Archives For sermon on the mount

Of Moths, Rust & Market Plunges

August 8, 2011 — Leave a comment

Today’s a good day to remind ourselves of Jesus’ encouragement.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matt 6:19-24).

Regardless of what you lost today, are there incorruptible treasures attached to your name in God’s Book of Life? Regardless of what you might lose tomorrow, can you wake up sharing the assurance of Paul in 2 Timothy 1:12? Even if you have no money in the stock market, you’ll make investments this week. Investments of time, money, effort, focus, praise and relationship. The only question is whether or not those investments will yield an eternal profit.

God’s wisdom goes something like this. Lose the bulk of your portfolio, but inherit the “eternal weight of glory,” and that’s the stuff of “light momentary affliction” (2 Cor 4:16-18).   Prosper like a king, but forfeit your soul, and you’ve invested everything—including eternity—on moths and rust (Matthew 16:26).

Miss heaven and you will have missed it all.

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The "Rules" of Life

May 10, 2010 — Leave a comment

Everyone is familiar with the “golden rule” that Jesus gave in his famous Sermon on the Mount:

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

But not everyone adopts the “golden rule” as their standard of life.   Some live by:

  • The Mud Rule: if I can’t have it, no one else will either!
  • The Iron Rule: what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine, so I’ll take it.
  • The Fool’s Gold Rule: eat, drink, and be merry!
  • The Bronze Rule: what’s mine is mine, and I won’t do anyone else any harm, but I’m going to keep what’s mine.
  • The Silver Rule: whatever men do to you, do also to them.

This sermon is about each of those common “rules” of life, and why the golden rule endures as the greatest standard of conduct that the world has ever seen.

SERMON AUDIO :

For more interactive outlines and mp3 recordings, be sure to visit the Sermons archive.

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Mouthy Declarations Without Submission

April 30, 2010 — Leave a comment

Paul Earnhart on Matthew 7:21-23:

With language that has become even more piercingly plain, Jesus turns from the false prophets to the false professors and their false standards.   It is dangerous enough for a man to take the broad road to destruction on purpose, but it is infinitely more dangerous for him to take it, believing it is the way to life.   Enthusiastic shouts of “Lord, Lord” can be nothing more than a convenient bit of fleece to cover an unyielding heart.   There may not be a wolf beneath the sheepskin, but there certainly is a goat!   Empty professions are as dangerous to the narrow road as false prophets.

There is nothing untoward about an earnest confession of faith in the Son of God and the open acknowledgment that He is Lord.   Indeed, there can be no true discipleship without it (Matthew 10:32-33; Romans 10:9-10).   But the tragedy sets in when that is all there is—a mouthy declaration of Jesus’ sovereignty without any evidence of submission (Luke 6:46).

Invitation to a Spiritual Revolution: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (pg. 149)

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A Matter, Not Just of Doing, But of Being

April 29, 2010 — Leave a comment

Paul Earnhart on Matthew 7:15-20:

Jesus’ analogy from nature—the tree is known by its fruit—drives home the point that kingdom citizenship is not a matter of appearance, but of being.   People, like trees, produce the kind of fruit that their nature demands.   Therefore, being a Christian is not simply a matter of doing something new, but of being something new.   It is the kind of life which begins in the heart, at the center of the personality.   That is the reason it is only produced by a new birth (John 3:3-5).

Some have attempted to follow Christ by adding some new dimension to their lives when it is the life itself which must be changed.   You can tie grapes on thorns and figs on thistles, but they will not grow there.   A wolf may wear wool, but he cannot produce it.   The true child of the kingdom is different.   As Jesus said, “out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).   Sin in all its manifestations begins in the heart (Matthew 15:19) and it is consequently in the heart and from the heart that a new kind of fruit must be borne.

Invitation to a Spiritual Revolution: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (pg. 147-148)

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Agents, Not Of Judgment, But Of Salvation

April 28, 2010 — Leave a comment

Paul Earnhart on Matthew 7:3-5:

The gospel of grace cannot be preached without convicting men of sin (John 16:8) and calling for a change of heart (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30).   Even the souls of God’s redeemed people cannot be secured without admonishing the disorderly (1 Thessalonians 5:14) and seeking to convert “a sinner from the error of his way” (James 5:19-20).   But such correction is offered in redemptive love, not as the vehicle of pride and anger.   The righteousness of the kingdom warns, but it does not attack.   Citizens of God’s kingdom, struggling with their sins and beset by weaknesses, need a brother—not a “judge.”   In all our dealings with others, we need to remember that we are not agents of the Lord’s judgment, but of His salvation.   Vengeance belongs to the Lord.   Our task is to seek and to save the lost.

Invitation to a Spiritual Revolution: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (pg. 128)

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Radical Surgery

April 27, 2010 — Leave a comment

Paul Earnhart on Matthew 5:27-30:

This passage is the place where those who staunchly affirm their confidence in the literal interpretation of all Scripture will have to take a very deep breath. There can be no question that Jesus builds His message on a truth from the world of the flesh, but it is evident from the context that His language has application to the world of the spirit (if the right eye was removed, the sinner could still lust just as effectively with his left). In these grim words the true depth of change which the Son of God is demanding finds dramatic expression. In the same vein Jesus spoke of our coming to Him as a crucifixion (Matthew 16:24-25) and Paul provides a commentary on Matthew 5:29-30 in his words to the Colossians: “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire…” (Colossians 3:5).

Though our Lord is not speaking here of physical mutilation, which would be wholly ineffectual against the motions of the heart, we should not presume that the figurative intent of His words makes them any less intensely painful. There are “parts” of us—affections, habits, attitudes, values, relationships—which have become by long cultivation so intimately a part of our personality that their removal will make the actual excision of an eye or hand seem conservative. Most of us have spent a long time learning how to be selfish and lustful. We should not expect the end of these things to come without trauma. Shrieks of anguish may arise from somewhere within us as in penitence we apply the gospel knife. But some pain is good pain. “For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1 Peter 4:1). We can choose to avoid this suffering but our cherished lusts will destroy us like some awful gangrene of the soul.

Invitation to a Spiritual Revolution: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (pg. 51-52)

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We Are Under Law To God Because We Are Human

April 23, 2010 — Leave a comment

Paul Earnhart on Matthew 5:17-20 (emphasis added):

It would be exceedingly helpful if students of the Scripture could realize that God’s law or will for man inheres in creation, not in the covenants.   The Creator’s expectations for His creature, man, have been in place since Adam.   The two greatest commandments (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:28-31) did not first have application when they were included in the covenant made with Israel at Sinai, but were clearly applied to man’s behavior toward God and others from his inception (Genesis 4:1-12; 6:5,11-13; 18:20; Jude 7).   A man is not under law to God because he is under covenant (new or old).   He is under law to God because he is a man.   One can only escape God’s law by resigning from the human race. Resignations have frequently been tendered, but there is no evidence that any have been accepted.   Man, under covenant, makes a commitment to be faithful to God and His commands and receives in turn the promises and blessings of the Lord—but whatever he does there is no escape from divine law.

But why, it is asked, does Jesus, in a sermon on the “gospel of the kingdom,” urge upon His hearers the careful keeping of the least commandment of the law of Moses?   The answer is: because His audience was Jewish and were, even as Jesus spoke, under that covenant.   Whatever attitude they had toward God’s law as expressed in the Jewish covenant they were bound to bring to the kingdom.   the covenant is not so important as the principle of absolute trust and obedience toward God in everything.   Anyone disposed to play fast and loose with the smallest command of God, whatever the covenant, is unfit for the kingdom of heaven. A new covenant would come but the principle would remain the same.

Some ordinances of God are manifestly greater than others because they sit closer to the heart of divine righteousness (Mark 12:28-33; Matthew 23:23), but no command of God is without immense significance since the breath of the Almighty is in it (2 Timothy 3:16). The one who rebuked the Pharisees for swallowing camels did not encourage them to eat gnats with relish (Matthew 23:23).   James has sought to make us understand that the commands of God are indivisible since He is behind them all (James 2:10-11).   It is not just a matter of breaking a command, little or great.   It is a matter of defying God and breaking faith with Him.

Obedience is not limited as a principle to systems of justification by law (Galatians 3:10).   It is also an expression of faith (James 2:14-26) and love (John 14:15, 23-24; 1 John 5:3) in the gospel system of grace and justification by faith (Matthew 7:21).   As such it has application to salvation in every dispensation (Hebrews 11).   The kingdom citizen, like the faithful of all ages, is not seeking to justify himself by his earnest obedience to all God’s commands, but to return the love which has been poured out upon him so undeservedly. The law of God is a dagger to the heart of the arrogant and self-righteous, but to the Christian it is the standard of righteous conduct to which, under the grace of God, he aspires (Romans 12:1-2).   God intends not only to redeem His people but to transform them as well (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Invitation to a Spiritual Revolution: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (pg. 33-35)

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"By This All People Will Know That You Are My Disciples…"

April 22, 2010 — Leave a comment

Paul Earnhart on Matthew 5:13-16:

One final thought.   As important as it is for Christians to worship God according to His will, we must remember that most lost men will not be made to glorify God because we eat the Lord’s Supper every Sunday.   They may indeed be moved to exalt God by the quiet love with which we bear one another (John 13:34-35), by our self-control in the face of great provocation, by our calm assurance in the presence of tragedy, and our firm refusal to be drawn into a world of mindless lusts.   If we have gained the victory over a worldly system of pride and carnality (1 John 2:15-17; 5:4) it will surely show, and God, not ourselves, will be glorified.

Invitation to a Spiritual Revolution: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (pg. 29)

Your corner of the world needs salt and light today.   Season and shine, wherever you are, to God’s glory.   The impact on others just might echo in eternity.

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You Might Be A Pharisee If…

April 17, 2010 — Leave a comment

In Matthew 5:20, Jesus preached, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

We frequently run across the Pharisees in the Gospels, but what should we personally take away from and apply to our lives based on Jesus’ clear expectation?   What do the modern Pharisaic pitfalls look like?   How do we fall into them?   And most importantly, how can we avoid them?

SERMON AUDIO :

For more interactive outlines and mp3 recordings, be sure to visit the Sermons archive.

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What About Fasting?

April 15, 2010 — Leave a comment

fast (verb) — to abstain from or interact sparingly with—particularly in reference to food.

In Matthew 6:16-18, Jesus did not say “if,” but “when.”

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.   Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.   But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret.   And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

In Matthew 9:14-15, Jesus did not say “never,” but “then.”

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”   And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?   The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

We live in a society much more inclined towards indulgence than self-denial.   And yet, there must be a reason behind the fact that the Scriptures have a great deal to say about the subject of fasting.

This study methodically walks through a number of Old and New Testament examples of fasting in an effort to understand why and when people would choose to “go without.”   It examines warnings from both Testaments about how easily people pervert this spiritual discipline.   Finally, we explore the modern Christian’s relationship to fasting and how intentional restraint can powerfully reveal self-centered attitudes and levels of addiction or idolatry.

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