Be Biblical

praise god that used to be the hope of the church just saying it used to be what the church looked forward to those songs that we just sang about the coming of the lord folks we don't hear it enough but is staring us right in the face and here we are at the at the advent of jesus christ there's going to be an airlift out of this place called the rapture of the church i think i think sometimes that that has faded from our minds and our memories but there really is a blessed hope and that blessed hope is the return of jesus christ we're all expecting things to get better know this that in the last days perilous times shall come it ain't getting any better it's not going to be with the next political uh upheaval it's not going to be with the supreme court it's not going to be with any of them it is going to be our hope is jesus christ come quickly amen amen god bless you tonight for your faithfulness to the house of the lord

how many of you are here on sunday and heard brother brad preach amen that final word now if if we if we acknowledge that final word and then on monday and went out doing business as usual there's a greater condemnation to them than those who don't even believe it because james said i believe it was james who said that that it's like a man who beholds his face in a mirror we acknowledge that but then we walk away and forget what we saw there this really is the final word it really is and so i'm going to i'm going to spin off on what brother brad preached brother reaver first approached me with this and and he gave me a topic and he said your topic is be biblical but but in i will in his defense say that he said but you know whatever you want to do i said yeah anarchy be biblical is like saying be encyclopedic okay where do you want to start i'll start with topic a and we'll go all the way through z we might be here a while tonight folks be biblical it would have been better if i could have narrowed it down to a single topic about what am i supposed to be biblical in and so instead of that i i've just kind of uh taken his lead and and and i'm going to uh try to share with you some things that i have learned from the word of god

my text is from matthew the fifth chapter and you're all familiar with these things matthew chapter 5 verse 1 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 saying everybody read this with me blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven now the largest collection of jesus words recorded in a single setting was this seismic shift in that had been prophesied by the prophet jeremiah jeremiah chapter 31 verse 33 said but this shall be the covenant that i will make with the house of israel after those days saith the lord i will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their god and they shall be my people now we know that to extrapolate or further from that there there is a scripture that says that the letter killeth the things that are written they they kill but it's the spirit that gives life so the unwritten portion of this is that he was going to do something so different he was going to put his laws in their hearts but he was also going to give them the ability the power to live out those laws that he would write in their hearts by his spirit

so as this sermon on the mount as we call it unfolds it's like watching a time-lapse recording of a caterpillar spin its cocoon of transformation that caterpillar has been connected with the dust he's been crawling in the dust of the earth and and we see this miraculous transformation this metamorphosis of the caterpillar as he becomes airborne after this transformation takes place and so jesus takes his audience here from laws that had connectivity to the earthly to the law of the spirit that would allow for connectivity to the heavenly he was going to move them from earthly things to heavenly things he would move them from fleshly things to spiritual things and some somebody has well said that if this sermon was all that we had it would be enough to know what it takes to please god if these words of jesus were all we had it would be enough to know what it takes to please god so he began to tell them what it really means as we take our subject tonight to be biblical what does that mean in interacting with a culture of godlessness and that is where we are today we're in a godless culture but so was the roman empire it was a culture of many gods and the rejection of piety or holiness or separation sanctification they didn't believe in any of that and so jesus sat down with his disciples in this crowd and he began to speak by the time he finished his first sentence beginning with blessed he polarized that audience with the conflict of kingdoms he divided them and he he said did he not i didn't come to bring peace jesus said that not cardin jesus said think not that i am come to bring peace i've come to bring a sword and the ones that are going to be against you in many cases are going to be they of your own household jesus polarized or divided that audience from the first sentence beginning with blessed because there there are and i won't get into this all the way but there are basically the kingdom of god everybody say the kingdom of god there's the kingdom of heaven the kingdom him heaven i went to lodge and there's the kingdom of the worlds but really there's only two kingdoms there's a kingdom of the world and there's a kingdom of heaven and you can't make a lot about what the way that matthew wrote this because the kingdom of heaven is even though the kingdom of god if you think about it this way in the first two instances kingdom of the world it means locality this these are kingdoms that have their source in the world the kingdom of heaven has its source in the heavenly but the kingdom of god is expansive god rules or owns everything but he does not rule in the kingdoms of the world therefore

the only portion of the kingdom of god in which he rules is the kingdom of heaven everybody follow me he doesn't rule in the world there's a prince that rules over them he said they have a there is a prince of this world and and they have their own ruler and they set up their kingdoms now in revelation the 11th chapter there's going to be a time when jesus comes back and establishes the fact that that he he does rule it says there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world finally the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our lord and of his christ and he shall reign forever and ever follow me the kingdoms of the world and of darkness do not they are not ruled over by god but there's coming a time when the kingdoms of the world are going to be subjugated you can read about it in first corinthians the 15th where it says then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to god even the father when he shall have put down all rule and authority and power jesus is going to subjugate the kingdoms of this world and that is going to be the final consolidation of the kingdom of god now he it says that that god may be all we use that term so loosely sometimes i don't think we even realize what we're saying we say i want god to be my all in all no it says that god may be all in all now the kingdoms of the world and the kingdom of heaven have been consolidated under jesus christ that god may be all owner possessor and ruler in all the world heaven and his entire kingdom that makes sense everybody that was not part of my lesson just i won't charge you anything extra for that but he began to speak about these kingdoms or particularly this kingdom of heaven and he he talked about eight categories of blessed and when jesus said blessed that audience got an idea in their own minds about what blessed meant to them blessed of god meant that you were prosperous that you were joyous that you enjoyed life and that you had strength and health that was what in their minds it meant to be blessed

so watch what happens when jesus says leads off with this blessed are the poor uh that don't fit with our theology to be blessed is not to be poor it's to be prosperous but jesus gave eight examples here and every time their situation became more bleak it became bleaker and bleaker as he began to speak he said not only are the poor blessed poor in spirit but the mourners are blessed people who mourn people who are meek people who are hungry people who are thirsty people who are merciful people who are pure people who are peacemakers and then he says persecuted people and the word there the greek word is makarias it means it means happy that that in no wise fits with our definition of being happy does it to be poor morning meek hungry and thirsty and finally persecuted i don't know about you but that don't make me happy but he said this is the composition of the kingdom of heaven it's what makes up the kingdom of heaven and so this this is the in our society right now i'm talking to people who know people let's put it that way not not the audiences which i'm speaking right now but you know people who their entire pursuit of life is happiness it's a constitutional guarantee the constitution says that i have a right to the pursuit of happiness and it brother it has become our national pastime the pursuit of happiness i used to have meetings with some of the management teams sometimes and sit in on them and offer a few thoughts occasionally and and they were always talking about how do we make people happy i said buy them doughnuts but but then next week you're going to have to up your game because they're they're going to get satisfied with donuts and now you're going to have to do something more to make them happy the goal i'm let me speak to business people tonight the goal on the job is not to make people happy the goal is to make people fulfilled and engaged if you keep people fulfilled and engaged they'll they'll they listen there is a there's an equation i know brother travis miller a few weeks ago preached about it or talked about this about happiness and how it uh your expectation there's a formula actually somebody came up with a formula that happiness equals expectation plus or minus reality and that's true that's why most of your happiness comes from when unexpected good things happen to you and now it's exceeded your expectation and you go whoa that's great i just won the lottery can't can't win if you don't play right the pursuit of happiness i'm telling you that that happiness has become a national pursuit and and but let me tell you what jesus promised he didn't promise happiness he said the happiest people in in this kingdom the blessed ones are that those eight categories that he spoke about let me let me throw you a cardonism out here this is something that i i came up with happiness is to joy what weather is to climate you hear me happiness is to joy what weather is to climate if you live in san diego the overall conditions is a mediterranean climate great weather most of the time but they still get storms as a part of their weather you hear me the promise of the kingdom is that the overall condition the climate here is that of joy joy unspeakable and full of glory doesn't mean that the weather's not going to blow in occasionally and bring storms into your life though but it means that even in the storm in that weather that you're enduring the overall climate is still that of joy amen so in verse 11 matthew 5 11 this is the first of three pivotal statements in chapter five and jesus changed the narrative now in verses uh two through ten three two through ten he kept saying blessed are them are they or those you know the the the joy the the mourning and the them he was speaking in in the uh to to an abstract as it were but in verse 11 after he's just told them that blessed are they that are persecuted for my name's sake he turns the table and he must have rocked their world when he he starts speaking directly to them with this narrative and he says to them he wouldn't let them escape he he's not going to let you get away thinking that he's just talking about boy if they'd have been here he'd have got him today no he turned the narrative on them and said blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake this address i realized it was primarily to the jews it was a jewish audience but by extension i must tell you that there is a higher level meaning in this and that is the same for the church as it was for israel don't ever think i think we need to dispel the notion that we are ever going to fit in with this world that they are ever going to accept us that they're ever going to like us it is not going to happen he said you are the salt of the earth you are the light of the world you couldn't escape jesus said some hard things to them but he was bringing them back to their purpose for their existence the reason israel was established was for what to be a blessing to the nations to reveal the name of the lord to the nations and instead they got assimilated and that's why he had to say but if salt has lost its savior it's good for nothing and and a light he just made a declarative statement that says a city that set on a hill it was just an example he never said that the church is a city that set on a hill it was a declarative statement on the heels of you are the light of the world and then he gave this example a city set on a hill cannot be hid but he said neither do men take their light and hide it under a bushel and then he gets back to the light of the world that we are and begin to talk about about that so we by extension as as not jews but as the church

we have got to start thinking of ourselves as salt and light salt is a preservative if we don't like the deteriorating conditions in our world it's because we have not preserved as salt if we don't like the darkness you can't curse it just show up and shine as the light of the world amen

there is a second pivotal statement in verse 20. i've got to hurry along here matthew 5 20. another critical and pivotal statement here he he says to them for i say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven this would have rocked their religious world because the scribes and the pharisees were the epitome of righteousness right i'd love to take your questions right now but i can't do that to them these scribes and pharisees represented the apex of legalism the law and the righteousness that comes through the law and so jesus took what they considered the high point of righteousness and he made it the entry point of the kingdom of heaven when he said unless or accept your righteousness exceeds and you've got a an audience out here going we can never do that these guys are the priests these guys are the religious leaders these are the copyists of the law the ones who write the laws these are the men that represent the highest level of righteousness in israel but jesus said your righteousness has to exceed their righteousness otherwise you will in no wise enter into this new kingdom that i'm talking about and so he starts a series of you have heard but i say unto you you have heard you have heard that it's wrong to commit murder brother michael it's wrong to commit murder but i say unto you that if a man harbors hatred in his heart jesus said some hard stuff i say to you that if you've got it in your heart now i want to i want to clear clarify some things here because he went on down the list he talked about lust he talked about divorce and remarriage he talked about covenants don't don't force wear yourself he talked about retaliation he talked about your treatment of enemies he said love them oh no no no no you don't understand i don't even like them how can i love them well jesus was not when he talked about these things saying and i've heard people say well you know i've got it in my heart i might as well go ahead and do it might as well go ahead and act it out if i've got it in my heart you know elo he was not establishing an equivalency of activity in the flesh he was establishing an association between what goes on in your heart and what the result is in the flesh so listen i remember uh often sister williford saying you got to let the birds fly overhead but you don't have to let them make a nest in your hair true he was not saying well if you got it in your heart you might as well go ahead and kill that sucker he he was not saying those kind of things well if you look on a woman to lust after her you might as well go for it baby no he was establishing association because when you set things in the flesh you set off repercussions that will not go away you can you can have things in your mind that you can dismiss but once you do it in the flesh you're going to suffer some consequences of the deeds that you do because every man is going to be judged not on what he thought but what he did his deeds in the flesh amen so jesus wasn't wasn't saying just because you're thinking in your heart you might as well go ahead and do it no he was establishing an association that things culminate in your heart they when when every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed and lust when it is what's a word anybody know conceived conceived where does it get birthed in the heart you let it lodge there and germinate and it gets it gets it gets uh it gains ground and and and then it wants to manifest itself but externals are a reflection of internal those things that are conceived in our heart now i gotta i gotta get off on this tangent for a minute here and i talked to brother peter about this too you know i love the guy and and he's a scholar he he is a he's a great man and we enjoyed him yesterday in prayer meeting but

i asked him about a quote that he used by a.w tozer and when he was teaching that says and he didn't have time to fully explain like i'm not going to have time to fully explain things but he said that a.w tozer said that religious externals are meaningless you've got to understand that there are two types of these things in the new testament there's a pauline perspective that says your works cannot get you salvation but then james comes along and says you don't have faith if you don't have works so to the one who says that that religious externals are meaningless i'm going to take issue right here it would be like this if you go downtown or to a mall and all they've got are doors no windows no signs you just got to start experimenting with what you want to find right externals are not important they're meaningless right no we don't believe that because you might wander into a jc penny or you might wander into a strip club what tells us which is which what's on the outside tells us what's on the inside they're not meaningless folks jesus was pointing and alluding to this when he said that things in the heart have a way of expressing themselves in the flesh and so if you believe that that you know externals are meaningless i challenge you to do this you're going to have some interesting meals go home and take all the labels off your cans what are we having tonight peaches and green beans great no the externals are meaningful they mean something they they they project what on on the outside is projecting what is on the inside i'm kind of fired up about this because and maybe a little bit polemic because i hear religious organizations all day long decrying the fact of holiness they've called it homeliness it just makes me bristle when i hear people who don't understand holiness if you you you must project and what we do as sanctified people biblical holiness how do we how do we portray this how do we present to the world a church that is biblical

i've had people come up to us in restaurants not so much for me but for my wife and say you're one of them sanctified people aren't you yes how did you know that externals identify what's going on in the heart and and there are some people that will dress that way and look that way even without the spirit of god but but may i tell you how many of you have ever encountered this phrase people say well god looks at the heart huh you you can't judge me because god looks at my heart let me read you the scripture isaiah or first samuel 16 watch this but the lord saith unto samuel now this is where the quote begins this is what the lord said look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because i have refused him that's where the quote ends everybody follow me god didn't say the rest of it samuel was giving a narrative on the heels of what god said for the lord seeth not as a man seeth this is what samuel's saying for man looketh on the outward appearance and it would be unusual for the lord to say but the lord looks on the heart it would be like me saying well you know dennis don't like what you're doing he would have said you know i look on the because he told isaiah he said my thoughts are not your thoughts my ways are not your he didn't say the lord's ways are not your ways the lord's thoughts are not your ways uh your thoughts so here it's simply a a reference a point of reference from the quote of the lord the lord says i have refused him for the and he goes on to say for the lord doesn't see as a man sees

man looks on the outward appearance but the lord looks on the heart now that wasn't a rebuke please don't don't blame pastor for this okay this is just me i'm out here on this on this plank by myself so let's invert that scripture the last part of it to see what he was actually meaning here it wasn't a rebuke of samuel because god knows our frame right he knows how we're created and he knows so let's invert that for the lord looks on the heart but man looks on the outward appearance you say i don't have to dress holy i don't have to dress modestly let's put it that way i don't have to do those externals oh you got to why because that world out there is looking at externals that's the way we judge things if i see one of you gentlemen coming out of a a place and you're smooching on another man what am i going to think must be his cousin that's not what i'm going to think why because god said this is just the way we're built it wasn't a rebuke it was just a statement of the difference in perspectives god looks at the heart yes he do but everybody else is looking at the outward don't tell me you got the ability to look at somebody's heart because jesus covers that in this in this sermon too we don't have the ability to look at the heart so we have to judge what the contents are by what the wrapper on the can says so when when pastor gives boundaries and standards they are not meaningless you can't just dismiss them because pastoral authority says i can make the ground rules and tell us what this church is going to present to this community don't go silent on me now pastoral authority can set boundaries it was established way back in moses day when god told him don't let those people come near this mountain or i'll kill him and he says wherever you decide the boundary is going to be that's going to be the boundary that was pastoral authority because when moses drew the line and said don't cross this if somebody snuck a toe across it god would kill him because god allowed moses to set those boundaries thank god for pastors and a pastor here that tells and talks about biblical modesty externals and holiness by which we must abide i had i had a vice president i sit in his office one day and we were talking and and he said i got i got three things that people you know three choices for people to make he said you can you can agree with it and do it you can disagree with it and do it or you can leave good thinking you can agree with it and do it listen i appreciate

i appreciate a pastor i appreciate a man of god that's willing to take a stand and get in the forefront of this thing and say you don't need to be doing that you can agree with it and do it you cannot agree with it and do it and i'm not going to say the rest part i'll leave that up to him amen even so faith if it hath not works james 2 17 and 18 if if it hath not works it's dead being alone yea a man may say thou hast faith and i have works show me thy faith without thy works and i will show thee my faith by my works this is living works this is this is doing things externally that make people on the job come to you and even though they're not christians and they don't know anything about your your specific religion they will come to you because they've noticed something different about you and they'll say listen my mom's sick and i want you to pray for her how did they know to do that because of the the face that we present to the world it is absolutely important i gotta hurry in aspects of worship being biblical in aspects of worship can i tell you something and you not get offended not everybody who praises is a worshiper not everybody who praises is a worshiper but all who worship will be praisers okay here again anybody can come in clap hands left hands sing songs do all the things that we do it doesn't necessarily mean that they've got it on the inside jesus told the woman at the well of psycho he said the father is seeking people to worship him in spirit and in truth so not everybody that lifts their hands yet has spirit and truth in them you follow what i'm saying but every worshiper every true worshiper will praise ye the lord it's got to come out somehow that internal has to have an expression externally in the aspects of worshipers i remember somebody gave a definition of football and they said that football is a game with 22 players on the field badly in need of rest and 50 000 stands or 50 000 fans in the in the stands badly in need of exercise can i clue you in on something not everybody that comes in is a playa not everybody that comes in is a worshiper there are believe it or not spectators the fans that come in on sunday they sing our songs they worship they praise you know with the clapping of hands and and they'll go through all the motions and go out and live the same life that they lived when they came in my lord i kind of feel close to jesus right now because some of these things are really hard sayings but when you think about it that fan in the stand and they walk away from there going whoa we won today are you kidding me you paid the price of admission sat in the stands and ate hot dogs and drank soda and yet you can walk out of here and these guys are dragging off the field and yet you can say we won who are the true fans of the game when you go to something like that it's not the people in the stands it's the one who walks off the field and and picks himself up and goes to the shower maybe gets in the tub of ice and gets up the next day and watches film goes to the weight room sweats it out pours himself into the game goes back out for practice every day that is a true worshiper of the game can i get some true worshipers in this house today the true worshiper is not the person who breezes in on sunday and breezes out the same way they came in it the true worshiper is the one who will find god in his life every day of the week who will pull himself out of a service and then say where are you god on monday where are you when i wake up in the morning you're right by my side as the song says you're my last thought in mind when i lay my head down at night i will spend my time in prayer i will spend my time in devotion i will spend my time with god that is the true worshiper amen the final pivotal verse in verse 4 48 of chapter 5 was a challenge give me five minutes watch this i've heard people explain this away they explain a lot of what jesus said away i can't explain it away because

when jesus said it he meant exactly what he said now jesus was not above using a little how do you say sarcasm he knew when he presented that challenge right there just like when he said that if you have faith in god or literally the faith of god if you have godlike kind of faith you can move mountains and you can say to a tree you know remove hence the under place and and he knew and he said so have faith in god or to have have god-like kind of faith basically he knew that they didn't have that kind of faith same here after he presented all of his precepts and concepts he says to them at the end of chapter 5 now be perfect hello is there anybody here that claims perfection he and i can tell you he's not talking about just be complete because god in heaven is not just complete he's perfect he's perfect in every way and so when he throws this gauntlet down and tells this crowd be perfect he knew that they couldn't be perfect but jesus meant what he was saying let me let me just throw this out there another cardinism it's only in the pursuit of perfection that we ever achieve excellence we will never achieve excellence until we strive for perfection that's the only way to get there you settle for good it's not good enough acceptable not good enough g god in the old testament required that they bring things that were perfect without blemish and then he said okay that's the best you got it's acceptable so his acceptable is our perfect and he says to them be perfect he means what he says so how do we achieve this without laying guilt on anybody and we're not i don't want to put condemnation on it but there is a way the things that god puts on us when paul talked about the the the armor of the of the lord when you put that armor on everything there is perfect salvation righteousness truth gospel all of it it's perfect so how do i live up to this this challenge that he's thrown down

well the only way it wasn't possible for them but it is possible for us in jesus christ because we put on his righteousness and as many as put on christ now you are acceptable to the father who expects perfection we didn't achieve it but he did and i in christ can now come into the throne room of god without hesitation without embarrassment and i can say my father in the name of jesus i'm coming into your presence because of jesus christ i put him on amen

let me just throw out the last points we must be biblical in religious activities ministry prayer and fasting he covered all this in prioritizing life's gains be careful about what captures and holds your attention because jesus said if you love anything did he really mean that i see we we've gotten we've we've soft-pedaled the idea that jesus really didn't mean what he said he said if you love your family more than you love me go home you're not worthy of me so what does he tell them he said if you want gain in life seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness then all these other things they'll be added to you when you seek the kingdom of god let's stand together

there's a final aspect of this that i won't have time to go into but but it's it's judgment we we have been so intimidated to judge and yet judgment begins from the house of god people say don't judge me i'm not judging you as jesus said you have one that judges you there's three there are three functions of a judge number one arraignment in arraignment you're standing before the judge and he tells you what laws you've broken the second phase is a trial phase where the judge will preside hear the evidences brought against you and then the jury decides and sometimes the judge decides and then the third phase is the sentencing phase we are not to judge to sentence we are not to judge to condemn but the first part the beginning of judgment the arraignment is when the word of god goes forth it's not me telling you that's a sin that's the word of god that's telling you that's a sin and the word of god that's saying these are the laws that you've broken i'm not condemning you i'm not putting anybody in heaven or hell god's going to do that jesus christ is going to judge all men at the last day but i can tell you that if you continue in this vein of sin you will not make it to heaven it's not going to happen can i tell people that yeah it's not me that's judging them it's this word right here praise god i love the word of god and being biblical means that i have to know what's in the word of god lack of knowledge is not excused because it's available to me and it's available to all of us to read to see what pleases god

there's a letter and i won't read this thing but it was written nearly 2 000 years ago it's called a letter to diagnosis if you get a chance to google it you need to look it up because it was it was written supposedly that some people believe that was from a roman soldier to a friend of his and this letter describes those christians those christians the interaction that they had with with people he said unlike some other people they champion no purely human doctrine he said they they they marry they have children but they do not kill unwanted babies that was back then folks they are attacked by the jews as aliens they're persecuted by the greeks yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred can anybody explain why the world hates us being biblical means standing in the face and the onslaught of all the culture that is against us and saying in spite of that i don't care how many people believe in pluralism i don't know i don't care how many voices are out there telling me there are only two choices it's either sin or salvation you there's no other way that's not me that's the word of god the final word as it were that's it god said it i believe it it's settled amen let's pray as we pray and i i made this statement the other day to find our our purpose in the world we we know we're supposed to be the church we're supposed to be biblical and and we're supposed to find a purpose in the world what is our what is a reason for being and but we can have a purpose without opportunity and and this is what i want to express to you i want you to pray this final prayer and ask god not only for a purpose many of you already know what your purpose is you got something in mind that god's given you but it has to intersect with opportunity if your purpose never intersects with opportunity it's useless it will never be put into action so i want us to pray as we go out of this place that god would not only reveal our purpose but that he would also cause that purpose to intersect with opportunity when we walk out those doors you are the light of the world you're the salt of the earth you are the epitome of god's righteousness in the world so

let's pray father we come to you in the name of jesus believing that that all of us you didn't save any of us without a reason without a purpose you've not set us on a path without a purpose and so i pray god that if it has not been revealed already that you would give to us the purpose that you have for us and beyond that lord provide an opportunity for that purpose to be put into action that that our lives will intersect with opportunity and that will be able to manifest these biblical principles that you have given to us by which we must live and die we must stand by them o god so let us be those things that you have called us to be the light the salt of the earth don't let us leave this world with a job undone and a purpose unfulfilled but god give us that opportunity to serve you as you have ordained and we thank you for it in jesus name amen god bless you thank you all for your faithfulness to the house of god and you can be dismissed in jesus name if you have any questions about what i taught asper the reaver you