Matthew chapter 5. We'll be looking at the verses 3 through
6 this evening. And I've titled the message this
evening, The Happy Man. The Happy Man. Jesus, this is in chapter 5 of
Matthew's Gospel, this is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus, seeing the multitudes,
went up into a mountain. And when he was said, his disciples
came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ begins
this sermon on the Mount by describing the people to whom he is preaching. He first describes the people
that this message was intended for. And it is intended for the
blessed. The blessed. Blessed are the
poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. He is announcing to whom this
message is directed. You remember that the apostles,
every time that the apostles had written a letter, they would
always tell you who the letter is to. To the church of Ephesus. to the church of Colossae. Peter says to the strangers scattered
throughout Asia, Bithynia, Cappadonia, and Asia But more specifically, when the
apostles describe in those epistles, they describe to whom they are
preaching. When Paul said in Romans, to
those in Rome. Now, is he preaching to everyone
in Rome? Is that who that letter was written
to? No. Matter of fact, in Romans 1 and
verse 7, Paul says that these are beloved of God. So now then you know who the
book of Romans is written to. To those at Rome, beloved of
God. That's who it's written to. It's
written to those who are beloved of God, called to be saints. In Colossians, Paul says to these,
he said they are to the saints and faithful brethren. And then he begins to describe
the saints and faithful brethren. He says those that believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, those that love the brethren, those
that have hope of eternal life. You see he's describing those
to whom he's writing. And Peter, when he writes to
those strangers scattered, remember, he says, the elect, according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit and obedience unto the sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. You see, he is giving to whom
those letters are written. And even so does our Lord Jesus
here describe to whom the Sermon on the Mount is intended. He says, these people These people
to whom he's preaching, he said, they are blessed people, happy. Matter of fact, that's what this
word means. It means happy, happy. Is this not the concern and the
desire of every one of us? Do you not desire, this is a
rhetorical question, do you not desire to be happy? Surely we do want to be happy,
yes. The problem is man by nature
is never happy. You never get there, do you?
You always seem to strive and strive and strive and strive
and you never seem to make it. Have you ever wondered why? Why
is it that you are not happy? Why is it that your days are
not filled with joy and contentment? Because that's what you desire.
You desire to be content, but you never are. Why? Because man
by nature is corrupt and full of sin, man by nature is blind
and dead, and cannot know happiness, even because he seeks it in all
the wrong ways and places. Man seeks to find happiness in
the lusts and pleasures of the flesh. Man by nature seeks happiness
in the things of this world in which there is no happiness. There's none to be found in these
things and yet this is how men seek it. This is where they look.
Men by nature seek to find happiness by the things of the world the
pleasures of the flesh and of the carnal mind Which the scriptures
are clear the carnal mind is what? enmity against God The
carnal mind is enmity against God Listen the only only God is truly
happy. Did you know that only God is
truly happy? God is content, fulfilled even
because He is perfectly holy and complete. Matter of fact,
the Apostle Paul in Romans 1 verse 25 says He is what? God blessed
forever. God happy forever. That's what God is. God's happy
forever. He always was. He is now and
He always will be completely satisfied. Completely satisfied
God needs nothing and therefore he's truly blessed Why is it
that we're not happy because we always need something we always
need something We always have something lacking But God is
never like that. He's always happy We are not blessed because we
are always in constant need yet what man needs is And what man
wants are two completely different things. We as creatures need
God. We do. We depend on Him completely. Even Adam in his perfect state
needed God. He needed God to sustain him.
He needed God for everything. But what man needs for happiness
and what man wants to make him happy are two different things.
Man by nature desires to be happy and yet he's never happy because
he tries to fill that void with the things of the world. I've said this to you many times.
We all have said this in our own hearts. And if you don't
admit it just because you're lying to yourself. We all said
it. If I just had then I would be
happy. We've all said it. We've all
said it. If I can just get this place,
or this person, or this point in my life, if I can just get
through this, then I will be what? Happy. And what is our
experience with this? It always ends in misery. It never ends in what we think
it will. Why is that? Because the things
we think will make us happy are fleeting and passing. That's
why. That person that we think we
need is going to grow old and die. That thing we have will
rust and corrupt and it will fade away just like every other
thing we have. Solomon wisely said, everything
under the sun is vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit. If you
read the book of Ecclesiastes, that's what you're going to find.
Everything under the sun. He is analyzing everything that
a man could have and want and desire under the sun. And he's
found it, he's had it all. And you know what his conclusion
is? Vanity. It's vanity. And yet that's the
thing we seek to make us happy. And it just doesn't do it. Things
of earth rust and corrupt. They're broken through. They
steal. People take it from us. Riches. Solomon said, take wings
and fly away. Have you not found that to be
so? Anybody that's had any money at all for a little period of
time, sure enough it takes wings and flies away. And if you get
to keep any of it, it only brings anxious thoughts of how you can
keep it. That's it. So money doesn't make you happy.
It either flies away and you're sad or you get to keep it and
then you're all anxious and trying to guard it. You're trying to
keep it and hang on to it so somebody else doesn't take it
from you. Vanity of the pleasures of lust
of the flesh. There is no happiness to be found
in these things. Listen, this was a song that
our brother Don Fortner wrote. He said, all things of earth
are vanity. The things of time decay. The
dearest and most precious things will soon dissolve away. Every
blessing here enjoyed of friends and family, in time they too
will be destroyed. All things are vanity. Let me
regard not things below, nor give them greater care than when
I to my grave shall go or Jesus shall appear. My soul as a weaned
child must be, my heart's affection set on heaven and eternity, on
Christ my living head. Do you desire to be happy? then
hear the words of God manifest in the flesh. Because if there's
anybody with authority on happiness, it's the Son of God. If there's
anybody that knows anything about being blessed, it is the Son
of God. And here the Son of God is preaching. Here the authority of happiness
is going to tell us about those that are happy. Who is it that's
happy? Who is it? They are the blessed,
the happy. The scripture speaks about the
blessed man in many places. You want to know about a blessed
man, the scriptures are full of them, but I want you to turn
to one place. You want to know who's happy, go ahead and go
back to Psalm 1. Psalm 1, this even begins the
psalm. You want to know who's happy?
Here it is. Blessed. Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is what? in the law of the Lord, and in
that law does he meditate day and night. Who is the blessed
man? Is it not the sinless man? Isn't
that what God is telling us? The blessed man is the man who
has no sin. The blessed man is the one who
delights in the law of God day and night. That's a blessed man. That's what God says. One who
is absolutely obedient and serves God. Now let me ask you this. Was this not God's original design
when He created us? God's original man, the man He
made, was made to honor and obey God. He was made upright and
without sin. Man was made by God in the image
of God and he was subject to God. And listen, before Adam
fell, he was truly happy. Can you imagine the earth yielding
her strength? I have thought of this. I said,
you know, if Adam were to just put out his hand, I'm sure fruit
would just fall into his hand anytime he needed it. Wouldn't
that be something? That'd just be something. Everything
you had would just happen. It would be perfect. Everything.
He was truly a happy man before his rebellion. He communed with
God and God with him. He served God. He honored God.
He obeyed God. He was truly a blessed man. A blessed man. In Ecclesiastes, remember that's
the message of everything under the sun. The conclusion of that
book, the wise man wrote this. He said, this is the whole duty
of man. Fear God. And keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. That's pretty plain, isn't
it? What's your whole duty? What do you think would make
you happy? What God says would make you happy is if you would
obey God. That would be the happiest you
could be. To be without sin. But when Adam fell, when he sinned,
listen, he lost all blessedness. All happiness failed. When Adam
sinned, he lost both the will and the ability to please God. Therefore, he lost all happiness. And we are his ruined race. This is why none of us are ever
happy. Because in him, we all died.
He lost it. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is peace, because the
carnal mind is enmity against God. Listen. For it is not subject. This has to do with the will.
Man's will is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed
can be. That has to do with ability.
So man has lost both the will to serve God and the ability
to serve God. Do you not see why we're miserable? This is why man is miserable. Therefore in the flesh no man
can please God. Man is both unwilling and incapable
of ever pleasing God. Therefore by nature we cannot
be happy. Do you see why man can never
be truly happy because by nature we could never please God, which
was the intent of man in the beginning. And so man is so corrupt
in his heart by nature, his only desire then is not to please
God, but rather to please himself. Not to obey the law of God, but
rather to obey the lust of his flesh. So who then is the blessed man? Therefore let us see there is
only one blessed man. Who is that? The one preaching
this message. The Lord Jesus Christ. He alone. He alone is the blessed and happy
man because he alone is righteous. He alone served God and fulfilled
the duty of man. He obeyed God. He served God.
Isn't this what the scripture says in Psalm 40 and verse 8? I delight to do thy will, O God. and yea thy law is in my heart
this is the Lord Jesus Christ why is he the only happy man
because he's the only one that has ever obeyed God he's the
only happy man so if anyone knows anything about happiness we should
yield to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do
you have any interest in happiness? Then you should yield to the
authority of happiness. Shouldn't you? Are you the authority
of happiness? Have you found your delight,
your happiness? Have you found it? No, we haven't
found it. Because we're always seeking in the wrong place. We
have that fallen nature. So therefore, let us yield to
Him even this evening as we go through this. The Lord Jesus
Christ is a blessed man. He has always pleased the Father.
He walked after righteousness. And this is what the authority
of happiness says. Listen, verse 3. Blessed are
the poor in spirit. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's beginning in these first
three, these first verses, verses 3 through 6, and I want you to
see He's describing the nature of a happy person, of those who
are happy. He says, first of all, blessed
are the poor in spirit. Surely this flies in the face
of our thoughts of happiness. Our picture of happiness is a
cheerful fellow full of spirit. Isn't he? And when you think
that's happy, you see a man jumping up and down and he's so happy.
He's light in his spirit. Oh, look at him. His smile is
so big. That's not what the Lord Jesus
Christ said a happy man is. Totally opposite of what we think
it is. Not one bold in spirit, not one rich in spirit, but one
who is poor in spirit. This is not speaking of poverty,
of earthly riches. I know this. I've met some rich,
miserable men, but I've read, I've met more poor, miserable
men, haven't you? So this has nothing to do with
wealth. This is speaking of the work
of the Holy Spirit. the work of the Holy Spirit in
a man. This is speaking of spiritual
poverty. The work of the Holy Spirit upon
the sinner is to expose the poverty of the soul. Blessed Spirit of
God, we pray that You should come
now and expose our hearts. Expose the vile corruption of
our hearts, that from the sole of our foot to the crown of our
head there is no soundness, but full of leprous sores, unbound,
untreated, and incurable. That's what this must be. If you are to ever be happy,
this is the first thing the Spirit of God must do. He must expose
your spiritual poverty. Your spiritual poverty. Sinner, there can be no true
joy unless it's first seen and confessed that in our souls dwelleth
no good thing. That we by nature are bankrupt
of all goodness and righteousness. That every thought of the imagination
of our heart is only evil continually. This is what must be done. If
you were ever to be happy, this must be done by the Holy Spirit.
You must be exposed for who you are. A sinner with no righteousness
at all. You must be bankrupt. We must see we've sold ourselves
under sin and can by no means of the flesh, no works of the
law, no act of the will, by no means can we redeem ourselves
from the debt of sin. Behold, sinner, the chains of
your sin, and the holy justice of God stands watch over your
captive soul. and he will not let you go until
the utmost farthing is paid and that debt that man owes is
eternal death Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, even because the
law is what the Spirit uses to expose our poverty. The law never
shows you any riches in your soul. It only exposes you for
what you are, a sinner, a sinner. The law is just the mirror by
which the Spirit uses to open your eyes to see what's in your
very heart is only vile corruption. Poverty. You remember the Lord gave that
Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20. You know what He gave right
after that? He gave a law of the altar and
sacrifice. Why? Because there was no hope
of you ever obeying those Ten Commandments. No hope. That's
why you needed a sacrifice. And what did He say about the
altar? He said, do not lift up your
hands to the altar. Do not put your tool to it. Why? Because if you touch it, you
pollute it. You pollute it. You see, you're
only sin continually. You're poor in spirit. Bankrupt. and the blood of bulls
and goats could never take away sin, have you seen your poverty? Blessed are you who know your
poverty. Second of all, look at this.
Blessed are they that mourn. Here's another characteristic
of those that are happy. They cry. Now that just totally
is opposite of what you think happiness is, isn't it? You think
happiness is all laughter. No. Jesus said, blessed are they
that mourn. That mourn. You see the progression
here? The person is first exposed of
their sin. Then they do what? They weep. They cry because of their sin. Because of their spiritual poverty.
The progression of the Spirit of God is to see our complete
hopelessness and all efforts to please God by our works or
will or religion. There's no hope! And what does
this do? It causes us to weep and sigh and mourn. If there's ever going to be any
true happiness, I tell you this, sin's misery must be dealt with. The misery of sin must be dealt
with. It's our sin that separated us from God, and it is our sin
that has brought to us spiritual ruin. And when the Holy Spirit
exposes sin, the sinner cannot contain himself. In Psalm 32,
verses 3 through 5, it says, When I kept silent, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned to
drought of summer. What he thought was moisture,
what he thought was refreshing, what he thought he had, God dried
up. Have you ever experienced that?
Have you ever had righteousness in your hand and it turned to
ash? It's like a man who sees an oasis,
he runs and he thinks he's shoving in water and all it is is sand. When God opens your eyes, you
see that all your righteousnesses are filthy rags. They're no good. All your works that you did were
nothing but vanity, empty. And you begin to what? Cry all
the day long, His hand is pressed on me, and I can't do anything
but mourn. for my sin. Look at the next
verse. Blessed are the meek. What does
this do? Now then you see a progression
again. You see a man in poverty for sin. You see him mourning
over his sin. And then he is brought down low. He is abased. He is humbled before
God because he has nothing to give. He has nothing to give. He's abased before God. If any
man desires to be truly happy, it always comes through the abasement
of self and the exalting of Christ. Humility, the humility of the
heart. Man by nature is not willing
or able to do this. Only the Holy Spirit can humble
a man to the dust. Only the Holy Spirit. Now, I
can make you feel guilty about things that you did or make you
feel bad for not coming to church and all these kinds of things.
But listen, only God can put your face in the dust. And if
He never does, you're not ever going to be happy. God must put
your face in the dust. He must humiliate you. He must bring you low. Now listen, man could put on
a show of meekness, can't he? Paul calls this in Colossians
2, will worship. He says, those who put on a show
of humility, now that has a show of wisdom, but not to any prophet
of the soul. Now you can pretend to be sad
about sin, but if you're really not sad about sin, you're never
going to know happiness. You can put on a show, but when
God puts a man in the dust, he never puts on a show. You remember
that publican? Remember those two men went to
pray? The Pharisee went up to pray,
and he stood in the middle of everybody and lifted up his hands
and made a big show. Jesus said that man went home
the same way he came up, lost. But the publican, He stood afar
off. He didn't care who saw him. He only wanted God to see him. He only wanted God to show him
mercy. So he beat on his chest because
that's where the problem was. It was in his own heart. And
he said, Oh, I'm a sinner. He knew he was a sinner. And
he pleaded to God for mercy. It wasn't a show. He was humble
to the dust. God, be merciful to me, thee
sinner. I don't know if there's any other
sinners here, but this is one. This is one. Humility. God brings us down. And the penitent
sinner says, I confess my sin unto thee. I don't need to confess my sin
to you. You don't need to confess your
sin to me. We can't do anything for each other. You should confess
your sin to God. I confess my sin unto thee. The humbled seek God for what? Free mercy. I don't need Fairness I need
mercy I Need mercy and Look at this in verse 6. He said blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness knowing
by the revelation of the Holy Spirit we see that true happiness
is only given to the righteous and But we are sinners, poor
in spirit, born in sin, kept by the justice of God. We therefore
mourn because of our sin. We weep because of our sin. We
are laid low because of our sin. And we know this, we have a need
of something that the world can't give us. We need righteousness. This is what a blessed man comes
to know, his need of righteousness. You who weep and mourn, what
do you need? I need the only thing that can
truly make me happy. Acceptance with God. Righteousness. Blessed, happy are those which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Sinner, do you need Do you know
your need of perfect righteousness? Man by nature may see this to
be true, but are so depraved as to think they can contribute
something to it. This conviction is not of God,
but self-deception. No matter how much you weep and
cry, but if you think you've got something to add, you're
just deceived. When God commanded those men to make an altar, He
said, you're not to lift up one tool to it, otherwise you pollute
it. Do you need righteousness as
one that hungers and thirsts, one who is starving to death
for righteousness? Is righteousness essential to
your soul? Do you need it? So then where should the poor
and weeping abased sinner go to find righteousness? You should go to the only blessed
man. who himself is righteousness. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He is the fountainhead of all
blessings, of all happiness. He has come to do the will of
God. He delighted in the law of God
so that He should do what? Provide righteousness. That's what He came to do. He
came to provide righteousness for those who could not provide
it for themselves. This is the message of the Gospel.
Jesus Christ, the righteous man. In Adam we lost our blessed,
happy estate. We became poor and sold under
sin, and we could never find true happiness because of our
depraved nature only looks to the things of the world. You who weep and mourn and are
abased, listen, if you desire any happiness at all, I'll tell
you where it's found. It's found in one man. It's not
ever found in anything in this world. You should never look
for it there. You should go to Christ and find
true happiness. Come to Christ. He alone obtained
righteousness and atonement for sin. By His love, faith, and
faithfulness, He obtained what every man needs for happiness.
Righteousness! Salvation! Salvation. And now He imparts this righteousness,
even the righteousness of God, He imparts it and imputes it
to all who believe on Him. See, His perfect blessed life
was not only was not full of earthly treasures, but he was
the poorest of men, wasn't he? Wasn't he the poorest of men?
Wasn't he the most despised of men? Wasn't he rejected and crucified
by men? A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. But I'm going to let you in on
this. He was the happiest man that ever lived. He was content with everything
that happened. He was content with it. For the
joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame. His people who were lost and
most miserable, unhappy and cursed. Listen to this. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save who? weeping, humbled sinners in need
of righteousness. That's who He came to save. He
came to save those in need of righteousness, which He Himself
earned. And therefore, in order to free
these blessed people, He must have paid the sin-debt upon the
cursed tree, You who mourn over sin, behold
Him hanging on that tree, who did no sin, knew no sin, yet God took our sin and imputed
it to His Son. He made Him to be sin for us For what reason that you might
be made the righteousness of God in Him, so that you should
be the blessed man, the happy man? He bled and died to satisfy
the justice of God, which He did by His one offering. One offering for sin. In Hebrews chapter 1 and verse
3, who being the brightness of His glory, the express image
of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power,
when He hath by Himself purged our sins, put them away forever
by the sacrifice of Himself, He sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high. for by his one offering he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Do you see not what
makes us happy? It is the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That's what makes us happy. Because
he shed his blood in our stead and satisfied the justice of
God for us. for us. And this is true happiness to
believe on Jesus Christ alone. Jesus said to Thomas, he said,
Thomas, you believe me because you saw me. Blessed are they which have not
seen me and yet believe. Isn't that what he said? Blessed.
Blessed. Who's blessed? Those who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. They're blessed. They're blessed. And notice this. I'll go over
this quick. Notice then the reward of those who believe. Blessed
are the poor in spirit. Listen. For theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. You who are in poverty in spirit,
bankrupt. What does the word say? You that
have no money, come, buy and eat. Buy wine and milk without money
and without price. Wherefore do you spend your money
for that which doesn't satisfy? Come to Christ and everyone who
comes to Christ, listen, it is your Father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom. Matter of fact, your Father,
your Father purposed for you to have this kingdom before the
world began. He purposed you to have it. It's
your father's good pleasure to give you the gift. Who? Those
who have nothing. Blessed is the man who has no
righteousness. Why? Because Christ is all my
righteousness. I inherit the kingdom of God.
It's mine. It's mine. Faith. Faith, each earthly joy. Jesus
is mine. Blessed are they who are poor
in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. Believer, do you not still mourn
for your sin? Do you not still feel your poverty? Don't worry. The Lord has sent
his men to do this. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people
that mourn. You mourn for your sin? God said,
you comfort my people. Her warfare's accomplished. She's
received double for all her sins. Blessed are they that are meek, abased, for they shall inherit
the earth. Not like it is, praise God, Now,
right? Do you want it like it is? No. Listen to this. You who are in
Christ, all things are yours. You are heirs of all things,
including this earth. One day it will return and yield
her strength to you. You that are abased. You that
have nowhere to lift up your head before your God. In Christ you inherit the earth. And blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness. Listen, they shall be full of
righteousness. I like this because it said,
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst. Do you who have the
righteousness of Christ imputed in the new nature and part of
the new nature that's in you now, do you not still hunger
to be full of righteousness? Do you not still desire that,
want that? The Scripture says, I shall not
be satisfied until I awaken your likeness. Oh, believer, while we're here,
we've grown in this temple. Paul said, not that we'd be unclothed,
but that we'd be clothed upon. With what? Righteousness. One
day, I want this old man is going to the grave. Praise God for
that. Because then, death will be swallowed
up in victory, and I'll be fully receiving what God has purposed
for me to have. Inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled,
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." Who? You
that are poor in spirit. You that are mourning for your
sins. You who are abased. You who need righteousness. We find it all where? In the
happy man. And I tell you, in him, I'm happy. In Him, I find everything I need. Do you? What are you missing? What do
you lack in Him? Nothing. Nothing. We are the blessed people. In Christ, we are happy. Are you happy? I am with him. I am with him. May God bless this. May God touch
your heart with it. Stan will be dismissed in prayer.