Loving Sinners - [Matthew 5:43-47]

I love the book of Matthew, don't you? Turn your Bibles to Matthew, if you will.

Jesus is proclaimed in the book of Matthew as King. Two weeks ago, we were getting back into the

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, focusing on the entire book, though, of Jesus as a

King. And two weeks ago, I declared from the pulpit, when a child was counting, Jesus is

King 155 times. Last week, I was informed at the door that this time, last week,

I exceeded that, and I called Jesus King 175 times. And so,

I don't know if today I'll make 195 times or not, but I do know that the book of Matthew, by design, by purpose,

Jesus is declared as King, with all kinds of different names and ideas.

The Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of David. Words that would show the readers and the audience and the listeners that Jesus is the

King. He is the Royal One. He is the Regal One. He is, in fact, the

Risen One. And it is my conviction that if we understand the purpose of a book, it's a lot easier to understand the parts of the book.

That is to say, if you understand the theme of the book of Matthew as Jesus is King, then when you look at the component parts and chapters, you'll understand with better comprehension.

We would all agree that if you understand the Bible, that would be very, very important. And certainly, when we look at context, for instance,

Philippians 4, verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Does it, in fact, help you to know that that is talking about, in context, contentment instead of just this verse for the empire state building jumpers?

I mean, there are contexts to everything. Similarly, with Romans chapter 8, verse 1, there's now no what?

Condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It is helpful to remember that that follows chapter 7, where in verse 24,

Paul is understanding his sinfulness and he cries out, wretched man that I am. Context is important, and we understand that at this church.

But also, if we telescope back a little bit, it is good for us to know the larger context, the purpose of the book.

If you understand the Gospel of John showing the divinity of Christ, you'll much more easily see those seven

I am statements that broadcast, that promote, that shout out to all the readers,

Jesus is God. And so, too, here in the book of Matthew, we come to the

Sermon on the Mount chapters 5, 6, and 7, and if we forget that the idea of kingship permeates everything he says, we're going to lose it.

And so today, instead of back into 5 .43 and following, my whole sermon,

I have to confess, is an introduction to 5 .43 and following. As I began to work on it this week,

I thought to myself, you know what? I just can't dive back in there because it helps me as a pastor to understand

Jesus is king and the king has his manifesto in 5, 6, and 7. And if you understand

Jesus is king as he proclaims this sermon, you'll get it better. You'll understand it more.

And that's what we're after. Just like when you read your Bible through the speed reading course through the

Bible in a year. It's a good goal and I hope you do it, but if you don't understand what you read, then it doesn't do you any good.

Same thing, we can zoom through the Sermon on the Mount. Well, we couldn't, but other churches could zoom through the Sermon on the

Mount and not understand it. So my goal is preaching so that you understand and today we'll work through this introduction so you can see that this is the king speaking.

Not just any king, but the king of kings. And when he gives the Sermon on the

Mount, you'll be able to understand it better. As Lewis Johnson said regarding the theme of Matthew, this is the presentation of the king and his kingdom to the nation.

If you understand that, the Sermon on the Mount makes much more sense. This morning for outline purposes, let me give you seven exhortations that will help you understand the

Sermon on the Mount with more clarity. That is to say seven banners designed to remind you that the one preaching the sermon is the king of kings.

He is royalty. He is the one that the Old Testament said to look for that he would fulfill these prophecies as not just savior and redeemer and friend, but also king.

And it's coming in this book that is book ended by Matthew chapter one, verse one, where we have this genealogy of the son of David.

And at the end of the bookmark where they put the placard above Jesus, behold the king of the

Jews. Everything about this book shows the royalty of Christ. And this morning, seven reminders of that fact with the purpose that you'll understand the

Sermon on the Mount more vividly, more clearly. Reminder number one, and I'll put them in form of exhortation.

I think that's a good preaching style in the form of exhortation number one. If you understand

Jesus as king, you must accept his requirements to the entrance of his kingdom.

If you understand Jesus as king, now here comes the exhortation, you as a congregation, anyone who reads, myself included, of course, you must accept his requirements to his kingdom.

This should be fairly clear to us. Here's my kingdom. Who gets to determine who's in or not?

Well, obviously Jesus does. And if you look at Matthew chapter five, verses one through 12, we have the

Beatitudes. And basically what I'm going to do with this introduction is to review Matthew chapter five, one to 42.

Here we have the Beatitudes. And as D .A. Carson would say, we see

Jesus' concern with how do you enter the kingdom? Goes without saying that you can never come up with these things on your own or do it of your own strength, but how do you get in and how do you stay in?

Makes sense at the beginning of a sermon, he would say, this is what it means to be in my kingdom. These are my kingdom requirements.

And he sets forth these blessings. Now, when I see the word blessing, and you see many of those Beatitudes, and it starts in chapter five, verse three, blessed, four, blessed, five, blessed, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, and 11.

Sometimes we kind of think of happy. You're gonna be really happy if you do these things. And we've been taught that this is not some kind of internal feeling, is it?

This is not some kind of subjective emotion. This is an objective declaration of approval by God.

The better way to translate blessed would be not happy, but approved.

How does the King approve people into his kingdom? This is not how we feel.

This is what God thinks of people, Jesus the King. It's not kind of a nice wish or a hope so.

This is a pronouncement, not just sentiment. And you know the first one, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And here comes this King saying to the people who are listening, these are conditional statements.

You don't just arrive into the kingdom upon birth via the stork mode. You are born into the kingdom.

No, not at all. These are conditional blessings. If you see the common refrain, for theirs is the kingdom.

What does that mean? For theirs and no one else's. For theirs and theirs alone.

Here are the requirements of the King for his kingdom citizens. And with just gracious condescension, he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. These kinds of people are approved. Who are the poor in spirit? For those who have nothing to bring to the

King. How do you get into this kingdom? The word here for poor means those in rags.

So poor that your ribs show. So poor that you have to beg. Alms for the poor.

King, I'd like to be in your kingdom. And this King says, the entrance requirement for my kingdom is spiritual poverty, spiritual bankruptcy, spiritual destitution.

And remember, this is all in the backdrop of these, I almost was just gonna act like a peacock, but I'm not gonna do that, because I think

I was gonna do some rooster thing. But this is in the backdrop of the Pharisees peacocking their external righteousness around.

But this King says, you know, it comes from the inside. And my first approval for those to get in my kingdom and for those who are in my kingdom is spiritual bankruptcy.

Not self -righteousness, not self -religion. But when you stand before God, as Jesus would preach later and say, when you know you're unworthy, that's the place to start.

The second beatitude is chapter five, verse four. Blessed are those who mourn. The King gives approval for those to be in his kingdom to the mourning ones, for they shall be comforted.

Mourn over what? Mourn over sin against the King. I've offended this

King and I wanna be in his kingdom. What would you do? Jump up and down, promote it, have a celebration.

If you know you've offended this King and he's not the only King, he's the King of Kings, then there would be mourning, sadness, sorrow.

Nine Greek words for sadness and sorrow. On the scale of intensity, this side being weak intensity and this side being strong in intensity, which word used here in Matthew 5, 4 do you think is, well, which word is used, in other words?

The one with intensity, this is funeral -like grief. This is me standing over my mother's casket, bawling and having your shoulders kind of move with crying because you are so affected.

You cannot hide it. This is the kind of mourning that you can't suppress. Sometimes we're sad and we can just stiff upper lip it and just kind of this, just firm resolve.

You can't control it. I've offended the King. Verse five, there's another beatitude.

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the kingdom of earth. They shall inherit the earth.

That's what the text says. God, I know who I am before you and all my rationale, all my smooth talking to try to justify myself before you is gone.

I will take a lowly place and I will let you exalt me. I'll sit in the back as it were.

I'll sit outside the confines of your kingdom and God, you are gonna be the one that'll have to bring me into your kingdom.

I'm not going to just strut up and say, God, you're gonna be blessed to have me in your kingdom. I've only been in one throne room in my life, but it's all designed so that the people in that throne room would show humility and submission to that King who sits on the throne.

And that's what's happening here. Verse six, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

It's turning a little bit positively. We don't have anything and now we're driven towards someone else who has righteousness.

And then we live towards other people in the kingdom properly. Verses seven and following, blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.

We're before God first in a vertical way and now we turn to this horizontal dealing with other people.

And if you understand Jesus as King, you're going to say he gets to call the program for who enters.

He could have said, if you work properly, if you just born, if you're baptized, a merit service, a work system, bell curve, he can do anything he wants.

But since he does everything out of his character, he is holy and just and righteousness.

Therefore, he sets these impossible standards over people. So he alone has to fulfill the requirements to be in his own kingdom.

If you were a King, you would determine how people get in and how they stay in, wouldn't you? Furthermore, number two, not just does

Jesus get to fix the requirements for entrance into his kingdom, but number two, if we understand

Jesus as King, then you must seriously obey the King's exhortation to influence others who are enslaved by their kingdoms.

Chapter five, verses 13 to 16. Let me repeat it. Then you must seriously obey the

King's exhortation to influence those enslaved to other kingdoms. I mean, why do we exist?

Well, we exist for lots of reasons. Banner for the glory of God. But one of the other reasons we exist is to proclaim the truth of God.

Jesus forgives sins, yes? You've heard it said many times and it's always good for a chuckle and it brings home the point.

When we baptize people right here, why do we say it's our privilege and pleasure? I think Rick was the last to be baptized.

And I take Rick and say, wonderful testimony. Jesus is King. I love my Lord. He saved me.

I didn't contribute anything to my salvation. I was going that way and wasn't even looking for it. Now I'm running this way.

Everything about me is different. And I say, Rick, that is wonderful. Based on your profession of faith, it's my privilege and pleasure to baptize you in the name of the

Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And I dunk him under and he may be wiry, but I think

I'm stronger than he is. And I hold him under till he dies because then at least he goes straight to heaven. Why don't we do that?

Well, because we're ambassadors for the King. There are people enslaved to other kingdoms that shame the name of our

King and that also hurt the people that are living in that kingdom. And it is our privilege, it is our pleasure to proclaim the truth.

And if you see that truth for these disciples and for us as well, verse 13 and following, two domestic metaphors, one salt, one light, common things to help us with our minds to know that we, whether in secret like salt or whether like light out in the open, should proclaim the glory of the

King, King Jesus. Verse 13, you are the salt of the earth.

He didn't say go be witnesses, he said what? You're witnesses. If you're a Christian, if you live under the

King, you are a witness. Same thing with light. Do you see it in verse 14? You are the light of the world.

He says in verse 16, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your

Father who is in heaven. And also they would glorify this King who has these kinds of people in this kingdom.

And we are errand boys for the King. Our job is not to retreat to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Our job is to proclaim this great King. Robert Murray McShane said, dear

Scottish man who died young, he understood this. There cannot be a secret Christian.

Grace is like ointment hid in the hand. It betrayeth itself. If you truly feel the sweetness of the cross of Christ, you will be constrained to confess

Christ before men. The King's so great, wouldn't we tell other people? The glory and honor of this great

King. We aren't witnesses by command. We are witnesses by what God has done to us.

Number three, first of all, we've seen in reviewing Jesus as King, hey, he gets to call the shots on who gets in and who doesn't.

Second of all, we should take at heart what he said about proclaiming the truth to others.

And thirdly, if you understand Jesus as King, you must affirm the King's view of scripture.

You must affirm the King's view of scripture, 517 to 20. That is to say, we'll take Jesus at his word, a

God honoring word. How would you take the King's words? Well, we know the context and I won't get into that now, but you do see

Jesus saying in 517, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets because when you read what he says in 21 to 48, you will think that I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

And as far as Jesus is concerned, his view of the scriptures follow in verse 18, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Do you wanna know what's more enduring and lasting and faithful than the moon, the stars, the suns, the galaxies, the universes?

It's the word of God. The smallest letter, do you see that in verse 18? What's the smallest

Hebrew letter? It's a yod, the smallest little tiny letter, almost like a dot, as it were.

By the way, I did some research. You can tell I have a lot of free time in my life. How many yods are in the Old Testament?

Bengal said there are 66 ,420 yods in the Old Testament. Not the smallest letter.

And here, Jesus has the authority to do anything. It's his word. And if you look at 724, skip over a couple chapters.

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine, taking

God at his word, we wanna have a good view of the king's word. How can we be kingdom citizen if we don't have a proper view of his own word?

Verse 26 of the same chapter. Here's these words of mine. And the entire

Mosaic law comes into fulfillment through Christ, and he has the authority over Moses, over any system, over any word.

Now we're guided by the law of Christ. And it makes sense, too, because here's Moses' words to a nation with some saved, some unsaved in the nation.

And now here are Jesus' words to the group of people who are saved and can obey from the inside.

I think it is a shame to have a low view of Scripture if we know Jesus is the king who is the author of Scripture.

Jesus' view of Scripture should be our view of Scripture. Did Jesus ever quote extra -biblical literature?

Did he ever say, well, you know what? That whole Jonah deal, swallowing, and a whale, and people, and everything, he could have corrected that, couldn't he have?

But a high view of Scripture. And if the king has a high view of Scripture, what should be your view of Scripture? The exact same.

Can you, in other words, take the king at his word? After all, he is the author.

Fourthly, if you understand Jesus as king, you'll accept his requirements to get in, you'll preach the gospel to others, you'll understand how important the word of God is, and number four, you must believe that real righteousness is manifested internally.

That is to say, real righteousness is on the inside, not just the outside. And you see here in this next section, you have heard it said, but I say to you, and the

Pharisees with all their pharisaical external self -righteousness, Jesus says it's all about the internal.

After all, this king is not like any other kings. He can see into the heart. He can perceive inside of you.

He knows what you're thinking. He knows what you will think. He's omniscient and he knows, and so this king, we can't just do lip service and have him assuage.

We must obey from the inside. And that's what Jesus is after. He's after a proper view, and there's six of them.

Remember, just quickly, the first one is anger and murder, antithesis number one.

It's gotta be internal. You have heard that the ancients were told, verse 21 of chapter five, you should not commit murder.

You'll be liable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother, there's an anger that kind of is quick to the top.

It blazes up and you quickly are angry at someone, and there's another anger that simmers and stews and just chews the cud of anger.

Which one is this one? It's the second one. You're angry with your brother and take him before the court.

You fool and you good for nothing. That's not what the king is after.

The king is after internal righteousness. This king requires purity from the inside.

You see verses 27 through 30, the antithesis number two. When it comes to sexuality, pure heart, pure mind, pure body.

And he goes from the sixth commandment now to the seventh. You've heard it said you should not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

It's like the false teachers in 2 Peter chapter one having eyes full of adultery, looking at someone and instead of just saying beautiful kingdom person, it's more than that.

Jesus says that is horrible and he uses his hyperbole to say, you know what? It's time to cut hands off and eyes out if that's going to be the way you act in my kingdom.

Verses 31 and 32, divorce and remarriage, closely related to the last one. Antithesis number four, here's what this king says.

There should be real heart righteousness manifest in telling the truth. Verse 33, you've heard it said from the ancients or you were told from them, you shall not make false vows but shall fulfill your vows to the

Lord. But I say to you, I the king make no oath at all either by heaven for it's the throne of God or by earth, don't do any kind of little cute games.

I got my finger tied behind my back and I swear by monkey's uncle and all these other things, don't do that for it is the footstool of his feet for it is the city of the great king.

There's that language again. Instead, let your statement be verse 37, yes, yes or no, no.

God is a God of truth. Jesus is a king of truth and he expects his people to be the same way.

And as John Calvin said, lying is a monstrosity because it reflects poorly of his kingdom.

Another antithesis is found in verses 38 through 42. Personal rights and here this king is an amazing kind of king.

He's not a selfish king, he's a self -sacrificial king and his followers should be the same.

Self -sacrifice in a selfish world. Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth but I say to you, basically we own nothing.

Whoever slaps you on the right cheek turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt let him have your coat also.

Whoever forces you to go one mile go with him too. Give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

I'm the king and here's my king program. Just hold on to things loosely.

Luther used to say one slit, two, three, four, four slits in your hand so people and money can go through them quickly.

Don't hold on to things. And king is saying, everything you have is a gift for me and if somebody takes it away, be careful how you respond.

Honor me the king in your response. And then for next week, the sixth antithesis where the king wants internal obedience.

Don't you want that too? Don't you want a kid to say from my own internal heart I want to obey versus dad you're bigger.

In my particular case, I'm much bigger. Love your neighbor.

You have heard it said love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

So you act like a kingdom citizen. This king demands obedience from the inside.

Number five, all again, a big review so we can understand these words with clarity and conviction.

Number five, you must appreciate objective truth. If you understand

Jesus as king, you must appreciate objective propositional truth.

All right, let's think about this. We've just gotten done looking at 21 to 48 and there are six of these, right, wrong.

You have heard it said, but I say to you, this is what you think, this is what I want you to do. This is what the world says, here's what

I'm telling you. And if we understand Jesus as king, we are going to have to appreciate truth.

And I know as a congregation we do. So this is, excel still more, add a boy, girl. This is not the scolding time.

This is just, here's what we need to keep our eyes on, objective truth. Could you imagine going before the king, setting on the throne after he has told you these things and then deconstructing this truth?

Well, how do we know what truth is? I'm not really sure there is true truth.

Everything's relative, everything's black and white. I need to have some kind of epistemological kind of a redefinition of what you're saying because I'm not really clear you're being clear.

I mean, can you imagine going before a king like that? I know, it's obvious we would never do that.

If you are gonna live under this king, you better get used to this is right and this is wrong. This is the broad way, this is the narrow way.

Everything this king tells you has an edge to it of truth and conviction and clarity and anything opposite of that is completely false.

The opposite of truth is a lie. Jesus' words are not to be true to you, they are true.

Can you imagine going before King Jesus, living in his kingdom and saying, you know what? I think

Stanley Grenz is right where we're to be in a quest for truth because we really can't know what truth is.

Matter of fact, King Jesus, the idea of truth, it's Western. It's not, it has nothing to do with Eastern and it's this

Western idea. It goes back to Scottish realism and of these other kind of things and it is all a cloak for what?

I'll tell you what it's a cloak for. It's a cloak for I don't want to do what you're telling me. Unclear.

When I was a kid, I would do this. My dad would tell me to do something and I didn't like it when he told me to do something unless I wanted to do what he told me to do.

And so when he would tell me to do something, I would almost repeat the words back in a way that changed the meaning but the exact same words were said.

So if he said, I want you to clean your room before you watch the Lakers and the

Celtics game. So you want me to clean my room before I watch the

Lakers and Celtics game? And it's that kind of idea. The whole eternal life of everyone who's ever lived are built around the words of Christ.

These words, chapter seven, and Jesus will not allow straddling.

Yes and no. Kind of saying to Jesus, that was muddled and unclear and kind of muffled.

I can't quite hear what you said. Come again. The other thing I do with my father is I would act like I couldn't hear him.

And so he would say something to me and then I would say, excuse me. It's like the time,

I mean, I might as well, you guys look like you're all dying of heat or I'm bombing the sermon and you're dying. So I'll just throw this in and this will wake you up.

I remember one time my friend and I, we probably 21 years old, we're home from school. We're not trying to hurt anything.

We just slipped in between this fence of this pool in a condominium. And we would stand up on the rails of the high diving board and then jump off the rails and then hit the end of the diving board and then go flying out.

It was just this amazing thing. They just do it at two o 'clock at night and the police come by and sirens and all that.

And I was a kid who was always really bad on the inside, but never liked to get caught doing things. The policeman comes up in a canine unit and I'm barefooted, dripping wet.

And he says, young man, you get over here. And I said, pardon me? Like I didn't hear him. And then I ran up the road as fast as I could stupidly with the canine,

I'm sure soon to follow. The dog, by the way, the end of the story, grabbed my friend's arm and then the guy said, where's your buddy?

And my friend said, well, you know what? That's not my friend. He said, where do you live? And my friend said his address and he said, I bet you if I go there,

I'll find your friend, won't I? No, I never seen the guy before. And I remember I came running into my buddy's dad's house.

He's sitting there watching TV or up or something, sleeping and here's this guy only with a swimsuit on running in, feet all cut up, just totally wet all over.

And then he's like, hi, how are you? Oh, everything's fine. Your son's getting arrested by the canine unit.

It's this whole thing, I know you told me something. What'd you say again? Didn't quite understand you.

If you understood a king in the orient and in the east and when he gave an edict, it was like the law of the what?

Medes and Persians. It wasn't debated, it was proclaimed as truth. Because anything less implies, listen to this, anything less implies that the king cannot communicate effectually.

Anything less means the king can't communicate. He stutters, he stumbles. Luther said to Erasmus, let wretched men cease to impute with blasphemous perverseness, the darkness and obscurity of their own heart to the all clear scriptures of God.

It's not that the king's words are less than truthful and less than clear. It's because our own heart takes those and wants to make them like that.

Our eternal destiny depends on what Jesus said. There are two options and truth is true because by implication in the

Bible, it's true. And by declaration, sanctify them in truth by what? Word is truth.

Well, you know what king, we don't think your word's true unless all the majority of the people in the kingdom think it's true.

And once the king's words are not taken as truth, then anything goes and we call it in religion, pluralism.

If it's not the king's way, the king says this is the only way to get in. And if it's not the king's way, then what?

Any other way is okay. Everything is fine.

All ways to live and to act and to think will allow me to be in this kingdom. There's more than one right way and it takes the way of salvation and it turns it into a way of salvation.

And then you end up being like J .I. Packer saying, we may safely say if any good pagan reached the point of throwing himself on his maker's mercy for pardon, it was grace that brought him there.

God will surely save anyone he brings thus far. Anyone thus saved would learn in the next world that he was saved through Christ.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them can be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Number six, which follows, it should be back in five, but I've made it six. If you understand

Jesus and king, you will not be postmodern or emergent. You will not be postmodern.

I think Jesus is pretty clear about a lot of things. And we should just take him at his word, take him at face value.

And is it humility to say, well, you know what? We should be a little more open than what

Jesus says. We should be a little more tolerant. We can't quite be clear on things. And so if we can't be clear, then maybe what we should do is just not make some kind of statements like Brian McLaren did and said, you know what?

Homosexuality, we better not say anything bad about it. And so he said, quote, in five years, if we have clarity, we'll speak about homosexuality.

If not, we'll set it another five years for ongoing reflection. The king says something, it is unbelief.

And it is a lack of humility to say, you know what? I'm not sure what he says. Tolerance is the new humility, one man said, and I believe it.

How about this? If someone were to ask me whether the Bible, this is a scholar saying this, the Bible teaches Jesus went to Capernaum, I would say, yes, it does.

I would be in agony over the question. I would not be in agony over that question. It is not the most important question, but it is clear.

If someone were to ask if the apostle Paul taught that homosexual behavior in male and female forms is the dead end result of idolatry,

I would say yes again. No agony in the exegesis, whatever. There is only agony if you are lusting after respect from the world, which they will not give to you unless you are busy making plenty of room for their lusts.

But when the king just says it, you are going to take a hit with your friends and with society and with your schoolmates and with your teachers and with other workmates, because the king said it, and it is clear.

I was talking to Dave McCubery this week, and he said, well, you know what I do at work when they're blasting Christianity? I don't say, here's what

I believe. I say, you know, the pastor told me this, and then I let them blast you. But really, they're blasting him too.

There's truth, and when you stand up for truth in this kingdom, there are going to be detractors. We live in this world where people want to have ifs and buts and maybes and perhapses.

And somehow, if you believe in some kind of dogma or statement of faith, then you are arrogant.

When I think if the king tells you something, we respond with, I believe it. Does God hold us responsible for what he said?

Then I think it's going to be fairly clear. I learned a new word this week, and it's apophatic.

A -P -O -P -H -A -T -I -C, apophatic theology, and that is a theology that is done in negatives.

You can't understand truth, so you push everything to, it's a mystery to me. And so you have discussions like Michael Patton insightfully talks about when you talk to other people about the king's truth.

Is God eternal or time -bound? We can't comprehend such a question. What about those who have never heard the gospel?

Don't place God in a box. Is Scripture alone sufficient for our faith? Not relevant. What is predestination?

A mystery. When all those things are spoken of in the Bible clearly.

And this whole idea of post -modernism kind of says, you know what, if there's nothing clear, then here's the unpardonable sin.

Preach with conviction and clarity. We shouldn't be preaching because there's no truth.

We're trying to find truth, so why don't we get together instead of some archaic old pastor standing up with some kind of monologue, some kind of troglodyte explanation while everybody sits there like a sheep or something.

We need to have dialogue. It needs to be dialogical. It needs to be, well, these are your thoughts and these are mine.

Can you imagine doing that in the presence of the king? By the way, king, we know you've said all these things and you've written it down and you've sealed it and you've confirmed it and it's got your stamp of approval on it and you've sent it out to all the realms of the kingdom.

But you know what? We wanna talk about this with you in dialogue to see if we really understand it. All right, saving the best for last and the most controversial.

Number seven. If you understand Jesus as king, you will have a well -rounded view of God.

We're diving into 543 next week. If you want exposition, gotta come next week.

Sorry, or buy a tape or something. Today was just general themes to help us understand. It was a long introduction to next week.

But this is very, very helpful. If you understand Jesus as king, you'll have a well -rounded view of God.

Titles of Jesus. Savior, redeemer, friend, lamb.

All kinds we could come up with. And they're tremendous. I think he's all those. But if you forget king, you are gonna lose out in your

Christian walk. If you forget Jesus is more than lamb, savior, redeemer, friend, you are gonna miss out.

He is those things. But they are maximized and the lordship of Christ, the rulership of Christ is diminished.

All right, ready? What do you think of this slogan? Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship.

Now, for hyperbole and for effect, let me just give you my contained response to that.

How's that? It's not just a religion, but it's a relationship.

Friends, slogans are usually trite and not very good anyway. So I wanna be careful as I give you this new slogan.

When you come to the book of Matthew and you see the Sermon on the Mount, if you see it with Jesus is wanting a relationship and it's not a religion, without the fact that he's also bringing rulership to bear, you won't understand it.

It is not just a religion. It is not just a relationship. And I'm not saying it doesn't have components of those, we'll get to there in a minute.

But it is not just a religion. It is not just a relationship, but it also contains rulership.

Now, let's break this up a little bit. Religion, I looked the definition of religion on dictionary .com.

Not everything about religion is bad. It could be a set of beliefs. It could be a moral code governing human affairs.

It could be, quote, a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices agreed upon by a number of persons or sect, i .e.,

the Christian religion. So is it good to have a truth set? Is it good to have a statement of faith?

Of course, in that sense, we are religious. Is it good to say the Lord's Supper and communion? That is a religious thing.

Now, there's a bad religion too, some kind of external forms and rotes and rites and bells and smells and whistles and gadgets and externals and no internals.

Of course, that kind of external performance with no internal love, we push that aside.

What about the word relationship? And then we'll get to rulership. Do I have a relationship with God?

Do you? Well, of course. Ephesians chapter one, he's my father. I'm a son.

There's a closeness. There's an intimacy. There's an immensity where we're close.

But friends, that's not all. It's not all association, connection, this emotional kind of thing.

Because if it is, you're gonna end up feminizing Christianity. Now, I know we're gonna get in trouble and I usually do that at Mother's Day, so I just wanna say, feminine is not bad.

Masculine is not bad. But when men act like girls and girls act like men, that's bad.

We are different. Did you ever notice that, men and women? Okay, good, that's another sermon. If your definition of Christianity is it's not a religion, but it's a relationship, you're gonna be the nurturer, the bonder, the friendship, things that, we have a relationship with God like that.

My point is this, that is not all there is to your relationship with God. Because what gets left out is the transcendence of God.

He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother, but he is also thrice holy. He is righteous.

He is God himself. He's the king. And you don't run up to the king going, you know what, it's not a religion, it's a relationship.

There are things he tells you to do and those would constitute religion. But you don't need to go up and go, you know what, you are only like a relating thing to me, a relating person.

And no, because you're gonna lose out on that just transcendent nature. He's over and above. The missing

R is ruler. He's a king, he's a Lord. It helps me understand the

Bible if I get that. You'll like this bit of history. In 1958, in the magazine Christian Century, Dr.

Pittinger published this article, a critique of C .S. Lewis. And he said

C .S. Lewis didn't like the Sermon on the Mount. He didn't care for it. Lewis writes back in his article, cleverly called,

A Rejoinder to Dr. Pittinger. He responded, quote, "'As to caring for the

Sermon on the Mount, "'if caring for here means liking or enjoying, "'I suppose no one cares for it.

"'Who can be like knocked flat on his face "'by a sledgehammer? "'I can hardly imagine a more deadly spiritual condition "'than that of a man who can read that passage "'with tranquil pleasure.'"

End quote. And if you're seeing Jesus as not a religion, but as a relater, you come to the

Sermon on the Mount and you're gonna get knocked flat on your face by the nurturing relater. But see, he's more than just a relater, he's the what?

The ruler. Rulership is important. Without rulership and kingship and lordship, you have the feminization of the church.

And I praise God that's not true here. If you look at all the churches, and I don't mean in the area,

I'm just saying generally in America, do you think the church is masculine or feminine? And if you're like secular, sacred,

Catholic, Protestant scholars, they are all telling us that the church is feminine.

And they're saying that pretty soon to say a male pastor is going to be saying something like a male nurse.

Because you can't just say he's a nurse because you have to differentiate because most nurses are women. And so then 25, 30 years ago, you used to say, oh, that's a male nurse.

Oh, a pastor, that means girl. You're gonna have to say it's a male pastor. Leon Poodle said in his article and book,

The Feminization of the Church and the Need for Christian Fatherhood, that George Barna in 1990 said, women are twice as likely to attend a church service during any given week.

In the book also is other statistics. Women are 50 % more likely than men to say they are religious and to say they're absolutely committed to the faith.

In 1992, 43 % of men attended church. 1996, four years later, 28 % of men attended church.

Church attendance in the United States is 60 % female and 40 % male. Guys are leaving by the droves going to worship at the altar of masculine sports and masculine

Islam. A business guru said, quote, your system, Christian system, is perfectly designed to give you the results you're getting.

Christianity's primary delivery system, the local church, is perfectly designed to reach women and older folks.

And even in the Wall Street Journal, Christine Rosen writes an article called Church Ladies.

Why is this? Why is this all happening? Well, there are many contributors. One was the allegorical interpretation of the

Song of Solomon. Bernard of Clairvaux saying, here's how we relate to God. And it's this kind of love affair between you and Jesus.

Mary in devotion, the softer side of God. You know, Jesus isn't gonna say no to his mother. She's kind, he's harsh.

She's a good listener. You know, he's blasting false teachers. Spineless pastors who won't stand up for the truth.

In the 1800s, the women are at home running the churches as the men go off into the industrial age with mills and mines and incomes in the

Victoria era. Some things that are fine and dandy, but the institutions of church nurseries,

Sunday schools, quilting circles, ladies' tees, potluck dinners,

I like that one there, soup kitchens. And instead of holiness being designed and defined by transcendence and over, it's defined as nurturing and relating.

The king idea of God will help us. You tell a man to nurture, and I'll tell you a man who's gonna be busy that day, not nurturing either, fleeing from nurturing.

You tell Christian men, how would you like to battle for the king's honor?

How would you like to defend the king? How would you like to stand up for the king? How would you like to be a knight in the army of King Arthur and take the hill and to work and follow, contend, struggle, soldier, fight, entrust, guard, warfare?

You are guarding an object worthy of guarding. That is a lot better than sensitive, feel, nurture, understand.

Now remember, I'm not saying that never exists. I'm just saying we've got to add rulership, and if you get Sermon on the

Mount, you'll get that. Timothy, fight the good fight. Keep the faith.

Fight the good fight of faith, he says later. Oh, Timothy, guard what's been entrusted to you.

Second Timothy says it too, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. And then he says in chapter two, you know what, you wanna be someone in the kingdom?

Then be a good soldier, be a good farmer, and be a good what? Athlete, and all those terminologies that we have there.

Even an unbeliever from Harvard, feminization of American culture author Anne Douglas said, you know what, the liberal ministers in the 19th century tossed truth and said, instead of thinking about truth, you need to emote and feel.

And then you end up, if you only keep religion and relationship and have no rulership, you will have

Jesus not a carpenter, not manly, not masculine, but a feminine and one man called a bearded woman.

To push it a little bit, one man said, Jesus is not the hero of a chick flick. I would say he's no sissy.

He is not Mr. Rogers neighborhood man. He is certainly a man who gives creeds religion.

He certainly relates and has sweet communion and patience and fellowship with the apostles.

I do not deny that. I'm just saying that's all society says. And if you bring in, in addition to, not as the exclusion of the others, but in addition to, you'll get the right idea that Jesus is more than someone we relate to.

So what solution should we have? Here's a couple of bad solutions. Be anti -woman.

I'm not anti -woman. Feminine's good. Men acting like ladies is bad.

I'm also against things like I found on the internet, church for men. You meet on a basketball court. There's a large scoreboard with a time clock that ensures the preacher's message will be delivered in 15 minutes.

And then you have rock bands that open up for bad company in the Georgia satellites set to hard rock and masculine tunes.

I'm also against books with bad theology like Wild at Heart. The idea of promise keepers, Wild at Heart is good,

I think, and maybe the men have good motives, but it's just fleshed out poorly. I found out about special men's services that you have and guest speakers that talk about hunting or sports or construction projects and get together for little accountability groups and have some kind of macho breakfast or something and have nightly initiations,

Holy Ghost back rubs and Holy Ghost hugs. And I mean, come on. You can hug me, but if you give me a

Holy Ghost hug, I'm in big trouble. What's the solution?

It's easy. God is not just your friend, but He's the King. And the King in Matthew was giving

His manifesto in five, six, and seven. Jesus is not a queen. He's not an empress.

He's not a viceroy. He's not a duchess. He's not a princess. He's not a countess and He's not a baroness. He is a

King. And you start preaching that way and you'll have exactly what we have here at this church.

More men show up for prayer meetings than women. I love the women, but I know the way to get you is to get the men, right?

I don't wanna express my love for God in only sentimental and emotional terms.

For instance, Jesus said, if you love me, you will what? Emote with me, feel with me, nurture with me.

You'll obey me. Of course, there is the sweet communion that Edwards talked about, but there is more is what

I'm trying to tell you. Effeminate pastors are like women boxers. I mean, it's just wrong.

We're talking about eternity here, hell and heaven. Walking around like, you know,

I've got a love relationship with Jesus. I kind of worries me. I mean,

I might wear purple shirts and pink shirts, but I don't wanna walk around going, I'm in love with Jesus.

And this is like, aren't you? He's another man. I love Jesus. But this whole in love business has just gone too far.

I wanna show that I honor the King. You imagine I just saunter on up to the King's throne. I'm so in love with you.

It just, I'm a man. I don't have a relationship like that.

He's my King. And I say, you know what? Fight, defend, honor. I could even go further.

Show me men and having their brides attacked and you will take the wussiest man and he will become courageous as he defends the bride.

Friends, we in the church can defend the bride. Jesus's bride. Takes men to do that.

Of course I want the ladies to think as rulership as well. All this hugs and handholding.

I mean, come on. Here's what one man said and he's got it right. I mean, Hallmark hurts men so badly.

You watch TV, everybody, and it's always the men who are the mousy. They don't do the right things.

They never relate. They never send cards. They never do these right things. And I just think, you know, not only are

Christians attacked, but the men can do nothing well. This man said, one time my wife told me

I needed to take someone out to lunch and get to know them and bond with them and become friends with them. This is what women tend to do.

They get together and be friends by talking and sharing of themselves with each other. I told her I'll go out to lunch with him, but don't expect me to become friends with him through sharing our feelings at lunch.

He went on to say, so importantly, my best friendships, listen, men, have always been developed in conjunction with the performance of a task, preferably involving sweat, pain, and some risk of injury.

Now let's just move that to the spiritual. For all you wimps that didn't show up for the bike thing, guys, we'll move it to spiritual.

People come to the church all the time. They want to be my best friend. Guys, I don't have time for best friends. I have a wife and four kids and ministry, and I just can't hang out with you all the time.

But if you really want to be my friends, as Louis and Steve and Dave and many others have become my friends, it's not sitting around doing cross -stitch together.

I'm not saying cross -stitch is bad. I mean, get all that out of the sermon. It's good for ladies to do, and actually some other masculine men

I know have been known to do that, but that's another story, and he's buying lunch, so I have to be careful. All right.

But I'm trying to teach the truth to move to the larger spiritual application. We forge friendships, and there is accountability, not in a group of guys holding the hands and saying, did you get on the websites this week that you weren't supposed to be on?

Fine, that can work once in a while, but I'm after people who will say, here's the hill, take the hill, fix bayonets, defend the bride.

The name of our King Jesus is being sullied across the land, and we're doing Holy Ghost back rubs.

Forget that. Proclaim truth. Why do you think Paul was so masculine in his terminology towards the elders?

I want you to be man above reproach. I want you to be able to teach. I want you to run your household as it holds well, and I want you to stand up and fight, and then

Paul on his dying bed can say, I have fought the good fight. The mantra, personal relationship with Jesus alone is the feminine demise of the church.

Jesus is close, yes. Jesus is transcendent, yes. We have to have both, because both are in Scripture, and the rulership thing comes crystal clear through the words of Jesus on the

Sermon on the Mount, chapters five, six, and seven, and unless you understand Jesus as King, you'll sit there and say,

I don't really feel good about this when you never ever were meant to feel good until after you obeyed, and then the feelings and peaceful suite of obedience come running, sent by the

Spirit of God. And I'm out of time, but I could even go into this whole overkill thing on Christian counseling, but that's another story.

Work, fight, honor, glory, to be held up for the King of Kings as the men of the

Knights of the Round Table would do it. Jesus doesn't just give us a religion, it's not only a relationship, but it includes

Jesus as ruler. Live well this week for the King, let's pray. Lord, like any exhortation, we will gladly confess that we could never do these things on our own.

And so, Lord, we do wanna think about you more and more as the King, because it'll affect the way we live, the way we give, how we evangelize.

Father, would you take us as a church, and as you've grown us over the last many years, would you just instill in us a deeper desire with conviction to see your son,

Christ Jesus' name spoken well of? Would you give us the heart to defend?

Would you give us the courage to stand up? What an honor it is, what a privilege it is to stand up for your name.

We're kingdom citizens only by your good graces, and let us tell other people, let us be good advertisements, as it were, how many blessings are given to those in this great kingdom.

And while we're at it, Lord, help us to proclaim Jesus Christ dying in the place of sinners and raised on the third day to live forever as our