Grace On The Mount – Part 1 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’re here today. We’re going to begin sharing today on the Sermon on the Mount, and we’re gonna be talking about seeing the grace of God in the teaching of Jesus. So you don’t wanna miss this teaching. Jesus is the embodiment of grace. He shows us grace in his life, and he demonstrates grace, and he also teaches grace. Blessings. Friends, it’s great to have you on the broadcast with us today. And we’re talking about Grace on the Mount and actually a teaching that Aaron shared from the Sermon on the Mount. And when we look at this, Jesus is, first of all, the embodiment of grace, but he’s also manifested grace both in his teaching and in his works.

 

  Awesome. So we’ll just get right into it. You know, Jesus, it came to put the face to God’s grace.

 

  Amen.

 

  You know, I just love studying grace, and really just seeing everything that Jesus did. You know, Jesus had a teaching, a preaching, a healing ministry, and he really does put the face to God’s grace. So I actually wanted to start in John 1:14-17. It says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

 

  Amen.

 

  So everything that Jesus did, everything that he taught, everything he preached, every time he ministered to someone, it was always full of grace and truth. And it says, “John bore witness of him and cried out saying, ‘This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me.” And of his fullness, we have all received and grace for grace. For the law given through Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ.”

 

  Amen. You know, when you think about the law and grace,

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  or the law and the gospel, and when you think about these scriptures, the way that we approach God’s word which is truth, Jesus had sanctify them through thy truth, that word is truth, determines whether the truth of God’s word will produce life or death.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  For instance, truth minus grace equals law. And the law ultimately brings death. When you study 2 Corinthians chapter 3, it talks, it compares the law and grace, and it says, the law is a ministry of death. But if you have grace plus truth, that equals Jesus and that brings life.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  So ultimately, the way that we approach Jesus, or the way that we approach the truth of God’s word, determines whether we approach, whether we’re gonna receive death or life. If we approach the truth without grace, it’s law and it produces death. But if we approach the truth with grace, it’s Jesus and Jesus’ life. So Jesus is the embodiment of grace and truth. And it’s the embodiment of grace, he taught grace and he manifested grace in his works.

 

  Amen. I love that. So we’ll just dive in here into Matthew 5. I actually wanna start a few verses before Matthew 5. You know, a lot of people love Matthew 5, 6, and 7 which we’ll be going through this week talking about his Sermon on the Mount. But it’s really important to look at it through the lens of grace. Some people look at the Sermon on the Mount, especially the second half of Matthew 5, and they get very legalistic about it. They think that Jesus is adding to the law. It’s like the law 2.0. But that’s not what Jesus is saying. He’s just showing people that even if you kept the law, it doesn’t make you righteous.

 

  Amen.

 

  Only faith in Jesus can make you righteous. So he’s showing how even if you do keep the law, it doesn’t necessarily make you righteous because God’s looking at the heart.

 

  Amen.

 

  It’s the heart that really matters. And we know that, that the heart of Jesus is just full of grace. And we see that just into what was happening leading up into Matthew 5. So if you just back up a few verses, Matthew 4:23, it says, “Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” So Jesus is still the same today.

 

  Amen.

 

  I believe that he loves good teaching, he loves good preaching.

 

  Amen.

 

  He’s very kingdom minded. You know, I love ministers that are very kingdom minded, they think about the kingdom of heaven. But he also is healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. And he’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. And I believe that when you teach, you know, the Bible, when you preach the true gospel, there will be signs that follow.

 

  Amen.

 

  That’s what happened in the Book of Acts. And I believe it still happens today. It says in verse 24, “Then his fame went throughout all Syria and they brought to him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon possessed, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them. Great multitudes follow him from Galilee,

 

  Uh-huh.

 

  and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.” So just all these different areas were there they hear Jesus. And you know, and he was healing. It says, all these sick people,

 

  Amen. Jesus not only taught the kingdom of God,

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  but Jesus demonstrated the kingdom of God. And before Jesus told his disciples to go out and preach the gospel, preach the kingdom of God essentially is what he said, and he said, heal the sick, Jesus demonstrated that to them. So Jesus taught the word of God and he taught the word of God with grace. And not only did he teach the word of God, but he demonstrated the word of God. He demonstrated the message that he preached, he demonstrated the kingdom of God. So he went preaching the kingdom of God and demonstrating the kingdom of God.

 

  Yeah, and I believe that when you preach the gospel of grace, when you really preach the word of God, when you really show who Jesus really is and people around that, for a period of time, it’s gonna have an effect. And it’s actually gonna bring healing to people’s bodies.

 

  Actually, when you teach the grace of God, you know, the Bible talks about this in Acts 4, but it says, with great power, the Lord gave witnesses to the word that they preached and great grace was upon them also. I actually like to say this, where great grace is preached, great power is released.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And so it’s the grace of God that brings salvation, but it’s also the grace of God that will lead to the manifestation of the promises of God in our life.

 

  Mm-hmm. So in this, you know, Sermon on the Mount, I love that Jesus was actually preaching grace. And I think some people today twist it around and make it legalistic

 

  Right.

 

  and even use verses, they pull verses out of context and use them to really beat people down. But that’s not what Jesus was doing. He was demonstrating grace. He was healing people before this sermon and he was healing people after.

 

  Right

 

  You know, after when he was coming down from the mount. I’ve actually been to Israel, I’ve been to, there’s a church built there, the Church of the Beatitudes on this mountain. When Jesus was coming down from this mountain, a leper was hiding and he popped out and he said, you know, Jesus, if you’re willing, I know,

 

  You can make me clean.

 

  you can make me clean. And Jesus said, I’m willing be thou cleansed so.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, he was just continuing to demonstrate that grace. Let’s look at Matthew 5 here. We’ll start in verse 1, it says, “Seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught them saying, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'” And I’m gonna continue all these blessings here. You know, these are often called The Beatitudes. But you just see when you come to Jesus that there is great blessing found in Jesus.

 

  Amen.

 

  Everyone who believes on Jesus, everyone who has Jesus living on the inside of them, you are blessed.

 

  Amen.

 

  You’re either blessed and you know it, or you’re blessed and you don’t know it, but you’re blessed.

 

  Amen.

 

  It doesn’t matter what situation you’re facing, what you went through, there is great blessing in Jesus.

 

  Amen.

 

  And that’s what I think he’s really demonstrating to people here is everyone here who’s come to me to hear me teach, you’re blessed.

 

  Amen.

 

  And I love that promise. These are all promises actually from Jesus. I love studying the promises of God.

 

  Amen.

 

  They’re all yes and amen through Jesus. These are all promises. I love that promise in verse 5, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”

 

  Amen. I actually looked up the scripture you gave when you taught this in church but it’s Psalm 37:11.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  It says, “The meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And you know, we really have a Bible full of promises, but they are all ours through Jesus Christ.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  You quoted that scripture in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God in him are yes. And in him, amen, to the glory of God by us.”

 

  So we can keep reading through these promises here, these blessings. Verse 6, it says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” When you really hunger and thirst for righteousness, you find Jesus.

 

  Amen.

 

  We find righteousness through Jesus. I love hearing people’s testimonies when they were really searching for who God really is. And they find Jesus. When you’re really hunger

 

  Amen.

 

  and thirst for righteousness, when you hunger and thirst for God, you’re gonna find Jesus every single time. It says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” So Jesus really getting to the heart of the issue here. We should have a heart of mercy.

 

  If the gospel has affected us, we’re gonna be merciful people.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And you know, I wanna share with others what I wanna receive myself. And so if we wanna receive mercy, we need to be merciful.

 

  Mm-hmm. So, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” You know, as believers we’re we’re sons and daughters of God and we’re led by his spirit.

 

  Amen.

 

  So the spirit actually leads us into being peacemakers, not into being troublemakers or causing division,

 

  Amen.

 

  causing strife, showing contention. That’s not the spirit of Christ, that’s not the Holy Spirit. Jesus, the spirit of Jesus actually leads us into being peacemakers. In verse 10, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” So as believers, we have a lot of promises. But here in this world, you will face persecution at different times. When you believe the gospel and you step out and put all your faith in Jesus, you will face some persecution.

 

  You know, the Bible says in the Book of Timothy that all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So I tell people, you know what? If you’re not suffering any persecution, all you got to do is turn up the godly a little bit and you will suffer some persecution.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And Jesus said, I suffered persecution and they persecuted me. So they’re gonna persecute you.

 

  Mm-hmm. And I just love this, that the blessing is always greater though. You know?

 

  Amen.

 

  Even if you’re facing persecution right now, maybe it’s from people around you, maybe people in your family who don’t, who aren’t you know on the same page as you with their faith, the blessing is always greater. So verse 11, he says, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.” Really they aren’t attacking you, they’re attacking that spirit of Jesus that’s inside of you.

 

  That’s right.

 

  You know that spirit of Christ can just alarm different devils out there.

 

  Yup, sometimes the spirit in you is just going different way than the spirit in other people. And you know what? You can’t control all those different things. You can control yourself, but you can’t control other people. But you know what? Jesus said when people persecute us, we should rejoice.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And because they persecuted him, so they’re gonna persecute us. And I know that’s not the most exciting thing, but there’s some great stuff we’re gonna share when we come back in the second half of this broadcast. So stay tuned. We’re gonna keep talking about how we can demonstrate the grace of Jesus to the world around us. Thanks so much, 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. How many times have we been in a place where we’ve suffered a great loss, a great difficulty, a great problem, and maybe we didn’t even realize it, but Jesus was right there with us all the time? In fact, the scripture says that he will never leave us and he will never forsake us. Thank God, even when we don’t feel it, he’s there so many times. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us and we’re gonna continue to share here on Jesus’ teaching on the Mount. Aaron’s entitled this teaching Grace on the Mount. And we’re gonna begin to talk about how in this aspect, in Matthew 5:12-16 how we can demonstrate or manifest the grace of Jesus to the world.

 

  Mm-hmm. And really that I love that Jesus starts this message off, this teaching off with just blessing.

 

  Right.

 

  And he has several blessings, several promises of blessings. So blessing is available to us today. And you know, God wants to bless us as individuals, but he wants to bless us so much that we can just shine that blessing, give that blessing onto other people. You know, some of you know that saying, I’m blessed to be a blessing.

 

  Right.

 

  And that’s actually a really true thing. God wants to bless you so much, he wants to bless you so abundantly that it just pours out on other people around you.

 

  Right.

 

  So Jesus says here in Matthew 5:12 that even when you’re facing persecution, you can rejoice.

 

  Amen.

 

  That’s what James writes, actually in James 1. He says, to count it all joy, even when you’re going through different trials, different persecutions, different tribulations, you can count it all joy. So Jesus says the same thing here, “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad.”

 

  Amen.

 

  That’s a powerful word, exceedingly glad. “For great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Now he kind of shifts into just showing, well now what this blessing does in your life? He says, “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” So he’s saying you are salt. You know, back when Jesus was preaching this, you know, they didn’t have refrigerators.

 

  Right.

 

  If you had meat, if you wanted to keep it fresh for a while, they actually use salt.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And even historically, salt was sometimes more, more precious than even gold because it was used for preservation so.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, and Israel was kind of in the middle of trade routes between Egypt and Mesopotamia. So to trade things through Israel, there has to be a lot of salt there to keep things preserved for trade. And he is saying, if the salt has lost its saltiness, it’s good for nothing.

 

  Amen. So we are the salt of the earth.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  We are the light of the world. Jesus in one place says, I am the salt, I am the light of the world. Then he says, you are the light of the world.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  So we don’t wanna lose our saltiness. We want to keep making a difference and keep standing up salt preserves.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And light, we wanna let our light shine.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And Jesus goes on and talks about this. And it’s, you know, good not only that we receive the grace of God but it’s good that we demonstrate the grace of God to the world around us.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And it’s sad when somebody says that they really have a revelation of the grace of God, but then they don’t demonstrate that to other people.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And Paul really addresses that when he talks about, you know, in Romans 5, first of all, the result of the gospel is that we’ve left the reign of sin and death in Romans 5:17 and came into the reign of grace and righteousness through faith in Jesus.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  But he talks about how that affects us. And in Romans 6 he said, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” He said, God forbid, how are you who are dead to sin, gonna live any longer? And he really talks about four things that you know we should demonstrate and our relationship with sin. Number one, he says, you’re dead to it, in verse 2. Number two in verse 7, he says, you’re free from it. But then he goes on down in verse 12 through 14 and says, you have authority over it. And finally in verse 21, he said, well, sin will kill you. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we don’t wanna let sin dominate us or sin rule over us anymore. When you get a revelation of grace, it actually gives you an understanding of authority that you can walk authority over sin and you can demonstrate Jesus’ life and his nature of the world right now.

 

  Amen. So stay salty.

 

  Amen, praise God.

 

  You know, my wife likes different Christian T-shirts that have different slogans, like blessed or, you know, different things like that. But she said, I wanna make a shirt that says stay salty.

 

  Amen.

 

  ‘Cause we are the salt of the earth. We should, you know, be preserving things around us. And sometimes I think if you know, the body of believers just disappeared or just went in hiding and just how quickly things would disintegrate,

 

  The world would corrupt.

 

  it would corrupt very quickly. Things would smell,

 

  Well-

 

  rotten very quickly.

 

  There’s something I wanted to share about that in Israel in the Old Testament, Israel is a type of the church, right?

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And so if Israel, the foreign nations could never take Israel over unless, number one, they were backslidden or number two, they were removed.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  So I don’t think that the darkness, you know, in the world can ever really overtake the church unless number one, we’re completely backslidden or number two, we’re removed. So Jesus is coming for his church, and one day the church will be removed and the antichrist, the darkness that’s in the world will then overtake. But I believe as long as the church is here, the church is actually preserving the world and we’re to be salt and light and we’re to make a difference. And I don’t think that evil of the world can actually overtake us. In fact, the Bible tells us this in Romans 12, it says, “Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”

 

  Mm-hmm, that’s awesome. And I just love that, that when Jesus was talking about how salt brings preservation, you know, even the Dead Sea Scrolls that were found, you know, they date back to about the time of Christ. But these Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves near the Dead Sea, which is, you know, four times saltier than the ocean.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And you know, around the Dead Sea, it’s very dry, it’s very warm. But these scrolls were found, but that dry kind of salty climate preserved these scrolls for thousands of years. And it’s really amazing that these scrolls, you know, are identical to the Bible that we read today. So the Bible has not changed,

 

  Basically,

 

  since it’s been written.

 

  The book of Isaiah, the scroll of, and Isaiah, you know, 66 chapters, the Bible is 66 books, but it has every major doctrine of the Bible in the book of Isaiah.

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  And the scroll of Isaiah that was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls was actually over 99% word for word with our current King James version. And it was evident that this wasn’t thought up. It wasn’t, you know, just a story or a legend that got greater and greater, but God preserved his word through the ages.

 

  Well, it’s amazing actually, just if you think about it that for thousands of years the word has remained the exact same. You know, other ancient texts, you know, if you take like different Greek texts like “The Odyssey” things like that, they’ve changed so much over time. And there there’s a lot of variance in the different, you know, versions of it. But the Bible, it’s so amazing how consistent it has remained how God really has historically preserved his word.

 

  Amen.

 

  So I wanna go on here, verse 14 says, “You are the light of world. The city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.”

 

  Amen.

 

  When people see that light shining in you, it’s gonna bring inspiration to them. Now years ago I was working on my doctorate at Rice University in music, and there weren’t a whole lot of believers around me at the time, but there was a friend of mine who was a believer. He was actually a Charismatic Catholic, and he was getting his doctorate in composition. And he wanted to put on a concert of you know, sacred music, just music that was full of scripture and honor God. And all of his professors were really against it. They said, you shouldn’t be composing music like this. You should only compose secular music. But he really wanted to go ahead and do it. So he actually wanted to hire a professional choir to sing this music he was writing to just honor God. And but to do so, he had to raise $5,000 to pay them. And he set up a campaign to raise $5,000 and he set a deadline to have it raised. And if it wasn’t all raised, then just, it wouldn’t happen. People who promised to give, you know, the money would just go back to them, be refunded to them. Anyways, it was about like an hour left on his campaign, and he was still short about a thousand dollars. And I had a class with him soon. And as I was walking to class, I heard my phone make a ka-ching sound, and I had some things I was selling on eBay, but I bought a nice watch and sold it. And I actually made about a thousand dollars on it. And I felt God just told me, hey, give that thousand dollars you made on that profit to your friend to help them do this concert.

 

  Hallelujah.

 

  As soon as we got to class, I sat down and I was sitting between two other friends who were nonbelievers.

 

  Right.

 

  And I got in and they saw me. They were just looking over my shoulder and saw me make this thousand donation to this, you know, to help this,

 

  Charismatic.

 

  this friend of ours,

 

  Yeah.

 

  a Charismatic Catholic, you know, put on this music. And, you know, one of them was so inspired, he actually got his computer after I did it and gave an extra hundred dollars.

 

  Amen.

 

  And after they were talking to me, just, they were really impacted by that light that was shining through me.

 

  Amen.

 

  And when people see that, it says, it’s just like what Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.” So they weren’t even believers, but they were bringing, they were glorifying God.

 

  Amen. Praise God. You know, when people see the gospel working in our lives, you know, many times you hear about the sad stories about how somebody supposedly is a Christian, and yet they’re not really living it. But when people really see the grace of God working in our lives, it causes a hunger in them

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  to know God,

 

  Mm-hmm.

 

  to know Christ.

 

  Mm-hmm. And actually, I remember right before I moved back here to be a pastor, I was teaching flute lessons to, he was a retired professor, he was a sociology professor at Rice University. He was retired, he was close to 90 and wanted, was kind of taking beginner flute lessons from me. But he was extremely liberal. He actually was the first student, a faculty sponsor over the very first LGBT group at Rice University. And I told him, you know, I was planning to leave academia, leave music, and go into full-time ministry. And he was really shocked. But I just told them about some of the things that our church was doing, how we were, how we were like building houses for people in Nicaragua, and you know, just all the things we were doing, just,

 

  Amen.

 

  And you know, it just really, it really just made a light shine in his mind about how important the church is.

 

  Amen.

 

  And what an impact we can have on the world around us.

 

  Amen. You know, our works testify of the God that we serve. I remember one time I was actually flying to Nepal and we were flying across the Pacific Ocean. We’re actually going to Thailand first and then into Nepal. But this man that I met from India on that flight, he told me that he actually read the Bible for like 15 years or something. And after reading the Bible, he believed that Jesus was the son of God and he gave Jesus his life to Jesus. And ultimately he said, it’s the Christians that build the hospitals, it’s those Christians that build the schools and it’s these good works. And so we want our good works to testify of God who lives in us. If you don’t know Jesus today, pray with me right now. Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus. I believe he died for my sins. You raised him from the dead and made him Lord.

 

  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 CharisChristianCenter.com.

 

  Friends, if you need prayer, I want you to give us a call today where you can receive prayer for salvation, for healing, for receiving the promises of God. We have trained prayer ministers here that are available to minister the grace of God to you. So give us a call. We look forward to hearing from you. Blessings. Friends, we have a great meeting coming up here at Charis Christian Center, June 12th through June 16th. We have special meetings for your children, your youth, and the adults. We have great worship with Philip Renner. We have Mark Hankins. We have David Winston speaking to the youth. Save these dates. June 12th through June 16th, 2024 at Charis Christian Center. Blessings.

 

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