Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: Mourning What?

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." 

-Matthew 5:4

It's been a few days since visiting MLJ's Studies in the Sermon on the Mount.  A little late, not forgotten.  Today's chapter focuses on Matthew 5:4 and has to do with mourning.  One of the benefits of reading through Scripture at a slower pace is the opportunity to track with the intent of the author or speaker.  God has inspired Scripture intentionally and not with haphazardness.  So if we take seriously MLJ's argument that all of the Beatitudes are related and have a sequence that "makes sense," we can start doing away with some misconceptions about them.  And, like any Beatitude, this second one can be used, abused, and misused.  We must come to this and ask, "What kind of mourning is the Savior talking about?" to gain a real sense of what the blessing of comfort spoken of here has to do with.  Does this mean everyone on planet earth who is mourning (over one thing or another, from the loss of a child to the loss of their dictatorship over a country) will be comforted?  Is there some kind of "universal blessedness" promised here?  Does the audience matter?  Should we "force" mourning?  What is being talked about here?

Hallmark Doesn't Help

Scripture is complete.  Scripture is clear.  And Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, has themes and truth about God that becomes very clear when we go to it as its own interpreter, in the light-giving ministry of the Holy Spirit.  If a passage of Scripture seems to make you turn your head like the dog in the RCA commercials, like it doesn't make any sense at all, one of the most helpful things you can do is ask this question: Based on what I know about the Bible and what other "clearer" passages have to say about what's in question, what does this passage not mean?  That's probably one of the more helpful questions to understanding hard passages and its not usually the first we want to have answered.  We're quick to want the kernel of application and not so quick to want to know how to get it.  So when we come to something that seems like it could be - and has been - taken way out of context, how do we understand it?

In short, coming to the Word of God and taking one verse here or there isn't as helpful as it is popular.  I've seen "Christian" Valentine's Day cards that go out of their way to find a verse that has love in it, but doesn't make biblical sense to use it that way.  And to fire off a "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" to anyone and everyone is like sending off a greeting card that says (true story) "I have derived much joy and comfort from your love" as a romantic gesture.  Paul was telling Philemon what a blessing it was that he had served the saints so well and faithfully.  Frankly, it would just be better to write "I love you and here are the dozens of reasons why" and fill in the blanks than to chop up a passage of Scripture and use it out of context.  Words matter much more than that!

Mourning What?

So what kind of mourning is in view here?  Here is what MLJ has to say: "Our Lord did not say that those who mourn in a natural sense are happy, meaning by 'mourning', the sorrow experienced because of the death of someone. . . . As we saw that poverty of spirit was not something financial, but something essentially spiritual, so this again is something entirely spiritual and has nothing to do with our natural life in this world" (Studies, 43-44).  Whoa.  Is this too harsh?  Is Lloyd-Jones guilty of "over-spiritualizing"?  In one sense, I think we need to be careful to not over-correct the false impressions we get of these things.  There is comfort for those who are in Christ and mourn.  The Scriptures are clear about God's compassion and care for His people.  And in one sense, every bit of mourning that happens in this fallen world is a result of sin.  So yes, the comfort that comes to those who mourn has to do with real stuff, a real grief over the fallenness of this world.  But what MLJ points out - and this is what we have to see - is the kind of mourning that follows right on the heels of poverty of spirit.  If someone knows themselves bankrupt of any righteousness that will be acceptable before God, what must they mourn?  How do mourning and poverty of spirit relate?

The answer, Lloyd-Jones suggests, is to see that the threshold of conversion is stained with tears mourning sin and its sinfulness.  And as a very, very practical point of application, he has this to say about the failure to recognize the place that mourning over sin has in the Christian life, even characterizing conversion to greater or lesser degrees: "I cannot help feeling that the final explanation of the state of the Church today is a defective sense of sin and a defective doctrine of sin.  Coupled with that, of course, is a failure to understand the true nature of Christian joy.  There is the double failure.  There is not the real, deep conviction of sin as was once the case; and on the other hand there is this superficial conception of joy and happiness which is very different indeed from that which we find in the New Testament.  Thus the defective doctrine of sin and the shallow idea of joy, working together, of necessity produce a superficial kind of person and a very inadequate kind of Christian life" (Studies, 45).

These are certainly hard words.  But if you give some thought to it, it won't take long to conclude that Lloyd-Jones hit the nail on the head more than half a century ago when he preached these words.  And it hasn't gotten any better.  When the garbage of health-wealth-prosperity teaching can convince millions that their best life is now and when the design to provide a shopping mall experience of take it as you like it Christianity marks so many churches, is it any wonder that the Gospel - the life-changing, world-changing, sin-killing, love-producing, God-glorifying Gospel - is not taking hold?  We've got many folks who identify as "evangelical" Christians, yet don't know the Good News that makes evangelicalism evangelical.  MLJ: "They have failed to see that they must be convicted of sin before they can ever experience joy.  They do not like the doctrine of sin.  They dislike it intensely and they object to its being preached.  THey want joy apart from the conviction of sin.  But that is impossible; it can never be obtained.  Those who are going to be converted and who wish to be truly happy and blessed are those who first of all mourn" (Studies, 45).  Indeed, happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Not with the cheesy enticements and false promises of an illegitimate gospel - but with the comfort of God who welcomes sinners into His Kingdom, who extends gracious and open arms for a world at enmity with Him. 

Again, MLJ says: "The man who truly mourns because of his sinful state and condition is a man who is going to repent; he is, indeed, actually repenting already.  And the man who truly repents as the result of the work of the Holy Spirit upon him, is a man who is certain to be led to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Having seen his utter sinfulness and hopelessness, he looks for a Savior, and he finds Him in Christ. . . . He sees in Him the perfect provision that God has made and immediately he is comforted.  That is the astounding thing about the Christian life.  Your great sorrow leads to joy, and without the sorrow there is no joy" (Studies, 49).  Further, this goes on throughout the Christian life - mourning sin, our own and the sin of others, the sin that has brought this world into a ruinous fall - mourning it and finding fullness, hope, peace, and comfort in Christ. 

So that's where we'll end for this installment.  There is certainly more to be said, but I'll leave it off there.  I've got a good, cheesy movie to watch with my wife and a late supper to eat.  Meekness is up next and, Lord willing, that chapter will come in a couple two-three days, as we say around Wisconsin.  Take care.

To God Alone Be the Glory,
-Chris

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Well, we're here.  The introductions, helpful as they are, are behind us and we've come to look at the first of the Beatitudes, which really sets the tone for the whole rest of the Sermon on the Mount.  The Lord Jesus begins His pronouncement of blessedness by saying this: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). 

The first thing to be aware is a point MLJ draws on early in this chapter: "As I have already indicated in our last study, it is not surprising that this is the first, because it is obviously, as I think we shall see, the key to all that follows.  There is, beyond any question, a very definite order in these Beatitudes" (Studies, 33).  We're certainly not dealing here with any randomized word placement.  Just because we don't have all of Paul's (helpful) connecting "therefores" and "fors" doesn't mean that we shouldn't be keenly aware of the fact that the Lord of Glory is speaking and each word is placed in perfection.  So if this is what we're exposed to first, there is a spectacular reason for it.  Here's what Lloyd-Jones thinks about how these words open up to the rest of the Sermon: "This, of necessity, is the one which must come at the beginning for the good reason that there is no entry into the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, apart from it.  There is no one in the kingdom of God who is not poor in spirit. . . . We cannot be filled until we are first empty" (Studies, 33).

This reality about conversion and Christian living isn't "popular."  For my part, "breaking the ice" regarding sin with someone I'm sharing the gospel with isn't easy or, for the most part, a natural topic of conversation.  It has to be intentionally driven at, kindly, lovingly, and tactfully.  But it still has to be there.  There are some folks very much aware of their sinfulness and some who have seared their consciences so terribly that they won't even acknowledge an objective morality.  But somewhere on that spectrum of personal awareness, something has to be said to - at the very least - bring the point home that the person outside of Christ is a person with an account brimming over with sin.  And when that account gets cashed in, they're going to collect on it in hell for an eternity.  This is very bad news.  But, if we come to the Sermon on the Mount, and hear what the Savior is saying here, those bankrupt in personal righteousness are nearest to knowing their need for a righteousness that comes from outside of themselves.  Not doing better, not putting in more time at church, not promising to do differently.  But seeing the terrible reality that we've got nothing to bring before God except a need for forgiveness, a gaping hole of righteousness that needs to be filled, and pleas for mercy to grant both - seeing that and coming to God in all of our bankruptcy, that's the early goings of a miracle that sees dead men brought to life.

Knowing that the Sermon on the Mount begins with this kind of pronouncement should sober us to what follows.  We're not dealing here with calls for pulling ourselves up by the old moral bootstraps.  Instead, the Sermon on the Mount "comes to us and says, 'There is the mountain that you have to scale, the heights you have to climb; and the first thing you must realize, as you look at that mountain which you are told you must ascend, is that you cannot do it, that you are utterly incapable in and of yourself, and that any attempt to do it in your own strength is proof positive that you have not understood it.'  It condemns at the very outset the view which regards it as a programme for man to put into operation immediately, just as he is" (Studies, 34).  This is a call to recognize bankruptcy and come to the only one who can do anything about it - the King whose Kingdom those poor in spirit, in the real, evangelical sense of the term, are promised to inherit. 

Like the tax collector who could not even lift his eyes to heaven, for shame of his sinfulness, but only beat his chest and ask God for mercy on his sinful self, the Sermon on the Mount begins by declaring that the front door to real blessedness, to real happiness, to the very Kingdom of God, involves seeing our own desperate estate.  Lloyd-Jones gives us a helpful definition here to think about "poverty of spirit": "It means a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God.  It is nothing, then, that we can produce; it is nothing that we can do in ourselves.  It is just this tremendous awareness of our utter nothingness as we come face-to-face with God. . . . It is, I say, to experience to some extent what Isaiah experienced when, having seen the vision [take a look at Isaiah 6], he said, 'Woe is me! . . . I am a man of unclean lips' - that is 'poverty of spirit'" (Studies, 40-41).

At this point, I think one thing is very clear that the previous chapters have made clear, for good reason: what we find in the Sermon on the Mount is not a mere roadmap for "moral living."  Some may say they know a nice, upstanding guy who proves you don't need to "go to church" to be a good person.  How does he relate to this - poverty of spirit?  I'll venture to say that some of the hardest hearts in the world belong to those who see no need for a perfect righteousness, because they think theirs is pretty acceptable.  The poor in spirit inherit the Kingdom not because they wallow about, but because they know where their account stands.  True poverty of spirit is evangelical - that is, it has everything to do with the Gospel and what the Gospel does to us.

Let me close with these practical remarks from Lloyd-Jones.  How do you become poor in spirit?  MLJ: "The answer is that you do not look at yourself or begin by trying to do things to yourself.  That was the whole error of monasticism [where we got "monks" from]. . . . The way to become poor in spirit is to look at God. Read this Book [the Bible] about Him, read His law, look at what he expects from us, contemplate standing before Him.  It is also to look at the Lord Jesus Christ and to view Him as we see Him in the Gospels. . . . Look at Him; and the more we look at Him, the more hopeless shall we feel by ourselves, and in and of ourselves, and the more shall we become 'poor in spirit'" (Studies, 41-42).  This reminds me a lot of one of the most helpful sermon take-aways I can remember, dealing with the issue of humility.  Instead of answering the question "Are you humble?" with a proud "Yes" or a deceitful "No," John Piper directs us to declare this: Christ is all.  Humility does away with the mirror and looks to God, in all of His glory and greatness, and forgets about self-importance.  True humility is concerned to glorify God.  And true poverty of spirit is brought about graciously by God in the hearts of His people.  It is God-glorifying, through and through.

Poverty of spirit is not a one-time event - it's a characteristic that keeps with us, in greater or lesser degrees, throughout our Christian life.  It's not wallowing in self-pity, navel-gazing, or any other self-centered kind of business.  It is, as Lloyd-Jones said, a matter of beholding God, beholding His holiness and goodness and righteousness.  It's seeing, at the first, that our unholiness and sinfulness and wickedness has earned us only wrath.  But let me say this - after coming to know Christ, it means seeing that God's holiness and goodness and righteousness are all disposed to you for your good, as God has claimed you as His own and bought you - sinful me and you! - with the blood of the Son of God.  It is seeing the depths of our undeservedness and the sin that still dwells so closely within our hearts and feeling how utterly empty our hands are to bring anything but Christ as our Righteousness, clinging to Him, and finding that our poverty has been alleviated and our emptiness has been filled by Him.  As MLJ closes this chapter, "Then you say to Him,

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling.

Empty, hopeless, naked, vile.  But He is the all-sufficient One -

Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,

O Lamb of God, I come" (Studies, 42).

Lord willing, we'll move to the second Beatitude - concerning the blessedness of "mourning" and what that means - in the next couple days.  May you rest all the more in Christ's sufficiency to satisfy.

To God Alone Be the Glory,

-Chris

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: An Introduction to the Beatitudes

     Chapter three of Studies in the Sermon on the Mount is, like the previous chapters, another "introduction" of sorts.  I assure you, there's more to the book than introductory remarks!  Nevertheless, those remarks are helpful and give us good perspective and an orientation to the Sermon on the Mount.  I can't stress enough how important it is to flush as much sediment out as we (reasonably) can before coming to a passage like the Sermon on the Mount.  Because we're so prone to approaching this passage of Scripture and parceling it up, running away from it without finishing it, or separating it from the broader scope of the Gospel of Matthew, the New Testament, and the Bible as a whole, it helps.  Really.  So let's get going with a discussion of chapter three.

     The chapter title is "An Introduction to the Beatitudes."  Most of us know "the Beatitudes."  A good question to ask before approaching MLJ's discussion is "What are the Beatitudes?"  A beatitude, by definition, refers to supreme blessing, bliss, or happiness.  The Greek wording that stands behind each of our "Blessed are..." has to do with happiness, not simply a "good saying" or eulogia, from which we get our English word "eulogy."  We're not just talking about a blessing of good words.  We're talking about a state of supreme happiness and bliss.  While it's probably over-simplistic to substitute the word as such, "happy are" might help you make better sense of the "blessed are" statements that run throughout the first handful of verses in Matthew 5.  The Beatitudes give us a snapshot of the kind of character that marks out those happy in Kingdom blessedness.  And again, blessing isn't just what we get in a bank account.  It has to do with delight in God and belonging to Him, which the Beatitudes certainly help us understand and correct views of blessedness that stop at the wallet.

     Here are some helpful remarks from MLJ in the early goings of this chapter:

"Happiness is the great question confronting mankind. The whole world is looking for happiness and it is tragic to observe the ways in which people are seeking it. The vast majority, alas, are doing so in a way that is bound to produce misery. Anything which, by evading the difficulties, merely makes people happy for the time being, is ultimately going to add to their misery and problems. That is where the utter deceitfulness of sin comes in; it is always offering happiness, and it always leads to unhappiness and to final misery and wretchedness (Studies, 24)."

Though these sermons were delivered in the mid-20th century, things have only gotten worse in the vacuum of Western culture.  Fulfillment is encouraged in any other form, by those in positions of cultural authority, than satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The empty and perverse range of ways this plays out - from overwork at the promise of more money to the abuse of our own bodies in supposed self-fulfillment - is easy to see all over the media and hard to think about without cringing at, with so many promises of happiness that ultimately go unfulfilled and pave the way away from delight in God and harden the hearts of all manner of people.  It's sad and grieving.  And it's the reality of sin and its deceitfulness.

     As Lloyd-Jones says above, all of humanity wants happiness.  One of my favorite tracts comes from John Piper and Desiring God (whom I have benefited immensely from and would encourage you to give them a look if you're not familiar with them), called Quest for Joy.  The tract opens with this statement from the French mathematician/philosopher Blaise Pascal: 

"All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means theyemploy, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves."

Pascal hits it right on the head here.  When I was in junior high and high school (those days that not many of us like thinking about), I was really mopey.  I didn't get what I wanted and because of it, I threw myself pity parties and tried to convince others that I deserved their attention.  And you know what?  Though I would have denied it at the time, because I wasn't truly converted until just before college, my pursuit of moping around and self-pity was a way of seeking happiness.  Like the sad last line of Pascal's quote, even those who appear to pursue things in abject misery still pursue what they do because, given any set of options, they choose what they want out of a sense that it is their best and happiest option.

     I think this is where we can get a better sense of the "happiness" in view here.  The happiness of the Beatitudes has much more to do with "bestness" than the smiley-faced sense of happiness we often think of.  "Blessed are" proclaims a state of preferment, bestness, and holy joy over those whose lives are characterized by what follows.  MLJ says: "The Sermon on the Mount says, however, that if you really want to be happy, here is the way.  This and this alone is the type of person who is truly happy, who is really blessed.  This is the sort of person who is to be congratulated (Studies, 24-25).  This is seriously practical stuff, folks.  Joy, happiness, fulfillment, contentment - things that elude us in the pursuit of stuff are said to belong to those who are described in the Beatitudes.

     One of the biggest problems with how people come to the Sermon on the Mount is the idea that "if I do such and such, I'll have God's favor" or "this person appears to be poor or humble, even though they aren't a Christian - this describes them as well."  And introducing the Beatitudes, MLJ continues to be vigilant about saying: No!  That is not the way it is.  Rather, if we consider the placement of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, we discover this: it stands at the headwaters of conduct.  And the Beatitudes don't say: "Be humble and you'll get this."  Instead, they say "Blessed are..."  So let's be rid of the idea that we shoot for a beatitude and then it describes us and we have deserved the blessing of the Beatitude.  So MLJ says, "It is not right to say some are meant to be 'poor in spirit,' and some are meant to 'mourn,' and some are meant to be 'meek,' and some are meant to be 'peacemakers', and so on.  No; every Christian is meant to be all of them, and to manifest all of them, at the same time.  Now I think it is true and right to say that in some Christians some will be more manifest than others; but that is not because it is meant to be so.  It is just due to the imperfections that still remain in us. . . . Indeed, I think we can even go further and say that the character of this detailed description is such, that it becomes quite obvious, the moment we analyse each Beatitude, that each one of necessity implies the other" (Studies, 26).  From what I've read to this point, Lloyd-Jones does a very good job of keeping the context together and showing how the Beatitudes "work together."  Ultimately, "The Beatitudes are a complete whole and you cannot divide them; so that, whereas one of them may be more manifest perhaps in one person than in another, all of them are there.  The relative proportions may vary, but they are all present, and they are all meant to be present at the same time" (Studies, 26).  This is helpful to note - and to help us not to excuse ourselves in squelching out one area and favoring another.

     What MLJ continues with is, I think, the most important take away from this chapter.  The post is already getting a bit long, so I want to start sewing things up by bringing this out for you to think about and internalize, both to avoid a wrong view of what real poorness of spirit (and other things talked about in the Beatitudes) looks like and to glorify God for the genuine article and seeking Him for its presence in our own hearts.  Here's, then, what I think is extremely important for us to remember, not only about the Beatitudes, but the whole Sermon on the Mount:

"None of these descriptions refers to what we may call a natural tendency. . . . I cannot emphasize this too strongly.  No man naturally conforms to the descriptions here given in the Beatitudes, and we must be very careful to draw a sharp distinction between the spiritual qualities that are here described and material ones which appear to be like them.  Let me put it like this.  There are some people who appear to be naturally 'poor in spirit'; that is not what is described here by our Lord. . . . These are not natural qualities; nobody by birth and by nature is like this (Studies, 26-27)."

Now, how familiar does the following sound?

"This is a rather subtle matter and people are often in difficulty about it in this way. They say, 'I know a person who does not claim to be a Christian, never goes to a place of worship, never reads the Bible, never prays, and frankly tells us he is not interested in these things at all.  But, you know, I have a felling that he is more of a Christian than many people who do go to a place of worship and who do pray.  He is always nice and polite, never says a harsh word or expresses an unkind judgment, and is always doing good' (Studies, 27)."

Here's Lloyd-Jones' response:

"That is the kind of confusion that often arises through failure to be clear at this particular point. . . . Some of us are born aggressive, others are quiet; some are alert and fiery, others are slow.  We find ourselves as we are, and these nice people who are so frequently brought forward as an argument against the evangelical faith are in no sense responsible for being like that. . . . As people differ in their physical appearance, so they differ in temperament; and if that is what determines whether a man is a Christian or not, I say it is totally unfair.  But thank God, that is not the position at all.  Any one of us [referring to the Christian], whatever we may be by birth and nature, is meant as a Christian to be like this.  And not only are we meant to be like this; we can be like this. . . . [The Gospel] can take the proudest man by nature and make him a man who is poor in spirit. . . . Here are characteristics and dispositions that are the result of grace, the product of the Holy Spirit, and therefore possible for all.  They cut right across all natural states and natural dispositions (Studies, 28-29)."

     I don't know about you, but this is refreshing for me personally - because I know that there are those Beatitudes I identify more with and those I don't.  And the great reality is that I can appeal to God and say, "I'm not like this - my heart is callus in this way - and I need my heart worked on, to change it and make it more like what I'm saved to be, what is spoken of here."  It's not about self-effort or resigning because we aren't naturally one way or another.  I hope this is hope for you.  Because I want to be meek and I know I'm not prone to it "naturally."  The seed for meekness is already present, because we who believe "have died and our lives are hid with Christ in God."  And wrapped up in Jesus Christ, my old, sinful self is decisively put off, even as it is still being put to death, including my non-meekness.

There's a lot more in this chapter - and I hope you've read it or will read it.  Let me leave you, though with some closing remarks by MLJ, that serve for a good closing application/question section.  (As an aside, let me be clear: it's not only "do I want to be like this" that designates genuine Christian life - but it accompanies a faith that rests in Christ alone as our Righteousness, having come to a point where we have turned from our sin and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ.)

"There, then, is the general account of the Christian which is given in the Beatitudes.  Do you see how essentially different he is from the non-Christian?  The vital questions which we therefore ask ourselves are these.  Do we belong to this kingdom?  Are we ruled by Christ?  Is He our King and our Lord?  Are we manifesting these qualities in our daily lives?  Is it our ambition to do so?  Do we see that this is what we are meant to be? . . . My immediate reaction to these Beatitudes proclaims exactly what I am.  If I feel they are harsh and hard, if I feel that they are against the grain and depict a character and type of life which I dislike, I am afraid it must means I am not a Christian.  If I do not want to be like this, I must be 'dead in trespasses and sins' . . . But if I feel that I am unworthy and yet I want to be like that, well, however unworthy I may be, if this is my desire and my ambition, there must be new life in me. . . Let every man examine himself (Studies, 32)."

To God Alone Be the Glory,

-Chris

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: General View and Analysis

     Chapter two finds us revisiting the general "sense" of the Sermon on the Mount, in order to avoid what Lloyd-Jones considers a stumbling block that, while not particular to this passage of Scripture, certainly has its share of difficulties: "missing the wood (or forest, for us American folks) for the trees."  Before we get to what MLJ has to say about the "sense" of the Scripture - and its really quite good and worth some serious thought - I want to take a few moments to address this concern and explain why its helpful to keep big, panorama, poster views of Scripture as we work through smaller sections bit by bit.

     My habit in personal devotional time for the past number of years had been to work through whole books of the Bible, verse by verse or passage by passage, over a number of weeks/months, depending on the size of the book.  For my part, I've found this to be incredibly valuable, as I'm brought to passages of Scripture I would otherwise be tempted to skip.  It "keeps me honest" to bringing myself face to face with what God says, rather than trusting my own ideas and emotions to direct me around the Bible.  While Lloyd-Jones preached on some serious topics (his book Spiritual Depression comes to mind as thoroughly helpful to lots of people), he also worked through books and passages methodically, squeezing honey out of the honeycomb and preaching sermons that leave you feeling full.  Good preaching is good preaching, regardless of its relationship to a "series."  And I love going from "cover to cover" if possible.  But one of the perils of preaching - or reading and hearing - that way is the tendency to get so caught up in the details that one misses the thrust of the bigger picture.  Taking a boat out and chasing after a particular fish is liable to get you lost at sea if you aren't mindful of your place in relation to the shore.  Sadly, removing passages of Scripture from their context and becoming on an expert of one statement while ignoring everything else around it is prime real estate to sink some strange building foundations into.  A classic misrepresentation out of the Sermon is Matthew 7:1.  It seems there are millions of people who can pull "Judge not, that you be not judged" out of a hat, while shuddering to hold Matthew 7:23 (I'll leave it for you to look that one up) with the same kind of grip.  So we need context, context, context to keep us oriented as we look at the potent words of the Sermon on the Mount.  If it seems like two "intro" chapters are too much, just keep in mind how important it is to get an idea of the land's lay before trekking it.

     Here in Wisconsin, some people stake out their driveways so that they know where the boundaries are for shoveling (for the more adventurous and those with backs that can handle it) or snowblowing (for those who can enjoy that helpful invention).  As this chapter unfolds, MLJ offers some really helpful remarks that help us orient to what will come, so we don't start snowblowing our lawns and make a big mess.  What makes those remarks helpful is our need to have some assumptions addressed and misunderstandings cleared up that we all bring to the table, particularly things we're just unaware we assume.  So, as I hope you're taking the opportunity to read through the book too, I'm just going to haul out a couple things that I found helpful as I read this chapter:

• Though it may not be as "argued" as some of Paul's letters, MLJ suggests that there is "a kind of logical sequence in this Sermon."  He continues: "Our Lord does not say these things accidentally; the whole thing is deliberate.  Certain postulates are laid down, and on the basis of those, certain other things follow.  Thus I never discuss any particular injunction of the Sermon with a person until I am perfectly happy and clear in my mind that that person is a Christian.  It is wrong to ask anybody who is not first a Christian to try to live or practise the Sermon on the Mount.  To expect Christian conduct from a person who is not born again is heresy.  The appeals of the gospel in terms of conduct and ethics and morality are always based on the assumption that the people to whom the injunctions are addressed are Christian" (Studies, 17).  This statement rankled my feathers (that is, if I actually had feathers) a bit.  Because I do think there's a place for setting out Christian ethics and morality before an unbeliever in order for them to get the sense of what the Christian life is about.  Unfortunately, our culture has passed the point where everyone really knows what a Christian is and does.  But, where MLJ is spot-on is in the sense that we should not expect a non-Christian to be able to come to this passage and fake the Christian life.  To do so guts the Christian life and turns it into graceless self-effort.  Further, throughout the Bible, the people of God are called to "act as what they are."  So when the people of Israel are led out of Egypt, they're not just told to go and do a bunch of things that are moral.  They're told that because God has delivered them and He is their God, that they are to live in a certain way.  There's a bankroll of grace paying out for the whole Christian life.  And the Sermon on the Mount is in the same territory.  If someone comes to this and thinks it's a piece of cake, they're either self-deluded or aren't hearing what Jesus has to say.  This clarification is really helpful for me, so I don't lose sight of the need for the Holy Spirit to fuel my obedience by faith.

• The kind of life that we're called to live, described in the Sermon on the Mount, is a life that is ripe with the blessing of God.  I'm not thrilled that I have to qualify that, but with so many running around claiming that the blessing of God has to do with gold dust falling from the ceiling or people clucking like chickens, not to mention people who suggest that the best part of life now is good parking spots, big backyards, and promotions at work, let me be clear: the blessing of God, while it may include material prosperity, is not only that.  And biblically, it meant a whole lot more about the Kingdom of God growing and seeing men and women and little boys and little girls brought into that Kingdom and growing in godliness and loving God and loving each other and sin being killed.  So, there's my qualifier.  Anyways, Lloyd-Jones makes a statement that I think is very true, seldom thought about, and absolutely helpful for us to come with expectantly as we begin studying through the Sermon on the Mount: "Here is the life to which we are called, and I maintain again that if only every Christian in the Church today were living the Sermon on the Mount, the great revival for which we are praying and longing would already have started.  Amazing and astounding things would happen; the world would be shocked, and men and women would be drawn and attracted to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Studies, 23, my emphasis).  The thought of this really excited me.  Because we pray for conversions, for homes that reflect the glory of God, for churches that are healthy.  How might God be pleased to bless - apart from the blessing that is already part of growing in godliness - the church that really takes His Word seriously, seriously enough that we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, that we hunger and thirst after righteousness and examine ourselves for the sin that we would address another believer about?  Not to mention - magnifying the glory of God as clearer lenses for His glory to shine through in this world.

I'm excited to see God working in me and through me over the coming weeks.  I won't come out the other side of this book having "arrived."  But I trust that God's grace will be at work and I hope that you'll join me through this study.  Lord willing, we'll look at "An Introduction to the Beatitudes" (the "Blessed are... statements) Friday or Saturday.  Feel free to fire off any questions or comments below.

To God Alone Be the Glory,
-Chris