Matthew 7:28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: I. Some FEW CHARACTERISTICS which the Sermon possesses. 1. The wonderful literary beauty of the language cannot have been unobserved by any one. 2. Then we have remarked the desultory arrangement and the apparently disconnected progress of ideas. 3. Chiefly, however, all of us have perceived the one great absence in this discourse, I might almost say lack, as we contemplated it from our Christian outlook. There is no allusion to the atonement. Christ is here as the preaching prophet, not as the atoning priest. 4. Hence the history of the Sermon affords a conspicuous example of the way in which men sometimes pervert God's Word. They say, "Our sufficient creed is the Sermon on the Mount." 5. Many of us would admit this statement, for we remember a startling and supernatural reach of requirement in this discourse — "Be ye therefore perfect," &c, II. THE PURPOSE Of this Sermon. 1. We find in it the description of a character. 2. We find in it a rule of life. 3. A standard of spiritual and experimental attainment. 4. We find in this Sermon an instrument of condemnation. 5. We find in it an incitement to holiness. (C. S. Robinson,D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: |
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