Matthew, 6:1-15
Bradley W. Maston · Aug 19, 2007
Sermon on the Mount, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926036394518

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Can we introduce our guests here? Absolutely, please. Everybody, this is Calvin. Calvin, everybody. But it's okay, we've got really good memories. So you say you're in from California? Yeah. Wow, are you permanently based out of California? Yeah, yeah. I coach out of Metro State, men's basketball team. That's fantastic. Yes, I've been out here for about two months. Wow, are you out here for the long haul or? Yeah, long haul. I'm in church. Wow, that's fantastic. Get your mac on. Oh, do I? I thought I did. Nothing's coming through. The power was off. Power's off, it makes a difference. Makes a huge difference, doesn't it? Well, anyway, it's great to... I'm bigger than I was. My voice is louder. All right, cool.

So, it's nice to meet you, Calvin, and welcome to our church. All right, so, that whole waking up with a steel tip boot thing, I think that's kind of what this was for the listeners, the original audience who heard the Sermon on the Mount. We're dealing with that same group of people We're dealing with that same group of people that we were talking about in the previous weeks, Pharisees, Sadducees. You know, there's probably a great number of Jews and people who are familiar with the Jewish life. And I think that the shocker is that Jesus would come and say, as we've talked about in previous weeks, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Repent? Repent of what? We're in the land, we're doing the sacrifices, we're keeping the rules. We made more rules just to make it that much more sure that we wouldn't break THE rules. And Jesus is saying, repent. And this is, obviously, this Sermon on the Mount is Jesus saying, well, this is what I mean by repent. This is where you're missing it in all that you're getting. So, I think this is kind of a big kind of kick in the nose for everybody, and this is especially What I think would be an especially offensive part, offensive to the religious folks of the day. It's pretty fascinating.

In these verses, Christ makes it clear that if you do anything in order to receive praise, glory, honor for themselves, that they would forfeit God's reward of those things. And that God cares about the heart, and the center, and the intentions of the person, and not just the outward expressions.

So obviously when we think about going to court, we can think, well, I didn't do that. No, you intended to. Well, you can't get prosecuted for intending to. You can get in trouble for intending something, for the most part. Attempting, but not intending.

So, but Jesus says, you know, that's not what God cares about. He talked about murder and saying that hatred is the heart, hatred is the core. We talked about adultery and the sin of adultery and really lust being the central issue there. Mending broken relationships and even kind of blowing away that whole structure of telling really fancy, nice-sounding lies that they put together, where you could swear by the gold on the altar, but not the altar, and then all of a sudden, if you swore by both, you could lie and get out of your promise. So, Jesus blew that all away and said, you know what, just be honest.

Just let your yes be yes, and let your no be no. So, she's continually harping on this whole heart thing, or central internal. This is what's important. It's becoming more and more evident that whereas the Pharisees were obsessed with outward appearances, Christ seems to be primarily interested in the private and internal reality and not what everyone else seems to be fooled into believing. And that is the universal lesson that applies to all believers of all ages, is that God sees the heart and that's what God evaluates, not just the outside. Doings and that we can't fool God by our religious behaviors in that age with us So it's pretty fantastic.

All right So let's uh, let's look at these Verses together real quick Yeah, I'll just start reading beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them otherwise you have no reward with your father who is in heaven and When you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret, and your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." That first verse is kind of like the topic statement for the two topics we're going to talk about today and one of the ones we're going to talk about next week. He's saying, beware of practicing your righteousness before men or to be noticed by men, otherwise you'll have no reward for your Father in Heaven.

So then he's going to glom on to three specific examples that are really well known and really well accepted in Jewish life and in Jewish religious culture. Those three are almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. So this week we only have time to deal with almsgiving and prayer. And we'll have to save fasting for next week because, well, you know, we hit five pages and we know I can only do three safely. So anyway, so there it is. So almsgiving and prayer today. So starting off with almsgiving, I think even as believers, we can notice that one of the things that can really irk us or get at our flesh, our sin nature, is when we do something nice, give something, and don't get any recognition for it.

That can just burn you up inside and think, oh, you know, they didn't even say thank you. There was a funny, what was it, one of the late night shows and they gave They gave a bunch of money to this charitable organization. They had put their name on the lowest level of donors, but really they had given two levels up.

So they were like, oh should we tell anybody? Should we go fight with it? Because we really belong on this level, not on this level. We gave this much money. It can absolutely burn you up and eat you up inside if you let it, or rather if your flesh lets it.

So we find that even secular companies give huge amounts of money. Why do you suppose they do that? Tax write-offs! They make more by giving it than they do by not, right? I mean it's a huge tax write-off and then when they do it, they're doing it for a tax write-off and they're going to write their name all over it.

I mean it's like, you know, you go to the Bandameer Speedway, there's a... charity thing for kids and they put all this this marketing stuff up you know saying hey and we sponsored this and we sponsored that my company does this so you get the tax write-off and you get the recognition for being a really nice guy let's just hope nobody believes it so anyway so once again we get that that mixed motives thing that muddled motives deal that that the Lord is constantly getting at in respect to preparing for the coming kingdom of Christ He teaches that there should be secrecy in giving, so much so that the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing. Ryrie tells us, and this is just read out of the Ryrie Study Bible, that there was a chamber of secrets. There was a place where you could go to give secretly to the poor. place in the temple area, I presume. You could go and just kind of slide that money in there, be given to the poor.

You wouldn't be recognized for it, you wouldn't do anything like that. So this wasn't an insane, outlandish thing. You didn't have to walk down the street going, one for you, one for you, one for you. But there was a place where you could actually just go give it all and not be recognized for it. So this wasn't really that wild. I was reading Leviticus the other day. and trumpets came up. And you notice here, he says, do not sound a trumpet before you. I know there's a couple real uses for trumpets in the Old Testament, but who can name a use for trumpets?

Battle of Jericho. Yeah, so there's a sense of calling to war, calling to battle, calling to assembly, and also there's a sense of the power of God working through the sound of those trumpets. Anybody else? Yeah, in some of the things it's a call to worship even. Like, everybody come on, we're going to do the service. Blow the trumpet. And sometimes they would announce important things. Yeah! So all of a sudden, this trumpet thing takes on some new meaning. It's not just, hey, look at me, I'm doing this. But it's almost a sense of self-worship. Hey, I want to be really looked up to. I really want to be worshipped for this. And Christ is here saying, you're absolutely worthless. You know what? He's got his reward from people. I think the implied is, Let's see. Reward from people, reward from God. I'm not sure which one's going to be better, but I'm going to go with God's reward as a better outcome. Yes? But they both, like, vowed the need. I'm sorry? But they both, like, vowed the need. I'm not sure I understand quite where you're coming from.

The people, the important people, you would prostrate yourself for, and God liked it too. There you go. So men, or people, love to be worshipped, right? People enjoy aura. Yeah, I think absolutely. So this would have been a rude awakening for a lot of Pharisees who were known to do many of their works of righteousness right in public view, so that they could in turn be recognized for how great they were. So, pretty simple, pretty obvious application for all of us today is that as God is unchanging throughout the ages, and that He still wants us to have our relationship with Him be primary. So, in our giving as well. Alright, so let's go on to the next verses.

When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogue, and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

So now we see the same emphasis in the realm of prayer that we saw in almsgiving. Another religious duty that the Jews viewed as a way to gain glory for yourself, you could stand on the street corners and pray, you could stand up in the synagogue and pray, you could just pray anywhere. And we can certainly do that in the church. I know it kind of looks so holy to be somewhere up front, somewhere praying or something. And if your desire was for your own glory and for gaining glory through your own religious actions, I think that would be another way in which we could do that throughout the ages.

First, he addresses the hypocrites, presumably targeting scribes and Pharisees again. And secondly, addresses the Gentile nations and the habits that they had seeping into the Jewish context as interesting as that is. So even with all the walls that they built up, there's still a chance that these alien habits and aliens practices coming from the eastward or west or all over the place could have seeped in as the Jewish nation became more involved with the nations around it.

So let's start with the hypocrites. The hypocrites seem to have the same problem as they did when Jesus dealt with giving. The hypocrites want to use prayer, just like they wanted to use giving, to parade themselves before men. So, I mean, it's as if they were saying their prayers hoping that someone was looking at them from behind and saying, oh my, look how religious young Moshe is.

He's so much better than Bob or Frank. And it's complete foolishness. And it is complete foolishness, and yet something that's so intensely human and so intensely of our flesh that we would love to be recognized for the things that we do and love to be recognized for our services to God, which would make them not naturally services to God.

It'd be almost like If you knew Michael Jordan, so you were always walking around saying, I know Michael Jordan, I was talking to Michael Jordan, you know my friend, Michael Jordan, the other day. And then you go to Michael Jordan and you say, I saw you throwing my name around all the time. It's like, you don't really want to be my friend, you just want to throw my name around so you can have prestige or importance or authority.

I don't know how many of you came from a big corporate environment. I'm kind of on the lower end. No, not kind of. I'm on the lower end of a large corporation. And man, name dropping is like the thing to do. Yeah, I was talking to Sid. He's the corporate vice president of such and such and so and so. Who cares? He's not going to give you a promotion just because you dropped his name.

I mean, but this is human nature, right? It's a way to get power and authority to say, oh, well, I know this people, I run with this crowd. So, this is kind of the same thing. These people are trying to say, well, I'm in with God. Me and God, we're buds. When really, they don't have any true dedication and true love of the Lord in their heart. But it's just, oh, well, you know me. Me and God, we're, you know, Jesus is my homeboy. So, anyway. There it is. Let's see. Good. Anyone have anything else to add about that before we move on to the Gentiles? All right. So the Gentiles.

Of course, there's many ethnic groups represented around the Jerusalem area. The Greeks and Romans had certainly had their influences. One of the common practices was to name extensive lists and we have copies of these extensive lists of names or even spells where you just name these 15, these 20 names and it would give you invulnerability or you wouldn't get hit with a car that day or whatever the thing was. So, they believed that all these names had power and all this repetition had a certain power.

Furthermore, we have examples of people who'd go to the gods and just plead their case again and again and again towards these Greek and Roman gods saying, well, I did this and I did that and you owe me and then I'm just going to say this again and again and again until you give me what I want, as if you could kind of get one up on God and make God owe you something, which is, of course, absolutely ridiculous.

Because Deuteronomy 10.14 says, Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. So God will never owe you anything. And God will never owe me anything. And it would only be the most insane vanity of us to think that we could do something and put God in our debt.

And yet, that's kind of the thinking that was already going around outside of Israel and was possibly seeping in that I think Jesus was partially safeguarding against or trying to battle against. Also, the Silk Road had begun to have its influence since about the third century BC, bringing all sorts of ideas with it. Of course, the Silk Road is the path that it was traveled, and it wasn't necessarily an easy path, from the east to the west, bringing silk and spices on west and presumably bringing things back, but I don't know what was brought back.

I hope we had something to offer, but I don't guarantee that. Along with that though, eastern religion, No? Okay. So a sort of proto-Buddhism, among other things, were probably along the cultural exchange that were coming between East and West. So this mysticism, combined with other mystical religions, often relied on a sort of self-hypnosis of repetition in order to bring oneself into an altered state of mind or gain favor or something like that.

That's it. Here it is. These are Buddhist prayer wheels. I've actually seen a bunch of these when we were over and a bunch of other kind of circular, cyclical type things where you just repeat the same thing over and over and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and thereby gaining favor or gaining altered state of mind that can feel like enlightenment or feel special or unique. This is Yeah, this is a real deal and it's really part of the thing. So there it is.

So even today, even today, both things that Jesus warned these people about are still clearly around. His warning has never been as relevant to us in the church as it was to the Jews. He was offering this kingdom and giving guidelines and principles for living until the entry to that kingdom too. We're just in much as danger of parading our religiosity before men and the Lord. And in His unchanging character, still despises our religious self-righteousness. And still despises our using Him for authority and for position before men. Furthermore, the Lord still desires us to be in prayer with Him in private.

And that's a magnificent thing. Our relationship to God is personal, and one that requires communication of prayer. It is also an amazing and endless comfort and wonder that our prayer, just as the prayers of the people that Jesus was directly addressing, are also directed to an all-knowing, all-seeing God. We're not surprising God by our prayers. Isn't that comforting? Isn't that fantastic?

One, that he hears us. There's no good reason for him to hear us. I could stand on the street corner yelling, and even I'm not crazy enough to think the President of the United States even should listen to me, given who I am. I don't have any special authority or position that he should do that.

How much more so the God of the universe, and yet the God of the universe hears and wants us to be in private and an intimate prayer with him, which is fantastic, which is really exciting. So neither do we have to try to argue with him or make him help.

He helps out of his generosity, his benevolence, and his love for us. And he knows what we've asked for, as much true then as now. He knows what we've asked for, or what we need before we even ask for it. So it's fantastic. Does that mean we should just quit praying since He already knows?

No. Why not? He likes it and it makes us feel better. There you go! I think that's exactly right. And He tells us to. And He tells us to. So it's a matter of obedience, too. He likes it. It makes us feel better. What's this concept of everybody's got a counselor now? or a psychologist or something. Why? Because it just feels better when you get it off your chest.

And I think that's all reminiscent of the fact that we need to be giving that stuff all to the Lord. Very obviously, our being is designed to. We're not designed to carry it ourselves. And we don't live in a healthy way when we try to carry it ourselves.

So, it's really just a fantastic thing. So, it must be that he loves us and longs for us to be in his presence, taking revenge of the royal introduction won for us by Jesus Christ. So, even... Oh, forgive me, I'm getting over this cold and it's just vicious. Okay.

Within the walls of what we might call Christendom, there's a sort of mysticism that even threatens the Church today. It kind of can vary from everything, and I'm sure you've been exposed to it, at least in some respect. It can vary from everything, kind of a mishmash Christianity-Buddhism. Take a little bit of this, a little bit of that. People who kind of view that religion is kind of like a buffet line. A little bit of Jesus, a little bit of this, and then come back for seconds if you need a little bit more.

And this is obviously, this kind of almost bizarre plurality is not what the Lord is talking about here. And this kind of stuff specifically is happening in the church today through a couple authors, and I won't name any names or anything like that, but there are a couple authors and a whole movement of Christianity.

There's an encouraged self-hypnosis they put you in. Pray these four words over and over and over and over again until you forget that you're saying them. And if you realize you forget you're saying them, start saying them again. That's self-hypnosis.

This is no history. This is no real mystery. It's the fact that we can put ourselves into an altered state of mind by repeating something over and over and over again. really so far, and it goes from that end all the way over to creative visualization, secret, stuff like that, that also is kind of this, well, if you want it, dream it, and if you dream it, you can do it, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and all this stuff, these kind of weird mystery religions are creeping in, and our liberal, kind of loosey-goosey church today is willing to accept pretty much anything that says, oh, and you can have Jesus too with this. Oh, no, this doesn't conflict with... And they don't even know if it conflicts with what's in the Word or not, nor do they really care. They just want to say, oh, you can have Jesus plus this. So anyway, it's a real threat, and discernment is most desperately needed in it, because it is, yeah, I believe, an incredible threat to the faiths of many, whether or not they know it.

All right, so, moving forward to the Lord's Prayer. I would like to accompany with this section a plea to be sensitive. I can't speak for anyone else in the world, I wouldn't be so presumptuous, but finding out about this from a dispensational aspect was one of the hardest things for me to get over. It was such a slap in the face. And we'll get into it, but before we get into it, I just want to encourage you, especially if this is, you know, if you're used to studying the word exegetically, if you're used to really looking after, well, what does the Lord say?

And it's not, this is not a sacred cow for you, essentially. Please be sensitive to those for whom it is a sacred cow when you're sharing this with others, because This is shocking stuff even to our church today. And it doesn't take away from the fact that it's absolutely responsible, right, and exegetically sound. But it is the fact that we're going to find out today that, oh my heavens, that prayer that I've been praying for the last 5, 10, 15, 30, 40 years might not actually be a prayer for the church. And that's something that needs to be tactfully delivered to other people when you're talking about these things with others, because it's just so easy to hit them over the head.

Well, that's not for the church, bunk! They say, well, you're a heretic. No, I'm not. I actually know what I'm talking about, but modicum of sensitivity will definitely pay off in pounds as we share this with our Christian brothers and sisters out in the world. So, there's my plea. It's over. We'll move right into it. So this certainly has all the potential in the world to be a touchy subject.

This prayer has been adopted by countless churches as having been given by the Lord to the church. Obviously, if you're Catholic, you say this prayer a lot as you go around the rosary. And if you have, you know, even in a Presbyterian church, it's not uncommon to have everybody stand up and sing the Lord's Prayer or other Protestant churches. This is something that's very distinctly been soaked in to the church culture even from long, long, long before our time.

Just previously mentioned, Matthew is the gospel, previously being in previous studies, not today. As previously mentioned, Matthew is the gospel of the King, Jesus, offering the kingdom, it's the millennial kingdom that's prophesied in the Old Testament, to the Jews, if they would accept Him as their King. This sermon is telling the Jews what it meant to repent, what it means to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And this prayer, which is really a combination of two popular Jewish temple prayers, is a prayer of preparation and anticipation for the kingdom that is promised in the Old Testament.

As we will look through it line by line, it will become clear that most of it is written not for what we as the Church are anticipating, but for what Israel is anticipating. And it's wildly inappropriate for the Church in that context, in the position that we've been given in Christ.

Vern's put together a couple of great slides This is the Lord's prayer, as we see it. Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

So, here's the Kedesh prayer for the synagogue. So this is a Jewish prayer that was in effect, in working. It's not something that came after Christ. It's something that was in place before Christ. He's trying to observe the similarities. It says exalted and hollowed be his great name in the world which he created according to his will May he let his kingdom rule in your lifetime in your days and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel speedily and soon Praise be his great name from eternity to eternity and to this say amen Starting to see the similarities Jesus is just going to kind of pull this Jewish prayer that has Jewish context, Jewish, and is really completely a prayer for Israel.

A prayer in the context of Israel's promises. And say, just go ahead and pray that for the church. Here's the morning and evening prayer. Bring me not to the power of sin, and not to the power of guilt, and not to the power of temptation, and not to the power of anything shameful. It was really, oh, let's see. Okay. Sorry. Am I really? Oh, it's symmetrical. Okay. In any event.

So, on top of this, there are other Jewish prayers that this all kind of rings similar to, and it was a habit, an accepted habit, if you couldn't recite all these prayers, to recite a sort of abbreviated version that a rabbi would give you. So if you were following a rabbi, and Jesus had set himself up as a traveling rabbi, it would not be unusual or bizarre or even thought of as kind of strange that he would give them an abbreviated version of these prayers, these longer prayers. In fact, there's even one that's at the time of Christ, it was 18 blessings. And then since then, the 19th was added after they were driven from the land after the diaspora. But Yes.

I. I think he was not standing in condemnation of the prayers that were already prayed, but the principle behind the abbreviated prayer was just, it took about five minutes to run through these 19 blessings. They weren't a sentence each, they were a paragraph each. So it took about five minutes to run through it all. You don't always have five minutes when, you know, oh my house is on fire, okay, let's do the 19 blessings.

No, you might just want to kind of fire through something quick and short and move it on. So this is, I think, more of a more of a formula for brevity. Brevity's sake. For, okay, I don't have time to do the proper, you know, davening and praying thing, but I can do this short abbreviated prayer.

So, does that kind of answer your question? Is that in keeping with, yeah? Okay, cool. Cool, cool. So, that's, to give you a little cultural and historical background, that's what, that's what we're kind of dealing with here. All right, so, and we'll get to this in a second. I think we're even doing okay with time, I mean, you know. You know, that's good. Okay, so, Matthew 6, 9. Pray then in this way. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.

For certain, we in the church age share in the fact that we are children of God and we can cry out to the Father. However, our ability to cry out is more personal than simply our Father. It has been brought up before that Jesus probably, or not probably, Jesus shocked the Jews by saying, my Father, Never say that. You could say our Father, say the Father, but my Father? That's just blasphemous. And Jesus blew them all away by saying, you know what?

My Father who is in Heaven. And then go forward. I mean, no wonder they picked up stones. And the wild thing about it is that we have been given this same relationship in Christ. This thing which the Jews wouldn't dare address God with. We are able to cry out, Abba, Papa, Daddy, My Father, based on our intimate relationship with Him, as children of God, based on the work of Christ. It's unbelievable.

The phrase, Hallowed be Your Name, is talking about the name of the Lord being revered by all people. So it's not just this personal statement like we'd probably take it if we were to pray it ourselves and say, I revere your name. I think your name is holy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This was talking about everyone will revere your name.

Everyone, when everyone, praying for the time when everyone would revere the name of God, which will be historians of the future, anyone? The Millennial Kingdom, right? That's the only time in human history when everyone will glorify the name of God. Everyone will revere the name of the Lord.

So, moving on to Matthew 6.10. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. This is a fairly obvious eschatological request. It's very obviously saying, OK, Lord, waiting for this time, waiting for this to happen.

In fact, in Acts 1, Jesus teaches the disciples a great deal about the kingdom, but never corrects the view that it's a real physical kingdom. And they were still expecting it at the time of his ascension. So in other words, the Jews, before that, were expecting a real physical kingdom, right? And then Jesus goes through his whole earthly ministry, never really correcting that expectation for an earthly kingdom.

Then Jesus is crucified, dead, buried, resurrected, and he's talking with the disciples. Acts 1 says he taught them about the kingdom for all this time. And then, just as he's about to ascend, he says, Lord, is this the time you're going to come and restore the kingdom? Give us the kingdom?

And Jesus says, no, no, no, you got it all wrong. It's not a real physical kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. No! He says, it's not for you to know the times. That's all he tells them. So Jesus, still, right up until the very end, never denies that this literal earthly kingdom is coming. He taught them to pray for the coming of this literal earthly kingdom. When the Father's name would be hallowed in all the earth. When your kingdom has come and His will is done, His earth is in heaven.

So anyway, to be monumentally irresponsible of the Lord, which is kind of a weird thing to say, if it wasn't for the would-be. It would be monumentally irresponsible of the Lord to use the word in this way, without any explanation, knowing that that's what they were expecting, knowing that that's what they were looking forward to, and then just say, oh, we're changing that, change the program. In this sense, it is further strengthened by the fact that God's will being done on earth and in heaven is specifically a millennial idea.

It is not something that we can say is going on right now. Surely God is sovereign in all things. However, there are certain things that he allows in this current economy, such as the actions of Hitler, Stalin, and the writings of Darwin, Hegel, and Nietzsche, which will not be tolerated in the millennial kingdom. Does that make sense? Okay, cool. Alright, give us this day our daily bread.

The statement shows that the people who were anticipating the kingdom were to be praying for their daily provision. As Toussaint writes, you can hardly refer to the kingdom age since there will be no shortage of food at that time. It always amazes me when someone would say that we're now in the kingdom. This is the kingdom, this is the kingdom, this is the kingdom. all these prophecies, all these phenomenal things that God has promised for that time, and saying, well, it's just kind of spiritually true now.

What a disappointment. I feel like God really balked, if that were the case. Will this prayer be used during the tribulation, do you think? That's a phenomenal question. And at that time, there would be a lot of people praying for their daily bread. I think that's a phenomenal suggestion.

I would say absolutely. I think as well. Well, you know, what we've started at the outset, the Sermon on the Mount is given from the time that Christ was giving it up until the time the Lord comes. So certainly tribulations include it, yeah. And just as you point out, it'd be extremely relevant. Yeah. Give us a daily bread because it's not assured. When are we going to be glad when your kingdom comes? Truly, truly, that's fantastic. Yeah, I think, thank you. That's a magnificent insight. Magnificent. Okay. Any other comments, questions? Fantastic.

And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. The idea of our sins as a spiritual debt to God is a very Jewish idea. We see it throughout the New Testament, for sure. The thing that doesn't fit for the Church, however, is that it sure feels like the forgiveness of the person praying the prayer is conditioned upon the fact that they've forgiven others. As we know, and as we talked about, and as we'll talk about again in the last little section, that's not really a church age line of thinking. That's not the grace that we've been saved into.

That God's going to pull the carpet under you if you forget to forgive that guy if he cuts you off. Oh, I'd be in trouble. It's just, it's terrifying to think that that's a threat that's out there. Oh, the Lord's forgiveness? Oh, yep, you're forgiven, absolutely, unless you don't forgive someone else. Boy, marriage would be a perilous endeavor, wouldn't it? Heavens. Okay, anyway. We'll move forward, though, because we'll address that a little bit at the end. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power, and glory forever and ever. Amen.

The reason why that's parenthesized, I'm sure if you've got your Bible open, there's generally a footnote. Our oldest and best manuscripts don't have that. It's kind of been projected by a couple of pretty notable scholars that that was kind of shoved in there to kind of make the prayer more complete. I'm not going to speak to it one way or another, because I haven't actually looked at the manuscripts.

Anything else to add about that? It would add to the 4th century. 4th century! John Cathastum was the fellow that... There you go. Johnny C. Add to the prayer. I think, too, in the tribulation, if they're using this prayer to deliver us from evil, it will be very much a prayer that's being given. Oh yeah! There'll be some real evil to be delivered from at that time, won't there? When's the barrage going to stop?

Okay, so for sure, so the book of Daniel was the prophetic 70 weeks, and we don't really have time to really go into it in depth, but Daniel prophesied that there'd be this seven weeks of years, which is a really well understood Old Testament concept, this whole Sabbath years, and every seven days you have a Sabbath, and then every seven years you have a Sabbath year, and then, how does it go, the year of Jubilee is like seven sevens, so it's like the fiftieth year, is The year of Jubilee where all debts would be cancelled and all that sort of thing. So this idea of weeks of years wasn't a foreign deal before Daniel, which always kind of caught me up because I thought, man, why did Daniel start thinking of this whole weeks of years thing?

Well, it had been in the Hebrew mind since Moses and possibly before Roland. This is from Genesis and Jacob. He worked for Leah and worked for Rachel. It was all set in there. This is all together. as foreign as it might be to us in the 20th century. It's fantastically related.

So anyway, here's these weeks of years, these 70 weeks. And the final week of years before the millennial kingdom was known as Jacob's Trouble, or what we call here the Great Tribulation. Knowing this, the people anticipated the coming of the kingdom I'm sorry, knowing this, the people anticipating the coming of the kingdom would need to pray for strength and deliverance from great evil that was yet to come. This is not the same thing as being preserved from our personal temptations that may plague us, but rather something having to do with the kingdom, just as the rest of the prayer has been directed.

So here we see again and again and again and again and again. I mean, Studying this was so much fun and so exciting and at the same time just so shocking. Once again, for years I've prayed this prayer and always thought, okay Lord, keep me from my personal temptations. And I can list them off for you. I get tempted this way, I get tempted that way, tempted this way.

And that's really not the thrust of what Christ is saying at all. It's protect us from the danger that's coming, from the intense evil, and deliver us from the evil. that's coming, and knowing clearly and full well how, well, actually not as well as we know now having the Book of Revelation, but knowing full well that it was not going to be a fun time for anybody. And knowing that the only way that anyone was going to get through this time of tribulation and difficulty was by God's mercy. Because otherwise, everyone would perish. It would be that serious. And they were aware of that. They were aware of that. Any other questions about that before we move on to our last verse? Okay, cool.

4. If you forgive others their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

So, this is, to me, proof positive that Christ cannot be talking to the Church. I've heard even some older dispensationalist writers, I mean, older good thinkers and good writers come in and say, well, he's talking about fellowship here and not necessarily salvation. So, you know, if you don't forgive others, you'll be out of fellowship with God because they want to, even some good old dispensationalist writers want to pull this and make it a church sermon. And it just doesn't hold water. You have to jimmy too much by interpretation to all of a sudden say that the Lord's forgiveness is only based on, this is a fellowship forgiveness, not a salvation, not a forgiveness of salvation, or something to that effect. Christ is talking about entry into the kingdom, right? If you don't forgive others, you're not fit to enter my kingdom. This is not at all appropriate for us in the church.

As we got up here, Ephesians 4.32, and we've highlighted this a couple times, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as in God, Christ has also forgiven you. I mean, that's the fantastic truth for us today, that we don't share in common with the original audience of this sermon.

We're already blessed. And it's not going away. It's not in jeopardy. It's not in danger. We're not going to have the rug pulled out from under us. We're not going to have the wool pulled over our eyes. It's not going to happen. We are blessed. It's secure. It's already there.

And the reason to forgive is because we've been forgiven with such a great abundance of grace that it would be silly not to. That it would be in contradiction to our character in Christ as a new creature, a new creation. I made a new word. Anyway, that's the power I think of. of this and realizing that we don't need to run around in fear that, oh, I didn't do this. Oh, did I forgive that guy? I better. I yelled out my window at him. I better take down his license plate, find out where he lives and go apologize. Just go tell him I forgive him for cutting me off. I mean, can you imagine what these are? And if your salvation's in order, would that be a pretty good thing to do? Yeah, I'd track someone down, you know, secure my salvation if I had to.

But you know, we don't, and that's phenomenal. And look at that, five pages, and we haven't even hit the first bell. Does anybody have any questions? Or we might have hit the first bell, haven't we? The question is, looking at this, you would think there's nothing in here about what Christ says we're to do, and that's to pray in his name.

That's a fantastic observation. Christ tells the disciples later to pray in his name, and yet he doesn't talk about that here at all, which, you know, Fits perfectly well with what we're talking about, but I don't know how you'd reconcile that if you were trying to pull this into the church. That's a phenomenal, phenomenal insight. Just what's left out speaks volumes.

So is this true that the Jews were supposed to pray that from the time when Jesus came to his millennial kingdom? Specifically, no, because now anyone who comes to believe in Christ would enter the church, and neither Jew nor Gentile and so on. Slave nor Greek, all that business. Slave nor Greek, that's not right. Anyway, that's not the point.

So, Jesus is right here offering the kingdom to the people, saying, I told you, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, and if the whole nation would have repented, then there would have been a seven-year tribulation. Well, in that How to do the would-ofs would be difficult, but Jesus would have died on the cross, been resurrected, there'd be a seven-year tribulation, and the Millennial Kingdom, boom. And all of history would have been consummated by now. As fascinating as that is. So that was what he was offering to them.

So he's saying, in this sermon, he's saying, I told you to repent, and you don't know what I meant because you thought you were doing pretty darn good. You thought you were doing very well. There it is, like an old friend. Anyway, you thought you were doing very well, and the reality is that your divorces are completely unacceptable to me, or to God. And your hearts are filthy, even if your actions are fine. And, oh by the way, you are so far off the track, you're so far from where God wants you to be, that you can't enter into my millennial kingdom. So let me tell you the kind of character of person that's getting into this millennial kingdom.

And then we hit this. So I think this prayer would be effective for anyone, would be something that Jesus was telling him up until the rejection of the kingdom by the Jews. Does someone have chapter and verse on that? the official rejection? I think the point is that the church beginning is not, it includes Jews, but it's not under the particular dictates of what you see here in the Sermon on the Mount. That will begin again during the tribulation period, still anticipating the kingdom within that seven year period. So does that kind of answer your question?

That it would be effective when he was preaching it, and will be effective again. Now that we're in the church age, it's not got the full force of its original meaning. And in the tribulation period, people will be praying it with some fervency, once again. Because that's what all this imagery and all this stuff is all pointing towards.

Okay. Jack? get a little clearer understanding about this Millennial Kingdom. There will be Jews and Gentiles in that period. And there will be those that still reject the Lord. And will the Gentiles be using this prayer during the Millennial Kingdom or not? I wouldn't think so. Fern, you might have something to add.

No, this is in anticipation of the kingdom. And so thy kingdom come. Why would you say that when it's come? Thy kingdom here. Yeah. Yeah, this is from the time of the Sermon on the Mount until entry into the kingdom. That's what the Sermon on the Mount is about. Yeah. I certainly couldn't answer that question. Maybe I'll send out a memo. email when telecommunications are back. Yeah, this is particularly directed to.

And one of the things that's clear, which the Lord addresses later in Matthew, is for the Gentiles during the tribulations, a critical point of judgment for their entry is, how did you treat the Jews? How did you treat the Jews? And it goes back to what was the promise to Abraham? I will bless the Jew. I will bless the Jew versus you, Elpher. Wow. So the Lord's just going to carry it out. Fantastic.

I'm sure there's lots of great questions and comments yet lying fallow within our midst, but we should pray and close up. I think somebody got page one only. And if you got page one only, you've been wondering where we are for the last 40 minutes. You're short the last four pages. Fantastic. Ah, there it is. That could be it. And you wonder why we're not starting over again. Okay, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the ministry of the Lord. And we thank you for the unchanging nature and character of you that wants us to come to you individually, intimately, in private. Lord, and thank you that you comfort us. and that your spirit comforts us. And thank you that we have an intermittent, active relationship with you. In Jesus' name, Amen.