Matthew chapter 5 verse 3 reads,
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. Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God." This is our
Lord showing us the marks of the saints of God. Sadly, our
attention to a message and I'm speaking from personal experience,
our attention given to preaching, to a message, how we prepare
ourselves to listen, how we pray to get a word from God, our expectations
of that message, what we expect to get out of it. It relies on
two things. Who's preaching and what his
subject is. It's sad, but it's true. We care
who's talking and what are they talking about. That's our concern. Many times it's been my concern.
I've told you before about Brother Erskine. Years ago, here in Great
Britain, he was going to a conference and one of the pastors had him
stop for the midweek service and he preached. And somebody
was showing up just to come to service on Wednesday, and here
was this brother preaching to him. Boy, it was wonderful. Oh, the Lord
blessed him through that man. And that pastor said, next week
on your way back through, stop and preach for us again on the
midweek service. Be glad to. I came the next week, that man
listened, and afterwards he said, that was just horrible. I didn't
get nothing out of that. He said, why was you coming here last
week? I said, I was coming to hear from the Lord. He said, why did you
come this week? I wanted to hear Brother Erskine.
He said, there's your problem. You're looking to hear from a
man. With technology today, I can click
a button and I can listen to whoever I want to listen to. I can pick the topic I want to
listen on, what I want to listen about. If I want comfort in a
trial, type it in. Push the button. If I want to
hear something about rejoicing, look it up. Look it up. It's out there. Pick who you
want to talk to about it. If I want to talk about baptism
or the Lord's Supper, look it up. And if you don't like what
you're hearing, or you just, I just, I can't hear today. I'm
not getting nothing out of that. Swipe it away. Hit pause. Hit delete. Just turn it off. When the Lord gathers us, When
He keeps us gathered so we don't forsake the assembly of the saints,
when God gives a man after his own heart to teach us and feed
us, you can't hit the pause button. You can't swap it away. You've
got to eat the meal that was prepared for that mealtime. I hope this gets and keeps our
attention like it did me. In our text, who's preaching?
Those things are true. I'm guilty of it. I was listening
to Brother Henry's the other day coming down the hill and
my mind was wondering. I said, I ain't getting nothing
out of that swap. And boy, it broke my heart. As I did. It was true. It was a wonderful
message. Swap. It was something different. I
feel like listening to Brother Don today. Who's preaching here? Our Lord is. Our King. Our God. Our High Priest. That gives preeminence
over who's preaching. What's his subject? The blessed
marks of those that are his children. These Beatitudes, I've got to
touch on this, they don't give us the way to be saved. It's
not the way to be forgiven from your sins. It's not the way that
you become a child of God. It's declared what they are.
Our Lord clearly told us the way sinners are saved is by grace
through faith and that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. By His grace
through the faith He's given us in His Son. Salvation is not
by doing. It's not by mourning over things,
over our sin. It's not by trying to make peace
with our neighbor. Salvation is not attempts to have a meek
and humble spirit. Salvation is in Christ. The way
to be saved from sin, the way to become a child of God is believing
on Him. When the Philippian jailer asked
Paul, he said, what must I do to be saved? Paul just told him.
He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved. We looked at it recently there in John 1. It says, as
many as received Him, to them He gave the power, He gave the
privilege, He gave the right to become sons of God to them
that believe on His name. And we'll see Wednesday, Lord
willing, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The way to
be saved is not in beatitudes. Way to be saved is in believing
on Christ. Knowing Him, trusting Him, casting you all on Him.
And it's by the grace of God through faith in Him. Those that
God has been gracious to. Those that He's given saving
faith to. Those that hath everlasting life. Y'all are possessive. You that
have everlasting life. These are the evidences of that
new birth. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.
He said, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. That new
creation doesn't come forth whenever we're born anew, a new heart's
put in us. It doesn't come out jumping and
running and already have calluses on its hands from all the hard
work it's been doing, all the laboring toward the Lord. It
doesn't have those things. It's new. It's tender. It has
all the faculties. Everything that's required's
there. All the evidence of life is there, but it's got to grow.
And growth is not a fast process. It takes time. If I had one hand
that just grew a whole lot faster than the other hand, you go to
the doctor. Something's wrong, don't you? Get that checked out.
It takes time. It's slow. What we think or don't
think, evidences of being a child of God are, does not matter.
what the world thinks or doesn't think that are proofs that someone's
a child of God, it does not matter. What matters is what God Almighty
says about it, what He thinks. It says in Matthew 5, verse 1,
And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain, and
when He was set, His disciples came unto Him. Christ saw the
multitudes. He saw them. He was mindful of
them. David said, who is man that thou
art mindful of him? Our Lord was mindful. He saw
them. I might look the other way and
say, oh, there's a crowd. I avoid crowds like the plague. I don't
like it. He saw them. He was mindful of
them. And without fear of their faces, with a holy boldness,
He preached to multitudes. No, the ones that wanted to kill
him as he spoke, he preached to them. I can't preach the way my Lord
preached, but I can preach to you what he preached. I can tell
you. Some say, well, you could read it this way, and you could.
You could read it this way. This sermon was only to those disciples.
I've heard it preached that way in Detroit. But either way, whether
it was to a great multitude or it was just his disciples, the
message doesn't change. We don't have a separate message
for little kids and grown folks. We don't have a separate message
for wealthy folks and poor folks or for those that are learned
and those that are unlearned. One message and we all need it.
All mankind needs it. We need to hear it. Isaiah said,
Lord, who hath believed our report and to whom is the message of
the arm of the Lord revealed? But this message is the same
as for you and as for me. He went up into a mountain. It
says He's seeing the multitudes. He went up into a mountain. That
wasn't just so everybody could see. Our Lord doesn't use idle words,
does He? He went up into a mountain. This
is a beautiful sign of who's preaching. His holy law came
down from Mount Sinai. He calls His people His Mount
Zion. And because of that holy law,
to fulfill it for that holy people He makes, He went up Mount Calvary. And that we have a proof, we
have an assurance, we have an earnest deposit that it was accomplished. He was risen from Mount of Olives. That's who He is. That's where
He is. His disciples came unto Him because
of who He is. They heard His voice. He knew
them, and they followed Him. That's what the new man does.
You may be called to go up a mountain, get tired in the legs. You may
be called to roll down a mountain, and get banged up on the way
down. But those that the Lord calls, they follow Him, they
walk with Him, and they hurt with Him. They suffer for His
cause. The servant's not above his master,
is he? It says in verse 2, and he opened
his mouth and taught them. He opened his mouth and taught
them. He opened his mouth. Some people say, well, didn't
he have to open his mouth to teach them? No. God taught for thousands
of years before he opened his mouth. He used prophets, didn't
he? While he was on this earth, he might have used a look. He
may have used an act of love. He may have used a tear. to teach
him something. At one time that woman caught
in adultery, he used his finger in the dirt. But he talked to him. He opened
his mouth. It says in Hebrews 1, God who
at sundry times in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us. by
His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also
He made the world." That's who the capital P preacher is. That's
who's preaching to us. It's the King of Kings. Now what
about a subject? David told us in the Psalms of
Matthew, we're going to see that when we get to chapter 13. He
said, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things
which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
We know who's preaching. What's he going to tell us? It's
something secret from the foundation of the world. Something that
common knowledge, something that's generally understood in man's
thoughts and minds is unknown. That's what he's going to tell
us. to be contrary to everything we think. It says in verse 3,
blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed means highly favored
of God. Chosen vessels to be highly favored.
And it means happy. Those that are highly favored
of God are happy about it. I promise you. I've heard many
people say, oh, blessed are the poor. That's incomplete, is it?
This isn't speaking of finances. Somebody can have great wealth. I don't mean rich, I mean wealthy.
And they can have a very poor spirit. The Lord can make them
that way. And somebody can be dirt floor
poor, not even have two mites to rub together, and have a proud,
stony heart. Being poor in spirit is to come
before God with nothing. to come to worship Him in spirit,
because He is spirit, and the truth that we have nothing. Know
when you are nothing and have nothing. All is counted lost
but for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord. Nothing matters. I need you. Nothing matters. I want to love you. Nothing matters.
I don't matter. What did you do in third grade?
Didn't you get a trophy? That don't matter. How many times did you
attend Sunday school? It don't matter. I want to know
you. That's poor in spirit. Nothing to boast in. No pride. Solomon wrote to us and said,
these six things that the Lord hates, yea seven, are an abomination
unto him. The first thing, and the basis
of the other six, a proud look. A proud look. That's not a poor
spirit. A proud look is the opposite of that. God hates pride. He
hates self-worth. That's just literally on billboards
on our world, isn't it? Oh, self-worth. Gotta love yourself. Forgive yourself. There's value
in you. The lies we tell our children.
Lies we tell ourselves. And his children hate it. He
hates it. And whenever he puts a new heart in his people, they
hate it too. I hate it in the world, but I'll
tell you how I hate it most in me. I see myself. I got this message by saying,
Lord, I don't need an attitude, I need a B. I don't need an attitude,
I need B attitude. And I thought, oh, B attitudes,
I need to go read that. We are poor in spirit, and knowing
that is a gift of God. The old writer said, a sinner
is a precious thing. God's made him so. Knowing our poverty and our birth,
in Adam and know in our poverty and practice how I willfully
walk through this earth. I know what I would prefer to
do on certain days. I know what my mind thinks and
it's a shame. Men love darkness and hate light
because their deeds are evil. That's why they avoid these things. The poor in spirit cry, Lord,
if you don't humble me, if you don't draw me, if you don't seek
me first, I will not seek you. That's poor. You remember those
miracles that the Lord listed for those disciples of John while
he was in prison. He said, you go tell John everything
you've seen and heard. The blind receive their sight,
the deaf hear the lame walk. And the last thing he listed
was the poor have the gospel preached to them. That's a miracle. Do we treat it as such? Christ said it was. That ain't
me saying it. That ain't me trying to fill the pews. God said to. Back in our text here, Matthew
5 verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven. It's theirs. It's theirs. It's their possession. The good
news, the gospel, it's our gospel, isn't it? God the Father, you
pray our Father who art in heaven. He's our Lord. Christ is our
Lord. He's our King. That's who He is, our God and
our King. And notice too, all these Beatitudes, they're all
in the present tense. All of them. Blessed, highly
favored, happy, are right now. That's good news, isn't it? You
have the Kingdom of God right now. But you know what else you
have right now? A poor spirit. Or go see some mourning. Do mourning
right now. That don't go away. If a man's graveyard poor in
spirit, theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Those that are given
a broken and contrite heart, they mourn over what they are. They mourn over sin. Look there
in verse 4. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be
comforted. Think to our Psalm 51. We know
this, but it's always good to read along. Psalm 51. David wrote this after Nathan
come to him about Bathsheba. David says here in Psalm 51,
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitudes of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from
my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. against thee. What sin is that?
Against thee. And thee only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight." To have a poor spirit and to
mourn earnestly over sin. That's not something that happened
three weeks ago. It's ever before, man. That's
a conscious, constant reminder in the hearts of His people.
We know what we are. But He said He's going to comfort
them. Those that mourn are going to be comforted. What is the
comfort to those that are poor, those that mourn earnestly, truly,
those that mourn over sin? What's the comfort to those that
the Lord convicts of sin and He gives repentance? That's what
the mourning is. It's repentance that He gives. Turn back a few
pages there to Psalm 34. Psalm 34 verse 18. Circle this if you want to. Read
it often. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. You ever had a broken heart and
you felt alone? I mean, like Campbell, I think
it was. Two men went down and landed
on the moon. That one fell by himself on the other side of the moon
in the darkness. And they said that the writing
was he had more solitude than Adam. The man with the most solitude
since Adam. That's alone, isn't it? The Lord
breaks somebody's heart. You have a broken heart in this
world and you feel alone. Several times David cried out,
Lord, are you gone? Your mercy is gone forever. Have
you left me? Come back. Just because we don't
see the Lord walking next to us and walking with us and carrying
us and His presence with us always, He says here, the Lord is nigh
unto them that are of a broken heart. Go read that next time
you feel alone and you'll know right then, I ain't alone. He's
with me always. Being poor in spirit and mourn
over sin does not end while we are in this flesh. It doesn't
stop. A dependence on Christ, washing
our feet daily, does not end in this body of death. We need
Him. That's who we need. We need His
presence. We need Him near to us, and He's
promised that He is. If we mourn over that, mourn
to beg Him, He's comforted us. He's there with us. Throughout
Paul's ministry, he grew in grace. Paul grew, not as the world thinks.
But just as the Lord preaching about here, He started out and
He said, I'm the least of all the apostles. And then He said,
I'm the least of all the saints. And then at the end of it, I'm
the chief of sinners. That sounds like Paul's getting
worse. No, it sounds like Paul's growing. He's growing down. That's what the Lord grows. God's
children, they bear this mark. And we never cease to be sinners
saved by grace. It doesn't change. The need doesn't
change. The cure of the need doesn't
change. He doesn't change, does he? Back in our text there. Being
made poor in spirit, being given repentance to mourn what we are
in every fiber of our being. It makes a person meek. It says
in Matthew 5, verse 5. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. I just heard this a little over
300 years ago. Words change in our vernacular
as time goes on, so it takes a little bit of effort to research
these things, see what the roots are. 300 years ago plus and back,
meek, the proper definition was a man who possessed a sword was
capable in using the sword and kept it sheathed. That's what
we call a gentle man in our day. Everybody thinks a gentleman
is just so sweet. No, it's a man capable of violence
who happens to have gentleness about him, doesn't act on it.
There's a huge difference between meekness and weakness. We're
told in the Scriptures, be strong in faith. There's a big difference
between meekness and compromise. We're taught in the Word of God
to be bold in the Lord. And there's a big difference
between meekness and being a coward. We're commanded in the Scriptures,
contend earnestly for the faith. For those that only profess to
be in Christ with the mouth. Those that claim Christianity
or whatever. Pride and self-improvement. That's
the source of a staunch, unforgiving, stern defender of the law. Well,
now you better. We need to. We ought to be doing, not out
of a debt of gratitude. That's where that comes from.
Not so for the child of God. What's his mark? Meekness. You
start out being poor, then you mourn and you meek. That's a
progression. Paul taught us in Ephesians 4.32,
Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Someone who's been forgiven
much forgives. Someone who's been shown an abundant
amount of mercy, they delight to show mercy, as the Lord delighted
to show them mercy. Someone who the Lord's been so
long suffering to, so patient to, will be meek and giving and
patient and meek while suffering a long time. They'll be meek
while doing it. He says next there in verse 6,
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. Highly favored. Are those of
poor in spirit that mourn over the sin that they are, their
meek as a result? And what's next? They hunger
and thirst after righteousness. It says hunger and thirst. Is
that a redundancy in case you didn't know what one of them
meant? Those aren't empty words either, are they? You can be thirsty and quench
that and not be hungry. I started in the military, they'd
say, you can eat anything you want, not chow hall, but you
gotta drink two glasses of water first. They did that so we'd
run better, stay hydrated and stay thin. You can eat anything
you want, drink two glasses of water first. Well, you wouldn't
that hungry actually chug two glasses of water. You got your
belly full. I looked good, but I didn't eat
much. It worked, didn't it? Sometimes if you're hungry, you
just eat and eat and eat, and you say, oh, I didn't drink nothing.
I can't fit nothing in there. Those children of God are made
poor, hungry, poor, meek, mourning. They have no righteousness at
all. They don't have any meat in them. They don't have any
blood in them. They're totally empty. They're not relying on
anything. And they've got to be fed on
the flesh of Christ. And they've got to drink His
blood. I'm hungry and I'm thirsty for His righteousness. We hunger
and thirst. Not for our own righteousness.
Not like, well, His body will do fine. I drank a whole bunch.
Or I'll drink some wine, but I already had a meal before I
got here. We hunger for His righteousness. Troy Romans chapter 10. Romans 10 verse 2, Paul speaking
to his brethren after the flesh, those physical Israelites, and he says in Romans
10 verse 2, For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth." To everyone that's blessed by Him. He's the
end of the law for all the righteousness. That sums up everything, doesn't
it? Believers hunger and thirst for Christ our righteousness. And we seek Him. We seek His
kingdom and we seek His righteousness. And whenever He brings us to
that, through a poor spirit, through mourning, through meekness,
He says we will be filled. We will be filled. You have the
righteousness that you want in front of God. If you don't stand
on your own, that's what you'll be standing in front of, and
you'll be consumed. And if you want Christ, and you say, I ain't
got nothing. Give me Him. I need Him. That's who you'll
stand in front of. I'll be fine. Back in our text,
we're in verse 6. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. They might be filled down the
road. That isn't what it says. They have the possibility of being
filled. No. They shall be filled. How holy, how righteous, how
sanctified, set apart, reserved, are the saints of God right now. I got warned about saying certain
things and stepping on people's toes. I'd step on a whole mess
of them. I'd step on a whole foot. The saints of God, those
put in Christ, those He died for. Right now, how holy are
they? They're as holy as He is. Right
now. God says so. Remember, these
are present tense. They're as righteous as Christ
is righteous. That's blessed. You hungry for
that? You thirsty for that? If you
are, if He's made you so, you shall be filled. Right now. I've
been told before that'll puff a man up if you tell him those
things. No it won't. No it won't. Christ is preaching to us. Let's
not forget who's talking. And he says they'll be poor,
they'll be mournful, they're going to be meek, they're going
to be hungry for Christ more, they're going to be thirsty for
Christ more, and they shall be filled. That's what he says. and they're going to show mercy.
It says in verse 7, blessed are they are the merciful for they
shall obtain mercy. A man who shows no mercy is not
an object of mercy. A man who shows no mercy is not
an object of mercy. A man who does not forgive has
never been forgiven. Our Lord taught us to pray, didn't
He? And He said, forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us. We've trespassed. They did too. God forgave us. He was merciful to us. He might
be merciful to them too, don't He? That's the nature he puts
in us. That's the heart he gives to
his people. That's the blessings he gives. Old John Wesley was
crossing the Atlantic, and they had the governor. I've told you
all this before, but we'll tell it again. Had the new governor
of Georgia coming with him from England. And that one servant
of his broke in and stole a high dollar ball of wine. And that
old sailor had a good time. And that governor found out about
it, and he said, get him, tie him to the mast, I'm whipping
him. John Wesley come up and said, show some mercy. Show some
mercy to him. He said, I never show mercy.
He said, well, you better never sin and never show up in front
of God's presence. A man that shows no mercy will receive no
mercy. A poor, mournful, meek and hungry,
the merciful, that comes from a pure heart, a new heart. Verse 8, blessed are the pure
in heart for they shall see God. It says, out of a heart a man
speaks. Out of a heart, a pure heart, he testifies. We looked
at that the other day. Unto death, willing to be a martyr. It testifies of these things. It declares. God's given a new
heart. A new heart says, God gave me
a new heart. I'm His workmanship. It's His
hand doing it. Old age won't say that. New one
will. A new heart put in a man by God
is what God demands. It's so common for people to
say, God wants to tell you something. Will you listen to Him? He demands,
what He demands, He provides. It's said in Ezekiel, a new heart
also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you.
He's going to give it. And then in Proverbs 23, Solomon
wrote to us, My son, give me thine heart. You've got to give
the whole of you to God to be accepted by. A pure heart. And He says, I'll put a new heart
in you. Now give me your heart. Is that boastful? Does that make somebody swell
up? No, it makes you weep. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Rejoice
in Him. He saved us. Finally, there in
verse 9, it says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall
be called the children of God. A peacemaker is a son of the
king of peace. A peacemaker doesn't start an
argument, they end it. They bring it to an end. They
smooth things over. I saw a movie one time, this
guy went to a bad place and he said, I don't want any trouble.
And a fellow looked at him and said, I do. I've had that spirit. That's my old man. I don't want
no trouble out of you. Maybe I want some trouble. That's
not a peacemaker, is it? We stand firm in the only peace
that can be found for men and women who are at full on war
with God. We tell them there's only one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Bow to
Him. Come to Him. Beg Him for mercy.
Well, you sound like a crazy preacher. That's a peacemaker.
Telling people where peace can be found, isn't it? And in our walk, as a mark of
the sign of God, we desire to obey His Word. We desire to,
to be a peacemaker. Paul wrote to us in Romans 12,
if it be possible as much as life in you, as much as is given
to you, live peaceably with all men. We're meek. We're not weak. We don't compromise
the gospel. We're not a coward that backs
down and bows away from it. But we desire with everything
in us to live peaceably with all men. To reason with them. Be kind. Be meek. Be mournful. Be merciful to them. Poor spirit
leads to mourning. That leads to meekness. That
leads to a hunger for righteousness. making us, as mercy beggars,
merciful to one another. And that gives a right heart
before God, towards Him, and towards our neighbors. And that
heart and attitude, and these marks, they culminate in peacemakers
that point men and women to Christ, to God our peace. And He says,
for they shall be called the children of God. I could have sat down and studied
for 20 years. It's like, how can I put this
in the right order? It's got to make sense. We've
got to be able to go home and think about these things and
be reminded of Christ walked up a mountain and He talked to,
He opened His mouth. God Almighty in human flesh opened
His mouth and He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Right
in order, isn't it? We see that? If He'd make that
effectual to us, that'd be something, wouldn't it?