Steadfast Baptist Church. We're gonna start off this morning with song 408 T to Christ, 408 T to
Christ. Let's sing it out together. 408. 108 on the second. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly
Father, thank you for this great day at Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for our visitors and for
our members as well. I pray that you would bless every aspect of this service and that it would be
done for your honor and glory. We love you in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right,
for our next song let's go to 244 Amazing Grace 244 Amazing Grace. Sing it out nice and loud 244.
A bulletin you can lift up your hand. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. On the front of
our bulletin we always have our Bible memory passage. We're working on memorizing Psalm 59.
We're on verse four this week and so any children 18 and under that can quote the verse of the week
you can claim a prize at our midweek service on Wednesdays and we give out ice cream. On the
inside we have our service soul winning times. Take note our evening service has switched to
4 30 and our Spanish service is now at 9 in the morning and so we highly encourage you to
participate in those services as well. Also we have our soul winning times church-wide meet here
at the building. So if you'd ever like to go soul winning with us all you have to do is show up
those times and then additionally down below we have regional soul winning where we meet at
different parts of all over the Dallas Fort Worth area and we have several different leaders. If you
have any questions about this you can always ask me one of our ushers or brother Oz and we can help
you to identify a time that works to go soul winning. Also down below we have our church
stats on the right a list of several expecting ladies please be in prayer for all of those ladies
who are expecting. We have a prayer list that we continually update. One thing I wanted to point
out that I had added recently is June 3rd there is a trial that our church is going to be having
and I usually don't even announce these things until they get really close just because they
constantly change. This is probably like the fourth date or a fifth date and so but it seems
very likely that this date will come to pass and so if you would just at least pray for us
that everything would go smoothly and that the Lord's will would be done. Of course this is not
probably the finale. It's very likely that this thing will continue to get drug out for even
longer but just pray that the Lord would give me wisdom and the few people that are helping us and
our attorneys and so that's just something to add. I added there on the prayer list. Down below we
also have some upcoming events. There's a wedding on June 8th in honor of Joshua and Cynthia that's
going to be at 3 p.m. June 21st to the 23rd is a special event that's at a friend of our church in
Sacramento, California. It's the Red Hot Preaching Conference and I don't know exactly which number
this is maybe eight or nine but what's pretty special is they have a new building this year
and so it's really exciting to have their conference in a larger sanctuary. I believe
that their sanctuary can seat over 400 and so they're definitely really excited about having
the conference. Unfortunately they usually have way more than 400 so I don't even know if we're
going to be able to still jam everybody in there but it's definitely a great event. It's a fun
conference and if you know anybody in that part of the country I highly encourage them to come out.
Of course if they're very sensitive they should not come so no I'm just kidding but it's a lot
of fun red hot preaching and a lot of people want that these days you know a lot of people want to
hear the truths of the Bible and the hard truths and so it's a great event. I want to give an
announcement about this weekend because in Chicago there was an event hosted by Sure Foundation
Baptist Church. They have a church plant in Indianapolis, Indiana which is maybe around
two hours outside of Chicago but they decided to host an event in Chicago this weekend.
A lot of people from Sure Foundation in Vancouver came out, the people from their church plant came
out, also just a lot of people that listen to sermons online or like to follow them came out
and then we also had I don't know maybe a dozen or so people from our church that went out there
as well and it was a great event they ended up having on Saturday yesterday 60 soul winners go
out and they ended up having 80 salvations and so you know and to be honest they didn't even
necessarily go to the most receptive areas because you can drive through some of the areas of Chicago
and it just feels receptive if you know what I mean and so honestly you know I went there with
a lot of our church members and it really looks like it would be a great area to go back
and do other soul winning events. It seems like that area could even honestly even use another
church and of course they have great churches they've had great churches First Baptist Church
Hammond Indiana was a powerhouse for so long. I can understand why Jack Hiles went out there
just because of the need specifically for so many people. Chicago is a very large area it's giant
over nine million people and it's very densely packed very densely populated and you can just
tell and sense that there's large areas of that city that no one's really reaching no one's really
giving them the gospel and so definitely we should be in prayer that the Lord would work and that
maybe he would send somebody or that we can do more events or more work out there because
I feel like it's an untapped potential that just has endless amount of opportunities out there and
so just just keep that in your mind and keep that in your heart and thank you to everybody who prayed
for us because honestly it went really well the weather right now is great it was really
beautiful at this time of year and so we had a lot of fun we had a we actually preached on Friday
night at a separate location and the preaching was really good you can listen to those sermons
online on our steadfast channel you can listen to pastor Thompson's sermon and I also preached a
sermon that evening as well and then we actually got to go to a friendly church they don't
necessarily they're not like us or they don't even necessarily agree with this induction but
at least they're willing to help us use or allow us to use their facility just for preaching the
gospel and we ended up having four baptisms and so pastor thompson and i didn't know that the
baptistery you have to get in it okay and i had my swimming trunks he's like hey you want to get
in there and so i got to baptize four people yesterday but that was really encouraging to
see people getting out there we had baptisms we have four baptisms 80 salvations pastor thompson
is going to be preaching at that church sunday night so tonight he's going to be preaching for
that part of the chicago area in cicero and so you know definitely if you know anybody in that
area you know you could encourage them to try the indianapolis church plant i know that they have a
lot of like-minded brethren a lot of great people i got to meet for the first time out there so
pray for them as well and so that i just wanted to make a quick announcement about that specific
event on the back of our bulletin our graduation month is continuing and so we have a congratulations
to sophia bunch on her high school graduation so let's give her a round of applause and we also
have a gift for you so i want you to come on down and we'll give you a gift okay and uh it's great
to see uh all the graduates i think we might even have a couple more but um definitely it was
encouraging to see brother brian he drove all the way up to chicago yesterday for that soul hunting
event congratulations to them and on a sophia yep and we hope that our graduates stay with us all
right so we want all of our graduates to keep going and serving the lord and we look forward
to your future also down below uh we have the congratulations to the devias family on the birth
of slone capri devias he was born uh on the 25th at 4 12 a.m weighing nine pounds 12 ounces and was
21 and a half inches long congratulations to them as well lots of exciting things happening let's
go ahead and sing our psalm of the week we're going to sing psalm 149 you can use the king
james bible but if you'd like we have a special handout it's in the laminated handout and there
is a psalm 49 there it's a lot easier if you have that but if you know it sing it out nice and loud
psalm 149 psalm 149 let's sing it out
it's being passed around please turn to matthew chapter 5 chapter number five dudes he went up
into a mountain when he was set his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and taught
them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are they
that mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled
blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they
shall see god blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of god
blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner
of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward
in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you ye are the salt of the earth but
if the salt have lost a savor wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing
but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men ye are the light of the world a city that is
set on a hill cannot be hid neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a
candlestick that it give it light on the wall that are in the house let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven think not that i
am come to destroy the law or the prophets i am not come to destroy but to fulfill for verily i
say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law
till all be fulfilled whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall
teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach
them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven for i say unto you that except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees ye shall in no case enter
into the kingdom of heaven you have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill
and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment but i say unto you that whosoever
is angry with his brother without a call shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say
to his brother raka shall be in danger of the council and whosoever shall say thou fool shall
be in danger of hell fire therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that
thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way first be
reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift agree with thine adversary quickly whilst
thou art in the way with him lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge
deliver thee to the officer and thou be cast into prison verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no
means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing ye have heard that it was
said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh
on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart and if
thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one
of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell and if thy
right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of
thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell it hath been said
whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement but I say unto you
that whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to
commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery again ye have
heard that it hath been said by them of old time thou shalt not first swear thyself but shalt perform
unto the lord thine oaths but I say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is
god's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool neither by jerusalem for it is the city of the
great king neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or
black but let your communication be yay yay nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of
evil ye have heard that it hath been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I say unto
you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the
other also and if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak
also and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him twain give to him that asketh thee
and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away ye have heard that it had been said
thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy but I say unto you love your enemies bless them
that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and
persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he maketh his son
to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust for if ye love
them which love you what reward have ye do not even the publicans the same and if ye salute
your brethren only what do ye more than others do not even the publican so be he therefore perfect
even as your father which is in heaven is perfect let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father in
heaven we thank you lord for our church services today i pray that you fill pastor shelly with your
spirit and give him a boldness and clarity of mind as he preaches to us and lord i pray that the
message would sink down into our hearts and that we would apply it and help us lord to make any
necessary changes we love you and in jesus name i pray amen amen before i get started i wanted to
apologize because i totally misspoke when i said something about salon capri i accidentally said
it was a he but of course it's a precious baby girl and so i apologize about that but congratulations
to them i wanted to preach a sermon this morning on the sermon on the mount and really this concept
is not limited to chapter number five but rather is chapters five six and seven but i don't want
to preach three chapters of the bible this morning because we'll run into the evening service so
we're going to focus on chapter five this morning but i do want to talk about the sermon on the
mount and really try to emphasize this chapter so if you notice here in verse number one and two
it says in seeing the multitude he went up into a mountain and when he was set his disciples came
unto him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying now some parts of the bible have a different
tone to them and i believe that the tone here is is being implied in verse number two that this is
more of a teaching sermon that the lord jesus christ is performing unto his disciples some
sermons are going to be more fire and brimstone some are going to be more passionate more
vitriolic sometimes they're more teaching and there's a there's a time and a place for sermons
to have a different style have a different tone a different audience and in this specific sermon
on the mount we want to understand a couple different things number one this is an opportunity
for Jesus Christ to sit down notice what it says in verse number five again and when he was set
his disciples came unto him so you know in this context you see this is being more relaxed in the
sense that he's generally just trying to teach his disciples now when we talk about his disciples
often what we think of is the 12th we think of the 12 disciples but the disciples is a word that's
more broad than that in many cases it's just simply meaning those who are following Christ
and so in this context and in this portion of scripture it's talking about those that were
just following Christ around and wanting to hear what he had to say wanting to be taught of him
wanted to hear his sermons wanted to hear his teaching and so this is not just limited to the
12 but rather this is the group of many disciples that are all following Jesus Christ of those
disciples 12 were ordained and those 12 are the ones they're going to become the apostles so that's
a major distinction but you'll see in the Bible how Jesus Christ even ordained 70 other and you'll
see in John after he preaches his hard sermons in John chapter 6 that many of the disciples didn't
follow him after those specific sermons so again disciples here we're talking about just anybody
listening and following Jesus Christ so this is generally what you think of as a church audience
right this is the audience of people that are wanting to hear Jesus going out and finding him
he's going onto a mountain this is not an easy location so they had to travel they had to go
some distance and these are the people that are dedicated to listening and to hearing Jesus Christ
preaching the Bible so we're not we're not necessarily trying to address the Pharisees
we're not addressing the Sadducees necessarily and that's why you see it in contrast if you look at
Matthew 23 when Jesus Christ is preaching kind of to the audience for the Pharisees sake he's
screaming and yelling and he's just like really upset using a lot of strong harsh language rather
when he's talking just to his main group his main disciples he's more teaching them and this is a
little bit more calm if you would say this type of a sermon doesn't mean that the the words aren't
challenging it doesn't mean that the preaching isn't hard preaching because what makes something
hard preaching is not screaming and yelling if screaming and yelling is what made something hard
preaching then Stephen Furtick would be a really hard preacher Michael Todd would be a really hard
preacher Joel Osteen in times with you know gets up and yells and says things Kenneth Copeland gets
up and yells and screams it's not about the volume it's not even necessarily about the energy it's
about what the message is communicating and hard preaching really it challenges the individual
with sin in their lives it challenges them with their attitudes with their minds and their hearts
and that's what makes something hard preaching and generally speaking people don't really like
hard preaching when you preach things that are very hard to hear many people turn away
and don't want to listen and what's interesting to me is how some people would have this idea
that well if you're a loving preacher if you're a kind preacher you'll preach the Sermon on the Mount
because that is just the kind information that Jesus wants to bestow upon people but here's the
reality even the Sermon on the Mount will turn people away even the Sermon on the Mount has very
harsh truths and realities in it and it's important for us to recognize that we shouldn't just preach
the good parts of the Bible we should preach all of it and I like how Jesus Christ incorporates in
this sermon specifically almost all kinds of different topics he brings up heaven and hell
he brings up what his disciples should do he brings up how to be saved he's rebuking people
for all kinds of different sins and generally speaking if we were to take chapter number five
and I were to try to give you some kind of a synopsis of this particular chapter or the idea
he really wants you to understand that we need to strive to be humble I would argue that
chapter number five is emphasizing humility in general and that as trying to humble his
disciples humble people and we need to be humble for two reasons number one to get saved
and then number two to then embrace Christ's teachings so after getting saved we also need
to stay humble and make sure that we're actually cleaning up our lives but in order to be saved
you have to be humble someone that is not willing to accept any level of humility cannot get saved
it takes a certain level of humility in order to embrace the fact that you're a sinner
deserving of hell and to embrace the mercy offered in the gospel now let's get started with this
chapter and i'm not going to deep dive on any of them i'm wanting to give a cursory explanation
but notice these first verses here are what's known as the beatitudes verses three through 11
what is beatitude it's your behavior verse three blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven now i do want to focus on this one verse a little bit it won't be like that for
the rest of the sermon but this i think is an interesting verse to start out with and to get
the right idea as we journey through the rest of this chapter what does it mean to be poor in
spirit well obviously he's putting a caveat here he's not just saying poor he's saying poor in
spirit specifically okay so he's not talking about a physical poverty he's talking about a spiritual
poverty in a sense now keep your finger here and i want to go to revelation chapter three for a
moment while he's not talking about something carnal or physical what god often does though is he
teaches carnal truths to help us understand spiritual truths so when he's using the word
poor while it's not in a context of a physical poverty that word we understand in physical
poverty we understand what is poor not having money right being broke lacking being without
and he's using this carnal language to help illustrate a spiritual truth won't be the
opposite of being poor being rich now revelation chapter three look at verse 17 we're talking
about a church here and we're looking at their attitude what does it say in verse 17 because
thou sayest i am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that
thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked now this is really interesting
because from god's perspective they're poor how are they poor they're poor in the sense that they
don't have riches towards god they're poor in the sense that they don't they're not accumulating
wealth spiritually but physically they have all kinds of riches you could never say that
these people are poor from a carnal perspective they have a nice building they have nice clothes
they eat good food they have all of the carnal pleasures you would want in life they are rich
notice this and increased with goods they even have extras they have all the bells and the whistles
and notice this specific phrase this is an important phrase and have need of nothing the idea of being
rich is the idea of needing nothing you don't need anything because you can take care of yourself
you already have everything that you could ever want and that's typically the joke it's like what
do you buy a rich person for their birthday they already have everything they want and so it becomes
difficult to buy something for someone that's rich well the problem is they didn't recognize
their spiritual poverty so when Jesus Christ is saying blessed are the poor in spirit he's
talking about the exact opposite of this group it would be a group that's not having this attitude
of thinking they're rich when they're poor and at the same time of course it doesn't really matter
what your status is it doesn't matter if you do have great riches towards God spiritually
what God wants you to do is he wants you to have an attitude a thought pattern of being poor in
spirit meaning i don't have this idea of i need nothing but rather i need many things i need God
i need the Bible i need help i need stuff spiritually speaking i need the Lord to guide me i
need the Holy Spirit i need God's guidance i need to read my Bible whereas someone that's not poor
in spirit they have this attitude of i have need of nothing i don't need to read the Bible i don't
need church i don't need a pastor in fact i'm smarter than all the pastors out there this is
an attitude you'll see today there is an attitude out there today where people think they are smarter
than every pastor they don't need church they don't need the Bible they don't need God and in fact
sometimes it even affects Christians so called where they think that they're smarter than every
other Christian they're better oh these people are so ignorant are so foolish and they have a
prideful attitude and what Jesus Christ is trying to illustrate is the idea of being blessed for
being poor in spirit having a humble attitude and saying i do need things not being prideful
saying i need god and i'm weak being poor is an attitude of being weak being weak and saying i
need help i need to rely on god go to first peter chapter five just go back a little bit
to first peter chapter five i want to show another verse here on this idea of being poor
in spirit and i think the more that you go to church the more that you do the more that you learn
sometimes you can have this attitude creep up in you where you kind of feel like i don't need
church as much anymore i don't need to go out and preach the gospels i've already done a lot of
things i already have prayed a lot i'm already doing a pretty good job i already have a good
house i already have money i already have i'm i'm rich i'm increased with goods i'm kind of on the
right path i'm smarter than most people i don't really need anything anymore whereas god is saying
you need to stay poor in spirit you need to stay humble and not get prideful not get lifted up not
think that you have at all who thought that they were rich spiritually when they were spiritually
bankrupt the pharisees the pharisees thought that they were so rich spiritually they thought that
they knew the law they looked down upon other people saying this people knoweth not the law
they thought that they were righteous because of their works they thought they were actually right
with god because of the sacrifices and the different activities they performed regarding
the sabbath but they were hypocrites they were they were destitute spiritually and they didn't
recognize it whereas it was a lot easier for the prostitutes it was a lot easier for the publicans
it was a lot easier for the wicked to recognize i'm spiritually destitute i need a savior i need
god i need someone to help me god be merciful to me a sinner this is an attitude of being poor
in spirit and the bible says blessed are the poor in spirit what's the opposite being prideful look
at first peter chapter five verse five likewise younger submit yourselves unto the elder may all
of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility for god resisteth the proud and
give it grace to the humble you want the blessing of god you better destroy the pride that's in your
heart you need to humble the pride in your heart how do you humble the pride in your heart by
reading the bible how do you humble the pride in your heart by going to church and having someone
preach the hard truths of the bible by meditating on god's word by singing god's praises and by
having the right attitude and heart and spirit turning back to god the reason why you're not
humble often is because we're not reading the bible the more you read the bible the more you'll
recognize your insignificance you'll recognize your sinfulness you'll recognize your wretchedness
you'll recognize your inadequacies whereas those who aren't reading the bible they often get puffed
up and think that they're a lot more righteous than they really are the bible even said about
the king that he was supposed to read the bible every single day so that his heart would not be
lifted up above his brethren and think about this oh but i'm the king shouldn't his heart be above
the brethren i mean he's the king no we're supposed to be humble we're supposed to be
poor in spirit and even if you're the king you say i still need god i still need the lord i still
need to read the bible i haven't achieved i haven't arrived even the apostle paul said that he didn't
count himself as having already obtained if the apostle paul has not obtained you have not obtained
you have not arrived we all need god if david can slip away into major sin if solomon can slip away
into major sin. You know what? That tells me we all need church. We all need God. And
if you think you're going to serve God without church, you are a fool. You are deceived.
And you are prideful. The prideful doesn't need church. The arrogant doesn't need the
Bible. But you know what? The poor in spirit, they're the blessed because they say, "You
know what? I need God on Sunday morning. I need God on Sunday night. I need God on Wednesday
night. I need God on Monday morning. I need God on Monday night. I need God on Saturday
morning. I need God on Sunday night. I need to read my Bible and I need to meditate on
this Word and I need to listen to the hymns and sing the hymns. I need God. This is the
poor in spirit. Whereas the rich say, "I'm increased with goods. I have need of nothing."
I don't need to sing praises to God. I don't need to memorize scripture. I don't need
this stuff. I'm rich. I don't need the $5 gift card for memorizing the Bible. Well,
it's not about the gift card. It's about you needing God. Go view it back to Matthew chapter
number 5. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Verse
4, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled." We should have this attitude of desiring to
be filled with righteousness, not filled with this world, not filled with pleasure, not
filled with carnal things, but rather filled with righteousness. And the reality is, when
you're seeking to do right, when you're seeking to do what God would have you to do, he has
more work than you can ever accomplish. You say, "Hey, I want to help the Lord." Okay,
well guess what? We have more than you could ever eat. God has an endless buffet of righteousness
out there for you. Hey, you can read so much more Bible than you could ever fit in a day.
You can't read the Bible in a day. I've got more songs than you can put to music, okay?
I've got all kinds of stuff. I have more soul winning than you could ever think of doing.
I have so much church. You want some righteousness? God's got it for you. Hey, you need to visit
some widows? I've got some widows you can visit. You got some fatherless out there?
Yeah, I've got some fatherless out there that you can visit and their affliction. Hey, you
want to keep yourself unspotted from the world? I got plenty of opportunity for you to keep
yourself unspotted from the world. There is more righteousness out there than you could
ever accomplish in 10,000 lifetimes. But what's the problem? People don't have an appetite
for it. They're having too much fun. Instead of mourning about how many people are dying
and going to hell, as opposed to mourning about how wicked our nation has become, as
opposed to mourning for the evil that exists in our society, for all the human trafficking,
for all the murder, for all the abortion, these people would rather just enjoy and laugh
and have fun on their yacht, have fun playing pickleball, enjoying their life, enjoying
the luxuries of this world. But you know what? Blessed are they that mourn. And they say
there's something wrong with this world, something wrong with people dying and going to hell,
and nobody caring about it. Nobody doing anything about it. Those who are meek and they're humble
in their heart. They don't think that they're somehow special and I've arrived, but rather
they're seeking and they're hungering and they're thirsting for righteousness. Verse
seven, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." You want mercy from
God for your sins? Be merciful to others. Verse eight, "Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God." Do you really want to know God? Do you really want to see God
in your life? You really want to draw close to God? It comes through purity. It comes
through purity. It comes from purifying yourself from sin of this world. It's hard to see God
in Harry Potter, folks. I know they have the stupid book out there that says seeing God
in Harry Potter. That is not where you see God. You know where you see God? Leviticus.
You know where you see God? Deuteronomy. You know where you see God? Psalms. And in Job.
And in Isaiah. And Zechariah. That's where you see Jesus Christ. That's where you see
God. But this world today, they're not looking in the right place. And because of their lack
of purity today, they don't know God. They can't see God. They don't even know who God
is. They're confused. But the people that are pure, those are the people. The people
that are pure in their heart, they're going to understand who God is. They're going to
see God the clearest. They're going to know who God is. Verse 9, "Blessed are the peacemakers
for they shall be called the children of God." Peace is what we should seek for. Peace is
what we should strive for. Not strife. Not confrontation. You know, in this room, let's
just be honest. The vast majority of the people in here are some of the greatest Christians
in this area. But they're still sinners. I mean, I love the people in this room. Some
of the most charitable, loving, kind, cool people that I know come to this church. But
there's sometimes this attitude of not recognizing the fact that you're still going to have sinners
in this room. And when they transgress, when they do wrong, when they have problems, when
they make mistakes, when they have blind spots, sometimes we judge them so harshly. And it's
like if you're going to judge the people in this room harshly, that's such a poor attitude
considering how much better they are than the world. I mean, if you're going to give
grace to anybody, can't you give grace to the people in this room? Of all the people
to love, can't you love the people in this room? Of all the people you have to tolerate,
can't you at least tolerate the people in this room? Hey, you know what? Our church
should be known as a church that's seeking for peace, not one, "Oh, this church is filled
with cliques. It's filled with all kinds of groups." And if you're not on the in crowd
or if you're on the west side or you're on the east side or you know, you're in this
specific clique, you know what? It's a bad mentality. We should be striving for peace
in the house of God. And if you can't love these people, then you are someone that just
can't love. If you can't love the people coming to this church, you have a lack of charity
that is just incredulous to me because we should be willing to love people outside of
these walls. We should be willing to love the lost. How much more are those inside the
walls? How much more are those that love Christ that are his children? And you know, if you
say, well, I think this person's kind of awkward and weird and goofy. Well, maybe they think
you're goofy. Maybe they think you're weird. Oh, I don't like this person. I don't really
get along with them. Okay. Well, that gives you an opportunity to strive for peace. Because
you know, it's not saying be peaceful with the people you love and enjoy being around.
That's easy. That's not even, you don't even doing anything. The peace is with the people
that irritate you a little bit, that annoy you a little bit, that do you wrong, that
cause you problems. We should strive for peace with those people. We should seek for peace
with those people. And those are the children of God. This is what I think is important.
Think about this. Those are the people called the children of God. If the world looks at
our church from the outside in, and they see us all bickering and just constantly at each
other's throats, and we can't even like each other, they're not going to be like, "Oh,
look at all those wonderful children of God." But you know what? If they see a group of
people that are constantly loving and compassionate and kind, and they're helping one another,
they're helping when someone has a baby, they're helping when someone's sick, they're helping
when someone has a need. When someone does them wrong, they do good on them anyways.
And in fact, they do that not just here, they do that at their workplace. They do that amongst
their family. They do that in their neighborhood. And they say, wow, if there is children of
God in this world, it's those people. If there really is someone out there that's a child
of God, the God that is love, then it must be that person because that person is so loving.
That person's so kind. That person's constantly striving for peace. And those are the people
that are going to be called the children of God, not the ones that are constantly bickering
and fighting and, well, at least they know the reprobate doctrine. It doesn't say that.
It doesn't say those who know the reprobate doctrine are called the children of God. Those
who know the truth about Jews are called the children of God. It says those that are what?
The peacemakers. Hey, when someone's wrong on one of these doctrines, how do you handle
them? Do you handle them with peace? And look, there's a time and place to get mad. Jesus
got mad. Jesus is a peacemaker. But at the same time, he didn't make peace with serpents
and with scorpions. But generally speaking, he is a peacemaker. He's kind. He's compassionate.
You know, when the young rich ruler came unto him, the Bible says that Jesus looked at
him and loved him. The guy was wrong. The guy disrespected Jesus. He still loved him.
Jesus looked at the Jews that killed him and he said, "Father, forgive them for they know
not what they do." Jesus is the ultimate peacemaker by dying on the cross and making peace with
God for us. This is the attitude we should have. What are these beatitudes? It's having
a humble attitude about ourselves and saying we need God. We need His righteousness. We're
striving for His righteousness. We need His purity and we need peace and we want mercy
and we extend that to others in hopes that God will give that to us as well. Verse 10,
"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven." You know, sometimes we talk about people that are persecuted and sometimes people
bring up groups that are persecuted that are not Christian. You can be persecuted and not
be Christian. You know, you can also be persecuted and it's not for righteousness' sake. You're
persecuted because you're evil. You're persecuted because you're a bad person. What the Bible
is saying is that the people that are blessed are the people that are being persecuted for
no reason. For no good reason. Specifically for righteousness' sake. They're trying to
do right and then people are getting mad at them. What would be someone being persecuted
for righteousness' sake? Well, keep your finger and go to 1 Peter chapter 4. I want to look
into the verse here. 1 Peter chapter number 4. Righteousness is doing right. That's what
righteousness is. So when you're doing right, someone gets mad at you. Someone says something
evil of you. Someone attacks you for doing something right. Like going to church. Like
reading your Bible. Like dressing like a godly Christian. And just the attitudes and behaviors
you have in your life. 1 Peter chapter 4 brings this up. Look at verse 1. "For as much as Christ
has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that has
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in
the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us
to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked, and lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine,
revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries. Wherein they think it strange that you run not
with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you. So this gives you a great list.
What would be being persecuted for righteousness' sake? Well, it's saying this group of people
used to do what? They used to be walking in lasciviousness. Laciviousness is lust, very similar,
typically when we talk about fornication. That's a form of lasciviousness. And generally speaking,
this is what the world does. This is just basically the college atmosphere, what we read,
where they're just chasing tail. They're just chasing women, being a whore or a whoremonger,
constantly just looking for the next hookup, the next relationship, the next one night stand,
the next relationship they can be into, just a constant just desire of lasciviousness, lust,
excess of wine, talking about getting drunk, blacked out drunk, and of course this includes drugs,
smoking marijuana, doing even hardcore drugs, cocaine. Cocaine is extremely popular folks.
People, especially in rich circles, they do a lot of cocaine and you know for the poorer community
they're more into fentanyl, they're into meth because you can cook meth at home. I'm not giving
you a recommendation or recipe, okay? Don't ask. Individuals are constantly into drugs and alcohol.
They're taking prescription drugs and altering them or mixing them with alcohol. The world's
constantly looking for a high, looking for some kind of a fix, revelings, banqueting, parties.
This is what the world lives for. They just live for the next party. They live for the next
drunken fest. They live for the next concert that they can go to. Even just this carries its
forth into sporting events, tailgating, right? They just want to go and tailgate and just hang
out and just drink and get drunk and party and act stupid and act foolish, banqueting,
just gorging themselves on food, all kinds of fancy things. And in fact, of course, back then,
idolatry was a major part of that society. But even today, what's a major form of idolatry?
How about the Catholic Church, literally? And you know what the Catholic Church is well known for?
Their parties. I mean, in fact, I can't tell you how many times I've knocked on doors and talked to
people about becoming saved, becoming a Baptist. And they say, well, I want to stay Catholic for
the parties. That's what they tell me. And I kind of know what they're talking about, because one
time I played in a golf tournament. It was sponsored by Catholic Church. I didn't really
even know what a Catholic Church was at the time. And they had the after party back at the Catholic
Church. So usually you just eat at the golf course. It's all the golf course. But they had
an after party at the Catholic Church. So we go to the after party of the Catholic Church,
and in their fellowship hall, they literally have kegs. And I'm thinking like, what in the world?
This is a house of God? And it's not like this was the first time a beverage to touch the lips
of any man out there. They were already well drunk at the golf course. This is their version
of John chapter number two, when the men are well drunk, that they go back to the Catholic Church,
and Jesus is pulling out kegs. You know what? That's a drunken, wicked, blasphemous idea.
Jesus didn't give people alcohol, folks. That wasn't the kind of parties that Jesus is going
to. That wasn't the kind of weddings that Jesus is going to. And look, so many people in this
world, that is even how they have their wedding. Why would I want to start the first day of marriage
by everyone getting drunk and wasted and out of their mind? That shows you where the wedding's
going to go. Weddings are supposed to be a picture of holiness and righteousness. The bride wearing
white as a picture of Christ's righteousness. A picture of marriage is how a husband says till
death do us part. Just like once you get saved you're always saved and how Jesus Christ will
never stop loving you. He'll never leave thee nor forsake thee as a husband is supposed to do unto
his wife. And yet this is how the world acts. So this is what happens. You say no I'm not going
to your drunken wedding at the Catholic church where you worship idols. I'm not going. And they
say like oh you're so evil. How am I evil for not getting drunk? No I'm not going to go and commit
fornication with you. No I'm not going to go to the bar with you. No I'm not going to do drugs with
you. No I'm not going to have these activities in my life. And they say oh you're a goody two shoes
and oh you just think you're better than us. No you're so prideful. No no no no. I just don't
want to sin. And then what happens is you're persecuted for righteousness sake. Doing right.
Not getting drunk. It's crazy how you tell family members I don't want to get drunk or be around
alcohol and they act like you're a bad person. I don't want to smoke marijuana or do all these
drugs and they'll act like you're a bad person. You say I want to go to church. Oh you think
you're better than me. No I need church because I'm poor in spirit. No I'm not going to church
because I think I'm better than you. I know I'm a bad person and I need God. That's why I'm going
to church. That's why I want you to go to church with me. But you know what they're rich. They're
increased with good. They have needed nothing. And they're filled with another spirit. Jack Daniels.
Dovey Wood back to Matthew chapter number five. That's what it means to be persecuted for rights
and the sake. Knocking on someone's door trying to give them the gospel and they run you out
like a sleazy door salesman. Oh you're soliciting. I'm not soliciting. I don't want anything. I just
want to give away the gospel. I want to give things away for free. I guarantee if you were the
publishing clearing house where you're handing out checks they wouldn't have a problem. They
wouldn't be mad at you as soliciting. They'd be like can I be on camera? Do you have any extra
checks with you? But you know what's more, you know what's better than a million dollar check?
The gospel of Jesus Christ. It's worth infinite riches and we're going out and handing it out for
free and yet people get mad at you. Why? Because you're doing right. That's being persecuted for
right's sake. You know being lazy at the job, being a derelict, being a drunk, lying about people,
railing on people. If someone gets mad at you for that that is not being persecuted for right's
sake. Getting in someone's face and screaming at them that is not being persecuted for right's
sake. And what we want to do is be persecuted for doing right. And this is what Jesus says,
"Blessed are you." And it says, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." You know who's going to get
the biggest inheritance in the kingdom of heaven? Those that were persecuted for doing right. Not
the ones that were doing wrong. They're going to just barely make it in. Verse 11, "Blessed are you
and men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you." Notice this word,
falsely for my sake. When you do right, you do not have to ask for people to persecute you.
It will happen. Family members, friends, co-workers, this world, protesters, the news media,
YouTube, it doesn't matter who it is, they will say you are so evil. You're so hateful for wanting
to serve God. When it's the exact opposite, it's false what they're saying. But this is what the
attitude should be. Verse 12, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your ward in heaven
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." You know, our attitude when we get
persecuted is we should recognize, hey, I must be on the right path. When someone lies about me,
I must be on the right path. I must be doing good. You know, if you get persecuted for being a bozo,
you shouldn't feel like you're on the right path. When you're going to jail for stealing,
that's not the right path. When you're going to jail because you preach Leviticus, you're on the
right path. And you know what, a lot of people went to prison that were good. Joseph, he went to
prison. Why did Joseph go to prison? Because he wouldn't commit fornication. That's a good reason
to be thrown in jail is for not committing fornication. But how many people today,
they'll commit fornication without any threat. They want to. They're striped. They're seeking
for that. He's literally fleeing it and he gets persecuted falsely for righteousness sake. That
is the type of person that's going to be greatly rewarded. Joseph is going to be greatly rewarded
in heaven because he was persecuted for righteousness sake. He was preaching the Bible to his brethren.
They threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery. That was being persecuted for righteousness sake.
And why? Because his brethren were lazy. Because his brethren were slothful. They were bad sons,
bad kids, didn't want to do right. And they hated Joseph because he wanted to do right.
And that tells me that you could be in a family with 11 brethren and they all hate you. Now at
the time it was 10, I get Benjamin was younger, but think about it. He's one out of 11 at the
time at least and 10 of his brethren hate him. 10 of his brothers with the same dad and it was a
good dad. It wasn't even a bad dad. That tells me that even in Christian families today, even
amongst the people in this room, you could have your brethren criticize you and persecute you for
you want to do right. Someone comes up to you in this room and wants to gossip and rail and you
say, "No, I don't want to participate in that." And they'd be like, "Oh, you're a goody two shoes."
Well, I'd rather be a goody two shoes than whatever you are. I'd rather be a goody two shoes than a
railer. I'd rather be a goody two shoes than a gossip. I'd rather be a goody two shoes than a
backslidden Christian. Don't think just because someone's in this room that they're going to
strive for the kingdom of God or want to serve God. In fact, Jesus is preaching to a lot of
disciples and eventually they're going to, a lot of them are going to walk away. A lot of them are
going to quit. You know, if you go to church for a while, it doesn't matter what church, people are
coming and going. Every church, people are just constantly coming and going, coming and going.
It's constantly changing, constantly evolving. And you know what? In a church where we preach
the hard truths of the Bible, it's probably going to be the most vicious. You're going to have the
most turnover. You're going to just have the most people just coming, going, coming, going. Because
why? Because they don't really like the hard truths. When you have a church where they hardly
preach anything, it's the most stable. You're not really going to offend anybody. No one's really
upset about anything. And the reason why is they stopped preaching hard a long time ago and now
they're afraid to do it again. You know, it's good to go to a church where they just keep churning
and keep turning. Like I don't want to go to this church, people keep coming and going. But the
question you should be asking yourself is why? And if you strive for the kingdom of God, you'll
recognize many people will be coming and going. But you know what? When you're persecuted for
rights and the sake, rejoice. That's the right attitude. Verse 13, "Year the salt of the earth,
but if the salt of loss of savor, wherewith shall it be salted, is thenceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out and be trodden under foot of men. Year the light of the world. A city that is
set on the hill cannot be hid. Neither men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a
candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. So not only is
he saying that you're going to be rewarded for being persecuted, but you're also going to be
rewarded for letting your light shine. And many times when you do right, people still will praise
you. It's not that doing right only receives persecution. It also will sometimes receive
praise. But that praise and that glory we're trying to shine is the gospel of Jesus Christ,
is God's glory and His light. And we're trying to show people how good God is.
And when we let our light shine, it gives glory unto God. Notice in verse 16,
"And glorify your Father which is in heaven." When you go out and preach the gospel,
and people get saved, they say, "Praise God, someone's willing to go out and preach the
gospel." When they see a church standing up against the wickedness of this world,
people say, "Praise God, there's a church willing to stand on the Bible." When you show somebody
the majestic nature of the King James Bible, they can say, "Praise God for Him preserving His word."
And when we let our light shine brightly in this world, it gives glory to God. If you care about
the glory of God, you will do good works to give Him glory. Because when we do nothing,
it gives no glory to God. What gives glory to God are people that say, "I'm going to heaven no
matter what, but I choose, I choose to serve God anyways." I want to serve God because I love Him
because He's a good God, because He's a faithful God. And you know what? Blessed be the name of
the Lord. That's why someone goes out there and preaches the gospel. I don't have to preach the
gospel to go to heaven. I'm going to heaven. You can't stop me. You could put a bullet in my head
and I'm still going. You could burn me at the stake and I'm still going. You could do whatever
you want. You could hook me up to a computer and Neuralink and I'm still going. I don't care what
happens. I'm going to heaven. But you know what? I choose to go out and preach the gospel to give
glory to God because there'll be more people in heaven singing praises to God when we go out and
get people saved. And you know what? We are the light of this world. We are the salt to deserve.
Jesus Christ is in heaven right now and he's wanting us to take our time to shine for his
benefit, for his glory. This is why we are here. This is your purpose in life. People always want
to know what am I supposed to do in life? You're supposed to be a bright and shining light. You're
supposed to be the salt of the earth. You're preserving. Whenever Christians stop being
Christian, woe unto that area. Woe unto areas like San Francisco. Woe unto areas like Canada.
Woe unto areas like UK. The United Kingdom used to be a beacon of light in this world.
Used to be filled with Christians, with intelligence, with wisdom, with power,
with majesty, shining a bright light all over the world. And now look at them. Now their salt
is worthless. What does it say in verse 13? "If it loses its salt, it's good for nothing,
but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men." That's Muslims. Just ask, just ask UK.
Can you imagine King James how he would feel if he got to see his country overrun by Muslims today?
You say he doesn't, he doesn't, he wouldn't know what that's like. Well look,
Muslims existed when King James was around. If he had a foreign policy to bring them in,
he would have been bringing them in. But let me tell you, he did not have a foreign policy
to bring in Muslims, folks. Muslims wouldn't have been surviving in King James' throne.
And you know what, it's just a sad day when Christians become good for nothing. America
has been a bright and shining light for a long time, but we're losing a lot of the saltiness.
We're losing a lot of the brilliance of that light, and we, as God's people, need to take responsibility
and say we're going to be a bright and shining light. We are going to be that salt again. Why?
For the glory of our Father which is in heaven. Verse 17, "Think not that I'm come to destroy the
law of the prophets. I'm not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I stand you till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall know why it's passed from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so,
he should be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever shall do and teach them
the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you,
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Notice that Jesus Christ is saying that
he fulfilled the law, and of course he did. The law, he fulfilled it perfectly, he had no sin.
Not only that, all the ceremonial aspects of the law, he perfectly fulfilled and broke down that
partition between us, between the Jew and the Gentile, and he created a new testament in his
blood, as the Bible describes it. But the commandments are still valid. Verse 19, "whosoever
therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so," he
should be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. There is a consequence to breaking God's
commandments. But this is the cool thing about this verse, is notice that person still went
to heaven. Why? Because going to heaven is not based on following the commandments. Going to
heaven is based on believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God that salvation is a free gift
to those who put faith in Christ. Then after being saved, notice though that there is still
a consequence and there is a reward attached to our behavior. When you're breaking the least
commandments and you're teaching false doctrine, God is going to put you as the least person in
the kingdom of God. And when you are following those commandments and teaching people to follow
those commandments, you're going to be called great in the kingdom of God. Now in verse 20,
he brings up this interesting idea that you would have to technically have so much righteousness,
you'd have to exceed the Pharisees in order to go to heaven. Why does he bring this point up?
Well, Jesus is preaching to a mixed crowd, even though it's his disciples, because unfortunately,
not all of his disciples are saved. And he's making a big point in this chapter about the
need for humility. What causes us to be humble? Recognizing how sinful we are. And so many people,
especially at the time of Christ, thought they were righteous enough to go to heaven based on
their own merits, based on their own works. And so often what Christ does is he tries to drag people
down so that they can get saved. He tries to help them recognize their sinfulness and the fact that
they're not righteous. And it's a two effect because number one it helps us recognize how to be more
righteous but at the same token it helps people recognize how they're not righteous. So those are
not saved they can get saved and those that are saved they can recognize I need to work on that
area in my life. So it works as a two-edged sword here. No one can exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees and the reality is they were hypocrites and they were very sinful but it's
not like the prostitutes were better. It's not like the publicans were better. In fact the Apostle
Paul he described himself as touching the law blameless. There probably was not anyone that was
physically more righteous than the Apostle Paul at that time. He probably lied the least. He probably
did the sacrifices the best. He probably as far as just the letter of the law the Apostle Paul
was probably the top of the top or in the upper echelon and he even he himself recognized wow
that's not going to get it. All my righteousnesses are as filthy rags in comparison. So that's not
the way into heaven. The way into heaven isn't to be like Paul following the law. It was like Paul
becoming blind and recognizing the need of a savior and humbling himself and counting it all but dung
and then accepting Christ as your savior. Salvation is not repenting of your sins and going to church
and kissing the icons and bowing down to Mary and confessing your sins to the priest and turning
over a new leaf. Salvation is putting all of your faith in the death burial and resurrection
and saying God be merciful to me a sinner and putting all of your trust in him and in that
moment that's what salvation is. And he's trying to help these people recognize you're not getting
in on your righteousness buddy. If you think you're gonna get any righteousness be better
than the scribes and Pharisees. It's like oh no I'm not better than them. Right so that's not how
you get in because if that was how you got in no one's getting in. That was the point. No one gets
into heaven because of their righteousness. Verse 21, "You have heard that it was said by them of
old time thou should not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say
to you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment
and whosoever shall say to his brother Raka shall be in danger of the counsel but whosoever shall
say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire." Oh you're one of those hell fire and brimstone
preachers. Hell and damnation preachers. Well that's Jesus. Your beloved sermon on the mount,
Jesus Christ's warning about hell. Did you realize that? There's a lot of great points here. One I
want to make is this idea that Catholics have and even Orthodox of this idea of mortal sins.
Who's heard of mortal sins before? Okay. This idea of mortal sins is like you commit this one sin
and you're just doomed to hell. It's just a deadly sin. It's over. And one of those they'll
typically say is murder. But look what the Bible says here in verse 21. Thou shall not kill and
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. It doesn't say that they're definitely
going to the judgment. They're just in danger of that. Why? Because you can even be forgiven of
murder, like Moses, like King Saul. Why? Because murder doesn't send someone to hell. All sins send
someone to hell. And how you get saved is by believing in Jesus, regardless of which sins you
committed. You committed horrible sins, you can still be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ,
which washes away all sin. All sin. Even murder, even suicide. It doesn't matter if you've believed
in Christ, you're saved. But what's the point here? Don't just kill people or not kill people,
but also you can't even be angry with your brother. Notice this caveat, without a cause.
Did you notice that? It didn't say you can't be angry with your brother. It didn't say you
can't call your brother a fool. It said you can't do it without a cause. Meaning if you don't have
the right cause to call someone a fool, then don't say it. Now you say how do I know it's the right
time? When the Bible does it. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. If your brother's
an atheist, he's a fool. There's nothing wrong with calling an atheist a fool. God does. The
Bible does. But if someone does something you just don't like, you can't just call them a fool,
say rock onto them, be angry at them when they haven't done anything wrong. You know what? That
is a sin that, look in verse 22, shall be in danger of hellfire. So some people thought like,
well I've never killed anybody. Have you ever been mad at somebody when you shouldn't have been mad
at them? Because you're also in danger of hell now. Why? Because every sin puts you in the danger of
hell. And then once you're saved, you can never lose it. Okay. But he's trying to warn these people,
hey, you guys think that you're going to heaven because you haven't killed anybody? Wait a minute,
have you ever been angry at somebody without a cause? Now that probably got 90% of the people.
Like 90% of the people are like, yeah, I've done that. Okay. It's going to get harder. All right.
Verse 23, "Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there are members that thy brother
hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First,
be reconciled thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly.
Whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver to the judge and the
judge deliver to the officer and thou be cast into prison." So if you've ever done anything wrong
to somebody and you haven't apologized or made it right, he's saying you got to do that first.
And he's saying why do you think God wants a sacrifice from you when you have done wrong to
your brother? Meaning you should seek to right every wrong before you present yourself to God.
Before you try to get favor with God, you better make sure you right every single wrong you've done.
You know what the attitude most people have? "I'm going to make sure that they pay for the
wrongs that they've done." As opposed to saying, "I'm going to make sure I pay for the wrongs that
I've done." That's the attitude we should be having. Verse 26, "Verily I say unto thee, thou shall by
no means come out, since thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." God considers how you behave
towards other people very seriously. Be careful. At this point, most people kind of recognize that
I've screwed up. But if you haven't yet, you will at this next one, all right? Verse 28, "But I say
to you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already
in his heart." He was like, "Any of you still prideful people out there? Let me just give you
another sin that you're for sure guilty of. Have you ever had a lustful thought?" Anybody that says
they haven't is the dumbest liar because no one believes you. I don't care if you could even
convince yourself. No, you could never convince another person that this has happened. And he's
just saying, "Look, I know you've probably, a lot of you have never committed adultery, but have you
ever thought it?" Because just even thinking about it is a sin. Now again, don't take what Jesus is
saying in an overly literal fashion. This is what people do because they don't like the death
penalty. They'll say, "Oh, if you think adulterers should be put to death, then that would be
everybody because look what he says here in this verse." But he didn't say adultery, he said adultery
in the heart, meaning it's a different type of adultery. There's different types of murder,
there's different types of adultery, there's different types of sin. God does not have
crimes for thought crimes, okay? He doesn't have penalties written in the Old Testament,
"This guy had a thought crime, arrest him. This guy had a thought crime, penalize him." No, no,
people had punishment because they did the crime, not because they thought the crime. But he's also
saying even by thinking the crime you sinned, it's still a sin, it was still wrong. And of course,
where did those bad actions come from? Well, they started with a thought first. And the person,
instead of taking captive that imagination, they ended up acting on that imagination.
So when we have those bad imaginations, we're trying to take captive of them and bring them
into subjection, bringing them into the right place, getting rid of those thoughts. This is
a challenge for all of us every day. But to those that still didn't quite get it, he's saying,
"Okay, you think you could actually literally never stop? You think you could actually stop
lusting? Or you think you have to stop lusting to be saved? Well, go ahead." In verse 21,
"If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out." If you think that you have to never have another
lustful thought to get into heaven, you better go ahead and just pluck your eyes out. But here's
the problem. You probably could still think of things, couldn't you? Even being blind,
things that you've seen in the past, right? "For it is profitable for you that one of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast in hell." He's saying hell is so bad
that you would actually be way better off literally cutting your eye out right now
than going to hell. That's how bad hell is. And then specifically, if you genuinely thought
you had to keep the law perfectly to go to heaven, then why are you not cutting your eyes out? Like
those who believe in repenting of their sins, I want to know, here's a knife. Oh, you're going to
repent of your sins? Cut your eyes out then. Or are you going to tell me that you somehow don't
sin that way anymore? Liar. Everyone sins that way. And it's not a justification, folks. I'm not
trying to say, hey, if you sin this way, don't try to fix it. No, we should work on that. But we
should also recognize that's a sin that will never be cured until you have your eyes ripped out and
then you still probably want to be cured of it anyways. Okay. That's how stupid it is. Verse 30,
"And if I write and offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee
that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
Look, if you think that you have to stop sinning, you might as well put yourself in a coma. And even
then, it's skeptical. I'm skeptical. Okay. Verse 31, "It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away
his wife, let him give her a riding on divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away
his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, cause her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall
marry her that is divorced, commiteth adultery." You just go to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
already says don't get divorced. And if you do get divorced and remarried, that was a form of adultery.
Again, people say like, "Oh, so you want to put people to death for that?" No, that's a different
type of adultery. That's another adultery in the heart, okay? No one was put to death for getting
divorced and remarried. That's a way different sin than actually committing adultery while married.
Way different, not nearly the same, but it's still a form of adultery and it's still wicked and it's
still super wrong and Jesus condemns it. Think about it, you want to know who walked away
from his sermons? People that were divorced and remarried. I am almost convinced that one of the
main reasons why these big non-denominational churches are so big is on that one point alone.
Why? Because here's the thing, there's so many people that are divorced and they're seeking
remarriage and where do people try to find a spouse at church? But here's the thing,
they're not allowed to find a spouse in my church. So of course they're not going to come here
shopping for a spouse when they're divorced. So where do they go? They go to the non-denominational
church where they're all swapping spouses every single week. That's why they go to those kind of
churches. And if church by and large just didn't permit that, then people would have to get over
themselves and get their butt into a real church. But because they're so sinful and they're not
hungry for righteousness and for godliness, they go to a fun center and listen to Stephen Furtick
and a bunch of girl genes lying to them. Why? Because they want someone to lie to them and
tell them it's okay, get divorced and remarried. I know that it's adultery and whatever but it's
not a big deal because god's not mad at you. Oh by the way you have to repent of your sins to be saved.
Those are like dens of iniquity. What sins did they even repent of anyways? They're not an axe
murderer? Wow, congratulations. Congratulations on your congregation not being drug out serial
killers. I mean it's ridiculous the world that we live in and you know what someone needs to preach
against divorce and remarriage. It's not a popular thing and look I'm not mad at people that are
divorced and remarried. I just don't want people to do it. There's plenty of great people that
are divorced and remarried. There's people serving God that are divorced and remarried.
You can still serve God but don't tell me it wasn't a sin. Don't tell me that you recommend
that to other people. Be humble enough to say you know what that was wrong. I did wrong but you know
what I don't want to do anymore and I don't want my kids to do it. I don't want my grandkids to do
it. I don't want my brother to do it and I don't want my church members to do it because you know
what it wasn't right. Verse 33 again, "You have heard that it has been said by them of all time,
thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. I say,
and you swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth,
for it is His footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, neither
shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black, but let your
communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these come with evil." Now this was
so funny to me, when people preach on Matthew 5, they'll only ever use these words, "swear not"
at all. They don't bring up any of the context that we just brought up. And then they turn
swearing into something that it's not. They turn it into four-letter words. But that has nothing
to do with this passage whatsoever. And what's sad is they ignore what God actually taught,
and then they replace it with cussing. Okay, what is forced swearing yourself? It's going back on
an oath you made. What would be going back on an oath that you made? Oh, how about a marriage vow?
How many churches a day are permissive and allowing their church members to go out and commit divorce
and remarriage, a form of adultery, but they would say, "How dare you ever use a four-letter word?"
What about the hypocrites? They would get mad at me like, "Oh, you've used bad language before,
and you don't know this verse? Swear not at all." But then they'll literally perform a marriage in
their church of a remarriage of a type of adultery. And then they'll use this verse to prove that.
Swear not at all. Look, you know what this is saying? No, you don't. What does it mean to
not swear? It's saying when you make a promise to not invoke God or Jerusalem or some higher power
or your mom say like, "I swear on my mother's grave," or "I swear on God," or "I swear on the
Bible," or "I do this." You know, isn't it interesting that every president puts their
hand on a Bible and swears on it? Huh. And what does the Bible say? That comes of evil.
You want to know how I know the presidents are liars? They put their hand on a Bible
to say that they're not. Because the Bible says you should just say "Yay, yay," and "Nay,
nay." And if they were going to take this passage literally, then that's the only words they could
ever use in their mouth. But they don't do that. Look, this is not prohibiting certain
four-letter words, folks. Okay? That's a bad doctrine that doesn't come from this book.
Now, look, if you want to choose to not use certain language because you think it's offensive
and you don't want to offend people, "I'm for you," that makes total sense. But don't tell me
that it's this passage where it says, "Swear not at all." Go to a different passage, okay?
And I'll go there with you and we'll read the Bible and we'll think about it. But you know what?
Don't use this passage because that's not what it's saying. It's saying when you promise something,
you do it. Verse 38, "He hath heard that hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek,
turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat,
let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain,
give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou way.
Ye have heard that it has been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy;
but I stand you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,
and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. That ye may be the children
of your father which is in heaven, for ye make it the sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward
have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more
than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be therefore perfect, even as your father which is
in heaven is perfect. So this last section is dealing with the idea of going beyond what is
expected. If someone says go a mile, that's expected, right? Going twain is going above
what's expected. Loving someone that loves you, that's expected. Loving someone that doesn't love
you is going above what is expected. Doing good unto people. He's saying generally, hey if someone
does you wrong, let them do you wrong again. Saying if someone says hey can I borrow 20 bucks and you
give them 20 bucks and they never pay you back and then they come back around they're like hey
can I get another 20 bucks? Instead of saying like well you didn't pay me back the last time,
just be like sure here's another 20. So they got you on the left, now they got you on the right,
right? That's what it's saying. It's not saying if someone breaks into your house to rob you,
just be like here's the TV, can I help load it into the car? No, no, no, I'm going to help unload
my gun to their forehead, okay? That's what I'm going to do. But it's saying when someone is just
doing you a little wrong, pushing you around, messing with you, you just say you know what,
I'm seeking for peace, you know, I'm going to be kind to this individual and we should be like God
who reigns on the just and on the unjust, does good unto people. Look, you know, I've heard people
that are not even saved and they'll say God does so much good to me and I'm thinking yeah, God does
good to unsaved people but God's done so much for my life or God's helped me or I think God's done
good for me. That's true. God has done good for those people but you know what? He was doing that
good unto you so that right now I could preach you the gospel and you'd get saved. That's why
he did good and even sometimes they recognize it. They say wow this really positive thing happening
in my life and I think it's because God wants me to hear from him right now and to seek him
and it's like you're right. Even crazy events. I had a guy I met in a bookstore and he said I
literally almost died in a car accident two weeks ago and I've said I know that God wants me to
figure out like how to be saved and like what's going on and I was just like well if you die in
the day are you sure you go to heaven? He's like no will you show me? Yeah. Like this is like a
soul winner's like dream you're kind of like pinching yourself like is this real? Like what
do you mean? He's like somebody's just walking up stairs what must I do to be saved? You're like
okay here you go. Wouldn't that be nice you walk in the neighborhood and everybody just gets out of
the house and just walk straight up to you like sir what must I do to be saved? Like this is great
you know this is easy but sometimes that happens and at the end of the day you know we're supposed
to go out there and preach the gospel and love people even when they are not good. Just like God
loves people that are not good. Why? For that opportunity for the gospel. God did good under
them for that opportunity the gospel. We go out and love people for that opportunity the gospel
eventually. They say wow that guy wasn't as much of a jerk as I thought. Wow they're kind of cool
that actually made sense what he said about that. I like that these people like children. You know
I remember even some of our protesters they emailed us and they said I was you know really
mad at y'all and I wanted to come protest y'all but then when I showed up and I saw how happy all
the kids were and all the ladies and and I read your doctrinal statement it was like y'all are
exactly what you say you are and like all the people that were there were hypocrites and and
liars and scumbags and they're like I'm sorry for protesting you. Maybe that person will get saved
someday you know and and we can do good on them. Now of course some of those people in that crowd
were for sure reprobates okay I'm not I'm not trying to hide from that fact and I'm not like
wanting to welcome my church or anything but we should do good even unto the unjust and the
ungodly and yeah wouldn't it be cool wouldn't it be cool if you go into heaven and you walk up to
somebody you shake their hand like hey I protested your church one time wouldn't that be cool I mean
you're like yeah I know I protested I mean think about it the apostle Paul was at Stephen stoning
and he was consenting unto his death he was holding the coats don't you think it's a little
awkward when Paul is like hey Paul I want you to meet Stephen you're like yeah hey man what's up
he's like I know you don't I and he's like yeah I mean think about that but you know what we're
gonna all laugh about it it's gonna be fun in heaven lighten up a little bit folks Jesus Christ
is just saying hey be like God and just love people and do good unto people and be humble
and be like God and be perfect strive to be perfect like he is go with Leviticus and we'll
finish you know what's so interesting is how Jesus is constantly quoting Leviticus in Matthew
chapter number five because he said to love your enemies well you know where that's coming from
Leviticus chapter 19 look at verse number 18 thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the
children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself I am the Lord you know who
likes the book of Leviticus Jesus and not only did he quote it here but look at verse number two
speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel and saying to them ye shall be holy
for I the Lord your God am holy the same as you should be perfect for the Lord thy God is perfect
what is holy set apart striving to be righteous and so Jesus is quoting multiple passages in the
book of Leviticus that tells me I need the book of Leviticus that tells me that this is a great
book instructing us on how to live our lives even chapters 18 and 20 folks we should like all of it
and people get mad at you for quoting Leviticus well you know what Jesus quoted Leviticus like
why don't you preach the sermon on the mount well Jesus quoted it why are you preaching on
hell well Jesus preached on hell why are you preaching on divorce and remarriage Jesus preached
on divorce and remarriage and look we're just getting started that was just chapter five we
haven't gotten chapter number six and chapter number seven yet this is some hard preaching
and you can see why people left you know what those that are hungry for righteousness will
continue to strive to be perfect we'll say you know what i've made a lot of mistakes but i want
to get better and i want my children to do better and i want my church to do better why for the
lost for those that will accept christ i want to do good so that those unsaved unjust people will
be turned to righteousness that are bright and shining light will give glory unto the father
and you know what those are going to be the people that are called the children of god
the peacemakers let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father so much for this great sermon
from your son the lord jesus christ i pray that we would get his words deep into our hearts and
our minds and we would love all the truths the good truths the unpleasant truths the hard to
hear truths and i pray that we would seek to be more humble we'd be more poor in our spirits
that we recognize our need for you and for church and i pray that you would give us more love in our
hearts towards our brethren and not just our brethren but to those that do us wrong to this
lost and dying world to those that may even smite us on the cheek i pray that we'd have
jesus's attitude that we turn to them the other also and i pray that no matter what we would seek
for peace in jesus name we pray amen for our last song let's sing 238 song 238 christ liveth in me
Song 2-3-8, let's sing it out.
SPAWN
Christmas.