Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: Sermon on the Mount

  • Judge and Word

    Judge and Word

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 4, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Matthew 7:7-29 is read here as a genuine masterpiece of construction rather than simply a collection of closing sayings, with 7:12’s Golden Rule sitting at its structural center. The imagery and drama running through 7:7-27 gets its due as craft rather than decoration. Christ closes the whole sermon by naming himself both Judge, in 7:21-23, and Word, in the wise and foolish builders of 7:24-27.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading once more from Matthew’s Gospel, the seventh chapter. We begin our reading with verse 7. Hear the word of God. I ask and it shall be given you. seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. For what man is there of you, whom, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do for you, do ye even so for them.

    For this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

    Ye shall know them by their fruits, Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them.

    Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, that he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.”

    Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which build his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.” And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had entered these sayings, that people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority. and not as described.

    Lord, our hearts would rush to you and to your word. The world is filled with the words of men, and Father, it is true that we have even contributed to the confusion that exists. But you are the Lord of light, and by your Spirit illumination comes. And Lord, we would have your word and we would be filled, Lord, with that meat from the word that then shall sustain us. We pray, our God, that we would be filled with a zeal to know the things that you are revealing to your people. This we ask in Jesus’ name.

    Amen. not in a simple literary and rhetorical point of view. This latter section of the Sermon on the Mount, the section which we have read this morning, is a pure masterpiece. The movement in these verses is amazing in itself. quickening the pulse, exciting the vision.

    This section moves from the most magnanimous, that is, the most generous invitation. Note how it begins, verse 7. Ask, seek, knock. It moves from the most generous invitation to the deepest and most serious of warnings and challenges. On that level alone, it is sermonic in the very best sense. It is sermon giving. It is sermonizing at its best. But note also the movement in this regard.

    As we are carried along by these verses, we are carried from the general application to the whole of that community Jesus organizes around himself, to the narrow application to shepherds that would arise within that community, then back once more to the broadest of applications, that is, to the community as a whole in the concluding remarks. You start out with the broad invitation, ask, seek, knock. In the middle of these verses, things are narrowed down to an address with respect to false prophets being on your guard, those who would pretend to shepherd. And then you broaden out at the end, where there is a statement with regard to the wise man and the foolish man, generally applicable to all in the community of Christ.

    There is, therefore, here something of an hourglass configuration to this entire section. You start out wide, you narrow down at the middle, and you end up wide at the conclusion. When we also have the interlocking effect of Jesus’ statements as he moves from section to section within this portion, you’ll notice it. You’ll note particularly how a certain feature introduces the next section for consideration. As an example of that, note how you move from the twentieth verse to the twenty-first. The sections respectively in view there are verses 15 through 20 and then 21 through 23.

    The focus of 15 through 20 is the false prophets or the false shepherds. That’s a very narrow consideration. In view, specifically, are those who are called to gospel ministry. And that theme is carried on, then, in verses 21 through 23, because you have there specific mention made by Jesus of those who prophesied, those who cast out demons, those who performed miracles in his name.

    In other words, The theme is carried through as you move to those latter verses, verses twenty one through twenty three. Yet, at the same time, in the midst of those verses, twenty one through twenty three, you’re prepared for what comes in verses twenty four through twenty seven. The general consideration so that you’re not able to say that Jesus’ concern in verses 21 through 23 is the shepherds or the ordained ministry alone.

    No, there’s general application there that carries you on to the next section. The note is struck in the twenty-first verse. He who does the will of my Father who is in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven.” That’s a general statement, you see. It pertains not just to shepherds, but to sheep.

    There is the interlocking effect that Jesus uses as he moves from paragraph to paragraph, from consideration to consideration. You’ll note how that powerful conclusion of the very first section in the segment of the Sermon on the Mount, the section that began with verse 7 ended in verse 12. You’ll note how the powerful conclusion of that first section, namely verse 12, dominates the exposition of every section that follows. It’s as if you can’t properly understand any of what Jesus is saying, anything of what Jesus is saying, unless you keep in mind that twelfth verse or that which has been called the Golden Rule. So you keep that in hand as you move through the remaining verses to the conclusion of Jesus’ message here. As if to say, there will be an exposition now for you of what that golden rule means. Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do for them. For this is the law and the prophets. I will have something more to say about that in a little bit.

    But let’s keep in mind now the literary and rhetorical features, the structural considerations, as we look at this gem from Holy Scripture. We have Jesus’ abundant use of images. What grand language he uses, that my language was his grant that I had at the tip of my tongue the images and the imagery that Jesus so wonderfully and so easily uses. Images of inquiry, search, doors to be opened images of loaves of bread and fish of stones and serpents, images of gifts given and received, gates and roads and cities, destinations, images of sheep and wolves and grapes and thorns, figs and thistles, trees and fruit, houses, rocks, sand, rain, floods and wind, images of permanence, images of dissolution and collapse, images of confirmation and judgment. Rich, powerful images.

    And also, the power of the section. As you move from that marvelously encouraging invitation to ask, seek, and knock, to that devastating concluding line with respect to the house built on the sand that fell, there’s drama There’s drama abounding in merely observing the movement as you press on to that concluding remark from Jesus. And great was the fall thereof. Well, if you’re into literature, If you’re into rhetoric, on those rebels alone, you’re dealing with a masterpiece here. Note one other thing in this regard.

    As Jesus presses on to his conclusion, we hear him set in antinomy, that he is over against one another. the two ways, the two points of view, the two worldviews. There only are two ways. There is not a multiplicity of ways. There are only two. And as Jesus pushes on to the conclusion of his message, he is setting out so clearly the antinomy that exists between those two points of view in a series of contrasting couplets. He warns and challenges his hearers with the contrasts that exist between the two gates. There only are two gates, no more.

    The two ways, there are only two ways. The two trees. There are only two types of trees. The good and the bad. And finally, there are only two foundations. Either it’s Christ’s word or it is not. There are only two kinds of houses. those that are built upon Christ’s word and those that are not.

    So you see, what Jesus has to say, so powerfully worked out in a wonderful literary and rhetorical scheme, There we are face to face with the rich and beautiful, deep, compelling, integrated and dynamic aspects of this message that comes from our Lord. I’ll take a drink to indicate that I’m going on to the next point now. But what if all we see there are literary features? A rhetorical scheme used very well, marvelously, by Jesus. marvelous features that we take note of and truly enrich our appreciation for the Word of God, as helpful and as interesting as they may be, of relative value.

    Tragically, one of the unfortunate facts of modern biblical interpretation and Most of those who have ventured into the seminary and theological world of our time have found this to be true. One of the unfortunate facts of modern biblical interpretation is that it seems to exhaust itself, nearly exhaust itself, with these peripheral or relative concerns. The preoccupation with literary framework, endless detailed analysis of the facts of verbal, linguistic structure. And where it isn’t linguistic and literary, the interests veer off in the direction of sociological, if not psychological, analysis. that all of these matters end up on the periphery. They are of relative value. And in many respects, a lot of what is said is purely speculative and not helpful, truly. We then must push on.

    We’re appreciative of the literature, are we not? We’re appreciative of the rhetoric of Christ, but we press on to the heart and substance of Jesus’ words, his message. And what is his message? What is the message that is dressed up so nicely with these literary and rhetorical considerations? Here is the message.

    The new day has come. The new day is here. The day the prophets longed for, looked for, it has arrived. The kingdom of heaven has dawned. The new day of the kingdom of heaven has come, and this new day means the unprecedented access to the Father in heaven. Never before has He been accessible as He is now. He hasn’t even been known as He is now. And that knowledge of Him mediated through the Son who has come to reveal Him. The new day has come.

    Therefore, ask, seek, knock. The invitation is open, and you will find the Father wonderfully willing to give you what you need. Now, hear this note now. this great and all-important note in what Jesus has to say. This new day of access to the Father has a reciprocal effect upon you. That’s the force of verse 12 and the golden rule. Yes, God is accessible, the Father is accessible as never before, for the kingdom of heaven has dawned. But that being true, the reciprocal effect is this. Never before have you been as accessible. Let’s read that twelfth verse again, keeping that in mind.

    Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you when you ask of them, do for them when they ask of you. You ask of God and you receive. But now, in this new day of access, in which the initiative of the Father in the Son actually determines the life of those who belong to the kingdom. Others will ask of you and they will receive as never before.

    The very heart of the message, then, that Jesus has for the people in light of this unprecedented day of the dawning of the kingdom of heaven, regards giving and receiving, offering, expending of oneself that others may have and be benefited. That’s the heart of it. That’s the law and the prophets. And this reciprocal character of the kingdom now becomes that small gate and that narrow way by which we are then entering into life, that is, into the fullness of the heavenly kingdom. You can’t get in without it.

    If you are not being conformed to the image of the Father who gives of Himself to you, you will not enter. It is this reciprocal character of the kingdom, then, that is ultimately lacking what is absent from those would-be guides or shepherds called false prophets, in verse 15, who, after all, are nothing more than wolves. These folk are sheep eaters, not sheep feeders. They cannot give after the similitude of God’s giving in Christ. They cannot give in the kingdom sense of giving because they have never been gripped by the kingdom.

    They love the world. They are bad trees. bearing bad fruit. Watch out for them. They cannot give up themselves as God has surrendered himself in Christ. They are strangers to suffering. Their gospel contains no cross. And what cross they do speak of is merely image, form, symbol, nothing more.

    This reciprocal character of the kingdom, It scrutinizes, that is, judges ministers claiming to know Jesus, to have prophesied, cast out demons, performed wonders in His name. It scrutinizes and judges all of them. Therefore, when you read in that twenty-first verse about entering the kingdom of heaven about that one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. When you read of that individual, you are reading about the one in whom the reciprocal character of the kingdom is manifest. The one who has learned by root of the opening up of heaven, by the revelation of the Father in heaven, by an intimate acquaintance with Jesus Christ, how to give of himself to the uttermost. cross-like, even unto death. These alone gain access to the fullness of the kingdom, those in whom Jesus recognizes And also, as we come to verses 24 through 27, and Jesus takes up this matter of hearing him and doing what he says, once more he’s specifically the reciprocal character of the kingdom that is in view.

    Those who hear Jesus and do what he says will endure, they will endure. They will endure as houses anchored in, built upon the rock, even though rains and floods and winds assault, even though apocalyptic upheaval comes and the dissolution of the elements arrives. They will endure. Those who have learned to give as they have been given unto. Those who have learned to give like God gives in Christ. But those who either reject those who hear but don’t obey. These are houses built on sand, incapable of standing when the storm of God’s final judgment strikes.

    But having said this, We have to say a little bit more. I have to take another drink. Even grabbing things now at that level where we see the reciprocal character of the kingdom tied up in that twelfth verse and then working itself out to the whole. Even grasping things at that level, we have not satisfied entirely Jesus’ intent.

    Is it not plain, as we come to the conclusion of this sermon from Jesus, is it not plain to us just how central he himself is to the whole matter? Certainly, this should be clear to us from verses 21 through 23, as well as these concluding verses 24 through 27. Note the way in which Jesus speaks. He is bold to speak of himself in the first instance, that is, in verses 21 through 23, as the judge.

    Many will say to me in that day, what day is it? It’s the day of judgment. What are these confessions that are being made, these protestations that are offered? The protestations that are offered in light of the day of the Lord, the coming judgment, and who is sitting on the throne, who is making decision in that day?

    Jesus is the one. He is the judge, he is alive, he is exalted, he is sitting on the throne. And the day of judgment approaches. But note what he says in verses 24 through 27. The image shifts a bit there. For now, Jesus portrays himself to be the primary, the exalted source of all divine wisdom. You have to listen to me. It’s my word. No one else’s. My word, and my word alone. And you are obliged to obey me for wisdom, primarily. in an exalted sense, resides in me alone. But if we are going to grasp the great significance of his words here, we must see that it is he who is cloaked, hidden within the very words of the sermon itself.

    He, Jesus Christ, The one who speaks in his person is the veritable appearance of the kingdom of God in the flesh. Jesus on one occasion will say to his detractors, if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

    He is the living testimony to the guarantees of that kingdom, for he asked and received, he sought and found, he not, it was open to him. He is the embodiment of the golden rule in the gift of himself upon the cross. He gives that others may be profited and benefited.

    He is the gate He is the way. He is the door. He is the truth. He is the life. He is the good shepherd who stands over against all false prophets and false shepherds. He is the one who gives his life for his sheep. He is the Son of God who perfectly does the will of His Father who is in heaven. He is the rock. He is the stone rejected by men, but made most important of all by the activity of God, transformed into a house, into a temple, His body being raised on the third day as the new temple of God. And we are His house, His body, His temple.

    If we abide in him, and if we abide in him, we will reside in that one edifice of all the edifices of the world that is given this promise. The goats of hell shall not prevail against her. You don’t walk through the Sermon on the Mount without grabbing hold of the Christ himself in all of his glory, in all of his matchless might and wonder and righteousness. So that as you come to perform the least of deeds in his name, You do it in and from Him alone. In Him is life for all who trust and obey.

    Let’s pray. O Lord, we ask you now that we might be gripped by more than literary and rhetorical features. And Lord, we pray that it may be true that we are gripped by even more than the dawning of the kingdom of heaven in Christ. May we be gripped by him and all that he is. But even in our response to a passage like this, we may be found to be willing and obedient servants of the Jesus we love. Your Son, Lord, do bless us, for we would build our house upon the rock. and seeth stand in the day of judgment.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Many Called, Few Chosen

    Many Called, Few Chosen

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 28, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Christ warns about sheep-eaters in 7:15-23 and describes people who say ‘Lord, Lord’ and still hear him turn them away. God’s covenant reaches wider than his election, and so many are called while few are chosen. Matthew 25’s sheep and goats sound the same warning in a different key.

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    Sermon transcript

    Our scripture reading this morning begins in Matthew 25. We will start with verse 31. Here is the word of God. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the King say unto them that are on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was in hunger, and he gave me meat. I was thirsty, and he gave me drink. I was a stranger, and he took me in naked, and he clothed me. I was sick, and he visited me. I was in prison, and he came unto me.

    Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, When saw we thee hungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, insomuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

    Then shall he say unto them also unto them on his left hand, Depart from me. he cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was a hungred, and he gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and he gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and he took me not in naked, and he clothed me not, sick and in prison, and he visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungred, and a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee, Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did not do it unto one of the least of these, ye did not do it unto me.

    And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life.” Then turning back to Matthew 7, verses 21-23.) Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

    Hello, God. Your word is given as a light, as a lamp. And Father, our love for the light would draw us to your word. We are pleading with you, Lord, that there would not be any darkness found in us. Rather, may there be that light, that light that shines forth from what you have said that light that shines forth in Jesus, your son. For he is the light of the world, and he lightens every page of your word that we might understand, then, the true meaning of what you have for us there. Therefore, Lord, we ask that we might be drawn to him through what we read and hear. And may that word be to us as life itself, for truly you have given to us in your Son the words of eternal life. This we ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

    Now, one of the major questions about this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, which we have read this morning, these three verses, verses 21 through 23 of that seventh chapter, one of the major questions about these verses is, how do they fit within this portion, within this section of the service?

    How do we move to these verses from what has preceded? Invariably, these verses have been treated as the conclusion of what we find in verses 15 through 20. that section which speaks about the false prophets. Verse fifteen, “…beware,” says Jesus, “…beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” And Jesus developed that thought a bit in verses sixteen through twenty, as he talks about the two types of priests. the good tree, the bad tree, and consequently the good fruit and the bad fruit, for good fruit doesn’t come from bad trees. So there is invariably that approach which sees these verses, verses 21 through 23, as the conclusion of what Jesus has been saying in verses 15 through 20. What he has been saying, then, about those false prophets and the two types of trees.

    In my own study Bible, the Bible that I prefer for study, which is the New American Standard version, verses 15 through 23 appear as a single section, as a single paragraph. They are held together that way, there are no paragraph marks to interrupt the flow as you move from verse 15 through verse 23. So even in that study Bible, they are treated as a whole. In terms of the content of these latter verses, verses 21 through 23, we can also see the point, the connection. It would seem that Jesus’ words here have specific application to those who have a specific ministry. a particular ministry with respect to the people of God. You remember how we developed that earlier section.

    Jesus has given warning with regard to the narrow gate and the wide gate. He has given warning with respect to the narrow way and the broad way. And then, as if to fill in a few details with respect to the way upon which we find ourselves, he tells us, Beware of the kind of guides you select or gather around yourself. Beware of the kind of guides that you employ. Beware, therefore, of false prophets.

    As Jesus moves on here from verse 21 and following, it would seem that he has, then, specific application for those who are satisfied for particular ministry. He has in mind those who would be ordained. He has been dealing with false prophets. false teachers, those who would lead wrongly, who would suggest to the people of God ways that are not in keeping with the path that God has laid out for them. False prophets, teachers, leaders, spokesmen for God among God’s people. In view specifically, then, Jesus has in mind that new community that is taking shape, that is organizing around him. And in that new community, within that organization that is taking shape around him, he is speaking about those, then, that would presume to preach, or those who would rise to the status of preacher, teacher, or leader within the congregation of the people of God.

    He warns us, then, against bogus guides. His own language, wolves disguised as sheep, who are in actual fact sheep eaters. those who do not serve the sheep, but feed on the sheep. Notice how Jesus speaks about those denied entrance to the kingdom in verses 21-23. This also convinces us that, to some degree, Jesus has in mind those who are set apart for specific ministry. They are those, so says Jesus, whose response to him in the great day will be, Did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name did we not cast out devils and work wonders?”

    Obviously, those who speak here are the ones who have particular ministry, particular responsibility in the community of God, in the household of God, in the Church of Jesus Christ. that they were engaged in what is described here as prophesying, makes that claim. The mighty works they mention are their badge, their identification as prophets or spokesmen for the Lord. They are then, in their own estimation, God’s own called and ordained ministers.

    Prophets, then, are the subject of verses fifteen through twenty, and we can say, from what we have observed so far, that prophets again are the subject of verses twenty-one through twenty-three. Now, while it is true that our understanding of The prophet is certainly accommodated for the circumstances that pertain presently. Yet we are admitting this much, that the prophetic office does find its counterpart in those who are preachers and teachers amongst God’s people in our contemporary setting. those who are set aside within the community to bring the word of God to his own. So even though in these verses Jesus speaks about prophets, false prophets, even And we know that there are no prophets, per se, walking around in the world today, that is, those who receive their messages directly from God and can come into the church and declare those to you week by week, if not day by day, even though there are some who think that. Even though we are in that situation It is true that the counterpart to the prophet of which Jesus speaks is the one who bears the word of God for the benefit of the people of God presently. So in these verses it would seem that those who have particular ministry, the ordained ministry, are in view. This approach is confirmed by what we find in other passages in the gospel.

    For example, in chapter 25 of Matthew, at the very beginning of that passage, Jesus tells the story of the wise and foolish virgins. I think you all know that story. Do you recall how at the end of that story, that parable, the foolish virgins come late to the wedding? because they had to go and buy oil for their lamps.

    And how, when they sought entrance, saying, notice the language, Lord, Lord, does that sound familiar? It sounds like what Jesus here has quoted from those demanding entrance into the kingdom of heaven in verse 22 of chapter 7. Lord, Lord, open to us, say the foolish virgin. And then the bridegroom says to them, Truly I say to you, I do not know you.”

    That sounds familiar, too, does it not? There is a parallel between those two passages, then, what we find Jesus saying in Matthew 7, and also what we find him saying in the parable of the wise and foolish virgin. We recognize the similarity of the language between these two passages. But what we may miss is the fact that Jesus is speaking as he is.

    He is delivering this parable directly to his disciples. whom he is addressing as those faithful and sensible servants that will be put in charge over his household. You will note the lead into chapter 25, chapter 24, verse 45. In other words, Jesus is speaking specifically to the disciples in that parable, as the disciples are leaders. as they are faithful and sensible servants whom he intends to put in charge over his entire house.” Jesus’ words, therefore, in the parable of the ten virgins are directly pointed at the leadership of God’s people, and Jesus is saying directly to them, As you will note, that parable concludes in verse 13 in Matthew 25, “‘You leaders, you must be on the alert, for you do not know the time or the hour.’” Well, this is all very good news, isn’t it?

    Jesus is talking to the leaders, he isn’t talking to you. And those rather strict and stern and even harsh words that he utters there in Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 through 23, well, they’re directed towards preachers, not people. On the assumption that preachers aren’t people. So here we are, we’ve worked our way through the passage a bit now, we see Jesus is talking to the leaders, to preachers, to teachers, and we’re breathing a great sigh of relief. Otherwise, this sobering passage, if not terrifying and unsettling passage, would be too heavy. that Jesus has in mind specifically the ordained, you might well think that you are off the hook.

    I want you to look once more at the passage in Matthew 7. While it is true that Jesus means a deliberate continuity from verses 15 through 20 in what he says about false prophets and good and bad trees, a deliberate continuity from those verses to the latter verses 21 through 23, that he intends specific reference there for the leadership of his people at the same time He intends a broader application of his message. There are three things that help us to see this. First of all, will you note verse 20.

    Here is what Jesus says, “…so then you will know them by their fruit.” Now, in that you will notice as well that he is repeating himself. He is repeating what he said in verse 16. You will know them by their fruits. That statement in verse 20, then, serves as a concluding remark. It brings, as it were, his comment at that point to something of a clone. There is a break. The words that are used there are instructive. In my translation, that is, the New American Standard Version, we have the words, so then, you will know them by their fruits.

    Obviously, Jesus is intending to bring his statement there to some sort of conclusion. Indicated in the language is a type of break. as you move then into verse 21. But note this as well in the second place. The descriptions that he gives in verses 21 through 23 are inclusive descriptions. He opens up in verse 21 by saying, Everyone is brought in view.

    Not everyone, however. Jesus goes on. He speaks in verse 22, of the many. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, more. The descriptions are deliberately inclusive. They push us. They push us beyond mere consideration of those who are ordained, those who bear office, those who may be the teachers and the preachers among the people. They bring before us the entirety of the congregation. You will also notice the breadth the breadth of Christ’s statement in verse 21.

    At the end of it, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Can we say that that is a statement that pertains merely to the leadership of the people of God, or does it pertain to all inclusively? Surely what Jesus says here, then, is applicable to all of God’s people, leaders and lay, if you like, even though there may be something special here which leaders ought to take note of. And finally, in this regard, you have the theme of the section, which is entering. Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, will enter. the kingdom of heaven.

    And that theme of entering takes us back to the subject that Jesus has been speaking about all along. You will know how it was introduced, first of all, in verse 7 of this chapter. The great invitation, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. Well, you knock on a door, don’t you? And when the door is opened, you enter it, do you not?

    Then Jesus continues with that theme of entering. Verse 13, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. The theme of entering then rises again in this latter text, in these latter verses. And surely, as that matter of entering is brought before us, so is the scope, the breadth, of the people of God.

    All of the people of God are in you. It is not just the leaders that are to knock in order to gain entrance, it’s not just the leaders who are to enter in by the narrow gate. All of God’s people are to go in by that route. And surely the objective, the goal, all the people of God is to enter the kingdom of heaven. A confirmation of this broader application comes to us from a number of places where similar thoughts are expressed.

    For instance, There is that parable, that rather interesting parable given by Jesus in Matthew 22, the first 14 verses. It’s the parable of a wedding feast. Do you remember how it goes? The King sends out his invitation, and the invitation is rebuffed by many, rejected There are many who refuse to come, and the king discouraged them, sent his servants into the highways and byways to bring in whom he willed that the wedding feast might be filled with guests. And the joy multiplied. And of course we understand what Jesus is speaking of there, as he directs his comments to the leaders of Israel, and he is telling them that the invitation has gone out to them and they have refused, and now God is turning to those who may be considered by them to be unworthy, turning to the Gentiles, if you will, and bringing them into the wedding feast of the bridegroom. the bridegroom than being none other than Christ himself. But do you remember how that parable ends?

    How the many come and then there’s this one fellow who doesn’t have the right apparel, and he’s denied entrance because he doesn’t have the right apparel. And the words that are used there are very similar to the words we find here in Matthew 7, as Jesus speaks in the Sermon on the Mount. The man is literally cast out. It’s a tragic scene, and we might be put off by Jesus’ words there. Why should the man be denied entrance? But it is Jesus’ way of stating his case in that instance, as he has stated his case here. Not all who come will in fact enter.

    Is the covenant broader than the company of the elect? Will many a church member come to that day and be denied entrance? Yes. Will there be those who have depended upon family ties to get them into the kingdom of heaven? Will there be those who have contented themselves on with respect to special powers that they may have had, special privileges, special endowments, to get them in? Yes. The covenant is broader, then. The covenant is broader. than the extent even of God’s election. Many are called, but few are chosen.

    There is that story as well that Jesus gives at the end of Matthew 25, which we read this morning about the sheep and the goats. And once more, it’s the people of God in their entirety that are brought in view by what Jesus is saying there. And yes, the great separation will come, not so much as to put unbeliever over against believer, but within those who claim to believe there will be a separation. Yes, the people of God as a whole are then clearly in view in Matthew 7, 21-23, and that’s why these verses are so serious.

    The continuing note of the leaders is also distinctly heard, but leaders and people do go together, do they not? Leaders do, in fact, incur the greater judgment, as we are told by James and a number of other passages in our Bible. Nevertheless, you, the people, will be scrutinized. We all, leader and people alike, shall be judged. And what shall be the basis of the Lord’s judgment with respect to us?

    A mere ability to recognize Jesus as Lord? Those who confess in verse 21 call Him Lord. They say, Lord, Lord. They so address Him and so recognize Him. No, the basis of our acceptance into God’s heavenly kingdom will not be our ability to recognize Jesus as Lord and so address Him. Nor will it be the claim that we have carried on some unique ministry or performed some unique service for him. They cast out demons. They performed wonders. No, in the end, the Lord will welcome us only if he recognizes us.

    The basis of our acceptance will not be our ability to recognize Him. The basis of our acceptance will be His recognition of us. And how will He recognize you? He will recognize you only if He recognizes Himself in you. Only if He can see Himself in you. Only if you reflect back to him what he is. Now how is it that you reflect back to him what he is?

    You are united to him, your faith ties you to him, you are bound to him by your faith. With your faith you see him, he who is unseen. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. Without faith you cannot see Him. Without faith it is impossible to draw near to Him. It is impossible to be justified by Him without faith. So with faith you draw near, and with faith you see and you behold Him. And by faith now beholding Him, you, embalmed with Him, begin to reflect him to him. And what does it mean to reflect him to him?

    He has said it already. He put it in close, compact language for us, verse 12 of this very chapter. Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them, for this is the law and the prophet. Let’s translate that again as we have been doing. Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, when you ask of them, do for them when they ask of you. Give out of love. Faith works by love. And if it doesn’t, it’s not faith.

    You see the power then of his parable with regard to the sheep and the goats? Jesus at work, recognizing himself in the works of others, neared back to him. Those who give after the similitude of Christ’s giving are those who are recognized as belonging to him. of the congregation that loves and gives, if they are not manifest testimony to that, not so as to build you up not so as to produce any excuse for vanity or self-righteousness within ourselves, but do you see the evidences of Christ’s work in our midst?

    Do you see the testimony of the Spirit at work here in Grace Church? The telephone call, the open door, the fact that you take someone into your house and you treat them with kindness, and you give until you think you can’t give anymore. is what Jesus is talking about.

    Are you ready? Will you do it? And are there not manifest testimonies to that kind of love in our midst for which we can praise God? Your concern, the card, the little note. No one asked you to write it. The bulletin, week after week, sent to you. If you’re not here. The readiness of one to jump up and help you. Lay some cement. Move your household. Visit you when you’re sick. cry with you when you cry, cheer you up, and laugh with you when you laugh.

    Not everyone who says to me on that day, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But only he who does the will of my Father, which you see in me, says Christ. not with vain hope or false confidence, but with a confidence born of your spirit and your word. May we approach the doors of the kingdom, and may we delight, Lord, in those testimonies that arise in us that the very life of our Savior is at work in us for the benefit of others and to the glory of your name. On that great day, may Jesus recognize in us

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • False Prophets, No Cross

    False Prophets, No Cross

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 21, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Matthew 7:7-23 holds together as one unit, more than a loose string of sayings. The two gates of 7:13 and Micah’s warnings in 3:5-12 point to the same danger, false prophets working inside the church as well as outside it. A ministry with no cross in it marks them out.

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    Sermon transcript

    The prophecy of Micah, chapter 3. If you’re having a little trouble locating Micah, it’s after Jonah. And we will be reading from the fifth verse to the end of that chapter. Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray. When they have something to bite with their teeth, they cry peace.

    But against him who puts nothing in their mouths, they declare holy war. Therefore, it will be night for you without vision and darkness for you without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets and the day will become dark over them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.

    On the other hand, I am filled with power with the spirit of the Lord, and with justice and courage to make known to Jacob his rebellious act, even to Israel his sin. Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who have poor justice and twist everything that is straight Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests instruct for a price, and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord in our midst? Calamity will not come upon us. Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will become high places of affluence.

    And then turning over to Matthew chapter seven, beginning with verse seven. Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. For what man is there among you when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? For if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him?

    Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them. For this is the law and the prophets, entered by the marriages For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing that inwardly are ravenous wolves.

    You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from from thorn bushes, more figs from thistles are they? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree can produce, cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit. Every tree that is not that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruit.

    Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons? And in your name, perform many miracles, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you, apart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

    Oh Lord, as the sun rises upon the earth, so your word rises upon the continents. Your word goes forth, and that is to perform your will. And our Father, we would have your word performing your will in us, that we might be known as those who do the will of our Father in heaven. Our Father, we are weak, yet you are strong. Grant us power, Lord, in and by your word, so that we, in the service of your great name, may do those things that are pleasing in your sight. Our God, encourage us with respect to the reading and the retaining of your word.

    May we be dutiful with regard to that reading and may we remember well the things that we learned. This for Jesus’ sake and your glory. Amen. There are two things that we must keep in mind at all times as we move through the Sermon on the Mount. Two things that we’re very liable, likely to forget. The first is that this sermon is built upon the reality of an event.

    Jesus doesn’t come to us as one who just communicates to us ideas, a philosophy. even ideas about morality behave. Jesus is, first of all, and foremostly, that proclaimer of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom has come in him. Now, there’s another thing we must keep in mind as we would expound the kingdom of heaven. And that is central to this figure of Jesus Christ is the ministry that he performs for us. We think, therefore, of his cross and of his resurrection.

    At no point can we distance ourselves from these two things as we move through the Sermon on the Mount. We must discipline ourselves to keep these things in view. the event of the coming of the kingdom in Christ and the centrality of Christ’s death and resurrection.

    At every point, you must remember these things so that you might interpret the sermon. All right. We have now come to the third and final section of this particular portion of the Sermon on A portion which we have entitled invitations and warnings. And as we move through this portion. We will watch Jesus, our Lord, move from that expensive and explosive invocation in birth seven. to the firm and awesomely serious warning of verse fifteen, beware. Beware. And as we move through this portion, it becomes plain to us just how interconnected all of the various aspects of this text are. We’re looking at verses seven through twenty three. And we will become conscious increasingly conscious of the interconnectedness of what Jesus has to say. No. Jesus with birth seven.

    Invite his disciples. His disciples are specifically in view those who are drawn to him, specifically now, those who are united to him, not that the multitude mentioned at the end of this chapter, verse twenty-eight. Don’t hear the things that Jesus said, but specifically the disciples, those whom he has deliberately chosen, gathered to himself, assembled there on the Mount with him.

    Jesus invites his disciples to ask, to seek, to knock. In that, you should hear a message concerning yourself, if it’s true that you claim to be a disciple of Jesus. If so, then, you are invited You are encouraged to ask, to seek, and to knock. If you are a disciple, if you are a member of his body, if you are a part of his church, the invitation goes out, ask, seek, knock. And how magnanimous the invitation.

    Now, Jesus does this because heaven itself and the Father, who is in heaven, have now become accessible in a way they never were before. It is a new day of access with the coming of Christ and His kingdom. Because of this new day, now you may ask and seek and knock as never before and with assurances that were inconceivable previously. Well, how marvelously refreshing invigorating. Jesus’ words are. For note, note the significance of them. What is at their foundation is this. Something new has happened. Something new has taken place.

    An event has occurred that cannot be erased that cannot be undone. Can we go back and unmake history? Can we go back and undo what God has fixed in the plane of space and time, in the history that you have experienced Something then has transpired that cannot be erased or undone. God has acted. He has acted mightily in Christ. He has acted summarily in Christ. He has acted finally in Christ, and now because of this unprecedented act of God.

    Come, ask, see, marvel, and you will not be disappointed. You will not be. But with this wonderful invitation from our Savior, Also comes the strongly stated reminder, the reminder that sets before the boundaries of our life as disciples of the king. Yes, by all means, now and now, as never before. seek not.

    Confidence utter and absolute confidence about your access, because of who Christ is, what he accomplishes, the entrance that he gives up to heaven and to the father. But remember, as you come and ask and seek and knock Remember that you are a disciple, a disciple of the realm of the king, and it is the kingdom of that king and his righteousness which you, after all, seek after. Seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Matthew six, thirty three.

    Therefore, in your asking and in your seeking and knocking, you are bounded. Jesus intentionally makes it sound as if there are no boundaries at all, so much that he wants to communicate the access that is now wrong, but we know, do we not? that that invitation has boundaries all its own.

    We are bounded, therefore, by the kingdom and by this God who issues invitation to us. Our requests sit within the frame of that kingdom. and are in accord with the nature of the God we serve, in keeping with his righteousness. And therefore it is imperative that we know him well, that we might ask well and write. But remember the other borders that we’ve spoken of, the borders of covenantal response.

    Those borders spoken everywhere in Scripture, asserted and reinforced. The covenantal response of faith. Can we actually ask without faith Can we speak without faith or not without faith? Are we not told elsewhere in Scripture, without faith it is impossible to please God. For we who come to him must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews eleven verse six. So there is the border of faith, covenant response to him. We cannot ask without faith.

    And what about that other inseparable covenantal response? Repentance, not a very popular word in our time. Repentance. That is The humility expressed in the prayer of the penitent publican, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Can we come to our God and ask, seek and not, without that humility in us? So ask, seek and not, but keep before you the kingdom. Keep before you faith. and contrite humility. Well, you know, as is testified in the Old and New Testaments, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

    Now, in what we have studied, Jesus will point out for us that consummate covenantal response, that response that is spoken of in the twelfth verse of the seventh chapter as the summation of the law and the prophets, the covenantal response of love. This new day of access, then, that has opened up for us because of Christ, with which we are given invitation there in verse 7, builds on to that twelfth verse. so that it is not so much complete in us until it is complete in such a way that there is a new day of access to us, not just access for us. The new day of access to God means now for you a new day of access to you by others.

    Shall we paraphrase, then, for you the golden rule, as we have been setting it out here for you week by week? Listen now, listen Whatever you want others to do for you, when you ask, do for them when they ask. You see how 7 begins with you asking, and then 12 closes with others asking of you. In the covenant. We are taught. That the objective is. Conformity. And is not God in his life open to you. Has he not proved it. Through Jesus Christ. And should you not be now. open to others.

    If you are truly his, you are compelled by what Jesus says. For in hearing him, there is the evidence of your regeneration. But now this one Jesus Christ who informs us of the new day of access and draws us on in this day of access, so that we are accessible to others. Now this one, who in his very person and by way of his death for our sins, and by virtue of his resurrection, actually sealing that day of access that is ours in him, this one delivers to us appropriate good. Now the first warning is laid, as it were, beneath the surface. There, verse 13, it picks up in part on the spirit of that grand invitation. Not only ask, seek and not, but now Jesus says in verse 13, enter in. Jesus invites the disciple to enter life, to enter the kingdom of heaven in full. But as he does, there is this warning that begins to dominate the words of our Savior.

    He sets before us two gates. He tells us that invariably, inevitably, you can’t avoid it. No matter who you are, there are two gates before you and there are two ways upon which you can walk. There are two cities and two destinations, only two. There is heaven and there is hell. You will be gripped by Jesus’ invitation when you enter. He beseeches. He pleads. O disciple of the king, enter. Will you not enter? Jesus says, be on your guard now.

    There is that popular, that easy gate that seems ever so right, but is wrong. On the other hand, there is that unpopular, hard gate, that gate that is narrow and filled even with suffering. that seems ever so long to the world and sadly too much too much of the church.

    But in the end. The one day is the one that by entering you will indeed save your life in this world. The other gate is nothing less than the cross. The route by which you lose your life in this world, but gain it for eternity. Enter the small gate by the narrow way that leads to life indeed.

    But just as Jesus would not have you naive about gates and ways and destinations and cities, he would not have you naive about guides along the road. He would not have you naive about the company you keep. Doesn’t Paul quote for us the Proverbs? Bad company corrupts good manners. But here Jesus has in mind specifically the guides that appear along the road, on the way. And he says, beware. Beware of the false prophets.

    The new day of access, inaugurated by Jesus and the invitation to enter that comes forth from him, does not mitigate the dangers that arise for us in our circumstance, in our present circumstance. Although the kingdom has come with its saving power and its gift of righteousness by grace with its rich and deep blessedness in Christ, still we stand at this time short of glory. We have not entered into heaven yet in our resurrected bodies. And while this circumstance persists, and it shall until Christ comes again, We are in need of this admonition, and that is why it is so tragic to hear some within even believing churches tell us that there is no enemy from within.

    The enemy is only from within. It is a lie. It is a lie. And every false prophet delights in that lie. So then, on the authority of Jesus himself, there are in fact false prophets, those who enter in and tragically take advantage of sheep. Those who purport to know the way and to know it intimately, who can give you all the details, who claim that they themselves are in the way of the true gate that leads to life, but in fact are not.

    Jesus here explicitly describes them. They are wolves. They are ravenous wolves. Don’t be naïve, don’t be deceived. What’s the force of Jesus’ description? Wolves, ravenous wolves. They come disguised as sheep. wolves in sheep’s clothing. They come disguised as harmless, as part of the flock.

    But in the end, they are sheep eaters. And you are their meat. Don’t offer yourself up as meat to sheep eaters. These people are intent upon feeding themselves. They will secure for themselves their well-being at your expense. But you say there’s a problem. Ordinarily, sheep eaters don’t go around with signs on them. They don’t walk around advertising the fact, I am a sheep eater. I am actually a wolf. That’s why they’re wearing sheep’s clothing after all. So how are you to know a sheep eater?

    Jesus tells us that they are recognizable. He tells us that they are recognizable in the fruit that they produce. He tells us bad trees produce bad fruit. You say, I’m listening, Jesus, but I’m not sure I’m helped yet. I’m listening to you, all right? I get the images, I can follow the words, but help me a little more here. What does Jesus mean? What does he have in mind by this fruit of which he speaks? Can we with confidence then recognize the sheep eaters, the wolves?

    No, it is too bad. It is unfortunate that Jesus’ words here in this section, for too long and by too many, have been reduced to a matter of mere good doctrine and good works, as if the contrary were what Jesus had in mind exclusively. Just look for the guy that has bad doctrine. Just look for the fellow that is empty, devoid of good works. Then you’ll know. Is it all that easy?

    Why, Jesus has in mind here unbelieving modernism. He has in mind liberalism. Those who have abandoned the truth, attacked cardinal doctrines of Scripture, turned their back on the virgin birth of Christ as sinless life, His substitutionary death on the cross is bodily resurrection, the authority of the Word of God. Why, it’s everyone that’s not an Orthodox Presbyterian. That’s who he has in mind.

    Now, of course, we do favor good doctrine and good works. But don’t go down that road that nearly reduces Jesus’ statement here to a matter of discerning good doctrine and good work, as if you had in them the infallible guarantee to sort out who the sheep were and who the wolves are.

    That was the problem, you see, that overtook the prophets in the eighth century. The false prophets of Jerusalem, of which the false prophets of Jerusalem, during the time of Isaiah and Micah, we have read from Micah today, the third chapter, for all intents and purposes were orthodox. They preached in the name of Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, and from their point of view they were law keepers. But according to Isaiah and Micah, these men were motivated by their appetite. Isaiah and Micah go to work on them to expose their inner motivation, and that inner motivation clearly manifests itself in their doctrine and in their work, but you have to be clear-headed to see that.

    The false prophets, as maybe you discern from that reading in Micah 3, the false prophets preached the invincibility of Jerusalem. God wouldn’t overthrow Jerusalem. He wouldn’t destroy that city. And these false prophets proclaim to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the certainty of an earthly rule of which they were going to get a sizable portion.

    In fact, they already were getting a sizable portion. The prophets prophesied for money. They feasted on the things of this world and worked for the increase of this world’s good, as those goods were accumulated for themselves. They preached for the wages of unrighteousness, for the sake of mammon. They were prophets for profit, who manipulated doctrine and law to their own advantage. Leaders who, in the end, were incapable of suffering for the sake of God’s cause and the cause of the eternal kingdom. There was no cross in their gospel. None. None. In the end, they proved that they are not reborn, they are not a good tree.

    In the end, they prove they are interested in one thing, satisfying themselves, and you are here for that purpose. Did you know your purpose is to feed my ego? As well as my pocketbook? To make sure I have a secure and safe life? to make sure my authority is not challenged and I can rule over you with an iron fist, make demands and see you jump? Did you know that it is your purpose to build for me my kingdom, my empire? Now we’ve gotten off to a slow start, but I do have plans. And you can all be a part of it. You can be on the first floor. Well, in the expansion we’ll even dedicate a brick to you. You’ve heard the appeals. The foolish. The money dragon. You’ve heard the message from the walls, and it doesn’t have one thing to do with the cross, despite what they say. In the end, it isn’t a matter of conservative versus liberal, is it? For we’re hearing so much from evangelicals and conservatives who are saying just that. when all of the debris and subterfuge is cleared.

    Beware of the false prophets, says Jesus. In the end, these prophets prove themselves removed from that great, true and final prophet. The true vine the right and proper tree, the righteous branch, the one productive of perfect fruit, who sacrifices himself in his love for his sheep. No wolf, no sheep eater, but the veritable lamb of God. who takes away our sin. Let’s pray. Lord, would you impress upon us the greatness of Jesus, the great and true and final prophet of ours. How marvelous a prophet he is, proclaiming to us the riches that are found in him, the way of salvation, the gate by which we might enter in, he having gone before us. But Lord, we pray too, that we would be on the alert against all false prophets, and may we not give in to them an inch. but call them what they are, sheep eaters, bulls, who would devour the sheep so that they might be satisfied. Oh Lord, protect your church, guard her along the way, may we with all humility cry out unto you that we might be preserved.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Beyond a Moralistic Golden Rule

    Beyond a Moralistic Golden Rule

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 7, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Two common misreadings of the Golden Rule in 7:12 come from cutting the verse off from 7:7-11 just before it. The verse also ties back to 6:14-15’s teaching on forgiveness. A moralistic reading and a redemptive-historical reading produce two different Golden Rules.

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    Sermon transcript

    It’s from Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7, we are reading. Matthew 7, verse 1. And the word of God. After it shall be given you, take them you shall find. After it shall be opened unto you, for everyone that asketh will see this, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that lacketh it shall be opened.

    For what man is corrupt through whom, if his son asks bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a servant? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, Do ye even so to them? For this is the Law and the Prophets.

    This story is told of two men boarding a plane one evening for a trip together. After having traveled on the plane, they began to exchange comments. They enter into a discussion, and they find out one is an astronomer, the other is a minister. And the astronomer ventures forth his philosophy of life, and turns his comments to religion, and says finally to the minister, After all, isn’t the substance of religion do unto others as you’d have them do unto you? The minister was silent. He looked out the window, looked at the stars in the heavens. Then after a moment’s silence, he turned to the astronomer, He said, would you be interested in my view of astronomy? And the astronomer said, well, of course. To which the minister then said, twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.

    Well, you know me well enough to understand that I don’t usually begin sermons with public stories, but this one is very useful because it does call attention to two problems in relationship to the so-called golden rule. which appears for us this morning in Matthew 7 verse 12 and reads this way in that text.

    And therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them. This is the law of the prophets. The two problems presented here by the astronomer’s approach to religion as we go version of the golden rule, are these. One, there is always that temptation to isolate this text, making it into an individual gem, an isolated individual gem, a pearl of wisdom that could appear virtually on its own. Stand by itself.

    And the second problem, of course, is this. That there are the many who see the Golden Rule as the sum and substance of biblical religion. So you have these two difficulties. a wrenching of the passage out of context, and the other one, the temptation to see this woven rule as the sum and substance of biblical religion, and that in its detached, isolated form. Well, as to the first problem, As we noted already, there is that habit to separate this 12th verse in Matthew 7 from the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, and from the rest of Scripture for that matter.

    The text then standing on its own, becoming an independent maxim. In the hands of some, this approach goes to the extreme. you have those who then wish to reduce the sum and substance of all of religion to what is found here. Those who look to Jesus as some sort of wise sage, a person who is given to the presentation of a religious philosophy. There are those within the Church who have taken a disturbing approach to the passage as well.

    There are those who see the passage also as an independent maxim, a pearl that stands by itself. In fact, they go so far as to say that verse 12 in chapter 7 of Matthew doesn’t belong there at all. It was an isolated statement by Jesus. It was placed here by Matthew for reasons known only to him, or for reasons which in the end don’t really work, don’t really suit the context. Now, we do have to face the difficulty of verse twelve here in this context. For the connection between this twelfth verse and what has gone before, verses seven through eleven, is not easy.

    Still, that connection is real and intelligible. First of all, note this, if you will. Note what Jesus says at the beginning of the 12th verse. He has there the word, therefore, obviously, in his mind, there is a connection between this verse and what has preceded.

    And this verse, then, provides a conclusion to what has gone before, what we have read, what we have heard in verses 7 through 11. Verses seven through twelve, then, hang together. They are a whole. And Jesus, as he gives us this twelfth verse, intends that verse to be a conclusion to what he has been saying in this section. Now note, secondly, in this twelfth verse there is the preservation of, the maintenance of, the general theme of these verses. You know how these verses start out. Verse 7, ask, seek, long. There is the theme of inquiry. There is that theme of the approach to God, gaining access to God, asking. And that theme is then carried through The theme is there.

    In fact, as you read the twelfth verse, you may want to do a little bit of paraphrasing of your own, so that the passage would read this way. Whatever you want others to do for you, when you ask, do for them when they ask. Fill out that 12th verse in terms of the theme of asking things. We could paraphrase the text this way and paraphrase it well. Whatever you want others to do for you when you ask them, do for them when they ask you. for his mention in that 11th verse of giving. How much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him? You could paraphrase that 12th verse in terms of giving. Whatever you want others to give to you, give to them.

    So you see, Even though there may be problems for us as we read through this section and move from verses seven through eleven to the twelfth verse, recognizing problems, there is a wholeness there. There is an integrity. Verse twelve is completing the thought, maintaining the theme of asking. And thirdly, I want you to know how consistent this statement is twelve years with what we find elsewhere in the sermon on the mouth.

    You know how much Jesus in the sermon on the mouth is interested in the action, the activity of his servants of the site of the game. That method used by Jesus, whereby he seems to turn things around on you in order to draw you in so that you would see that what he has in mind is not complete until there is an action on your part, an activity performed by you. You know how in this 12th verse, for instance, you know how Jesus reverses the direction that he has been moving in verses 7 through 11.

    In verses 7 through 11, we are the ones who have been asking. Ask, and it shall be given to you. But then you come to the twelfth verse, and there it says, if the process is reversed and others are asking of you. That pattern is also observed when Jesus gives his instructions with regard to prayer in the sixth chapter. You remember the petition.

    The fifth petition, verse twelve of Matthew six, and forgive us our debts. But then he concludes, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and if this petition were the very center of the prayer that he is teaching his disciples, he chooses it to comment upon At the conclusion, verses fourteen and fifteen.

    For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. You’re asking for the discharge of the debt. But brought into view is you discharging debt. You’re asking for forgiveness, but brought into view is your forgiving attitude, your willingness to forgive. Jesus’ instruction on prayer in Matthew 6 is not complete until he’s gone on to tell his disciples that fact. Unless you will forgive, you will not be forgiven. Or forgive with the very same spirit of the One who has forgiven you. emulate your God, imitate Him, pattern yourself after Him.

    Well, the impact of this, as we look at verse twelve, has to do with our attitude. has to do with the covenantal structure of things. God, indeed, acting through us, as we’ve seen in verses 7 through 11, but then you act in it. We respond in it. And actually, how does God establish it? And so does God, with respect to God, deal with it. So we will be forgiven as we have forgiven. Good will be given to us as we have found good.

    With all of this, then, in an effort to demonstrate our peace, we have here a passage that is intricate, that cannot be chopped up, that flows, that moves, that hangs, that breaks. Now moving on to the second problem with regard to the so-called danger rule, that is likely to be turned into the sum and substance of biblical religion. And here the habit is, to take this text as if Jesus were the advocate of some form of moralism, as if religion could be reduced to morals, and that’s all that it was. As if it pertained merely to our behavior, as if it pertained merely to ethics, forgetting the power that would animate us, in the performance of those duties that are required, as if it were oblivious to the undergirding redemptive works of God, as if we could forget about the necessity of Christ’s death on the cross for our sins, the necessity of his bodily resurrection for our redemption, as if religion were morals and had nothing to do with salvation, deliverance, and redemption.

    I hope that you recoil from these things. I hope as I survey or analyze that approach to religion that reduces everything to morals, that you are recoiling internally, and that you find that abhorrent, because it means the loss of everything that is precious to you with respect to the gospel of Has Christ come merely to give you a code of behavior? Has He arrived merely to tell you one more time what you ought to do? Or has He come to save you? Has He shed His blood for you, and not necessarily, in order to deliver you out of the present evil age and rule over the present life?

    Morals are fine, but you see they are in consequence of God’s redemptive activity. That’s called even the wettest of the wicked, or what’s invincible in the Bible. Morals in themselves can’t stand the good behavior of the worldly is an abomination to God, you must be born again. If you are not born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Well, how do we deliver this text from the moralists? How do we understand it in a redemptive frame?

    Well, I’ve suggested the route already. It is essential to see at the center of this text the asking experience that we’ve already spoken of. Do you realize what’s going on when someone makes requests of another? That one who makes requests is literally placing himself in the power of the one he asks. In asking of God, we are placing ourselves in God’s power. But note now, when we come to God, asking of Him, placing ourselves in His power, how wonderfully God responds to us.

    And this response of Him to us, undergirded by and sealed by His response to us in His Son, in the gift of His Son and in the gift of the Holy Spirit. All of that, the foundation of God’s response to us when we make requests of Him. But by this redemption now, this great work of redemption, we are brought into vital relationship with our God. And what is the consequence of that? Having been brought into vital relationship with our God, we are now compelled to respond with the graciousness and the generosity of our God to those who place themselves in our power when they ask of us, when they make requests. Our response to those who ask of us, then, is conditioned and controlled by God himself, who, in response to us, gave his all for us. And therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, when you ask of them, Do so for them if they ask of you. This is the law and the prophets.

    Yes, in the end it proves to be the sum and substance of biblical religion, but biblical religion understood now within that redemptive salvation frame. truly a revelation of the truth. I understand as we reach the end of the matter. In our studies of this text. It is not merely a new game.

    Of access to the father through the work of the It is a new day of access of others to us. Never before could you respond as you are capable of responding now in Christ when others make requests of you. Let’s pray together. Our Lord, we do beseech you that you would be kind and merciful continually For we do in fact make requests of you, but Lord, may we not be blind to the fact that others make requests of us. And may we learn well the lessons of the gospel. May we understand well the person of the Father in heaven and what you have done in Christ your Son. so that when others come to us, we might respond to them graciously and generously as you have responded to us for Christ’s sake. We pray this now, Lord, having set before us that testament to the fact that you have responded to our need in Christ Jesus, in his death, for us sinners on the cross. It’s in his name that we pray. Amen. As we come to the Lord’s table, we ask that we would sing together hymn 186. 186.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • An Astounding New Access to God

    An Astounding New Access to God

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 23, 1990.

    About this sermon

    ‘Ask, seek, knock’ in Matthew 7:7 describes an access to God so astounding that, set against it, even the real access Old Testament saints had can look like almost none at all. Psalm 88, one of Scripture’s bleakest psalms, supplies the contrast deliberately. Christ’s coming changed what access to God actually means; it did far more than improve on prayer.

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    Sermon transcript

    We will begin our scripture reading with Psalm 88. Let us hear the inspired servant of the Lord. O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee. Let my prayer come before thee, inclined by near unto my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

    I am counted with them that go down into the pits I am, as a man that hath no strength, free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more. And they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. My wrath lie apart upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy ways. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me. Thou hast made me an abomination unto them. I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction.

    Lord, I have called daily upon Thee. I have stretched out my hands unto Thee. Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? shall by lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or by faithfulness in destruction shall by wonders be known in the dark and by righteousness in the land of forgetfulness. But unto thee have I cried, O Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.”

    Lord, why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from me? I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water. They compassed me about together. Lover and friend, hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darkness.”

    Then, turning to Matthew 7, verses 7 and 8, Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

    Our hearts, Lord, yearn for your word, and your word is a feast for us. We are fed. Yes, we are fed from your hand with those things that you give out of the produce of the earth, but we are also fed from your hand out of heaven as your word comes as our sustenance. we are preserved, Lord, and we will be satisfied with what you give. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    There are a couple more messages in this section of the Sermon on the Mount. verses 7 through 12 of Matthew 7. Next week we will be taking up the matter of, well, do I get everything I want and everything I ask for then? And the following week we will be dealing with verse 12, the so-called golden rule. But this morning we are focusing again on verses 7 and 8.

    These words of Jesus explode. They explode with newness and with a freshness They explode as if they were glad tidings in themselves, as if these words were in fact gospel to waiting ears. Ask, seek, knock, and you won’t be disappointed. The effectiveness of this statement by Christ, this invitation and this appeal, the effectiveness of these words is heightened by the build-up that we’ve had in the Sermon on the Mount to this point. What goes before Chapter 6, then, verse 1 to the 7th chapter of the 6th verse. We have listed there for us, repeatedly, the negative imperatives, the negative commands.

    Jesus saying, when you pray, don’t pray like this. When you give your arahomes, don’t give them in this fashion. He tells you not to lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. He tells you, don’t be anxious. He says at the beginning of the seventh chapter there, don’t judge. And then in verse six of that chapter, don’t give what is holy to God. These seven negative imperatives then commands from Christ are an exposition of that practice of righteousness that distinguishes disciples who are in and of the kingdom of heaven.

    But then there comes this astounding affirmation, variously phrased, Ask, Seek, Knock, and you won’t be disappointed. It has been our contention thus far that the newness that we hear in these verses, the freshness that grabs us, is a result of what God is doing in Christ. God at work. The kingdom of heaven has come, and at the center of this kingdom is the person and work of God’s Son. the very one who presently speaks in these verses. Therefore, the power of these words is not merely felt because of the buildup from the prior verses. Rather, the power of these words is felt because of the buildup of the entirety of the history of redemption. With these words you burst into New Testament fullness and fulfillment.

    The freshness, the newness then, is ultimately traceable to the fact that God himself is doing something fresh. and new, something that he has never done before. God has acted, and now the very face of things is changed. The very complexion of things is altered. And because God has acted, you can be assured that when you ask, seek, or knock, you will not be disappointed.

    Do you pick up on the force of what Jesus is saying here? From the way These words are phrased, it is as if never before has the Father in heaven been accessible as he is now. You have entered a new day. It is, in fact, a day in which you live according to God’s calendar.

    But you may ask, hadn’t God acted previously? Hadn’t he been accessible throughout the Old Testament? Well, of course, the answer to these questions is Yes, we know God had acted. We know God had been accessible. Still, is it not clear to us that the Old Testament was afflicted by limitation? Is that not clear to us? Are we not able to say that the Old Testament was itself plagued even by weakness? If that were not the case, what need would there have been for Christ? Don’t you remember the statements that are made about the prior administration? Now be assured, we are reformed people. We hold to the unity of the covenants, the integrity of our Bible. We believe that the Old Testament is useful to us. It is God’s inspired Word. and that the law is righteous, holy and good.

    Nevertheless, are we not convinced that that administration that precedes the coming of Christ and the appearance of the kingdom of heaven in him was an administration that was characterized by incompletion? It was a preparatory administration. It was no end in itself, but pushes on to fulfillment. John will say, the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Not so as to fault the law by no means. only to point out the fact that the law under Moses was a provisional administration.

    So when the new comes, that older administration is variously characterized. Paul will tell us that it had a glory, but its glory was fading. He will say that it was an administration of the letter, but now there has come the administration of the Spirit. He will even go so far as to say that that former administration is a revelation of God, but under a veil. He will tell us that in certain aspects it is worthy to be characterized with the rudimentary and beggarly elements of this present world and present age. destined to pass, for it was provisional, temporary, incomplete.

    And we learn from Paul the Apostle elsewhere that this administration was but a tutor to lead us to Christ, Galatians 3. And what shall we say of Paul in yet other passages or the epistle to the Hebrews that speaks so pointedly with regard to this matter, suggesting to us then that we are dealing in the old administration with the copy of things, shadows, that await the arrival of the reality.

    God’s revelation of himself, therefore, in the Old Testament came with certain limitations. There were weaknesses that cried out for the strength and the fullness that we find in Christ that would be resolved only by way of him. When we come to the matter of the approach of God’s people, therefore, in that older administration, their asking, their seeking, their knocking, their approach to God, do we find there limitations, weaknesses as well? Well, we do, in fact, find limitations and weaknesses.

    Israel’s religion takes shape around the mediation of that earthly priesthood. And think of the arrangement in the camp and for the nation The males of age can approach the altar, but women and children have to stay at a distance, and beyond them there is the court of the Gentiles. But no one but the priest is able to enter into the sanctuary in that former administration.

    The Old Testament in this regard, even when we come to the matter of access, of approach to God, himself is preparatory. And through that older priesthood there was the pointing forward to the ministry of God’s great and final High Priest. Jesus Christ, through whom all God’s children are given new and fresh access to the Father.

    That’s what Galatians 3.28 is all about.

    The passage that is being debated back and forth now within Protestant circles with respect to the matter of office, with respect to the whole matter of the place of women in the Church. People grab hold of that text in which Paul says, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And they suggest to us that that passage pertains to office. That passage does not pertain to office. in the sense in which it is made to pertain in the hands of some.

    The point is now, the former distinctions and barriers that were in place in the old administration in the courts of the tabernacle and in the courts of the temple have been torn down, so that now Jew and Greek, slave and free man, those who formerly had no access male and female, are all one in Christ and may have direct access to the Father, just as the priest did in the Old Testament. So yes, it’s true, is it not?

    There were administrative limitations to the Old Testament economy, even with respect to the approach one made to God, the access one had to him. But these limitations and weaknesses are now overcome in Christ. We are faced likewise in the Old Testament with certain limitations with respect to the religious spirit. with regard to the personality of those who would approach, the religious reflection of those who would approach God. So that we find, throughout that older administration, throughout the Old Testament, anywhere short of God’s conclusive act in Christ, that there remains a constant battle for the religious soul that invariably breaks out in expressions of utter desperation. As you read through the Old Testament, are there not there found examples in which you can detect the notes of hesitation, reservation, if not doubt, as you hear, as you listen to the anguished cry of the religious soul seeking God, asking of Him, knocking that it might be open.

    Genesis 4.26, a marvelous, marvelous text, records for us the birth of Seth that then goes on and says, “…and then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.”

    There’s great argument and debate about the force and power of that statement at the end of Genesis 4. But would you note the context of that birth? Read through the entirety of that fourth chapter. In fact, read through the third and the fourth chapter to get the force and power of what is being said there.

    You come then to the end of that chapter, and hearing that text aright, you discern the strain that is laid within the line, the strain of the soul. men beginning to call upon the name of the Lord, because the Lord himself is not obviously there. He is absent, and their cry unto him is one of desperation. Why? Because the sons of Cain have taken over the world, and they are the purveyors of violence and destruction. The call upon the name of the Lord is a desperate act.

    What do we do about the repeated statements that we find in the Psalms? Have you puzzled over some of those statements? To be sure, as we all know, the Psalter is filled with such glorious affirmations of faith and confidence, we go to the Psalms to be built up. These men, inspired of God, speaking with faith and assurance, how beautiful it is.

    And you note what is said in that 145th Psalm, which we read and sang today. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He will hear their cry. He will save them. Yet, at the same time, you have those marvelous expressions of confidence and assurance.

    You’re faced with statement after statement that reveal great anguish of soul. You hear the opening of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And what do you do with Psalm 88? Were you on the downward side of things as we concluded the reading of that psalm this morning? To be sure, it’s not without hope, it’s not without faith. He is calling upon the Lord in that psalm, but then there come those questions.

    Is there any remembrance of thee in the grave? Am I not about to go into the land of forgetfulness?” You see, anywhere short of that conclusive act of God in Christ, There remain these unresolved perplexities that afflict the human soul, and when Jesus Christ comes, he will take every one of them to himself for you. That your doubts and fears may be resolved, that you would never, ever have to take upon your lips those words. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

    Those words had been said for the last time by Christ. And there’s the resolution to the question of the psalmist that he asks in Psalm 88 concerning the grave. You know, on the third day he came out of the tomb, he was raised. And whatever doubts and fears and troubles of spirit and anguish that we find expressed there on the pages of the Old Testament now have their resolution by root of that action from God.

    Psalm 88 is not a psalm that many like to read, let alone sing. Because, as I said, it seems to end on the downward side. But how important that psalm is. Do we need bring up the book of Ecclesiastes? Have you read Ecclesiastes recently? Have you puzzled over the apparent despair of this man who speaks? Vanity of vanity, all is vanity, a striving after wind, emptiness, nothingness, meaninglessness.

    So yes, with respect to the whole matter of the religious soul seeking access to God out of the pages of the Old Testament, there comes marvelous affirmation, but also statements of doubt, question, even despair. As if all of this weren’t enough, you have the concrete action of God with regard to the nation as a whole. He has been accessible in that Old Testament way to these people. But now they in their sin have rebelled in such a way that they bring down upon them his wrath.

    And he says, I will not hear you anymore. Ask all you want. Seek me all you want. Knock as often as you care. But I will not respond to you because of your sin. And then come Jesus’ words. Against this background come Jesus’ words. Ask. Seek. Knock. It’s a new day. And you don’t have to be afraid. Needn’t be plagued by worry or doubt. Ask, seek, knock and be assured that you will not be disappointed. What a wonderful, wonderful day of access it is. Are we not encouraged in the epistle to the Hebrews?

    Come boldly to the throne of grace. You see why it’s a new day for access to the one who sits upon the throne. Jesus himself will say in John’s gospel, ask anything in my name and the Father will give it to you. In Luke’s gospel he says, ask the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will be given to you who will come in the language of the Apostle Paul as a down payment of your inheritance above. And he who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” It’s the new day of access for the people of God. So great is your assurance, then, in this circumstance in which you live. that if you say to this mountain, Be ye picked up and carried into the midst of the sea, it shall be done. Ask in faith, doubting nothing, and it shall be accomplished.”

    We’re shocked. We’re liable to be sitting there and saying, it isn’t true. It isn’t true. It’s a fiction. It doesn’t work. Oh yes, it does. So much is this the point, and I say this in conclusion, that as Jesus expresses himself in these two verses, 7 and 8 of that seventh chapter, You are given no hint whatsoever that there is anything that you can ask that God won’t give you. And that is precisely the impression that Jesus wishes these words to make on you. Whatever limitations we may come up with in further consideration, whatever we may say next week about the limits The impact of these words upon the hearer is, ask what you will. Seek, Rock.

    It will all be given to you. For such is the heart of our Father in Heaven with respect to all of his dear, called, chosen children. Lord, we would take our asking, seeking and knocking very seriously in light of the new day that has come. Free us from doubt and fear and anguish of soul, through the ministration of your Son who is at work in us, to convince us of what is true above, where you reign. ready and willing to respond to those who now have access to you through a new and living way through Jesus Christ.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Idea-Centered or Event-Centered

    Idea-Centered or Event-Centered

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 16, 1990.

    About this sermon

    “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Matthew 7:7-12 gathers up the themes of the Sermon on the Mount, asking, seeking and giving, under the Father who gives good gifts. Jesus speaks as a preacher, not a lecturer, full of power and urgency. Jeremiah 29 promised that after the exile God would let himself be found by those who sought him. That day has come in Christ, God’s decisive act; preaching should announce what God has done, not lecture on ideas.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning our scripture reading is found, first of all, in the book of Jeremiah, and that before we turn over to the book of Matthew in the New Testament. So, Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 4 through 14. Let’s hear what God says. “‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon, build ye houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, that ye may be increased there and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city, whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Let not your prophets and your diviners that be in the midst of you deceive you, neither hearken to their dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.

    For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name. I have not sent them, saith the Lord. For thus saith the Lord.” that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and I will perform my good word toward you in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

    Then shall ye call upon me.” and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord. and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.” Then from Matthew 7, verses 7-12, verse 8, “…ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find.” knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

    For what man is there of you whom if his son ask bread will give him a stone, or if he ask a fish will give him a serpent? If he then, being evil, Know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?

    Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.” with me now. Our hearts come to you, Lord, we present them. We would be satisfied with your word, filled with what you have for us there. And, Father, we would pray for your servants throughout this land and around the world who give forth that word today. May they be blessed mightily as they proclaim that word in truth, and may the Lord Jesus Christ be set before the congregations that belong to you and before the nations, that there might be strengthening for the saints, that there might be light and salvation for those who are lost. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    Is this not the masterpiece? Is this not the masterpiece of sermons given by the one who is in fact the master preacher? It was not easy in its construction. An analysis of this sermon has occupied the Church since it was given. It has riches, depths to be mined, and the Church has been about the task of digging out the treasures of this sermon from it, from the time Jesus spoke it so many centuries ago. What a masterpiece from the Master, from the Master Preacher, Jesus himself.

    What Jesus has to say now, in verses 7 through 12 of this seventh chapter in Matthew, begins his summary of things. Now, I know that in your Bibles the paragraphs might be divided differently. In the commentaries that you might consult, you might find that the commentators have divided the passage differently. But at this point, in verses 7 through 12 of that seventh chapter, Jesus begins His summary of things. In these verses, He begins to draw together many points of reference from throughout that sermon thus far.

    For instance, these verses, it seems plain on the surface of things, doesn’t it? These verses have something to do with prayer. Ask, and it will be given you. But these aren’t the first remarks that Jesus has made in this sermon about prayer. You remember what he has said, for instance, in the sixth chapter, verses 5 through 14. And when you pray, etc., etc., And then, beginning with verse 9 of that sixth chapter, there is given to you what has been called the Lord’s Prayer. And Jesus has some remarks to make about that prayer in verses 14 and 15. So, you see, this is not the first instance in which Jesus has spoken about prayer in the Sermon on the Mount.

    You might also note the themes of asking, seeking and giving that occur here in the verses that are before us this morning. And although each of these themes is given something of a different cast in other passages, the themes themselves are not new.

    You might look at the 5th chapter, the 42nd verse. where Jesus says, give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. With regard to seeking, you have chapter 6, verse 33, that most famous of verses, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. As to the giving, in a somewhat sardonic twist of things, you have the 6th verse of that 7th chapter. Do not give what is holy to dogs. The themes are there. Whether it’s a matter of asking or seeking or giving, the themes are there, but now they’re being drawn together once more in summary fashion. Notice this also.

    There is the figure, the incomparable figure in this sermon of the Father, our Father, who is in heaven. Would you not say that the figure of the Father who is in heaven clearly dominates the sermon throughout? Jesus directing the attention of his disciples to the one who is above, who reigns over all, and is kindly disposed to his own. So, the Heavenly Father is prominent in these verses as well. Verse 11. sort of the fulcrum upon which the passage itself depends.

    If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your own children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give that which is good to those who ask him? A marvelous summary statement as things are now being drawn together by Jesus. The Father in heaven throughout the sermon is to be the pattern for believers’ life. You remember how Jesus puts it at the end of chapter 5, verse 48? Therefore, you ought to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

    And as we move, then, from that eleventh to the twelfth verse in chapter seven, consideration of the Father in heaven in verse eleven, on to what is called the golden rule in verse twelve. Is it not the pattern that is found in the Heavenly Father that determines our behavior towards others? Likewise, Jesus’ remarks about the Heavenly Father are foundational, too, fundamental to the spirit of His whole message, in that our consideration of our Father above, our Father who is in heaven, is meant to inspire in us confidence. meant to ease our fears, we being His children, meant to stop our worry, to call to a halt our anxiety. Jesus says this with respect to the Father in heaven.

    Chapter 6, verse 26, look at the birds of the air. that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” Don’t be anxious. Why? Because you have a Father in heaven. Who cares for you?

    And now that spirit that has been at work throughout the sermon to this point is asserting itself and asserting itself in a summary fashion, conclusively and so powerfully. One other item that drives us to the conclusion that Jesus now has begun his conclusion in this sermon is what is said at the end of that twelfth verse. We know that verse as the golden rule. Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them.

    But Jesus concludes this way, for this is the law and the prophets. The mention of the law and the prophets rings a bell, for with that phrase are we not taken back to the fifth chapter, the seventeenth verse? Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

    So Jesus now is drawing all of these matters by making reference to particular points throughout the sermon. He is bringing to a conclusion his remarks. Here begins his summary, his push on to the end. Listen to him carefully as he speaks summarily. There’s something else here. as we make our way with respect to the text and as we gain an appreciation of the sermon and the preacher. For we will note as Jesus begins his conclusion, as this summary is put in place now and commences, We are faced with comments that are so remarkably fresh and exhilarating.

    It’s almost as if you’re hardly on the downward swing, hardly involved in a descent. Rather, it’s almost as if you’re on ascent. Things are building. And as you hear Jesus speak here, your pulse quickens and you’re drawn in. So, if you have been paying attention to this point throughout the sermon, you will be all the more intent now as Jesus begins to speak in the fashion in which He does. The freshness of it, the remarkable, exhilarating character, how it bursts out to you and from the page, Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

    The text shouts at us, even if Jesus didn’t. There is nothing stale here. There is nothing pedantic. There is nothing formal or wooden about his style or his approach or his vocabulary. There is no mere rehash here. Nor is there anything that smacks of quaintness or banality. There is nothing of the lecturer in Jesus. For Jesus is the preacher. And as such, he is brimming over, overflowing with power and urgency and appeal. Ask. Seek. Knock.

    I’m sorry to say that we, for the most part, are robbed of this perspective on preaching in our time. Much of what we witness in Jesus the preacher is gone out of preaching presently. A great deal of preaching in our time has become conversational. It’s almost as if the preacher were standing beside a fireplace and merely chatting with us. Sermons for all too many have become talks. with ministers trained in the art of cool communication, subtle persuasion, if not out-and-out manipulation. Preachers nowadays do in fact chat with us calmly, evenly, rationally. It’s not that a number of them don’t do this well, they do it very well. In fact, they have become quite professional at it. And tragically, many Christians have come to prefer this tame and civilized approach.

    None of this business of men clothed in camel hair, strapped together with a leather belt, eating honey and locusts. None of this wild-eyed prophet stuff. Please excuse me!” And although many would not admit it or even recognize it, their tastes have gone over to what might be called the religious discourse, if not lecture. but hardly, hardly preaching. Preaching is not faring well. And you might say, well, it’s the fault of the preachers, or it’s the fault of the seminaries. Well, I think that that could be said, But you see, it’s also your fault because you stand for it. You tolerate it. And in some cases, even prefer it.

    Well, what’s the difference? You don’t like the confrontational approach of preaching? You don’t like its hot and direct address form? Let me ask you, what is the difference between the professional conversationalist, the religious lecturer, and the preacher? What’s the difference? Do you know? Is it just because the preacher gets excited and the lecturer doesn’t? The lecturer is automatically and invariably dull? That’s not true.

    Well, as to that difference, here it is. At the heart of things, The conversationalist, the religious lecturer, is interested in ideas. He is interested in ideas. They may be very orthodox ideas, quite rational, quite wonderfully conveyed. They may even be animated by illustrations, annotated with cute, clever, even incisive inquiries into the human personality. But in the end, the heart of things is the idea. The mind.

    Preaching, however, has a different focus. and there is something else altogether at its heart. You see, preaching is proclamation of an event. Preaching is electrified by and centered upon the activity of God. his concrete action. God has done something. And now, what he has done is announced and explained by the preacher to the healer. As the church moves away from the proclamation character of preaching, she loses her true power and urgency.

    Not that there hasn’t been effectiveness in the present all-too-common method to which we are subjected, Not that we aren’t witnessing its great success. Have you visited a megachurch? Not that the people under its spell aren’t becoming, what we might call in worldly terms, better people, exalting the ethical. Thank you, Immanuel Kant.

    More restrained, more comfortable, even more civilized. that even though that is true, the preaching and the people are out of step with Jesus, his method and his message, regardless of their piety and religious posture. So I have said to you this morning that Jesus is bringing together this remarkable sermon, and He is proving to be the preacher to the end. And that being the case, as the preacher, his interests are not to communicate to you some abiding principle. for better moral health. Nor is His purpose to communicate to you some eternally valid idea about God and His relationship to humanity. As if when he said, ask and it shall be given to you, he had in mind the notion that humanity must grasp the fact that Deity, the Divine Father, is eternally open and accessible to everyone.

    His message then being nearly that we must get that idea straight in our thinking. Actually, you see, Jesus’ words are conditioned by the fact that something has happened. God is at work, and in his action he is, in fact, discriminating between his own and those who are not. between his disciples and those who are not. His action makes sense against the background of what we know from the prophets.

    For as we read in Jeremiah this morning, It becomes clear to us that there was envisioned a coming day when God would respond to His own. He would respond to those who called upon Him, who asked of Him, who sought Him out. He would answer them, and that conclusively, unmistakably, and infallibly. You can read the verses again for yourself, Jeremiah 29, verses 12 and 13.

    The captivity will come to an end and it will inaugurate an era in which God will turn his ear to his people and he will allow himself to be found by them. So therefore, you see, What is at the center of Jesus’ preaching, even here in verse 7 of chapter 7, is an event, an unprecedented event. God has acted afresh.

    And now, whereby formerly it may have been that you felt you had no access, or there was no access, the day of access has arrived. And you can walk right into the midst of heaven and make request of your Father there. There has never been a day like this before in the history of the world. And the beautiful thing about it is that day hasn’t ended. You’re still in it.

    What of your confidence then? Why are you so fearful? Why do you doubt when you approach the throne? Don’t you know that your Heavenly Father wants to give you all the good things of the kingdom? Isn’t it plain to you and that predicated upon the fact that God has acted so to prove it to you?

    The very one who speaks proves it. For he is, after all, that final, conclusive, summary, action of God. Ideas may change, they may come and go, But the event is fixed. You cannot make it not so. You cannot undo it. God has come. It is fixed. And now your faith is fixed. And so is your access in the kingdom. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? Right now, are you conscious of your access to heaven because of what Jesus Christ has done?

    Do you know you have a hearing? and that your Father delights in giving you the things that you ask for in his kingdom. Well, Jesus puts it this way in John’s Gospel. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything, he will give it to you in my name. Until now, you see there’s the event character of it all, until now you have asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be made full. Jesus the preacher then. Here, wonderfully drawing his message to a conclusion, but not losing his grip on preaching’s true and proper focus, the activity of God. That God who now in his Son has made himself accessible as never before.

    Come. Come, won’t you? Don’t you venture on Christ? Come to the waters. You who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Come. Ask. We are bold, our God, to venture on you, for you have come to us. You have come to us in Jesus Christ, our Savior. and in him you have inaugurated a new day of access unto you. We thank you and pray that we might venture upon the activity which you have performed for us and upon the promises that are laid within that activity. Surely you will not turn us away, but delight in giving us the things of the kingdom of heaven.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • An Event, Not an Idea

    An Event, Not an Idea

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 9, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Christ’s teaching on the mountain presents the historical event of the kingdom of heaven arriving, and it offers neither an idea nor a moral system. In 7:7, ‘ask, and it shall be given,’ the cross and resurrection already stand inside a simple imperative. The whole Sermon on the Mount belongs to the category of event.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning our scripture reading is found in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 7. And we begin reading at verse 7, and we will read through verse 23. Hear the word of God. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. For what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.

    For this is the law and the prophet. enter ye in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

    Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.” A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them.

    Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. that he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?

    And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Let’s try to get it out. Our Father, our desire is for the Word, and we know that your elect around the world desire that Word as well. We do pray, our Father, that they may be fed as we are fed this day. May we delight in your Word, and may we have that Word to the full that we may fully serve you. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    We have some unfinished business. Some unfinished business with the Sermon on the Mount. We have been studying the Sermon on the Mount over the course of some time, but some of you will remember that our study of this sermon broke off last December, as we began to consider some other things, that now we want to return to the Sermon on the Mount, picking up here with the sixth verse of the seventh chapter, and finish the course. What I would like to do this morning, as we become reacquainted with the Sermon on the Mount is to set the table. Set the table for the final course in this incomparable feast served up to us in Jesus’ sermon from that Mount. There are a number of things that we do well to keep in mind. You have the table and its setting. You have the guests assembled. But you also have the atmosphere. The air that all breathe as they sit down at banquet. with the Lord.

    Is it any mistake that Jesus has ascended a mountain to preach this most glorious of sermons? Do we see in the mount that he ascends at that time another mount which he will ascend? And as he speaks from that mountain to his disciples in former times, does he continue now to speak from a mountain in glory, from Zion itself? And has he changed his mind? Does he say something different from the mountain in glory that he said from the mountain in Galilee.

    Mahdo. So as we give our consideration to this feast, this feast on the Word, let us keep in mind the atmosphere, the air we breathe, it is supercharged. It is well for us to keep in mind then, if we are going to go at this sermon aright, what is in the air as Jesus speaks. I cannot emphasize it enough. I cannot speak of it too often to you. But what this sermon has at its center is not an idea as if Jesus was the latest in a long list of worldly philosophers. One more who has come down the road with a bright new idea to make sense out of living. In the air, then, as Jesus speaks, at the center of that atmosphere that pervades is not an idea, neither is it a moral.

    As if Jesus were an ethicist, concerned principally above all else with behavior and morality. Liberals and decadent Protestants are interested in morality. Kant is interested in ethics. Jesus is interested in redemption. At the center then is not a bright new idea as if Jesus were a philosopher at the center is not some sort of moral ideal, as if Jesus were an ethicist. Jesus is not someone who comes bearing sage wisdom, wise words to live by. He doesn’t even bring a theological notion.

    You see, what is central for this atmosphere is an event. An event. Not something mental, but something historical. Something momentous has occurred. God has acted. God has done something. And his action is unprecedented. Never has he acted as he has now acted. Listen to Jesus with regard to this event. He makes himself known in Galilee, Matthew 4, verse 17.

    From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You hear it? The kingdom of heaven is at hand. In fact, now Jesus comes announcing the advent of that kingdom. It is that event that supercharges the air, the atmosphere, for the feast on the word when Jesus preaches from the mount. The kingdom of heaven has dawned. Later in that chapter, the twenty-third verse, you hear Jesus now going about throughout the territories of Galilee proclaiming the gospel, that is, the good news, news about an event, an historical event, the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. It has gone. It has arrived. The event, therefore, that sets the tone for the Sermon on the Mount is the coming of the Kingdom.

    I cannot stress it enough for you. Though you don’t see the immediate application of that or implications of it, I cannot stress it enough for your well-being. For the expositions of this sermon are multiplied, they abound, you can pick them up in any Bible bookstore and you peruse the pages of those commentaries and you find not one single mention about the appearance, the arrival, the advent of the kingdom.

    As having any bearing upon what Jesus is saying, it’s almost as if These folk who write these commentaries were telling us that Jesus was a philosopher. He is an ethicist. All he has in mind is a set of morals. All he’s concerned about is your behavior and that alone. I’m sorry to say that even some of the best of Reformed commentaries have proceeded along that line. I missed the point.

    God has done something. And what that means for you is, if God has acted in the dawning of the kingdom, the kingdom will come to its appointed end, and you have a place in it. Our exposition then of this sermon must do justice to this unprecedented, world-altering, prophecy-fulfilling event. Now there’s another thing that we have to keep in mind. With respect to the atmosphere, of this sermon. The thought is a little difficult, so you may have to put on your seatbelt. But stay with me now. with respect to this second element that supercharges the air of Jesus’ preaching.

    When you see Jesus go up on the mount in Matthew 5 at the beginning, we have already suggested that his ascending of that mountain is suggestive of a yet future ascension by Him, of a greater mountain still. And when Jesus sits down on that mountain, is the picture becoming clear? He ascends and He sits down. It is suggestive of a yet future session of the Son of God, when He will sit in glory at His Father’s right hand. But you object.

    You say, When he goes up on that mountain in Matthew 5, that takes place before his ministry was completed. That takes place before he died and was raised again. But I say to you that when he goes up on that mountain in Matthew 5, he ascends it fully conscious of the completion of his work, and he goes up on the mountain as if the work were already done. So that when you deal with the Sermon on the Mount, It cannot be irrespective of the accomplishment of Christ’s work and ministry.

    You cannot edit out of this sermon Christ’s death and resurrection and understand the sermon. Am I registering? Am I getting through? People read the Sermon on the Mount, they say, I find in here nothing of Christ’s death on the cross. I find here nothing about His humiliation and suffering. I find nothing here about His resurrection and His ascension.

    I’m saying to you that all of that is laid between the lines and is the assumption of Christ as he preaches, so that you cannot expound this sermon aright unless you do justice to the cross and to the empty tomb. This means that you can preach the cross of Christ from Matthew 5 through 7. And if you don’t preach Christ crucified, from Matthew 5-7, you haven’t preached the text. These are the things that are missed by even the best of commentaries. And we are short-changed because these things are not brought out for us. because we are not trained to see more clearly in these words from Christ the significance of the coming of the kingdom of heaven and the glory of our Savior who gives himself up unto death and is raised for our salvation.

    No mere ethical treatise then. This sermon assumes the accomplished work of Christ. It’s built upon the accomplishment of Christ’s work, our redemption through Him. So Jesus in this sermon is not here telling us to be good for goodness sake. He’s not holding out to us here a set of moral values, hoping that we might try to live up to them. He’s here preaching the consequences of redemption that have come now in the arrival of the kingdom of heaven. If God has sent his Son And this son is appointed to death and then vindication. For you, then what will your life be like? Here it is. Here it is. the life of citizens of the kingdom of heaven saved by grace through the coming of the kingdom in Jesus Christ. There it is.

    There are many commands given throughout this sermon. We learned in our English classes in years gone by that we can call a command an imperative. There are many imperatives in the Sermon on the Mountain. Don’t do this. do this instead. There are many imperatives, but none of those imperatives hang in the air as if suspended in gas. Those imperatives are grounded upon what we call indicatives, the indicatives of God’s work. the fact that he has acted. God gives no imperative, no command to his people that is not grounded upon his action, first of all. He does not call you to perform something that he hasn’t performed for you before you even raised your hand.

    The power you seek is found in him, in what he has accomplished. So the sermon on the mount is not intended to leave you frustrated, as if, well, he’s only given us another impossible demand. How can he expect me to live up to this thing? He is solidly grounded upon the finished, accomplished work of God.

    God has acted, not only to motivate you, But to actually do for you what you cannot do, that you in Him might have life. That’s redemption, not ethics. That’s salvation. Not philosophy. That’s Christianity. That’s Christianity. These things then, for your consideration, as you inhale, as you breathe in the air at this Feast on the Word, it’s the best air. He did it for you. He did it for you.

    Well, in setting the table, we better get the settings set down right around the table now. So I’d like to put before you also the matter of the outline of the sermon once more. There can be argument about this and I expect as we make our way to the end of the seventh chapter we may have to make a few adjustments. But I’ll lay this before you this morning. Some of these things we can be pretty confident of. But if you’re interested, maybe you’d like to jot down these thoughts about the outline. We have, of course, the opening, Matthew 5, the first two verses. That establishes the setting for us. We’ve already talked about it.

    Jesus on the mount, his disciples come to him. He opens his mouth now and teaches them. So it’s instruction for the church, no one else. It’s instruction for the church. The multitudes may hear, they may be impressed, but ultimately the instruction is for the church, those called.

    So you have the setting, verses 1 and 2, chapter 5. Then, you know, you have the Beatitudes. I’d love to go back and start there again, because I love to preach on the Beatitudes. But there you have it, verses 3 through 16, the Beatitudes with their commentary. With their commentary. It’s not often that you get an inspired commentary going along with what Jesus gives you, but in this case you happen to have an inspired commentary. given you going along with those Beatitudes. So the Beatitudes are verses 3 through 9 and then you have the inspired commentary verses 10 through 16. And how would we describe that section of the Sermon on the Mount?

    Here is what I have. The life of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven. There it is. the life of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Then we have chapter 5 verses 17 through 48. And set out before you now is the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven that has now become the possession of the citizens of that realm.

    This is where many of us stumble, because you see, the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, expounded by Jesus here, even exceeds the righteousness of the law. It is greater still Then we have chapter 6, verse 1 now, through chapter 7, verse 6. That’s where we ended in our study previously. And the keynote here is given to you by Jesus in the very first verse of this section, verse 1 of chapter 6, where he talks about practicing your righteousness.

    Here is the practice. of the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven. This is followed then, beginning at verse 7 in chapter 7, and I’ve said through 23, we may have to adjust that, but I’ve said through verse 23, and we might entitle this, Invitations and Warnings to the citizens of the realm. Invitations and warnings to the citizens of the realm. And then verses 24 through 27 of that seventh chapter, a closing parable on the importance of the kingdom of heaven and the word of the King, followed by an epilogue where Jesus descends now after having preached.

    Verses 28 and 29. how wonderfully we are prepared for what Jesus says in that seventh verse. Just by way of introduction now to this specific section as we concern ourselves with the table that is set. Do you note the progression through the previous section? Chapter 6, verse 1 through 7, verse 6.

    It’s powerful. Powerful stuff. I don’t even have to say that to you. You know this is powerful stuff from the Lord. But note the way in which he phrases things. A series of seven negatives. Now, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t couple them with corollary positives. He does. But as you run through that section, you have a series of seven negatives.

    Verse 2, with regard to almsgiving, don’t give like this. Verse 5, with regard to prayer, don’t pray like this. Verse 16, with regard to fasting, don’t fast like this. Verse 19, don’t lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth. Verse 25, don’t be anxious. Verse 1 of chapter 7, don’t judge. Verse 6, don’t be stupid.

    So we have this series of seven negatives given you. And they come one after another. Now, he’s pushing you with regard to those negatives that you might consider the positives that are corollary. And, of course, the principle positive statement that he makes in this section is what you find in verse 33 of chapter 6. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. There’s the magnificent positive, but even with that positive and the other positives that you find in that section, the negative statement dominates.

    Don’t. Do not. Then you come to verse 7 of chapter 7. It is a veritable explosion. Here he comes. Ask. You can just see him opening up his lines. Ask, it’s so magnificently affirmative. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. No question about it. Knock, it shall be opened to you. Was there ever invitation like this to the citizens? Never. For you. You are so loved. You are so loved. All you have to do is ask. You are so beloved that your seeking will not end in frustration and emptiness. You will find. Look, it’s certain the door will be open. And how do you know? Because Jesus asked. Because Jesus sought. Because Jesus knocked. And now this one is alive to intercede for you in all of your asking and seeking and knocking.

    You see, I can even preach the cross and the resurrection from Matthew 7-7. And friends, that’s meat and drink to you. Let’s pray. O Lord, what a banquet, what a feast, and how marvelous a host is Christ as He gives the Word Our hunger, our thirst abates, and we are satisfied. Help us, Father, in light of what we learn here. Encourage us, our God, with respect to the kingdom of heaven which is dawned, with respect to the King himself, who suffered for us but is raised, who even now makes intercession for us at your right hand. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Seven ‘Do Nots,’ One Perfection

    Seven ‘Do Nots,’ One Perfection

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 3, 1989.

    About this sermon

    Seven ‘do not’ statements run from 6:2 through 7:6, and the number seven implies a perfection the set describes together. Proverbs 9’s wisdom about worthy and unworthy hearers connects to Matthew 7:6’s warning against dogs and swine, which Matthew 10 echoes. These warnings call for wise judgment over indiscriminate tolerance.

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    Sermon transcript

    The first poem. Wisdom hath builded her house. She hath hewn down, shewn out her seven pillars. She hath killed her beasts. She hath mingled her wine. She hath also furnished her table. She hath set forth her maidens, and she triumphed upon the high place of the city.

    Whoso is simple, let him turn in his ears. As for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, drink of the wine which I have made. Forsake the foolish and learn, and go in the way of understanding. He let recruitment disorder give him to himself as a shame. He even rebuked it. A wicked man giveth to himself a path. His brutal, awful disorder must be defeated. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will give thee yet life. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Hear the Lord giving the wind, and the melody of the wind of the storm. I am he that is from the north to the south, and he that is from the south to the east. He shall be mine, and I shall be mine, and I shall be mine. He shall be mine, and I shall be mine. He shall be mine, and I shall be mine. I’m turning over. That looks like a 7. There’s a 6. Good Bob, that looks like he’s holding onto the dog. Either a half G or curl, or swan. That’s a trample down under their feet. Turn again. Where’d he go?

    Reflecting 7 of the 7 statements. They have by Jesus this portion of the plan. Previously, we have identified that the 6th verse of the 7th chapter is a reflection of the plan in verse 19 of the 6th chapter. Section began with the words, do not lay up to yourself treasures upon earth. And he said that the 19th verse of this chapter began with the inception of new laws, a series of new laws.

    Verse 19, do not lay up to yourself treasures upon earth. the second verse, do not, and five, do not be anxious. Then, the first verse, the seventh chapter, do not judge. And finally, the sixth verse, the seventh chapter, do not give in to drugs. And the seventh and fourth, do not.

    But now we have to re-calculate. because if you look carefully at what was preceded that section, you’ll notice something else. The power of the preceding section, when Rowe is almost all followed in that section at the end of the first six chapters. At some point in the first few chapters, Rowe begins with an opening clause, When therefore ye give alms, then will follow a do-not phrase.

    Do not sound the trumpet before him. Do not say in verse 5 that Jesus speaks about prayer. Do not say in verse 16 that Jesus talks about fasting. As for you, the structure of the Sermon on the Mount points out that we don’t really have here four Enoch statements by Jesus beginning with the 19th verse of the book.

    Rather, we have seven. There are seven statements from Jesus, including the first two in Genesis 6, and including the first two in Genesis 7. There is a difference between the first three statements and the last four. There is that qualifying reduction in each of the first three when you give your all When you pray, when you pray. So these first three statements are qualified and they apply to the occasional duties of the people of God. When in fact you find yourself involved in these activities, do not do such and such, rather do something else. It helps to simplify if you move from chapter 6, verses 2 through 18 into chapter 6, 19 through chapter 7, verse 6. And the latter four do not appear. You have no qualification whatsoever. In fact, there is no time consideration introduced at all.

    In other words, we have perpetual duties laying before us in each person. Not simply when you’re engaged in a particular activity, but whenever it might be. It is always appropriate for you to be lighting up for yourself treasures of heaven, as opposed to lighting up treasures upon earth. It is always appropriate for you to be laying to rest anxiety, on building up your confidence. It is always appropriate for you not to be engaging in judgments that are inappropriate and unrighteous. And this violence, of course, is always appropriate to do. Not to be giving too much attention to the dog. Not casting your furrow before the sword.

    Jesus and his servant suffered. There are seven statements by Jesus that are qualified by the pneumonic phrase. The pneumonic statements of Christ, healed, leading us from this chapter in 2nd Corinthians. But the grouping of things in seven statements strange loss, certainly, is a method used by Jesus. For instance, look at verse 13 of the chapter of Matthew. Some of you know this. It’s the parable chapter. And if you count the parables in Matthew 13, you’ll find that Jesus’ birth, that particular sentence, gave how many? Why, seven. Seven? Oh, by which you would explain the mystery of the kingdom. Perfect explanation for the kingdom of heaven. Seven crowns given by the man. Then if you would have turned back to the first part of the Sermon on the Mount.

    Oh, I know there’s an argument out there about how many attitudes there are, but I can tell you that yes, the attitudes move us from verse three to verse nine, and there they stop. There are seven weapons. Seven weapons. And even within the section that we’re looking at this morning, Chapter 6, moving into Chapter 7. In Chapter 6, verses 9 through 13 of the Holy Spirit, reckoning up the number of deficiencies. Some say there’s six.

    I think it’s a good case to be made for the fact that there are seven. actually seven petitions. Seven parables, seven beatitudes, seven petitions, seven do not phrases. You understand the importance of that use of seven with respect to these various categories, as I’ve already suggested with regard to the parables.

    Jesus’ explanation of the mystery of the kingdom. It’s a perfect explanation as he takes consideration of those seven. Why do I connect perfection with number 7? Because you see, the number 7 in Jewish law is always associated with completion, fullness, the full week, 7 days, God completes His work, everything is finished, the perfect work. the parables and the explanation of the mystery of the kingdom.

    Perfectly granted. Understand those parables and you’ll understand the kingdom. What about the meal? It’s not as some have suggested that we have here the perfect formula for happiness. It’s not exactly that simple. We don’t move along that superficial line.

    The Beatitudes are about blessedness. The blessedness of the kingdom that is now the property of those who are servants of, disciples of, the kingdom. Seventh Beatitudes, perfect blessedness for the disciples. the seven petitions, the perfect prayer. The Lord’s Prayer, the seven petitions, the perfect prayer. The complete prayer. Now we have the seven statements that move from the second verse of the sixth chapter through the sixth verse of the seventh chapter.

    The do not statements. And in these verses, We have expounded for us to be quiet and free. Do you want to know about the professions I have? Are you interested in holiness? Read Matthew 6 and 7. the seven statements from Christ, summarizing for you the perfect Bible.

    Now, you may be upset that these statements are negatively phrased. That may distress you somewhat. I know it’s the temperament of our time. We’re very annoying when people put things negative. There’s a negative qualifier involved in the statements that they make. And we’re very, very impatient with those that we judge who are negative. We’re very impatient with negative people. But in Jesus’ defense, the smartest, it’s important for you to remember, of course, But there’s another description of Christ we’ve given us in the Old Testament, and it too was couched in negative terms.

    Thou shalt have no other body before thee. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. So simply because it is phrased negatively, we should not discount it and ask Jesus to rephrase it for us in terms that are much more agreeable to our disposition and the disposition of our time. Neither should we conclude, as we consider Jesus’ statements here, that the advantage of the New Testament is that it moves us from the negative image of the Old Testament into a positive frame of reference. But Jesus himself never spoke negatively.

    Well, isn’t it obvious to us that he did? The negative formulation from the cases of this poet has its own advantages. Because that negative formulation presses us to consider the positive side that stands as the corollary of the negative proposition. It presses for consideration of the positive refrain statement in a way possibly the positive formulation cannot, does not.

    Do you remember the catechism exposition of the commandments, for instance? Here is the negative statement out of the commandment that then the catechism expounds upon. The formula for consideration of each of the commandments is the same. It asks us the question, what is required in this specific commandment? And then it asks us, what is forbidden?

    It’s appropriate. It is appropriate for us to consider the negative as well as the positive. Well, we have suggested that each of these negative statements have, in fact, a positive correlate. And at many points throughout, Jesus is himself expressing that positive correlate. You remember the magnificent positive corollary that appears in the latter part of the sixth chapter of Matthew? “…but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all of these things shall be added unto you.” Well, that indeed is magnificent. But throughout, we can summarize what Jesus is saying with respect to the positive corollary. along these lines.

    As he takes up the three pillars of piety, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, in verses 2 through 18 of chapter 6, he is telling us that in our acts of devotion, in our acts of mercy and service, our eye must always be trained with respect to God and the One who is invisible. We cannot allow ourselves to become preoccupied or distracted by the things that we see, and we cannot be engaged in these activities in order to be seen of men and to be congratulated by them. The positive statement then is, we must have an eye for God. When we come to Jesus’ statements in verses 19 through 24, He places before us the imperative of heaven.

    Not an eye that is trained for appreciation of the things of this earth, not a heart that is continually investing from the things of this earth, but rather a disposition of mind and spirit and soul that is focused well upon heaven above. We come to verses 25 through 44, chapter 6.

    And the positive corollary here that stands over against anxiety is faith, and a heart that is filled Trust. A heart that is filled with trust. Don’t be anxious. Rather, believe. Trust. The positive corollary that we find for the opening verses of the seventh chapter, where Jesus is warning us against unrighteous judgment, is that we might have a heart that’s filled with mercy, a heart that leads always with love. It’s the first step. It’s that of love, with respect to the brethren. And now we come to verse 6. The statement is framed negatively. Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine. I’ve read Proverbs this morning for a reason, you see.

    Because the positive corollary of this statement by Jesus is that we might have a soul, a spirit that is filled with wisdom. There are judgments to be rendered as to who is wise and who is a fool. And we cannot, we cannot avoid making those judgments. But may they be godly judgments. following after Jesus himself, and in compliance with what he felt. So that’s the positive injunction. But you might have a soul that is filled with wisdom. Now what is the soul that is filled with wisdom, in Jesus’ estimation?

    Well, it is a soul that is in tune with the things that he has been saying all along in the sermon. A soul that is particularly sensitive to him, to his work, to his person. A soul that is particularly in tune with his activity as it bears upon the question of the kingdom of heaven. We do not disassociate the 6th verse of the 7th chapter from the 33rd verse of the 6th chapter.

    If one is to be wise, if one is to make proper judgments, if one is to have a soul, a spirit that is filled with wisdom, it must be with respect to that kingdom that Jesus has come to express, to set before us, to inaugurate. The soul that is filled with wisdom prizes that which is holy. The soul that is filled with wisdom recognizes what is holy. The soul that is filled with wisdom is the soul that has been regenerated by the power of God.

    And it knows the value of the kingdom and the things of the kingdom. Do dogs and swine prize holy things? Do they value the kingdom and its qualities? Well, there is something of an immediate allocation for Jesus’ words as he speaks these things to his disciples. And his explication will become even clearer to us if we move into the tenth chapter of Matthew, where Jesus is giving instruction to his disciples before they go out and preach the kingdom to the people of that day. through fifteen.

    And into whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, abide there until you go away. And as you enter the house, give it your greeting. And if the house is worthy, let your greeting of peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your greeting of peace return to you. And whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake off the dust of your faith.

    Truly, I say, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in that day of judgment than for that city. And even verse 60, Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be assured that he is as wise as serpents, and as innocent as dogs.

    There is immediate application of these words from Jesus to his disciples, to his church, with respect to the proclamation of the word. But in their goings forth, they will indeed encounter those who manifestly display their own foolishness. And Jesus is saying, don’t delay. Long with them. Get them to learn, but if they don’t respond, move on. There are others yet to hear, to be reached. You might recall the missionary journeys to the Apostle Paul.

    In Antioch of Pisidia, there was a revolt against him and the message that he brought. and were moved by the Jews. They turned on him. He shakes the dust from his feet and says, I turn now to the Gentiles. He does the same thing again in Corinth, and finally, in the very last chapter of the book of Acts, something of the same occurred, as Jesus turns from the Jews of that city to the Gentiles to preach the message.

    The thing that we have to be sober about is, of course, the fact that these people were of the covenant. They are from the tribe of Abraham. They should have known that. There are fools in the house of God. There are dogs and swine in the house of God, who claim a covenant relationship. to God, even through Christ.

    It is, of course, manifest truth. Now, if it was possible for those covenant members to actually dog and swine, what of our own case? It is not without reason we see that this verse in the history of the Church has been applied to the sacraments. Now, some would say that’s a far-fetched application of this verse. Well, maybe they are. Many respected, honored theologians and thinkers in the Church have seen a connection within the covenants.

    Those who would pretend to come and partake of the sacraments not really understanding holy things, being profane in their hearts. The truth about them being that they are fools with respect to the kingdom and its grace. And the church then, rendering judgment, saying, no, we can’t allow you, we can’t permit you to come and partake, he said. Because to do so would be to give holy things to dogs to cast the pearl of the kingdom to slime. In the end, it seems that those who are false sons within the tale always prove themselves one way or another.

    Do not they in time trample under feet the holy things have they not time and time again throughout the history of the church turned upon the truth and those who preached it betrayed them and participated in tearing those honored servants of the kingdom, the friends. Well, the perfect piety for the disciples of the kingdom in the negatively phrased series of seven statements by Jesus that force you to consider the positive qualities. If, indeed, you are not to cast your pearl-course wine and give holy things to God, you are, in fact, to have a soul, a mind, a spirit, filled with wisdom and discernment, being sure at all times that you know the value of holy things and the superlative value of the kingdom of heaven Oh Lord, we pray that you will keep us from a supercilious fire One that the judge has shaped like the one that appears in the 6th verse of the 7th chapter of Matthew. As out of bounds or inappropriate for a Christian, what of you?

    O Lord, we ask, you will train us rather with respect to the wisdom that is in you. And help us, Father, even as we are about the business of our saving, as it is explained to us in that verse. Even as we are about that business, we will be kind and loving. Yet not we ourselves, but the same. May we stand with Christ for the value of holy things, for the superlative value of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is His.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • What ‘Judge Not’ Doesn’t Mean

    What ‘Judge Not’ Doesn’t Mean

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 19, 1989.

    About this sermon

    ‘Judge not’ has clear boundaries, and Christ never forbids all discernment, whatever the popular reading says. Christ never cared for bare ethics or morality for its own sake. The exchange of 2 Corinthians 5:21, where God made Christ sin for us, makes righteous judgment possible.

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    Sermon transcript

    But if one died for all, they were all dead. Having died for all, the thing which lives should not henceforth live under themselves, but under him which died for them and rose again. Therefore, henceforth, know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no longer.”

    Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Good things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to which God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sinned for us. who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Then turning over to Matthew 7, which is 1 through 5. Matthew 7, 1 through 5.

    Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? But how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother’s eye.

    Help us, Lord, that we might turn to your word quickly, earnestly, and in that word, Lord, may we find that truth that does not disappoint. May we find our Father there, the wonderful record of your mighty deeds, of your powerful strong, corrective, and blessed words. May we, Lord, as we turn, be inspired all the more to live for you. We pray this through Christ. Amen. This is our third and final message on Matthew 7, verses 1-5.

    So far, we have concentrated on what we might call the ethical meaning of Jesus’ words. And in focusing upon his words here, these words that have in fact generated a great deal of discussion in the history of the Church, we have endeavored to establish what our Savior means by them, and what he doesn’t mean.

    We have said that he doesn’t mean, he cannot mean, by these words, judge not lest ye be judged, that we take leave of our critical senses. That we take leave of our ability to distinguish between right and wrong, or even between the righteous and the wicked. And most especially we have concluded that our Savior could not mean by these words to outlaw the proper, the right, disciplinary function of the Church.

    He cannot mean that this responsibility is to be laid aside, forgotten. In fact, it is the responsibility of the church, we are told in many places in scripture, by Jesus himself, to judge the righteous judgment. Jesus says, John 7 verse 24, we are not to judge according to appearances. We are to judge, he says. the righteous judgment. So we know what Jesus doesn’t mean. But this is what we have concluded that he does mean.

    With these words he is prompting us to always lead with love. always lead with love and with the deepest humility. That means that we are to assume, given his illustration here, you know the illustration of the speck and the beam, we are to assume as we approach others that we have the beam in our eye, while our brother, our neighbor, has the speck in his. We approach him with the deepest humility. We lead with love.

    Put in different words, mercy must always moderate. And that not only in light of mercy already granted us by God, but in hopes of that mercy that shall be confirmed to us when we shall appear before our judge. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. What Jesus means, therefore, is that we must never give in to that destructive, that cruelly competitive, malicious, often vengeful spirit that isn’t satisfied unless it asserts its superiority, gains the advantage, or gets even.

    Now, I’ve taken pains these past three weeks to make these points clear. You have the drift. You got these things down. Well, maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. But let me say this. Even if you have these things down, you have a grip upon them, following them along this ethical line. they won’t do you much good. If you have grabbed hold merely of these words along an ethical or a moral track, along the line purely of your behavior and how you are to treat others. These words will not do you a whole lot of good. Now don’t misunderstand me.

    In this wicked world, ethics are fine things, relatively speaking. For example, in this world it is better to be ethical than unethical. And it is much better to be impressed with and attempt to follow a system of ethics derived from the teachings of Jesus than to be impressed with or attempt to follow a system of ethics derived from the thought of, say, Pete Rose or Ben Woods or Don Corleone. I understand the Godfather was on this last week. But it is precisely at this point, and particularly with a passage like this one from Matthew 7, that we are quite likely to lose hold of Jesus. In fact, ethics and morality can very easily displace him at this point.

    Did you know that Jesus isn’t interested in ethics? Did you know that Jesus is not interested in morals? Now if you’re shocked by that statement, I’m glad, because it’s intended to shock you. You see, ethics and morals considered along the lines that we have been surveying ethics and morals are generally what people are interested in if they don’t really know Jesus. The Pharisees didn’t know Jesus. They were very interested in ethics and morals. The medieval Roman church didn’t know Jesus. They were supremely interested in ethics and morals.

    The 18th century enlightened Protestant church didn’t know Jesus, but it was interested above all else in ethics and morals. In fact, it was that enlightened Protestant church, through its high priest, Immanuel Kant, K-A-N-T, that transformed both European and American Protestant religion into ethics and morals.

    And whether you want to acknowledge it or not, whether you want to admit it, you are a child of that transformation. I do not care whether you were born and raised in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. I don’t care whether you’re Reformed and have been all of your life. I don’t care whether you are sophisticated or unsophisticated. I don’t care whether you’re conservative or liberal, a scholar or a layman. You have been affected to the very roots of your being by that transformation. You lead with ethics and morality.

    Now take stock of what is in the balance because of this transformation that has been affected by that 18th century enlightened Protestantism. We together are in a state presently whereby we have had compromised for us our vital connection with the transcendent domain of our Heavenly Father’s reign. Do you understand what has happened because of that transformation in the 18th century?

    We now live in a closed universe, and you can’t get out. You can’t get out. Whatever point of reference you’re going to come up with within that universe is from within it completely and exclusively. Religion is redefined. Religion now becomes essentially ethics and morals. From Immanuel Kant to John Dewey, religion is above all else principally practical. It is first of all above all else concerned with behavior and practice, now as if it were the blood running through our veins. This preoccupation with morality and ethics has landed us in the lap of a pragmatism a view of life that is overlaid with a conviction with respect to practical action and personal behavior.

    And that is why it is so easy for us when we come to a passage like this in Matthew 7, to get off the track. to read it along the lines of a single tract. But be assured, that single solitary tract leaves us like ears removed from the world of Jesus Christ. That single solitary tract leaves us no closer to him than a clever rabbi of the first century might have been if he expressed similar thoughts. In fact, to take this single solitary tract of ethics and morality is only to increase the distance between us and Jesus.

    Jay Gresham Machen put it like this When you have a religion that is made up of ethics and morals You are no longer talking about a variation of Christianity You’re talking about an entirely different religion If you want ethics, read Aristotle. If you want morality, read the Talmud, the Jewish commentary on the law. If you want salvation, then read Jesus. If you want redemption, then read Jesus.

    Do you think that here in Matthew 7 when he says, Judge not lest ye be judged, he is somehow taking a vacation from his program, somehow he is taking a reprieve from his mission, that mission which has as its foundation His call as the Savior of His people. Do you imagine that these words can be properly understood if we lay aside for a minute His death and His resurrection? His saving work and the saving significance of His person? Not at all. There is a religion expressed as if these things could be laid aside. The cross is insignificant. The resurrection never happened. It’s not important. All you need is morality. All you need is that.

    The cross and the resurrection, the saving significance of Jesus Christ is the foundation of anything that he has to say about morality, about behavior, about your conduct. The indicatives of redemption precede all imperatives with respect to our behavior and our morality.

    And that is why it is imperative that every pulpit that would contend that it stands for the gospel clearly articulate, week by week, the saving work of Jesus Christ, the significance of that death and resurrection. To preach Christ, that is the calling. From beginning to end, then, our Lord’s consciousness is captivated by the significance of his own cross and his coming resurrection. Even here in Matthew 7, that cross is apparent and the resurrection is certain.

    Jesus did not intend by his words to supply us with moral advice for our own good. Advice intended to improve our moral character or improve the world’s collective disposition. Even here, Jesus is actively proclaiming the kingdom of heaven. Its salvation message is here in Matthew 7 as much as it is in Matthew 20 when Jesus tells us that he has come to give his life in ransom to men.

    What is the supreme task? of interpreting scripture now, in our time for the people of God, it is making sure that that message concerning Jesus Christ is readily seen from every text. It is placing Jesus before the people as their only hope. It is telling them that all is lost without Him. It is extolling for them His glory, portraying Him in all of His beauty, that He might be compelling all the more to you. That you may see Him more clearly, that you may be inspired more readily by Him, that you might love Him more dearly. But how easily we’re born. how easily we’re bored by Jesus.

    Give me something practical, we cry out. Give me something eminently practical. Some things will tell me how to get from point A to point B. Give me the steps. Write it down for me. Hand me a manual. Please. Work it all out for me. Make it programmable so I can run it on the computer. Do anything. Get it in front of me.

    But don’t bore me with these things, these thoughts, these ideas, these convictions with respect to the glory and the grandeur of Jesus Christ. Don’t bore me again and again with the details, the historical details of Christ’s work for me. I know all that. It used to do things for me. It doesn’t do anything for me anymore. Let’s get on with the business of living, please. Let’s get it on.

    My friends, we’re talking about two completely different kinds of religion here. Two completely different kinds of religion. The majority of Christians today want one form of Christianity. Jesus has another to offer. And by and large, the church doesn’t want anything to do They really would rather have Aristotle. They really would rather have the Talmud. Or it’s modern day corollary of the onus. Well, the message of salvation.

    His words even here rise out of his own person and the significance of his ministry for others, for sinners. Those to whom he ministers presently in the passage, his own disciples. Therefore when he tells us, his disciples, his church, not to judge inappropriately, he himself commends himself as his people’s only hope for he has not failed to keep perfectly the specific command in places upon them now where are you going to get the strength not to judge unrighteousness? where? where are you going to find it? in another system from somebody what he expects of us is found in him as its foundation and can be expressed by us only if we are in living, vital connection with him This is more than mere morals and bare ethics.

    Here is life. Life that comes forth only because of union with Christ. But to contend that union with Christ is at the foundation of these words assumes that Christ is alive. And to say that he is alive is to say that he has been raised from the dead there is no powerful life apart from the risen Christ you cannot keep these words you cannot even begin to obey apart from you and with him but there is one final thought Not only has Jesus Christ been raised so that we might live in him and like him, but he has also suffered and died.

    His death, to be sure, is exemplary, leaving us moral example, to be sure. It is, however, much more. For here in this world, Jesus Christ, one who had neither speck nor beam in his eyes, In this one, there is found that benevolent and merciful and gracious attitude towards others. In that he takes all our things and all our specs to himself that we might be enabled to see clearly through him.

    The kindness of this one who knew no sin, had no sin, 2 Corinthians 5.21 indeed moves us to imitate him, however it is most particularly effectual to save us.

    Since through his actions, clearing the specks and burying the beans, he has ended the affair on a cross where he was made to be sin that we through him might become the righteousness of God no mere morality no fair ethical system, redemption, salvation, the only adequate foundation out of which any morality or ethical practice can arise. Save us, Father, from morality. Save us from ethics. Lord, just save us in and through Christ.

    And we know that the life that pleases you follows as does the night, the day. We pray, our Father, that you will give us strength by this work of redemption in which we delight and may our hearts thrill increasingly because of Christ whom you’ve given to us.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Rejoicing From a Prison Cell

    Rejoicing From a Prison Cell

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 22, 1989.

    About this sermon

    Paul rejoices from a prison cell in Philippians 4, and that gives his warning about ‘dogs’ inside and outside the church its weight. Philippians 4:5-6 ties that rejoicing to the anxiety Matthew 6 has already addressed at length. Doing away with anxiety and rejoicing in the Lord are one and the same act.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning our scripture reading is from Philippians chapter 4, Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, the fourth chapter. We will begin in verse 2 of the fourth chapter. I beseech Euodius and beseech sympathy that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the Book of Life.

    Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned and perceived and heard and seen in me do, and God of peace shall be with you.

    But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein He were also careful, but he lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned that whatever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Notwithstanding ye have well done that ye did communicate with me with my affliction, now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica, he sent once and again unto me necessity, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all and abound. I am full, having received of Apathoditus the things that were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.

    But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Jesus Christ. Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Salute every saint in Christ Jesus, the brethren which are with me greet you. All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. credit me now.

    Dearest Lord, as those who would cry to you, our voices only by the power which you have given. For truly, apart from you, we have no power at all. Does not your word empower? Does not your word strengthen? So by your word, we have power and strength. Power and strength to be responsive to you in our faith and in our actions. To that end, our God, we pray that at this time your word would have that proper effect upon us, and that you would be pleased in our faith and with our obedience.

    For Jesus’ sake, amen. This is our last message on the kingdom and anxiety. We have worked our way through the passage in Matthew chapter 6, closing verses of that chapter where Jesus specifically speaks about anxiety in relationship to the kingdom. We have as well reflected upon an appropriate passage in 1 Peter 5. Maybe the verses come to mind as you sit here this morning. Cast all of your care or anxiety upon him, because he cares for you.

    And we have looked at Luke’s gospel, the tenth chapter, that wonderfully compelling story of the two sisters, Martha and Mary, and what that story had to say to us about the whole matter of man’s life. And finally, we have before us this classic text. This classic text. from Philippians. What a letter! What a letter! Here is Paul himself encouraging saints in Philippi. with words like these.

    Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say it. Rejoice. The double use of rejoice here in this verse leading us on to consider the forebearing that he mentioned for the moderation, as the King James has it in verse 5. Then, climaxing in verse 6 and its corollary, verse 7, his remarks there with respect to anxiety. But he starts with these words at this point, Rejoice in the Lord always. I don’t hesitate to say it to you again.

    Rejoice! This double rejoicing, or this emphasis for rejoicing that finds double expression, has already been articulated with respect to the apostles’ predicament. In the first chapter, in the eighteenth verse, note what he says there. What then? Only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice.” So, that imperative which he then places before the people, the compounding with respect to rejoicing itself, is something that has been articulated by him personally already. Note his situation. He’s in jail. He’s in jail. He’s in jail for Jesus. for the cause of the gospel. His imprisonment means an accentuation of his impoverishment.

    Now, maybe you weren’t able to follow the King James Version as the letter concluded, as Paul was speaking about his need as he spoke also about the communication of the Philippians to him. Specifically in view is the fact that Paul has been helped financially by this church. His need is severe. But you remember what he said also in the conclusion of this letter.

    Whether my need is severe or not, I have learned, in whatever state I find myself, therewith to be content. His situation imprisons me. And his imprisonment accentuating Now, not only is he faced with this difficulty and the severities of it, but as he is remarking there in the first chapter, there are those who have become particularly distressing to him.

    Here he is in chains, in effect out of commission with respect to preaching the word. But there are those who are going about preaching, and it seems that some of them are making ground at the expense of Paul’s reputation. He’s not around to defend himself. So let’s take advantage. The situation dire in itself, but then there is the rise of those who are envious of him, who take advantage of that situation. And in that, Paul rejoices.

    Now, the Philippians are not without their troubles. And that’s the point, of course, isn’t it, as we move on to the fourth chapter. You will note that with respect to the Philippians, chapter four, verse four, is not the first time Paul has instructed them to rejoice. Chapter three, verse one. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. There, at the beginning of the third chapter, you have Paul giving that instruction that he repeats in the fourth chapter, the fourth verse. Rejoice in the But there’s a bit of territory to cover before he returns to that subject of rejoicing. Note the interlude. Verse 2 of chapter 3.

    Beware of the dog. I have my problems in jail, you have your problems in Philippi. There are dogs taking advantage of my situation and there are dogs also taking advantage of yours. Please don’t be naive. There is that spirit today that suggests to us that the only enemy is without. If you know your own heart, you know that’s not true. There is the threat of the enemy from within. Don’t you have to fight him? Don’t you struggle against the enemy within? Isn’t there a fight for every congregation in truth in Christ with respect to the enemy within? The Philippians are faced. By their dogs as all. Confronted. And the dogs. That threaten. The Philippians. Bring in their way. and imprisonment for them.

    For if these Philippians succumb to the gods, though not in physical things, they will be, in fact, in spiritual things, and that will mean their impoverishment. Now, added to this threat is what Paul makes mention of in the fourth chapter, verses two and three, specifically verse two. I urge Huotia and Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Not only is there that threat with respect to doctrine that correct with respect to orthodoxy, brought by the dog. There are those strains that arise within the church, creating factions so that people cannot get along with one another.

    As Paul has persisted in a spirit of rejoicing Despite the situation that he faces, despite the opponents that rise, despite the factions with respect to his own ministry, now you see he goes on to speak so compellingly to these Philippians. Rejoice! I say it again, rejoice! Despite the situation despite the strain, despite the potential for faction and the disruptions within the congregation. Rejoice in the Lord always. There isn’t any reason for Paul to rejoice. There is no potential for his rejoicing. other than the fact that it is in the Lord.

    Is Jesus alive? Is Jesus alive? Can you rejoice Is Jesus alive always? Forever? Can you rejoice? Does your situation execute best? Does your predicament deal a death blow to Him? Can you extinguish him? Do the threats that rise put an end to his life? Does he evaporate? Does he dissolve? Is his resurrection made an untruth because of your situation? No! He is alive. You believe that. He is alive forever. He cannot be destroyed. And that’s why you can rejoice. Will the gods have the final word? Will they take over the church? Will they triumph? No. Why? Because Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive. And as he is always alive. You and I. as hard as it may be at times, must always rejoice.

    Even when it’s 55 degrees in the sanctuary. Even when you can’t sell your car. even when you weep, because you learn of members of this congregation who in the past week have made decisions to walk, to leave. The fifth verse is instructive. He may not have been helped by the King James rendering, which says, let your moderation be known unto all men. Really, the new American standard has it right. Let your forbearing spirit be known to all.

    What does a situation bring in which rejoicing is departed, if not eclipsed altogether? It brings a cacophony of mourning, complaint, disputing. That’s already been dealt with in the second chapter of this epistle. brought up again with respect to those things that Paul mentions in the second verse. People at each other’s throats, consumed by suspicion and given over to wrangling.

    Oh no. The spirit of forbearance wherein You become like a Christ in the midst of your circumstance. And as He forebore, you forbear. As He was gracious, so are you. He didn’t think his equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead he emptied himself and made himself servant to others.

    His cross becomes your mandate. Now the cross becomes apparent in your behavior as you humble yourself. Cross like that others might be like. The Lord is at hand. The one who was crucified, the one who behaved as he did, he is at hand. He is at hand to bring you. How would you lead him? And be anxious for nothing. Shall we all take a deep breath? And be anxious for nothing. The alternative presented to us here with respect to anxiety is devotion to prayer.

    In the Matthew passage, where Jesus speaks about anxiety, coming to the foreground is that life by which we lay up treasures in heaven, whereby our focus is upon eternal things. Our heart is bound to the kingdom which is above. In the Luke passage, where Martha and Mary are surveyed for. Mary’s the one who sits down at the feet of Jesus and hears his word. In Matthew, the heavenly perspective, the kingdom’s character asserting itself, in the Luke passage, the word of Jesus, each of these being remedies for anxiety, and then wonderfully hears over against the anxiety is prayer and the call to prayer.

    Instead of being filled up with anxiety, instead of allowing your voice and your soul to be filled with a spirit of complaint, rather than that, give yourself to prayer. Let your request be known to God, couple it with thanksgiving, the plural of rejoicing, in the attitude and position of prayer.

    With thanksgiving. And let me tell you the promise. Do you covet the peace of God? Why, as the Spirit Himself, the peace comes as sentry to your household. The house in which you dwell is Jesus Christ Himself, and within that house is your heart and mind, and the Spirit stands as sentry about you, guarding you. against every threat and every disruption and every difficulty that would conspire to rob you of your joy. In the Lord, always rejoice.

    In your attitude with one another, forbear. In your prayers, don’t be anxious. How wonderful word. A testimony like this from your possible. Possible only because. Your son is. This apostle lives in him. And through. Now the message goes out from your to an assembly, a congregation.

    Cannot we be numbered with that congregation, addressed with it, so that we with them might rejoice in the Lord always? And would we not also learn through Christ to forbear? and in answer to the anxieties that threaten to undo us, may we give ourselves, Lord, to prayer, in which there is heard the voice of thanksgiving, our rejoicing in the Lord always. Fear us for the sake of your great name unto the end, and we may know your peace, which as your spirit surrounds us and stands as sanctuary to the house in which we have been found, the house of Jesus Christ himself, our minds and our hearts.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.