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Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you. Mt5:44 The Sermon on the Mount asks of us truly incredible things. “If your eye offends you, pluck it out” “Take no thought for your life” “Be ye perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect” “Love your enemies” Statements like these simply take your breath away. It should lead us to the simple conclusion that we need God, that we cannot possibly do it without God, that unless God does a truly marvelous work in our lives, we are doomed to failure. It is no different than Jesus telling us “we must be born again” We can not make ourselves born again any easier than any of these other statements Jesus made and tells us to perform. What seems like a literary masterpiece, in reality, becomes our worst nightmare. “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven” Excuse me Jesus, I can no more fulfill these commandments as fly. I was born a sinner, am not steeped in the traditions of the Law, and have never loved my enemies nor know how to do so. Why are you saying these things? What am I to do? “We are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves, it is a gift from God, not of works lest any man boast.”(Eph2:8-9) To begin to live out the Sermon on the Mount takes faith. When we get real with ourselves and see ourselves as we truly are, only God can do it. Only God can make us new creatures in Christ, only God can replace a sin nature with a divine nature, only God can do the impossible. “What is impossible for man, is possible with God” So until we see the human condition, our human condition, we are bound to dismiss or ignore the literary masterpiece known as the Sermon on the Mount. But if we believe what Jesus said is true, that he is not lying to us or just making a beautiful discourse, we must completely surrender to God. We must “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all these other statements will come true. Take time to read the gospel of Matthew chapters five through seven. If you do and if you take Jesus words to heart, you will see very clearly your need for the Holy Spirit. To live the gospel of Jesus Christ is impossible without the aid of the Spirit and unless we put his words into practice we are building our house on sand and when the storms of life encroach upon us, our house will be utterly destroyed. But if we put his words into practice our house will be built on a rock and our house will remain standing. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” Receive the Sermon on the Mount by faith and make God your number one priority. It is the only way that you can live the gospel and unless you live the gospel you will perish. These are not comforting words or thoughts. Jesus asks of us the incredible. Be at it for God. amen |