The Lord was followed by a great
vast multitude of people to whom he preached this sermon. It's
Matthew 5, chapters 5, 6, and 7. But look back at verse 24
in chapter 4. Verse 24. Let's begin the message
back there in the previous chapter. And his fame went throughout
all Syria. And they brought unto him, our
Lord Jesus, all sick people that were taken with different diseases
and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and
those which were lunatic, those that had the palsy, and he healed
them. And they followed him great multitudes
of people, from Galilee, and the capitalists from Jerusalem,
from Judea, and from Jordan. And seeing the multitude following
Him, crowding about Him, He went up into a mountain. He went up
into a higher place. He didn't leave them and go set
from the top of the mountain. He went up into a higher place. And His disciples, and when He
was said, His disciples came unto Him. His disciples gathered
about Him. And he opened his mouth and taught
them saying, now many people take that verse too and say,
well, he left the multitude. He went up in the mountains and
called his disciples and they came up there and he taught them
these words, but that's not what that's saying. He moved to a
higher place so that he could be heard and seen by all the
people and his disciples gathered about him. The reason I know
that is when you turn to chapter 7, when he concluded this sermon,
this sermon, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Now look at the last words
of the message in Matthew 7, verse 27. You're familiar with
it. Matthew 7, 27, And the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. That's the
end of the message. Now look at verse 28. And it
came to pass when Jesus had ended these things, all of this message,
the people were astonished at his doctrine. This multitude
was astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having
authority and not as the scribes. And when he would come down from
the mountain, the great multitude still followed him. And so he heard this message. Now, primarily for believers
is all the Word of God except judgment written to believers.
Our Lord is... And the leading subject in this
Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew, the leading
subject is not how men are saved, not how God saves sinners. Our
Lord fully dealt with that subject in here and every place, but
this is not. The Sermon on the Mount is not
how God saves sinners, primarily. The subject of this Sermon on
the Mount is how people live and act who are saved by the
grace of God. This is the character and the
conduct of believers, the Sermon on the Mount. And our Lord uses
the word blessing nine times here in these first Verses 11
to 12, verses. What does the word blessed mean?
Blessed. In reference to the blessed of
the poor, blessed of the late at morn. Well, it's the pronouncement
of great happiness. Happy is the man. Happy is the
man or woman. Specially favored, that's what
it means, specially favored of God. Happy and specially favored. I think you'll find that in Luke
chapter 1. Turn over there. When the angel came to Mary and
announced to her that she would be the Lord's handmaid to bring
forth the Savior, the Son of God, in Luke chapter 1 verse
26, now listen to the greeting of the angel. In Luke 1.26, and
in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to
a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, engaged to a man
whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's
name was Mary. And the angel came into her and
said, Hail, thou art highly favored. Highly favored, that's what that
word means. The Lord is with thee, blessed
art thou, not over women, above women, among women. Highly favored,
blessed among women. And that's what these, this word
blessed means. And this blessing is not for
a future state, this blessing is now. It doesn't say Blessed
shall be the poor in spirit. Blessed shall be they that mourn.
Blessed are they right now. Right now they're highly favored.
Right now they're blessed of God. And then another thing I
showed you during Bible school, that these Beatitudes, that's
what we call them. Most people do the Beatitudes.
But these Beatitudes stand together. These Beatitudes spring out of
each other. This reminds me, and I see this
clearer today than I have any other day, this reminds me of
Romans 8, 29 through 31. What does that say? Romans 8,
29 says this. Whom he foreknew, he predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his son. And whom he foreknew,
whom he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, he called. And whom he called, he justified.
And whom he justified, he glorified. Well, what shall we say to these
things? Well, if God be for us, who can be against us? Those
five things stand together. Whom he foreknew, he predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his Son. Whom he predestinated,
he called. Whom he called, he justified.
Whom he justified, he glorified. He knew them. He chose them. He called them. He justified
and sanctified them. He glorified them. One follows
the other. And you can't have one without
the other. And these blessings here, you notice as we go along,
one springs out of the other. One leads to the other. Now let's
start at verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the poor, right now
highly favored, especially blessed of God, are the poor in spirit,
theirs is the kingdom of God. How are they blessed, these people
who are poor in spirit? They have the gospel preached
to them. That's the very first blessing to the poor. That's
what our Lord said. He said, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. That's their first promise of
His coming, the Messiah, to preach the gospel to the poor. And the
gospel reaches their hearts, and they receive and embrace
the gospel, and they're made heirs of the kingdom. Blessed
are the poor in spirit. They have the gospel preached
to them, and they're heirs of the kingdom of heaven. God translates
them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son.
That's how they're blessed. Well, who are these poor? Well,
they're not the poor materially. David, who probably was blessed
materially, greater than most people. And David said this,
Lord, I'm poor and needy. I'm poor and needy. Yet the Lord
thinketh upon me. In Psalm 36, he said, Hear me,
O Lord. I'm poor and needy. Help me. Arthur Pinck said this, the poor,
the spiritually poor are those who know by nature they have
nothing, are nothing, and can do nothing. By nature, by birth,
by nature we have nothing to eat, we're feeding on the husk
that the swine eat like the particles suck. We have nothing to wear
but our filthy rags of self-righteousness. We have nothing to pay. We're
bankrupt. We are diseased. Isaiah said,
the sole of our feet to the top of our heads. We are, Paul wrote
to the Ephesians, by nature, aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, without help, without hope, without God, without Christ
in this world. That's poor. That's poor. But blessed are they because
that poverty of spirit which is revealed to them by grace
and discovered by the mercy of God empties them that they might
be filled with his grace. That poverty of spirit strips
them of their own righteousness that they might be clothed with
his. That poverty of spirit humbles the proud brings him low that
God may be glorified. That poverty of spirit brings
the beggar, hungry, thirsty to the feet of Christ that he might
be fed. Oh my! It's not blessed to be
lost, but it's blessed to discover that we're lost. It's not blessed
to be lost, but it's blessed to know you're lost. if I look
to Christ. So blessed are the poor. Theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
He came to preach the gospel to the poor. Nobody else needs
him. Nobody else is interested in
him. Nobody else is persuaded to seek the Lord except those
who are empty and needy, poverty stricken. That moves us to verse
4. Our Lord said, Blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted. You remember I said
one springs from the other? Why do these people mourn? Why
do these people mourn? Blessed are they that mourn.
Highly favored are they that mourn and grieve. What do they do? Lose a son or
lose a daughter? Or lose a wife or a husband?
No. They mourn over their poverty. They mourn over their poverty.
They mourn because of their poverty. They mourn because of their nakedness.
They mourn because of their lost condition before God. They mourn
like the prodigal son who was sitting there on the railing
of a hog pen, dirty and ragged and weary and bankrupt and broke
and homesick and hungry. And he said to himself, what
am I doing here? Even the servants in my father's
house have bread enough to spare and I'm starving to death. He's
mourning. Why? Poverty. Republican in the temple. What's
he mourning about? The Pharisee's not mourning.
He's standing up there raising his hands to heaven and acting
like Mr. Spiritual spirituality himself,
Lord I thank you I'm not like other men, I thank you I'm tired
and I give alms to the poor and I go to church on Sunday and
I do all these things, I thank you, I'm not like that fella.
Doesn't he wish he were like that fella? He will someday. But I'm not like that publican,
but the publican was mourning, beating on his chest. Not so
much as lifting his eyes to heaven, let alone his hands. He wouldn't
lift his hands or his eyes, but he was Mourning! God be merciful
to me, a sinner. A sinner. That's right. That's right. Lord, let me mourn
for naught but sin. And let me mourn after none but
Thee. And then I would, O that I might
a constant mourner be. David teaches us something about
this morning overseeing in Psalm 51. Psalm 51, he said, Lord have
mercy on me. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender
mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash
me throughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. Acknowledge
my transgression, my sins are ever before me. Mourning over
sin. Mourning. When you discover your
poverty, your emptiness, your nakedness, your wickedness, your
corruption, your lost addition, you mourn a pipe. Grieve over
sin. Folks that brag about what they
were and what they did are not only fools, but they miss the
grace of God. Real sinners are ashamed of their
sins. They're not boasting about what
they used to do, they're grieving over it. And these people who
mourn over sin, look at here, they're going to be comforted.
Blessed are the poor, theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and
when that poverty leads a man to mourn before God, he's going
to be comforted. He's going to be comforted. David
said that in Psalm 34. Let me read it to you. He said,
"...the righteous cry, and the Lord will hear him, and deliver
him out of all his trouble, because the Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart." The Lord is nigh unto them that are of
a broken heart, and He'll save those that be of a contrite spirit. They're going to be comforted.
They're going to be comforted by the God of all comfort, who
delights to show mercy. They're going to be comforted
by the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, come to me, I'll give you
rest, if you're laboring, heavy laden. They're going to be comforted
by the Holy Spirit, who is their comforter. They're going to be
comforted by the Word of God. The Lord said, comfort one another
with these words. And they're going to be comforted
by God's preachers. to whom the Lord said comfort
my people comfort ye my people say unto her Jerusalem her iniquities
forgiven and then they will be comforted forever because they
will be satisfied when they awake with his likeness look at verse
5 blessed of the meek blessed of the meek that's the humble
They're going to inherit the earth. Blessed are the meek and
the humble. They're going to inherit the
earth. Now meekness and humility is not a product of human nature.
It is never found in human nature. We're all by nature proud, conceited,
haughty, by nature. That's our state. Humility follows a revelation of our poverty.
You see, the poor, I'm poor and needy. Humility follows a revelation
of our poverty, our weakness, our inability, and our corruption
that causes us to mourn before God. That leads to humility. When a man finds out what he
is, there's nothing to be proud of. When a man finds out what
he is before God, there's nothing of which to boast. Listen to
Paul. Oh, here was a fellow, Roman
separate. Oh, my goodness. Here was a proud,
arrogant, conceited, self-centered, Pharisee, religious man. He said, when God's law came
to me, I died. I just flat died. He said here in Romans 7, verse
18, I know that in me, that is in this flesh dwelleth no good
thing. The will is present with me.
How to perform that which is good, that which is pleasing
to God, I don't find it in me. The good that I do not, the good
that I would do, the good that I would, I do not. But the evil
which I would not do, that's what I do. Now if I do that,
I would not. It's no more I that do it. It's
sin that dwells in me. I find then a law. When I would
do good, evil is present with me. I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity
of the law of sin which is in my members. Now here's what he
winds up with, O wretched man that I am. That's not pride,
that's meekness, humility, the genuine contrition of spirit. Oh, wretched man, not that I
was, but I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death, from the body of this death? Just one, I thank
God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. There are three marks of
humility, genuine humility. Number one, the humble man is willing to be taught and he'll
learn. He's willing to be taught, willing
to be counseled and corrected, and he'll learn. The humble man
disclaims, secondly, any righteousness or merit of his own. And he'll
grow in God's righteousness and grace. The humble man will ascribe
all that he has and is and hopes to be to the grace of God. And he'll glorify God. He'll
learn, he'll grow, he'll glorify God. Because he's humble. And God says, listen. Blessed
are the meek, our Lord says, the humble, they're going to
inherit this earth. They're going to inherit the new earth. There's
going to be a new earth. Not this earth. Who wants this
earth? I forego all of my claims on this earth. Everybody have
a thing here. You're welcome to it. But I want
to inherit this in the new heaven and new earth. And he says these
who have discovered their poverty, mourned over their sins, been
broken in humility and meekness before God are the kind of people
that are going to inherit the new earth. God's going to create
a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, and these people
are the ones who dwell there. Now you talk about highly favored
and blessed. And I looked at several scriptures
that have to do with this meek and humble spirit. Look at, don't
turn to these, let me just read them to you. 1 Peter 3, 4. A humble and quiet
spirit is in the sight of God of great value. 1 Peter 5.5,
be clothed with humility for God resisted the proud and gives
grace to the humble. Psalm 25.9, the humble will the
Lord guide in judgment and teach his way. Proverbs 22.4, by humility
and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life. O blessed are the meek, they
shall inherit the earth. Verse 6, blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, they'll be filled. Now then,
when a man discovers, and this is only done by the revelation
of the word of God, the grace of God, when he discovers, ruined by the fowl, poverty of
spirit, his nothingness, sinfulness, wickedness. David said, Lord,
if you judge me and condemn me, you're just. When he discovers
that, and that leads him to grieve over his nakedness, and grieve
over his sinfulness, and grieve over his inability, and weep
over his sin, and shuts his mouth. shuts his mouth, no alibis, no
excuse, admits his sin, breaks his heart,
humbles him before God and men. Then what will that man do? What will he do? What will be
his greatest desire and his greatest hunger? He'll hunger and thirst for righteousness. When he discovers he has none,
and God demands a perfect righteousness, he'll hunger and thirst for God's
righteousness. And this righteousness for which
he hungers and thirsts is best described by Paul in Philippians
3. I want you to turn to this one.
Here's where it's described. In chapter 3 of Philippians,
it's the justifying righteousness of Christ, which is purposed
by the Father, imputed to us in Christ, and received by faith.
Philippians 3, verse 7. Philippians 3, verse 7. Paul
says, Oh, what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ? Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost. for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and I do count them but done, that I may win
Christ and be found in him, not having mine own holiness, righteousness,
which is of the law, but that I might have that righteousness
which is through the faith of Christ, not my faith in Christ,
through the faith of Christ, through the faithfulness of Christ,
through the obedience of Christ, through the work of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God. By faith. Look into Christ. This righteousness is in Christ. And that man who knows his poverty
and mourns over it, It's humbled him before God, he'll hunger
and thirst. And this hunger and thirst is
genuine. It's genuine, it's not a fad,
it's not a passing fancy, it's not something here today and
lost tomorrow. It's a lifetime desire. This Paul here is a man who saved,
knows God, man founded churches. Apostle of Jesus Christ, written
scripture, here you're still saying, oh, that I may know him.
That I may be found in him. That I may have his righteousness. One old writer said, these four
things are true. Of every genuine, sincere believer,
we have no righteousness of our own. We have, secondly, a sincere,
earnest desire for his righteousness. Thirdly, we have discovered and
assured that this righteousness is found only in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And fourthly, like Jacob of old
said, I'll never let you go until you bless me with his righteousness. I will not. I will not. I'm determined to have his righteousness. Verse 7, well, he says they'll
be filled. They'll be filled. Blessed are
they who hunger and thirst for this righteousness. They'll be
filled. They'll be filled. God will hear them. They'll cry. And that will lead to this. Blessed
are the merciful. They shall obtain mercy. Who
are the merciful? Those who have obtained mercy. Those who have obtained mercy.
Be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful to you.
The merciful do not obtain mercy because they're merciful, they're
merciful because they've obtained mercy. See what I'm saying? They do not obtain mercy because
they're merciful. They're merciful because they've
obtained mercy. Mr. Wesley told a story. He was
on board a ship coming from England to Georgia. Wesley Whitfield,
some of these men ministered in the 13 colonies back in those
days. They had an orphanage down in
Georgia. And he was down for Georgia.
And the new governor of Georgia, coming from England, the new
governor of Georgia was on board the same ship. And he was a real
proud man. And one of his servants had stolen
some of his personal wine. So this new governor of Georgia
brought him before all of the people on board the ship, out
on the deck of the ship, and was going to have him publicly
flogged, beaten And Wesley came over to the governor
and pleaded for the man, pleaded that the governor would show
mercy and forgive the offender. To which the new governor of
Georgia replied, I never forgive. I never forgive. And Wesley said to him, sir,
I hope you've never seen Because it's certain you'll never be
forgiven. Blessed are the merciful. They
shall obtain mercy. They have obtained mercy. They
have the righteousness of Christ and the blood of Christ. That's
what made them merciful. Because their father was merciful
to them. And they shall obtain mercy. We learn mercy from our Lord.
We learn how to forgive from our Lord. We learn how to love
from our Lord. How do we show mercy to others? Well, here are four or five interesting
things. Number one, we show mercy to
the bodies of others by helping with their needs. We show mercy
to the feelings of others by speaking kindly and dealing gently
with them. We show mercy to the hearts of
others by loving them. We show mercy to the character
of others by defending them and speaking well of them. We show mercy to the souls of
men and women by preaching the true gospel to them. That's showing
mercy. telling them the truth blessed
are the merciful they shall obtain mercy and then
he says here in verse 8 this is interesting blessed are the
pure in heart they shall see God now no person in this building
this fella and nobody else in here nobody in here will profess
to be pure in heart as most people consider this word, pure, pure. No one in here professed to be
without fault, without sin, in heart, in thought, in imagination,
or motive. Then what is our Lord saying?
Blessed are the pure in heart. What is it to be pure in heart
that we can be right now? Because he said No man has perfect humility,
but he said, blessed are the meek, they'll inherit the earth. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Well, this word, if you want to look it up in your Greek concordance,
the word means clear, clear, clean, free from insincerity
and free from hypocrisy. Now, a man or woman who loves
Christ, can be pure in heart in that sense free from insincerity
free from hypocrisy and clear Paul said that he said I've served
my God with a pure conscience you got a pure conscience not
as far as sins concerned but as far as serving your God you
do I serve my God with a pure, with
a clear, clean, sincere conscience that's without hypocrisy. That's
what Peter was saying to the Lord Jesus. You know I love you.
You know my heart. Peter had acted very unwisely,
but he, in his heart, his head a lot of times went one way,
but his heart went to Christ always. That's what that word
means. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Clean, clear, without hypocrisy and insincerity. Listen to Paul.
Serve my God with a pure conscience. Listen to him in 2 Timothy 2.
He writes to these people and says, Peace with them who call
on God out of a pure heart. That's the way we were saved.
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But
now, not with a divided heart, not with an insincere heart,
not with a hypocritical heart, not with a phony religious heart
that's putting on a show for the people. He's not going to
be saved, but the man who calls on God with a pure heart, peace
unto them who call on God out of a clean, clear, sincere heart. God will bless him. He'll save
him. Peter talking to us, he says, you see that you love one
another with a pure heart. So the pure in heart, right here,
blessed are the pure in heart. They're going to see God. They're
going to see Him here in His Word. They're going to see Him
by faith. They're going to see Him in His
promises. Then they're going to see Him in person, if they're sincere. Now, if we're not sincere, we've
got problems. If we're playing the part of
the hypocrite, if we're professing one thing and believing another,
So the pure in heart would be this, a sincere genuine faith, my Lord and my God, a sincere genuine hope in His
righteousness, not in mine, His, His, His, His blood, His righteousness,
His merit, His grace, His glory, His power, That's my hope. Christ in you. That's the hope
of glory. Thirdly, a sincere, genuine love for others. For
him and for his. They're going to see God. Faith,
hope, and love. They're going to see God. That's
highly favorited. That's blessed. Deliver me from
insincerity. That's what's wrong with most
pulpits today, most religions. It's so recognizable that it's
tragic. It's show, entertainment, and
it's tragic. It's a horrible, horrible farce,
using people, abusing people. promising people what they don't
have and can't give. Here's the last one. Blessing
the peacemakers. Peacemakers. They're going to
be called children of God. You see how these verses, how
our Lord's describing the character and the conduct and the lives
and the hearts of people who are redeemed by His grace? How
that each experience leads to the next one? How did each experience
in grace give birth to the next one? Poverty of spirit produces
mourning over sin. Mourning over sin produces humility
and meekness. It doesn't come like that. Humility and meekness produces
a hunger and thirst for his righteousness since I don't have any. and can't
produce it. And he's the only one that can.
It's in him. I'll seek it. Receiving that righteousness
and mercy makes us merciful and forgiving. And mercy received produces a
genuine sincere heart before God to experience his grace and
glory which gives us peace. You don't start out with peace,
you start out with poverty. You don't start out with peace,
you start out crying. You don't start out with peace
and rest, you start out with the violence. Take heaven by
force. And then when heaven is revealed
in the heart, he leads me beside the still waters. As flows the
river, so flows the love of God. Peace. peace I leave with you,
my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth I you. Let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Charles Spurgeon,
he said the peacemakers, look at this, blessed are the peacemakers. Having peace they make peace.
They'll be called the children of God. He said this, a contentious
spirit is an unregenerate spirit. A troublemaker is in trouble
with God. That's why he's a troublemaker.
A man who sows discord among brethren is a stranger to grace. A grudge bearer bears his own
grudge. That's why he's a grudge bearer. A man seeking revenge is a man
not seeking God. Thy will keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee." Now, in closing, our Lord
said, verse 10, Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We going to be persecuted
for these things? Well, everybody here, everybody
who's experienced the grace of God in Christ, love this truth,
love this gospel, love the ways of God. We rejoice in the commandments
of his kingdom. We rejoice in these things that's
true. Everybody in here says, amen,
this is Jesus, this is so. It's a description of what I
was, what God did, what I am, and what I will be. But let me
tell you something, the world doesn't believe these things.
Our Lord's teachings are contrary to the wisdom of this world,
to the principles of this world, to the opinions of this world,
even the religious world. When our Lord came to this world
with this message, they spit upon Him, rejected Him, nailed
Him to their cross. They despised his message and
his manners. So, what he says is, don't you
expect any different treatment at the hands of these lady men. They're going to hate you. They'll persecute you for his
righteousness. But blessed are you when they
persecute you for righteous mistake, yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men, listen, revile you, persecute you, say
all manner of evil against you, falsely, and it is falsely. For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly
glad. You're in good company. Listen,
great is your reward in heaven. That's the same treatment that
his prophets had that were before you. They were reviled, they were persecuted, they were
killed. But blessed are you. You're honored
to be among God's greatest prophets who were before you.