The Evidence Bible - Mattheus - Evangelisatie-materiaal.nl

165 Matthew 5
5:1
The Sermon on the Mount
This sermon not only reveals God’s divine nature,
it puts into our hands the most powerful
of evangelistic weapons. It is the greatest evangelistic
sermon ever preached by the greatest
evangelist who ever lived. The straightedge of
God’s Law reveals how crooked we are:
v. 3: The unregenerate heart isn’t poor in
spirit. It is proud, self-righteous, and boastful
(every man is pure in his own eyes—Proverbs
16:2).
v. 4: The unsaved don’t mourn over their
sin; they love the darkness and hate the light
(John 3:19).
v. 5: The ungodly are not meek and lowly
of heart. Their sinful condition is described in
Romans 3:13–18.
v. 6: Sinners don’t hunger and thirst after
righteousness. Instead, they drink iniquity like
water (Job 15:16).
v. 7: The world is shallow in its ability to
show true mercy. It is by nature cruel and vindictive
(Genesis 6:5).
v. 8: The heart of the unregenerate is not
pure; it is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).
Those who are born again manifest the
fruit of the Spirit, live godly in Christ Jesus (vv.
3–9), and therefore suffer persecution (vv.
10–12). However, their purpose on earth is to
be salt and light: to be a moral influence, and
to bring the light to those who sit in the shadow
of death (vv. 13–16).
Look now at how the Messiah expounds
the Law and makes it “honorable” (Isaiah
42:21). He establishes that He didn’t come to
destroy the Law (v. 17); not even the smallest
part of it will pass away (v. 18). It will be the
divine standard of judgment (James 2:12;
Romans 2:12; Acts 17:31). Those who teach it
“shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven”
(v. 19). The Law should be taught to sinners
because it was made for them (1 Timothy
1:8–10), and is a “schoolmaster” that brings
the “knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19,20; 7:7).
Its function is to destroy self-righteousness
and bring sinners to the cross (Galatians 3:24).
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees
was merely outward, but God requires
truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6). Jesus
shows this by unveiling the Law’s spiritual nature
(Romans 7:14). The Sixth Commandment
forbids murder. However, Jesus shows that it
also condemns anger “without cause,” and
even evil-speaking (vv. 21–26): “Every idle
word that men shall speak, they shall give an
account thereof in the day of judgment”
(Matthew 12:36). The Seventh Commandment
forbids adultery, but Jesus revealed that this
also includes lust, and it even condemns divorce,
except in the case of sexual sin of the
spouse (vv. 27–32).
Jesus opens up the Ninth Commandment
(vv. 33–37), and then shows that love is the
spirit of the Law—“The end of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart...” (1 Timothy
1:5). This is summarized in what is commonly
called the Golden Rule: “All things
whatsoever you would that men should do to
you, do you even so to them: for this is the
Law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12, emphasis
added). “Owe no man any thing, but
to love one another: for he that loves another
has fulfilled the law. For this, You shall not
commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall
not steal, You shall not bear false witness,
You shall not covet; and if there be any other
commandment, it is briefly comprehended in
this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbor:
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law”
(Romans 13:8–10).
When a sinner is born again he is able to
do this (vv. 38–47). He now possesses “the divine
nature” (2 Peter 1:4). In Christ he is made
perfect and thus satisfies the demands of a
“perfect” Law (Psalm 19:7; James 1:25). Without
the righteousness of Christ he cannot be
perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect (v.
48). The Law annihilated his self-righteousness
leaving him undone and condemned. His only
hope was in the cross of Jesus Christ. After his
conversion, knowledge of the Law that
brought him there keeps him at the foot of
the cross.
John Wesley said, “Therefore I cannot
spare the Law one moment, no more than I
can spare Christ, seeing I now want it as much
to keep me to Christ, as I ever wanted it to
bring me to Him. Otherwise this ‘evil heart of
unbelief’ would immediately ‘depart from the
living God.’ Indeed each is continually sending
me to the other—the Law to Christ, and Christ
to the Law.”