Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

casuistry-some kind of explanation on paper that seems to satisfy the letter of the law.

They worked by traditions, and most of these traditions were really nothing but very clever and subtle ways of evading the demands of the law.

man-made rules and regulations which were based upon certain dispensations they had decided to grant to one another, and which really violated the law they pretended to keep.

We ought on this day to put everything aside as far as we can, that God may be honoured and glorified and that His cause may prosper and flourish.

The Lord's day is a day that is meant to be given as much as possible to God.

The second charge which our Lord brought against the scribes and Pharisees was that they were obviously more concerned with the ceremonial than with the moral;

The kingdom of God is concerned about the heart; it is not my external actions, but what I am inside that is important.

And unless our righteousness exceeds these external religious demands we do not belong to the kingdom of God.

Holiness and love must go together; and it is a part of holy love to unmask the false and the spurious and to denounce the hypocritical.