Simple Faith

Bill Henry: Look guys and girls, we need to understand that as we're walking in and being those who are an adherent to our Master and accept His instruction—not by grace ignoring His instruction, but by grace embracing His instructions. A disciple is not only a partaker of information but also one who seeks to become like his or her teacher.

In this way, discipleship is about modifying one's entire lifestyle. Fire! Anybody seriously getting singed? This is awesome stuff, and I pray it is as challenging to you as it is to me.

Guest (Male): This is Simple Faith, a time of study and practical application in God's wonderful word, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Pastor Bill Henry is our teacher, and today we bring you more from our brand-new series in the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chapters 5 through 7.

These amazing and challenging words are a blueprint for Christian living, presented by Jesus Christ Himself. People today are always focusing on the source of information. Can you trust the source? Well, here in the Sermon on the Mount, you can certainly trust the source. It's God Himself. Let's join Pastor Bill now for more in Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 and 2.

Bill Henry: These teachings are our Master giving us as disciples, "Hey, this is how we are to live." But here's the beautiful thing: He's also given us His Holy Spirit and the dunamis, or the dynamite power of His Spirit, to walk in these ways. Isn't that awesome? Anybody ever told you to do something and you're just like, "Oh man, how am I ever going to do that?"

The Lord says, "I'm telling you to do these things, and here's My Holy Spirit, by the way, to help you do it." Matter of fact, if you just die to yourself, He's going to do it all in and through you for His good pleasure. Back in chapter 3, it's interesting, as we're talking about this power of Matthew, John the Baptist said something. Turn back with me just a couple chapters to your left, Matthew chapter 3, verse 11.

John the Baptist was speaking. He said, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with what? Holy Spirit and fire." How many of you here have the Holy Spirit and the fire of God in your life? That power, that dunamis power? Love it.

Now, we read of this happening after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead when He first appeared to His disciples. In John 20:22, it says, "Then He breathed on them and said, 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit.'" And so they received the Holy Spirit of God. But notice that even though at that moment they had been born again of the Holy Spirit of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, they had not yet been baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire.

They had been baptized into the body of Christ. They now have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, but He had not yet come upon them—epi in the Greek. Now, this happens some days later. Turn with me to Acts chapter 1, please. Acts chapter 1, look at verses 4 and 5 with me, please.

This is some 40 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 1, verses 4 and 5: "And being assembled together with them, He, Jesus, commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which," He said, "you have heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

Remember, they had already received the indwell. Now they will be baptized. Flip over to chapter 2, please. Let's see it happen. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Then there appeared to them dividing tongues as of what? Fire. And one sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Peter goes on to preach the first gospel given. Thousands come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Before, they were cowering in the upper room. Now, they are filled with the power of the Spirit of God. You see, beloved in Christ, a lot of us are anemic in our walks with Jesus Christ. I'm not saying you don't have the indwelling, but have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit of God, empowered with the fire of the Holy Spirit? Are you being continually filled with the Spirit of God?

Because the power of the Holy Spirit is needed to walk in loving obedience to the Lord through His word. We can't do it on our own. I can't do this. When you come up, man, you're going to see stuff where I can't do that. Amen. Praise God. Hallelujah. But you see, as we die to self, Christ can do it in and through us, again, for His good pleasure.

If you've been born again of the Spirit of God, have you also denied yourself, put off the old man, the old woman, crucified yourself, decreasing that He must increase? Have you the power of the Spirit of God dwelling within you? Yes, you do. But have you tapped into it? Have you died to self?

The power of fire of His Spirit enables us to walk in His Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For beloved in Christ, it is quite impossible to walk in loving obedience to the word of God without His Holy Spirit power dwelling within us. A lot of people are religious and they try. That's when you get the really, really grumpy Christian.

I don't know that they're Christian at all, to be honest with you. They have this outward appearance, "Oh, praise God, hallelujah, God bless you, brother," and then all of a sudden, something happens and these gross words come out or these actions come out. Wrath can come out. Where'd that come from? Jesus said it's out of the abundance of the heart that proceeds from the mouth.

Some of us don't worry about that. You should worry about it more. Do you have the Spirit of God within you, being continually filled with His Holy Spirit? If not, these words that you're going to read are just going to kind of be like Charlie Brown: wa-wa-wa-wa-wa. Maybe some of you are already there today.

You're like, "What's the pastor saying? What time are we out of here?" But to others of you, you're hearing the word of God that I've infused into this sermon and you're like, "Yes! Praise God. This is so awesome. I can't wait." Your flesh is like, "No, don't do it!" And your spirit's like, "Lord, give me more."

I want to be that one who's dying to self, yielding more to the Spirit of God who is dwelling within us and walking in accordance to His word. Notice back in our text: "When He was seated, His disciples came to Him." Beloved in Christ, as we come this morning to the teachings of Jesus, are you coming as His disciples?

Notice, His disciples came to Him. Disciples in the Greek is mathetes. You see, we're not only called Christians, we're first and foremost actually called disciples before we're called Christians in the word of God. Are you a disciple? Mathetes in the Greek: a learner, a pupil, a disciple, an imitator of our teacher. Vine said it.

Another one, Zodhiates, said it is an adherent who accepts the instruction given to him and makes it his rule of conduct. Have you received the instructions from God and this is your rule of conduct? That's what a disciple does. Another Greek scholar said no pupil is greater than his teacher, quoting from Luke 6:40.

Jesus saying, "But every pupil, when he has completed his training, will be like his teacher." Do you look at your Christianity as training? "Well, that's too legalistic, Pastor Bill. I don't want to be trained." That's being a disciple, beloved in Christ. It's part of dying to self.

Remember, this is what Jesus said in Luke 6:40 again. When we've completed our training, we'll be like our Master. We're not going to complete our training till this body is left behind. But you see, God is working in you. Are you being trained more and more? You know, how many of you would believe me if I said I go to the gym and work out every day? I don't. I need to. Getting there.

But my point is a lot of us say, "I'm a Christian," and yet spiritually, you look like me. Look guys and girls, we need to understand that as we're walking in and being those who are an adherent to our Master and accept His instruction—not by grace ignoring His instruction, but by grace embracing His instruction.

A disciple is not only a partaker of information but also one who seeks to become like his or her teacher. In this way, discipleship is about modifying one's entire lifestyle. Fire! Anybody seriously getting singed? This is awesome stuff, and I pray it is as challenging to you as it is to me.

Now, this word "disciple" goes deeper than a student, as we may think of them today. It might be better stated, though still not complete, as an apprentice. If you've ever done an apprenticeship or know somebody who has, that's closer. But a disciple in that day would literally follow their teacher everywhere.

Remember when the guys in John came up, "Hey Jesus, where are you sleeping tonight?" He's like, "Hey, Son of Man has no place to lay His head. But come on, come with me." They would follow Him everywhere. He's doing that? We're doing that. He's saying that? We're going to start saying that.

Oh, to have hearts that are like that! Hearts that are basically more than just being an apprentice, going deeper than a student. But remember that we're to be His disciples. Now Jesus describes how His disciples should be in Luke chapter 9, verses 23 and 24. And He said unto them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."

Every day, denying yourself, picking up the cross He's given to us. Now, the first part of this in the Amplified, it goes this way: And He said to all, "If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself, disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. Cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also."

That's our call as disciples, guys and girls. Have you counted the cost before you came to Christ? Is this cost too high? It is not too high. It is nothing compared to the cost of Jesus Christ upon the cross. To live for Him who died for us. To live for Him who gives you His Holy Spirit to help you live for Him. This is incredible.

Now, we also need to be warned. If we call ourselves born-again Christians, remember, if you're a born-again Christian and you say that of yourselves, you will also then be a disciple, period. There's no separating the two. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, He gave a warning for people who said that they were His disciples. "Not everyone who calls out to Me, 'Lord, Lord'—only His disciples would call out to Him, 'Lord, Lord'—will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter."

Again, not saying that they are saved by works, but they were saved and so that led to the works, as we see in Ephesians chapter 2 and other places as well. Remember too that Jesus here in the Sermon on the Mount, and as His disciples are coming to Him and throughout the New Testament, remember that most of these letters in the New Testament are written to believers in Jesus Christ. They're written for believers in Jesus Christ to equip us as His disciples, to teach us. Isn't that awesome?

You got your manual to go through? I sure do. Praise You, Lord. I got my sword, it's my manual, it's my Jesus written down, the word of God. Now, since believers are continually filled with the Spirit of God, you see, as His believers, when we're continually filled, we can hear these words from the Sermon on the Mount, we can be those disciples and actually then do them.

We can put them into practice in our lives. But do you believe this? Have we heard a watered-down gospel for so long that we no longer believe we have the power to walk in loving obedience to the word of God? We will fall every day, many times throughout the day, most likely. But by the grace of God, we get back up and we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us. He then cleanses us of our unrighteousness.

And He picks you up and He puts you on your way again. He knows you're going to fall in just a few more steps, but He loves you. He doesn't come up and kick you. He doesn't come up and say, "Unless you keep walking, you're not saved." No, you keep trying, you keep walking in loving obedience.

Now look at verse 2 back in our text: "Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying." Now, I love this. May we be those disciples that are continually listening to what our Lord would teach us through His word. You see, God opens His mouth whenever we open up His word.

I love that old comic thing that I've talked about before. Some fellow says, "Lord, I just want to hear from You, speak to me." And in the next frame is a big hand coming out of heaven and handing him a Bible. Then I've heard some people say, "Well, I want to hear Your voice out loud." Well, open up the Bible and read it out loud.

You see, whenever we open up the word of God, whenever we meditate upon the word of God, whenever we speak the memorized word of God that we've hidden in our hearts, God wants to teach us because God's word is life. Jesus Christ is the Word become flesh. May we be those disciples that are continually listening, though, listening to what our Lord Jesus would tell us through His word and through His teachings.

Remember again, your flesh doesn't want you to be reading your Bibles. Don't read your Bible. Sunday's okay, your flesh says, but I don't like it. Go ahead. Sunday morning, but don't read your Bible, really. No, you be a saint of God. You be one who's obeying God rather than your flesh and be reading it every day and then also coming, "Lord, teach me."

None of us here are so mature that we don't need to be taught from God's word. If you've come to that place, let me tell you this: that's called pride. Prideful. Got a lot of pride there, buddy. I remember one guy years ago, I'll never forget. He was like, "Yeah, I read the Bible once. It was a good book." This was in church. He thought he was done, he read through it.

I've read through it many times and every time I read, I learn. I love it! Every time we read through the word of God, we need to have hearts that are teachable. You see, His word gives us life. John 6:63, Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing." How much does the flesh profit? Nothing. "The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."

Oh, they are life. Oh, that there would be pastors who teach the word of God. There may be those that teach it with great humor, they make us laugh, and they might not be teaching the word of God, though. But we like to listen to them because they make us laugh. There are other pastors we like to hear because they tell us what we want to hear. They make us feel good every time we leave church.

And still, other pastors who soothe our aching hearts and tickle our ears. You see, beloved in Christ, these are pastors who are not giving the word of God. And it is through the word of God that Jesus teaches us and we find life and we truly grow deeper in our relationship with God. I firmly believe that every single time we open up the word of God, Jesus is seeking to teach us as disciples today.

That is why it is so important for pastors to come back to the simple teaching of the word of God. Back in the 1800s, Charles Spurgeon fought against this higher criticism. Imagine that, having a higher criticism of the word of God. These brainiacs come together, "We're so brilliant and we know all this manuscript evidence, and we will now judge the word of God." Standing back on that Day of Judgment, bro!

Look, guys and girls, it is important for a pastor to simply teach the word of God simply because Jesus then teaches us. Oh, we can be funny sometimes. I think that's okay, and I think at times we can feel blessed. We should feel blessed at Jesus growing in and through us. And still other times when His word does soothe our soul, but it should never tickle our ears.

His word and His teachings bring life. This means life to our spirit and death to our flesh. Our flesh is like, "Don't listen! Don't listen right now!" You see, there will always be some hard and challenging words when Jesus is truly teaching us, no matter how old or young we are in the Lord.

How many people here like to read regular books? I love to read. I was brought up reading, even though I have dyslexia and it takes me forever to read. I still love to read. But I'm telling you what: it's so easy to read a regular book, but then you pick up the Bible, what happens? All of a sudden it's like, "I don't want to read. This is taking so long. What's going on?"

That's called spiritual warfare. That's called your flesh hating the things of the spirit, that battle just even with your flesh. You see, here's the thing, guys and girls: there will always be some hard and challenging words when Jesus is truly teaching us, no matter how old or young we are in the Lord. But even so, we come to the most wonderful and powerful, I believe, sermons that have ever been preached.

And as we take it step-by-step and as we hear His words teaching us, if we have hearts that will listen, we too will hear the continual call for death in our flesh but life in our spirit. Galatians 5:16: "I say then: walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." In the New Living, it says, "So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves."

In closing, as we come to this new verse-by-verse study, can we do so, if I can encourage you as your pastor, to do so in great humility? Put on humility such maybe as you've never done before, putting on our disciple apprentice cap once again to seek humbly to hear from our Lord anew and to live in different ways than we've been living according to His powerful word.

To hear His voice speaking clearly to our born-again souls and empowering us so graciously by His indwelt Spirit to live in these manners of life that He Himself so graciously has given to us as His obedient children. To not only know by His Spirit, but to do and live by the power of His Spirit and have life like we've never had it before, abundantly in our lives.

Guest (Male): Next time on Simple Faith, we'll move along to Matthew chapter 5, verse 3, as we look at the beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." I hope you've been blessed by today's message from Pastor Bill Henry. This has been Simple Faith. Simple Faith comes your way from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.

Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill from his new series in the Sermon on the Mount. If you'd like to hear today's message again or share it with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can download an audio MP3 right there at our website.

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Well, thank you for joining us today. Be sure to join us next time as our series on the Sermon on the Mount continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel.