Let's return to Luke chapter
6. I want to come this morning to
what is typically called the Sermon on the Mount. This was preached by our Lord
Jesus Christ to his disciples. But before we get there, I just
want to remember and just take in this chapter as a whole, because
it affords us many beautiful pictures of the grace of our
Lord for you, his people, that are needy sinners, for you that
need his grace and compassion. Because it describes and it makes
known to us the blessings of our Savior, upon us undeserving
sinners who need His grace and mercy. When we began this chapter
we saw the disciples of our Lord going through what is called
the cornfields. And that doesn't necessarily
mean it was corn. In fact, I don't think it was
corn as we understand it, but it refers to any grain that is
sown, a seed that is sown so that these were ears of grain,
like wheat or rye perhaps or something of that sort. And the disciples, they were
hungry. They're out ministering to the
Lord. and they don't have a home to
retreat to. They're not with their wives
that can make them food. And so they wake up in the morning,
and they're hungry, and they're going to the synagogue, and they're
going through a field. And so they grab some of the
ears of the wheat, and they smash it in their hands, and they rub
it so that they're working for their food on the Sabbath day.
And the Pharisees, of course, see this. The legalist sees this,
and they take an exception to this. They're offended by that.
And so they accuse them, saying, why do you guys do wickedly. Why do you sin like this? Why
are you doing this? And before they could say anything,
the Lord defended them against their accuser. The Lord Jesus
Christ defended His disciples. And then we see Him in a synagogue
on another day. And there's a man there that's
lame. His hand is withered. And that's a good picture of
us. We're withered. Our members are withered. Our
hands are withered. Our feet are lame and turned
out of the way. And he healed that man. That
man could do nothing, and he healed that man. But it was the
Sabbath day, and the legalists took exception to what he had
done. And they were angry with the
Lord for for taking pity and being merciful to a needy sinner
and healing him on that day. And then after these things,
our Lord, we're told in verse 12, he resorted to a night of
prayer. It says there that it came to
pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and
continued all night in prayer to God. And that's an encouragement. It's an encouragement to me.
And I'm sure it's an encouragement to you that need the grace of
your God that he who was in this weary, tired flesh when he was
here, he labored to intercede for his brethren. that the Lord
would provide for his children, whom the Father had given to
him. And if he did that then, in the weakness of this flesh,
if he did that then, all night pray to the Father, how much
more does he intercede for us now seated at the right hand
of the throne of his Father, having ascended, having accomplished
our redemption, having defeated death and overcome the grave,
and ascended up to the Father, where he now intercedes for his
people. And so it's an encouragement
to us who are needy sinners to pray. Because your God is the
God who hears the prayer of the sinner, who hears the prayer
of saints in Christ, for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. And
he hears our prayers. And you might think, well, he
hasn't answered my prayer yet. Yes, he has. He's already answered
your prayer. You just don't see it yet or
understand it. But he answered. And he's speaking
to you. And he's revealing to you his
will in his grace and power. And then after a night of prayer,
our Lord chose 12. Out of all his disciples who
were following him, he chose 12 whom he also named apostles. And then we're told in verse
17, look there at verse 17. He came down with them, and stood
in the plain, and the company of His disciples, and a great
multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from
the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear Him, and to
be healed of their diseases. And they that were vexed with
unclean spirits, and they were healed. And the whole multitude
sought to touch Him, For there went virtue out of him, and he
healed them all. And so we see here that the people
who come to hear Christ, who gladly hear Christ, because there
were some then who did not gladly hear Christ, and hated Christ,
and accused Christ of sin and wickedness, but those that gladly
heard him, and wanted to hear him, impressed to hear him, and
sought to touch him, and sought his healing power. Those that
gladly heard Him were needy sinners, were the diseased, diseased because
of their sin, who were dying needy sinners who needed the
compassion and the grace of Christ and they came to Him because
He is a merciful Savior to all who need mercy. You that seek
him shall find him. You that ask, it shall be given
to you. You that knock, the door shall
be opened unto you. And so this whole passage teaches
us that sinners need grace. We need salvation. We cannot
save ourselves. We cannot deliver ourselves by
the works of the law. We have nothing to purchase our
deliverance with. Not all are sinners. Not all
are sinners. That is, not all are sinners
in their estimation. Or, yes, they're sinners, but
not compared to others. Not compared to others. There's
others worse than me, they say. And that's what we see in many.
In the Pharisees, we see that kind of thought even in our own
hearts. even in our own hearts, even knowing the truth of God
and knowing that we are sinners saved by the grace of God. Even
we see that judgmental spirit in our own selves. Paul described
them as those that measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves
among themselves. And he says, they're not wise.
That's not the wisdom of God. We're not saved because we can
fool God or we can argue our way out of thinking that we're
sinners. God's not fooled, God's not mocked
by those things. But the Lord knows and it's wise
to confess your sin and to go to God as needy sinners, asking
him for mercy and grace. And so our Lord's message here,
recorded in this 6th chapter of Luke, it begins to separate
the precious from the vile. That's what this sermon does.
It begins to separate the precious from the vile and it shows, it
manifests those to whom God will be merciful. whom God is gracious
and compassionate because he describes them here in this passage. He's gracious to the sinner who
needs mercy like these hungry disciples were. He's gracious
to the lame who have no strength, no ability, to do a saving work
for themselves or do anything for the Lord to earn His forgiveness
or earn His blessings. We cannot labor for anything
in return. And He's gracious to the diseased
and those who are vexed with unclean spirits and tried and
troubled and fearful and afraid. To those who come to Christ,
He's merciful to them. He will heal them all. And so
the sense here is that these blessings of God in Christ, which
are poured out upon sinners, we receive these many blessings.
The Lord does all these things for us because, and you can go
back to the beginning of that chapter where they took that
grain and they crushed it and bruised that grain and broke
it open and ate upon it. That's what sinners do in Christ
who was broken for us, crushed for us under the wrath of God,
was bruised for us and broken that we might feed upon the bread
of heaven and be strengthened and nourished and healed and
find forgiveness and reconciliation with God our Father. So, that
brings us now to these words of our Lord where He separates
the precious from the vile. And He speaks to you that are
needy sinners. And sinners are encouraged to
come to Christ. And encouraged to forsake all
and follow Christ. To trust Him. To lean all your
weight upon Christ. because he is the strength of
the sinner. He's the strength of the weak
ones. He's the healing of the diseased. He's our physician,
our great physician. He's our savior. He's our high
priest. He's our husband. He's our God. He's our all. He is salvation. We come to him. And so these
next few verses, where our Lord speaks of blessings, blessings
upon a suffering people, and he declares to them the benefits
of God which is given to those that are in his kingdom. That's
what he speaks of here and also Luke includes here some woes
that are balancing out these blessings upon needy sinners. And he declares these woes to
you that would content yourselves with this world and the things
of this world, the momentary pleasures that are passing away. And so Luke here gives a shorter
version of this Sermon on the Mount, what we call. Matthew
has three chapters, Luke has one chapter, and there's a few
differences. And so some think that this was
probably made up the content of words that our Lord spoke
several times in various cities. They probably heard this a number
of times or something to this effect a number of times. But
there's also a reason why some of the words are worded differently
between Matthew and Luke, and I hope to bring that out to you. Our Lord said in verse 20, and
he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, blessed be
ye poor. for yours is the kingdom of God."
Now these are spiritual words for spiritual creatures. Spiritual words for spiritual
creatures who are born again by the spirit of God. Now Maybe
they were born right when our Lord spoke these words, but it's
for the children of God. He's speaking here to his disciples. He's preaching this word to his
disciples who were gathered there, and those that were gathered
to hear him and to be healed by him. And so these words hold
great spiritual meaning. Great spiritual meaning. Blessed
be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. This is how Matthew
says it, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. And you should think, why did
they word it differently? Why did Matthew bring out these
words in a seemingly more spiritual manner than what Luke said, when
Luke just said, blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom
of God. Well, they're both spiritual,
and they're spiritual words to spiritually needy sinners, the
spiritual creatures, born again by the grace of God. And what
I want to say, and then we'll go through it, and you'll see
it, this illustrated in Matthew and Luke here, is that Matthew
is encouraging, he's drawing the sinner, the needy sinner,
to Christ. He's showing that he is a faithful
Savior to provide all that the needy sinner needs. That's how
Matthew words it, Luke is encouraging you that have forsaken all and
followed Christ and are suffering for that. So the way Matthew
words it, the words are, come needy sinner, come to the fountain,
come to Christ. He's all you need. Christ is
the Savior of the needy sinner. And Luke, the way it's worded
is, it's an encouragement. You that have forsaken this world
and forsaken all to follow Christ, fear not. You will not be ashamed. God has provided everything for
you in Christ. And so I think you'll see that.
So Luke says, blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Matthew says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Now, in light of what Matthew's
saying there, understand that all men, all mankind is poor. All mankind is spiritually destitute. He does not have the Spirit of
God by nature. He does not know the true and
living God by nature, or through his works, or through his works
of religion. He cannot gain life for himself
by his works. He's poor. There's nothing he
can do. We're told by Paul that in Adam, all die. In Adam, all
die. And again, by one man, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. We all sinned in Adam, when we
were in his loins in the garden. We all rebelled and sinned against
God. And we come forth as spiritually destitute sinners who have no
life, and fear God, and run from him, just like Adam did. And
so we're spiritually bankrupt sinners. And like a poor person
in this world, we have nothing to eat, nothing that gives us
spiritual nourishment, that strengthens us spiritually, that strengthens
our mind and helps us to know and draw closer to God, not with
the things of this world. And that's all that we can get
by the strength of this flesh is things of this world. All
our clothes, which our God sees, they're tattered, they're torn,
they're worn out, they stink, they smell, they're filthy, filthy
rags, and they expose our nakedness. They're full of holes so that
our nakedness is exposed to all who look upon us. And we have
nothing, no currency to buy the spiritual meat, and we have no
currency to buy spiritual clothes. to buy our righteousness, to
cover our nakedness, and to feed ourselves with. We don't have
that currency. We don't have that money. We
don't have those things. All that we can buy with the
things of this world are things that cannot satisfy, that have
no lasting value to satisfy that which is to come. that pays down
our debt, that reconciles us to God. We don't have anything
like that to buy what we owe to God. And so spiritually destitute
and poor, we are that we cannot deliver ourselves. We are slaves
in bondage. We're not earning anything, so
we can't pay off our debt and deliver ourselves and free ourselves. And so Christ's words of comfort
is to the sensible sinner, come, needy sinner, come to Christ.
He is the Savior. He provided all. He paid the
price to deliver his people from the just punishment of God for
their sins. He paid the price with his own
blood and delivered us from the wrath of God, having satisfied
God. And so you that hear, come to
Christ. Flee to Christ, fly to him. He
is the Savior whom the Father has provided. Yours is the kingdom
of God, freely given by the grace of God in Christ." That's what
he's saying. And then from Luke's perspective,
he's saying, you that have forsaken all to follow Christ, you that
have left this world behind, and things are taken from you
by this world, By what they do to take from you, to steal from
you, to take that which you labored for and stored up and now it's
gone because you follow Christ. He says, all this and more shall
be made up to you. You've not given up anything.
All you've done is laid up eternal things. in eternal stores that
shall be yours forever, where moth and rust don't take, where
thieves don't break in to take from you, and the way things
break down in this world cannot destroy or touch that which you've
been given, a lasting righteousness in Christ. Reconcile to God forever. James said, Hearken, my brethren,
my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world,
rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised
to them that love him? Yes indeed, yes indeed, your
beloved brethren for Christ's sake, you that believe. And then
to those of this world who are not sensible of their sin and
have forsaken nothing to follow Christ, they've forsaken Christ
and they haven't left this world. He says down in Luke 6 24, but
woe unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation. Though all men are spiritually
poor, though they cannot purchase the blessings of God, there are
multitudes who content themselves with the things of this world
and take pleasure in what they have in this world and are just
blind. Blind and yet they think that
they're rich. They're naked and they think that they're clothed.
Revelation 3.17 says that they say I'm rich and increased with
goods and have need of nothing, but thou knowest not that thou
art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And so, needy sinner, come to
Christ, and you that have forsaken all to follow Christ, be comforted
in him. Your God knows. You're His. He's
done this for you. He's brought you to Christ and
gives you the abundance of His riches in Christ. In Christ Jesus
for all eternity. Next, our Lord says in verse
21, Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Matthew says it this way, Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for
they shall be filled. And so In our spiritual poverty,
we cannot work for our righteousness. We don't do good works to build
up our righteousness and our stature and standing with God. It's not by the things that we
do. What we have is what Christ has done. And the fruit we bear
is wrought in us by the spirit of Christ. And so our Lord provides
for us. He bears fruit in his people
because we are his. Men try to make themselves righteous. Men try to build up their wealth
and standing with God by their works, whether it's in law or
by some other religion. But the child of God's righteousness,
our righteousness, is Jesus Christ alone. He's our righteousness. Paul said, there's only one thing
I want. There's only one thing I want
and that I need. He said, I want to be found in
Christ. not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but I want
to be found in His righteousness. When I come before God, I don't
want it to be Jesus plus. I want it to be Jesus Christ's
righteousness alone, because that's what the Father accepts. He receives me for Christ's sake
and on His ground alone for what Christ himself has done for me.
And that's how we come to the Father. accepted in Christ. Believe Him. That's the word
of your God. We are accepted of the Father in Christ. And
so you that are sensible of your hunger and your need for righteousness,
you shall be filled. Christ shall fill your belly,
from your belly shall be a fountain flowing of living water, springing
up from within, because he gives his spirit. And by his spirit,
he gives life to his people. And by his spirit, he bears the
fruit of the spirit in us. Otherwise, it's just the works
of the flesh. That's all we do, it's just the works of the flesh. And then our Lord, he pronounces
a woe woe in relation to the blessing for his people. He said,
woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger. Ye shall hunger. You see, the
righteous, when they forsake and give up the things of this
world for the momentary passing pleasures, when they forsake
those things for Christ, he says, you'll be filled with Christ.
you'll be filled with Him. Yes, you'll give up things and
suffer in this world, but you have Christ and are full of Him. But you that are full, He says,
you shall hunger. You that have no interest in
Christ, that count this world's riches better than the things
of Christ, he says, you'll hunger. You'll feed on and consume things
that keep you starving. Like the prodigal son who was
eating the husks that the pigs and the swine were eating. Husks
don't, they have no nutritional value. They don't, they might
fill your belly for a short time, but there's nothing in there
that gives you life and can sustain you. You'll die eating that,
that garbage. But that's what people do in
the world, and they feed upon this world, and they feed upon
the things of this world, and they satisfy themselves with
what they can get from this world and the riches of this world.
And Christ says, you shall be hungry in that day. You shall
be empty and hungry in that day when the Lord returns. And so
our Savior gives us, in this gospel, he gives us the precious
things of Christ. And he makes Christ our wisdom.
and Christ our righteousness, and Christ our sanctification,
and Christ our redemption, and we are made full and complete
in Christ and what he's done. Now, continuing in verse 21,
in the second half of that verse, he says, blessed are ye that
weep now, for ye shall laugh. So Matthew's describing it this
way. Blessed are ye that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
You that mourn for your sin, The sin that you see within,
the weaknesses and the trouble that you make for yourself from
within, you that mourn for your sin and cry to God for your sin
to have mercy on you, he says, you'll be comforted in Christ. That's where we find our comfort.
And I don't find my comfort because I've worked off things and fixed
things. I'm comforted in Christ. What
I do fades away. What I do turns into a mist and
passes away. I can give myself no lasting
comfort, but Christ is my comfort, and he's the comfort of you that
are guilty, needy sinners. You shall be comforted. And Luke
says it this way. He says, to you that weep now
because this world mocks you and persecutes you and tries
to make you feel ashamed because you trust Christ and trust him
alone, to you that weep and cry because of that, he says, you
shall laugh. You shall laugh. There's a day
when Christ returns, and you shall be joyful, because you
shall see that all your hope, that everything you committed
to Christ against that day, is now being brought again for your
good. All in Christ, in Christ. You
take comfort now in Christ, and you desire him above all else,
and you suffer for it. This world is wise. And we're fools. And they know
what they're doing in this world. And what they set their hand
to in this world seems to prosper and to do well all the time.
And I make mistakes left and right. And things I think will
work out, don't. And that's OK. That's okay. In fact, I'm thankful for it
because it keeps me humble. It keeps me my face in the ground
before the Lord, begging him for his bread, that heavenly
bread, because that satisfies. And so the children of God can,
can rise up with emptiness in the flesh and empty bellies and,
and, and, and trials and tribulations. And yet in the comfort of Christ
were filled. joyful and go out and do what
we have to do in this world because it's given to us to do but We're
at peace with the Lord in Christ in him and so Then he pronounces
a woe in verse 25 in the second half of that verse He said woe
unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep All right,
this world rejoices and laughs as they wear out the saints and
heap trouble on you and keep switching things and changing
things. All right, that spirit of Antichrist thinks to change
laws and times. It says, everything just keeps
changing and there's this trouble and constant trouble and sorrows
all about us. And they laugh and love it as
they persecute the saints of God, but they shall weep. They shall weep in that day when
Christ returns. You won't be ashamed, they shall
be ashamed for their hope. So those that hate Christ and
his people, there will be nothing to comfort you. And you'll have
no covering for your sin in that day, but a fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
And just so you know, Luke alone records these woes. Matthew doesn't. That's why I'm not switching
back to Matthew there. Because Luke puts them in there and Matthew
didn't. But it's just one of the differences
there. But now, finally, we come to
verse 22 and 23. Blessed are ye when men shall
hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company,
and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the
son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap
for joy. For behold, your reward is great
in heaven. For in the like manner did their
fathers unto the prophets." When you speak for Christ, when you
declare the truth of Christ, you will suffer for the gospel's
sake, for Christ and the gospel's sake, for speaking the truth
and standing up and declaring, no, Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. You keep preaching Him and you
declare Christ Jesus. Our Lord says, you'll leap for
joy. You that exalt Christ and don't
turn from Christ, you'll leap for joy because you that suffer
for Christ's sake, that's a great honor that's been bestowed upon
you. It means that you're adopted into the family of God. You're
the sons and daughters of the Most High. You're in His family. You're blessed as all His people
are blessed and God is manifesting His life in you. He's manifesting
the fruits of His Spirit in you. Faith, love, hope, joy, peace,
kindness, gentleness, those fruits He bears in His people. testifying
that you're mine. That's what he's saying to you.
And so when others mock you and treat you spitefully, wrongfully,
and say things against you, don't defend yourself. Just keep preaching
Christ. Just keep preaching him. Because
the carnal man seeks to shame those for trusting Christ and
say, you're silly. That's not enough. You need more
than Christ. But the spirit in you says, no,
you can't You can't have anything more but Christ. You can't want
for anything more but Christ alone. And then the woe, he says,
in verse 26, woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you,
for so did their fathers to the false prophets. You that have
fellowship with this world and would align yourselves with this
world against the truth of the gospel in Christ. you'll soon
meet him and have no covering for your sin. Without Christ,
the God you meet is an angry God, a consuming fire against
sin. He destroys sin. But you that
come to the Father in Christ have a covering. You have all,
you have everything you need to stand before him. And so again,
Matthew there is calling needy sinners, come to Christ. He's
everything you need. He's provided all in himself. and everything you require to
stand before Holy God, He's provided it all. Salvation is complete
and full in the complete and full Savior Jesus Christ. And
Luke is saying to you that have forsaken all and followed Christ
and suffer the afflictions of the gospel and suffer for Christ's
sake, he's saying, Believe, continue in him, trust him. You shall
have a happy day. You're full now in Christ. Rejoice,
rejoice now and you shall rejoice and laugh in that day and your
tears shall be wiped from your eye and you shall rejoice in
the presence of God and his angels and all your brethren forever
and ever in the Lord Jesus Christ. So you'll not be ashamed for
trusting him. You'll not be ashamed at all.
I pray the Lord bless that word to your heart's brim. Amen.