The Sabbath School

S. D. A. Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 26, 1881

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 20

The Sabbath School.

LESSON FOR PACIFIC COAST.—MAY 28.

Sermon on the Mount, Concluded.—Matt. 7: 22-29; Luke 6: 46-49.

LESSON COMMENTS.

Luke 6. “Lord, Lord.” God judges of the heart, not by words, but by works. A good servant never disputes, speaks little, and always follows his work. Such a servant a real Christian is; such is a faithful minister, always intent either on the work of his own salvation, or that of his neighbor; speaking more to God, than to men; and to these as in the presence of God. The tongue is fitly compared by one, to a pump, which empties the heart, but neither fills nor cleanses it. The love of God is a hidden spring which supplies the heart continually, and never permits it to be dry, or unfruitful.—Quesnel.

Matt. 7. “And every one that heareth—and doeth them not.” Was there ever a stricter system of morality delivered by God to man, than in this sermon? He who reads or hears it, and does not look to God to conform his soul and life to it, and notwithstanding, is hoping to enter into the kingdom of Heaven, is like the fool who built his house on the sand. When the rain, the rivers, and the winds come, his building must fall, and his soul be crushed into the nethermost pit by its ruins. Talking about Christ, his righteousness, merits, and atonement, while the person is not conformed to his word, and spirit, is no other than solemn self-deception.

Let it be observed, that it is not the man who hears or believes these sayings of Christ, whose building shall stand when the earth and its works are burnt up; but the man who DOES them.

Many suppose that the law of Moses is abolished, merely because it is too strict and impossible to be observed; and that the gospel was brought in to liberate us from its obligations; but let all such know, that in the whole of the old covenant nothing can be found so exceedingly strict and holy as this sermon, which Christ lays down as the rule by which we are to walk. “Then, the fulfilling of these precepts is the purchase of glory.” No, it is the way only to that glory, which has already been purchased by the blood of the Lamb. To him that believes, all things are possible.—Clarke.

No wonder that when He had finished such an address, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching. They had been accustomed to the tame and slavish servility of the Rabbis, with their dread of varying a word from precedent and authority; their cobwebbery of endless sophistries and verbal trifling; their laborious dissertations on the infinitely little; their industrious trackings through the jungles of tradition and prescription; and felt that in the preaching of Jesus, they, for the first time, had something that stirred their souls, and came home to their consciences. One of the Rabbis had boasted that every verse of the Bible was capable of six hundred thousand different explanations, and there were seventy different modes of interpretation current, but the vast mass of explanations and interpretations were no better than pedantic folly, concerning itself with mere insignificant minutiae which had no bearing on religion or morals. Instead of this, Jesus had spoken as a legislator, vested with greater authority than Moses.—Geikie.