Not that I did choose thee, Lord,
for, Lord, that could not be. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyvert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. I'm going to read what are known
as the Beatitudes. And I have entitled this message,
The Character and the Blessing of the Blessed. Now, these are
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in verse 2 of Matthew
chapter 5, 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 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." The character and the blessing of the blessed. I want God's blessing. Our Lord speaks of those who
have been blessed of God, blessed, blessed by God, supremely blessed,
are the poor in spirit. I want God's blessing. He has such power to bless, and
I want His blessings. Now, before us are what are known
as the Beatitudes, and in the Beatitudes, The Lord gives us
the character of those whom God has blessed, and He blessed them
by giving them this character, and the blessings that they receive
from having this character that He has given. Now, this is a
description of the character of every believer. I've heard
preachers say, well, character and conduct have nothing to do
with salvation. Well, they don't have anything
to do with earning acceptance before God, but they have everything
to do with salvation. You see, if God saves you, he
gives you this character spoken of in our text. Every believer possesses all
of these characteristics, and no natural man possesses any
of these characteristics. If you have these characteristics
that are spoken of in the Beatitudes, it's because you've been born
of the Spirit of God. It is only the believer born
again by the Spirit of God that is poor in spirit, that mourns,
that is meek, that hungers and thirsts after righteousness,
that is merciful, that is pure in heart, That's a peacemaker
that's persecuted for righteousness sake. Listen to the blessings
given to those who are described thusly. Theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. All who are poor in spirit, theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Those that mourn, they shall
be comforted, comforted by God himself. Those who are meek,
they're going to inherit the earth. Those who hunger and thirst
after righteousness, they're going to be filled. They're going
to be satisfied. Those who are merciful, they're
going to obtain mercy. What a blessing that is. Those
who are pure in heart, they're going to see God. Those who are
peacemakers, they're going to be called God's children. And
those who are persecuted have a great reward. Now, I Either have God's blessing,
or I am under His curse. And the same is true of you.
We either have God's blessing or God's curse. And we can know,
by listening to this message, whether or not we really enter
in to the blessing of God. Now, let's consider each one
of these attitudes that our Lord speaks of. He said, God's blessed
this person. This is a person whom God has
showered his blessing upon. He's given great grace to. Blessed
are the poor in spirit. How's that blessed? The word
poor is taken from the word fallen. To be poor is to not have anything. It's to be powerless to enrich
yourself, unable to change your condition. If all it took was
a penny's worth of merit, or a penny's worth of righteousness,
or a penny's worth of ability to be saved, the poor could not
come up with it. He has nothing and he can do
nothing, and if any part of salvation is dependent upon the poor in
spirit, they cannot be saved because they don't have anything.
This is what's called sinfulness. Because of my sinfulness, I have
nothing that I can give that will recommend me to God. There's
nothing I can do to save myself. I am poor in spirit. Christ says, blessed are they
who are poor in spirit. They've been blessed of God.
Blessed are they, he says next, that mourn. Blessed? Since when is mourning a state
of blessedness? Mourning, that's what you do
when somebody dies. You mourn, you lack the power
to bring them back, so you mourn over them. You weep and you lament
because there's nothing you can do to change that situation. There's nothing you can do but
mourn. Now, when our Lord speaks of
mourning, blessed are they that mourn, He's talking about mourning
over sin. Now, you can mourn over a lot
of things, and that's not the mourning our Lord is speaking
of. He's speaking of a mourning over sin. You hate your sin,
and you are powerless to prevent it, just like you're powerless
to bring somebody back from the dead. You hate your sin. You
don't look for an excuse for your sin. You hate your sin,
and you mourn over it. Our Lord says, blessed are they
that mourn. And then He says, blessed are
the meek. What is meekness? It's an attitude
toward God that believes He is the first cause behind all things. He's God. Nothing happens without
Him. If he didn't allow it, it wouldn't
have happened. Therefore, I can't murmur. Therefore,
I can't complain. Whatever he does is right. Meekness is an attitude towards
God. Job demonstrated this attitude
when they came and told him about all the things that he'd lost.
And his wife said, go curse God and die. He said, shall we receive
good at the Lord's hand and not receive evil? The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. That's meekness before God. He
said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Meekness is
Eli when he hears that God is going to kill his two sons. He
says, it's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Meekness is David's attitude
when Shimei is cursing him. And one of David's servants said,
you want me to go lop off his head? He said, no. The Lord said,
curse David. He knew that God is the first
cause behind everything. So meekness submits to everything
he does as right because he did it. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Now, hunger and thirst has to
do with Absence. You're hungry when your stomach's
empty. You're thirsty when you need
water to be brought from without. You know when you're hungry that
you can't satisfy your own hunger. There's nothing you can do to
produce satisfaction. But oh, you hunger. You know you can't satisfy your
own hunger. It must come from outside of you. But how you hunger. Now, if you hunger, and thirst
after righteousness because of a consciousness of absence of
it. I don't have any righteousness.
I hunger and thirst for it. I desire to have it, but I can't
work it up. I can't produce it any more than
I can satisfy my own hunger. It's got to be brought outside
of me. Our Lord said, blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Next, he says,
blessed are the merciful. Mercy is the attribute of compassion
that is moved by the misery of others. Mercy doesn't say they
had it coming or what did they do to bring this on themselves.
No, mercy is moved by compassion because mercy, being a merciful
attitude, you know something about the mercy of God toward
you. You know that if you were in the same position as that
person, you'd do worse apart from the grace of God. You know
God has extended mercy toward you, and it makes you a merciful
person. Blessed are the merciful. And then the Lord says, blessed
are the pure in heart. That is when you should always
give me such a hard time, because I'd look inside my heart and
my heart certainly doesn't seem very pure. I can look in my heart
and I can see bad motives, I can see evil thoughts, I can see
unclean desires, and I can't control it. I look in my heart
and I say, well, that doesn't sound very pure. What's this
mean, the pure in heart? The word pure means unmixed,
undiluted. Pure, a pure heart. Now, this
pure heart is the heart that God gives in the new birth. He
said, a new heart also will I give thee. He said, I'll put my spirit
within you. It's a new heart born of God. It's pure. It's holy. It's without
sin. This is that part of a man that
does not commit sin. He that's born of God does not
commit sin, John says. Now, my flesh doesn't do anything
but commit sin. Now, I know some people are going
to misunderstand that. They'll be thinking, what's he
doing? You're missing the point. When God saves somebody, he puts
a new nature that was not there before. A holy nature. A righteous
nature. Now, the sinful nature is still
there. You know, it's kind of like you
take a... you pour both natures into one
man. They're both there, and you can't hardly see the difference
between the two, but they're both there. It's the pure in
heart. It's the pure in heart that loves God. It's the pure
in heart that believes the gospel. It's the pure in heart that loves
his brother. Blessed are the pure in heart. And then he says, blessed are
the peacemakers. Now who are these peacemakers?
Are they simply people who avoid conflict at all costs and try
to promote peace? Now listen, I'm all for the promotion
of peace. But our Lord said, think not
that I've come to send peace on the earth. I've come not to
send peace, but a sword. For I'm going to set at variance
a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother,
and a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and a man's
foes shall be they of his own household. There's conflict involved
in believing the gospel. When you believe the gospel,
And you stand for the gospel, they're going to be people that
become upset with you because what you believe takes away what
they're hoping in. If they're hoping in their works,
and you maintain peace only by Christ, if you stand for He is
our peace, having made peace by the blood of his cross. See,
here's the peacemaker. The peacemaker is the one who
preaches, who stands for, who believes the gospel of peace.
Now, that's going to create conflict, and it's not like anybody's out
looking for a fight, but we realize the natural man does not love
the gospel. This is where we take our stand. Blessed are the peacemakers.
And then the Lord says, blessed are they who are persecuted for
righteousness sake. These people who are persecuted
for righteousness sake, they make an issue of this thing of
righteousness. Now, what does the Bible mean
by righteousness? Generally, when people think
of righteousness, they think of being good, not doing bad
things and being a good person. Now, I'm all for being a good
person and not doing bad things, but the only righteousness there
is, is the righteousness of God. David said in Psalm 71, verse
16, I've made mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. The only kind of righteousness
there is, is that one righteousness, the righteousness of God. The
same righteousness Paul spoke of in Philippians 3.9 when he
said, Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law. Paul realized that
was nothing more than filthy rags, but that which is through
the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which is of God
by faith, the righteousness of God. Now, this righteousness
of God, is imputed and imparted to the believer. Now, what do
I mean by that? Or what does the Bible mean by
that? The righteousness of God is imputed and imparted to the
believer. Now, the best way to understand
that is to take Adam's sin. Adam's sin, his disobedience,
was charged to the accounts of every man. By one man's disobedience,
the many were made sinners. brought into condemnation. Adam's
sin was charged to the account of every man, and his sinful
nature is imparted to every man. We're born sinners because his
sinful nature was imparted to us. Now, in the same manner,
the righteousness of Christ is imputed to every believer. God takes his righteousness and
charges it to their account so that it becomes theirs. I'm the
very righteousness of God. And not only is His righteousness
imputed to the believer, it's imparted to the believer in the
new birth. It's a new righteous nature. Righteousness imputed is what
Christ does for you. Righteousness imparted is what
Christ does in you. And men will be persecuted because
of their stand there. People will hear about a righteousness
imputed, and they say, don't good works count for anything?
I mean, what about works of obedience? That's not giving us anything
we can glory in. Just His righteousness is the
only righteousness there is. Why, that'll lead to sin if somebody
believes that. They won't care about good works, and they won't
care about a holy life if they believe that. That'll lead to
sin. They'll persecute the person who stands for righteousness
imputed, and then righteousness imparted. Somebody says, well,
that's making salvation by works. If you say somebody has an actual
righteous, holy nature, we can't stand for that, and there will
be persecution because of that. But what does the Lord say? He
says, Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when
men shall revile you. They'll speak evil of you for
talking about his righteousness, and they'll 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. Now here
we have the character of the blessed, and they've been blessed
in being given this character. This character is not something
that any natural man has, but it's what every believer has.
It's the character of every believer. They're poor in spirit, they
mourn, they're meek, they hunger and thirst after righteousness,
they're merciful, they're pure in heart, they're peacemakers,
and they're persecuted for righteousness sake. Now let's consider the
blessings that they enjoy to the poor. He says, blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. All that's associated with the
kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Christ is the kingdom of
heaven, and they can say, I am my beloved's. and he is mine. The kingdom of heaven is not
meat and drink. It's not do's and don'ts, but
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for that one
who's poor in spirit. All that the kingdom of heaven
is belongs to them. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And to those who mourn, Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Comforted
by God Himself. Listen to this passage of scripture
in Isaiah chapter 40, where God is speaking and He says, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Who are His people? All who believe, all of the elect
of God, all who come to Christ. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins." He says, speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem, literally speak to the heart
of Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. It's already over. And her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins." Now, what does that mean?
Well, on the cross, not only were all my sins punished, but
I was also given a complete righteousness. Not only am I not given what
I deserve, I'm given all that He deserves. Not only am I forgiven,
but I am justified. That means I'm not guilty. I
don't have anything to be forgiven for, if I'm justified. Not only were my debts all paid,
but I am given the infinite riches of His grace. I don't just have
a clean slate. It can't get any better for me.
Not only am I saved from hell, I'm given heaven. Not only am
I saved from my sins, I'm given perfect conformity to the image
of Christ. I am complete in Him. You see how that person who mourns
over their sin, they're comforted by the gospel. I find this so
comforting. Christ said, it is finished. My warfare is accomplished. My
iniquity is pardoned. I've received of the Lord's hand
double for all my sin. Oh, the comfort of the gospel. Say to the meek, they shall inherit
the earth. Now, this is my father's world. All of it belongs to him. He said, if I were hungry, I
wouldn't tell you that cattle on a thousand hills is mine.
The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. It all
belongs to Him, and I am an heir. That means it all belongs to
me too. Every one of His people, the
meek, shall inherit the earth. And to those who hunger, Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled." They shall be satisfied. I am satisfied
to be saved by the righteousness of Christ. I'm satisfied to have
His righteousness. I'm satisfied with that fine
linen, clean and white. For this is the righteousness
of the saints. And I'm not looking for anything
else. I'm not longing for anything else. Somebody says, well, there's
got to be more. You haven't seen them. I'm satisfied. I'm not satisfied with myself,
but I'm satisfied to be saved by Him. I'm satisfied to be saved
by His righteousness. I'm satisfied with His sin payment.
I am satisfied. I'm filled. I'm not looking for
anything else. Blessed are the merciful. For
they shall obtain mercy." You see, if you've experienced the
mercy of God, you will be a merciful person. And if you can't be a
merciful, forgiving person, you've never experienced the mercy or
forgiveness of God. You see, everybody that He has
mercy on, they're merciful. And they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. You see, it's only this pure
heart, this new heart that he gives that can see God. And let
me also say this, all that we'll ever see of God is Jesus Christ
himself. He is God, and He's the one that
we'll see. We'll see the glory of God shining
in the face of Jesus Christ. What a blessing for the pure
of heart. They shall see God. And blessed are the peacemakers,
those who stand for the gospel of peace. They have peace with
God. God's at peace with them. They're
at peace with their brethren. They're not competing with them.
And they're at peace with the world. In this sense, they're
not trying to get what the world... You know, the reason people fight
is, I fight you. You've got something I want,
and I want to take it from you. But we see the vanity of the world,
and we're satisfied with Christ. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. And blessed
are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. You know,
in another place the Lord says, jump for joy over that. Be happy,
be glad, jump for joy, for great is your reward in heaven. That's
why they persecuted the prophets before you. You know, the prophets
were always persecuted because they stood for the righteousness
of Christ as the only righteousness there is before God. Blessed
are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake. For great
is their reward in heaven." Now, this is God's blessing. Usually
when people think of God's blessing, they think of health and wealth. And these health-wealth preachers
are liars on God. They're not telling you the truth.
You can't find that from the scripture. You can write that
down. That's wrong. Here's God's blessing. Poor,
not wealthy, poor in spirit. mourning over sin, hungering
and thirsting for righteousness sake. Meek, merciful, pure in heart,
peacemakers, persecuted for righteousness' sake. That's who is blessed of
God. And what blessings they receive,
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They shall be comforted. They'll
inherit the earth. They'll obtain mercy. They'll
see God. They're called the children of
God. Great is their reward in heaven. That is God's blessing. Now we have this message on cassette
tape, CD or DVD. If you call the church, We'll
send you a copy, write, or email. This is Todd Nygritt, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at ToddsRoadGraceChurch.com
Or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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