Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Following the Lord has never been about performance. It's about what happens inside us. That's the heartbeat of Matthew chapters 5 through 7. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus moves past the surface and then goes straight to the soul. And we'll hear his warning: there's real danger in putting on a religious appearance, looking polished on the outside while nothing truly changes within. God isn't interested in a veneer; he's about something deeper.

Welcome to Through the Bible. Dr. McGee's great desire was that we wouldn't simply admire Jesus' words, but that we would truly see him, encounter his grace, and be changed by him. And that's our focus as we look at the Sermon on the Mount. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'm grateful that you're here riding along on the Bible Bus. Before we open God's word together, let's listen to a letter that Dr. McGee received some time ago, one that meant a great deal to him.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: I do not think that I ought to read where it comes from because it may spotlight this man, who is a Roman Catholic priest, and cause him problems, and I do not want to cause him problems. But I do want to continue to be a help to him. He says:

"This letter comes to you from a Bible-believing Catholic. I know there are many doctrinal divisions between us, but I trust we're still able to overcome them in the blood of the Lamb and in our witness of the good news. Currently, my parish is open to the study of the Word, and I'm teaching one of the study groups. We have begun in Genesis. I listen to your program. It has meant a lot to me as you continually reveal the foreshadowing of Jesus in the Old Testament scriptures. I know the Holy Spirit is using your program in a profound way among believers and also across traditional church lines. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. We are increasingly today a free church leading to the unity which is in Christ Jesus."

And then he asks for the notes and outlines, which we're going to send to him.

We have concluded the so-called Sermon on the Mount, and probably we need to back off and get a perspective of it because we've said many things that have been rather strange and new to a great many folk today. And a great many people feel that the Sermon on the Mount is the way the church is to live today, that it's given to the church.

Actually, if we'll get off and look at the Word of God, God has given three great systems by which he is to govern and to rule mankind. The first one is the Mosaic system, the law. For you know that in the very first of Genesis, God had to destroy the entire human race because of their violence and that every thought and imagination of their hearts were evil continually. And because of that condition, a world had departed from God, and he had to judge it.

Out of that, he could only get one man and his family. And from that man and his family, God began a movement toward drawing out of the human family a man, and that man would become the father of a people. And God would deal with these people, and they would be a witness to him. Actually, he was going to give them a land, and he was going to make them a great nation, numberless. And then he was to make them a blessing to the world, and God through that was to reach the world.

Now, he gave them a system through Moses called the Mosaic system. And that Mosaic system, at the heart of it, was a great sacrificial system that we are going to see when we go back to the Old Testament and study the book of Exodus. Very heart of it was that burnt altar where sacrifices were made. That altar speaks of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God never forgave sin apart from a sacrifice that was made.

Because the law did not save man. It revealed to man that he was a sinner, and it became a system of condemnation and not a system of salvation at all. And therefore, constantly all through the Old Testament, it's pointing to the coming of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he came and offered himself as a king in order to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament, and his nation rejected him.

The Gospel of Matthew presents him as King. And I personally think that everything in this Gospel that we're studying is to be understood in the light of the fact that he is the King. In the Gospel of Matthew, as we've indicated, he was born a King, he lived a King, he died a King, he rose again from the dead as a King, and he's coming again to this earth as a King.

Now, one of the things that he did when he was here, he was to enunciate a law that was different from the Mosaic law. It is the so-called Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Excerpts of it are found in the other Gospels, but here it's given in its fullest extent. And I very candidly believe, as you've heard me say, that I think we have the abridged edition even in Matthew.

And I think the evidence of it is this: he took two of the commandments and lifted them to a higher degree than they were ever interpreted in the Old Testament. Now, he said that if you're angry with your brother, you're guilty of murder. Now, there's nothing about that in the Old Testament. And then he says if you so much as look upon a woman to commit adultery, you're guilty of it.

Believe me, friends, that would take care of half the human race today because there'd be very few men that could say they are not guilty of breaking that—that is, by looking. A woman said to me some time ago—she's a very fine-looking woman and a very wonderful Christian and a very excellent Bible teacher—she was telling about meeting a certain man, and he happened to be a preacher. She says, "As he looked at me, I could tell what he was doing. He was undressing me. And I think he tried to rape me during that period."

May I say to you, the man never moved an eyelash. He just was sitting watching the woman approach him. I think he was guilty according to the Sermon on the Mount. Now, the Sermon on the Mount lifts the law to the nth degree. And somebody says, "Well, isn't that what we're to live by today?" No. This is for the kingdom that's coming on the earth.

And I think that at that time you'll have the unabridged edition of the Sermon on the Mount, and it's going to be the law of the kingdom that will be set up in the future. And I believe that there are great principles here. But we have a different system, and you and I today are living in what is called the age of grace, or actually, it's the age of the Holy Spirit.

Because you see, you and I are living at a time when God saves by grace, not by law, not by keeping a law, not by following a law. We are not saved by anything that we do. Frankly, friends, you're not a Christian until you believe something. And that something is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now, that's the Gospel. That's what saves you.

Nothing that you do; you can't lift your little finger for your salvation. Now, after you're saved, God has a way for you to live, and that way for you to live is not the law. It's not the Ten Commandments. Oh, I know, all the great denominations—I was brought up in one of them, I was educated in that denomination, I know what it says.

My shorter catechism said that when you get to sanctification and to live for God, they drag in the Ten Commandments. Suppose you did keep all the Ten Commandments, which you don't, but if you did, that wouldn't save you. Because that's not what saves you today. It's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that saves you. And therefore, the law cannot save you at all, and it's not a way of life, either.

It's not the Christian way of life. But somebody immediately thinks it means you can break it. Of course, it doesn't mean you break it. It doesn't give you freedom to break it. It merely means that we have another way of life that's much higher than that. Well, somebody says, "You've just said that the Sermon on the Mount lifts the law to the nth degree, so that must be it." No, that's not it.

Have you ever stopped to think about whether you can keep the Sermon on the Mount? I want to make some very startling statements now. I hope you're ready for them. If you're not, sit down, and I'll make the statements. Number one, may I say to you that the Sermon on the Mount has made more hypocrites in the church today than anything else.

I gave you the story of the man—and he's a church member and officer and all—but he could cuss like the proverbial sailor. And he thought that he was a Christian. And when I turned the light of the Sermon of the Mount on him, I found out all he did was vote for it. He just approved of it. He thought it was a pretty nice document. He didn't keep it. He broke it. Of course, he broke it. And he could not live by it. You can't live by it.

And it's done something else. You see, it's a veneer of religion that a great many people assume when their heart is not changed. Because you see, the heart of man has to be changed. And so, as a result in our government today, liberalism is not only in politics, but liberalism in theology has played a great part. And we've talked about the brotherhood of man, the universal fatherhood of God.

But the Lord Jesus contradicts that right here in Matthew. He said of even the religious rulers in his day, he says, "You are of your father the devil, and the works of your father you will do." Evidently, there was somebody in that day that couldn't call God their Father. The universal fatherhood of God didn't apply then and doesn't apply today.

Now, we've attempted to deal with the world today since World War II in a spirit of brotherly love. We are hated by most of the nations of the world today and envied by the rest of them. We've spent literally millions and billions of dollars to buy peace, and we don't have peace in the world today. Why? Well, because you can't put in the principles in the Sermon on the Mount.

They've tried to do it. We've had politicians that have tried to put in these principles. Somebody wants to come back and say, "Well, aren't they good?" Of course, they're good. But there's something wrong. What is it that's wrong? It's the heart of man that's wrong today. It's man that is the problem. A listener wrote to me and said, "Dr. McGee, I don't have problems. I am the problem."

And that is the difficulty today. There's nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments; God gave them. They reveal his mind, his will. The Sermon on the Mount reveals the mind and will of God. Nothing wrong with that. But there's something radically wrong with man. May I say to you, do you want to hear what the Gospel of Matthew says? And actually, it's the words of the Lord Jesus. Listen to him. He'll tell you where the problem is.

He says, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man." That's Matthew 15, verse 18. Now, listen to the next verse, verse 19 of chapter 15 of Matthew: "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man."

Now, you can have a religion; you wash your hands and your body, and you can do double somersaults and you can go through any kind of a ritual or liturgy. But the heart is the problem. Man has an awful case, a desperate case of heart trouble today, and jogging just won't help him. He needs Jesus, not jogging. And he alone can change him.

And that's by a miracle known as regeneration. And when God regenerates a man, he even told a very nice, respectable Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus, he told him, he said, "Ye must be born again." And that thing's been worn out today and misused and abused. It's a marvelous, wonderful truth, it's a miraculous truth. And friends, may I say to you that you and I have to be regenerated because we've got this old nature.

When he's talking here about what comes out of the heart, he's not talking about Joe Doaks's heart, although he is talking about his heart too. And he's not talking about my heart, but he is talking about my heart. And he's talking about your heart. Your heart, friend. That's the problem today with man. You see, Paul enlarged on that.

He said the works of the flesh—and that's over in Galatians 5—and he talked about what comes out of the works of the flesh: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. Now, we live in a day of situation ethics. We live in a day of gross immorality. We've thrown overboard the so-called Judeo-Christian ethic, and you do as you please.

I heard a college professor, PhD, state some time ago on the TV. He says that he was asked, "What is right today?" He says, "Anything is right if it makes you feel good." May I say to you, according to that, if it makes you feel good to kill your father and mother, then it's perfectly all right because it makes you feel good.

May I say to you that when the man has restrictions taken off—and God gave the Mosaic law to control the old nature—never did it do it. That nation departed from God, and they got far from God. But nevertheless, man was not able to measure up to it. And Paul is constantly saying that in his epistles. Now, how is man to live?

Man is to live today, not by his effort because he can't make it. He says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law." There's no law that can produce these things. It's not in you or me to love naturally. Oh, we can—they can talk about sex all they want to, but we're not talking about that.

We are talking about a real concern for others and a real love for God and for the Lord Jesus Christ. That does not come naturally. There's a song that goes about doing that which comes naturally. Well, when man does that which comes naturally, you have our contemporary civilization right now that's as lawless and as violent as it can be.

And there is a question in the minds of many serious men in high places today whether we can survive as a nation. And we cannot, friends, apart from restoring a control on the old nature of man. Now, how are you going to produce these other things? Well, you can't produce them by your effort. Go back to the Sermon on the Mount.

It said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." How's that working today? It's just not working. The poor in spirit don't seem to be moving in that direction. It says, "Blessed are they that mourn, they'll be comforted." And when those people come out of the great tribulation, they're to mourn at that time of awful trouble, they're going to be comforted.

But today, may I say to you, I know many people that are mourning today; they're not being comforted. And it says here—and here is really the one—"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Talk to Mr. Brezhnev about that. Is he inheriting the world by being meek? Ask the people in Afghanistan today if they came in with meekness.

And at the time I'm giving this, they've moved into Pakistan, but I wonder what those people are thinking about the meek inheriting the earth. And Ethiopia's already gone down the drain. I have a letter from a missionary there that reveals that the meek are not inheriting the earth. I don't know where we got the idea today, except through a misinterpretation of the Word of God.

The meek are going to inherit the earth, but it'll be when a King comes who was the meekest man that ever walked this earth. But he's going to come with great power and glory, and he's going to put down unrighteousness on this earth and establish his kingdom. And when he does, that's going to be the law of the kingdom. But today, how we live?

By the power of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. That's fruit, not works. Can you love today? Peace? How about peace in your own heart? You have peace with God? Only the Spirit of God can give that to you. And joy, really today, friend, wherever you are, do you know what it is to have the real joy of the Lord?

And then, how about this business of meekness today? You and I have a proud heart, every one of us. I've got it. I like for people to pat me on the back, and don't you tell me you don't like it cause you like it too. We are proud. That's the old nature. But the fruit of the Spirit is meekness. And my friend, if there's one thing this poor preacher's labored for in his ministry is just simply this: oh God, make me a meek man.

Give me humility. Help me to be the kind of a Christian that I ought to be. I can't do it. He wants to do it through us by the Holy Spirit. And friends, this is a new way of living. This is not the Sermon on the Mount. This is not the Ten Commandments. This is not the Mosaic system. This is new. He says he's blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies today.

It's spiritual blessings today that he's given to us. And now we are to walk today in this world in meekness and lowliness of mind and heart by the power of the Spirit of God. And today we're to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And that will enable us to live for God. It will produce fruit in our life. It will enable us to serve God.

That's the plane we're called to. I hope that you now see the Sermon on the Mount in its true perspective. Now we're ready to come down from the mount where he enunciated the ethic, and he's going to reveal that he also has the dynamic to enforce this law when he comes to rule on this earth. And until next time, may the Lord richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Did it feel like Dr. McGee was speaking right to you? Are you exhausting yourself trying to live up to the Ten Commandments or maybe the Sermon on the Mount in your own strength? Well, if you're tired of putting on a veneer of religion that just isn't working, let the Lord Jesus Christ change you from the inside out.

You can learn more about what God's great love for you and his free gift of salvation is about by clicking on "How to Know God" in our app or at ttb.org. Now, if you'd prefer to receive some free resources by mail, then just call us: 1-800-65-BIBLE. Well, we've already seen in Matthew that Jesus presents himself as King, and in the Sermon on the Mount, he lays out the program of his kingdom.

Next time, we're going to see that he not only gives the standard, but he has the power to fulfill it. So keep climbing aboard the Bible Bus, and why not invite a friend to ride along with you? I'm Steve Schwetz, praying that you'll experience God's great grace, love, and peace as you follow him today.

Through the Bible is a five-year study of God's entire Word. And together, we discover God's purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know him yet?