problems and we'll try to get those worked out. Hopefully we have a short that probably can't be found. But we'll talk a little bit about that tonight on how we might resolve some of our issues here. Well, you're holding in your hand the Word of God, alright? It's not like any other book, it's inspired by God, God breathed it. And so I hope you pay attention to it. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 5, and we'll continue with our study this morning in the book of Matthew and particularly where we're at in the Beatitudes. Matthew chapter 5 we're at verse 9 of this particular chapter I'd like for us to back up though and start in verse 3 in our reading and then we'll work up the verse 9 Those willing and able to, I'm going to ask that you stand with me please as we share together the reading of the Word of God. Once again we'll begin reading at verse 3 and we'll conclude at verse 9. 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 gentle, 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. And then today, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." My, my, what an attribute to be called the son of God. Well, let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Heavenly Father, for the opportunity to study it, to open it. We know, O God, that Your Spirit is here, that He is going to direct us into a closer, more intimate relationship with us in such a manner that we shall more clearly, I pray, reflect the image of Jesus Christ. Help us to live and breathe for the opportunity to show the world that we belong to you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you and pleased to be seated this morning. How many of you have ever gotten to the place in your life where you just really were ready to throw in a towel? I mean, we've all been there, seriously, you know, might as well be honest. How many times have you wanted just, you know, you were so tired, you were so sick and tired of everything that you got to the place where you said, I give up. I don't even want to try anymore. I don't even want to go on anymore. You're just tired of life. You ever gotten to the place where you told your husband, told your wife, I'm just tired of life, man. It's a struggle. You just want to pull away. You get to the point in your life where you want to pull away and I want to unplug. Just unplug. What's the main source of the stresses that most of us have in life? And I don't think there's a word that sums it up better than anything. And there's probably a lot of things that you would claim to be the source of stress in life. But if I could say one word, I would pick the word conflict. Conflict. Source of stress of life. It's not easy being a parent. You know, sometimes you feel like you're in a conflict. It's a conflict with your children. For whatever reason, you know, from the time your children get up until the time they go to bed. And sometimes it starts on Monday and it doesn't quit until next Monday. It feels like you're always in this struggle, you're always in this clash, and you get tired of it. It's not easy. And it's true with your boss, it's true with your co-workers. Sometimes you don't want to go to work because you know when you go to work, it's going to be conflict. It's going to be difficult. It's not going to be easy. And it includes diseases, it includes sicknesses, you know. It may be somebody cutting you off in traffic, whatever the case may be. Christmas! Christmas! Supposed to be a time of great joy? You know, every time of pleasure and so many times Christmas turns into be a time of conflict because everybody's got a schedule. You got the in-laws, you got the outlaws, you know, you got your own family and you got to juggle everything. You got all this conflict going on, you know, it's Christmas. But it's so difficult to get everything arranged around our schedules at Christmas time. You know, even we as children, we don't have the same views of our parents that we used to have. And sometimes, you know, children and parents have conflict because they don't have the same views on life that, you know, they once had when you were at home and you were able to control everything. So there's conflict. We have inner conflict. We have emotional struggles within ourselves. We have mental conflicts going on within our minds, you know. There's all kinds of things that we feel guilty of, we feel inferior about, we have shame about, you know. There's conflict going on. We have pride. Conflict. Even inner Conflicts. If you're a student at the University of Arkansas campus, you know that what you believe, if you're a child of God, when you step on the campus of the University of Arkansas, you know that what they teach on the campus of the University of Arkansas is not going to agree with what you believe. There's going to be conflict when you step on that campus in the University of Arkansas. Conflicts. We can't seem to escape it. And it often results in depression and anger and bitterness and harshness of words. All of that born out of conflict, you know. You're feeling, you know, like you have to fight for everything that you get in life. You know, it's a struggle to get along in life, you know. And so you get to that point, you say, Give me some peace. Give me some peace, please. Where can I go to escape all of the struggles and all of the conflict? Give me a place of peace and quiet. And if that wasn't enough, we have to contend with our national and international struggles, conflicts, Not only just personally, but the whole country. It seems like we live in a country of conflict today. And we have racial unrest in America. We have political unrest in America. We have economic unrest in America. Our politicians are constantly pitting themselves against each other. There's the international conflicts as well that you hear every night. Syria is in turmoil. Russia is trying to once again assert themselves. North Korea wants to play with the big boys. You know, international conflicts as well as personal conflicts. And all of our hearts are crying out, give me some peace. Where can I find some peace? Let me tell you a paradox, some irony here. At least to me, it's a paradox. At least to me, it's an irony. It seems to me that The conflicts that we experience and are seeing on the face of the earth is really everybody trying to find peace. Really everybody is struggling to find peace, and in our desire to find some peace, it results in conflict. You know, because we're basically saying, well, you know, if you'd see things my way, there'd be some peace. If you just go along with me, there would be peace. And oftentimes, you know, people are just trying to find peace, but in the struggle of finding peace, we want peace at the expense of someone else. And that results in conflict. You know, Jesus understood our basic need for peace. And I think he appeals to it here. Everybody wants peace. Nobody likes conflict. You know, even though there are some people who kind of enjoy conflict. Have you noticed anybody enjoys conflict? Somebody would enjoy stirring stuff up. There are people like that. You know, they enjoy getting some conflict, but you've got to understand where they're coming from. What they're coming from is they enjoy the conflict because they really believe that if they convince you of what they believe, there'll be peace. Kind of strange, but that's kind of the way they work. wants peace. It's a universal desire, inner peace, family peace, peace with your brothers and sisters, peace with your parents, peace with your friends, peace with your co-workers. Jesus knows how important having peace is. And so Jesus gets to the point in His Sermon on the Mount and in the Beatitudes where He says, blessed are the peacemakers. The very thing that the world is looking for. Jesus Christ says that you, you, you as a child of God have the ability to to bring to the earth." That's what he says. This is you. Blessed are the peacemakers. This isn't a select few. This is for every child of God. You have the ability as a child of God. Jesus isn't giving this responsibility to the politicians. Jesus isn't giving this to the statesmen or the diplomats. He's not even giving it to the arbitrators. He is not giving this ability to presidents and the Nobel Peace Prize winners. They don't even appeal. register here, or the League of Nations, or the United Nations, or the World Council of Churches, none of that. He says, you individuals, you child of God, you are the peacemaker. And you say, well, I hate conflicts. I don't want to get into conflict. I don't want anything to do with the conflict. Conflicts make me uneasy. I stay away from conflicts as far as I can get. Let me tell you something. Jesus says, you are to be a peacemaker. Now, he's not implying here that everybody's going to listen to you. And he's not implying that everybody's going to agree with you when you come to this point of trying to make peace. He's just saying you as a child of God, you are a peacemaker. You say, are you sure, preacher, that we can be a peacemaker? I am sure. I am positive. You say, how do you know? Where do we start? How do you start being a peacemaker? You start with the foundation that Jesus Christ laid in verse 8. He goes from verse 8 to verse 9. It's very sequential here. and being a peacemaker is built on verse 8. You cannot get to verse 9 unless you are at verse 8. So you have to go to verse 8 where Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart. And He said those pure in heart have the ability and the power then to become and are a peacemaker. There is a definite connection between being pure in heart and being a peacemaker. You say, what is that connection? How do you get there? Let me come in the back door. What are the impure in heart? Those who are impure in heart, how would you define, how would you describe someone who is impure in heart? Well, you say they're greedy. You say they're angry. You say someone who is pure in heart is selfish. Someone who is pure in heart is covetous. Someone who is pure in heart, impure in heart, impure in heart is bitter. If they're impure in heart, then they have everything negative about them. An impure in heart person is someone who is selfish. An impure in heart someone is who is self-centered, who is covetousness. These are people who are impure in heart. Now let me ask you this, if this is true, How can anyone like that be a peacemaker? How can anyone like that be a peacemaker? If they're always angry, if they're always bitter, if they're always upset, if they're impure in heart, how can they be a peacemaker? They can't. They don't have the ability to do that. But we are pure in heart. And I want to remind you what that means now. We've got to go back. We've got to step back a little bit because I want to show you how this is all connected together. Because we talked a little bit last week about being pure in heart and define pure in heart as someone who is singularly focused on God. If you're pure in heart that means you have eliminated everything out of your life and you're only thinking about one thing and you're only going toward one goal and if you're pure in heart that goal is none other than God himself. You have one desire and that is to please God. You're conscious of one thing How can I bring honor and glory to God in everything that I do, in my thoughts, in my words, in my attitudes? That is what it means to be pure in heart. You're just singularly focused on God, and that is all that you're concerned at. Your primary goal in life, if you're pure in heart, is to please God, is to glorify God in everything that you do. You're consumed with wanting, therefore, to see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You're wanting to win God's approval on your life. You're wanting to experience God's presence in your life as well now Here's the principle that Christ is working from when he says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall be so they should be For they shall be the sons of God. He's saying that what you focus on is what you become If you're pure in heart and you're focusing on the Lord, then what you're focusing on is what you shall become. And that is the principle that Jesus is working on in verse 8. That's what he's talking about there. You shall become like the Lord. You're focusing on the Lord, you're going to start manifesting the character and nature of the Lord. Let me give you, if I may, if I may, if I may proceed this morning, and I may give you a key to understanding what your life should be like in regards to being pure in heart and being to become a child of God. I would like for you to get up the next three weeks, every day, the next three weeks, and what you need to do is say, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall be called sons of God. Focus on that. And then I want you to pray, oh God, help me by the power of the Holy Spirit to be focused on you today so that you may see God more clearly. I will see God. I will become like God. The more I focus on Him, the more my life shall incorporate His likeness. That's what I want you to do for three weeks. If you would do that every day, I think you would see that you have this desire then to be a peacemaker. As you focus on God and as you have a desire for the presence of God, I think you're going to see in your life a desire to be a peacemaker. It's going to be a natural part of the process. So now let's take a look then at what Jesus is talking about here, what He meant by saying, blessed are the peacemakers. When Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, I think everybody in the audience that he was talking to their ears picked up immediately on what he was saying because you've got to remember they were under Roman Dominion. And while there was a degree of peace under Roman Dominion the Romans were still interfering with their lives and they would rather get away from the Romans and from their power and establish their own nature. It was still a hassle to live under the Roman government. So there was a lot of talk about peace at this particular time. The orators talked about peace. The wisdom men talked about peace. The wisdom literature talked about peace. The theme of the preachers was peace. They talked about peace in their homes. Peace was a popular subject. However, there is a huge difference between talking about peace, philosophizing about peace, thinking about peace, wanting peace, and being a peacemaker. There's a big difference big difference It's kind of like today, you know today there's a World Day of Peace, I don't know if you're aware of that there's a World Day of Peace We have the Peace Corps We have religions crying out for peace. We have the Nobel Peace Prize winner We have a lot of talk about peace today we have a lot of organizations and Let's talk about peace. A lot of movements that are promoting peace today. Countries signed peace treaties today. And that peace treaty may last 24 hours, it may last a week, it may last a month, but sooner or later it seems like the peace treaty no longer works. is as elusive as it has ever been. But Jesus Christ comes along and He commands us to be peacemakers. This is for saved people. He is addressing those who are going to be the members of His body, the body of Christ, the Church. And He is commanding them to be peacemakers. And the reason they can be peacemakers is first and foremost of all, they have peace with God through Jesus Christ. They have experienced peace with God through Christ. And on the basis of that, He says, I also want you to be peacemakers. Lost people cannot achieve peace. I'm not saying that they might have some kind of satisfying experience for a little while, but as far as long-lasting peace, it is impossible for lost people to have a long-term peace. Whatever peace lost people have is usually fostered or forced or manipulated. That's the only way that lost people can get peace. Have you ever noticed today That that people talk about having this method following this methodology if you'll just do this Follow this technique if you'll just meditate here, and if you'll just develop the skill here, then it's ultimately going to result in peace That's the kind of peace that lost people have it is Manipulated and it is generated you say well what you got to do is you got to have no yoga You know you practice yoga, and you're gonna have peace that's manipulated peace That's all that is. That's the best that they can possibly do. They're trying to find that inner peace, but it has to be manipulated. You can tell when someone is practicing a false religion because they advocate that you follow some procedure in order to have peace. You as a child of God have peace flowing from within you through your relationship with God. You don't have to manipulate it. You don't have to come out with some kind of methodology. You don't have to some kind of technique Because of your relationship with God and your sins being forgiven by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross You have peace with God. It is already there. It is already in you. You don't have to go find it You don't have to go search for it. It is there you say but preacher. I don't feel the peace Are you listen to me? It's not because the peace of God isn't in you. It is because you are rebelling against God. It's not because Once Jesus Christ establishes peace with God, it is established forever. And if you are not sensing that peace that you have with God through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is because you are living in a state of sin and you are rebelling against the work of the Holy Spirit who is convicting you of your sinfulness to bring you back into that place where your relationship with God has been healed and fixed. through forgiveness of sins. It's not that it's not there. It's there. It is there. There's a big difference between what the world calls to obtain peace and how we obtain peace through Jesus Christ. The world says in order for you to obtain peace, what you must do is you must compromise on everything. The world says, here's how you have peace. You negotiate the standard of right and wrong. You give a little bit here about what you believe, and take a little bit here what somebody else believes. And when you do that, then the world says, you're going to have union with each other, and you're going to have peace. You give a little on what you believe is good, and take a little bit on what you believe is good. You give a little on what you believe the truth is, and take a little on what the truth is. That's how the world says that you have peace. You negotiate things. You work things out. And the second way the world says you can have peace is we can force it upon you. And there is a degree in which when you force people under the threat of condemnation or the threat of punishment, in which you can obtain some degree of peace. You can force peace. You can foster peace upon people to some degree. But understand that's not true peace. Here's what you've got to understand as a peacemaker. God never wants you to compromise what's true. Never ever compromise what truth is. That's the world's way of obtaining peace, but it's not God's way. God has no intention for you to compromise what is good and right. God has no intention for you to compromise on what is true. Now here's the irony of it all. Jesus knows that if you don't compromise with the world on what's right, good, and true, that you're going to be in conflict with the world. When you do what God tells you to do, and you live by the moral standards of God, and you do what is right, and you do what is righteous, and you follow God to the best of your ability, you're going to be in conflict with the world. Make no mistake about that. You say, well, how am I supposed to be a peacemaker if that's the way it works? What is Jesus talking about here? I'm going to get ahead of you a little bit, but I want you to look down further in the Sermon on the Mount. And I want you to go to verse 43 and 44. We'll come to it in our study. And Jesus is going to tell us in detail. The question is, how can we be peacemakers with our world? Because they're opposing us, because the world hates us, because the world persecutes us, because the world cannot stand us. How do we become peacemakers? Notice what Jesus said in verse 43. You have heard that it is said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Peacemakers do not compromise the truths of God, but they do die to self. Any time you see in the Bible where Jesus is talking about how to love other people, he's always defining it as dying to self. Being a peacemaker and loving others, including dying to self, are inseparable. They are inseparable principles. There is no such thing as you being a peacemaker and not loving other people. Can't happen. It's impossible to be a peacemaker and not love others. And that's exactly why the world will never have peace. It is impossible for someone who is lost to do what Jesus is commanding us to do in Matthew 20, 43 and 44. They can't do it. It's impossible for them to do. This kind of love is impossible for them to maintain. They will never be able to do it. This kind of love puts enemies before themselves. The world can't do that on a consistent basis. Let me ask you something. What is the most tumultuous relationship that you have on the face of the earth? What is the relationship that is the most difficult? Relationship that you have on the face of the earth It's your marriage It's your marriage Your marriage relationship with each other is probably harder than the relationship you have with your enemies and Sometimes you are in these Sometimes. How many families would be saved if peacemaking started in the marriage? Seriously. Let's look at some practical principles of peacemaking, particularly in the marriage. One of the first things you must decide is that the word of God is going to be the final word in your marriage. The Word of God is going to be the final word in your marriage. And you're going to build your marriage on the foundation of the Word of God. You're going to build your thoughts, your goals, your desires, your attitudes, and your feelings all on the Word of God. And you're not going to compromise the Word of God. And if there's a conflict in your marriage, the first thing you're going to do is you're going to sit down and you're going to look at the teachings of the Word of God and you're going to bring yourself under the alignment of the teaching of the truths of God. That is the first thing you're going to do when you have conflict in your marriage. And you're going to bring yourself into peace. You're going to renew your peace with God so that you might renew your peace with your spouse. That is the way it works. That is the sequence. You first get right with God, then you get right with each other And you know what that means You're gonna have to confess your arrogance your pride your stubbornness Your selfishness your egotism all of those things That you hold so dear Beloved, if we aren't reconciled with God, we're not going to be willing to reconcile with each other. That's the way it works. Secondly, we do what Jesus commands us to do here. We pray for each other. We literally get down on our hands and knees and we pray for each other because if you're not reconciled to God, you're not gonna be willing to pray for another person. You gotta be reconciled to God and God's gonna put in your heart desire to pray for other people. That is the process through which he works. You can't be a peacemaker unless you're praying for other people. If you're not praying for your husband, you're not praying for your wife, then there's gonna be problems in your marriage. You got to be praying for each other literally, constantly, continually. Thirdly, you're going to look for opportunities to die for each other. You're going to look for opportunities to die for each other. We must do everything in our power to promote our enemies. Even if that enemy happens to be your spouse you do everything in your power to Live for them to promote them to seek their welfare welfare in everything you do But you do not compromise the truth in the process of doing that You don't compromise the truth If you're worried that somebody's gonna take advantage of you and Somebody's gonna be better than you that's because you're not pure in heart. I You're not pure in heart. You can't be a peacemaker unless you're pure in heart. And that means you got your heart singularly focused on God. Now we come to the culmination where Jesus Christ says, they shall be called sons of God. You know, we're all going to die. And Lord willing, we're probably all going to have some kind of a tombstone. And on that tombstone, they're going to write something that kind of sums up your life, hopefully. Something that sums up who you were, how you lived. You can put a lot of things on that tombstone, but I don't think of anything would be of greater benefit or reflective of your life than to say, here lies a child of God. A lot of good things you could put on a tombstone. But I don't think you could put anything on there higher than to say, here is a child of God. To be known as that. To be recognized as that. By the people who loved you and maybe even by some of your enemies. because you were a peacemaker in life. You are identified as a child of God. Do you remember what Jesus said? We were looking earlier here in Matthew chapter five, verses 43 and 44. I want you to go back to that verse. I want you to go back to 45. Look at verse 45. So that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. where He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. That's what it means to be like God. The greatest peacemaker of all, of course, is Jesus Christ. Without Christ, you're in conflict, inner conflict, you have conflict with others, but most of all, you have conflict with God Almighty. And one of the sure signs that you are lost and under God's condemnation is that you don't have any real genuine, lasting peace in your heart. The Holy Spirit was sent to this world to convict the world of sin, and He does His job well. You may have temporary moments when you experience, quote, peace, but you know that deep down in your soul and in your heart, you don't have peace. In the heart of every lost person is a restlessness and an easiness that says something is missing. And I'm telling you that what is missing is peace with God through Jesus Christ. Because your sins are keeping you separated from God. And right now you're hoping that you have enough righteousness that it will win the approval of God. Let me tell you, you don't have enough righteousness to win the approval of God to make peace with God. You don't have it. What God requires from you is absolute perfect righteousness. You don't have that without Jesus Christ. You cannot have it without Jesus Christ. We're going to offer a stanza of invitation this morning. I ask Brother Doyle to come and Sister Dorothy. You need Jesus because only His righteousness is going to satisfy God. And once His righteousness satisfies God, you have peace with God through His blood. Every sin paid for. I'm going to ask that you stand with me please this morning as we prepare for the Invitation Hymn. Let's bow our heads real quickly, we're going to have a word of prayer and then we're going to go ahead and offer the Invitation. Heavenly Father we come before you, we thank you so much for your mercy and for your grace, especially manifest through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. Lord we come before you, we thank you for this great privilege to be peacemakers. But Lord we understand that along with being a peacemaker comes also the responsibility to love other people without condition. And that means, Heavenly Father, to be a peacemaker, we die to self. We don't give up your truths. We don't deny what is righteous, but we can die to self. And in the process of dying to self, promote others. Help us, Lord, to be faithful with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us to be faithful peacemakers so that when people look at us, they'll say, you know, there's something strange about him. I believe they belong to God. And we'll win that identity even from our enemies. So God, we pray for those who are here this morning who may not know You personally through Jesus Christ. They don't have peace with You. They may come to church. They may read their Bibles. But they don't have peace with You. because they haven't come through the blood of Jesus Christ. And so we pray for them, we pray for the Spirit of God to work upon them in a powerful way, helping them to understand that they are in conflict with an Almighty God, and they need the blood of Jesus Christ to wash away that conflict called their sins. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.