We will read from Matthew 4, beginning with verse 23.
And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness among the people.
And the report of Him went forth into all Syria: and they brought unto Him all that were sick, holden with divers diseases and torments, possessed with demons, and epileptic, and palsied; and He healed them.
And there followed Him great multitudes from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judaea and from beyond the Jordan.
And seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain: and when He had sat down, His disciples came unto Him:
And He opened His mouth and taught them.
Dear Lord, as we gather together here this morning, our hearts are full of gratitude. We want to thank Thee for this opportunity. Thou art always mindful of us, and Thou hast gathered us together to hear Thy word.
Dear Lord, we ask that Thou wilt speak to us. May Thy word truly be life and spirit to us, and reach our hearts. We commit ourselves to Thee for this morning.
We pray that Thou wilt open our understanding. Thou wilt grant to us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may truly know Thee; and to know Thee is eternal life.
We pray and thank Thee because we know that Thou art here with us, and Thy Spirit is here to do Thy work. We commit this time totally into Thy hand. May Thy name be glorified.
We ask all in the name of our dear Lord Jesus. Amen.
We do thank the Lord for gathering us together at this time. I always feel that every time God’s people come together, it is the mercy of God.
We know that our Lord is coming soon, and He is preparing us for His return. So we thank Him for this opportunity, and we look to Him that He will speak to our hearts, that we may be prepared and ready for Him.
The burden of this time is on the so-called Sermon on the Mount. This is recorded in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
I believe that the Sermon on the Mount, in a sense, is well known; and yet it is very little understood. What does the Lord really say to us in the Sermon on the Mount, and how should we respond to His words?
I think it is very important for us to know, because it has much to do with our daily living and much to do with our readiness for His return.
In order to understand what the Sermon on the Mount teaches us, first of all we need to understand the theme of the Gospel according to Matthew.
The Gospel according to Matthew is centered upon our Lord Jesus as King. He came into this world to set up His kingdom.
Now, truly, our Lord Jesus is the Saviour of the world. His very name, Jesus, means, “He shall save His people from their sins.”
Here there is “His people.” He is coming to save His people; therefore, He is King. He came into this world to save His own people from their sins.
He is not only the King of the Jews. He is the King of all those whom He has called to Himself.
You remember, when our Lord Jesus was judged by Pilate, as recorded in John 18, Pilate asked Him, “Art Thou the King of the Jews?”
Our Lord Jesus answered, “I am a King. To this end have I been born.” But He said, “My kingdom is not of this world. I came to bear witness unto the truth, and those who are of the truth hear Me.”
So we know that our Lord Jesus is King, but His kingdom is not of this world. He is bringing the kingdom of the heavens upon this earth.
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.
All who believe in Him are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
In other words, our Lord Jesus came into this world to gather a people out of every tribe, every tongue, and every nation, and to gather them unto Himself to be His own people. He is to be their King.
When our Lord came into this world, the world rejected Him. But in God’s mysterious way, when the world crucified Him on the cross, there He accomplished the work of redemption.
He redeemed a people unto Himself. We may say that heaven invaded the earth. Heaven came upon this earth and drew a people into that kingdom.
By the grace of God, we who are saved, we who have received life from above, have become the sons of the kingdom.
You remember Matthew 13. Our Lord Jesus spoke in parables, and in the first parable He said that the sower went out to sow the seed.
The sower is none other than the Lord Himself, and the seed is the word of the kingdom.
Some seed fell by the wayside. In other words, there are hearts like the wayside: they have been trodden down and hardened. The birds come and pick up the seed.
Some seed fell upon stony ground. It sprang up very quickly, but because there was no root, when the sun shone upon it, it withered.
Some fell among thorns. It took root, but when it grew up, it was choked by the thorns and could not bear fruit.
But thank God, some seed fell into good ground. Patiently, it grew and bore fruit—some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is the Sower, and He sows the word of the kingdom. When the word reaches the hearts of people, there are some who receive the word of the kingdom into their hearts.
Then our Lord Jesus continued with the second parable. He said that a man went out and sowed good seed in his field. The man again is our Lord Jesus.
But the seed in the second parable is different. It is no longer the word of the kingdom; the seed here is the sons of the kingdom.
Those who have received the word of the kingdom into their hearts become the sons of the kingdom, and the Lord sows them in the field.
The field here is not the same field as in the first parable. In the first parable, the field is the heart; but in the second parable, the field is the world.
In other words, God sows the sons of the kingdom in this world.
But while men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.
In the beginning, it was not noticed. But when the plants grew and began to bear fruit, the difference became clear.
The wheat, when it is full of fruit, bends down. But the tares bear a black seed and stand straight. At that time the servants of the Lord began to notice the difference.
They came to the master and said, “Didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Why then are there tares?”
The master said, “An enemy hath done this.” The servants asked whether they should go out and gather up the tares.
But the master said, “No. Do not do that, because their roots have already become intertwined. When you root out the tares, you may root out the wheat also. Let them grow together until the harvest, and the angels will come and separate them.”
Through these parables we understand that our Lord Jesus came into this world to sow the seed, the word of the kingdom. Those who receive this word become the sons of the kingdom of the heavens.
Our Lord sowed them into this world to be a testimony to the world until the day shall come when the kingdom of the heavens shall publicly appear upon this earth. Then everything will be clear.
The purpose for which our Lord came into this world was not just to save some people, but to bring them into His kingdom and train them, so that one day, when His kingdom appears on this earth, they shall reign with Him.
In Colossians 1, we read that He has delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to understand one thing: we are not only saved. Certainly, being saved is good; but we have been brought into the kingdom of the heavens.
Having been put into the kingdom of the heavens, our Lord will teach us how to live in that kingdom.
What is kingdom living? Even though we are on earth, because our life is from above, we should live a heavenly life upon this earth. That is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about.
In Matthew 4, we find that our Lord Jesus was preaching, and people came from all directions to hear Him.
Great crowds followed Him from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. When our Lord saw the crowds, He went up into the mountain.
Usually, when crowds came to our Lord, He was moved with compassion, because He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. He would go out to them, preach to them, and heal them.
But on this particular occasion, instead of going forward to the crowd, He retreated into the mountain. He sat down, and His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and spoke to them.
According to the tradition of the Latin church, this mountain is called the Horns of Hattin. It is situated near the Sea of Galilee, about seven miles from Capernaum.
The mountain has an upper level and a lower level. When the Lord spoke the words recorded in Matthew 5 through 7, He was at the top of the mountain. His disciples came to Him, and He sat down and opened His mouth.
In other words, the discourse in Matthew was given at the top of the mountain, and He spoke these words to His disciples.
Even though the crowd gradually came up and also heard these words, He did not address these words to the crowd. He addressed them particularly to His own disciples.
After this, let us turn to Luke 6. We will begin with verse 12.
And it came to pass in these days, that He went out into the mountain to pray; and He continued all night in prayer to God.
And when it was day, He called His disciples; and He chose from them twelve, whom also He named apostles.
And He came down with them, and stood on a level place, and a great multitude of His disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judaea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases.
And they that were troubled with unclean spirits were healed.
And all the multitude sought to touch Him: for power came forth from Him, and healed them all.
And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples, and said, Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
You notice here in Luke 6, first He called twelve disciples to be apostles. Then He descended from the mountain to a level place. A crowd of disciples and a great multitude of people gathered to Him.
Then He began, lifting up His eyes upon His disciples, and spoke.
Matthew and Luke have similarities, but there are also differences. In Matthew, the words are deeper and more mysterious, because He spoke these words to His disciples—those whom He had chosen.
In Luke 6, He was still speaking to His disciples, but there were crowds of disciples and a great multitude there. In other words, even though He directed His speech to His disciples, He had the crowds also in mind.
They seem to be similar, and yet they are different.
Now we ask a question, and I think this is very important to us: What does the Lord really say in the so-called Sermon on the Mount?
When you read Matthew 5 through 7, what is your impression? What do you think the Lord is trying to say to you, and how should you respond to His words?
Usually, we think of the Sermon on the Mount as our Lord Jesus giving us a new law—the law of the kingdom of the heavens.
Moses gave the law to the children of Israel for them to keep. If they kept the commandments, then they would be God’s people and God would be their God.
So people say that when our Lord Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount, He was giving a new law, the law of the kingdom of the heavens. He gave these laws for us to keep, and by keeping them we would become citizens of the kingdom.
Now there is a question: can anyone keep the words in the Sermon on the Mount?
If you have never tried, you may think that you can. But if you really study the Sermon on the Mount, take these words to heart, and really desire to do whatever the Lord has commanded, you will find that you cannot do it.
Many have tried, but the more you try, the more you feel that it is beyond you. By our natural life, we will never be able to fulfil these words.
Then why were these words given? What is the real meaning of these words?
We believe that the Sermon on the Mount is not a new law. It is not a law for us to keep, because this is humanly impossible.
There is only one Person who does keep these words, and that is our Lord Himself. When He was in this world, He literally fulfilled every word that He spoke.
He is altogether righteous. But aside from Him, there is no one who is able to keep these words.
What, then, are these words? What is the real meaning behind them? What do these words really tell us?
We believe that here in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord is telling us the character and nature of the kingdom of the heavens.
The kingdom of the heavens is very different from all the kingdoms upon this earth. In what way is it different?
The kingdom of the heavens takes its character from the King of the heavens. Here our Lord demonstrates to us Who He is and what He is.
When He was on this earth, it was as if He brought heaven upon this earth. He lived a heavenly life upon this earth, and this is what the kingdom of the heavens is like.
In other words, the kingdom of the heavens is characterized by the King Himself. He expresses Himself, and the Sermon on the Mount is a description of His life—the way He lived on this earth.
That is the way all the sons of the kingdom should live.
These words are not given as laws to be kept. These words are the description of a life, and they show us what this heavenly life is like.
If we live by that life, then we will live in this way. It is a matter of life; it is a matter of grace.
The Sermon on the Mount is not a law. It is grace. God has given us His own life. Our Lord Jesus Himself is our life, and He lives within us.
If we allow Him to live out through us, then this will be the way that we live.
Brothers and sisters, do not take the Sermon on the Mount as a law for us to keep. Rather, see that it is grace.
We thank God that His life is in us. With these words before us, we know how we should live by that life on this earth.
We are not as pure as our Lord Jesus. Even though we have His life within us, this life has a new nature, and this new nature is heavenward.
If we follow this nature, we will develop as our Lord Himself.
Unfortunately, we still have our old life within us. With that old life, we will never be able to perform the words in the Sermon on the Mount.
There is only one way to live out these words: we must live by the new life given to us.
That new life has been proven. It has been demonstrated on this earth. When our Lord was on earth, He demonstrated to us what this heavenly life is like. That is what the kingdom of the heavens is like.
The requirement is that we live by that life.
How do we enter into this life? How can we live by that life and not by the old life?
This is where the cross must work in us: to put that which is of the flesh to death, so that the new life may be able to take over.
This is why our Lord Jesus said:
If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
We are His disciples. We are to learn of Him. We are to be yoked together with Him.
You remember in Matthew 11 our Lord Jesus said:
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Brothers and sisters, we are not only saved; we are called to be disciples. We need to learn of Him and see how His life works.
But then we realize that we have an old life within us. That old life is still there, and it tries to live in the old way.
But thank God, He has given us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
Whenever our old life begins to raise its head, the Holy Spirit within us will remind us. The anointing within us will teach us in all things—big things and small things.
Whatever He teaches is true. If we obey His teaching, we abide in Christ.
Thank God, He has not only given us a new life, but He has given us the Holy Spirit, and He is within us teaching us.
Every believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him or in her. The Holy Spirit is teaching us daily, and what we need is to listen to His small voice.
When we obey the Holy Spirit, our old man, our flesh, is put to death, and the new life is given the opportunity to live.
At the same time, the Holy Spirit arranges our circumstances. He is the One who orders our environment.
To a believer, nothing comes by chance, because we are so precious to the Lord. The Holy Spirit arranges our daily life.
Whatever happens to us, there is a meaning behind it. The Holy Spirit tries to use these things to bring our old man, our flesh, to death and to release the new life.
So we need to learn. We need to deny ourselves. To deny ourselves is very simple: it means that I do not know you.
You remember Peter. He denied the Lord and said, “I do not know Him.” Unfortunately, he denied the wrong person. He should have denied himself. He should have said, “I do not know you.”
How often we do the same thing. Whenever our old man rises up, we should tell him, “I do not know you.”
Then we take up the cross and follow the Lord. By doing that, the Holy Spirit begins to do the work of transformation in our lives.
He will gradually transform us from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.
This is the way we enter into this heavenly life.
Now, brothers and sisters, when you read the Sermon on the Mount, what is your feeling? If you are honest, probably your feeling is one of condemnation.
The more you read the Sermon on the Mount, the more condemned you become. Why is this so? It is because you take the Sermon on the Mount as a law, and you try to keep it yourself.
This is beyond you. But this is not the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount.
The purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is actually an encouragement. It shows us how wonderful is the life God has given to us, and how wonderful is the Lord in us.
It encourages us to discover Him, to lean upon Him, and to trust in Him.
If we really trust in Him, this will be the result. That is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about.
This morning, I have only one burden: I hope every brother and sister will see the Sermon on the Mount from a different viewpoint.
Do not allow the Sermon on the Mount to condemn you. Rather, let it encourage you, knowing that with men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
If we can have this kind of attitude, then whenever we read the Sermon on the Mount and find that something is lacking, we look to the Lord and say, “With me it is impossible, but with You it is possible. I want to put my confidence in You.”
May the Lord help us. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, how we want to praise and thank Thee, because Thou lovest us so much. Thou hast not only given Thy life to us, but Thou hast shown us by Thy word how wonderful that life is, how practical that life is, and how livable that life is.
Dear Lord, we do ask Thee to enable us to truly lean upon Thy life, and let Thy life be released from and through us, that Thy name may be honoured and glorified.
Again, we commit ourselves to Thy word. May Thy Holy Spirit lead us into all truth, that Thy name may be honoured and glorified.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.