Well, come back with me to Matthew's
Gospel chapter 5 and the first 12 verses, though we're actually
focusing on the Beatitudes themselves. Verses 3 to 12, the marks of
those blessed of God. When the Son of God, who is God,
when the Son of God was made man, He was made of a woman,
to redeem His people, that's why He became a man, because
only as a man could He redeem, only as a man could He suffer
the penalty of the justice of God for the sin of His people,
only as a man could He do that. When He was made man to redeem
His people, He, the man, Jesus, Jesus, our Lord Jesus Christ,
he fulfilled the prophecy that was given to Moses concerning
him, Jesus. A prophecy was given to Moses
in Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 18, where it says, I will
raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto
you Moses, and will put my words in his mouth. a prophet like
Moses, who stood and spoke for God to the people. I will raise
the people up for them, a prophet from among their brethren. One
of the Jews, he was a Jew, our Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew,
he came from the Jewish people, unto whom the descendants of
Abraham, the physical descendants of Abraham, unto whom the promise
was made of the seed that would come, and in whom all the peoples
of the earth would be blessed. I will raise up a prophet from
among their brethren, like unto you Moses, and I will put my
words in his mouth. Yet, there's a difference. Rather
than, as Moses, thundering the law from Sinai so that the people
were terrified, and boundaries were set, and the people were
not allowed to cross those boundaries on pain of death. If anything,
a beast even, it was to be shot through with an arrow. The law
thundered. The justice of God was defined
in strict, absolute clarity. And any transgression of it was
to be met with death, for the soul that sins, it shall die.
In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And that law
thundered from Mount Sinai when the law came via Moses. But on
a Galilean hillside, a Galilean hillside on the mountain, I don't
know how high it was, but a Galilean hillside, grace and truth came
from the lips of that prophet that was promised in the line
of Moses. And where Sinai forbade access
and told the people they were not to come near, look what Jesus
Fulfilled, exactly. In Isaiah 48 verse 16, now this
was written, you know, 750, 800 years before Christ came, but
here are words that surely are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the sentiments of our Lord Jesus Christ, as he taught the people
from that Galilean hillside, not stay away or you'll be shot
through with an arrow, but come ye near unto me, hear ye this,
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, from the time
that it was. There am I, and now the Lord
God and His Spirit hath sent me. Surely that's the Messiah,
that's God the Son. Come. Thus saith the Lord thy
Redeemer. Who is the Redeemer? Our Lord
Jesus Christ, our God is our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord thy God, which
teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that
thou shouldst go. There he is, bidding us to come
near. And he sat there on that Galilean hillside and bid them
to come and to hear his words. For his manner was preaching,
was the verbal declaration of the truth of God. And in this
way, he set the pattern for all preachers. He cast the net of
the gospel. That struck me particularly the
last few weeks. Preaching the Gospel is not dangling
a line and a hook with a lure on it for the fish to be attracted
to. That's called the free offer of the Gospel and it's not in
Scripture. Gospel preaching is casting the Gospel net and God's
Spirit does the gathering of those whom He will gather. It's
not of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of God that
shows mercy. Cast the net on the other side
of the boat, Jesus said to the disciples who'd fished all night
long and caught nothing. And when they did as he said
and cast that net, they nearly sank the boat with fish. His
preaching was about the kingdom of heaven. We see that in the
previous chapter, verse 17. From that time, Jesus began to
preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He talked about those who are
blessed because they are members of the Kingdom of Heaven. That's
what he preached about. Blessed. Chosen out for divine
favour. That's what the blessing of God
is. It's chosen out by God for divine favour when others are
left to their own devices. chosen out to be citizens of
that eternal kingdom of God that the Lord Jesus Christ preached.
And what is it about that kingdom of God? It's a kingdom of perfect
peace. Think of the turmoil of the kingdom
of this world in which we live, of the anguish and the tensions
and the sin and the deceit and the evil and the spitefulness
and the inhumanity of man to man. And yet here is God's kingdom
of eternal peace and righteousness. and unending, eternal, intimate
communion with God. The key question is, what characterises
those that are blessed of God by being members of that kingdom? And more personally, am I numbered
among them. Am I one who is entitled to say
that I am a citizen of God's kingdom and a recipient of all
of the blessings? You know, like being the citizens
of a country. We like here being British citizens. We have a birth certificate that
says we belong to this country or whichever country you belong
to. We have a passport. We have a national insurance
number. We have all of the credentials that say that we are entitled
to the rights and the privileges and also the obligations and
duties of being citizens here. That's what it is to be a citizen
of a country. Well, there are marks of those
who are citizens of God's kingdom, of His eternal kingdom. And here
Jesus teaches eight characteristics. In these beatitudes, these blessed
are, there are eight of them in total. Jesus teaches eight
characteristics that mark out in this life those whom God has
blessed, whom God has favoured with eternal good. Now note,
let me remind you what I said last time. It is the blessing
of God that produces the characteristics. It isn't the characteristics,
when they're displayed, that procure God's blessing. Because
the natural man as he is, I don't care how good he seems to others,
finds it impossible to display these characteristics. They're
not characteristics that come from the flesh. They're characteristics
that come from God's Spirit, by God's blessing. And that is
entirely consistent with God's Word. I showed you last week
how it's consistent with Ephesians chapter 2. By grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God. It's always God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Jonah said, Jonah 2 verse 9, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. There's
an article in the bulletin about that, read it. Salvation is of
the Lord. That means it is in no measure
of us, of people. So then let's look at these eight
characteristics in the time we have available. And the first
one is in verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. I don't know whether these were
the only words that Jesus said. I very much doubt it. I am sure
he must have, in the hearing of those disciples, elaborated
on it. But this is what the Spirit of
God moved Matthew to record as the essence of the sermon. What
are the key bullet points of the sermon? And he got him to
record these. And the first one is, blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Let's turn it another
way round. Let's state it like the meaning
really is. Those who are blessed of God
with salvation, with citizenship of the kingdom of God, with citizenship
of Zion, the heavenly Zion. Those who are blessed by God
in that way are characterized by poorness of spirit. Note he
doesn't say with material poverty. It's not that if you see somebody
who's got absolutely nothing, he inherently is a spiritually
blessed person. Not at all. The poorness that
we're talking about is poorness of spirit. It's spiritual poverty
in ourselves. It's having no spiritual currency
in and of ourselves. What resources do you have materially? What money do you have in the
bank? What money do you have in your pocket? What possessions
do you own? That's all the physical things
that you own. But what is your spiritual possession? What are
the things that you hold on to as having value spiritually for
your life. Well, Jesus says those who are
blessed of God with salvation are characterized by saying,
I'm poverty stricken in terms of the things of the spirit of
myself. Job himself was not poor in spirit
initially. Remember, he was a very religious
man. He was a very righteous man as
men count righteousness. He did all the right things.
But God, in eternal love, taught him, through a very bitter experience,
through the words of comforters who were, as Job said, you miserable
comforters, who did nothing other than accuse him, but God, in
eternal love, taught Job This man of whom God said there's
nobody quite like him, he taught him his spiritual bankruptcy. He taught him his poorness of
spirit, his spiritual poverty. How did God show Job what he
was really like in terms of spiritual poverty? The answer is simple. He gave him a sight of himself. Job said towards the end of the
book, if you remember, he said, I have heard of you with the
hearing of the ear, and I thought I knew all there was to know
about you, is what he meant. But now mine eye sees you. The eye of faith sees you. The eye of the faith that God
had given saw what God really was in His majesty, in His holiness,
in His power. in his dreadfulness of his being,
the awesomeness of the being of God. Words fail me to describe
what I'm trying to say. Job, through the eye of faith,
had a sight of who God really is. And seeing God, the contrast
was so clear. Do you know, if you want to see
the dirt on a white sheet, and you can't see it, wait for
a snowy day, we haven't had a snowy day for well over a year now,
but wait for a snowy day, and hold that sheet up against the
whiteness of glistening snow in the sunshine, and then you'll
see what the sheet really looks like. The contrast showed Job
what he was really like, he said, I abhor myself, I repent in dust
and sackcloth. He showed him what he really
was as poor in spirit, of having no spiritual resources on which
to depend, and he showed him his utter disqualification for
citizenship of heaven in himself. in himself. He showed him he
was utterly disqualified, as are we all by nature in ourself. That he had no righteousness
of his own, that he could produce no good works of his own, even
though he thought he did initially. Job justified himself. He thought
he was doing all the right things. He thought he had pure, untainted
thoughts, but really, we know when we're held up against the
light of the glory and purity and holiness of God, we have
no pure, untainted thoughts. Our very best of thoughts are
always tainted with the sin of self-interest. None of the righteousness
of God in himself belong to Job, nor does it belong to any of
us, because there is none righteous. No, not one, says the scripture.
Before God lifts a person up to heavenly glory, he must bring
him down to realize his poverty of spirit inherently. You remember,
I mention him often, the tale of Happy Jack. Happy Jack, what
are your credentials for membership of our church, Happy Jack? What
are your credentials? What qualifies you to be a member
of our church? I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. The prodigal son
came to an end of himself, an end of all of the resources that
he had in the flesh, and determined, I will go home to my father,
seeking only to be a hired servant in his house. You see, God tells
us in Psalm 51 verse 17, it's a broken heart, a contrite spirit
that God will not despise. a broken heart, a contrite spirit,
he will not despise. In chapter 66 of Isaiah, God
says this, This is the one upon whom I look, him who is poor,
of a contrite spirit, who trembles at my word. Not those who think
they are rich in spiritual things. Do you remember the Laodiceans
in the letters to the churches in Revelation? In Revelation
chapter 3, the last of the letters is to the Laodiceans who said,
we're full, we're rich, we have need of nothing, we've got all
the spiritual things that we need, we're quite happy here,
we're very comfortable. And the Lord Jesus said to them,
you don't realize that you're poor and blind and naked. You
have absolutely nothing. Come and buy from me without
money and without price. Come and buy. I salve, ointment
for your eyes to make you spiritually see the truth. Those who are
brought low by God are exalted. Look, theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Those who are brought low by
God to see their poverty, they're exalted by God, by His grace,
to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Is that me? Can I say
that that's me? Poverty-stricken spiritually,
but exalted to be an heir of the Kingdom of God. Maybe I need
to try harder in myself to be poor in the Spirit. No, no, it's
not in yourself. It's never in yourself. What
should I do? Pray. Pray to God. Ask God. Lord, give me a sight of your
glory. Show me what I truly am. And
seeing Him by faith, we're stripped of our own spiritual resources.
The Apostle Paul, when he was Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee,
felt that he had huge spiritual resources. He was a Jew. He was
a pupil of Gamaliel, that great teacher of the Jews. He was a
man who was so proud of his Pharisaical traditions. He said, concerning
the law, I was blameless. They couldn't bring any accusation
against me. And then what does he say? In Philippians he tells
them, that which I counted, such great riches, such great spiritual
wealth, he counts it as dung. as nothing, as worthless, as
something to be got rid of rather than something to be valued,
as of no value whatsoever. Just as Moses, who was brought
up in Pharaoh's household as the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
with all the riches of the great empire of the Egyptians at his
disposal, he turned away from that, considering the reproach
of Christ of greater value, and went with the people of God.
So we're shown our riches that are in Christ. Poverty of spirit,
but riches in Christ. Secondly then, verse 4. Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Those who are blessed
by God with salvation, with citizenship of Zion, are characterized by
mourning. That doesn't sound good, does
it? Blessed are those that mourn. No, surely, ultimately sorrowful
are those who are mourning, not blessed. Surely he's got this
wrong, hasn't he? No. You see, he's not talking
about the sorrow of a child who can't get his own way. Now, those
of you that are children here, you will remember times when
you got really upset because you couldn't get your own way.
And parents of children will know that they, oh boy, it's
the most bleak and sad thing when a child that wants his own
way can't get his own way, and mourns about it. Well, it's not
that kind of mourning that Jesus is talking about. It's not the
mourning that we might have when we get older, when we make mistakes,
when we say the wrong thing and we regret it bitterly. It's not
that sort of mourning. That's remorse. That's remorse
for the consequences of what we've done. It's not mourning
over the fact of what we are by nature. It isn't mourning
because somebody close to us has died, though we do mourn
when people close to us die. but it's mourning resulting from
God's work in the heart, showing something, in some degree, of
the sin that is within. Do you remember that hymn, a
sinner is a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost has made him so. And
when the Holy Ghost makes a sinner realize what he is by nature,
Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but
only those to whom God reveals it know what they are in the
judgment and reckoning of God as sinners. And we see something
of that sin within, in some degree, to know what it is in the sharpness
of its offense against the holiness and justice of God. and finding
no comfort in ourselves, and finding no cure for it in ourselves.
However much we try, the flesh is weak. Whatever we might try
to do, the whole thing goes wrong. You might resolve on a day to
have a day when you commit no sins, and if you'll be honest
with yourself, you barely get through the next few minutes
without some sinful thought comes into your mind. And we're brought
to cry, God be merciful to me, a sinner. as that publican did,
that Jesus pointed to by the wall of the temple. God be merciful
to me, a sinner. He beat his breast. There's no
hope within me. This is the Holy Spirit's work,
making us feel what we are by nature, and making us mourn over
it, mourn over what we are in comparison with the holiness
and purity of God. Coming to know, as it says in
Romans 7, 18, Paul writing to the Romans, in me, that is in
my flesh, there dwells no good thing. Well surely there's a
little bit of good in everybody, isn't that what it says? Oh,
I like to think that there's some good in everybody. Well
if you believe the Scriptures, in me, that is in my flesh, there
dwells no good thing. Never improving. Oh, surely we're
getting progressively sanctified the closer we get to heaven?
Not according to the Word of God, we're not. Never improving
in the flesh. As Paul went, he didn't think
he was fit to be called an apostle, to be numbered with them. And
towards the end of his life, in his last epistle, do you know
what he calls himself? He calls himself the chief of
sinners. Surely you're getting better,
you're less of a sinner now, aren't you Paul, now that you're
near the end of it? No, the chief of sinners in his flesh. That's
what it is. Those who are blessed of God
with salvation, with citizenship of his kingdom, with the favour
of God, are those who know what they are by nature, and they
mourn over their sin. Zechariah 12 verse 10 says this,
They, his people, shall look upon me whom they have pierced. Remember that was written well
before Christ came and was nailed to the cross. They shall look
upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him.
They shall mourn for what sin did to Christ. This is what it
is, to mourn for sin, to mourn for what my sinful nature, my
sins committed, my sinful thoughts, everything about me that is sin,
what it did. to the Lord Jesus Christ to save
me from that sin. They shall mourn for him whom
they have pierced, because they that mourn, they, Jesus promises,
shall be comforted. How are they comforted? How are
they comforted from their mourning over sin? They're comforted in
the Lord Jesus Christ, because in Him is the forgiveness of
sin. In Him is the payment of the
sin debt. In Him is the taking away of
the sin from the people of God, as far as the East is from the
West. And that is a great, great comfort. Yes, I know I'm this
paradox. I am the greatest of sinners.
I am the chief of sinners. Yet in Christ, I'm fitted for
heaven. I'm made the righteousness of
God in Him. Can you believe that? In yourself,
in your flesh, in your rational thinking, you can't believe it.
But by faith, by the gift of God, you can believe the truth
that God has revealed in His Word, that though we're sinners
mourning over our sin, we're made the righteousness of God
in Him. And we're thereby fitted for
heaven. We're given that holiness that
we need to see God. Let's look at the next one. Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. In verse 5,
blessed are the meek. What is meekness? Well, it sounds
very similar to poorness of spirit, and no doubt it is very similar
to poorness of spirit. But I think really it is an awareness
of who and what I am before God. It's a meekness of temperament.
It's the temperament that isn't proud and haughty, that isn't
full of self, but is lowly. Matthew Henry wrote this, the
great commentator wrote this about the meek. He said, the
meek are rarely provoked. The meek are quickly pacified. They would rather forgive twenty
injuries than avenge one. Rather than get their
own back on one occasion, they would rather forgive twenty injuries. That is the nature of the meek. Lowly temperament, lowly disposition. Philippians 2 verse 3, they esteem
others, they think of others better than themselves. That's
the teaching of God's Word. That's the teaching of the Gospel
of Grace. That you esteem, you think of others as better than
yourself. That's what it is to be meek.
You think of others as better than yourself. For example, Peter
says that for a believing woman, the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price, that that
meekness is to be preferred to a lavish external appearance.
And what does he say is the reward to those who are meek? Those
who are characterized by meekness, by virtue of being blessed with
salvation of God, they shall inherit the earth. What does
that mean? They shall get lots of earthly possessions? No, I
think what it means is this. I think it means that whilst
we live this life in that state of believing meekness before
God, God has promised that all things around us in this world,
all things, will work together for our good. Whether they're
things that appear superficially to be totally negative, like
some terminal disease, like some great financial loss, like some
bereavement, or whatever it might be, yet in the grace and goodness
and mercy of God to His people, all those things work together
for eternal good. And thereby, I believe that that's
what it means, they shall inherit the earth. The things of this
earth, the things that happen in this earth, are all for our
eternal good. Let's move on to the next one.
In verse 6, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled. Hungering and thirsting
after righteousness. Put it the other way around,
as we have done with all of them so far. Those blessed by God
with salvation, with citizenship of his kingdom, those blessed
by God are constantly hungry for the righteousness that God
demands, the righteousness that God requires. How holy must we
be to enter his kingdom, to be members of his kingdom in eternity? We must be as holy as God is. We must be that holy. Where are
you going to get it? From your own attempts to keep the law
of God? From your own attempts to sanctify
yourself progressively until you're in a state that is fit
to go to heaven? Because that's the lie that is
taught by so many in the name of religion. No, no, you're not
going to get it there at all. Not in the slightest. It isn't
your own righteousness performed by the works of the flesh. by
the works of the law, that righteousness, our righteousnesses, Isaiah 64
verse 6 tells us, are, what, really, really lovely things? No, filthy rags in the sight
of God. They're the things that Paul
counted as dung, the stuff that he used to value so highly, but
he counted as dung. No, it's not that, it's the righteousness
of God. We know this, 2 Corinthians 5,
verse 21, that He, our Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, was
made sin for His people, that we, His people, might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. That's what we need. That's the
righteousness that we need, that which we are made by grace in
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what true believers are
constantly hungering for. They constantly desire it. They
constantly follow after it. Why do I say follow after? Hebrews
chapter 12 verse 14. Follow peace with all men and
holiness without which No man shall see the Lord. We must have
the holiness of God to see God, otherwise we shall not see God.
Follow after holiness, without which no man shall see God. Where
do we find this holiness? The righteousness of God, which
is in Christ alone for his people. In Christ, the longing for righteousness
never goes away, but look what it says. Blessed are they which
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. So then when they're filled,
they don't need it anymore, do they? No, it's a constant thing. The longing never goes away,
but the filling never goes away either. It is constantly satisfied. Why? Because our Lord Jesus Christ
God our Saviour is, as Jeremiah 23 verse 6 says, the Lord our
righteousness. He is our righteousness before
God. All of our righteousness is in
Him. He is made unto us wisdom from
God. and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. He is made our righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lord our righteousness. I love it in Jeremiah where in
that chapter 23 verse 6 it says that he Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Saviour, the promised Messiah, is the Lord Our Righteousness,
that's His name in capital letters, and then you go ten chapters
on to 33 and verse 16, and it's speaking of the Bride of Christ,
the people of God, the Church of Christ, and it says, this
is the name by which She shall be called, and it's exactly the
same name, the Lord Our Righteousness. follow after righteousness, without
which no man shall see the Lord, hungering and thirsting after
righteousness, without which no man shall see the Lord, but
they shall be filled. For He, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the Lord our righteousness. What a blessing it is to know
the complete emptiness of self and yet the complete filling
from the Lord Jesus Christ of all that is necessary The judgment
day will come and we'll read in Jeremiah 50 verse 20, the
sins of Judah and of Israel, the people of God will be sought
for and they will not be found. Why? Because he has taken them
out of the way. Righteous before God. Then verse
seven, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the merciful. Those blessed by God with salvation
are brought to know what it is to be saved, to be saved from
sin, to be saved from just condemnation, to know there is therefore now
no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Those blessed
by God with salvation have experienced God's mercy. They have had an
infinite debt that they never ever could pay in their own resources. They have had that debt forever
forgiven and taken out of the way, entirely by mercy, entirely
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, paying that debt
in their place. People that have been the recipients
of such overwhelming divine mercy, can you tell me, how can they
be unmerciful to others? How can they be unforgiving to
others? Do you remember the parable that Jesus told of the man that
was forgiven a huge debt by his master? He pleaded and was forgiven
a huge debt and then he went out and he had somebody who owed
him a relatively small amount, he had him thrown into the debtors
prison until he had paid every last farthing. And how angry
was the master in the first place, with that unmerciful servant,
because that is not the way of the people of God who have been
shown such mercy. How can they be unmerciful to
others? How can they be unkind to others? Having been forgiven such a debt,
How can we be unforgiving to others? One of the disciples
asked Jesus, how many times should my brother sin against me and
I forgive him? Seven times? Jesus said no, 70
times seven. Meaning, not 490, if I got that
right, I think I did. Not meaning that, not meaning
a fixed number, meaning infinitely forgiving. Endlessly forgiving,
because God has been endlessly forgiving. to his people who
are sinners by nature. How can we be unforgiving to
others when we have been forgiven so much? This is an ongoing cycle
like the hungering and thirsting and constantly being filled.
This is an ongoing cycle of experiencing and knowing and feeling the mercy
of God shown to us and reflecting it onwards in our dealings with
others. They shall be shown mercy. Blessed
are the merciful. They're not blessed because they're
merciful, they're merciful because they're blessed, because they've
seen the glory of God in saving grace. Verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Have you got a pure heart? Have
you? Have you got a pure heart? Have
I got a pure heart? Because only if I have will I
see God. Well, naturally, no, I haven't.
And you haven't either. How do we know this? Jeremiah
17 verse 9, the heart of man is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Who can know
the depths of it? The depths of the sinfulness
and the wickedness and the deceitfulness of the human heart. Pure in heart,
vile in heart by nature, filthy in heart, corrupted, condemned
in heart, sinful in heart by nature, but by grace. God gives
his people a new heart. He does. He says it. I'll give
you a new heart. Ezekiel 36 and verse 26. Listen. A new heart also will
I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart
of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them.
Is that not clear? God gives his people a new heart. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night
and said, we know that you're a preacher from God. And Jesus
said to him, hold on, hold on. Except a man be born again. Except
a man is given a new heart from God, a new eyes from God, a new
spirit from God, to see the things of God, you cannot see, you cannot
talk about the kingdom of God, you can make no judgment on the
kingdom of God, because you're out of it and you know nothing
about it. Except a man be born again. How is he born again?
He's born of the Spirit of God, by the grace of God. A new heart
will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you. And having
put that new spirit within, that spirit which is a spirit of holiness
within, from God, that the sin of the flesh remains until we
leave these bodies. There's a new man within, you
read about him in John's first epistle and chapter 3 and you'll
see there how it is that the two natures, the old sinful nature
and the new nature of the new man that cannot sin are side
by side. And they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God. Follow after holiness, pureness
of heart, without which no man shall see God, yet Christ is
our righteousness, the Lord our righteousness. He is the one
who has taken away the penalty of our sins by paying it in full. And all of it, all of it, is
of the grace of God. It's all because He is a God
of grace. None of it is of works. Next, peacemakers, verse 9. Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children
of God. Peacemakers. Again, I'll be brief. Christ has made peace with God. Peace where there was enmity. Naturally, as sinners, we are
enmity with God. We're the enemies of God. We're
contrary to God and His holiness. But Christ has made peace with
God for His redeemed people. It tells us in Colossians 1 verse
20 that He has made peace through the blood of His cross. It's
that blood of Christ. shed at the cross of Calvary
that has made peace between an offended God and a sinful people. He has made peace. And this is
one of the Gospel's greatest blessings and benefits and comforts. This world is always talking
about peace and what a futile situation it is. As it goes on,
the hardness and the sinfulness of the hearts of men and women
seems to do nothing other than grow worse. Striving for peace,
there's never any peace because there's no thought for God and
the things of God. But those made at peace with
God by faith in Christ are at peace with all things, are they
not? They're at peace with all things.
You see the things going on in this world as all in the hands
of God and all under the control of God. And all will in His time
be brought to an end when the kingdom of God is triumphant
over all things. And these ones who are peacemakers,
because they have known peace, are the children of God. Citizens
of Zion. Children of God. Children of
God are citizens of His Kingdom. By right, by birth, by nature,
by new birth. And they're at peace. They're
at peace with one another. They're at peace as far as possible
with this world around them. And they know peace because Christ
has bought that peace through the blood of his cross. Then
the final one, verses 10, 11, and 12. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Nobody was ever persecuted for
living a good and honest life, a faithful life, a kind and friendly
life. But people are persecuted, true
believers are persecuted for declaring the only righteousness
that secures heaven, the righteousness that is the gift of God alone.
Do you remember when Jesus returned to Nazareth, and he went to the
synagogue, and he preached, and they tried to kill him. Why did
they try to kill that son of their own village? They tried
to kill him for declaring the truth of God in sovereign grace.
They tried to kill him for it, and so the world will persecute
all who maintain gospel truth. All who do not have the mark
of the beast in this world, the philosophy, read about it in
Revelation 13, the philosophy of this world, and it will be
false accusations against the people of God. But God's blessing
God's compensation is heaven, the kingdom of heaven. As Paul
says to the Romans, I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time, the persecutions, the things that we have to stand of this
present time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us, persecuted for righteousness
sake, for maintaining the truth of gospel grace. You're blessed,
for yours is the kingdom of heaven. How different is true Christianity
from the religious world's view of it. Is this your experience? Is it your desire? I say to anybody
listening now, let me finish, and I really am finishing, I
know we've gone a little bit over, but just let me read from
Luke's Gospel, chapter 11, verses 9 to 13, because the answer is
in asking and seeking and finding. This is what Jesus said, Ask,
and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any
of you that is a father, will you give him a stone? If he ask
a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall
ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Of course not. If
you then, being evil by nature, know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Ask Him. Ask Him. Amen.