Are we Wolves in Sheep's Clothing? A Defense of the Sermon on the Mount -Part 1- Daniel Willis

There's so many churches today that like to hang around Matthew 5, 6, and 7. They like to preach what they call the beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are this, blessed are that." And they love to preach the words of Jesus, and then they try to apply them to us today when they're not.

They're out there. It's absolutely impossible to live out, and that's the whole point. A discouraging sermon has stuck with me, and I think the reason that it's a discouraging sermon is because essentially what it is saying to every person is, "You can't do it."

Mm-hmm. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

I'm actually going to be talking about the Sermon on the Mount today. The title of the message is, "Are We Wolves in Sheep's Clothing?" Part one of the defense of the Sermon on the Mount. I don't feel qualified to—maybe I can move this down—to defend the Sermon on the Mount. I'm fairly a new believer, I guess. Not fairly as in like since y'all've known me, but just a few years back where I realized that these teachings were all for today.

So I really want to do it justice to defend it. And the reason I feel like it needs to be defended is it all started with when I did the kingdom message on YouTube when we were having Zoom church. My friend that I led to the Lord back in high school contacted me and said, "The title of your message is terrible. You need to change it." And I was like, and it was pretty bad, so I changed the title.

And then he said he doesn't agree with my message at all. Well, first he said, "Your title should be something like The Sermon on the Mount is for today." And I was thinking, "My message didn't have anything to do with that. It had to do with being image bearers salvaged for the king."

And like, why would he say that? But I knew I mentioned some things about the Sermon on the Mount in there. Then I said, "I've heard of people doing this, and I myself always believed the Sermon on the Mount was for today, but I always didn't believe it meant what it said." Like that we kind of swept things under the rug or I actually didn't know what I believed. I sometimes twisted it. I sometimes put it with the law. I did everything that all the heretics do to the Sermon on the Mount.

And one of the things I did was I started asking myself, "Am I a wolf in sheep's clothing? And are my teachings, when I'm teaching these Chinese people, am I teaching the right thing?" And I started getting scared. So I was wanting to get to what the truth really was. And it was hard to sift through all the teachings, all through the people online. So anyway, I had mentioned that I had seen a video of this guy who went so far as to say we shouldn't pray the Lord's Prayer because the Lord's Prayer is like slapping Jesus in the face because it says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

And he's like, "Why would we ask for forgiveness if we're already forgiven? That's like crucifying Christ all over." And I told him that I've seen people go that far. And he's like, "That's absolutely correct." And I was like, "Are you serious? Like how did we go to the same Bible college and we go so far different ways?"

And so this is the clip. So why are Christians praying, "Oh God, forgive me of my sins"? What? When you're in this kingdom, your sins are forgiven. Why? It's a slap in the face of Jesus to ask him to forgive your sins if you're already saved because he already did. Do you realize to ask Jesus to forgive your sins is to ask Jesus to die on the cross all over again?

So that guy has a following. He has 407,000 subscribers.

And a lot of other teachers who also preach the similar message have a big following. And I feel it's necessary that we defend it, that we help people like me looking online to find answers, see the truth. And it's not hard to find people who have in some way ignored, explained away, forgotten or twisted the Sermon on the Mount. I'm not going to slay these men with my words, but plead with them to reevaluate their positions, reevaluate your position, and to look for the historic faith. What are the practices and positions of the early Christians? You can't ignore them when there's 300 years of unity in the early church where they all basically practiced the same way.

Clement of Alexandria says, I paraphrase this because it was archaic language, but he said, "We should be praying for those and not against these brothers, although they are not currently brothers, but we don't know if they will be. And we should act as if they may be our brothers one day." And another early Christian said, "We are not to be enemies of man, but enemies of his error." And so we need to be praying for these men. I'm going to show you another clip here in a minute. And we need to be trying to help them. There's so many false teachers.

And a lot of the early Christians talk about the false teachers are going to be going to hell and everybody that they lead are going to be going to hell. Me and Jason were talking about, do they even know? Is it something we know? But then I realized, I'll get to that verse in a little bit, that they're deceived and they're being deceived and deceiving others. So they don't even know themselves that they're false teachers. I didn't know when I—that's one reason I know that I thought when I was telling people, "Oh, yeah, you don't really have to." Like if someone breaks in your house, of course you can kill them or whatever. Whatever thing that if Jesus says, "Bless those who persecute you and love your enemies," that you don't really have to do those.

You only do that like if they literally slap you or something small. But if it's anything that is going to cost you anything, then you go after them. And so this message is not an angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues. I'm not trying to hurt anyone or rub anyone's face in the mud.

Some faces will be rubbed in the mud, but it's not my intention to hurt them or belittle them. I believe that there are lots of deceived people who are deceiving others, and I hope those people can start to live by the teachings of Christ.

So I'm going to play a short clip here of just some people who are deceiving people. This has nothing to do with getting saved in the age of grace. That's not what the Sermon on the Mount is about. It's not even about this age.

Let's say today the Sermon on the Mount is not about this age. Armageddon. The whole context of the beatitudes, Matthew 5 through 7, is Jesus talking about a future time of tribulation for the Jews, of Armageddon and his millennial kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the thousand-year reign when Jesus literally rules on the earth.

Why would someone try to take you to Matthew chapter 5 through 7 and tell you that's how you get saved? Jesus isn't talking to the church, agent to Christians about how to get saved by works. He's talking to future people how to be saved in the tribulation and the millennium by doing good works and how they should endure in that time period.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 14.

"You are the light of the world." Many people read the Bible and say, "That's talking to Christians. We are the light of the world." Well, yeah, in other places we do read that, you know, we as Christians, we're called the light because we have the light of the gospel. And today we are the light of the world. But is this what Jesus is talking about? Is to Christians? Look at the next part of the verse. Verse 14, "You are the light of the world. A city that is on a hill cannot be hid."

Hmm, let me think. Is there a city somewhere that's on a hill that cannot be—oh, Jerusalem sits on a hill. And Jesus was on top of a hill giving the Sermon of the Mount. And right there was Jerusalem on the hill. Do you think maybe when Jesus was talking to these Jews about this future kingdom that he says, "That city over there on the hill cannot be hid"? And he's talking to Jews about Jerusalem, and he's talking about this time. He's not talking to the church today.

You think maybe that's what he's saying? I think the context proves that. I mean, you know, Matthew 5 and 6 in particular, they offer us what is commonly thought of as the Sermon on the Mount. And in this Sermon on the Mount, we see a number of teachings that are pretty radical. Radical is putting it mildly. Who's that A, this was directed at a Jewish audience, and B, it's absolutely impossible to live out. And that's the whole point. But here he says, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them."

So here we have—sorry, so they talk a lot and they—I'll explain the fast forwarding in a minute. It's way too long to put it all in one clip, but—so here we have this analogy of two men. He says, "The one who hears my words and does them is like a wise man.

The one who hears my words and does not do them is like the foolish man." What does the wise man do? He builds a house, but he builds it on a foundation that is firm on a rock. The foolish man builds a house, but he builds it on a foundation that can easily be washed away in the sand.

It's the rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house. One stands secure and the other is completely destroyed. So we have to ask ourselves the question then as we come to this last saying in this sermon is, what does it mean to hear the words of Christ and do them? So I was really excited at first. I found the Sermon on the Mount, was listening to these guys for a minute, thought they were wrong by the first things they were saying, which I didn't put in here. But then they asked that question, which I was surprised. What does it mean by do these things that I'm teaching you? And he just taught us a bunch of things, the Sermon on the Mount, and how do we do it?

And do them. And so we're left with that question to answer. Yeah.

Are doing. And I just said that. And now, Jerry, what was the question that you threw to me at the beginning? I'm sorry. I just got off on that tangent. Discussing what it looks like or what it is to hear the words of Christ and do them. So he spoke for like four or five minutes, and I didn't answer the question at all.

Everything around the question. Then he asked, what was that question? And then realizing that it doesn't matter anything that I don't do or I have done. The only thing that matters is if I get to the point and go, "I have nothing good to offer."

And so this is an appeal really to the entire world and to this entire crowd of like, either give up and run to me or try as hard as you will, but it's inevitable you will fall and you will be seen the fool. What the end of the sermon is, the best place to be is in Christ.

A discouraging sermon has stuck with me. And I think the reason that it's a discouraging sermon is because essentially what it is saying to every person is, you can't do it. That's discouraging because it leaves everyone wanting. It leaves everyone helpless. It leaves everyone kind of with arms wide open going, "Well, what do I do?" But the only way that you can stand before the Lord with confidence, without fear, without trembling, knowing that you belong there is not based upon anything that you can personally do.

They literally just asked the question, what does it mean to hear these words of mine and to do them? What does it mean to do Christ's words? And it's those people who build their house on the rock. And right after, they wanted to make you think that you can do nothing. But they couldn't just spit it out right away. Oh, there's nothing we could do because Jesus just now said, "Whoever does these things that I just said are the ones who build their house on the rock and those who don't do it build their house in the sand."

And so they couldn't right away say, "There's nothing we can do, that it's all Jesus and it's his finished work." They had to talk in circles for a while until you forget what the question was. You forget what you just read Jesus saying.

And then they say, "Well, the foundation is Christ and that when we're in Christ, everything's done for us." And Jesus is telling us here to do these sayings, put these sayings into practice of mine. And this is the kind of stuff that we have to deal with. It sounds really good. If you listen to the whole line of thought, you really do forget what was going on. And then you're like, "Yeah, that sounds good."

But if you take it to the conclusion, if you put their answer right next to the question, what does it mean to hear these words of mine and do them? If the answer is do nothing, then that's the opposite of what he was saying. And now let's reread the verse that he just said, even though I just reiterated it a few times. Matthew 7:26 and 27. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them will be likened to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built a house on the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house and it fell and great was its fall.

So I know that I'm preaching to the choir, but I think it's good to know that there's lots of false prophets out there today, false teachers. And they don't know that they're false teachers. And we have to always look at ourselves and our fruits and ask ourselves, are we teaching falsely? And steer clear from it. Clement of Alexandria says, "Oh no, let me go to Justin Martyr." Justin Martyr. And let those who are not found living as he taught be understood to be no Christians, even though they profess with their lips the precepts of Christ. For not those who make profession, but those who do the work shall be saved according to his word. For many shall come in my name, clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, being ravenous wolves, by their works you shall know them.

And every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is chopped down and cast into the fire. Another one from Justin Martyr. The fact that there are such men confessing themselves to be Christians and admitting the crucified Jesus to be both Lord and Christ, yet not teaching his doctrines, but those of the spirit of error, causes us who are disciples of the true and pure doctrine of Jesus Christ to be more faithful and steadfast in the hope announced by him. For what things he predicted would take place in his name, these we do see being actually accomplished in our sight. For if he said, "Many shall come in my name, clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves."

I want to read some warnings of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:19. 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 shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 7. Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction. And many enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only few find it.

Matthew 7:15. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit, and a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them. Matthew 7:21.

Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you.

Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." Those guys also went over this part, but they said that it was works righteousness and that they didn't mention the lawlessness. But lawlessness is sin. So the people who are practicing, making a practice of sin are the one who's going to declare that he never knew them.

The other one that is a little scary. 2 John 1:9. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the teachings of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house nor greet him. For he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

So all through the New Testament, there's warnings of false prophets and false teachers. In Matthew 24, it talks about the closer we get to the end of the age, the more there's going to be. And then Acts 20:29. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone, night and day, with tears.

The whole book of 2 Corinthians is about false teachers and prophets. The whole book of 2 Timothy, that was the verse I mentioned earlier, that they were deceived and deceiving people. And John tells us to test the spirits. And so instead of picking these guys specifically and seeing their fruit, which some of the videos I have, if we get to them, do show some of that, I'm going to talk about Martin Luther a little bit. I was studying the Martin Luther's commentary on the Sermon on the Mount and ran into the words Anabaptist.

And then I did a word search and found that he mentions them eight times. He actually mentions them a lot more than eight times because he refers to them as people who wear gray or something, gray suits or gray. But he definitely did not like the Anabaptist, but he describes kind of their fruits. And we're going to look at their fruits and then we're going to look at some of the fruits of Martin Luther. And both of them come from his writings. Martin Luther called Anabaptists wolves in sheep's clothing. And I'm going to read from his writings. And the reason I want to mention Martin Luther is because I was reading a bunch of different writings that he was considered a prophet and a teacher and a hero.

So we have to test the spirits. And his teachings have permeated churches all over the US. The device spirits and Anabaptists who in their crazy fashion are making new trouble out of the fifth chapter of Matthew. Before I go on, I want to mention that the crazy fashion of the Anabaptists was not the head coverings of ladies or their dresses. That was very commonplace. I'm going to read a little thing I found online. Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer, encouraged wives to wear a veil in public worship. The general rubrics of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, as contained in the Lutheran liturgy, state in a section titled Headgear for Women. It is a praiseworthy custom based on a scriptural injunction for women to wear an appropriate head covering in church, especially at the time of divine service.

John Calvin, the founder of the Reformed Churches, and John Knox, the founder of the Presbyterian Churches, both called for women to wear head coverings in public worship. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Churches, held that a woman, especially in a religious assembly, should keep on her veil.

So when he's talking about their strange clothing, he's not talking about our differences today between our denominations. He's talking about, later he talks about, I guess, people wearing a lot of different colors, and the Anabaptists didn't wear them. I didn't put that quote in here, but that's basically they wore gray according to this. Back to Martin Luther's quote. The device of spirits and Anabaptists who in their crazy fashion are making new trouble out of this fifth chapter of Matthew. And just as others go too much to the left and holding nothing at all of this teaching of Christ, but have condemned and obliterated it, so do these lean too much to the right and teach that one should have nothing of his own, should not swear, should not act as ruler and judge, should not protect or defend, should forsake wife and child, and much of such miserable stuff.

See thus, must they establish themselves both in doctrine and practice so that they employ the same words that we hear and along with this lead a beautiful and attractive life. As now our Anabaptist apostates, in fact, mislead other people by crying out that we do not have the real gospel because one may see that it yields no fruit and the people continue to be bad and proud and greedy, etc., that there must be something more than the mere word and letter. The spirit must do it and they must honestly strive to live better. If it were the word of God, it would surely also produce fruit.

Then they go on and say they have the true understanding and the right fruits of life. Then they go further and say, "He who wants to be a Christian must not share in civil authority or bear the sword or have anything of his own, as it is with us, but he is a true Christian who proves it by his works, forsakes everything, does not accept any secular authority or rule, dresses in a gray coat, suffers hunger and sorrow, etc." These they call fruits of the spirit. See, these are nothing but sheep's clothing. With these, they carry away crowds of the poor people who can now recognize the wolf under this, guard against him. They also live severely, not eating and drinking and dressing like other people, and let themselves be tortured and killed willingly and when not required.

So that's the fruits that, and I think some are exaggerated by Martin Luther, but I was proud that it seems pretty in line with the Sermon on the Mount, that they're willingly put to death, that they don't bear the sword, they don't swear oaths, and they live severely and they don't dress and act like other people and eat like other people. And anyway, I'm not seeing the wolves, but maybe you guys on YouTube can explain it.

Put in the comments why that's wolves in sheep's clothing. I'm going to read a passage from Shepherd of Hermes about false prophets and true prophets and their fruits, what his ideas were on it. These, he says, are the faithful, and he who sits on a chair is a false prophet, ruining the minds of the servants of God. It is the doubters, not the faithful, that he ruins. These doubters then go to him as a soothsayer and inquire of them what will happen to them. And he, the false prophet, not having the power of the divine spirit in him, answers them according to their iniquities and according to their wicked desires and fills their souls with expectations according to their own wishes.

For being himself empty, he gives empty answers to empty inquiries. For every answer is made to the emptiness of man. Some true words he does occasionally utter, for the devil fills him with his own spirit and the hope that he may be able to overcome some of the righteous.

As many then, as are strong in the faith of the Lord, are clothed with truth, have no connection with such spirits, but keep away from them. But as many as are of doubtful minds and frequently repent, go to soothsaying, even as the heathen, and bringing greater sin upon themselves by their idolatry. For he who inquires of a false prophet in regard to any action is an idolater and devoid of the truth and foolish, for no spirit given by God requires to be asked. But such a spirit, having the power of divinity, speaks all things of itself, for it proceeds from above from the power of the divine spirit. But the spirit which is asked and speaks according to desires of men is earthly, light, and powerless, and it is altogether silent if not questioned.

How then, sir, I ask, will a man know which one of them is a prophet and which one is a false prophet? I will tell you, he says, about both the prophets. And then you can try the true and the false prophets according to my directions. Try the man who has the divine spirit by his life. First, he who has the divine spirit proceeding from above is meek and peaceable and humble and refrains from all iniquity and the vain desire of the world and contents himself with fewer wants than those of other men. Here then, he says, in regard to the spirit which is earthly and empty and powerless and foolish, first, the man who seems to have the spirit exalts himself and wishes to have the first seat and is bold and imprudent and talkative and lives in the midst of many luxuries and many other delusions and takes reward for his prophecy.

And if he does not receive rewards, he does not prophesy. Can then the divine spirit take rewards and prophesy? Is it not possible that the prophet of God should do this? But prophets of this character are possessed by the earthly spirit. Then it never approaches an assembly of righteous men, but shuns them. And it associates with doubters in the vein and prophesies to them in the corner and deceives them, speaking to them according to their desires, mere empty words. So when I read this, I was a little convicted. I feel like that I live in luxury. I hope I don't live in delusion.

But we could see the fruits of real teachers, not false teachers, are meek and peaceable and humble and refrain from iniquity or sin. And then the fruits of the false teacher exalts himself, wishes to have the first seat, is bold and prudent, talkative, and lives in the midst of many luxuries and delusions. So I'm going to have David read some passages, some quotes from Luther that come out of his book. Will the theologians please sit down? And then we're going to just look at the fruits of the Anabaptist that Martin Luther called wolves in sheep's clothing and look at his fruits and maybe see where they stand.

Okay, these are just, like I say, direct quotes from Luther's writings. The first one, this is Luther. He says, "No sin can separate us from God, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day.

Do you think that such an exalted lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins?"

So there he's saying, because Jesus gave his life, then we can just sin abundantly and it's forgiven. When the peasants rose up against the cruel and ungodly treatment they received at the hands of the Lutheran nobility, this is from my book I'm reading, Luther urged the nobles to slaughter the peasants without mercy. The nobles wasted no time in following Luther's directive, killing up to 100,000 peasants. And I've got his writings where he encouraged the nobility to go out and he said, "Slaughter, stab, you know, as many as you can. And if you are killed in the process, you are guaranteed heaven."

Anyway, years later, this is what Luther boasted. This is from Luther. "I, Martin Luther, slew all the peasants in the rebellion, for I said that they should be slain. All their blood is upon my head, but I cast it on the Lord God who commanded me to speak in this way."

If that isn't shocking, okay, this next to the last one, Luther penned a work entitled The Jews and Their Lies. And he addressed the work to the German princes, urging them to take violent measure against the Jews. And this is what he wrote, "What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? We dare not tolerate their conduct now that we are aware of their lying and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. I shall give you my sincere advice. First, set fire to their synagogues or schools and bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.

This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians. Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. This will bring home to them the fact that they are not masters in our country as they boast. Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings be taken from them.

Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and lamb. Fifth, I advise that safe conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews, for they have no business in the countryside since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like. Let them stay at home, for you must not and cannot protect them unless you wish to become participants in their abominations in the sight of God.

Sixth, I advise that charging interest be prohibited to them and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. Through usury, they have stolen and robbed from us all they possess.

Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an axe, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Gentiles toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the "holy people," idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and passing gas, he used a little bit stronger word there, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, we should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants."

Yeah, so I think I don't need to judge for you if he's a false prophet or false teacher. I think he's judged himself.

And I personally look at what he says about the Anabaptist and I just don't see the big problem. You know, some of the quotes, I think he exaggerates, but even his exaggerations, they're not terrible about the Anabaptist. Anyway, before I read this, I want to say a little prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, there's a lot of people who are confused and they're seeking the truth or maybe they think they have the truth and their wolves in sheep's clothing are their goats and they're still goats because nobody showed them the narrow gate.

And I pray that you soften the hearts as they listen to this message and that you speak to them and that you encourage them to seek the truth and find the historic faith and to read the early Christians and to see what disciples of the apostles did and how they interpreted the scriptures. And we just thank you so much for your kindness and your mercy.

And I pray this in your Son's name. So one thing that I wanted to mention that I hadn't mentioned yet is that the early Christians are very important to read for many reasons. One is because a lot of them had the chance to ask the apostles what they meant.

And another one is they grew up, their mother tongue for a vast majority of them was the Greek language. And they live closer to the time and in the cultures where these teachings were taught. And so by reading what they wrote and saw their practices, we can see for sure that they believed in the Sermon on the Mount wholeheartedly. And the next message in this series, I believe, will be on non-resistance. And the early Christians have really opened my eyes and even my own spirit, I have some tendencies to not be non-resistant.

And they've really convicted me on things. Just attitudes or feelings that I have about certain situations. But I wanted to mention this. Those videos I played, multiple, I think maybe all three of them at some point in their sermons talked about it being impossible. And the Shepherd of Hermes says this, and I think this is what my brother found, and it's so powerful.

Shepherd of Hermes, I say to him, "Sir, these commandments are great and good and glorious and fitted to gladden the heart of men who can perform them. But I do not know if these commandments can be kept by men because they are exceedingly hard." He answered and said to me, "If you lay it down as certain that they can be kept, then you will easily keep them and they will not be hard. But if you can come to imagine that they cannot be kept by men, then you will not keep them. Now I say to you, if you do not keep them, but neglect them, you will not be saved, nor your children, nor your house, since you have already determined for yourself that these commandments cannot be kept by men.

O fool, senseless and doubting, do you not perceive how great is the glory of God and how strong and marvelous in that he created the world for the sake of man and subjected all creation to him and gave him the power to rule over everything under heaven? If then man is lord over the creatures of God and rules over all, is he not able to be lord also of these commandments? For he says, "The man who has the Lord in his heart can also be the lord of all and of every one of these commandments. But to those who have the Lord only in their lips, but their hearts harden and who are far from the Lord, the commandments are hard and difficult.

Therefore, you who are empty and fickle in your faith, put the Lord in your heart and you will know that there is nothing easier and sweeter or more manageable than these commandments. Return, you who walk in the commandments of the devil and hard and bitter and wild immorality. And do not fear the devil, for there is no power in him against you, for I will be with you, the angel of repentance, who am lord over him. The devil has fear only, but his fear has no strength. Do not fear him and he will flee from you." So the early Christians for sure believe that these were God's new law, the new commandments. I'm going to go further into that in the next lesson.

But it's very encouraging to read their writings and it's also encouraging to know that we can do it. That God, if we say it's for certain we can do it, we can do it if we believe it. But if we start to doubt that we can do it, we're not going to do it and we're not going to save our children, our families, or ourselves, or God's not going to save us. I'm going to play a little more of these guys for people who may be convinced in their way. And David, if you see anything you want to comment on, just let me know. If you look at the fruit, the Bible says, "By your fruit you shall know them."

You look at the Catholic Church, their doctrines, their fruit, you find a so-called church that has a lot of false doctrine and is guilty of the blood of many, many, many true Christians that it has killed. I only put that in there because he sometimes quotes from the Sermon on the Mount and uses it like it's for today, like that one.

But then only for his purposes, then he throws it out the rest of the time. People go to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Well, I'm sorry, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all before the cross until Jesus Christ dies. So Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, these three books or four books are really all Old Testament until Jesus actually dies in those books. So that means you can't take anything in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and try to apply it to us today. There are many churches today that they preach only the Beatitudes. And you go to many churches, we used to have a joke that the way you knew a church was liberal and didn't know the Bible and didn't know how to rightly divide is because you go in and they preach on the Beatitudes every Sunday.

So if you go to a church and that's all they ever preach on and they only preach for Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, then you know that's a church that doesn't know how to rightly divide because all they know is how to read the first couple of chapters of the Bible of the New Testament and that's all they know, the Beatitudes. Now there are many, many what I like to call milk sup, so-called Christian denominations today.

And they preach on the Beatitudes and pretty much nothing else. It's like that's all they know is these eight or nine Beatitudes and they preach on it all the time. They'll actually tell you that the Beatitudes are for today and salvation can be found through these Beatitudes.

When that's not what the Bible teaches, the Bible teaches that salvation is found through the writings and revelations and mysteries and teachings of Paul because God revealed unto Paul the gospel of salvation and it is through that gospel that we are saved. So to study, amen for that, and then it tells us to rightly, not wrongly, rightly divide. Well, the problem is people wrongly divide quite frequently the Bible.

And by saying that the Beatitudes are for us today is wrongly dividing the word of truth. You had to do something to get saved, which was follow the law. This time period, we're saved by believing what Jesus has done for us. So I like to say it this way. The law is a due preaching and the gospel is it's done in Christ.

And what was the apostles' doctrine? It was still to Jews. Acts 2:38 is a good example. And it was repent and be baptized.

So water baptism. Now, are we saved today by water baptism? Let me say it a different way. Do we receive the Holy Spirit today by water baptism? I'll put some blue up here for the water. Well, clearly this was not for us today.

This was clearly something that was preached to the Jews. Doing works and having to do some sort of a work to salvation by grace through faith without works. And you're saved by simply believing. So water baptism is not essential for salvation. Paul is clear. You're saved by grace through faith alone without works.

And thank God he did because I'm a dirty, rotten Gentile. Well, I'm saved now. So I'm no longer a Gentile. I'm part of the church of God. So Jesus came as a Jew to the Jews. What for? Well, here's what Jesus came preaching. And this is what so many in churches today don't understand. I've talked to people that have sat in church 40, 50, 60 years, and they have never, not once, heard what I'm about to show you from the Bible today. Why is that? Because many churches today don't study the Bible, don't read the Bible, and they don't understand, "Hey, it's all about the apostle Paul that points us to Jesus." You see, they want to come to Jesus from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John rather than coming to Jesus through this side.

And why is that important? We'll get to that in a minute. There's so many churches today that like to hang around Matthew 5, 6, and 7. They like to preach what they call the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are this. Blessed are that. And they love to preach the words of Jesus.

And then they try to apply them to us today when they're not. They're out there. Because Jesus, when he was preaching, he was preaching, "Here's what's going to happen when I'm in my kingdom." Book. And what happens is at the end of the book of Acts, all doctrine gets settled with Paul.

So Paul becomes the main minister. And no more are we under Jesus' ministry. No more are we under Peter and the apostles' ministry. Now, today in the church age, according to the Bible, we're all under Paul's ministry and we're all under Paul's writings, which are Romans through Philemon.

And so all the doctrine of the church age today comes from these books of Paul. And I believe Hebrews was written way over here. And we see a difference. Kids, is this true? Please tell me, you know, it's not true.

This is not true. Water baptism and spirit baptism. We're not saved by water baptism today. This is something that changed in the book of Acts. Today we're saved by faith. And the moment we believe, we're instantly baptized with the Holy Spirit according to the scriptures.

Like I said, a lot of people, they don't read the entire book of Acts. They don't read the epistles of Paul, so they don't see that. Well, their idea is, "Well, I will follow Jesus more than Paul." Well, then you're wrong because Jesus said the only way to come to him and follow him is through Paul. So how can you? It's like me, okay? Let's say I have a guy over here as my bodyguard. And I say, "Anyone can come to me directly through him. And if you go to him and tell him your name and tell him what you want, he'll bring you to me. But if you come directly to me, I won't accept you."

Well, that's kind of like it's set up. Jesus Christ says, "Look, I came to the Jews." And then he went up into heaven. He tried to save the Jews. They rejected him. So he says, "Paul, come here. You stand in front of me, Paul. If anyone wants to come through me, I give you the ticket. And you give them the ticket."

But yet people try to go, "Out of the way, Paul. Move. I'm coming to Jesus anyway." And Jesus says, "Nope. It's all Paul right here. You can't get to me unless you go through him. Unless you go through him." I mean, you know. So I know that it seems funny in a sense, but people are following this, dude.

I put a bunch of crazy stuff together of his because it's not all. They're just sprinkled in there, like this kind of stuff. He has stuff that actually makes sense. Like truth is in there. Like the early Christians said they'll have some little parts of truth. And then he's a soothsayer. He makes you all you got to do is believe. You don't have to do anything else. And this guy is the guy that my friend follows, the one that I helped start his journey with the Lord.