Getting Real With Yourself

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This coming Wednesday is the introductory lesson to a new Bible study that I will be leading on the Sermon on the Mount.  As I turned to look at lesson one which will be discussed on the 26th of this month I read these words by A.W. Tozer:

Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatsoever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts. 

I am hungry for this study of the Sermon on the Mount. My soul needs to be nourished. I need to be reminded of who my Jesus is and who He has called me to be. The great challenge of this in-depth study of the words of Christ that were delivered on that mountain is allowing them to penetrate to the very core of your being.

We can sit in a Bible study and choose to remain on the outside of it in a hypothetical discussion and we can choose to use other people in our lives to be the examples for our interpretation and application of what we study, but this only keeps us from experiencing the reality of the Word of God and thus His very presence in our life. The Word was made flesh to come and dwell among us, not for us to continue to hear it in hypotheticals, but to experience Him wholly. As I personally dig into these truths I will be rending the garment of my heart and crying out for my God to come down and enter within in all His fullness that I might delight in Him.

I felt led to offer this study back at the first of 2015 as I was completing a study through the book of Jeremiah. I thought the Lord was leading me to it in order to hopefully open the door to those who would be new to inductive study, as studying the Old Testament and prophesy seems to intimidate so many believers today. I had no clue that He was leading me to it because He knew I myself would need it so very much. He already knew that I would have this wall laid up in my heart that He would need to tear down.

So for those of you reading this that will be entering into this study along side me, know that this study will not be lead by someone who is simply going to instruct and facilitate facts and exposition of truth, but by someone who is coming to this study to experience her God. The rains have came and the flood waters have risen and the winds have crashed up against the walls of this heart of mine until I have found myself clinging to the solid Rock with my fingernails dug in deep and I wish to find my footing so that I might once again stand firm.

In a casual reading of the Sermon on the Mount it would appear that Jesus is standing up on the mountain preaching to the multitude, but that is not the case. Jesus saw the crowds that had followed Him because of all the hoopla that was buzzing about Him. He saw those that followed in hopes of being fed, in hopes of being physically healed, or simply just to see a show. He saw them and He left them and went up the mountain and sat down. After He had sat down, His disciples came up to Him.

The Sermon on the Mount was not delivered to the multitude. The Sermon on the Mount was delivered to His disciples. In Matthew 5: 1 we read,

When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him

That last “Him” in Matthew 5:1 is in the dative case. The use of the dative case is the case of personal interest, pointing out the person to or for whom something is done. If my understanding of this Greek word is correct then those who came to Jesus came not to gain something for themselves but because they were interested in Him and they came to the mountain to Him and for Him, not to ask anything from Him, but just to learn how to follow Him.

Then that word “His” before disciples, it is in the Genitive case. The genitive case may be defined as the case of qualification (or limitation as to kind) and ( occasionally) separation. So once again if my understand of this Greek word is correct, then the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus telling those that would be His disciples what their qualifications must be. This is what will separate those who are His from those who are not.

For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven

Matthew 5:20

The Sermon on the Mount is imperative. It is not a hypothetical idea and it was not a nice way of living that Jesus proclaimed to a faceless crowd.

No.

It was Him, face to face and heart to heart, with His disciples saying these are your qualifications to be Mine.  So beloved, I don’t know about you, but I want to be separated unto Jesus. I want to be His. I want to qualify to be His disciple and when I step down off that mountain I want the crowd to be able to know that I have been with Jesus and I belong to Him.

Jesus closes this one on one face to face teaching with those who came up the mountain to sit at His feet with a word of warning…

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 will enter. 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; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.

Matthew 7:21-23

Jesus already saw what we see so much of today in TV evangelism and traveling road shows that make a spectacle of the gospel in order to draw crowds not to make disciples.

I want to be a disciple that makes disciples and I want to honor my Lord from the inside out. The Sermon on the Mount requires us to go past the outside religious activities that anyone can walk though without heart. Anyone can attend church. Anyone can debate Scripture interpretation. Anyone can help others for the pat on the backs and the self gratification it brings. Jesus calls those who are to be truly His to go even deeper still.

The Sermon on the Mount calls us to get real with ourselves. We have heard it said… but He says to us, you are salt and light.

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