Pete McKenzie 0:00
It just so happens that Bill Bickers reminding pointed me to my utmost for his highest this morning stegen for Matthew five, Matthew is the one that really records the Sermon on the Mount. I think Luke, give some of it. Matthew is more meticulous, I tell you not to resist the evil person. But whoever slaps you on the right cheek turn the other also, that’s his verse. Here’s what he had to say about that. This verse reveals the humiliation of being a Christian. In the natural realm, if a person does not hit back, is because he’s a coward. But in the spiritual realm, it’s the very evidence of the Son of God in him. If he does not hit back, when you are insulted, you must not only not resent it, but you must make it an opportunity to exhibit the Son of God in your life. And you cannot imitate the nature of Jesus. It’s either in you, or it’s not. A personal insult becomes an opportunity for a saint, to reveal the incredible sweetness of the Lord Jesus. The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is not do your duty, but is in effect, do what is not your duty. It’s not your duty to go the second mile, or to turn the other cheek. But Jesus said, if we are His disciples, we will always do these things. We will not say oh, well, I just can’t do anymore. And I’ve been so misrepresented so misunderstood. Every time I insist on having my own rights, I hurt the Son of God. Well, in fact, I can prevent Jesus from being hurt if I will take the blow myself. That is the real meaning of filling up in my flesh, what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. A disciple realizes it is his Lord’s honor that is at stake in his life, not his own honor. never looked for righteousness in the other person, but never cease to be righteous yourself. We’re always looking for justice. Yet the essence of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is never looked for justice, but never cease to give it. It’s good stuff. You know, they say Christianity is a rescue effort for desperate men. In the Sermon on the Mount,
and the chosen, Jesus was preparing his message is going to be the manifesto. He was going to lay it on him. This is what the kingdom is all about. This is what this new, he came to start a revolution. He said, and this is what that revolution is all about. And it was really interesting, the way that they depict it. They had Matthew taking notes when Jesus was working on his sermon. And Matthew said, well, you’re starting out with salt and light. What does that mean anyway? And Jesus explained what that meant. We’ll talk about it later. And then he said, I don’t think you’ll start with the salt and light. I think it needs something before you start that. So Jesus men all night pray and and came back and came up with a Beatitudes. He said, I came up with a map, he says, What’s a map? A map to how a man can find me. In the starting place in that map is bless it of the poor in spirit. And we talked about before last week and weeks before that, that the attitudes are progressive, and they follow one another, you don’t start with bless it are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness you got to do something’s got to happen before you ever get to that. It starts with blessing to the poor in spirit.
blessing to the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. And as I said a minute ago, Christianity is a rescue effort for desperate man. It’s not just a rescue effort for men. It’s a rescue effort for desperate man. In other words, if you’re not desperate, you’re probably not going to come to Christ on true hard, solid gospel ground. You may come to Christ because you want to miss hail and go to heaven. You may come to Christ because someone has coerced you. But if you’re truly going to come to Christ and have an experience of being what Jesus called born again, you’re going to have to be desperate. What does that mean poor in spirit, in the original languages in Greek and Hebrew, they had two ways to define poor one was a working man, one who serves his own needs with his own hands. And meets his own needs with his own hands. That’s a guy that’s not necessarily wealthy, but he’s not poor either. He just works hard, provides for his family. And that’s one definition. Another is absolute abject poverty, poverty, poverty, which beats men to their knees, the man who has nothing at all. Bless it is a man who is absolutely destitute. It’s not my poverty before man, we’re talking about its poverty before God. Nowhere in the Bible does, it says you’re blessed. If you’re poor and don’t have money. You bless if you don’t have enough to eat. What he says here is in your own heart, in spirit and attitude, you realize you have nothing to offer. You’re destitute, you’re even desperate. And Hebrew, there’s four stage development of the word poor. It starts with beginning simply being poor, the absence of money or possessions. And then the next stage is being poor, then having no m, because you’re poor, you have no influence, or power, or help, or press stage. So it starts by being you don’t have money and possessions. And because you don’t have money and possessions, you have no influence and power and prestige. And because they’re therefore you’re downtrodden and oppressed by men. Finally, you’re a man because he has that has no earthly resources. And because of that, he puts his whole trust in God. My sin leads me to Christ, my sin, and now all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And I didn’t come to Christ because I was righteous. I came to Christ because I was a sinner. And I needed to be forgiven. I needed help. I was desperate. I tried to do it myself. It didn’t work. I tried other things. alcohol, drugs, sex, the world’s way of trying to find happiness. I didn’t try all that stuff. But that’s what I’ve tried some of it. But it always left me in misery. It always led me down a path I had a guy call me. Not long ago, his 16 year old daughter was on social media. And it’s crazy what kids are doing on social media today. And she keeps heading down this rebellious path, she’s headed down the way she’s interacting with boys on social media. I said you’re gonna have to explain to her where that road is headed. Jesus did in the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He said enter the narrow way the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life. But the way gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many that go that way. The narrow way, the small gate, few there are that find it. And I think we could see it in the Sermon on the Mount where there’s few that come through the small gate in the narrow way. Because it’s costly. You have to surrender you have to give up you have to become spiritually poverty stricken and destitute. You have to come to the place where you realize I got nothing. I got nothing to you know, my son. I told the illustration, my son in law, I told the illustration one time maybe I’ve told it in here. Our Mother Teresa was speaking in Washington DC to all the Congress and dignitaries and everybody. And afterwards, there was a crowd around her trying to get her attention and interview in her in this congressman comes up and he’s tall and good looking and had a check in his hand. And he saw a good photo up opportunity. A banded the check to and said Mother Teresa with my I have a foundation and we want to help you and your ministry, the Sisters of Mercy. And she is about this tall and he’s way up
here. And she looks at him and says sir, thank you for that. We have all we need. And she gave him the check back is for a million dollars. She says why don’t you go home and become nothing. God works best with nothing. Well, ever since my son in law heard that every time he leaves my presence, he looks back and goes remember you’re nothing. Remember your meathead? So we have a loving relationship.
When this man is, has no earthly resources, he puts his whole trust in God. So that’s in that the way It really is in our life. We try everything except prayer or everything except God, when all else fails, we pray. We can’t get the loan when we can’t make it happen when it’s not happening. And we have nowhere to turn we turn to God. And we are in that’s where a lot of us come to Christ. That’s where our sin drives us to Christ. It can be the sin of a lack of faith, a sin of trying to do it on your own. But you have to come to that place where you are willing to put your whole trust in God, that two things happen when you get to that point in your life. And Galatians 614 points that out. But it may never be that I would boast accepting the call grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. The world has been crucified to me and out of the world, I’m not boasting in myself, I’m boasting in the cross of Christ. So he becomes one detach from things. Because he knows that things can’t bring him the happiness and security that he needs. So one, I’m crucified to the world. But the world is crucified to me, he becomes detached from the things and attached to God. For he will know that God alone can bring him help and hope and strength. He realizes that things are nothing, and God is everything. But you have to discover that you have to be destitute, bless it, or the poor in spirit. In courses, they were trying to talk Jesus and changing some of his message. Because they were his disciples were and they said, you know, you’re gonna run people off with that. He said, you know, that sermon, and you tell people to go the second mile and turn the other cheek, and that’s not going to go well. And Jesus says, it’s, it meant not to go well. He said, I’m going to say a lot of things and preach a lot of things that a lot of people aren’t going to like, and they’re not going to understand. But there are those who will understand and they’ll come, and they’ll follow us. Because this is what they’ve been looking for. Most won’t most want to wide gate in the narrow rather than the narrow gate in way. poor in spirit means at the moment, when is a moment when a man realizes his own lack of resources to meet life and finances help and strengthen God? You know, some guys will never get there. They got plenty of money, they got gifts saved on top of the world. They’ve been successful. They don’t need God. They got a great house, a great car, not sure about the wife and kids. But for the most part, the guy’s not needy. He hadn’t gotten to that point of desperation. He’s can do it himself. He’s qualified bonafide, in his own mind. poor in spirit is the first evidence that a man is a true lover and follower of GOD. It means that before God, I know I have nothing to offer him because I didn’t find him. He found me. I didn’t choose him, he chose me. Apart from him, I found that I can do nothing. And Colossians 127 says, It’s Christ in you the hope of glory. It’s not your gifts in you, your talent in you, the wealth in you and that you have, it’s Christ in you, the hope of glory. You are so for me with Galatians, 220 and 21. I’ve been crucified with Christ. So it’s no longer I who live. but Christ lives in me my hope of glory. And the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me, and delivered himself up for me. I do not know if by the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. He died for nothing. Why would he need to down the cross if I could save myself by being good? By keeping the law and God gave us a lot to prove we couldn’t keep it. He gave us rules to prove we couldn’t keep it. We have a constitution that we can’t keep. We say vows when we get married that we can’t keep.
But those vows can keep us when the going gets tough. The vows can keep us commitments to Jesus Christ. Don’t come cheap. They they’re always a surrender a death. Somebody somes gotta die. If you’re going to grow in your Christian life, some selfish ness, some selfish pattern of life some taking it easy. Not wanting to work hard or not wanting to give up not wanting to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Something has to go for Christ to come. If you want more of Christ, what’s got to die in you? What do you have to give up? What do you have to change? Because if you ask the average guy, do you want to be like Jesus Christ? Well, yeah, kinda. That’s what the guy told me, Bob, do you really want to be God’s man? That’s what Bob said. Bob said. Yeah, kinda. He said, but you know, I listened to all your good teaching the pastor’s good teaching. All the good teaching out here. And I’m thinking, should I do it? Yeah, I should. Am I gonna do it? Probably not. And we’ve talked before about having a lot of probably not Christians. But you get to the point, where are you gonna, you gonna obey, you’re gonna get to that place where you’re so empty of yourself. You don’t have to defend yourself, take up for yourself, explain yourself, indicate yourself. You’re willing to be misunderstood. You make yourself a doormat. Is that what you’re in for? Is that what you came to Christ understanding? Because that’s what it’s all about. You have to be so empty. You have to have yourself. And I’ve literally had people in counseling sessions as I did, all I do is hold up the Scripture and say, Well, this is what Jesus said. Yeah, but he didn’t call me to be a doormat. Said the Jesus of Nazareth didn’t call you to be a doormat. You may have an orange county Jesus is not calling you to be a doormat. But the Jesus of Nazareth made himself a doormat. He didn’t come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many He emptied Himself. And then regard equality with God is something to be grasped or held on to. But he emptied Himself taking the form of a man and being found in the form of a man He emptied himself and grabbed the grace of the cross. And God Holly exalted Him, and bestowed on him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee would bow and every tongue confess Why? Because he emptied Himself. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you at the proper time. So we don’t get the small print. Usually, when we come to Christ, we may get the sad part, I’m forgiving for all my sin. But we don’t get to turn the other cheek part. We don’t get the go the second mount part. We don’t get that I can’t take up for myself. I don’t need to. When he was reviled, he reviled not when he suffered, and he uttered no threads when they accused him falsely, and they brought him witnesses to lie about him. He never tried to explain himself. He just went silent. Until they said, Are you kidding? Are you the King of the Jews? He says, I am and you’ll see me coming with my angels in heaven. They were tearing their robes, but at that time, he broke every law, he broke every rule. He did everything you could do to make the Pharisees do what they show who they really are, and do what they really did. And the Jews and the Romans, who found no wrong in him, you know, as as they can counter the living God. He got a whole new view of his own life. You know, when you get in God’s presence, and one reason that we don’t read our Bible more, pray more go to church more is because we’re afraid to be alone with God. We’re afraid to face him face to face. And that’s one of the fears they found in interviewing a lot of men, that they’re afraid of being alone with God. Why would a man be afraid to be alone with God? Well, because when well, Isaiah found that out in Isaiah six, in the year of King whose eyes death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne loft in exalted in the train of his robe filling the temple and they stood
above him having six wings. With two he covered his face with two he covered his feet with two he flew in there Sarah fam called out to one another Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of almighty the whole earth. is full of his glory. And the foundations of the three shows trembled at the voice of Him who called out while the temple temple was filling with smoke. And then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined. Because I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips. So while what was as a as an experience in coming into God’s presence, seeing the Lord sitting high and lofty on his throne, he saw his sin.
Unknown Speaker 20:31
Why would a guy go
Pete McKenzie 20:31
into God’s presence if he knew he was going to be confronted and faced with his sin only takes a desperate man to do that. He’s turned everywhere else. So he’s so desperate that he’s not worried about being convicted anymore. It’s he has been, he’s not worried about feeling guilty and ashamed. He’s tired of it. He is so desperate that he’s willing to face Christ in the face Christ is to face your sin. That’s what he does. He doesn’t do it because he’s judging us. Although judgment is part of his job. He does it because he loves us, a discipline you because you’re my children. And if you didn’t discipline you, then you wouldn’t be my son. And so God disciplines out of love. punishment is not love. punishment is getting even. You can’t treat me that way. This plan is different. What was is me I am ruined. As I got a whole new look at his own life, he had been preaching for years. And now he was different because he saw himself as he really is. And I don’t think we man want to see ourselves as we really are. I think we’re embarrassed ashamed. We have secret sans. We have stuff we don’t want flashed up on the screen here. But in heaven, everything I do is flashed up on the screen. God’s watching everything. He’s everywhere all the time. He’s all knowing he’s all present everywhere. Can’t run. You can run but you can’t hide. We talked about that last week. And I live among a people of unclean lips. It’s kind of the way it is in the church in life in general. Where if we’re laziest gather around a lot of lazy Christians. And we see guys that are turned on for Christ in their reading their Bible eight times in working on nine or something. And they’re excited about Jesus and I told you about the Campus Crusade guy that stood up in one of our meetings in our church and said, we’re excited about Jesus Christ. I thought crud I never heard anybody say that before. Then in church all my life. Not one person ever seem to be excited about Christ. We were excited about Southern Baptist Church of Christ up there was decided about being Church of Christ. They were very competitive, just like men are competitive churches are too. My brother was getting ready to take his family to church on Sunday night. Southern Baptist goes Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. And so he stuck his head out the door to his 10 year old son and said, Rob, come on. We got to go to church. Rob said Come on, dad. I’m having some fun. We’re playing with Billy and my friends. Well, now we got to go to church. Come on. He said, Well, can Billy go with us? He said sure. Damn chat with his parents. So we did and Billy went to church with him that night. They’re sitting on the second row. And preacher was crowd was kind of down and he decided to have a southern ballad, Southern Baptist pep, pep rally. So let’s just talk tonight about why we’re excited about being Southern Baptists. This one one woman raised her hand so I’m proud of being Southern Baptist goes to Billy Graham’s a Southern Baptist and he’s his most famous evangelists in the world. They had this light Applause Now the man stands out. I’m glad we’re Southern Baptist because we’re the largest denomination in the world. Mount applause few more gave testimony. say let’s hear from some of our young people and looked over at my brother’s row and there’s Billy sitting there. So he looked and walked over two buildings that stand up so he stood up said Why are you Southern Baptist? He says I’m not he said what are you say? I’m Church of Christ. Oh, we got a church of Christ with us here tonight. was on why you church Christ. I guess goes mom and dad or church Christ. Well, that’s really good logic son. Let me let me just ask you one more question. What if your mom and dad were idiots so I guess at least Southern Baptists.
I’m tell that all myself. Here’s a principle, the closer I get to the light, the darker my shadow. He is a light of the world. And then he told me, I’m the light of the world. So if I get close to Jesus, then I can see my sin. And when people get close to me, if I’m the light of the world, I’m living for Christ, and they’re going to be able to see their dark shadow. And that’s why they don’t like to me be around me. I don’t know about you, but on my street, they don’t know what to do with me. I think they liked me. But they don’t want to get too close to me. And they’re great people, I got a great cul de sac that I live on. And I know I’m out. I’ll see them out in the street. And we’re putting our garbage bins out at the same time or going to the mailbox at the same time or having to see each other. But I just get the idea. They don’t know what to do with me, here on party and sometimes in doing their deal, they invited me to a party or to but then they quit invite me, which is fine with me. But you let your light shine, you’re going to miss a lot of parties. I was one time so far from God, I couldn’t see myself as I really was. So that’s one thing that we invite people in to see what they really are. And the ones that are chosen will see that small gate in that narrow way. And they’re desperate. That’s what they’ve been looking for. They’ve been looking for a way away out of guilt and shame away out of the misery. They’re in a way out of the problems they’re having in their marriage with their kids with addictions. And they are looking for a way out. But you notice a temple was filling with smoke. You can’t exist in God’s presence, his righteousness, his light will suffocate you. for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. See, there were all of these Beatitudes have a reward. blessing, the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And so Jesus speaks to the kingdom of God not of being in the future. But being right now. It’s not like it’s a prophetic thing. And one day we’re going to be in the kingdom of God when Jesus Christ comes into your heart to the Holy Spirit, and he gives you heaven in your heart. And so you get heaven in your heart before you actually arrive in heaven. It gives you a taste. It gives you the spark of heaven. And you experience it in your heart from time to time, not all the time. But every now and then your heart will warm to the gospel. Your heart would be lit up by some song we’re saying, or by some verse, or something the speaker said, or some experience you had. There was truly a divine encounter that God and you get this taste of heaven, you have this sense of peace when you shouldn’t have any peace, a taste of heaven. When you turn the other cheek and you’re not offended, you’re not hurt. You may be hurt physically. But you’re not offended by them. You don’t take it in as a resentment. You don’t have to anymore. That’s a taste of heaven. Yours will be the kingdom of heaven you’ll have the lifestyle that I have. When you’re evolved. You don’t have to rebound. Not when he suffered. You don’t have to utter threats. You don’t have to explain yourself or defend yourself. You can just be quiet. That’s a taste of heaven. You have no reason to have peace, the doctor’s report what and good but you have peace it surpasses all comprehension is no reason except for the presence of God is the absence of worrying. And one of my wife’s favorite sayings was joy is not the absence of pain, but the presence of God. As a 57 for this as a High Exalted one who lives forever, whose name is holy. I dwell on a high and holy place and also with a contrite and lowly of spirit, who does God dwell with the contrite and lowly of spirit. In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. A broken and contrite heart, David said in Psalm 51, God will never cast doubt. It’s a feeling of showing contrite and this means feeling Now showing are showing sorrow and remorse or a sin or a shortcoming. Be in Pennington and regretful
a broken and contrite heart. I’ll never cast out pride or feel hail with all its inhabitants, as the opposite of a broken and contrite heart of a man who realized he had nothing to offer to God. If you ever heard anybody say, Boy, we need to see that guy come to Christ. There’s gifts and his abilities and now that he’s got man he had make a great Christian. Well, he’s not making a great question Colorado, his gifts and wealth and abilities. Guy may or may not come to Christ. But if he comes to Christ, all that thing, like the rich young ruler, he had it all. He had the money, he had the chariots, he had the robes, he had the servants. He had the house. And he comes and said, what I have to do to be saved in and he says, Well, you got to keep the law. Well, I’ve kept it all. As far as he knew, very sickly he had. He said, one thing you like, you go and sell all this stuff that you have, and give it to poor people and come and follow me in and understand how Jesus one word about guys following him. That guy’s rejecting Him and walking away. If you’re trying to recruit and build your church, you’re not going to tell a young ruler that. But if you’re trying to recruit followers who love you and are willing to forsake the world and be detached from the world and attached to God, that’s that’s kind of thing you say to him. And then he shook his head and walked away sadly, that was he was very wealthy, the Bible says. So you got to look at that young, rich young ruin, said, Boy, he’ll make a great Chris Christian leader. But he won’t sell his stuff, give it to the poor now, he’s not telling every wealthy guy to do that some wealthy people are using their wealth for God’s glory. But some that’s the only thing that’s gonna stand between them and eternity in heaven. Not only does God sit in a high and lofty place on his throne in heaven, but he also lives in the heart of the poor and lowly. So when we come to the Sermon on the Mount, we come to that place where we have to say this is a gate. This is an entryway to the path to find Jesus Christ. No one ever found Jesus Christ, impressing him with their gifts and abilities. They only found Jesus Christ when they came, and they realized they were sinners, All have sinned and fell short of the glory of God, the wages of sin is death. It’s appointed on demand to die once and then comes judgment. Who Praise be to God I came that you might have a life and have it abundantly, that God so loved the world he gave his only son said, whosoever believes in Him should not die and perish and spend eternity in hell, but have new life in Christ. God’s given us that life. And they said, the entrance door to have in that life is realizing you got nothing to offer. So where do you go with that? Just check your heart as they search me, O God and know my heart Try me and know my just thoughts. See if there’s any hurtful way and me Father, that’s what we pray as we close today. Searches Oh, God and know our hearts. know if we’re depending on anything other than your grace and your mercy. We’re saved by grace through faith. It’s not of ourselves, help us to be broken and contrite before you help us to be poor in spirit, realizing that it’s all about you and nothing about us. And then we’ll dwell with you and eternity. But we all have heaven here on Earth. That taste of heaven in our life today the life that men can get in the presence of Christ because of our lives. That’s what we asked you to do. Now we want to be a part of that revolution. And we want to do it in Jesus name for His glory and all God’s men said go get him Heaven, guys.