Thank you, Ryan, and good morning to you. It's good to be with you this morning, to be able to worship the Lord with you. I bring greetings from your brothers and sisters in Christ just down the road at Carlisle Reformed Presbyterian Church, and thank you for letting us borrow your senior pastor, Simon, and it's great for me to be here with you. I've joined you on several occasions in the past for an evening service or Kids, for those of you who go to the school here, I've been in your chapel, it's been wonderful to be with you there, but it is a great privilege for me to come and bring God's Word to you this morning. If you have a Bible, if you could go ahead and open it to the Gospel of Matthew, we're going to look at Matthew chapter 5. verses 6 through 8. And if you're somewhat new to the Bible, that's okay, you can just look on with someone else, or you can follow along in one of the Pew Bibles. The sermon text is on page 809, in the Pew Bible, page 809, and you'll want to go to the Gospel of Matthew. When you get there, the large numbers are the chapter numbers, the smaller numbers are the verse numbers, if you're not familiar with looking at a Bible. And again, we'll be looking at Matthew 5, verses 6 through 8. This is the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, a very famous sermon that Jesus preached. It's a very famous section of this sermon called the Beatitudes. So called because in the Latin translation of the Bible, the first word of each verse is the word Beatus, which means blessed. So these blessed are statements are called the Beatitudes. And in the Beatitudes, Jesus is teaching his disciples, including us today who are his followers, where true happiness is found. where true blessedness, true happiness is found. It's not where the world says we can find it, it's where the Lord says we can find it. It's in having a poverty of spirit and mourning for our sin. and being meek like our Savior. Those are the first three Beatitudes. And the second three, which we'll look at this morning, are about hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and being merciful, and being pure in heart. When those things are true of us by the grace of God, then we shall be satisfied, as Jesus says. Then we shall receive mercy. Then we shall see God. Then we'll know true blessedness, true happiness. So we'll consider all these things as we give our attention together to these three Beatitudes. But before we begin, let me pray for us. Let's pray. Our gracious God, we pray that you would use your word to sanctify us this morning, cause us, each one of us, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and to be merciful, and to be pure in heart, and also to be convinced that that is where true blessedness, true happiness is found, not where the world says we can find it, but where you, the Lord, says it's found. And we pray that you would, by your spirit, open our hearts to receive the seed of your word and make us grow. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Matthew chapter five, let me start back up at verse one so we can get a running start. And again, our focus is gonna be on verses six through eight this morning. Matthew chapter five, starting at verse one. This is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 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 satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. We'll take each of these three Beatitudes in turn, first the one on righteousness, then the one on mercy, then the one on purity. Jesus has already said, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, and blessed are the meek. And now he says, firstly, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now when he says blessed are those, he means truly happy are those, truly satisfied and joyful and content are those. Blessed because blessed by God and favored by God. Truly happy is what he means. Many things in this world promise happiness but don't deliver. True happiness, true blessedness, can only be found in the Lord. So Jesus says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. To hunger and thirst for righteousness means to earnestly desire righteousness. It means to long for it, to yearn for it, to crave it even, to want it. It's like when you sit down at your favorite restaurant and you say, I'm starving. Or when you come in from an afternoon of yard work on a hot summer day like yesterday and say, I'm so thirsty, just like you're starving for that good food or you're parched and thirsty for that ice cold glass of water. So we want to hunger and thirst for righteousness. It's like in the Psalms when David talks about thirsting for God. Psalm 42, one and two. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Or Psalm 63, verse one. Oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to earnestly desire, to eagerly desire righteousness. To hunger and thirst for righteousness means to hunger and thirst to be right with God and to do what is right in his sight from the heart and ultimately to be like the righteous one, Jesus Christ. Again, it's to be right with God and to do what is right in his sight from the heart and to be like the righteous one, Jesus Christ. And we should hunger and thirst for righteousness first in ourselves for the imputed righteousness of Christ and for personal righteousness in our daily lives, and we should hunger and thirst for righteousness in others, that they too would be counted righteous in Christ and would be righteous in their lives. And if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, for imputed righteousness and personal righteousness in ourselves and in others, Then, Jesus says, we shall be satisfied. How? Well, we'll be satisfied because we'll be justified. We'll be declared righteous based on the imputed righteousness of Christ when we first believe in him. We'll be satisfied also because we'll be sanctified. We'll grow in personal righteousness every day as we become more like Christ. and will be satisfied because we'll be glorified. One day we will be perfected in righteousness when we die or when Christ returns. We who hunger and thirst for righteousness in ourselves will have that hunger and thirst satisfied in those things by our justification, our sanctification, and our glorification. Our hunger and thirst for righteousness in others will also be satisfied as people are converted to Christ, and as their lives are changed by the gospel, and as all of that is consummated when Christ returns, and the last of the elect are gathered in. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness in themselves, both imputed righteousness and personal righteousness, for they shall be satisfied by being justified, sanctified, and glorified. And blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness in others, for they shall be satisfied by conversions and changed lives now and by the consummation when Christ returns. Two takeaways for us here. First, if you hunger and thirst for sin, you will never be satisfied. We know this by experience, don't we, as God's people? If you hunger and thirst for sin, you will never be satisfied in that hunger or that thirst. There is, of course, a temporary satisfaction that sin brings, but it lasts about as long as cotton candy in your mouth, and then it dissolves, and then you feel awful. If you hunger and thirst for sin, you will never be satisfied. If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, though, you will be truly satisfied. Sometimes we get a craving for sin, but we can never satisfy that craving no matter how hard we try. Only when we crave righteousness can our craving truly be satisfied. So I encourage you to ask yourself this morning, do I hunger and thirst more for righteousness or for sin? What do I earnestly desire and long for and yearn for and even crave? Search your heart. Ask yourself that question. Is it sin or is it righteousness? True blessedness, true happiness, true satisfaction is not found in sin. It's found in righteousness. I encourage you to remember that. the next time the devil dangles sin in front of your eyes. True happiness is not found there. It's found in being right with God and in doing what is right in his sight from the heart and in being like the righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ. Second takeaway under this first beatitude is that we should hunger and thirst for righteousness. We don't want to have just a slight preference for righteousness over sin. We want to hate sin and hunger for righteousness. We want a thirst for righteousness like the deer pants for streams of water. So pray that God would give you that. Pray that God would give you a real hunger and a real thirst. for righteousness in your life, and pray that he would enable you to pursue righteousness. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, 22, so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Or remember what Jesus says later in the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter six, verse 33. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. We are called to pursue righteousness, to seek righteousness, to earnestly desire it and to eagerly pursue it, like a sprinter in a hundred meter dash, straining and striving and pressing forward. We should desire and pursue righteousness. Don't just avoid sin. Do that, of course, but also pursue righteousness. Be like Paul in Philippians 3, 12 through 14. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So pray that God would give you a real hunger and a real thirst for righteousness in your life and pray that he would enable you to pursue that righteousness and pray that he would satisfy you by making you more like Christ. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Jesus continues in verse seven with a beatitude about mercy. Look at verse seven. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the merciful, that is those who are forgiving and compassionate toward others as opposed to being vindictive and vengeful or heartless, uncaring, unfeeling toward others. The merciful are those who have mercy in their hearts and extend mercy with their words and actions. The merciful are those who know that they themselves need mercy desperately and have been shown mercy richly by God. The merciful are those whose hard hearts have been softened by the gospel, whose cold hearts have been melted by the mercy of Christ. They're not bitter toward others. They're sweet. They're not cruel. They're kind. Their heart towards sinners and sufferers is large and expansive, not shriveled and hard like a walnut. The merciful have been shown mercy and now show mercy. We have been shown mercy by God, haven't we, as believers? listening to the opening verses of Ephesians chapter two. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. God has been rich in mercy toward us. We were dead, but he made us alive. And it was when we were dead in our trespasses that he made us alive together with Christ. We didn't save ourselves, he saved us. Titus 3, 4 through 7, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. God has been rich in mercy toward us. And he now calls us to be rich in mercy toward others. How could we receive such a wealth of mercy from him and then turn around and be stingy toward others? We are called to extend the mercy we've received. We are called to be merciful even as our Heavenly Father is merciful. Blessed are the merciful, Jesus says, for they shall receive mercy. We have received mercy already, that's why we're merciful, but the promise is that we will receive more mercy. Not because we've earned mercy, then it wouldn't be mercy, it would be remuneration. but God gives more mercy to those he has made merciful by his mercy. We will receive mercy when we sin and we confess it to God like David did in Psalm 51. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. We will receive mercy when we wake up in the morning and we look to God in faith for all that we need for a new day. Lamentations 3, 22 and 23, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. We will receive mercy when we pray to God in a time of need. Hebrews 4.16, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We will receive the mercy we need from God to be able to give mercy to others, especially when it's hard to do so. We will receive mercy all the days of our lives, really. Psalm 23, six, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy, Jesus says. Two things here by way of application. First, in light of this, we should show the same kind of mercy to others that God has shown to us. Show the same kind of mercy to others that God has shown to you. Has God been rich in mercy toward you? Then be rich in mercy toward others. If someone has sinned against you, be merciful to them. Forgive them privately in your heart before the Lord and be ready and willing to forgive them personally if they confess and ask for your forgiveness. If someone is suffering, be merciful to them. Put on a compassionate heart. Kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, as Paul says in Colossians 3. The Puritan Richard Sibbes once wrote, there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. Isn't that a wonderful biblical truth? There is more mercy in Christ than sin. And since that's the case from Christ to you, make it the case from you to others. Ask yourself, dear saints, where do I need to be more merciful? Is it in my parenting? Is it in my marriage? Is it at work? Is it perhaps when I'm driving? Is it in my relationships with my fellow church members? Is it when I'm tired or in pain? Is it when I'm anxious or stressed? Where or when do I need to be more merciful? Pray that God would make you more merciful and pray that the mercy you receive from him, you would pass on to others. Show the same kind of mercy to others that God has shown to you. Secondly, I encourage you to pray for your deacons as they administer mercy, and imitate them as they imitate Christ. Your deacons, like ours, oversee the property of the church and the finances of the church, but they also administer mercy to those in need in your church, especially, and outside your church as they have opportunity. So pray for them. Pray for wisdom and good judgment and discernment and understanding and unity of mind and of purpose. In our denomination, our book of church order says that it is the duty of the deacons to minister to those who are in need, to the sick, to the friendless, and to any who may be in distress. Pray that God would enable your deacons also to do that. to do that well and with wisdom and for your good and for God's glory. And the Book of Church Order goes on to say, it is their duty also to develop the grace of liberality or generosity in the members of the church. So we should imitate our deacons in their liberality and generosity and mercy toward those in need. When you see a need, Meet that need if you're able. Don't just assume, well, the deacons will take care of it. Yes, the deacons have a unique role and responsibility in the church, but we should all extend mercy to each other as those who have received mercy from God. So pray for your deacons as they administer mercy and imitate them as they imitate Christ. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. And blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Third, and finally, Jesus says in verse eight, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart. Notice he does not say blessed are the pure in body, Why? Because you can be pure in body, but filthy in heart. Think of the Pharisees. Jesus said in Matthew 23, 25 through 28, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. The Pharisees were pure in body, they were pure ritually, but they were impure spiritually. They were internally impure. To be pure in heart is to be pure on the inside, to be pure from the inside out, like an apple tree that has a healthy root system and therefore bears good apples on its branches. It's not about putting on a good show outwardly, while on the inside you know that you're hollow and empty. It's about there being a real faith in Christ and a reliance on him at the core of who you are. And notice he also doesn't say, blessed are the full in head or the busy in hands, because we all know that you can fill your head with doctrine and busy your hands with service, but not be pure in heart. But if you're pure in heart, then head and hands, which are important, will follow. Now in one sense, we are not pure in heart, are we? Sadly. All of us have impurity in our hearts. Part of that remnant of corruption that remains in us, the flesh, indwelling sin. But in another sense, we've been made pure in heart by our regeneration. And we are being purified in heart by our sanctification. God has made us pure in heart and is making us ever more pure in heart as we grow in Christ. By nature, we are impure in heart. By grace, we are made pure in heart. And the promise for those who are pure in heart is that they shall see God. Now in one sense, God is invisible. 1 Timothy 1.17 says, to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. Children, you know this. We cannot see God, but he always sees us. John 1.18 and 1 John 4.12 both say that no one has ever seen God. But in another sense, We do see God with the eyes of faith, don't we? We see him, as it were, in his works of creation and providence and redemption. We see him now in part, but one day we will see him in full. 1 John 3, 2 and 3 says, beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared. but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. The pure in heart will see God now in part and in full in glory. Two things by way of application here as we draw to a close. First, about being pure in heart, let me say something about sexual purity. Sexual purity begins in the heart. Sexual purity is not just a matter of what we do or don't do with our bodies, it's first a matter of what we do or don't do with our hearts. Jesus says later in this chapter, you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Sexual purity and sexual impurity both begin in the heart before they're manifested in the body. Jesus said in Mark 7, 21 through 23, for from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and they defile a person. The battlefield where the war for sexual purity is fought is the heart. So we must pray for a pure heart if we want to be sexually pure. We must pray with David in Psalm 51, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, verse five, the aim of our charge is love. that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. We don't want just pure bodies. We want pure hearts. We don't just want to avoid actual adultery. We want to avoid heart adultery. And in order to do that, we must focus on the heart. Proverbs 4.23 says, keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. So when we guard our heart, we're guarding the spring of everything else in our life. When we seek to keep the spring pure, everything that flows from it will be pure. When we allow the spring to be defiled, then all that flows from it will be defiled. So guard your heart. Be careful what you put into your heart. Just like if you want to be healthy in body, you need to watch what you eat, if you want to be healthy spiritually, you need to watch what you consume. Watch your intake. Watch what you watch. Feed your heart what is good and wholesome and pure because sexual purity begins in the heart. Second and finally, we as the people of God should be convinced that there's nothing better than seeing God. Like I said before, we can see him now in part, now that he has opened the eyes of our hearts to see our sin and to see our need of a Savior and to see Christ as our Savior and Lord and to turn from our sin and to trust in Christ and embrace him by faith. And with our new eyes, we see him in his work of creation. Anytime we want, we can look outside and see the glory of God on display in his handiwork. We see him also in his works of providence. We see the hand of God at work in history. We see the wisdom of his plan unfolding in our own lives and we learn to trust his wisdom even when we can't see it. We see him also in his work of redemption as God shines in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see him now. in part by faith, but one day we will see him in full by sight. One day we will see him face to face. First Corinthians 13, 12, for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. Psalm 17, verse 15 says, as for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. Last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, verses three through five. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. They will see his face, it says. There's nothing better than seeing God One day we will see him face to face, but until then, look for him. Look for him in creation as you go about your day. Look for him in providence as you go through various circumstances, especially difficult, hard circumstances. And look for him in redemption as you put yourself daily under the means of grace. and long for him, long to see him face to face when he returns. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. That, dear saints, is where true happiness is found. Let's pray together. God, we pray that you would give us a greater hunger and thirst for righteousness. We pray that you would make us more merciful. And we pray that you would make us more pure in heart. Satisfy us. Give us more mercy. And open our eyes that we might see you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.