Would you turn back to Luke chapter
6? While you're turning there, I'm
going to be speaking tonight upon this subject, promise keepers
or promise believers? And from that passage of Scripture
in Matthew chapter 5, where the Lord said, swear not at all. I've entitled this morning's
message, Woe or Blesser? In the passage of scripture I
just read, the Lord speaks of being poor and being rich. He speaks of being hungry and
being full. He speaks of weeping and laughing. And he speaks of being spoken
ill of and being spoken well of. Which would we naturally
consider blessed? And which would we naturally
consider a woe? We would say, blessed are the
rich And blessed are the fools. They've been blessed by God.
Blessed are the laughing. And blessed are the popular.
But woe to the poor. Woe to the hungry. Woe to the
weeping. And woe to the unpopular. And
no doubt some wide sage would say, well the truth lies somewhere
in the middle of those two extremes. But that's not what the Savior
says. Those who our Savior pronounced as blessed are the opposite of
what we would call blessed of God. Turn it upside down. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the hungry. Blessed are the weeping. Blessed are the outcasts. But woe to the rich. Woe to the fool. Woe to the laughing. And woe to the popular. Woe all o'er blessing. Now, when we read this passage
of Scripture in Luke chapter 6, we might think that this is
a repeat of the Sermon on the Mount, but I don't think so.
Because it's pointed out in verse 17, and He came down with them
and stood in the plain. This was spoken at a different
time than the Sermon on the Mount. He's indeed saying some of the
same things, but it is a different time. And what that reminds me
of is the same truth is to be spoken over and over at different
times. Same truth. Blessed are the poor,
blessed are the atheists, and so on. And I realize that unless
God the Holy Spirit empowers it, It'll come out as old, but
if God is pleased to bless it, the same old truth becomes new
and powerful, just like you heard it for the very first time. And
I pray that's what God causes to take place this morning. Now, when our Lord is speaking
of blessedness and pronouncing woes on others. He means the
same thing that he meant in the Sermon on the Mount. It's spiritual.
You can be materially rich and spiritually poor. You can be
physically full and spiritually hungry. You can be happy about
your circumstances and you can mourn over your sin. You can
have a people appreciate you for how well you treat them,
but yet hate you for the gospel you stand for. And it's also
true that you can be materially poor and be as proud and rich
in your own view of yourself and haughty and self-righteous
as a devil. You can be physically starving.
and yet believe yourself to be full of righteousness. You can weep over your circumstances
and yet laugh with joy over how good you think you are. And you
can be spoken ill of because you're a jerk and yet mistake
it for being persecuted for righteousness sake. Now it was said of the
apostles, These that have turned the world upside down have come
hither also and that's what the gospel of Christ does. It turns
upside down the things we naturally think and we find out the opposite
of what we think is really true. I think of what our Lord said,
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination. in the sight of God. Now, you think of this. The Lord
said, the first are the last, and the last are the first. That's the opposite of what we
would think. We're all aware that there are two kinds of people
in this world. There are the righteous and they're the wicked. The Bible repeats that over and
over. Say to the righteous, it will
be well with them. Say to the wicked, it will be
ill with them. The righteous and the wicked.
Here's what's so amazing. All of the righteous, without
any exception, believe themselves to be wicked. And all of the
wicked without any exception believe themselves to be righteous
or at least have the potential to be righteous if everything
goes their way. We naturally think God saves
the good and he punishes the bad. And the opposite is true. God
saves the bad, the evil. and he suffers the quote good
to die in their sins. We naturally believe that salvation
ends with the forgiveness of sins. If I do this and stop doing
that, if I believe this and receive that and reject this and reject
that, I'll have the forgiveness of sins. That's going to be my
end. Yet the gospel is the direct
opposite. Salvation begins. It begins with
the full, free, frank forgiveness of sins without you doing anything
to do it. It's given to you for Christ's
sake. Now is that good news to you?
You know, forgiveness. Here's what happens. I don't
do something to be forgiven. I find out I've been forgiven. That's the gospel. He forgives
sin for Christ's sake. It's natural for us to believe
in free will. Our will is the determining factor as to what's
going to happen. The Bible says, it's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. We naturally have our caste system,
our grade of society, who we put first, First, the wise of
this world, the great of this world, the achievers, the people
who make something of themselves. And yet the Lord says, except
you be converted and become as little children, infants, you
won't even enter the kingdom of heaven. We think the way up
is up. And we don't realize that the
way up is down. Naaman hears that there's a prophet
who could heal him of his leprosy. He comes to the house of Elisha
with his mighty men and in his mighty uniform, and he stands
at the door and waits for Elisha to come out. And you know, Elisha
didn't even come out. He sent a servant. a lowly servant
and told Naaman, here's what you need to do, go wash in the
Jordan seven times and you'll come clean. Naaman replied, behold I thought
he will surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name
of the Lord his God and strike his hand over this place and
recover the leper. Naaman, Naaman, it's not like
he thought it was. Those that had worked
Twelve hours. Supposed that they should receive
more than the ones who worked one hour. Wouldn't you make that
supposition? If you worked twelve hours and somebody else only
worked one hour, and it comes time to get paid, wouldn't you
think you'd get more than them? You did more! But it's not like
you thought. What we think, the opposite is
true. The religious leaders thought
that they were first in the kingdom of heaven. And the Lord said,
the publicans and the harlots entered the kingdom of heaven
before you. Paul thought himself to be the
most righteous. And he came to find out that
the opposite was true. He was the very chief of sinners. And notice he didn't say, I used
to be the chief of sinners. He said that Christ came into
the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief. The prodigal. Man, he'd made a mess of his
life. He had made a mess of his life. And he thinks, if I come
back to my father, maybe he'll make me a hired servant. He never
dreamed of a gracious reception. That just didn't make sense to
Him. If I go back to my, I've messed up, He came to Himself,
I'll arise and go to my Father, and I'll say, Father, I've sinned
against Heaven and in Thy sight, and I'm not worthy to be called
Thy Son. Make me as one of Thy hired servants. So here He comes to His Father. And he rehearses what he's going
to say. Father, I've sinned. Make me
as one of thy hired servants. And before he could even get
it out, his father said, bring forth the best robe and put it
on him. And bring a ring for his hand
and shoes for his feet. Oh, he didn't even suspect anything
like that. Look at the way the Father responds
to him. You see, we could go on and on. It's not like we think. The opposite
is true. You believe that? The way we
naturally think, the opposite is true. Here's a rich man. He's worked hard, and He reaps
the benefits of His hard work. He is a good man, better than
most. He has a beautiful mosaic of
righteousness. He's accepted Christ as His personal
Savior, and He's made Him the Lord of His life. Why? He's preached in Christ's name.
And in Christ's name, He's cast out demons. And in Christ's name,
He's done many wonderful works. Oh, He has a few sins and He
has a few faults. But He has Christ to make up
for His deficiencies. Like the church at Laodicea,
He's rich and increased with goods. And He has need of nothing. Now what does the Lord say about
this rich man who has so much? He's rich. He doesn't have needs. He's not asking questions. He's
the one people should be asking questions to. He's somebody.
He's not asking for help. He's the one to give help. He's
rich. He's increased with goods. What
does the Lord say about this rich man? Look in verse 24 of
our text in Luke chapter 6. But woe unto you that are rich, for you've received your consolation. Now he's not talking about someone
who's materially rich. Abraham was materially rich.
David was materially rich. Solomon was materially rich.
He's talking about someone who thought he had spiritual riches
in and of himself. The Lord says, woe to you. Now when the Lord says woe, that
means woe. Wouldn't it just frighten you
to death if the Lord Jesus Christ looked at you and said, woe is
you. That's what he says of the rich. Now here is a man who is poor. We've talked about the rich man.
Here is a man who is poor. He does not have a drop of personal
merit. He believes himself to have no
good works at all. The concept of accepting Christ
as his personal Savior and making Him Lord of his life is totally
foreign to him. He can't imagine accepting Christ. He doesn't say, will I accept
Him? He says, will He accept me? Will
He do something for me? This idea of Him making Christ
the Lord is repugnant to Him. He is the Lord. He knows that. He's like that leper who comes
into God's presence, into Christ's presence saying, Lord, if You
will, You can make me clean. He is poor. He has nothing. He is so sinful. Christ is so
holy. He cries out, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. Well, I pray when I pray that,
I mean it. God, be merciful to me, the
sinner. Not just saying it because I
know it's the appropriate thing to say, but because I really
believe it. Not almost using it as a badge
to glorify, but because I really believe myself to be the very
chief of sinners. God be merciful to me, the sinner. This man is poor. He has nothing. Nothing. Not one single thing
to recommend me to God. Not one. Absolutely nothing. I have to come into His presence
empty-handed because I don't have anything to bring. Nothing
but sin. Poor. Destitute of righteousness. What does the Lord say about
this man? He says in verse 20, Blessed be ye poor. Blessed by God. For yours is
the kingdom of heaven. You possess the kingdom of heaven. Now, that one who's poor. Oh, I want to be poor, don't
you? That one who is poor possesses all the kingdom of heaven. Now,
that's the opposite of what we think, blessed are the rich.
But our Lord tells us, blessed are the poor. Now, Here's one who is satisfied. I'm fine. I'm all right. I've made my peace with God.
Not needy. He's satisfied with his profession
of religion. He is satisfied with what he
knows. He's satisfied with his experience. I've experienced. My experience
has been good. I've, I've, I've, the Lord's
taught me things. I've, I've, I've been satisfied. Not hungry or anything, but satisfied. I'm full. I'm satisfied. I'm
okay. Don't worry about me. I'm okay.
What does the Lord say regarding that one who is satisfied? Satisfied. He says in verse 25, woe unto
you that are full. Satisfied. You're not hungry.
Woe unto you that are full, for you shall hunger. But here's a man who is hungry. He's hungry. Now, what is hunger? Well, I know a little bit about
it right now. I'm hungry. I just had a few pieces of pineapple
for breakfast. Didn't have time to eat what I usually eat. I'm
hungry. And what happens when you're
hungry? Well, in your stomach, there's nothing there. If there
was something in there, you wouldn't be hungry. But you're hungry. Your stomach, it's a painful,
conscious feeling of need and want. I need food. And I can't
provide myself. The food's going to have to come
from without me. Our Lord speaks of this man in Matthew 5 as hungering
and thirsting for righteousness. You feel in yourself that you
have no righteousness. And you hunger and you thirst
to have, to possess righteousness. You want righteousness because
you can't come undone. Now, you are persuaded. If you're
hungry and thirsting after righteousness, you're persuaded that there's
only one righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus Christ the Lord. And
you want His righteousness. That's the only righteousness
you want. You hunger and you thirst after His righteousness.
That's the only thing that will satisfy you. Nothing else will
satisfy you. Only having His righteousness. You see, in a believer, there's
something that will not let him be satisfied with anything short
of perfect, absolute righteousness. A righteousness that God is pleased
with. The only righteousness God is
pleased with is His own. And you hunger and thirst after
righteousness. You know the only way you can
be accepted by God is if He takes the righteousness of His Son
and places it upon you so that it is your personal righteousness. You hunger for this. You know
you can't produce a righteousness. You can't satisfy your own hunger.
It has to come from without. Now what does the Lord say regarding
this man who hungers and thirsts? Look in verse 21, Blessed are
you that hunger now, for you shall be filled. You shall be filled to the full
with righteousness. So full that that is all that
will be there. The very righteousness of God
is yours. Now, are you somebody hungering
for righteousness right now because you know your body can't produce
it? It's got to come from without and be given to you. His righteousness. When you're promised, you shall
be filled to the full. Their righteousness is of me,
saith the Lord. Now our next character is that
man who laughs. Look at verse 22, excuse me,
verse 25 rather. He says, Woe unto you that are
full, for you shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now,
for you shall mourn and weep. Who is this one who laughs now?
Now, who doesn't like to laugh? I like to laugh. I like to... Nothing like a good laugh makes
you feel good. But what our Lord is talking
about is someone who... Right now, things couldn't be
better. My circumstances are what I want
them to be. Everything's fine. I'm just fine with the way things
are. I like my circumstances. I'm
blessed. Everything's wonderful. We question
if it's all as wonderful as He makes it out to be, but when
He hears that people groan under the burden of sin, He thinks,
what's wrong with them? They must have done something really
bad. What's wrong with them? They seem to be wallowing in
something like that. What's wrong with them? I mean, I'm okay. My circumstances are great. I
mean, I'm laughing, happy. This is great. This is wonderful. Everything's wonderful. I came
up to a guy I thought was so funny the other day. I said,
how you doing? He said, I'm doing so good. If I was any better,
I'd have to be 20. I thought, oh, OK. Things must be pretty
good, you know. But what does our Lord say about
this person? He says, woe, woe unto you that
laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. This person who's laughing is
our Lord. Now, what's good about mourning
and weeping? This mourning and weeping is mourning and weeping
over sin. My sin is ever before me right
now. And when you mourn, Mourning
has something to do with it. There's something you can do
about it. Now, if you have a loved one that's sick, oh, you pray
for the Lord to do something for them. You pray for the Lord
to heal them. You pray for the Lord's will to be done. You're
not mourning yet because there's some hope. They're still alive.
There's some hope. But you mourn when there's death. And there's nothing you can do
about it. Now that's when you mourn over
your sin. When you see that your sin is
not something that you can defeat. My sin is ever before me. And oh, you mourn before God
over your sin. David said, my sin is ever before
me. Now this person who laughs knows
nothing of mourning over sin. He might hear people doing this
and he thinks, what's wrong with him? They love him, what's wrong
with him? But oh, how the believer mourned
before God over his sin. And look at, well, the one who
laughs, no mourning. What's the Lord say to him? Woe
unto you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. But what about that one who does
mourn? The Lord says in verse 21, blessed
are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Now how could that
be blessed? It's not enjoyable to mourn over
your sin. Peter said, depart from me Lord. I'm a sinful man. Isaiah said,
woe is me. I'm undone. Paul said, O wretched
man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? God be merciful to me, the sinner,
was the cry of the publican. Paul said, I find in a law that
when I would do good, evil is present with me. Now, how is
that a blessed thing? I can tell you exactly how to
bless a person. Because when you see in and of yourself that
you are nothing but sin, it is easy to trust Jesus Christ as
your righteousness before God, when He's the only righteousness
in the world. You know, this is one of the
amazing things about faith, faith in Christ. The hardest thing
in the world to do is to trust Christ the Lord, doesn't it? It's the hardest thing to do,
yet it's the easiest thing to do. And the only time you do
it is when you have no personal righteousness with God. You're
the Lord for that. Blessed are they that weep. Blessed are they
that mourn. For they shall be comforted. Comforted with what? Let me show
you. Hold your finger there and turn
to Isaiah 40. Comfort ye, Isaiah chapter 40
verse 1, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God,
speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. It's already
over. Cry to her that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins." And then we have the man that
everyone speaks well of back into our text. 26. Woe unto you, when all men shall
speak well of you. For so did their fathers to the
false prophets. But then we had this fellow in
verse 22. Blessed are you, blessed by God are you, when men shall
hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company.
and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the
son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap
for joy. For behold, your reward is great
in heaven. For in like manners did their
fathers unto the prophets." Now here's two people. One who everybody
speaks well of. This guy's great. This guy's
great. I mean, he's a good man. He's
a fine man. We like him. He's been beneficial
to us. Then there's another man that
everybody speaks ill of. They hate him. They cast out
his name as evil. Now this one who everyone speaks
well of, he has been studious to avoid saying anything that
would offend anyone. He's very careful. You see, he
loves the praise of men more than the praise of God. And he
is more concerned about what men think than about what God
thinks. And he is very careful to cross
no one and to make sure no one is offended. And indeed, no one
is offended. And what does the Lord say of
this man? Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. Now, I don't want to offend people
because of my thinking. And I know I've done it to them
all over the past. And that's not what I was talking
about. I don't want to offend people
because of the way I treat people. Because of some kind of thoughtlessness
or heartlessness on my part. I don't get good with everybody
in that sense. But if someone comes in here
and hears the gospel I preach, and says, man, that guy's crazy. I like what he's doing. And when I am, I'm a false prophet. But the Lord says, woe unto you
when men shall speak well of you, and in like manner speak
the fathers to the false prophets. They're good. They speak things
we like to hear. We're in agreement with what
they say. We like this. The Lord says, look unto this. Here is a man who is villainized. Why the things He says about
grace makes it to be man what you look like. If I believed
that, I'd sin without restraint because it doesn't matter. Salvation
is by grace and it doesn't matter what I do. If I really believed
the way that guy teaches. Why, what the guy says is offensive.
It's offensive toward man. It's offensive toward God. I
don't like what he says about God. He makes God to be some kind
of cosmic man who just delights in smashing people and damning
people and passing by people. He chooses some and doesn't choose
others. Why, that's not fair. It's just
not fair that someone would present God like that. That's not the
way God is. That's not my God. That's not
the God I worship. That's not the God I believe.
What he says about man, it's offensive. It's offensive. Now, I want to preach the gospel in a way where men are offended. I'm worried that men are part
of it. And I'm not talking about offended
by my personality, I'm talking about the gospel of the gospel. I want
to be offensive in that sense, but I also want to be just like
the Lord. I don't care who you are. I don't
care how bad you are. If you need the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you need to be saved by His will, if you need His precious
blood to put away your sins, if you need His righteousness
to cover you, if you need Him, come on. You're welcome. I don't
care how bad you are. I don't care how far off you
are. I don't care how ignorant you are. Come and welcome. There's mercy for the very chief
of sinners. That's the way we preach. We
preach the exclusiveness of the gospel in the gospel of God's
grace. The gospel where the Father elects,
the Son redeems, the Holy Spirit regenerates. That's the only
gospel there is. Nothing else is gospel. But this message is
good news, free to everybody who's coming. I want to remind
you, when I talk about solving this, I want to remind you, Your
job is not to figure out whether or not you're one of the elect.
Your job is not to figure out whether Christ died for you.
Your job is not to figure out whether God the Holy Spirit is
giving you life. What you're to do is to come to Jesus Christ
right now for mercy, and He will receive you. You don't need to
worry about anything else. You come to Christ as a sinner
needing mercy, and you'll be received. Now that's the way
we preach the gospel. I want to preach it in a way
where men are offended. I want men to be offended by
the gospel. Not by me, but I want men to be offended by the gospel,
because I know if they're not, I ain't preaching anything. If I can
preach a message and nobody's offended at it, all men speak
well of me, that makes me a false prophet. That's all it does. And oh, I also want to preach
the gospel in all of its freeness. May God give us grace to do that.
Now, our Lord says, verse 26, Woe unto you when all
men shall speak well of you. Boy, He said things that pleased
us. For so did their fathers to the
prophets. But He said, in verse 22, Blessed are you when men
shall hate you. They hate the gospel you preached. And when
they shall separate you from their company. We don't want
to have anything to do with Him. And they shall reproach you and cast
out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. Rejoice ye
in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great
in heaven. When the like manner did their
fathers unto the fathers." Now, in conclusion, I repeat what the Lord said. Woe to you that are rich. The kingdom of heaven is not
yours. It's not yours. Woe unto you that are fooled. You've already got your consolation. Woe unto you that are laughing. You're not mourning over your
sin. You're laughing. Everything's great. Woe unto
you that are popular with this world. And these are the words
of the Lord. These are not my words. These
are the words of the Lord. This is who the Lord pronounces
His woe upon. But blessed are you that are
poor, that really believe yourselves to have no merit before God. Blessed are you that are hungry. You hunger and you thirst after
righteousness. Blessed are you that are mourning
over your sin. Blessed are you that are hated
for the gospel's sake. Now, it's evident. Whatever it is we naturally believe,
the opposite is true, isn't it? Haven't you found that to be
so? The things we naturally believe, you just turn them around, turn
them upside down, the opposite is so. And I'm glad it's that
way. Let's pray.