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 18, 1988.

First of all, Matthew five, one through nine, then seventeen through twenty. Then chapter seven versus seven through twelve and twenty four through twenty seven. And seeing the multitude, he went up into the mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not, shall in no wise pass from the law till all shall be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Chapter seven, verse seven. Ask and it shall be given you. See, and ye shall find not, 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 him 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 profit. And then there is twenty four through twenty seven.

Therefore, whosoever hears these things of mine and do with them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built 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. was the fall of.

Let’s pray together briefly. Father, your word is given for our life, and now your word is held up before the nations. Today, your servants proclaim that word, and we ask, Father, that strength be given to them and clarity. We are asking to Father, that it would be evident to all who hear that the Spirit of God is with them and that that word indeed comes from you. For ourselves, we would ask that we would receive your word gladly, that we would store it up in our hearts and live by it. For surely we know your word is true. For Jesus’ sake now, Amen.

We are engaged in an activity this morning that most of us, either presently because we are in school or because we were in school, hated. The activity is outlining. You were told, of course, that there was nothing easier, but you found out the truth. The truth is that your teacher doesn’t always tell you the truth. Outlining is difficult, arduous work. very hard. Indeed. And you who are applying yourself to it in some form or another know just how difficult it is. And if you can think back to your school years, those of you who are older, you can remember something of the horror that faced you with an assignment outlying this chapter.

When we turned our outlines in, or as we are turning them in, we oftentimes find out that we don’t even know how to outline. You know, the subpoints are supposed to arrange themselves in certain orders. You’re supposed to have at least two under a major heading. Did you know that? Remember that principle of outlining?

Well, what we’re going to do this morning is outline the sermon. Now, like your teacher who lied to you, I’m going to tell you my own lie. The outline is really very simple. But getting there, arriving at that simple outline, that very helpful and convenient outline, has been very difficult for the Church.

I hope that you brought your pencil with you. It would help if you brought your Bible. And if you don’t have anything to write on, please, please, don’t think that this Bible is so sacred that you can’t write in it. Write in the margin, make your own notes, carry them around with you as you carry your Bible. There’s nothing wrong with that. You are not defacing the word. All that I ask is, if you’ve picked up a Pew Bible, please don’t write in it. So if you’re going to write in a Bible, make sure it’s your own.

Outlining again the The actual process of arriving at a subtle outline can be very, very difficult. But I dare say that the effort can be wonderfully rewarding. And in this case, I am hopeful that it will be very rewarding to you, in that, like our outline of the Gospel of Matthew as a whole, which I’m sure you all remember now, you will have this outline of the Sermon on the Mount in tow, well in hand, and you are able then to produce it at a moment’s notice. Alright, the structure of the Sermon on the Mount. And all we’re going to do today is look for similarities in the text that help us organize the various sections. This will be something of an outline along a literary scheme. Just looking for the recurring literary features that are there deliberately. And as we group them, we will see just how wonderfully the whole sermon fits together.

Would you believe? I’m almost embarrassed to say this. My aunt is sitting here and I know that this has been a discussion that we have had for quite some time. She being a speech teacher and something of a connoisseur of sermons Would you believe that the Sermon on the Mount has three points?

Three points! Or three major divisions. Now, that’s also helpful to us and is easily remembered, because if we remember our outline of the Gospel of Matthew, we recall that there were three major divisions for the Gospel. So, we come to the sermon, and we find out there are three major divisions in the sermon. This is working out beautifully, isn’t it?

If you can’t remember the number three, all you have to do is remember the Trinity. All these mental tricks. Let’s start out with what is the obvious grouping. This first section, literally, I hardly need to say. You run down through those opening verses and you run into all of these lessons. All right. Well, that’s very helpful. We’ve got at least the first part of our outlaw.

But the section actually runs beyond the blessed themselves. The first section of the sermon is from verse three that first blessed through verse sixteen. Now, I have a wonderful on the structure of the first sixteen verses, and I’d love to give it to you this morning. But if I gave you that sermon, we wouldn’t be able to finish our outline, so we’ll save that.

But let me just suggest to you here, there are seven Beatitudes. There are seven Beatitudes. If you have a New American Standard version of the Bible, I don’t know how many of you are using that Bible these days, but if you happen to have a new American Standard Bible version of the Bible, it is that Bible that divides this section appropriately correct. There are seven Beatitudes and the last Beatitude proper is found in verse nine. with the peacemakers, and that’s why I stopped my reading.

You’ll note that there are some lessons that go on from there. Verse ten has one verse eleven has one, but it is my contention, and I can develop this at length sometime for you and have done so in the past. It is my contention that verse ten is a reflex. It is not a new beatitude. It is a return to the original beatitude, because you’ll note that the ending of the first beatitude and that the attitude that appears in verse ten is exactly the same. What Jesus does is he goes back to the beginning. OK, can you see that the promise given in each of those beatitudes is for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That’s how the beatitude in each of those cases ends.

Verse three, verse ten. got that you see that. So what Jesus is doing is he’s going back to the beginning, and he’s starting over, and it’s beautiful what happens then, because verses ten through sixteen provide you an inspired commentary on the Beatitudes themselves. If you have any question as to what Jesus means by those seven Beatitudes, all you have to do is read, understand what Jesus is saying in verses ten through sixteen. So, the first section of the sermon is verses three through sixteen. We could call it the blessed and commentary. The blessed and commentary.

And I love this. I love this. This place, this point, Scripture. Because it doesn’t seem to me that in any other place in the Bible, we have such so clearly inspired commentary on what has been said. It’s magnificent. So there we are first first point, the blessings and commentary three through sixteen chapter And then we come to the major section of the sermon.

And this major section has always given people fits, not just because of its content, but because of its organization. But if you will move through it in a literary way, you will see how wonderfully it is organized. It’s not haphazard, as many have contended. Its organization is very deliberate, and it works out so beautifully, wonderfully before our eyes.

All right. The main section of the sermon. Chapter five, verse seventeen, all the way through chapter seven, verse twenty three. We’re almost to the end. Almost to the end. Now, you will note. You will note what takes precedence. In this section, what, in fact, supplies us. The theme for the section is a whole. Verse 17 through 20 of that fifth chapter. Provides us with a heading for it, a sort of introduction to it. And we can say that out of these verses, there are wise for us. A title. For the section of the whole. And that title would be this or something comparable to. The fulfillment of the law and the problem.

With the surpassing righteousness of the kingdom. OK, let’s. Have that one more time. The fulfillment of the law and the prophets with the surpassing righteousness of the kingdom of heaven. You might want to substitute for that word surpassing. I sort of lifted that out of verse 20, the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, the superlative righteousness of the kingdom. Now, now, note, note, as you move through. This entire section and call to mind things that you know about this section of the sermon.

How important that matter of righteousness is. It is spoken of directly in verse 20. Your righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, or you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. And then we have an explication of that superlative righteousness that is part and parcel of the revelation of the kingdom of heaven that comes only through Jesus Christ.

Righteousness is mentioned once more in one of those strategic passages. in the third, you could give it to me from memory. I’m sure it’s the thirty-third verse of the sixth chapter. But first, his kingdom and his righteousness and all these other things will be added on to you. Certainly one of those gems but also tying together the whole of the section. The theme then being this righteousness, this superlative righteousness, this righteousness that is found with God, this righteousness that is found in the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus alone can bring and does bring. But notice well, again in a literary way, how the whole hangs together that seventeen birth of the fifth chapter moving back to it.

You have mentioned there the law and the profits very important, because you’ll note that that phrase recur. It recurs in a section that we read this morning. You turn to the seventh chapter, the twelfth verse, and there you have, well, the proverbial Golden Rule, which has as its appendix.

These words for this is the law and the prophets, tying together the whole is then what Jesus has to say concerning the law and the prophets, law and the prophets, superlative righteousness, all of that held together then for us in this major section the second section of the sermon on the moving from five seventeen through chapter seven verse twenty three.

I was just run down through the various points in the second main section. We have already spoken about the head and the heading is you’re going to have a little a underneath or however you’re doing this. You have heading underneath verses seventeen through twenty. That’s a section in itself, and that sets the tone for the entirety of this section of the sermon. Then we have the next major subdivision, and it is set off for us wonderfully in a literary way.

Each of these sections is introduced to us When Jesus said, You have heard that it was said to them in ancient times, but I say unto you. And you have there in verses twenty one through forty three or forty eight. Of this fifth chapter, a grouping together of six statements by Jesus that are introduced with that language.

So that section holds together. For verse twenty one to verse forty eight. That all holds together under that heading. The you have heard that it was said section. All right then we move into chapter six. Verses one through eighteen and again you can look at this in a literary way, everything that Jesus says here in this section is introduced to you with words like these, and when you and when you perform your own, and when you pray, and when you fast. This is the and when you section. So we have twenty one through forty eight of chapter five verse one through verse eighteen of chapter six. Then, verse nineteen. Verse nineteen begins another section, another subdivision under this main heading, and it moves through the seventh chapter, the sixth verse. This is the do not the do not section. Notice how many do not there are here. I do not lay up for yourself Frazier’s upon her.

Okay, first twenty five for this reason, I say, and you do not be anxious for your life. Verse thirty one do not be anxious than saying, What shall we eat? And finally, verse thirty four. Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious enough or so.

You have, I’m sorry, that’s not the last one. That’s the last one in Chapter six, but you go on to Chapter seven. Do not judge, let you yourself be judged. And the final one, then, is verse six. Do not give what is holy to God. You have, then, the do not section. So, so far in the second main section, we have run through the heading. We have had. You were heard that it was said you had the do not. And now for the final part of the second main section, which is the ask, enter, beware section.

There is from together here for us a number of imperative given by Jesus that are organized around the idea of invitation and caution. Invitation and warning. This is verse 7 through verse 23. Jesus gives his invitation. Verse 7. Ask and it shall be given to you. ye shall find not it shall be open to you. That’s the first in the imperatives, an invitation to be sure. Then verse thirteen, enter, enter, enter by the narrow gate. And here warning is issued that leads on to the last of these imperatives, which is in verse fifteen.

Beware, beware of the false prophets. there you have the second main section and you run down through that if you’re looking for a thread that goes through all of these all of the pearls. It would be something along the line of what I suggested is a title for this section, the fulfillment of the law and the profits with the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, and then we come to the third point for the clothes, the clothes of the sermon, which is an appropriate parable, the parable of the wise and foolish men who build respectively upon the rock, which is the word of Christ, or the sand, which is their own word, some other authority. That’s the sermon. The blessings with commentary. Chapter five verse three through sixteen. The fulfillment of the law of the prophets in the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven five seventeen through seven twenty three and finally the closing parable chapter seven verses twenty four through twenty seven. Now, for all that is potentially muddling in this sermon, if we can keep this outline in view as we go through the sermon, we will be greatly helped. We will be greatly helped.

Let me say, finally this morning, something about the themes themselves that you find in the third, and I’ll be very brief. I want to develop these in the course of our messages, but I just want to point them out to you here this morning so that you’ll understand my orientation. You’re not going to understand me unless you grasp this, and I believe that you will not understand the sermon in its deepest sense unless you grasp this.

This sermon is possible only because the kingdom of heaven has dawned in Christ. You’ve got to keep that in mind. Jesus is not a religious philosopher. He’s not a fellow with a bright new idea, who appears on a mountainside in Galilee and begins to spin his philosophy in a fractal cycle to himself. No. His coming means that the kingdom of heaven has dawned, that it has appeared, that it has intruded into the earth. It is the reality.

You don’t make it happen. Not even your faith brings the kingdom of heaven. It is an act of God, and you cannot make it not a fact. You cannot make it not a fact. Let me tell you something about your own faith. Some of you think that your faith actually constructs the realities of the blessings that God has to give you. That’s not true.

The blessings are there, faith only appropriates. People wear themselves out in worship and in religious service because they think that, really, faith depends upon all of the energies that they can muster and direct towards some sort of goal or object. Look, you don’t bring the kingdom of heaven by your faith. God gives the kingdom of heaven as it gives.

And the only thing you can do is to receive it. The Sermon on the Mount is possible because something has happened. No one spoke like this before, not even Moses. Not even the best that Israel had to offer could speak in this way. Because something has happened. What has happened? has descended into the earth in the person of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven has dawned. Now, let that grip you. Let that grip you. The impact of the kingdom of heaven. You have that phrase used repeatedly through the sermon, the kingdom of heaven.

Secondly, the revelation of the Father. In the Old Testament, you don’t find God spoken of as Father like you find here, like you find in the Sermon on the Mount or in the Gospels. You don’t find him spoken of as the Father, because you see, the revelation of God as Father must await the coming of the Son. And you never see the Father clearly until you see the Son clearly.

So, a theme that is going to run throughout this entire sermon is your father who is in heaven. You can see how the themes are interwoven. Heaven, kingdom of heaven. Father, our father who is in heaven. Okay, theme two. Theme three. We’ve already spoken about it. And when you say that, say it a little differently, so that it takes you a little while to get through the words. If you do that, you might think about it. Be a little affective when you say it.

Not righteousness. Say righteousness. Righteousness. Give it a different quality. Because you see, it has been given a different quality. In the exposition of Christ. It’s no common righteousness. It’s not even what righteousness might be congratulated in Israel. By fellow Jews. It is a. It is a superlative and an uncommon righteousness. You see how the themes are interwoven.

Kingdom of heaven, Father who is in heaven, righteousness that is from heaven. No righteousness of the world. I haven’t committed adultery, I’m fine. I haven’t performed the act, I’m innocent. That’s the righteousness of the world. In some sense, now here, in some sense, that is the righteousness of Israel, even at the first. But there is a superlative righteousness that is now being revealed. And that becomes the arena for your life and existence. The kingdom of heaven is gone. Where do you live? You live in the reality of the kingdom of heaven. Now, how are you going to live? How are you going to behave? Let me ask you, is there lust in heaven? Let me ask you, is there lust in heaven? Is there hatred in heaven? Is there lying and false swearing in heaven?

No. And the superlative righteousness that is found only in and through Christ is asserting itself now in the life of all those who join themselves to Him by faith. That is the discipline that is introduced into your life. You start thinking like you were already in heaven. You start thinking like you were already in heaven. Well, we have to stop.

And as we expound these things and go through the Sermon on the Mount in the weeks to come. I want you to keep hold of one more truth as it pertains to this righteousness of which we have spoken. This righteousness and its power and its glory are manifest through the cross of Christ. Hold on to that and we’ll talk more about that Let’s pray together.

Now, our Lord. Encourage us with this sermon, which could be called the sermon. The sermon for us. Appropriate, applicable, meaningful to us today. with all the power and significance intended by you as your son delivered it so many years ago. May we delight in it as we hear it, as we study it, as we lay it up in our hearts. For Jesus’ sake, 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.