Welcome to Season 6 of the Food for Your Soul Podcast, where we apply the Word of God to the hearts of men and women to stoke the fires of your delight in Christ. This season of the podcast is devoted to the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus teaches His people about life in the Kingdom of God. The rabbis of Jesus' time debated about what are the weightier matters of the law and the lighter matters of the law. And basically what they agreed on mostly was the weightier matters are the things that have to do directly with your relationship with God. Prayer and sacrifice and ceremonial rituals and all the religious kind of stuff. And then the lesser matters of the law, the lighter matters, are things that have to do with interacting with people. Jesus said no. That's not right. You're incorrect, rabbis. You've come to the wrong conclusion. There are weightier and lighter matters of the law. There are. But it's not things that have to do directly with God as opposed to dealing with people. The weightier matters of the law are when there's a command in the law that is a direct expression of love. The lighter matters of the law when there's a command in Scripture that are merely symbols of love. The direct command, the reality, is more important than the symbol. That's what he's saying. Water baptism is a symbol, right? Is it important? Yes. But what's more important? Going down into the water? Or that pledge of good conscience that going down into the water symbolizes Peter says it's the pledge of good conscience. That's what saves you. Obviously, the reality is more important than the symbol. If you're a thief on a cross and there's no way for you to get baptized after you are converted, you die, you still go to paradise with Christ, right? Even though you didn't participate in the symbol. Because it's possible in some circumstances to have the reality even without the symbol. On the other hand, what happens if you have the symbol and not the reality? Well, that's worthless. You get baptized, you go in the water, you don't have any real faith in your heart, nothing happens, you just got wet. You just go to hell wet. So when the symbol reflects the reality of the heart, this is important to understand too. When the symbol is a reflection of the reality of the heart, the symbol becomes just as important as the reality. You see that? That's true in everything we do. I mean, this should be easy to understand. Think of an engagement ring. Engagement ring is a symbol, right? It's just a symbol. If a man gives a woman that symbol, and she accepts it as a representation of what's in her heart, her accepting it is a message. This is what's in my heart. I'm accepting this engagement ring. That has tremendous meaning. But if she accepts it with no desire or no intention of marrying the guy, then her accepting the ring becomes a terrible thing, right? Yeah, I'm the ring collector, give me it, but I'm not interested in you." That doesn't make him happy. That's what God meant in Hosea 6-6 when he said, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I desire the reality, not the symbol. People have struggled with that. How can God say that in Hosea 6.6? He commanded all these sacrifices. How can God command, do these sacrifices, do these sacrifices, do these sacrifices, and then say, I don't require sacrifices. I don't delight in sacrifices. I require mercy, not sacrifice. How can He say that? What He's saying is, I don't delight in mere sacrifice. Empty sacrifice. Sacrifice that is a symbol without the reality. Disconnected from the reality. Does that mean it's okay to disobey God in the Old Testament and do no sacrifice? No, it's not okay. Because if you disobey God, it's the same thing with a baptism or communion. If you don't get baptized because you just have no interest in obeying Christ, you neglect communion because you have no interest in obeying Christ, well then it's the reality. That's significant. That's a weighty matter of the law because it has to do with disobedience. But if you have the symbol without the reality, then it's a lighter matter of the law. They're constantly trying to teach this to the Pharisees. Somehow they overlooked Hosea 6.6. They just didn't get it. So in Matthew 9, the Pharisees are looking down their noses at a bunch of repentant sinners, which is their typical thing they like to do. And they're totally misunderstanding Hosea 6.6. They're not showing any mercy. Here's these sinners. They're repentant. Show them some mercy. Show them some love. Don't let them be overcome with guilt. Now they're looking down their noses at him, condemning him, pointing their fingers. So Jesus gives them a homework assignment in Matthew 9.13. He gives the Pharisees a homework assignment. Go and learn. Now that's the language of a teacher talking to a student. He says to these Pharisees, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. That's your homework assignment. Pharisees, just go off and learn Hosea 6.6. They thought what really mattered was all their religious trappings and all their practices, and it didn't even register on their radar screen that there might be something wrong with them looking down their noses at a bunch of repentant sinners who had been involved in especially gross and disgusting kinds of sins. And so Jesus gives them this assignment. Go study Hosea 6.6. Next time I see you, Pharisees, I want you to understand the meaning of, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I want you to have that down. Well, it wasn't long before Jesus did see them again. Three chapters later, they pop up in a grain field on the Sabbath day, pointing their fingers at the disciples for breaking the Sabbath rules. The disciples were hungry, they're traveling, it's a Sabbath day, and they need some food, and so they grab some grain off the stalks and up pop the Pharisees in the middle of the field and say, Aha! Farming! On the Sabbath day! And Matthew 12, 7, Jesus responds. He says to the Pharisees, if you had known what these words mean, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. In other words, if you would have just done your homework like I told you to do back in chapter 9, you wouldn't be here right now. We wouldn't be having these conversations. If you want to know how important mercy is, Jesus made it real simple. If you're merciful, you go to heaven. If you're not, you go to hell. That's simple. Matthew 25 verse 31, When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. He's describing Judgment Day here. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people from one another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on His left, And then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world, for, here's why, I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, you invited me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you looked after me. I was in prison, and you came to visit me. Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. Come take your reward, sheep, because you lived lives of mercy. He didn't say that he earned it, but that's the ground of his judging them to be truly saved. He went on to explain the reason why is because if they showed all that mercy to any Christian, he said, any brother of mine, that's a Christian, any Christian, you've done it to me, Jesus said. You did all that to me. And then to the rest of the people, the goats on his left, He says, they were not merciful, and so verse 41, depart from me, you who are cursed into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. It's a big deal, mercy, in the mind of God. You say, aren't there some special circumstances in which we're not supposed to show mercy? We withhold mercy? Sure. Second Thessalonians 3.10, if a man will not work, Don't let him eat. Normally, if somebody is going without food and he's hungry, we feed him. That's mercy. But if he's a type who refuses to work, then we withhold mercy. So there are a few circumstances in which it's right to withhold mercy. However, those are rare exceptions. And even in those times when we need to do that, we can display the heart of a merciful God by wishing we could show mercy. Sometimes maybe you have to discipline your child or we do church discipline or something where we're withholding mercy in some way. But even in those times, we need to show the heart of God by loving mercy, wishing we could show it, longing to show it. If you ever find yourself scouring the Scriptures for more and more excuses why you can justify withholding mercy on somebody that you're mad at, you find that kind of attitude in your heart, go back to Micah 6.8. What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to Love mercy. Love mercy. You're showing mercy just because the Bible says you have to and you don't like it. That's not enough. That's not enough. God requires that we show mercy and we love doing it. Then we'll have hearts like God because God loves mercy. Micah 7.18, Who is God like you who pardons sin and forgives? You do not stay angry forever, but you delight to show mercy. That's the heart of God, what He wants. Thank you for listening. We pray that in this series, your life will be transformed by the soaring ethics, deep insights, and glorious promises of the Sermon on the Mount. We are a crowd-funded ministry, so if you would like this podcast to continue, please consider supporting us with a tax-deductible gift. Just go to treasuringgod.com and click on Give. Until next time, rejoice in the Lord always and set your mind on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.