Good morning everyone. You know, as I was thinking
about the last time I prepared a sermon and preached, I have
always found it very difficult that when I go up to preach,
even no matter how much time I spend in prayer and think I'm
ready to to present the message, those steps are very hard to
climb. And that is no different this
morning. So my my prayer has been for the
message this week. My prayer has also been that
that that God will use me to speak to you in a very powerful
way. And as we near this is now the
last sermon of, of the sermon of the Mount, which this is one of
the most difficult passages that that I've preached.
I've preached on this passage before and I have found it very
difficult to, to, to, to be encouraged by this at sometimes
because I always feel like I, I'm, I'm, it's never enough like
that. I fail.
I always fail even with my best intentions.
So my prayer this morning and as we dive into this, we want to go
through the Sermon of the Mount and we are now in the last, this
is the last message for the Sermon of the Mount.
And so we're going to dive right in.
And I so appreciate the way Jesus started this sermon in
chapter 5 and I want to start it the same way.
Chapter 5 verses 3 through 12. And it says this.
And this is the way he starts it off.
He says blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted in. Blessed are the meek, for they
will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy, and
blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of
God, and blessed are those who are persecuted because of
righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and
falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me, but
rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven
for the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before
you. Now that is the way Jesus
introduced the Sermon of the Mount.
I want to just quickly recap a few of the chapters as we lead
up to the last sermon today, just to kind of bring us all up
to speed as to where we're at. So in chapter 5, verse 16, just
I'm just summarizing this just to kind of give you an idea.
Jesus tells us to let our light shine.
And in five Matthew 5, chapter 73 through 20, Jesus is telling
us that we are to keep his commandments.
And in 521 through 26 to deal with anger and resolve conflict.
And in 527 through 32 to to maintain proper marital
relationships. And in five verses 34 through
37, to speak honestly and let your yes be yes and your no be
no. And in five chapter 30, chapter
5, verses 38 through 48, to act in generous and loving ways,
even towards our enemies. And in chapter 6, verses one
through 6, to help the needy and pray in secret.
In chapter 6, verses 14 through 15, we are to forgive the people
that have harmed us or to hurt us.
And in chapter 6, verses 24 through 34, to seek first the
Kingdom of heaven. And in Chapter 7, verses one
through 5, we are to refrain from judgement.
And as I was preparing for this message, I came across a
commentator and he referenced CS Lewis.
And this is a quote by CS Lewis. And when I read this, it just
hit me between the eyes. And I, I trust it will.
It will you as well. CS Lewis was asked about the
Sermon of the Mount. And this is what CS Lewis said,
he says. And this is what the commentator
writes. CS Lewis was once criticized for
not caring for the Sermon on the Mount.
He replied as to caring for the Sermon of the Mount, If caring
here means liking or enjoying I, I suppose no one cares for it
who can like being knocked flat on his face by a sledgehammer.
I can hardly imagine a more deadly spiritual condition
spiritual condition than that of a man who can read these
passages with tranquil pleasure meaning where it does not even
affect them. Lewis was right.
Studying the Sermon of the Mount can be, can be a devastating
experience. It exposes the depth of our sin
and the shallowness of our commitment.
But the pain in it, the pain that it inflicts, is meant to
heal, not to destroy. In fact, the Sermon on the Mount
could be called a Christian's job description.
It is the most complete summary we have of Jesus's ethical
expectations for his followers. That to me was heavy.
Oswald Chambers also writes this about the Sermon of the Mount.
The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations.
It is a picture of life that we live when the Holy Spirit is
having his unhindered way with us.
What can we be that moldable that the Holy Spirit will have
his way in US? And with that, I want to turn to
today's text. And if you have your Bibles with
you, turn with me to Matthew Chapter 7.
And we're going to be reading the last verses of this chapter,
verses 21 through 29. And it says this.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter into the
Kingdom of heaven, heaven, but only the one who does the will
of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day,
Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name?
And did we not drive, O demons in your name and perform many
miracles? Then I will say, I will tell
them plainly, I never knew you away from me, you evil doers.
Therefore everyone who has, everyone who hears these words
of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who
built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams
rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house.
Yet it did not fall because it had built.
It had been built on a foundation of rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put
them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house
on the sand. The rain came down, the streams
rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and a
fell with a great crash. When Jesus had finished saying
these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching because
He had taught as one with authority and not of the
teachers of the law. Let's pray before we begin.
Father in Heaven, we come before you again this morning.
And Lord, thank you for the songs that have already been
sung. And my prayer this morning is
that our hearts may be open to receive your word.
And Lord, we invite you here this morning.
I pray, Lord God, that you will fill every corner, every room,
and our thoughts with your spirit.
Lord, I pray that what the people here today will not be
for me, but will be only from you.
And Lord, I pray that as I preach this message, if there
are, if there is something else that you would want me to say or
to lead me into, I pray, Lord God, that you will just take
over and speak. Lord, Lord, may our hearts be
here. May our hearts and ears be
attentive to you this morning. Be with us all in Jesus name I
pray, Amen. I'm, I've broken this path, this
message up in three different parts.
The first part here is in verses 21 through 23.
And I want to read them again because I find these very heavy.
After all that Jesus has said up until this point.
This is how he concludes the Sermon of the Mount 21 through
23 says again, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will
enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who
does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy
in your name, in your name, Dr. O demons, and in your name
perform many miracles that I will tell them plainly, I never
knew you away from me, you evil doers.
One thing that really that stands out as you read these
verses here is that the people here as they respond to Jesus's
words, not everyone who calls me Lord Lord will enter into the
Kingdom of heaven. These people who hear these
words are shocked and they say, did we not do all these things
in your name? Have we not been busy for the
Kingdom? Have we not done all these
things in honor of you if that's what what they're saying here.
But we, we quickly find out that Jesus points them, points that
he points us out to them that this is not done with the right
heart, not with the right attitude.
If you were to look at anyone in this church, no matter who it is
and you see them somewhere out in the street and they're
casting out demons or they are, you know, healing the sick.
They, you see somebody who is a paralegic and you see somebody
make this person walk these miracles.
These are the kind of miracles that these people are talking
about that they were doing in Jesus name.
Would you not think and and say those people are of God, those
people are serving Christ and what does Jesus say about all of
that? Here A depart from me.
I never knew you away from me, you evil doers is what he is
saying. Think about what that would feel
like. The question that comes to mind
is what is the condition of our heart?
In Matthew 7 just before we read or the the scripture verse for
today it says this. Just as you can Ida tree by its
fruit, you can ID the fruit of our actions.
You see they did not do these things with the right motive and
with the right heart. We have seen, we people have
done this in the past as well, that you do things for your own
self gain, for recognition, all these things when, if, if this
is the reason, if this is the condition of a heart and This is
why we are doing things. These are the words that we will
hear from Jesus away from you. I never knew you.
Our desire should be to follow and to do the will of the Father
and to do those things in His name.
No matter what we do on our own without the Holy Spirit, it
means nothing. And Isaiah 64 tells this about
our best intentions. No matter what your intentions
are, if they are not driven and and and guided by the Holy
Spirit, it means nothing. Isaiah 64 says this.
All of us have, all of us have become like one who is unclean
and all our righteous acts that means with your best intentions
are like filthy rags. They mean nothing.
They will shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our
sins sweep us away. This powerful metaphor
illustrates that even our best human efforts and good deeds are
tainted by sin and fall short of God's perfect holiness.
The point here is not the point. The point is not here that what
we are sorry. The point here is not what they
were doing, but what they lacked.
They did not have a relationship with Jesus and we see in these
same verses this Jesus that is talking.
This will be the judge that we will stand before one day and be
and give an account for what we have done.
Jesus here will be our judge. Verse 21 I want to highlight
that now where it just where it says this not not everyone who
hears The Who says to me Lord Lord will be entered the Kingdom
of heaven. But it says this, but only those
that do the will of my Father. That's the key.
Only those that do the will of my Father.
And what that means is, first of all, do we have a personal
relationship with Jesus? Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 10
says this. Because of His great love for
us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even
when we were dead in our transgressions.
It is by grace that you have been saved, and God raised up
Christ and seated Him at the heavenly realms in Jesus Christ,
in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable
riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Jesus
Christ. For it is by grace that you have
been saved through faith, and this is not from ourselves.
It is the gift of God, not by works, so that you can boast.
For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do
good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So what is the will of the Father?
John 639 through 40 says this. And this is the will of him who
sent me, that I shall lose none of those who have been given to
me, but raise them up on the last day.
For my Father's will is that everyone who looks at the sun
and believes in me shall have eternal life, and I will raise
them up on the last day. Jesus died for our sins.
He rose and he stands in the presence of God as our advocate
when we mess up and when we do things wrong and we confess our
sins, our Jesus is there as the advocate, as our personal
advocate to say to the to to say to God that I have paid for
those sins. And then with that, when we
confess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and we accept them as
our Lord and Savior, Jesus then sends the helper to help us.
And we never, and we see this. The probably the best place to
see the Holy Spirit in action is when we see that after Jesus
rose from the dead and was ascended into heaven, he tells
his disciples, go and wait for me.
Go and wait until I send the Holy Spirit to help her.
And we see that the Jesus disciples, they sent, they are
off waiting, praying. And then Jesus sends or God
sends the Holy Spirit. And it is only until then that
they were told then that that they were empowered to preach.
And there Peter preaches a sermon and on while he was
preaching, it says that 3000 souls were saved.
And as a result of that, even that says that God would add to
the to the number daily. Had Peter preached without the
Spirit, what would have happened?
They needed, he needed the Holy Spirit, God's power and the
Spirit's power to be able to, to preach this message in a way
that took everything out like the sin away from us and allowed
us to be, to be presentable through the Spirit.
What God did for us is what makes it acceptable through the
Spirit. Jesus said forgive.
And one thing I want to back up just here a little bit is that
not only does he prepare and empower us, but we are to be, to
bear fruit and be obedient to reflect Jesus and her action and
their attitude. We see this also present when
Jesus was with his disciples and they were, they were, they were
taking in the Lord's Supper. It says there that the disciples
were arguing among themselves, who would be the greatest?
And here Jesus, who is God in the flesh, he puts on a robe or
a garment and he washes his disciples feet.
This is the type of attitude and action that we are to have.
And I will never, ever, ever understand this, how this works.
And I I understand that it's only through the Spirit.
But when Jesus was being nailed to the cross, and I want you to
picture that Jesus being nailed to the cross while being nailed
to the cross, Jesus prays. Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. Who prays like that?
Last week, Mr. Hebert was here
and he was talking about how they had been driving somewhere
and while he was driving somebody cut off in front of
them and they were both not happy.
How easily are we offended and hurt?
And here Jesus, who had every right in my eyes to to be angry,
to be upset, and to be in pain, is praying for on behalf of the
people that are persecuting him. That is what the Spirit does in
us when we have Him, when the Spirit is leading and guiding
us. Matthew 724 through 27 says this
continuing on here, it says, therefore everyone who hears
these words of mine and puts them into practice, it's like a
wise man who built his house on the rock.
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and
beat against the house, yet it did not fall because it had its
foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these
words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a
foolish man who built his house on the sand.
The rain came down and the streams rose, and the winds blew
and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.
As we're reading here, it is describing 2 houses that are
being built here at the same time and I'm sure some of us
have driven down some of these subdivisions where you just see
like these cooker cookie cutter houses that are being built.
You drive by, they all look exactly the same and that is
what's being described here as well as the believer and the non
believer. We can come to church here on a
Sunday morning and we may all look the same.
We put our best effort. We look the Christian part, but
we have an inspector that inspects her heart.
Just as a building inspector will know the difference between
a house that is built on a solid foundation or as a foundation
that's built on stand as being described on here.
Jesus sees right into her heart. Jesus knows exactly what our
motive is and why we are here. God is our inspector.
Jesus's true followers not only hear his words, but act on them,
allowing His message to make a difference in our lives.
In his teaching, Jesus explained that a true follower, by acting
on his words, is like a person who builds a house on solid
rock. The one who builds on rock is
hearing and responding. That's the key part here.
What Jesus is teaching us here in the Sermon of the Mount we
are to apply into our daily life.
Practicing obedience builds the rock on a solid foundation of
Jesus's words to weather the storms of life.
Rain, waters, floods, winds, their foundation, their
foundation on solid rock will be unaffected.
And when we read the last part of this verse here again it
talks about the rain came down and the streams rose and the
winds blew and it beat against the house and it fell with a
great crash. Often times this verse is
referenced to the storms of life we talk about, you know, we, we
lost a loved one or we've been someone was diagnosed with
cancer or all these heavy things that are true.
They are storms of life. They are storms in our life.
But the way this is described here in verse 27, it fell with
the great crash. It all came down.
There was nothing left and I, I, I think this also speaks to the
coming judgement of Christ. When we stand before God, what
will what will our actions where out of what heart did?
Did we did we do what we did? Sorry, that was a bit of a
tongue twister there. We are to apply what Jesus has
taught not only in the Sermon of the Mount.
We have the commandments as well.
We build our life on those commandments and we build our
life on those teachings and we put them into practice.
Verse 27 and 28 or 29 say this. When Jesus had finished saying
these things, the crowds were amazed at the teaching because
He had taught as one who had authority and not as their
teachers of the law. See how up until this point,
when Jesus was Jesus was preaching, they had already seen
that Jesus had driven out demons and in fact that's why He was
popular or what the people had heard about that and they were
now coming to listen to Him and speak.
But they make this claim that Jesus had that had was teaching
with authority. And they they're right about
that because later on, many of these people will still be
around. We will see also.
And we have the New Testament here as a witness of what Jesus
did. And we know that he had
authority because we know that when Jesus was with his
disciples in the boat and the storm was there, that Jesus calm
the storm, the winds and the waves obeyed Jesus.
That's authority. And we know that Jesus also rose
people from the dead. The little girl in that talks
about in the Gospels as well, Jesus rose her from the dead.
Again, the authority of Christ. And we also see that in multiple
times, and they have not seen this yet, but we have the
account that two times that Jesus fed the multitudes where
thousands of people were fed with just a little food.
And we also read that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
And we also get to see a little side of Jesus's compassion for
the dead. Even though, no, even though
Jesus knew that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, yet
he wept. We see the, the, the, the, the
heart, the love that he had for his people as he wept.
And we again we see the authority that Jesus had when he
when he was crucified and he rose on the third day defeating
death. Jesus said to Jesus said to him,
I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except for me.
This is John 14 through 6. The question I have for us today
is not do you know Jesus? The question I have for you
today is does Jesus know you? That to me, when I was preparing
for this sermon, it just goes, it's a reflection of why have I
done what I have done up until this point.
Apparently all these people, when we read the beginning of
these passages here, were serving God at some capacity.
And we're convinced, they were convinced that they were doing
this for God. Those words were heavy.
I never knew you'd depart from me.
So does Jesus know you? And I know that as if you're a
believer and you are someone who has given their life to Christ,
that sometimes as life goes on and you know, when you're, when
you first become a believer, everything is new and fresh and
you're excited and all these things are like you, You absorb
everything. As time goes on, sometimes
things become a little bit mundane.
We kind of lose focus. And I liken that to a story that
you find in the Gospels and Luke, and it's about Peter.
And, you know, Peter here is with Christ and they are near
the end of Jesus's ministry. And Jesus is telling the people
that now this is what's going to be happening.
You know, I'm going to be arrested.
I'm going to be brought before the people and I will be
crucified. And Peter will just not have
this. Peter is saying, no, this will
never happen. And if it means if this is
what's going to happen, I will follow you to the end.
And then Jesus confronts Peter and he says, Peter, before day
breaks, you will have denied me three times.
So my question to us is here as believers who have maybe become,
you know, maybe not asleep, but maybe tired, have we denied
Christ, maybe not with words, but with their actions, not in
maybe not in a very physical way, not in a very, you know,
bright or like a loud way. But has the Holy Spirit prompted
you And we have somehow dismissed that?
This is a question that I, I want you to ask yourself and you
have to be brutally honest with yourself.
Where am I at in my relationship with Christ?
I have given him as he is my Lord and Savior.
But Jesus says we will be known by our fruit, and we know that
once after Jesus was crucified, or just before Jesus was
crucified, it was bitten. It was known to Peter that he
heard that rooster crow and Jesus and Peter realized right
away what Jesus had told him. And it says that Peter went away
and he wept bitterly. And that is what we are to do
when when we deny or when we have denied the Spirit, that we
confess, that we bring that before God and we ask God to
forgive us. And then there is also another
beautiful story of this. When we read what we read about
Peter is after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, he is
again with his disciples and Peter is there.
And Peter, I wonder how Peter must have felt at that time,
being there with Jesus, knowing what Jesus said that he would do
and he was right where Peter had denied him.
What does Jesus do when we confess our sins?
Jesus restores you. And Jesus tells Peter three
times, Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me?
Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me, feed my
sheep. This is a powerful illustration
of of what it looks like when we have denied the Spirit and when
we have confessed that and brought that before Christ and
asked for forgiveness, we continue on.
We don't do things perfectly. In fact, we, we mess things up
more often than we than we do things right.
But with the Spirit in US, it makes it acceptable for God.
There's also for those of you that, or maybe there's some of
you who today that have not confessed Jesus as Lord and
Savior. And this is the, the point of
the message here today is that I want this to be clear.
You are not saved by your works, but you are saved by the grace
of God. It is only when we are saved by
the grace of God and we have the Spirit that we are able to live
out the character of God through the Spirit, empowered by the
Spirit. And we see this, that it's only
by grace that you've been saved. In the on the story or in the
story of the thief on the cross, Jesus is now hanging on the
cross dying, and he's in between two other thieves.
And as Jesus is hanging there, one of the thieves looks at him
and he recognizes Jesus for who he is and he confesses Jesus as
and he tells the other thief that we deserve what we've got.
But this man is innocent and he all he says to Jesus is Remember
Me when you enter into your into your Kingdom.
And at that point he hears these words that I'm sure just saying
deep into the soul. Today you will be with me in
heaven. Today you will be with me in
paradise. What words?
We are not saved by works, but believing that Jesus came and
died for our sins, that he was raised from the dead and when we
confess our sins we accept him as Lord and Savior and we become
children of God. We are not saved by works, but
we are expected to bear fruit and reflect Christ in our in our
life by obeying his commandments and living out the sermon of the
Mount. In our day-to-day life, we don't
do this perfectly, but by the power of the Holy Spirit in us,
making it acceptable before God the Father.
My challenge to you today is that you do an inventory and
reflect. Where is your life?
Have we gotten tired? Are we just kind of going
through the motions? Today's a new day.
We can confess that before Christ, before God and Jesus
will restore us. And this may happen more often
than you think because we all fall short, but God is there to
forgive us when we bring up before him.
And I want to leave you with this final verse.
That's the from John chapter 15, verses 4 through 5.
It says this remain in me as I also remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself.
It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit
unless you remain in me. I am the vine and you are the
branches. If you remain in me and I in
you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do
nothing. Let's pray, Lord God, we come
before you, Lord, with a thankful heart.
And Lord, we are so grateful that when we mess up and we do
things with the wrong motives, and when we recognize that, we
can bring that before you and we can confess that, and you are
quick to forgive. And my prayer for all of us here
this morning is that we will do an inventory of our heart.
Where are we at with our relationship with you?
Lord, I pray that you will rekindle our spirit, renew our
spirit. Lord, give us again a zeal and a
hunger for you. Lord, I pray that we will be
diligent in seeking you out as well through prayer and
meditation and scripture and fellowship.
Lord, may you be with us as we journey on.
Lord, may you give us the strength to carry on, and Lord,
I pray that the promise that you give us through your word that
we will cling to those. I pray this all in Jesus name,
Amen.