EPIC: High-Impact Truths in the New Testament – Part 2

Today we're continuing our series, as I said, it's called Epic, and it's all about the high-impact truths in the New Testament. We're hitting the big areas in the New Testament where there's powerful truth that God has for us, and I'll tell you, the Sermon on the Mount does not disappoint. It is not boring. It is in your face. It is the ultimate call to perfection, and nobody can do it. We've already seen, do you remember last time we saw, I mean, cut off your hand, pluck out your eye, be perfect like God, let people beat you up, give money to whomever asks of you. If they want to borrow it, let them borrow. If they want to just have it, let them have it. Now, how many of us are red-letter Christians today? How many red-letter Christians are there here today that are obeying all the words of Jesus? Now, I say that tongue-in-cheek. I'm not either. I've never met a Christian who is, and that's the whole point about the Sermon on the Mount, right? The Sermon on the Mount is Moses 2.0. You thought the law was hard? Let me show you Moses 2.0, the beta trial version. Good luck with that. It's a download with a virus attached, and it shows that you're dead, and that's the whole point. By the time you've lopped off body parts and tried to be perfect like God and let everybody beat you up and given all your money away to whomever asks, well, you're toast because there's 613 commands in the law, and we're just getting started. And that's what Jesus has to share. You might think, well, that's just mean. I mean, that's just cruel, but the reality is it's tough love. I mean, what do you do for people who think they're doing fine under the law? They're patting themselves on the back. They're at the foot of Mount Sinai. The foot, not the peak. They're at the foot of Mount Sinai throwing themselves a party, and Jesus comes along and says, you're nowhere near the summit. You're not keeping the law. That's a joke. You're kidding yourself. And so this is tough love because then we will see our need for grace. Now, I've already shared in this series what the popular view of the Sermon on the Mount is. The popular view is Jesus didn't really mean. Now, as soon as you say that, you have called yourself God. Jesus didn't really mean to cut off your hand. He just meant try your best. Jesus didn't mean be perfect like God. He just meant kind of try to be good. No, Jesus meant what he said. It's not exaggeration. He meant what he said so that they would go away sad. Sound familiar? The rich man. What did he tell the rich man to do? He said, go and sell everything in order to enter the kingdom, and the rich man went away sad, and believe me, the Pharisees went away mad, mission accomplished. Jesus buries every single one of us under the law. There's no question. It's nails in the coffin. There's no retreat, no escape, no reprieve, no rescue apart from the

cross and resurrection. And then on this side of that cross, we get some amazing news. It's not a secret. It's plastered everywhere if you look for it. The New Testament says you're dead to the law, free from the law, not under the law. Christ is the end of the law for all those who believe. So if you are picking from Moses, cherry picking out of the Old Testament law, first, you're never allowed to do that. It's all or nothing. If you keep the whole law and stumble in one point, you're guilty of all of it. So if you have been picking and choosing, you know, tithing and the Sabbath and the Ten Commandments, if you've been picking and choosing, we have no business doing so. In fact, Jesus is going to say something about our tithing and all of our law keeping today. You know what he's going to say? He's going to say, hide your giving. Keep it a secret. Don't let anybody know. Hide your prayer. Don't let anybody know you're praying. Hide your fasting. Why don't you put some oil on your face so you look good so they have no clue that you're fasting? Because you people, speaking to the Jews, you people are doing it for show. You want to be seen and you're trying to crank out righteousness while you're spotlighted front and center in front of everybody. So hide your fasting, hide your praying, and hide your giving. That's the... message we're gonna see today. And again, it gets them right here. They see their motives. They've been doing things as a performance. And Jesus is exposing that so that they see their need, not just for a little bit of grace and forgiveness. No, no, they need a heart surgery. They need a DNA swap. They need to be born again. That's the whole point, right? They need to be born again from above so that their motives and their inspiration changes completely. All right, we dive in to Matthew chapter six. And it says, beware, maybe this sums up the whole thing, beware of practicing your righteousness

before men to be noticed by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Wow. All right, so what about this talk of reward? I mean, are you expecting a reward for all your praying? Because that's what Jesus says. Are you expecting a reward for all your fasting? Maybe the more you reduce your food intake, the more crowns and jewelry you'll get in heaven. Is that what Jesus is saying? When he speaks of reward, he's talking about the idea of a self-righteousness with perfect motives that would get you a reward in heaven, but nobody's getting it. Nobody's getting that reward, folks. No one keeps the law. No one keeps the spirit of the law. If you think you can't keep Moses, imagine trying to keep Moses 2.0. If you think that you can barely avoid adultery, imagine avoiding looking with lust. If you think you're doing great avoiding murder, imagine trying to avoid anger because it's the same thing. If you think you're doing great in the generosity department, imagine giving money to whoever asks of you when they find out you're a Christian. Whoever asks of you without hesitation. If you think you're doing great in the righteousness department,

we're supposed to compete with the Pharisees and win. So what is he saying? He's dangling a carrot and he's saying, you get this carrot if you're perfect like God. And they all get that little gulp in their throat and they go away sad. Now today, remember, we're gonna use a little discernment because something has happened to you. You're born from above. You're born of the spirit. You're under a new covenant. The cross brought in a new way of grace. So if you have not understood where we're coming from yet, I want you to see this. On one hand, we have the stringency of the law, the strictness of the law. On the other hand, we have the beauty of God's grace. Now, if you water down the stringency of the law, nobody's getting over here. You gotta keep the stringency of God's law so that people look at it and they say, no way, can't do it, I need another way. And then Jesus says, exactly, here's the new way. Now, everybody in this room, if you are born of God, born of the spirit, if you are in Christ, then you're in the new way. In fact, you're a minister. You may not know this, but you're in full-time ministry. 24-7, you are indwelt by the spirit of God. And Corinthians, Paul says, he says to everybody there,

he's qualified us as ministers of the new covenant, not of the law. Now, you hear that? I'm not qualified to minister the law. You know, that lasts about five minutes. As soon as I stood up and began to preach about obedience to the law, I'd be pointing right at myself. And I'd be condemned, and you'd be condemned, and there'd be no hope, and no life, and no ministry, because I am not qualified to minister the law, and neither are you. In fact, that's what Jesus is showing them with this tough love. He's saying, you're not keeping it, you can't minister it, you can't tell others to keep it, because you're a hypocrite when you do. Now, does this not sound familiar to you? Remember Romans? Paul concludes the same thing. The apostle Paul concludes the same thing in Romans, doesn't he? He says, you who preach, do not steal. Don't you steal? You who preach, do not lie. Don't you lie? You who say don't steal, you're robbing from temples, he says. He says, we're mocked. Paul says, we're mocked among the Jews. Gentiles they make fun of us because we run around preaching a bunch of laws that we don't keep

Now is it any different today? I mean you got the Holy Spirit Is the Holy Spirit gonna help you keep the law see that's a deception is The Holy Spirit gonna help you keep the law. I keep hearing that in Christian circles I hear well now, you know in Texas we say we got the hip we got the hip of the Holy Spirit It's different now. We got his hip Is that the truth? No, the Holy Spirit says you're dead to the law The Holy Spirit says you're not under the law. The Holy Spirit is not helping you avoid pork The Holy Spirit is not helping you avoid shellfish. The Holy Spirit is not helping you avoid work on Saturday The Holy Spirit is bearing fruit in you the fruit of the Spirit not the fruit of the law So if you see what I'm sharing today I hope you see that it may be just a little different than the religious message out there. We're talking about Mentality, we're talking about the source and we're talking about the focus So the focus is not Moses ever The Holy Spirit is not helping me keep Moses. The Holy Spirit is causing me to bear the fruit of Jesus and That's actually Superior when I have my eyes on Moses, I'm gonna get the product of Moses, which is death and failure Every time when I have my eyes fixed on Jesus, I'm gonna get the product of Jesus, which is love and joy and patience It's him So flirting with Moses is cheating on Jesus and it's a big deal So verse 2 He says so when you give to the poor do not sound the trumpet before you as the hypocrites do and the synagogues and in the streets He says so that they may be honored by men Truly I say to you they have their reward in full. I heard about a church Well in this United States, let's say not gonna name any names, but they had the gold envelope and they had the silver envelope and Then they had the bronze

Envelope and you were to give your gift and based on the size of the gift You were to pick your color and then all you have to do is come down front and put it in the basket now I'm starting to get a little embarrassed if my gift is a bronze gift and I'm having to give it in front of Everybody on a Sunday morning putting it in the basket and The leadership just kicks back and acts like it's all normal. No pressure No pressure I'm saying there's plenty of peer pressure there and we're giving to be seen We're giving with color-coded Envelopes we're giving doing the exact opposite of what Jesus is talking about here Hide your giving Wow What's left if I'm hiding my gift then what's my motivation? Apparently, it's just a an excitement from the heart that you want to get the message out that you want to support those in need That you want to see the gospel proclaimed. You don't need colored envelopes. You don't need an announcement You don't need cameras rolling with a basket in the middle of the auditorium You just need a heart that wants to give freely under no pressure when nobody's looking But that's not really the message of today. You know what the big-picture message is The Pharisees and the Jews they need to hide their giving they need to hide their fasting They need to hide their praying because the whole thing has been a show the whole life has been a show and They're whitewashed tombs and they need to see that because you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig You can whitewash a tomb, but it's still a tomb You can try to dress up a religious Pharisee who's dead at the core, but they're still dead at the core You can make them more generous. You can make them talk to God more publicly on the street corner You can make them eat less and think they're getting spiritual. You can do all those things, but they're still dead in Adam and So Jesus is cutting through the clutter He wants to clear this up and help us realize That what we need is a miracle. We need to be infused with his life and hear me Anybody in this room? Anybody? Watching or listening, if you have received Jesus, then you have been infused with His life.

And you do have a new way to think, and a new way to give, and a new way to pray. Not begging and pleading and hoping and waiting for something new, but thanking God for the finished work of Christ. And you don't need King James English. And you don't need anybody to see you talking to your dad. So, he goes on and he says, But when you give to the poor, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret, and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Now, the New Testament also has mention of collecting gifts, and the Apostle Paul collected gifts, and the church gave. I mean, that was known to be normal in the early church. Not everybody was looking around first and trying to secretly drop something somewhere, you know. I mean, that could get ludicrous. So, what's the point? Well, remember where we are. This is the same message as, Lop off your hand. This is the same message as, Give all your money away. This is the same message as, Pluck out your eye. This is still impossible. Do you hear this? This is the impossible teachings of Jesus. You will not live your life always giving and praying and fasting in secret. Paul didn't pray in secret. He prayed right in Ephesians. He prayed in Ephesians 3, Ephesians 5. He prayed that the Ephesians would know the love of Christ. He prayed it publicly.

He put it in print. The early church prayed at every church service. Were they just ignoring the Lord's prayer and the Sermon on the Mount? Of course not. But they were realizing Jesus is making a point. It's all impossible. Nobody can live this sermon. So, we take it and we put it on a pedestal and we say, I can't. And Jesus says, I know. I know. And that's why I'm giving you the free gift of righteousness. Yeah. Thank you, Lord. When you pray, you're not to be like the hypocrites. Ouch. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. So, you want your reward? You got it. That's what he's saying. You want your reward? Oh, they're saying, look at that guy. Oh, how spiritual. Oh, he's a spiritual giant. Oh, he's spiritually ripped. Right? He's legit because I've heard him pray. And oh, his prayers are mighty. You might say, he's a prayer warrior.

We got this, right? We got this term prayer warrior. See, we got regular Christians and then we got strong Christians and then we got prayer warriors. Isn't that interesting? Now, we happen to know who the prayer warriors are. I thought you were supposed to pray in secret. But we start building an identity around prayer and our identity is in Christ. And we're not strong. We're strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. A strong Christian is not a super rigid Christian with lots of rule keeping. That's actually a weak Christian. Do you know that? The weaker brother has many rules. And the stronger brother is free. So the freedom is actually a sign of maturity. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. Not stifled spirituality where you're stiff as a board and strict and everybody's scared of you and nobody wants to talk to you because you're going to, you know, give them an accountability sermon or something. That's not the spirit of God. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. So, do you see their problem? Practicing their self-righteousness in front of others. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, get in a closet, would you? Close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Now, are you literally expecting to have, you know, 274 secret prayers and then 274 crowns and jewels and it's a correlation and there's a clipboard? Do you see how they would probably think, well, gee, if I could just do this secret praying then I'm really going to collect a lot of loot in Heaven's gift shop. But again, they've got to take a step back.

and look at the whole message, and say, what is this God-man trying to tell me? Either I can do it, or I can't do it. And what will you conclude? So, he says in verse seven, and when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, uh-oh, meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words, so do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Now, I hate to draw attention to meaningless repetition, but what do we happen to be doing in terms of meaningless repetition with the Lord's prayer? Have you noticed? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. What did I just say? I don't know. Well, you just ask God to forgive you like you've been forgiving others. What? Yeah, you just ask God to forgive you as you have been forgiving others. Well, what do you mean? Well, I'm just reading it. It says, forgive me as I have forgiven others. But I thought you said you're a Christian, and you're forgiven, not because you're nice. Are you forgiven because you're nice to other people?

No, you're forgiven because Jesus died on a cross, right? So why would you be asking God to forgive you as you've forgiven others? That's a death sentence. Ever had any bitterness and resentment against other people? Can you imagine God forgiving you as you forgive others? That's gonna leave a mark. You're not going to heaven 48% forgiven. You're not going to heaven 92% forgiven. You may be sweet, but you're not going to heaven if you're forgiven as you have forgiven others. And they say, what? I never noticed it said that. Are you sure that's what it means? Well, I don't have to be sure. You know why? Because Jesus summarizes it. When he's done praying, he says, for if you forgive others, God will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you. Now, hit the pause button. Is that the gospel? Did Billy Graham stand up in stadiums and say, if you forgive others first, God will forgive you. So everybody go home. Let's forgive everybody else. We'll meet back here in a week, and then you'll be forgiven. Is that the gospel? No way.

The gospel is not if you, then God will. No, the gospel is not conditioned on your performance. The gospel is conditioned on the finished work of Christ. So we have some rethinking to do. We have to ask some questions about what is Jesus doing even in the Lord's prayer, which we will do. So pray then in this way. Our father, they were shocked by that. There's some Old Testament references to father, but just a few. God the father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. What do you think they thought about a kingdom? They were thinking military. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. What do you think they were thinking of in terms of daily bread? They were literally thinking of daily bread, like bread, like give me something to eat, which is fine, but Jesus ultimately reveals he's our bread. He's our life, and he is our sustenance, and we trust him, and we look to him, and he's enough in every moment. We live in him. We abide in him. We live from him. We trust him. So the fulfillment of that is really Jesus. Now let's keep reading.

He says, and forgive us our debts as, I want you to circle that word as if you're a circler. If you're not a circler, just keep it fresh in your mind, as also we have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, amen. Now, I just wanna remind you, what did they think of the kingdom? Military kingdom. Israel is gonna dominate militarily, politically. They expected Messiah to do that. That's what they thought for kingdom. What did they think for power? Military power, political power, world dominance, Israel being redeemed in that sense. So they expected a kingdom full of power and glory, and it would be God's kingdom, but it would be physical for Israel. That's what Messiah would bring, and Jesus surprises everybody. He says the kingdom is here. The kingdom is near. The kingdom is here. It's in you. I'm the kingdom, he's saying. If you're in Christ, you're part of a royal priesthood. You're part of a holy nation. So the kingdom is spiritual, and we're in it.

We're already reigning with Christ. We talk about reigning with Christ. We will reign with him, yes, but we're also reigning now in Christ. In the midst of a dead world, we're alive. And Christ is in us now Again, I want to have you focus particularly on verse 12, and I want you to notice he says forgive us as We past tense have forgiven those who sin against us Forgive us as we have forgiven them now if you're not sure that this is conditional Maybe I'm just being hard here on Jesus or something. Maybe I'm just painting it his teaching into a corner Maybe this is just a unique view that shouldn't be considered. You know, maybe this isn't conditional. Maybe he just means forgive others Because God already forgave you see that would be reading it backwards and I've heard people do that. I've literally I'm not I'm just going to tell you I've heard Incredible preachers with great intellects and wonderful minds read this verse and then literally flip it to the opposite and say Let's all forgive others because God forgave us That's not what it says It does not say go out and forgive others because God forgave you first. It does not say that what it says is What it says and here's what it says in verse 14 for if you forgive others Okay, which comes first you being nice? For if you forgive others for their transgressions your heavenly father will also forgive you now If you had any question, he keeps going. Here's the opposite But if you do not forgive others, then your father will not forgive your sins Now I'm just gonna have you hold those two verses in your mind for a second If if you forgive God will forgive you if you don't forgive God won't forget now, is that Christianity is That the gospel is that what you believe? No way, but come on. These are the words of Jesus. So what are we going to do? Well, we either got to obey him and believe him right as is or we got to locate him. Oh, oh It's before he shed his blood. Oh The audience is Jewish. Oh the same sermons talking about animal sacrifices. Oh

The same sermon is talking about the Jewish Council. Oh The same sermon is talking all about not being like the Gentiles Just talking to the Jews 2,000 years ago before the cross before the shed blood of Christ before the New Covenant Before God's grace comes in before the born-again experience before Pentecost This is before all of that and he's saying you want to pray First of all get in your closet second of all How about you beg get in your closet and beg Lord God father? Forgive me as I have been nice to others now, what's that gonna do? Oh man, they're scared out of their wits They are scared out of their wits. I can't pray that prayer. That's a death sentence I can't pray that if God forgives me like I've forgiven other well, you've just showcased that I'm not forgiving others exactly Well, you've just showcased that I I'm expecting God to forgive me when in fact, I haven't forgiven up exactly You're a hypocrite You want something from God when you haven't fulfilled it yourself? You're a hypocrite In fact, that's why that word appears in this passage you hypocrites So now that I see it I can I can look at the Sermon on the Mount and get this I can finally respect it Because I'm telling you the people that are watering this down They're not respecting it The people that are watering this down and say well, don't you worry God grades don't occur No, he says you'll be in the fires of hell actually is what the sermon says God grades on a curve You just do your bet. No, he doesn't say do your best. He says be perfect like God Well, just try to resist sin. No, he said cut off body parts Well, you know, you just got to avoid murder. No, he said don't get angry or you're same as killing people well You see what we're doing if we water down the Sermon on the Mount We're not respecting it if we lift it up to that perfect and impossible standard that Jesus wants it to be Now it's got something to say to us and now we realize our need for God's grace Instead I hope you hear that word instead The Holy Spirit is not helping you keep the Sermon on the Mount

The Holy Spirit is not helping you amputate body parts The Holy Spirit is not helping you hide and hide everything you do and give to whomever asks without fail. The Holy Spirit is not helping you let people beat you up. The Holy Spirit is not helping you keep the Sermon on the Mount. You have to understand dead to the law means dead to the law, period. So we've seen the conditional forgiveness and here's that fasting. Whenever you fast, don't put on that sad face, that gloomy face as the hypocrites do for they neglect their appearance on purpose, by the way, so that they'll be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. Oh man, you don't look so good. Are you sick? No, I'm fasting. Oh, you're fasting. Oh, you spiritual devil. Thanks for letting us all know. And I think we ought to have a fasting campaign. We ought to have a movement. Let's have 10 days of fasting as a whole church and let's announce it and let's all talk about it. Well, wait a minute, Jesus is saying that's kind of the whole problem. He's saying don't tell anybody that you're fasting. They put on some lotions and creams, right? I got them for sale in the lobby.

You can have a grace face. You can eat Farley barley and have a grace face. And I mean, it's all available at a discount, deep, deep discount. And do you see then? You see what popular religiosity is doing, what Jesus is highlighting, and then we see our need for a whole new way. All right, here we'll finish with this. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. You think you can get a reward through your abstinence of food and drink and all that? No, no, keep it a secret. Don't tell anybody. Hide your fasting, hide your prayer, hide your giving, hide your everything, hide your righteous efforts, hide everything. And then we'll talk about a reward. And they're going, you know, I've kind of been about the now reward. I've kind of been wanting to be seen. So now that I got to do all this in secret, I'm not really sure if it's worth it. I mean, you're asking me to wait 100 years for some spiritual crown or something.

I mean, I kind of just want the good reputation around town. See, they're weighing it. And we're not done. Next time we get together, we're gonna see Jesus take a turn. He's gonna bury them a little deeper, and then he's gonna take a turn. He's gonna say, but ask, ask, and you'll receive. Seek, and you'll find. Knock, and the door will be opened. But we kind of have to close the door on law-based living before we can see the need to open a new door. So it's evangelistic. How does Jesus evangelize? He buries people under the law, and then invites them to his glorious grace. Let's thank our God. Father, we are grateful. We love you. We thank you. Wow. We can't do it. We see that. And we're good with that. We don't even wanna try anymore. 613 laws, and then the true spirit of the law. There's no way. We get it.

We agree. We confess. We just need life. We need the gift of grace, the gift of righteousness. We wanna live godly lives. Every ounce of godliness is you, and we want you. We wanna bear fruit. We wanna display your spirit. We wanna live life in Christ to the fullest. That's our heart's desire. We just know it's not gonna happen by rule keeping. We thank you for the new way of grace, for the blood, for the resurrection, for the life, for the righteousness, for the new way, the new covenant in your blood. We thank you that we get to enjoy this side of the cross. In Jesus' name, amen.