Are You Blessed?

This morning I truly am blessed people, blessed by God, blessed with all spiritual blessings. Now that's the fact. There are some people in this world who are blessed of God. The scripture says that those who fear the Lord are blessed. The man who fears the Lord, those whose sins are forgiven to him will not impute iniquity. Those who are not offended in Christ, that is, who persevere in Christ and are not offended and turn around and follow him no more, they are blessed of God. Those that endure temptation, James tells us, are blessed. There are some people who are blessed of God.

My question tonight is this, am I one of them? Now tonight I'm going to simply set before you the character of those men and women who are blessed of God. And I'm going to do so just as our Lord Jesus Christ himself puts it to us in Matthew chapter five. I'm calling for you and I'm calling for myself to examine ourselves in the light of scripture. I rejoice to know that God's elect shall live. I rejoice to know that those who believe have life everlasting and that our salvation depends upon ourselves but rather entirely upon Christ Jesus the Lord.

But I recognize that there is such a thing as deception and damnation as a result. I realize that it's a common thing according to the scriptures for men and women to think that all is well. It's a common thing for men and women to presume that they're saved, secure, and kept by God, when in fact, they've never met the living in Christ. When in fact, they've never experienced the new birth.

I don't want that to happen to you, and I don't want it to happen to me. I fear, I fear, God help us, make us to know our condition before him. make us to understand what it is to be in. I don't want to be in the church. I don't want to be in religion. I don't want to be in the ministry. I want to be in. That's where the blessing of God is found. Tis a point I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord? Am I his? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull, this lifeless frame? Hardly sure could they be worthy. Could my heart so hard remain? Prayer a task and burden. Every trifle give me pain.

If I knew, when I turn my eyes within, all is dark and Filled with unbelief and sin, can I deem mine? If I pray or hear or read, sin is mixed with all. You that love the Lord indeed, yet I mourn my stubborn will. Find my sin and grief. Should I grieve for what I feel if I did not love at all? Could I enjoy God's saints to meet? Choose the ways I want support.

Find at times the promise sweet. If I did not love the Lord, Lord, decide this doubtful. Thou who art thy people's son, shine upon thy work of grace. Let me love thee more and more. If I love at all, I pray. And if I have not loved, are you one of these? whom our Lord describes as...

The text is in Matthew chapter five. This is the beginning of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. The sermon itself continues through chapter six and seven. But I call your attention just to the first part of the sermon. In these first verses, our Savior describes the character, the character of those who are blessed of God. The preacher, the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet of his church. We hear in these verses the voice of our master. He has spoken in time past by the prophets, but now he speaks himself. He has spoken by his life and by his actions, but now he opens his mouth and he begins to speak. He who spoke as never a man spoke is the preacher.

The place was a mountain, a mountain somewhere in Galilee, It was not one of the holy mountains. Our Lord went to one of the common places, just an ordinary hillside in Galilee, to make us to understand that there are no holy places in the gospel age. All those holy places of the Old Testament were symbolical, typical in pictures. They were representing things concerning the gospel, but today there is no such thing as a holy place. No such thing as a holy situation or a holy environment.

But only that place where Christ is, only that place where Christ speaks, only that place where Christ ministers to men, that to us at that time is holy indeed. If tonight our Lord is pleased to speak through to your heart of place, But there is no idolatrous significance to be placed upon any place or situation in this world.

I hear people talk about going to the Holy Land. Folks want to be baptized in the River Georgia. I hear preachers talk about when they visited the Mount of Olives or they visited the Holy Land, they just... I'd be afraid of something like that. That's just idolatry. It's idolatry.

Our God is worshiped in the Spirit and worshiped in truth. The congregation on this occasion was the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon was addressed to those who professed to be his followers. Others were present and others heard the message, but it was a message particularly addressed to men and women like you and I. Men and women who had avowed their faith in Christ by baptism. Men and women who claimed to be the followers of Christ. Men and women who hoped for life everlasting. who hope to inherit eternal glory. It was a sermon addressed to those who said that they were Christ's disciples, those who had taken his name upon them, and those who followed him.

Now in these verses, our Lord describes his people by eight characteristics, and he pronounces eight beatitudes, or eight blessings of grace upon those people. Now if we fit the character of the one described in the blessing, then the blessing is ours. But if we do not fit the character of the ones described, then we have no right to claim the blessing. Look beginning at verse three, if you will.

Our Lord says, blessed are the poor in spirit. The text does not say blessed are the poor. There is no particular spiritual advantage to either poverty or wealth. But our Lord said, blessed are the poor in spirit. These are men and women who in their own judgment and in their own esteem are spiritually poor. Their souls are barren and empty. They have no righteousness of their own, no good works, no good thoughts. They have nothing with which to commend themselves to God.

Being sensible of their poverty, They place themselves at the door of mercy, and there they knock. Their language is, God be merciful. They are importunate, and they will have no denial. And yet, as they stand at the door of mercy and knock, knock with importunity and knock with earnestness and zeal, they receive the least favor with absolute thankfulness.

What I'm saying is this. Those who are God's people have been brought down to their before God lifts you up with His grace, before God places the crown of sonship upon your head, before God declares to you your adoption, before God accepts you and makes you to understand the blessings of God in Christ, that they are yours, before He does that for you, God in His grace is gonna bring you to absolute poverty. You understand what I'm saying? Absolute poverty.

The Laodiceans described in Revelation 3 verse 17 would never seek mercy because they said they were rich spiritually. They were rich and increased in goods and had need of nothing and therefore they would not seek mercy but they didn't understand that they were poor and wretched and blind and miserable and had nothing themselves. And those Laodiceans described Most religious people and most irreligious people, most people presume that they are rich spiritually. They presume that they are rich in knowledge, rich in grace, rich in spiritual things.

They don't understand that they're empty. They presume they're rich in righteousness. They don't understand They presume that they are rich in the accessibility of God and in the knowledge of God. They don't understand. I wonder, have you ever come to see? Do you now?

God will never fill any vessel. God always brings his people down and he knows how to do so in his providence and by his grace. Jacob, you'll remember, was brought down God wrestled with him. The Lord Jesus Christ wrestled with him. When he couldn't prevail against him, he touched the thigh of his leg so that Jacob walked with a limp to the day that he died. And finally, he said, I'll not let you go. Jacob said, I'll not let you go except you bless me.

And the Lord said to him, what's your name? Tell me who you are. Tell me who you are. The blessing depends on you knowing who you are. That's what I wanted to hear. You'll know we'll be called Jacob, but a prince was called. Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up. He saw the seraphim and cherubim around his throne. And he heard him cry, Ole, ole, ole, is the Lord of hosts. And when he saw the Lord in his glory, he said, oh, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. What Isaiah said, he said, I see God in His glory.

And that makes me understand that I am empty. And not only am I empty, but I spring from an empty race of empty parents, poor in spirit. We have nothing to offer God. You remember how that Hosea dealt with the door? Let's look at it one more time. Hosea chapter two. It's a picture of the way God deals with his children. He knows how to bring us to know our need of him. He knows how to bring us down in humiliation. He knows how to break our stubborn will. He knows how to empty us. Gomer had left her husband, Hosea, and she had pursued her lovers and she was full She had her corn and her oil and her wine and her merriment. Then in verse six, the Lord God speaks, Hosea is speaking, but it's God speaking.

He says, therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. And she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now. For she didn't know that I gave her her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared to bail. Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof. and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. Now I will discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.

Oh, what grace, what mercy. The Lord God says, I'll discover your lewdness. I'll make you naked and shameful. I've got you now, I've got you now. Look at verse 11. I will also cause all her merriment, her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbath days, and her solemn feast, and I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said these are the rewards that my lovers have given me, and I will make them a forest, and the beast of the field shall eat them, And I will visit upon her the days of Balaam wherein she burned insects to them, and she decked herself with earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers and forgot me, saith the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and will bring her into the wilderness, and will speak comfortably.

That's how God deals with sinners. If God is ever pleased to show any man mercy, He's going to empty you. Now, it's painful. It's not pleasant. At the time you're going through it, you think you'll go star-crazy mad sometimes, but God's going to make you to understand you have nothing, you do nothing. And if you come to nothing, nothing will be lost. I will bring her naked, shambles, reproach into the wilderness. The woman, with an issue of blood, was sorrowful. She was brought to the angels. She had spent all her living and was nothing better. The Canaanite woman was brought down to utter poverty. She came and she said, Lord, have mercy upon me.

My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. The Lord did similar. He acted like the woman didn't exist. But you see, he was dealing with her. She said, again, Lord, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. The Lord turned and looked at her. He said, I'm not sin, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And he turned around. What he was doing was bringing her down. He was bringing her down to acknowledge her nothingness, that she had no claim whatever upon God. And she said, Lord, I realize this. And you said that you're not making children afraid of you, but dogs. But Lord, I'm no dog. And she owned herself to be such. That's what this text is talking about.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Those who are poor in spirit have been made to sense their desperate need. They have nothing. They can do nothing. They stand before a holy God. Righteousness they keep. They need to be robed with the spotless garments of Christ's righteousness. They need pardon, which only the blood of Christ can give. They need grace, for only grace can deliver them, and they will not be turned away.

You've got to deal with folks a certain way, you know. You've got to handle them with kid gloves, and you don't want to push any aside. You don't want to take any chance on missing anybody that might possibly be saved. Let me tell you something. If God Almighty ever makes you to know this, all the demons of hell can't turn you aside. You're going to knock at mercy's door till mercy is done. That's the way it is. A man who's in desperate need comes before God with mercy.

I recall once Mr. Spurgeon was pastoring an assembly in the small town of Waterbeach in England. Had a beggar come to his door. And he noticed that the beggar was wearing worn-out shoes, just straps of leather tied together, you know. And he said, well, I've got a pair of boots in here that I never wear. And they're just like new. I'd be just tickled to death. So he brought that beggar a pair of black patent-leather boots, beautiful patent-leather boots.

And he walked out the door. Two or three weeks passed by, and Mr. Spurgeon saw that same beggar on the street. He was wearing his old ragged, worn-out shoes, just tied together, just pieces of leather tied together. Mr. Perkins was a little perplexed.

He said, he said, what happened to the boots I gave you, did it? He said, oh, yes, sir, they fit nice, and they were so cool. He said, well, why aren't you wearing them? The beggar said, it didn't take me long to find out that patent leather boots were not suitable dress for beggars. Now, this is what I'm telling you. Your righteousness, your goodness, your morality, your religion is not suitable dress for a beggar at mercy's door. You stand at the door of mercy and not because you're poor, empty, desolate, destitute. You have nothing.

Poverty of spirit, Rowland Hill said, is the bag into which Christ puts the riches of his grace. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, whom God thou would not despise. Those who have nothing in themselves have everything in grace. Those who think they have everything in themselves have nothing of God's grace.

Now I ask you, you see, those who are poor in spirit, Though they are filled with grace, still in themselves are poor in spirit." Poor in spirit. It has been a while now since first I was made to see my absolute poverty before God. And I came to Him, and now after all these years, I still have absolutely no righteousness, no good intentions, nothing. There's nothing in you and nothing in me. After all this time, which we can offer God, but we come to him in our poverty, just like we did in the beginning. And that's how we live every day, at the door of mercy, begging from God Almighty, his continued mercy.

Then our Savior said, blessed, there is a sinful one. mourning over this world, murmuring and complaining with God's providence. That's not what he's talking about. There is a natural mourning. All of us that we live on this earth long enough are going to go through times that will cause us to mourn. If you haven't wept, you're going to weep.

And that mourning may be blessed of God to cause the spiritual mourning. But here our Lord is talking about a gracious spiritual mourning. It is a mourning over sin. God's elect are made to mourn their sin. Maybe I can put it more plainly. God's elect are made to mourn. They shall look on me and they shall be in bitterness for him and mourn for him as one that is in bitterness for him.

Turn over to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. I'll show you. Show you a man who knew something about this matter of mourning over himself and mourning over sin. Here is God's servant, David. Psalm he wrote after he had heard the word from the prophet, God hath removed, God hath forgiven thy sin. David came before God and he said, have mercy upon me. According to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin as ever before me. Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Now David is not talking about his natural birth as being an illegitimate child. What he's saying is that when I was in the womb, back beyond that, when I was conceived, and Father, I have been nothing but sin that day. That's what I am. Sin is my nature. Sin is my practice. Sin is my name. Sin is what I am.

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward part, and in the hidden part, thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop. and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. You read over in Psalm 32, another penitential psalm. You hear him say, when I kept silent, my soul was dry. What David was saying is this, I see who I am and what I am. God's elect lament. I suspect maybe he wants you to search your heart.

Are you before God the consequences of sin? Not just the wrath of God and the fear of hell, but have you been made to see your sin? Made to see that are, I think sometimes, we take it far too lightly. I stand here and talk about us being, suppose I was standing here talking about you, and I described you as a foul murderer, one who's guilty of the most hideous crimes against men. I suspect, if you believe, I've done those things. Now what I'm saying to you is that in your heart and in your nature, and you would, stench before. Have you ever come to see that? Do you understand what I'm saying? That's what you are. That's what I am. We are. Now that's what man is by nature before conversion. And that's what man is by nature after conversion.

But our Lord says, blessed are they that mourn because of their sin, for they shall have the blessed joy. Do you realize this book is addressed, the message of this book, the promises of this book, the gospel of this book? This book is addressed to sinners. God makes no promise, no promise to anybody God offers mercy to nobody but sinners. Christ died for sinners. Christ intercedes for sinners. God saves sinners.

Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? I mean, are you a sinner? If so, there's comfort in knowing myself to be a sinner. I'm comforted with the realization that His righteousness I'm comforted with the realization that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, is from all of us. Do you understand what I'm saying? Not only comforted here, but I shall be comforted hereafter. For one of these days, I shall be reincarnated. Oh, glorious God. I speak of the inward things that no man sees. There's plenty outside there. If you could get my wife to give you the inside She got no idea. She got no idea.

Before God with all. Blessed are they more than heartbroken as only God himself can. You remember the story of the rich man Lazarus. The Lord said to the rich man and your life, you receive good things and Lazarus evil. but now Lazarus. Before we, who are now made to mourn over, our Savior said, blessed.

Meekness is the mark of a man who has been mastered by God. I read that definition of meekness this afternoon and jotted it down. And I thought to myself as I read it, that's the best definition. Meekness is the mark of a man who has been mastered by God. We think of meekness as kind of a jellyfish sort of thing. We think of meekness as being, well, it has no backbone, no courage, it's just pliable and falls this way or falls that. Well, there is a sense in which the meek man seeing himself as he really is in honesty before God esteems his brethren better than himself.

But this matter of meekness primarily has to do with the realization of who and what I am before God Almighty, and submitting to him as such, submitting to his rule. Moses was not a jellyfish. He was a man of meekness because he had been mastered by God. As God Almighty, as the Lord Jesus Christ, yield to his rule.

Salvation is not walking down the church aisle. Salvation is not changing your lifestyle. Salvation is not getting things cleaned up. Salvation is nothing more and nothing less than a man being conquered in his heart by Jesus Christ. By that I don't mean that he simply acknowledges Christ's righteousness. And then he simply acknowledges that Christ is sovereign. And then he simply acknowledges that Christ sits upon the throne with absolute authority over all things. But I mean that in his heart that surrender is not. There is still rebellion residing in this place.

But I want to tell you this, the man who is mastered by God, delights, for blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. When God makes all things, those whom he has mastered, shall have their lot in universal righteousness. Matthew Henry said, who rarely and hardly, but quickly and easily are pacified. Who would rather forgive 20 injuries than to be being mastered by God. They walked before me and mastered of God. Then our Savior said, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.

He's not talking about moral righteousness. He's not talking about judicial righteousness. He's not talking about civil righteousness. I know these bad attitudes are used for a lot of things in a lot of ways. And I'm talking about political righteousness. What our Lord is talking about is justifying righteousness.

Blessed is the man, blessed is the woman whose heart hungers after the righteousness of Christ, after the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. To hunger and to thirst means that they cannot be satisfied with anything else. They want that imputed righteousness by which their consciences shall be eased of guilt, by which they shall be cleared of sin, that imputed righteousness which God gives to those who believe. And they hunger and thirst after perfect righteousness. They hunger and thirst to be like Christ, not just as a matter of justice before God, but by his grace, when I have brought this robe of flesh And when Christ comes and calls this body out of the grave, and I'm glorified in his presence, I shall hunger for that like a thirsty stag thirsts for water. I'm hungry to be like him. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be feeding. They're gonna have their desire.

Blessed are the merciful. Merciful folks are people who have compassion upon other human beings. Merciful folks are kind, charitable, and forgiving. Our Savior says, blessed are they who are merciful with others, for they shall obtain mercy. Now let me tell you something. God's people in this world are merciful people. I hear frequently of many women who profess to believe the gospel of God's grace, people who profess to be followers of Christ, who are hard and unforgiving, who are malicious.

I'm going to tell you something, my friend, if your deportment, your manner of life, Your attitude is one of vengeance and anger and wrath and malice. If you are unforgiving, you've not yet been forgiven. Look at what our Lord said in Matthew 6 verse 14. He said, if you forgive me and their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not me and their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Lindsay, it can't be any plainer than that, can it? So, do you mean to tell me that we earn God's forgiveness by being forgiven?

No. Sometimes I think people are deaf, the questions they raise. They don't hear what's said before and what's said after, hear what they want to. What I am saying is this. I'm saying if Bob Monser experiences divine forgiveness, I'm saying if Don Fortner has experienced divine mercy, he's going to be merciful with his fellow human beings.

Both in the church and out of the church. Both in his home and in his community. Forgiving, kind, charitable. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. When they fall on their knees before the throne of grace in the time of need. Then our savior said, blessed are the pure. What does that mean?

Blessed are they who have been given a pure heart. whose hearts have been purified by the Word, purified by faith, purified by regeneration. You see, when a man's born again of God's Spirit, he has a new nature, a new bent of character, a new disposition. The old man is not eradicated, and the old man does not die. The old man does not become weaker. But there is a new nature, a new heart, a new principle That man, God, I see things on the outside. And those who are born again have been purified in heart. And they shall see God. They shall see him as their own. They shall see him in this world by faith. They shall see him as reconciled to them. Then our Lord says, blessed, placid.

Most religious people and strife. Most people promote division. Most people sow discord among brethren. But God's people are, they put the, that they possibly can on the actions of their brethren. And they try, rather than building walls between brethren, to tear down the walls and bring the brethren together. They endeavor to be... They're not insistent on their own rights. They're not insistent on their own ways, but rather they are insistent upon placating their brethren. They're insistent upon reaching out to their brethren and drawing them into their...

I recall several years ago, I was talking to Brother Bill Clark about an event that I was just certain, and Brother Clark told me the longest way I had to be persistent, you know. Well, I'm sure it was this, and it happened here, and this is what you said, and I was just sure it was you.

He smiled at me, he looked at me, and he said, you must be right. As though I was being insistent, as though he didn't know where he was at the time that I knew, you know. You know what he was doing? He was saying something. Makes you feel better to think you're right? You're right. That's okay. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Not demanding. Not insisting upon themselves being right. Not insisting that they have their way. I'll tell you this. Find me a man in whose heart the king of peace lives and I'll show you a man Find me a home where the King of Peace reigns, and I'll show you a home where husband and wife and children are siblings. Find me a church where the King of Peace reigns, and I'll show you a congregation where men and women get along together in peace. Well, I don't see that much in me or in my home or in the church. Then the King of Peace doesn't reign where you are.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Finally, our Lord says, blessed are they for righteousness sake. That seems paradoxical, doesn't it? He says, blessed are they to persecute. Verse 11, blessed are ye when men shall revile you. That's just another form.

When men shall revile you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely. Not when you are obnoxious and folks are offended by your obnoxious. Not when you're proud and arrogant and folks are offended by your disposition. Not when you look down your nose at people and they're offended by your self-righteousness. But when you walk before God with commitment, with dedication, with faith, and men are offended by that, and they revile you for it.

Look at what he says. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward, for so persecuted they, the prophets. Sometimes we disgruntle because we suffer a little slander or abuse and we get our feathers ruffled, you know. Set things straight. I was talking to a friend of mine, he was asking my advice about some things.

I said to him, I said, I've been pastoring for 15 years, and I'll guarantee you if it's possible to be said, Joseph, well, you might, you might. But I said to him, I said, I believe I'm God's servant. I'll leave it to God to defend my character and reputation. And if not, if I lose my character and reputation, I haven't lost nothing. not in comparison with what my master gave.

And we'll just wait. We'll just wait until the day of judgment. But this has been the lot of God's people throughout the ages of time. Elisha walking along. Why are you bald headed over the bus? That we ought to do this and ought to do that. I suspect those children are described in the prophecy are a little bit more than talks.

God's prophets and God's people, as they walk before Christ with commitment, with determination to honor God, they're going to be revived. Wives who are committed to Christ are slandered by their husbands. Children committed to Christ are slandered by their parents. Parents committed to Christ are slandered by God. They think evil, and to make you what they are.

If I should, because of living for Christ, or because of preaching the gospel of Christ, if I should be, for those things, reproachful in the eyes of men, Bobby Estes, that's an honor. That's an honor. When the apostles were arrested and they were beaten and imprisoned, when the Lord delivered them, they counted it to be a privilege and an honor to suffer reproach for Christ's sin. Oh, I will pray that I shall be ransomed for their sin.

Now I ask you, are you poor in spirit? Do you mourn over yourself? Have you been made one who is mastered by God with meekness? Are you a man, a woman who seeks after righteousness, who longs for righteousness? Are you one who is a peacemaker, who is reproached, persecuted for righteousness' sake? If so, blessed blessed with all spiritual blessings. If not, then according to what our Savior says, your religion is vain, a sham profession. And may God be pleased to know ourselves before him. Amen.

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