Sermon on the Mount
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of the head are numbered. God’s children are never absent from His
mind.
“Be not therefore anxious for the morrow.”
Matthew 6:34
, R. V.
We are to follow Christ day by day. God does not bestow help for
tomorrow. He does not give His children all the directions for their
life journey at once, lest they should become confused. He tells them
just as much as they can remember and perform. The strength and
wisdom imparted are for the present emergency. “If any of you lack
wisdom,”—for today,—“let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
James 1:5
.
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“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” Do not think yourself better
than other men, and set yourself up as their judge. Since you cannot
discern motive, you are incapable of judging another. In criticizing
him, you are passing sentence upon yourself; for you show that you
are a participant with Satan, the accuser of the brethren. The Lord
says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own
selves.” This is our work. “If we would judge ourselves, we should
not be judged.”
2 Corinthians 13:5
;
1 Corinthians 11:31
.
The good tree will produce good fruit. If the fruit is unpalatable
and worthless, the tree is evil. So the fruit borne in the life testifies
as to the condition of the heart and the excellence of the character.
Good works can never purchase salvation, but they are an evidence
of the faith that acts by love and purifies the soul. And though the
eternal reward is not bestowed because of our merit, yet it will be in
proportion to the work that has been done through the grace of Christ.
Thus Christ set forth the principles of His kingdom, and showed
them to be the great rule of life. To impress the lesson He adds an
illustration. It is not enough, He says, for you to hear My words. By
obedience you must make them the foundation of your character. Self
is but shifting sand. If you build upon human theories and inventions,
your house will fall. By the winds of temptation, the tempests of
trial, it will be swept away. But these principles that I have given will
endure. Receive Me; build on My words.
“Everyone therefore which heareth these words of Mine, and doeth
them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his house upon
the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon
the rock.”
Matthew 7:24, 25
, R.V.
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