If you're not fond of hypocrites, you're in very good company.
Jesus wasn't either. In fact, in His well-known Sermon on the Mount, Jesus unleashed a stinging rebuke against those who held a double standard. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues a message started yesterday, in which he summarizes chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew.
This section of the New Testament contains what Chuck refers to as the Sermon of all sermons, and it's punctuated with warnings to those who either twist the truth or parade their religious pride. You are here today with many needs that I know nothing of. You are, as a child of God, able to present your own needs before Him, and I urge you to do so as I lead us in a general way in prayer. My desire is that you listen to the Lord who guides you in your own time of prayer, and I will lead us before the morning offering.
Bow with me, please. We come on the heels of a busy week, our Father, and we have been busy through the morning, now we're able to be quiet before you. Begin, I pray, by quieting our hearts.
Calm us. Relieve our anxiety. Begin now to break our habit of simply doing the religious thing on Sunday morning and leaving unchanged and unmoved.
Make this day significant. Speak to us as if you and each one of us were sitting together in our own family room, talking, listening, thinking, with plans to change in any area you suggest. Address needs, Lord.
I pray that you will not find us resistant or denying them, but may we acknowledge it's me, O Lord, most in need of what you are saying today. It's me. It's not my partner in life. It's not my child. It's not my parent. It's not my friend.
It's me. Speak to us directly. Convict us where we need it. Guide us clearly in areas where we are confused and provide us with a map that will give us hope to locate the destination and then pursue it. Watch over those men and women in uniform today who are in difficult places, dangerous places. May they press on with courage and confidence. May those who lead them in battle do so wisely with discernment, comfort their families at home, bring them back safely to us when the victory is won. We pray for those, our father, who live under the threat of terrorists, whose lives are being threatened, whose homes are being invaded, whose children and family members are being killed. Give us an appreciation and a renewed gratitude for this land of the free. We pray that you will bring counselors to those in leadership over our nation, that they may speak in a straightforward, uncompromising way that the truth may be heard and change occur.
We're in a desperate situation as a country and we acknowledge it. Give strength where there is weakness, guidance where there is ignorance, and hope where there is despair. These offerings we give today really come from you, for our treasure would be nothing were it not for your wonderful provision and generosity. Find us faithful as we give generously and joyfully. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
Everyone said, amen. You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now Chuck's message about the sermon of all sermons. Of all the sermons Jesus delivered, none is more significant, more famous, more convicting, or more enduring than his immortal Sermon on the Mount. That's why I call it the Sermon of All Sermons.
It cannot be improved upon. Before we get into it, I want to do today sort of an overview of the sermon as a whole. And even before that, I want to set the stage for it because you may have overlooked that in your understanding of the Scriptures. So go to chapter 5, Matthew's Gospel, and let's focus on the first two verses. Let me point out some things that can be easily overlooked.
They're contrasts. Instead of Jesus waiting for the people, I should say instead of Jesus going to the people, he had the people come to him. See verse 1, one day as he saw the crowds gathering, he went up on a mountainside. Most preachers would rush to the crowd. Jesus walks away from the crowd, and on the mountainside we read, he sat down and his disciples gathered.
When you compare this with Luke in the parallel passage in Luke that matches Matthew 5, you notice that not just the disciples who were the close and the called ones of Jesus, but a larger gathering than they had come together to hear this. Second thing I noticed, he's not inside a building. Most sermons are preached in a building called a church or a chapel or a temple or a tabernacle, some type of sermon. He's not inside a building.
He does his outside on a mountainside. Notice also that he didn't stand up. Most sermons today are preached while the person is on his feet. We read that Jesus sat down. The people gathered around him sitting, and he sat down among them. It wasn't uncommon and isn't to this day for rabbis to deliver their message in a sitting position.
So he's sitting down. I noticed also he doesn't begin by blasting away as many evangelists do when they preach the gospel. He begins in a very gentle way telling them how they can find lasting happiness. And he repeats that several times, blessed are you, blessed are you, how happy are you, how happy will you be, how happy you are as he delivers what we know today as a series of beatitudes. What was the result of delivering the message? Turn to the end. Often at the end of a sermon, people are ready to leave and they're on their way to wherever they want to go for the day, quickly forgetting what they heard. It didn't happen this day on the 28th verse of chapter 7 when Jesus finished.
Watch closely. The crowds were amazed at his teaching. This sermon stunned them.
They couldn't get over it. They had never heard anything like it. Though they had heard preaching all their lives, none like this. One man writes, the people had heard many sermons before from the regular rabbis in the synagogue. We have specimens of these discourses preserved in the Mishnah and Gemara, the Jewish Talmud, when both were completed the driest, dullest collection of disjointed comments on every conceivable problem in the history of mankind had been addressed. You have sat through sermons like that and you have been bored to tears.
And may I say to you, it wasn't your fault. If a sermon is uninteresting, it's the preacher's fault. Now you may not be interested in hearing it and you may be reluctant to listen, but if he delivers the message as it is designed to be delivered, you cannot be bored because the truth is designed to set you free.
And when you are liberated from bondage, you're not bored. In this case, the bondage is hypocrisy. It's a long-standing habit among those who are followers of Christ to learn the system. Unfortunately, we're raised around it. Preachers can be the worst at hypocrisy. We can look like we're living one life when in fact we're living a lie.
We can say things beautifully, but we can live them pathetically. And because you're around that, you can pick up that habit just as people did in the days of Jesus. And this sermon is designed to make you different, to make you break that habit.
If it happens to be one, you have formed. In fact, I agree with John R. W. Stott. I think the key statement in the entire sermon is chapter 6, verse 8. Do not be like them. Jesus' concern is that those who follow him will continue to follow the Pharisees and the scribes, to continue to live like and sound like and ultimately look like hypocrites. Before I go any further into this three chapters of this Sermon on the Mount, I want to address a few of my comments to hypocrisy in our day. We live around political hypocrisy. That's not a political statement.
It's a true statement. Rare is the politician who isn't also a hypocrite. They learn to play a part. They make promises they have no plans to keep. And they deliver them with persuasion to the point where you will vote for them, believing they will keep their word. Most don't. So there's political hypocrisy.
Here's another one. There is a moral and ethical hypocrisy that has swept our times. We leave an impression that an individual is trustworthy, has integrity, and we find out later that person lied. And then there's financial hypocrisy. It's called fraud.
We've all read of it. Funds are raised for one cause, but they are spent for other things. Promises are broken. Plans are phony.
The fraud occurs, and we are shocked. So the Sermon on the Mount is a message that is for every one of us living today. The worst kind of hypocrisy, in my opinion, is religious hypocrisy. So-called spiritual leaders look one way, but in reality, they do not live that way.
In private, they are another kind of person. Sermons are preached that another one originated. Instead of Christ and his kingdom being enhanced, the person himself is enhanced.
The great temptation is to learn the system and to fit into that lifestyle. Now then, let's take a quick look at the survey of the Sermon on the Mount. All right?
I give you simple words that give you an outline topic. At least I suggest it. It's not inspired.
You certainly are free to change it. But here's what I think Matthew Chapter 5 is teaching. Out with hypocrisy. Three words. I could write them over the Chapter 5.
Out with hypocrisy. The chapter falls neatly into three segments. First, the Beatitudes, verses 3 through 12. The Beatitudes answer the question, what does it mean to have character? Jesus' great goal among his followers was not great productivity, was not leaving a great impression. It was developing people with great character. They are who you think they are.
They are real to the core. If you want to know what that sounds like or looks like, learn the Beatitudes. When you get to Chapter 5, verse 13 down through 16, we have another question answered. What does it mean to influence others?
By that I mean influencing them for the good. It means that we shake the salt, verse 13. It means that we shine the light, verse 14. It means that we spread good deeds among those around us. Please observe we're spreading good deeds among the lost and the saved. You don't first find out if the person is a Christian as to how you're going to treat the person. As a matter of fact, it doesn't matter whether the person is saved or lost. If you're doing good deeds, you do them and that's when you will discover that individual who is lost becomes suddenly interested in what it means to be a Christian.
Not always, but often. So verses 13 to 17 are answering, what does it mean to, verses 13 to 16, what does it mean to influence others for the good? And then the end of the chapter, 17 to 48, what does it mean to be godly? What does it mean to be godly?
And there are a number of examples that we're going to get into as we work our way through. Jesus is drawing a contrast as he illustrates it from the commandments themselves. Let me show you what I mean. Verse 27, you've heard the commandment that says you must not commit adultery. Verse 28, I say to you anyone who looks at a woman with lust already has committed adultery. Same would be said of a woman who looks at a man lustfully. It's adultery. Jesus is correcting the understanding that it's something in the heart. He's dealing with the inner person. The commandment dealt with the outer person.
This goes to the heart. Look at another one, verse 31. You've heard the law say a man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce. That's what the religious teachers taught in the days of the first century. But I say a man who divorces his wife unless she's unfaithful causes her to commit adultery.
And he goes on to describe that. So he addresses the subject of godliness as it relates to the harmony of a marriage. Verse 34, but I say to you. Verse 39, but I say to you. See, he is helping them understand. Again, verse 44, but I say to you. He's clarifying what it means to be truly godly. So out with hypocrisy, that's chapter five.
When you get to chapter six, here's a new title. Down with Performance. Down with Performance. This section of the sermon digs deeply. It's saying quit trying to look good. Quit trying to appear pious.
Here, Jesus reaches over and peels off two commonly used masks. One is pride. Look at chapter six, verse one. Watch out. Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others. That's what the chapter is about. That's what this part of the sermon is about. Don't do what you do to cause other people to admire you or for the purpose of thinking better of you. For your father has the rewards for you in heaven.
So he gives three illustrations. Verse two, when you give to someone in need, don't blow a trumpet. Don't call attention to it in the street. Simply give and you will have a reward. But if you give for these other reasons, your reward is lost. Look at verse five, when you pray. Don't do it this way like the hypocrites who love to pray in public on street corners where everyone can hear them. I'll tell you the truth, the reward.
That's all the reward they'll ever receive. But when you pray, go into your closet. May your prayer life be cultivated when you're alone in private, not practiced when you're in public. And the better you learn to pray in private, the more easy you will feel praying in public because you will not be praying to others, but praying to the Lord. Look at verse 16, when you fast.
Don't make it obvious as the hypocrites do. They try to look miserable. They let themselves get dirty, gaunt. They walk around and so you will realize they've been fasting. But when you fast, look normal. Clean yourself up.
Fasting is to be done in private. Your Father who sees everything will reward you for it. Then the other mask is the mask of looking calm when in fact you're filled with anxiety. And Jesus addresses worry, our favorite indoor sport, in the latter half of the sixth chapter. Again and again and again he addresses worry, worry, worry. Verse 25, I tell you not to worry. 27, can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 28, why worry about your clothing?
31, so don't worry about these things, saying what will we eat or drink or wear? Verse 34, don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough worries of its own. So you read the Sermon on the Mount and you begin to take it to heart, you realize that worry really has no place in your life. I realize when I say that, I'm taking away your favorite friend. Some of you would have to say if I didn't have something to worry about, I'd be worried about that.
I've got to have something. Most people have a longer worry list than prayer list. So when you pray about something, you leave it with him, you don't carry it with you as a burden. He tells us about doing that.
As he talks about down with performance. When we get to chapter seven, here's a third. I'm going to divide this chapter into two. How about up with acceptance? Up with acceptance. And here he begins with those convicting words, do not judge others and you will not be judged. In other words, accept others for what they are and for who they are.
I love the way he illustrates in verse three. Why worry about the speck in your brother's eye or your friend's eye when you have a log in your own eye? Just imagine that. Walking along with this log in your own eye, trying to be a speck inspector in the life of someone else. The point is you got more things in your life that are wrong than the simple thing you're criticizing in someone else's life. See how this hits hard? See, I'm convinced people must be charmed into righteousness.
Really. I think you're one to Christ. You're not embarrassed to believe in Christ. You're not criticized into the faith. You're charmed into the faith.
And the way we charm others is by accepting them for who they are. This is brand new information for many of you. I realize that. And I don't mean that to be insulting.
So let me get specific. We need to accept people who worship differently than we do rather than judge them. We need to accept those who look and dress differently than we do. We need to accept those who are young and immature and making mistakes.
Part of being young and immature. You make mistakes. We don't write them off. We need to be accepting of those who struggle with addictions. May not be your problem, your struggle, but you have your own addictions. We're all strugglers.
Just that our list of struggles is a little different than the one we're criticizing. And we pick someone to criticize who happens to have an addiction that isn't ours. Criticizing will never help anyone get over an addiction. We accept them for who they are and we make a way to help them find their way through it and get victory over it.
Bold counsel for those who love someone struggling with an addiction. It's just one of the takeaway lessons that arise from Matthew and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. You're listening to Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll has titled his message, The Sermon of All Sermons. And to learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Now by way of clarification, our brand new comprehensive study in Matthew will capture our imagination over the next several months.
In fact, the better part of the year. Chuck started with the birth of our king and now we're tracing his footsteps through all 28 chapters, moving toward his great commission to go and make disciples. And in conjunction with this broadcast series, Chuck has recently completed a commentary on Matthew as well.
And because of the enormity of this study, Chuck's commentary comes in two hardbound volumes. The set is called Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew. Whether you're new to the Bible or you're teaching the Bible as a pastor, you'll find Chuck's approach to Matthew both scholarly and accessible.
And it's written in the engaging style that's become a hallmark of Chuck's teaching. So to purchase Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew, go to insight.org slash offer. Or if you prefer, call us. If you're listening in the US, dial 1-800-772-8888. Pray for Living Ministries is supported not by the purchase of books and resources, but through the contributions of people like you. And we invite you to join our mission to introduce King Jesus to all 195 countries of the world. To give a donation today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. And then remember that many are choosing to automate their giving by becoming a monthly companion. This growing family of supporters is allowing Insight for Living to advance its mission with boldness. So to become a monthly companion today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888.
Or you can easily sign up online at insight.org slash monthly companion. Join us again Friday when Chuck Swindoll continues to describe the Sermon of All Sermons here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, The Sermon of All Sermons, was copyrighted in 2015 and 2021 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
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