What Happens to Our Believing Loved Ones When They Die?

Are our saved believing loved ones who have died up in heaven right now running, dancing, and jumping with Jesus? Have they become angels or earned their wings? How many times do we hear it said at a funeral something to the effect, “God must have another angel now” or “They have been given their wings”? Do our departed believing loved ones sometimes send us messages or appear to us as a butterfly or a specific bird? I’ve been with people when a butterfly started flying around them and they concluded that it must be so and so from heaven who either sent that or appeared as such. Or they see a cardinal or another bird that their loved one had liked show up so it has to be somehow connected to the person. As is the case with a lot of things, several superstitious and unbiblical ideas have developed with this issue. Many of these are in an attempt to provide comfort to those who are grieving and we certainly can understand that. However, we always want to make sure that our thoughts on these things line up with Scripture. The truth of God’s Word always brings us the greatest comfort. (Of course, if something is not true, it really can’t give us any real comfort much at all because it is no more than wishful thinking that will never be the reality.) My goal in this article is to look at what the Bible actually says about our unbelieving loved ones who have died and gone to heaven. The condition they are in now and whether or not we should ever interpret things or occurrences as being signs or visits from them.  

It is absolutely true that our believing loved ones will indeed one day be running, dancing, skipping, and jumping with Jesus in ways they had not been able to during their time on this earth for a while. However, that day has not yet come. The Bible tells us at death the spirit or soul of a believer departs from their body to be with the Lord. (If you do a study of the words “spirit” and “soul” in the Bible, you will discover that they are used interchangeably to refer to the inner part of who we are in contrast to our outer body. Our inner man or inner woman we could say.)  When Jacob’s wife, Rachel, is dying, we are told in that process that “her soul was departing” (Genesis 35:18). Some of Stephen’s last words, following those of His Savior, were “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” (Acts 7:59). There is a separation that takes place at death between the spirit and the body. This is why the corpse in the casket is so lifeless and just an empty shell. The person’s spirit or soul has already departed or left it.

Right now, the spirits or souls of our departed believing loved ones are with Jesus in heaven while their bodies have been laid to rest in the ground. Paul is clear that for the believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Obviously, he must be talking about our souls or spirits here. Likewise, Paul tells the Philippians that he desires to “depart and be with Christ” in death but recognizes that his remaining “in the flesh” or body would be more beneficial to them (Philippians 1:23-24).  The author of Hebrews describes those who are presently in the heavenly Jerusalem as being “the SPIRITS of the righteous made perfect” (12:23). And I believe we very well may have a present picture of our believing loved ones in heaven now in Revelation 20:4-6. There John is given another glimpse into heaven. (Every time the word “thrones” are used in the book, it indicates that God has pulled back the curtain for the apostle to gaze into a heavenly scene instead of an earthly one.) We are told that he saw the “SOULS” there of those who had given their life for Jesus and refused to worship the beast and be marked as belonging to him, not their bodies (v. 4). And they are doing exactly what both Jesus and Paul promised believers would be; reigning with Christ (v. 6; 2 Timothy 2:12).

The blessed hope for the Christian is that such a separation of body and soul/spirit is only temporary. There will be a glorious reunion of the two when the Lord returns. Daniel spoke of the day when “many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to reproach and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). And to comfort believers who were concerned about their believing loved ones who had died, Paul informs the Thessalonians that Jesus will bring their souls with Him at His return and their bodies will be resurrected with their soul reentering them and enduing them with life again (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). It will be a body the same in substance but new in nature (1 Corinthians 15:35-53). One that has been transformed and glorified from the decaying or decayed state their body had been left in over the years to be like Christ’s glorified body (Philippians 3:21). Then, they will literally be running, dancing, and jumping with Jesus in that new transformed resurrected body which they currently do not have. One of the church’s earlier catechisms or teaching tools summarizes this well. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states, “The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.”

There is no indication anywhere at all in Scripture that believers ever become angels in heaven when they die. That’s more from the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” than it is the Word of God. Angels are a distinct creation of God who did not originate from man. In fact, they were created before man and the creation of the world (Job 38:7). Now, Scripture says we will be “like” the angels in heaven at the resurrection in the sense of not being married, but only in that sense. Not that we will be like the angels in appearance or form. In the Hebrews passage I mentioned earlier, we see that there is a distinction in the heavenly Jerusalem between the “myriads of angels” and “the spirits of the righteous” (12:22-24). The two are not one and the same.

And, as for the supposed signs from our departed believing loved ones, we are never told in Scripture that we should expect or interpret a butterfly fluttering around us or a bird swooping down in front of us to be some sort of communication to us from them. In fact, Jesus tells a parable in Luke 16:19-31 which reveals to us the opposite. In the story, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to his family to warn them of the punishment he is presently experiencing (v. 27-28). The answer he gets is that basically such is not necessary since they have the Word of God itself and that is enough to tell them about it (v. 29). Such a sign or wonder will persuade someone about the truth no more than a resurrection from the dead (v. 31). While this more likely was a story made up to communicate a point, there is no reason to think that Jesus would not have had the details in the description of it accurately correspond to the true spiritual reality of the state of the deceased. There is actually only one case recorded for us in the Bible where someone who had died did send a message to someone still living and it is an extraordinary one granted by God only for the purpose of judgment. It happened when King Saul went to the medium in En-dor to ask her to conjure up Samuel’s departed spirit for advice (I Samuel 28:8-11). Interestingly enough, the woman herself screams apparently in shock when she actually sees Samuel’s spirit show up (v. 12). This leads us to believe that she really didn’t expect it to be him. Some translations describe mediums as “those with a familiar spirit.” The idea is that there is a specific demon who must appear to impersonate the person who had been conjured up. That is who the witch or medium thought would be there speaking instead. Not the actual spirit of Samuel or any one else she had been asked to bring back with a message.

So, the comfort we have for our loved ones who have went to the grave holding fast to Jesus and His work as their only hope of salvation is not found in them having a physical body at the moment being able to do things they were not able to while on this earth, serving as an angel in God’s presence, or communicating to us through some sort of sign of a butterfly or bird. The real comfort is that their souls are ultimately with Jesus right now, experiencing the unimaginable bliss of being in His wonderful glorious presence, awaiting the day of their resurrection when they will have that physical body yet again but so much better in a new and more improved edition. They are doing just fine right now. In fact, better than fine and much better than us at the moment. And, if we have trusted in Christ as well, we will have that great reunion with them when it is our time to join them as we await our resurrections together or to with our resurrected bodies should the Lord return beforehand. We don’t need to create any other kind of comfort. The truth of our departed believing loved ones revealed to us in Scripture is enough. Let’s hold fast to that as we long for our being with Christ one day and our future resurrection as well.

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee

The Real Lost Son

        One of Jesus’ best known and most loved parables He told is often referred to as “The Prodigal Son” found in Luke 15. The story of the younger of two brothers who demanded his inheritance from his father early and went off into a far country to waste it all (vv. 11-13). Then, after being brought to his lowest where even what the pigs were eating looked appetizing to him, he “came to his senses” and goes home back to his father where he is welcomed enthusiastically by him (vv. 14-21). A celebration is had as the lost boy has returned (vv. 22-24). This actually is the third of three scenes in the parable, each dealing with something that is lost, found, and results in rejoicing. A picture of the rejoicing in heaven every time a sinner repents and is saved (vv. 7, 10). In the first scene, it is one lost sheep (vv. 3-7). A lost coin in the second one (vv. 8-10). And here a lost son in this third and final one (vv. 11-32).

Now, normally, when someone teaches or preaches on this parable, the focus is on the prodigal who ran away or the father and his extravagant love to readily receive him back. But really neither one of them is the point. The one Jesus draws our attention to is the one He ends with. The angry grumbling older brother who refuses to celebrate the lost son’s return (vv. 25-32). We must remember that these three pictures were given in response to the Pharisees grumbling over the fact that Jesus welcomed and ate with sinners which was taking place just before He teaches this (vv. 1-2). He clearly wants the Pharisees to see themselves in this older brother. They are doing the same thing as him. When they should be celebrating the prodigal tax collectors and other sinners coming home, they are complaining. Thinking they deserve Jesus to eat with them instead because of how righteous and faithful they had been. How much they have “slaved” Him and never neglected any of His commands (v. 29).

 

What is often missed in this story is that there are actually two lost sons in it. One who was lost in a far country and the other who was lost at home. And the most dangerous is to be lost at home because you don’t realize you are lost and need to be found. This older brother thought himself to be okay, not recognizing the alienation or separation brought about by his pride and self-righteousness. He is the moral rule keeper just as lost as the wayward brother. It is evident the younger brother is lost due to his lifestyle. The upright and outwardly obedient lifestyle of the older one masks his lostness but cannot take it away. Not to be crude, it is just like putting lipstick on a pig. Or lipstick on a sinner in this case. The ground is always level at the cross as Jesus died for both younger brothers who show their sin through immoral living and older brothers who wrongly attempt to earn God’s favor through their righteous living. Both are just as in need of God’s grace and Jesus’ righteousness. But only the younger brother comes to see such. The older brother remains lost.

 

There are a number of older brothers out there today. They go to church every Sunday and do everything they are supposed to do. Who live an exemplary moral life but are spiritually lost because they think that will earn them favor with God. In essence, they are saying to God, “I have been serving You for so many years and never neglected a command of Yours. What are You going to do for Me?”

 

We like to identify ourselves with the prodigal in this story, but even as believers, we can still resemble the older brother at times. We do so whenever we begin to look at ourselves and our obedience to be justified before God instead of Jesus and His righteousness. Or when something bad happens to us and we want to say to God, “Why would You bring this upon me when I have been so faithful to You? I don’t deserve this. But I can think of someone who does that isn’t experiencing it.” Is that not the attitude of the older brother? What if a known prostitute or promiscuous woman or a homosexual would walk in the building on a Sunday morning? Would you celebrate that they are in a place where they can hear the gospel and get saved or shoo them away, saying that they don’t belong here because they are not like us? That’s kind of like what the older brother was saying in refusing to join the party for his brother’s return. “He doesn’t belong here anymore. We shouldn’t be celebrating him because of what he has done regardless of God’s grace shown to him and the repentance demonstrated by him.” Like so many of Jesus’ parables, this hits all of us somehow. The Spirit can use it to reveal the little older brother in each of our hearts.

 

We actually are left with a cliffhanger at the end of the parable. In the last two verses, the father points out to this older son how he was always with the father and everything the father has is already his. The reason to celebrate and rejoice over the brother is because he was in a sense dead but now alive and lost but now found. That’s it! There is nothing more said. We do not know if the brother decides to remain outside continuing to grumble or whether he will see his father’s perspective and join the celebration. The reason for the open-endedness is because it all depends on what the Pharisees who are listening will do. The real older brother in this story. It depends on what we will do with it. Will we welcome and rejoice over the repentant prodigals like ourselves who come to Jesus as our Father does? Or stay outside grumbling over the amazing extravagant grace God continues to show to other sinners? Let’s pray that God would give us more of the heart of the father in the parable rather than that of the older brother which we probably already too much reflect at times.

 

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee

The Real Meaning of the Message: The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)

Yesterday morning, I started teaching on the greatest full-length sermon ever preached which has been written down for us. One in which no one ever since or beforehand could come close to giving. That is because it is given by the perfect sinless Son of God Himself. (Of course, this could be said of anything our Lord has ever taught, preached, or said for that matter.) We were just told at the end of Matthew chapter 4 that Jesus was “going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.” Here in these next three chapters, we have the subject and substance of that teaching and preaching. 

Now, interestingly enough, Jesus nor Matthew ever call this message “The Sermon on the Mount”. It received that name early on in the late 4^th century from the bishop of Hippo, Augustine. And, of course, he called it that because it clearly has all the elements of a sermon and it took place on a mountain top. The sermon has been referred to as being a “Christian manifesto” or “manifesto for the Christian life.” It will take you about 18-20 minutes to read through it, depending on your speed, but a lifetime to fully grasp it and put it into practice. John Stott certainly had it right when he wrote, “The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed.” With that being the case, I think it would be good to look at the Sermon as a whole and be sure that we understand the main argument of it. What it is that Jesus desires to get across and what He is calling for in it. Far too many have misapplied this Sermon and done more harm than they realized.

Like every good sermon, there is a main theme and central point that is sought to be conveyed by it. This grand masterpiece of a Sermon spoken by the greatest man to ever teach on this earth is no exception. And to find out what that theme and main point is, we just need to notice two words which are repeated throughout it. The first is the word, “kingdom,” being found 8 times in these 111 verses. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the KINGDOM of heaven” (5:3). “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the KINGDOM of heaven” (5:10). “Whoever then annuls one the least of these commandments, and teaches others the same, shall be called least in the KINGDOM of heaven; but whoever does and teaches, he shall be called great in the KINGDOM of heaven” (5:19). “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the KINGDOM of heaven.” (5:20). In the Lord’s Prayer as we typically call it, we are taught to pray “Your KINGDOM come.” (6:10). “But seek first His KINGDOM and His righteousness” (6:33). “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the KINGDOM of heaven.” (7:21).

What word is found almost just as often and many times right there with the term, “kingdom”?  The word, “righteousness”.  It appears a total of 6 times. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS for they shall be satisfied” (5:6). “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of RIGHTEOUSNESS, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (5:10). “For I say to you that unless your RIGHTEOUSNESS surpasses of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (5:20). We are told in 5:45 that God sends the rain on the RIGHTEOUS and unrighteous alike. And 6:11 how we are to “beware of doing your RIGHTEOUSNESS before men to be noticed by them” (6:11). And “But seek first His kingdom and His RIGHTEOUSNESS” (6:33). (You could almost make the point for this to be the key verse of the Sermon itself combining both of these important repeated words.)

Putting this together, we could say that the main point of the message, or “big idea” of it as we were taught to call it in seminary, is “the righteousness of the kingdom.” The “Big Idea” is the summary of the message in one sentence. The sermon is about the type of person who serves as a citizen of the kingdom and the kind of righteousness required to be a part of it. And what we are confronted with when we read through the message is that we do not possess that kind of righteousness in and of ourselves apart from Christ. You see, what a lot of people miss with the Sermon on the Mount is that Jesus’ intention with it is not for it to serve as a ladder by which we may obtain the righteousness needed to walk up into the kingdom of heaven, but instead for it to be a mirror to reveal to us how much we lack such. Mirrors are honest things. You can go throughout your day with something on your face and be all the while oblivious to it. But the moment you come in front of a mirror, you are confronted with it and are faced with the decision of what you are going to do about it. And, in this case, the mirror shows you that there is no way you can clean it up yourself. That’s what the law of God is designed to do, of which this Sermon on the Mount is a part of. Jesus’ goal is to strip us of any claim of righteousness we may try to make to be able to enter the kingdom so that we look away from ourselves to Him for that righteousness. Paul says in Romans 3:19-20 that the law speaks “so that every mouth may be shut and all the world may become accountable to God” . . . that “by the works of Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

When we read through the sermon, we are continually presented with the reality that none of us truly and fully meet the requirements for the blessings of the kingdom in the Beatitudes (5:3-12). We fail to see the depths of our spiritual poverty (v. 3), don’t mourn enough over our sins (v. 4), aren’t as humble as we like to think we are (v. 5), in fact, the moment you think you are so greatly humble, you show that you’re not. We don’t hunger and thirst for righteousness as we should but can be said to hunger and thirst for a lot of lesser things (v. 6). We aren’t always merciful to others, especially those who are not so merciful to us (v. 7). Can any of us say we have a pure heart (v. 8)? There probably have been some thoughts we have already entertained in our mind just today that would prove that wrong. How often have we been a peacemaker instead of furthering strife due to our pride and sinfulness (v. 9)? Certainly there have been many occasions where we are guilty of the ladder failing to do the former. We can be described as having lost our saltiness at times (5:13) and as hiding our light under a basket rather than letting it shine through our good works (vv. 14-16).

He says in chapter 5 verse 20 that our righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees who meticulously sought to keep every jot and tittle of the law outwardly, even adding their own laws and regulations to God’s, making them even more rigid and strict. In that day, this made the scribes and Pharisees appear to be the most righteous of all peoples. However, Jesus next will move on to expose such a perspective and reveal it to be a façade. They may be able to boast of their outward righteousness but not of any internal righteousness within them. They really were “whitewashed tombs” looking clean and polished on the outside with rottenness and decay within (Matthew 23:27).

For instance, while they could each say that they hadn’t physically murdered anyone, none of them would be able to claim that they hadn’t harbored hatred towards someone in their heart (Matthew 5:21-26) That certainly would be the case with them towards the Samaritans and Gentiles as well as some of their fellow Jews. They could rightly say that they had never physically committed adultery by literally not hoping in bed with another man’s wife. But none of them, or us for that matter, could say that they hadn’t done so by lusting after such in their heart (vv. 27-30). They thought themselves to be faithful in marriage but in their allowance of divorce showed themselves failing to follow God’s standard as He designed with the holy lasting unbreakable union (vv. 31-32). They made a big show with extravagant vows they uttered but missed God’s intention for them to be men of their word where such vows and oaths would not be needed (vv. 33-37). They would intentionally misinterpret the command for the corporate punishment to fit the crime to claim that it gave them an individual right to retaliate when wronged which was not the teaching of that law (vv. 38-42). They would justify hatred for their enemies rather than responding to them with love (vv. 43-47). And Jesus ends that section and the chapter with the impossible standard for any of us to meet. “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (v. 48). It is not the outward righteousness of a Pharisee that is needed to be a part of God’s kingdom but a perfect inner righteousness of the heart which none of us have. Already, we are stripped away from finding any hope within ourselves to make it into the kingdom.

But Jesus isn’t done with the Sermon yet! Wait, there’s more! We also have to deal with the fact that many of the righteous things we do aren’t done solely for the Lord but also for others to see, whether that is in our giving (6:1-4), praying (vv. 5-15), or fasting (vv. 16-18). How easy is it to want others to know when we are doing these things so that they will give us applause or some sort of recognition for it? So that they would think us to be so righteous and holy? We also are confronted with our misplaced priorities storing up temporal treasures on this earth rather than eternal ones (vv. 19-24), becoming overly concerned with our material needs instead of the things of God’s kingdom (vv. 25-34). (Both the commands not to “store” and “worry” are in the present tense in the Greek, indicating that these were things Jesus assumed His hearers are already doing. In essence, He is saying, “stop storing up for yourselves treasures on earth” and “stop worrying.”) How hypocritical we can be to judge someone else so quickly without doing anything about our own sins (7:1-6). Trying to get someone to address the dust in their house so to speak when we have the mess in our own house to clean up first. We don’t continue to ask, seek, and knock in our pursuit of God and the good things He will give us either (vv. 7-12).

We are told that the gate to the kingdom is narrow and that there are few who find it (vv. 13-14), to watch out for false prophets who can be recognized by the bad rotten fruit of their life and teachings (vv. 15-20), false professors who merely give lip service to the Lord but lack obedience which always follows genuine faith (vv. 21-23). And then Jesus ends the sermon with a call to be wise by hearing and heading His word as a wise man who builds his house on a foundation of stone and not sand (vv. 24-29).

In light of all that, on what basis can any of us enter into and be a part of this kingdom Jesus preached about? Certainly not on our own basis, on the basis of the condition of our hearts, or on the basis of anything we do. Jesus makes a pretty thorough and convincing case of that with this message. He shuts our mouths of any claim of righteousness we could ever try to make of ourselves by revealing the sinfulness of our hearts and actions to us. No, it must be on the basis of another who fit all of those requirements for kingdom blessings given in the first part of chapter 5. Who perfectly was salt and light in this world never losing that saltiness or hiding that light. Who perfectly kept God’s law both inwardly and outwardly, surpassing the scribes and Pharisees, being perfect as His heavenly Father is perfect. Who never did any righteous deeds to impress men whether that would be in giving, praying, or fasting. Who always had the right priorities and never worried about physical needs but perfectly seeking God’s kingdom above all else.  The One who is the Just Judge and true prophet with good fruit to bear witness to such. Jesus is the only One fully and completely who actually meets the description given in the Sermon on the Mount and has consistently put it into practice.

This sermon shows us we can’t come to Jesus like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18 to enter God’s kingdom or expect to be a part of it. The Pharisee who came up to the temple to pray bragging about all the religious and holy things he thought he had done. Instead, it is designed to lead us to have the posture of the tax collector in that same parable who could not even look up towards God but beat his breast exclaiming, “Lord, have mercy on me, THE sinner.” Not “A” sinner among others but THE sinner of sinners. The most sinful person he knew. Our hope to be a part of this kingdom and receive the blessings of it has to be on the basis of God’s grace and mercy in Jesus serving as our righteous substitute. If we are born again by the Spirit and given eyes to see the truth of what Jesus says here, we should forsake ourselves and run to Christ for our salvation. For the righteousness we need to be a part of His kingdom. Rightly understanding this sermon with the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life should lead you to sing the words of Augustus Toplady, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross, I cling; Naked; come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I, to the Fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die.”

Matthew in essence summarized this very message back in chapter 4 verse 17 when he wrote, “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “In a word, the message of the Sermon on the Mount is, ‘This is what it means to repent and to belong to the Kingdom of Heaven.’” In one sense, we could say that this is a very evangelistic message as it is intended to lead someone to the good news of the gospel in order to be saved.

Now, does this mean that the Sermon has no more relevance for someone once they have become a Christian? Once they have realized their lack of righteousness and came to Christ in faith and repentance to receive His righteousness and the forgiveness of their sins from Christ dying as their sacrifice on the cross? Absolutely not! It still very much has relevance for our lives as it goes from being a MIRROR to becoming a MAP. No longer is it needed to be that mirror to reveal our unrighteousness and how we cannot enter into this kingdom on the basis of ourselves at all. It is needed now to serve as a map of how we are to live as part of this heavenly kingdom on the basis of grace. Puritan Samuel Bolton helpfully said it like this, “The law sends us to the Gospel, that we may be justified [declared righteous], and the Gospel sends us back to the law again to inquire what is our duty in being justified.” And it is because of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer, we have hope to actually live this out. For the things Jesus says to become true of us. 

 Alistair Begg has given a very helpful illustration of this with the comparison of a thief and his relationship to the Ten Commandments both before and after his conversion. He tells the story as follows: "Imagine a thief coming to church on a Sunday. He comes in and is just so obviously a thief. He steals stuff all the time. Not everyone knows this. In fact, the people around him have got no clue. He sits up in the church and looks up behind the pulpit and he finds that the Ten Commandments are up there in bold letters. There it says it. "Thou shalt not steal." And he sits a little lower in his chair because he realizes that law condemns him. The minister then explains that Jesus Christ, the perfect One, has kept the law in all of its detail fulfilling all of its precepts for those who will love Him and trust Him and that this same Jesus has paid the penalty that the law brings upon the unbeliever by His death upon the cross and that this wonderful liberation is available to those who will come and trust in Jesus. And the thief says, 'That sounds fantastic. That is exactly the kind of thing that I have been looking for. I want to be free. I want to be free in my conscience. I want my sins to be forgiven. I want to be a new person. Just like the thief on the cross.' And out he goes into his week. He comes back the following Sunday and he takes his place again in the congregation and he looks up and the Ten Commandments are still there in all of their brightness and convicting power. But when he looks up at 'Thou shalt not steal,' it's not N-O-T that is flashing. It's 'SHALT' that is flashing. And he realizes that the prohibition has become a promise in Jesus. That He in giving His Spirit to live in his life enables him to do what the law requires him to do. And it is not a ladder on which this poor thief is trying to climb in acceptance into heaven but is a mirror which has shown him his need of a savior and then it is a map which orders his way of life."

        This also rules out the idea that this Sermon can or should be used for political gains or to promote social change in the country. How many times do we find a Politician appealing to this Sermon to attempt to manipulate people into supporting a specific policy they are championing? Ironically, ignoring everything else the Bible says which would contradict other of their polices and their lifestyle. Or they will claim that if we all just followed the principles taught in this sermon, our nation would be just fine. But here is what they get wrong. This sermon only can apply to a believer who has the Holy Spirit indwelling inside him or her. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones has said, “It is wrong to ask anybody who is not first a Christian to try to live or practice the Sermon on the Mount. To expect Christian conduct from a person who is not born again is heresy. The appeals of the gospel in terms of conduct and ethics and morality are always based on the assumption that the people to whom the injunctions are addressed are Christian.”

    So, let's be sure not to approach this spectacular sermon with the wrong perspective of it but to use and apply it appropriately. Not as a means for us to be able to enter God's kingdom or heaven or as a political manifesto of some type but as a blueprint for the righteousness which characterizes the kingdom. A righteousness we don't have in and of ourselves and cannot obtain by anything we do. A righteousness which can only be found in Christ and what He has done. And as a map for how we are now to live as Christians with the power and strength given to us by the Holy Spirit. By His grace, no longer should it be the "least understood" for us nor the "least obeyed."