The sermon on the mount is important insight to the quality of character called for in sonship to God. Sons are given eyes to see and ears to hear what the spirit is saying to those drawn nigh unto the King. Any manifesto of the King should be considered a constitution of the Kingdom. Today there are multitudes of believers who belong to Jesus and are children of God the Father, but they live lives that have contradictions to the precepts and principles of His constitution.
The sermon on the mount is not about being a church member or doing church work for the Lord. There is no scriptural mention of salvation found in church membership. The sermon Jesus delivered was about the quality of GOD’S LIFE in the kingdom. Its messages teach maturing SONS many things, like who will be called least and who will be called great in the Kingdom of God.
We don’t need to fulfill any of these constitutional precepts Jesus delivered in order to be welcomed as a member of His church. It’s only by LIVING IN THE SPIRIT of these precepts taught of the Lord that His followers are marked, sealed, and set in place as being mature Sons. No one called of Christ despises the precepts of our King. Rather let us consider thoughtfully the depths of truth and revelation nestled in the heart of each of these great teachings.
Those sons of God who apply the Lord's teachings to their own hearts are committed to the Kingdom of God. Preaching about it may help, but each member must decide within their heart to what they are committed. As a matter of fact, the King’s sermon on the mount has been disregarded as not being applied by millions of carnally minded nominal church members who languish in defeated places. It is possible for us to apply these precepts and also be like unto our Father. He looks for those who worship Him in SPIRIT and TRUTH. He reaps them and draws them into the garner of His domain.
What sublime and heavenly substance He imparts to fill those with His Spirit, to indwell our inner spiritual man now. The things Jesus taught are the enunciation of the characteristic fabric of God's domain which no man can duplicate by religious works. He is coming with full portions of His seven fold Spirit so we grow up into the measure of stature Jesus described as being blessed by God. All the Lord’s brethren who are taught by the Spirit are being conformed completely into His image. THEY CAN SEE HOW TO APPLY THE PRECEPTS UNTIL THEY REMAIN AS THE RULING PART OF US!
The sermon on the mount are words expressed by the Perfect Man. It is the perfect portrait of one who has put on the mind of our Father. He understands how to embody and fulfill all the deepest yearnings of the Spirit, to have apprehended the divine LIFE of God the Father. The qualities that Jesus describes in His sermon are available characteristics for us believers. Through Him we are able to be POOR IN SPIRIT. We are not proud, but rather humble and meek, always thirsting after righteousness, merciful, being pure, not dual of heart, being a peacemaker, not a fighting instigator, suffering for righteousness’ sake and rejoicing in it, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, devoid of anger in human relationships, using no contemptuous words, having the spirit of quick agreement when opinions clash, without lustful thinking, relentless against evil, happy in family relationships, truthful in speech and motive, ready to turn the other cheek, giving sacrificially, going the second mile, giving to those who ask, loving our enemies, blessing and praying for those who hate and persecute us! Thus He makes us to be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. What a quality of life He gives to enlighten our spirit!
There is a law that supersedes and replaces the law of Moses. “But I say unto you” is indeed a very impressive claim made of this King of the Kingdom. His word ALWAYS goes beyond Moses’ word and the literal understanding of the New Testament which sometimes completely reverses the meaning of scripture. See how radically and powerfully the firstborn Son repudiates the commandment of Moses to hate our enemies:
"You hear that it was declared, You shall be loving your associate and you shall be hating your enemy. Yet I am saying to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who are persecuting you, so that you may become sons of your Father Who is in heaven, for He causes His sun to rise on the wicked and the good, and makes it rain on the just and the unjust.
For if ever you should love those who are loving you, what wages have you? Are not the tribute collectors also doing the same? And if ever you should greet your brothers only, what are you doing that is excessive? Are not those of the nations also doing the same? You, then, shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48 concordant
The old orders devoted to the Old Testament gave outward law for the people to perform. Jesus gives an INWARD SPIRITUAL AWAKENING, a quickening of our inner spirit to grow continually in being led of His Spirit, hearkening to Him, to testify in due time to all men. The laws of Moses were the principles of law given to the earthly nation of Israel — inspired, spoken and delivered by Yahweh to the prophet Moses at mount Sinai.
The sermon on the mount, on the other hand, is given by the real King of God, inspired, spoken, and delivered to all the men and women who could hear and believe. His message is to each being called and chosen, predetermined by God to be there, being conformed to what the Father was doing in the Firstborn when He raised Him from the dead.
The reality is that godly character is quickened within our spirit and we see it manifesting through to our conscious minds, more and more. Our spirit is joined with the teachings of God’s King. He can illuminate within our being, so at every opportunity He can be seen clearly and unmistakably if what we reveal is Him. Scriptures reflect a stature of spiritual growth that is needed in His people in order to stay under His headship, to let Him rule over them as mature sons or daughters who are tied to LOVE by our heavenly Father.
In the heights of a mount, Jesus spoke. This was not spoken to the careless and promiscuous multitudes moving on the many plains below. Hearing within Himself the prompting of the Father, and seeing by the spirit a wiser purpose, Jesus turned away from the demanding pleas of the multitudes and led His disciples up that mountain. There, in a place of quietness and solitude, He settled into teaching them that certain precepts define proper qualifications of CHARACTER for the Kingdom of Heaven that was now at hand.
“And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him: and He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying...” Matthew 5:1
Those who enjoyed the unspeakable privilege of hearing those instructions for a new lasting order of God’s King had the hungry hearts of disciples. They had been proven disciples because they followed all the way up the mountain. There they sat and waited quietly, being of a poor spirit, not lifted up in noisy clamor, not challenging, nor persecuting anyone because of any misunderstanding within their own minds.
These were among brethren keeping the right salt (flavor) about their spirit. These had climbed the mountain into a place that shines more brightly in understanding what God's measurements really are. They now knew what is needed, and also what was available, so they may also be lights as obedient sons of God in this world.
God’s plans and purposes in his people go beyond granting their physical healing and blessings for material needs. His concern is for saving the WHOLE of a man — that men might be spiritually awakened to search out His mind, be purified of heart, kind and merciful, loving in disposition, holy in character, joyful in spirit, powerful in life, helpful and redemptive in actions, honest and upright in motives, filled with righteousness, wisdom and power.
Our physical health springs forth speedily as we see God's overall plans unveiled within. His plans are bringing the blessings and benefits of His Kingdom to make us whole — body, soul, and spirit. It starts in our spirit and is available to quicken our body — if we believe. God's Spirit fills us with all the glorious characteristics He described. He will keep coming until all nations shall be drawn to worship Him in spirit and truth:
"Lo! the tabernacle of God is with mankind, and He will be tabernacling with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them. And He will be brushing away every tear from their eyes. And death will be no more, nor mourning, nor clamor, nor misery; they will be no more, for the former things passed away. And He Who is sitting on the throne said, Lo! New am I making all! And He is saying, Write, for these sayings are faithful and true." Revelation 21:3-5 concordant
It is only as we are led by the Spirit that we can be right on target and right on time in God’s great program of redemption and restoration. When Jesus taught Kingdom principles to disciples, He set forth a plan that God would raise up many more sons, just like the first Son. When His vast family of sons are sufficiently matured, they are equipped to set the rest of creation (men and women) free from every curse in death. Death is promised to be swallowed up in the power of the King's life!
The path of our generation must break through spiritually to hear the sounds of pure Kingdom gospel spoken by mighty redeemed men whose “waters” reach our inner spiritual man with understanding light. His voice is as “many waters” from on high. God is sovereignly working in a people who are to be HIS MOUTHPIECE, who trust HIM to make them measure up to the King's constitution. They know how God Fathers their spirit, how He is coming to them, writing upon them with the greatness of His Spirit, granting authority to have Life within us. Yes, the mouth of the Lord is speaking it!
“And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him: and He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying...” Matthew 5:1
His miracles on the lower plain of earth’s existence caused great multitudes to follow Jesus from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. It was upon seeing the multitudes that Jesus purposed to shift and separate His disciples from them by going up higher into a mountain. The vast multitude was not on the mount, only His disciples. It was not just the twelve, but those whose hearts were deeply stirred to pursue further understanding of this possible Messiah. They climbed the rugged terrain to know more about the Kingdom of God.
And now these discipled ones are exposed to His REAL ministry, which was not to heal the sick, nor to work miracles, but TO SPEAK THE FATHER’S WORDS into those hearts ready to hear what was needed. His ministry went much further, to loosen them from the inner bondages of death, to quicken their spirits to hear truth. They were to see how God’s Spirit works to make it come alive within them. As He spoke those truths, He surely changed them forever by such words.
Those who ascended the mount with Jesus separated themselves from the noisy crowd and followed Him in silence even upon reaching the summit. Then when Jesus sat down, they gathered around Him. They had not come to be entertained, nor to be blessed, healed, or fed, nor to see a sign or wonder, but to be taught by Jesus about the Kingdom of God. Only those whose hearts were strangely drawn were prompted to follow, to climb up that mountain, then sit and wait upon Him until they heard those priceless words pouring from His lips.
So it is today. Today, as then, it is necessary to leave the dusty levels of the crowds, even of those crowds that sing Hosannas and glory in the signs, wonders, and miracles done in their midst. It is sadly true that multitudes have followed Him for the healing, for the miracles, and for the loaves and fishes! They follow Him when they can be fed about their immediate physical and emotional needs, the answers to their problems with their earthly life.
There are comparatively few who leave the noise, the clamor, the excitement, and the experiences of those trapped in religious fervor below to join those climbing up spiritual mount Zion in following Him. They are climbing in order to hear the words quickened by the Kingdom of God within their spirit. The difference between those who ascend into the high place, there to sit at His feet and listen attentively to His words, and the crowds below who follow Him for various reasons, is entirely a matter of WHAT GOD PURPOSES men to know of truth. He does enable some to hear and have a heart that understands the importance of His word:
"Verily, verily, I am saying to you that coming is an hour, and now is, when the dead shall be hearing the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall be living. For even as the Father has life in Himself, thus to the Son also He gives to have life in Himself." John 5:25 concordant
Hear the right voice now and we too can be made alive now. It is time to stop playing church and come apart to the throne of the Lord. Now we feast on hidden manna until we are in union with a spiritual order wherein only the voice of the King of Kings is harkened. There are places closer to Him than the multitudes of Christians who throng to meetings on Sunday mornings have found. There is much subtle truth in the words of the gospel writer:
“And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem He took the twelve disciples apart…” Matthew 20:17
“And after six days Jesus takes Peter, James, and John his brother, and brings them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them…” Matthew 17:1-2
Draw your attention for a moment to that word “apart”. Matthew is especially specific about the word, mentioning several occasions where either Jesus went into a place apart to pray, or where He took His disciples to some remote or high place apart. There was always something dramatic and especially significant that transpired in these high places apart. Indeed all the Gospel writers, but especially Matthew, have a fondness for this word, which, by the way, in the original is two words and denotes ‘separation’. The Greek wording means ‘aside, away from the people’, the idea being that of division.
We speak of taking a piece of a mechanism apart as a watch or an automobile engine, breaking it up into its constitutional components. God separates His disciples apart to work upon them privately, like an apartment is a suite of rooms that is separated from others, with the aim being privacy. God gives us intimacy of fellowship and vital union with our Father in every thought. Of necessity we find we are led to a state of retirement, apart from other concerns, in quietness waiting instruction.
Our Lord says “Come with Me, I will give you rest and entrance into a higher heaven. Come to the height of Zion where I perfect your inner character to be made alive in My Word and Spirit.” This means to be willing to move to a place deserted by the majority of people, a place of tranquil, undisturbed quiet, where He can speak what makes us alive in our spirit. God has determined to flow out to us until Christ is fully formed as a wellspring of intimate communion within our spirit.
Take time to consider with bowed head and shoes removed from your feet the value of secretly having a true relationship with the Father as a son. Sonship is preeminently a personal matter. It should be a strictly private, closed in, familiar relationship. It adds sacred associations that are secondary. There are some things about God’s making of kings and priests that were never intended for the vulgar gaze of the uninitiated. These things are only known within the family relationship, just like many things between a husband and a wife are private.
We are living in a very troubling time in America. It seems few have time away from pursuit of worldly driven ideas. They are hurried, stressed with storm outbreaks, and full of many fears. One would not go far wrong today in describing the majority of this nation as being impatient, at unrest, ill at ease, “dis-eased”. Worldly pursuit of happiness found in the American dream of fame and wealth in careers with social involvements take great effort and tenacity of commitment, leading often to too few minutes of quality time. Even with close family, that time is hard to find.
If nothing else is going on, we have the television, the iPhone and the computer to keep our minds engaged lest we discover an unwanted silence. There is little time to pray, consider, or meditate upon the King's teachings. Worldly people have little to no time for the inner prayer chamber when all is well. Men and women prefer the limelight and the crowds, the hustle and bustle. Nothing appeals to us Americans but the physically strenuous and the emotionally thrilling. Repose — REST — is too tame a thing entirely for this atomic space age, iPhone-connected generation.
The really sad thing is that it is no different in the church world. The church has imitated worldly ideas in creating many false ways. The church schedule is packed with flesh-appeal programs and activities that run day and night. They teach that a ministry that does not cry aloud in the streets and does not advertise in every available newspaper is not fulfilling the New Testament scriptures.
Most fellowship meetings have the idea that nothing is being done unless somebody is talking. If there is an opening, ministries fairly swarm to the microphone at the drop of a hat to teach more doctrine, call a conference, or hold a committee meeting to discuss platforms of coming programs, workshops, and conventions. The inquiry that is nearly always made concerning such gatherings is, “Was there much of a crowd there?” It is taken for granted that if the meeting was crowded, it would be good. If so, the meeting is thought to be a big success.
Busy preachers make busy Christians who really need to know more about the SECRET PLACES of the Most High. The church world is filled to overflowing with those who are so busy running hither and thither — on errands of mercy and ministry it may be — that they do not find time to hear His voice coming to mount Zion. They are not anointing His feet with their tears, alone, apart, learning how to let God refine us, try us, cleanse us until He manifests Himself to fill our tabernacle with His life.
Undoubtedly many are focused on their Christian success, their religious career and their unceasing busyness for God, never realizing they are not unlike the successful child who is so absorbed in his worldly pursuits seeking position, fame, and prosperity that the absence of basic happiness and peace within his inner being never seems to cease giving him anxiety.
God wants us to stop, be poor in spirit, meek, thankful, glad to be drawn apart to chat with our Father who makes all things possible. Oh, it is within the solitude of our being when we are set apart that we catch quickly the important mystic notes calling from the depths of God's spirit. It is the depth of God’s heart showing our spirit the depth of his instruction, revealing a vision of age lasting realities. How vast our spirit becomes when impressed by the fullness of the Infinite!
But even end time Christian people have been busy with fuss, fury, and trumpet blowing. Most seem to have more confidence in the noise and activity of the swirling babel than in His still small voice. Sons learn by arduous experience that God speaks quietly as a matter of fact, sometimes in inner whispers that cannot be heard in the clamor of the streets of Mystery Babylon.
We too are called higher, to heavenly places far above the clamoring babel of religious activity, into the spiritual heights of the New Jerusalem order. There our spirit finds communion and union with our Father. He speaks what man cannot hear until our ears are anointed, trained even to sounds of unseen voices melodiously harmonized as a sound of truth. This is a song of great godly understanding, so that our spiritual mind can comprehend it. As Jesus said:
"Except a man be born of the water [of the Word] and of the Spirit, he cannot enter in to the Kingdom of God." John 3:4
And the beloved apostle recorded truly:
"And I perceived, and lo! the Lambkin standing on mount Zion, and with It a hundred forty-four thousand, having Its name and its Father's name written on their foreheads, And I hear a sound out of heaven as the sound of many waters and as the sound of loud thunder, and the sound which I hear is as lyre singers, playing on their lyres. And they are singing a new song, before the throne and before the four animals and before the elders.
And not one was able to learn the song except the hundred forty-four thousand, who have been bought [redeemed] from the earth. These are they who were not polluted with women [religious systems], for they are celibates. These are those who are following the Lambkin wherever It should be going. These are bought from mankind, a firstfruit to God and the Lambkin. And in their mouth falsehood was not found, for they are flawless." Revelation 14:1-5 concordant
"Marvel not at this, for coming is the hour in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and those who do good [do well] shall go out into a resurrection of life, yet those who commit bad things [disregard], into a resurrection of judging [correcting]." John 5:28-29 concordant