Sermon Tone Analysis

Text

Lesson

Jesus began this sermon with the statement:

Shocking, I know.

The Pharisees were experts in the minutia of outward lawkeeping.

They were meticulous.

But as Jesus said, inside they were full of dead men’s bones.

Their hearts were far from God.

They had all sorts of rules about adultery - but if you divorced and married, then divorced and married again - on and on - you could find loopholes.

Never-mind that you left a trail of wounded, impoverished and desperate women in your wake.

You couldn’t take a knife and stab someone.

But you could destroy them with words, slander, gossip, “just asking for prayer”, and go away patting yourself on the back for not gossiping.

We have gone through all of these in this sermon.

The gist of the sermon is the same thing that Solomon was saying in Proverbs

A man might know all of the religious phrases, and be destitute of righteousness.

A man might even work miracles and raise tons of money and build huge institutions, but be destitute of love.

This is the point of the whole sermon up until now.

The problem with the Jews was that they lacked wisdom.

If you don’t have wisdom, you will be seduced by sin, sucked into evil, and perish far from God.

“Depart from me; I never knew you.”

When you depart from wisdom, wisdom declares it on the last day.

Jesus is the wisdom of God made flesh.

Solomon says of wisdom this:

Our first problem is that we think that we have wisdom, so it never occurs to us to ask for it.

So because we think we have wisdom, we would naturally consider ourselves to be righteous and wise and loving.

But our default position is the position of the fool - the house on the sand.

When we hear of the requirements of the law, we say to ourselves, “With excitement and proper exercise of the will, with the proper motivation, I can keep this law because I am just that good.

I can at least do better than the other guy.”

The problem is that when you see what the law of God actually says, it goes to the heart and convicts everyone.

Lust in the heart.

Calling your neighbor a fool.

Trusting money and riches.

Not resting.

Using words to manipulate rather than tell the truth.

Which is why Jesus says Matthew 5:20

So we substitute our own law.

We gerrymander the boundaries - those inside are the righteous.

They are like me.

Those outside are the wicked.

They are like the people we don’t like.

Inside are those who do everything the proper way, like good proper people.

They know when to say, “Lord, Lord” and they know the proper things to do and the proper things to say.

Outside are the worldly, who laugh on the Sabbath, go to the theater, wear miniskirts.

Dress like hippies, don’t shine their shoes, listen to the wrong sort of music...

So - final warning first:

First - That day.

There is a day of judgment coming.

The Scripture repeatedly speaks of the “day of the Lord”

But Amos 5:18

The Jews thought like we all do - when the Lord comes in judgment, we will be just fine.

Why?

Because we said, “Lord, Lord” and did the work of the church and taught sinners the law and built huge organizations and everyone thinks well of us.

But Jesus echoes the prophets of old.

What good is the day of the Lord to you?

How do you think you will escape when God comes in judgment

Second - Jesus is the judge

This would have shocked the Jews.

Jesus is claiming that he is the Son of David and he is claiming the right to sit in judgment.

Putting these ideas together, Jesus is the one whose coming was foretold as “the day of the Lord” - a day of judgment and consummation.

But he has already come, but the “day” has not yet come.

What is new is that the day of the Lord has been divided into two - first, he comes with salvation.

THEN he comes in judgment.

Third - the nature of the judgment

It isn’t the outward religious activities, but doing the will of God.

In the context, it is obedience from the heart, just as he described in his sermon.

It must be a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.

The righteousness which can stand before God must be perfect throughout and wholly conformable to the divine law.

If we are honest - which we can only be if we are awakened by the Holy Spirit - we will realize that we are in trouble.

What is the solution?

The house on the rock

Wasn’t there something in the Old Testament about getting something that would protect you from sin and ruin?

That’s right…wisdom.

Not only will Wisdom guide you in the right paths, but it will ALSO take away all of your sins, cover you with perfect righteousness...

As revelation unfolds we realize that God has provided the righteousness that we cannot.

All we can say is “Lord, Lord” - but what good is that when our hearts are full of death and decay.

Building your house on the foundation of wisdom - and building your house on the perfect, finished work of Christ are the same thing.

The Jews seek power - a sign, like Moses in the wilderness - forgetting how quickly the nation turned away from God. Earthly power can never cut to the heart and bring life out of death and ruin.

The Greeks seek wisdom, thinking that if they just knew enough and saw the big picture, they would make the right choices - but they all died, alienated and in misery.

And they rejected the gospel.

They could not fathom a messiah, a wise one, a Holy One from God, dying on a cross.

They thought that with the proper exercise of power and the proper exercise of wisdom, their righteousness would exceed the requirements - and they built on that house

And that house fell, and it’s fall was tremendous.

“Depart from me, you who work iniquity.”

In every age, the blustering person, the master of wisdom and prudence and insight - and the curtains are being pulled back - and behind the mahogany walls and ivory towers, the death and ruin of the bodies run over are piling up.

Because they thought that they could build a house on their own wisdom and insight, on their wealth and power, on their numbers and coalitions - and the houses will always fall flat.

Because if the house is on the wrong foundation, if it is built upon anything other than the cross of Christ, it will always, always bring forth the works of the flesh.

It cannot but fall into ruin when the storms come.

Only one foundation brings life - another way of looking at the bride, the groom, the shepherd, the sheep, the kingdom and the king.

His righteousness covers us completely.

His sacrifices takes away all curse

His spirit guides and directs us and sanctifies us

So that we learn more and more each day about the wonderful love of Jesus, which passes all of our understanding.

And only on THAT foundation will we stand at the Day of the Lord.

All other ground is sinking sand.

And the Hebrew word for a solid foundation that will not collapse is “amen”.

To believe is to stand on that foundation.

To declare the promises of God in scripture to be “amen”.

He will walk with me through the shadow of death.

he will guide me every day of my life.

He will never let me go.