Scriptural Defense of the Sermon on the Mount - Part 2 - Daniel Willis

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Because of all the visitors here today, I'm going to do a little bit of a recap of Part One on the defense of the Sermon on the Mount. Part One, we basically went over the writings of Luther and the things that he said about the Anabaptists and what their fruits were. And then we saw what he said that he did to other people, commanding men to kill 100,000 peasants and what his fruits were. And then we let you decide, is he a false teacher or not, or let him judge himself.

We've learned that the false teachers, we know them by their fruits and we know them by what they say, if they're soothsayers. If they tell you everything that you want to hear, then so that you can stay where you are without God, if you're without God, that's a false teacher, a false prophet.

And after that message, a brother added me on Facebook and said he watched the message and he said, "Well, before you go defending the Sermon on the Mount with all these early Christian quotes, why don't you use the Scriptures, the New Testament more, and then go to the early Christians?" And this sermon was going to be about how the early Christians practiced non-resistance, but instead I've switched it to a scriptural defense of the Sermon on the Mount. Next time will be how the early Christians practiced the non-resistance, which it's pretty incredible the things they said and did, it seems. Pay attention for Mike's message coming up shortly. He is going to, I believe he's going to show the importance of the apostles and the early Christians, why we should be listening to them.

And it'll be a good springboard to the next message. So whenever I decided to do a scriptural defense on the Sermon on the Mount, I started to compile all the verses that corresponded with Jesus' teachings from James, John, Peter, and Paul.

And there was a lot of verses, so many verses, it was overwhelming evidence that Jesus and Paul and the apostles were all on the same page, that they all believed the same thing and taught the same thing. And on Tuesday night, I decided to read those verses to practice for the sermon to my children. And after an hour of reading, and I still had at least 30 more minutes of reading, I realized this isn't going to work and I have to narrow it down.

So I got rid of a lot of things. So you're not going to hear a complete example of how they were in line on the same page. I will not be going over forgive to be forgiven, the narrow gate, wolves and sheep's clothing, and two houses, the house that was built on the sand and the rock, because I did that Part One of the series. Seek first the kingdom and do not worry, we also have on the Sound Faith channel. But I will also not be covering Christ fulfilling the law, swearing oaths, divorce and remarriage, treasures in heaven, riches on earth, you cannot serve God in money, leaving your gift at the altar, do not judge, and giving alms and fasting.

And you might be asking, what's left? There's a lot left. And I'm telling you this because there's so much evidence that they're on the same page that it would take many, many sermons like this to explain it. So today we're going to be reading what Jesus said and then alternating it with what the apostles said back and forth. And even the subjects that I chose, I didn't do a complete job, I didn't get every verse. I just picked a select few. And when you see on the screen, on the slides, it'll say Sermon on the Mount, that's a new topic starting. And pay attention to what it's saying. And the verses after that verse will be the apostles' teachings and it'll be in the same themes.

If you love the word of God, you're going to love this message. I just want to point out something obvious before we jump into the scriptures. One thing is a lot of people would call it an argument from silence that we don't see anywhere in scriptures, Paul or the apostles saying, "Don't listen to Jesus and his teachings." But it's not an argument of silence because on the contrary, they actually said to listen to his, abide in his teachings. And if you don't, you don't know God. Okay, so you could read along with me.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Oh yeah, I will not be reading all the references. That'll be your job. Listen, my brethren, God has not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Lament and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. If we don't show mercy, we will not have mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit and sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. Listen to this. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit and sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. I don't think these things can be separated, that we have to have the Holy Spirit and we have to be obeying the truth through that spirit and with our brothers and sincere love of our brethren. And we have to remember that we have to do this together. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. This is something that we're told to do. We can do this. Not by ourselves, obviously. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Who will be called sons of God?

The peacemakers. And this is so important. If you take all the things that Jesus and the apostles said and this that I've compiled here and put them into practice, there will be so much peace. We will absorb so much evil. If all 205 million so-called Christians in America did these sayings of Jesus starting today, the whole world would change, I feel like overnight. I mean, I might be totally out there, but these are crazy, the things that we're, I mean, amazing, crazy and amazing way, the things that we're called to do.

If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceable with all men. Pay attention to the absolutes. Every time it says every and all and must, those kinds of words, they're very important. I think they actually meant what they said. Where I grew up, they didn't really mean those things. We were told, "Oh, it says must, but it doesn't really mean that."

If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceable with all men. Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now the fruit of righteousness is shown in peace by those who make peace. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The gospel is referred to as the gospel of peace. And Christ is referred to as the prince of peace. For to us is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, and prince of peace.

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. Do all things without complaining and disputing. Why? That you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights of the world. We should not complain and argue so that we can become children of God and we're allowed to be the light of the world. How much more light will we shine if we're not complaining and arguing?

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. You have heard that it is said to those of old, "You shall not murder." And whoever murders will be in danger of judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, "Rocka, hey you," shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, "You fool," shall be in danger of hellfire.

Be angry and do not sin and do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as in Christ God forgave you.

He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness until now. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love the brother abides in death.

Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also.

Let your yes be yes and your no be no. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. But above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or earth or with any other oath. But let your yes be yes and your no be no, lest you fall into judgment.

You have heard it said that it is said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also.

Repay no evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Like Bill says, we are to be the last point of evil. When evil comes our way, we're to absorb it and we're to respond in goodness and in love.

And if all 205 million so-called Christians in America did that today, we didn't sue anybody. We turned the cheek. We bless those who persecute us. We tried to make peace with all men. And every time evil hit us, we absorbed it, even unto death. We suffered as Christ suffered. We'll see here in a minute. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all.

For what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you are called because Christ also suffered for us. For to this you are called. But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you are called to suffer because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example.

That you should follow in his steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.

Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that those who are called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. Now therefore, it is already utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?

It's hard to let ourselves be cheated, but that's what we're called to do. We don't need to go to court about things, just absorb the evil and then try to figure out how to do good to those who did evil to you.

You have heard that it is said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you and do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Why? That you may be sons of your father in heaven. That is so important. So many times he tells us that we may become or may be sons of God if we do these things and that we need to pay attention to them.

Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. And doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.

We don't war like the our weapons. Let me go over some ideas real quick that I have. Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday, today, and forever. And you can find this in many more verses than I put up there.

The Lord is a man of war and Yahweh is his name. The Lord is a warrior and Yahweh is his name. In the Old Testament, we obviously see this. And if God is the God of the same God of the Old Testament as of the New Testament, do we have a problem because he's the same today as he was yesterday and forever?

I would say no. He's changed the rules of war. He's given us different weapons and he wants us to battle with those weapons. And it's a higher calling, a much higher calling. How much easier is it if someone persecutes you to fight back than it is to absorb it?

That we are to be warriors. We are to be little Christs, followers of Jesus, and we should war like he warred.

We don't fight with the weapons of the world, the weapons of flesh. Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your father in heaven is perfect. This verse was a struggle for me my whole life. Like when I would try to take it literally, everybody, no matter what, would say, "No, that's impossible. He can't possibly mean that." And then, but it always bothered me. Like why would he say something if he didn't mean it? And then this time when I was doing a search on the word perfect, I noticed all these other verses in the New Testament that used, it was the same Greek word. I'll just show you.

I'm going to zoom in here in a second. This word perfect, it means, I'll show you the meaning, having reached its end, complete, perfect, full grown, being mature. And I looked at all these verses on the side and I put them on here because they're relevant to this. So anytime you see mature or being complete or perfect, that's what he's talking about. Finally, brethren, farewell, become complete. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. That complete is the same word. Live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. And one of the things we have to remember is if we are walking in the light as he is in the light and we're confessing our sins and we're loving our brother and not hating them and we're showing mercy to those who show mercy to us, we are forgiven of our past sins and that we can be striving for perfection today and that we can be working toward completeness, that it's not some lofty goal that's impossible, that he wants us to be striving for it and be diligent at it.

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. And this verse really hit me that we can be bold in front of the judgment seat because as he is, so we are in this world. If we are like God, if we live like him and live by his precepts and suffer as he suffered and do the things he taught us to do and we actually become like him, we can be bold. And that's our calling.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. I went over a lot of this in the last one. There's a few that I want to go over still that I didn't last time.

This is Stephen. Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, he's getting stoned. He's dying." And he understands Christ and his teachings this much that he can say, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Can we, if we're on the street, whatever's going on, if we're getting beat to death, do we have these thoughts and emotions to be so forgiving to even ask God to forgive them right then when we're dying?

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also maybe should do. No, you also must do. We must do this. We cannot not do this.

Ask and it will be given. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commands and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. If I read this verse in some churches that I came from, they would say, "There's no way you can be pleasing. You cannot please God."

But that's a lie. Satan wants you to believe you can't please God. We can please him and we can keep his commands. And John also says that they're easy, just like the shepherd of Hermas. Now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

You ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

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. What does it profit, my brother, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

Many will say to me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we 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."

They profess to know God, but in their works, they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

So I want to go over some ideas that really have impacted me that I want to share with all of you. He who believes in the Son of God has everlasting life, and he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides in him.

So this not believe the Son of God shall not see life. This is the New King James. In the New King James, it also in Hebrews 3:18 and 19 says, uses the same Greek words, but it says not obey.

And this word, I'll show you real quick. I'll zoom in here.

See the number 4100? That's believing right there. And then the other believe, which here it shows in the bottom, not obeying, is 544. And if we click on that and see what it says here, it says to disobey, rebel, or be disloyal or refuse conformity. And so when we, I don't know who translated some of the versions that just say it's believe, and there might be good reasons that it says believe, but I'm under the influence that it means to obey, that we must obey.

And I'm going to read some more that show that believe and obedience are not, believe and not obeying are together. Like if you don't believe, if you don't obey, you don't believe. And I'll show you here. And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not obey? So you see that they could not enter because of unbelief. So unbelief and disobedience are in line, just like believing and obedience.

I'll show you there as well. So this 544 is the same one we saw a second ago with to disobey and to rebel and be disloyal. And this unbelief made me start to think of something else because it says unbelief, unfaithfulness, and distrust. So unbelief and unfaithfulness go together, much like what I learned from Mike, is that faith, when you look up faith in the Greek and the strongest concordance, faith and faithfulness, every time the translators had to translate faith in the New Testament, they had to choose between faith and faithfulness. So most of the time in our writings, it says just faith. But whenever you realize that faith really can't be separated from faithfulness and belief can't be separated from obedience and unbelief from disobedience, it starts to paint this picture that makes a lot of sense.

And so anyway, when James, and he says, when he's contrasting faith with a faith that has works and a faith that doesn't have works, in my mind, I might be completely wrong, but it seems like he's saying you have faith without faithfulness that makes no sense at all. Like that kind of faith can't save anybody. It's dead faith. And even the demons believe, and he uses a different word, Greek word for that belief. And just like this, if I tell Matthew that if you smoke, if you continue to smoke two packs a day, you're going to have lung cancer and you're probably going to die a very painful death. And if you continue to smoke after I told you that, you either, one, don't believe me, or two, you don't care.

And both, if we tell you, if Jesus tells you to do something and you don't do his teachings, you either don't believe him or you don't care. And I think it lands you in the same spot.

You're still going to have pain and judgment, and you're not going to be standing firm in boldness in front of his throne room. In conclusion, Paul and Jesus were not in opposition, but total agreeance with one another. If we want to stand in boldness on judgment day, we are to live in this world as he is.

We must forgive and be merciful as Christ forgave us. We must love and not hate our brethren. Love and do good and pray for our enemies. Evil must stop at us, and we must respond with goodness. We are called to suffer as Christ suffered. And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who do not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.