Matthew 5-7 - A Backwards Sermon

You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.

Our passion is to experience and express grace. Join us.

Thank you, gentlemen, and thank you. Thank you for your hospitality in greeting me and my wife

as we have been given the blessing of spending a few days in your fair city and seeing the church

transformed into Vacation Bible School Central. I don't think this was done for the celebration of

my arrival, but I trust that it will be a wonderful greeting to the children as they come through the

week, and we will be praying for you because we have some special grandchildren that will be

participating here. I'd like to ask you to pray for us because as we return home to Memphis this

afternoon, we start Bible school in the morning too, and I have the fifth and sixth grade boys,

and you know what they're like. But it's a wonderful time for us to celebrate. We're actually going to

be doing a Bible curriculum based on the prophet Jonah, and I hear that you all have sometime in

the past done a series on Jonah. In fact, I'm going to borrow this little fella and take him back to

Memphis with me. What's his name? Hanaj? And where did you get that? How did you come up with that name?

It's Jonah's name spelled backwards. Well, isn't that interesting? Because this morning, I want to give

you a backward sermon. So you're one step ahead of me. You already do things backwards. Imagine if you

got up in the morning and you greeted everyone by saying good night, and at the end of the day,

you went to bed and you said good morning. Imagine if you got up in the morning and you ate dinner,

and just before bed you had breakfast. Imagine that you went to school or into the neighborhood and you

chose for 24 hours to walk backwards. Wouldn't that be an odd experience? And yet this morning, what I'm

going to do is you're going to join me in making homiletical history. How many of you have ever

made homiletical history? I didn't think so. In 34 years of preaching at my church, I have never made

homiletical history. But here today on this stage, we will make homiletical history because we are going

to preach a backward sermon. If it flops, Will will be here to clean up the mess. But what I want to do

is I want to preach through the sermon that Jesus preached in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, commonly known as

the Sermon on the Mount. Except for our purposes this morning, we're going to preach it Matthew 7,

6, and 5. So if you want to use your pew Bibles, you'll find it on pages 812 through 809.

Did you get that? 812 through 809?

Before we start, let's do the most important thing. Let's pray.

Father, as we come to your Word, we want to enjoy the study of your Word and the proclamation of your

truth. But we don't want to make a circus of it. We don't want to take it lightly. We want you to

speak to our hearts and our minds of your great love for us through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we

ask, Father, that you would accomplish your purposes in our hearts this morning, myself included. And we

pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I love to preach through the Sermon on the Mount because everybody

loves the Sermon on the Mount. After all, who does not love the golden rule? And who does not appreciate

the Lord's Prayer? And who does not memorize the Beatitudes? All of those things and many other

memorable things are contained in these three chapters of Matthew that are called the Sermon on the Mount.

But let's be careful about our approach to this sermon. John MacArthur, and I assume many of you

would recognize that name, says this,

That's an interesting statement. Hell will be filled with people who love the Sermon on the Mount,

who love to hear the Beatitudes read, who love to hear the Lord's Prayer said, who love to abide by the

golden rule, because in their attempt to please God and attain their salvation, they have determined

that the Sermon on the Mount has been given them to show simply the principles of the way to live

the Christian life. If that's the case in your heart, I have good news for you this morning.

Because just as hell will be filled with those who love the Sermon on the Mount,

heaven will be filled with those who have come to understand what Jesus was really saying.

And that's what we want to understand this morning.

We want to begin this sermon as that sermon ends. The closing paragraph of the Sermon on the Mount

really gets our attention. Matthew chapter 7 at verse 24.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house

on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house,

but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of

mine does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and

the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.

Our children learn the song, the wise man built his house on the rock. And every generation of children

is taught that song. Why? Because we want them to understand the necessity of a firm and solid

foundation for a faithful and fruitful life. But notice there are dangerous warnings attached to this

paragraph. There is a foolish man. There's a collapsing house and great was the fall of it.

There's disappointment and tragedy. If what? If your house is built upon sand.

Now I have a dear friend who just recently said these words to me. I'm going to have to take my wife

down to the coast because every once in a while she needs to get a little sand between her toes.

Are you like that? Every once in a while you need to get to the beach and you need to get a little

bit of sand between your toes. It's good therapy for you. And that may be true about the beach,

but to get a little sand between your toes is not a wise thing according to the Lord Jesus. That's why

he's given us this sermon. That's why he's correcting some misconceptions. That's why he wants to put rock

under our feet, not sand. This sermon is not just a collection of wise sayings. It's a matter of life and

death, standing or falling, success or failure, victory or defeat, even heaven or hell. Do you see why I'm

starting at the end? This paragraph gets our attention that we might realize what's at stake in this sermon.

So let's get the sand out from between our toes this morning. Let's listen to this sermon and try to

truly discern what's on our Lord's heart. And let's begin, of course, at chapter 7.

In chapter 7, Jesus describes it this way, our world is filled with people who make false assumptions and

live with false hopes. False assumptions, false hopes. As Jesus preaches, he realizes he's surrounded by

people whose feet are firmly planted in the sand, not rock, on lies, not truth. They may not know it,

they may not admit it, they may be blind to it, but that is the truth. How so? First, they're traveling

on the wrong highway. Notice verses 13 and 14 of chapter 7. Jesus says, enter by the narrow gate,

for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

For the gate is narrow, the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

This is vacation season. Imagine the disappointment of preparing for vacation and leaving for vacation

and moving out on vacation only to take a few wrong turns, and you end up in the middle of nowhere.

Not your intended destination.

As Will grew up, I'm not going to belabor the Will stories with you this morning, but this is a good spot for one.

As Will grew up, he was admired by many people.

He gave counsel to friends, but there was one area of counsel he was never asked for.

Directions.

He was directionally challenged.

The GPS was an answer to prayer.

If you use one, you can thank Will for that, because we never knew when he left the house

whether he would get to his destination.

Jesus is talking about that in this passage.

Imagine leaving and living on a highway that doesn't get you to the right place.

Multiply that by a thousand and consider the tragedy of living your whole life

climbing the ladder of success

only to find that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall at the end.

False assumptions

can lead to disastrous results.

But not only are they traveling on the wrong highway,

they are trusting in the wrong object.

They have hope and confidence.

They have expectation.

But it's not in the right object.

Notice chapter 7 at verse 21.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,

but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name

and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Again, another surprise.

First, it's a large company traveling down a wide road

that when they get to the end of that road, it's destruction.

And now it's people who have actively been at work in the life of the church

who are told that he never knew them.

Depart from me.

Maybe we could paraphrase it this way.

Lord, Lord, I served in VBS, remember?

I went on a mission trip to Peru.

I was active in the youth ministry.

I volunteered at Lincoln Village.

I was even ordained to office.

What if Jesus took those claims and threw them out of court?

Have any of you read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress?

Hands?

Pilgrim's Progress?

You know how it ends?

You remember how it ends?

It's a glorious...

You've got to read the ending.

The glorious arrival of Christian and hopeful into the celestial city.

And the incredible description of the glory of the place.

Such that Bunyan says,

When I had seen it,

I wish I had been among them.

But if you've read it,

you know that that's not the end.

Because there's another couple of paragraphs that follow that description.

When Bunyan says,

Another man crossed the river of death.

And another man climbed the mountain to the gate of the celestial city.

And another man sought to enter therein.

And he was asked for his certificate.

And he had none.

And he was not let in.

In fact, he was led away.

And this is how Pilgrim's Progress ends.

And I saw that there was a way to hell even from the gates of heaven.

Wow.

Jesus gets our attention in this seventh chapter.

He's describing the tragic situation of people who think they are Christians but are not.

Who think they are headed to heaven but are denied entrance.

Who think they are standing on the rock when in fact they are on the sand destined to collapse.

Not to stand.

Well then we need to hear more.

What do we learn if we move back to chapter 6?

What do we learn from that chapter?

We learn this.

Our world is filled with people whose bodies are at church but whose hearts are in the world.

Church is definitely a part of their life.

But upon closer examination,

we see that they claim to trust God but their hearts are flooded with anxiety.

They're people whose lives are filled with worry and fret and fear and doubt.

Chapter 6 at verse 25.

Therefore I tell you,

do not be anxious about your life,

what you will eat or what you will drink,

nor about your body,

what you will put on.

Verse 27.

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Verse 31.

Therefore do not be anxious,

saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?

For the Gentiles seek after all these things.

Anxious, anxious, anxious,

Jesus preaches to them

because he's seen through their smiles

and he's examined their hearts.

They claim to trust God,

but they fail the eye test,

how they live and think and speak.

They don't sleep at night

and they don't relax during the day.

The future scares them

and the present frustrates them.

They claim to trust God,

but their hearts are anxious.

They claim to worship God,

but they crave the approval of man.

Chapter 6 and verse 1.

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people

in order to be seen by them.

They do a lot of good things for the wrong reasons.

And Jesus goes into a discussion of giving

and follows that with a discussion of praying

and then digs even deeper

and speaks to those who fast.

Givers, prayers, fasters,

doing all the right things

for the wrong motivation

to be seen by men.

And then they claim to value God,

but they treasure the things of earth.

Chapter 6, verse 19.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth

where moth and rust destroy

and where thieves break in and steal,

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven

where neither moth nor rust destroys

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is,

there will your heart be also.

My wife and I have just

started cleaning our attic.

I don't recommend it.

It's really not a lot of fun.

It's very convicting

to see what you treasure,

to see what you've kept,

and how much of it,

how much of it.

We sing in Christ alone,

but do we really live it?

We sing all to Jesus,

I surrender,

but we don't.

We sang this morning,

I'd rather have Jesus

than silver or gold.

I sang that song,

but boy, oh boy,

was that convicting

because I'm not sure I meant it,

and I'm not sure I live it.

We say Jesus is all the world to me,

but you couldn't tell it

by following people for a week

or looking at their checkbooks.

Their bodies are at church,

but their heart is in the world.

Sometimes after preaching,

when I go to the back door,

I have people say things like this,

Preacher,

you were really preaching to me this morning.

You really got me today.

That means I stepped on their toes,

I meddled a bit,

I spoke to a touchy area in their lives.

Well, I can say to Jesus,

you got me today.

This whole subject of where my heart is,

is exposed by Jesus' words.

He's making us examine our hearts,

and I'm not liking what I see,

my selfish attitudes,

my private fears,

my hidden motives.

I live and work and worship in the church,

but that's no guarantee that my heart

isn't still often in the world.

So first, Jesus raises the reality

of false assumptions and false hopes,

and then he identifies the weaknesses

of our hearts and our hidden idols.

Well, we need to hear more.

Finally, moving backwards to chapter 5,

we learn our world is filled with people

who are in desperate need

of a deliverance outside themselves.

Desperate need of deliverance outside themselves.

My guess is you have your favorite TV shows, right?

Your weekly shows that you wouldn't miss.

You record them if you have to be out

so you can see them later.

One of the shows that my wife and I

have gotten into lately is Scorpion.

Any Scorpion watchers in here?

Thank you.

We'll talk after the service.

Scorpion is obviously a very popular show.

It is the story of a group of geniuses.

See, only a few people really can understand it.

A group of geniuses that solve the problems

of national security by their brains.

Okay?

And in one particular episode,

Walter, who is the chief genius,

drives off a cliff

at a high rate of speed.

His car hurtles over the cliff.

It falls about 100 feet.

It's on a precipice,

teetering on this precipice.

And Walter inside is bleeding.

He's been badly injured.

And the Scorpion team realizes

that they have about an hour

to rescue him.

Well, I hate to ruin it for you,

but they do.

They figure out a way

to rescue Walter from this car.

But it really does kind of make you wonder

how in the world

they're ever going to rescue the man

from this horrible predicament.

Well, my friends,

Jesus in chapter 5

is describing man

in an even worse predicament

because it's a spiritual predicament.

And if you study chapter 5,

you'll be amazed

that Jesus demands from us

what no man can deliver.

Have you ever thought about

the gospel that way?

Jesus demands from us

what we cannot deliver.

Notice in verse 20 of chapter 5,

he says,

for I tell you,

unless your righteousness

exceeds that of the scribes

and Pharisees,

you will never enter

the kingdom of heaven.

That ought to blow you away.

You want to go to the kingdom

of heaven, right?

But he says,

you will never enter

the kingdom of heaven

unless your righteousness

exceeds that

of the scribes and Pharisees.

Now, the problem is

the Pharisees and the scribes

were the poster children

of what righteousness

was all about.

How in the world

could the average ordinary guy

have a righteousness

that exceeds that

of the scribes and Pharisees?

Then to make matters worse,

he begins a series of explanation

of Old Testament commands

describing how true righteousness

must include not just

the letter of the law,

but the spirit of the law.

He says,

you've heard that it was said

you shall not kill,

but I tell you,

you shall not even be angry.

You've heard that it was said

you shall not commit adultery,

but I tell you

that if you even lust in your heart,

you've committed adultery.

So Jesus takes the definition

of righteousness

and expands it

to proportions

that no man can reach.

And then if he's just not satisfied

with that,

at the end of the chapter,

verse 48,

he just puts it simply,

you therefore must be perfect

as your heavenly Father

is perfect.

If anybody thought

they had passed

the first two measures,

he gets them on the third.

You've just got to be perfect.

Great!

The kingdom of heaven

is a hopeless wish,

right?

Well,

he then goes on to promise

what no one can imagine.

In the Beatitudes,

Jesus speaks of those

who possess the kingdom of heaven,

inherit the earth,

receive mercy,

are satisfied.

they'll see God,

be called the sons of God.

Great is their reward

in heaven.

Now I'm really confused

because he's just set me up

for failure,

but at the same time

told me that it's possible

to have all these

wonderful blessings.

What's he saying?

What's he mean?

How can the incredible demands

of God

be met with the incredible

blessings of God?

Well,

it all starts

with empty hands,

not impressive performances.

Chapter 5,

verse 3,

blessed

are the poor in spirit.

It starts

by admitting

you can't,

not guaranteeing

that you will.

Years ago,

I heard this description

by Max Licato.

you don't impress

the officials at NASA

with a paper airplane.

You don't boast

about crayon sketches

in the presence

of Picasso.

You don't claim

equality with Einstein

because you can write

H2O.

And you don't boast

about your goodness

in the presence

of the perfect.

Mark it down,

God does not save us

because of what we've done.

The first step to joy

is a plea for help,

an acknowledgement

of moral destitution,

an admission

of inward poverty.

Those who taste

God's presence

have declared

spiritual bankruptcy

and are aware

of their spiritual crisis.

Their cupboards are bare,

their pockets are empty,

their options are gone.

They have long since

stopped demanding justice.

They are pleading

for mercy.

They don't brag,

they beg.

And they ask God

to do for them

what they can't do

without Him.

You see,

our problem in this world

is not with a backward sermon.

It's with a backward gospel.

Believing somehow

that heaven is awarded to us

on the basis of our success

rather than given to us

despite our failures.

If you study more closely

chapter 5,

Jesus is going to say

that He came

not to abolish the law

but to fulfill it.

What we cannot do,

He has done.

And He offers to us

a perfect righteousness.

In chapter 6,

He's going to invite us

to pray,

forgive us our debts.

because He knows

that He's headed

to a cross

where He is going

to shed His blood

for the forgiveness

of sin.

In chapter 7,

when He speaks

of a narrow gate,

perhaps He's thinking

to a later date

in John chapter 10

John 10 · chapter mention

when He says,

I am the gate

of the sheep.

The gospel requires

that we admit

there is sand

between our toes

and we ask

to be cleansed.

And when we do,

the blood of Jesus

washes away our guilt

and God places

our feet upon a rock.

The psalmist

in Psalm 40

put it this way,

I waited patiently

for the Lord.

He inclined to me

and heard my cry.

He drew me up

from the pit of destruction

out of the miry bog

and He set my feet

upon a rock

making my steps secure.

What makes the gospel

so beautiful

is the depth

of our problem

and the height

of God's solution.

That rock

is not a place.

It's a person.

It's not a new set

of rules.

It's Jesus' blood

and righteousness.

That rock

is not trying harder.

It's resting

in His sufficiency.

It doesn't just point me

in a new direction.

It establishes

in my heart

a new affection.

I'm loved

and I love in return.

I rest

and I'm energized

to obey.

It all sounds

so backwards.

That's why

it's amazing

grace.

When this sermon

begins

in chapter 5

seeing the crowds

He went up

on the mountain

and when He sat down

His disciples

came

to Him.

That's what we must do

come to Him.

And when they left

in chapter 7

it says in verse 28

when Jesus finished

these sayings

the crowds

were astonished

at His teaching

for He was teaching

them as one

who had authority

and not as the scribes

and when He came

down from the mountain

great crowds

followed Him.

We must come

to Him.

Hear His voice

and follow

Him.

in the past

several years

I've had the privilege

of serving

in a retirement

community

immediately across

the street

from my church.

Imagine

if across

Jones Valley

there was a

retirement community

of 400 to 500

people right there

right in your face

well that's what

we've got.

And I started

offering myself

as a chaplain

and doing Bible

studies and meeting

people and ministering

to people

and now I'm

the hired

part-time chaplain.

It's an upscale

retirement community.

It's a place

where the successful

have come

at the end

of their life

to be pampered

and to enjoy

community

and fellowship.

And my message

to these people

has boiled down

to one primary

thought.

Being good

is not

good enough.

They've served

our country.

They've built

hospitals

and churches

and schools.

They've loved

the flag

and paid

their taxes.

They've raised

their families

and now in their

waning years

there are many

of them resting

on all that

they have done

and they want

somebody to come

along and say

to them

well done

you've done

such a good job

and I go

and tell them

your goodness

is not

good enough.

And I try

to point them

to the sufficiency

of Jesus Christ

and the completion

of his work

and say to them

empty hands

clinging to the cross

that's what God

desires.

The gospel of grace

we set the gospel

of grace

backward

when we act

as if

it's a reward

for our performance.

We hear it

accurately

when we come

to a table

like this

and believe

that Jesus

paid

it all

and all

to him

I owe.

The sermon

on the mount

is a hard

hitting

rebuke

to our hearts

it's not a

collection

of wise

and sweet

principles

but a reminder

to us

that the true

gospel of Jesus

Christ

meets us

at the point

of our emptiness

and fills us

with the fullness

of God's

love

and grace

and hope.

And it points

us to this table

because that's

where Jesus

is headed.

He knows it

and he loves it

because he loves you

and because he loves me.

Let's pray.

Father we ask

this morning

that as we come

to this table

we would be convinced

that we are

desperately in need

of a deliverance

that only you

can provide

and in fact

only you have

provided

in sending

your son

to this earth

to give his life

a ransom

for sinners

that we might

turn from ourselves

and receive

and rest

upon him alone

and know

the joy

and the peace

of standing

upon the rock.

And we pray

this in his name.

Amen.

For more information

visit us online

at southwood.org

For more information

visit us online

at southwood.org