The Sermon on the Mount I recently heard a teaching that troubled me. It came from a Christian teacher who stated that the sermon on the mount was not meant for Christians. He also said that the Ten Commandments were not meant for the Christian either. His theory was that, since we are living by grace, and the teachings of the sermon on the mount were "works" oriented, we were not meant to live by them. This seems to be a common teaching among certain modern day preachers. I wonder. Let us look at parts of the sermon on the mount. These were words that came from the mouth of our Saviour at the beginning of his ministry. This was Jesus' first recorded sermon. These words came from the mouth of God Himself. And now we are to believe that they were not meant for our instruction? Jesus said "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Are we not meant to be rich in good works, to let our lights shine before a sinful and unbelieving world? Is this not instruction for the Christian? Scripture is interpreted by scripture, and it is said in 2 Tim 3:16 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Saint Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said that "all scripture" is profitable for instruction, that the man of God may be "perfect". New translations use the word "complete". Surely the sermon on the mount would come under the heading of "all scripture". Would these teachers throw this part of scripture out simply because the same teaching is found in the sermon on the mount? Jesus said "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."  These teachers have said that this was not for the Christian, since we can't be perfect. Well, I would agree, none of us are perfect, but let us look at the context in which this was spoken. Our Lord said "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as you Father in heaven is perfect." Our Lord was teaching us to love our enemies, to have a perfect, loving, impartial heart. And he said in this context "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven". This was part of the prerequisite for sonship, to love our neighbor as ourselves, as it is written in the gospel of John, "No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us." Notice John says "His love is perfected in us." This was the love that our Lord was talking about. According to these teachers, since this teaching is also in the sermon on the mount, we are not meant to keep it either. St. John said "He who says 'I know Him' and does not keep His commandments is a liar. If a man says that he loves God and hates his brother, he is a liar." "And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment." We have had many martyrs over the centuries for the cause of Christ. In the sermon on the mount, our Lord gave us this promise: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you." Since this  passage was in the sermon on the mount, it has no relevance for the Christian living by grace, according to these teachers. It has no relevance for any of the martyrs down through the centuries, from James the brother of our Lord, all of the apostles except St. John, Polycarp, all the way on down to those such as Jim Elliot, who said "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose", along with his fellow martyrs Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Peter Fleming, and Nate Saint. According to these teachers, our Lord certainly couldn't have been refering to them, because the sermon on the mount is "works" oriented, and these men were living by grace, so when our Lord was talking about those who were blessed for being persecuted for His sake, and who would receive a martyrs reward in heaven he wasn't refering to them. We have what has been called "The Lord's Prayer" given to us in the sermon on the mount, the noblest, purest, most eloquent expression of the will of God for mankind in all of Scripture. It begins addressing God as "Our Father, who is in heaven." It continues with "Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen" Such sublime teaching on prayer is not meant for the Christian according to these teachers. Let us read some more of our Lord's first public sermon: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Concerning our daily needs, our Lord said, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to your that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Ask, and it shall be give you, seek and you shall find, knock, and the door shall be opened for you." Our Lord taught us to pray, to give alms, to fast in the sermon on the mount. These teachers take issue with all of this. Forgive and you shall be forgiven, love your enemies, obey Him. None of this is meant for the modern Christian according to these men. I have this to say to you hyper-Calvinist preachers who have perverted the true gospel of grace: You hypocrites! Well has the Lord spoken of you, "You strain at a gnat and swallow a camel," slicing and dicing up faith and works like vegetables on a cutting board, putting works over here and faith over there, and for heavens sake lets not mix the two! Know you not, you blind guide, that the inspired word says that "faith without works is dead, being alone"?  You love the best seats in church and at banquets, but you are whited tombs, unmarked graves, into which the unwary fall into. You are wolves acting as sheep, false shepherds leading the flock astray from the law of God. Our Lord said, "Whosoever shall break the least of these commandments and teaches men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, but whosoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." And the law is not burdensome; all the commandments are fulfilled in this "You shall love your neighbor as yourself", and the sermon on the mount is merely our Lord's practical instruction for us on how to live this law in our everyday lives. God has given us grace to love Him and to serve Him, and to keep His commandments, as our Lord said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away". The teachers who preach a false grace and say that the sermon on the mount is not meant for Christians are mentioned by reference in the very sermon on the mount that they say we are not meant to live by. Our Lord said, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Therefore by their fruits you shall know them". Our Lord finished the sermon on the mount with this: "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and eat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." And what of these false teachers? Our Lord describes them in the final part of the sermon: "But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall". Concerning the Ten Commandments, they have never ceased to be binding on the Christian. Find one of the commandments that God says you may break. Does God allow you to commit adultery, to murder, to worship false gods, to steal? Are these now to be permissible for the modern Christian? Yes, I am redeemed by the blood of Christ, but did Christ die so that I could break the Ten Commandments? Jeremiah said that the days would come when the Lord would write His laws in our hearts, and put them in our minds. With the resurrected Christ to empower us, we are meant to live out the Ten Commandments from love of our Saviour, who died for us, and rose again so that we could walk in newness of life. The true born again Christian should want to live by the Ten Commandments. Let us not add or subtract to the words of our Saviour. Let us not have the hubris to pick and choose from the Word of God what we shall apply to ourselves and what we shall neglect. All scripture is for our edification and instruction. All scripture is given by God. To try to marginalise the sermon on the mount to some "works oriented" teaching that is not in comformity with the rest of the gospels is the worst form of Biblical exegesis, it is to relegate the words of our Lord to something of secondary importance, it is a departing from true Biblical orthodoxy, it has no place in genuine Christian teaching.                                                                                                                             James M. Foard