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The Sermon on the Mount

The Evidence Study Bible
From The Evidence Study Bible

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) not only reveals God’s divine nature, it puts into our hands the most powerful of evangelistic weapons. It is the greatest evangelistic sermon ever preached by the greatest evangelist who ever lived. The straightedge of God’s Law reveals how crooked we are:

Matthew 5:3: The unregenerate heart isn’t poor in spirit. It is proud, self-righteous, and boastful (every man is pure in his own eyes—Prov. 16:2).

Matthew 5:4: The unsaved don’t mourn over their sin; they love the darkness and hate the light (John 3:19).

Matthew 5:5: The ungodly are not meek and lowly of heart. Their sinful condition is described in Rom. 3:13–18.

Matthew 5:6: Sinners don’t hunger and thirst after righteousness. Instead, they drink iniquity like water (Job 15:16).

Matthew 5:7: The world is shallow in its ability to show true mercy. It is by nature cruel and vindictive (Gen. 6:5).

Matthew 5:8: The heart of the unregenerate is not pure; it is desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9).

Those who are born again manifest the fruit of the Spirit, live godly in Christ Jesus (Matthew 5:3–9), and therefore suffer persecution (Matthew 5:10–12). However, their purpose on earth is to be salt and light: to be a moral influence, and bring light to those who sit in the shadow of death (Matthew 5:13–16).

“The Law should be taught to sinners because it was made for them (1 Tim. 1:8–10), and is a “tutor” that brings the “knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:19,20; 7:7). Its function is to destroy self-righteousness and bring sinners to the cross (Gal. 3:24).”

Look now at how the Messiah expounds the Law and makes it “honorable” (Isa. 42:21). He establishes that He didn’t come to destroy the Law (Matthew 5:17); not even the smallest part of it will pass away (Matthew 5:18). It will be the divine standard of judgment (James 2:12; Rom. 2:12; Acts 17:31). Those who teach it “shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19). The Law should be taught to sinners because it was made for them (1 Tim. 1:8–10), and is a “tutor” that brings the “knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:19,20; 7:7). Its function is to destroy self-righteousness and bring sinners to the cross (Gal. 3:24).

The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was merely outward, but God requires truth in the inward parts (Psa. 51:6). Jesus shows this by unveiling the Law’s spiritual nature (Rom. 7:14). The Sixth Commandment forbids murder. However, Jesus shows that it also condemns anger “without a cause,” and even evil-speaking (Matthew 5:21–26): “for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). The Seventh Commandment forbids adultery, but Jesus revealed that this also includes lust, and it even condemns divorce, except in the case of sexual sin of the spouse (Matthew 5:27–32).

Jesus opens up the Ninth Commandment (Matthew 5:33–37), and then shows that love is the spirit of the Law—“The purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart” (1 Tim. 1:5). This is summarized in what is commonly called the Golden Rule: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12, emphasis added). “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:8–10).

When a sinner is born again he is able to do this (Matthew 5:38–47). He now possesses “the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). In Christ he is made perfect and thus satisfies the demands of a “perfect” Law (Psa. 19:7; James 1:25). Without the righteousness of Christ, he cannot be perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). The Law annihilated his self-righteousness, leaving him undone and condemned. His only hope was in the cross of Jesus Christ. After his conversion, knowledge of the Law that brought him there keeps him at the foot of the cross.

John Wesley said, “Therefore I cannot spare the Law one moment, no more than I can spare Christ, seeing I now want it as much to keep me to Christ, as I ever wanted it to bring me to Him. Otherwise this ‘evil heart of unbelief’ would immediately ‘depart from the living God.’ Indeed each is continually sending me to the other—the Law to Christ, and Christ to the Law.”

Order The Evidence Study Bible today.

The Evidence Study Bible
1. Why Even Top Scientists Are Doubting Evolution
2. What Does It Really Mean to Know the Lord?
3. It Is Biblical to Call Sinners to Repent
4. Answering Common Questions About Creation
5. The Difference Between Biblical and False Prophecy
6. Questions to Make the Evolutionist Think
7. Powerful Gospel Parallels Found in the Book of Esther
8. The Simple Reason Evolution Can’t Be Proved
9. Know Your Rights in Public Speaking
10. God Is Good, and That’s Scary News for Sinful Man
11. A Brush With Death Awakens Ray Comfort to the Plight of the Lost
12. Biblical Promises About Heaven
13. Who Can Tell Me: A Search for Meaning
14. What Our Shared Genetic Make-up with Chimps Actually Tells Us
15. Using What God Gave Us to Reach the Lost
16. Calvary’s Cross
17. Giving Thanks in Any Circumstance
18. Judgement Day and the Existence of Hell
19. The Sobering Task of Evangelism
20. Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
21. Answering Objections to Prayer
22. How to Witness to Mormons
23. The Sermon on the Mount
24. The Incredible Design of the Human Eye

Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort is the Founder and CEO of Living Waters, a bestselling author, and has written more than 100 books, including, The Evidence Study Bible. He cohosts the award-winning television program Way of the Master, which airs in 190 countries.

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