Sermon On The Mount: Law and Gospel

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone. It is Monday, February third, twenty twenty five. It is currently tenh three pm Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well. If I've said it once, I've said it probably a thousand times. One of the fun things about doing a sermon review is we never know exactly what's going to happen. Right. I can see the title of the sermon, I can see the scripture that they're going to use, but I don't know what's going to happen because whenever I do a review, as I've said now over and over and over, I don't listen to it first. Right, so many things I listen to where people are reacting to something, they have watched it first, they've listened to it first. Then they may just grab clips from it or whatever the case may be. But the reaction I mean, I mean, it may not matter to you, but to me, the reaction I know is somewhat rehearsed. They know what was said, they've already figured out their thoughts about how they're going to respond to it. I prefer my way, which is, when I do a sermon review, I have no idea what's going to happen. We hit play. All of my reaction is real, So everything is organic. It's not rehearsed,

1:32 it's not produced. And that I like that. It makes it exciting. It makes it I don't really know what's going to happen. I don't feel like I'm listening to something multiple times and then simply, you know, just simply reciting what I've already rehearsed. It feels more real. However, that makes it exciting, that makes it interesting, That makes it organic, That makes it real, all of the positive things that come from that. However, it also means sometimes that I think it's gonna go this direction, maybe my introduction, maybe things that I'm saying you can clearly tell, oh, you think it's going to go this direction, And then by the time we're done, I'm like, WHOA, what just happened?

2:14 It went in a completely opposite direction. And that happened earlier today. Earlier today, I saw that there was a new sermon that had been added to the sermon's two point zero app call in the title of the sermon was introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. I'm like, okay, back in what twenty twenty four? Yeah, I think it was twenty twenty four. I think it was May of twenty twenty four. Was the last episode that I did in a series that we were working on on. Well, the Sermon on the Mount. Now, it was designed to just be you know, the series never really will come to an end. Anytime I'm addressing anything related to the Sermon on the Mount, that episode will go there. So I'm like, well, I haven't done anything since, like you know, May of twenty twenty four, Well, let me let me let me review this sermon today on as an A.

3:02 Because it's an introduction to the Sermon on the Mount, it'll be interesting, it'll be more content for that series. And since since it is an introduction to the Sermon on the Mount, we know what that means, right, It's going to provide to us how this pastor how this particular church, how they interpret the Sermon on the Mount, What is their interpretive system, what is their interpretive framework that they use to interpret the Sermon on the Mount. So I'm like, okay, it'll be good because we can explore one of them. Because, as I stressed in the last episode, you may not know this. Well, if you listen to the first last episode, you do. If you didn't, you may not know this. There is at a minimum eleven different ways the Sermon of the Mount on the Mount has been interpreted throughout Church history, a minimum of eleven. Now, on one hand, that's should discourage you, that should frustrate you, that should bother you, because you're like two thousand years of church history and no one can agree yet on how to interpret the Sermon on the Mount, and these different interpretations are contradictory to one another. So you know what do we learn from that? Well, the one thing we learn I talked about it in the first episode. Clearly, all of this belief and idea that God helps us in our interpretation, God leads us to an interpretation it's just bogus because if that was the case, we would all interpret the Sermon on the Mouth the same way.

4:35 And now it could imply another thing it can apply is that maybe maybe when it comes to the scriptures, we just can never truly interpret them because there's something just to inherit with the scriptures that we are unable to interpret. Maybe the Bible is just it's just beyond our ability to interpret it. Maybe that's the case. Right now people will push back and go, that's not true, that's not true. But just think of the millions of different interpretations that have been offered throughout Church history on everything. I mean, you have to at least raise that question. Or maybe this is just another example that the reason we can't come to an agreement on our interpretation of the Bible is because everyone interprets the Bible through the framework of their theological system. Meaning if you are reformed, you interpret the Bible through a reform theological perspective. If you're dispensational, you interpret it through a dispensational perspective. Meaning then the reality is we don't actually study the Bible, we don't actually preach the Bible. We don't actually we don't actually teach the Bible. What we actually do is simply insert and put into the Bible our theological framework and then claim that we find it there because what we put it there, which then means the Bible is never going to be interpreted correctly. It's always going to be interpreted in light of your theological system, And isn't it interesting that's what happens. Charismatics interpret the Bible through a charismatic lens, and guess what, all of their interpretations

6:08 are consistent with their theological system. A Church of Christ interprets the Bible through a Church of Christ's lens. Isn't it amazing all of their interpretations are consistent with the Church of Christ view a reform person in it weird that every theological system is able to say that the Bible supports their theological system. They will all claim the Bible is the authority and that they their theology is based off scripture. But I mean, they cannot be that everyone can find their theology in their interpreting of the scripture, and it's not because they're interpreting the scripture. They're simply reading their interpretation into the scripture based off their theological system. And we've discussed that and it's maddening to me. So what I wanted to do for the review is I wanted to go, hey, guys, there's eleven different ways in which people interpret a minimum of eleven different ways that people interpret the Sermon on the Mount. And I went through and I listed all of them. I'm not going to do that right now. I've already reviewing more than I planned to, and so we I'm like, so what we're going to do is we're going to hear how they interpret it, and then we're going to see which one of the eleven it fits with, and then we'll maybe discuss that particular view. Right And I said, Okay, I think it will probably be this way. I thought there would go a certain direction because that's where most churches go to. I even asked AI to make some predictions.

7:34 Artificial intelligence made some predictions about it, and it acknowledged that it probably would go a certain way based on the fact that it's a Baptist church. Okay, so I was ready to go. We started the review sixty what sixty six minutes almost almost seventy minutes of review, and where did we get. We never even got to how to interpret the sermon on the mount We got to Matthew five one, and we read these words and seeing the multitudes he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. The entire part of the sermon that we reviewed made this like it was a significant argument. According to them, the sermon on the mount was preached to the disciples. In fact, he went a step further, it was preached to the church that this is the first sermon given to the church.

8:36 The Church is already in existence here, and that this is given to the church, not to the multitudes. And to try to prove this, this pastor then did this weird thing. He started doing cross referencing, and he did cross referencing based on the phrase he went up into a mountain. So then he went to Mark and Lou looked for frase, look for passages that said he went up into a mountain, and then tried to claim that they were describing the same event, even though everything AI was like, absolutely not, these are not the same event, different, this different, that different, that there's just no way. In fact, the passages that he used to try to cross reference, he tried to use, I mean, if I can find it here, if I can go all the way back up here. He tried to use Mark three thirteen through eighteen and Luke six twelve through sixteen, And AI said, it is not correct to assume that Mark three thirteen through eighteen and Luke six twelve through sixteen described the same event. There are similarities, for example, Jesus going up into a mountain and addressing disciples. They occur though in different context and serve different purposes. And then Ai breaks down a comparison of all the similarities and the differences.

9:57 But he just because the phrases, just because He's passages used the phrase he went up into a mountain, he just made the assumption, Well, they all fit together, and it was crazy. And not only that, and all of his argument that, hey, Jesus is only speaking to the disciples. Jesus is only speaking to the disciples. This is Jesus speaking to the church. And this is basically Jesus telling the church obey the Sermon on the mount And his assumption is is that we can obey the Sermon on the Mount, which, of course we can get into all of the problems with this. But here is the issue. And all of his cross referencing and everything that he did. You know what he never read, well, Matthew five to one is the beginning of the Sermon on the mount and seeing the multitude he went into a mountain, and when he was set his disciples came unto him. Well, if you go to the end of the sermon. You go to the end of the sermon. Matthew, Chapter seven, verse twenty eight. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine doesn't say the disciples, it says the people, meaning that the people not only heard the entire sermon, they were able to hear it so well that they could immediately compare it to everything else that they had ever been taught and anything else that they had ever been heard, meaning clearly that the multitudes heard it as well. So what should we take from this? That the audience for

11:28 the sermon on the mount was everyone, the multitude and the disciples, Meaning then the purpose of the sermon has a purpose for both the multitude and the disciples. It wasn't just a message to the disciples. And not only that, the fact that Jesus went up into a mountain is very important, because Moses went up into a mountain to receive the law. Jesus now goes up into a mountain to expound and explain the true nature of the law. And both cases, the law has one specific purpose that we've talked about, right It demonstrates our inability to keep it.

12:08 It crushes us, It condemns us, it convicts us. It doesn't matter if you are a Christian or not a Christian. When you look to the law, you see I cannot do this. I cannot keep this. It is impossible. Jesus wants to show that nobody can keep the law. In fact, he goes so far to say in the Sermon on the Mount that you are to be perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect, which no one can accomplish. When you get done with the Sermon on the Mount, your job is not to go I'm doing it. I think I'm doing it. I'm doing it enough to prove something. No, what it demonstrates is that you cannot obey it. You constantly fall short. But the one who preached it is the one who obeyed it, and his obedience is imputed to our account by faith alone. But all of that was ignored in the sermon. He just wanted it was the most bizarre thing. He connects passages to it that are not connected. He claims that these other events are the same event, whether they're not the same event, and then he ignores the text that clearly would demonstrate who the audience was. It was the people who responded to it, which was the crowd. The disciples are not even mentioned there.

13:23 But so it was bizarre. We never even got to how we should interpret it. But you know what, it demonstrated that once again, two thousand years into church history and we still cannot agree on who the audience was for the summer, not the math. We can't even agree on that within Christianity, even when the text clearly tells us. At that point, it just makes me like all attempts to interpret the Bible are futile. It's vanity, it's meaningless because no matter what we no matter what tools we have, no matter it doesn't matter, because we are just going to constantly just interpret the Bible however we want, for whatever reason we want, and it's just going to be never ending disagreement. And it's that that's one of the most discouraging things, but it's just the reality. So here's what I want to do. It's now ten seventeen pm Central time here in West Texas. I don't know how I'm going to be if or how much I will be broadcasting over the next couple of days due to some situations. I don't know, So I felt like we got to finish this, right, I mean, come, don't we I mean all we did was cover the audience. We got to figure out what is their system of interpretation.

14:46 We have to at least see right, because I mean, he did some things with the audience here I don't think I've ever heard before. So then maybe he's got a new way of interpreting this summon. In the mind, he seems like he's already given it away. Though his interpretation is this is for you the Christian, and you should obey it, implying that you can. Which then well, let's see if he explains how we can pull this off. Are you ready? Here we go. I basically have it right right where we stopped in episode in the last episode. I didn't call it part one, but where we stopped in that last episode. Basically I was starting right there. I mean I backed it up maybe five seconds. Here we go.

15:31 It is not addressed to Christians in general, but Christians in general would. Do well to obey it. But it was designed for a church that was gathered in gospel church order. This discourse is. Not a collection of moral or philosophical enlargements of the Law of Moses. This, okay, it's addressed to the church that's been gathered together in some kind of I guess goss spool order church order. I don't know how you even get this. This seems just bizarre to me that he's going with this the church and that it's not really an enlargement on the law. Are you saying that Jesus is not expounding on the Law of Moses and he he's already implied that we can obey it. Let's just see where he goes with.

16:20 This, Simonlius for his dear church gathered in gospel order, so that we can demonstrate true Christian character in the work of the ministry. Now, if you've been paying attention, we did answer the questions who, what, when, where and why. See, here's the thing. Your answers to who, what, where, when and why don't agree with anybody else's answers to who, what, where, when and why? Isn't that the most Can you even comprehend that that in Christianity we all claim the Bible's the final authority, But if we ask basic questions of the text, who, want, where, when? Why? Right, we can't still we don't even come to the same answers. How is that possible that you can take Christians open their Bible?

17:11 Who want? Where? When? How? And we can't come up to the same answers because his answers are completely different than mine. In fact, his answers are different than I think most of church history. And not only that, his answers are based on doing this weird cross referencing thing. Where oh that phrases he went up into the mountain, so that event has to be the same event. Well, how did you do that? And not only that, his who want where? When? How? Is based off ignoring the final two verses that conclude the sermon on the Mound and his cross referencing. He didn't even bother to go, well how does this end? No, I'm not gonna worry about that. I gotta go find phrases and say in the mountain and then say it's the same event. Because he has big thing is this is the church. This is the church gathered in proper gospel order. Don't know exactly what he means by that this is the church, the church, the church, the church, the church, the church and Matthew five and that it's supposed to show how that this is supposed to is how we demonstrate true Christian character. Right, So I guess to show true Christian character you have to obey the Sermon on the Mountain. I don't know one hundred percent.

18:26 I don't know. Obviously, he seems to imply that we can keep it, which just goes against the entire history of the of especially coming out out of Catholicism. But okay, let's let's see what happens. Well, I don't know if I got the how yet, but we did get all the w's in there. This sermon needs to be preached because it is. It has a vibrant and timely message to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not limited by two thousand years ago. This ought to be applied to every Church of the Lord Jesus.

19:14 It would solve all of our problems. See that we are a complete disagreement. The Sermon on the Mount doesn't solve all of our problems. The Sermon on the Mount reveals our one problem. It doesn't solve our problems. It reveals the problem. The sermon the Law doesn't fix our problem. It reveals our problem, and what fixes it is the imputed righteousness of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount doesn't fix our problem. The Sermon on the Mount reveals that we have a problem. We are sinners who are incapable of keeping God's law. We cannot reach the righteousness that God demands, so we are condemned by it. We are driven to across. Christ says, I have obeyed everything in the law, all of it. I have fulfilled every part of the law, every jot and tittle I have fulfilled. He fulfilled it for us by putting our faith in Him. His obedience to the law is imputed to my account in Christ. Then I am a perfect law keeper. In practice, I continue to be a law breaker perpetually. So his entire understanding of the Sermon on the Mountain is completely contrary. If we'll just obey it, we'll solve all of our problems. Well, if we could just obey it, we wouldn't need Christ. We need Christ before we're saved. We need Christ after we say we're saved. Because our hope is never in our

20:46 ability to do it, because we don't possess the ability to do it. Our hope is in Christ, who did it for us. If we would be obedient to this sermon. The churches are not brick and mortar. This church does not consist of the walls around it, the Church of. Jesus Christ, it tells. Them first Peter Chapter two, verse two versus Firs. Peter Chapter two, verse five. I'll get it right as lively stones. Now what. Always find it interesting? This is very true in the in the non Catholic world, we love to constantly say, the church is not brick and mortar. The church is not a building. The church is not a place. The church is the people. However, we sure spend a lot of money maintaining those brick and mortar place We do a lot. We raise a lot of money to build them.

21:49 We do a lot of money. We raise a lot of money to keep up keeping. Again, I tell everyone every single time, just figure out how much money it takes to keep your church operating for one single year. You just look at everything it takes to keep that church operating. That's a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of effort to keep it operating. And then you have to ask, what are you actually getting from all is what you're obtaining from the church? Does it equal anything close to the amount of money that's going to keep it operating, and what I have seen over and over and over, the amount of teaching output from most churches don't really justify all the money it goes to keep them going, because in many cases, someone sitting in a room somewhere with a microphone, a Bible, and an internet connection and some platforms to broadcast on can put far more put out more teaching, more doctrine, theology, discussion questions, answers, Bible study, devotional sermons. I mean, you just name it. They can put out far more than what the church puts out, and they can do so for a considerable less amount of money. So it's weird because the church constantly says we're not a brick The church is not the brick and mortar. The church is not brick and mortar. Well, then if we're churches not brick and mortar, why do we spend all so much time and maintaining these places that's not the church. Well, the people have to come together. The people have to

23:20 come together for what we come together so that we can give money to maintain that building. That's not the church. I constantly struggle with this. The church is not brick and mortar. The church is not brick and mortar. However, we need this much money to keep it going. We need this. We have to pay this bill, and we have to pay this bill and this bill, and you name the church, and I don't say this in a and this is just not even about me. Anyone with a connection like I have, with an Internet connection like I have, with a computer like I have, and a microphone like I have, and you just pick a couple of platforms to broadcast on. If you're dedicated or even remotely committed, you can put forth more content in a year than that brick and mortar church will ever come close to putting out. In fact, you can put them to shame. But guess what I mean. I don't know how much it takes to keep a church operating. You can figure it out. But if I would, if you take the probably the average amount it keeps to keep a church operating for a year, if I was to receive half of that money, half of that money, half of that money, I'd be set. I'd be set for a long time, right, because it doesn't take that much.

24:37 I mean, other than if the person broadcasting wants to get paid to any extent, but even he could get paid a good amount, and what it takes to a half of what it takes to keep a church operating. So it's just I constantly hear the church is not the building. The church is not the building. The church is not the building. The church is not the building. The church is not the building. Hey, please come to our services at ten am. We'll be meeting here. And oh, when we passed the offering plate, consider giving, because well, oh yeah, it costs to keep this building, which is not the church operating. It just seems I know people can say, well, because you're misunderstanding. I understand. I'm saying if you just break it down, you remove all of the spiritual language and all of the Christianese, and you just break down the concept. The church is not the building.

25:29 The church is the people. Okay, all right, but we've got to maintain the building so that the people have a place to go. Why do they go to that place. Well, if you're a non sacramental church, you go to that place for the teaching. Well if you go to the place for the teaching, well what is the how much teaching is that church outputting? Based on the amount of money that they are receiving. Well, in some places you get maybe, you know, you maybe get a Sunday school lesson. In some cases you get a Sunday school lesson. Maybe it'll be okay, maybe you'll get forty five men. I mean, and you sometimes I don't even have a Sunday night. Sometimes I don't even have a Wednesday night. Then they may cancel a service for this, or cancel a service for that, cancel a service for this. I mean, Ray, I know that this is not the point here. And this is why we do sermon reviews, because you never know what the point is going to be. It's just he once again makes that point. Just consider how many times you have been told the church is not the building.

26:25 The church is not the building. The church is not the building. The church is the people. The people. The people are the body of Christ. The people, the people. It's not a building. It's not a building. All right, Now, what what do you do with that? It's a lively stone. You go out there, you see a stone that's flopping around on the ground. There thought no. Lively here is an adjective. It's describing the stone. It is a living stone. It is a living stone, are built up into a spiritual house. The Church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual house, and you and I are living stones that make up the structure and the holy priesthood.

27:19 What to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable unto Jesus Christ. We have no other sacrifice to offer. Are the spiritual ones, sacrifice of thanksgiving, sacrifices of praise, sacrifices. Of holiness and holy living and good works. That's what we. Offer up in this priesthood and as living stones. It is a church of. Redeemed and baptized people whom in Ephesians chapter two, verse twenty two, he says, whom ye also are building to get together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. What does that mean? The Church of Jesus Christ.

28:00 There's a place where God has a special dwelling, He dwells. He says that this, the spiritual building, is a habitation of God through the spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells upon his churches in a special way. The Holy Spirit dwells on his churches in a special way. Wait, the church is not the building, but the Holy Spirit dwells in a special way on the churches on the people or on the building. If the church isn't the building, but the Holy Spirit dwells, it gets always confounding and confusing when I start hearing people do this kind of weird double like the church is not the building, but the Holy Spirit dwells specially on the building or on the people. So because the people are the church, the Holy Spirit dwell especially when we come together in the building or even if we're apart, Like is it the people, is it the building? What? What?

29:09 What? Is it? In a special way, a unique way. But we are instructed of Paul like Timothy that we may as know how we ought us to behave ourself in the House of God and to love the brethren fervently. See, there's a there's a decorum. In the Church of God. How we conduct ourselves is in the Church of God, and it isn't according to tradition, But there are good traditions that we have and we ought to practice. But we are there's a decorum and how we do things, and there is a way in which we practice our faith and it is New Testament.

29:55 If it isn't in the New Testament. We should never do it, ever do it? Which should never consider it, which would never be brought up in a business meeting. I'll tell you, I'll tell. You, this is an interesting introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. It is bizarre how now the Sermon on the Mount is turned into ecclesiology. I am so confused here. I don't know what any of this has to do with the Sermon on the Mount. Literally nothing. He's just made the assumption that the Sermon on the Mount's preached to the church. He just made it. He didn't prove anything, He didn't come anything close to proving that nothing. Because the text the sermon is reacted to by the multitude.

30:43 But supposedly this is the gathering of the church and Gospel order. So now he's just going into all this stuff about the church, the church, the church, the church, but it has nothing to do with the Sermon on the Mound. He's going all of this on the assumption that the Sermon them Mount was addressed to the church. But all of that's just been presupposed upon the text. You do, I'll say, brother, we're not going to do that because we don't find any instructions in the Word of God. We don't have any leeway now there are things that we can do where we have freedom to do, but there are things that we don't have freedom to do.

31:26 So is he going with the regulative principle the normative principle, We can only do what is explicitly found in scripture and well only in the New Testament. So that's clearly the normative is you can do anything that's not specifically condemned. So do we have freedom or do we If it's the regulative principle, You're only free to do what is specifically instructed. You're not free to do anything other than that, and not even really wouldn't be freedom. You're really being commanded, right, So the regulative principle, the normative principle, I don't know, I don't know what. And this has to do with the Sermon on the mount But okay, let's see if I'm still waiting to see if we get an interpretive framework for the Sermon on the Mountain.

32:12 That the Bible specifically tells us how to conduct ourself as a church, as a as living stones and the habitation of God through the spirit. Jesus also said, behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise the serpents and harmless as doves. What is bizarre here is that this is an introduction to the Sermon on the Mound, and almost everything he has quoted from if you were to go write down every scripture that's been quoted, almost none of them is from Matthew five, six or seven. He quoted Matthew five to one. He made some reference to the Beatitudes, but he actually pulled that from Luke six, and it did a weird thing from that. It's just the weirdest introduction to the Sermon of the Mount. He's not provided an observational outline of the Sermon on the Mount. He's not provided a interpretive framework for the Sermon on the Mount.

33:17 He's not even if he wanted to go with an interpretive outline. He's not provided an interpretive outline. He's not provided a breakdown, he's not provided historical context. He's not even really provided textual context, because the other text he went to is not even related to what he's saying it's related to. So at this point, this has this this this would be nothing like your typical intro to the Sermon on the Mount. I mean, if you but there's plenty of time left for him to do some of those things. Do you know. That's how the Sermon on the Mount teaches us how we can be why serpents and harmless as doves. It's right there in the Sermon on the Mount.

34:07 In this sermon, we have nine blessednesses of the Redeemed. These we learn. By these we learn we have every advantage over the flesh, by not just over the flesh, but over the devil, and over the world. By these we learn the true character, heart and mind of a true follower of Jesus Christ. When the scripture says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, these blessednesses reveal the mind of.

34:49 Christ and the heart of our Savior. When he taught them, he was revailing to the disciples his mind and his heart. I said, this is how you're going to live in the world. This is how I'm gonna care for you. This does how I'm gonna watch over you. Okay, So finally he's getting to the Sermon on the Mount. What's kind of fascinating here He says that the beatitudes show us that we have every advantage over the flesh the devil and the world. I am somewhat baffled by this approach, so I did have to ask Ai about this. So I asked Ai well why he was saying that It says this. The beatitudes describe the characteristics and blessings of those who belong to the Kingdom of God. The question is whether they indicate that believers have every advantage over the flesh the devil in the world. Do the beatitude show we have every advantage over the flesh the devil in the world. No, not in the way that guarantee immediate victory or superiority over these forces. And said, the beatitudes emphasize humility and suffering and dependence on God rather than personal strength or dominance over sin and opposition.

36:01 And I will argue that these beatitudes are really show us here's what we Here's what we should be. If you want to be blessed, you have to be this. Blessed Are the poor and spirit blessed? Are they? The morn blessed? Are the meek blessed? Are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness? Blessed? Are the merciful blessed? Are the pure in heart? When you get to blessed are the pure in heart. You know what your response should be. I'm never going to be blessed because I'm never going to be pure in heart because I still have a sinful heart even after salvation. And I'm never going to be truly blessed because do I truly hunger and thirst after righteousness? If you truly hunger and thirsted after righteousness, then you would not be desiring sin. But you know you desire sin. You know you sin, you know you're not pure in heart, so immediately you'd be like, I'm in trouble. So then you either create a scenario where I'm going to try to do this. I'm going to try to do this because i want to be blessed, or I want to be blessed, or you realize, Hm, there is one person. The blessed person is Jesus Christ, who this all fits, who he was, his character, his attributes, and in Christ, I am blessed with all spiritual blessings.

37:16 So in Christ, I am blessed not based on me meeting these requirements, but based on the fact that He meets those requirements. Unless you water these down until you can feel like you do them, and then you can convince yourself you're blessed not based off what God has done, but bless blessed based off what you do. Well, then if you are blessed based off what you do, then how do we understand that in relation to blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. If I already have all spiritual blessings in Christ, then are you gonna say the blessings here that I supposedly get based off what I do are different than all the spiritual blessings I already have in Christ. I will argue, we have the blessings in Christ. Christ is the blessed person. Christ is the blessed person in Psalm one, He's the blessed person in Matthew five. It's in him.

38:25 When I see what's required for me to be blessed, I'm never going to get there, because I'm always going to fall short. It's just like if you go to Psal one. If you go to ps one, I mean, look at the requirements to be blessed. Uh bless uh blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungully, nor sendeth in the way of sinner, nor sendeth in said the scornful. But his delight is in the Lord and the law. Doth he meditate day and night. If you're truly gonna be blessed, you have to meditate on God's word day and night. Now I know what people do. They water that down and they say, well, if you'll do a morning devotion, all that'll give you something to think about, And they try to water down the requirement so that you can possibly do it. Don't water down the requirement. It's a law passage. Any passage that tells you to do something, it is law. And you know what those law passages demonstrate over and over and over. It puts forth a standard. It puts forth a requirement which you cannot meet. So what you're supposed to do is be broken over it a yell scream out to God in a spiritual cry for help, saying Lord, I cannot. And then God says, I know you can't, But I said, my son who did, who not only could he? Not only can he? He did? And by putting your faith in him, his obedience him doing all of these things. You can be blessed in him. That's the only way it works. Or everything else. You either have to convince yourself you're better than you are, you have to lie, or you have to sow water down the requirement. Then anybody can do it, and then you're

39:56 actually destroying and changing God's law. These blessedness reveal our reward for having such a mind and a heart. The true happiness of the believer lies in these nine blessednesses. You want to be happy, follow these nine blessedness is called the beatitudes. I was reading the other day that, in fact, it bears it out in Ecclesiastes. Men are searching for something that will make them happy. Men aren't happy men, and I say, mankind men and women, children, We're not happy just living the mundane lives that we live.

40:50 We want something more, we. Want something exciting, we want something different. We're just not fulfilled. Yeh, there's something missing. We need to find out what's missing. Thus, we have all the sports, and not only that, that wasn't enough. We got to go to extreme sports. We have all these uh. Entertainment yeah, uh, it's like six flags and and and these what are that? Yeah, Disney, I all those places, because people need to be entertained. They want something more than what they've got. They're not content with their lives, they're not content with what God has given us. They want something more and more and more.

41:42 What is a script to say? The eyes are never satisfied. We see something and we want more, and we want more and we want more. Right, you're you're describing the sinful condition of all of us, even you Christians. And you can't do it, I asked Ai. AI said, are you ready? Here's what Ai said about the beatitudes. Each beatitude presents an ideal that goes beyond human capability in our fallen state. If we take them as a requirement for receiving blessings, then no one would qualify. Ai understand, you can't do these. You can't, but the church constantly we can't, we can't, but then says, but we have. Our eyes are never satisfied, and we do this and we do it. But we can do this.

42:31 So do we do this? Or do we do this? Because on one hand, it's like, so what its ultimately turns into? All of those bad people are never satisfied, They never can do it, but we we can and we obey the Sermon on the Mount, and we get the blessings. See, we're the blessed people because we're good, we're better, we do things right. All of you other people are not blessed, and your lives are terrible and falling apart. It's because you're trash and your garbage and you're not as good as us. Now, no pastor will ever preach it that way. But if you listen, that's base the message, which is completely not the message of the Sermon on the Mount. He's got the who, what, where, when, and how completely wrong in this passage in light of just the text, reason, logic, reality history. But guess what you know what that it doesn't mean. I'm not saying you should agree with me. What I want you to demonstrate is that two thousand years of church history, nobody agrees on the Sermon on the Mount, And.

43:31 When we don't get it, there's despair. Disparity creeps in. Then there's the use of alcohol and drugs and other. Things because we aren't getting enough out of our life. We want more. It's satisfied in the attitudes. The blessedness is the happiness that we want and need are found in the Holy scriptures. And if you, as don't believer, are just satisfied on despair, then you need to go back to the scriptures. You need to go. Back to the beatitudes and start following them so that you're gonna have happiness in this life. See so happiness is dependent on your ability to obey what God says you are to obey. See this is there's no, there's nothing. This is not the gospel, this is not This is simply you want to be happy, do what God tells you to do. You can do it, do it and you'll be happy. It's just a works based system.

44:30 No. The reality is when God tells you to do something, it's not because you can, it's because you can't. And you are to see that be broken and crushed. I'm about to knock the microphone across the room. You're gonna be broken and crushed. And then run to Christ. And then in Christ you'll find out you'll find the person who can do it, who did do it, who did obey it, And by putting your faith in him, his obedience is you. And then you are blessed in Christ, not by what you do, but by what He did it's see, we're not even preaching the same gospel. It's like this message is in a completely different Christian universe than I'm in. We are not in the same Christianity in any way, shape or form. It's like two completely different Christianities.

45:16 And in the next you have to start with Blessed are the poor. I know he didn't mean it that way, but he said, you'll be Basically, if you want to be happy in this life, obey this and you'll be happy in this life and in the next. So you ain't. My happiness in the next life is dependent on my obedience in this life. You see that gets really really. I know that's not how he meant it. I know I'm not I'm going to give him credit. I'm not going to accuse him of saying that it's you get to heaven by works. I know that's not what he means, but that's how it comes across. No, my happiness in the next life is dependent upon what Christ did. In fact, if I really want to be honest, my happiness in this life is more dependent upon what Christ did, not in what I do. Because if it's based on what I do, then your Christian life will be a never ending attempt to try to obey that which you cannot obey, and you're gonna live in a perpetual state of frustration, disillusionment, discouragement, despair, worry, anxiety, fear, because you're gonna be like, what's wrong with me? That's no way to live your life.

46:26 Next week, if I get through this sermon today, I'm gonna be preaching on poor Man rich Man next week first beatitude. So all you people that are from out of town, you're gonna have to come all the way back. No, we'll we'll be on Facebook. We'll get these things up on our if you go to our website, plug it in here. We at a Baptist church dot org. We got a sermon's page, and we're gonna get these all up on that sermon's page so you can listen to those sermons at your leisure. No, wait, why will you tell people to go to sermon audio dot com. That's kind of weird, But okay, I guess if you just have a direct link again. Okay, just looks like I'd be telling everyone get the sermon's two point oh app or go to sermon audio, because then you cannot only hear his Not only could people then hear my sermons, they could hear all the other sermons. Right, wouldn't you want people to go?

47:24 I don't know, but okay, this sermon teaches us how to pray. The disciples rightly desire to know how to pray, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. And we ought to have a desire to pray as God's people, We ought to want to pray. God is God is not a Santa Claus that we go to with our list and we say, Lord, I'd like to have this, and. I'd like to have that, and and. Was I a good enough person to get this too? Or am I going to get a lump of cole? You know, we sometimes we go to God with some kind of a as if he's a Santa Claus, as if we use the right formula, we could turn on the tap and get what we want. But he teaches the disciples how to pray our Father, which are in heaven.

48:23 Hallowed, Holy be thy name. You approach God as a holy, almighty, sovereign God. He is not a Santa Claus. He is not a daddy. He is not your pal and your buddy. He is the God of the universe. Who created everything and created. You, and we go before him with great reverence. However, he listens to his children as they pray, and he answers their prayers. Is a sovereign God of power and might that will do whethersoever he will among the inhabitants of the earth, and we are his emissaries, the people of God, to proclaim the true Gospel. Therefore, whatsoever we need, he will gladly supply in our work for him. Whatever we need to say and supply for gospel ministry.

49:24 He'll give it to us freely. Let us walk in faith, and we shall receive of his hand. Listen to what our Waldensian brethren wrote a thousand years. Ago about this prayer. He said the lords, They said, the Lord's prayer are contained seven petitions, breath in words, but weighty in large in a and large in the sense of their meeting. Again, that this prayer can. Be can scarce be sufficiently expounded by all the doctors in the world in these seven petitions or request or contain all things necessary for this present life.

50:11 There's a weird introduction to this. There's no breakdown. He's not offering any structure he's not offering he's not even offering an interpretive system. It's like it's so weird, Like I've never heard an introduction that doesn't actually do an introduction. This is like, here's an introduction to the Sermon on the Mound. And I'm not going to really break this down in any meaningful structure anything. I'm not going to give you an observational outline. I'm not going to give you a structure outline. I'm not going to point out the literary devices that he's used. I'm not going to point out the genre of literature that's being spoken of. I'm not going to give you history. I'm not going to give you textual context. It is just bizarre. I've never I mean, this is not how you do any introduction at all. I mean, if you look at if you're taking any if you take any course of of for any book, and you do the introduction to the book, if you've taken to forget Bible, college, Bible Institute, or even seminary, forget that just if you if you get a I'll just look down. Here, here's here's the large print.

51:21 Winter twenty twenty four twenty five explore the Bible Personal Study Guide Exodus and Leviticus. Well, if I just go right here, okay, the first Biblical background gives me all the background to Exodus, then it gives me understand the context, gives me one, two, three, four or five paragraphs on the context. Okay, I mean even that gives me some basic breakdown. But most study Bibles will give you a breakdown at least something. I mean, there's got to be some kind of like, I don't even understand this. It's just like, well, here's a section. It's just I don't don't you have to see the big picture before you can uh study the individual pert That's a basic principle, right, Okay, we're gonna give you an overview. We're gonna break this down, all.

52:12 Right, And that which is to come. This sermon instructs us of what our desire should be, that we be not consumed or deceived by the world and its many attractions. Because we are instructed be not deceived. God is not mocked what's over man, So with that shall he also reap We can be self deceived. Did you know that we are the best people at convincing us that we know what we're doing?

52:58 Why this is this is the right thing for me to do. There's a right path to go on, and we convince ourselves and we justify ourselves that that's the right thing to do, and we can deceive ourself. We can deceive ourself and our religion because our religion makes us feel good. You know, I don't want you coming here to church of feeling good when I'm done. I don't want to be the source of your happiness, say preacher, But I want to feel good when you're done. No, my job as a preacher is to preach the word of God, and the Holy Spirit will work in your hearts and deal with your hearts after whatever your sin and problems and difficulties and trials are, God will deal with you with about that. And that may not make you very happy.

53:53 But then on the other hand, you might find something discerning that makes you rejoice with great joy unspeakable, say glory, Thank God for his Christ, Thank you Lord. For the blessing of my precious Word. So either you're gonna feel really great when you leave it really miserable. Just to follow our theme of Ai versus sermons, I just asked AI to give me an over basic breakdown overview of the Sermon on the Mount, and it gave me a basic introduction. It broke it down the Sermon on the Mount into one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten parts. Then it broke down a basic summary of each chapter five, six, and seven, then gave me final thoughts with three points. And it did that in about seven seconds, while we listened to a sermon that's fifty minutes, and in fifty minutes, we still don't have how you're supposed to interpret it. We don't have We've got it wrong on standing of the audience. We've got a complete misunderstanding of actually what the Sermon on the Mount is about.

55:06 We've got a complete misunderstanding of the beatitudes. And we still don't have any idea of structure or anything like that. We don't have anything. Yes, I've got the antithy Okay, I've got I'm just looking at all the things that it's off. I could I could break down the entire Sermon on the Mount right now if you wanted me to. But I mean, AI did it in literally seven seconds. Well, once again, we continue to compare AI to sermons, and AI outperforms every single time. I guess we'll wrap this up.

55:50 Obviously we're not going to get anywhere. Obviously, I mean we're I I don't I don't even I don't know what to say. That won't be my fault. You talk to the Lord about that, o day. It is also a. Sermon of warning and judgment, with instructions that identifying the wicked deceiver who would attempt to destroy the true churches of Christ, having corrupt fruit and claiming. To be disciples of Christ. There are many who claim to be great preachers, and oh, they've got a great, great you know, their doctor so and so, and they've got a great litany, and they've written great books, and they've done all these things.

56:37 Yet they're deceivers. And the Bible says you shall know them. By their fruit. And he tells us that in this sermon we need to pay attention so that we be not deceved by the evil workers who. Sound good, who look like sheep and really aren't. We're also instructed in this sermon of God's great here over his beloved people in supplying those things needful for us. Even more if we. But ask him, he takes care of his people. We don't need to fret, be anxious, and worry about things. By the sermon, we learn how to live with our adversaries and how to conduct our business in this wretched and destitute world. We are children of the King, and therefore we are always to take the high road in all moral, obligatory and statutory responsibilities.

57:31 The high road. We don't cheat, we don't steal, We speak the truth and everything that we do because we're God's children. We learn that in. This So he's just kind of going through and picking different sections and just saying, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, which is law, law, law, law law. We've yet to hear any gospel. He's yet to say you can't do it. It's just you can't do it. You can do it, you can do it, you can do it. You can do it. Even AI when I told them to break it all the way down. Look what AI says at the very end, we cannot meet this standard on our own. Hey, I has now said multiple times, AI understand that it is putting forth an ethical standard in which we cannot meet. We cannot keep.

58:35 Right. I'm going to stop there. We're almost at an hour. Again, you say, well, where this kind of falls, I kind of fall. I don't know where it falls in. Since he's not really I'm not going to place it in any of the eleven I could probably I can make it fit in. I can say it. It's a little bit like this. But he never bothered to give us a pilological framework or an interpretive framework. Yeah, I don't know. That's the strangest introduction maybe I've ever heard on the Sermon on the Mount. Maybe it may be all that time spent on supposedly the who, what, where, when, hell? And he didn't really answer any of the questions, and his attempt to answer the questions was based off connecting passages that are not connected to it. Like it was just I don't know, I don't even know what to say.

59:27 There you go, I don't know, I don't know. But you can go listen to the twenty three twenty four hours we've already done on the Sermon on the Mount, and you can go listen to all the things we've struggled with. Maybe we'll do some more work on the Sermon on the Mount and some other time. It's just I say it all the time, it's one of the most misinterpreted mishandled passages in the entire Bible. It's just constantly the way it's preached is matt As much as I get frustrated with how Isaiah forty through fifty five is mishandled, I think if we if we we've been listening to sermon after sermon on Isaiah forty through fifty five, and it's just like, it's amazing, we can't find one that even attempts to try to handle it correctly. I think if we did the same thing with Matthew five through seven, we could spend months and by the end of it we would be we would just be exhausted thinking why is this so difficult to be handled? But it's I don't know. You can't ever, You've just pastors just constantly interpret things the way your theological team tells you you have to interpret thing. That's why I can't stand theological teams. That's why I can't stand it. It's supposed to be about the text, but it really isn't. So, ladies and gentlemen, I'll just say this sermon on them mount puts forth the standard of God, which demands perfection which demands a righteousness which you cannot achieve. You will never achieve it in practice. But the one who preached

1:00:59 it obeyed it perfectly. By putting your faith in him. His obedience to this sermon is impeded to your account, and you're declared perfect, righteous, and holy, and you're blessed with all spiritual blessings, not in what you do, not what you try to do, not what you can achieve, but what in Christ accomplished. That is the way to understand the Sermon on the Mount. It is law law. Law shows you your inability and drives you to Christ and shows you not only his ability, but He did it for you. That's a basic historical Christian interpretation known as the law Gospel distinction. It is not radical, it is not new, it's not crazy, it's not liberalism, it's not Antiinomianism is simply the way the Gospel and the law gospel is to be distinguished from one another. And the fact that nobody seems to understand that proper distinction between law and gospel anymore really proves and means that the Reformation Luther failed. It was a complete failure, because the Church today doesn't even recognize the law gospel distinction.

1:02:06 It is abandon it completely. In fact, the way we've so abandoned that law gospel distinction, you can actually argue Catholicism one and the counter the counter Reformation with the Council of Trent actually one, because most Christians are more influenced from a Council of Trent way of thinking than they are a Reformed understanding. And when I say reform, reform coming from the actual Protestant reformation of a proper distinction between law and gospel. All right, thanks for listening everyone, Have a great night. God bless