Podcasts about Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5:1-11 This is a THMC EM sermon by Pastor Sam Bang spoken at Ttokamsa Home Mission Church in Los Angeles, CA. To watch the full Sunday service, please visit our Youtube and visit us on our Website or our Instagram for updates.

Old Testament: 1 Chronicles 5 1 Chronicles 5 (Listen) Descendants of Reuben 5 The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son; 2 though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph), 3 the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. 4 The sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son, 5 Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son, 6 Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-pileser1 king of Assyria carried away into exile; he was a chief of the Reubenites. 7 And his kinsmen by their clans, when the genealogy of their generations was recorded: the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah, 8 and Bela the son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel, who lived in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-meon. 9 He also lived to the east as far as the entrance of the desert this side of the Euphrates, because their livestock had multiplied in the land of Gilead. 10 And in the days of Saul they waged war against the Hagrites, who fell into their hand. And they lived in their tents throughout all the region east of Gilead. Descendants of Gad 11 The sons of Gad lived over against them in the land of Bashan as far as Salecah: 12 Joel the chief, Shapham the second, Janai, and Shaphat in Bashan. 13 And their kinsmen according to their fathers' houses: Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jacan, Zia and Eber, seven. 14 These were the sons of Abihail the son of Huri, son of Jaroah, son of Gilead, son of Michael, son of Jeshishai, son of Jahdo, son of Buz. 15 Ahi the son of Abdiel, son of Guni, was chief in their fathers' houses, 16 and they lived in Gilead, in Bashan and in its towns, and in all the pasturelands of Sharon to their limits. 17 All of these were recorded in genealogies in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel. 18 The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had valiant men who carried shield and sword, and drew the bow, expert in war, 44,760, able to go to war. 19 They waged war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab. 20 And when they prevailed2 over them, the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hands, for they cried out to God in the battle, and he granted their urgent plea because they trusted in him. 21 They carried off their livestock: 50,000 of their camels, 250,000 sheep, 2,000 donkeys, and 100,000 men alive. 22 For many fell, because the war was of God. And they lived in their place until the exile. The Half-Tribe of Manasseh 23 The members of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land. They were very numerous from Bashan to Baal-hermon, Senir, and Mount Hermon. 24 These were the heads of their fathers' houses: Epher,3 Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty warriors, famous men, heads of their fathers' houses. 25 But they broke faith with the God of their fathers, and whored after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. 26 So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, the spirit of Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and he took them into exile, namely, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river Gozan, to this day. Footnotes [1] 5:6 Hebrew Tilgath-pilneser; also verse 26 [2] 5:20 Or they were helped to prevail [3] 5:24 Septuagint, Vulgate; Hebrew and Epher (ESV) Psalm: Psalm 3 Psalm 3 (Listen) Save Me, O My God A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. 3   O LORD, how many are my foes!    Many are rising against me;2   many are saying of my soul,    “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah1 3   But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,    my glory, and the lifter of my head.4   I cried aloud to the LORD,    and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah 5   I lay down and slept;    I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.6   I will not be afraid of many thousands of people    who have set themselves against me all around. 7   Arise, O LORD!    Save me, O my God!  For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;    you break the teeth of the wicked. 8   Salvation belongs to the LORD;    your blessing be on your people! Selah Footnotes [1] 3:2 The meaning of the Hebrew word Selah, used frequently in the Psalms, is uncertain. It may be a musical or liturgical direction (ESV) New Testament: Matthew 5 Matthew 5 (Listen) The Sermon on the Mount 5 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. The Beatitudes 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons1 of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Salt and Light 13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that2 they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Christ Came to Fulfill the Law 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Anger 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother3 will be liable to judgment; whoever insults4 his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!' will be liable to the hell5 of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.6 Lust 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Divorce 31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Oaths 33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes' or ‘No'; anything more than this comes from evil.7 Retaliation 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,8 let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Love Your Enemies 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers,9 what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Footnotes [1] 5:9 Greek huioi; see Preface [2] 5:16 Or house. 16Let your light so shine before others that [3] 5:22 Some manuscripts insert without cause [4] 5:22 Greek says Raca to (a term of abuse) [5] 5:22 Greek Gehenna; also verses 29, 30 [6] 5:26 Greek kodrantes, Roman copper coin (Latin quadrans) worth about 1/64 of a denarius (which was a day's wage for a laborer) [7] 5:37 Or the evil one [8] 5:40 Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin [9] 5:47 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters (ESV)

Matthew 5:27-32 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Divorce 31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Choose to make rest a non-negotiable rhythm in your life. Genesis 2:2 (NIV)   Proverbs 3:7-8 (NIV) Rest is not vacating our reality - but reordering it around Christ. Rest is not the absence of activity - but the presence of partnership with the Lord. “If we have to resist rest to maintain momentum, it's not the Lord's energy we are trusting”. – Zack Eswine Rest is the foundation of work - not the other way around. Rest is best experienced from slowing - not always sprinting. Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) 2 invitations from Jesus: 1. Come to me. 2. Take my yoke upon you. “The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of principles to be obeyed apart from identification with Jesus Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting his way with us.” In other words, no one ever says, “If you want to be a great athlete, go vault eighteen feet, run the mile under four minutes,” or “If you want to be a great musician, play the Beethoven violin concerto.” Instead, we advise the young artist or athlete to enter a certain kind of overall life, one involving deep associations with qualified people as well as rigorously scheduled time, diet, and activity for the mind and body.” - Oswald Chambers

Pastor Thomas Hwang

Pastor Thomas Hwang

Join us for a  summer-long series that covers Christ's “Sermon on the Mount.”. We'll be talking about a vast amount of topics such as divorce, prayer and fasting, giving, and attitude.  Partner with us financially: https://thrivechurchwausau.churchcent... Check out our website: www.thrive715.com Check out our Facebook. www.Facebook.com/thrive.715 Check out our Instagram: www.Instagram.com/thrive.715/ Find our podcast on Spotify, Google Podcast and Apple Podcast: ThriveChurchwi

Jesus has just shown us how to live an upright and righteous life. Now he's going to issue a warning for those who do so! Today, we discuss why it is so important to practice our righteousness in secret - especially when it comes to our giving.   Title: Secret Giving Series: Sermon on the Mount Text: Matthew 6:1-4 Speaker: Garrett Sanchez

People talk a lot these days about “living your best life.” The one person in history who actually pulled it off was Jesus Christ. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus revealed how we, also, can live our best life. Join us on Sunday mornings as Dr. Gordon Dabbs shares how to apply Jesus' extraordinary teachings to life. Decide to listen to Jesus and start living your best life!Subscribe to PRESTONCREST - with Gordon Dabbs on Soundwise

Learning the (Unexpected) Way of Jesus: Before anyone was known as a Christian, Jesus' early followers were called "The Way." Why? Because they followed the way of Jesus, which is radically different from every other philosophy or religion throughout the history of time. Today, we look at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, which shows eight unexpected ways to live that result in a life of blessing. Recorded on July 3, 2022, on Matthew 5, by Pastor David Parks. This message is part of our sermon series "The Unexpected Way," from the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7 in the Bible. The way of Jesus is totally unique, it's different from every other way of life, philosophy, or religion. Why? Because the teaching of Jesus — emphasizing holiness, humility, justice, faith, and sacrificial love — leads to a whole new gospel-centered ethic. This ancient ethic, if actually practiced, has the power to bring abundant love and joy and peace to anyone, anywhere today. This is the way. Sermon Transcript So today is the first sermon in our brand new annual theme of Learning the way of Jesus. For the last two years, we've focused primarily on the story of who God is, what God has done, and what God is doing through his Son and Spirit. This story is what Christians call the gospel. For the next year, we'll be asking the question, “If the gospel is true, how then should we live?” As Christians, we never graduate from the gospel, but if the gospel is true, then it has huge implications for the rest of our lives. So if the gospel is true, how then should we live? Well, the answer is rooted in learning a new way of life, which is the way of Jesus. Before anyone was called a Christian, they were known as The Way, because they followed the way of Jesus. And that's what every sermon series in this annual theme will be about, learning the way of Jesus. Because if the gospel is true, and Jesus is truly the Lord and Savior of our lives, if Jesus is truly the Son of God who died on the cross and rose from the dead, then we must at least listen to him. But if Jesus isn't who he claimed to be, if the gospel isn't true, then none of this matters. We'll start our first sermon series called The Unexpected Way, by exploring a very famous teaching of Jesus which is known as the Sermon on the Mount. What we'll see in this series is that the way of Jesus is radically different from every other philosophy or religion that has ever existed. Why? Because the teaching of Jesus — emphasizing holiness, humility, justice, faith, and sacrificial love — leads to a whole new gospel-centered ethic. This ancient ethic, if actually practiced, has the power to bring abundant love and joy and peace to anyone, anywhere today. This is the way. However, when you dig into the way of Jesus, you find something surprising. At every turn, it's not what you would expect. It's truly The Unexpected Way. If you have a Bible/app, please open to Matthew 5:1. Matthew 5:1-12 (NIV), “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew, also known as Levi,

We take a break from our series in the Sermon on the Mount to talk about communion, the Lords Supper or Eucharist and what it means and why we do it.

You have to be hungry in order to be happy. . .at least that's what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Discover how the power of hunger and and thirst in the quest for living your best life as Gordon Dabbs, Ph.D., unpacks a cornerstone teaching of Jesus. About the series. . . People talk a lot these days about “living your best life.” The one person in history who actually pulled it off was Jesus Christ. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus revealed how we, also, can live our best life. Join us on Sunday mornings as Dr. Gordon Dabbs shares how to apply Jesus' extraordinary teachings to life. Decide to listen to Jesus and start living your best life!Subscribe to PRESTONCREST - with Gordon Dabbs on Soundwise

On the heels of explaining the Biblical ethic on lust, Jesus explains divorce.  Hear Jesus' teaching on the subject in this episode.

Beatitudes/Sermon On The Mount---- A different way than you have heard them before! Books: amazon.com/Richard-A-Hardin/e/B09J2YHCVB Email: rhardin77@yahoo.com Weekly: M-F, &-8AM; Sat-Sun, 6-8AM (CST). ****Richard Hardin, POBox 45684, OKC,OK 73145 ****We must be very careful to compare what we hear from our ministers with what the Bible says because it is a matter of an eternity of life or death in many cases! ****Today I will share the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount in a way you probably have not heard. Remember Jesus' main concern was that we all be born again of the Spirit of Christ in our hearts, and these Beatitudes helped the people of the OT understand what He meant. You will see that most of the time the individual verses in the Beatitudes are completely misused in radio and TV commercials, banners and signs. Also, Jesus was teaching about the attitudes and beliefs in our hearts as to where our "sins" exist and not just what we see with our eyes. on @KLRNRadio.com 6AM CST Sun #GPWF #Christian at rahardin.com, Pods

In this message from the Sermon on the Mount, Pastor John encourages us to look at the structure of our lives. Whether you're religious, irreligious, or something in between, you are building your life upon something solid. At least, you hope it's solid. And as we see in one of Jesus' shortest parables, all of us will one day have those seemingly solid foundations tested. The question is not whether the test will come. The question is, What will that test reveal?

If there was a list of the top 10 sermons ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount would be #1. It is powerful, inspiring and memorable. But it is also confusing. Can we actually live it out? Or is it only for the future when Jesus returns? In this teaching series you will be challenged to rethink life, relationships and success through the eyes of God, and we hope you will be inspired by Jesus' vision of a better future.

What's up church. How we doing? It's good to see all of you here. It Frederick. Good to see all of you at Nyah. Good to have all of you online. Just say this. I did one of those baptisms. That's the fastest changing I've ever done in my entire life. I it was, it was fun cuz I knew a couple of those kiddos and so I just wanted to be out there and see both of them get baptized and I cut it a little short on time, so. Alright. We're good. Everybody settle down or Sean settle down and we're ready to go. So I want you to get to Matthew chapter five. We've been there for six weeks. If you're just kind of showing up today, we've been there for six weeks and going through this series called Jesus manifesto where we've been kind of tracking through the beginning of the sermon on the Mount. And so the beginning of the sermon on the Mount, it's called to be attitudes and there are eight of them and we're in number six and number six says this, Jesus just makes a statement. He says blessed or blessed. You could say, I've got my king James going on. Blessed are the pure in spirit are pure in heart for, they will see God blessed are the pure in heart for, they will see God. It's interesting. I think no matter if you're sitting at NIWA, you're sitting right here in the room at Fred or you're online. There's nobody that kind of says, what does it mean? Like pure, pure in heart or purity. When we talk about relationships, like we talk about relational purity. I think every single person gets it now guys, interesting thing this year is my 25th anniversary with my wife, Jen. Pretty cool. Right? And it's all, all 25 years have been marital bliss. I mean, that's what, I don't know what she would say, but no marriages can be difficult. Can it, but, but I tell you this man, the commitment and being together for 25 years and the things that we've gone through and seen, and then just how sweet, you know, as you grow and you mature things just get better when you're working on things, man. It's good. But when we talk about relational purity in the context of those 25 years, I don't think anybody's confused what that looks like. Like when we sit here right now, we would say, okay, that means that Sean only has eyes for Jen. Right? We talk about the context of relational purity. It means she's the one I pursued. There's not other interests. Like my eyes, aren't wandering to other things. We just moved in this new community or a new neighborhood north side of Firestone and it's got a pool and our kids go down the pool. We don't normally go down the pool hardly at all, but I'll go down and play with the kids a little bit, whatever, but let's say we did. Let's say Jen and I went down to the pool and we just kind of hung out on a couple lawn chairs. Kids are playing in the pool. We're having a good time. We're taking in some rays and let's say an attractive young female walks by. And let's say that I did this, took the sunglasses man. What would happen in that moment? Like my wife would probably, after she slapped the snot outta me, right? She would look at me and say, what are you looking at? Because when we talk about relational purity, ma'am relational purity starts with us having eyes for one person. Right? And when, when we have wandering eyes, nothing good happens from that. Like you just know in the context of relationships, when somebody has wandering eyes just constantly and consistently, and there's always an issue of that, man, we alone relationally that can lead to all kinds of stuff. Even biblically. It talks about in relationships that wandering eyes lead to lust, wandering eyes lead to this one big word that we can talk about. We all know adultery, right? Purity and relationships means I have eyes for one. Now. It's interesting. When we talk about relational purity, we get it. But let's step back for a second. When we go into what Jesus is talking about, he says blessed of the pure and heart he's talking about spiritually there. So what does it mean to have spiritual purity? It's interesting to note that when you go to scripture and you just look throughout scripture, it's very similar. Like the language that is used for spiritual purity and spiritual impurity is the same. Basically. If you go through the new Testament, the new Testament writers say, here's what Jesus said. They repeat that. Then they add their own color to that and say relational purity is having eyes for one, having eyes for God. Relational impurity is having wandering eyes or a wandering heart. And it talks about it in the context uses the same exact words. When it gets to impurity, it says wandering hearts lead to things and it use the same exact language leads to lust for the desires of this world, leads to cheating, uses that word and it uses the big one adultery now alt tree, Matthew chapter five, verse eight, Jesus nails it out. And he says blessed to the pure heart for, they will see God blessed to the pure heart because they have eyes for God and for God only. So my question to you would be who do you have eyes for? Who do you have eyes for spiritually speaking? Where are your eyes trained to look? Because here's what you know. And it's exactly why my wife would. I only have eyes for her, but if that happened, my wife would look at me and say, what are you looking at? Because what she knows is our, our hearts have a tendency to follow what our eyes are focused on. And it's the same spiritually. You know, this, your heart has a tendency to follow what your eyes are focused on. So who do you have eyes for? Again? Jesus says blessed to the pure hearts for, they will see God when you read the Bible is seriously clear. It is abundantly clear. You cannot miss this. Jesus cares deeply about your heart. Like when we think about the thing that Jesus cares about most it is your heart. Why? Because your heart reflects your true character. Everything you say, everything, you do, everything. You think everything about you comes out of the overflow of your heart. And because of that, the Bible says you gotta guard. It proves 4 23 says, guard your hearts, bubble, all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. And what is in your hearts will come out through every part of your life. And the interesting thing is Jesus cares about your heart. Here's what he says is Jesus came to change your heart, not just your conduct. You see what most of us feel like is is that the Christian life or the spiritual life is a list of a code of conduct. That if we do these things, God will bless us and God will take care of us. Here's what you need to understand is the spiritual life like purity of heart, keeping our eyes on God. It's not just a code of conduct. God cares less about your conduct. He cares more about the condition of your heart. We could say it this way. God cares less about your sin and more about the condition of your heart. And he might sit there and say, whoa, I thought God really cared about sin and hated sin. He does. But he actually cares more of the condition and the attitude and the direction of your heart than he cares about what you actually do. And there's so many evidences of that in scripture you take David, how could David be a man after God's own heart? David King, David who committed adultery and murder. He didn't just go like this. He went there and God said, you know what? David did mess up. But David confessed, he came back to God and God said, you know what? David from the beginning has always had a heart that no matter what he did wrong, he's always come back to me for some of us that might be helpful in the moment to know that God cares less about your sin. And he cares more about the condition of your heart. So not just who are your eyes trained to look back, but where is your heart? What is your heart connecting with when it's spiritually? Now it's interesting when Jesus talks about this idea of caring less about your sin and more about the condition of your heart, he actually uses a word. There's, there's a word later in the passage that we've just talked about. He actually uses the word adultery and here's an interesting thought Jesus would not be okay. Like it wouldn't be okay with him. If there was just, let's say in our tri towns area, in the Nyah area, Longmont area, let's say on the front range, if there were no acts of adultery and we're like, that would be good, man. Not some of you like I've seen that in my family. That would be really good. Jesus would not be satisfied with that. And he says it in Matthew chapter five versus 27, 28, he says, you've heard it said you shall not commit adultery. So he's acknowledging that's 10 commandments, right? But what's the 10 commandments. It's a code of conduct. What's the B attitudes. It's deeper issues of the heart in talking about character. He says, you've heard it said you should not commit adultery. But I say to you raise the bar that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in their heart because Jesus knows that our heart goes to what our eyes are focused on. So what's in our heart will come out through our actions ultimately. So Jesus says I'm not waiting all the way down to line to the symptoms of what's already into your heart. When they come out, I'm concerned with your heart right now because your heart is gonna do some things. If there is negative in there, if there's sinful in there, it's gonna come out through your life and it will hurt you. And Jesus says, man, I am the only one that can help you get past that and experience a different life. Man, Jesus is deeply concerned with our heart for Samuels Samuels 16 seven says, man, looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the hearts. Man, Jesus did not come into our world just to try to fix a few bad habits. Jesus came into our world to fix some broken hearts and to give us new hearts that could change the world we live in. So what Jesus mean, bless her to the pure heart for, they will see God. What does he mean by a pure heart? Now we talked about eyes only for God, but let's, let's go a little bit deeper. What's Jesus actually talking about. It's interesting in James chapter four, James is the brother of Jesus. If you didn't know that and James chapter four versus four through 10, we'll just kind of go through it. He uses some of the same language. So just listen with me and we're gonna read it. You don't have to go there cause I'm gonna read it in a different version. We're gonna read it in the message, which is a paraphrase. It's not actually a translation, but it's a paraphrase. And it's right down the lines of what Jesus is saying right here. Here's how he says it. James four, four through six, he says, you're cheating God. And that that's pretty pointed. He says, you're cheating. God. If all you want your own way, flirting with the world, every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose that God doesn't care? The proverb has it. He's a fiercely jealous lover. I mean, just notice the language we've already talked about. He said, GE Jesus, God is like, he is after you. He can't keep his eyes off of you. You're the only thing in his sights. He's pursuing you. He loves you. He wants what's best for you. He is a fiercely jealous lover. And what's he jealous of is you going toward other competing things because he knows it's not best. What happens is we go through those things and we do those things. And we end up on the backside going, dang, that wasn't best. God's saying, I'm trying to save you from that. He says, he's a fiercely jealous lover. And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you will ever find message. Version says, you're cheating God. The new international version, which we usually use says you adulterous people and he's talking to church people. If you're sitting here today and you never committed your life to Christ, man, you just, you can listen, but this isn't pointed toward you because you haven't made that commitment to him. You're not in that relationship with him. And I think you should be. And I think the best comes out of that. And we tell you how to do that. But, but he's talking to Christians and he says, you adulterous people. And he's not talking about people who are breaking their marriage vows. He's talking about everyone whose heart is divided from commitment to the world and commitment to God. People who have wandering eyes that they're going after all of these other things that are leading them away from God. Only one thing can have our focus. And James is talking about this idea of a pure heart, same thing as Jesus. And what's interesting about it is he takes a little bit different take when James talks about purity of heart, he's talking about the issue and the idea of wholeness. So think the word integrity for a second. We know how we would describe integrity, but let me give you some history. The word integrity actually comes from the word integer. Like if you won't go all the back to like your math days, like way back, like I can't even remember those days, but you wanna go all the way back to school, age stuff. And you think about math, man. You know what an integer is or an integer it's, it's a whole number, right? It means some of you just like, oh yeah, I forgot that. Right? It's a whole number. It's it's not a decimal. It's not a fraction. It's the idea of something not being part, but being the whole, you see, that's where we get our word integrity. Now what's interesting is you don't, let's take it a step further. You don't just get the word integrity from that word. You also get the word integration. Now think about this. Let's just track this for a second. You and I, we know what segregation is. Segregation is when you take people or things and you divide them by their differences. And we know from history, that's not good. What integration is is no matter what our differences are, no matter what the parts of the whole, no matter if we have different ideas, different thoughts, different backgrounds, different skin colors, different gifts, different. We don't segregate those things. Integration is bringing all those things together in one huge human family, right? And we would say that's best because we learn from each other. And at the core of who we are, we're all the same. We are created in the image of God. That's integration. So think about it this way. A lot of people, they segregate their lives. Think it of it like a pie. They take their life and they segregate it into different slices of the pie. And that's what James is talking about right here. He's saying, we just say, you know, here's my church friends and here's my work friends and here's my school friends and here's my party friends and here's my family life. And here's my work life. And here's my sports life. And here's my hobby life. And here's my secret life. Don't want anybody to know about. And we segregate all those different parts as what happens in most people's lives is as they flow through those different parts of the pie, they're different in each of those places. Like, I'll be honest. Like there's probably today. There's some of you sitting here and feeling a little bit because you know, you walk in and you say hi to the church family. Like, Hey, what's up? How's it going guys? Everything's good. And going, and you're heading out tomorrow or Friday night. And if somebody sees you with those friends, not that you shouldn't have those friends, but it's a different action and attitude and language and everything else between this place and that place, somebody that stand up and we worship. And then we sleep around on Monday. And what James is saying is, dude, that's cheating on God. He's saying integrity is not the parts of the pie. That's not integration. He's saying integrity is the filling that goes through the whole pie. Like your life. That's what we're supposed. You wanna talk about purity of heart. It's keeping our eyes focused on one thing and making sure that one things fills every parts of the pie for us. Then when you're hanging with your church friends and you're hanging with your work friends and you're hanging with your family and you're hanging with your sports buddies or, or your ladies now, whatever it might be, there is a similarity to all of those things that invades it. And we can say, yes, my eyes are still on God. And for some of us, we kind of sit back and we're like, no, I, I don't know if that would really be true. And what James is saying is, man, we've got to integrate God into every part of our life. And that is purity of heart. And that is something beautiful. So big question is like, how do we do that? Like how do we create purity heart? Can I just stop for a second and say this? You can't. You're like great, Sean. That was really helpful today. really appreciate that. No, you just need to understand. I need to understand. We all need to understand that purity of heart is not something you achieve. It is something you receive. Let me say that again. Purity of heart is not something you achieve. It is something that you receive. Like we know the story of scripture. What Jesus did is he came here to a world of people who'd segregated. Their life messed up their life. That sin was as they had taken their eyes off of God, we've wondered. And each and every one of us, we have sinned for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God, Roman chapters three verse 23 says it. And there had to be something paid for that impurity because what impurity does is it distance us from God, just like sitting there. If I were to do this, man, my wife, her heart is gonna go P it's the same thing with God. Sin separates us from God. But what Jesus did on the cross is he came and he, because he could not keep his eyes off of you. He pursued you. You're the one thing he kept his eyes on. And he said, I love these people so much that I'm gonna come. And I'm the only perfect one. The only one with purity of heart. And he came and he allowed that pure heart and life and soul and body to be crucified on a cross. And what he says is for you and me, is that because he was the one who was perfect enough to pay that penalty. Then he was the one that was able to give, to give that freedom to anyone who asked man, guys, purity of heart. There's so much good. And we're gonna talk about it in a second, but there's so much good impurity of heart. It clears our, our, the spiritual blindness away from us. It brings us closer to God. It feels good. It is good. It leads us toward good. And the only way you receive that is by asking Jesus Christ to be your Lord and savior and people who ask Jesus Christ to be their Lord and savior have placed their belief in him. They've said, I want to change my life. They have confessed him as their savior. And just like you saw today, man, they pledge their life to him as they get baptized. And it's the picture of the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. And you should do that. And you're like, is that easy? All I gotta do is say, I need him and Jesus, would you be my savior? And would you forgive me and, and pray and ask him to be a part of my life and then step into those waters. And because of your faith receive forgiveness in the holy spirit, it's that easy? Here's the deal. Tomorrow's the fourth. We're gonna celebrate independence. You know what? You oughta celebrate the 24th of July when we're at Anderson farms and doing Rocky at the farm. Talk about that a little bit later, but we're gonna have a baptism service that day, man. You just show up and you'll be ready and you should come forward that day because God's saying, Hey, I'm ready to start a new journey and I'm ready to purify your heart and make some changes in you. Now purity of heart cannot be achieved. There's nothing you can do to create purity in your life, but it can be pursued. Like for us, we, we have to, you need to understand like Jesus gives it to us. And then it begins this journey of pursuing deeper purity and deeper understanding of him. And so you might say right now, Sean, what do I do? Well, first you accept him is your savior. Second thing you do is simply this. It is the idea of James talks about in verse seven through 10, he says this. He says, so let God work. His will in you yell aloud no to the devil and watch him make himself scarce. Say a quiet yes to God. And he will be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin, Abilene, sin, purify your inner life. Quit playing the field hit bottom, cry your eyes out. The fun of games are over. Get serious, get really serious. Get down on your knees. Excuse me, before the master. It's the only way that you'll get back on your feet. So what James is talking about in the NIV, it just says it. Plainly James is talking about the beginning of really pursuing purity is the word confession getting down on knees admitting before God crying out to God and saying, yes, this is in my life. It is the beginning of this idea of confession. Augustine famous church. Historians said it this way. He says the confession of bad works is the beginning of good works. Amen. I love that. The confession of bad works is the beginning of good works. Confession is the idea it's it's like this confession is like detoxification for your spirit. Like that's what God's saying. He said, there's stuff in there. There's impurities in there. And even though I have forgiven the consequences of your sin, there's stuff that you're allowing to be in your life that we need to get out. And there is something freeing about this idea, a confession first John, one nine says if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right. He will forgive our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing. Now, now catch this. The word confession is the same idea. It's it's, it's actually made of two Greek words. So the word confession in English is made of two Greek words. One that means to speak. And the other means to see. So what the idea of confession is is that we speak the same about our sin, that God sees about our sin. We speak the same about our sin as God speaks about our sin. Cuz a lot of times what we do is man, we try to just give, like, we try to give excuses about it and here's what happened or I wouldn't have, or, or we try to bargain with God and say, God, man, if, if you'll just forgive this thing I'll never do it again. We try to do all those different things. And what God's saying is would you just look at this thing though? Same way I look at it, sin a sin. It's not a FAPA it's not a mess up it's sin. And if we will look at our sin and say, God, it is this, I lied, I cheated. I was disingenuous. I've been angry. And I've had an issue with anger. I keep going along with the crowd at school and following them. I did this. I did, man. If we just, you know what, God's not up there doing, he's not on someone. Yep. What he's doing, he's saying, okay, let's take that one. Let's set aside. Let's take that one. Let's set it aside because you know what Jesus paid for that on the cross. But what's good for your heart is when you admit it to me. And what I can do is I come in and I begin cleaning up your heart. And you know, this is true because you've done this before. Sometimes when you have something with somebody and you've done and you just finally, you just have to get it out and you just say it to 'em and say, I'm sorry, I did this. And they're like, oh man, thanks for telling me. And you just feel this weight off your shoulders. Now sometimes you do that with people and they say, you did what God never does that. God never does that. He's like, I already know. And I already paid and what's good for your heart is to get out off of your chest, man. You really want to get close to God and you really want to start the purification process in your life. Here's what I would encourage you to do is I'd encourage you just to admit it. I'd encourage you to sit down with a pad and paper this week and in your prayer time, just pray and say, God, just show me the things that are taking my eyes off of you. Where are my eyes wondering? And then when he gives you something, write it down. So don't mean it's gonna be really quick. You're gonna have a list, right? You're gonna, but here's what I want you to do. I want you to write first John one nine over each one or over the whole list. The idea that simply says that when I confess my sin, he is faithful and just, and he forgives me of all unrighteousness. The confession of bad works is the beginning of good works. Now it's not just, that's not the only thing we can do. When we begin to unload things. When we begin to detoxify our body, what do we do? Normally with our bodies, we begin to re purify it. We begin to put healthy things into our body, right? So confession is the first step to really pursuing purity. But then the second step is that we begin filling up with what is good. We replace the bad with good things and what happens. And what's interesting about that is how good we actually feel. And then what begins to come out of our life because of what good is coming into our life. Like our eyes, follow our heart, follows what our eyes are focused on. When you begin focusing on God, what begins to come out of your life becomes the things of God. Luke chapter six, verse 45 says a good man brings good things outta the good stored up in their heart. And an evil man brings evil out of the evil, stored up in their heart for out of the mouth for the mouth, speaks what the heart is full of. Man, here's a good health principle. You are what you eat. You are what you eat. If you eat a dozen donuts a day, you're gonna turn into a big donut, right? Amounts, just life. On the other hand, spiritually speaking, if you fill up with God, what you will become is you will become a more purified version of what he created you to be. And people will begin to notice. And man, when we live in that place where eyes wander from God, we always feel it. And it comes around and, and in the moment the pleasure might be, feel good. But the aftermath, we all know the aftermath feels horrible. A couple months ago. I, I, I shared this a little bit, but a couple months ago, my daughter, she challenged me. She said, dad, father's day is two months away. And she said, I wanna do this. I think you should do this with me. Let's go. No desserts, no sugary stuff, no extra stuff. Let's just do this for two months in rock and roll. And I was all good. And I was in because six days a week, I eat really good because my wife and our house like the rules are we eat good. And so I just follow. But on Sunday, Sunday around my house for dad is called Sunday fun. Nobody tells me what to eat. Like I watched a show that I want, you can judge me, whatever. I got my show at the end of the night, it's like a long day crazy day. You're gonna judge me. I watch walking dead. That's my show. You're like, oh my gosh, I cannot go to his church. He watched walking dead. No I do. I do. And I sit there and you, my wife will walk out and she will just look at me and shake her head because I will have a pile of candy bar rappers, guys. It's not one candy bar rapper. It's like a pile of candy bar rappers. I'm like, I'm just catching up from the week. My wife, my daughter asked me, she said, dad, can we do this? Can we just go all the way through? You know? And to two months. And I was like, yes. And every Sunday I, it was just killing me. But the crazy thing is I was feeling good. I will walk into work on Monday going, oh man, on Mondays, I'm walking in. I'm like, it's a Monday. Let's go. Let's get after this thing. And I was feeling great. Father's day got there guys. I have never eaten so many calories in my entire life. I pounded, like, I think for my like body type and whatever, it's like, you know, 3000 calories, a little under you know, a day is good for that. And if you're active I'm I swear it had to be like 7,000 calories. I pounded so many things either was brownies. And you know what I felt, I felt horrible in the moment. I was like, these turtle brownies my wife makes, or on my birthday, she makes that father's day. She makes that it was awesome. Six hours later, I'm dying. And it's the same thing, what we run through. And, and we're like half the time in life. We're like, yep. Sunday is God's day, but is Friday fun day and a Saturday fun day. And then we come back around, we try to clean up and God's saying, no, no, no, here's the deal. If you're following me, I know what's best for you. And I've got things that I wanna feed you in scripture and in worship. And in all those things in Christian community, biblical fellowship with other people, I wanna feed you that stuff. And here's what happens when we engage with that on a regular basis, we feel great. There's those moments where we step back in and we go back into our old ways and we feed ourselves that just things that are not good and it feels terrible guys, what God is calling us to do. He says, you will never be sinless, but you can sin less. We can security in our life with God, James chapter four verse eight says draw near to God and he will draw near to you. It's what he talks about. He says, you begin to put godly things into your body and what will happen in your life is good. Things will begin to come out and it will feel good. And other people will notice the changes and say, that looks good. And I want some of that. And what's going on with you. And some of you will say, yeah, you got all that Christian. Some of some people have friends will say you got all that Christian stuff and whatever, but in the inside they're going, they got something I'm not ready for it yet, but it looks good. And I think God wants that for us. Scripture goes on and just talks about this idea of the blessed or the pure and heart. But it says the eyes, the lamp of the body, if your eyes are good and your whole body will be full of light, like there is a light that comes into our body through the good things of God. That just feels so good. Do you realize that there's a promise that's associated with every one of the be attitudes like God says, Hey, blessed to the pure in heart. So we pursue purity. We, we give our lives to Christ. We confess our sins. We start putting good things of God into our life. But he says this, when that happens, there's a blessing that happens that bless her to the pure and heart for they will. What, see God. And what's he talking about there? What he's talking about is that they may not see God. Literally what he's saying is they're gonna see God active in their daily life because the good things they're putting in and the good things that are coming out, there's still gonna be things that rock our world, but we're gonna start to see how God's working in those things. And he takes difficulty and he makes them good. And we just watch how God's available and there for us and pursuing us and only having eyes for us. I've told this story before, when I was 19 years old, I had a torn retina tore about 50% off the back of my eye. I went into surgery. I had surgery. There was a lot of trauma to my eye, even after the surgery I get out. And I remember taking the patch off my eye and man, guys, I could barely see. There was so much trauma in my eye was bloodshot. There was people look at my eye and like, whoa, there was so much blood. And on the inside, from my perspective, you could see it from the outside. But from the inside, all I could see was this big red liquidy glob that was going on. They put this big bubble in my eye to hold the outside of my eye up so they could laser back the down the retina. And when that thing started to dissipate, it became like a thousand bubbles in there. and so all I could see was just this big red glob of bubbles and all of that. And you know what happened over time, it began to dissipate and the redness began to go away and then the bubbles went away and then I could begin to see, but it was blurry. And then I went to the doctor and they gave me prescription for contacts. And then they gave me glasses and I put those glasses on for the first time. And I was like, there is a whole nother world out there, spiritually speaking, what purity does for us. It clears the blinders that sin puts in front of our eyes. It clears the spiritual blinders that that keep us from being able to see God and puts in this prescription where we begin to be able to look around and say, I see God there. I saw God there today. I saw 'em there yesterday. I know I'm gonna see them there tomorrow. I am seeing things I've never seen before. And my question to you is when's the last time you saw God, Because If you're not seeing them Sienna, you might teach to just question your heart a little bit, because God's not hiding from you. The deal is this God in our lives, he says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I will always be with you. He is right here by your side, in the pure times, in the IUR times in all of it. And he's saying I've got something better for you. And if you would just clear your spiritual eyes, if you would just pursue purity, you'll find out I'm there. And when you find out I'm there and we partner together, man, there's nothing we can't beat together. When's the last time you saw God. If you're not seeing him, it may be a heart problem. It may not be a God problem. I think we get it with our minds. That's why we show up here today. But the problem is, is a lot of times we get it with our minds, but we don't take it to the depth of our heart. So we show up here and there when we need and we get on our knees when we need Inter Bennett says that it's the longest journey you ever taken. Your lifetime is the 18 inches between your head and your heart. Every person in here, every person over there, every person out there online, you know that that's why you're watching, but do you know it here? And when you find it here, man, you will find God and you will find a whole different world. Let's pray father, for those of us today that just need to confess some things. Maybe it's just a little too big, even for us, just to even just sit down and know how to even say it to you, father. I pray that they'll hit our prayer teams up front at each campus after no there's no judgment. We've all been there. We've all prayed those prayers and ask for help, praying in those prayers. And I pray they would for the person online father, I pray that they just get down on their knees and just ask for forgiveness for some things. And the father for us, I pray. We pursue purity. And when we pursue purity, Lord, I pray. You would show yourself to us. I pray that we'd see you, father. I pray that we would pursue as a church. Just putting the good things of you and of this place into our lives on a consistent basis. I pray, we'd even check on in on somebody that we know is struggling and, and needs this. But's not here, but it's a part of our family. They're just not, I pray. We'd reach out to them. And the father I pray is we as a, a community of believers would go out and we will live pure lives, integrated lives in every area of our life. And that people would see it, that they would want it. And more people would come to you and experience the goodness of following you. God, we love you. We are so grateful for your grace. It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.

BONUS EDITION: As part of the Paradigm series at Cornerstone, Jonathan Foreman presented Jesus' entire Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew chapters 5-7. For the context and question & answer sessions that preceded and followed this presentation, see the complete video: search for The Sermon on the Mount // Paradigm Part Ten from 6/5/2022.

Called to Help the Poor and Needy by Patricia Said AdamsCalled to Help the Poor and Needy focuses on the more than two thousand verses in the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible that direct us to help the poor and needy. The book focuses on what God says about this major theme in the Bible and how we might more thoroughly live these commands from God.Patricia Said Adams is a spiritual director, a supervisor of spiritual directors, a blogger about life lived in Christ, and the author of three other books: A Guide to the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, Thy Kingdom Come!, and Exodus: Our Story, Too! From Slavery to the World to the Kingdom of God. She writes through the lens of a spiritual director: how do I, how do we, live this life following Christ?She is a widow of twenty years with three adult children and nine grandchildren, all the delight of her life. A stay-at-home mother during her younger years, her professional life started almost at retirement age. She lives in Matthews, North Carolina.https://www.amazon.com/Called-Help-Needy-Patricia-Adams-ebook/dp/B09DGSNJR9https://patsaidadams.com/meet-pat-said-adams/http://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/psadamspar.mp3   

We continue our series on the Sermon on the Mount and wrestle with Jesus' teaching about how righteous we have to be to enter his kingdom.

Escaping the Beast of Double-Mindedness (Audio)David Eells - 6/29/22Many Christians believe that we should trust in methods and means of man because now God is weaker than He was in the Bible and needs our help. However, we are in the midst of many Christians who believe this but are finding out that many are dying because they trusted in man's vaccines which are proven to be a depopulation effort by the beast. According to JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, 450,000 people a year die of iatropic causes. Iatropic means Doctor/Medicine related causes. And that was long before the shots that are sickening and killing so many millions.  If He now uses man's methods, how many mistakes does God make? The people are dying of many diseases from taking the shots, which cause the loss of their immune system. Deaths will rise geometrically for years. Jesus and His disciples didn't use the means and methods of man. In fact, we are warned in Jer 17:5  Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Jehovah. Let examine some objections to this. I was sent this question in an email: "My question is the verse in 1 Timothy 5:23 where Paul advises Timothy to "take a little wine for his stomach's sake and thine often infirmities." God hadn't healed him and I'm confused about your teaching on healing". The question really is about whether God heals using remedies or simply through faith without them, and this is in order to give all glory to Himself and not man.  Jesus spoke to His disciples in parables, symbols that they came to understand and they became ways for them to speak to others. For example: Notice that in 1 Timothy 5:23, sin is the subject before and after the verse in question. {1 Tim. 5:22} Lay hands hastily on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure. {23} Be no longer a drinker of water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities (Infirmities here is the Greek word astheneia; meaning "weaknesses"). {24} Some men's sins are evident, going before unto judgment; and some men also they follow after. {25} In like manner also there are good works that are evident; and such as are otherwise cannot be hid. The wine for the stomach statement is certainly out of context unless it speaks of deliverance from sin. The word translated "infirmities" is actually "weaknesses" which is clearly seen in other texts where the same word is correctly translated. (1 Cor.1:25) ...the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now we know that God is not infirm or sick so this word has to be "weakness". (2 Cor.13:4) for he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him through the power of God toward you. We know that Jesus Christ was not crucified through infirmity, but weakness. He would not defend Himself when He was brought before Pilate and the Jewish leaders. Timothy had spiritual weaknesses for which the only cure was the spiritual wine. The stomach or belly was spiritually considered the seat of ruler ship for the carnal man. It represented being driven by the lusts (Gr: desires) of the flesh; driven by sin. {Phl.3:19} whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and [whose] glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. On the other hand wine was considered the cure for bondage to sin. Wine represents the blood of Jesus. {Mt.26:27} And he took a cup (of wine), and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; {28} for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins. {29} But I say unto you, I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Notice, Jesus equates the wine with His blood. So this is the spiritual cure for the lusts of the flesh. Through our own blood we have inherited the lusts of the sinful flesh and through Jesus' pure blood that nature is destroyed. {Lev.17:11} For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life. His blood is in us to the extent that we repent and partake of the life of His Word. {Jn.6:53} Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves. {54} He that eateth my flesh (and He was the Word made flesh) and drinketh my blood hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day. Partaking of the blood or wine is a matter of walking in His Word by faith in His blood that was given to us. {1 Jn.1:7} but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Another common misunderstanding is Paul's Thorn. Paul was caught up to the third heaven and received wonderful revelations that tempted him to be proud. (2 Cor.12:7) And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted overmuch there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger (Greek: angelos,"angel") of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch. Paul says the thorn was an angel of Satan to buffet him, not a sickness. The word "buffet" means "to hit over and over". You can see that this evil spirit was given to Paul to fulfill God's purpose of humbling him. (2 Cor.12:8) Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. (9) And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. This angel of Satan was bringing about a humbling in Paul's life that God called grace. When Paul was in a position of personal weakness or inability to save himself, he got to see God's power to save. It should be the same with us.  The Scriptures are full of instances where God purposely brought people such as Moses, Abraham, Jehoshaphat, Gideon, and Lazarus to a position of human weakness so that He could perform a miracle to save them and no one would get the credit but Him. Paul understood this. (2 Cor.12:10) Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses (K.J.V. uses infirmities), in injuries (insults), in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.  "Thorn in the flesh" is mentioned four other times in the scriptures, and not once is it an infirmity. This word "weaknesses" is from the Greek word "astheneia" meaning "want of strength". The King James Version translated this word "infirmities", but the same Greek word in many other places, including this text, is translated "weak" or "weakness" (1 Cor.1:25; 2 Cor.11:29; 2 Cor.12:9,10; 2 Cor.13:4). The same Greek word "astheneia" in the following two verses shows us that "infirmity" is a bad translation. (1 Cor.1:25) ...the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now we know that God is not infirm or sick so this word has to be "weakness". (2 Cor.13:4) for he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him through the power of God toward you. We know that Jesus Christ was not crucified through infirmity, but weakness. He was weak in that He would not defend Himself when He was brought before Pilate and the Jewish leaders.  Likewise, we are crucified when we are weak to save ourselves while we trust in God. In the previous chapter Paul lists what he calls weaknesses (2 Cor.11:23-30). He lists things such as shipwrecks, prisons, persecutions from enemies, and stripes. Not once does Paul mention sickness in the list. The point is that God uses evil angels to come against our lusts, to humble us, to chasten us, and to cause us to repent. (2 Cor.12:8) Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it (the angel of Satan or demon) might depart from me. (9) And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee.  God was saying that He would deliver Paul from the individual buffetings, but not from the angel of Satan for the time being. Paul said as much to Timothy. (2 Tim.3:11) persecutions, sufferings. What things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. (2 Tim. 4:18) The Lord will deliver me from every evil work. In this, we see the sovereignty of God in both bringing the chastening and supplying the deliverance. Even though He permits buffetings to test us, ultimately He will heal and deliver the faithful. The question as to whether God always heals is a moot one when we realize that He has already healed all believers but we must be believers. {1 Pet.2:24} who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed. Jesus gave us an example by healing all believers. Jesus said in Mar 11:24 "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive (Greek: "received") them”. We received them because all of our provision was accomplished at the cross. Notice in the following verses that all things have been received and that the only thing left is for us to believe it and cease from our own salvation by works. Notice the past tense of all of our sacrificial provision in the following verses: (Epe.2:8) for by grace have ye been saved through faith; (1 Pet.2:24) who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.; (Col.1:13) who delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; (2 Cor.5:18) ...who reconciled us to himself; (Gal.2:20) I have been crucified with Christ, and its no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me; (Gal. 3:13) Christ redeemed us from the curse; (1 Pet.1:3) ...the Father ...begat us again ...by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;  (Heb.10:10) We ...have been sanctified; ... (14) He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified; (Epe.1:3) ...who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing, and God (2 Pet.1:3) hath granted unto us all things ... Jesus told us in his day which, of course, is also in the past that" Now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (Jn.12:31); "but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (Jn.16:33); "It is finished" Jn.19:30). This is why we are to believe we have received. The devil and the curse were conquered. We were saved, healed, delivered, and provided for 2,000 years ago. So if we believe we have received, would we continue to try to save, heal or deliver ourselves, since faith without works is dead? Redemption from the curse is truly finished! In fact, God's "works were finished from the foundation of the world" (Heb.4:3), when He spoke the plan into existence. The only thing left is for the true sons of God to enter into those works by faith, believing they have received. Since the works are finished, we should believe and rest from our own works to save, heal, and deliver ourselves. (Heb.4:3) For we who have believed do enter into that rest. That is a spiritual Sabbath rest from our own self works. (Heb.4:9) There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest (Greek: sabbatismos, "keeping of rest") for the people of God. This constant "keeping of rest" every day through the past tense promises is our New Testament spiritual Sabbath. (10) For he that is entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. This rest is to believe these past tense promises so we know we don't have to save ourselves. (Heb.4:1) Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into his rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. (2) For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. Our faith in each of these promises brings us into more of the rest. For example, if we believe that "by his stripes you were healed," then we will not keep seeking a healing but will rest accepting that it was accomplished at the cross.  This is true faith and always brings the answer. Through believing the promises, we enter into rest from our own works. For a child of God to say that they believe they have received and yet continue seeking to receive, usually through worldly methods, is to be double minded. (Jas.1:6) But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. (7) For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; (8) a doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways. Those who continue to work for what God has freely given, believe in salvation by works. (Heb.4:10) For he that is entered into his rest, hath himself also rested from his works. (Heb.3:19) And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief. Since the promises of deliverance from the curse are past tense, when we believe them, we must stop working. It is an evil heart of unbelief to not rest. God was angry with Israel because they would not believe His Word in their trial in the wilderness (Heb. 3:8-10). (Heb.3:11) As I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. (12) Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God .... (14) We are become partakers of Christ (i.e. His health, holiness, and blessing) if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end.  When we believe we have received, we are put in a position of weakness because we cannot do anything to bring the desired result to pass or we prove we didn't believe and receive. This weakness is our wilderness experience because there is no help from Egypt or the world. Only God's power saves in the wilderness. God says, "My power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor.12:9). Our weapon against our enemies who try to talk us out of our covenant rights is the two edged sword of these past tense promises (Heb.4:11,12). We are justified by faith and not works which is being proven day by day. Do you hear the ambulances going by with their sirens on? I want to say something else that I think will be very encouraging to you there's a way to make it through this. There was a brother back in the time of Romans 16 and his name was Hermas. It's very possible that he's the one that received this revelation. It was just a few years after the book of Revelation was written that he got this revelation it was called the Shepherd of Hermas and at that time of course they were going into tribulation and he was given a warning. I mean, the Church, the people of God were headed into a tribulation and he was given a warning that he was told to send to the churches and it's not part of the Bible. It used to be, as a matter of fact. People thought it was part of the Bible. I don't believe that it is; I just believe that it's a very good revelation that's giving an encouragement; an exhortation to the to the scriptures to obey the scriptures and submit. I believe it's very good and I think that since he was exhorting the Church, he was about to go into tribulation.  Some of the things are very pertinent to us at this time because that's exactly where we are and I know that God preserved this through the centuries in order to give it to us again. It's not the level of inspiration that the scriptures are, but it's very good and it's anointed and it was given of the Lord; just like if god would give you a vision or just like Gene Fahey's vision about the great tree that was cut down and Babylon. You know, God can give you one that's concerning your immediate future because you know God speaks in general ways in the scriptures, but he really doesn't tell you about your immediate future and where you're fitting in and where you are at the time and what is your signpost at the time. So that's what dreams and visions are for is to give us these revelations. Well anyway, God gave to Hermes awesome revelations; actually, it's one of my favorites outside of the scriptures. Okay, I'm going to read part of it to you because it's concerning coming tribulation and what to do about it and how he escaped it. Okay this is vision four. It's a vision of the Church and it's called, The Tribulation to Come: That which I saw brethren, twenty days after the previous vision had occurred was a foreshadowing of the tribulation to come. I was going into the country by the Via Campana. The place is about six thousand feet from the public thoroughfare and is easily reached. (I don't think anything in here, kind of like the Bible; nothing in here is really in there by accident. “6,000 feet from the public thoroughfare” I wrote a little note in the edge of this book. I said, “off the road since Adam”. They're off the public thoroughfare six thousand feet and actually we're six thousand years off the road since Adam. So here comes the beast. This is a kind of a symbol of the timing for us too.) The place is about six thousand feet from the public thoroughfare and is easily reached. So as I was walking along by myself, I asked the Lord that the revelation and vision which He had shown me through His holy Church might be completed, so that He might strengthen me and give repentance to His servants, who had been led astray in order that His great and glorious Name might be glorified, because he regarded me worthy to show me his wonders. And as I was glorifying Him and giving Him thanks, something like the sound of a voice answered me, “Be not double-minded Hermas." and I began to reason with myself and to say, how can I be double-minded when I've been made so secure by the Lord and have been and have seen such glorious things. (And you think you would think that but, actually you get into situations and you do things that you don't think you would and that's where Hermas is headed right here.)  I walked on a little brethren and, behold, I saw a cloud of dust reaching, as it were, up to heaven and I began to say to myself, “are there not cattle coming raising a cloud of dust?” and it was about 600 feet away from me. (There's that six again. Six, six and the next verse, by the way, is six.)  It was about 600 feet away from me when the dust cloud became greater and greater. I suspected it was something divine. The sun shone more brightly for a moment and behold, I saw a huge beast, something like a sea monster, and out of his mouth were coming fiery locusts. (Sounds like Revelation doesn't it? You know, locusts devour the grass, don't they? There it is, this huge beast is about to devour much flesh.)  And the beast was about a hundred feet in length and it had a head like a jar. (I made a little note here: 100 feet in length represents the fullness of the scope of this beast. Do you know we've read in scriptures that this beast is actually everyone who is outside of Christ. It is actually the whole lost world; the whole beastly kingdom of this world coming together into one like they were at the tower of Babel. Once again the whole world is joining together in order to oppose God. So I took to mean a hundred percent. The scope of this beast is a hundred percent of all lost humanity; everyone whose spirit does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in their flesh, is this beast.) And I began to cry and to beseech the Lord to save me from it and I remembered the word which I had heard, “Be not double-minded Hermas.” So brethren, being clothed in the faith of God and remembering the great things He had taught me, taking courage, I entrusted myself to the beast. And the beast came on with a rush as if it could destroy a city. I drew near to it and the sea monster, great as it was, stretched itself out on the ground and did nothing but thrust out its tongue and did not move at all until I had gone by it. And the beast had four colors on its head: Black, then the color of fire and blood, and then gold, and then white.  And after I had passed by the beast and had gone on about 30 feet, behold, a young lady met me, adorned, as if coming from a bridal chamber; all in white and with white sandals, veiled up to her forehead and her head covering was a snood, but she had white hair and I knew from my previous visions that she was the Church. (Obviously the called out ones right?) And I became more cheerful.  She greeted me saying, “How do you do friend?” And I greeted her in return, “How do you do madam?” She answered me and said, “Did nothing meet you?” I said to her, “ Madam, a beast so great as could destroy entire peoples. But, by the power of the Lord and by His great compassion I escaped it.”  “And it's only right that you escaped”, she said, “Because you cast your burden upon God and you opened your heart to the Lord, believing that you could not be saved by anything but the great and glorious Name.” (Isn't that interesting folks? There are so many people that are expecting to provide for themselves, to save themselves, to defend themselves and yet here the revelation says that you can't be saved by anything except by the name of the Lord. It is only our faith in Him that will bring us to the place where we can escape this great beast that's coming; only by faith in Him.) “And therefore, the Lord sent his angel who has authority over beasts whose name is Fegri and he shut its mouth so it might not hurt you. You escaped a great tribulation because of your faith and because when you saw so great a beast, you did not become double-minded. Go then, and tell the elect of the Lord about His great deeds and say to them that this beast is a foreshadowing of the great tribulation to come. If then, you prepare yourselves in advance and repent with all your heart before the Lord, you will be able to escape it; for if your heart becomes pure and blameless and you serve the Lord blamelessly the rest of the days of your life.” (What tribulation was he talking about that was immediately in their future? Well, there was the great Harlot of Rome and the Roman beast that was going to slaughter the people of God. And, as you know, the Church that they raised up, the Catholic church, heavily persecuted people who were people of faith and killed many. So they were heading into, very much, the same kind of a tribulation that we are. Apostate christianity, with a new Roman beast; a worldwide Roman beast, is going to persecute the saints. Well, there was a way to escape it. She said the church or “called out ones”. She was preaching the good news here.)  “If your heart becomes pure and blameless and you serve the Lord blamelessly the rest of the days of your life. Cast your burdens upon the Lord and He will set them straight. Have faith in the Lord, you who are double-minded, because He can do all things and turn His wrath from you and send out plagues to you who are double-minded.” (Interesting. Will God do that? Yes He will. He will plague the double-minded and deliver his people who are the faithful; who are the believers, who are the disciples.) “Woe to those who hear these words and disobey it would have been better for them not to have been born.”  Charter 24: I asked her about the four colors that the beast had on its head and she answered me and said, “Again you are inquisitive about such things.” “Yes madam”, I said. “Make known to me what they are.” “Listen”, she said, “The black is this world in which you live. The color of fire and blood means it is necessary for this world to be destroyed by blood and fire. And the gold part is you, who have fled this world. For just as gold is tested by fire and becomes useful, so also you, who live among those people are being tested.”  (Yes we are. God purposely put us here in the midst of the wicked to be tested and tried to see if we will be faithful to His Word.” Many cannot because they have more respect for the world, more fear of the world, more love of the world. They cannot be faithful to God so hence the exhortation to be blameless and pure and turn to god within everything.)  “Those, then, who endure and are made red-hot by them are purified. For just as gold casts off its dross, so also, you will cast off all grief and distress and you will be purified and be useful in the construction of the tower. (The tower is of course the tower of God's people that he's speaking about here. And there's a revelation of it. It's an awesome revelation about the stones that went into this tower you know and how that some of them were cracked and some of them were defaced and how that they were being perfected to be put in this tower of God's Zion.) “And the white part is the age which is to come, in which, the elect of God will live because those who have been chosen by God for eternal life will be spotless and pure. So speak constantly in the hearing of the saints. You have also the foreshadowing of the great tribulation which is to come and if you so wish, it will be nothing.” (Notice that, “If you so wish it will be nothing" if you prepare; if you draw close to the Lord, if you repent, if you're determined to be blameless and pure by faith in God's promise and in his Word, then God will have you ready for this.) “Remember those things which have already been written.” (And of course that's true. What's written in God's word we cannot depart from.) After she had said these things she departed and I did not see where she went for there came a cloud and I turned back, in fear, supposing that the beast was coming. (The guy got double-minded didn't he? You know, there's some curious things in here too.  Well, I want to read this part to you because the main exhortation that was given to Hermas to prepare him for the coming of the beast was, “Be not double-minded Hermas.” And he received an awesome awesome exhortation in mandate 9 in, The Shepherd of Hermas. The Shepherd, of course, was the Lord Himself. That's the name usually given to this book. Cast off Double-Mindedness is the name of this mandate: He said to me, “Cast off from yourself double-mindedness” (Many times it was the Shepherd who came and appeared to Hermas, who gave him these revelations. Sometimes it was the Church like in the past ones.) “Cast off from yourself double mindedness and be not at all double-minded about anything about asking anything from God by saying to yourself, “How am I able to ask anything from the Lord and receive it, since I have sinned so much against Him?”  (Well, that's interesting you know. Is there anybody among God's people that hasn't sinned against Him and yet when Jesus went about doing good, healing all, who was oppressed of the devil for God was with Him. You know when the people of God came to Him, He demanded faith from them. They had a covenant already. He demanded faith from them for their healing or deliverance or whatever and He gave it to them. They weren't worthy of it but he gave it to them and now the Lord is telling him don't be double-minded by thinking, “How can god answer me? I've been such a sinner.” Very interesting; You know the devil uses condemnation to destroy our faith in God but there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And it actually was added there. It was added, I say, it was not in the original because there's no numeric pattern for, “who walked not after the flesh but after the spirit”. Because, of course, there's no one that's under condemnation who is walking in the Spirit. But, the problem is, many of us are somewhere in between; between the flesh and the Spirit.  Now, how in the world do we ever get there if we don't get our prayers answered and how do we ever get our prayers answered if we're condemned for our foolishness and for our failures? That's the grace of God and that's what the Lord is exhorting him to exhort us about. “Don't be double-minded” and what did he call being double-minded? Well to think in yourself, “I've been such a failure how is it that God will answer my prayers?” It is by grace.)  Verse 2: Do not consider these things but turn to the Lord with all of your heart. (That reminds me of what Paul said in Philippians 3, “forget the things which are behind and press forward to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." right? Forget what's behind just change the future okay and by faith in god you can do that.) Do not consider these things but turn to the lord with all of your heart and without hesitating ask of him and you will know his great compassion because he will not forsake you but will fulfill the requests of your soul. (Isn't that good and great! The Lord is merciful and He is graceful and we don't deserve it but, that shouldn't enter into it according to what the lord's saying right here.)  Verse 3: For God is not as men who hold grudges but He seeks not vengeance and has compassion on what He has made. So cleanse your heart of all the worthless things of this age and of all the words which were spoken to you before, and ask of the Lord and you will receive everything and all of your requests will be granted if you ask of the Lord without hesitating. (Well, that's exactly what the Bible says and that's exactly what Jesus said, “all things whatsoever you ask in prayer believing you shall receive.” That's exactly what Jesus said. Many of you out there that are listening to me; the devil has spoken to you these same things. That you're not worthy. You can't expect God to answer your prayers. But, the Lord is exhorting you, through this revelation here, yes you can receive from God. We have no hope without grace. You know, we can't pick ourselves up by our bootstraps. Everything that we receive has to come from without even the faith to believe has to come from without.  Because of our fallen nature we cannot be expected to be righteous before we receive from the Lord. Can you expect to be perfect before you can get anything from God? Well then, you'll never make it because the first thing you need from God is righteousness right? You'll never make it. So forget that. It's self-righteousness and foolishness. Ask of the lord without hesitating, that's what He says.)  If you hesitate in your heart you will not receive any of your requests. (Well, that's exactly what James 1 said, you know, that “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways think not that man shall receive anything from the Lord.”) For those who hesitate before god they are double-minded and they do not obtain any of their requests. (That's James 1-7 to the T, isn't it?)  Verse six: But the ones who are complete in the faith ask for everything since they have trusted the Lord. (They asked for everything. Have you ever had that devil sit on your shoulder and say, “The Lord don't want to hear that! He's got more important things to do!” I mean, well first of all, when you pray about even the little things, what you're saying is, “I trust in you Lord. I'm not trusting me. I'm not seeking by my own efforts to bring this to pass. I know this is a trial of my faith and I trust in you.” And since He has “ministering spirits sent forth to do service that for them that are heirs of salvation” you've got angels right there to take care of it all. Just trust in God.) But the ones who are complete in the faith ask for everything, since they have trusted the Lord and they receive it because they ask without hesitating; not being double-minded, for every man who is double-minded if he does not repent will be saved with difficulty. (Double-minded, of course, is when you listen to the spirit and then you listen to the flesh, and you listen to the spirit and you listen to the flesh. You have faith and you have doubt. Double minded actually in James 1-7 is “two souled”, schizophrenic, he would be called today. And since we're always, you know, somewhere in the process of sanctification. The process of sanctification is the process of changing your soul to become spiritual like your Spirit is. Your spirit is born of God. If you're born again you have a born again spirit and your soul was created to obey your spirit which obeys God if it's born again right?   However, the soul there, is the soul of the flesh or the mind of the flesh and the mind of the spirit or the soul of the spirit and that means, of course, that your soul is divided in its attention either in following your spirit or following your flesh. It's two-souled; it's double-minded, but you have the authority to say “no.” You have the authority. Who you will listen to? You have the authority to cast down vain imaginations that are against God. You have the authority to listen to the spirit. You don't have to be double minded. So he goes on to say: So cleanse your heart of double mindedness and put on faith because it is strong and trust God, so that you will receive all requests for which you ask. (Listen to that. All requests, all requests; all doesn't leave anything out, does it? Jesus said, “all things whatsoever you ask in prayer believing you shall receive.” It is the Word of God. It sounds too good to be true by most people who read these kinds of things, but it is the Word of the Lord and the very fact that it seems too good to be true, proves that you have double- mindedness right?) Whenever you ask something from the Lord and you receive the request rather slowly do not be double-minded. (Well you know, this happens all the time right? People ask something from the Lord and they don't see it happen immediately or the first month or the second month or the third month or even in a year. Sometimes he says when this happens do not be double-minded, in other words, don't shrink from your faith your confidence in God. Don't do it. Abraham was a very good example of that right? Well, he believed and he was double-minded for a long time, frankly, but within about the last year ,he finally straightened up his faith and received from the Lord.) So, whenever you ask something from the Lord and you receive the request rather slowly do not be double-minded, because you did not receive the request of your soul speedily. For, in every case, it is because of some temptation or transgression of which you are ignorant that you receive your request so slowly. (Well you know, when you believe God to do something you're also trusting in Him to work in you. You're also being very careful that you don't offend Him. You know, in the New Testament, sin is different from the Old Testament. Sin in the Old Testament was a transgression against the written law, which made it impossible to be sinless.  But, in the New Testament, “to him that knoweth to do good and doeth not to him it is sin.” Sin to us is sin against the known will of God. Now if we're failing God because we don't have faith, then we just need faith. You know in Romans Chapter 7, Paul spoke about his situation and that he was being double-minded at first because he was looking at himself. He was looking at his failure. He got a revelation from God and his revelation was, since “the good that i would do i do not it's no longer i that do it but the sin which dwelleth in me.” In other words, since he wanted to do good he wanted to please God but he was failing, then it was no longer him, that is him the spiritual man, it was instead, “the sin that dwelled in him” and he went on to say in the beginning of chapter 8 “there's no condemnation of them that are in Christ Jesus.”  See, basically God got on Paul's side against the sin in his life, not against him, against the sin. It's no more I that do it, it's the sin that dwells in me and he confessed faith; the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. He confessed his faith and he said there's no condemnation of them that are in Christ. That's what we need to do. If you fail in God, confess your faith and don't be double minded. Don't worry about the old man. The Lord is taking care of him. Did you know that? You know, you don't have a problem with sin anymore. You might have a problem with faith, but you don't have a problem with sin. The sin the Lord already dealt with. He took it away. He said, “Reckon yourself to be dead unto sin but alive unto God.” Consider it done; that's what faith does, considers it done. So you may be doing some things that the Lord needs to straighten up and He will do that, but meanwhile, you have to keep believing. There's nothing else you can do to come to the end of this thing. The revelation that Paul got was: He was going to keep believing because it wasn't him doing it anyway, it was the sin dwelling in him he was going to believe that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made him free from the law of sin and death.  He was going to keep on believing that there was no condemnation in those that are in Christ Jesus, so you're accepting something by faith; you're accepting a gift of God's righteousness by faith and since you are righteous by faith, you are entitled to the things that you ask of God So faith is accounted as righteousness since you are righteous by faith, your faith is accounted as righteousness.  Now, of course, we're not talking about those who walk in willful disobedience and use Christ to live in their flesh. They're not doing what Paul was doing “It's not the good that they would do" because they would do evil and they're walking willful against God. "If we sin willfully there remains no sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful expectation of judgment" the Bible says. But if you want to please God, you're seeking to please God, you hate the old flesh and you hate the sin and you want to please Him then walk by faith, because he is a sufficient Savior and, by the way, even before He's perfected you in holiness, you have a right to the rest of God's benefits because faith is accounted as righteousness.  So what can you do? You have to walk by faith no matter how much you've failed. You have to walk by faith to get out of it. The devil knows that and he tries to do everything to talk you out of it; to tell you that you're not worthy and to tell you that God didn't hear and to tell you, “Look how long you've waited and nothing happened.” So that you'd be double-minded.) Verse 8: So do not cease asking for the request of your soul and you will receive it but, if you lose heart and become double-minded in your asking blame yourself and not the one who gives to you. (Hey, we've got doctrines out there that blame God. You know what they say, “Well sometimes God answers and sometimes God says no. And sometimes, you know, they got these crazy doctrines you know but the Bible says in 2 Co. chapter one, concerning the promises of God, that the answer of God is, “Yes”, it's always yes concerning his promises; not no.  So he says blame yourself if you get double-minded and don't blame the one who gives to you and see God gets all the blame when people don't receive things but think about the times when Jesus' disciples, who had been trained by the very best, came back to him and wondered why they didn't receive results for their faith and he said, “Because of your unbelief”. He didn't say because you were unworthy, or because you failed me, or because you sinned; He said, “Because of your unbelief.” He said consistently, “Be it unto you according to your faith." But often people don't receive answers and they say, “Well, it wasn't the will of God for me to have this or it wasn't the will of God because of this or that, you know. Well quite often folks it's because of unbelief.) Verse 9: Watch out for this double mindedness for it is evil and foolish and it uproots many from the faith. (True) Even those who are very faithful and strong, for this double mindedness is also the daughter of the devil and does much evil among the servants of God. So despise double-mindedness and overcome it, in every case, putting on a faith that is strong and powerful. For faith promises all things; perfects all things. But double-mindedness, which does not trust itself, fails in all that it does. (So you see he said that faith is from above from the lord and has great power but double-mindedness is an earthly spirit from the devil which has no power.) So serve faith which has power and refrain from double mindedness which has no power and you will live to God and all who are so disposed will live to God. (Well, he definitely exhorted over and over against double mindedness there didn't he? And it's true. Today we have a great tribulation coming upon us. God's giving us the signs so that we won't be taken by surprise and we know it's coming and we should be prepared by casting down our vain imaginations about saving ourselves or preparing for ourselves or sin in our life. All such things as what the Lord has already taken care of and already provided for us and learn to walk by faith now and prepare for these things that are coming now.  Hermas wasn't, I wouldn't say, very much prepared because he immediately became double-minded when he saw the dragon or the beast or whatever it was and had to be reminded of the Lord. But when he did act on his faith, he found out it wasn't as terrible as what it could have been. You know, the devil is seeking whom he may devour and and “may” means permission you know. It involves permission and it involves your permission. Quite often the devil devours people because of their unbelief. We found out that God would send those plagues to the double minded meaning, of course, because of their double mindedness they're giving the devil permission to take advantage of them and the dragon will devour many. So we need to learn to walk by faith in god's promises we need to put them down in our heart. They are the best provision we can possibly have for the things that are coming upon the world.  As we saw, America is going to very much change. Its nature is going to be turned over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh so that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. Have you ever read that in 1 Co. chapter five he was talking about a man who had his father's wife? Well, you know who the "Father's wife" is don't you?  So listen, not only does God turn individuals over to satan for destruction of their flesh, He turns nations over to the destruction of the flesh and there's quite a bit of flesh in America. You know, I'm just thinking of that man in 1 Co. 5. I don't know what form it was that the devil took him over but, we do know it was one form or another and we know that's what's going to happen to America folks, is for seven years it's going to lose its mind. This government is going to be very foolish and seek to save themselves by destroying the rest of the world. You know they're gonna quite freely use up their nukes on different nations that disagree with them, not caring for the life of the people; not caring folks.  For instance, let me point out something to you about Iran. You've got an illegitimate regime running that country. They cheated in the vote process; they cheated every way they could. They made laws to kick out the rest of the dissidents from their government so that the only people that ruled would be these radical mullahs. A lot of their country disagrees totally but there's not much they can do about it with their government and now we just read that their government is doing this on the slide. The people, a lot of people don't even know what they're doing. They're doing a lot of this on the side. Well, you know they're going to go over there and wipe out an awful lot of people that are not guilty. I mean everyone's guilty, don't get me wrong. There is nobody on planet earth that's not guilty and we all really deserve to die and there is a flood coming that's going to prove that. But in the natural there's a lot of people over there that are just ignorant.  I mean, they've been trained to be patriotic, of course, and they will defend their nation and I guess if they don't do it over there, it's a little different than over here. I mean they'll do more than put you in jail over there, they'll probably shoot you. So they will defend their nation and many of them will die, not knowing the Lord in their ignorance; having been taken in bondage by satan himself. You have to pity people like that. But you know America; they're not going to have pity. Just like the Iranians are not going to have pity. You know the world doesn't know much about pity and they don't know much about grace. We're the only ones that really should be having the understanding of grace and pity for those who are in bondage to satan. The Bible in 1Co 5 tells us not to dare judge those that are without. Those that are without, God judges.  We don't judge them because they haven't been given the grace of God through faith to see and to partake of God's mercy and his benefits and understanding and all these things. So we have to be very merciful towards those people. In fact, I exhort you to pray for the Iranians folks. An Iranian that gets saved is just as good as an American who gets saved. Don't fall into that delusion. God's got people all the way around the world right?  Pray for these people because there is no doubt that through these great tribulations many will become Christians. Many in foreign lands will become Christians and it's not going to be because of the example of the United States; it's going to be because of the example of God's people and because of the grace and the love that they share with people. See we're to love our enemies. You know this. We're to overcome evil with good. We can't judge them, we have to love them. But America is not going to be that way, and I might add, that a lot of radical American Christians are not going to be that way towards these people and it's sad, because this is what our Lord Jesus commanded in the Sermon on the Mount and yet it's totally ignored. But this is how people are impressed with Christianity. They're impressed with our love, with our faith, with the provision that god gives to his people. I mean, they're impressed with your healings, they're impressed with your provisions that god has given to you through your faith.  You know there's a lot of people out there that have false gods and they're impressed when they run into real Christians and find that they get answers to prayer; supernatural answers to prayer, that kind of reveals to them you really have a God who answers and that there is a God who is concerned and you know, it's sad that what they normally run into is not a Christian at all but somebody that's claiming to be a Christian. So yeah, the world is going to fall all apart. It's going to be fighting one against another. America is, in a way, going to be turned over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh so that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. You know the Spirit is in America, don't you? It's God's elect and great chastenings are coming over America and demon possession is coming over America. Revelation 18 tells us that Babylon is going to be filled with all these demons and what's the purpose? So that people in darkness, in bondage, will run to the light and who's got the light? Well, if we agree with the Word and we represent our Lord to the world with his promises and with his blessings and provisions, then we are the light and they will run to us. But if we're like the world because of a patriotic spirit or because we wrestle with flesh and blood instead of principalities and powers, they're not going to see any light in us. So we need to get prepared. You know, the Lord is putting us into a situation where it's a cross to our old man. He's putting us into a position of being weak, actually, because he's told us, "resist not the evil and love your enemies" and yet He's raising up a bitter enemy all around us and he's giving us this opportunity. We're being tried. We're going to be tested. You know Hermas basically approached the beast in faith after he cast down double mindedness and the beast wasn't used to judge him or destroy him, because he was walking by faith and because he was accounted righteous and so it'll be the same with us folks. We just need to walk by faith in our God, cast down all that double mindedness and part of that is going to be the way we react to the people around us. If you retaliate with the way of the world, that's sin. That's contrary to our Lord's commandments and if you lean upon your own understanding and you do things the way of the worldly Church, that's sin. Read the New Testament. Make sure you're right with God. Make sure you're committed to being a disciple of Jesus Christ and not a disciple of apostate Christianity especially Americanized, apostate Christianity, okay?  In order to be a disciple of Jesus, we have to obey what he said. He said, “Why do you call me Lord Lord and don't do what I say.” So there are many people who are loosely called christians and they are not and they will not escape. God will send his plagues to the double-minded just like he said in that revelation. They will not escape this judgment.)    Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bengali Bosnian Bulgarian Catalan Cebuano Chichewa Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Corsican Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Esperanto Estonian Filipino Finnish French Frisian Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hausa Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer Kinyarwanda Korean Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kyrgyz Lao Latin Latvian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Macedonian Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Maori Marathi Mongolian Myanmar (Burmese) Nepali Norwegian Odia (Oriya) Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Samoan Scots Gaelic Serbian Sesotho Shona Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Turkish Turkmen Ukrainian Urdu Uyghur Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Xhosa Yiddish Yoruba Zulu Powered by Translate Printer-friendly version  

Don't judge and don't throw pearls to swine. We explore Matthew 7:1-6 in today's episode on the Sermon on the Mount!Thanks to Jon and the Dig Deeper team of St Luke's Church for allowing us to release these recordings. You can find out more about them HERE.LifeUni can be found HERE.Download more Tent Courses and Resources HERE. Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

James 1:12 is the beatitude of this little book. I call it the beatitude of James because it is akin to the beatitudes of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Through Matthew 5:3-12, Jesus issued nine “Blessed are” statements. Jesus pronounced a blessing upon those that wouldn't appear very blessed. Those statements are much like what James does here. He used the same exact word for blessed that Jesus did which speaks of being supremely blessed or happy. We must ask the question, “Why is this person blessed?” James offers a couple of reasons why the person who endures is blessed He is blessed because he reached the end of the trial He is blessed because there is a reward at the end of the trial He is blessed because the reward is given by the Lord He loves.

Part 25 – Standing Up Wisely for the Truth of God is a Great Thing Matthew 7:3-6; James 5:20 1. Not everyone is qualified to INFORM Matthew 7:3-5 • Consider your own issues CANDIDLY Matthew 7:3; 1 Peter 4:17; Romans 6:23 • Consider other's issues CHARITABLY Matthew 7:4; 2 Chronicles 4:4 • Consider God's issues CRITICALLY Matthew 7:5; Luke 12:27; Romans 2:1; 1 Corinthians 11:21; Leviticus 19:17; Psalm 51:10, 13 2. Not everyone is qualified to be INFORMED Matthew 7:6 3 types of dogs and hogs in scripture 1) The scorner – Luke 4:17; Psalm 1:1 3 Characteristics of a scorner: a. They pretend not to understand Proverbs 14:6 b. They avoid spiritual people Proverbs 16:12 c. They have an attitude problem Proverbs 21:24 2) The Scheming Matthew 7:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1; Isaiah 32:7-8 3) The Scurrilous Matthew 7:6; Ecclesiastes 7:16; Luke 22:36

Today is the fifth and final message from The Sermon on the Mount.  We have looked at: the Beatitudes, the directive to be salt and light, the law and – last week – at the command to love our enemies. Today's text is from Matthew 7, where Jesus says: judge not lest you be judged.

Today is the fifth and final message from The Sermon on the Mount.  We have looked at: the Beatitudes, the directive to be salt and light, the law and – last week – at the command to love our enemies. Today's text is from Matthew 7, where Jesus says: judge not lest you be judged.

About This Sermon SeriesJesus' “Sermon on the Mount” is one of his more famous moments, but many of us haven't given much thought to how it applies to life in our day. In this series, we will look at the beginning of the sermon - known as “The Beatitudes” - and discover together that, while culture has a standard for how we should live, Jesus wants us to turn that standard upside down. And we will find that living out these challenging attitudes is worth the effort as we unpack what Jesus says it truly means to live “The Good Life”.This Week's EpisodeThis Sunday,  Pastor Jimmy challenges us with the truth that who we are should shape what we do, and that what we do confirms who we really are. Part of being a disciple of Jesus means making a difference in the world around us in his name, and our faith should move us to action when we see injustice.Wondering what to do with what you've heard? Your Next Step is waiting for you at hub.firstchristian.com!Learn MoreYou can follow along with this series by joining in this Sunday's services on-campus or streaming online at 9 and 11am this weekend.Follow @fcccanton on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay connected.Support the show

Sermon On The Mount - Part 5Not To Be SeenMatthew 6:1-8

You've probably heard "The Golden Rule" quoted a couple times in your life, but how is Jesus really calling us to live with this command? Sermon Notes: Matthew 7:1-12 Romans 12:19 James 2:1-6 Implications: 1. God has a path of redemption for you; don't let your past hold you back. 2. Be the kind of person that owns their mistakes and helps other overcome theirs. 3. The Golden Rule compels us to proactively bless others without expectation of return.

Sermon on the Mount: Asking/Golden Rule Matthew 7:7-12 Pastor Thomas Hwang

Mike Orr, Senior Pastor June 26, 2022

Enemy-love may be the most difficult and countercultural command of Jesus to follow, but it is what truly has the power to change lives and change the world. Let us love our enemies as God loved us even when we were His enemies.    Title: Love Your Enemies  Series: Sermon on the Mount  Text: Matthew 5:43-48 Speaker: Jake Wright

Part 10 of the sermon series " The Sermon on the Mount" by lead pastor of River City Church, Jason Powers.

Message from Ryan Semchenko on June 26, 2022.

Jesus taught a Gospel of Grace, but He also taught  the Law with unparalleled authority.  Hear how Jesus taught the members of the Kingdom of God what the sin of adultery really includes on this episode.  

Message from Bro. Ricky Cunningham on June 26, 2022

This weekend, we wrap up our journey through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:13-27. Jesus paints four pictures to say the same thing. What is it?

If there was a list of the top 10 sermons ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount would be #1. It is powerful, inspiring and memorable. But it is also confusing. Can we actually live it out? Or is it only for the future when Jesus returns? In this teaching series you will be challenged to rethink life, relationships and success through the eyes of God, and we hope you will be inspired by Jesus' vision of a better future.

1) Could you explain Matthew 11:11 regarding the least is greater than John the Baptist? 2) If the Ten Commandments are for the Hebrews and the Sermon on the Mount is for the Kingdom age, then are we required to live by these standards? (Part 2) 3) How do we know the will of God for our lives? 4) Was John saved pre-natally per Romans 8:9? 5) Is the doctrine of "once saved, always saved" true?

With family: Deuteronomy 30; Psalm 119:73–96 Deuteronomy 30 (Listen) Repentance and Forgiveness 30 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 2 and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7 And the LORD your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD and keep all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. The Choice of Life and Death 11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. 15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God1 that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules,2 then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” Footnotes [1] 30:16 Septuagint; Hebrew lacks If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God [2] 30:16 Or his just decrees (ESV) Psalm 119:73–96 (Listen) Yodh 73   Your hands have made and fashioned me;    give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.74   Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice,    because I have hoped in your word.75   I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous,    and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.76   Let your steadfast love comfort me    according to your promise to your servant.77   Let your mercy come to me, that I may live;    for your law is my delight.78   Let the insolent be put to shame,    because they have wronged me with falsehood;    as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.79   Let those who fear you turn to me,    that they may know your testimonies.80   May my heart be blameless in your statutes,    that I may not be put to shame! Kaph 81   My soul longs for your salvation;    I hope in your word.82   My eyes long for your promise;    I ask, “When will you comfort me?”83   For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,    yet I have not forgotten your statutes.84   How long must your servant endure?1    When will you judge those who persecute me?85   The insolent have dug pitfalls for me;    they do not live according to your law.86   All your commandments are sure;    they persecute me with falsehood; help me!87   They have almost made an end of me on earth,    but I have not forsaken your precepts.88   In your steadfast love give me life,    that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. Lamedh 89   Forever, O LORD, your word    is firmly fixed in the heavens.90   Your faithfulness endures to all generations;    you have established the earth, and it stands fast.91   By your appointment they stand this day,    for all things are your servants.92   If your law had not been my delight,    I would have perished in my affliction.93   I will never forget your precepts,    for by them you have given me life.94   I am yours; save me,    for I have sought your precepts.95   The wicked lie in wait to destroy me,    but I consider your testimonies.96   I have seen a limit to all perfection,    but your commandment is exceedingly broad. Footnotes [1] 119:84 Hebrew How many are the days of your servant? (ESV) In private: Isaiah 57; Matthew 5 Isaiah 57 (Listen) Israel's Futile Idolatry 57   The righteous man perishes,    and no one lays it to heart;  devout men are taken away,    while no one understands.  For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;2     he enters into peace;  they rest in their beds    who walk in their uprightness.3   But you, draw near,    sons of the sorceress,    offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman.4   Whom are you mocking?    Against whom do you open your mouth wide    and stick out your tongue?  Are you not children of transgression,    the offspring of deceit,5   you who burn with lust among the oaks,1    under every green tree,  who slaughter your children in the valleys,    under the clefts of the rocks?6   Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion;    they, they, are your lot;  to them you have poured out a drink offering,    you have brought a grain offering.    Shall I relent for these things?7   On a high and lofty mountain    you have set your bed,    and there you went up to offer sacrifice.8   Behind the door and the doorpost    you have set up your memorial;  for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed,    you have gone up to it,    you have made it wide;  and you have made a covenant for yourself with them,    you have loved their bed,    you have looked on nakedness.29   You journeyed to the king with oil    and multiplied your perfumes;  you sent your envoys far off,    and sent down even to Sheol.10   You were wearied with the length of your way,    but you did not say, “It is hopeless”;  you found new life for your strength,    and so you were not faint.3 11   Whom did you dread and fear,    so that you lied,  and did not remember me,    did not lay it to heart?  Have I not held my peace, even for a long time,    and you do not fear me?12   I will declare your righteousness and your deeds,    but they will not profit you.13   When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!    The wind will carry them all off,    a breath will take them away.  But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land    and shall inherit my holy mountain. Comfort for the Contrite 14   And it shall be said,  “Build up, build up, prepare the way,    remove every obstruction from my people's way.”15   For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,    who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:  “I dwell in the high and holy place,    and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,  to revive the spirit of the lowly,    and to revive the heart of the contrite.16   For I will not contend forever,    nor will I always be angry;  for the spirit would grow faint before me,    and the breath of life that I made.17   Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry,    I struck him; I hid my face and was angry,    but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.18   I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;    I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,19     creating the fruit of the lips.  Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD,    “and I will heal him.20   But the wicked are like the tossing sea;    for it cannot be quiet,    and its waters toss up mire and dirt.21   There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” Footnotes [1] 57:5 Or among the terebinths [2] 57:8 Or on a monument (see 56:5); Hebrew on a hand [3] 57:10 Hebrew and so you were not sick (ESV) Matthew 5 (Listen) The Sermon on the Mount 5 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. The Beatitudes 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons1 of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Salt and Light 13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that2 they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Christ Came to Fulfill the Law 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Anger 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother3 will be liable to judgment; whoever insults4 his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!' will be liable to the hell5 of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.6 Lust 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Divorce 31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Oaths 33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes' or ‘No'; anything more than this comes from evil.7 Retaliation 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,8 let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Love Your Enemies 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers,9 what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Footnotes [1] 5:9 Greek huioi; see Preface [2] 5:16 Or house. 16Let your light so shine before others that [3] 5:22 Some manuscripts insert without cause [4] 5:22 Greek says Raca to (a term of abuse) [5] 5:22 Greek Gehenna; also verses 29, 30 [6] 5:26 Greek kodrantes, Roman copper coin (Latin quadrans) worth about 1/64 of a denarius (which was a day's wage for a laborer) [7] 5:37 Or the evil one [8] 5:40 Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin