Matthew in Biblical Perspective:
A Royal Manifesto of the Kingdom of God

Matthew 5:1, 2

By Dr. Harry Reeder III

Our text for this study is our start for the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. We will also look at Matthew 4 to give some context. I'm only going to preach on two verses in Matthew 5. We have already had ten studies in the book of Matthew and now we return for this series in Matthew with a focus series on the Sermon on the Mount called A Royal Manifesto of the Kingdom of God. Matthew 4:23-25 says,

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Matthew 5:1, 2 says, 1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying

The grass withers. The flower fades. This is the Word of God. It abides forever and by His grace and mercy may it be preached for you.

The phone call came in 1973 and his name was Floyd Simmons. He was the head of buildings and grounds and operations at Covenant College. He was my boss at the time. In fact, I had three part time jobs at the time when I went to school. I had a wife and a child. It is the same wife I have now, praise the Lord. I was a youth pastor, I worked on the buildings and grounds and I pumped a little gas. One of my other jobs was I was a security guard at Covenant College. I'll never forget when they hired me. They gave me the uniform and then a 38. I said, "Is this a 38?" They said, "No, it's a 38 Special." I said, "Do I need a permit?" They said, "No, we have one." I said, "Do I need to go and practice?" They said, "Nope." I said, "Why not?" They said, "Because we don't want you to ever pull that out of that holster, that's why. We don't even want to tempt you one time to do it."

So Mr. Simmons called me and said, "Harry, are you going to the L'Abri Conference?" Dr. Francis Schaeffer was speaking at this conference. I had just finished a class in apologetics and a book called The God Who is There and He is not Silent by Francis Schaeffer. I was absolutely overwhelmed with the implications of this man who was reaching people, defending the faith, winning people to Christ and he wasn't just winning arguments he was winning people. I would read that book and there were so many questions I wanted to ask him and now he was coming to have the first American L'Abri at Covenant College. Mr. Simmons was asking me if I had signed up for the conference and I said, "No sir, there is too much month at the end of the money for us and I'm not going to be able to pay for it." He said, "I have good news. You're going to get to go for free and we'll pay you to go." I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "They've asked us to provide a body guard for Dr. Schaeffer." I said, "Really?" He said, "Yea, you get to be with him all the time." I said, "Right next to him?" He said, "Yea, you get to walk around with him wearing his knickers and everything." I said, "Do I get to carry my gun?" He said, "Yes you get to carry your gun you just have to keep it hidden and you have to go everywhere he goes." I said, "Wow! I have a lot of questions I want to ask him. Can I ask him any questions?" He said, "No, we're not paying you to ask him questions. We are paying you to just be there." I said, "Okay." Then Mr. Simmons said, "Now, there will be a lot of other people asking questions so you can sit and listen." Boy did I, in fact, we had three American L'Abris and I was able to do that three different times. I would love to tell you about all the things I learned.

You might be thinking, "Harry, why are you telling us that story?" It's just a trivial example of the way I feel going into this text with you over the coming weeks. Here is the Bible, written using 40 plus human authors, by the Holy Spirit given from Jesus Christ and it's all about Jesus. The One who wrote the book is calling us upon the Mountain and He's going to tell us what it really says. We get to talk to the Author. We get to listen to Him. He's going to tell us what this means. I've even been where I think this happened.

When I went to Israel several years ago and to the place where the Sermon on the Mount happened I had this guide who was pretty good. We were having this learning the Bible in the land of the Bible moment and I went up to the Cathedral where the Convent is up on the Sermon on the Mount. I asked this guide, "So this is where it took place?" The guide said, "Well Harry 'yes' and 'no' but there is no doubt that this is the mountain where Jesus taught this but I'm not sure this spot is exactly where it was. We can get back to about a couple of hundred years of Jesus' life where the people that were living that close to Him said that it was." I said, "Really?" He said, "Yea, come here." We then walked down the mountain and we were about half way down and we come to a flat place. Now the Gospel of Luke makes sense because Luke says that Jesus went to a flat place. He went up on a mountain and found a flat place.

The first time I heard that was at Briarwood Presbyterian Church. I was over here to speak on a Sunday night and Frank Barker was preaching on this text Sunday morning. Frank said, "Look Luke said Jesus went to a flat place and Matthew said He went up on a mountain, we must have an error or contradiction here right? Jesus went up on a mountain and found a flat place and He began to teach, even an Auburn engineer can figure this one out." That is what Dr. Barker said. I did not say that so no Auburn letters please. There are some ruins of an old visiting chapel that is still there where everybody used to go years ago before this big thing was built up a little bit higher.

It is really interesting to stand there and listen to the acoustics of this situation. You can look down and see those warm springs that feed the Sea of Galilee and where the crowds must have been when they were with Jesus. Don't miss this. This is so exciting here. It's been so long since we have been back in Matthew 4 but do you remember that is where Jesus called His first four disciples. Who were they? Peter, Andrew, James and John, and do you remember what they were doing when Jesus called them? They were fishing. They were casting nets into the sea and Jesus said, "Come follow Me and I'll make you fishers of men." The text I read in Matthew 4, Jesus is casting a net not in the sea but He's casting a net in the world and drawing up the fish. He is drawing up men. Crowds are coming.

So at that moment He goes up on that mountain and He begins to teach them. I feel like a child coming to this text wanting for you and I to learn so much from it and knowing we're not going to be able to stop and go through the detail I'd like to in the coming weeks but at least we'll squeeze it a couple of times and pull some things out of it. I'm looking forward to walking through this with you this Spring and this Summer.

Back in Matthew 4 it said that Jesus came preaching, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." Why? It is because the King is here. When the King is here the Kingdom is here. Now the King is going to explain to us for three chapters what the Kingdom is. Who is in the Kingdom? Here is the Kingdom. It's a royal Manifesto of the Kingdom. Manifesto means the manifestation of the Kingdom. Jesus will give us a royal Manifesto of the Kingdom. That is what this particular text is all about.

As we jump into this I want to give you five important observations as we set up our study in the text. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is the Sermon on the Mount and the first observation is that this is a Sermon. I believe it is an edited sermon. What do I mean by that? I believe what Jesus did is He went up on the mountain. He found the flat place. He opened His mouth and began to teach them. Then you hear this Sermon. We have sermons on sermons. Young people are probably thinking I have to go hear a sermon on a sermon. Man! That is it. We are going to be talking about what Jesus preached and Jesus has this sermon.

This isn't the only sermon that's in the Gospels. How many sermons from Jesus have been put together, arranged, edited and recorded for us by the Holy Spirit in some form or fashion, are in the Gospels? There are six of them. There are three big ones and three not quite as big ones. Every sermon Jesus preached is a big sermon but there are three major ones on some major topics and there are three very specific ones on some specific issues, times and questions. Interestingly, five of the six are found in Matthew. That is no accident.

Here you have the Old Testament with 39 books and the last book in the Old Testament is Malachi. Then there is 400 years of silence. That is highly symbolic in the Hebrew view of life. Forties are kind of the way God reveals how He works. He brings 40 years of revival and then He gives them over to 40 years. Then He will double it. 400 years is God giving them no word – 10 times 40 – then God speaks, not through a prophet but through The Prophet. The Word now comes Himself. The Word became flesh and we beheld His glory, the glory from the only begotten Father, full of grace and truth. The Word who is with God, the Word who was God. The Word now becomes a man. Now He commissions the Apostles to give us the New Testament which is 27 books.

What is the first book of the New Testament? It is Matthew. It wasn't the first book written chronologically but it was the first book arranged and I believe for theological and pastoral reasons because it explains that Jesus is the Messiah. It tells the Gospel to the Jews and then through the Jews to the Gentiles. It tells us this Jesus is the One who fulfilled all the prophecies. Back in the first several chapters of Matthew I walked you through in earlier studies His virgin birth, His birth in Bethlehem, the wise men, the shepherds, and the angels attending to Him. Then He was dedicated at the temple, went to Egypt, and came back to Nazareth. Then He was baptized and went into the wilderness to be tempted. Then He stepped out to begin to teach which is where we are right now. In those first four chapters of Matthew we found ten prophecies that were directly confirmed and directly fulfilled. Matthew is making the point. He's saying, "Remember those 39 books back there. God hasn't spoken for 400 years. Those 39 books are about what He is speaking right now, His Son, that Jesus is the Prophet, the Priest and the King. He is the Messiah." That's why Matthew is put first in the New Testament.

Now there are two ways to look at Matthew. He is the first of the New Covenant books to explain that everything is fulfilled in Jesus, of who Jesus is and what He has done for you that you might know Him, love Him, and serve Him. The other way to look at it is that Matthew is number 40. Matthew is the 40th book (39 in the Old Testament). God is now about to do a work and now Matthew brings us to this One. This One who has preached "The Kingdom is at hand" for the Prophet, the Priest and the King has come and He will step up and deliver as the Prophet and King this glorious sermon but that won't be the only sermon.

He will give us the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. The second big sermon that He preaches is in the Gospel of John which is found in John 13 through 17 called the Upper Room Discourse. That is after Jesus took the Passover, made it into the Lord's Supper, He gave them a discourse which is a marvelous declaration and we call is the Upper Room Discourse. Before that in that same week He gave another sermon and that is found in Matthew 24 and 25 called the Olivet Discourse. It's when Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives and He says, "Here's what's going to happen to that temple. It's going to be torn down. This is the sign of My coming." He talks about how the Kingdom is now but not yet and one day it will be in fullness when the King comes back.

Remember there were three other sermons and they are also found in Matthew. In Matthew 10 is the Ordination Sermon for the Apostles when He sends them out. In Matthew 13 are the sermons on the Kingdom of God using seven Kingdom parables. There are the parables of the soils, the parable of the sower, the parable of the wheat and the tares, the parable of the dragnet, the parable of the mustard seed; these are glorious parables that teach us about the Kingdom now but not yet. Then there is one more sermon found in Matthew 18. It's a sermon that came from a question and here's the question, who is the greatest in the Kingdom? So He then did a sermon on greatness that's Gospel greatness.

Every time Matthew finishes one of these sermons He concludes it with a very interesting statement. Here is the way Matthew does this. Matthew 7:28, 29 says, 28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. That's the way he'll end every one of Jesus' sermons; when Jesus finished these sayings. So at the end of Matthew 5, 6, and 7 it will say (in Matthew 7:28), when Jesus finished these sayings. At the end of the sermon in Matthew 10 it will say (in Matthew 11:1), when Jesus had finished instructing. At the end of the sermon in Matthew 13 it will say (in Matthew 13:53) when Jesus finished these parables. At the end of the sermon in Matthew 18 it will say (in Matthew 19:1) when Jesus finished these sayings. At the end of Matthew 24 and 25 it will say (in Matthew 26:1) when Jesus had finished all these sayings.

So now we have a sermon and this isn't just any sermon. It's one that has been put together and edited in the sense that it has been appropriately arranged and brought together. If this is anything like that day and that time Jesus would have taught for about 4 to 6 hours and you don't have 4 to 6 hours of material here but you have it brought down. In the Gospel of Luke it's brought down to even more of an edited version but here is what the Holy Spirit moved Matthew to do and it's clearly in a sermon. There are seven points to this sermon. I'm going to give you that outline but not today. It will be in the next study. I'm just going over the introduction verses in Matthew 5:1 and 2 in this study.

Here is the last thing I want to give you in this first observation. The reason I love this sermon is because this sermon is my burden and heart every week. Did you notice when it said "the crowd went up and the disciples came to Him"? What do we have here? We have a mixed multitude. Do you think we have some believers in here? Absolutely. Do we have some that are unbelievers, seeking, curious and maybe even antagonistic? Absolutely. By the way there is another group there too. That is why this sermon is a three barrel sermon. One of our members came up and told me there was such thing as a three barreled rifle and that's what I call this sermon. That's my burden. After 40 years I'm sure Dr. Barker felt that here. It's the burden you feel every time you stand and preach. You have to have a three barreled sermon.

There are believers out there that need to be equipped, encouraged, challenged and comforted. They are facing situations as a mother, father, wife, husband and a business in life where they get off track and need to get back on track. You want Christ to be the focus and you want the Gospel to drive you. You want the Kingdom of God to be at work in your life. He's got them right there. Then there are people who are caught up in the crowd who are maybe seeking, maybe curious or maybe antagonistic saying "I wouldn't be here if my mother or dad didn't make me come. I can't stand this." Boy, my heart goes out to you. I'm so grateful God has given you a dad and mom that want you to hear the Truth of the Gospel. I know there are some who have been through difficult times and are just angry and say, "I'll just check this God thing out." Then there are those who have not yet come into the Kingdom. Then there is that other group. I have to say that this group is on my heart more than any others. It's that group that has come into Christianity and in the bounds of the church, religion, ritual, look pretty good on the outside and profess but the roots not in the heart. You don't know the Lord. I certainly don't know your heart. I just know there is that group of people.

When Jesus shoots this rifle of this sermon He shoots all three barrels. He's going to encourage, equip, challenge, convict, and console us who are believers in this sermon. We're going to get that Gospel Word and it's all throughout it. Those of you who don't know Christ you are on His heart then just like you're on His heart now and on our heart right now and we want you to be saved. We want you to know the glory of being transferred from the kingdom of death to the Kingdom of Life, from darkness to Life, from fear to love, and we want you to know what it means to be forgiven of all of your sins with no condemnation and to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We desperately want you to know that. We want you to live. We want you to see Him who gives you life. He knew those people were there. That's why He kept telling them in the sermon, "Look folks, there's two roads. There's a narrow gate (way) and there's a broad gate (way). The narrow gate and narrow way leads to life. The broad gate and the broad way with many on it lead to death. Don't die. Come here and live. I'm the Gate. I am the Way. I'm Jesus." You are on His heart in this sermon.

Then there is this other group and you can tell they are on Jesus' heart because He not only speaks throughout the text every single paragraph is continually aimed at this group. There is something in every single paragraph for this group. This group is in the company of the redeemed but they don't know the Redeemer. They even do things but they don't know Him. He'll even end up being very direct. He'll say, "A day is coming where many of you will say to Me 'Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in Your Name? Didn't we do miracles in Your Name?' and I will say to you, depart from Me you workers of lawlessness. I never knew you." They have no relationship with Christ. They don't know Him as Lord and Savior.

This is that three barrel sermon that is on the heart of every pastor who loves the Gospel and who loves Jesus. It's on the heart of every elder and deacon. It's on the heart of every believer. God's people need to be encouraged with the Gospel. Those that don't know Him we want to bring them to Christ. We want that net cast out and draw those to the Savior but there is this other group that says, "We're one of you" but in the heart do not know Him and have not come to Him personally by faith and repentance to trust Him as Savior. They are trusting in religion, trusting in work, trusting in ritual, ascent to everything that's true but it's a white-washed outside and inside everything is dead. Jesus will say, "I never knew you." It is that one that is there in the midst of this sermon.

The second important observation is what prompted the sermon...seeing the crowds He went up. We have been through ten studies in Matthew 1 through 4 and now we come to this eleventh study. We are going to hear this royal Manifesto from the King Himself and what moves Him to develop this. He has been preaching the Kingdom throughout all of the cities and now He's going to sit down and preach and tell us what the Kingdom is all about. The net has been cast out. The crowds have come. So He'll rise up on the mountain and they will come and sit down and He will begin to teach them. The crowds have now moved Him to give clarity to all of them as to what is the Gospel Truth and how the Law of God attends to the Gospel and how the Gospel takes the Law of God and free us from His penalty, how that Law is written on our hearts and then how we fix our eyes upon Jesus. How does all that happen and what happens in the lives of those who now become salt and light for the Kingdom of God in this world? So the sermon is prompted by the crowds.

The third observation is the sermon has a powerful and pointed introduction. It has five parts. After seeing the crowds what did He do? One, He went up. Two, He went up on the mountain. Three, He sat down. Four, His disciples came to Him. They wanted to follow Him. Five, He opened His mouth and He taught saying... When you first look at that you might say, "Now that is ingenious. How else are you going to teach without opening your mouth?" This is very highly Semitic symbolic language.

Remember Jesus is the Messiah, the Prophet, Priest and King. That's what happened. Prophets would come up and take their seat and the people would come to them and stand while he taught them. The king would come and take his seat and his subjects would come and attend to him and listen to Him. This is highly symbolic. Jesus goes up, He sits and they come and stand for four to six hours while He teaches. Why are you all sitting and I'm standing?

I was recently visiting with one our students up and Covenant College and I said, "What are you taking?" He said, "I'm taking philosophy." There is a person who sits in the chair of philosophy. It is the professor who occupies the chair of Christian education or the chair of mathematics. It is the seat of the teacher while the people are learning. In other words, this is another way to say Jesus is the Messiah, Prophet, Priest and King but boy He is making a big point here because who is the greatest prophet who has lived up until this time? John the Baptist was the greatest man but the greatest prophet was the first one of which there will come a Prophet even greater, was Moses. Where did Moses go? He went up the mountain and God came down and met him. There we received the Law.

Now here's Jesus. God Himself goes up on the mountain and He tells us how the Law brings us to the Gospel and how the Gospel makes use of the Law so that His Kingdom expands throughout the entire world. Those who are there who have been taught in the synagogues and all around there know exactly what's happening. They see very clearly the symbolism of this moment. The greater Prophet has come. The greater King has come. He is rising up. He is taking His seat and we're coming to listen to Him.

The fourth observation is that this is a Kingdom sermon. It is a Manifesto of the Kingdom of God. We are going to learn that the Kingdom of God is now but is not yet. Forget the notion of simple Euphrates River to Beersheba. This Kingdom is going throughout the whole world. This Kingdom is going to go into the kingdoms of this world. This Kingdom is going to take people from the kingdoms of this world and bring them to the King Himself as Savior. This Kingdom is a kingdom that is ruled by the Lion of Judah who is also the Lamb of God. This is the One who will be our Prophet, our Priest and our King and He will rule in our lives. Praise God for the church because it's the core of the Kingdom. It's the embassy of the Kingdom. It equips us for the Kingdom but it's not the Kingdom because the Kingdom is going to leave here today as our church leaves here today and that Kingdom is going to spread when you go to your business and say, "King Jesus is going to run my business. King Jesus is going to lead my family. King Jesus is going to use my home as a Lighthouse for the Gospel in my neighborhood. King Jesus is at work in my life." Therefore the Kingdom is moving out like salt and light throughout the entire world. He is going to teach us about this Kingdom that is now but not yet in its fullness.

The fifth observation is the content of this sermon. There is some amazing content. It is radical stuff that we're about to get in to. It's bittersweet for me. I read it and I just feel myself being uncovered. I feel my hypocrisy. I feel the superficiality in my life when I read what Jesus says His grace does in the lives of those who are in the Kingdom of God. He is going to tell me who gets into the Kingdom and how you enter the Kingdom. He is going to tell me how the people in the Kingdom live in this world but not of the world. He is going to teach me how the Kingdom is salt and light. He's going to teach me that there are some people who say they are in the Kingdom but they are not in the Kingdom. He will say "By their fruits you will know them." You can tell the root from the fruits. I begin to examine myself and I look at the content of this Kingdom message and it's just overwhelming to me in its radical call.

How anybody can read the Bible and say, "Would you like to come to Jesus, say a prayer, accept Him as Savior and by the way later on in life if you want to acknowledge Him as having some kind of sovereign rule in your life then okay." That is not in this Bible. It is not in this sermon. Jesus does not put His Kingship in our life and put His Lordship up on the a la carte menu and say "Would you like to choose this later on in life, I mean if you want to get around to it?" No, He is very clear. You come to Me, your Prophet, your Priest, I am your King.

One may say, "Harry, how far is He going to take this?" Here is how far He will take this in the sermon. He will say, "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Now not to be saved, I'm not going to save you. Harry, how perfect can I be? I'll just quote Matthew Henry – you need to be as perfect as a saved, pardon sinner can be on this side of glory. Lord, that's how much I want you to do in my life. I know I'm not going to be perfect but I want to grow to the point as far as I can as a saved pardon sinner, with an old man within him, I want to grow to that point of grace of the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and that's what the content keeps giving us.

By the way, there are two phrases to keep your eye out for in this sermon. Phrase number one is 'you've heard what is said but I say to you' and what He is going to tell you is you have had this teaching for thousands of years that have muddied the water, has clouded the Scripture, that has misused the Law and instead of using the Law to bring you to Me, you think that the Law itself can give you life. So I'm going to get rid of that legalistic teaching and the licentious teaching and I say to you and here Christ will lay down in our life the direction that we need to go so that we are focused upon Him. And what is His Word designed to do in our life.

The second phrase you'll keep hearing is 'don't be like them'. The question is who is the 'them'? Sometimes the 'them' are pagan, superstitious Gentiles. Sometimes the 'them' are religious, arrogant leaders and Jewish people. Sometimes it's the irreligious and sometimes it's the religious. What He is going to say when He says 'don't be like them' is that He wants you to be like Him. Be like Me, not because that's what you have to do to be saved but because your Savior has loved you, be like Me. 'Don't be like them.' By the way, regarding the doctrine of hell, we'll have to deal with that in this text because Jesus decided this is the number one sermon He's going to use to teach us about hell. So we'll have to deal with that and He's going to warn us about it. There are just some amazing things throughout this text. I have three takeaways but there is really one that kind of works together.

The first thing is this. Looking back at Matthew 5 it says "Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain and when He sat down His disciples came to Him." So the first takeaway is to follow Christ you must hear Christ and to hear Christ you need to come to Christ. One may say, "Harry I've already done that and I'm converted." Praise the Lord but if you want to grow in grace every day you need to come to Christ and listen to Him. If you're not yet converted and you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior, I'm glad you're here but the church can't save you. Your step into heaven is not come to church. In fact, the Bible says Christ says come, the Spirit says come and the Bride, the church say to you come. To whom? The Spirit says come to Christ. The Bride says come to Christ. So if you're a believer everyday you want to come to Christ that you might draw and listen to your Savior from His Word and by His Spirit. Come up to Him. Listen to Him. To follow Him you must hear Him. Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." So come up and listen to Him. John 10:27 says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." So to follow Christ you must hear Christ and to hear Christ you need to come to Christ and Christ invites you freely – Come to Me.

The second takeaway is when you come, come just as you are. When men and women come to Christ they do so "Just as I am" yet those who truly come never stay "as they were" or "where you were." If you're saved and dealing with issues do not cover them us just confess them. Come to Jesus. Say, "Lord, here's where I slipped, here's where I failed, here's where I faltered. God here's this entangling sin in my life." As a believer come just as I am. If you're not yet converted come just as I am, right now. One might think, I'm going to go home and get straightened up, get better and then I'll come to Christ. He is saying, "Come here." One Baptist preacher said, "When do you clean fish, before or after you catch it?" Don't go clean up. Come to the Fisherman. He'll just catch you and then He'll clean you up. Just come to Him. Just as I am without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me. Good news, when you come to Him just as I am, those who come never stay as they are or where they are. He is going to grow you in the grace and knowledge of Christ. He is going to give you a picture of what that looks like in this sermon. You come just as I am but He never leaves you as you were or where you were. He will grow you from glory to glory.

Finally, the third takeaway is there are only two possibilities here – you either come or you don't. You either believe or you reject but there are really three categories. There are those who say "I believe and I put my trust in Jesus Christ" and then there are those who say "I don't believe." Please don't do that. Please come to life in Christ. I want you to know Him who is life forevermore. I want you to leave the kingdom of darkness to come to the Kingdom of light. Leave the kingdom of this world to come to the Kingdom of God. Leave the kingdom of death to come to the Kingdom of life. I want you to leave the kingdom of me to the Kingdom of grace and glory in Jesus Christ. The kingdom of me will kill you but He will give you life. The third category of people is those who think if they do enough good things then they'll have life. No, many will He say to, "Depart from Me I never knew you." You have to come to Him personally, not to religion, not to ritual. I love the rights of the church. I love the sacred life of God's people but that is not what saves us. Come to Him. The crowds came up but the disciples came to Him to hear Him. Listen to Him and trust Him. Think of it this way. Up went Moses onto the mountain, God came down and met him and the people were forbidden to come up that mountain. Jesus comes up on this mountain because God has already come down. Now God Himself goes back up on the mountain and He doesn't forbid you to come up as in the days of Moses. This One greater than Moses says, "Come to Me all of you that are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest." Don't stay down there, that's death. Don't stay down there with that Baal worship that false worship that kills you. Here the way is now open. Jesus says, "Come to Me. I've come down for you." Let's pray.

Prayer:

Father, thank You for the moments we could be together. Thank You for this wonderful text we can begin to study and work our way through as a people. Please build this truth in our life. Dear friend today if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior would you take a moment and make it as your prayer and say "Lord, would You take this sermon that You preached, use the feeble attempts of my pastor, but by Your Holy Spirit speak to my heart in these coming weeks that I might know the King, I might live His Kingdom and I might expand His Kingdom throughout the entire world as men and women are brought to Him to live for Him and salt and light go to work." Make that your prayer. If you have never come to Christ the net has been cast and the invitation has been freely given. Don't die. Come to Him who will give you life. It is not Briarwood Presbyterian Church that you're coming to. It's Jesus. That's the One we say 'Come to Him.' How we would love to help you grow but come to Him because He will give you life. You can pray, "Jesus I'm a sinner. You're the King, the Savior, I come just as I am." Dear Savior, Fountain of Grace, foul I to the Fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die, thank You Savior from death now unto life I live for You, my King. I pray this in Jesus' Name, Amen.