I've always liked that hymn. Thank you, Gabe. Jeanette. Go back now to Matthew's Gospel. Blessed are. Blessed. What does it mean to be blessed? The Lord's beatitudes or blessings. Each one deserves a message by
itself, which we've done before. But I want to try to keep it
short and simple. It says in verse 25 of the previous
chapter, there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee,
from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond Jordan.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. Great
multitudes from all over. They all heard this. Many, many,
perhaps thousands, heard this. And Paul said that. But later, he said, have they
not all heard? Yea, verily, the sound has gone
throughout the earth to the ends of the world. And most have heard
of or heard read, perhaps preached from, this sermon on the mount. But few, few really know what
this means, what our Lord meant by being blessed, and few were
chosen to be blessed. And in verse 2, He taught them,
He opened His mouth and taught them how blessed it is to hear
His Word, to have it, and to hear it, but most especially
to be taught to understand the Word. Like he told Peter, flesh
and blood didn't reveal this to you. And they shall all be
taught of God. This is God's people. They're
taught of God. The multitudes heard this, but
notice it says the disciples came to Him. And over in Luke's
Gospel it says specifically, that He looked upon His disciples
and said to them. So the Lord was addressing this
to His disciples, because He called them the salt of the earth,
didn't He? He said, Your Father which is in heaven, and so on.
And though the multitudes heard it, this was for God's people.
This was for God's people. And I thought about this. It's
a good lesson for us. Though we try to make it clear
who the Word is to when we preach. We don't tell every man without
exception, God loves them and Jesus died for them. We make
it clear that God loves His people, that Christ died for His sheep.
God loves His people. But we don't have to police His
Word. The Holy Spirit will apply it.
Everybody heard the Lord saying that, but He applied it to whom
He would. And they heard it. So we don't
have to worry about it. Comforting those that need convicting
or convicting those that need comforting. It's up to the Holy
Spirit. That gave me comfort and encouragement
thinking about that. It went up into a mountain. Every
line is significant. You know, the law came by Moses,
Scripture said. Moses, the Lord called him up
to Mount Sinai to receive the law and then take it down to
the people. Well, grace and truth came by
our Lord Jesus Christ. He too went up this mountain,
a mountain. The difference between Sinai
and this mountain was the Lord said at Sinai, don't anybody
come near. Don't touch it. You can't come
up to this mountain. But this mount, this sermon on
the mount, everybody could come. Everybody could come near while
Christ spoke the truth to them. And a mountain is a fitting place
for the King to sit in. He's far above us. He needs to
be exalted. And it says when he was set,
and more than just being seated, this was a set time. and the
fullness of time and everything that he said had been settled
before time and is going to be set forth in time. I thought
that was good. He set himself and his disciples
came unto him and he opened his mouth, that mouth which the beloved
in Song of Solomon said is most sweet. He opened his mouth and
spoke. Well, that goes without saying,
doesn't it, that you must open your mouth to speak? Well, you
know, our Lord taught us a few times without opening His mouth.
He spoke volumes by not opening His mouth. The Canaanite woman,
you remember, when she came to Him and besought Him, it says
He answered her not a word. He spoke volume then. And then
when he went before Pilate as our substitute, remember that?
And all of those accusations were hurled against him. And
he had become sin. He had been made sin for us,
our substitute. And the scripture says, he opened
not his mouth. He didn't speak a word. But here
he opens his blessed mouth and grace poured from his lip. And
he said, Bless it, bless it, bless it, bless it, bless it,
bless it, bless it, bless it. Rejoice. The last words of the
Old Testament end with a curse. The Lord came, messenger of the
new covenant, and says, Bless it. to redeem them from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for them, to bless them." Blessing. He opened his mouth and he said,
blessing. And these blessings, something
I want you to know, blessings, these blessings are from the
Lord. These blessings are blessings
that only God can confer upon us and only God can bestow upon
us. These are not something we earn
by being a certain way. These things are the result of
being blessed. These things he mentioned are
the characteristics of those who have been blessed. These
blessings are not things we do to be saved, but characteristics
or things that the Lord puts in His people because they've
been saved. Blessings. And not one single
blessing has anything to do with one earthly thing. There's not one material thing
mentioned in these books. So that tells us, doesn't it,
that to be blessed means it doesn't have anything to do with this
world, the things of this world, even relationships and so forth.
But it has to do with eternal things, spiritual things. And
the word blessed means happy. Blessed is the man happy. True
happiness has nothing to do with earthly things, but everything
to do with spiritual blessings. And these blessings are given
to God's people. God's people, all of them have
these blessings. All right, let's look at it.
Who are the blessed and what are these blessings, true blessings?
And they all go together. They all go together. And as
one man brought out very beautifully, they are like a growth in grace,
one right after the other. He opened his mouth and taught
them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven." Blessed are the poor in spirit. Not the
materially poor. Not the materially poor. A person
that is materially poor can still be mean as a snake, proud as
they can be, and rotten to the core, wicked. Quite often are. But this is a blessing to those
who are poor in spirit. The word poor, when Scripture
describes someone as poor, it describes someone like blind
Bartimaeus. I mean someone who has nothing. Someone who has no means to obtain
anything. A beggar. He was a poor, blind
beggar. He had nothing. He could do nothing
for himself. He was totally dependent on the
mercy of someone else. And so he cried. Did the Lord
Jesus cry, have mercy upon me? And the Lord did. That's what
this means to be a poor beggar in spirit. This is the first
great blessing. Now everybody, I listened to
a message by Brother Mahan on this today. And he pointed out
that everybody's poor in spirit, but they don't know it. Right? At Laodicea, he said, you're
rich and increased with goods and you don't know it. But you're
wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. All men and women
are poor spiritually and don't know it. But the blessing is
to know it. You've been blessed by the Lord
if He shows you you're poor in spirit. That is, that you are
nothing. Matthew Henry said, God made
everything out of nothing. So if He's going to do something
with you, you've got to be a nothing. It's a blessing from the Lord
to realize you are nothing. That you have nothing. Who was
it that wrote to Him? In my hands, no price I bring. You have nothing. You know nothing. We know nothing as we all should.
We have no wisdom, no righteousness, none whatsoever. What we do have
is filthy rag. We have no holiness, far from
it, full of sin. And we have no redeeming qualities,
none whatsoever, worthless, bankrupt. It's a blessing from God to know
that we are nothing, have nothing, can do nothing. And like Paul
said, by the grace of God I am what I am. That's a blessing
from the Lord. For he said, now here's the promise,
here's the blessing to the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Unseen riches, heaven. Kingdom
of heaven. Unsearchable riches from the
king. Eternal riches that Peter said,
fade not away, reserved in heaven for the poor. I ask you, if you
had a wonderful gift to give to somebody. Who would you give
it to? The rich? Someone who had nearly
everything? Who wouldn't appreciate it? Or the poor? This is for the
poor. For theirs is an unspeakable
gift. The kingdom of heaven. To be
poor means this, to realize that you're a poor excuse for a human
being, a poor excuse for a man, a poor excuse for a woman, a
poor excuse for a member, a poor excuse for a church member, a
child of God, a poor representative of the Lord, a poor preacher,
a poor worshipper, a poor, I am so poor. David said that three
times, Psalm 40, Psalm 70, Psalm 86, I am poor indeed. David was rich and increased
with good, yet he said I am poor, and to be poor you have to be
needy. And so he thought the greatest
blessing of all was that the Lord would think upon him. How
blessed, how wonderful are your thoughts toward men. So you're
already blessed if you realize you're nothing, because Christ
is all only to those that are nothing. Blessed are they that
mourn, he said. Those that are poor in spirit,
they mourn. They just naturally follow, or
spiritually follow. That they mourn. What do we mourn
over? Now, everybody mourns over something,
doesn't he? All human beings go through sorrow
over losses and troubles and trials or sicknesses and things
like that and disasters and all that. And I would not be insensitive
to anybody's suffering at all. And we're greatly insensitive
if we do not mourn with anybody that mourns. When we see anybody
sorrowing, anyone crying for any reason, It does not, you
know, touch us. We're a hard person. But that's not the mourning that
the Lord is talking about. Because all human beings mourn
over these things. But this is mourning over sin. mourning, being sorrowful, weeping,
crying over sin. Listen to some of God's choice
saints. Well, all God's saints are choice.
But listen to them. David said, I am troubled. I
am bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long,
for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease. Isaiah said,
Woe is me, I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips. Daniel said, My comeliness, after
he saw the Lord, he said, My comeliness turned into me into
corruption. Job said, I have heard of you,
now I see you, wherefore I abhor myself. Peter said, depart from
me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. Paul said,
O wretched man that I am. What a great blessing of the
Lord to mourn over your sin. The world knows nothing about
this. The world doesn't even think to have sin, let alone
mourn over it, does it? The world has nothing to mourn
over. How blessed we are if we mourn over our sin. And to mourn means to mourn not
only over past sins, but present, our present sinful condition.
Mourn over our unbelief. I believe, don't you? I do believe. Oh, Lord, forgive my unbelief. I believe. I really do. And I
want to follow Christ. I believe I do. Oh, Lord, forgive
me. for when I don't follow Him,
when I play the prodigal. Lord, I want to be like You. Oh, forgive
me for how much I'm not like You. Just to mourn over our present
sin. He says in the promise there,
they shall be comforted. Those that mourn over sin shall
be comforted. Listen to it. Here it is. Comfort
ye. Comfort ye, my people, saith
your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, and she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." Comfort the gospel. I always look forward to seeing
someone start mourning over sin. See Mr. Weddow show up. Right,
right. The Lord is sending it. Make someone mourn, because I
know they'll be comforted. Blessed are the poor. Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. He said,
blessed are the meek. Those that are poor in spirit,
those that mourn over their sin are meek or humble before the
Lord. Blessed are the meek. Now, meekness
is not weakness. I remember hearing my pastor
say that years ago. The world thinks that. The world
thinks that, that meekness is weakness. They even scoff at
that verse. They scoff at this verse. You've
heard them. The meek shall inherit the earth. They scoff at that. Our Lord said that. But meekness
is not weakness. I'll remind you that Moses was
the meekest man on earth, wasn't he? The Lord said that. He was
far from weak, wasn't he? He stood up. He even went into
the face of Pharaoh himself and said, you let my people go. David
was very meek. Very meek. But there was not
a stronger man on earth. And not a more courageous and
bold man on earth. Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ. No one could stand before Him,
couldn't they? Power personified. Yet, he said, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart. And what this meekness means
is not only humility, who humbled himself, Christ humbled himself,
took the form of a servant. But meekness means that someone
has been mastered by someone else. That is, someone is a willing
servant to someone greater than them. That's what meekness is,
someone who is a willing servant or subject to a greater than
he. Christ submitted or subject to
God the Father, was he not? Though equal with the Father,
yet became a servant, subject to the Father. And we are in
submission to and subjection to a greater than us, the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a great blessing and a miracle
from the Lord, a great miracle for God to take a proud, haughty,
self-willed, self-loving, self-seeking, independent, that is, think they
are, devil of a man like a Saul of Tarsus, He thought he was
somebody, thought he could do all things, and bring him down
off his high horse into the dirt on his face and show him who
his master is, and turn him from a leader of men to a follower
and a subject of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was on his high
horse riding about saying, this is what I'm going to do. I will
this. And then when the day was over,
he was lying in the dust and he said, what will you have me
to do? And that's what the Lord does with all of his people.
Every one of his people are brought down. They must be brought down
and humbled before we exalt them. What would you have me to do?
Blessed are the poor. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn over their sin. They shall be comforted.
by the gospel. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Not the old one, the new one. All the rich and the proud and
self-loving rebels against God shall get this earth. This earth,
that's what they get. That's what they get. David,
remember in Psalm 73, he said, I was foolish, I envied the wicked.
Because they spread themselves like a green bay tree. They have
all that their hearts can wish. They're getting all of this earth. The wicked are getting this earth.
But he thought, what are they getting? The Lord's fattening
them for the slaughter. Couldn't help but think of those
two ships, you know, the Titanic. On board that ship were the rich
and the famous ones. The rich and the famous. You
had to be somebody to be on board that ship. It's maiden and last
boy. And everybody was clamoring to
get on that ship. Well, it drowned in perdition
and everybody aborted. But there was another ship long
before that one. A little simple, brown, wooden
ship. Pitched within and without. And
just some simple people on board. called of God, chosen of God,
brought in, shut in, and that ship made it all the way to a
new land, a new beginning. And so will those that are in
Christ. The meek, the humble, those in Christ shall inherit
the new earth. It can't be described. I hadn't
seen it. Blessed are the meek. They shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled. Now, there are hungry people
on this planet. And again, I would not diminish
the suffering of any of the hungry on our earth. There are literally
millions starving. And we cannot turn a blind eye
to that. We cannot turn a deaf ear to that. And he said in another
place, if you lend to the poor, you lend to the Lord. And the
Lord did just that, didn't He? He fed the poor. He fed everyone
that came. He healed everyone that came
to Him. He was compassionate, wasn't
He? And so should we be. But I thought about this. Now,
there are many millions of children who have died of starvation.
It's a tragic thing. We look at that, and it's terrible
to see it. Well, the judge of the earth
does right. You can count on it. The judge of the earth does
right. And all those children who died in starvation will never
hunger again. Every single one of those children
are now with the Lord. All those many millions of Africans
and Ethiopians and what have you, out of every tribe, they're
with the Lord. Every aborted child. Every abused
child is with the Lord. So it's just a brief time of
sorrow. A brief hunger and thirst. I'll
never hunger again. That's something worth thinking
about. Our Lord is merciful. He's tender mercy. But this is
not talking about those who are hungry and thirsty physically.
This is talking about those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Now, there's a two-fold righteousness. You know these things. There's
a two-fold righteousness. There is a righteousness which
we must have to be in the presence of God Almighty, to be accepted
by God. There is a perfect holiness or
righteousness which we must have. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness
and hateth iniquity. How can He be clean that's born
of woman? How can God be just and justify
an unclean sinner? How can He dwell with sinners?
One way. That is for us to be made righteous. And the Scripture says Christ
is made unto us. He's made unto His people wisdom,
righteousness. The righteousness that Jesus
Christ... We say this all the time, but
He says, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for this righteousness. Those who know they need it.
Everybody doesn't know they need it. Everybody doesn't even know
you need a righteousness. Most people don't care. But God's
people all know. They know they're sinners, poor,
wretched, miserable. They mourn over their sin. They're
humble before the Lord. If I get anything, it'll be from
You. If You save me, it'll be by Your grace. And they realize
they must be righteous, and they can't produce it, and God must
give it to them. And it's Christ, and He gets
all the glory. And if they're lonely, just give
it to me. That's what it means to hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone to believe. And you're so blessed
if you know that. If you know that your righteousness
is filthy right. Your best deeds are filthy right.
Don't account for anything. That only what Jesus Christ does
for you merits anything with God. That's a blessing from the
Lord. And if you're hungry, Lord give me this. Give me this righteousness. Give me this right stuff. Old
Blind Bartimaeus, getting back to him. He had an old garment
that he wore. It was his security blanket.
He carried it all his days. And he thought it warmed him.
He thought it covered him. Everybody else saw it. It was
full of holes and in rags, much like Lauren's blanket. And Elizabeth,
they told me last night in your prayer that you still have your
little blanket. How long are you going to keep
those things? Well, that's a good picture,
though. Because man will hold on to his religion, hold on to
his profession, hold on to his baptism, hold on to his good
work, hold on to his church membership, hold on to these filthy rags
until the day that he dies, unless God in mercy shows him it's full
of holes. Oh, Brother William Hodges, you
used to love the illustration of the hospital garment, you
know. That gown they give you in the hospital that looks for
all intents and purposes like it covers you. Don't turn around,
or you'll reveal your true self. That's all that men do in religion. It's like that hospital gown.
It doesn't cover. We must have the righteousness
of Christ. Blessed are they that hunger in their Lord. Give it
to me, would you please? Cover me. I'm the prodigal son.
Bring the best robe and put it on me." And this righteousness
too is an imparted righteousness. It's the character of Christ.
It's Christ formed in you. Every one of God's people, they
hunger and thirst, they desire to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. They want to be like Him. That's
what David said. He said, I will behold thy face
in righteousness. That's that. The righteousness
of another. But he said, I can't quote it. I'll behold thy
face in righteousness and I'll be satisfied when I awake with
thy likeness. That's what he said. I'm not
going to be satisfied until I'm just like you. When you mourn,
over your sin, you hate yourself. Why am I like this? Do you ever catch yourself at
times, thoughts running through your head, or you think back
to something you said or did, and you just go, oh, groan and
mourn. Why am I like this, Lord? Oh,
Lord, comfort me. That's what that means. Hunger
and thirst. This hunger and thirst is a sign
of life. an appetite, got to hurry. They shall be filled, he said,
they shall be filled with his righteousness, filled with a
sense of being covered by his blood or by his righteousness,
filled while the world is out there feeding on husks, fain
filling themselves, their bellies with husks, every prodigal that
returns eats the fatted calf. Sits at
a greater table than Solomon. He said, blessed are the merciful.
The merciful. For they shall obtain mercy. The merciful. I do want you to
turn over to Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6 is a short version
of this sermon. And the Lord says this, something
a little differently recorded than in Matthew. Luke chapter
6. Merciful means kindness. Merciful
means compassion to others. Blessed are the merciful. Now,
you're going to mourn over this. You're going to mourn over that.
And you're blessed if you do. If you realize that you're not
merciful or think you're not merciful as you should be. That's
a good thing. You're blessed if you feel that
way. But in Luke 6, verse 32, he says, If you love them that
love you, what thank have you? Sinners love those that love
them. If you do good to them that do good to you, what thank
have you? Sinners do the same. Now in verse 35, he says, Love
ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing
again. And your reward shall be great, and you shall be children
of the highest. For he is kind, that is, merciful
unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful,
as your Father also is merciful. Paul later said, put on as the
elect of God, holy and beloved vows of mercy and kindness. An unmerciful man or woman doesn't
know God, not a child of God. And that person will not receive
mercy. If a person doesn't forgive others,
our Lord said, if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither
will your Father in heaven forgive you. There was a preacher of
old. I don't remember who it was,
but he was traveling on board a ship to come over to the United
States from England. And they were coming to Georgia.
And the governor of Georgia sent from England to be the governor
of Georgia. It may have been Whitfield or
Charles Wesley, one of them. But the governor came over on
board that ship And his servant stole some of his choice wine
and drank it. So he was having that man on
board that ship flogged unmercifully as an example to everyone. And that preacher came up to
that governor and said to him, Sir, I beseech you, have some
mercy and forgive this man. And the governor said in a stern
voice, he said, I show no mercy. I don't forgive anyone. And the
preacher said wisely, he said to this governor, he said then,
I hope you have no sin. I hope you have no sin because
you will receive only justice from God and no mercy. I hope
you don't need forgiveness because you will receive none from the
Lord. Blessed are the merciful. They shall receive mercy. Do
we need mercy? Oh, my. Oh, my. How merciful is our Lord? How
merciful has He been to us? And He doesn't cease to show
mercy. Oh, my. It will endure forever. Blessed,
blessed, blessed are the merciful. Verse 8, blessed are the pure
in heart, for they shall see God. Pure in heart. Now, nobody
in here, no one can claim a pure heart. That is a sinless heart. Like John Newton said, when I
look within, all is vain and dark and wild. My heart, my heart. But what this means is, The pure
in heart are those whose heart has been made pure by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their hearts sprinkled with the
blood of Christ from an evil conscience. The Lord looks on
their heart as absolutely pure. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. And this word pure also means
single. A single heart. That is, not
in love with the world and God. You can't serve too much. You may love the world, but the
love of the Father is not in it. And God gives a new heart
to love Him over and above these things. We enjoy these things,
but we're not in love with them. We don't live for them. The word
pure here means sincere. Not a deceitful heart. Not an
insincere heart. What's the word? A hypocritical
heart. But a sincere heart. Do you sincerely
love God as God? Do you sincerely love the gospel? Do you sincerely? When the Lord
asked Peter, even after his terrible fall and denial of the Lord,
he said, Peter, do you love me? And he didn't hesitate, did he?
He said, Lord, yes, I love you. You know all that. Because he
put it there. And it's not presumption or pride
to say that you do love Him. It's out of the pure heart. The word pure means a true heart
to worship God in spirit and truth. It means a true heart,
a pure heart, a single heart, a sincere heart, an unmixed heart. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Read it. For they shall see God. I thought about this. Who's going
to see God? Most people want to get to heaven
to see somebody, don't they? Don't they? Everybody talks about
going to heaven. And most people talk about seeing
somebody. I want to see this person. And
I do too. I do too. There are people I long to see
and will see. But Fannie Crosby said, I long
to see my Savior first of all. First of all. Those who want
to see God shall see God. They shall see God. One thing
if I desire, David said, and that will I seek after, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord. That's what I want to do, he
said. Inquire into his temple. Verse 9. Blessed are the peacemaker. Peacemaker. Those with a true
heart, those that are merciful, those that hunger and are covered
with Christ's righteousness, those that are humble, those
that mourn, those that are poor, are peacemakers. Who's the great
peacemaker? Christ made peace by the blood
of His crown. We don't make peace with God.
He's talking about that person who seeks to have peace. Seeks to have. Blessed are the
peacemakers. Those that pursue it. Those that
attempt to reconcile. Those that long for peace. David
one time said this. David was a man after God's own
heart. And that's why the Lord said that about him. Because
David said, they're for war. I'm for peace. Here's what James said. He said,
He said, if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, don't
glory and lie against the truth. That's sensual and devilish. Envy and strife, that's an evil
word. But the wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceful. Peaceful. Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called the children
of God, like their Lord. And verse 10, blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Those who have Christ revealed
to them, those who have the gospel revealed in them and to them
will sound it forth. They'll go out with this gospel,
longing to tell others what great things the Lord has done for
them. longing to glorify their Lord. That's a pure heart. That's a pure heart that longs
to glorify the Lord. He said this of the Thessalonians.
He said, our gospel came to you. I know you're elect because our
gospel came to you. You became followers of us and
you received the Word in much affliction. Much affliction. They were persecuted for the
truth's sake. He said, affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost. You remember when Peter and the
boys went out preaching and they were beaten for preaching the
gospel? I love that story. And it says, they came back and
they rejoiced that they were count worthy to suffer for His
name. And our Lord said here in verses
11 and 12, if they say all manner of evil against you falsely,
and they will. For my sake, just because you tell the truth, rejoice. Rejoice. Be exceedingly glad. For great is your reward in heaven. And I recall, for so persecuted
they, the prophets which were before you. I recall the story
of Stephen who was stoned. He was just telling the truth,
wasn't he? All he did was recount what the Lord did for Israel,
and how ungrateful Israel was, and how they killed all the prophets,
and finally killed the Lord Himself. That's all he did, didn't he? He just recounted the Word. And they rose up in anger, didn't
they? And were stoning him. And him being a merciful man
that he was, The very people that were stoning him, like his
Lord. Do you know what his last words
were? Lord, don't lay this to their
charge. And it says, while they were
stoning him, and while Stephen looked steadfastly into heaven,
he said, I see him, Christ, sitting at the, standing. He said, I
see him standing. In other words, as Stephen was
being stoned for standing forth for Christ's sake. Christ, who
is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, had been
seated for a long time. Got it? In honor of his martyr. Stood in honor of that man being
persecuted by his name. Blessed are you. Blessed are
you. Our Lord said in another place,
woe is unto us if men speak well of it. Not as a person, that
is, mind you, but it's a blessing if they say all manner of evil
against you falsely just for believing the truth. Blessed
are the poor. Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after Christ and His righteousness. Blessed are the
merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemaker. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake. Rejoice. Be exceedingly glad. Stand with me. Our Lord, thank You for Your
Word. Thank You again. We don't deserve
it. We don't deserve this great gift,
unspeakable gift. Oh, how blessed is the man or
the woman or the young person whom Thou choosest and causes
to approach unto Thee like these people at this mount, as You
open Your blessed Word and grace pours from Your lip and You preach
and teach these great blessings. Oh, Lord, how blessed we are.
and don't rightly know it. But we thank You for what we
do know. Make these blessings more blessing to us as the days
go by. Make us realize more fully what
great blessings we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, that is all that is within me. Bless His
holy name. It's in Christ's name we meet here tonight. Amen. Questioner 2