I titled this message, The Experience
of a Believer. What our Lord is giving here
is the experience, the character, the attitude of a child of God. That's what He's giving us. Now
back in chapter 4, I just read where our Lord went throughout
Galilee, he went about all of Galilee, preaching the gospels,
and he began to heal people that had different diseases, different
ones were brought to him, people that were possessed, people that
were lunatic, that had mental problems, palsy, a lot of physical
problems. He cured all manner of diseases. And his fame went throughout
all Syria. Could you imagine seeing what
they saw? If you take yourself back to that time, what they
witnessed, what they were privileged to see, Christ healing all these
diseases perfectly. There was no trickery in this. Not a fake. When he healed a
man that was lame, that man stood up as if he had never been lame.
He didn't just kind of wobble and try to find his legs. No,
when he healed someone, when he healed their sight, they had
20-20 vision. Whatever he did, he did perfectly. Perfectly. So his fame went about
all that area of Syria. Multitudes started to follow
him. He really was getting a following
here because of these miracles. And so after seeing the multitudes,
he goes up into this mountain to teach his disciples. And the
crowd's gathered around. And what he gives us here is
the character and experience and attitude of the believer.
He describes What we have described here, and we've read this so
many times, don't let familiarity let you fall asleep. There's
a real message here. I listened to two messages this
week on this, and it was a great blessing. Of course, I'm not
the one who preached it, but it was a great, I listened to
Henry. I listened to three messages of him preaching from this, and
I thought, wow, my, that's like I heard it for the first time.
It was just a blessing. But what he describes here is
a true believer. And all that he describes here belongs, listen
now, to one person. This is not, this is this person's
character, then this is this person's. No, this is one believer. He's describing a believer. That's
what he's describing. These are not parts, but the
whole character of a believer. This is the whole makeup of a
believer. You hear someone describe their experience of grace, and
it doesn't match this, sound like this. It's not grace. They've
not tasted of the grace of God. Now he says here in verse 1,
and I'm going to try and cover 12 verses. Many followed him,
seeing the multitudes, seeing the multitudes, many followed
him. Few believed him. Many followed him, but few believed
him. But nevertheless, He taught His disciples. He taught them. The Scripture says, All thy children
shall be taught of God. He teaches every one of His children. Personally, He teaches them.
And then He ascends to the mountain. He goes up into a mountain. And
I wrote down here, He ascends the throne. Wherever He is, the
throne is. So He ascends the mountain and
gets above the multitude. And He teaches His disciples.
And this multitude of people gathered around. You know, I
believe the ones in the back could hear him just as well as
the ones in the front. Only God can do that. One time he got
in a boat and they took it offshore a little bit and he spoke to
the multitudes standing out there on the shore. How in the world
could all of them hear him like that? But I dare say that the
ones in the back heard him just as plainly as the ones in the
front. Because God speaking, this is God speaking, not just
a normal man, this is God speaking. So he goes up into this mountain,
and when he is sent, when the king, when the teacher is sent,
he opened his mouth. Every word of God is important
here. Every word. He opened his mouth. You know,
we should take notice of everything our Lord did, but especially
when He opened His mouth. God teaches by many means, but
when He opens His mouth, we need to shut ours and listen. Just like this, quiet and listen. Speak, Lord, thy servant hearing.
And He taught them, I sure pray, I do pray, I prayed this last
night, Lord, teach us. Teach us this morning like you
taught your disciples that day. Teach us. Give us a teachable
spirit and teach us. And notice here, the first thing
he teaches, the first thing he mentions is this. He says, blessed. Here's infinite wisdom. He could
have said a lot of things. The first thing he says is, blessed.
Blessed. That's the first description
of a believer. He is blessed above measure. Blessed. We can't even put a measure on
that. We can't even begin to comprehend what it is to truly
believe the gospel. To be brought to faith in Christ. Oh, he said, blessed. You know,
this is the same word used by the angel when he was speaking
to Mary, and he said, Blessed art thou among women. And this
is what our Lord said, Blessed, highly favored of God. Do you
know what it is to be highly favored of God? It's to be brought
to faith in Christ. It's to be made a believer. That's
highly favored of God. Not to have a nice home or a
job. No, to be brought to faith in
Christ. You're better off to be as poor
as poor can be and to believe the gospel than be as rich as
Bill Gates and not believe God. That's only temporary. But to
be brought to faith in Christ, that's eternal. That's eternal
life. That's eternal life. Blessed art thou. And listen,
what he mentions here is totally opposite. of what the world would
call blessed. Totally opposite. The world wouldn't
call poor in spirit blessed, would they? The world would not
call mourning blessed. But our Lord said, oh, that man
is blessed. That person is blessed. And He's going to describe that
blessed person. He's going to describe them here. He said, blessed are the poor
in spirit He's not speaking here of material things. He's not even talking about being
spiritually poor. All of the sons of Adam are spiritually
poor, spiritually bankrupt. We're all like that. But he's
saying here, poor in heart, poor in spirit. A contrite heart,
a contrite spirit thou wilt not despise, O God. Because it's
the work of God. To be able to be poor in spirit,
to know it, to know it is of God. It's of God. David said
this, and David wasn't a poor man, was he? David had everything
he wanted to have. He was a king. But he said, I
am poor and needy. He wasn't talking about material
things. He's talking about in spirit. He's talking about in
heart. He's talking about poverty of spirit and heart. That's the
way we are. David said, I am poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Paul said, O wretched man that
I am. When did he say that? After God
saved him. He wouldn't have said that. He
would have died and perished before saying that. But after
God saved him. He said, I'm a wretched man by
nature. Old wretched man that I am. Boy,
when I would do good, evil's present with me. That which I
would do, I do not. That which I wouldn't do, I do
it. Then he said, I am what I am
by the grace of God. I am nothing. I know nothing. I'm a wretch. You really believe that? Honestly,
have you really been there? Have you really been to that
place? Poor in spirit. Isaiah said, Woe is me, I am
a man of unclean lips. I dwell among a people of unclean
lips. Job said, I am vile. I am vile. That sinner in the temple said,
Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner, the sinner. Do we know something about this
poverty of spirit? Well, you're blessed. Boy, if
you know this, you're blessed. You're blessed with God. And
I'll tell you this, blessed are the poor in spirit. If this is
missing, the poor in spirit, if this is missing, the rest
is missing. The rest is missing. It starts
here. This is the first fruits of the
new birth. Pouring Spirit. These people
are blessed because, listen, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They have all that belongs to
their king. They have all that belongs to
that kingdom. Theirs, right now, Well, if we
could look beyond this place, if we could set our minds on
things above, where Christ sits at God's right hand, we wouldn't
be so depressed. We wouldn't get so down as often
as we do. I get there. I get there. But if we could see that theirs
is the kingdom of heaven, what awaits the children of God? And
if you'll notice here also, all these are spoken of in the present
tense. It doesn't say, blessed are the poor in spirit, for they
shall inherit, or they shall have. No, he says, there's it.
You possess it. You possess it right now. It's
yours. And everything that's in it,
it's yours. It's yours. Now, if this describes you, if
this is a description of me, Then we had the Kingdom of Heaven.
Right now. Right now. Then he says, Blessed
are they that mourn. Has anybody ever counted mourning
a blessing? Our Lord said, Blessed, oh, to
be happy, are they that mourn. See, this is what poverty of
spirit produces. This is what that work of grace
in the heart produces. It produces mourning. It produces
this, godly sorrow. It produces true, true now, true
repentance. True repentance. Now this is
not mourning over some earthly loss. People go through that every
day. It's mourning over sin. It's mourning over my poverty
of spirit. It's mourning over my depravity. It's mourning over what I am
by nature. It's a real conviction of sin. That's what it is. Look over
in Psalm 51. We've read this many times. Psalm
51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness. According unto the multitude
of thy tender mercy, blot out my transgressions, not one of
them, but all of them. Wash me through thee from mine
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before thee. Against thee
and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest." True, godly repentance. That's what that
is. Mourning brought on by this poverty of spirit. Poor in spirit
causes this. No one ever tasted the grace
of God and then not mourn over their sins. It's not possible. Not possible. Now this is not
natural. This is the work of God. This
is the work of God. Men are naturally proud in spirit.
Every man, every woman born into this world are naturally proud
in spirit. And they mourn. They mourn because
they can't get the recognition they so much crave. That's what
they mourn over. But this is a mourning over who
and what I am by nature. And why are they blessed? It
says here, because they shall be comforted. They shall be comforted. What are the things that comfort
this poverty of spirit? Forgiveness of sin, pardon, a
real sense of His love, sprinkling of the blood of Christ by the
Holy Spirit on the conscience. The Comforter will come and He'll
take the things of Christ and show them to you, comfort you
with them. They shall be comforted. They shall be comforted now as
we are. How many times have you sat and
listened to the gospel and been comforted? When the last message
Todd brought here, I sat over there and I tell you, I've never
felt so comfortable listening to a message than when I listened
to that message he preached that night. I just, it was the most
comforting thing to me as any message I'd ever heard. Comfort. They shall be comforted. And
how are they comforted? Well, first of all, they're comforted
by the Scriptures. If we can't be comforted by the
Scriptures, then we're not going to be comforted, because God
doesn't comfort His children apart from the Scriptures. We
are comforted by the Holy Spirit, who is the comforter. We are
comforted by the promises of God. Have you not been in situations? Have you not been in situations
and found a promise, a real comfort, that you're going to come out
of it? I'll never leave you nor forsake you. That's a promise.
That's a comfort. That's a real comfort. He said,
I'll not do it. I'll not leave you, forsake you in trouble.
I'll not do it. That's a comfort. To a child
of God it is. To a child of God it is. I tell you this, we need to give
thanks. We need to give thanks to God if we truly can mourn
over our poverty of spirit, because that's a work of God. Then it
says, blessed are the meek. They're poor in spirit. They
mourn over sin. And you know what this produces? Meekness. Or you can translate
that word to true humility. True humility. Blessed are the
meek, those who are truly humble before God. Meekness is not a
natural trait. The human race is not a natural
trait. It is a work of God in the heart. The product of the work of the
Spirit of God in you. Meekness is the opposite of pride.
It's the opposite of arrogancy. It's the product of a broken
heart. I tell you what, if you ever spend any time around someone
that's been broken, I mean broken, then you understand it's a product
of a broken heart. It's the opposite of self-will
against God's will. Meekness is thy will be done.
Humility is bowing before the Lord Jesus Christ. Being willing
to go or do whatever He bids. Meekness. And it will truly enable
you to put others before yourself. Nothing else will do that. We
naturally want to be first. We just naturally do not want
to get into the back of the line. We naturally want to take the
front seat. We naturally want recognition. God has to break
that natural step and make us meet. Humble. Put us in our place. Put us in our place. Meekness
is a quiet submission to the Lord's will. It's a quiet submission
to His will. And it's a gentleness toward
all men. It really is. Meekness is not weakness. Don't
count that as a weakness. Don't think if a man is meek,
he can't be a leader. If that's so, Christ would be
the worst of all. Because he was the meekest of
all. Moses was said to be one of the meekest men that ever
lived. Yet look at how God used him. He guided Israel. And I
tell you what, when it came to defending the gospel, he did
it. He did it. But God put him on
the backside of the dead for 40 years. And I think that's
what he produced. It took him 40 years. Well, he
could have done it today. But put him back there for 40
years and taught that man something. Humbled him. Humbled him. He had to take that Egyptian
out of him. Put that son in him. Made him meek. And here's their blessing. Here's
the blessing. They shall inherit the earth. Not this one. Who wants to inherit
this? Who wants to inherit this one?
Full of sin and corruption? He's talking here about a new
heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. He said
every meek person, I mean true meekness here, will be there. Every one of them will be there.
No proud, arrogant, boastful man will be there. They won't
be there. But all the meek will. All the
meek will. And he says, Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Oh, what a blessing. Only a few know what's really
going on here. A few. Because he had the remnant. There's a remnant, I should say.
There's a remnant who knows. what the Lord is talking about
here. What a blessing it is to know your need of righteousness
besides the one you can come up with. What a blessing to know
that. To hunger and thirst. You know
what that is? You know what hunger and thirst
is? Signs of life. Dead people do
not hunger and thirst. Those are signs of life. God
gives life. There is a hunger and a thirst
after His righteousness and after being made the righteousness
of God in Christ. It's a hunger and thirst to be
holy. To be made like Him. That's what it is. Do you see how one builds on
the other here? Poor in spirit. They mourn over their poverty
of spirit. It humbles them and they hunger and thirst after
righteous. This is the experience of one person, of every believer. They hunger and thirst after
Him. You know what? They shall be filled. There are a lot of people on
this earth today who will go hungry and they'll
go to bed hungry. and they'll get up hungry, and
they won't be filled. But everyone who hungers and
thirsts after righteousness shall be filled to the brim. Filled,
you'll have all you want, because Christ is enough. And what He
provides and the righteousness He provides is enough. They shall
be filled. This is a promise. This is a
promise. This gives comfort, doesn't it?
This is a promise. No sinner ever came to Christ
empty and hungry and thirsty and went away the same way. No,
not really. No. Every sinner that ever came
to Christ went away filled. Filled. Filled to the full. You will not come up empty in
that day when you stand before God. You'll stand before God
complete in Him. He said, Blessed are the merciful. They have obtained mercy, therefore they are merciful.
They have tasted the Lord's mercy, therefore they show mercy. They
know what it is to have mercy. They know what it is to have
mercy. A person who does not show mercy,
who's not merciful, is not a child of God. That person has never
tasted of the mercy of God. Never. Back years ago, the governor
of Georgia was sailing on a ship back around 1700s. And one of the men on that boat
stole some of his wine and he was caught. And the governor of Georgia was
going to flog him, beat him severely in front of all the men. And
one of the Wesley brothers was on that boat and he went to the
governor to seek mercy, that he would
have mercy on this man. And the governor of Georgia said,
I never, I never show mercy. And Wesley said, well, I hope
you never sin. Hope you never sin. Those who
have tasted the mercy of God cannot help but be merciful. Can't help it. Can't help it. And he says here, they shall
obtain mercy. And I thought of David in Psalm
23 when he said, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life. Now, if there's anything that's
going to follow you, that's what you want to follow you. If there's
anything that you want to look back over your shoulder and see
following you, oh, let it be the goodness and mercy of God. He says here, blessed are the
merciful, they shall obtain mercy. Now, they don't receive mercy
because they show mercy. No, they show mercy because they
have received mercy. And he says, blessed are the
pure in heart. This is our Lord teaching His disciples here,
teaching us. We're His disciples this morning.
Are we not His disciples this morning? He's teaching us, instructing
us. Blessed are the pure in heart. Now, we all know this. We all
know that we're sinful, poor in spirit. We are aware of our
sins. God has made us to know who and
what we are. Paul said, when I would do good,
evil is present with me. I do the things I wish I hadn't,
or don't want to do, And I don't do the things I wish I could
do. There's a lot to do. But what he's saying here is
pure in heart. He's saying this. Sincere. Clear. Have a clear conscience. And
they are sincere. And they have a true love for
God. The Lord said to Peter, Peter do you love me? And the
Lord said it to him three times. And he said, Lord, You know all
things. You know I love You. He said, You know it. You know
it. My love for You is sincere. Sincere. And then it's this also. Sincere
in worship. Sincere in love and sincere in
worship. Paul said he worshiped God with
a pure conscience. Pure conscience. And then it's pure in that it's
sprinkled with the blood of Christ. And then it's pure because it's
a new heart. It's a new heart. Pure and blessed
are the pure in heart. God made them so. They shall
what? See God. They shall see God. They shall see God in Christ. Do you not see that, my faith?
Do you not see God in Christ? They shall see God in creation.
We're not evolutionists. God created the heavens and the
earth, and we teach our children this. Everything you see was
created and made by Jesus Christ. We see God in Christ. We see
God in creation. We see God in providence. They
shall see God. Everything that happens is providential.
Not some things. Not the big things. Not the obvious
things. It's everything. Everything that
moves, everything that exists, everything that goes on is providential.
And they shall see God in it. They see God. But best of all,
one day we shall see God with our own eyes. Job said, I'll
see Him with my own eyes and not another. The pure in heart
shall see God. No man, it says, can look upon
God and live. But you know what? We will. We will. We'll see God. No man has seen God at any time,
but we will. They shall see God. And then blessed are the peacemakers.
I tell you this, if you have experienced all of the above,
you will be a peacemaker. you will be a peacemaker. If
you have experienced the poverty of spirit, mourning over it,
if you've experienced all the above, you will be a peacemaker.
A divisive person is not of God. A divisive person is lost. Lost. God's children are peacemakers. They go out of their way to make
peace without, now listen though, without compromising the gospel.
We do not compromise the gospel. But now His children are peacemakers.
We are not disturbers of the peace. Peacemakers. Law-abiding citizens. Truly. Peacemakers. They have experienced
peace with God through the blood and righteousness of Christ.
They've experienced peace in the heart. They've experienced
this. And what they've experienced
They do. They are peacemakers. They show
that same character. They show the same character
of their father, don't they? They show it. They shall be called
the children of God. Do you know what I mean? I wish
I had words to explain that or describe that. Children of God. That's something else. Someday
we'll be astounded what that really meant and what it means. Someday. They shall be called
the children of God. You can tell God's children by
their character. You know, people can say a lot
of things, can't they? We can just claim all kinds of
stuff with our tongue. We can say we believe this, believe
that, do this, do that. But you can tell a child of God
by his character. God's children are poor in spirit.
They mourn over their sin. They are meek. They are humble.
They hunger and thirst after righteousness. They are merciful.
They are pure in heart. They are peacemakers. This describes
his children. He's describing here his children
is what he's describing. And then after all this experience
and after all this hard work and all this goes on, this has
happened to one person. And he says in verse 10, blessed
are those persecuted for righteousness. You can be persecuted for this.
His people are also persecuted in this world. Persecuted for
the gospel of Christ. Persecuted. Troubled. But I tell
you this. It is a real blessing. It is
a real blessing to stand for the truth of Christ and be persecuted
for it. To be counted worthy. To be counted
worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. Is there any greater blessing
than that? Any greater blessing? To be counted
worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. You know, the disciples,
when they were beaten over in the book of Acts, when we looked
at that, when they were beaten, you know what they did? They went away
rejoicing that they were worthy. That they were worthy to be,
to suffer and to be beaten for Christ's sake. They went away
rejoicing because of it. Rejoice. Rejoice. You can do that. It's a real
blessing. For theirs, he said, theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the same as it was
when it started, when they were poor in spirit. Theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. He's speaking here about the character and
experience of a believer. Now, you can be sure of this.
If all this that we have gone through here and looked at All
this takes place in verse 11. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you. That's going to happen. That's
going to happen. And persecute you. And shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely. Falsely. None of them can stick. For my
sake. Boy, he said the world loves
its own. But it hates God's children.
Now that's true. The world despises God's children. It does. But count it a blessing. Count
it a blessing when the world does not invite you to their
home. When it does not invite you over
to dinner. And they say, oh man, they're
evil against you. For my name's sake, he said, charge you with
all kind of accusations falsely. Oh, he said, rejoice. Rejoice,
rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. The suffering, listen, I'll close,
the suffering of this present time, they are not to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed, listen, in us, not to us. You know, we're not going to
just stand and look at it. It's not like you went on vacation
here to London and you saw some things that were probably just
astounding. Things you'd never seen, things
that you were impressed with. But he says in the Scriptures
there, which shall be revealed in us. We are going to be partakers
of this glory. Partakers of it. A part of it.
Not just observers of it. Partakers of it. Paul says over
in Romans 18, he calls it light afflictions. Do they seem light? No. No chastening seems joyous
at the present time. I never thanked my parents for
giving me a spanking. I never rejoiced when they did
it. I didn't turn around and say, Mom, thank you, I needed
that. Not one time. I'm 52. Forty-some years later,
I can look back and say, Mom, thank you. Dad, thank you. It didn't seem like a light one
at the time. No affliction seemed light at
the time. No suffering that we go through that our Heavenly
Father sends our way sends light at the time. But if you compare
it to the glory that's to be revealed in us It's light. It's light. Rejoice! To be among that number
that was just described. That our Lord just described.
Rejoice! Rejoice that you're poor in spirit. You're blessed. You're blessed.
Rejoice that you're mourned over that poverty of spirit. You're
blessed. Rejoice that you've been humbled. You're meek. You've
been humbled. Rejoice in it. Oh, you're a blessed
people. You may not have much of this
world's goods. We have a lot more than most
people have. Oh, to be blessed of God to have
what He just described here. I pray God give that to us. Make
us what He just described.