I count it a joy to be back again. I stand amazed and never get
beyond God's divine providence, how he works and arranges all
things after his own purpose and will. The very minute little
details we many times think are very insignificant, but they're
all ordained of him. to bring us this way this morning,
and maybe God will enable us to worship him. I'm glad to have
my wife Sandy with me this morning. We were actually married three
weeks ago today. Divine providence. It's a miracle when God unites
two people in marriage, when God unites them, and God gives
them both a desire to serve him, a love for him. That's a blessing.
And that's a gift of God. Only God can do that. Only God
can do that. And I give him all the credit.
I give him all the glory and all the praise. If you would
open your Bible this morning to the book of Matthew chapter
5. Matthew chapter 5. We'll read verses 1 through 12. Most of y'all know that this
is the beginning of what is commonly called or referred to as the
Sermon on the Mount. When our Lord preached and expounded
and exposed, He expounded what true righteousness is and He
expounded what false righteousness is. He said in verse 20, for
I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. If you'll look back
sometime, the last book of the Old Testament, the very last
word in the Old Testament is the word curse. But now Christ,
as he comes now to expound the law, to expound the righteousness
of God, he pronounces these eight blessings. Somebody in this world
is blessed. Not what the world calls blessed.
We were over at the hotel this morning and Sandy was speaking
to this man. They were just kind of being
cordial and as he walks off and he says, now you have a blessed
day. That just seems the common saying today. You have a blessed
day. And we know what they mean by that. Now, if everything goes
just fine and you don't have any problems, you don't have
any heartaches, no headaches, no backaches, no problem, everything's
just seemed to go fine, well, then you'll be blessed. Well,
what if everything don't go that way? They say, well, you're cursed
and that you're being punished for some sin, something wrong,
inside. But our Lord in these verses
declared that somebody is blessed. He said in verse 1, and seeing
the multitude, he went up into a mountain. And when he was said,
his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught
them, saying. When he didn't open his mouth,
he taught by example. But when he did open his mouth,
people understood exactly what our Lord said. He spoke in very
simple, clear terms. And they might not have liked
what he said, but they understood exactly what he said. And it's
still the same today. When Christ, he still speaks.
He is the great prince of preachers. And when he preaches, he speaks
clearly. and precisely and people understand
exactly what he says. And he opened his mouth and taught
them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger,
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. And he expounds on verse 10.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, persecute you, and
say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Hear our Lord in these verses.
Describes those the characteristics of those who are the truly blessed
of Almighty God. He's not describing here how
an individual comes to a knowledge of Christ. He's not describing
how a person is converted. He's describing those who are
converted. When God regenerates a sinner
and God gives them a divine nature, he gives them his character.
He gives the characteristics of God and they are truly, truly
blessed people. Let's begin in verse 3 as we
look at these things our Lord describes here, the characteristics
of those who are blessed. And maybe God will speak to our
heart and show us who we are by nature, but who we are in
Christ. The first one he says, blessed
are the poor in spirit. Now he's not, he doesn't say
just blessed are the poor. There's no merit in a man just
being physically in poverty. This is poverty of spirit. He says, blessed are the poor,
the poverty of spirit. Now let me tell you this, this
right here does not grow on natural trees. This is not a product
of a human nature. Man by nature He doesn't think
that he's poverty stricken spiritually. They're just like the Laodicean
church. They think that they're rich and increased with goods
and have need of nothing. But the characteristics of God's
people, they realize that they are spiritually bankrupt. Every
time we come to God, where it's to the house of God, to the word
of God, come to God in prayer, we come bankrupt. We come with
our pockets are empty. We have nothing in ourselves
to bring. We have no wisdom of our own.
We have no strength of our own. We have no understanding of our
own. We are blessed are the poor in spirit. People today talk
about promoting the higher life, but no one promotes the lower
life. We need to be emptied, emptied
of our self-confidence. By nature, we feel like we can
do some things, and God has to strip us every day. Don't you
wish we could learn this? I wish I could learn it and learn
it, that we think, oh, we can do something, and God has to
show us over and over and over again that we can't. We need
to be emptied of our self-confidence, our self-importance, and our
self-righteousness. We have none. That which is highly
esteemed in the sight of men is an abomination in the sight
of God. All so-called ministries today,
you know what it does? It feeds man's pride. He likes to be told how important
he is. That God can't do anything without him. And it just puffs
man up. And they say, oh, you're so blessed.
But God's Word says just the opposite. Blessed are the poor
in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit. What is this poverty of spirit? It's the opposite of that haughty,
self-sufficient spirit. It recognizes that I have nothing. I am nothing, can do nothing,
and that I need from God all things. Our Lord said without
me you can do nothing. Nothing. It is to acknowledge
that God is holy and I am unholy. Someone said self-denial is the
first lesson to be learned in the school of grace. The foundation
of all other graces is laid in humility. Those who build high
must begin low. It's like the prodigal son. We
must come to ourself and realize we have nothing. God must strip. Here's how God always works.
He kills and He makes alive. He wounds and then He heals.
And He enables us. He gives us this nature that
we are poor in spirit. Poor. in spirit. Like I said,
this is the opposite of that Laodicean church. They think
they have everything that they could ever need. Everything. They don't need God. They've
got it all fixed up. Every time we come together,
as we gather here this morning, we need God. Unless God speaks
to us, we'll walk out empty. Empty. God Be merciful to us. God enable us. God help us to
see these are the truly blessed people. It is only those who
have passed from death into life who have become conscious of
their poverty that take the place of a beggar who gladly received
divine charity and begin to seek true riches. Poverty. His pockets are empty. No help, totally, completely
bankrupt. Totally dependent upon someone
else for every single need, physically and spiritually. Roland Hill
once said, poverty of spirit is the bag into which God puts
the riches of his grace. Blessed are the poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The poor in spirit are
enriched with the fullness of Christ. And that's the blessed
man. Blessed man. One day Christ will say from
his great white throne, come you blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
He invites us merely to the full enjoyment of what we already
have now. All it takes is for us to be
with Christ in glory is this whole body just to fall off.
We will, for theirs, these are in the present tense, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. It's ours right now. It's not
something that's going to happen in the future. We have it right
now. We are blessed in Christ right now. It seems like such
a paradox. How can a man be poverty in spirit
and still inherit all things? His is the kingdom of heaven.
It is theirs. It is ours. It's not that it
will be, it is ours. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Someone said
a child of God is the happiest, most miserable person in the
world. We mourn in poverty of spirit, but we realize that the
kingdom of heaven, Christ is ours. Secondly, blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted. They are not only
poor in spirit, but they mourn, they weep, we lament over our
condition. We never get beyond this. We
never get beyond this. Most people in religion, they
read Romans chapter 7, they say, oh, that's talking about a carnal
Christian. They talk about, you know, somebody that's living
in the world too much and not living as close to God as they
should. Now, that's their interpretation. That's describing a man who has
seen himself as nothing. He sees that what he would do,
he don't do. And what he doesn't want to do,
that's the very thing that he does. And he's mourning over
it. He says, oh, wretched man that I am. We mourn over who
we are. Don't you wish you could get
rid of that old man? Don't you wish that you could just throw
it away and it would never come back? And we do, in essence,
say with Paul, oh, wretched man that I am. We mourn over our
condition. We mourn over our unbelief. God,
I wish I could believe like I should. God help my unbelief. We mourn
over these things. We know there is natural mourning.
People breathe and grieve over the loss of loved ones. That's
just a natural mourning that man can produce. And a lot of
times there's nothing more than show. A lot of times there's
nothing more than regret. People regret for something that
they should have, shouldn't have done. And they mourn over it.
But this is talking about a mourning of spirit. This is that gracious
mourning that God calls godly sorrow, which works repentance
not to be repented of. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Those on the day of Pentecost,
when Peter preached and they were pricked in their heart,
they mourned over their condition and they cried out and said,
what must we do to be saved? And they shall be comforted. Blessed are those in poverty
of spirit, those that mourn over their condition. But I'm so thankful
God does not leave us in that state, that he does comfort us. He said, comfort ye, comfort
ye, my people. Every one of you faced trials
this week. Every one of you faced problems,
and every one of you faced the biggest problem was yourself.
And you mourn over it. God's people do. Poverty and
spirit mourn over it. Unbelief, pride, and I could
go on and on and on. But God comes and says, I've
paid for that. I've atoned for that. I've redeemed
you, showed you mercy. And God comforts the hearts of
His people. That's the blessed man. The world
wants a false comfort. They want a false assurance. They want a false peace. But
only God can comfort, and He does comfort, the hearts of His
people. Put in a plane, all hell can
break loose. Everything can fall around you.
But God still comforts the hearts of His people. Blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek. First, there's poverty of spirit,
a sense of our nothingness. We mourn over our condition.
We sorrow over the awfulness of our sin against God. This
meekness submits ourselves to God, to His Word, and to His
rod. Man by nature will not submit.
Man by nature is not meek. Man by nature is a rebel. You
know what it says about Moses? It said he was the meekest man.
How did God make him meek? He took him to the backside of
the desert for 40 years. He's not as cocky as he was 40
years earlier. God broke him. God made him meek. And he bowed himself and submitted
to God's will and God's rod, whatever that it is. And that's
the characteristics of God's people. We bow to his will. God sent and took Job's ten children
at one time. All ten. You know what Job said? The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And Job's wife said, why don't you just curse God and die? He
said, you talk like a foolish woman. He said, should we receive
just good at the hands of God and not evil? That's meekness.
He bowed to God's will. Bowed to God's will. Blessed
are the meek. Christ was the king of meekness.
He was led, not dragged as a lamb to the slaughter. What's this? Meekness produces the meanest
thoughts of ourselves and the best thoughts of somebody else.
That's meekness. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness
is the mark of a man who has been mastered by God Almighty. He's been mastered. Someone said meekness enables
a person to endure provocations without being inflamed by them. Do you ever get mad when somebody
attacks your character? We could all hang our head. But
he said, meekness enables a person to endure provocations without
being inflamed by them. I'll tell you a good example
of this. One day David was walking on
this ridge, and on the other ridge over there, there was a
man cursing David. I don't know what all he was
saying, but the Bible just says he was cursing him. And one of David's
servants said, you just let me at that man. I'll go take care
of that man. And you know what David said? Leave him alone. The Lord bid him. to curse me. Blessed are the meek. He remains cool when others get
heated. The Bible says, if any man be
overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a
want in a spirit of what? Meekness. Lest thou also be tempted. All right, that could be me.
That could be you. And you know it could. It's putting others before yourself. If people only knew what was
inside of me and if people only knew what was on the inside of
you. And we know that. Blessed are the meek. We don't try to hide it. God's
people don't try to hide. This is just who we are. We don't
try to cover it up with self-righteousness. It's been exposed. Blessed are
the meek. Matthew Henry wrote, they are meek who are rarely
and hardly provoked. When they spit in our Lord's
face, I can't think of anything more repulsive. He opened not
his mouth. When they stoned Stephen to death,
you know what Stephen said? Lord, lay not this to their charge. In their meekness. Like I said, this is not a product
of the human nature. This is a product of God's grace.
Blessed are they which are meek. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. When Adam sinned, he forfeited
his spiritual right to this earth. for himself and all of his posterity. But Christ gained all this back
for his elect and it is ours. They shall inherit the earth.
They have inherited the earth. I know you've heard your pastor
say this. I've heard him say it many times. This whole earth,
everything in it, everything on top of it only exists for
one reason. That's for the salvation of God's
people and for the glory of God's name. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall and do inherit the earth. The fourth thing. Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. There is a longing after which
they know they have, they cannot fulfill themselves. And man must
be first cured of all his earthly pursuits before he will ever
seek anything better. Here it describes them. It says
they hunger and they thirst. We don't know much about physical
hunger. We just eat when we want to.
We don't know much about physical thirst. We get anything we want
to when we want it. But you take a man who's not
had anything to eat for three or four days. who's not had anything
to drink for three or four days. That man's desperate and his
thoughts are only on one thing. That's food and water. And the characteristics of God's
people are God wins them from this world and they only have
one thing on their mind. They hunger and they thirst after
a righteousness which they do not have. Hunger and thirst. He's never satisfied, never satisfied
until he's told once again that Jesus Christ is made unto him
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Tell me again.
Tell me again what Christ did. He has a perfect righteousness,
perfect righteousness. How he died in the sinner's place,
how he's the sinner's mercy seat. He hungers all of his appetites. All of his cravings, all of his
spiritual nature goes toward what he wants. And he will have it. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Paul said he had not obtained
it. He pressed toward that mark.
We long to be free from sin. The desire is intense. What will a man that's hungry,
what would he do? If he's desperate, he'd do about
anything. Nothing would stop him. A good
example of this is the woman with the issue of blood. Nothing
would stop her getting to our Lord. Nothing. One day there
was these men, four men, brought their friend to Christ. They
come to the house and they couldn't get in. They could have turned
around and went back to the house and said, oh, maybe it's not
God's will for him to be healed. You know what they did? They
got up on the roof, tore the roof off, and let that man down
to where Christ was at. They were desperate. Desperate. Nothing would stop them. Why
do you see some of God's people drive for 30, 40, 50 miles, maybe
even an hour, two hours, every Sunday morning? You know what?
They are hungry. And they are thirsting after
righteousness that's not found just anywhere. It's found in
God's house where the Lord Jesus Christ is proclaimed, and they
will not stop anywhere short of Him. Feed me with Christ. Give me His righteousness. Hungry
and thirsting. He'll break through anything.
And it says, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness. It doesn't say they might be
filled. It says they shall be filled. Boy, it'd be horrible,
wouldn't it? To be hungry and never have any
food. That'd be horrible. To die of
hunger. And God creates in every child
of God a hunger after His righteousness. And He fills it. And what he
does, he satisfies it. No one else gets filled. When
God creates a hunger and thirst in the soul, it is that he may
satisfy it. And God is so made man that nothing
else can fill that void but him. Won't be satisfied with anyone
else, only him. The fifth one. Blessed are the
merciful. Like I said, this is describing
those who, the characteristics of those who have been made the
children of God. They are merciful. They are kind. They are gentle. They are compassionate. They are merciful. Now the world
turns this around. They say that a man's He does
merciful acts to obtain mercy. So it's a trade-off. He's getting
paid for what he did. We are merciful because we have
received mercy. We know that God did not have
to show us mercy. Someone said this about Brother
Scott Richardson. They said there was a man that
he knew one day. He'd broken the law. It must have been a
very serious crime. Brother Scott went to court with
that man. The man was found guilty. The man was sentenced. After
the trial, Brother Scott goes up to the DA and he says, don't
you think there's any leniency, any mercy for a man like that? The DA calling in an old hard
voice said, he don't deserve mercy. Scott said if he deserved
it, it wouldn't be mercy. Blessed are the merciful. We
see people. Hard, mean. So, well, they don't
deserve mercy. Well, if they deserved it, it
wouldn't be mercy. Blessed are the merciful. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our mercy seat. The only reason God does not
cast us away, throw us away, is because of His mercy in Christ. In Him. Blessed are the merciful.
Because they have received mercy. Abraham was merciful to Lot. Joseph, we know who is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, was cast into a pit by his brothers,
sold into slavery by his brothers. And God worked providence and
brings Joseph to the throne. And now Joseph's brothers have
to come to Egypt and buy corn, and they don't recognize Joseph.
You know what Joseph did? He showed mercy to them brothers.
He had the right, he had the power and the authority to have
every one of them killed. And he showed them mercy. Blessed
are the merciful. David was merciful to Saul. Moses
was merciful to Miriam. Miriam criticized Moses for marrying
the Ethiopian woman. And God smote her with leprosy.
And Moses prayed, God, heal her now, oh God. I beseech thee. Human nature would have said
she's getting just exactly what she deserves. Isn't that right? But blessed are the merciful.
God showed you mercy and you know it. And we're merciful to
others. The merciful will not repeat
the manner. He is merciful to the poor. He
is merciful to those around them. The Pharisees have no mercy to
anyone. They show no mercy to anyone. They shall obtain mercy. Matthew Henry said, now listen
to this, the merciful shall find God's sparing mercy, supplying
mercy, sustaining mercy. Whereas they shall have judgment
without mercy, which can mean nothing short of hellfire, who
have showed no mercy. Religion shows no mercy. Hard,
mean, cruel. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. Number six, blessed are the pure
in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart.
How does a man get a pure heart? By nature, we have a heart that's
desperately wicked. Who can know it? Only by God's
regeneration. Only by God giving a man or a
woman a new nature. Blessed are the pure in heart. Today, this world is satisfied
with head religion. Many are just satisfied with
a sound creed. As long as they say everything's
right, then everything's fine, just with the head. Many are
satisfied with hand religion, just doing what they call good
Christian service. But Christ here deals with the
heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. What is the result of
this? They shall see God. Most people come to this book
and they see nothing more than pages with white writing, black
writing, or red writing. They just see a good history
book. They don't see God. This world, they look at this
creation and they don't see God. They see some big boom theater
idea or something. That's all they see. They don't
see God. But the pure in heart see God in all things. When they
come to this book, we see God. We see how God can be just and
justifier. We see how God does that. We
see how Brother Tim James said this at the conference over at
Donny Bell's. He said, we have an unction from the Holy One
and we know all things. We know why all things exist.
We understand why we do see God. God is the Spirit. We see God
by faith. We see God in every instance.
We see God in every providence. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Wicked in heart don't see God
in things. They say God won't have anything
to do with that. They say that's not fair. I don't
know why God did that. They cannot see. Their eyes are
blind. But blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Here's what Spurgeon said. He
said some people never see God for they always look to the shell
and never to the kernel. They always lick the bone and
never get to the marrow of the bone. Some people read this book,
this Bible, and never see God. He opens the Bible, not to see
what's there, but to see what he can find to back up his own
views and opinions. They'll take one verse out of
context to try to prove what they believe. They do not see
God. He said they would like to mold
the Bible like a cake of wax. To any shape he pleases, he cannot
see truth and he does not want to see truth. The pure in heart
are able to see God in nature, in the scriptures, and they begin
to see God in his true character. In religion, I didn't see God
in his true character. He was some figment of my imagination.
I saw him like everybody else saw him. But when God regenerated
this dead dog sinner and gave me a new heart, I saw God. What's eternal life? To know
God. To see God. And one day, one day, We'll see
Him face to face. See Him. See Him. What a day
that will be when my Jesus I shall see, when I look upon His face,
the one who saved me by His grace. Not somebody else is going to
behold Him for me. I'll behold Him and see Him myself. How can a man dwell in God's
presence? How can a man see God and dwell
in God's presence? Those that are pure in heart. Pure in heart. Pure in heart. This is hard for us to comprehend.
Because all we see is sin. Sin. The seventh thing, blessed
are the peacemaker. James 3, 17. The wisdom that
is from above is first pure, and peaceable, gentle, and easy
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality
and without hypocrisy. Blessed are the peacemaker. But
let me tell you this, this peace is not to be sought at the expense
of righteousness. Some people say, well, it's just
peace at any cost. God's people cannot And will
you not unite with those who lie on God, blaspheme God? There cannot be peace there.
God said, Christ said, I didn't come to bring peace but a sword.
But blessed are the peacemaker, Romans 12, 18. If it be possible,
as much as life in you live peaceably with all men. I've got some family
members who just do not want to hear the gospel. and for me
to live at peace with them at all, I just don't say anything. Maybe one day God will open up
the door. You know what I'm saying. Blessed are the peacemaker. Ephesians
4.13, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond
of peace. Romans 10.15, how beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Blessed are the peacemakers for
they shall be called the children of God. This is proof that these
Beatitudes are not the virtues of the natural man, but rather
the spiritual graces of those who are regenerated. To be a
child of God is to be renewed and made in his likeness. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Then lastly, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness
sake. They are not persecuted for self-righteousness,
not for haughtiness. We know many times we're probably
persecuted just for our sinful nature. But we are persecuted
for the gospel of God's amazing righteousness, His perfect atonement. This world hates that righteousness. They persecute God. That's just
how it is. Cain still hates Abel. Jacob still hates Esau. Blessed
are they which are persecuted. What a paradox. They are blessed
because they are persecuted. This shows the depravity of man's
heart. The wicked hate God's holy image
and those who bear it. You know what it does? It makes
them uncomfortable. You ever went in a dark room,
turn the light on sometime, you see cockroaches running everywhere?
They love the darkness. You can take a whole family.
Whole family, a whole bunch of them. Every one of them religious.
Every one of them made professions. Every one of them been baptized.
Every one of them been catechized or whatever you want to call
it. They can be Methodist. They can be Baptist. They can be Catholic.
They can be more. They can be everything. Every
different brand. And God reached down and in his
mercy pulled one like a firebrand out of the fire and give that
child of God a new nature. And you know what's going to
happen? Every single one of them will turn on him. Blessed are
they which are persecuted. Why? For righteousness sake,
for Christ's sake, because Christ is in the midst. Ishmael was
probably about 13 years old before Isaac was ever born, and as long
as Ishmael was the only one in the house, everything was fine.
But when God brought this miracle child into existence and now
Isaac is there, Isaac is the promised child, Isaac is the
heir of the throne, the Ishmael turns against Isaac and said
he mocks him. And that's what I'm talking about. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness sake. The wicked hate God. If you were
of the world, the world would love its own. But because you're
not of this world and He's chosen us out of the world, therefore
the world hates us. You know why men speak against
the gospel? Because the gospel speaks against
them. When God puts a child of God
in the midst of religious, legalistic, workmongers, you know what it
does? It makes them uncomfortable. And what it does, it exposes
them. They might not even utter a word.
They know that they're not meek. They know that they're not peacemakers.
They know that they're not all these things that's just described
in these verses. They know that they're not poverty
of spirit. They know that they don't mourn
over these things. And there's something different
about that man. And there is something different. God hath
made a difference. God hath changed that man. God
hath regenerated him. And you know what he is? He can
be persecuted and hated and he's a blessed man. Blessed man. We read verses 11 and 12 in closing. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you. and say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake." You just read in the epistles
everywhere Paul went, they tried to deface him. They tried to
discredit him. They tried to attack his character
and everything about him. They were trying to hinder the
gospel. He said when they revile you and persecute you and say
all manner of evil against you falsely. He said rejoice and
be exceedingly glad. This word blessed can mean happy. God has made us blessed and God
has made us happy. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad
for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you, there's not a single one that
was not persecuted. There's not a single one that
was not despised. God has not changed. The world
has not changed. Man's nature has not changed.
And man's hatred for God has not changed. But God's people. in this world
are a blessed people in Christ. May God bless that to our hearing. Amen.