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.

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.