The Sermon of All Sermons, Part 3

In just fifteen minutes, Jesus delivered a legendary speech that's been recognized by scholars and admirers alike as the finest message of all time. For generations, excerpts from the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount have been quoted, memorized, and engraved on plaques. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll guides us through a helpful summary of this famous message, while reminding us that it's not the words that contain power, but our response to them. Chuck is teaching from Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7.

He titled his message, The Sermon of All Sermons. 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? 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. So 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? 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. So out with hypocrisy, that's chapter 5.

When you get to chapter 6, here's a new title. Down with performance. Down with performance. 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 6, verse 1. 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 2, 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 5. 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. 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. 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. 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 it. 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've 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.

It's 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. It may not be your problem, your struggle, but you have your own addictions.

We're all strugglers. How about accepting those who make wrong choices, rather than judging them? Some people have made wrong choices. It's impacted your life, and you carry a root of bitterness because of it. You've not really taken Matthew 7, 1 to 5, to heart. You have a log in your own eye, which is bitterness, even greater than the wrong that was done by the other individual. How about accepting those who need to be forgiven?

These are all specks. Isn't it funny? We live our life as though it's always the other person that's the problem. I thought of that when my friend sent me this story. It's about Bert and Peg, his wife. Bert feared his wife Peg wasn't hearing as well as she used to. He thought she might need a hearing aid. Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family doctor to discuss the problem. The doctor told him there's a simple, informal test he can perform to give the doctor a better idea about whether or not there's been hearing loss.

Here's what you do, said the doc. Stand about 40 feet away from her, and in a normal, conversational, speaking tone, say something to see if she hears you. If not, move about 30 feet from her and do the same, and then go 20 feet, and then go until you get a response. Well, that evening he thought this was the perfect time. Peg is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he's in the den, so he says, I'm about 40 feet from her right now, let's see if this works. So he says in a normal tone, honey, what's for dinner? No response from the kitchen. So the husband moves closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife, and he repeats, Peg, what's for dinner? No response. Next he moves into the dining room where he's now about 20 feet from his wife, and he says, hey, honey, what's for dinner? No response. So he walks to the kitchen door, 10 feet from where she's cooking, and he said, hey, Peg, what are you cooking? What's for dinner?

No response. So he walks up right behind her, says, Peg, what's for dinner? I just love this.

Bert, for the fifth time, chicken. It's not my brother, it's not my sister, it's me, oh, Lord, standing in a need of prayer. Stop judging someone else because they're not doing what you think they ought to be doing when in fact what you're doing is worse than what they're doing. Down with performance. Here's a fourth.

You have them so far? Out with hypocrisy, down with performance, up with acceptance. We've got on with commitment, verses 6 to 27. Commitment to the gospel, that's verse 6. Don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don't throw your pearls to pigs.

They'll trample the pearls, then turn and attack you. You know what that says to me? Deliver the goods if they don't want it, press on. I'm not responsible for what someone does with the gospel, I'm responsible for delivering it. I'm only a messenger boy. That's all I am. I give a message, what you do with it is between you and God. It's not between you and me. I'm committed to delivering the truth, that's what my responsibility is, I'm committed to the gospel.

In verses 7 to 12 is a commitment to prayer. So since we're on with commitment, look at this. Keep on asking what you will receive. Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find.

Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you. Keep on. Keep on.

Those are words of commitment. You ask and didn't receive? Keep asking. Keep knocking.

Keep seeking. When you get down to verse 13, there's a commitment to the truth. Here he separates his audience from wide gate people to narrow gate people.

Look at this. This gets pretty severe. You can enter God's kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, the gate is wide. For the many who choose that way but the gateway to life is very narrow, the road is difficult.

Only a few ever find it. Then he addresses false prophets as opposed to true teachers. Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. Let me warn you about false prophets. They don't look like it and they don't sound like it. They have a way about them that is very, very appealing, very convincing, but they're liars. They're false.

They're pseudo prophets. When you get to the end of the Sermon of All Sermons, he ends it with an illustration you can't forget. We've got one house built on bedrock. We've got another house built on sand.

You know it so well you could finish this. The one built on rock is not moved when the rains come and the floods rise. The one built on sand crumbles. The purpose of that illustration is to talk about those who listen and ignore. They go right on with their lives and those who hear and are wise building their house on the truth. That ends the Sermon of All Sermons and the people cannot get over it. It hits them in ways that they've not been hit verbally before.

What's my response to a sermon like this? Bear with me a few moments and I will give you four responses that come to me when I read through here and I'm very vulnerable in presenting these. When I say I, I mean I. You must say I for yourself. I can't say it for you.

Here's the first. I am not completely free of hypocrisy. I would love to tell you that I am.

I am not. Sometime I look back on something I did and I realize I was a hypocrite when I did that. I look back on something I said and it was hypocritical to say it that way. I love the way one man writes, I'm like James and John, Lord. I size up other people in terms of what they can do for me, how they can further my program, feed my ego, satisfy my needs, give me strategic advantage. I exploit people, ostensibly for your sake, but really for my own sake. Lord, I turn to you to get the inside track and obtain special favors. Your direction for my schemes, your power for my projects, your sanction for my ambitions, your blank check for whatever I want. I'm like James and John. Change me, Lord. Make me a man who asks of you and of others, what can I do for you? I'm not completely free of hypocrisy, so this sermon is going to speak to me in a very pungent and convicting way.

Second, I do not always search my motives. It's easy for me to put godliness on display. It's easy to drop names.

I wish I stopped dropping names, but every once in a while I drop a name. I'm embarrassed about it later when I realize. I leave clues of my devotion. I privately and secretly like getting the credit when that is so inappropriate and unwise and unbiblical. I have an ear for the praise of others. I should have gotten past that test a long time ago, but I'm not past it. These are convicting admissions, but they're true. Number three, I've not stopped judging others.

My acceptance quotient is still pretty low. You show up with a lot of tattoos, I don't think a lot of you, and that's my problem. I don't know why you have a lot of tattoos. I just don't happen to like tattoos, but God didn't have everybody else die, so I could be left in charge of the world to take care of folks that are walking around with tattoos. But I have to watch it when I see people with tattoos.

Let's have a thing on that. Hopefully I'll get beyond tattoos by the time we get to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. My intolerance is sometimes downright offensive. My pride is still guarded. I learned it the day I walked out here with a cane. I thought, what's wrong with me? Why do I mind walking in front of the people with a cane? Well, it made me look weak. I realized the whole message I had to deliver that day was when I'm weak, he's strong. And no one thought less than because I walked with a cane.

It doesn't leave the image of strength when you walk with a cane. How wrong of me to live with that kind of pride. And the fourth and final one is I dare not continue to ignore what Jesus has taught. I dare not continue to ignore what he's taught. Isn't it great that he taught these wonderful things? Isn't it dreadful that we keep reading them and keep living like we've been living all these years? Isn't it about time we changed?

I'll do my best to cooperate with the plan if you do the same. I answer to the Lord for it and you must answer to the Lord for your life. You know what occurs to me? It may be your hypocrisy that's kept your loved one from Christ.

I don't know. Maybe it's your lack of charm that caused that fellow worker at the office not to be quite that interested in what's really beginning to transform your life. Sermon on the Mount will help. So we're in for a very convicting period of weeks and you have my approval not to be here if you don't want to be. But if you come, I'm not going to hold back. We're going to see what Jesus said and we're going to take it to heart. Please bow with me.

Father, help us to preach the gospel at all times and if necessary to use words. Deal with us in areas where we have cultivated in private a lot of bad habits and then we perform behind a mask in public. Please forgive us for that bad habit that we've not yet broken. For being more angry than anyone ever would believe except those who live near us.

For being less tolerant than anyone else would ever think we are except those who've been the recipients of our intolerance. Show us a fresh and anew the value of living like Christ taught. Help us not to be like the majority at the same time not to be proud of the fact that we're different. Help us to live the life that ought to be lived for your glory and then get out of the way that you might convey the message. Thank you for these who patiently listened. May it make a difference even this week. In the name of Jesus, I pray.

Everyone say, Amen. For good reason, Chuck Swindoll titled today's message, The Sermon of All Sermons. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Gratefully, there's much more to learn from Jesus' historic Sermon on the Mount.

Now that we've heard Chuck's summary, the next several programs will be devoted to digging deeper into Matthew 5, 6, and 7. At Insight for Living, we realize that everyone comes to Jesus from a different background and burdened by a variety of different issues. But there's one thing we all have in common, and that's learning to set aside our fears and trust in God's promises.

He will deliver on what He's promised. Whatever problems are restraining your confidence today, we're recommending that you request a devotional book Chuck's written. It's called Perfect Trust. When you apply the biblical principles in this book, we believe God will reward your confidence in Him with peace that truly satisfies. To purchase a copy of Perfect Trust, here's the number to call.

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That's 1-800-772-8888 or you can also go online to insight.org. Join us again Monday when Chuck Swindoll presents the Checklist for Lasting Joy right 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.