All right, let's look at Matthew
chapter five. In studying for this, this is
the opening to the Sermon on the Mount. And so many people,
when they read this sermon, it goes from Matthew chapter five
to Matthew chapter seven. It's a beautiful sermon. And
there were multitudes present here. Look at verse one, seeing
the multitudes, Christ went up into a mountain, and when he
was set, his disciples came unto him. And I think it's, if you
compare Luke's version of this, you'll see that there were multitudes
present to hear this sermon, but the message was directed
to his disciples. And we look at his disciples
as those who profess to believe on him. Now of course we know
there were true disciples and there were false disciples as
he went through his earthly ministry. And so he begins here with what
we call the Beatitudes. In verse two, he opened his mouth
and taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. And then you have a string of
pronouncements of blessing. Blessed are, blessed are, blessed
are. And they call that the Beatitudes.
Beatitudes are, in the way we look at them as believers now,
is they're pronouncements of blessings of God's grace in Christ. We understand that. And a lot
of people look at the Sermon on the Mount as almost like just
a moral handbook. This is given to everybody to
show you how to live and things like that. And I wrote here in
your lesson, although there's much good counsel here, and there
is for everybody, the Beatitudes are not addressed to all people
merely as a guideline for human morality and virtue and all of
that. Let's know what this is about. Listen to what he says in the
first one, verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now I'm
gonna get into these beatitudes next week and what I'm gonna
do today, I got to reading several passages of scripture about beatitudes. There are more beatitudes in
the Bible than these here. And I got to reading some of
those, and they're so encouraging. And I want to do that today.
What I'm going to do is give you an overview of these Beatitudes,
and then I want to show you some other Beatitudes. And then next
week, I'll go verse by verse through these. But I think it's
worth something to hear these things, because we, a lot of
times, we either neglect or we forget how blessed we really
are. And sometimes, you know, I know
this because I do the same thing now. I mean, I'm a human being.
You all know that. So, you know, I get down and,
you know, I get self-pity and all of that. And, you know, I
don't think people treat me right. And sometimes I don't treat people
right. All that stuff that comes into our minds and clouds us
up. And I forget, when he says, blessed are, I mean, we are so
blessed of God. Think about it. Think about how
few there are that really believe and know the gospel. And God
chose me out? How blessed I am. Well, each
one of these blessings is connected with a characteristic that can
only describe the true people of God. He says in verse three,
blessed are the poor in spirit. And I'll deal with this in detail
next week, Lord willing, but now everybody without exception
by nature is spiritually poor. Do you understand what I'm saying
there? There's not one person born on this earth who is not
by nature spiritually poor. And what does that spiritual
poverty entail? Well, you can read passages like Romans 3,
10 through 12, There's none righteous, no not one. There's none good,
there's none that seeketh after God. We're all sinners. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. But not
everybody on this planet is poor in spirit. This describes, those
who are blessed here are sinners who have been brought to understand
and know by the power of the Spirit their spiritual poverty
and their poor in spirit. Like that old publican, when
he said, God be merciful to me, a sinner, a sinner. So not only are we by nature
spiritually poor, but if we're child of God, blessed of God,
we've been enlightened to the reality of that spiritual poverty.
Like Paul the Apostle in Philippians 3. He thought he was rich in
his false religion. A Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee
of Pharisees, all of that, that was the gold of his life. And then when he saw by the power
of the Spirit the glory of Christ and the righteousness that God
requires for salvation, he found out that all of that that he
thought was so valuable and so rich, gold, was nothing but dumb. Now that's poor in spirit. And
all who are poor in spirit are going to be driven to Christ
and to his riches. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ, the riches of God's grace, the inheritance incorruptible.
And I think it would do all of us well to understand how rich
we are. And that's why I wanted to do
it this way. I wanted to go back and give you some other Beatitudes
in the Bible that kind of formed the framework. So when you read
this, blessed are the poor in spirit. He's not talking about
physical poverty. He's talking about spiritual
poverty. And he says, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Well,
each of these Beatitudes pronounces the blessing, shows the character,
which is not natural to man, And I'll bring this out, too,
that Satan can counterfeit these things now, but we know from
scripture what they really are, and then shows the reward, which
is a reward of grace and not what we earn, but what Christ
has earned for us. So these characteristics, they're
reserved for those who fit the character described in each beatitude
as set forth by Christ, and again, understand. When he talks about
being poor in spirit, when he talks about mourning in verse
four, meekness in verse five, hungering and thirsting after
righteousness in verse six, merciful in verse seven, pure in heart
in verse eight, peacemaking in verse nine, persecution, all
that. None of that is natural to fallen
sinners. Now again, Satan can counterfeit
these things. But the reality of the spiritual
character is given by Christ, by the Holy Spirit in the new
birth. And we'll see that in these other Beatitudes too. So
these characteristics of those who are blessed are worked within
us by the Spirit in the new birth. We must be born again. So the
lesson, as I said, this is an overview because I want to take
you to some other Beatitudes. But now the word blessed now,
understand, a lot of translations will use the word happy. Well,
there is a happiness here. But you who are blessed, we who
are blessed, we're not always happy, are we, on this earth?
Sometimes we're just, you know, frowners and all of that. But
the happiness that he's talking about is the spiritual eternal
happiness that we have in Christ. You know Christ told his disciples
in the world you'll have trouble but be of good cheer. He said
I've overcome the world. He said rejoice always. So all of this describes the
spiritual state and conditions of sinners saved by grace. It
has nothing to do with earthly circumstances. If you go to this
and define each thing by earthly circumstances, you won't understand
it. You don't understand it. This
is something that has to do with spiritual. And all of this is
a work of God through the spirit. Now, you know, the opposite of
blessed is what? Cursed. Isn't that right? The Bible tells us that there
are those who are blessed of the Lord. He describes them here
and in other Beatitudes. But it also tells us that there
are those who are under the curse. And I thought about us by nature,
you know, when in our character, in our individual personal state,
as we're born into this world, it looks like we're cursed, but
we were blessed by God before the foundation of the world.
Read Ephesians 1 and verse 3, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We were blessed
before we even knew Christ but we didn't know it. But now Those who are not part
of the covenant of grace, they're cursed by God. And the only way
any of us can be delivered from the curse, Peter wrote about
it in, or Paul wrote about it rather, in Galatians 3.13, he
says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Now,
how did he do it? Being made a curse for us. Based
upon our sins charged to him, Christ went under the curse.
of God for his people, for it is written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. And so who are those who are
cursed of God? Over in the book of Galatians,
it talks about how those who are cursed, who are trying to
keep the law for their salvation. That's a curse. And no matter
what inroads they think they've made, it's still a curse. So
let me just go through here. I've got these listed in your
lessons. These Beatitudes that are not listed here, but they're
right in line with these here. Number one, it says, blessed
are those chosen by God unto salvation and effectually drawn
to Christ. And that, you'll find that stated
in Psalm 65 and verse four, and then I've got some related scriptures
too. But what does Psalm 65 and verse four say? Blessed is the
man. Whom thou choosest, whom God
chooses. That's sovereign electing grace
and causes to approach unto thee. How do I know I'm blessed in
electing grace? Because God has caused me to
approach unto him in the glorious person and finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says that he may dwell in
thy courts. dwell in the kingdom of God,
we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of
thy holy temple. What a blessing it is. You know,
election is not a negative doctrine, not to God's people. You know,
the Bible talks about those who are deceived because they refuse
to believe the gospel, but he said, we're bound to give thanks
all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. You realize this? Do I realize this? That if you've
been caused to approach unto the Lord which is the Spirit's
work in bringing us to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works, that means you're blessed because God chose you. You're
not blessed because you chose God. You're blessed because He
chose you and that blessing brought you to approach unto Him, to
believe in Him, come unto the throne of grace. That's a beatitude,
isn't it, that I like to think about. Here's the second one. It says, blessed are those to
whom the gospel of God's grace in Christ, our surety, substitute
and redeemer, of all those whom the Father gave him, to those
the message of Christ's righteousness imputed is a joyful sound. A joyful sound. And that's stated
in Psalm 85, or Psalm 89, 15 and 16. Listen to this beatitude. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice
all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. Is the
gospel a joyful sound to you or to me? Because if it is, what
does that mean? That means you've been blessed.
God has given you ears to hear. God has given you eyes to see.
You see, this gospel light, what does the Bible tell us about
the natural man? He won't receive it. He doesn't
want it. In fact, in John chapter three,
he says he hates it. And I can identify with that
because when I first heard it, I didn't want it. I wanted to
get away from it. But God, through his providence
and using my dear old mother, kept me there under it, which
he intended to do all along. And it's just like with you all.
That's the reason you're here. Because you've been blessed and
the gospel is a joyful sounding and you don't want to hear anything
else. You couldn't sit in a congregation
where the preacher is not preaching this gospel of the glorious person
and the finished work of Christ. Because this is what gives you
joy. This is what gives you peace. This is the understanding that
brings us to see our blessedness in and by Christ. And then realizing
that none of us deserve this, none of us have earned it, from
the least of us to the greatest of us and everybody in between.
What a blessing it is. Here's the third one. Blessed
are those whose sins are not imputed to them, but imputed
to Christ for their salvation. And of course that's spoken in
Psalm 32. We know that one very well. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven. whose sin is covered. How's our sin covered? It's not
just covered over or hidden from view because nothing is hidden
from God's view. My sins, a lot of my sins may
be hidden from you, and your sins may be hidden from me, but
they're not hidden from God. Our inner sins, our thoughts,
our attitudes, all of that, God knows it. I mean, they're out
there in full display for Him, but they're covered. And how
are they covered? By the blood of the Lamb. What
a blessing to know that. What a blessing. And then he
says here, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not
iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. How are they
covered? By the blood of Christ. Well,
God imputed them to Christ. He didn't charge us with them.
And that's in the covenant of grace made between the Father
and the Son and the Spirit before the world began. Paul talked
about that in Timothy, 2 Timothy 1, that it was salvation given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And the fact that
your name and my name was written in the Lamb's book of life, that
Lamb who was to come in time and be slain, right here. Our sins covered, we're blessed,
twice blessed here. This is a double beatitude. Our
sins are covered and God does not impute it to us. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who can condemn
us? It's God that justifies, it's Christ that died. Look at
the fourth one. Blessed are those to whom God
has imputed righteousness without works, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. Now this goes right along with
number three, because if God doesn't impute my sins to me,
he imputes them to Christ, that means he imputes righteousness
to me. And even though David didn't state that out verbatim
in Psalm 32, in Romans chapter four, verses six through eight,
the apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to show us this is
what David had in mind. Right here. How do you know what
was in David's mind if it's not stated out verbatim? Well, it's
stated out verbatim here in Romans 4. That commentary on the Old
Testament. And here's what he says. Even
as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. What
a blessing it is to be justified based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed. And I'll tell you what, that
brings us joy, doesn't it? There are some who claim to believe
the gospel that we believe who that doesn't bring them joy.
They say, oh, that's just all legal fiction. Well, that's just
something that doesn't mean anything to, boy, it means everything
to me. And I know it means everything
to you too. Let me say a word about in that number three when
he says in whose spirit there is no guile. What he's talking
about there is the dishonesty of false religion is gone that
would cause me to declare myself righteous before God based upon
my works. That's guile. And when God the
Holy Spirit brings us to see, to approach unto him, We see
that we have nothing to offer unto God for our salvation. All we have and all we need is
Christ and that makes us blessed, that makes us happy. We'll look at number five. Blessed
are those who hear the word of God and trust the Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, for all salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, eternal
life, and glory. And that's stated in Psalm 84.12,
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. To trust in the God of salvation,
to trust in the God of this book, the God who is sovereign, who
chose a people, before the foundation of the world, the potter, who
has the right to do with the clay what he will. Who trust in the Lord God who
is both just and justifier. On one ground, the righteousness
of his son imputed. The God who gives life to the
dead. To trust in him as he's revealed
in the scriptures, that's a blessing. A lot of people, they read the
Bible, and they'll say, well, you know, I either can't understand
this section because they don't like what it says about God.
You know what I'm talking about, especially passages like Romans
9, for example. There are others. God does as
He will. God is the God who works all
things after the counsel of His own. God's in control. You know,
a lot of people say that, but they don't believe it. God's
in control, and He is. He's on the throne. There's not
one thing that happens in time on this earth that takes God
by surprise. Satan didn't sneak up on him
in the garden and take him by surprise. You didn't sneak up
on him. I've heard the story about a
man who wrote a book about revivalism, when you have revivals. And he
was instructing preachers on how to conduct a revival in order
to get as many decisions that he could get, get people down
the aisle. And he said this, he said, well,
he said, when you're preaching, he said, don't, and you come
to the end of the message, don't say, and in conclusion, or don't
say my last point. He said, because what you do
when you do that, people stop listening and they stand firm
and you don't give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to sneak up on
them. Now that's actually in a book
on evangelism. And that's a lie. And if you
can see that and understand the God of the Bible, you're blessed.
All those who trust in Him. Faith is a gift. It's not natural
to us. Look at verse, look at six. Number
six, blessed are those who fear the Lord. That means to worship
the Lord. That means to trust the Lord. And it's in Psalm 112,
one. Praise ye the Lord, blessed is
the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His
commandments. Now, we fear the Lord, we worship
Him, we respect Him, and we want to obey Him. And His commandments,
especially His commandment to receive the Son and love the
brethren, how can we say that when we're so sinful? Well, we
know that we're not condemned by His commandments. The law
of God cannot condemn us. That's what it means when it
says we're not under law, we're under grace. We have things that
God commands us to do, and sometimes they're not pleasant to us. but
we understand the God who gives these commands for his glory
and our good. And sometimes we're like little
children, we have to be chastised, all of those things, but the
fact that I know better, the fact that I know what I ought
to strive for. When we hear, today I'm gonna
preach on exhortations of grace. When I hear those, or you hear
them, where does it fall? Does it go in this ear and out
the other? It shouldn't. It should fall on our hearts.
And of course we know that's by the power of the Spirit. But
you're blessed if you fear the Lord. The Bible says that by
nature there's no fear of God before our eyes. All right, look
at number seven. Blessed are those who have been
brought by God in his kingdom and whose strength is in the
Lord. That's stated in Psalm 84. Blessed are they that dwell
in thy house, the family of God. They will be still praising thee,
and then blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose
heart are the ways of them. We've got no strength of our
own. power of our own. That's why Paul said, when I'm
weak, I'm strong. You know what he meant by that?
When I see my weakness and all my shortcomings, it causes me
more and more to look to Christ for his strength and to live
in the power of God. That's a blessing. And then look
at number eight. Blessed are those who patiently
endure temptation. As stated in the book of James,
chapter one. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of
life. That's the crown of grace now, the crown of righteousness.
That's not a kingly crown, that's a, what do they call it, the
Stephanos, the wreath that the winner of the race gets. that
kind of thing, which the Lord hath promised to them that love
him. This is a gift. And we endure temptation only
by the power of God, don't we? If it weren't for his power and
his goodness and his grace, we'd fall, every one of us. And that's that peaceable fruit
of righteousness that we, enduring temptation and chastisement,
that we see because we come out of it looking more to Christ.
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And
then look at number nine. Blessed are those who are chastened
by the Lord. This is right in line with it.
And that's stated in Psalm 94. Blessed is the man whom thou
chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law, that thou
mayest give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit
be digged for the wicked. You remember what it says in
Hebrews 12 about those who are chastised by God? That's a great evidence of his
love for them. It's a great evidence that they
are his children, because if you're not his children, you'll
be among those whom the pit be dig for the wicked. Remember
in Hebrews 12, it says, if you're not chastised, that means you're
a bastard and not a son. That's what the word in Hebrews
12 says. I know that chastisements are
tough. I know it. You know it. They're
not pleasant. And Hebrews 12 tells us that.
That's why I put that reference there, cross-reference in Hebrews
12, three through 11. And I know that if it weren't
for God's grace and blessing, we wouldn't endure. We'd quit. How many times have we just said,
let's quit? And I know this, that it's only afterward that
it yields that peaceable fruit of righteousness. looking to
Christ, resting in him. And then the last one, number
10. Oh, I shouldn't have said the last one, should I? Give
y'all time to, give the Holy Spirit time to sneak up on y'all.
You know, that's sad, isn't it? It really is. But here's the
last one. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord. Here's our blessing in death.
It's stated in Revelation 14, and I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me, right, blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord. to live and die, having been
washed in his blood, and clothed in his righteousness. Having
the life of God, the life of Christ, given to us. And he says,
they die in the Lord, blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord, and from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they may
rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. It's not
works that they earn rewards by, that go before them, it's works
that follow them as evidences of God's blessings of grace.
Now those Beatitudes are a real blessing, aren't they? And then
next week we'll start in Matthew 5 on the Beatitudes of the Sermon
on the Mount. Okay.