As most of you are aware, we are studying through the Sermon on the Mount, or what I like to call the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven. And we are here today looking at the subject of fasting, as part of the Lord Jesus’s message. I find it ironic that on the day when we have scheduled a brunch to follow the service, we would be dealing with the subject of fasting. I assure you that was not intentional, even though it may seem that I might be angling to have more French toast left over for myself. That’s purely coincidental, I promise.

Fasting has not been in vogue among Evangelicals for the most part for many years, perhaps due to a reaction against the wrong emphasis traditionally given to fasting by the Roman Catholic church. But the Lord obviously considers it a principle that needs correction as it was practiced in His day. And the fact that it was practiced by both the Old and New Testament saints should be obvious to anyone that has studied scripture in even a cursory way.

Jesus has been talking at this point in His sermon about public expressions of religion that are often done for personal advantage rather than solely for God. In vs.1 He says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” Then as an illustration of this principle, Jesus gives three examples of ways in which people practice righteousness to be seen of men. The first illustration is that of giving, the second is prayer, and the third is fasting.

Now in His discourse Jesus was primarily concerned with the negative aspect of fasting, that is it’s ostentatiousness, the tendency to do it to be noticed by men. But because it is something that is not understood today nor practiced today very often, and surely not often as it should be, then perhaps it is best if we start by considering what the Bible says we are to do in regards to fasting, and then what the Lord says we are not to do.

So then what is expected of us in regards to fasting according to the Bible? Is it a valid spiritual discipline or not? First of all, we should recognize that fasting is commanded in the Old Testament. The children of Israel were commanded to fast on the Day of Atonement, which of course was one day a year. But in addition to that, we see many instances in which the Israelites fasted for additional periods. In the New Testament, we see that the Pharisees fasted twice a week. However, they were not ever told to do so.

As concerning the Lord’s teaching regarding fasting, He did not expressly teach it, but He certainly taught it indirectly. First of all, in the passage before us today He said, “When you fast…” It is understood that they would fast. Furthermore, in chapter 9 of Matthew, He was asked about fasting. They said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” And so there Jesus implies that though fasting was not being practiced by His disciples, it was something that would be done when He was no longer with them. And so by extension, it’s something that we should do today.

And one final example of fasting is that which was done by the Lord Himself when He was tempted in the wilderness. On that occasion, He was led by the Holy Spirit, and He fasted for 40 days. By the way, I have heard of a number of documented cases of someone who fasted for 40 days and they died as a result of it. Perhaps not simply died from the lack of food, but from other illnesses that arose due to their immune system being depleted, or something like that. But I would discourage anyone from thinking that is something that we should strive for. However, the fact that Jesus fasted, certainly indicates that we should follow His example. There is nothing He did which was superfluous, or which was not the Father’s will. So the fact that He fasted should be an indication that we are to fast as well.

Furthermore we see illustrations of the early church and the apostles practicing fasting. For instance, when the church at Antioch sent out Paul and Barnabas they first spent a period of prayer and fasting. Paul remarks that he often fasted. And even in the more modern period of the church, we find that most of the great men of God such as the Wesley’s, George Whitfield, Calvin all fasted on regular occasions.

So since we have confirmed the historical and biblical precedents for fasting, then we must define it. What exactly is meant by fasting? What is accomplished by it? You will recall that last Sunday I spent some time talking about the fact that man is mind, body and spirit unified in some mystical way into one being. And so they each depend and interact with one another. I believe that you can affect the mind through the spirit, and the body through the mind. And so there can be some effect on the mind through the actions of the body and the spirit. I have often counseled people who were suffering from depression or anxiety that they should work on the body and the spirit in hopes of elevating the mind. You can exercise the body, but it is difficult to exercise the mind, especially when you are ill in your mind. But bodily exercise can have an effect on the mind. And certainly, through spiritual exercise we can control the mind. The Bible teaches that the body and mind are to be subject to the spirit. And also fasting, as it relates to the body can also have a bearing on the mind and the spirit.

Today, there is a great deal of interest in the subject of fasting from a strictly human perspective. I have practiced something called Intermittent Fasting, which is done for health reasons. But even secular fitness experts have noted that fasting causes an increase in mental health and a sense of well being. They claim it not only helps in lowering fat, but also lowering cortisol, which is a stress hormone, and that it gives clarity and focus to the mind as well as a sense of well being.

And as Intermittent Fasting has gained popularity, it has also raised awareness of more intensive fasting, such as 24 or 48 hour fasts. There are multiple physical benefits to fasting and people are becoming aware of them. So while all those things are good, and possibly even helpful on a mental or even a spiritual plane, that is not what the Bible indicates the purpose of fasting is for.

I believe the Bible shows us that fasting is always related to prayer. We never see fasting as a means in and of itself. I think the order in which Jesus addresses fasting and prayer shows that fasting is subservient to prayer. It follows His discourse on prayer. It’s not something which stands alone as a means of righteousness, or even as a means of spiritualness. As I just pointed out, there are a lot of benefits to fasting on a physical level that have nothing to do with the spiritual. So fasting as a Christian, for the purpose of drawing near to God, has to do with prayer and making my prayer life more effective.

If we fast purely for the sake of fasting, as some sort of ceremonial thing we do at certain times of the year, then I believe we are violating the biblical teaching in regards to fasting. If fasting is an end to itself, then it is of no effect spiritually. Anything we do as a matter of rote, as a matter of obligation to a certain schedule, is in violation of the spiritual principle. And what I mean by that is to fast with the goal of getting a certain direct or immediate result is to view fasting in a mechanical way, a quid pro quo with the Lord in which since you did this, you can expect that in return. We don’t fast to get the results we want. It’s not a means of getting God’s blessings.

This kind of attitude in Christianity is pervasive to all sorts of things, not just in fasting. I read an interview from the modern false prophet Joseph Prince on Fox News the other day, and he was promoting a new book in which he says if you take communion you can expect God to heal you. And he relates a story of his son who was injured, and they began daily communion with him in the hospital, and he recovered twice as fast as the doctors had said he would. And so he has this book outlining how you can administer communion to yourself every day and see tremendous blessings and healing. Nothing in the Bible even remotely implies that, but that doesn’t seem to faze him. It’s just another way for him to make millions off of a book making false claims. But the point is that he is teaching a quid pro quo style of religion, where if you do something in a mechanical way, then God will be obligated to respond as you want.

And in a like manner, fasting is not a means of gaining God’s blessings, or healing or anything like that. So while there are definitely some physical benefits to fasting, we must not mistake that for the spiritual benefit that we should be practicing it for. The goal of fasting is to make us more spiritually attuned to the Lord’s leading.

Our desire to enter into fasting should be because we are led by God to do so, when I am intent on drawing near to God, when I feel there is a need to be solely consumed by my devotion to God and my desire to be led by God. It is a means to put aside the pleasures of the flesh that I might devote all my energies to the pursuit of God in the spiritual realm.

The other thing that I think is taught about fasting when you consider the past examples in scripture, is that of an attitude of repentance. I think that fasting, and the things that went along with it such as sackcloth and ashes, were used to demonstrate repentance and humbleness before God. Sackcloth and ashes were used to make the person uncomfortable, as a sign of mourning. And in the Bible we often see the attitude of true repentance being accompanied with fasting.

For instance, in the story of Jonah and Ninevah, the prophet Jonah eventually preached to Ninevah the message God gave him to preach, and the king responded according to Jonah 3:7-10 And he caused [it] to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that [is] in their hands. Who can tell [if] God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did [it] not.”

And so God responded to their prayer, which was a prayer of repentance. To repent is to turn, and the king said, “let everyone turn from his evil way.” That’s repentance. And fasting can be a visible demonstration of the heart of repentance.

Listen, often the problem with our prayer life is that we have an impure heart. We can have impure motives. James said in James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend [it] on your pleasures.” And the problem with fasting as Jesus described it is simply that. You don’t have a pure heart. You’re not really fasting as a corollary to intense prayer and spiritual struggle. Your heart isn’t right. And that is exactly the problem of the scribes and the Pharisees. Their hearts were not right.

David said in Psalm 66:18 “If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear me.” James “said the effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.” So there is obviously a correlation between prayer and righteousness. And while fasting is not a means of righteousness, it is a means of showing repentance. And repentance is necessary to be right with God and that we might have effective prayers.

Another reason for fasting I believe can be found in the example of Jesus. He fasted for 40 days. And yet Jesus did not need to repent. He was without sin. So why did He fast? I used to think that it was a part of His trial, that He fasted to make Himself weak so that He would be tested more severely. But that’s not it at all. I believe the Lord Jesus fasted not to become weaker, but to become stronger. Fasting may weaken you physically, but it makes you stronger spiritually. Jesus said when He was tempted in the wilderness while fasting, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” There is a food that is spiritual that supersedes that which is physical. And I think that is the reason that we should fast, to receive spiritual sustenance which has a far greater value than food.

So even in our weakness from fasting, we gain spiritual strength. Paul said concerning weakness in 2Cor. 12:9-10 “And [the Lord] has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

So fasting is a means of drawing near to God, it can be a demonstration of a repentant heart, and it can be a source of spiritual strength. But what it is not to be is a demonstration externally for others to see so that they notice how spiritual you are. Jesus says in vs16, “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”

Now I hate to have to say this, but that’s one of the characteristics of the way a lot of churches practice Lent, which is supposed to be 40 days of fasting. They mark the forehead of the person fasting with charcoal in the shape of a cross, and then you are supposed to leave that on there and not wash it off. The whole point then seems to be they want to be noticed by men. And Jesus says that is the only reward they will receive, the temporary adulation of man.

But rather, Jesus says fasting as God would have us to fast, is something that takes place on the inside. It’s an attitude of the heart. It’s an attitude of repentance, of leaning not on your strength but on the Lord’s. And to that heart which God sees, God will reward accordingly. Jesus says in vs17 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.”

Listen, the most important thing in our lives should be that we are right with God and concerned about pleasing Him. Our greatest desire should be to be in complete fellowship with Him. Then we can be certain that we are praying according to His will and that whatever we ask of Him we can be certain of receiving. We can be confident that we can do whatever He calls us to do by the strength which He supplies. And our reward is to be in fellowship with Him both now and forever. To be one with Him. And through prayer and fasting we can have fellowship with God in a way that supersedes the physical, and enables us to grow spiritually, so that we may be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

We see that this whole idea of fasting is really an illustration of the beatitudes which says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” And
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” That is the goal of our fasting, to be right with God, to be pure in heart, and to draw close to God that we may have unobstructed fellowship with Him.

Prayer is spiritual communication with God.  Your body is engaged, your mind is engaged, but most importantly, your spirit is engaged in fellowship with God through prayer.  Prayer is spiritual communication from my spirit to the Spirit of God. Jesus said “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So I feel that before I can even talk about prayer this morning, I must address the more important matter of the necessity of being made spiritual beings.

I want to relay something this morning that I recently wrote to someone in our church last week.  It’s about the necessity of what the Bible calls the new birth, being born again, being made spiritual.  Because the Christian is not someone who is just religious, or who is moral, or even someone who prays to God.  A Christian is a new creation, a different kind of human, a person who has a new life.  And so before you can really pray, before you can exhibit the kind of life that is pleasing to God, you must be made into a new creation.  And I want to make sure that everyone here understands this before we move on this morning to talk about prayer. Because this is fundamental.  You can’t even really pray if you don’t have this new life in you, the life of the Spirit.

The Bible teaches that humans were made body, soul and spirit.  The spirit actually is the Spirit of God that was breathed into man at creation. Gen. 2:7 “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” The spirit is the essence of life that enlivens the soul and body and enables man to be like God.  But sin caused man’s spirit to die. “In the day you eat of the fruit of the tree you will die.” When Adam and Eve sinned, man’s spirit died.  We still have a soul (that is the mind, the will and emotions) and we have a body.  But there is something that’s missing, or dead,  which is the spirit.    

For most people who are not saved, there is a sense of a “hole in their heart”, something missing which they spend their life trying to fill.  Unfortunately, they usually try to fill it with material things, or carnal things, which never can fill it, because what’s missing is their spiritual essence of life. You may even try to fill that hole with religious things, because deep inside you might recognize that what is missing has to do with God, and yet you cannot by your efforts make your spirit alive again.

That’s why Jesus said to Nicodemus, “you must be born again.”  He went on to clarify that statement by saying that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.  Man without the spirit is spiritually dead.  The way to be born again spiritually is to believe in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, by whom all things were made, and that He died for us so that we might have life through Him.  By faith in Him and repentance of your sin, recognizing that you need to be made new, the Spirit of God will give you new spiritual life.  Then and only then  can you live a life which is satisfying, which is fulfilling, which has purpose and which produces joy. It’s a life that is immortal and will never die.

Life without the Lord is futile. You can reject the truth through unbelief and try to find the answers to life somewhere else, but there is nothing else that can fill that hole in your heart because we were made to be spiritual beings who can have a relationship with God. And only through regeneration can we be made alive spiritually and be able to commune with God. If that has not become a reality for you, then the rest of this sermon is not relevant to you.  The only prayer that God will consider in your case is “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.  Forgive me, and give me a new heart, a new spirit, that I might have everlasting life.”  Because until you have been born again spiritually, this teaching of Christ about how to pray as a means of communication with Him is irrelevant.

Now for those who are born again, who have spiritual life, Jesus teaches about prayer in two sections; the false way to pray and the right way to pray. Let’s look first at the false way.  The wrong way to pray is wrong in it’s approach; it’s focused on ourselves.  Jesus illustrated this in Luke 18:10 in  the parable about the Pharisee and the publican who went up to the temple to pray.  Jesus said the Pharisee prayed in the prominent place, and the publican stood afar off.

The error of the approach in this first illustration of Jesus is that the man wants to be seen, to be known as a man of prayer, as a religious man.  And so he positions himself as to be in a prominent place at the hour of prayer. How we approach God in prayer is of importance. The Pharisees were very zealous about their religion, they prayed 3 times a day, 9, 12, 3.  And in this sermon Jesus is saying  rather than going to a private place to pray, to humble themselves before God at the hour of prayer, they made a show of praying on the street, to be seen of men.

There is a danger as indicated in this teaching, that some people worry more about how their prayer sounds to others, rather than how it appears to God.  It’s possible to pray beautiful prayers for the sake of men, but which accomplish nothing with God.  Be careful you do not find yourself praying in such a way as to be heard by men.

Secondly, in regards to how not to pray, Jesus says in vs7,  “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”  There is another danger that is indicated here, and that is long prayers for the sake of being seen by men to be spiritual.  It’s sometimes the practice of preachers to reluctantly conclude their sermon, only to preach another one in their prayer.  God isn’t served by giving Him the plan of salvation.  Nor is He served by the wordiness of your prayers in which you go on and on about things that He obviously is already aware of, but for the sake of those hearing you feel obliged to sound out all the doctrine that you know.

But even more specifically, Jesus warns against vain repetition, which He relates to the practice of the Gentiles, in other words, the pagan practice of prayer.  I believe that type of praying includes things like praying the rosary. God doesn’t care if you say it 100 times or 1000 times.  It’s unbiblical through and through.  For one thing, it’s praying to Mary.  And we are expressly forbidden to pray to any one other than to God, and through no one other than Jesus Christ.  So that’s in error. And the other thing is it’s meaningless repetition.  Anything becomes meaningless repetition after you say it three times.  

And one other thing that’s indicated here is that the length of our prayers are not to be a means of appealing to God.  God isn’t concerned that you spend 3 hours in prayer simply as a method of an appeal to God.  It is a great thing to spend time with the Lord in prayer, but not just in a mechanical way, but in an intimate way.  

The bottom line is that Jesus says those that pray that way, in long, repetitious prayers, or ceremonial prayers, are done for man and not God. He said, “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” He says that they have received their reward.  They wanted to be seen of men, and they were seen of men.  And that’s their reward.  God isn’t moved.

Now let’s look at what Jesus says is the right way to pray.  Again, the whole secret is the way we approach God. That’s the essence of the Lord’s teaching.  Vs6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.” And then in vs 8 “So do not be like them (those who use meaningless repetition); for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

The principle Jesus is teaching is this; we must realize when we pray that we approach a Holy God.  That’s what is important.  And then specifically Jesus gives us some details in how we are to approach God. First, He says, go to your closet and pray in secret.  Now this is not a prohibition against public prayer.  In 1 Corinthians and other places, such as James, we are told to engage in worship with prayer and supplications. But the principle is that you eliminate the distractions of the physical, you close your eyes to everyone around you, and you focus solely on the Lord.

However, I happen to believe that there is a great value in a special place that you go to pray.  Jesus went on the mountains to pray, especially at night when everyone else was sleeping.  Daniel went three times a day to an upper room which faced towards Jerusalem.  Paul tells us to pray at all times, in all places.  I like to pray when I go for a run or when I walk early in the morning.  I believe it’s an advantage to pray aloud, or at least audibly, if not loudly. Jesus says God knows what you need before you ask him.  David said in the Psalms that before there was a word on his lips God knew what he was going to say.  So God hears the prayer of our hearts.  Speaking audibly doesn’t help God, but it does help me to pray more effectively.  And I believe it discourages the devil. Because he is certainly around when we pray.  But regardless of where you pray, pray to God alone, to God exclusively, blocking out everything and everyone else.  

Secondly, we are to pray realizing that we are entering  into the presence of God. We pray to the God of creation, the Lord of all the earth.  I’m afraid that many of us enter into the throne room of God with more casualness than we would enter into the Oval Office to speak to the President of the United States.  We must realize who God is and come to Him in reverence.

And related to that, and almost contradictorily,  we must come to God as our Father in heaven. Jesus said to “pray to your Father in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”  It’s an amazing privilege to consider the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Great Almighty, is also our Heavenly Father.  That the Lord of All is also our heavenly Father who loves us as His children.  He knows us intimately, even to the very numbers of the hairs on our head. He has said that nothing can separate us from His love.  It’s a very privileged relationship to have God as our heavenly Father.

And because He is our Father, Paul says in Ephesians 3 that “He is able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think.” So we don’t just go through the motions in prayer.  We don’t just count the beads. But we have a confidence born out of our relationship to Him, that since He hears us, since we are His children, He will answer us.

Now we come to Christ’s example of prayer. I want to point out that He doesn’t instruct the disciples to pray this prayer, but to pray in this way.  In other words, it’s an example of proper prayer, not a prayer to be used by rote.  Listen, prayer is the highest expression of the spiritual man, the greatest activity of the human soul, to be engaged in conversation with your Maker.  And so it’s not something that is to be mechanical, or just reading what others have written, or recitation of learned prayers.  But it’s to be honest, sincere, humble communication from your heart to God.  When you are alone in communication with God it should be something that speaks from your heart, unhindered by pride and how you might appear towards others.  But a genuine expression of your heart to God.  It’s a spiritual communication that has no par on earth.

I believe it’s possible to miss out on a lot of the blessings of our Christianity because we don’t know how to pray.  And so Jesus has given us some general principles in regards to prayer, and now He gives us an example of prayer, that we might know how to pray as God would have us pray.  It’ interesting that it is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer.  But the Bible never calls it that, in fact, it would be better to call it the disciple’s prayer.  Because it is meant to be an example of how the disciples are to pray.  

As in much of what Jesus has covered in the Sermon on the Mount, the principles He teaches is of more significance than the particulars.  It’s an example and by that example we learn principles regarding how to pray.  It’s not intended to be a word for word kind of thing which we have to recite again and again.

Notice that the first principle seen in this prayer is regarding the right approach. The first principle is that you come to God on the basis of a relationship; His relationship to you as your Father in heaven. I am told that this is the first recorded case in the Bible of a prayer being addressed to God as Father.  Through Jesus Christ we are able to have an intimacy in relationship that surpasses that of the patriarchs and prophets of old. But only those who have by faith appropriated the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and have been born again by the Holy Spirit are truly the sons of God.  And so that is the basis by which we can call God our Father. 

It’s important to place that phrase “our Father,” with the ensuing phrase, “which art in heaven.”  It’s important because our idea of fatherhood has been greatly debased by our understanding in the physical realm of fatherhood.  Many people today do not have a very high regard for their earthly fathers.  For some, their earthly father has forever disparaged that title.  But Jesus gives us this complete title, to remind us that our heavenly Father is holy, He is perfect, He is good, and He loves us.  We have our life from Him. And so we can trust in Him to hear us, and to help us in time of need.

The second great principle in this example prayer is that the priority of our perspective as Christians should be the glory of God and the exaltation of His kingdom and purpose.  He prays, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  The priority of God’s agenda takes precedence before my agenda. Our needs don’t come first, but His kingdom is first. Our will is not paramount, but His will be done.  Only as His will is done, can my needs be met. Because we are made for Him and by Him, and for HIs purpose.

Jesus wants us to pray with the desire that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven there is no rebellion to God’s will; on earth there is disobedience and rebellion against  His will. The citizens of Jesus’ kingdom will want to see His will done  on earth as it is in heaven because that is the way the kingdom of God will come into fruition in the world.  One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. And so we should be praying for  men and women renounce their rebellion, renounce their attempts at self rule, and bow to the authority of Jesus as King.

Fundamental to our prayers then is the desire that God’s will would be done. I would remind you that even Jesus prayed “your will be done” when He was in the Garden, being in such agony that He was sweating drops of blood, He was concerned that the will of the Father be done.  I would also remind you that often I have said there is no safe place outside of the will of God.  And that should serve to instruct our prayers for God’s will to be done.  We can ask that God do such and such, but our desire should be that God does what He thinks is best, because we cannot know the future, and we can’t always know what is the best.  But there is peace for the person that trusts in the perfect will of God, because he knows the character of God, and that God will do what is best and what is right.  Hallowed be your name reminds us that God is holy, and righteous, a pure, and all that ensues from Him is good and perfect.  And so on the basis of who He is, we can call for His kingdom to come to fruition, and His will to be done in the earth. 

So the first section of prayer has to do with adoration.  The second section has to do with petition. We need to recognize this divine order to our prayers, and model them after this example.  First God’s will, then our needs follow.

Someone has said that the petitions could be divided up into three components.  1,“Give us this day our daily bread. 2, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 3, And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”  Our whole life found in those three petitions.  In just three statements, Jesus has covered the whole life of the believer: our physical needs (the body), our mental needs (the soul), and the spiritual needs. And that addresses the whole man, body, soul and spirit.

The tragedy of the world we live in today, informed by evolution and science that there is no God, there is no spirit, leaves mankind without hope.  I would suggest this is the root of our social troubles in this world, it’s the root of depression, of drug use, of alcoholism, so many of our world’s ills are due to the fact that they refuse to recognize that man was designed to be spiritual as well as a body and soul.  But Jesus includes them all as needs that God alone can fulfill.

It’s interesting that Jesus starts with the body.  But when you think about it, you realize that without food, without water, the body would soon perish. And so there is a rightness in that petition for God to supply us with the food we need to survive. And then He goes on to deal with the cleanings from defilement sin and the guilt of sin, and then the need to be kept from the power of sin.  

So bread means real provisions for our physical body. We can pray for God to supply our physical needs and believe that He is concerned about that.  And then our debts are our sins, which we receive forgiveness for through faith in Jesus Christ. It’s important that we understand that prayer is an opportunity for confession and repentance.  David said, “if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  So the power of our prayers is in some measure due to our recognition and confession of where we have sinned and asking for forgiveness. That’s a vital part of our prayer.

James as well says, “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.” Many a prayer I believe falls flat because we have unconfessed sin in our life.  God sees all that we do, no matter how well we might have hidden it from others.  And if we hold onto that sin, then we lose that fellowship with God through which we can be certain that He helps us in our petitions.  

So confession is important and so also is our forgiveness of others. If we fail to forgive others as God has told us to do, and as God has shown Himself to do, then is that not sin?  Is it not regarding sin in your life if you fail to forgive your brother? This is such an important principle that Jesus repeats this teaching in vs 14  saying, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  So forgiveness is not just a quid pro quo, but it is a matter of unconfessed sin in your life that needs to be confessed and repented of. Our willingness to forgive others is proof of the fact that we have been forgiven, that we have a new spirit,  and that we have the nature and character of Christ.

 And temptations refers to that which is a test, and in that testing that we would have power over sin. Listen, Christ died on the cross not just to give us forgiveness of sins, but to give us power over sin.  Jesus said on another occasion to the disciples, “watch and pray, that you be not led into temptation.” There are situations which are dangerous for you as a Christian to be found in.  Watch and pray, be anticipatory, be on your guard, stay in a sense of prayer as you go through life, in reliance upon the power of God. 

Coupled with that is the phrase, “deliver us from evil.”  The power of the devil is deceit and the snare of deception.  He is a liar and the father of lies.  And so we pray for God to deliver us from evil.  Deliver us from the lie of Satan.  I pray all the time that God would deliver my kids from evil. Because the lie is flattering, the lie is deceitful, the lie of the devil sounds plausible, it looks good, it tastes good, and if God doesn’t keep them from falling for it then they will certainly fall into temptation, and then a snare, and then into captivity.  

That’s the way the devil has strategized to cause us to lose fellowship with God.  And if we are not in fellowship with God then we are ripe for destruction.  We are blind, we are helpless, we are wandering around in the darkness without constant communion with God.  But as we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with the Lord. 1John 1:6-7 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and [yet] walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Walking in fellowship with Christ gives us  power over sin, and that’s victory for the Christian.

Finally, there is the postscript, of the conclusion of the prayer.  Some translations leave this part out in favor of other translations which they say are older.  I believe it should stay in.  I think it’s a fitting doxology. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”  That recaps succinctly I believe the primary points of the prayer, the sovereignty of God’s kingdom, the resources we have through His power, and the future glory that we shall share with Him for ever as sons and daughters of our Father in heaven.  

I hope that God is your Father in heaven. What a wonderful treasure it is to know God, and know that He has called us His children, and given us of His life, that we might be with Him forever.  If you have not been born again by the Spirit of God, then on the basis of His gospel, I extend to you today the offer of salvation which has been paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.  Believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of His Holy Spirit, that you might have eternal life in His name.  

As we have been studying the Sermon on the Mount, or what I prefer to call the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus has been giving the characteristics of those who are citizens of the kingdom.  And in that context, Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees then you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Now we all know that is a high standard, because the scribes and Pharisees were known for their fastidiousness in regards to the law.

Jesus then addresses the whole issue of the law and the difference between the teaching of the Pharisees in regards to certain laws, and God’s perspective of the law.  And He expounds on six laws as illustrations of the kind of righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.  And it is clear that Jesus correlates righteousness with obedience to the law.  Now the emphasis is not on keeping the law as a means of salvation, because He has made it clear that the natural man cannot be righteous enough to earn favor with God.  But rather Jesus is teaching that once you are born again, made into a new spiritual man by the righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to your account, then according to your new nature you will live righteously.  Righteousness is emblematic of your new nature.  So the result is that Jesus said in vs 48 of the last chapter, “you shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” If you’ve become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, you’re going to show the same kind of character as God according to the level of your spiritual maturity.  And God’s character is righteousness.

Now in this next section, Jesus talks about the motivation for our works of righteousness. As He indicated in the Beatitudes, God is concerned about our heart, which is where our motivation for good works comes from.  If we love God, if we have a new heart, new desires, then our love for God and to see Him glorified will be the motivation for serving Him. Our righteousness must be a righteousness that brings glory to God.  Not a righteousness that draws attention to ourselves, in which we get the glory.  That was what the Pharisees were guilty of.  They practiced their righteousness to be seen of men.  It isn’t that we are not supposed to practice righteousness.  We are.  But we don’t do it to draw attention to ourselves, to show how righteous we are before others so that they will notice us.  But we practice righteousness because our Father is righteous, and we want to be like Him, and be noticed by Him and to cause men to notice Him.  He is our Father, and so we act like our Father and work to bring glory to Him.

So in that regard Jesus says in vs1, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” This is the general principle in regards to works of righteousness and  Jesus will go on to illustrate it in three ways in vs 2 through vs 18.  He gives three illustrations of practicing righteousness; almsgiving, praying and fasting.  Three expressions of righteousness.  Not that these three are the only ways in which we practice  righteousness, but they serve as examples of righteousness, that we might learn the spiritual principles applicable to all aspects of life.

You may remember that Jesus has said previously in this message that we are to “let your light so shine before men that they might see your good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven.” These two  statements are not contradictory, however, but complimentary.  The point is not to hide your good works, but to manifest good works in such a way as to bring glory to God and not for selfish purposes.  We don’t practice righteousness to be seen of men.  But rather our works should point people to God.  We live by the power of God in us and that results in people glorifying God for what we do.  This is a general principle that controls our motivation for righteousness.  And our motives are what Jesus is referring to here.

Whether or not our works are righteous or not comes down to the motivation of our heart.  Is the motivation for what we do to please God or to please men? If it is to please men, then perhaps the real motivation is to bring attention to yourself.  When we strive to please men we are really looking for their recognition, so that they may applaud our efforts.  It’s quite possible that what we try to make appear as selfless works of charity or benevolence, is actually quite selfish, if we were to honestly appraise our motives.  Our works of righteousness are done either to please God or to please ourselves.  And if our righteousness is going to be of any effect, then we need to analyze our motives to be sure that we are doing them to please God.

The Westminister Shorter Catechism states as it’s first question, “What is the chief end of man?”  And the answer is,  “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”  That statement speaks to our motivation, our primary purpose in life as the children of God.  Only as  our primary purpose in life is to glorify God can we have the joy and fulfillment that God promises us in this life. Unfortunately, many Christian’s perspective on this is skewed.  For many the purpose of the  Christian life is all about embellishing my life, making me happy, fulfilling my desires, and glorifying my life.  And so the purpose of my salvation is to glorify me. To make me happy. But true joy and fulfillment comes not in self realization but in living for God and to bring Him glory.

 Jesus should be our example for how we are to live. He lived His life for the glory of God.  He said that the words He spoke were of God and the works that He did were of God.  He lived His life entirely for the glory of God.  And as Peter said, we are to follow in HIs footsteps.  Only as we live for God can we find satisfaction in this life.  When we live for ourselves, we will only find frustration and futility. 

There is another principle that is inherent in this teaching.  And that is that we are always in the presence of God. We are always being seen by God.  Nothing we do escapes His notice.  He sees our every action, He hears our every word, and He even knows our every thought.   Jesus said, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.” Why should we beware of that?  Because  “otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

In other words, God sees all that you do.  He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart.  He knows your motivation. You might be able to deceive men, but you cannot deceive God.  I think it speaks of the callousness of our heart that we make such a display out of our works in order to prompt the adulation of man, and yet ignore the truth that God sees our hearts.  Jesus said in Luke 16:15 “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.”   We need to remind ourselves constantly that God sees us at all times and that He knows our hearts and the motivation behind our actions.

I think one of the best scriptures that speak to this that we can meditate on is Psalm 139. The psalmist says, “You have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.  You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. … Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”  It’s a wonderful thing to recognize the presence of God with us, but it is also a humbling thing which we should remind ourselves of on a daily basis.  

The psalmist considers  that God sees him at all times, and he cries out to Him in a prayer that should be a model for us as well; “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;  And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” 

Jesus mentions another principle here in this passage which is that of rewards. Some people don’t like the idea of varying rewards in heaven. They like to think that when we get to heaven we’re just going to exist in some kind of mindless, remorseless bliss.  But Jesus indicates here that there are rewards which come from God for things that are pleasing to Him.  

Even Jesus Himself lived His life looking forward to reward in heaven.  Hebrews 12:2 says, “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  And in Hebrews 11, we are told of the saints of old that “they were seeking a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God,” and in particular Moses, who “considered the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.”

So as Christians it is legitimate to look for a reward.  It is the outcome of our faith. Heb. 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

Also Paul speaks of our reward for our works in 1Cor. 3:11-15 “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,  each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is [to be] revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.  If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.  If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

But what Jesus teaches us here is that there will be no reward if in fact we did our works to be seen of men. “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” If you have your reward from men, then you will have no reward from God. That is a sobering thought.  When I think of my preaching, for instance.  If I am concerned about how men will react to me, and whether or not they will like me, and I construct my preaching to be liked by men, then I will receive no other reward from God.  What a tragedy that would be.   And I would urge all of you to examine your spiritual life and consider whatever work you have done in light of this principle.  Is it to receive accolades or acknowledgment from men or from God?

Now then, we have examined thoroughly the principle, let us look then at the first illustration that Jesus uses; that of the giving of alms.  The giving of alms refers to giving to charity, donations, gifts and so forth which were given to the temple for the relief of the poor and the service of the temple.  Today it might be correlated to the giving of offerings to the church, or giving for charitable purposes.  

First of all, I would point out the obvious.  Jesus considers the giving of alms to be a work of righteousness of a citizen of heaven.  In the Old Testament they were required to tithe up to 27 percent of their yearly income.  In the New Testament, the requirement of the law is done away with because the temple service has been done away with.  But the principle of giving is still in effect in the church. 

Paul states the principle in regards to giving, comparing it to sowing seeds in a field which will bring forth fruit.  He says in 2Cor. 9:6-8 “Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each one [must do] just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.” 

Now I am not going to belabor this point because that is not the intent of this message.  But I will say that if you are being disobedient against the command of God to give, you are going to miss the reward of God.  However,  here Jesus is assuming that Christians are going to give, but the motivation for their giving is what is under consideration.

First of all, He says the wrong way to give is to announce it. Vs.2, “Therefore, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”

Now in the temple there were these trumpet like receptacles which were mounted on the walls.  And people would line up to drop in their offerings.  And so rich people, or people desiring to be noticed, would make sure that they had an offering of very many coins that would make a loud clatter as it dropped down the trumpet. Of course, that was designed to draw attention to themselves. Jesus could have been referring to that practice.  Or it is possible that some people would actually have a trumpeter to go before them to draw attention to their giving.  But I think that regardless of what means they used to to draw attention to themselves, the point that Jesus is making is that you do not use giving alms as a means to be noticed by men.   In fact, if you do, Jesus says you will not receive a reward from God. Your reward is the reward of the accolades or applause you received from men.

We see that type of activity all the time in the secular world, don’t we?  Some ultra rich billionaire holds a press conference, or has his publicist send out press releases to the media to let everyone know that he is giving a couple of million dollars or so to such and such a charity. And everyone fawns over him for their magnanimity. Well, Jesus says that they have already received their reward.  They got their name on a building, or on a placard somewhere but in a hundred years from now no-one will even know who they were anymore. 

Later on in this sermon, speaking directly to this principle, Jesus says in vs 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”  When we give for the glory of God, to be used by God, then our giving is in reality laying up treasure in heaven.  And in heaven we will be rewarded for our faithfulness in that regard. 

But again, Jesus is not dealing at this point with the worthiness of giving, that should be something that all Christians are in agreement about.  But rather the motivation and how we can give without negating our reward.  And so Jesus says how we are to give. He says in vs.3 “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.”

In other words, don’t announce the fact that you are giving.  But Jesus takes it even further than that.  He also is saying, do not even announce it to yourself.  Your left hand must not know what your right hand is doing. Now what does that mean?  I believe it means that you are not to keep track of your giving in such a way as to take credit for your giving.  I also think that it means not doing the math, so to speak.  Not being calculating in your giving.  

The Pharisees were known for giving of their tithe, even to the mint, even down to the mint and dill and cumin in their herb gardens.  They trimmed their herbs and brought in these little pieces of mint and dill as evidence of how scrupulous they were.  And yet their motivation was to be seen of men. Jesus uses a word there in vs 2, which is hypocrites.  He may have been obliquely referring to the Pharisees in using that word.  In another place He outright calls them  hypocrites to their face.  So it’s likely He was referring to the Pharisees because they did their works to be seen of men.

Hypocrite in the Greek is “hypokritēs”.  It means an actor on a stage.  It means doing something for the applause of men.  And unfortunately, I think it characterizes much of what is done in the church in the form of not just giving financially, but also in our time and talents.  I think much is done not for the glory of God, but for the appreciation of men. Much of what is done is calculated to be noticed and appreciated by men.

Furthermore,  I think that as Christians we can be calculating in our giving by either being very frugal or very scrupulous.  But God loves generosity.  He loves us generously.  He lavishes His love upon us.  He is not stingy in His grace.  And neither should we be.  

Remember what Paul said in 2Cor. 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.”  An abundance for every good deed; that’s giving according to the grace that God has given to you.

I have my own theory about this phrase, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.  I’ve never heard any other preacher say this, or theologian or commentator for that matter. So I’m on my own here.  But I hope I have been given some discernment.  In the Middle East, they had ancient calculators called an abacus. They were used by the Greeks and the Romans and the Egyptians before them.  They were capable of doing very sophisticated mathematical formulas on the abacus which were made like tables which had  rows of beads.  And in one archeological excavation many years ago they found a vase from this time period covered with drawings, and some of the drawings showed a man who is presumed to be a treasurer, moving beads on the counter with one hand while holding a writing tablet with the other.  So my opinion is that Jesus could have been referring to an ancient abacus, which was used to solve math problems. Therefore, according to my theory, He is referring to using this calculator with one hand and writing down the numbers with the other.

Whether I am right or not is not really the point, however.  The point that Jesus is making is that you are not to even let yourself know the amount or the total of your giving, as if to validate to yourself your degree of righteousness, but to let God do the accounting.  Let God keep track and you just be faithful to give as He has given to you.  And then God will reward you in kind.

And this principle is not just applicable in giving.  That is just one illustration of keeping accounts.  It’s possible to do good deeds and keep accounts.  It’s possible to build up resentment because for years you did this and that, and you feel you suffered so much, and you were not appreciated for it as you thought you should be.  And one day you find that resentment has turned to bitterness.  Perhaps you were looking for the wrong kind of reward.  You were looking for man’s appreciation.  And as such you lose your reward from God. That’s why the gospel tells us that we are to do all things, such as love, or serve, or work as unto the Lord, not because we hope to get reciprocation from man.

Listen, whatever work of righteousness which we do, if we do it for the Lord, then we will receive a reward. If we keep accounts, and we are stingy, or self serving, then God will not reward us.  The good news is that He rewards even the smallest of good deeds.  Paul said that God judges us according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.  So God isn’t concerned with the size of your gift, but the heart of the giver.  

Jesus said in Mark 9:41 “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”   God rewards us not on the same basis as men, who only appreciate the rich or the wealthy.  But God rewards us according to what we have, and how we used what we have for His glory.  Remember the widow’s mite; she gave more than everyone else, because she gave out of her poverty. And she gave in such a way as only the Lord knew what she had given and what resources she had to give.  

So let us remember that God’s presence is always with us.  His eyes are constantly upon us.  Therefore let us live in all respects for Him, to please Him, and to bring glory to Him. And let us draw comfort from the fact that God sees all, He knows our hearts, He sees every act, and He will give us HIs reward, which is far beyond any reward that we can get here on earth. He will give us a reward that will not fade away.  Let us lay up treasures for ourselves in heaven and do the works of God here on earth, in order that we may bring glory to God and enjoy Him forever.

I want to focus our attention today on the last paragraph of chapter 5.  As most of you are aware, we are studying the Sermon on the Mount, or what I prefer to call, the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  This is the first recorded sermon of Jesus Christ.  And in it He has elucidated the characteristics of the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.  

One of the most striking statements that Jesus makes concerning the kingdom of heaven is He says that no one will enter unless their righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.  The scribes and Pharisees were known for their righteousness.  They were known for keeping the law to the smallest degree.  And Jesus confirmed  that even the smallest point of the law was important, and would not be done away with until all was fulfilled. And yet, even so, He said that the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees still came up short of what was required to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

So then Jesus uses six illustrations of the law in order to show the kind of righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.  In each case Jesus first says, this is what the scribes and Pharisees teach concerning the law, but this is what I say regarding it.  And then in expounding the law He goes on to show the full extent of the spirit of the law, and thus He illustrates the degree of righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, the kind of righteousness needed to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And let me make sure that you understand what is meant by the kingdom of heaven.  He is not speaking of going to heaven when you die, but of becoming a citizen of God’s kingdom now.  It is a spiritual kingdom in which those who are a part of it are first of all made spiritual beings, who live under the reign and rule of Christ their King, who live their life for their King and by the power of His Spirit, and who are given everlasting life. The kingdom of heaven is not a place, but a state of being which exists now and forever.  We need to stop thinking of heaven as a destination we will attain someday and all that’s required is that we do certain things in order make sure that we go there when we die sometime in the future.  But we need to realize that we need to enter the kingdom of heaven now and live in the Spirit and by the Spirit now as citizens and ministers of God’s kingdom and then our eternal destiny will be secured.

That’s what Paul was speaking of in Eph.1:3 which says, “Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”  He’s not talking about heaven to come, but the heavenly, or spiritual realm we enter into now.  He speaks of it again in chapter 2 vs 4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus,  so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  Again, spiritually we are raised with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly realm.  That is a present reality, and then in the ages to come, in eternity future, He will show us the surpassing riches of His grace.  It’s entering a spiritual state now, being born again into a life that will never end, going from glory to glory. 

Now we came last week to the last illustration which Jesus gives of the law, the law of love. Paul said in Romans 13:10 that love is the fulfillment of the law. Or you could say love is the culmination of the law.  And so Jesus is speaking of that law of love  in vs 43.  He said,  “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Now that is where we stopped last time, and I don’t have time to review all that we had to say about that passage.  But the verses we are going to look at today build on that statement, and are connected to that statement, so I want to include it for the sake of context.  However,  I do want to pick up on that last phrase and expand on it for a moment.  Notice the phrase, “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”  This statement is of vital importance in coming to the correct interpretation of this passage.  And It’s not the first time that Jesus has referenced this principle.  He states in vs 9, as one of the beatitudes, that the peacemakers shall be called sons of God.  He states again in vs 16, that our light should shine before men in such a way that it glorifies our Father who is in heaven.  

The point that Jesus is making is that those who are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven are also the sons of God.  God is their Father.  And so it is reasonable to assume that the children are going to look like their parents.  They will  have a similar nature and character as their parents. It’s quite reasonable to expect when you see parents and kids together that you see a  family resemblance.  And in like manner, if we are the children of our Father in heaven,  we will  share in His nature.  We will be like Him.

Now this is only possible as the man or woman is born again.  We are all born naturally through our parents.  The Bible teaches that by the lineage of our parents we are born in sin.  We are born with a sin nature, and as a result we all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.  So to become a child of God means that we have to be born again.  Jesus said to Nicodemus, who incidentally was a Pharisee, a teacher of the law, Jesus said in John 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus was confused about that, as perhaps some of you are.  He said, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  So to become a child of God you must be twice born, once in the flesh, and then born again in the Spirit.

So to be born again is to be born again spiritually.  He is born of the Holy Spirit and his spirit becomes alive in Christ.  No longer is he just a natural man, like everyone else, but he is a spiritual man, a Spirit filled man, who now lives in the power of the Spirit and according to the leading of the Spirit. Only in this way can it be said that you are now sons of God.

Now if this is true of you, that you have been born of God, then you are meant to be like God, you are meant to manifest Jesus Christ to the world and to imitate His example. You are meant to be like Christ, to be conformed to His image; that means you look like Christ, you act like Christ, you speak like Christ. 

A Christian is not just someone who is morally upright, a do-gooder, a person who goes to church on Sunday.  There are other religions in the world that are moral, that honor justice and do good works and so forth, and yet they are not Christians.  They may even believe in God, or at least their version of God. But they deny Christ is God and so therefore they are not Christians.  But they may still be moral people.

However, a Christian,  who has become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, is one who is born again spiritually by God, and now has the indwelling of the Spirit of God in Him, and who is being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and therefore he manifests the life of Christ and the nature and character of Christ through HIs life.

Now only in that way can you be the type of person that Jesus describes in this chapter.  Only in that way can your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Because only through salvation, by being born again spiritually, is the righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to your account, and your sinfulness is applied to Jesus Christ.  Only in that way is your nature changed, your heart changed, your desires changed. Only by being born again are the old things passed away and all things become new and you become a new creation. 2Co 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” And only as that has happened are you able to be the type of person manifesting the kind of righteousness that Jesus describes in this passage.

So Jesus speaks to this necessity by comparing the works of the natural man with the works of the spiritual man. He is speaking in the context of the law of love, which was the last  illustration of the law, but it’s application is far broader than that.  In vs 46 Jesus says, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”

Here is the practical application of righteousness exceeding the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.  They were undoubtedly moral people.  They even worshipped the true God of Israel. But they were still natural men.  They had not been born again because they had not believed on Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. They did not recognize Him as God’s Son.  And so though moral men, they were unsaved.

But here in this statement, Jesus equates the righteousness of the Pharisees, who only loved other Israelites and hated everyone else, He equates that with the love of the tax collectors. Tax collectors were the most hated Jews in all of society.  They were considered traitors who worked for the Roman government to extract taxes from the Jews and at the same time charge exorbitant rates. And so they were considered the lowest of the low in Jewish society. 

And again Jesus compares the righteousness of the Pharisees, with their love for their own, as nothing better than that of the Gentiles.  As we have pointed out last week, the Gentiles were hated by the Jews, and were considered no better than a stray, flea infested dog.  So for Jesus to compare their love for their own with the love of the tax collectors and Gentiles was not very flattering for them to hear.

The point that Jesus is making though, is that even the most base of natural man loves his own children, loves his own family.  That’s not the kind of love that God requires of us.  That’s natural love.  But God requires a supernatural love from His children, a love that goes beyond a love toward those that are likeable, those that are like us, to those who are unlikeable and are different from us, even to the point of loving those who hate us.  The citizen of heaven loves more than the natural love of man, to the kind of love that God has towards the world.  The Christian is to love even as far as the kind of love that Christ had, offering Himself as a substitute to die in the place of those who were enemies of God.  

As Jesus said earlier, the Christian is the type of person that goes the extra mile. If you ask him for his coat, he will give you the shirt off his back as well.  He does more than is required. He does more than the natural man.  But not only that, the Christian does that which the natural man cannot do.  The Pharisees could claim that they kept the letter of the law, but only the Christian has the capacity to go beyond that to exceed their righteousness.  He goes beyond the norm by not only loving his neighbor, but also loving his enemies, and then even doing good to them that hate him, and even to the point of praying for them who persecute him.

And as I indicated earlier, this is only possible because there has been a transformation in him, from the natural man to the spiritual. He has been born again, so that He is made in the image of Christ.  He is meant to be like Christ that he might be the child of his Father which is in heaven.  So that Jesus says in vs. 48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”   He is not like the natural man because he has been made a new man, a new creation, a child of God His Father.

That aspect of God as our Father is one that needs to be explained.  The natural man thinks of God as someone to be obeyed, someone in authority. But the Christian knows God as His Father.  He still is to be obeyed, He still is the authority, but He is also our Father and we have a relationship with Him as His children that He loves.  So that as a result of our relationship as sons we are able to love our Father with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  We are able to love Him that way because He first loved us, and because He has given us spiritual life.

Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher of the 19th century once said, “It is a high crime and misdemeanor for a man to assume the name of a son of God, when he is utterly devoid of the divine nature, and lives in unholiness.”  If we are truly sons of our Father, then we will manifest a dimension of His character and holiness.  If God is in you, then you will exhibit His character.  And His character is characterized as holiness.  

So then Jesus says to His children in vs 48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  It is going to be a natural progression.  As you are born of God, you become made in His image, conformed to His character, and as a result you will manifest His character.

The word translated there as perfect is a word that is used in many other places in the New Testament. It is the word “teleious” in the Greek.  And it has the idea in it of completeness.  The definition is brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness, perfect.  So the principle that Jesus is teaching is not that we must somehow obtain utter perfection, but rather be made complete, mature, finished, nothing lacking.  The principle I think is that we can often fall short of God’s standard by not going far enough.  We are complete when we love as He loved.  We are incomplete when we love as a natural man loves. 

So the thing we are to be striving for is maturity in our sanctification.  It’s coming to a place where we have died to the selfish nature and we walk in the Spirit.  It’s coming to a place where we know Christ and His attributes and we have imitated Christ and followed in His footsteps and our nature becomes aligned with His nature.  Where we sin less because we love Him more.  Where we are interested in the things that He is interested in. Our perspective on life is like His perspective.  We love what He loves.  We do what He does.  We act like He acts. That is spiritual maturity, completeness, or what is called here being perfect.

When Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, be perfect, I’m sure there were many that wanted to say in response, “But I can’t be perfect.” And that’s when He says, “You’re right. And because you fall short of perfection, which is the standard of God, then you need a Savior.” None of us can reach perfection in our own efforts in the natural man.  All of us fall short.  But  that’s where the new life in Christ comes in, and gives to you what Peter calls the divine nature. He gives you HIs Spirit to dwell in you.  Therefore God, in a miracle of salvation, does for you what you could never do for yourself – to be like God.  When you came to Jesus Christ, positionally, you were made a son of God, to be like God.  You were given His spiritual life, His righteousness,  and His nature.   And in maturity, in completeness, your  behavior comes into harmony with your who you are spiritually.

Oswald Sanders said, “The Master expects from His disciples such conduct as can be explained only in terms of the supernatural.”  And if your conduct can only be explained in terms of the supernatural, then you will give testimony to the world of the power of Christ,  and they’re going to take note.  But if you say you’re a Christian but live like everybody else, what is the difference?  What do you have that they don’t have?  If we’re to speak to this age, and bring this world to Jesus Christ, and let them know that there’s real life in Christ, it’ll be when our lives are unique, and there is no other explanation than that God is in us.

I would conclude then by asking this question. It is the most important question that a person can ask in this life. Is there evidence of spiritual life in you?  Is there evidence of God’s divine nature in you?  I’m not asking if you go to church, or if you have taken communion, or if you do some charity work.  I am not asking for that kind of thing. There are people who do that who are not Christians. If that is all you do, what do you do more than others?  Is there something of your heavenly Father about you? In the earthly realm you expect to see some traits, some characteristics of the fathers in the children.  Is there any less to be seen of our Heavenly Father in us? 

If God is your Father, somewhere or another, in some form, the family likeness will inevitably appear. May God help you to examine yourself in light of His word, that you might see yourself in light of God’s likeness, that you might recognize if you are truly His child.  The tremendous thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ is, that if you fail the test, and you recognize that you are still in your sins, and without God, then there is an invitation to become a child of God that is still open and waiting for you to respond.  Jesus has given HIs life in exchange for yours, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.  Call upon the Lord today that you may become a true child of God and enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

There is a trend to use verses of scripture such as the one we are looking at today, by taking them out of their context of all that is taught in the Sermon on the Mount, as a pretext for the social gospel. And unfortunately, in a lot of mainstream churches today, the social gospel is the only gospel that is being preached. The social gospel is applying the teachings of Christ not towards personal conversion but primarily towards social reform, especially as it relates to matters of social justice, environmental issues, race and gender relations, and even economic disparities among the population.

And at first glance, if these statements by Christ are removed from the greater message of His sermon, they would seem to support many of the social gospel’s goals. The social gospel message is that love is the only important thing. And so they take the doctrine of Christian love out of context, and magnify it to the point that it eclipses or nullifies any other doctrine that does not support that in the way that they think it should.

And let me be clear; the social gospel is a false gospel. It’s not something that can coexist in the church without damning results. Because the doctrine of the Bible teaches that man is condemned to die because of God’s judgment against sin, and after physical death is the judgment of God in which He will separate the righteous from the sinner, and will give each it’s reward, either heaven or hell. Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” So any gospel that does not warn people of the coming judgment, and offer them a way to escape, is not only not the gospel, but it directly contributes to men and women ending up at the judgment with the only outcome that of being sentenced to hell. So we cannot just tolerate a certain measure of the social gospel because it is appealing to social activists, or it is appealing to people who want to do something good in hopes of earning their way into heaven. It’s something that needs to be dismissed as a false gospel.

So in looking at these verses, you must consider all that Jesus teaches and give equal weight to all His teaching. You can’t just isolate a few verses out of this sermon and ignore the rest. For instance, Jesus has already had much to say about the judgment and about hell. In vs 21 He speaks of those who murder being held accountable at judgment. And in vs 22 He speaks about being guilty enough to be cast into hell. In vs29 and 30 Jesus speaks of the unrighteous being thrown into hell. In chapter 6 He talks repeatedly about our eternal reward. In chapter 7 He talks about judgment, and then in vs 13 He speaks of the gate and the way to destruction being wide and many people entering it. In vs 21 He speaks of those who will come to His judgment and be told “depart from me I never knew you,” and He says not everyone who says to Me “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. So then it becomes clear as we look at the sermon in it’s entirety, that the true message cannot be separated from the doctrine of the coming judgment against sin, and salvation from that judgment, without which one is doomed to spend eternity in hell. So the need for salvation of your soul is the paramount doctrine of Jesus’s message. And only within that context and as it is subservient to it, can we properly understand the passage before us.

That being said then, it is imperative that we have the right perspective on these verses today. This sermon is the Lord’s Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven. He has laid out the characteristics of it’s citizens. He has told us that such citizens will be hated by the world and persecuted for their faith. He has told us that the laws by which this kingdom operates are not done away with, nor different than the laws which God gave to Moses. And He has given us six illustrations of these laws which contain principles for how we are to live and operate as citizens of His kingdom.

But just as the social gospel today perverts or twists the doctrines of Christ to use them for their own purpose, so also the Pharisees of Jesus’s day twisted the law of Moses for their own advantage. And so as Jesus gives these 6 illustrations, He contrasts what the Pharisees were teaching in regards to the law with His interpretation of the full extent of the law, even to the point of the spirit of the law.

Now the law we are looking at today is found in vs 43, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on [the] evil and [the] good, and sends rain on [the] righteous and [the] unrighteous.”

Now let’s first examine what the Pharisees were teaching. They said, “you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” The first question we should ask is where did they find that in the law, or even the entire Old Testament for that matter? Well the first part is found in Lev. 19:18 which says, ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”

The Pharisees interpreted this to mean that your neighbor was only a fellow Israelite. Everyone else was considered the enemy. You were either a Jew or a Gentile, and all Gentiles were considered worse than dogs. Gentiles were routinely called dogs by the Jews.

But let’s try to understand why they considered everyone other than an Israelite to be an enemy and therefore it was ok to hate them. In fact, they went so far as to say that it was their duty to hate Gentiles. How did they come to that point? Well, it probably had something to do with way back when they first entered into the Promised Land, they were told to wipe out the Canaanites completely, leaving none of them alive. They didn’t do it completely, but it was a direct command from the Lord to wipe out the Canaanites. And so that may have fostered this idea of hating their enemies.

But it’s important to understand that when God told the Israelites to enter the land of Canaan, and completely destroy the people there, it was a judicial decree of God that was to be carried out by the Israelites. It wasn’t just because they were foreigners, or even just because they were pagans. But because the Canaanites had rejected God and the law of God, and their depravity had progressed to the point that God decided that their time was up, and He was going to act in judgment upon them and wipe them out.

Now for justification for God’s decision, let me tell you a little about the Canaanites. They worshipped Baal, the male god, and Ashteroth the female goddess. The temple of Baal hosted male prostitutes, and the temple of Ashteroth hosted female prostitutes. Worship consisted of orgies of the worst sort imaginable. Furthermore, the excavations of an archeological organization called the Palestine Exploration Fund, back at the turn of the century, found in the Canaanite excavations under the temple a great number of jars containing the remains of children which were sacrificed to Baal. Another thing that they did was when they built a house, they would sacrifice the first born child and bury it’s body into the wall, to bring good luck to the family. The Canaanites were worse than Sodom and Gomorrah and as a result, God brought His judgment upon them and used Israel to wipe them out. That is the prerogative of God. He made the world, and He has the right to destroy it whenever He choses. And He chose to do so not only as judgment, but as protection for the Israelites so that they did not become corrupted by the practices of the pagans.

God is holy and just. Holiness and justice are essential to His nature. And a just God must act justly. At some point He must avenge wrongs against the innocent. I would add here that it’s a dangerous thing in the life of a nation to turn it’s back upon God and do things like kill the unborn. America sanctions the killing of millions of babies a year. God is going to execute justice on a nation that kills the innocent. And it’s important that we understand that such things are the judicial prerogative of God, and not comprehensive of His dealings with the individual. Jesus speaks of loving our neighbor on the one hand, and then talks about the judgment against sinners resulting in hell in another section of the same sermon. Now how do we reconcile this apparent discrepancy? We look at it this way, we love our enemies because that what God does. “So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Now the social gospel interprets that to mean that all that matters is the love of God, and that it doesn’t matter whether a man sins or not; everyone is going to heaven regardless. God is love, and so therefore love wins; God can never punish sin. But that is to deny all that the Bible teaches. You have to deny the flood, deny the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah. You have to deny the exile of the Israelites. And finally, you have to call Jesus a liar, for He said that the unrighteous are to be cast into the lake of fire, where the worm doesn’t die and the fire is not quenched.

To have the correct perspective then we must understand that it is the right of a just God to enact judgment. He does so at various times in history to preserve His creation. The dispensation of God does have a judicial element. It is the prerogative of a Holy and righteous God to be judicial. And furthermore, those of you that are parents should understand this, it is possible to love someone and yet also discipline them. But that is the prerogative of God to determine. However, the Pharisees took this judicial principle and applied it to ordinary affairs in their own lives. They regarded it as justification for hating anyone they disliked.

So how did Jesus respond to the Pharisee’s teaching of the law? What contrast did He give in the way it should be applied? Jesus said in vs44, “But I say to you, love your enemies.” Now I need to point out something here in regards to the translation of this text. The KJV includes some phases in the remainder of the verse which most of the newer Bible versions do not include. And I readily confess that I am not a Greek scholar, but in this case I would rather include the text from the KJV rather than leaving it out as the newer translations do. The problem is that the KJV uses one ancient text for it’s translation and the newer versions use another text, or a compilation of other texts, some of which they say are older than the text of the KJV. In my opinion I believe the fact that God allowed the KJV to stand virtually alone for almost 600 years as the authorized text in the English language should be reason enough to give credence to their translation in regards to disputed texts such as this. But let me hasten to say the teaching found in the KJV is also found in other places in the scriptures, and so I think that bolsters my belief that this should be included.

So the NKJV reads as follows, and that’s what I would like to use today; “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,” Now what I find interesting in this translation is the emphasis is on the response to persecution. It’s not just the blanket statement to “love your enemies.” But it’s more specific than that in this translation. The emphasis is on loving enemies who curse you, who hate you, who spitefully use you and who persecute you. So you see that the emphasis is on retaliation against persecution, something that Jesus has already spoken about. He said do not take the approach of an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth back in vs 38 and 39. He was talking about personal retaliation, especially in the realm of persecution. And all of that ties back to the Beatitude in vs 10 and 11 regarding being blessed if you suffer persecution.

That provokes the question, what are we to suffer persecution for? Is it because we defrauded someone and that made them our enemy? Or because we took advantage of someone and that turned them into our enemy? No, of course not. The proper perspective is that we endure persecution because of our relation to Christ. Vs. 11, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” Because of Christ, you will suffer persecution. That is, if you are indeed acting like a representative of Christ.

So how is this principle supposed to be lived out? First of all, our response should not be governed by how they treat us, but how we were treated by God when we were enemies of Him. We must understand their condition, that they are blind, they are dead in their sins, and they are lost, and if we don’t help them to come to Christ for salvation, they are destined to eternal death.

God doesn’t deal with sinners according to how they deal with Him. Rather Jesus says He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. It’s what is called in theological terms “common grace.” Every good gift comes from above. And to a farmer, rain is a good thing. But not just the righteous farmer receives rain, but so does the unrighteous farmer. God has given to mankind good gifts such as a husband or wife, He gives children, He gives sunshine, He gives rain. He gives common grace to all, the good and the evil.

God is governed by justice, but He is also governed by love. And in order to manifest His love for the world, He had to first satisfy His justice. So God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son to be our substitute and our sacrifice for sin, so that those who believe on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Love comes only by accomplishing His justice.

So how do we reflect this attitude of God towards sinners who hate us, who slander us, curse us, and even persecute us? Well, we have a perspective that is not attached to the things of this world. We are citizens of another kingdom, and we no longer live for ourselves, but for the kingdom of God. And if we have that kind of attitude, then we will not defend ourselves when these attacks come from our enemies against the kingdom of heaven, but we will try to win them over with love. The same kind of sacrificial love that Christ showed for us, we should show to others. Not concerned with our rights as individuals, but concerned with winning their souls for the kingdom of heaven.

How tragic is the Christian who still lives in this world as if this is what is important. Who thinks it’s important to stand up for my rights, to not let this person get away with treating me this way. Who like Peter when confronted with armed soldiers who came to arrest Christ, pulls out a sword and cuts someone’s ear off. It’s tragic because when we do that, it reveals that we are still living according to the flesh, we are still carnal, natural. We are not living in the Spirit. And the blessing comes when we live in the Spirit. “Blessed are you when men persecute you.” You’re not blessed when you respond to their attack and hit them as hard as they hit you. But you are blessed when you turn their attack into an opportunity to give them the testimony of Christ.

When you have that attitude, then you show compassion to them, knowing that they are being controlled and held captive by Satan. And so we do everything we can to expose that to them and to lead them to salvation. That’s what God did. He looked at the world which was at enmity with Him, who had denied everything that He said was right and instead did what they thought was right in their own eyes, and He sent His only begotten Son into this corrupt world to die in their place because He knew that was the only way to save the world. And we must have in our hearts this same compassion for the lost that we might win some for the kingdom of God.

Now why should we do this? Why should we love our enemies? Some people say it is to turn them into our friends. I think there is a great effort on the part of the modern church today to try to turn the enemies of the cross into the friends of the church. And so we do all kinds of things hoping to get our enemies to think that we are cool, we are hip, we’re not as weird as they think we are. We think maybe if they like us, then they will want to become like us, and join the church or something. The problem with that is that liking us is not the issue; it’s liking Christ and His gospel. The gospel of Christ calls people to recognize that they are enemies of God, that they are sinners, that they are hopeless, and that they must die to themselves and live for God. It’s not about whether or not they feel like they fit in with the church. The fact is, they cannot fit in until they are born again.

Another misconception in regards to why we are to love our enemies is they say, “God sees them not as they are, but as they have the potential for becoming.” That’s the psychological approach. That’s the modern parenting approach. Such parents don’t ever punish or discipline the child, but they try to treat them as an adult, regardless of how infantile they are acting. The idea is that there is a spark of divinity in man, and if you just nurture it, and fan it into a flame, then you will see that man is basically good. Of course, that idea goes against the Biblical view that man is hopelessly a sinner, hopelessly corrupted by sin and he needs a complete transformation.

How then are we to manifest this love of God in our dealings with our enemies? Jesus said, “Bless those who curse you.” Our language should be the language of blessing and not cursing. How we speak to others is important. Simply put, reply to unkind words with kind words.

Secondly, Jesus said we manifest love by, “Do good to them that hate you.” That means that we overcome evil with good. Paul said in Romans 12:21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” More specifically, Paul said, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Lastly, Jesus said, “Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.” When persecution comes from our enemies, then we are to pray for them. I believe this is one of the hardest things for me to do. What are we praying for? Their salvation. That they would be given eyes to see and a heart of repentance. But also to do as Jesus did when He was persecuted. When the nails were being driven into His hands by the scoffing, cruel soldiers, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.” We are to treat others even as He did.

There is another aspect of loving our enemies, if we are going to deal with this honestly. And that is we need to recognize the difference between loving and liking someone. We are not called to like everybody. But we are commanded to love. Our natural flesh gets in the way of us truly liking everyone. To like someone requires that I be like them in certain ways or admire them. That is the natural inclination, and that is not what Jesus is commanding here. But He says we are to pray for the one who we don’t like. We may not like them, but we can still love them. Because love is a decision. Like is a matter of affinity or admiration. Love is a decision.

Love is treating someone you don’t like as if you do like him. Love is much more than a feeling of affinity or sentimentality. Love is practical. 1John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” Love is active. Love isn’t passive. If we don’t like someone, that is not a problem, we just treat them like we like them. It’s how you act, not how you feel that matters.

You all are familiar I’m sure with the parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10. The Jews considered the Samaritans as so despised that they would go out of their way to avoid even walking through Samaria. They hated them, and perhaps the Samaritans hated them in return. But when the Jew was attacked by thieves and robbers on the road and left on the side of the road wounded, several other Jews passed by and did not help him. But the Samaritan, the enemy of the Jews, got off his horse and cared for him, even to the point of supplying his own provisions and money for his well being. That is an example of not only loving your neighbor, but loving your enemy. Love your neighbor, even if that means loving your enemy.

Listen, the natural man cannot love like that. The natural man likes people who are like himself. And he hates those who are unlike him. If someone offends him, insults him, he’s going to naturally respond in kind. But the Christian is different because his makeup is different. He is a new creature, with a new nature, and the Spirit of Christ is in him. And so if he is truly living by the Spirit, then he can be like Christ and love his enemies. The Spirit of God gives him the power to live the life of Christ.

Gal. 5:22 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love… We must first have been given the Spirit of God to live in us by being born again, and then we must live by the Spirit that we will obey the commands of Christ and manifest His nature and His gospel to the world. Only in this way can we be like our Father who is in heaven. If we would begin to really love like He loves, by the power of Christ in us, then the whole world might come to know the saving power of the gospel.

If you are here today, and you do not have the Spirit of Christ living in you, then I invite you to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Repent of your sins, and believe in Him for forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The penalty for your sin was paid for by Jesus, all that remains is that you believe in Him as your Savior and follow Him as your Lord.

As we continue in our ongoing study of the Sermon on the Mount, we are now in the middle of an exposition which Jesus is giving concerning the law.  Jesus has said that rather than diminishing the law, or abolishing the law, He has actually come to accomplish it and fulfill it.  And in regards to our responsibility to the law, He has said that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees then we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

So to that point, in regards to how we must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, He gives six illustrations of the law, in which He contrasts the teaching of the Pharisees with His own teaching, which of course is the intent of the law from God’s perspective. 

Last week, we looked at the second law which Jesus interpreted, which is the law concerning adultery. And  closely related to adultery is the next law which Jesus expounds upon, which is the law concerning divorce.  And we will also look at the one which follows divorce, which is the law concerning  vows, which, of course, is closely related to divorce. 

I want to say by way of introduction, that this teaching concerning divorce is not one that many preachers want to deal with in today’s culture.  If the statistics concerning divorce are correct, then even within the church the divorce rate is about 50%.  So at the very outset, I risk offending half of the people here today.  

But the fact that we preach through the Bible verse by verse, expositionally, means that sooner or later we will get to all the doctrines in the Bible, whether they are popular topics or not.  If I were interested in being popular, I would probably find a way to avoid having to speak on this topic.  But if we are to be true to the teaching of Christ, then we must deal with this subject.  I will say this in my defense however, the teaching that you hear today is the teaching of Jesus Christ.  It is not my teaching. My job is not to correct Jesus or reinterpret what He said.  I am going to tell you to the best of my ability exactly what Jesus taught.  So if you have an issue with the subject matter today, then I urge you to take it up with Him, not me.  I’m just the messenger.

Now as I have said previously, Jesus is not disputing the law of Moses, but rather the interpretation of the Pharisees in regards to these laws.  Let’s read again what Jesus is saying. Vs. 31 “It was said, ‘WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE’;  but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for [the] reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”  So first Jesus says what the Pharisees were teaching concerning divorce, and then He contrasts it with His interpretation. 

Now we know that Jesus was accusing the Pharisees of misinterpreting the law, but perhaps it would be helpful for us to review the law of divorce as Moses gave it.  In Deut.  24:1-4 Moses said, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts [it] in her hand and sends her out from his house,  and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s [wife,]  and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts [it] in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife,  [then] her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.”

The purpose then of this injunction was to regulate divorce.  The situation in Israel had become one in which men were divorcing for all kinds of reasons, even because the wife may have  burned their breakfast.  They could get a divorce because the wife burned their toast. And in that society, women didn’t have a lot of rights, nor did they have a lot of options.  And so the injunction of Moses was so that there would be some order restored to the sanctity of marriage, and also to provide some protection for the women who were being treated unfairly.

So the law limited divorce to only those cases in which there was some sort of unfaithfulness. He spoke of something he calls uncleanness or indecency.  It means  a moral defect.  It also required that she be given a certificate of divorce, upon the testimony of two witnesses.  So the law made divorce a legal matter, and a very serious one.  It was given to reduce the trivial reasons for divorce which had become the norm in society. 

Another thing that is indicated in the law was that a man who had given a writ of divorce is not allowed to marry her again, if she had been remarried and divorced since their original marriage.  Again, the purpose of the law was to limit the type of divorce that was so commonplace in that society, and to make them realize that it wasn’t something to just wander in and out of, but it’s a permanent thing. So that’s the law of Moses.

Now consider what the Pharisees said.  They taught that Moses commanded a man to divorce his wife under certain conditions. But that was not what Moses had said.  Moses had put certain restrictions and limitations on divorce, but he had never commanded it.  Furthermore, they took the word “uncleanness” and applied it to all kinds of things that were never intended in the original law. The main thing the Pharisees were concerned about was giving the writ of divorce.  They were only interested in the fact that if you wanted a divorce, you had to give the wife a certificate of divorce.  They weren’t interested in the reasons for it, just accommodating it.

So what does Jesus say in regards to divorce?  Jesus says, “but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”  He gives them God’s intention concerning divorce.  Jesus says that there is only one legitimate reason for divorce and that is sexual immorality.  All the other hosts of reasons that were popular were against the law of God, and furthermore to divorce on other grounds did not annul the marriage at all in the eyes of God.  In God’s eyes, they were still married, regardless of what the writ of divorce might say.  So then Jesus says an illegitimate divorce gives place to adultery because God doesn’t recognize the divorce.  It is possible for a person to have a divorce that is recognized by the state, but not by God. If that person goes on to marry someone else, God considers that relationship adultery because He sees them as still married.

Listen, what that teaches us is that marriage is a sacred contract between the two people and God. Whether or not the state recognizes it, or even defines it is irrelevant in the eyes of God. Marriage is determined by God and authored by God and is entered into as a vow unto God, which is binding as long as they shall live.  The only exception is that of immorality, and even that is not commanded by God.  God permits it, but does not command it.

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 19 and let’s look at another time when Jesus answered this question concerning divorce and I think you will see there the heart of God concerning this matter.  Matt. 19:3-9 “Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful [for a man] to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”  And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created [them] from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,  and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND [her] AWAY?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

First of all, notice that Jesus clearly defines marriage as the union of a man and his wife, male and female.  That’s God’s definition of marriage.  Secondly, Jesus said, What God has joined together, let no man separate. So marriage is a sacred union and a covenant between God and man.  And if you break that covenant between male and female, you still have the covenant with God to deal with.

Listen, why does the Lord care so much about marriage?  Why does God hold us to such a high standard in regards to marriage? It’s because marriage is a symbol of God’s relationship to us.  Paul said in 2 Cor. 11:2 that he betrothed us to one husband, who is Jesus Christ. The church, that is the people that are born again, that have entered into the kingdom of heaven, are described in scripture as the bride of Christ. Our reunion with the Lord at His coming is described as the bridgroom coming for His bride.  The consummation of the kingdom at His second coming is called the marriage supper of the Lamb.  So in our salvation  we have become one flesh with the Lord.  He has entered into us. We have committed our life to Him, and He has committed His life to us.  And God will never divorce us.  

In Malachi 2:16 God says, “For I hate divorce.”  The Lord said numerous times in scripture, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  He will never forget His covenant with us.  2Timothy 2:13 says, even “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” 

Now this standard of God in regards to marriage is applied to us, that we might be like God. That is the purpose of our sanctification, to become remade in the image of Christ, to mirror the nature and character of God.  And that is the intent of the law, that we might know the nature of God so that we might be like Him.

The purpose of the law is that we might be holy, even as He is holy. It is to raise our level of love to the standard which God has for us; a sacrificial, unwavering love, a love rooted in forgiveness and long-suffering.  A love that never fails. And so rather than diminish that law as the Pharisees had done, Jesus raises the standard of marriage to the standard of God.

Then building upon that law regarding divorce, which is really a law pertaining to marriage, Jesus then restates God’s law concerning oaths. I think that it especially applies to the vows of marriage, but it also has a much broader application as we will see.  Let’s consider again what Jesus says in vs 33, “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.’  “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,  or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING.  “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ [or] ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”

Now if we use the same formula as in the preceding exposition of the law, then we would first ask, what did the law of Moses say?  Well, the 10 commandments does not state this explicitly.  What it does say is that “you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”  That certainly applies to the taking of an oath, if you are using God’s name as a guarantee of your word. There is another reference however, which is found in Leviticus 19:12, which says, “You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.  So out of these two commands the Pharisees had extracted their teaching which was “YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.”

So what had evolved out of this teaching of the Pharisees was that they supposed that as long as they did not swear by the Lord, they could still swear, but swear by things of less importance. They had reduced the law of God to just the matter of perjury.  As long as you didn’t perjure yourself, then you were fine.  They could swear by heaven, or by the temple, or anything that they thought gave their word weightiness.  But the other aspect of this practice, was that they attributed more weight to one oath above another.  If they swore by the temple, then that was not really binding.  If you swore by the altar in the temple  it was not binding, but if you swore by the sacrifice on the altar then you were absolutely bound.  And so out of this interpretation of the law they had come up with a sliding scale in regards to truthfulness and making oaths.

Now how did the Lord contrast the correct teaching of the law?  Notice He says, “but I say to you.”  He is the authority, He is the law giver. And He says, “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,  or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING.  “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ [or] ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”

Some people have taken this injunction of the Lord quite legalistically to the point that they do not feel that they can take an oath at all.  For instance, in a court of law they cannot make an oath.  But if we examine the Bible, we find many examples in which oaths were taken and there was no rebuke from the Lord.  For instance, Abraham extracted an oath from his servant when he went to find Isaac a wife. Jacob extracted an oath from Joseph, and Joseph from his brothers. Jonathan asked an oath from David.

One of the best examples is one which we looked at last Wednesday in our Bible study.  The Gibeonites came to the nation of Israel under false pretenses, having disguised themselves as coming from a far country because they knew that God had prohibited the Jews from making alliances with the Canaanites.  So they came under disguise and after hearing them out, the Israelites decided to make an alliance with them. Joshua 9:15 says, “Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.”

When after three days they found out that they had been deceived, the Israelites still kept their oath.  In fact, later when the Gibeonites were being attacked by the Canaanites, they sent word to Israel and asked for help.  And Joshua and the leaders of Israel came to their defense because of not only their oath to them, but the spirit of the oath. And God blessed their commitment to that oath.  They could have let them be attacked and perhaps gotten the burden of them off their backs and been free from the oath.  But because they understood the principle behind the oath, they went to their defense.

There are New Testament examples of oaths as well.  It might be argued that Jesus responded to an oath by answering the high priest at His trial. He responded when He was adjured by God to answer whether or not He was the Christ.  He did not rebuke the high priest, but He answered him in the affirmative.  And Paul on a couple of occasions gave an oath, in Romans 9:1 he says, “I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not.” And again in 2 Cor. 1:23, “ I call God to witness for my soul…”  

Another example is given in Hebrews 6:16, this time speaking of God HImself taking an oath. “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.”

The conclusion that we can draw from this is that oath taking should be restricted, realizing that all oaths are binding, all promises are binding, and that while the need for oaths should be rare, there are times when a solemn oath is not only legitimate, but lends an authority which nothing else can give.  And Jesus clearly teaches that oaths that are given in such a way that  they are not intended to be binding, are really a form of lying.  He teaches that speaking the truth is always a solemn matter and a necessity before men and God.

One of the greatest tragedies in modern society is the breaking of oaths in regards to marriage.  As I said at the beginning of the message, the law of divorce is closely related to the law of oaths, and I believe the Lord deliberately placed them next to one another in His message.  Marriage is a sacred covenant between God and a man and woman.  And the fact that people today so casually break these oaths is a matter of grave concern to God, and it has grave repercussions to His people.  I gave the Gibeonites as an example while ago of a people who came under false pretenses and made a covenant with Israel.  Israel could have tried to use the excuse that they had made a mistake in making a covenant with them.  They could have used the excuse that it was made under false pretenses.  But two wrongs do not make a right.  Even thought that was true, they still considered their oath as binding, even to the point of going to war to keep not just the letter of the oath, but the spirit of the oath.  

And God gave the Israelites a great victory because they kept their word.  God puts a high value on keeping oaths, and He will hold us accountable when we break them.  Many years after this event, King Saul acted unfaithfully towards the Gibeonites.  He had put some of them to death in his zeal for Israel.  Though his zeal for Israel was a good thing, yet God punished Israel for Saul breaking their oath to them to protect them.  It happened many years later after Saul’s death, during the reign of King David. God sent a famine in the land, and it lasted for three years.  David finally came to God and asked why He was sending a famine upon them.  And God answered in 2Samuel 21:1″It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”  

The point I want to make is this.  The fact that you may have broken your vows, whatever they may be, might have resulted in you having a famine in your life.  David had to go to the Gibeonites and make things right with them.  It wasn’t an easy thing to do.  It required a great sacrifice to set things right.  And that might be what God requires of you concerning your vows.  Some things you cannot undo.  But you can still repent and try to make things right.  

Listen, if you are a Christian today then you are the children of God, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.  If we have been born again then we have become partakers of His divine nature.  We are to conduct ourselves with fear on the earth, lest we sully the name of Christ. Peter said in 1Peter 1:17-19 “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay [on earth;]  knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,  but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, [the blood] of Christ.”

God sees our hearts, He hears every word we speak, every promise we make. He witnesses every action that we do. Let us be obedient even as Christ was obedient, let us love even as God loves, and let our conversation be true even as God is true.  Praise God that He keeps His promises.  Thank God that He will never divorce us.  Thank God that we can trust in His word and His enduring love for us.  

Listen, the law was given to be a tutor to show us our sinfulness and our need of a Savior.  I urge you today, if you have not been born again, to confess your sin to the Lord, and repent, and believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, that you might become one with Christ and receive His Spirit within you.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.  The Lord has paid the price for your sin, and He extends His invitation to enter into His kingdom.  I pray that you will accept Him and trust Him as your Savior today.

As most of you are aware, we have been studying the Sermon on the Mount for a few months now.  And we have come to this particular passage today by the providence of God.  However, we must be careful to remember the context of the message, and not take this passage in isolation.  

The context of the Lord’s sermon is that He is presenting the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus Christ is the Sovereign Lord of the Kingdom of God, in which He reigns on earth in the hearts and minds of His people.  And so far in His message Jesus has described the character and nature of His citizens, the effect of His kingdom upon the world, and the righteousness of His kingdom as defined by the law of God.

In particular, Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees then you could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  That is a very significant statement, because the scribes and the Pharisees were considered the most righteous people in Judaism. They prided themselves on strict adherence to the law and being very religious.  And so not only was Jesus saying that they were not righteous enough to enter into His kingdom, but He says in effect that it is virtually impossible for anyone to enter it, if their zealousness was not enough.

So in His sermon, Jesus defines the standard of righteousness that is required, and in so doing  He gives several illustrations in regards to the law to show that the standard of the scribes and Pharisees, and thus the common man as well, is too low.  And He contrasts their interpretation of the law with His own.  We looked last time at the first illustration Jesus gave; the law concerning murder.  In essence Jesus said that simply to avoid the act of murder is not enough, but even if you harbor hatred in your heart then you are guilty enough of the sin of murder  to be thrown into hell.

Today, we have read the next illustration Jesus gives, and that is the sin of adultery. Jesus said in vs 27,”You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’;  but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” 

If we were to make a simple outline of this passage we’re looking at today, we might do so in two points.  The first is the prognosis of sin. And the second point is the prescription for sin.  If you go to the doctor to complain of a pain in your body, something that causes you concern, the doctor will probably run some tests on you and then give you a prognosis.  A prognosis is simply the doctors’s diagnosis of what is ailing you.  And then, if they are a good doctor, hopefully they will give you a prescription that will cure your illness.  Jesus is saying something similar here, as our Great Physician, He has diagnosed our condition, He makes His prognosis, and then He offers a prescription that we might be healed. 

Let’s look then at His prognosis of sin.  Jesus says that the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees concerning the law of adultery was limited to the physical act itself.  They said that if you did not actually physically do the sin then you were not guilty of breaking the law, and therefore you were righteous. But Jesus’s interpretation of the law considers the spirit of the law, not just the letter, and as such He emphasizes the sinfulness of the heart. He says if you look upon a woman and lust after her then you are guilty of adultery in your heart.

They supposed that the purpose of the law was to merely avoid the act.  But as the  apostle Paul explained in Romans 7:13,  the purpose of the law is to show us the utter sinfulness of sin.  So the Pharisees had diminished the scope of the law to just the  physicality.  But Jesus expands the law, showing the full scope of sin in human nature.  

There was a lady once who came to our church for a time.  And one day she very pointedly told me that she had stopped going to her old church because the pastor preached too much about sin.  I understood what she was getting at.  She was hinting that if I kept preaching about sin then she would leave here also.  Well, I haven’t seen her around for about 5 years or so now.  The doctrine of sin is not a popular message in modern churches today.  It’s decidedly not politically correct to talk about sin anymore. 

But without a correct doctrine of sin, then the gospel as it’s presented in the scriptures makes no sense.  You cannot understand the cross without a correct doctrine of sin.  There is no way to understand God sending Jesus to be tortured and crucified, to suffer and die and even to go into Hades.  The cross doesn’t make sense if you don’t have the correct doctrine of sin.  We have to understand that sin is an affront to a holy and righteous God, and He cannot abide with sin and that He will judge sin. 

The only way to understand salvation is from a right understanding of the problem of sin.  The whole idea of being born again, becoming a new creation, is meaningless unless you understand the doctrine of sin.  Then and only then, do you understand that unless you are forgiven, unless the penalty for sin is paid, unless you are given a new nature and a new heart, you cannot possibly be accepted by God.  So if you dislike hearing about the doctrine of sin, then it’s a good chance that you are not a Christian at all. You cannot be saved until you first realize that you are lost.  

And that is the point that Jesus is making, He is showing the exceeding sinfulness of sin.  Not just how bad are those people who commit adultery.  But how corrupted is our sinful human nature.  Your sinfulness is not occasional, it is not just a temporary mistake, but it is inherent to your nature and character.  Proverbs 23:7 says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The gospel teaches us that we are totally, irreparably corrupted and there is no solution but to die and be born again as a different type of person.

The problem with modern religion is,  you invent the kind of god you want, with the kind of standard you can keep, and then you justify yourself.  But that’s not the truth of the gospel. The standard of God is too high.  You fall short. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  And that is exactly what Jesus is saying here.

The evangelism that says, “Come as you are, God loves you just the way you are,” and does not preach the convicting doctrine of sin that is abhorrent to God and worthy of the judgment of God, is not the gospel.  The person who says, “this is the way I was born” and thus thinks that God is responsible for their condition and therefore they are not guilty of sin, is a person who is outside of the kingdom of God because they have rejected the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed as  payment for their sin.  Listen, we are all born sinners.  We are all natural born sinners. Sin may be natural for us, but that’s our problem, not our excuse. And Christ came to earth and died to deal with our problem.

The Lord makes several points then in HIs message in regards to His prognosis concerning sin.  The first thing He emphasizes is the intrinsic nature of sin.  He says, it’s not just the act of adultery, but the lusting in your heart that is sinful.  Christ’s prognosis is that adultery is the symptom of the disease of the heart which is called sin.  He says it’s not just the symptom that’s the problem, but it’s the disease that kills.

Jesus said in Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” So the intrinsic nature of sin is that it has corrupted the heart which is the source of all our actions. 

In that regard, it’s important to recognize the deceitfulness of sin.  Sin is something that starts in the mind.  It starts in the imagination. You give yourself a pass because you say you would never actually do that sort of thing, of course.  But you think about it. And out of the heart arises lust, and Jesus says the lust of the heart is the equivalent in God’s eyes of acting upon it.

God sees the sins of the heart as damning, because He understands the corrupting nature of sin.  Paul used the illustration of yeast or leaven in dough as a metaphor for the corrupting nature of sin. He said a little leaven soon corrupts the entire loaf. A tiny piece of yeast in a loaf of bread dough soon corrupts the entire loaf. Therefore, Jesus says in this passage, if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off. If there is one part of you that is inclined to sin, then it’s necessary to cut it off to keep it from infecting the rest of your body. Sin causes that which God has given me for good, such as a hand, to be my enemy.  Paul said in Romans 7, that sin has even caused the law of God, which is good, to become something that causes me to sin. The fact that the law tells me not to do it, causes me to want to do it.  It’s not that the law is bad, but the corrupting nature of sin.

The final principle Jesus gives us in HIs prognosis is that sin is destructive and will lead to death.  He says, “if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you, for it is better that one of the parts of your body perish than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”  Sin destroys man. It destroys the soul, and it destroys the body.  It leads to death.  Romans 6:23 says, “for the wages of sin is death.”  Sin leads to the judgment of God, and the penalty for sin is hell.  Sin is incompatible with God, and in eternity, the soul of the sinner will be cast away from God’s presence forever, consigned to hell, which is the eternal abode of the sinner.

Then Christ’s prognosis leads Him to offer a prescription.  Thank God He does not leave us in the condition of sin, consigned to eternal separation from God.  But next Jesus told us how we are to deal with it.

First of all, it’s important to have the right interpretation of Jesus prescription.  Does He mean we should literally tear out our eye, or cut off our hand in order to keep from sin? If that was the right interpretation, then what about the left hand or the other eye?  We still have the same means of sinning.  And according to Jesus’s own interpretation, sin is a matter of the heart.  So how does cutting off the hand or plucking out one’s eyes stop the heart from sinning?

The right interpretation then must be that Jesus is speaking metaphorically in order to make a point. What He is saying in effect is, even if something is the most precious thing you have, even if it is something that it is essential, yet if it causes you to sin, get rid of it.   He is emphasizing the importance of pursuing righteousness at all costs and the terrible danger that comes as a result of sin.

In the Lord’s prescription then He is teaching us how to deal with this problem of sin. The prescription is that we are to die to sin in all areas of our life.  Paul said we do not walk in the flesh, but in the spirit.  We mortify the flesh on a daily, even hourly basis that we may not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.  We cut it off in the sense that we do not feed the lusts of the flesh, we do not nourish them. As Rom. 13:14 says,  “make no provision for the flesh in regard to [its] lusts.”

 We do not make room for the lusts of the flesh.  And what is not being feed and nourished will soon be dead. 

Now we do that by first realizing the nature of sin, and it’s consequences.  We have already talked about that inherent nature of sin, and the consequence which is destruction and death.  We must understand that even if we do not physically do something wrong, our nature is sinful. It is something which comes out of our hearts.

And we must understand the consequences of our sin. Sin caused Jesus to sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane.  Sin caused Jesus to be whipped until His back was shredded, to be nailed to a cross, and finally to die upon that cross as the consequence for my sin.  As the song we sing says, “it was my sin which held Him there.”  It was my sin which caused Him to be beaten with a whip until He could hardly stand up. It was my sin which caused His death.

Another thing about sin which we must understand is that it affects the eternal destiny of our soul.  The soul will live forever.   At creation, God breathed into man, Genesis 2:7  says, and he became a living soul.  That eternal aspect of the soul is what Jesus was referring to when He said, “it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”  The soul is going to live in eternity, and Jesus says it’s better to lose a part here than to suffer eternally there.

There are many things in life which are good in and of themselves.  I think that is illustrated by Jesus referring to the hand or the eye.  They are good physical things that we can use and enjoy the benefits of.  But Jesus is saying that compared to the value of the soul, they are better to be lost here, than to cause you to lose your soul.  

Jesus said in Matt. 16:26  “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  Will you give up whatever it may be, no matter how valuable it may seem, if it means that you gain eternal life with God for your soul?

There is a principle that helps us to understand the relationship of our body and soul and spirit.  Man was made in the image of God, and God made him in three parts; spirit, soul and body.  And in that order.  The spirit was to rule over the soul, and the soul was to rule over the body.  But when man sinned, the spirit died and the order of man was inverted.  The soul, which is the mind and heart and emotions and will of a man, became subservient to the body.  And then the lusts of the body rule the nature of the fallen man or woman. 

But when we are regenerated by the power of God through salvation, the spirit of man is reborn.  We are born again spiritually.  And now the divine order is reestablished.  Our body of flesh, or the lusts of the flesh are considered as dead, subservient to the mind or soul, and our spirit which is indwelled by the Holy Spirit, is to rule over the mind and heart.  That is the order of salvation which is the way we were intended to operate in the kingdom of God.  So this cutting off of the body that Jesus is referring to is a way of speaking of the  death to the flesh that must occur in salvation.  As Paul said in Col. 3:5 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”

There is another principle which I believe Jesus is prescribing.  And that is the most important thing in life is to prepare for eternity.  I hardly ever hear anyone talking about preparing for heaven.  Most people think of their Christianity in terms of the benefits in  the immediate world we live in.  We are only interested in being blessed physically, materially, and financially because we are Christians. But in reality, Jesus is saying that it’s far better to do without even what’s considered the essentials here, in order to have the blessing of eternal life with God.

Think about it for a moment.  We dress ourselves in fine clothes, with outfits for every possible change in weather or occasion.  We put on gold jewelry, spend tons of money on our hair, or on skin products, or health clubs.  No expense or sacrifice is spared for our physical bodies and yet I cannot help but wonder if spiritually our souls look like they are dressed in rags.  Jesus said later on in this sermon, in chapter 6 vs 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;  for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  As Christians who are becoming remade in the likeness of Christ, we should be dressed in righteousness.

Another principle in Jesus’s prescription is that we must hate sin and destroy it within ourselves. It is what the Puritans called the mortification of sin.  Jesus said, “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you.”  Now as I said earlier, mortification of sin doesn’t mean that we cut off our limbs or mutilate ourselves.  But it’s talking about dying to the flesh, considering your body as dead to sin. 

Romans 8:13 says “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  Paul breaks that down further in 1 Corinthians 9:27 saying, “I buffet or discipline my body and make it my slave.” He’s talking about beating down the lusts of the flesh.  And in one more example, Paul said in Romans 13:14 which we mentioned earlier; “make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.”  

What that means is that we don’t feed the lusts of the flesh.  We recognize that there is a fire within us; the fire of sin in our nature.  And so knowing that, we stay away from things that will encourage or feed that fire. We need to be careful what we look at. We need  to be careful what we touch.  That’s what cutting of the hand or plucking out the eye refers to.  We may need to avoid certain movies, avoid certain television shows.  Don’t listen to certain radio stations. Don’t go to certain places where we might feed the lusts of the flesh.

 I was doing some driving the other day, and I couldn’t get my regular talk radio shows where I was at.  So I turned to some rock station.  And I couldn’t believe my ears.  They were having a poll of peoples sexual eccentricities. People were calling in and saying all kinds of perverse things,  things that  would have shut down the radio station years ago.  Now I guess it’s considered funny or something.  Folks, for the sake of our souls, we may need cut ourselves off from the sin that is so rampant in our culture.  Cut it off and throw it away.

I must close our message for today, but I would hope that the prescription offered here by the Lord would make you realize that you need the supernatural regeneration of the Holy Spirit, if we are going to have the righteousness that God requires.  We must have received a new nature, a pure heart, as the gift of God though Jesus Christ.  We must be born again and have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit if we are going to have power over sin.  And that is why the Holy Spirit was given to us who by repentance of our sins and faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross have been born again.  Through this salvation we are given the Spirit of Christ that He might be our Helper, our strength, our power to live the life which He gives us.  

As Paul said in Phil. 2:12-13 “work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for [His] good pleasure.” Both sides are absolutely essential; not just in our own strength to mortify the flesh, but in the strength which God supplies, who is at work in us according to the grace of God. Only in HIs power can we walk in the Spirit and put to death the sins of the flesh.  As Paul said in Gal. 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

That new life in Christ is given to all who will call upon Him as their Savior and follow Him as their Lord.  The invitation to the Kingdom is given to all who will by faith surrender their life to Him.  You have have eternal life for your soul, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ by trusting in Him.  Call upon the Lord today and be saved.