All right, good morning. Let's continue with our services this morning and turn to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 5. As we make relevant what is commonly called the Beatitudes, and we are in verse 7, and however I'd like to set the stage for you like usual and we will begin reading in verse 3. and wind up at verse 7. 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. Jesus said, 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. of the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." Let's pray. Father we do thank You for the day. We thank You for the reading of Your Word. Now we pray for the application of it to our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit as He ministers to us in our spirits in Christ's name we pray, amen. Thank you and please be seated. Well, if you're just reading through the Beatitudes sometimes you don't notice the subtle changes that can take place. There is a change of direction, so to speak, in this passage of Scripture this morning. In the previous four Beatitudes Christ has been basically talking about our relationship with God and our relationship between God and ourselves. Beginning with this verse though there is a division. Beginning with this verse Jesus Christ begins to direct more of His teachings toward our relationship with others. You say this is kind of familiar because it reminds me of the Law of the Ten Commandments where in the first part of the Ten Commandments know that God is talking about our relationship with Him. And then the last part of the Ten Commandments God is talking about our relationship with others. Yes, that is exactly what it is. Jesus Christ is making that distinction here. Jesus obviously knows what He is doing. He begins in the very start at verse 3 where He says in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit because He knows that we can't go anywhere. without being poor in spirit. And that simply means, as we've referenced many times, this means to be totally and absolutely dependent upon God. That's what it means to be poor in spirit. We are completely dependent upon Him. And as we depend upon God, we know we move next to mourning over our sins. We mourn over sin's power over us. And that moves us to being meek, which means giving up our rights and our privileges. And giving up our rights and privileges creates a vacuum. And we begin to, what the scripture says, hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God. And that's what he's talking about there. And that's our fellowship with God. That's what he's talking about. And he kind of ends his talk there on fellowshipping with God and the importance of doing that. Righteousness simply means that you want to do God's will. That's what righteousness means, that you have a desire to please God. There is no greater concrete definition of love than performing righteousness. That's how you demonstrate how you love God. That's how you demonstrate you want to do His will, is you are interested in righteousness, and that is pleasing to God. God's will and design for your life is really very, very simple. It's not as difficult as we make it. We make God's will, determining God's will, more difficult that it needs to be. It's very concrete. Number one, you love God. And number two, you love others. That's God's will. That really is all there is to doing the will of God. You say, but I spent hours and hours and hours praying for a job, you know, and praying for God to lead me in the right direction. I've been praying for hours for God to give me the right kind of house. And I've been praying for God to give me a car, you know, and I want to pick out the right kind of car. And I don't know whether I need to live in Fayetteville or I need to move to Alaska. I just don't know what to do. And so I've been spending all this time and praying about these things and asking God what God's will is. You know what, folks? That's not going to be God's primary interest on Judgment Day. God is not going to take away some rewards from your life because you decided you want to be a mechanic and somehow or another you think God meant for you to be a doctor. You know, God is not going to discipline you because you bought a Ford instead of buying a Chevy. Now you know those things are not, those things are going to figure into the ultimate design of God's will for your life. When we stand before God on Judgment Day the only thing He's going to look at is how much you loved Him and how much you loved others. That's it. It's that simple. It really is not more difficult than that. It doesn't matter what your circumstances are. It doesn't matter what your situation has been. Have you loved God and have you loved others? It doesn't matter how you were raised, whether you were raised in a Christian home or not in a Christian home. It doesn't matter. The question is, have you loved God and have you loved others? Those two things are going to be, are the things we're going to be held accountable for at the judgment seat of God. The Beatitudes, Describe what it means to love God and to love others. Pardon me. The first thing we need to keep in mind then is that Jesus Christ is clearly putting God first. Before we're able to have a proper interaction, before we're able to properly love others, Jesus simply says, you've got to love God first, period, and foremost. If we do not have a suitable relationship with God, you will have relationship problems with other people. Every relationship problem you have with somebody else is because you do not, first of all, have a suitable, operating, working relationship with Almighty God. Either one or both parties are not submitting to God. That is the problem. And so, first of all, then, we've been looking at a relationship with God. As Jesus Christ settles that, He moves on to how we're to interact with other people. And so that's where we're going to begin this morning. So without any further ado then, let's look at the passage before us today and let's tackle the joy of mercy. Now don't forget that when he said blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, he's talking about how to have joy. He's talking about how to truly be happy. He's talking about how to truly be contented in life. We cannot be joyful, we cannot be happy unless we are exercising mercy. It's an impossibility. Unlike the word righteous, you know the word righteousness, we talked about this last week. The word righteousness has the idea of something that's religious. We generally limit the word righteousness to our religious circles and religious jargon. Mercy, on the other hand, is a pretty contemporary word. Mercy is pretty contemporary. There's a Christian band called Mercy Me. There's Mercy Hospital. It's not unusual for us to use that word in our everyday conversations. However, because we do use it in everyday conversations, I don't want you to confuse What Jesus is talking about and how we use mercy in our everyday conversations. Don't think for a second here that the mercy that Jesus is talking about here is something that you can do in the power of the flesh. This is not something that you are born with. And I know there are some people that seem to have a soft heart, you know, And I understand that. And there are some people who are moved to pity more easily than other people. I understand that. But this is something that happens when you are born again. This mercy here is the product of the Spirit of God having dominion in your life. It is in you by virtue of the fact that you are in Jesus Christ and as such you are a new creation. And this is part of that new creation. So don't confuse what Jesus is talking about here with a TV commercial when you turn on your TV and it shows you some emaciated young, you know, black person over in China, not China, over in Africa, you know, over in Africa that's got their extended belly out there, you know, they may have in China too, I don't know. But anyhow, you see these pictures of these people who are starving to death and they are moving you to give to some kind of organization, or they show this TV commercial, they flashed on there, they've gone down to the pound and they've got this little puppy in there that's been abused and everything else, and it's got sad eyes, and they're trying to move you to stir your hearts to give and to do something. That's not what Jesus Christ is talking about here. That's not the kind of mercy He's talking about. You might know somebody that's going through a very painful situation, and your heart goes out to them, and your emotions are stirred. That's not what we're talking about. You don't have to be a Christian to have compassion. There are all kinds of organizations. The Red Cross, the United Way, Doctors Without Borders, Food for the Hungry. There's even a group called Mercy Corps. You don't have to be a Christian to have some kind of empathy for other people, but that's not what we are talking about. You know Jesus' definition of mercy here is firmly built and established on the verse that precedes it. You cannot understand what Jesus is talking about here in verse 7 unless you have firm convictions about what Jesus Christ is saying in verse 6. In verse 6 he said, "...blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness." That is pivotal! That is pivotal! It is the last thing that Jesus discusses as far as our relationship with God before he turns to a discussion on our relationship with other people. So he said, blessed are those who have a hungering and a thirsting for righteousness. Do you remember what we talked about last week when we were talking about hungering and thirsting for righteousness? What he's saying there is that this is your chocolate pie. You say, what do you mean? What does hungering and thirsting for righteousness have anything to do with chocolate pie? Well, chocolate pie is something that really tantalizes my taste buds. You know, when I think about chocolate pie, and if I think about it long enough, my mouth will actually begin to water. You know, and as I picture a chocolate pie in my mind, and I see the big old stack of meringue on top of it, you know, and if I dwell on that long enough, folks, it makes me hungry. It affects me. I start hungering for it. I start hungering for it. So what Jesus Christ is saying here, basically, when He says, hunger and thirst for righteousness, He says, I want you to think of righteousness as something that you love, something that you want, something that tantalizes you, something that appeals to you. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness. What is it spiritually that makes your spiritual mouth water? Jesus is saying that we have the same attitude toward righteousness, an insatiable desire for righteousness. That's what he's talking about there. Well, what is righteousness? It is the laws of God. It is the desires of God. It is the ordinances of God. It is the rules of God. It is the ways of God. That's what he's talking about. We should find the limits that God puts on us and the boundaries that God puts on us as juicy as a T-bone steak. That's what it means. That's what he's talking about there. When we live that way, we don't have to worry about getting AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases. When we live within God's boundaries, We live within God's laws. We abstain from premarital sex, and there's no possibility of getting our girlfriend pregnant or becoming pregnant if we have a boyfriend. We abstain from those kind of things because of the boundaries of God. We don't, you know, Christians are not on divorce pages because the Bible commands the husbands. to love their wives. And as husbands we follow God's commands and we love our wives. And the Bible says that our wives are to honor their husbands and we do that. And when you do that together you have a marriage that's going to last and it's going to sustain itself because you're living within the boundaries of God. That's what he's talking about there. That's the righteousness of God. And then he says, if you do that, he says, you're going to be contented. You're going to be satisfied. You're going to be fulfilled. You're not going to want anything else. Blessed are those. Who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be righteous. Is that what he said? No, that's not what he said. Is that odd? He said if we hunger for His laws and live within His limits, we will be happy. We will be satisfied. And that satisfaction there is passive voice. And that passive voice means that it's going to come upon you. It is Holy Spirit initiated. It is Holy Spirit satisfaction when we do God's will. So, how does that lead to mercy? What does being satisfied... with God's righteousness mean? Living within God's boundaries, how does that work into mercy? What is this beatitude of mercy all about? What does it mean to be merciful? Let me give you a quick definition. Spiritual mercy is the ability and the power to show compassion or kindness to those who are purposely, intentionally, and maliciously wronging you, as well as to those who do not intentionally wrong you. But specifically, mercy is showing compassion and kindness to those who are purposely, intentionally, and maliciously wronging you. Being genuinely kind, being genuinely compassionate, not faking it, not a put on, not false, but genuinely compassionate. We don't be nice and helpful to somebody and then turn around and talk about them behind their backs. That's what he means. You know? Being nice to somebody. And then maligning them behind their backs is not merciful. That's not the mercy of the Holy Spirit. But that's what natural man does. Natural man is here to defend his rights. He's living for his rights. Now he may act compassionately on the service and all of us, everybody in this building, no without exception, everybody in this building has been nice and you have been kind even when you didn't feel like it. Okay? That's not what Jesus is talking about. Now, I'm not saying it's bad, okay? Don't get me wrong. I'm not giving you permission to go out here and say, well, the preacher said we don't have to be nice and we don't have to be compassionate if we don't feel like it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. When you leave this building, you still need to do that. But what I'm telling you is that that's not what Jesus is saying in this passage of Scripture. Let me give you a scenario. Let me show you how this thing really works out in your daily lives. We are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. What does that mean? That means we love the laws of God. What does that mean? That means we do the laws of God. What happens when you do the laws of God in a world that hates the laws of God? What is the response? of the world around you, your friends, your co-workers, your classmates. What is the response to them when you start taking a stand for that which is right and good and moral? What do other people say when you stand for morality? They get upset. When you take the laws of God, when you take the righteousness of God, and you begin to shine that righteousness of God and the truths of God into the world around you and the people around you, they're not gonna react to you very kindly. As a matter of fact, they're not gonna like you very much because you are showing them their own errors of their ways and the wrongness in which they are living, and they are gonna respond in a way that's probably not gonna be very nice. You see, the more good you do, the more people might make fun of you. When you tell the truth, when people expect you to lie for them, it gets you in trouble. They don't like that very much. When you try to live a moral life, and you say that sex outside of marriage is wrong, and you try to live that way in your own personal life, people around you are going to say, what's the matter with you? Are you crazy? Everybody's doing it. And you're going to say, no, I'm going to stand for the laws of God. You're probably not going to be received very well in the circles that you're around in. going to throw darts at you if you live a righteous life. They are going to try to find something wrong with you. You're a goody two shoes. And they are going to try to ignore you, and ostracize you, and not have anything to do with you. The Bible says this is the natural reaction to righteousness. If you are hungering and thirsting after righteousness you need to expect it because Jesus Christ says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you, John 15.58. Jesus warned us what would happen if we lived a righteous life. How many people are gonna hate you? What did Jesus say? How many people are gonna hate you? He said, if the world, if the world hates you, the world, the world responds. And Jesus warns us over and over and over again that we are going to be hated, that we are going to be persecuted for the name of Jesus Christ. And so that's what he says in verse six. And so what he does in verse seven, he says, hey, here's the deal. You're gonna live a righteous life. When you live a righteous life, people are gonna come after you. And when people come after you, here's what I want you to do. I want you to be merciful. What? I want you to be merciful to those who hate your righteousness, who hate that you're demonstrating righteousness. They will come after you. They will charge you. They will attack you. This is how I want you to respond. I want you to respond with mercy. Mercy. You see, Jesus said that when we do his will and live his righteousness, we will be content, we will be satisfied. If we are not satisfied with the way God is commanding us to live, if we are not satisfied with God's ways of right and wrong, we will not be able to demonstrate righteousness to those who attack us. That's the way it works. That's the plan. Jesus saw it. He's laying the plan out. He's warning you on what's gonna happen and he's telling you how you need to respond to that. The strongest weapon you have in your arsenal against the hatred and bitterness that other people are gonna spew towards you is that you respond to them with mercy, with mercy. That is the strongest thing that you have in your arsenal. Not the easiest thing, but the strongest. Now I want you to add one more thing here before I end this discussion. Being merciful does not deny the reality of the pain, or the suffering, or the persecution, or the sin that is being committed against you. Mercy does not deny the reality of the fact that what somebody did to you is wrong. that what somebody said about you shouldn't have been said. Mercy does not deny the fact that you were hurt or that you were in pain or that you were suffering true persecution and that it is not right. Mercy does not deny the evil or the wrongness of the offense. It recognizes the reality of it, but you respond differently. There is an interesting take on this in Romans chapter 12. I want you to turn there in Romans chapter 12. Paul gives us some insight I think into what Jesus is saying here. And I think his insight is obviously under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But number two I think his insight is also a result of his own practices as he is following the Lord's will. So here in Romans chapter 12, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 12 and I want you to see what the Apostle has to say about this passage that Jesus is teaching us here on mercy. I want us to start reading in verse 17. Romans 12, 17 says, never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your revenge, beloved, but make room for the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. In verse 20, he explains, but if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And so a lot of people come here and they turn to verse 20 and they say, all right, this is what I want. I want what it says in verse 20. It says, if your enemy is hungry, then you need to feed him. And if he's thirsty, that's great. You need to give him a drink. him a drink because if you do so you are going to heap burning coals on his head." Man, they are saying, I can't wait until Judgment Day because on Judgment Day that says that God is really going to take care of them. God is going to get them by, you know there is burning coals on their head. God is going to rain His fire down on them on Judgment Day. Well that's not what he is saying at all. That doesn't even fit the context. The context isn't even close to that. There is nothing in the context about God's judgment upon them. What he's talking about there is treating him like your neighbor. If your neighbor comes to you and says, hey, look, I'm hungry, would you feed me? You feed him. If your neighbor comes to him and says, hey, look, I'm thirsty, and he's your enemy, you give him a drink. And if your neighbor comes to you and says, hey, look, I don't have any fire in my house. I don't have any coals in my house. Would you give me some of your burning coals? And so what they do, they would. The neighbor would take his enemy and he would fill up his enemy's pot and his enemy would take his pot. And rather than take those burning coals to the street and carrying those burning coals in his hands, what they would do, and most of you have seen this, you've seen how they carry things above their heads. this is what he is talking about. You give your neighbor some burning coal so that he can take that burning coal home so that he can have a fire in his fireplace because his fire went out. And as he is going through the streets of Jerusalem what he is doing he is not carrying the pot in front of him because you might injure somebody or burn somebody or whatever the case may be they might burn get jostled around or bumped around, whatever the case may be, but you take those burning coals in order to keep them out of the way, and to keep them out of danger, you would take those burning coals and you would go through the streets of Junerstown and you would carry them above your head where they couldn't get jostled around so that you could finally get home with a set of burning coals. And you could start your fire all over again. That's what he's talking about. This idea of burning coals here is something that you do for your enemy to help them keep their fire going. That's what he's talking about there. You feed them, you give them water, you keep their fire going so they continue to eat, and that's what you do. So if your neighbor's out here, and he's got a flat tire, and it's cold and it's raining, guess what you're gonna do? And he's your enemy, you don't like him, he don't like you. You're gonna go out there, you're gonna get in the rain, you're gonna get in the cold, and you're gonna help your enemy fix his flat tire. If your enemy is out here, and he needs to jump, and it's cold outside, you're gonna go out there in the cold, you're gonna take your jumper cables, you're gonna put beside your enemy's car, and you're gonna put your jumper cables on there, and you're gonna start his car. That's what he's talking about here in this passage of scripture. If your enemy is a sheet of paper and a pencil that you know they don't like you, know they don't agree with you, you're gonna give your enemy a sheet of paper and a pencil. You're gonna give them what they need. If they need to borrow something and they're your enemy, you don't like them, they don't like you, you're gonna let them borrow something from you, whatever it is they need. You're gonna let them borrow it. That's what it means to have mercy. And that's what Jesus Christ is saying here, folks. Picture's worth a thousand words, as they say. Let me give you a picture. This is about someone who's on a cross. He's nailed to that cross. He is embodying the very essence of mercy. He's totally innocent. He has done nothing wrong. In spite of the fact he has nothing wrong, they have beat him. They pull out the hairs of his head, they have stripped him. And they beat him again with a whip. They couldn't find any charges to bring against him, and yet they called for his crucifixion. And they took him before Pilate. And Pilate knew that what they were doing was hypocrisy. Pilate wasn't fooled by what was going on. Pilate understood that this man was innocent of any wrongdoing, and yet they continued to cry out, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate gave in. And they nailed a just man to the cross, a man who was innocent of any crime, so that they could watch him die because of his righteousness. They ran it and they railed against him. They mocked him and they called him names while he was dying. And they laughed and they scoffed. And Jesus looked down from the cross and he said, Father, forgive them. These are the very people who had done everything within their human power to humiliate Him and to despise Him and to disdain Him and to ultimately have Him murdered on a cross. You say, why did He do that? He said, Father, because they know not what they do. They know not what they do. You see, Jesus understood sin. He understood the power of sin. And He understood the power of sin was driving their actions. And you and I, when we look into the eyes of the people who hate us and mock us and make fun of us as Christians, we look in their eyes and we hear what they're saying. We see the venom in their eyes. We know what's driving them. It is sin. The very sin for which Christ died on the cross. The very sin Christ cried out, Father, forgive them. He said, I understand. I understand why they're nailing me to the cross. We understand why they nailed Him to the cross. So we look at them. We look at them with discernment. We say, you need Jesus. You need Christ. You need Christ. We understand what drives their hearts. I'm gonna ask our musicians to come forward. We prepared for an invitation hymn this morning. Mercy is best shown and demonstrated in the very face of sin. Mercy understands sin and looks past what men are doing to him and sees the cause and understand that men are sinners. Men are sinners. And Jesus knows and he shows us how to meet sinful men with a heart of mercy. If you've never tasted the mercy of God this morning, And today may be the day you get a fresh taste. Come before Him today, repent of your sin, put your faith in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. Taste His mercy like you've never tasted it before. I'm gonna ask that you stand with me, please, as we prepare for the invitation to Him. Would you do that? Let's stand together. Let's bow our heads. Let's have a real quick word of prayer. And then we'll enter into our invitation. So Heavenly Father we come before you today we thank you so much for your patience with us and your love that's extended to us for the opportunity to be in your house right now. We know Heavenly Father that you've appointed us for this hour. And I pray oh God that you would help us to understand your mercy. Help us Heavenly Father to understand that it is Holy Spirit wrought within us. It is the work of the divine Spirit of God. And it is something that we have simply because we are your child. And as such, to represent you, we hold your character and nature in our own souls. I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would help us to look at this world that we live in, understand the hearts of men, that they are driven by sin. Help us, Heavenly Father, to respond with compassion and kindness. Help us to respond with mercy to those around us. so that we might demonstrate to this world the love of God, the love of God and the sacrifice of Christ, because they need to hear the gospel. And you've appointed us to be those who give a voice to the gospel. Help us to be faithful to do that. In Christ's name we pray, amen.