The Sermon on the Mount was Christ’s inauguration sermon for His apostles. It contains a very important message dealing with righteousness, emphasizing internal attitudes instead of the Law which emphasizes outward behavior. Today’s lesson is the introduction to our study of this sermon and we ought to study it for it clearly reveals the need of the new birth in order to live it. Secondly, Jesus Christ sacrificed his life on our behalf in order that we might both understand it and live it. The third reason we ought to study it is because of the blessing promised to those who make it applicable in their lives, revealed in the oft repeated words “Blessed are…”