If you will, open your Bible with me today to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, I'll read the first 10 verses. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto 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 they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is my third message at this time from the Beatitudes, the words that the Lord spoke at the beginning of his sermon on the mount. And we recognize them as characteristics, these Beatitudes, as characteristics of God's people to whom God the Holy Spirit applies Christ's redemption. They're not natural dispositions, they're not natural temperaments with which men are born, but they are those that are wrought in the heart of God's people by God the Holy Spirit. God's people are able to identify with these things. When I read, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, you're able, if you're one of his children today and God has begun a work in your heart, you're able to identify with that poverty of spirit. It's not just at the beginning of your experience with the Lord either, but it's something that continues with God's children throughout our life in this world. There's always that hunger and that thirst for righteousness, to be more like Christ, to be more conformed to the image of God's Son to which we've been predestinated. So these things are characteristics of the people of God. They that mourn, We're not talking about mourning over some loss here in this world, but over who we are. Like the Apostle Paul, when he said, Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? God's people mourn in the beginning of their experience. And as I said, it continues through life. As we read them, we see, as I read through these Beatitudes and you followed with me, we see a great contrast. A great contrast between the thinking, the word of the Lord of glory and the thinking of this world. You know, the word blessed, I said, could be translated happy. One commentator, I think he translated, to be congratulated. To be congratulated are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The natural man is carnal, and he sees happiness primarily in the things of this world. More stuff. More stuff. If I can just get more stuff. If I can just get this and then when you get that, if I can just get this other thing and it just never ends and people think that's going to bring me happiness. No, no. That's the way the carnal man thinks, a man that is only flesh and not born of the spirit of God. Our Lord in one of his parables, we know that he gave several parables. Someone one time defined a parable as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And one of his parables, he told about a man who had a bumper crop. You remember this. His fields just produced so much this year. And so what does he say? He says, I'll pull down my barns and build bigger barns, and I'll say to my soul, eat, drink, and be merry. You see, his idea was that happiness, merriment, is going to come by these things that I have accumulated. His thoughts are not on spiritual things at all. He's a carnal man. He's a natural man. He's a man who has never been born again of the Spirit of God. You know, David was able to say, one day in thy courts is better than a thousand. and the tents of wickedness. I'd rather spend one day in thy courts and to be with God, to worship God, to know God and walk with God. This is the blessedness of life to those to whom the Lord reveals himself. You know, being a Christian isn't just coming to church on Sunday morning and sitting through a lecture or something like that and singing some hymns. No. Being a child of God is knowing God and enjoying God. The joy of the Lord, Nehemiah said, is our strength. Oh, what a blessed thing it is to know God. Do you know him this morning? Not just know about him, but is he real to you? Is he a person that you converse with, and sing to, and pray to, and do you know him? Oh, I know many of you do, and I'm so thankful. But if you're here this morning and you don't, may God deliver you and bring you to know him. The scriptures, our Lord said, you shall find me when you search for me with all your heart. And if you don't know God today, seek him. Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he's near. While he's near. Maybe in this service right now, he's near to you. He's speaking to you. Call upon him. You don't have to walk down a church aisle and pray some sinner's prayer or something like that. No, no. Trust him. Call upon him while he's near. I like that little chorus we sing sometimes. He's passing by this moment. Your needs to supply. Reach out and touch the Lord as he passes by. Okay, this morning we're looking at the fourth, or rather the fifth and sixth of these Beatitudes. Blessed are the merciful. for they shall obtain mercy. Now what does it mean to be merciful? When you define the word mercy, think about it right now. As you think about what does mercy mean, what does that word mean, merciful? Remember this, that the definition you come up with, it must be one that will also describe the Lord Jesus Christ, because he is merciful. In Hebrews chapter two and verse 17, the apostle wrote, wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that is the eternal son of God was made like his brethren, those he came to save, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest. So, blessed are the merciful. However we define that word merciful, it must be compatible with holiness, because the Lord Jesus Christ is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. It must be compatible with justice. It must be compatible with righteousness. It's not just an easygoing, Feeling, you know, some people will just forget about it. Just forget about it. Merciful. No, that's not what it means to be merciful. Now, I've been preaching for some years, and whenever I preach from a text that has to do with mercy, I study. And every time, I found this word, pity. Pity. Mercy. is pitiful. That's usually the first thing that the writers say. Mercy has to do with pity. With pity. But with pity there is also the desire to do something for the one who is suffering. You know, one of our Lord's parables, the parable we call the Good Samaritan, there are a number of men in that parable. One man was walking along, he was taking a trip, and you know the story, he was going to Jericho, and some robbers came upon him and beat him up and robbed him and threw him in the ditch and left him to suffer. Well, there's a Levite came by, he looked at him. A priest came by, he looked at him. But then this last man came by He not only looked at him, I'm sure the Levite and the priest, when they saw that poor guy over in the ditch, they had some pity for him. Wow, that's awful. That poor guy was beat up and there he is suffering. Sure, they had some pity, but that's as far as it went. They didn't have mercy. The Samaritan, when he came along, He not only saw the man and pitied him and his condition, but he did something about it. In other words, that pity that he felt promoted action. Look over here in Luke chapter 10, at one scripture where the parable was told or is recorded rather. The last word in verse 37, the Lord Jesus Christ said, he that showed mercy on him. Mercy. This man showed mercy. Blessed are the merciful. It's not just having pity, but it is, pity is put into action. You know, the Lord and The Word of God, I should say, in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 17 says, But who hath this world's good, and seeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his bounds of compassion from him? How dwelleth the love of God in him? Our Lord, in that parable, of course, he was illustrating that God's command, the first commandment, is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, and all thy being, but the second commandment is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. That man that had asked the Lord the question that caused the Lord to give that parable, you remember he wanted to know who my neighbor is. He was a Jew, no doubt, and he considered other Jews, his neighbors, but a Samaritan? But a Samaritan, a Gentile dog? Merciful. And our Lord showed that the Samaritan, the Gentile dog, he was merciful. Look at another place in Luke's gospel. Turn to Luke chapter one. What I'm emphasizing is that mercy includes pity. It begins maybe with pity, but it doesn't end there. It promotes action, not just a feeling, but action. And we see this here, this passage we're going to look at here in Luke chapter one, we see this on the part of God. God is full of mercy, isn't he? That's one of the characteristics of God that we love to talk about and love to think about. He's full of mercy. Scripture says judgment is a strange work unto him. He delighteth in mercy. If you're here this morning and weighted down with sins, I want you to know that the God of the Bible, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, He delights in mercy. He delights in showing mercy to those who have need. Look to Him, call upon Him, trust Him, believe Him. But here in Luke chapter one, these are the words of the father of John the Baptist, Zacharias. And in verse 72, and he's filled with the Holy Spirit and begins to prophesy and praise God and bless God. But in verse 72, notice he says, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers. In other words, the birth of John the Baptist, which he realized that he would be the precursor of the Savior. He would be the one who would come before the Lord and prepare the way for the Lord. Well, Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, knew that this meant the Messiah was coming, the Savior was coming. And what he says, what this is, what this is going to accomplish is he's going to perform the mercy promised to our fathers In other words, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and all those Old Testament saints, God had promised mercy, mercy, pity upon those who were sinful and needy. Mercy. But then notice in verse 78 how this mercy is displayed or manifested. Verse 78, how's he going to show his mercy? How's God going to show that mercy? Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us. Who's the day spring? Who's the bright morning star? It's Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. And how is God going to show this mercy that he's promised to the fathers by sending his son into this world? That he might come to save, to redeem his people. One of the hymns that we sing here is majestic sweetness sets enthroned upon the Savior's brow. And I especially like that line that goes, he saw me plunged in deep distress. Who saw me? God did. He saw me plunged in deep distress and flew to my relief. For me, he bore the shameful cross and carried all my grief. That's pity, but it's pity in action. It's mercy. He saw me. He saw me in my awful condition, just like that Samaritan saw that man in that ditch. I've always liked that part of that parable when it tells us that the Samaritan, he went to him. man's over there in the ditch, and he goes to him. And isn't that a beautiful reminder to us that God, the eternal son of God, saw us in our need, plunged in deep distress because of our sins against God. And he came to where we were. It's like that man went to where that man was in the ditch. He came into this world in the fullness of the time. God sent forth his son made of a woman that he might redeem us from the curse of the law. The merciful person is one who has inward sympathy, but that inward sympathy brings out acts. in relation to the sorrows and the afflictions of others. What is the difference between grace and mercy? What is the difference between grace and mercy? Well, one definition is this. Grace is especially associated with men and their sins. While mercy is especially associated with men in their misery, their misery. Why is a person miserable? Because he's a sinful, he's a sinner, that's why. One writer also pointed out that the problem, go back to our text here in Matthew 5, the problem with this beatitude is that fallen men misunderstand the promise connected with it. Notice the word in verse 7, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. They think that this parable is somehow teaching, that our Lord was somehow teaching that If we show mercy, then God will show us mercy. They do the same thing to that part of the model prayer when the Lord taught us to pray, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. And they say, you see there, if we forgive those who sin against us, then God's going to forgive me. In other words, they make it a work that we do something, and because we do something, then God does something in return. If I forgive those who sin against me, then God will forgive me. If I show mercy to others, then God will show me mercy. Martin Lloyd-Jones said to him, now listen, he said to him, It was amazing that anyone should ever interpret the scripture to mean something like that. And it gave two reasons why it was so amazing to him. Number one, if that were true, and God forgives us because we forgive, and God shows us mercy because we show mercy, if that were true, that would make forgiveness impossible. It would be impossible for man to ever have forgiveness on a legal basis like that. Not one of us would be saved. But you know, people who believe in salvation by works, they are deceived, aren't they? They're deceived into thinking that they can do something that will please God and cause God to be merciful or gracious unto them. God said, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. God is free. God is free. His grace is free. His mercy is free. Yes. And number two, Lloyd-Jones said that would cancel the whole doctrine of salvation by grace. If God forgives me because I forgive, if God is merciful to me because I show mercy, then just take out the scriptures that teach us that by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourself. Well, what does it mean then? Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Well, if you follow these Beatitudes, I don't, well, I know they were not given just randomly. The Lord gave them and one builds upon the other. If the Lord has worked in my heart by his grace and my attitude has changed, my attitude has changed, I've been made to see my need. That little chorus, it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It's me, O Lord, I'm the center. You know, if God has made me to see that I'm the one who is needy, I'm the one who's poor, I'm the one who needs mercy, then we're made to feel that need and our emptiness and our unworthiness and we hunger and thirst after righteousness. And having been filled, freely forgiven through the blood, of Christ and righteousness justified by his righteousness, then my attitude towards others is automatically changed. When I see others, I remember, I identify with them. If they're lost, that was my condition. That was my condition. And it's just because of the mercy of God that that I'm any different if I am any different. It's just by the grace of God. When someone does something to me or to you, something harmful, we just say that, you know, if it were not for the grace of God, tables would be turned. It would be me doing that to somebody. I think about that old preacher that lived somewhere out of London, and when a person was condemned to be hanged, they brought the person right in front of his house, put him in a cart, and carried him out to where they would hang him. And every time that that cart came by, that preacher said, there go I, but by the grace of God. Do you feel that? Is that real to you? Is it? There go I. No matter what condition we see others in or how they act or don't act, the only difference is God. And I shouldn't say only. That's a big difference. That's a big difference. But it's still God. It's God's grace. Blessed are the merciful. He's been merciful to me. He's forgiven me. I think about that parable, another parable that our Lord told that Pharisee. He said, Simon, one man owed 500 pence and this other man owed 50 pence. Well, neither one of them had enough to pay. It doesn't matter if, you know, some... And it's just God's providence You may be here this morning. I assume there are many people here today. And you've never been on Skid Row. You've never been in prison. You've never been addicted to drugs or alcohol. You know, it's just the grace of God. That's all it is. Do you realize that? Oh, no, I'm not like that. I could never do that. I would never be like that. By the grace of God. Blessed are the merciful. We've received mercy. And it's a disposition now that we have in our hearts to be merciful. We don't have to work at it. It's just part of us now. It wasn't always that way. Well, let's move on to the sixth one. I'll be very brief on this. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Now, every one of these Beatitudes could call for a message. And this one especially, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. How in the world do any of us have a pure heart? Three things about this, about the heart. First of all, man's trouble is the heart. It's not our environment. It's not our education. My trouble, your trouble, the trouble of man is the heart. And this was true. You know, we have these verses in the scripture before the flood, before God destroyed all living flesh except those eight souls inside the ark. This is what God saw. as he looked at his creation. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Now listen, and every, every, every imagination of the heart or the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Did God say that about man? Did God say that about us? Yes, he did. And then after the flood, through the prophet Jeremiah, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Man's problem is his heart. Our Lord Jesus said, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These things defile the man. Now this beatitude says, blessed are the pure in heart. The first thing we see is number one, that's man's problem, his heart. There's only one remedy. Don't you love this about God? One time I was sick in Mexico. Probably told you this before. Doctor came to the house, he came several times, but one time he told my wife, he said, oh don't worry, We've got plenty of medicine at the pharmacy that we haven't tried yet. Yeah. I tell you, when it comes to being right with God, knowing God, being forgiven of sins, there's not a whole lot of remedies. There's one. One remedy. For this unclean heart, there's only one remedy. And that is the blood of Jesus Christ. The scripture says in Acts 15, purifying their hearts by faith. That is by faith in Christ. You know, this beatitude doesn't say blessed are the sinless. We've all probably known some people. I've known a few who believe that they live in this world without sin. They've told me that. You know what the scripture says about those people? They're liars. They're liars. It doesn't say, blessed are they without sin. It says, blessed are they of pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. They have a new heart. A new heart. That's one of the promises of the new covenant. Our Lord ratified the new covenant with his blood. And one of the promises of that new covenant is a new heart. that he gives, a heart of flesh upon which he writes his law. The third thing, we shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I like to think about that. I know there's coming a day, and my, we look forward to that day. What a day of rejoicing that will be, when with my Savior I shall be But you know, even in this life, we see God. God's people do. We see Him in creation, don't we? We go out at night and see the beautiful stars, and oh, this is my Father's world. We see Him in creation, don't we? And we see Him in providence. how God works all things after the counsel of his own will and brings things to pass. And we know, we don't always understand, most of the time we don't, but we know in the end, we'll all say, amen, he did all things well. And yes, like I said, one day we shall see him face to face. And the beautiful thing about that is, we'll be like him. We'll be like him. Amen? We're going to sing a hymn number 291 before