these preconceived notions about what everything already means and you can't even hear what scripture says oh i fear that about the sermon on the mount do you know one of the places that people so often go wrong when it comes to law and grace and if there's any part of our bibles that deals with law and grace it's found right here in the sermon on the mount i mean you know you hear something like this well you've heard you shouldn't commit adultery i say unto you whoever looks at a woman to lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart if your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out cast it from you it's more profitable for you that one of your members perish than you're for your whole body to be cast into hell and you know what happens we've got people that are so wrong in their thinking about grace that they can't even hear that doesn't apply to me why does it apply to you i'm a christian when saved always saved i can't lose my salvation so they can't even hear that they don't they don't even have ears that they can take this seriously and you know this is true this this grace it's like wait wait a second i'm saved by grace through faith not by works and so you know what because people lock into that truth they just say i can't hear what jesus says in the sermon on the mount it doesn't even reach your ears but i'll tell you this you get to the end of the sermon on the mount and he says if you hear me and you don't do what i'm saying you don't take this to heart you're a fool and when that storm comes your house is going to fall down you see if we don't understand grace properly we're going to go wrong here but then but then you get people who run to the other extreme they read the sermon on the mount and they feel like oh well i'd better do this that and the other thing to be right with god i better do this to be a christian and then they fall into works and when that storm comes their house falls down so how do we how do we manage this i mean you what you don't want is you know this this mindset oh no i got to keep this rule i got to keep this law and i got to keep this standard and you basically build this fence and i got to live within there or god's going to get me you see that's that's not the right way either and that's basically the mindset that the pharisees had you just got to work harder you know you reach these things got to work harder being out of balance either way is deadly and so what we really have to ask is you know what do we do with this what do we do with this sermon i would ask this are its standards even obtainable go back to matthew if you're in mark 9 go back to matthew 5. matthew 5. you go right to the end of chapter 5. verse 47 if you greet your brethren only what do you do more than others do not even the tax cut collectors do so now let me ask you this just words have meaning does jesus expect us to live above and beyond the gentiles as christians obviously then look what he says therefore you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect now is jesus saying i don't want you to be perfect let me ask you this are the standards of this sermon obtainable when jesus says this unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees you won't enter the kingdom does that sound like he expects that some people are going to pull that off here's the thing let your eyes go over to matthew 7. you know this verse it falls in the sermon on the mount enter by the narrow gate now see here he's talking about entering this kingdom because he's talking about life and as we saw in mark 9 the kingdom of god is equivalent to sane and her life now what does he say he says enter by the narrow gate for white is the gate broad is the way that leads to destruction there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it now listen if you compare that verse to matthew 5 20 what do you get you've got people entering the kingdom in matthew 5 20. you've got people actually by no means will enter but he shows us how you do enter that's if your righteousness exceeds that of the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees and then you've got few who find life in matthew 7 14. they're the same people but right i mean the same people that enter the kingdom are the same people that enter life it's it's synonymous and so what is jesus saying he's saying i know this there's a few of you in the world that are going to achieve that standard so we ask this is it attainable is it unattainable obviously the standards of the sermon on the mount are not attainable by the masses but what he's saying is they are attainable by a few you can't do this natively and naturally but you can do this by the grace of god and that's where grace comes in grace always has to do with god empowering god helping and look it's obvious they're not entirely unattainable because why because a few find it to put the standard here beyond everybody's reach is would be to ignore the very purpose of this sermon because the sermon has to do with the entering it has to do with hearing it has to do with doing the will of the father he certainly sees a few attaining to the standards here they are attainable not by everyone only those who have experienced like like it was said to nicodemus unless you're born again you're not going to be among the few you see people that are born again they can pull off what jesus is after they can pull off i know he uses the word perfection we we can i'm going to talk more about that in just a second and i'm not teaching and i don't i don't believe you'll find this in scripture but that that perfection in this life is attainable but you know what i'm afraid a lot of people they immediately want to come to the conclusion well we cannot obtain it and therefore what well there's no effort in attaining it it's like you back away from the standard no we don't want to do that don't do that you need to hear what jesus is saying and we're going to look at this over weeks and months but these things are attainable if you've entered the kingdom of god by the way of being born again they are obtainable now let me i want to do a word study because i take notice of this because it has doctrinal impact you want to notice very carefully the difference between indicative verbs and imperative verbs and you can see it plainly in the english you don't have to know greek to figure this out but just let me tell you something let's let's do a little just a little study here on verbs when you have verbs you have person in other words a verb can have to do with me that's first person it can have to do with you that second person or maybe you're removed altogether that's third person there is the idea of whether it's singular or it's plural you've got that aspect when we're talking about verbs here i know there's differences between the greek and the english but just just hang with me you have the voice of the verb that means is it active or passive like the verb am i doing it actively or is it something happening to me so you get that aspect you get the tense you know in english we have future we have present we have past it's it's different in greek you have perfect and imperfect and present and there's just different tenses but here's the thing there's also something called mood the two primary moods there's others but the two primary are indicative and imperative now imperative both of these words ought to speak for themselves an imperative is imperative it's a command the verb is a command the verb tells you to do something and indicative indicates what's true that's key because if god told us you've got to do this in order for the indicative to be a reality if the imperative precedes that's not christianity that's works you got to do this and then this will be true of you christianity starts with the indicative what god does the result is our obedience flows out of it the imperative flows out of it brethren you get this backwards it's life and death and when we talk about a righteousness that exceeds and goes beyond and surpasses the scribes and the pharisees if you go off on this it's life and death you got to know where you got to know these verbs you know why i'm so adamant at this point to give you a little verb instruction is because for the first 16 verses of this sermon on the mount there is no imperative we are so wired to want to do i'm afraid people have a hard time reading the beatitudes without hearing imperatives like blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and when people hear that i've got to be poor in spirit that's not what it's saying do you recognize what jesus did he sat down he's instructing his disciples and he simply gives an indicative he says those in the world who are poor in spirit because you remember what jesus said you don't need a doctor unless you're sick people that are sick come to christ how does how does anyone feel sick how does anybody come under conviction when the spirit comes he's going to convict men righteousness of sin righteousness judgment how does it happen how does somebody come to be poor in spirit it's an internal thing that god works and you know what anybody that's in that place where they recognize that they need a doctor bang they're right there this is what's key the indicatives precede the imperatives what that means is he's telling us what grace does in the life of a child of god he's not telling you what to do to become a child of god he's telling you what is true of those who are children of god and then he goes and he launches out into okay as a child of god this is the life that i want to flow from your life is there a place then to take an imperative to take commands and for the people who are in this place to actually work this out by the grace of god absolutely but if you try to jump in here and work this out without these beatitudes being a reality in your life it's not going to work because if these beatitudes listen these are the blessed people you know what that means you've got the the comparison in luke 6 if you're not blessed you're cursed and you need to recognize this these are the only blessed people on the face of the earth there are no others and it's all together this isn't a bunch of different people it's not like the poor in spirit is different than the meek and they're different from the mourners they're different from those who no it's all the same person and all the blessings kingdom of god you'll see god you'll be you'll receive mercy you'll be filled you'll be satisfied i mean all of these blessed are those that are persecuted for righteousness sake why i mean theirs is the kingdom it's all it's all one in the same person now again with that thinking let's come back to matthew 5 20. i say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven now i want to look more closely at that let's think about the scribe and the pharisee because i'll tell you this what you and i don't want to be is the scribe and pharisee because if we are we won't enter and they had a standard of righteousness they were religious people and they had a standard of righteousness and actually on the outside they looked really good and what you and i don't want to be when come that judgment day is we don't want to be these guys and so let's think about them because if our righteousness has to go beyond is it is it just a matter of i gotta work harder than they work no that's not what he's saying that is not what he's saying so basically what these guys wanted to do was they sought to build a fence around themselves offense of requirements this is this is typical pharisaical thinking i'm going to build a fence and if i'm inside i'm good if i go outside god's going to get me this basically you know what they did they externalized righteousness and they quantified righteousness say what do you mean i mean this they said you know what we've got a tithe the anus and the mint and the human it's all external you got these bang bang bang bang did that as long as they did that i'm inside the fence and i'm good i'm good with god you see if if you are always thinking what do i have to do to stay inside the fence what if that's the way you hear things what do i have to do so god doesn't get me what do i have to do what what is my offense christian righteousness it's going to go beyond this or there's no kingdom for you now listen the righteousness of the scribes and the pharisees they are people that are always asking the wrong questions and you can find out you can find yourself by the questions that they would ask you know they ask them because you see it in the way their lives worked out they were always asking the wrong questions always and the moment you externalize piety you externalize godliness you're gonna ask the wrong question every time that's what they did i mean it's this question what do i have to do for god to be on my side and i just ask you how many of you are doing that that's the real question constantly absorbed with how much external you've got to do to be in what do you have to do you look at life like that what do i have to do to not be in the lost crowd what is it what does my life have to look like how much do i have to perform how much you see the pharisee would ask this how much can i get away with and still be inside the fence you know that's how it was that rich young ruler oh boy he comes along and it's like what do i have to do keep the law well i've been in the fence my whole life that's basically what he said jesus said that is the wrong standard do you think as a ferris do you think as a rich young ruler who thinks he kept the law perfectly do you think he tied you better believe it i've seen it i've seen it in the church back in the day i used to handle the finances at gcc i can remember seeing there was a certain guy that would give to the penny a tenth of his income i mean and 29 cents you see this guy was like that kept them all from my youth up what do i got to do see that's the question what do i got to do what do i got to do to be safe within here and jesus says that is the wrong fence the fence is perfection and that is at an internal level you need to be perfect like your father and so he's he's not saying that in this world that we're necessarily ever going to get out there but he's saying that's the fence and he says it to the rich young ruler he says you know what you may have tithed your whole life but you've never loved anybody this has never come from in here he says you go sell it all and you you see this is the beauty when you go into the new testament and you find the people who are entering the kingdom what do you find a widow who gives it all zacchaeus who says half of it and if i wronged anybody i'm going to give four times as much those early christians they sold their property so that nobody went without you see the difference here that the the problem is the pharisaical altogether wrong perspective they they think this way as long as they did what was required it that to them meant that they were making it meant they were all right with god their acceptance with god it was entirely based on this performance on the law they had this fence as long as they stayed within the fence they felt they were okay and you it's like here's the thing the fence says don't steal like they you know they would take the external realities of the law and they would say there's the fence don't steal so as a good rich young ruler i didn't paul paul said when it came to the law blameless see i'm inside the fence but then in romans 7 what does he say i saw that commandment that said not to covet and he said the more i tried not to covet the more i coveted and i recognized i was outside the fence i wasn't perfect i wasn't meeting god's standard but you see what happens when he gets saved all for christ for me to live is christ he left everything behind this is this is the difference by externalizing it never has any value scribes and pharisees you hypocrites you're like whitewashed tombs that indeed appear beautiful outwardly but inside you're full of dead men's bones you see this is the problem you're asking the wrong questions it's like what do i got to do how good do i have to be how how many times do i have to speak right to my wife how many times this how much before it becomes such habitual sin that i'm on the outside wrong question that's not it because you see what happens to the person in the sermon on the mount blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness because you see when the hunger inside is i want to know god and i see jesus he went to that cross he went to that cross to give me fellowship with god to bring me to god it's like i want to do that i want to be like christ i want to have my work shine so that my father is glorified i desire that and you know what happens when that is the desire and that it's love for christ it's love for god it's a desire to be holy it comes out of a heart that's pure not a heart that's you see these guys don't steal rich young ruler paul when he was a pharisee they could say never stolen you know what the problem with that is you can never steal and be a thief you say how well because you try to put on this you know you want to meet the standard so you don't steal or you're too much of a coward what would be the consequences but in inside your heart is lusting for that thing do you recognize the difference when god comes along he didn't come along to stop your stealing he came long to kill the thief in us and to kill the liar in us you see this is why on the cross it can be said we die to sin and live to righteousness this is what he came to do we just brethren somebody can be inside the fence and be altogether still a thief because it's in the heart because they want that thing they see that's what jesus is saying you've heard it said and they nicely have the fences set up that you're not supposed to commit adultery seventh commandment we all know it but i'm telling you this you may think you're inside because you never cheated on your wife but if you've been gazing over there at that other woman you need to recognize what's happening here that's that's what we've got god's not interested in simply doing a whitewash job on us and that was the issue with the scribes and pharisees is absolutely thorough going in humanity that we basically look at i i mean we we tend to view righteousness as what we do or don't do that is so ingrained in us what good thing do i have to do to have eternal life get into the kingdom what's the thing even peter did i forgive my brother seven times see bang bang bang bang bang seven times now i got the rule i got the standard i got the fence and so you can all time externalize it did i forgive seven times and see when jesus said seventy times seven he wasn't saying well okay 490 is the limit that's not what he meant he meant the objective in all of it is perfection strive for it if you fall short my blood will wash it away but this is what you strive for why not as an ethical code by which you've got to become a child of god not that because you have a new heart that desires this blessed are the pure in heart the pure in heart don't run out want to defile themselves blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness they don't want to run out and steal and do all sorts of wicked things why because the desires have been changed do we fail do we fall yes and his blood will wash that away but we press on do we have a season of darkness a season of slowness we can confess our sins and he's faithful and just to forgive those sins and what kind of questions get asked by people who have these fences you know what this this is a dead giveaway can i do this and still be dot dot dot that is the question of the pharisee can i get away with this and still be in the place where god's not going to get me that is the pharisee question where the christian views this no i i want to i don't want to see how close to the fence i can live i want to see how close to perfection i can get and that's what he says be perfect as your father is perfect and we don't need to get all hung up over this if if we have failures in our life because even peter as a as a a child of god is saying you know he they're trying to even wrestle with this is it seven times i mean lord show us where the fence is oh guys it's so limited no one i mean when he says 70 times seven you recognize the word seven has everything to do with perfection peter might have even thought you know seven oh that's that's great now 70 times seven you tied the rich young ruler no no no give it all away and give to the poor and come follow me you see it's radical because it's internal this is what the sermon on the mount is all about questions people want to know the limits of their conduct and still be inside that is not a christian question and if that is a question you keep asking it's not a christian question it's a pharisaical question and i'm not saying a true christian can't ask that pharisaical question but you just need to recognize brethren where we're at because as we go through the sermon i'm just going to ask this as we go through it you know you have to confront jesus words individually i know this am i perfect no i'm i'm not perfect but i can tell you at the age of 25 something happened in my life where god broke me and i was poor in spirit in other words i recognized i needed christ desperately because i didn't have anything to offer god spiritually i was bankrupt and i was broke that i shed tears over my sin i did blessed are those who mourn meekness has to do with humility is there still too much pride left in me yes but did something altogether different happen where i fell at the feet of christ yes did i have a hunger and a thirst for righteousness yes i did does it always maintained the most intense level not always but is it radically different than what was there before yes is there a desire to love people not just to give down to the scent when it comes to tithing yes do i want to have all my goods at god's disposal for the sake of god's people i do i mean what you're going to have to ask and i'm not saying all this out of pride or or to belittle anybody else i'm just saying look i i have to face scripture just like you do and i can look at this and say i'm among the blessed because this has happened to me now if you've got ears to hear christ what happens is as you hear him will the imperative kick in where we recognize what really pleases him is that we not even be angry we not even lust we don't do our praying to be seen our giving to be seen our fasting to be seen see we hear this and the spirit of god we even hear the warnings you know what you know what god said to his people i'm going to put the fear of god in them so that they don't depart from me and so one of the things that happens we hear about you better pluck out that eye or it's better for that to happen than to be thrown into hellfire and you know what the warnings of god do to the children of god they make us step back from the edge because he puts his fear within us and i feel that i don't feel like oh i better do that to get saved i better do that to make sure god doesn't get me no i recognize while god is very serious about that and it is fearful that is a very fearful warning and i don't want to get close to that edge and i'm going to i'm going to plead with him he give me the grace to pluck these eyes out you see when you're when the question you're asking all the time is this what are the limits of my conduct that i can still be on the inside pharisee that is entirely pharisaical because basically what that is is a question the question you're asking is about the law you're no longer guided by christian ethics it's now pharisaical ethics ethics has to do with living out your the moral realities in your life and what drives the christian the indicative drives the christian life the pharisee the imperative drives the pharisees life that's the difference can i do this and still be in people that ask that they haven't understood the christian faith you want because what that person is wanting to do is be fenced in by law what defines my conduct by law so that i can still know i'm on the inside what are the limits to which i can be dominated by sin and still be on the inside they're always looking for that they're always asking that how much can i practice sin how much can it be habitual and i'm still on the inside let's see brethren that's the wrong question it's entirely to misread the gospel of the kingdom when you ask those questions jesus is saying there's no security in that no security and so this thing as we see is going to start out with no imperatives and i'm afraid we're so wired because you know even as little kids we just are so wired by our natural disposition to to basically view righteousness by this external law keeping or rule-keeping how good we've been we've got these notches bang bang bang bang so wired and it's almost like i know when i say to you blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven it's almost like you can't even hear it without reading the imperative into it oh i've got to be poor in spirit how i got to do it i got to make myself that way i've got to achieve that and that's not even what he's doing and brethren the reality is as we describe his what i plan to do next week is describe what poor in spirit is and listen if if you're here and you look at that and you recognize i'm not poor in spirit well then you're not in the blessed ranks but that doesn't leave you hopeless because christ is bidding you cry they call this name jesus because he's gonna do the saving he's gonna save his people from their sins he came to seek and save the lost and if there's any burden any desperation in your heart to go to him he heals it he makes it right and so that's what i want i want us to look at this and you know what if you can look at the beatitudes and say yeah it's not perfect but definitely god has put me in the ranks of the blessed then hallelujah and if you look at it and you say no i don't think i'm there the last thing i want to do is encourage you to try to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and make yourself this because that won't happen the place is to fall at the feet of christ and plead with him to break the pride which is the opposite of i mean what's the opposite of poor in spirit it's to be rich it's to think you've got your act together it's to think everything's okay what's the opposite of meek obviously there's pride what's the opposite of mourning now it's just going on and living life and not really thinking your sins are all that bad hungering and thirsting for righteousness it's the opposite of that is obviously hungering and thirsting for other stuff for things of the world hungry and thirsting for that which doesn't god doesn't approve of and we can go through it but that's where we're headed that's where we're headed and you listen i think you all know that what i've said today is true the pharisee would ask the wrong question and jesus was always clearing all that fog away saying you want to follow me there's the standard perfection that's where the fence is the fence is perfection and you know what we've got the blood of christ that sufficiently covers over any place i fall short of it and that's the beauty i can strive for it and if i fail the blood washes me and i'm forgiven and i can go right back to striving and loving and giving and being like him and if i fail i can confess my sin he's faithful and just it's the blood of jesus christ cleanses us from all own righteousness that's that's reality the fence is perfection and just this last thought brother and i'm i'm afraid that when people automatically first thing out of their mouth we can't achieve perfection you know what they've already done they've already succumbed to a fence because that's not how jesus talked scripture you know you notice that scripture never says that scripture never wants to really lay that home you can't be perfect it doesn't do that just the opposite it says be perfect and you know what if you've been born again you ought to have a heart that longs for that right and so the objective should not to be to be able to define how that's not possible rather on the other side you'd say i long for it and i'm going to strive that's one of the things about the praying and fasting we're doing it's it's i mean one of the things this it's not praying and fasting like the pharisees i fast twice in the week no none of that we're fasting and praying so that we can cling to the lord and have him reward us with what the grace to catapult us further towards that perfection i'm afraid too many christians set the standard way too low so they're not even striving brethren you know the reality is if this sermon if god will take it and really lay hold on your heart we can be way beyond we are right now that includes me father i pray that you'd help us to really grasp be able to understand right to be helped i pray for these these folks here lord please may you be compassionate and kind may you help us all to sort out where we're at may you show mercy to us in that lord i pray that you would save the unsaved and i pray that you'd help us that are saved to run ever so better to have ears and hear lord have mercy upon us all i pray in christ's name amen well you're dismissed brethren you

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 15,043

Keywords: Tim Conway, Sermon, Mount, Believers, Matthew 5, Prayer, Moses

Id: 1-a0EU0w7II

Length: 68min 56sec (4136 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2021