Sermon On The Mount - Part 4

I'm thankful, too, for what we've heard this morning, and this opportunity to gather. Yeah, I just want to continue through the Sermon on the Mount here. We're kind of going at a crawling speed. But I want to look at the next few verses. Verses in chapter 5, verses 17 to 19, he says, Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Oops, sorry. Let's pray. We can stand if you want. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to gather. And we pray that as we look into these words that you gave us, that you would shed light on them and help us to understand. And I just pray for your spirit to be with us. Pray for those who are sick among us, not here today, that you would minister to them and help them. Just pray that we could all be renewed and strengthened in the inner man. And as time goes on and days grow upon us, that we would just be conformed closer and closer and closer to your image. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, we have this story recorded in three of the gospels. Of a young man that came up to Jesus one day and he asked him, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now based on the facts that we know, it doesn't give a great deal of detail about this man's life, but just based on the facts that we do know of the conversation and what he's called, my perception of this man was that he was a man that probably grew up in a strict and well-ordered home. I am guessing that he was raised by pious parents who taught him the law from a very, very young age. I am guessing that they, as a family, strictly observed the keeping of these commands and thus he grew up to be a competent, diligent young man who possessed good self-control and disciplined his life carefully. And as is often the case with such individuals, he became a successful businessman and he became very wealthy and he acquired great possessions and he acquired a position of authority. He became a ruler. He seems to me like one of these kinds of men of whom the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 just find him. His coming in and his going out is just blessed. His fields prosper and he's just one of those men, you know, whatever he touches turns green. Of course, I don't know all those things, but that's kind of the image I have of this man. But deep, deep down inside, this man knew that he was lacking something. He didn't know what, but something was amiss. And I feel like I've known men like this. I feel like I've met them. And I know how some of these men reason or how some of these men can think. This next couple details that I'm going to give, I for sure don't know if they apply to this young man. But this is how it goes with people, can go and could have gone with people like this. So perhaps a poor man tries to accuse this man of his costly coat and hat, his garments, the way he adorns himself with riches. And he's like, I'm not breaking the law. I mean, these are not women's clothes. They're men's clothes. They're not mixed linen and wool. There's nothing against the law. There's nothing in the law that I'm breaking here. Perhaps there could be this kind of a man, and you know, some lawyer tries to accuse him of how he didn't maybe properly tithe from his fields. But in his mind, he can legitimately reason that he was not obligated in this case. It wasn't his field maybe or his, you know, there was the landowner and it wasn't him. He provided the seed. We were just sharecropping and whatever. You know how all these things work. When you have a whole bunch of laws and rules, you can kind of maneuver yourself through these things without breaking any of them. Perhaps a man like this could have reasoned and thought, you know what, I've got money. I could loan it out, but this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to loan it out to foreigners and not to my Jewish brothers because I can't charge interest to them. But if I loan it out to the foreigners, I can charge interest. And he can do all this, and he's a law-abiding man who hasn't like technically broken the law. In such ways, people like this can do these things. They can all carefully stay within the boundaries of the Torah. Back to this particular man that we do have an account of. One day he comes to Jesus and he says, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. But if you wish to inherit eternal life, keep the commandments. That's kind of an interesting statement. It's probably not what Billy Graham and D.L. Moody would have said. Somebody asked them, but it is indeed what the Lord said. If you want to inherit life, there's no one good but the Father. But if you want to inherit life, keep the commandments. And he said, Which ones? And Jesus starts naming commandments. He says, Thou shalt not murder. Don't commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Bear no false witness. Honor your father and mother. And this young man said, I've kept all of these things from my youth. What is it that I still lack? What Jesus said next is pretty astounding. Jesus could have said, Well, you need to trust in what I'm going to do. Or Jesus could have said probably what most rabbis would have said. Well, you've got the wrong interpretation of these commands. He could have tried to expound on these commands and try to point out where he can do better in applying his life to these commands. But that's not what Jesus did. He did something that no regular rabbi ought ever to do. He gave him an entirely new command that's nowhere found in the Torah. It was a command that his parents never taught him. It was a command that no other good teacher ever taught him. And it's a command that struck way down deep at the heart of what was lacking in this man. This man had none of the characteristics that Jesus described in the Beatitudes that are blessed. He was not poor in spirit. He did not weep over the injustices around him. He was not meek or a man that made himself of no reputation. He did not hunger for things to be made right. He was not merciful and compassionate. On and on you go. He was none of these. In spite of his careful diligence in keeping all these laws of the Torah, in spite of all that, he did not possess these Christ-like characteristics. A man can keep a set of rules and laws without being the loving caretaker that God originally made him to be. And the rich young ruler was such a man. Jesus said, go sell what you have and distribute it among these poor people and you'll have treasures in heaven and come and follow me. And it was too much. It grieved him and he walked away sorrowful. So what did Jesus really do here? Did Jesus destroy the other commandments when he said that? No, but he laid a new commandment before him. It's a different standard. It's a different measurement or gauge in which to know what the will of God is. It's a standard that lays the axe way down at the root of the tree. And it ends up establishing the law. Jesus lived and taught the divine ideals that were underlaying the law. And all that crooked and bent and those rough inconsistencies that happen when someone is trying to twist and beat themselves and others into an endless list of rules and regulations, Jesus came to straighten that all out. He came to level it all out, not by adding a whole bunch of rules to the 613 that already exist, but he came to do it by touching the very root of all of these. John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of the kingdom that was to come here, he was, and this is a prophecy out of Jeremiah, I believe, or Isaiah possibly, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. Every ravine will be filled and every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight and the rough road smooth and all flesh will see the salvation of God. If we go down to verse 8 or 9, he says, Indeed, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. So every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. The commands of Jesus are radical. They are radical. And too many times, or it's often, it's not uncommon, let me put it that way, for people to think of radical as just simply like extreme. And sometimes maybe like... I remember years ago, somebody told me a radical person is one who has both feet firmly planted in midair. But that is not the definition of radical. That is not what radical means. The true meaning of the word radical is arising from or going to the root or source. Basic. And that's what Jesus' message was. It was going back to the basics and it was radical. It's why you will see Jesus more than once pointing to how things were in the beginning. And he'll say things like, Yeah, I know Moses gave you this precept, but from the beginning, this is how it was. And this is what he's trying to bring us back to, is what he had originally made Adam and Eve to be. And in that way, he was radical, by getting down to the root. Okay, so let's look at what Jesus says here in Matthew. In chapter 5, in verse 17, Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say unto you, Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. I think this might be one of the more controversial statements in this sermon. People, somehow, in the street preaching or just witnessing that I've done, people quickly go to this passage. The Messianic Jew quickly goes to this passage and says, See, he didn't destroy the law and the prophets. If you try to point people to a more radical way of living than the men of old, even the evangelicals will say, Well, Jesus said he didn't destroy the law and the prophets. And I think it's somewhat understandable because at a glance you can say, Well, Jesus said, I didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets. Not even one jot or tittle will change until all is accomplished. And whoever destroys or breaks one of the least of these commandments is least in the kingdom of God. That's what we can see at a glance. But let's take a closer look. So remember this setting. Jesus had been walking around the Sea of Galilee announcing that the kingdom is here. The kingdom is now. And that the time has come. And everything is going to be fulfilled. Everything that the law and the prophets have been telling you will happen. This time has come now. And he's done some miracles. And now he's up here on the mountain with a following. And he's delivering the constitution of this new kingdom. He's already declared what the blessings will be and for whom they will be. And these are already pretty counterintuitive to the people. Especially for the person who's familiar with the blessings of Deuteronomy 28. This is different thinking. This is not what you expect. And he's just about ready to even say some more audacious things than that. He is about ready to say things that no rabbi has the right to say. So he begins in verse 17 by saying, Do not think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets. Why do you think Jesus said that? Because he knew that that's exactly what the people are going to think. And it was so. This was always happening. There was this constant clash over him breaking the Sabbath. Over him doing contrary to the law. They tried to catch him and test him with all kinds of things in the law. What do you say about this woman? The Torah says stoner. What do you say? Is it lawful to pay poll taxes? Or what are you doing? Eating with these unclean people. He knew that there's going to be all kinds of clashes like this all the time. And they're going to think that I'm coming to destroy the law and the prophets. It wasn't just Jesus who was found that way. Even his followers, Paul and the apostles, were accused of going around and teaching the people contrary to Moses. Because they heard and understood the message of Jesus. So don't be alarmed when people accuse us of that. The servant is not above his master. And what they've said to Jesus about Jesus, they'll say it about us. So Jesus is here on the mountain with these people. And he's going to say some things that are super astounding to Jesus. Or super astounding to the Jews. Six times in the rest of chapter 5. Six times he's going to say this. You have heard that it was said of old. And then he's going to quote something out of the Torah. And then say, but I say to you. And then he's going to lay down a different command. Now that's a big deal. Just for example, he's going to say, you've heard that it was said, Thou shalt not murder. But I say to you, he that is angry will receive that punishment. You have heard that it was said, don't swear falsely. But I say to you, don't swear at all. So he sets himself... We're going to, in later messages, we're going to explore those all more deeply. Lord willing. But he sets himself up as an authority independent from the law. And that's just no small deal. It would be as if someone would decide to run for President of the United States of America. And he would get his administration. He would start a campaign and go on the campaign trail. And he would start saying things like this. You guys have heard that it's said in the Constitution. That you have freedom of religion. But I tell you, if you don't accept my religion, you're no citizen. It would be as if he'd say, you've heard in the Constitution that you've got the right to own property. But I'm telling you that if you don't do with your property what we tell you, it shows you're not fit to own it. How far do you think he'd come? And what do you think would happen if he'd start getting a following? The Constitutionalists of this land would try as best as they can to get rid of him. And that's exactly what happened with Jesus. Those who were zealous about this law found this man to be teaching what they did not accept. And they tried to get rid of him. These statements that Jesus made are just as momentous. They are just as revolutionary and groundbreaking as it would be for a man to run for president. And that's his campaigning. No rabbi ever did this and got away with it. And it was astounding to the Jews. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, it says the people marveled. Because this man taught as if he has some kind of special authority. So he knows this is going to happen. He says, do not think that I came to abolish the law and the prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. This translation NASB uses the word abolish. King James uses the word destroy. The Greek word here is something like katalouo. And it leaves the meaning of to demolish or to throw down. To literally get rid of. And so what Jesus is saying here is, I did not come to do that. I did not come to demolish or to throw down or completely get rid of the law. Now if you go into 2 Corinthians 3. Paul, when he's talking about this ministration that was engraved in stones. The Ten Commandments and he says, and this is if you use the King James. It says that it was glorious but that it was abolished. So here he's using this word but it is a different Greek word. It's probably said katalouo or something like that. And it leaves the meaning of to render idle. Or to fade away. So Jesus is, and I don't think Paul and Jesus are contradicting each other here. Jesus is saying, I didn't come to demolish the law. But he is not saying that he didn't come to make it fade away. That's not what he's saying. So the law is not destroyed. But it fades away because of the glory that exceeds it. Just like we talked about a few months ago here. When the sun comes up, the moon and the stars are not destroyed. But they fade away because of the brightness of the sun. Makes the visibility and the glory of the moon and the stars fade away. He's not demolishing it as if it's not true. Or that it didn't serve the purpose that it was intended for. In Hebrews 8:13 he says, When he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. But whatever has become obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Do we do away with the 613 laws of the Mosaic Covenant? No. But their role is no longer the same. It is not where we will go to know the will of God. We're going to go to Jesus. Who is claiming, and the question is, do we believe this? Jesus is claiming to have more authority than Moses did. And we believe that he is the very son of God. Not only that, we believe that he is the one of whom Moses actually said, after everything he wrote, said, When that prophet comes, he will tell you what God wants you to hear. And listen to him. Moses is kind of like saying, Remember how it was when you guys said, Oh, we don't want to hear from God. You, Moses, you just talked to us and you couldn't bear the words of God. Well, there's a prophet going to come, and he's actually going to tell you the very words of God. We believe Jesus is him. This man who sat on the mountain, that's him. And in that way, he fulfilled the law. Hebrews chapter 3, verses 3 to 6, he said, And for he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, and listen to this next part, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. That's what Moses was a faithful servant of, as a testimony of those things which will be spoken later. But Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are if we hold our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. The Mosaic law was lacking, it was wanting. If it needs to be fulfilled, then it's because it was lacking. It was not complete. When something needs to be fulfilled, either it's predicted and it hasn't happened yet, or it's a project and it's not complete yet, or it's a shadow or an outline but not the real substance, something is not complete. And therefore the law was one of those things because Jesus said he came to fulfill it. In Hebrews chapter 7, in verses 11 and 12, he says, Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood, for on the basis of it the people received the law, what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed of necessity, there takes a place of change of law also. If we go down to verse 18, he says, For on one hand there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. And on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. So here in Matthew, he says, I didn't come to destroy it, but I came to fulfill it. This is the seventh time in the book of Matthew, and we're just in the fifth chapter. We're just a few pages into the book of Matthew, and this is the seventh time that it says of Jesus that he fulfilled something of the old covenant. Jesus would do or say a certain thing, and he'd be fulfilling what the psalmist said or the prophet said. What they said would happen. And now here he says he's fulfilling the law. In Mark 1 15, Jesus said, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Believe in the good message, because the time is fulfilled. It's here now. That doesn't change one jot or one tittle of the law. It doesn't change the smallest stroke or letter. The most insignificant nuance in writing and wording. All that has its purpose, and it won't fail until, what does it say? Until all is accomplished. Well, what was Jesus doing? He was, just like Brother Walter read this morning, he was accomplishing all things. In John 19 28, it says, when Jesus was hanging there on the cross, it said, he knowing that all things were accomplished. And then before he died, he says, cries out and says, it is finished. If you've been involved or around evangelical Christianity, you've surely heard this term, that we need to believe in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, or believe in the finished work on the cross. That's a relatively modern term that evangelicals use, and it is often meant to mean that we should recognize that Jesus did everything, and that there's nothing that we can do to win the favor of God, and we should only believe in the sacrifice of his atoning death. I don't think that's what Jesus meant when he said, it is finished. I think the entire story, the entire story of the law and the prophets, of what they promised would come, was fulfilled. He had fulfilled the law and the prophets by the teachings he taught, by the miracles he performed, by the things that he suffered, and the resurrection that was going to happen afterwards. It was all accomplished. It was all finished. It was all fulfilled. Clement of Alexandria wrote this. He said, but each has his own proper gift of God, one in one way, another in another. But the apostles were perfected in all. You will find then, if you choose, in their acts and writings, knowledge, life, preaching, righteousness, purity, prophecy, we must know then, that if Paul is young in respect to time, having finished immediately after the Lord's ascension, yet his writing depends on the Old Testament, breathing and speaking of them, for faith in Christ and the knowledge of the gospel are the explanation and fulfillment of the law. And therefore, it was said to the Hebrews, if you believe not, neither shall you understand. That is, unless you believe what is prophesied in the law. Get that. And oracularly delivered by the law, you will not understand the Old Testament, which he, by his coming, expounded. And so, Clement of Alexandria is seeing here a prophecy in the law that Paul and these people would have understood correctly. They saw Christ and Christology and the message of Jesus all through it. That's why Jesus can say, he didn't come to destroy this. This is all pointing forward to something, and it's going to be fulfilled, and he fulfilled it. In Galatians, chapter 3, verses 19 to 26, Paul says, why the law then? It was added because of transgressions. Having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator until the seed, until the seed would come, to whom the promise had been made. Now, a mediator is not for one party only, whereas God is only one. Is the law then contrary to the promise of God? May it never be. For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on the law. But the scripture has shut up everyone under sin so that the promise of faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the law has become our tutor or schoolmaster to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under the tutor. The law was to lead us to Christ. The law led that rich young ruler to Jesus to ask him, what lack I? What did he lack? He lacked faith. He lacked faith in Jesus that Jesus is being a new law giver and has the authority to give him a new law. He lacked the faith in that. He lacked faith in believing the goodness of this law that Jesus gave him. He lacked the ability to see this as a loving command. He saw it as a heavy, burdensome demand. So in verse 19, back here in Matthew, he says, Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Here's an important part to understanding this passage properly. I am persuaded, though I realize it could be debatable, but I am persuaded what Jesus is saying here when he says, Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, he is not talking about the Torah. He's talking about these commandments that I am giving you here today on this mountain. Whoever annuls one of the least of these commandments shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. I'm not the only person that thinks so. John Chrysostom said, He did not say this with regard to the laws of old, but about those which he was proceeding to enact. But I will admit that this verse is, parts of this verse are not so clear to me. I'm persuaded of that part. But he says, Whoever then, I think King James says breaks, this says annuls one of the least of these commandments. The ESV says an interesting word. It says relaxes. And if you look at how translators translate this Greek word, they do translate it in quite a few ways. But I think he's saying, Whoever annuls, it's the word loo. It's most often translated as loose. When Jesus told him to go fetch that donkey in that colt, and they go over and it says they loose him, same word, they loosed it and brought it over to him. Whoever loosens, whoever annuls, whoever relaxes, whoever plays down these commandments that I'm giving you, he will be called least in the kingdom of God. Here's the part that I don't have a clear explanation for. What does he mean when he says, the least in the kingdom of God? Is he saying, whoever does this is still in the kingdom of God, but he's way down here? Or is he communicating somehow in that, that he's not in the kingdom of God? So let me tell you a few things I do believe. I mean, I'm convinced that these things that Jesus taught in this sermon are essential to being a Christian. We could look at other passages. We could go to the end of the Sermon on the Mount and remember that Jesus said, whoever hears these saying and doesn't do them, his house will not stand. It'll be destroyed. But I do believe, I do believe that there will be people in the kingdom of God who are ignorant of some of the things that are taught here, either by lack of scriptures, by lack of a preacher, but they follow the light and the conscience, the light that they do have and the conscience that they have, and they have heard about this Jesus, the Son of God, and they believe there's no other name under heaven that we can be saved, but they lack some understanding. I think there will be people in the kingdom of God like that. I do think that there will be judgments made that are not just clearly like you're in the kingdom, you're out of the kingdom, but that there will be levels of reward according to how a man has, according to a man's deeds. Those, I believe those things, and I believe that they could, they could, you could read that here, but I haven't quite convinced myself that that is actually what Jesus is trying to explain. And so I'm willing, and I'm open to afterwards people commenting or giving their meaning, but I'd rather leave it a bit ambiguous than tell you what this means when I really feel like it's kind of ambiguous. But we go on to verse 20, and he says, For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Because of the context here, I don't think that Jesus is rebuking the scribes and Pharisees. I don't even know that there were any of them there. Maybe there were. But in some passages, Jesus will come down real hard and he'll rebuke the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy and inconsistency. But given the text here that Jesus is establishing a difference and a transition from what you've heard of old and what I tell you, then I think what he's simply saying is I'm going to give you a different measuring stick. I'm going to give you a different gauge to gauge yourself by than what the scribes and the Pharisees have. And unless you surpass them in righteousness, you will not enter the kingdom of God. I'll quote Chrysostom again here. He says, Please observe the increase of grace in that he will have his newly made disciples be better than even the teachers in the old covenant. For by the scribes and Pharisees here, he meant not only the lawless but also those who did well, signifying that he justly requires of us something more than the former measures. John Chrysostom is saying, Please observe the increase of grace. I think that's interesting. As Paul says that the grace of God that works salvation does what? It teaches us. It teaches us to deny ungodliness, to live righteously and soberly in this present age. And here on the Sermon on the Mount, this is one of the reasons that I hope we all, I would, and I hope we all consider herein is grace and truth. I said in a previous message, maybe in the first one, that if you point an evangelical Christian or Protestant Christian to a doing and keeping these things that Jesus said, it's not uncommon for the response to be, Well, we're under grace, not under the law. And I would like to say, Yeah, we are under grace. That's why this sermon is so precious to us. This sermon is full of grace. It is full of teachings that show us the real, real will of God. In John 1, 16 and 17, it says, For of His fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth are realized through Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us a new measuring stick to measure us by and a different gauge to teach us the will of God. There is no greater manifestation of the grace of God in someone's life than when the teachings of Jesus grip his heart and he accepts that as the way to live by. That is a beautiful manifestation of grace. So, Christ, or God, also does something else. He says, I don't know for sure why, but He says, We have received grace upon grace. We've not only received the teaching, but He gives us a new heart. In the prophetic word about the new covenant, He says He will put His laws into our minds and write them on our hearts and we will know God. We'll know Him. When we're fueled and motivated by love and mercy, His commandments, for as radical as they are, they are not burdensome. As John wrote in his epistle, This is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. You know, I marvel sometimes when I watch my children and I watch my little children play. When they're in that right frame of mind or in a good frame of mind and they're just really unselfishly loving each other and they're enacting something or trying to accomplish something, putting a puzzle together, whatever it is, and they're just in this real good frame of mind and they're not being selfish and they're loving each other and they have a common, they're together on the vision of what they're trying to do. And it's just, it's beautiful how harmoniously they play. You don't need a single rule to tell them how to act to each other. They just do it, right? And it's amazing. But then, children as they are, they're not always in this frame of mind and sometimes they're being really selfish and they're really not loving one another and they're really not agreeing on how to do this thing. And it's equally amazing how many rules it takes to try to settle something. You know, he has more than I have. Well, let's count them and let's make sure you have the same amount as he has. Well, he has more red ones than I have. Well, okay, let's separate the red ones. Well, that red one was mine. Okay, well, let's put your name on it and don't take each other's. And if you ruin his, you're going to have to pay it and on and on and on it goes. There's no end to it. And that's when they love each other, you just don't need any of it. One of the resounding lessons of the children of Israel is that you could not make enough rules and laws to keep stubborn and stiff-necked people with hearts of stone from sinning. But Jesus came to lay the axe at the root of the tree and his commandments that we're going to explore, Lord willing, in the next messages, they touch the very heart of issues. And unless we allow that to happen, unless we allow him to lay that axe way down at the root and deal with the deep personal problems, then our righteousness will never surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees. And if it does not surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, we will in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. That new commandment that Jesus gave the night before he died when he said, A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you. That commandment, he wants to write it deep down in our hearts so that we would love our brothers and our neighbors and our enemies not because they love us, but before they love us. The way Jesus loved us before we loved him. That we would love them so much that nothing can move us to do one lawless act toward them. When Ignatius was being led from the senate to the pit of lions to be martyred, this is what he said, he said, My dear Jesus, my savior, is so deeply written on my heart that I feel confident that if my heart were cut open and chopped in pieces, the name of Jesus would be found written on every piece. Romans chapter 13 verses 8 to 11 says, O nothing to anyone except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. In John chapter 3, we read this story of that wedding in Cana that Jesus and his mother were invited to and they ran out of wine. And his mother had said to Jesus, They're out of wine. And Jesus was like, What does that have to do with me? My time is not here yet. Yeah, my time is not here yet. And then here's what the mother says to the servants. She says to the servants, the servers in the wedding, she says, Whatever he tells you, do it. I think that is a beautiful type of what the church's message should be. I think, rightly, Mary is a type of the church here. She's the mother, right? And she just tells the servants, Whatever Jesus says, do it. And I think that's what the church's message ought to be. If we would put it in one sentence, in as simple of terms as we can, What is our message to the world? Whatever Jesus says, do it. Okay? And then what do the servants... Okay, and then Jesus says, There were six water pots sitting there, holding 20 to 30 gallons apiece, it says. And Jesus said, Fill up the water pots. That's all he said. And what did they do? It says they filled them up to the brim. That's lots of water. And these servants took Jesus seriously. And they could have said, Well, who are you? I think Jesus was just a guest there. I don't know what connection he had to the bride or the groom, but I don't think he had any position to be having authority here by the standards of the wedding. But he just said, Fill up the pots. And these servants took it so seriously, they didn't just partly fill it up. They didn't just fill it up to the neck. They filled it to the brim. And guess what? Something very supernatural and miraculous happened. This water turned to wine. And not only did it turn to wine, it turned to the best wine that any of them had tasted yet. I don't want us to be deceived by the common misconception that we shouldn't do what Jesus says until we've had a miracle in our life. We shouldn't do what Jesus, or encourage people to not do what Jesus says until something supernatural happens and you know God is moving you somehow. I just don't get that message at all. It's why when I thought about this recently, I think I kind of figured out why it strikes me strange. When you go out and you preach and you meet these evangelicals and you start talking about radically obeying Jesus and following Jesus and it's immediately like, yeah, but we can't do it on our own strength. Yeah, but don't try to do it on your own strength. And the interesting thing is, I actually agree with that. I agree that we can't do it on our own strength. But the question is, why does this immediately come up? Why as soon as you say something like that, is that the immediate response? It's a different vibe than I get from Jesus when he would say things like, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. When he would say things like, strive to enter in at the narrow gate, for many will seek and will not be able. Doesn't the feel of that sound different than when you try to encourage that and somebody immediately says, oh, but be careful. Don't think you can do it on your own strength. There's just a different vibe, even though the words are kind of true. I think it comes from a fundamentally wrong theology and so forth. Anyway, the servants just took Jesus real seriously and they filled these pots up to the brim. And when there is that kind of a willingness, when there is that kind of a willingness to take these things that Jesus said, when he says, whoever, therefore, annuls one of the least of these commandments, and there's this kind of a willingness to just fill these up to the brim, to do them to the furthest extent we possibly can, there's a miracle about to happen. There are supernatural things that are going to happen. First Timothy, we're getting real close to closing here. In First Timothy, chapters one, or chapter one, verses five to 11, he says, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men straying from these things, remember that, he says, this is the goal of our instruction. A pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. And then he says, for some men straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussions, wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. But we know that the law is good if one use it lawfully, realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious and ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and the profane and those who kill their fathers or mothers for murders and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which I have been entrusted with. So I just want to close with this story that I heard read, I don't even know where, years back, about this great big beautiful chestnut tree. This would have happened before the blight in the early 1900s came through and nearly wiped out all the American chestnut trees. The American chestnut tree was a very, very highly prized tree. Well, there was this great big, beautiful, healthy chestnut tree. And it happened to sit right at a place where three farmers' land came together. And these three farmers, for years and years, bickered and fought and spat and argued about whose tree that is. And they could never get along with each other because they all claimed the tree was on their property. So what did they do? Let's get the law out. Let's get the surveyor out and let him settle this once and for all. Who owns this tree? And the story goes that the night before the surveyor came out, a thunderstorm comes through and lightning hits the tree and splits it into three pieces. And I just imagine, I just think, if they could have or would have asked Jesus, you tell us how to settle this. Somehow I can hear Jesus saying something like, from the beginning, it was not so. You had free access to all the trees in the garden and I simply wanted you to be this loving, caring, sharing, dresser and keeper of my creation. And by doing that, he would be laying the axe at the root of the tree and it would not be the chestnut tree. May the Lord add his blessing. I'll open it up for comments and corrections. The Amish preachers, when they would ask to testify, they would say, That would mean like, don't spare me. If I said something wrong, said it right. Yeah. So anyway, God bless you. Thank you, brother. Just one minor correction. They had access to all the trees, except one. And that has been the story of humanity. Just as surely as the Lord has required that we serve Him with all that we have, there are those one little things that tend to trip us up, to hinder us, in these farmers with the tree. That one little thing that was causing them not to get along. So I don't have very conclusive thoughts on that other than it's a good warning. What is the one thing that spoils our relationships, that keeps us from seeking the Lord with our whole heart? Let's identify those. Let's help each other identify those and avoid them so that we might serve Him as He has commanded us. Thank you, brother Dwayne. Thanks for that. Expounding on that passage in Matthew 5, it's interesting to me, I guess you were talking about how that passage, or at least that verse, verse 19 in chapter 5, how that can bother... Oh, I guess maybe it's not quite that. What I was going to say is it seems like it can bother different people for different reasons. I guess personally it kind of bothers me when I read that, or at least I'm troubled about what Jesus was trying to say. I really wish it was more cut and dried than being a little more mysterious, but maybe the reason why it bothers me is because it seems like when we tell people, when we instruct people, when we tell them that they need to follow the commands of Jesus, it almost seems to cut the legs out from under that a little bit, or it could in one way. And I appreciated what you said about... I think you were saying that there's just some element about people understanding, like what they have and what they understand. And my mind kind of went to a similar thing that Jesus said in Luke 12, if I can find it now. Or was it 11? I lost it in here. But anyway, it's... Oh, here it is. It's the parable of the faithful steward. And at the very end he says, And that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, will be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask them more. There does seem to be this principle about, the things that we have an understanding of and what we do with them is a large part of that measuring stick. When we were at Conklin talking to people, one of the main things that people bring up as a justification for why it ought to be okay to hoard wealth together is the parable of the ten talents, which I think is really not at all about money. Money is just the story used to convey the idea of what we do with the understanding that God has given us and that we're held accountable to that and how we used it. Anyway, thank you for the message. Thank you, Brother Duane. Appreciate your enthusiasm. Nothing... How does it go? Nothing generates enthusiasm like enthusiasm, Brother. Very good. So many good points. We need that as a constant reminder, at least I do. You started out, what must I do to be saved? And so, let's build your house upon a rock. Oh, you can't do it. You can't do it. Sorry, Augustine says you can't. The Moravians said you can. I'm going to take the Moravians, but I'm not going to take the Augustinians and the modern guys today. I can do all things through Christ. I can get rich and get healthy. Yeah, but that's, you know, sure. Anyway, as far as your comment, Brother Max, I know it bothers me, too, and I think there's two possibilities, maybe more, if I can be corrected on this, unless you're righteous, is least in the kingdom of righteousness. Number one, that could be referring to the law of Moses. That's the law. Do as they say, not as they do. They had the avenue. They had the communication to give. They sit in Moses' cheer. Do what they say, not as they do. So the Pharisees and the scribes, they had the law, and so they delegated it. And the other one would be, at least like them, would be, well, what is the fruit of the scribes and the Pharisees? Hypocrisy, greed, you name it, all the sins, it's terrible. So both ways, it's to be avoided, and it doesn't bother me that I want to do both things. We're not under the law of Moses, and let's not be hypocritical like the Pharisees. I appreciate what you said about your children, how they cooperate. Brother Buddy said that at least once or twice. The greatest joy he can have in his life is to see the children love each other, one can get along with the other, and I think that is an excellent testimony of fruits of children for you and Buddy and all of us. And then the sixth thing, so I think it's Moses. Moses said to you, but I say to you, and it's really not that difficult. The sixth thing, be corrected if I'm wrong. Brett's over there, okay. Six things, and to me it's building your house in Iraq, as you said, Dwayne. I think it's Jesus' commands. Anger, lust, divorce, oath, walk the second mile and love enemies. Moses said to you, but I say to you, anger, lust, divorce, oath, turn the other cheek, go the second mile, and love enemies. Six things, and I think it's possible to live it. I know it's possible to live it. Look at the Moravians, and look at a lot of you brethren here. And that's all I have to say, is that it was a good lesson, and may the Lord be magnified that we could do that, because it is possible, and people have done it in the past. And bless you all, brethren. Amen. Hey, Brother Dwayne, yeah, thank you. Certainly enjoyed that very much. Very blessed. Yeah, I remember I read, I don't know if it was Origen or Tertullian, but it kind of helped me out, because I also had no idea what Jesus might have meant by the least in the kingdom. And if I can not do a disservice to paraphrasing what I remember him saying, is basically how you look at these passages, like Matthew 8, verse 12, for instance, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out in the outer darkness. Sons of the kingdom. And there's other ones that talk this way. And the takeaway that I got from what I read, from, like I said, I think it was Origen, but it could have been Tertullian, was that just as Jesus said, the kingdom is within you, right? So my understanding of that is the spirit of the king is in all those that have been converted and received Christ. The spirit of the king, the kingdom is within you. And yet there's this final thing that when he comes back and the king comes and judges the whole world, raises the dead and judges the whole world, that you enter into the kingdom. Okay, so obviously there's two stages there, that sort of thing. But all those that are Christians, because obviously this flies in the face of the eternal security idea, is that there's those that are the least of the kingdom and those that are the greatest in the kingdom, those that will enter, that are the sheep that are on his right hand and the goats, the least, that are going to be cast out. And so that's basically how I understood what he was saying, that the least of the kingdom, you don't want to be the least in the kingdom because you're not going to enter the kingdom. And so it was that idea. Rather than it being the greatest and the least, being those that entered the kingdom and then kind of saying, no, the least was actually the ones that were cast out. And so that's how I understood that. So yeah, that makes sense to me. And then the other thing I really appreciated also too, where you were kind of making an analogy of a parent with their children and when their children are behaving based on, which is us, I mean, this is how we are, or we're acting based on love, then there is no law. I mean, Paul talks that way, right? But we're not, then all of a sudden it comes down, well, that's not fair. What he did to me, that's not fair. And now you need justice. Now we need a law to come in. And it just reminded me of 1 Corinthians 13. Somebody out of obedience, not out of love, but out of obedience was doing this, doing this, and they were even being charitable to the poor. They were doing all these things, but they didn't have love. I know that King James says charity, but agape is love. But they didn't have love. They weren't doing it from love. It wasn't driven from love. And Paul says you don't have anything. If you do all this stuff, but you don't have love, and it makes sense that if everything comes out of love, just like the children, when they're loving one another, you don't need the law. So, anyway. Yeah, thank you, brother. Yeah, thank you, brother Dwayne. Just add one more verse, what Brett was speaking to, concerning being the least in the kingdom. I like to compare it with Matthew 13, the parable of the wheat and the tares. Jesus says, the angels will gather out of his kingdom everyone that offends and does lawlessness. So, that would be another verse that kind of speaks to that. I would carry with your thought, though, of different levels of reward in heaven, as well as different levels of punishment in hell. I'm not prepared to throw out the Scripture references on that. I was forced to research that as we were somewhat associated with a group of ex-plain people who had adopted the evangelical theology and the thought that there would be different levels would trigger them. And so, based on the studies I did, and I can go back and dig through all that, I'm not prepared to say that the specific Scriptures quoted did exactly lend themselves to that thought, but there are others there that do support that. It ties in with the person of God as we know Him, a fair God, a righteous judge, a person that does the right thing, makes the right judgments, meets out the proper rewards and punishments. I guess one last thought was, here in Matthew 5:17, Jesus mentions the Law and the Prophets in Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection. He mentions also the Psalms. He said everything in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled. In other words, not the commands of the Law, but the prophecies of the Christ in the Law, which there's a lot of them. One of them would be in Deuteronomy where it says, Moses says that, you know, a prophet like me will come and you must do everything that he says. Whoever does it will be cast out. Acts chapter 3, Peter quotes that and refers to it as Christ. But yeah, all this, you know, that had to be fulfilled. So, just like Brother Dewayne pointed out that many places in the Scripture, it bounces between these two words. Either it's using this idea of, you know, well, I think the one, the version of the word used in Matthew 5:17, I think, is pleirosai, where it's talking about fulfilling. It's using metaphorically a word that has to do with when you're filling up your glass with water, for instance. You're filling it, right? And then there's another one that has to do with kind of the idea of something coming to an end. And that's used also figuratively as the idea of something being, coming to pass or being fulfilled. They're two different words, but they're conveying kind of the same idea. And both of them are used with regard to Isaiah said, you know, Moses, you know, whatever, whatever prophet in the Old Testament said, well, this has come to pass. This has been fulfilled. And so, yeah, that's what Jesus is saying. I mean, to me, very clearly. Matthew 5, 17. I didn't come to cut the cord on the law. I came to bring everything to pass. And I think there's an implication there. Since people are listening to him speak that way. And at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, they say that he spoke with authority. Why did he speak with authority? Well, Brother Dwayne pointed out six times. He says, well, you've heard it said of old. In other words, the implication is you heard Moses told you this, but I tell you, right? Six times. Moses told you this, but I told you what I'm telling you. There's an implication of, I have this authority that's greater than Moses. And all these things that Moses wrote about. He said that in the Gospels when he's talking to the Pharisees and Sadducees. If you believe Moses, he says this in the Gospel of John. If you believe Moses, you believe me, for he wrote about me. And so here, like all these things had to come to pass. So I didn't come to cut the law loose. I came to actually everything that they prophesied and said about it to actually bring into fulfillment and completion and stuff. So anyway. Trust in either one. It is strong to be alive. Other foundations can no man make Firm as the living Word. Other foundations can no man make Than Jesus Christ, the Lord. And on Ikea of holiness And all false unity Will shake and crumble On sandy ground And grave the fall will be Other foundations can no man make Firm as the living Word Other foundations can no man make Than Jesus Christ, the Lord. Strive, O God, even God does call thee When he draws thee by his grace Cast upon the wooden prow And deter thee from the race Rest, O Tale, thy seal is burning And thy blood is flowing warm All that earth can build is burning And love will not hide the storm All that you, my life, have given us Storm the kingdom, but prevail Lay on earth with you no striving Never ache, be faint, or quail Earth and heaven will never waver Force with evil day and night Change the smile for fear or favor Only cares to win the fight Perfect truth we'll love to follow Watchful be our master's ways Cease not comfort, bore, and woe Looks not for reward or grace Perfect truth from worldly pleasure Worldly care no stands apart For in heaven is hid our treasure There must also be our heart Fingers on the cross take courage Watch and warn with fear and pain May we come when sin and sorrow Still our kingdom shall reign