Crucial Truths, Rarely Understood, Part 2

When Jesus presented his famous Sermon on the Mount, it wasn't well received by everyone in his audience. The religious leaders of his day clung to their traditional practices as sacred, and Jesus seemed to be proposing a break in the laws that defined their status. To abolish the law, but instead to fulfill it. And in his sermon, Jesus described a path to holiness that will transform anyone who's willing to follow it.

Chuck titled today's message, Crucial Truths Rarely Understood. Our Father, we do love your Son, my Jesus. I love thee. I know thou art mine. And for you, all the stupid follies of sin are resigned.

A gracious redeemer, a savior art thou. If ever we loved you, we love you now. Now. In a world that's running in the wrong direction because it's lost its way, we love you now. Surrounded by those who look upon you with skepticism and doubt, we love you now. With all the unknowns of the future and all of the bad news, we hear every evening and all of the threats against us as a people, as a country, as Christians. We love you now.

Right now. Deepen our love for you, Father, so that nothing, nothing ever weakens that love. That nothing else captures our love and makes us wander away from you. That nothing tempts us to turn away from your love. We love you now. And may that love make a major difference in the way we think, in motives behind our actions, in opinions and thoughts behind our words, in the way we treat other people at the store, on the street, our neighbors, strangers. Thank you, dear Father, for your sovereign hand on our lives.

The prophet writes that a woman can forget her nursing child so that she would walk away from the son of her womb. But you will not forget us. You have inscribed us on the palm of your hands. Our ways are continually before you. You have a way through the wilderness.

The one sitting here today, confused, struggling, feeling abandoned, lost. Our ways are continually before you. You have a way of taking words from page of scripture and then drilling them home to our hearts. May that happen today. May I prove to be altogether insignificant in the process.

Get me out of the way. So your word can run and have free course as our hearts absorb what you have written. May it make a difference in our wills. Soften our stubbornness. Break our pride and arrogance.

Create within us, Father, a clean heart, pure of deception, free of hypocrisy. Place your hand on those in difficult places, those who represent us on the mission fields around the world, around the world, who serve you in places we'll never be, and speak to those we'll never meet. We pray that you'd give them strength to press on. For those who walk into the face of the enemy, literally never knowing that the next step will lead to, give them courage, give them hope. Surround their families with a reassurance that you are there as well as with them.

Bring them safely home. Now, our Father, we realize we could not earn a living if it weren't for the strength you give us. We wouldn't have the brains to carry out our job. We wouldn't have the discipline to get up in the morning, face what it requires.

We wouldn't make the wage that we make. But we realize all of this works together that we might have the ability to give to your work. May our gifts be given with the right heart. May they be handled with integrity as they are used for your glory. In the name of Jesus, whom we love, we pray and we give, 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 Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now Chuck's message, titled Crucial Truths Rarely Understood. So when we get into the sermon and when we work our way through it, we shouldn't be surprised that there have been critics even early on in his ministry who said, he's abolishing the law, he stands against the prophets because he took on the scribes and Pharisees. So, Jesus and the law, verses 17 and 18. In case you think he's soft on the law, look at verse 18. Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. When you and I were growing up, we carried a King James Bible.

Some of you may still, that's fine. And in the old King James Bible, it called it a jot and a tittle. Remember, every jot and tittle will be fulfilled, will be kept.

What's a jot and what's a tittle? I remember quoting the verse years earlier. I never knew what that meant until I became exposed to someone teaching the truth who explained jot and tittle. Allow me to do that. Turn back to Psalm 119. Let's just do it right. Psalm 119, right in the middle of your Bible is the longest psalm and it's an acrostic psalm.

Here's what I mean by that. It's in stanzas of eight verses each, all the way through to the end of the psalm and each of the stanzas begins with the same Hebrew letter. And they are successive letters in the alphabet. Look for yourself. If you have a new American Standard Bible, as I'm carrying today, you will see not only the name of the letter, but you'll see the character itself. Look at Psalm 119, verse 1, and look right above verse 1. Your Bible may read Aleph.

What's that? That's the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. If you wonder what it looks like, you have a new American Standard Bible, look to the left and you'll see the little Aleph. Go down to verse 9, second stanza. Beth, there's a Beth right there, that's what the B in Hebrew looks like. Go to verse 17, eight verses later, next stanza, Gimel. All of the verses in this section, 17 through 24, start with Gimel, one of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The next letter, verse 25, is Daleth. Now I won't keep this all the way through, but I want you to understand this takes you through the Hebrew alphabet. Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Hey, Wow, Zion, Keth, Teth, Yod, Kaph, all the way to the end. Now, let me show you the jot. Keep reading, go over to verse 73.

I love this kind of teaching. Some of you are going, what time is he through? So, for you, I apologize, but for the rest of you, look. Look at Yod, it's the word translated jot in the King James Bible. Y-O-D-H, Yod.

You end with your tongue between your teeth. It's not Yod, it's Yod, like you would say loath. Say Yod with me, Yod.

You could tell somebody at lunch, you learn a little Hebrew over there. Now, it looks like an apostrophe. That's the smallest Hebrew letter in all the alphabet. Not one Yod, not even the verse, but not one of the smallest letter.

The smallest letter will pass away, not one Yod. Now, let me show you a tittle. Look at Daleth, go back.

We were there earlier. See verse 25? Okay, stay with me. Hold your place and go all the way to Resh. All right, that would be like our R. Here we go. We're on a search for Resh.

Verse 153, there you are. Now, look at it. See the Resh? See the Daleth?

The Resh just is a little, looks like a right angle, a little soft curve. The Daleth has a, then it goes down. The, is the tittle.

It's a part of a letter. It distinguishes the Daleth from the Resh. What does this have to say about scripture? How important is it that we take scripture literally? He protects right down to the Yod and the tittle. God cares so much about his word that not even the smallest letter of any part of the word, of any verse of scripture, of any book of the Bible, will pass away right down to the very stroke that distinguishes the Daleth from the Resh. Now, you're back to Matthew chapter 5. Now, let me ask you something.

Don't answer out loud. Did you know that? Probably you didn't. And you know what?

That's okay. But now that you know it, you're beginning to see what I mean when I say, by attending a church that teaches the Bible, not just the gospel story, but the Bible, you get into the details that begin to make sense. And if a Yod and tittle will make sense, think of the difference it will make when you understand the Sermon on the Mount and how it can impact your life.

Suddenly it's not just a section of scripture you put in a coffee table Bible and say, oh, we believe all of that. No, this is truth to live by. Look at verse 18. I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Was Jesus soft on the scriptures? Not if I believe verse 18. No, not in your life. I won't change one thing. I won't remove one part of one letter, of one verse. You're surrounded by those who teach otherwise.

I will not do that. I will lead you into the truth. The word is true. Now the Christian and the law is 19 and 20.

Move there. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Never doubt it. There are those who do that. There are those who are in various cults in different kinds of churches that will cause you to question your faith. They will weaken your trust in the scriptures. They spend their time picking and choosing at those places that they call contradictions, which are not that at all. But because that is true, there is a desire to weaken your confidence in the word.

Never doubt it. Every generation, the watershed issue is the word of God. Have nothing to do with any church or any kind of teaching that diminishes the word of God. Stay away from it.

Run from it. Move toward those, wherever they may be and whoever they may be, who take the scripture literally and teach the scriptures carefully, accurately, clearly, practically, so that when you have finished with the message, you go, I've got something I can take home with me. This makes sense. So look at the next verse. For I say to you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom. What does that mean? Now, you've got to think about that. What does it mean to surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?

Let me give you a little bit of help. Think of the words go beyond or goes deeper or comes from within, not without. See, the scribes and Pharisees taught an external righteousness. Listen to the way Dwight Pentecost describes it. Scribes and Pharisees had interpreted the law of God to apply only to outward acts, never to the thoughts that produced the act. They said it was wrong to murder, but they said nothing about the hate that produces murder. They said it was wrong to commit adultery, but nothing about the lust that produces adultery. They said it was wrong to steal, but they said nothing about the covetousness which leads to stealing. As long as you were not caught in some act, you were righteous in the sight of the Pharisee. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no.

You've got to go beyond that. I'm going to talk, and he does as the sermon unfolds, I'm going to talk about the covetousness of your own heart. I'm going to talk about the lust that dwells there that causes you to look at the opposite sex with adultery in mind.

It's not the act of adultery that leads to the problem. It's the thought that leads to the act. And Jesus goes right back to the thought. That's a righteousness that goes beyond the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. You know how proud those people were of their own traditional teaching? There was a saying among the Jews in the first century, if only two people go to heaven, one will be a scribe and the other a Pharisee.

Really. Jesus says, neither. Why do you think they nailed him to a cross?

Because the majority were led by the traditionalists. Get rid of him. He is exposing the evil of our lives. And those who don't want to be exposed, get rid of the one who does so. Now we've covered only four verses, but I want to apply them because I think they're worth remembering and carrying with us. I've got three thoughts I want to share with you. One is from verses 17 and 18, another from verse 19, and the third from verse 20.

Here's the first. Based on 17 through 18, our respect for the scriptures must be absolute, not almost. Our respect for the scriptures must be absolute, not almost. You say, well, Jack, that's pretty narrow. I know. We're going into surgery, and just before you were under the influence of the anesthesia, the doctor says to you, I just want you to know that my gloves are almost sterile. I have a feeling you'll go, wait, wait, wait. Why?

Wait, it's almost. What if you were really thirsty and I brought you a jug of water, full gallon, and I say to you, there's only one drop of poison. Go right ahead. Drink up. Go ahead and put that container to your mouth.

One drop, because it's almost pure. Be very careful, men and women, about picking and choosing your way through the scriptures. Be very careful before you X out some things that are pretty convicting for you. What you need to X out is the sin in your own life. God's word speaks for itself and speaks with absolute authority, and I want to tell you, when I read something here that rebukes me, I've learned don't fight it, address it, deal with it. But the power of the Spirit of God, let that be taken care of in your life. So our respect for the scriptures must be absolute. Verse 19, here's a second. Our obedience to the scriptures should be total, not partial. Before you're tempted to compromise, remember that principle. Our obedience to the scriptures should be total, not partial.

I'm going to get downright specific, okay? The scripture says don't be unequally yoked. And let's say you're not married. And let's say you are attracted to this individual who is not a believer. And the scripture says don't yoke yourself up with, don't marry someone who is an unbeliever. Don't go there. Don't do that. Either you obey that or you're led by your emotions.

You fall in love and you marry. You say, well, you know, God's a God of grace. He'll understand.

Wait, wait, hold it. Don't cheapen grace to apologize for your sinful decision. Grace was never meant to give you a pass through things that are a little bit uncomfortable for you or a little bit exacting. If you're going to make your decision that you're going to obey scripture, then obey scripture. Guard against compromise. That leads to corruption. If he cares about the jot and tittle, he cares about the details.

Here's the third. Our commitment to a scriptural lifestyle is to be inward and deep, not external and superficial. Our commitment to a scriptural lifestyle is to be inward and deep, not external and superficial. I'm not to conduct myself in a way that I impress you. That's not my goal.

My goal is not to tell you what you want to hear. I do that because I want to please people. I've stopped doing that. I used to do that. As you've noticed, I don't do that anymore.

I've decided that's external. That's designed to make you think well of me. I'd rather you not like me at all and be reproved by the truth of scripture than to like me and let me help you compromise. My lifestyle is to be marked by what's on the inside. It's not how I look.

It's not even how I sound. It's how I think. It's the hidden motive of my heart. I'll just end Psalm 139, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. Get that, heart, thoughts. See if there'd be any wicked way in me and lead me into the way everlasting. Let's do that. Will you bow, please? Just for a moment right there.

Just stay right there. I say the prophet writes, though your sins be as scarlet, they will be white as snow. The beauty of the cross of Christ is that it's able to change a dark heart, a heart given to selfishness and arrogance and lust and covetousness, pride. It's able to wash it clean through the blood of Christ. So if you've never met Christ, this is the promise. Believe in him, you will have eternal life.

It's nothing you do that earns your way in. It's what you believe about the death and resurrection of Christ. Something in your life that is displeasing to the Lord, only you know. But if he's spoken to you today in any special way, this is a great moment to let him search you and change you. It may even be a need to apologize for those you've been offending, making things right with those you have done wrong by. And it's a great time, too, to relieve yourself of any grudge and to forgive him.

Just forgive them. Lord, these are great truths, and I'm not sure I did a great job of explaining them, but I pray that you'll take these halting words and that you will help people unwind them, unravel them, so they see the value of your word. May we leave impressed with your word. May we want to follow Jesus closer, not some preacher. May we long for the good word of God, not just an exciting event or a few outward actions. Clean us up, Lord. Purify our thoughts and lead us in the right direction. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Everyone sit. Amen.

Jesus made it clear that he was entirely unimpressed with the legalistic performance of the Pharisees. He cares much more about the condition of our hearts than the legalistic rules we're prone to follow. You're listening to Insight for Living. And to learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. We're moving forward through Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, and our Bible teacher Chuck Swindoll refers to these chapters as Jesus' Sermon of All Sermons.

As you're ready to learn more, we invite you to request Chuck's book on the topic. It's called Simple Faith. People tend to complicate what it means to follow Jesus. In the process, some have muddied up his clear teaching.

They've added extra ideas that do little more than make our minds spin with self-imposed expectations. Well, in this classic book called Simple Faith, Chuck focuses on the sermon Jesus delivered. Our Lord made it very clear that we can easily replace hypocritical performance-based religion with the far better joy-based kingdom living. To purchase a copy of Simple Faith, call us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. Or using your mobile device or computer, go directly to insight.org slash store. Insight for Living Ministries is a nonprofit organization made possible not by the purchase of study tools, but through the voluntary gifts of grateful friends. To help us continue providing these daily programs and all the collateral resources, you can give a donation right now when you go online to insight.org. When you give a donation, your gift is channeled directly into supplying this daily program so people here at home and around the world will know the power of Simple Faith. We have ample evidence through thousands of phone calls, letters, and emails that your gifts are truly making a difference. Again, you can give a generous gift today when you call us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. Or give online at insight.org. Tomorrow, a serious message from Jesus about controlling our tongues. Join us again Thursday to hear Chuck Swindoll and Insight for Living. .