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Sermon on the Mount

LORD, ONLY YOU CAN CHANGE ME – INTRO (week 1 of 10)

Submitted by Leah Page on

The first night of our new study launched this past Wednesday!
 
We got off to a good start, with an ice breaker forcing us to introduce each other – I think this gave us a lot of good opportunity to laugh together and learn some unique things about each of us. I hope this serves us well as we go through these next couple of months together and commit to pray for one another.
 
We began by reviewing some of the high points of our study in Malachi from last semester; primarily the pattern of the Lord’s [kind!] Rebuke which leads us to Repentance which is the posture that receives the Restoration of our fellowship with the Lord.  ("The Lord opposes the proud, but gives grace (!) to the humble.")
 
Though the last word before the Lord goes silent for 400 years (between the old and new testaments of the Bible when there was no prophet in Israel) is "curse," nevertheless the last words are ultimately, collectively, the Lord’s PROMISE – that he would send a forerunner, "Elijah," who would prepare the way for the Lord’s coming and our salvation!  One who would turn the hearts of the fathers to their children....
 
And we picked this up in Luke 1, then, where the priest Zechariah receives a visit from the angel, Gabriel, to tell him the good news that he and his wife Elizabeth are to have a son in their old age, an answer to their prayers, who would come "in the spirit and power of Elijah." And this son – John the baptizer – would be set apart, filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb (!), and his ministry would be to "turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous," and to "make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
 
And what was this ministry? What was this "red carpet" rolled out to lead up to the arrival of the Lord Jesus? Notice, John’s message was NOT – "I have come to bring you good news which shall be for all the people!" Rather, John’s message was "REPENT! The Kingdom of God is at hand! The Lord is coming, judgment is imminent! And you are sinners deserving of the wrath of God! Cry out for mercy!"
 
In effect, the red carpet that prepares the way for the GOOD news – of the salvation purchased by Jesus’ blood – is the message of the very BAD news about our sin and the fact we will never be able to achieve the righteousness that will earn God’s favor. (It must be a gift!) The fact that the BAD news is so very BAD is what then makes the GOOD news of God’s grace in Jesus so very very GOOD.
 
This set the stage to launch into our review of Jesus’ famous "sermon on the mount" toward the beginning of his earthly ministry. And in Matthew chapters 5-7, we see Jesus take the Old Testament "LAW" and raise the bar even higher. "You have heard it said…..but *I* tell you……" Always taking the requirement for righteousness deeper – through to the heart.
 
We read through all of Matthew 5-7 to end class by way of giving us a bit of a "jump start" into the first lesson – highlighting as we went any mention of the word "heaven" (which appears at least 21 times in these 3 chapters, depending on how you count to repetitions/synonyms, etc.).
 
It is clear, just in these verses, that Jesus starts with the heart (the character of those who are "blessed" – highly favored of God!), and then brings every thing that we "do" thereafter and lines it up alongside the heart, examining each area of life and whether it measures up to God’s standard of perfection.  ("...the holiness without which no one will see God.")
 
To put it another way – there are the beginning hints, here, of the fact that what we DO springs from who (whose) we ARE. And we will get into this a bit more fully in the weeks to come, Lord willing!
 
For next week, we dive right in to chapter one – completing the overview of the whole "sermon on the mount," and particularly focusing on the nature of the "masks" we wear – The ways we hide and cover ourselves so we might appear to be more righteous (more praiseworthy) than we really are.
 
Jesus exposes our hypocrisy – and our study starts here, because only when we remove our self-made garments of fig leaves (and the trees behind which we like to hide) can we humbly admit we are weak and vulnerable and shameful, and we need Jesus’ righteousness, because our own best is "as filthy rags."
 
How fitting, then, the title of our little book: "LORD, only YOU can change me…."
 
Again, I challenge you - let us not be "battle weary" before we even begin.  Let's "change our minds" and think of this study not as another activity which adds to our busyness, but rather think of this study and time in the Word of God as part of our REST before him.
 
We are looking forward to a truly blessed time in the next few weeks.
 
~Leah (Page)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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LCM - CH3: "Do You Weep Over Sin?"

Submitted by Leah Page on

“Lord, only You can change me!” - Ch. 3 “Do You Weep Over Sin?”
~Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.~ 
 
I. TAKING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF “HYPOCRISY” A STEP FURTHER
 
Q: Is the remedy for “hypocrisy” – which we have said is this kind of putting on a front, showing ourselves to be something we’re not – Is the remedy for this merely a matter of “being real” or “being honest” or, if you prefer, “taking off the mask”?
 
Does that solve the real problem? Cuz there are some who would suggest that the MAIN issue with the traditional church is its legalistic and hypocritical past, and the way to overcome this is to strive for authenticity.
 
Removing the mask is certainly a STARTING point – but it is not an end in itself. We talked about a variety of reasons for this – but in main, this is due to the fact that our hearts are deceitful and we even our best efforts to “be real” might not be so, and the fact of merely SEEING that we are dead / unclean / filthy inside does not in fact cleanse us or make us alive!
 

  • “beatitudes” are NOT “natural” to us
  • apart from the LORD doing a work in us, these characteristics are not at all “desirable” to us
  • God changes our “want to” so that we LONG to love what he loves, and hate what he hates

 
 
II. GOD IS IN THE BUSINESS OF 1) DISCLOSING HIMSELF AND 2) CULTIVATING “COMMUNION” WITH HIS BELOVED
 
John Stottt (and no doubt others have too) said that “God reserves his secrets for his lovers,” meaning the community of the redeemed! He chooses to reveal himself – and he does so uniquely to those on whom he has set his affection and preserved in Christ (our “ark” of safety!).
 
God is in the business of removing our blindness so we can see HIM more clearly, because he is OUR Beloved, and so we can see ourselves more clearly – that we are very far indeed from what He has made us to be as Image.
 
(Not that we love Christ just because he makes US look good! No – we want to be LIKE him because HE is so good!)
 
 
III. GODLY SORROW PRODUCES REPENTANCE (AND JOY!)
 
We saw in our lesson through a few small glimpses (Genesis 6, Ezekiel 6, Luke 19 and Matthew 23) how sin breaks the heart of God – it “hurts” Him! (And of course it would, for sin is anything that is contrary to the will and nature and heart of God, it is at its heart our making ourselves to be god and king and ruler of our own hearts – which steals our affection from the One who is God and King and Ruler of all!)
 
Whether we have lived a history where we have seen the story of forgiveness the Lord wrote in our lives, or whether we are NOW living our lives where the Lord is graciously peeling back layer by layer the brokenness of our hearts, He is showing us how – in Christ – we are ALL forgiven MUCH! ...and why? Not for our condemnation! (Romans 8:1) But because he wants us to LOVE him much! 

  • Our sin is SO vile, and the Lord’s grace is SO brilliant and beautiful – the Lord must bring our eyes into greater focus so that as the “law” of God brings conviction and repentance! (2 Corinthians 7:10), it is like the black velvet on which the diamond of the “grace” of God is displayed.

 
 
IV. WHAT BREAKS GOD’S HEART SHOULD BREAK OURS, TOO!!
 
We also looked briefly at 1 Corinthians 5 and Ezekiel 9 – sin in the Church, in the hearts and corporate, “together” lives of God’s people.
 
Are we alert to and grieved by sin in the BODY?
How do we lovingly confront sin in the BODY? Or do we? Are we more interested in demonstrating our “tolerance and diversity”?
 
Part of the “application” of this included talking through the necessity of what Jesus describes in Matthew 7 as getting the log (or beam) out of our own eye so that we may see clearly to help our brother with the splinter (or speck) in his own eye. We are called to “judge” those within the fellowship of believers (and leave to God to judge those “outside”), but we are to do so with humility, an eye (if you’ll forgive the pun!) to our own confession and repentance!, a dependence on God’s grace and forgiveness, and the priority of God’s heart in the matter – which is for the other person to repent and receive forgiveness and restoration!
 
 
Looking forward to next week – we are going to look through a lot of different Scriptural passages, this week, to help us ... get our spiritual eyes more into focus, to see God as he really is! As he has “disclosed” himself to be! (It is, after all, the light of God’s presence, as we saw in Isaiah 6, that exposes the desperation of OUR need FOR him, but it also is the means by which we see how much we’ve been forgiven so that we may LOVE MUCH!)
 
Let us be women who LOVE MUCH our great God!
 
Blessings!
~Leah
 
PS - prev. post answered some additional questions that were raised during our discussion.

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LCM - CH5 and CH6: Re Meekness, and Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness ~ GCC Women's Bible Study

Submitted by Leah Page on

CH. 5 ~ Meekness:  Is it Weakness or Strength
 
See Ps. 37:1-11 
"...Trust is a facet of meekness because meekness trusts in the Lord, delighting in Him....Because of its steady trust, meekness can commit its way to the Lord....Meekness rests in Him, waiting patiently for whatever is God's pleasure.  It does not fret and stew over the apparent prosperity of the wicked but focuses all its energies into waiting upon the Lord....Meekness knows that no matter how desperate the situation may appear, in the long run it will gain a glorious inheritance in the Lord.  To put it in a single phrase, meekness is humble submission to the will of the Father."  (LCM p. 109-110)
 
Jesus modeled meekness (see Matthew 11:28-30):  While meekness is complete dependence on the Father, it is NOT weak - in fact often the opposite, because it takes great strength to hold oneself in submission.  Strenght which in ourselves we do not naturally possess!  We see Jesus' STRENGTH in submission modeled in the Garden as he faced not only his death, but taking on the very wrath of God for all our sin in the moment of his crucifixion.  Yet he prayed 3x, "Not as I will, but as YOU will, Father."  (see Matthew 26:37-44)
 
We talked about the practical outworking of this, particularly as it refers to confronting sin in others - which must first mean we have confronted it in ourselves.  (see Galatians 6:1, and 2 Timothy 2:24-26)  ~  [This would come up again later when we discussed MERCY, also.]  Meekness is, therefore, a preservation for us - it protects us by keeping us aware of our OWN vulnerability to temptation, and helps keep us from presumption.  It is teachable, gentle, kind.  (see also the singular, "nine-fold fruit" of Galatians 5:22-23)
 
Meekness is forgiving - it cries out for mercy on behalf of another; it gives up it's own "right" (or perceived right) to retribution.
 
 
CH. 6 ~ Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness
 
Longing - Appetite - Craving - Satisfaction
 
"...Righteousness is an attribute of God.  It is the very essence of God's being.  To hunger and thirst after righteousness is to have a deep, inner longing to please God.  It is a longing that God Himself plants within our hearts to cause us to seek after Him.  To hunger and thirst after righteousness is to desire with all our being to live and walk the way God says to live and walk.  It is to crave God.  It is to crave holiness...."  (LCM p. 138-139)
 
We discussed how many commentators, Kay Arthur (LCM author) included, suggested that if someone does NOT possess this hungering, this thirsting, this LONGING for God and rightouesness, that it very well may mean that someone is not truly regenerated, and they need to do some serious business with the Lord.
 
"...This is not a hunger that stands at the open door of a full refrigerator, trying to decide if anything looks appealing.  This is not a hunger that debates whether it can handle a third helping.  This is a hunger that has to have food or it dies!"  (LCM p. 141)
 
This is a call to examine ourselves - see if we indeed hunger and thirst with this kind of longing!  If not - we must beg God....
 
"It is a craving that must be satisfied if life is to be sustained....What do you absolutely HAVE to have?"  (LCM p. 144)  ... "Ours is to be an ever-increasing hunger and thirst.  The more we get, the more we want; the more we want, the more we get."  (LCM p. 148) ...
 
And even the WANTING is its own kind of satisfying, because JESUS is so deeply satisfying!!
 
God, increase our thirst!

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LCM - CH7: "How Can I be Merciful?...Pure?" ~ GCC Women's Bible Study

Submitted by Leah Page on

Blessed are the Merciful...
 
One of the definitions of "merciful" in ch. 7 was "actively compassionate" - we talked about how this captures both the notion of the "doing" of mercy - such as offering a cup of water in Jesus' name - and also the more stringent requirement which is the heart "affection" of having compassion as Christ did - which is something we cannot in and of ourselves engender - but we must have a NEW heart from which to have God's affection for those in need of mercy.
 
We looked at various passages in the book of Hebrews which again reminded us of how God showed us in the Old Testament (the old "covenant") that mercy could not be obtained apart from a blood sacrifice - that the holiest place in the Tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies, was the Mercy Seat above the ark of the covenant which is where the blood was to be placed.  And likewise, then, Jesus is the fulfilment of this OT picture - and Jesus himself has purchased for us the great mercy of God -
 
We see, in the parable in Matthew 18:21-35, that it is in fact unnatural (!) to the one to whom so great a mercy (forgiveness) has been given to refuse to show mercy (forgiveness) in return.  In the parable, the slave refused to show compassion, and in return was denied the very mercy he would otherwise have received.  To be so merciless is oh so ugly....
 
The requirement for us to "forgive from the heart" is a much greater duty than merely cancelling debt, or demonstrating kindness.  This aspect of "from the heart" is only possible if GOD gives us HIS heart.
 
Blessed are the Pure in heart....
 
We looked at how the meaning of the "purity" mentioned in this beatitude isn't so much indicative of a once-for-all kind of made pure, but rather has wrapped up in it this idea of "being continually purified" - so it is not just a matter of having once been saved/forgiven/mercied, but rather it is an "abiding in a state of continually being cleansed."
 
In this chapter, we looked at several ways that we can be intentional about this kind of actively "purifying" our hearts before God - There are, here, at least 7 practical ways to pursue this end according to Kay (Arthur):
 
1)  First and foremost, we can only be pure in heart if we have been given a NEW heart - see Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Hebrews 10:19-22.  We enter the holy of holies, purified, because of the blood of Jesus.  [FOUNDATIONAL]
2)  We must be washed by the water of the Word - see Ephesians 5:25-26, John 17:17.
3)  We must continually be cleansed by confession - see 1 John 1:9.
4)  We must make restitution - Does your heart condemn you?  Perhaps you have confessed before the Lord, but you have not made restitution to the person(s) against whom you sinned.  (If and when you do, you can be assured that this accusing voice is not your Father, once you have "done all," you can now stand firm.) - see Ezekiel 33:14-16, or consider the story of Zaccheus (Luke 19:8).
5)  Carefully watch what you think about - see Philippians 4:8, 2 Corinthians 10:5.
6)  Guard the company you keep - sed 1 Corinthians 15:33.
and finally,
7)  Set your mind on things above - see Colossians 3:2.
 
To summarize - We have received a new heart from our Father, a heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone.  In giving us this new heart, he is also teaching us to continually grow to love what he loves and hate what he hates.  He is teaching us to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with our God.  We ourselves are needy!  We could not stand if it were not for his great mercy toward us!  How quickly we reveal ourselves NOT to have the heart of our Father when we refuse to also give mercy to others, or when we do not regularly bathe in the water of the word, and instead allow ourselves to again become soiled with the stench of our dead, sinful flesh.
 
Our Father, who is in heaven, HOLY is your name.  We pray you would teach us to be women of mercy who long for the purity of heart that YOU have purchased for us with the blood of Jesus.  We pray that you would continue - even as we know you are faithful and you WILL finish the good work you have begun! - to mold us more into the likeness of Christ - your beloved Son in whom you are well pleased!  We pray, Father, that you would be pleased with us, that we would be "favored of God" - that we would be an "aroma of life" to those who are being saved, and a "pleasing scent" in your nostrils.  Remind us, by whatever means, of how very great a mercy it is that we have received. Multiply our understanding of how very MUCH we have been forgiven! so that it might magnify how very GOOD the good news of your Gospel is, and that we may in turn LOVE much!  In JESUS' name, amen!

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LCM - CH8: "Peacemakers...But Persecuted" ~ GCC Women's Bible Study

Submitted by Leah Page on

"Peace" is a very significant theme throughout Scripture - namely, the purchasing of our peace with God is THE theme of God's Scriptures!  So there is this running picture of how God pursued us and gave his Son to die for us and purchase our reconciliation when we were yet ENEMIES of God (see Colossians 1:19-22 and Romans 5:10-11). 
 
But this is not to say that God merely obliterated the punishment for our sins, as if to merely call a "cease fire" - rather God has, for as many as have received Christ, given us the right to be called CHILDREN of God!!
 
"The Greek word for peace signifies a harmonious relationship.  This is important because it shows that peace is not merely the absence of war; peace is harmony.  It's not a 'cold war.'  It's not 'an uneasy truce.'  It's not two frowning parties sitting back to back with their arms folded in stony silence.  No, peace signifies a willingness to turn toward each other and embrace one another -- in spite of differences of opinion."  (LCM p. 192)
 
So fundamentally, "peace" is reconciliation for relationship/intimacy/communion - and peace-MAKING, then, is a MINISTRY of reconciliation.  (see 2 Corinthians 5:14-21)
 
For the sake of brevity - I broke down the application of this in the following way:
 
1)  PEACE WITH GOD = RECONCILIATION; so our ROLE as concerns "making peace" with those outside of fellowship with Christ is to proclaim to them the Gospel - to seek their reconciliation with God.
2)  PEACE WITH OTHERS = FELLOWSHIP/FORGIVENESS; so our ROLE as concerns "making peace" with those in the BODY - those who have already been reconciled to God through Christ - is to be merciful, quick to forgive, patient and longsuffering with each other, etc.
3)  PEACE WITHIN OUR OWN SOUL = 1st OUR reconciliation to God and an ONGOING SPEAKING-THE-TRUTH-TO-OURSELVES from God's word so that our hearts are CALM (we likened this to the glassy surface of a calm lake) in our dependence on the Lord's spirit; so our ROLE as concerns "making peace" within ourselves has to do with abiding in the Word, examining ourselves according to God's word and walking by faith not by sight.  
 
[And I daresay (at least this is true for me!), this also involves a continual reminder of the KINDNESS of God, of his AFFECTION and great LOVE for us as his CHILDREN!  so that we are able to discern the difference between an assault of the enemy which is for our condemnation versus the loving voice of our Shepherd who, while he may gently convict, NEVER condemns us.....]
 
The Peace Christ gives us - as both reconciliation with the Father AND as the "calm" over the lake of our soul - is not as the world gives.  We need not be afraid.  (see John 14:27)
 
In this way, we can endure much persecution because we have so cultivated our trust in our Father, and our dependence on HIS sovereign hand, we can receive ALL things as GOOD - for our good, and for his glory....

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