I want to continue this morning
a study we began last Sunday from the 5th chapter of Matthew. his disciples the true blessings
of God. While the world says, blessed
are the rich, blessed are the beautiful, blessed are the mighty,
the noble, the proud, the Lord says, blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the poor
in spirit. Poverty of spirit. What does
that mean? It means having no goodness,
having no strength, having no wisdom, having no thing, no good
thing in yourself to commend you to God. The poor in spirit. It's someone who realizes they
are nothing. They know nothing. They have
nothing. They're poor and needy. spiritually. Well, the Lord says
theirs is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. God's
kingdom is made up of those poor sinners saved by grace, poor
sinners who are rich in faith. And all of these things are the
blessings of God. He said, blessed are the poor,
blessed are they that more. It's a present tense thing. All
of God's people. begin poor and they stay poor,
that is, in their own minds and hearts and understanding, they
realize that there will never be anything more than a sinner
dependent upon the grace of God. Nothing. That which is flesh
is flesh. Paul said in his later years,
he said, I am what I am by the grace of God, 100 percent by
the grace of God. All who are poor in spirit have
been blessed by God in revealing to themselves that they are poor.
These are the blessings of God, contrary to what the world said. In this religious generation,
men called blessed those that seem to be super-Christians.
But no, Christ says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. He goes on to say, blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they
that mourn. And each one of these blessings
follows the other. He said, blessed are the poor,
for those that are poor mourn over that poverty. They mourn
over their sinfulness. They mourn over their inability.
He says, they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that mourn,
they shall be comforted. The gospel is the message of
comfort, which he told the prophet Isaiah to do in Isaiah 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Say unto them that her warfare
is accomplished. She hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all her iniquity. They shall be comforted, those
that mourn over their spiritual poverty and their inability and
their sinfulness, they will be comforted by the gospel of God's
sovereign mercy, God's sovereign grace, God's eternal salvation. That's only good news. That's
only of comfort to sinners. Someone who is not a sinner doesn't
need to hear about the gospel. Someone who that is doesn't believe
or know they're a sinner. They don't need the gospel. They
don't need the mercy of God, the grace of God. A self-righteous
Pharisee doesn't need the sovereign mercy and grace of God. Why,
they just need a little help out of a little bad spot they
get into every now and then. But no, those that mourn, they
shall be comforted by the gospel. Well, verse 5, he goes on to
say, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are the meek. Meekness is humility. And all
poor mourners, all poor mourning believers, sinners, realize that
salvation is of the Lord. And they are humble before the
Lord. This makes them humble before
the Lord. They take no credit for anything. No credit. They realize that everything
they are and have is by the grace of God, and that's humbling.
humbled themselves before the Lord. The gospel has humbled
them. The Spirit of God has humbled them. They take no credit for
their repentance, realizing it is the goodness of God that led
them to do so. They take no credit for their
faith, knowing it is the gift of God. They take no credit for
their works, knowing it is God which worketh in us both to will
and to do of His good pleasure. The truly spiritually meek Theirs
is the new earth. They shall inherit the new earth,
not this old one. God's going to burn this one
up. But He will create a new heaven and new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness, and those that are meek shall inherit that
earth. Verse 6, he says, Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after the righteousness which Christ worked out and provided
for his people." This is the righteousness he's talking about.
Read Romans chapter 10 for yourself. Paul talks about many who are
going about to establish their own righteousness by their good
works, by their abstinence from this liquid or that substance
or whatever it is, or by the fact that they wear certain clothing
or wear their hair a certain way or their beard a certain
way. They consider themselves righteous before God, keeping
the law before God. When the whole book of Romans
tells us plainly, by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be
justified. No flesh! But those who hunger and thirst,
those who realize they're poor, and they mourn over this poverty,
humble before the Lord, and they have need of the righteousness
of Christ, His imputed righteousness. Read David's Psalm 71 for yourself. He says, I'll make mention of
thy righteousness and thine only, speaking to God. He says, Save
me in thy righteousness. Isaiah 45 says, Surely shall
one say, In the Lord have I righteousness. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says of His
people that God hath made Christ for them. He's made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Do you understand
what that means? I'm talking to you religious
people out there. Are you going to stand before
God someday dressed in your own righteousness, your own good
works, your own morality, a life you've patched up, a new leaf
you've turned over? Are you going to plead before
God your righteousness someday, saying, I quit this, I quit that,
I didn't do like those sinners did? Are you going to be like
that Pharisee in the temple, or will you be like the publican
asking God for mercy? Well, blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, the righteousness of Christ.
He said they shall be filled. God shall account them someday
as righteous. through the righteousness of
Christ, not their own. He will justify them freely by
the righteousness of Christ. He will sanctify them completely
by imputing the righteousness of Christ to them. They will
be found by God in that day, holy, unblameable, unreprovable. Through the righteousness of
Christ, do you understand what that means? It's most important.
And you either hunger and thirst for that or you do not. You are
either empty and have need to be filled, or you are already
full of your own worth and righteousness. I hope the Lord will make you
empty, because all who are empty of themselves shall be filled
with Christ. I go on to read, he says, Blessed
are the merciful, they shall obtain mercy. Those who have
received mercy from God are themselves merciful. Those whom God has
shown sovereign mercy to. And he said it in Exodus 33,
I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful. That's sovereign
mercy. Mercy is is God sparing us what
we deserve. Every one of us deserve hell.
That's exactly right, we're all guilty before God until made
innocent by Christ, it's not like man's American so-called
justice, innocent until proven guilty. Oh no, all are guilty
before God until God makes them innocent through the righteousness
of Christ, through the blood shed for the remission of their
sins. This is sovereign mercy. The
guilty don't deserve salvation. God Almighty must decide who
gets it. What could be plainer? It's sovereign
mercy. And those whom God has shown
his sovereign mercy to in Christ, they themselves are merciful
to others. And the promise to those merciful
are they shall obtain mercy. The mercy of God makes them merciful
and they shall receive more mercy. They're going to need it. The
lamentation says his mercies are new every morning. His compassions,
they fail not. They're new every morning. Because
we're going to need it. God's people will need the mercy
of God, which endureth forever, because they will be sinners
until the day they die. And they're going to need mercy
for every one of their sins. He goes on to say, blessed are
the pure in heart, they shall see God. The pure in heart. The
scriptures mentions this quite often. Pure in heart. What's
that? That's those true worshipers who worship God in spirit. That
is in the heart. not just outward form, not just
with their lip service. That's the pure in heart who
are sincere worshipers, sincere. That's true believers, those
who believe and look to Christ alone, his righteousness, his
person, his work, not mixed with their own person, their own works. Salvation by grace, not by works. That's pure grace, pure in heart. Paul said it's good that the
heart be established with grace. Salvation is by grace, and those
who are pure in heart believe from the heart that salvation
is purely by God's grace, pure in heart. sincere in heart, true
lovers of the truth, not just acknowledge it in their head,
the doctrine of it, but love it. Lovers of the truth, Paul
wrote in First Thessalonians. And the blessing is they shall
see God face to face. Only those who truly worship
God will someday abide with him. Blessed are the peacemakers,
he goes on to say, they shall be called the children of God.
Those who have been reconciled to God by God. That is, they
have been given peace by God. Christ made peace by the blood
of his cross, not the peace they make. That is a phony peace.
That won't last. Only the peace which Christ makes,
which Christ established by the blood of his cross. Well, those
who have received this peace, those guilty rebels before God
who realize that Christ made peace for them. They are peaceable,
gentle, easy to be entreated. They are peacemakers. Like old
Peter, who was a roughhouse, brawling fisherman. The Lord
turned him into a gentle man. They shall be called the children
of God. They are not brawlers. They are peacemakers. David said,
I am for peace, but they are for war. Verse 10, he goes on
to say, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Persecuted for what righteousness? Well, Peter said, who is he that
it will harm you if you be followers of that which is good? No, no
one will persecute you for doing good works. That's what Christ
said. For which of these works do you
stone me? They said, it's not for good works. Because you are
a man, you make yourself to be God. And those who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake are persecuted for Christ's righteousness. Those
who maintain and uphold it, it is Christ's righteousness only,
not man's Christ. They are persecuted for that,
but theirs is the kingdom of God. And blessed are you, he
says in conclusion, when men shall revile you and persecute
you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. for my sake." Those who are persecuted
for contending only for Christ's sake. That salvation is 100%
for Christ's sake. Not man's will. Not man's choice. Not man's decision. Not man's
goodness. Not man's works. Not anything
to do with man. But it's all Christ. He said,
for my sake. Persecuted. He said, Rejoice,
be exceeding glad, great is your reward in heaven, so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you. Yes, these are the
blessings of God. Blessed are they that are poor
in spirit. Until next Sunday, may the Lord
give you this poverty of spirit, is my prayer. Amen.