Grace On The Mount – Part 2 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Hey everyone, thanks so much for tuning into the broadcast today. We’re gonna be talking about seeing grace in the teaching of Jesus. So much of our focus in the church is talking about what we do rather than who we are. But when you believe on Jesus, who you are changes and what we do is really a result of who we are. So stay tuned and receive the good Word of God today. Friends, it’s great to have you on the broadcast today. I’m so glad that you’re with us and we’re gonna be sharing more today from Matthew chapter five, where Aaron was teaching on grace on the Mount. And we’re talking really about seeing the grace of God in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.

 

  And I love the ministry of Jesus. He went about teaching, preaching, and healing. He had a teaching, preaching, healing ministry.

 

  Amen.

 

  But every part of his ministry was full of grace.

 

  Hallelujah.

 

  And you can see grace just all over the life and ministry of Jesus. You can really see grace actually all throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. So we’ll just dive in here where we left off, Matthew 5:17. Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets, I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you that heaven and earth passed away one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” So Jesus is making some really big statements here, about “I didn’t come to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.” You know, I love reading throughout the Old Testament. I love reading, you know, the books of the law, the books of Moses, I love reading the prophets. I love reading the wisdom books, it all points to Jesus.

 

  Amen. You know, the entirety of the Old Testament points to Jesus and he is the centerpiece really of the scripture. And then when you get into the Gospels, of course, that is Jesus’ life, so on and so forth. But then when you get beyond the Gospels in the Bible, it all looks back on Jesus and what he accomplished. And so the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is really the heart of the gospel.

 

  I love Jesus, what he said in verse 20, he said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” And when he gets into the second half of this chapter, Jesus gives six examples from the law that even if you keep the law like the Pharisees and Sadducees keep it, it doesn’t necessarily make you a righteous person. You know, Paul said, “Before I came to know Christ concerning the law, I kept it perfectly.” But he knew that, that didn’t really make him right before God.

 

  No.

 

  It was only faith in Jesus that had that power to transform his life.

 

  Amen, it’s only faith in Christ that we can receive righteousness. And if people look at these scriptures like in the end of Matthew chapter five, and these six examples, if they look at ’em through a legalistic viewpoint, they think, well, it’s not enough to keep the law. Well, nobody’s ever kept the law yet when you really understand what the law says. Jesus is the only person who ever fulfilled the righteous requirement of God’s law and the only way that we can fulfill it, is through faith in Jesus. So it’s not talking about adding to the law, it’s actually pointing us to Jesus saying, “Hey, without Jesus, there’s no way that you’re gonna make it.”

 

  And I’ll just skip ahead to Jesus’s conclusion to this chapter in Matthew 5:48 and he says, “Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” So that’s a huge statement and really the only way you can be perfect is through faith in Jesus.

 

  Amen, so I wrote this down when you were teaching Aaron, “Only perfection will please God and only Jesus is perfect.” So it takes only faith in Jesus can make us perfect. There’s no way that we’re perfect apart from Christ.

 

  Yeah and keeping the law, like Jesus is showing how even if you keep the law, he gives six examples here. And I kind of find it interesting that uses six examples. Six is actually the number of a man, it’s the number of imperfections.

 

  Right.

 

  So he gives six examples, like even if you keep it in your, you know, human performance, you’re still gonna miss it.

 

  Right.

 

  And so the first example he talks about is the law for murder so he says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.'” So some of you might say, “Well that’s good, I’ve never murdered anyone.” You know, the vast majority of people watching this right now can hopefully say, “I’ve never murdered anyone.” But verse 22, it says, “I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” So that probably hits about every one of us.

 

  Yeah.

 

  Where we’re just mad just ’cause we wanted to be mad.

 

  You know, I’ve actually had people say, “I’m mad no matter what. It doesn’t matter what this person does. Whether they do this, I’m gonna be mad when they gonna do that, I’m gonna be mad.” Well, that hits you right there.

 

  So he is saying, you know, if you’re just angry with someone without a good reason, that you’re in danger of judgment. “And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be in danger of the council. And whoever says, ‘You fool!’ Shall be in danger of hell fire.” So if you call someone you know… A fool…

 

  Hey, I’m included in there. And I imagine almost all of my friends. I mean, you look out here in the world and you see the craziness that’s going on and you’re, you know, it’s hard not to say that. But Jesus said, hey, you know, don’t just look at what’s happening in other people, turn that thing around and look at yourself.

 

  And verse 23, he says, “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.” So really what Jesus is showing, it’s not just what you do, it’s not just keeping the law, just not going around murdering people, but God’s really looking at the heart.

 

  Right.

 

  It’s the heart that matters, not just what you’re doing on the surface. Religion really focuses on the what. What are you doing?

 

  Right.

 

  But relationship, it’s about the heart. So Jesus pulling people away from religion and directing them towards relationship, your relationship with God and your relationship with other people, that ministry of reconciliation.

 

  Right.

 

  That Paul writes about. We’ve all been given this ministry of reconciliation.

 

  Well, religion focuses on the outward realm. And you know, Jesus said in one place, he said, you guys are like the whitewashed tombs and on the outside, you know, you’re bright and pretty, but on the inside you’re full of dead men’s bones. And again, he said, it’s not so much the outside, but it’s the inside and it’s the spirit of man. Proverbs said, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord lighting all the inward parts of the belly.” So our spiritual part is what we need to focus on. And if you focus on that, the things on the outside will automatically, as you renew your mind, begin to change.

 

  And we see just what Jesus is saying here in verse 25, “Agree with your adversary quickly while you’re on the way with him. Lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny.” So just keeping the law doesn’t make you righteous. Just saying, “Well, I haven’t murdered anyone. I’ve kept, you know, the 10 commandments.” And people approached Jesus this way. You know, the rich young ruler came to Jesus, said, “I’ve kept all the commandments, what do I lack?”

 

  Right.

 

  And Jesus said, you kind of showed him you really haven’t kept even the first commandment, which is not having any other God before me. You know-

 

  Right.

 

  He actually served money before he served God. So some people might use the law to justify themselves, but the law isn’t meant to help you justify yourself.

 

  Right.

 

  That wasn’t the purpose of the law, the law was to show us our need for a savior.

 

  You know, the law is like going in the mirror and looking and saying, “Hi, I need to shave.” But if you pull that mirror off the wall and try to shave with it, you’re just gonna get all cut up. The law could not make us righteous, the law could not save us but the law was to point us to Jesus and Jesus is the answer.

 

  And this is a great quote I heard, but it says this, “The law only breeds two things, defeat if you’re honest and hypocrisy if you’re not.” And I think that’s very true. So Jesus, you know, goes into his second example of how just keeping the law doesn’t necessarily make you a righteous person. So his second example here starts in verse 27, he says here, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.'” So some of you might say, “Well, that’s pretty easy I’m not even married, so I’ve never committed adultery.” But here he goes on and says, really, it’s the heart that God’s looking at, he says, “I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” So Jesus isn’t saying here to go cut off your arms, pluck out your eyes, that’s not what he’s saying. He’s just showing that even if you think, you know, keeping the law makes it a righteous person, that’s not enough.

 

  Yeah, that’s what he’s saying. You know, he’s basically, if you get to studying these different things out, he’s saying, there is no way that you can do this on your own without me.

 

  You’d run outta limbs.

 

  So you gotta give up and believe the gospel.

 

  You could still be missing all your limbs and missing all your eyes and still, you know, have a heart that isn’t right before God.

 

  Amen.

 

  So he’s not saying to do these things. He’s just saying it’s impossible without me.

 

  Right.

 

  The only way to be righteous is through faith in Jesus.

 

  You know, we’re not human doings, we’re human beings and we need to be who God made us to be, and you know what? It’s impossible to live the Christian life without the Christ life, you can’t do it. And that’s why we’ve gotta give up and believe on Jesus. And you know, the gospel is really simple, it’s just letting Jesus live his life big in us. And when you realize, hey, this is not about the rules, it’s about the relationship with God through Jesus. It’s about Jesus and when you get to know Jesus, and when you begin to understand this… You know, I love Romans 14:17, it says, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” And so you receive righteousness by faith, you receive peace by faith. And when you believe on Jesus, you have this joy that is a fruit of the spirit, it just wells up on the inside of you. So it’s not about the rules, it’s about a relationship with God through Jesus. And that’s what Jesus is saying, guys. It’s not about keeping all these things, it’s not about keeping the law. It’s not about, you know, being perfect in your own strength. It’s about trusting me and letting me come, and live my life through you. Thank you so much for being part of this broadcast and stay tuned in. We’re gonna share a short word with you, stay tuned. We’ll be right back after a short message and we’re gonna come back and we’re gonna share more with you on how Jesus shows us that we need him, blessings. Friends, we’ve been sharing from the Sermon on the Mount about grace on the Mount and you can get the fullness of this teaching absolutely free of charge on our website at charischristiancenter.com, downloadable video, downloadable audio. And we’ve actually got hundreds of hours of teaching there for you free. Thanks so much and blessings. Isaiah 5:13 says, they’re kept in bondage because they have no knowledge but when I found out the truth, I remember that I was so excited when I first heard the full gospel preached. When I found out I didn’t have to be sick and poor, and defeated by the devil, that I could believe God, that God had a better life, I remember I was so excited. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’re so glad that you’re here. We are continuing to teach from Matthew chapter five today, the Sermon on the Mount, on seeing grace in the life and teaching of Jesus.

 

  And I really love the second half of Matthew five. Jesus gives six different examples from the law that just shows people that even if you keep the law, just like the Pharisees and Sadducees did, it doesn’t necessarily make you a righteous person. He gives six different examples, we’re actually at the third example and he uses the example of divorce. So according to the law, it was permitted for people to write a certificate of divorce and for that to happen. So even if you follow the law, you could actually just get married every day for a year and have a different wife and just at the end of the day-

 

  Oh god, that’s terrible.

 

  Write a certificate. But you’re still keeping the law, you’re still… You’re not breaking the law. But you know, if we knew someone who did that, you know, who literally married someone every day, married ’em in the morning, got up, married someone, and then, you know, by dinnertime wrote them a certificate of divorce, divorced them and did that every day for a year, had 356 different wives, technically they’d still be keeping the law.

 

  It’s terrible.

 

  But just keeping the law does not make you a righteous person. So he says here for his third example, talking about divorce, he says, “Furthermore it has been said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” That’s literally all you have to do to keep the law and to be, you know, in right standing according to the law. “But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.” I don’t believe that Jesus is adding to the law. He’s just showing people that really, it’s the heart that God’s looking at.

 

  Right, in Mark chapter 10, Jesus talks about this and there’s a lot of confusion. There’s actually a lot of pain surrounding this subject of divorce. And I think we need to be very, very careful about how we address that in the church. But in Mark chapter 10, Jesus talks about this and he said Moses in the law because of the hardness of heart, suffered them to write a bill of divorce. So the real issue is the hardness of heart. But if Moses had enough grace in the law to have them to write a bill of divorce, I think we would find that much grace in the New Testament. And again, I think we need to be very careful about how we teach about the subject of marriage and divorce. The divorce rates in the church actually are about identical with the divorce rates in the world and so we just need to realize that is grace. And really, unless you lived with someone and lived in that relationship, you really don’t know the parameters of it and you don’t know what a person may be dealing with. I realized this early in the ministry when I would say certain things as I was just even reading through the scripture, there’s so much condemnation around this subject of divorce that people would leave my services condemned. And it’s not because I was condemning him, it’s because they were struggling from the pain, many times, of a divorce that they didn’t even want. I actually had a couple that was in my church and both the man had been divorced and the woman had been divorced, and then they were remarried. And neither one of them wanted the divorce but both of their partners had been unfaithful. The man’s wife had been unfaithful to him, the woman’s former husband had been unfaithful to him, their mates had divorced them and later they’d got remarried. But if you just mentioned divorce, there was so much condemnation around this subject. So I am very, very careful about how I approach this and I think people just need to realize, you know, the Bible actually talks about in the Old Testament that God divorced Israel and so… You know, and we know God didn’t sin. And so we need to be very careful about how we approach this and approach, you know, this subject with grace, and-

 

  There’s entire denominations that actually just basically excommunicate people who’ve been through a divorce. Like they make it so you can’t take communion, maybe even make it so you can’t volunteer.

 

  It’s terrible.

 

  Really be a full member of a church. And you know, people who get very legalistic, they usually find workarounds.

 

  Yeah.

 

  They’ll find a workaround. So hey, we’ll just annul the marriage so it’s like you weren’t divorced because you weren’t married in the first place ’cause we just erased the initial marriage. And you know, legalism just will will lead to silly things.

 

  It produces death anyway you cut it. And I am not gonna be a death preacher. I am not gonna be a law preacher. Do you understand me? 2 Corinthians 3 says that, “The ministry of the law is a ministry of death.” And I am just not gonna do that. I am not the judge, I don’t even wanna be, God is the judge and I’m gonna leave that up to him.

 

  Awesome well, the fourth example that Jesus talks about just really showing you that even if you keep the law, it doesn’t necessarily make you a righteous person. The fourth example begins here in Matthew 5:33, it says, “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven for it is God’s throne, nor by the earth for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you swear by your head because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your yes be yes in your no, no for whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” So he is showing just, you know, the law says when you swear, don’t swear falsely swear to the Lord. But you know, around his time, it still happens today, you have to add to your promise to make it really count. You have to swear by the gold that’s on the, you know… The top of the temple or you have to swear by, you know, whatever mountain, the tallest mountain that’s in Colorado. Like you have to… You know, swear on your mother’s grave. That’s what we do today or as kids, you know. Well and Jesus is saying, really it’s the heart that matters, just be an honest person.

 

  Amen.

 

  And that’s really lacking in the world today, even in the church, just honesty is what counts with God. He really cares about the heart.

 

  I love what he says, “Let your yay be yay, and your nay be nay.” You know, I try to, as much as possible to keep my word and do what I say. And if there’s some reason that I can’t, I try to go to the people beforehand and say, “Hey, this happened, so on and so forth.” And but there is a tremendous lack of integrity in many ways that we see in different areas. So I think we need to keep our word, but yet it’s not by our keeping the word that we’re saved, it’s by faith in Jesus period that we receive righteousness.

 

  And then this fifth example from the law that Jesus teaches about, just showing that even if you keep the law it doesn’t make you a righteous person. He goes on in verse 3:8 here and says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.'” Most people have heard that saying from the law. And they like it ’cause if someone does something wrong to you, you can retaliate and you can match with equal retaliation, right? And that’s really how the world judges things even today. Like how one country is attacked. Well, you can only respond with equal retaliation, you know? And something even within my own household, I have a 10-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, there’s a pretty big age gap. But they were kind of playing around the other night and my 3-year-old daughter actually took like a book and threw it and hit my 10-year-old son in the face. And he was really upset and he wanted to retaliate, but I told him, “You are not allowed to retaliate.” Because you can’t…

 

  Because you’ll hurt somebody.

 

  It’s not an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth type situation. And Jesus says, “But I tell you not to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away.”

 

  Yeah.

 

  So, you know, at the time I heard this, that, you know, the Roman Empire was occupying Israel and there was actually a law in the Roman Empire that if a soldier wanted your help and wanted you to carry something for a mile, you could… He could demand that you help him carry something for a mile. So these Jews who you know, were not very happy about the Romans occupy there, they wanted to really give ’em an eye for an eye tooth, for a tooth type thing. And Jesus said, “Hey, just trust God.”

 

  Wow.

 

  Just trust God with this situation. And some of you might be facing a situation where someone did something wrong to you and you wanna…

 

  Or somebody’s demanding something of you. And Jesus basically says, not only give them what they ask but give them more. And so you gotta forgive your brother. And that’s a lot easier said than done sometime but we need to keep forgiving. You know, mom and I watched this show just last night about “Heaven is Real”. And this little girl, her little brother, people were making fun of him at school, and so she took and she smacked these boys and her dad was a pastor. And you know, her mom said now, when they called and said she hit these boys at school and her mom said, “The Bible says, ‘turn the other cheek.'” She said, “I did when I hit ’em, I turned their other cheek.” Which is funny… It was just funny, praise God.

 

  And then the sixth example Jesus gives here of how just keeping the law doesn’t necessarily make you a righteous person, it starts in verse 43. It says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'” And I find this verse super interesting because you know, most English translations it shows, “You shall love your neighbor,” in italics because that’s an exact quote from the Old Testament but the saying was, ” You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”

 

  Right.

 

  So they’re actually adding an additional phrase to scripture.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, “Hey, love your neighbor, but it’s okay to hate your enemy.” So you can still be keeping the law and hating your enemy, so that’s why people ask Jesus, “Well who is my neighbor? Who do I have to love because I can hate…”

 

  Yeah and look at what he says.

 

  He says, “But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you, go good to those who hit you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, sends rain on the just and the unjust for if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore…” This is his conclusion to this entire chapter here, “Therefore you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect.”

 

  Amen and the only way that we can be perfect, we talked about this prior to this, ultimately is by putting our faith in Jesus. So only perfection pleases God, only Jesus is perfect, and the only way that we can be perfect is put our faith in Jesus. So I want to invite you right now to pray this very simple prayer with me and I want to invite you also, if you need prayer, if you need to receive something from God, to give my prayer ministers a call today and receive personal prayer. Just pray with me, Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son. I believe that he died for my sins. I believe that you raised him from the dead and made him more. And right now I surrender my life to you, in Jesus’ name I pray, amen. Thanks so much and blessings. Friends, our broadcast can now be seen by over two thirds of the world’s population and it’s our partners that have made this available. I want to invite you today to become part of this blessing by becoming a partner of Charis Christian Center and “Grace for Today”. So we would love to hear from you and thank you so much for prayerfully considering this today, blessings.

 

  A revelation of grace will transform your life and enable you to see God for who he truly is. He is our Heavenly Father and only has good things to give us. When you look upon the face of Jesus, you behold the grace of God. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of the teaching Grace on the Mount, a $30 value free of charge. Download it today at charischristiancenter.com.

 

  Friends, the scripture says, if you will continue in the Word of God, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” The Word of God has blessed me so much and I want to make this word that I’ve received available to you. If you go to our website at charischristiancenter.com, you can get all of our materials there on the website as you watch ’em, as you listen absolutely free of charge and we’ve done that just to be a blessing to you. I hope you’ve enjoyed the message today, enjoyed the word of God and I believe that the word that has freed me, will free you, blessings.

 

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