“These Sayings of Mine”

“These Sayings of Mine”

Have you noticed this expression at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount? Matt. 5, 6, and 7. If you have, you would surely know that all these sayings must be done, must be lived, if you had thought to enter the kingdom of heaven!

This is precisely what is written everywhere in the New Testament, and almost nothing else besides, except for a few words about the elementary principles. Heb. 6:1-2.

In spite of all this, almost all so-called Christians are of the opinion that it is impossible to live like that. This is one hundred percent unbelief. Consequently, they have rejected Jesus’ own words, and thus Jesus Himself! They simply do not believe in a Jesus who both can and will transform us to such an extent while we are in this mortal body.

By doing this, people have rejected Christianity; they have rejected the full and complete gospel. Then they believe in another Jesus with another gospel according to their own ideas, according to their lack of faith in all the words of life in the New Testament.

If a person has such a pathetic, bad attitude that he rejects believe that he can partake of the glorious, divine life that Jesus speaks about in the Sermon on the Mount, and about which it is written everywhere in the New Testament, he is simply not permitted to partake of it! Take a careful look at what it says in Hebrews 6:3.

Wake up, you who are sleeping, you who are lukewarm, you who believe that God’s Word (also the Sermon on the Mount) is true! Wake up, so that you eagerly run toward the goal, and reach it!

At the conclusion of this all-inclusive, profound message, Jesus says that everyone who does these sayings of His—the entire Sermon on the Mount—builds on a rock so that his building remains standing, and those who have heard, or read, these sayings of His and have not done them, have built on sand, and their house will collapse. In other words, it will be a great disaster. Obviously, this must mean that his religion was in vain. See James 1:26; Matthew 15:9; 1 Corinthians 15:2; 2 Corinthians 6:1; Galatians 4:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:5; Philippians 2:16.

This tells us clearly that the usual so-called Christianity is self-deception. Not only do people not live according to the Word in these three remarkable chapters, but they also reject it altogether as something that is impossible to do! Then people are blind, obstinate, and hardened because of their ingrained unbelief in Jesus’ own words! Additionally, they imagine they are absolutely in the right! What irony!

Listen to what the Bible translators, in complete faithfulness to Jesus’ words, have written as the header over these chapters: “The correct mindset of the citizens of God’s kingdom. The fulfillment of the law [that is, ‘these sayings of Mine,’] that is required of the citizens of God’s kingdom! The strength to fulfill what is required of the citizens of God’s kingdom is gained [received] through prayer. An exhortation to strive seriously to enter God’s kingdom. A warning to those who hinder others from entering this kingdom through false teaching.”

“He who does these things shall never be moved.” Ps. 15:5.

Whatever is written in the Sermon on the Mount agrees with all the other things that are written in the gospels and in the letters of the apostles. Of course!

Therefore doers of the Word are the real Christians! They walk in Christ’s steps that He has left for us to walk in! 1 Pet. 2:21. They become like Christ. This is exactly what the word “Christian” means!

Those who brashly and rudely and presumptuously reject following these sayings of His are like the Pharisees and the scribes in Jesus’ days. They are religious hypocrites of which there is a distressing number in this evil world.

When Jesus, in this passage of Scripture, spoke about building a house, it was a parable. He spoke about living our life with a noble mind and heart in all possible areas of our life! He spoke about living according to all of these words of life, about practicing them in everyday life! This is as plain and crystal clear as it can possibly be!

Only those who receive grace to do this, and they alone, can enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 7:21.

If this were not possible, then no one would enter this kingdom. Then God’s work would be a disaster, as far as that goes. But that is far from the truth! Moreover, it is absolutely certain that those who do not receive grace to live according to Jesus’ words, their life and their so-called Christianity are and remain complete disasters! Unfortunately!

They fall; they fail and are unfaithful over and over again when trials and tribulations come their way, as long as they live, instead of being the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Matt. 5:13-14. They live in such a way that people in the world have good opportunity to mock their utterly miserable, so-called Christianity. “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Rom. 2:24.

On the other hand, the situation of those who believe His sayings and do them is completely different! Even if the storms and the floods are ever so violent, they are immovable and firm on the living rock of faith, by God’s mighty grace and tremendous power—to His honor and praise!

“Their house will definitely not fall,” it says in the French translation of the Bible. They rejoice in the difficulties, precisely because they believe in victory. They count it all joy, or they view it as an opportunity for perfect joy. Jas. 1:2.

For example, they follow the Word, “Give!” from their heart, in spite of all opposition from their own flesh, from relatives and friends, and virtually all reasonable, well-intentioned people. They follow each of Jesus’ and the apostles’ exhortations and commands, in spite of all rational contradictions and objections from their own flesh, and from other people’s flesh!

They repay evil with good, non-stop, completely without limits, because of the fullness of their unlimited love for God and thereby also for each single word of life in the New Testament! They believe more in Jesus’ words and in the apostles’ words than in all the objections that the entire world population can offer. They will therefore never be put to shame!

When Jesus finished the Sermon on the Mount, the crowd that heard it observed that He had spoken with authority, which was quite unlike the usual, vague speeches. And it is precisely this authority that emphasizes most powerfully that He meant exactly what He said. And that is the end of that.