JESUS' SERMON ON THE MOUNT SERMON SERIES4. The Second Step |
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Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The first step on the road to heaven is to fell our need. If we don't feel our need, we won't look for a solution. The person who doesn't think they are sick does not go to the doctor. To be poor is not a pleasant thing. But Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The second step on the road to heaven is to regret our sins.
Jesus said,
Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted."
Jesus is talking about a spiritual mourning. How do we know that? In the previous verse He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Jesus is talking about spiritual things.
Today we will talk about the necessity of feeling sorry for our sins. But before we do I want to do a review.
Who are the ones who are poor in spirit? The poor in spirit are the ones that know they can't save themselves and they can't do any good thing by themselves. The opposite of this is pride and ego. Ego thinks that its own efforts are able to satisfy God by doing what He wants. Ego thinks it is worthy of heaven. Ego feels no lack. Ego does not learn anything.
In the New Testament we see both the example of ego and the example of someone who mourns because of their sins.
Luke 18:9-14 9Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 'I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' 13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' 14 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
The pride that the Pharisee exhibited was unclean before God. Everything good comes from God. We cannot do anything without Him. We can't take a breath, we can't think we can't move without Him. We can't do anything. Whatever talents we have, they came from God. We don't have anything to boast about in front of Him.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 23Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; 24 But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.
There is another truth. Some people reduce sin as a concept to such a light thing that they think they can compensate for the damage of sin by doing good works. This logic belittles God's law, His justice and His holiness. People reduce the holiness that God requires to the level of something that they can do themselves, they reduce morality to their own level. And that isn't all, they think that God will accept this reduced morality. But the holiness that God expects is the holiness that God expected from Adam who was created perfect in the Garden of Eden. But after rebelling, Adam and his descendents could not offer this holiness in their fallen condition. You cannot offer up the expected holiness naturally. The holiness that was expected is an absolute perfect holiness without a taint of selfishness in it.
You lied. You went to the house of prayer and you prostrated yourself. You did right. But do you think that by doing so you compensated for your sin? Do you think that because you prayed you made atonement for your sin? God is more holy than that. God's law is more holy than that. The justice that God expects is greater than that. You cannot provide atonement by doing some good deed. Don't consider yourself good like the Pharisee.
What did God say to Adam and Eve?
Genesis 2:17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
The price of sin was not to pray. Prayer would not atone for their sins. A pilgrimage would not atone for their sins. Memorizing prayers would not compensate the damage made by sin. Evil eye beads and hanging verses on the wall would not compensate for sin. It cannot compensate. What is the price of sin? Death. This is God's holiness. God's tolerance for sin in the universe is zero. Zero. Sin will not remain in heaven. Everything will be perfect there.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
One day God will destroy all sin and everyone who embraces it and sin will not remain in the universe. He promised. The death in which God will destroy sinners is eternal death. There is not resurrection from it. This is God's justice. Not one sin will remain.
By doing your 5 times regular prayer how will you pay the price of eternal death? Will you pay the price of eternal death by reading verses and going on a pilgrimage? Don't be deceived! These do not compensate. But people, like the Pharisee, think that they are good enough to go to heaven. What a delusion!
Romans 3:10-20 10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." 13 "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips"; 14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." 19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
You cannot make atonement for your sins by doing good works. Why? God's law requires perfect obedience. The wages of sin is eternal death. Have you ever sinned? The Bible says all have sinned. That means in your defiled condition you cannot enter heaven. The only thing that remains is eternal death.
You say, "God will forgive." If God forgave without obtaining the atonement for sin then there would be no justice with God. The law and its punishment would have no meaning.
Suppose that you are married. Your neighbor rapes your wife. Your neighbor says to the judge, "I am sorry, I won't do it again." Your neighbor forgives your neighbor and sets him free. You say to the judge, "Where is justice? My neighbor rapes my wife and you set him free. It didn't cost my neighbor anything." The judge says, "I am the judge. I do what I want. Some people I penalize, some I set free."
According to you is the judge just? No, because there was no penalty for raping your wife. The next man will say, "Let me do the same thing, maybe I will get forgiven." If that happened then there would be no justice, no morality.
Friends, every sin must meet its punishment otherwise there is no justice.
If that is the way it is, who can be saved? The Lord Himself provided a solution. He provided an atonement. The price was extremely high. We call this atonement the gospel.
When Jesus came in the likeness of humanity, He became the head and representative of the race. God put the penalty of all sin on Him. Jesus became the sacrifice, the sin offering for all humanity. When we accept Jesus' sacrifice by faith, God puts the Spirit of Christ into us by means of the Holy Spirit. In this way we become spiritually united to Jesus. Jesus paid the penalty of sin and the law remains in its place. But God does not simply erase the record of sin. When the Spirit of Jesus is in us it changes our lives. The Spirit of Jesus, who committed no sin, changes us to be like Jesus.
This salvation takes place when we accept Jesus as our sacrifice by faith.
When we see Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, we can understand a little bit about the price of sin. When we see the bleeding victim on the cross by faith, we can understand a little bit about how serious sin is in God's sight. When we see Jesus suffering naked, we can say, "What is sin that in order to forgive me this kind of pain was necessary?"
When we see Jesus who carried our sins and suffered for us then we are sorry for our sins and we mourn. Then we can appreciate Jesus' words more fully.
Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted."
How about you? Have you taken the second step on the road to heaven? Are you poor in spirit? Are you someone who knows that you cannot save yourself and that you can do nothing good in and of yourself? If that is true then you are poor in spirit and ready to take the second step. The second step is to see Jesus paying the price for your sins on the cross. Look at Jesus, God's sacrificial lamb. For you and for me.
Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted."
Yes, the gospel comforts us. Believe the gospel!
The first step on the road to heaven is to fell our need. If we don't feel our need, we won't look for a solution. The person who doesn't think they are sick does not go to the doctor. To be poor is not a pleasant thing. But Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The second step on the road to heaven is to regret our sins.
Jesus said,
Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted."
Jesus is talking about a spiritual mourning. How do we know that? In the previous verse He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Jesus is talking about spiritual things.
Today we will talk about the necessity of feeling sorry for our sins. But before we do I want to do a review.
Who are the ones who are poor in spirit? The poor in spirit are the ones that know they can't save themselves and they can't do any good thing by themselves. The opposite of this is pride and ego. Ego thinks that its own efforts are able to satisfy God by doing what He wants. Ego thinks it is worthy of heaven. Ego feels no lack. Ego does not learn anything.
In the New Testament we see both the example of ego and the example of someone who mourns because of their sins.
Luke 18:9-14 9Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 'I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' 13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' 14 "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
The pride that the Pharisee exhibited was unclean before God. Everything good comes from God. We cannot do anything without Him. We can't take a breath, we can't think we can't move without Him. We can't do anything. Whatever talents we have, they came from God. We don't have anything to boast about in front of Him.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 23Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; 24 But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.
There is another truth. Some people reduce sin as a concept to such a light thing that they think they can compensate for the damage of sin by doing good works. This logic belittles God's law, His justice and His holiness. People reduce the holiness that God requires to the level of something that they can do themselves, they reduce morality to their own level. And that isn't all, they think that God will accept this reduced morality. But the holiness that God expects is the holiness that God expected from Adam who was created perfect in the Garden of Eden. But after rebelling, Adam and his descendents could not offer this holiness in their fallen condition. You cannot offer up the expected holiness naturally. The holiness that was expected is an absolute perfect holiness without a taint of selfishness in it.
You lied. You went to the house of prayer and you prostrated yourself. You did right. But do you think that by doing so you compensated for your sin? Do you think that because you prayed you made atonement for your sin? God is more holy than that. God's law is more holy than that. The justice that God expects is greater than that. You cannot provide atonement by doing some good deed. Don't consider yourself good like the Pharisee.
What did God say to Adam and Eve?
Genesis 2:17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
The price of sin was not to pray. Prayer would not atone for their sins. A pilgrimage would not atone for their sins. Memorizing prayers would not compensate the damage made by sin. Evil eye beads and hanging verses on the wall would not compensate for sin. It cannot compensate. What is the price of sin? Death. This is God's holiness. God's tolerance for sin in the universe is zero. Zero. Sin will not remain in heaven. Everything will be perfect there.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
One day God will destroy all sin and everyone who embraces it and sin will not remain in the universe. He promised. The death in which God will destroy sinners is eternal death. There is not resurrection from it. This is God's justice. Not one sin will remain.
By doing your 5 times regular prayer how will you pay the price of eternal death? Will you pay the price of eternal death by reading verses and going on a pilgrimage? Don't be deceived! These do not compensate. But people, like the Pharisee, think that they are good enough to go to heaven. What a delusion!
Romans 3:10-20 10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." 13 "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips"; 14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." 19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
You cannot make atonement for your sins by doing good works. Why? God's law requires perfect obedience. The wages of sin is eternal death. Have you ever sinned? The Bible says all have sinned. That means in your defiled condition you cannot enter heaven. The only thing that remains is eternal death.
You say, "God will forgive." If God forgave without obtaining the atonement for sin then there would be no justice with God. The law and its punishment would have no meaning.
Suppose that you are married. Your neighbor rapes your wife. Your neighbor says to the judge, "I am sorry, I won't do it again." Your neighbor forgives your neighbor and sets him free. You say to the judge, "Where is justice? My neighbor rapes my wife and you set him free. It didn't cost my neighbor anything." The judge says, "I am the judge. I do what I want. Some people I penalize, some I set free."
According to you is the judge just? No, because there was no penalty for raping your wife. The next man will say, "Let me do the same thing, maybe I will get forgiven." If that happened then there would be no justice, no morality.
Friends, every sin must meet its punishment otherwise there is no justice.
If that is the way it is, who can be saved? The Lord Himself provided a solution. He provided an atonement. The price was extremely high. We call this atonement the gospel.
When Jesus came in the likeness of humanity, He became the head and representative of the race. God put the penalty of all sin on Him. Jesus became the sacrifice, the sin offering for all humanity. When we accept Jesus' sacrifice by faith, God puts the Spirit of Christ into us by means of the Holy Spirit. In this way we become spiritually united to Jesus. Jesus paid the penalty of sin and the law remains in its place. But God does not simply erase the record of sin. When the Spirit of Jesus is in us it changes our lives. The Spirit of Jesus, who committed no sin, changes us to be like Jesus.
This salvation takes place when we accept Jesus as our sacrifice by faith.
When we see Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, we can understand a little bit about the price of sin. When we see the bleeding victim on the cross by faith, we can understand a little bit about how serious sin is in God's sight. When we see Jesus suffering naked, we can say, "What is sin that in order to forgive me this kind of pain was necessary?"
When we see Jesus who carried our sins and suffered for us then we are sorry for our sins and we mourn. Then we can appreciate Jesus' words more fully.
Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted."
How about you? Have you taken the second step on the road to heaven? Are you poor in spirit? Are you someone who knows that you cannot save yourself and that you can do nothing good in and of yourself? If that is true then you are poor in spirit and ready to take the second step. The second step is to see Jesus paying the price for your sins on the cross. Look at Jesus, God's sacrificial lamb. For you and for me.
Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted."
Yes, the gospel comforts us. Believe the gospel!