I want you to open your Bibles
to a most familiar scripture. It's called by many people the
Sermon on the Mount. I'm going to preach to you today
from Matthew, Matthew chapter 5, the first 10 or 12 verses,
Matthew 5. The title of the message is The
Blessed Man. Now, I want to read the first
several verses. Would you follow along as I read
Matthew chapter 5, starting with verse 1? And seeing the multitude,
our Lord went up into a mountain. And when he was sat, his disciples
came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit. 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 that do hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall
be filled. Blessed are the merciful, they
shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
they shall see God. And blessed are the peacemakers,
they shall be called children of God. Now, Lord Jesus Christ
is the preacher here. And he was followed by a multitude
of people, and he went up to a higher place. He went up into
the mountain. He went to a higher place. It was a great crowd of
people. And he sat down. They sat down then to preach
and stood up to read the Word. But the people gathered there
before him, and his disciples were with him, his disciples
and the people. But now he preached to all of
them because at the very end of the sermon, in Matthew 7,
28, it says, when he finished these sayings, The people were
astonished at his doctrine. Now, as I said, this sermon is
called by many the Sermon on the Mount, and the subject of
the sermon is not so much how to be saved, though it's certainly
there, but the subject of this sermon is the life and character
of the people who are saved. That's what this sermon's all
about, the life and character and conduct of people who know
the Lord. And our Lord uses the word blessed
nine times in these verses. And you know what the word blessed
means? It's a pronouncement of great happiness and special favor. Now remember that. The word blessed
is a pronouncement of very great happiness and special favor from
God. The angel said to Mary, now here's
where I get that, the angel said to Mary, thou art highly favored,
thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art
thou among women." Blessed, the Lord's with you, you're highly
favored, and that makes you very happy. And God said in Psalm
65, blessed is the man whom the Lord chooses and causes to approach
unto him, that he may dwell in the courts of the Lord, and be
satisfied with His goodness. And he's not talking about future
blessings only. Blessed is the man, blessed are
the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers right
now. This is not just future blessing. Blessed are they right
now. They're highly favored, they're
greatly happy, and the Lord is with thee. And you'll notice
this about these Beatitudes before I get into each one. They stand
together That's right, they do. And one springs out of the other.
You're going to notice that. Each one follows especially marking
a growth in grace of God. Each one reveals a deepening
of spiritual understanding. Each one marks a better understanding
of ourselves and of God. They grow. Now you watch this.
May the Lord give us an understanding of these vital words of our master. The first of the Beatitudes is
in verse 3, in which he says, our Lord says, blessed are the
poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
How are the poor in spirit blessed? Well, first, they have the gospel
preached to them. The poor in spirit have the gospel
preached to them. The Lord Jesus, when he preached
at Nazareth, that first that first Sabbath day, identifying
his ministry, he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. To preach the gospel,
the good news of salvation to the poor. And then when John
the Baptist was in prison and he sent those disciples to the
Lord Jesus, and asked Jesus Christ, are you he for whom we look or
do we look for another? And Christ said, you go tell
John. What? What's the first thing he said?
You go tell John. The poor have the gospel preached
unto them. So blessed, blessed are the poor.
They have the gospel preached to them. Theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. You can't enter the kingdom of
heaven if you don't hear the gospel and believe it. And the
poor are blessed. Well, who are these poor? Well,
they're not necessarily poor materially. They're poor in spirit. They're poor before God. I'm
poor. You're poor. David was perhaps
one of the richest, most powerful men of his day, King David. And yet he said in Psalm 40,
Lord, I'm poor and needy. Lord, think upon me. He said
in Psalm 36, hear me, O Lord. for I'm poor and needy." He uses
that over and over, I'm poor, spiritually poor. Arthur Pink
defined it this way, the poor in spirit have nothing to pay. They're bankrupt spiritually,
bankrupt in Adam, unprofitable. There's none profitable, not
one. They have nothing to eat, nothing
but feeding on the husk of this old world. They need heavenly
manna. There's nothing here to eat. They have nothing to wear. They're clothed with the filthy
rags of self-righteousness. That's poor. That's spiritual
poverty. And Paul calls us, listen, in
Ephesians 2, he said, we're aliens. We're not even citizens. We're
aliens. We're strangers from the covenant. We're without Christ. We're without help. We're without
hope, without God in this world. That, my friend, is poor. Blessed
are the poor. How is spiritual poverty a blessing? How can the man say, I'm poor
and needy and be happy? Well, listen. Poverty of spirit
brings the beggar to the right place to get bread to the feet
of Christ. That's right. It drives him to
Christ to seek mercy. Poverty of spirit humbles the
proud so that God will exalt him. Poverty of spirit strips
off our righteous rags Got to take them off if you're going
to be clothed with His holy garment of righteousness. So poverty
of spirit strips us of our righteous rags that we may be clothed in
His glorious robe. Poverty of spirit empties us
of self that we may be filled with Christ. So brother, let
me tell you, blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Now what's the next one? Blessed
are they that mourn. They should be comforted. Did
you remember I told you these Beatitudes stand together and
they follow one upon another and this first one leads to the
next one? Why are these people mourning? Why are they mourning? They're mourning because they're
poor in spirit. That's why they're mourning.
Why do these people mourn? They mourn because of their state
before God. They mourn over their sins of
thought, of word, of deed. The publican in the temple was
mourning. He was poor in spirit, and he
was mourning over it. He smote on his breast. He said,
God, be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. David in Psalm
51 is mourning. He says, have mercy on me, O
God. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me from my iniquity. Cleanse
me from my sin. Acknowledge my transgression,
my sins. ever before me. Lord, don't cast
me away from your presence. Don't take your Spirit from me.
Blessed are they that are poor in spirit, and theirs is the
kingdom of heaven, because it leads to mourning over sin."
We mourn over our nature. We mourn over our unbelief. Don't
you? The centurion did. He said, Lord, I believe, but
help my unbelief. We mourn over our sins of word,
thought, and deed. And our Lord said, blessed are
they that mourn. Why? They're going to be comforted.
Man never mourned over sin before God without being comforted.
You know how we're comforted? We're comforted by the God of
comfort who delights to show mercy. We're comforted by our
Lord Jesus Christ who said, come to me, I'll give you rest. We're
comforted by the Holy Spirit whose name is Comforter. The
Lord Jesus said, I'll give you another comforter. We're comforted
by the Word of God. The Scripture says, comfort one
another with these words. We're comforted by God's pastors
and preachers. That's what I want to do, comfort
God's people, because God told me to do that. In Isaiah 40,
he said, comfort my people. Say to them that their sins,
iniquities are forgiven. Their sins are blotted out. They
have received of the Lord double for all their sins. Tell them
that. Tell them that. That'll comfort them. We're comforted
forever someday when we're awake with His likeness. Blessed are
the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And blessed are they that mourn over their sins and seek mercy,
because they'll be comforted. What's the next one? Blessed
are the meek. They shall inherit the earth.
My friends, meekness and humility before God and men is not a product
of human nature. No, we're not by nature meek. We're by nature proud. We're
not by nature humble. That's not the general characteristics
of a human being. We're proud, we're haughty, we're
rebellious by nature, aren't we? Well, meekness and humility
is a heart work. It's a heart work, and it's found
in those who have discovered their poverty and discovered
their sins and mourned over them and sought the mercy of God.
Saul of Tarsus was a proud, arrogant, religious Pharisee. And God humbled
him. God brought him down on the road
to Damascus. And after that experience, he
talks like a different person. He says, I'm not worthy to be
an apostle. I'm not worthy. He said on another
occasion, I'm less than the least of all the saints. This man was
an arrogant, arrogant, proud human being. And he met Christ. And our Lord brought him down.
I'm less than the least of all the apostles. And then he said
on one occasion, he said, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I'm the chief. Oh, blessed, blessed, blessed
are the meek. Blessed are the meek. they'll
inherit the earth. God hates pride. Six things God
hates, and number one is a proud look. Scripture says, God resisteth
the proud. He gives grace to the humble.
There are five things about the humble. I found this somewhere
years ago. Blessed are the meek, the humble,
they shall inherit the earth. And here's the reason. The meek
give God the glory for what they are and what they have. They
give God the glory. They know who makes them to differ.
They know a man can receive nothing except it be given him from above.
They give God the glory. That's right. Secondly, the meek
are gentle. They're kind people. And they
care for the feelings of others. They tread softly lest they offend
others. They care for the feelings of
others and the needs of others. They're gentle people. Gentle
people. And the meek are teachable. You
can teach a meek person, a humble person. You can't teach a proud
man. You can only teach a man who's meek and willing to learn. And then fourthly, the meek are
generous. They actually find their happiness in making somebody
else's happy. They find their happiness in
giving, in helping, in assisting, in making somebody else happy.
That's right. They find their happiness in that. And then fifthly,
the meek are patient. They wait on the Lord. Well,
who else but these? They're humble. They give God
the glory. They're gentle. They're teachable.
They're generous. They're patient. Who else would
inherit the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness? Our Lord
dealt with His proud disciples. They were sitting around arguing
about who was going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, who
would sit on the Lord's left hand, who would sit on His right
hand. And our Lord took a little child. and put that child in
the midst of these men arguing over who's the greatest. He set
that child in the midst of them and he said, let me tell you
something, except you be converted, brought down, changed, humble,
stripped, broken, unless you be converted and become like
this child, you're not even going to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.
Such is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the poor, theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
they'll be comforted. Blessed are the meek, they'll
inherit the earth. Now watch the next one. And blessed
are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they'll be
filled. Now we know what this natural
flesh thirst and hungers for. Don't we? You do. I do. We know
what this flesh hungers for. Riches, pleasure, honor, popularity,
beauty, fame, health, wealth, easy living. But the wise man
knows that every one of these things I just named are temporary.
They're of the earth. The fashion of this world fadeth
away. They're just temporary. They're
soon gone. What shall it profit a man if
he gains every blessed one of those things and loses his soul?
Our great need is the holiness of God. That's what I need. That's
what you need. Who shall ascend into heaven,
into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place?
Well, David tells us, he that hath clean hands, perfect outward
holiness. clean hands. He that hath a pure
heart, perfect inward holiness. He that hath a soul without vanity,
only filled with the will and purpose of God. He that's never
lied, never spoken deceitfully, never, never, never. That's who's
going to stand before God, perfect inward holiness, perfect outward
holiness, perfect soul, and never lied. Well, the answer comes,
no man has this. No man. This is spoken of no
man. You, me, no son of Adam has this
or ever can have this. But one did. One did. The Son of God, the Son of man,
He was perfect. He loved God with all His heart,
mind, soul, and strength. and his neighbor as himself.
That's right. He fulfilled every law. The righteousness of Jesus
Christ is what Paul was hungering for and thirsting for. He said,
Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my
own righteousness, which is of the law, which is of the flesh,
which is no righteousness at all, but oh, that I might have
the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, that I might know
him. the power of His resurrection.
I tell you, by the disobedience of one, Adam, we were made sinners. Only by the obedience of one,
Jesus Christ, can we be made holy. Now listen to our Lord. Blessed are the poor, blessed
are the poor, bankrupt. Blessed are they that mourn over
this condition. They desire to be holy. Blessed
are the meek, They've discovered this righteousness is not in
them, or of them, or from them, but in Him. Blessed are they
that hunger for it, and thirst for righteousness, and know it's
found in Christ, and they'll not be content until they have
that righteousness. Like Jacob of old, when he wrestled
with the Lord, he said, I won't let you go till you bless me. Lord, I need righteousness. I need forgiveness. I need mercy.
Well, he said, ask and you'll receive. Seek and you'll find. Knock and it shall be opened.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst, not just for straits
of gold, not just an opportunity to see mom again, not just to
get out of this old world and live in luxury, who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, holiness, there be filled. You seek me
and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Watch
verse 7. Blessed are the merciful, they
shall obtain mercy. The Lord means what He says.
He's not saying that these people receive mercy from God because
they're merciful to others. That's not what He's saying.
He's saying, blessed are the merciful, they shall receive
mercy. He's saying that people who consistently
show mercy to others, People who consistently forgive others,
people who consistently bear and forbear with others, people
who consistently love others and are generous to others, they
indicate that they're objects of mercy. They indicate that
they're objects of kindness. They indicate that they're objects
of God's forgiveness. Be ye merciful as your Father
has been merciful to you. Be ye kind. one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
you. If you forgive not, you're not
forgiven. If you don't show mercy, you
haven't received mercy. That's right. Our Lord says,
He that loveth not knoweth not God. He that loveth is born of
God. See, blessed are the merciful.
That's their That's the state. That's the state they're in.
They're people who are merciful. God's made them merciful. God's
given them a new nature, a new heart. He that loveth not knoweth
not God. He that's not merciful has never
received mercy. He that doesn't forgive has never
been forgiven. You see what our Lord's saying?
John Wesley told this story. He was on board a ship coming
from England to America. to the U.S. This is 1700 and
something. But the new governor appointee
of Georgia was on this same boat. And the governor's servant was
caught stealing the governor's wine and drinking it. And the
governor brought him out on board the ship in front of all the
people and had him tie him to a mask, strip off his shirt,
and told him to give him so many lashes. And John Wesley went
up to the governor and he said to him, he said, would you show
mercy to this man? I'm asking, I'm pleading on his
behalf. I'm pleading for this man. He's
made a mistake. He's sinned. He's done wrong. But would you
forgive him? To which the governor replied,
Mr. Wesley, I never forgive. I never forgive. And Mr. Wesley said, Sir, I sure hope
you never sin, for it's certain you'll never be forgiven. If
we forgive not others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
yours. Blessed are the merciful, they'll
obtain mercy. Verse 8, blessed are the pure
in heart, they're going to see God. Now I'm no true believer
listening to my voices, today will claim to have a pure heart,
a heart pure of sin. No believer professes to be pure
without sin in heart, motive, or thought. What's the Lord saying,
blessed are the poor in heart, they'll see God. He's saying
that their faith is a pure faith without hypocrisy. Their belief
in Christ is a pure belief without hypocrisy. That it's true faith
free from insincerity. That's what Paul said. He can
help us on this. Blessed are the pure in heart.
My heart's not absolutely pure and yours is not either. But
I tell you this, it's genuine. My faith is sincere without hypocrisy
before God. And that's what Paul says here
in 2 Timothy 1, 3. He said, I serve God with a pure
conscience. I serve God with a pure conscience.
I'm honest in my service to God. I'm not a hypocrite. I'm not
covetous of anything you have," Paul said. I'm serving God. He
said in II Timothy 2, peace to them who call on God out of a
pure heart. When you pray and call on God,
you better not be a hypocrite. You better not be a phony. You
better have a pure heart in that regard, sincere. Peter said,
see that you love one another with a sincere heart, with a
pure heart. So that's the pure in heart of
people who have a sincere, genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
without shame, without hypocrisy. A sincere, genuine hope is a
hope of eternal life through the blood and righteousness of
Christ only and not my works. A sincere, genuine love for God
and for one another is a true love. All right, watch verse
9. Blessed are the peacemakers,
They'll be called the children of God. Peacemakers. Charles Spurgeon once said, the
believer is a peaceful person. A peaceful person who ends a
quarrel. Just stop it. Who extends a hand
of friendship. A peacemaker is one who seeks
unity and reconciliation. A peacemaker is a person that
avoids discard and dissension and division among brethren.
A peacemaker is one who forgives a misunderstanding, just forgives
it. Now a contentious spirit, Mr. Spurgeon said, is an unregenerate
spirit. And a troublemaker is in trouble
with God. And a man whose soul's discard
is an enemy of God. And a grudge bearer bears his
own grudge, which is sin. And a man seeking revenge is
not seeking God. That's as clear as I can make
it. A man seeking revenge is not seeking God. Now, verse 10,
blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. When our Lord was here on the
earth in human flesh, he was despised, rejected of men, a
man of solace, acquainted with grief. And his teachings were
contrary to the so-called wisdom of the world and the principles
and opinions of this world and religion. The world hated him
and nailed him to a cross. Well, he tells us, the servant's
not greater than his Lord. He said, if they've rejected
my sayings, they'll reject yours. If they hated me, they'll hate
you. And blessed are you when men
revile you and persecute you and speak evil of you for my
sake. Rejoice and be glad. your reward in heaven. If you
want this tape, the blessed man, send two dollars. We'll mail
it to you. Until next week, God bless you, everyone.