Father, we are so thankful for this opportunity we have to worship You and to study Your Word. And oftentimes we, I think, lose track of the wonderful gift that You have given us in Your Word. You have revealed Yourself to us. And You have revealed Your plan for us. We thank You for that, Lord. We want to Be diligent to accurately handle your word. And so we pray that you would bless that endeavor. Give us the skills. Give us the clarity of thought to make good observations. And from those observations, good interpretations. And from those interpretations, good applications. And from those applications, good correlation as we study the whole counsel of God. And so I would pray for our time now as we continue our study in Matthew. Pray that you'd bless the reading and exposition of your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, so we are continuing in the Gospel of Matthew. Now we have introduced and gotten somewhat into the Sermon on the Mount. And with that, we've looked at the, I like to say blessings, but also known as the Beatitudes. And that's because a Latin word kind of stuck and it was popular and so it just became that. The other issue, the reason that stuck is we dealt with this in the intro to the Sermon on the Mount. A lot of people take the Sermon on the Mount as essentially the way to salvation. If you want to be saved, you will do the things that Jesus speaks of. Now the issue with that is Jesus is dealing with the law. So essentially what you're saying is you must do the law in order to be saved. That would be a direct contradiction of the rest of Scripture. And that's not what Jesus is doing. He's not giving the way of salvation. He is giving the true intent of the law as God intended it. And that's important because we learn from the Apostle Paul, for example, that the law had a very important function in regards to our salvation. It wasn't the means of our salvation, but it did reveal sin. When you look at the Mosaic Law, it reveals sin. And the Book of Romans talks about that. My professor at Frontier used to say, it makes sin, sinnier. The law makes sin, sinnier. It's like, you know, you see a sign that says, wet paint, don't touch. What do you do? Is it really still wet? Let me see for myself. Whatever it is, it entices us in the flesh and it makes sin, sinnier. And we're not able to fulfill the law. Now, that being said, Israel was expected to keep the law. That didn't mean that they kept it perfectly. It just means that when sin occurred, they followed the proper protocol to cleanse themselves or atone for their sins. And so Jesus is dealing with that, but as we work through this Sermon on the Mount, I'm going to be drawing primary application to the first century Jewish people listening to Jesus, and as much as possible, draw some application for us. And it is important because I do firmly believe, namely because Scripture says this, but I also believe it to be true through experience, that all Scripture is profitable. There is a blessing when you understand what God has revealed. Even if you're not the direct audience, there's a blessing in understanding what God has revealed to someone. And that is my goal for the Sermon on the Mount, is to understand what was Jesus saying, and what was His intended communication. So with that, we're going to finish up the B Attitudes. And then we'll get into some of your Bibles, if they have headings, it might say the similitudes. We'll look at that passage as well. But notice the outline for Matthew that we've been following. This section, the Sermon on the Mount, falls under the Declaration of the Principles of the King. Now, with that, Jesus has begun his earthly ministry. He's been teaching and preaching, and there is a difference. Teaching deals with, it comes actually from the word that we get, the word didactic, the idea of line upon line instruction. Preaching is just pontificating, speaking, declaring. It's a loud utterance, if you will. And so Jesus has been teaching, preaching, and healing people, and those are all markers of Him being the Messiah. He's demonstrating that He is the long-expected One that was prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures. And so now that he's turned a corner, he's now got a gathering of a multitude of people, and he sits and teaches the people. Now, verses 1 through 12, I titled it the blessings of the heirs of the kingdom. So I think that passage, more than any other that we're going to run across in the Sermon on the Mount, has the most application for us. Now, we do need to be careful and understand that we are not the original audience, the church was not in view, but he's talking about the blessings of those who will inherit the kingdom. Now, we learn later in scripture, which scripture wasn't given all at once, right? It was given incrementally over time. Later in scripture, we learn that we are sons or heirs of the kingdom. So these principles here are true of us. But as I've been looking at some things this last week, since we didn't finish, there are tremendous, not similarities, but references within these blessings that Jesus mentioned that the Jewish mind would have picked up on and known exactly what he was talking about. And I'll highlight some of those. So we looked at some important questions and then there's nine blessings. Now with the nine blessings, verses three through 10 is an inclusio. And I mentioned John Nemelus says inclusio is just another way of saying a sandwich. So it's an idea of a complete thought. And it's marked by two either repeated words or phrases. And in this case, the phrase, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So this entire blessing list deals with this promised kingdom. So we looked at blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful. Now with a lot of these references, they are references to the Hebrew scriptures that talk about the end times Future restoration of the nation of Israel the repentance and then the subsequent restoration That would be experienced by Israel and I think that is very intentional that Jesus was alluding to those things They hunger and thirst for righteousness not just personally, but also universally the kingdom to be established and righteousness to prevail but then he says in verse 8 blessed are the pure in heart and For they shall see God. Now this one's very clearly referenced. If you look at and for sake of time, we won't go there. But Isaiah 33 verse 17, it's talking about the future restoration of Israel. And it talks about them seeing God and the blessings that transpire from them. And so the pure in heart, it talks about them being restored through national repentance. So they are purifying, cleansing themselves. And what's the result? They shall see God. So pure in heart, this would be someone who has been made this way. It's a result. Scripture is clear that no one is pure of heart or can achieve pureness in heart. So that's another thing we need to be mindful of. This is apparently something that only God can do. This is, I think, however, the result of someone who is justified by faith. If you are declared righteous, which is what justified means, by faith you are pure in heart. What's the reward? They shall see God. And that's the blessing that the person pure in heart has. And that's our blessing, right? Countless promises from the apostles in their letters to churches or individuals allude to this reality that we shall see God. We will be with Him. That's our hope. That's our expectation. It's what we look for. It's what we long for. This quality is shared by someone who has been declared righteous by God because of faith. The result is that they will see God. The reward is clearly taught in Old Testament texts regarding the kingdom. God will dwell with his people. That's the promise that the Jewish people looked for is that the Messiah would come and God himself will dwell with his people. So some application points, have you been made positionally pure in heart? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation? Or are you relying upon your own goodness? Do you think you're pure in heart? And if you do, I ask this question, are you perfectly pure? Is there any impurities? Because the one who sees God must be totally and completely pure in heart. And that's not true of any of us, right? We must be made that way. And so have you been made positionally pure in heart through faith? But there's also, I think, a practicality to this. Do you live practically in this position? If you've been made pure in heart by faith in Christ, do you live that way? Romans 6 all over again, right? We are dead to sin. Do we live dead to sin? Or as one of my professors once said, or do we let the dead guy out of the grave? Let him walk around, do what he wants, have a night on the town. Is that our lifestyle? Is that our practice? It shouldn't be. And I'll share what he said. So this is coming from him, not me. He said, we have to put our foot on the throat of that man and push him back down into the grave. We have to recognize our position, dead, to sin. Number seven, the seventh blessing, blessed are the peacemakers. Verse nine, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Now this one, especially us residents of Denver, if you have grown up here, you know, this is the West and peacemaker has a slightly different connotation. than it does here. In fact, that's the opposite connotation, right? A peacemaker is one who enforces peace, makes peace through a gun. That's not what Jesus had in mind. We will talk about self-defense and stuff like that at some point here in the Sermon on the Mount, but not today. So what is a peacemaker? It's literally a maker of peace. Someone who does peace, or makes, creates, produces peace. Someone who seeks peace in disagreements with others, particularly. Because it's one thing to seek peace with people that are not in disagreement with you, but what happens when they are? What is our response? Do we seek peace? Do we make peace? Do we produce peace with people that are hostile towards us? That's hard, right? Because we, I think pride gets in the way and sometimes we feel the need to defend ourselves or to retaliate or to fight back, like for like. If they say a hurtful word against us, what do we do? Do we fire right back? Oftentimes that's the way. And I have learned over my years, sometimes personal experience, it's been a long time by the way, I know when a fight is about to break out. Because all the practice on the playground, right? The second someone is shoved, it's going to blows, right? Why? Because in that person's mind that got shoved, it's fight or flight, and to flight, you'd be shamed, embarrassed. Look what he did to you. And so the response is almost natural, they fight, right? Well, what Jesus is describing is the work that the Holy Spirit, and I wish, kind of, You could see or know who I was in high school, because I was not a peacemaker. At least, I was a peacemaker in the Western sense, not the biblical sense. But God has humbled me. And it's purely the act of God and the work of grace in my life to let things go. By no means is this perfect, but I guess what I'm saying is I cannot imagine getting in a fight now. Willing, if it came to that, but it would take a lot, I think, for that to happen. And that's the work of God. And that only happens in a believer, right? the Holy Spirit working on us and in our lives. So someone who seeks peace in disagreements with others. This quality again has a tone related to forgiveness. So are we forgiving? Are we forgiving people? Now forgiveness is a difficult word. I dealt with this with my student this last week in our Matthew class talking about forgiveness. Forgiveness does not mean forget. It also does not mean you have to trust the person who's wronged you. Sometimes we think that forgiveness means if you truly forgive someone, you have to invite them in. And I use the example with my student. If someone stole something of yours, something precious, you'd forgive them and we're called to forgive them if they seek forgiveness. Forgive them, but do you give them your wallet? Do you give them your passwords, all your bank accounts and everything? No. Why? Trust was broken. The forgiveness is not an expectation for you to trust them and give them that leeway, but it is a forgiveness in terms of not forgetting, but choosing not to remember. And there is a difference. It's not forgetting, but it's choosing not to remember. So you're not charging it to their account. It's off the books, so to speak. Your debt has been forgiven. So blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God. They shall be called is a future tense, signifying that in the future, i.e. during the kingdom, this reward will occur. Throughout scripture, the mention of inheritance or reward is used to remind the believer to finish well. It's mentioned in advance. And it's our hope, our expectation as believers. And every time it's mentioned in Scripture, it's always with that implication of finishing well, finishing strong. Follow the Lord. Application, the believer is a child of God. The believer must live at peace in the hostile world we live in. Increasingly so, I think Christianity is going to be faced with persecution. Now, historically, Christianity has done their fair share of persecuting, right? And that's because this has not been followed. May it not be true of us, right? We are called to be peacemakers. Now, even though this wasn't written to the church, this is true of the heirs of the kingdom. And aren't we heirs of the kingdom? In fact, I think it's been well summarized that this life is training for reigning. That's why we're here. We are learning how to rule and reign with Christ. So how are we doing in our training? If it happened today, would we be ready? If it happened today, would we have to say, Jesus, give me another year, please. I'm not ready. This was one of Paul's applications toward the end of Romans. Living at peace in a hostile world. that agape living in the church, but also out of the church. Number eight, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. This is in the context of Jesus' ministry in Matthew. What is his ministry? It's the messianic movement. He's the Messiah. He's teaching, preaching, and healing, and garnering a following. And Jesus knows that there will be persecution. He's preparing that audience that are there on that mountain for this inevitable persecution. I talked about last time that there's two types of disciples. There's curious disciples and then there's formal disciples. A formal disciple is someone who enters into a formal relationship with a rabbi or a teacher and they essentially live with them. They do what they do, they eat what they eat, they go where they go, and they learn everything about their teacher so that someday they themselves would become a teacher. And then there are the second class of disciple, which is simply a follower, and that are those that are, at this point in Jesus' ministry, curious ones. They heard about a man baptizing out in the wilderness. They went and saw him. They even got baptized because they realized that they needed to. That man was the forerunner to the Messiah and would be the one to identify. They identified Jesus Christ. They agreed to that. This man that was identified as the Messiah is doing the very miracles the Messiah was said he would do. So they're following, but there are some that are still not sure. Nicodemus, for example, was one, which, by the way, he's a pretty influential teacher. So I mentioned rabbi. Well, there's also a word called rabban. And a rabban is a teacher of teachers, a rabbi to rabbis. And there's not been many in history And there were two during the life of Christ. Three, if you count Christ. But one was Nicodemus. Two was Gamaliel. And we know Gamaliel from Paul's relationship, right? Disciple Paul. Well, Nicodemus was another one. That makes that midnight, the Nic at night meeting, right? All the more interesting because he is a teacher of teachers. And that's why Jesus says, you're a teacher of Israel and you don't know this. And so this is the context, but those casual followers are going to jump ship, right? We'll talk about this when we get to the mystery kingdom parables in chapter 13, the soils, which by the way, Matthew is not talking about salvation there at all. He's talking about the reception of this kingdom message. Some received it. Well, some fell on the road, right? It wasn't received. Some received it, but the roots didn't go deep. The sun came and scorched them, and they left. Some received it, but then they were choked out by thorns, the concerns and cares of this life. Some received it in good soil, and they grew and produced." So that's the message, just foreshadow. But Jesus is implying and talking about those that are going to fall away. One of the reasons that some fall away is persecution. So Jesus is preparing these individuals, It might be wonderful that you think the Messiah is here. He is. I am Him. The Kingdom is coming. But so is persecution. Because the other thing you have to keep in mind, we dealt with this back in John. What precedes the Kingdom? In the Jewish mind, in the Jewish eschatology, what precedes the Kingdom? The Day of the Lord, right? The Day of the Lord, the Jews will be faced with persecution unparalleled in history. They will have every single nation intending to destroy them. They've had nations seeking to destroy them. They have one now, a couple, right now. But at that time, every nation. And they will be faced with persecution. Especially those who are part of the remnant, the believing in Israel. But then the kingdom. So I think Jesus is preparing for those. Should that happen, and the day of the Lord happen, they would be ready. Those who suffer for their association with the messianic movement is essentially what's in view. The reward theirs is the kingdom of God, or excuse me, kingdom of heaven. Which by the way, just a quick reference to that. Some traditional dispensationalists view a distinction between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. I do not. I think Matthew's writing to Jews And he would not use the word God so lightly. And so I think heaven is just the preference just to not put a stumbling block for his Jewish audience. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This closes the inclusion. So everything he's been talking about is talking about the kingdom of heaven. All these qualities are to exist in the air of the kingdom. Now note, again, these qualities are accompanied by our salvation or by salvation. The rewards are or will be theirs. These qualities are true and inevitable. Jesus is using them to develop his kingdom invitation for that generation. Can believers today suffer persecution? You bet. What is persecution, right? Someone looked at us wrong. someone didn't like my Facebook post, or maybe it was a really important Facebook post and they just liked it, they didn't do the heart or the care one, right? Meaning they really, really liked our post. Is that persecution? No. Do we focus on the glory ahead of us? I think sometimes we have a victim mentality as Christians. We are persecuted hunters. We want to feel persecuted, you know, because it justifies something, I guess. Are we focused on the glory ahead, that the persecution is meaningless? Peter had this in mind. Peter was writing to a Jewish audience, and he was writing to a Jewish audience that was persecuted. And his comfort was, those who suffer unjustly will be vindicated. And he uses the example of the suffering servant himself, Jesus Christ. Suffered unjustly, was vindicated. And so likewise, we as believers, if we suffer unjustly through persecution, we will be vindicated. And that's where we should set our sights. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. That does not sound like a blessing at all, does it? Maybe this is partly what's behind James, for example, saying rejoice when you face trials. Note the irony. Jesus says you are blessed when they curse you. You are blessed when they curse you. These verses have a tone of warning for those who would follow the messianic movement. You will be reviled. You will be persecuted. But there is encouragement that they are blessed despite their persecution. The implication is that they will face resistance and persecution so they shouldn't be discouraged away from Jesus when those things occur. In other words, Jesus is being very straightforward and out front telling them This is going to be your experience. It's not going to be, you know, just a party every day. Everything's nice. People give us free stuff and free food. We will face persecution. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now again, he pronounces the reward in two facets. First, their reward is great and in heaven. So it's not going to be here. That's something we have to understand as believers. This is not our reward. We must not expect that our life will be blessed because we're a Christian. It might be. Oftentimes when you do things God's way, that is the case. But that is not what we're promised. Our blessing, our reward is in heaven. Another factor to that is it's in heaven. It can't be touched by anyone here. It's guaranteed for us. This is safeguarded and guaranteed by God and received in the kingdom. When the kingdom of heaven comes to earth. When we not too long ago did our study of heaven and the afterlife, I made the point, heaven is going to be much more earthly than we realize. Unless you die before the rapture, that's going to be the only people that go up to heaven. Those who have died in the Lord are in heaven now, but heaven came down and glory fills our soul, right? Now I know the song's talking about something else, but the kingdom of heaven will come to this earth and the Messiah will rule on this very planet. Second, the prophets of old were persecuted in the same way and so they are in the greatest of company. Because who were the prophets? God's spokespeople, right? So if you are in that company, Aren't you in good company? You're under God's care and provision. Reward. Jesus is preparing his followers for the inevitable persecution they will face because of the growing rejection of the Messianic movement. Not much has changed regarding the world's response to those who belong to Jesus. We must look forward to glory when we live this life. We have to. That's our objective. Nothing else. This life is training for raining. So that concludes the blessings or the Beatitudes. Now I want to start in, I don't know how far we'll get, but verses 13 through 20. I've titled this section, the necessity of law keeping for Israel's restoration. Now, again, not for salvation, but the nation of Israel was Obligated to observe the law they committed themselves They made a covenant with God to do the law and God made a covenant with them that he would bless them when they do that and there would be discipline if they did not and Because of the traditions of man The law was not being kept so John and Jesus and his disciples are calling the nation back to law-keeping That's the entire purpose of this sermon by the way. I So we have the people's purpose, verses 13-16, and then the Messiah's purpose, verses 17-20. I'll just read it to get the flow. He says, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket. but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy it, but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, One jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So he finishes there with a complete rejection of the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. He's not saying, great job, Scribes and Pharisees. If you want to be in the kingdom, you've got to be like them. That's not what he's saying. He's saying the opposite. Your righteousness needs to exceed theirs. And there's some irony there, right? Because they would look at the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and think what? I can't. It would reveal their sin. It would expose their sin. Kind of like the law was intended to do, right? And so some observations back in verse 13. There's two metaphors describing the purpose of the nation of Israel. Are we lights in the world? Sure. I don't have a problem saying that. There's other illustrations to talk about. Are we salt of the earth? I think it's a fair similarity. But this passage is talking about Israel. Israel is the salt of the earth. Israel is the light on a city on a hill. So two metaphors describing the purpose of the nation of Israel. You are the salt of the earth, verse 13. The intended purpose of Israel. Yeah, we're definitely not going to get far. Go to Exodus 19 for a moment. This is right after the plagues that God poured out on Egypt. And as they are departing, God is speaking to Israel. They arrive at Sinai and verse 5 says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, Then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. Now that kingdom of priests is something Peter alludes to, right? Now, I don't want to stir up controversy, but I do think that Peter was writing to Jewish believers. And so when he mentions this reference, you are a kingdom of priests, the Jewish mind would have known exactly what he's talking about. The purpose that God had for the nation of Israel. And so this element of salt of the earth is what God intended Israel to be. They were the salt. And there's some discussion on what is exactly meant here. Salt has a preservation aspect to it. That could be the case. Others like Stanley Tussaint said that salt can actually help soil be more productive if it's in the right amount. So it could be talking about a productive standpoint. Both are essentially true of Israel. So I don't have an issue either way. The point is they are God's chosen people. But if they lose their flavor, what good are they? So in other words, if you're not doing your covenant obligations, God is covenantally obligated to discipline you, right? Not bless you. Therefore, you've lost your flavor. That's essentially what Jesus is communicating. They're missing the purpose back in Matthew. The expected result, so going back to Matthew chapter 5, verse 13, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, that's missing the purpose for which God has created them, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. So the expected result is you just throw it out, right? But why does he say trampled by men? That's a curious statement, right? Is he just saying it's worthless and it's in the road and people walk on it? Well, first of all, look at Throne Out. Go to Deuteronomy. I'm going to be hopping around a little bit. These references are important, though, because I think they would have been understood by his audience. Now, the covenant obligations dealt with observing the law. If they don't, they're disciplined. If they continue to don't, they continue to be disciplined. If they continue to don't, they continue to be disciplined. There's five degrees of divine discipline listed in Deuteronomy. The fifth degree is listed here in chapter 29 verse 27. Which says, Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Isn't that what Jesus is talking about? And so if the salt loses its flavor, what's going to happen? It's thrown out. Now go to, so then the reference to trampled underfoot by men, Daniel 7.23. Daniel 7.23. This is the second vision, or excuse me, I think it's the third that Daniel Nope, this is the second one. So the first vision is the four-tiered statue, right? And this one is dealing with beasts and in the interpretation of this starting in verse 23 It says, Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it, and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom, and another shall arise after them. He shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and laws. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time, three and a half years. But the courts shall be ceded, and they shall take away his dominion and consume and destroy forever." Verse 27, Then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. This is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly troubled me, and my countenance changed, but I kept the matter in my heart." So this vision of these beasts are a series of empires that God is revealing to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, And Daniel is interpreting, similar to how God revealed things to Pharaoh and Joseph interpreted, Daniel's doing this now for the king in Babylon. And this vision is the most amazing prophetic vision, I think, in Scripture. Because God is essentially giving us, you might argue, 500 years of history in advance, but I would say at this point it's kind of, what, 2,500? years of history. And everything has transpired, nearly everything has transpired exactly how it was stated. And what hasn't transpired, we can certainly trust will transpire. And so this is talking about essentially the time of the Gentiles. This vision is given to Daniel, you need to understand the context of Daniel. Where was Daniel when this was written? Babylon, which means he was not where? in the land. Why were they not in the land? Discipline. They were thrown out. And as a result, the land was trampled underfoot by men, by Gentiles. Go to Luke 21. I'll finish these references and then we'll break for next time. Luke chapter 21. This is Luke's version of the Olivet Discourse. Luke 21, verse 24. Let's start in verse 20. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. Now why is the word desolation in verse 20 used? What desolation is he talking about? the abomination that causes desolation. So Jesus is telling them, when they're surrounded, you know that that desolation that Daniel talked about is near, which means the midpoint of the Day of the Lord is near. Get out of town. And we'll talk about this. Jesus says, don't go gather food. Leave. Flee. And so He says, verse 21, Or let's skip down to 24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all nations and Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Now, there's a couple different ways people have traditionally interpreted the time of the Gentiles. Some believe it's the time in which salvation is being, I guess, taken to the Gentiles or opened to the Gentiles. So, in other words, when the last Gentile is saved, then God continues His plan. I don't think that's the case. I think it's the time of the Gentiles as depicted in the book of Daniel. This time that God has pre-planned, pre-decreed, that will transpire before the time of the Gentiles cease, and the implication there is the time of the Jewish people in their kingdom continues. And so notice that trampled language, I think, is very much intentional by Jesus. Go to Revelation chapter 11 next. Revelation chapter 11, and let's start in verse 1. Then I was given a reed, like a measuring rod, and the angel stood, saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it. For it has been given to the Gentiles, and they shall tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months." So what I'm trying to show you is that it seems clear in Scripture, this concept of treading underfoot, trampling underfoot, is something that became kind of a known concept amongst the Jews that understood it to mean that we are not occupying our land. And so essentially what Jesus is saying, you are the salt of the earth. You have a purpose. That purpose is intimately related to the unconditional covenants God made to your forefathers. It's also intimately related to the conditional covenant that you made with Him, to obey the law. Which is, if it wasn't so tragic, it would be funny. After Moses says everything, what do the people say? Everything we have heard, we shall certainly do. And the next scene, they don't do what they said they would. But that was the arrangement, to observe and keep the law, and experience the blessings of God. But that was not happening. And if it continues to not happen, then discipline happens to the fifth degree, where they're kicked out of the land, and the land is trampled underfoot by men. Let me close with prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your revelation. We thank you for how you tell us the end from the beginning. We thank you that history is in your hands. Lord, we do again pray for your chosen people. They are the salt of the earth. You have a purpose for them. Presently, they have not been living that purpose that you have called them to. We pray, Lord, that you would take us home and rapture us, be with you forevermore. and bring about the plans that will lead to your perfect righteous kingdom being established on this earth. Until then, Lord, I pray that we would be diligent, that we would train for our reigning with you. Identify areas of our lives that we hold on dearly to the cares of this world that we Get discouraged and that we would fix our eyes on you and walk one step at a time Trusting in in you. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen