Christ's Sermon on the Mount covers every area of godly living and right thinking. Unlike the Mosaic Law, it is not a series of rules and regulations. It is not a list of instructions on 'do's' and 'don'ts'. His sermon was an authoritative teaching that laid out general principles for life and living. These principles can be applied to every facet of life and are relevant in every situation we may encounter.
 Christ's sermon was designed to show that entrance into His kingdom did not only depend on good works, but a pure heart and godly motives none of which are attainable by fallen humanity. Jesus was showing that the only way to enter the kingdom of heaven and participate in Christ's millennial rule on the earth is to be saved. We are saved by grace through faith in JESUS CHRIST, and this is non-negotiable.
 Today there are still proud, legalistic, self-righteous, religious-minded men and women who are blinded to The Narrow WAY That Leads To Everlasting Life. There are many that refuse to accept the TRUTH and do not find the path that leads to LIFE everlasting. It is not God's will that any should perish but that all should come to faith in Christ. May we be ready and willing to speak the truth in love to those that are lost in their own self-importance, and by God's grace may some be snatched from the broad path that leads to destruction.
Matthew 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Our United Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You that in Your grace, You brought us to an understanding that the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to everlasting life. Thank You that by faith in Christ, we have found the Way to life and discovered Him to be the truth of the glorious gospel of grace. We pray that You would have pity on those that remain dead in their sin. Have mercy on those who through pride and their own self-sufficiency, have not yet found the narrow way that leads to life. Use us we pray, in whatever way You choose, to speak the truth in love to those who are on the broad way to destruction, and bring many into Your kingdom this day, In Jesus' name we Pray, AMEN.

 Paul was passionate for His Lord and equally passionate that we understand and apply the truth of the whole counsel of God, but he knew that many would be tossed about by the chill winds of deceptive doctrines and that many false teachers and doctrines would enter the Church to confuse the flock, to lead astray and entice many to return to the path of legalism and worldly pursuits.
 Near the conclusion of him exposing the dangers of legalism and the glories of grace, Paul nails his whole argument on the Cross of Christ. He explains that the gospel is being distorted by the boastings of mankind who, in their pride, seek to draw other believers back under Law, which was nailed to the Cross of Christ at salvation. It is so much more acceptable for prideful people to do SOMETHING to add to Christ's work on Calvary: 'For if I keep some man-made rule,' we argue, 'what wonderful credit I will receive!'
 Because Christ fulfilled the whole Law in His life and death, the whole Law was nailed to the Cross. Because we are in Christ, the righteousness that He gained was also gained for us. We did not need to do anything to be clothed in His righteousness, except Believe In Him As Our Savior.
Galatians 6:14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

 The Lord had planned in eternity past to implement a new covenant - an unconditional covenant - a unilateral covenant - an eternal covenant, and God used the old covenant as a school-master to point us to Christ Who was appointed to be the testator of the new, unconditional, eternal, and better covenant.
 Unlike the old covenant, all the conditions to be fulfilled by the new covenant were the responsibility of God alone, implemented with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. All we have to do is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting, and by His grace we have become ministers of the new and better covenant.
 The New Covenant was implemented at the Cross for all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in this Church dispensation. It will also become a reality for the nation of Israel on the day, yet future, when they cry: "Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord." On that amazing day they will look on the One Whom they pierced, for He was also wounded for their transgressions, bruised for their iniquities, and shed His blood so that they too would participate in the new and better covenant.
Hebrews 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

 I am sure when he got up that morning, Zacchaeus did not expect that before long he would be entertaining the Son of God in his own home.
 As a rich, important, and chief tax-collector, he was an individual who was hated by the Jews, despised by the Romans, and was quite possibly a man who had been a swindler or a thief. But Jesus took time to come to him, to call to him, and to open up for him the path of salvation, for Jesus had come to seek and to save that which was lost.
 No doubt God had been preparing the heart of this wealthy yet detested tax-collector. God is able to discern the motives of every man, and this meeting with Christ brought a sinner to repentance when confronted with the incomparable perfection of the Son of Man.
 How different the Lord Jesus was from those critical Jewish leaders, who so readily accused the Lord Jesus of fraternizing with tax-collectors and sinners! But that day, salvation came to the house of Zacchaeus. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
 God Still Knows The Hearts Of Men And Women, and He is still seeking and saving those which are lost and bringing salvation to many souls who trust in Him by grace through faith.
Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

 As Christians, we have been called to personal consecration where our lives are a reflection of Christ and our bodies a living sacrifice to the Lord. It is our spiritual worship and our reasonable service to yield our-lives, our-selves, and our-bodies to the Lord; to consecrate ourselves to Him each day.
 Day by day, rededication of ourselves to His service is a lifelong program which we need to choose consciously. Transformation does not take place overnight but is dependent on the hidden values of the heart being translated into the active practice of our thoughts and motives. It is a freewill choice to avoid that which is evil and to honor the Lord in beautiful thoughts, beautiful words, and beautiful deeds, by choosing to do what is right and holy.
 The Holy Spirit alone is that One that implements our inner transformation. He is the One that causes us to be: "Transformed By The Renewing Of Your Mind." He carries out this refining work in the inner recesses of our hearts: "So that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
 The evidence of this lovely transfiguring process is not only an outward disassociation from an ungodly world and the works of the world, the flesh, and the devil, but a life that is good, acceptable, perfect and pleasing to the Father - but note that transformation is perfected through trials, difficulties, suffering, and sorrow.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

 The moment that we are born again, we are made a new creation in Christ. The second we are saved we are given a new nature, the resurrected life of Christ within. But also The Holy Spirit Of God comes to dwell in us to teach and train us, to guard and guide us, and He also disciplines, chastens, and corrects our new life in Christ.
 When our old body tries to carry out the Law through self-effort it tries to reform itself, but this is a self-righteousness that is unacceptable to God. All our righteousness is as filthy rags to Him. Our old sin nature is dead in trespasses and sins and is to remain nailed to the Cross of Christ. It is the new, born again life we received at salvation that must grow. God has given us all that we need for that new life to grow in grace and in a knowledge of Jesus, but we must do it God's way and not our way. We must be clothed in Christ's righteousness and not seek to cover ourselves in self-righteousness.
 We are to walk in spirit and truth guided by the Holy Spirit, and He will teach and train our new self which is being renewed, day by day, into even greater knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

 Many scholars only look at this passage as applying to the two roads that lead to heaven and hell and the two destinies that await every member of the human race. The narrow way, which is found by few, is rightly seen as a difficult path which is found by grace through faith in Christ, knowing that He is the only Way to the Father, and He is the only Gate into eternal life. The broad way is therefore identified as the road that the majority of the human race will take and is conversely seen as the easy path which leads to destruction and the fires of hell.
 But although there is certainly a legitimate application to saved and unsaved people taking the narrow and broad ways respectively, Christ was not teaching about the two destinations of the whole human race (heaven or the lake of fire), but the two alternative routes that Christians are required to choose after they have been justified by grace through faith in Christ.
 Jesus was teaching His followers that there are Two Ways To Travel through their Christian life: The spiritual gateway; which leads to an abundant and victorious life as we travel through this world where the Lord is glorified in us, or the carnal gateway; where the final result will be loss of reward for a wasted, defeated life where God was dishonored by one of His blood-bought children.
 Whichever gate a Christian chooses to enter, God is faithful to His eternal promises. 
Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

 Salvation Is By God's Grace Through Our Faith In God's Word. In this Church age, salvation is ours by grace through faith in the death, burial, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 Salvation is always a matter of faith, but the way God deals with His servants in different dispensations varies in a number of ways. As Church-age believers, we are members of Christ's Body. We have been born into the kingdom of God by faith;  unless we are born again at the age of accountability we cannot see the kingdom of God.
 Having been born from above, we are part of a spiritual Body. However, our physical bodies, in which the Spirit of God dwells, are used by the Lord to be ministers of reconciliation to a lost and dying world. As part of Christ's Body, we are called to continue His work on earth as He lives in our heart by faith, we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.
There are times that we become overly familiar with terms such as 'born again', 'a new creation in Christ', 'made the righteousness of God in Him', etc. But every one of the hundreds of privileges that have become ours by faith in Christ contain a important element, we have been 'blessed with all spiritual blessings' because we are His workmanship and are one with Christ, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we would walk in them.
Ephesians 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.