We'll read verses 1 through 12, Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 through
12. This is what is known as the
Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5 through chapter 7. Here in the beginning of this
great sermon, our Lord says, and seeing the multitude, he
went up into a mountain. And he was said, his disciples
came unto him, 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 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute
you and 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. Let us
pray. Our Father, we thank you for
your goodness, your grace, and your mercy that you have showed
toward us unworthy sinners. We thank you that in your providence
you have allowed us this Sunday evening to gather in this place
to worship around your dear son, that great and merciful high
priest, our mercy seat. We realize that it's because
of him and him alone that we are accepted. And we beg this
evening that you might meet with us in this place, that you might
bless your word, bless those who have come this way, give
them ears to hear and an understanding to be able to understand. We
realize, Lord, that we're at your mercy, and we pray that
if it would please you and honor your great name, that you would
bless this time together. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Today I want to talk about, with
the Lord's help, who is blessed of God. Talking about who is blessed
of God. Now what the world says, and their opinion of blessed,
and what God's definition of being blessed is, entirely different
things. The world says, well, if a man
has all he could ever want, then, well, he's a blessed man. If
he has good looks and fame and all these things, well, he must
be a blessed man. What about us who don't have these things?
The world would say, well, we're accursed people. But that's not
what our Lord says. He says in here many times in
these verses, blessed, blessed, blessed. And He said, blessed
are in the present tense. They're blessed now. And every
blessing that we have is found in the Lord Jesus Christ in Him
alone. Blessed in all spiritual blessings,
all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. I want to show
you in the last chapter, in the last book of the Old Testament,
the book of Malachi, one of the last words, well the last word
in that Old Testament book, just turn back just a few pages, Verse
6, "...and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come
and smite the earth with a curse." So the last word in the Old Testament
ends with a curse. And here Christ, that great preacher,
stands and preaches and proclaims the blessedness of His people. Here we see that He comes upon
this mountain. And you remember another mountain
in the Old Testament called Mount Sinai. When God came down and
gave the law, it said that the mountains smoke with God's presence. And He said, don't let anyone
come to this mountain. Fearful, the quake, the righteousness,
the holiness of God and the holiness of God's law. And now Christ
comes to proclaim that law to His people. And he comes, and
he sits on this mountain, and it's said in verse 2, he taught
them. He taught them. And when he teaches,
when he didn't open his mouth, he taught by example. And then
when he spoke, he spoke, he didn't mutter. He spoke and said exactly
what he meant. Now what he's dealing with here
in this chapter, if you'll, I just challenge you, this week, go
back and read both those chapters. He's dealing with those religious
people, the Pharisees, who thought they were righteous. He said,
you'll notice many times he said, you have heard. He didn't say
that it's been written. He said, now you've heard. Who
was saying this? Those Pharisees. They were saying,
well, this is what the law says. But Christ said, this is what
the law says. They said an eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth. They said to love you, Your neighbor
hates your enemy. That's what they said. They said,
you know, we're going to hate all them Gentiles. We're going
to hate them. That's what they said. That's
why they despised the Samaritans and all those. And that's why
Christ went on purpose through Samaria and saved that woman.
On purpose. On purpose. And here he describes
what blessedness is. He's not describing how a man's
saved. He's describing who is saved. These characteristics, these
blessed people. If you want to be blessed, it's
found in Him and Him alone. That's the only place, the only
place. So this evening, let's begin
at verse 3 and look at these eight blessedness that our Lord
says. Each one of these characteristics
of His people. He said, blessed are the poor
in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He didn't say blessed
are the poor. He said blessed are the poor
in spirit. People today want to talk about
promoting the higher life, but nobody wants to talk about promoting
the lower life. Poverty of spirit, blessed is
the man that is poor in spirit. He sees like we saw. He said, nothing in my hand I
bring. I don't have anything to bring.
We're bankrupt. We have nothing in ourself. It
ain't us strutting ourself before God thinking that we're important.
We're poor. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And I tell you this, this doesn't
grow on natural branches. This doesn't grow in the natural
heart. This is where God has done a work in a man's heart.
When he sees in this, this is not a one-time thing. This is
not something that happened years ago when a man says, well, when
I was under conviction, I felt poverty of spirit. No, this is
something God's people feel every day. Paul said, oh, wretched
man that I am. That's poverty of spirit. We
realize and know that in and of ourselves that we're nothing.
And now that's a blessed man. A blessed man. Blessed are the
poor in spirit. These so-called ministers of
our day, they feed man's pride and instead of starving the flesh,
they want to pump it up. They tell man how good he is,
what he can do. The Bible tells us that we're
nothing and nobody's. Nothing. Never can offer anything
good. The best day you thought you
ever had, In God's sight, rejected. That's right. The only reason,
I spoke this morning on the salt there in verse 13. The salt represents
Christ. And it said every sacrifice had
to be salted with salt or it was rejected. The salt is what
preserved it. The salt represented Christ.
And the only reason God receives anything we offer up is because
of His dear Son. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
This poverty of spirit, what is this? It is to acknowledge
that God is holy and we are unholy. He is holy. He is righteous. The foundation of all other graces
is laid in this thing called humility. This is what the prodigal
son learned. Can you just see him when he
left his father? Boy, I've got the cat by the tail. I've got
everything I could ever want. I can buy anything I want." Until
he wasted it all and had to go down and hire himself out to
some so-called preacher to feed swine. And he come to himself,
poverty of spirit, totally bankrupt. As long as a man thinks he can
pay God off, he will. That's right, as long as he thinks
he can. But when he sees, I ain't got nothing. I ain't got anything
he wants. I don't have any way of accumulating
anything. I can't pay off one sin. Blessed
are those who are poor in spirit. This is those who have passed
from death into life. Roland Hill once said, poverty
of spirit 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. One day Christ will say
from the great white throne judgment, listen, come ye blessed of my
Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. What a blessing. What a paradox. Poor in spirit
but inheriting the earth. What a paradox! The second one,
verse 4, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Poor in spirit, then they mourn
and they weep and they lament over their condition. Like I
said, this ain't something that happened in the past. This is
something a child of God, I'm talking about a true child of
God, regenerated by God's Holy Spirit, something they feel every
day. You mourn over who you are. You mourn over sin. Sin. Not just sins, but sin. Like
I already mentioned, Paul said, O wretched man that I am. He said, the things I want to
do, I don't do. The things I don't want to do
is what I find myself doing. He said, O wretched man that
I am. Isaiah said, woe is me. Job said,
I'll put my hand over my mouth. Mourning. Mourning. Mourning. We mourn over our unbelief. We
mourn over when we've grieved God's Holy Spirit. We mourn over
the sins in this world. We see the condition this world's
in, and the child of God mourns over it. Mourns. You know what
Paul said? He said, that nation of Israel
is just real religious. They're going about to establish
their own righteousness. He said, my heart's desire for
them is they'd all be saved. He mourned over them. Mourned. There's a natural mourning when
people just breathe and grieve when bad things happen, but there's
a gracious mourning called godly sorrow that works repentance.
Godly sorrow. A man feels bad when he gets
caught. But what about when it's just
between you and God? God knows your thoughts are far
off. And that's when David, when he confessed his sin in Psalms
51, he said, against thee and thee only have I sinned. It's
sin against God and you mourn over that condition. That's a
blessed man. Mourning. Mourning over his sin. That weight of sin. That's what
happened on the day of Pentecost. When Peter preached and those
people were pricked in their hearts and they said, what must
we do to be saved? Mourning over it. But the blessing
is they shall be comforted. He's the only one that can comfort
you when you're mourning over your sin. Let me tell you this. Now, I don't want to seem like
I'm just always bashing religion. But religion says you come to
the front of the church. You shake the preacher's hand
and everything's alright. They're trying to comfort that
mourner. But He's the only one that can
comfort. He's the only one. They are comforted
here by revelation of Jesus Christ. When they see Him, they're comforted. And they'll be comforted hereafter
when we're free from sin. We won't have to mourn over it
anymore. That old nature of Gary is going to be gone. It's going
to fall away. We won't have to deal with it
anymore, anymore. Blessed are they that mourn,
they shall, they shall be comforted. In verse 5, blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth. This is the byproduct of the
first two of poverty of spirit and they that mourn. First poverty
of spirit, a sense of our nothingness. Then we mourn over our condition.
And then makes us meek. Meekness is not weakness. Moses,
it says, was the meekest man. Is that what it says? Why was
he meek? How did God make him meek? Well,
it took him 80 years, didn't it? Took him on the backside
of the desert for 40 years. It broke him. Realized he was
nothing and nobody. Meek. And I tell you, he had
to be meek. For 40 years later, he led them
children of Israel through the wilderness, and every time he
turned around, they were murmuring to him. Meekness. Meekness. Someone said
meekness is the mark of a man who has been mastered by God. Not some proud, haughty spirit,
but meekness. This is, like I said before,
this is not something that man works up. Man tries to be meek. He's not meek. He's proud. Haughty. Haughty. Matthew Henry wrote,
they that are meek, they are meek who are rarely and hardly
provoked. Anybody ever provoked you? Why
do we get provoked? Somebody did something against
us we just didn't like. They come against us. They said
something against us. They told a lie on us. They provoked
us. Look what they've done to our
Lord. He was led as a lamb to the sloughed lead. They didn't
drag him lead. And Moses, when he come off that
mountain one day, he said, what's all this dancing going on? What's
this music? They was in there dancing to
the golden calf. You know what God said? God says,
just let me at them and I'll kill every one of them. Moses
prayed for him. That's meekness. Meekness. These, the meek, shall inherit
the earth, the promised land. Listen, when Adam sinned, he
forfeited his spiritual right to this earth and every one of
his descendants that followed him. But when Jesus Christ died,
he purchased it and bought it back for his elect. They shall
inherit the earth. The land of Canaan was whose?
It was the children of Israel's by promise. When they came in,
they inherited it. It was theirs by right, by rightful
possession. Blessed, talking about blessedness. Then verse 6, blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Here the eye is
taken away from self and looks to somebody else. There's a longing
after that which they know they don't have, but they know that
they urgently need. What is it? Righteousness. They hunger and thirst after
righteousness. I tell you, when God quickens
a sinner, he makes them long after his righteousness. Long. The question that he asks over
and over and over again, how can I be righteous in God's sight? How can God have anything to
do with me? He hungers and thirsts after
righteousness. And he'll never be satisfied
till he hears that Christ has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. He hungers. All of his appetites,
all of his cravings, all of his spiritual nature goes after one
thing, righteousness. He's hungry. You ever seen somebody
hungry? I mean, I'm talking about truly
hungry. They have an old proverb. They
say that hunger will break through walls to get what it wants. And
I tell you, a man that's hungry for Christ and His righteousness,
nothing won't stand in his way. He's hungry. I'm talking about
hungry. He's tired of feeding on swine
husk. He's hungry. He's hungry for
what? Righteousness that he don't have.
He's thirsty. David said, as the heart, the
young deer pants after the water brook, my soul pants after thee. I think only God can do that.
And he keeps doing it. That's the blessed man. Like
I said, this ain't something that happened in years past.
This is something that goes on every day in a child of God's
life. He's describing those who are
the blessed people. They hunger and they thirst after
righteousness and it can be found in only one place, and that's
Jesus Christ and Him alone. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. And He knows that. It's like
the woman, she'd come and she said, my daughter's sick. And
our Lord said, it's not me. We first ignored her. And she
said something else. I don't remember the whole story,
but he looked at her and he said, it's not me to take the children's
bread and cast it to dogs. He called her a dog. Most people
would have left. But she said, that's true, Lord,
but I'm your dog. And the dogs eat of the crumbs
that fall from their master's table. You know what? She was
hungry and there was nowhere else to go. One day our Lord
said something, and a lot of people turned and they left Him.
He turned and looked at the disciples. He said, Will you leave also?
Will you leave me also? They said, Where are we going?
You have the words of eternal life. They hungered, and they
thirsted after righteousness. I want to show you something
to illustrate this. If you would turn to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. Apostle Paul knew something about
this. Philippians chapter 3, verse 7, he says, But what things
were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ? Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but lost for the excellency and the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things. And to count them but done, that I may win Christ.
and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know
him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death. if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Now watch this.
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,
but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also
I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." He never quit pursuing
that righteousness. He said, I want to be found in
Him, not in my own righteousness. The most fearful thing for a
child of God is to stand one day clothed in their own filthy
righteousness. But blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after His righteousness. I said, this desire is intense. It's more intense than hunger
and thirst. What will a man who is hungry
be driven to do? What would he do? Some people
drive a lot of ways, a lot of miles, just to hear the gospel. Why? They hungry. How many places
do they drive by? And you can people say, why don't
you drive over there? There's a church down the street
you can go to. They don't understand. You know
what? You're hungry. You're hungry. And you want to
hear about Christ and His righteousness. And you're hungry. And you never
get over that hunger. It's like a natural hunger. You can get hungry. Boy, it's
nice to sit down and get a good meal. But tomorrow you're going
to be hungry again. We feed upon Christ, but tomorrow
we need to feed again. Why? We're hungry again. And
we want Him. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness." This holy craving after righteousness,
which is what the Holy Spirit imparts, it dominates, listen,
it dominates His entire being. It controls Him. It's all He
thinks about. Why? He's hungry. Hungry. We don't know much about physical
hunger. Most of the time they anymore
say, we just eat because we want to. But what about a man that's
truly hungry? He's desperate. That's what it
is. He's desperate. He won't let
anything, nothing stand in his way. And they shall be filled. This is a unique blessing. No
one else gets filled. Who gets filled? Them that are
hungry. Them that are hungry. I heard Brother Mahan use this
illustration. He said a lady in his church
many years ago said her husband worked for the town and something
had happened and he almost got killed in an explosion and he
was down in the hospital and he decided he wanted to talk
to a preacher. So she called Brother Mahan and
said my husband wants to talk to you. When he got down to the
hospital said he was more scared than hurt. You know, he was just
afraid he was going to die. And Henry took his Bible and
walked in there to him and he said, So-and-so said, do you
know your sinner? He said, well, I don't know if
I'd say that. And he said, well, and he said, I wasn't being mean.
He said, I just folded up my Bible. And he said, well, I don't
have anything for you. That man wasn't hungry. That
man didn't need a physician. He didn't think you were sick.
He was just scared. But if man's hungry, he'll be filled. Filled. Aren't you glad God didn't
leave you hungry? It'd be sad for you to create
a hunger and the man just leave you there. He creates the hunger
and He satisfies it. He gave you a hunger for Christ
and He gave you Christ. And you know what? You're satisfied.
You're filled. You're resting. And you'll never
be... Listen, you will never be satisfied
with anything That's exactly right. You can't
stomach anything else. If anything, it turns your stomach.
You ever eat an old hamburger or something, got a hold of something
bad and you just didn't sit good? That's right, it just doesn't
sit good. But blessed are they which do hunger and thirst, they
shall be filled. Then verse 7, blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. They are kind, gentle,
and compassionate. Grace makes them so. Why are
they merciful? Not to get mercy, but because
they've received mercy. That's it. You remember the story of Joseph,
sold into slavery by his brothers. They thought, well, we got rid
of him. But years later, there was a famine arose and them same
brothers have to go down to Egypt. And God has raised up Joseph
and put him on the throne. And them same brothers had to
come to Joseph and beg for corn. Joseph sitting on the throne,
Joseph knew who them boys were, knew what they had done, and
he had the power and the right to destroy them when they came.
They didn't recognize him, but you know what he did? He showed
them mercy. Then He gave them the corn, and
they even brought money to pay for the corn, and He put it in
their sacks. Is that what God did for you? God had the right
and the power. He knew everything about you,
and He could have destroyed you, and He showed you mercy. Blessed
are the merciful. The merciful. He is merciful to the poor. He
is merciful to those around Him. You say, well, they don't deserve
it. Did you deserve it? No, we didn't. Mercy is God not giving you exactly
what you deserve. You say, well, they don't deserve
it. That's why you show mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Blessed are the
merciful. And God's grace makes His people
merciful. Merciful. And they shall obtain
mercy. 2 Timothy 1.18, Paul said, The
Lord granted to him Onesimus that he may find mercy of the
Lord in that day. And in how many things he ministered
unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well. That man Onesimus
sought Paul out when he was in prison and showed him mercy.
And showed him mercy. Here's what Matthew Henry said,
"...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 hell fire who have shown no
mercy." The Pharisees showed no mercy. They said that old
publican over there. But blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy. Then the next one, verse 8. I
mean, yeah, verse 8. Blessed are the poor in spirit
and the poor in heart, for they shall see God. How can any man
be pure in heart? By nature we're not pure. The
Bible says, who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? He
that hath clean hands and a pure heart. God deals with the problem
here, and it's a heart problem. But blessed are the pure in heart.
How does a man's heart become pure? By regeneration. God gives
him a divine nature. Divine nature. And that doesn't
mean that he's sinless in his life. Contrary to what some say. That's right. It ain't happening. It ain't happening. Listen, many
today are satisfied with head religion. thanking all as well
because they took up a good creed. Some are satisfied with hand
religion, just working in what they call Christian service.
But it's a heart problem. God's dealing with something
on the inside. I said this morning, religion
works on the outside. To try to clean up a man on the
outside, make him look good on the outside, just get rid of
a few bad habits and give him a few good habits and everything
will be fine. When God regenerates a man, He gives him a new heart,
and it changes not on the inside, but the outside. And I like this
one, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. He shall see God. Listen to what
Spurgeon said. I like this. He said, some people
will never see God before they always look to the shell and
never get to the kernel. They always lick the bone and
never get to the marrow. They're satisfied with just on
what's on the outside. Some people read the Bible. I
used to know people who bragged about how many times a year they
read the Bible. He said they read the Bible and never see
God. He opens the Bible not to see
what is there, but to see what he can find to back up his own
views and opinions. That's all he's looking for,
God. I tell you, when God opened my eyes, I'm telling you, it's
like I got a whole new book. It's like on every page you see
Jesus Christ. Every page you see God. The pure in heart shall see God. The pure in heart are able to
see God in nature, in the scriptures, and I tell you this, they are
able to see God in everything. You ever heard people make statements
like this, God didn't have anything to do with that? You ever heard
anybody say that? Something tragedy happens and
just like what happened in 9-11, say God didn't have anything
to do with that. Let me tell you this, is God sovereign? If
it happened, He had everything to do with it. I know if it hadn't,
it wouldn't have happened, if He hadn't have left it. That's
right. The pure in heart shall see God. I'm just talking about this first
chapter. When God took everything Job had, his wife said, why don't
you just curse God and die? Why don't you just curse God
and die? You know what Job said the Lord
gave? The Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
You know what he did? He saw God in that. And he worshipped
God. That's a blessed man. That'll
float your boat when everything goes bad. Blessed are the pure
in heart, and they shall see God with the eye of faith. See God. And I tell you this, one day
we'll see Him face to face. I haven't sung that song in years,
but I used to love to sing it. And now that I know grace, I
love to sing it more. Oh, what a day that will be when
my Jesus I shall see. and I look upon His face, the
One who saved me by His grace." And one day we'll see Him. It
says we'll see Him. We'll be like Him. We'll see
Him with undimmed eyes. Yes. They shall see God. To see God is to love Him. To
see God is to bow to Him. To see God is to worship Him.
Isn't that what John said? We beheld Him. We've handled
Him. We've beheld His glory. A lot
of people saw Jesus and never seen Him. But if you ever see
Him for who He is, you'll bow to Him. You'll think that He
is precious. Precious. Then the next one,
blessed are the peacemakers. This has more to do with conduct
than with character. The miracle of grace, which has
made peace with God, causes an individual to regard their fellow
men with sincere interest. This is what he said in James
3, verse 17. But the wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without
hypocrisy. This is not talking about peace
at the expense of righteousness. That's not what we're talking
about. When God saves an individual and puts them in a family and
saves the whole family's religious, there's going to be turmoil.
They're going to all turn on Him. It ain't peace, it's a sake
of righteousness. He said, I didn't come to send
peace, but a sword. He said, I've come to put a man
at variance with his own children and the son against his father
and the father against the son. Why is there a war? They serve
different gods. But I tell you, he wants peace.
Child of God, he don't like war. He hates it. He wants peace. That's why it says, listen, in
Romans chapter 12 verse 18, if it be possible, as much as life
in you live peaceably with all men. You talk to some people
and boy, you want to tell them about God and salvation and this
glorious gospel. And sometimes all they want to
do is argue. Why you do? Well, if they ever want to talk,
we'll talk, but we ain't going to argue about it. As much as
life in you, live peaceably with all men. Because God hath made
peace through the cross. We were at war one day, and he
made peace, perfect peace, not a peace that the world says,
well, he made his peace with God. It ain't never happened.
It has never happened. Christ is the only one who can
make peace. He made peace through the blood
of His cross and it makes His people want peace. Blessed are
the peacemakers, peacemakers. Ephesians 4.13, endeavoring to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The heralds,
the preachers of the gospel are messengers of peace and they
tell sinners to throw down their weapons of warfare and bow to
Christ. Let's see how we can make peace.
Bow to Christ. Bow to Him. Quit rebelling. It's like you've got what you
want to do stuck square in God's face and say, I'm going to do
whatever I want to do. As long as you do that, there
ain't going to be a war until you come to a place where you
quit fighting because you realize you're fighting a losing battle
and you bow to Him and say like Paul did on the Damascus Road,
What would you have me to do? They shall be called the children
of God. To be made a child of God is
to be renewed in His image and in His likeness, whom He did
foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His dear Son. to be called a child of God?
You're talking about a blessing. You're talking about a blessing? Then the last one, blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. God's people
have always been persecuted. Why? Because they persecuted
Him. Why did they persecute His church? That's right. They hate him. They don't just
dislike him. They hate him. They despise him
and anything to do with him. They hate him. They persecute
him. The very first blood that was shed upon this earth was
shed between Cain and Abel over this very thing. Cain persecuted
Abel because of righteousness sake. Why? He said them boys talked.
I don't know what they said to each other, but it made Cain
so mad. What made him mad? Because God would not accept
his sacrifice. Because Cain thought, well, I've
offered my best. Ain't that good enough? I'll
be accepted as righteous because what I've done, ain't it good
enough? And God said, no, it's not. But Abel brought a sacrifice,
a blood sacrifice, which showed he was looking to a substitute
who died in his place, and God accepted him. on those terms
as righteous. And Cain persecuted him for righteousness
sake and killed his own brother. And the Lord said, that man that
is persecuted is a blessed man. Blessed. What a paradox. What a paradox. They are persecuted
not for self-righteousness, not for holiness, but for the gospel
of God's righteousness in Christ. And I tell you, human nature
has never changed. It's just as bad now as it was
then. Everywhere Paul went, they haunted
him, hunted him, would have killed him. Eventually he did die as
a martyr, but why? For righteousness sake. Listen,
the wicked hate God's image and those who bear it. truth and
those who walk in it. If you were the world, the world
would love its own, but because you're not of the world and I've
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." I tell you, we live in a world,
we don't know much what they did in years gone back when they
were martyrs and they were persecuted. Like John Bunyan, the one who
broke Pilgrim's Progress, which was stowed in prison for 12 years
because he wouldn't quit preaching the gospel. I tell you, we don't
know what we might face. But blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Someone said men speak against
the gospel because the gospel speaks against them. That's right. They can't stand it. But these
people, our Lord describes as blessed people. Let's 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. And here it is, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad."
How can a man be glad when he's persecuted? He's a blessed man. For great is your reward in heaven. You know that's not talking about,
well, when we get to heaven, God's going to give us all these
crowns. What did God tell Abraham? He said, Abraham, I am your exceeding
and great reward. He's all we want. Well, great is your reward in
heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before
you. It's no new thing. They persecuted
the prophets. Just read Hebrews chapter 11.
It describes everyone of them. Some were sullen asunder and
all these things. But these are what our Lord described
and who He describes as those who are Blessed. Blessed. Like I said in the beginning
of the sermon, it's totally different than what the world says and
what they call blessing. They look at a man who's persecuted
and they said, boy, he must have done something wrong to bring
all that opposition. That's right. That's exactly
right. They said something's wrong there. Didn't they? That's exactly right. He's a
hypocrite. It's because of sin. That's a
good illustration. You know what the Lord said at
the end of that book? He said God gave him twice what he had at
the end. Why? Wasn't he a blessed man? Blessed. Blessed. What a blessing. May God bless you. Amen.