Would you turn to Matthew chapter
7? The passage I just read was after
a message he brought in Capernaum, but here is the end of the Sermon
on the Mount and the exact same thing is said, verse 28, and
it came to pass When Jesus had ended these sayings, the people
were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having
authority and not as the scribes. As I said, one of my favorite
slams in the scripture. What the scribes had to say had
no authority. It wasn't even real. Now this
was the response of the people after they heard the Lord Jesus
speak. They were astonished. They were
amazed by his doctrine. They'd never heard anything like
this before. And they'd never heard anyone
speak like this. He taught as one having authority. Not as the scribes. Now the word
authority is also translated power. He is the only one who
has authority. The word means power. Power of choice. and liberty to do as one pleases. That can only be said of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, all power in heaven
and earth is given to me. All power. Thou has given him power over
all flesh. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou has given him. He's got power over all
flesh and in his authority, he gives eternal life to those the
father gave him. The son of man hath power on
the earth to forgive sins. Now, as to whether or not me
or you are forgiven, it's up to him. You don't have any control
of this. It's up to him. He has power
on the earth to forgive sins. He said that he has given him,
the father has given him power to execute judgment. He's the judge. And he's the
one that's going to declare your sentencing. Whatever he says
is right. He said, no man taketh my life
from me. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it up. This commandment have I received
of my father. With authority, he commandeth
even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. Pilate, the paper king, says,
knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and I
have power to release thee? I would have loved to heard the
way the Lord said this. You have no power at all over
me. except it be given thee from
above. Now, these words were pronounced
at the end of what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Look in
Chapter 5. And seeing the multitudes, he
went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples
came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them. And at
the end of this message, we read, and it came to pass when Jesus
had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his
doctrine for he taught them as one having authority and not
as scribes. Now, every time the gospel is
preached, men and women ought to be astonished at the doctrine. This is astonishing doctrine. The Sermon on the Mount is astonishing
doctrine. Everything he says is astonishing
doctrine, awe-inspiring doctrine, coming with divine authority,
unlike the religious scribes, the seminarians and the preachers
and the leaders of religion in that day. Now, he pronounced
the blessed are. He determines who's blessed. And what he said was something
they'd never heard. Blessed are the poor in spirit
that have nothing to bring to the table. Blessed are they that
mourn. That doesn't sound right, does
it? Blessed are they that mourn?
Blessed are they that mourn. They should be comforted. Blessed
are the meek. Why, I thought they were weak.
No, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness' sake.
They shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they'll be called the children of God. Blessed are you when
you're persecuted for righteousness sake. Now, what's that mean? Doesn't talk about you being
persecuted for giving a big gift that everybody finds out about,
or you doing something good for somebody. When he's talking about
being persecuted for righteousness sake, there's only one righteousness,
the righteousness of Jesus Christ the Lord. That's the only righteousness
there is. You don't have any personal righteousness. Your
personal righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags according
to the scripture. You stand for his righteousness only. You will be persecuted, but blessed
are you. He pronounced who the blessed
were. Look in verse 17 of Matthew chapter
five. Think not that I am come to destroy
the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but
to fulfill. I have come to fulfill every
Old Testament Scripture. They all find their fulfillment
in Me. Now that's astonishing and that's
authoritative. They all point to Me. I came
to fulfill them all. I love it when He said to that
group in Nazareth, this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your
ears. Look in verse 20, for I say unto
you. Now, you know something the Lord
never said? Thus saith the Lord. He always
said, I say unto you. And you go on reading in this
passage of scripture when he's giving the law, he says, you've
heard it been said of them their old times and so and so, but
I say unto you. I say unto you, he spake as one
having authority. His words recommended themselves
as the very words of God himself. And he says in verse 17, for
I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, You shall in no
case enter the kingdom of heaven. Now the scribes and Pharisees
thought they had a righteousness before the law of God, but he
now tells us what the law really means. Look in verse 21. You've heard that was said by
them of old time, thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall
kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you
that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause,
You know what that means? You're jealous. You're envious. You're unhappy at him getting
some kind of blessing that you think ought to be coming to you,
and you don't feel comfortable that he's getting it. You know
what that is? Murder in God's eyes. To be angry
without a cause is no different than murder. Now, somebody may
say, I've never murdered anybody. Oh, yes, you have. over and over
and over again. Look at verse 27, you've heard
that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery,
but I say unto you, Now he was quoting scriptures. They said
that in old time, in the Old Testament scriptures. You've
heard it being said, I'm the only one who interprets the law.
I'm the only one who gives the true meaning. Nobody else does. I say unto you, that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery
with her already in his heart. Verse 31, it's been said, Whosoever
shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.
That's in the scripture. But I say unto you, that whosoever
shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,
causes her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her
that is divorced, committeth adultery. Again, verse 33, you've
heard that it's been said of them of old time, thou shalt
not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord thine oath.
Whatever you promise, you better do it. But I say unto you, swear
not at all. Swear not at all. Don't make
any promises. Let your nay be nay and your
yay be yay. Verse 38. You've heard that it's been said,
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you,
that you resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on
thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Verse 43, you've
heard it being said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine
enemy, but I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that
curse you. Do good to them that hate you.
And pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, that
you may be the children of your father, which is in heaven. Now, he claims absolute authority. I say, it's settled. He's the only one who truly interprets
the scripture. You know, the Lord never quoted
anybody. He never quoted Rabbi so-and-so. No. I say unto you. In chapter 6, he talks about
the three different kinds of religious works, and they're
very important. Works of charity, what you give, almsgiving. He
talks of works of devotion, prayer. He talks of works of self-denial,
fasting, when you fast. And he says regarding these things,
don't do them to be seen of men. If you do it to be seen of men,
you've got your reward. And what kind of reward is that?
No, do what you do in secret. When you give, let not your right
hand know what your left hand gives. When you pray, enter your
closet. When you fast, don't disfigure
your face, but don't appear to men to fast. And your Father,
which seeth in secret, will reward thee openly. And in this passage
of scripture, he also told us how to pray. What authority that
is. What astonishing doctrine that is. He told us how to pray.
When you pray, after this manner of prayer, our Father who art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Holy and reverend is thy name. I remember hearing somebody preach
on that passage of scripture, and they said, well, what that
means is let your name be glorified. No, it is glorified. Hallowed
be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into
temptation. We can't handle being tempted.
Deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen. he with authority said in verse
17 or verse 19, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.
This is the Lord speaking. Oh, would we heed this? Lay not
up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust is
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven. Look what it said down in verse
24. No man can serve two masters, for either you'll hate the one
and love the other, or else you'll hold to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and mammon, money, that which is
trusted. Now, money, money. It's either your friend or it's
your Lord and master. Think about that. Didn't Paul
say the love of money is the root of all evil? The love of money has something
to do with what it can purchase, the lust of the flesh, pleasure,
the lust of the eyes, popularity, the pride of life, power. And
there are people who are under the dominion of money. Money is their Lord. It means
everything to them. You can see that in their lives.
And then there are people where money is their friend. You know,
while we were driving over here, I saw somebody broken down on
the road, and I thought, what a blessing it is to have a car
that's not always breaking down. What a blessing it is to have
the money to fix the car when it needs to be fixed. It's a
friend. It's nice to be able to pay your
bills, to eat. I mean, it's a blessing. It's
not money that's the root of all evil. It's the love of money
that is the root of all evil. Then he said, in verse 25, therefore
I say unto you, take no thought for your life. Don't worry. Don't
worry about anything. Worrying is sin. Don't worry. Take no thought for your life. What you shall eat, what you
shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on,
It is not the life more than meat, the body than raiment.
Behold the fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do they
reap or gather into barns. You're not one of them, wakes
up worrying. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you, by taking
thought, can add one cubit unto a stature? By worrying, can you
add one minute to your life? And why take a thought concerning
raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his
glory, was not raised as one of these." Down to verse 31,
take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink?
Or what shall we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have
needed these things. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you. Take no thought for the morrow. Don't worry about
tomorrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And look
at this next thing he says, judging off. that you be not judged. You and I are not qualified to
judge. Why? A lot of reasons could be given,
couldn't there? A lot of reasons. You don't know what that person's
going through. You don't know the situation. You don't know
the why behind it. But the Lord only gives one reason.
What was the reason the Lord gave? Because of the beams in
your own eye. And that's powerful. I am unable to judge anybody
by way of moral superiority, thinking they're wrong, I wouldn't
do that. That doesn't mean you don't have an understanding of
what's right and what's wrong. You're saying, whatever they
do, I do right now. Therefore, scripture, it's not
just me saying that, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man,
whosoever thou art that judgest. For thou that judgest, anybody
know the rest of the verse? Doest. Present, tense, active. Thou that judgest, doest the
same things. And every time you and I judge
somebody, you know what we're being? a hypocrite. Every time I judge
you, I'm being a hypocrite. Every time you judge me, you
are being a hypocrite because all of us have beams in our own
eyes. I've listened to a preacher of
some, it's been in the last year, and he said, the reason Christians
have such a hard time in confronting other people about their sin
is because they have beams in their own eyes. I'm thinking,
oh, you don't. I think the guy blindly didn't think he did,
but no, you've got to know what authority the Lord speaks with.
Judge not that you be not judged. But then, we're called upon to
make a judgment. Verse six, give not that which
is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them under their foot, and turn again and
wring you. Now, what's that all about? He says, judge not, and
all of a sudden you're supposed to consider somebody a swine
and a dog? Well, this has to do with the
gospel. You better judge what you're hearing. You better judge. The scripture says, try the spirits,
whether they are of God. You better judge and see if what
you're hearing is the truth. And if you can't do that, you
better make that judgment. Try the spirits, prove the spirits,
test the spirits, judge the spirits, whether they be of God. You've
got a book that you can see whether I'm telling the truth or not.
You better judge what you're hearing. If somebody doesn't
believe the gospel and says, well, I'm not going to be judgmental
about that, you better be. You better be in that sense.
There's one gospel. There's one gospel and I'm not going to tell
somebody, I'm not showing them any love if I say, well, that's
their gospel. No, no. Don't cast your pearls
before swine and so on. And look what he says in verse
seven, ask. And it shall be given you. Seek
and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened.
For everyone that asks receives. He that seeks finds. To him that
knocks, it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you if
his son asks a bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks
a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil. I love
that. You know, if you looked at me
and said, you're nothing but evil, I guarantee I'd be offended.
I'm good as you are, probably better. That would be my response. But when he says it, how do you
respond? If you then being evil, that
is you. He's not, but you are. How do you respond to that? If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven,
give good things to ask of men? Look at this verse 12. They'd
never heard anything like this. They were astonished at this
doctrine. Look in verse 12. Therefore,
all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do
ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Now he gives us a rule of action
for everything. However you want to be treated,
that's the way you treat everybody else without regard to how they
treat you. You know, the Bible doesn't tell
other people how to treat you. Did you know that? The Bible
doesn't tell other people how to treat you. It tells you how
to treat other people. And this is a hard, fast rule
that covers everything. It's the law and the prophets.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And then the Lord talks about
two gates. in two ways. He talks about a
narrow gate, a straight gate, and a very narrow way. And he
talks about a broad gate, and a very wide way. And he tells us that there are
only a few that go through that straight gate. But many, many,
the multitudes, the vast multitudes go through that wide gate. You
see, the gate's wide because there's so many different ways
to hell. You can go to hell in licentiousness and wickedness
and just disregard to anything, and you can go to hell as a strict
moralist trying to keep the law. You can go as a Republican, a
Democrat, as a conservative, as a liberal, as a Calvinist,
as an Arminian, all these different, you can get to hell in so many
different ways. But the gate that's straight,
it's so narrow that if you have anything other than Christ, you
can't get through. That's the only way. and the
narrow road is just like it. And then he speaks of false prophets
and true prophets. He talked about good trees and
bad trees. Look what he says in verse 15,
beware of false prophets, which come to you and they will, they
will, they're gonna come to you. Not somebody else, they're gonna
come to you. You are going to hear them. You're going to be
thinking about what they're saying. They're going to come to you.
He tells us that ahead of time. And they come. Do they know they're
false prophets? No. No, I doubt that. I think most false prophets think
they're servants of God. They think they're helping people.
They think they're telling the truth. But they're going to come
to you seeking to get you away from Christ, not to look to Him
alone. Now, the Lord tells us, Beware
of false prophets, which shall come to you in sheep's clothing,
they look like sheep, but inwardly they're ragging wolves. You shall
know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, but an evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And he says again,
wherefore by their fruit you'll know them. Now, let me tell you
how you'll know a false prophet. Three things. Number one is doctrine. It's doctrine. Does he give man any glory in
any aspect of salvation? Does he give man any credit?
If he does, he's a false prophet. You'll know them by their doctrine. Number two, you'll know them
by their converts. What do I mean by that? Well,
you talk to someone who's sitting under a false prophet, and you'll
soon find out they believe what that false prophet believes.
You'll know by what they say. They'll talk about free will.
They'll talk about their decision or their good works or their
progressively becoming holier. You can tell by what they're
saying. As a matter of fact, if you want to find out what
a preacher preaches, ask the folks who hear him. If you want
to know what I believe, ask you all. You're the ones who know.
And if the preacher, well, that's just, and thirdly, you'll know
them by their life. You'll know them by their life.
I don't want to hear a man that does not live what he believes.
I don't want to hear him. I don't care if everything he
says is sound as a dollar. You'll know them by their life. And then the Lord Look at verse
21. He talks about him being the
decider of that great day. Not everyone, verse 21. Not every
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
that day of judgment. He's the one who's going to decide
who gets in and who gets, and who's sent away on judgment day.
That's a sobering thing to think about, isn't it? Many shall say
unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not preached in your
name? In your name have we not cast out devils? And in thy name
done many wonderful works. Then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you. You see, the only people that
are gonna be in heaven are the people he knows, that he loves, that he's foreknown. And he says to these people,
I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Now, they thought their works
were good. They said, Lord, Lord, we preached in your name. There
was much power to us in your name. We cast out devils. We
were greatly used by you. Why, in your name, we've done
many wonderful works. They thought they did everything
they needed to do. But they didn't do the one thing
needful. They never did His will. What's His will? Believe on the
Son of God. That's it. Believe the gospel. You believe the gospel, you're
doing His will. You don't believe the gospel, I don't care what
else you're doing, you're not doing His will. The only people
that enter in are the people that do His will. And then He
spoke of two foundations. You can go and read about it
in Matthew chapter seven, the man who built his house on the
sand and the man who built his house on the rock. The firm foundation. Now the rains came down, the
winds blew, the floods came up. The house that was built on the
sand collapsed and great was the fall of it. but the one built
on the rock." Now, you know that foundation is Christ Jesus. But
what does that mean? Christ is the only foundation.
What does that mean? Well, the writer of the Hebrew
tells us of six things that make up the one thing. If you're on
the foundation, you've repented of dead works. Now, what's that
mean? You know all your works are dead before God gave you
life and you don't look to your works or your experience in any
way. You've repented of those. And then there is the doctrine
of faith toward God. If you're on the foundation,
you know Christ is the son of God and you look to him only
as everything in your salvation. You don't look anywhere else.
The doctrine of baptisms. All baptism represents its union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. When we are baptized, we confess
that when he lived, I lived. That's my life. When he died,
that's my sin payment. When he was raised, I was raised
with him because I'm united to him. We read of the laying on
of hands. And that's not some preacher
laying on his hands on another preacher. That's talking about
the great high priest laying his hands on the head of the
sacrifice. And the sins are transferred to the scapegoat. And he's carried
away. And that's talking about the
transference of sin, the transference of righteousness. I made the
very righteousness of God in Christ. That's what it is to
lay on the foundation. It's to be united to Him. It's to have His righteousness.
The resurrection of the dead. Aren't you thankful that we worship
a Savior that's not still in a tomb? He was raised from the
dead. You know why? Because He accomplished
what the Father gave Him to do. And every believer is raised
from the dead. Spiritual death when He gives
us life. Folks who are laying on a rock. Founded only on a
rock. Looking to Christ only. They've
been given a new heart. A new nature. They've been raised
from the dead. And we're looking to that final
resurrection. And then He speaks of eternal
judgment. And I love that word eternal. I've been eternally
saved. I was saved before time began
in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. My eternal judgment
took place before the fall, before the creation of the earth. Everything
God does is eternal. Eternal judgment. And you know,
when you're looking to Christ, you're looking to what He accomplished
only. All the works the writer of the
Hebrews said in Hebrews 4, 3, all the works were finished from
the foundation of the world. Are you relying on eternal salvation?
It didn't have anything to do with anything you did in time.
It's wholly to do with what he did. Now, verse 28, and it came
to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were
astonished at his doctrine. They'd never heard anything like
this before. And they saw that he spake as
one that had authority. Now, that doesn't mean a deep,
barreling voice that sounds real masculine and doesn't have anything
to do with it. What he said recommended itself
as the Word of God. This is the truth. And do you
know when you hear the truth, you know it's the truth? That's
the way it works. He spake as one having authority,
not like the scribes. Now, in closing, He demonstrates
his authority right after this. Chapter 8, verse 1. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him. Oh, they were taken up with
this message they heard. They didn't know, quite know
what to think of it. And behold, there came a leper
and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if you will, thou can't make
me clean. Now, this leper came and got
what has to be straightened out first. He did it. He worshipped
him. Now, before anything else is
going to happen, this is to be settled. He's to be worshipped. without reference to what he
does or does not do for you. He is to be worshiped. Now, if he lets you go to hell, is he worthy of worship? That's to be settled first because
of who he is. This leper came and worshiped
him, saying, Lord." Now, the one who's Lord is the one who
everything begins with his will and his will is done. He's the
Lord of creation. That means he willed the creation
that took place. He's the Lord of Providence.
That's everything that happens in time. Everything. He is in
control of it. It happens because of His will.
His will is the cause of everything. Now, I know people make all kinds
of objections to that, but you know, I don't care. It still
is. His will, I don't understand everything, but who cares? His
will is the cause, the first cause of everything. And most
especially, his will is the cause of salvation. And this leper
understood that, Lord, if you will, if you will, everything
is up to you. You have absolute authority. You have absolute power. If you will, my salvation is
absolutely up to you. I can't save myself. I can't
make myself clean. If you will, you can, you're
able to make me clean. And the Lord looked at him and
said, I will. Think of the power of those words.
Think of the authority of those words. I will be thou clean. And immediately, immediately,
his leprosy was cleansed. And you know what he did after
that? He sent him back to the law. What do you mean by that? He
said, go to the law and show them how you've been cleansed.
Now, here's the point. If he made you clean, you don't
have anything to fear of the law. You've kept it. You ought to try to keep the
law. Now, I've kept it. He kept the
law, I did too. And he demonstrates his authority
right after this statement. He spake as one having authority. Not like the scribes. Let's pray. How we thank you for the astonishing
doctrine of thy gospel, of thy son, of thy person. How we thank you that he spake
as one having authority and not like the leaders of human religion. Lord, bless this message for
your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.