Well, our text this morning is still Matthew chapter 5. We're still in the Beatitudes. And we'll be looking at this morning verses 7 through 9, though I'll read 1 through 9 as our scripture reading. Matthew chapter 5. Actually, I'll read verses three through nine. People of God, this is God's very word. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for 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 sons of God. And then we'll end our reading there this morning. Lord willing, next week we'll finish the Beatitudes. One more week. But as we continue with the Beatitudes, looking at the character of those in the kingdom, we've seen how different it is, this kingdom, this kingdom of Christ, this kingdom of heaven, how different it is than any other kingdom in the world. You can't find another kingdom that looks like this, can you? the character that we have for those in this kingdom. See, Christ set up his kingdom the way he did, and it turned the world upside down. It's pretty eye-opening, isn't it? No matter how hard these kingdoms try, it will never be like this kingdom. A kingdom that no matter how high you are on the social ladder, To be in this kingdom, you need to start in poverty. And not poverty of your wallet or your bank account, but poverty of spirit. You have to start out looking at your spiritual needs. And when you understand that you are poor in spirit, well then what happens? You begin to mourn over that situation. It hurts. You feel the weight of that on your heart. And then you realize, you look out and you see that same situation everywhere. And then you don't only mourn for your sin, but you mourn for all sin. We've read the book. We know in the beginning, after the fall, it wasn't supposed to be like this. And it hurts when we see a world fallen and disarray. We mourn over sin. We understand that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That should be something where, yeah, we mourn over that. And when you understand that, it makes you meek. It makes you gentle to understanding how there's this world is just full of sin. And people are hurting out there and they need to hear the gospel. It makes you understanding to those who don't know how bad the situation is that they're in. A situation without Christ, a life without Christ. And then last week, we looked at what the first three Beatitudes led to. And that was a Christian that hungered and thirst for righteousness. A righteousness that we would always want more of. A righteousness where we wouldn't just think, well, I'm doing pretty good right now. No, a righteousness where we would want seconds. It was so good. A lifestyle that we would strive to do. And we know we'll never be perfect at it. We know that it's a method of perfection on this side of glory. No, no, no, no, no. We live a life that has these marks of a Christian, and we strive to live that. We looked at that last week, didn't we? These marks. We have faith. We avoid sin. We follow after righteousness. We love God and our neighbor. We do our best neither to turn to right to left. We crucify the flesh daily. And finally, that last mark was, we continue to find refuge in Christ. Those are things of the Christian. Those are marks of the Christian. Those are marks of those who live in this kingdom, who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Well now, as we move along in the Beatitudes, we see Jesus building on those first four. with three new beatitudes. And these beatitudes are really a call to action. A call to action. And once again, we're going to see that this action, these actions that we do in this kingdom, they look different than the actions of the world. Those in this kingdom are merciful. Those in this kingdom strive to be pure in heart. Those in this kingdom don't bring strife or war, they make peace. See, beloved, those in this kingdom are called to action, but those actions are done with the right heart. A heart like Jesus, a heart like the Son. So let's look at these three beatitudes, these beatitudes of action. And then we'll examine our hearts and see how we're doing if we're following the King and the ways of this kingdom, or our hearts, that didn't come out clean, are following the world, the kingdom of the world. And the first beatitude of action this morning is, blessed are the merciful For they shall obtain mercy. See, like right off the bat, that's not an action of the world, is it? The world doesn't like showing mercy. The world is a dog-eat-dog world, but not this kingdom. And the first question we should start with is, well, what is mercy? If the world doesn't like it, well, what is it? What is being merciful? And one thing we need to do is to see the distinction between mercy and grace, right? Let's start there. Because grace is getting something that you don't deserve, while mercy is not getting what you do. See, right? Grace is unmerited favor. You do not deserve any grace, right? Christ gives you grace, unmerited. Not because of works. And mercy, on the other hand, is not getting the judgment that was on your account. He's merciful. Right? Like we've heard already this morning in the reading of the law, and what comes of that if you don't have Christ. Right? You, without mercy, deserve hell. You deserve death because of your sin. And yet in His mercy, God takes hell and death and punishment and places it on his son. See, God saw how wretched we were in our sin and shows us mercy. And the word that we can see in the New Testament, we'll see mercy a lot, but a synonym of mercy is also the word compassion. That's another thing we don't see in the world very often. And we can see throughout scripture that mercy is something that God desires, right? And if God desires it, then we who have a heart like his son, we too should desire this as well, shouldn't we? Mercy. Does your heart desire mercy or does it desire vengeance? Does it desire hatefulness? Are you merciful? Hosea chapter 6, we can read this. This is God saying, for I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And beloved, Jesus quotes this very text from Hosea when he's dealing with the heart of the Pharisees. Because the Pharisees did not get why they needed a Savior, and they did not get why they needed to be merciful. Listen to this from Matthew chapter 9 where Jesus quotes this text. He says, And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? When Jesus heard that, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Sinners to repentance, that's mercy. In the heart of the Pharisee, mercy wasn't a thing. Why are you hanging out with sinners and tax collectors? Because they need the gospel. Case in point, the parable of the good Samaritan. If you want to know what this beatitude is all about, blessed are the merciful, a beatitude that leads to action. Go no further than the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is it. You want to know what mercy is, what being merciful is all about. I'm going to read it to us. Listen. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, and you could probably see Jesus smirk there, and by chance, right, a certain priest came down the road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked. You gotta imagine that. He sees him, he looks, and then passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. Think mercy, right, synonyms. So he went to him, banished his wombs, poured on oil and wine and set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the next day. Now, stop and think about this parable. Stop and think about what Jesus is saying on the next day. So this man stayed overnight. The Samaritan stayed overnight with this person who was half dead. Took care of him. When he departed, he took out two denarii, which was two days wages. Think about how much you make in a day. Two days wages. Gave it to the innkeeper and said, take care of him. And whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay. So not only did this Samaritan use his own oil, use his own wine, use his own bandages, use his own animal, use his own money, showed mercy on this man. This is what Jesus says. So which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And what do they answer? He who showed mercy on him, they said. Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise. Now when you think about what Jesus is telling these Pharisees, he's pretty much telling the church leaders of the day this parable, we should take it to our time, we should think of ourselves, do we think the world is doing a better job at being merciful than the kingdom of God? Are we as Christians too afraid to get our hands dirty? Use our own oil, our own bandages, our own wine, our own vehicle, our own money. A heart like the king, what he's teaching them, shows mercy to the sick and to the needy, the one who needs to hear the gospel. The one that no one tells them. So we can think of people like this who need to hear the gospel, who need mercy. Because if they don't receive mercy, they're gonna stand before a holy God and have judgment for eternity. Or do we pass along the side of them? Say, oh, look, and go, ooh, yeah, sorry, man. Blessed are the merciful. See, we all, we of all people, Christians, should understand what showing mercy is all about. Approved are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. You know, some people, when they read this beatitude, they have a problem with it a little bit, because they think that if you don't show mercy, you won't obtain mercy, right? Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. But is that really what Jesus is getting at here? I don't think so. I think he really wants you to pull out your heart and look at it and examine it and say, if you're not showing mercy, maybe you've never received it. And that should be eye opening to someone who claims to be a Christian. It's a heart issue is what he's trying to tell them. How is your heart? We're gonna see this throughout the Beatitudes, throughout the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is getting at your heart and he wants you to really look at it and really see if your heart is in a kingdom that wants to be like him or if your heart really is calloused like the world. And we need to open our eyes and go, oh, yeah, we got a lot of work. He says, go and do likewise. Go and do likewise. It's a beatitude of action. Blessed are the merciful. So that's the first beatitude of action this morning. Let's move to the second beatitude of action. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. If you remember back to last week, I said that I bet we could go through the Psalms of David and find a Psalm for every beatitude. And this one was easy, because I started looking for them. And this one just popped right out. And we sang it earlier. Psalm 24 is for this beatitude. Because starting at verse 3 of Psalm 24, it says, Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in his holy place? So what's the question they're asking? Who can see God? That's the question. And in verse 4 of Psalm 24, it tells us, He who has clean hands and a what? A pure heart. That's what we're looking for. Blessed are the pure in heart, for what? They will see God. Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from God for his salvation. So blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Jesus is exegeting Psalm 24. He's saying, think about it, that's what we're talking about here. But we should all be thinking, whoa, slow down, Jesus. Having a pure heart is a problem. Isn't it? Because what does Scripture tell us about our hearts? Let's start with what Jesus said. This is what Jesus said about our hearts. Jesus said, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from our hearts, and they defile a man. What? For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Ooh, what? Ouch. Out of our hearts. But we need a pure heart. Oh, okay. Let's jump to the Old Testament. Maybe the Old Testament has something different about our heart. What does Jeremiah say about our heart? This is what Jeremiah says. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Right now we should be thinking, uh oh, we are in big trouble if we need a pure heart. This doesn't sound good. Let's go back to the very beginning. Let's go back to Genesis chapter five. The first great reset called the flood. How were their hearts before the flood? OK. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Oh, boy, we're in trouble. Beloved, how can we see God if our hearts are not pure? If our hearts are desperately wicked? See, at first glance, this beatitude seems out of reach. Jesus, I don't know. This one might be tough. And beloved, that's exactly where he wants you to be. That's exactly what He wants you to be thinking. Because this beatitude reminds us of our poverty in spirit. This beatitude reminds us that we should be mourning over our sin. Because there's only one place we can turn for a pure heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. The one place we can turn for that pure heart is not to ourselves, not to our works, but to the Lord. And even David, King David, knew this in the Old Testament. Psalm 51. What does he say? Create in me a clean heart, O God. He's crying out to the Lord. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. He knows he doesn't have it and he needs it. This is something we can't do on our own. The Lord has to do it. And beloved, this is something we all need to do. Have you called out to the Lord, cried out, created me a clean heart? Have you looked into the mirror and seen your sin and said, Lord, I can't do this. I need you. Because God says, yes, I will give you a clean heart. This is from the prophet Ezekiel. He says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. That's what we need. And He freely gives to those who ask. See, now here's where the action comes in. Now that you have a new heart, now that you can be pure in heart, your call to love the Lord your God with all of it. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. And to do that, you will need to strive like no other and fight against sin and temptation every day. See, those who live in the kingdom are called to live this life. It's not an easy life. It's not something that we can only give a little bit of effort to and think we're doing good. No, no, no, this is a life thing. This is an everyday thing, a striving thing. See, and one of the blessings that we have in the Lord is He's given us the grace for this to do along the way. We have means of grace to help us strive for this. We could come to church and hear the preaching of God's word twice a Sunday to be fed by Him. Means of grace. We can participate in the sacraments as a means of grace. Remember, before we participate in the Lord's Supper, what are we supposed to do? Examine our hearts to see how we're doing. And what we're gonna find out is we need to feed on the Lord. See, and when we live this life that's fully given over to the Lord, He has a promise for you. You want to hear it? You shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Not maybe. Not if. No, you will see God. It's a promise. Those in this kingdom are going to see God. And we can see God now, can't we? We can see how He works. We can see Him working in our lives. We can see Him working in our kids' lives. We can see Him working in creation. We can see His handiwork. We can see Him when we read Scripture. This book comes alive because of Him. But you know there's something that's even better than that. And all that was pretty awesome. One day, for those in the kingdom, one day for those who are pure in heart, one day they will see God face to face. How often do you think about that? How often do you actually stop and think, Lord, I can't wait. One day, beloved, you're going to be able to look into his eyes. One day, you're going to be able to see that smile. You're going to hear that voice. How do we know? First John, the Apostle John, tells his congregation this ultimate promise. This is what he tells them. We know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself. Oh, really? Pure heart. Just as he is pure. Beloved, blessed are the pure in heart. Approved are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Now, let's make our way to that final beatitude of action this morning. Verse nine. Blessed are the peacemakers. for they shall be called sons of God. And if there ever was a character trait that is like God, it would be this one. Right, of all these character traits that we've looked at, all the character of God, that being to have a heart like the king, this one is the one. All over scripture, beloved, what do we hear about God? What do we hear about his son? That he's a peacemaker. You go through Scripture and you find Him doing this. He brings peace. God is the God of peace. God sent His Son to be this great peace negotiator. He even has a title. We sing it at Christmastime. He's the Prince of Peace. Jesus Christ is the ultimate peacemaker. If we really understand what the son's role was as a mediator, that's a peacemaker. See, we never wanna forget that before we were in Christ, we were at war with God. And if Christ doesn't stand between you and a holy God, once again, bad news bears. The world is at war with God. God is at war with the world. God hates sin. He abhors it. And the world wants nothing to do with the Holy God. Listen to this from Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces, and cast away their cords from us. Beloved, we need an ultimate peacemaker, don't we? We need Christ. For those in Christ, we have peace with God. We see the Apostle Paul put that all over his letters. For those in Christ, those who have peace, the war is over for them. Listen to this from Romans chapter five. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have what? peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope for the glory of God. Jesus being the Prince of Peace, beloved, now calls us to do what? Be like Him. Go and do likewise. Go be peacemakers. Not troublemakers. That's the opposite of a peacemaker. If you're known as a troublemaker, that's bad. No, we're called to be peacemakers. We're not called to be troublemakers. See, we're not called to try and pick a fight. And that doesn't mean we can't debate. We like to do that. That doesn't mean we can't interact. Sometimes maybe a little louder than we should with those that think different than us. But if all we want to do is fight instead of bring peace, then we've missed the point. We are not being peacemakers. This is what the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 12. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. This is what the writer of the book of Hebrews writes. Pursue peace with all people in holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Beloved, we are called to have a character like the king. We are called to have a heart that's like His heart. And if He's the ultimate peacemaker, well then our heart should be like His. He went out of His way to bring peace to those who didn't want it. Remember the cross? See, peacemaking is one who goes out into the world and shares the good news. Shares what a life that's been reconciled to God looks like. See, and if your life looks like his and you are a peacemaker, well, what does it say? They shall be called sons of God. because you start to look like him. You start to act like him. You get this family resemblance. You get what those Christians in Antioch were getting called little Christ for. You're a peacemaker, like your savior. Brother, we live in a world, well this is probably the toughest one out of all the Beatitudes. Because we see the world and the way they treat our king, the way they treat his kingdom, and we just want to go out swinging sometimes, don't we? Sometimes we can't handle it. Raises our blood pressure up. when we see what's happening? But beloved, that is not our calling, to get mad and to be a troublemaker. We're called to be peacemakers. I'm gonna bring us back to Romans chapter 12 again. If it is all possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourself, but rather do what? Give place for wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Who's? The Lord's, not the church, not those in the kingdom. Vengeance is for God. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. What? If he's thirsty, give him a drink. Are you kidding me? Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That is a peacemaker. That's what we've been called to be. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Action. Beatitudes of action. Approved are the merciful. Approved are those who are pure in heart. Approved are the peacemakers. Why? For they shall obtain mercy, they shall see God, and beloved, they shall be called sons of God. All right, now's the time. There's your heart. How you doing? No one ever said it was gonna be easy. Because next week, we're gonna look at what happens to those who live in this kingdom, who follow these Beatitudes, who are like the king. Next week, when we have a heart like the sun, we're gonna read this. Blessed are those who are persecuted. That's next week. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Amen. Let's pray. Father God. Living in this kingdom, Lord, is hard. We hear all these things, Lord, and we're like, whoa, really? But the truth is, Lord, what we heard this morning is we can't do this without you. We just couldn't. Our worldly nature, our flesh would get in the way, and we would not wanna be merciful. We would wanna rage against the world. And without you, we can't be pure in heart. Lord, give us a heart that cries out, create in me a clean heart. And finally, Lord, if it were up to us, we would all be troublemakers and not peacemakers. But Lord, it isn't blessed are the troublemakers, is it? No, you've told us blessed are the peacemakers. Making's a verb, Lord, help us to remember that. Making's something that we do. We need to go out there and make peace. We need to go out there and spread how that peace is made, and that is by the Son, Jesus, and what he has done. Peacemakers are those who go tell people about how they can get out of that war. would help us to remember the vengeance isn't ours, but peace is. And as we learn about this character and about this heart of the king, Lord, our prayer is that it makes us like we want to be like him. We want a heart like his. We want that. We want to live in this kingdom and have this kingdom grow to the ends of the earth. Well, let that be our prayer today and every day. Hear our prayers for Jesus' sake, Lord. Amen, amen. Well, when the music begins, we're gonna stand and we're gonna sing four, or no, 241, 241.