We're turning this morning to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5—Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5. We read the first sixteen verses of the chapter. Let me correct that, the first eighteen verses of the chapter, and then we'll flip over to chapter 7, the final two verses, verses 28 and 29. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5. 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. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. For my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled." Then chapter 7, verses 28 and 29. It came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Amen. The Lord will add his own blessing to the reading of his Word for his name's sake. In studying the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, I do not, and I emphasize not, intend to attempt any exposition of his teachings other than is necessary to understand his person and his character and his mission. Now, I have to confess that that's not altogether satisfactory. On the one hand, it's true to say that For instance, Matthew 5, 1 through 16, most of the words there could be expounded wherever they would be found in Scripture and whoever the speaker would happen to be, and the message, the meaning would remain the same. But on the other hand, it's not really possible to separate what Christ taught from what he was, or who he was, and what he did. I think that those three things in the New Testament stand in very, very close connection. His person is demonstrated by his works. What he did witnessed to who he was. And those works, especially his miraculous works, became the occasion for his personal and peculiar—I mean peculiar in the sense that they belonged to him alone, his teachings. So, it's difficult to leave out the teachings of Christ from studying his life. But if I don't leave those out, this is another one of those series that we'll never finish. because it would be not a series of messages but a series of lifetimes, really, to enter in in detail to the teachings of the Lord Jesus. So except as those teachings touch upon his person, his character, his mission, I will do my very best to leave them out. It will be difficult at times, because there are some great texts. Mr. Spurgeon used to talk about preachers who found it difficult to get a text. Of course, Spurgeon was a genius. He had no need to worry. He said, as he went through the Bible, one text after another, sat up and begged and said, preach me. Well, there will certainly be texts in the life of Christ that will beg, preach me. And for the most part, I think I will succeed in saying, some other time. Yet having said all that, the biography of Christ would, I think, be incomplete. without some notice of what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Remember that the Lord Jesus had just recently returned from Judea, where in Jerusalem he had cleansed the temple and had set the Jewish leaders by the ears. On his way back to Galilee, he had stopped in Samaria and had spoken with the woman at Samaria at some length. Without going into the details, you will find that there is quite a similarity, quite a coincidence of emphasis between what he preached to the woman at Samaria and what he preaches here on the Sermon on the Mount. There he was speaking of spiritual worship. Here he is speaking about spiritual living, spiritual obedience, and the two great subjects certainly are closely related. Christ, returning to Galilee, commenced his great Galilean ministry, and that itinerant ministry took him to Nazareth, where, as we saw, he was most viciously rejected. He returned to Capernaum as his base, and he continued his Galilean ministry, going around from town to town, from village to village, from synagogue to synagogue. And during that ministry, I think in the very early part of it, He took his disciples to—well, it's more of a hill than a mountain. When you visit the Sea of Galilee, you'll be taken to the Mount of the Beatitudes. It is really something of a fairly little hill compared to what you would know as mountains. You mustn't think of anything like the Rocky Mountains or even the Great Smokies. Maybe a little more like some of the hills you'd get in the foothills here. But he took them to this mount by the Sea of Galilee, and he taught them what is here recorded as the Sermon on the Mount. Now, as he gathered his disciples around him, it appears that the crowds joined, and they listened in amazement, because they had never heard a teacher like this in all their lives. That's why we read the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the end of chapter 7. They were astonished at his doctrine, not just because of its content—obviously, that's included in the astonishment at his doctrine—but They were astonished at his doctrine because he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. As I say, they had never heard a teacher like this. He spoke with such authority and totally unlike the scribes. Now, I don't want to get off on a tangent here. When you think of what the New Testament says about the scribes and the Pharisees, and then you think, of the amount of scholarly labor that has gone into understanding the ramblings of those scribes and Pharisees in the Talmud. You've got to wonder where Christianity's brain has gone. There may be some things in there, but I would have to say that the verdict of the New Testament, and indeed of the best investigators, is certainly a true verdict. And I think we would do a whole lot better spending our time studying the New Testament than some of the ramblings of the very scribes whom the Lord Jesus condemned, and that the people themselves got nothing from. Now, it's true to say that many of those scribes were what we today would call conservative. We would term them orthodox in many, many ways. On the odd occasion, some of them even said some good things, and some of them even ascended to saying some noble things. But for the most part, they were slaves to the externals of their rituals of religion, the minutiae of their laws. In the words of Dean Farrar, their teaching had no freshness in it, no force, and no fire. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ's teachings and his manner of teaching so astonished the people of his day, because his teaching and its method was altogether different. How could it be otherwise? Was he not the Word of God made flesh? Not only the messenger, but himself the message? Are we not told that in him dwelt all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and that the Father gave the Spirit without measure unto him? So it couldn't be otherwise. He couldn't possibly teach like the scribes and the Pharisees. Let me say this to you. Those who have received the Spirit of God in their teaching and their preaching must be governed by the Spirit of God. That's why there's a world of difference in hearing a preacher who knows Christ and knows the infilling of the Spirit of Christ from the greatest scholar on earth. Scholars may, and there is a place for this, they may address the intellect, they may inform, but the preaching of the Word of God has a much fuller and deeper and more important objective than the mere instruction of the mind. It is to challenge the will and to push us, if I may use the word, impel us, compel us, by the pure spiritual force that resides within the message, to do the will of God. When you think that the Lord Jesus, with the Spirit without measure upon him, was the greatest of all preachers, you will see that certainly the people could note the difference between him and the scholarly but dry-as-dust scribes they were used to listening to. The Lord Jesus spoke as one who knew God, That's very obvious in this sermon and in everything that he said. He spoke as one who really knew God. Thus his words were not opinions. His words were not speculations. But they were revelations of divine truth. That's how Christ taught. Now, I have to confess that there is no uninspired preacher who can really reach that level. There's none of us—maybe we'd say unfortunately, because of our sin and our weakness—there's none of us completely free from error. But nonetheless, every preacher of the Word of God should be just that, and he should seek to keep as far away from human philosophy as he can. I don't want to get into church history this morning, but if you do a historical theological study You will find that the curse of the church was the importation of heathen philosophy and making it the handmaiden of divine theology. Divine theology does not need the support of pagan minds. It doesn't need it. You don't help light by bringing in darkness. That was the curse of the early centuries, and it cursed the church from those centuries for many, many centuries to come. We're not here to preach human philosophy or human opinion. Preacher must be careful not even to preach his own opinions. I've said this many times. There are many areas of Scripture, many subjects upon which I have very decided opinions, but they are matters that are certainly open to discussion, and I can't prove the opinion absolutely from Scripture. Therefore, as much as in me lies, I will not make much of those opinions." Enough in the Bible that I don't need to worry about my opinion about, that I can preach it as it is. The Lord Jesus preached not opinion but divine revelation. He knew God, preached what was certain. He also spoke as one who knew man. so that his words were not merely matters of information, but they were mighty messages to the heart, to the soul of the hearer. And they were always the right words. That's the wonderful thing about the ministry of the Lord Jesus. And indeed, it's always the wonder about the ministry of the Spirit of God when he takes the Word of God. This is how you know a spiritual ministry from an unspiritual ministry. The Word is always the right Word. It's a Word that addresses the needs of the hearer. It's a Word that is definitely and obviously divinely directed. It's like an arrow shot by God Almighty to the hearts of the people who hear it. The Lord Jesus Christ's words were always right. I covet that for this pulpit. I make it my prayer constantly. Save us from sermons! Any fool!" Well, I better not say that, because I have students—well, I don't have students anymore. I don't teach homiletics anymore. They'll all be delighted to know. But homiletic students may not agree when I say any fool can compose a sermon. I mean, he can't compose it. He can do what most preachers are doing in America this morning and steal somebody else's. Any fool can do that. Save us from sermons, and give us a message. Give us a message, a word from God. Many a time, when I come to this pulpit, I find that I have to preach something, I don't know why I have to preach it. And yet I find afterwards, the Lord had His reasons. there are people there to whom he's directing the right word. That was the hallmark of the Savior's teaching. Now, in this Sermon on the Mount, Christ's immediate purpose was obviously to instruct his disciples, but his wider purpose was to address the gathered crowd. That's why when you read through this sermon, you'll find that he shows them that he is the fulfiller and the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He spends some time exposing false religion, and he's directing them to their eternal welfare and telling them not to be caught up with their temporal comfort or gain. He takes some time to expound to them the nature of true righteousness, and in doing so denounces all self-righteousness and ritualism, mere externalism in religion. Everything that is merely on the surface, that surface religion that fills men with pride at their accomplishment and damns them because it doesn't change their wicked hearts. So the Lord Jesus addressed the wider crowd, but the first focus was to his disciples. When you stop to think of it thus far, the disciples of Christ really had learned very little. They knew that he was a king. They knew that he had come to set up a kingdom. I think they gathered from what some of them knew firsthand and others had learned secondhand, from what he had done to the temple in Jerusalem, they knew that somehow his kingdom stood in opposition to Judaism. But that was about all they had learned thus far. So, though the Lord Jesus introduces them to the essential nature of his kingdom, its subjects, and its practices. Now, thus far you'll see I have been making some very general statements about the Sermon on the Mount. And that's the easy part. It's much more difficult to deal with the individual parts. and to see the structure of it. In fact, there's some people who say there is no structure here. Some of the greatest scholars come to this, and they conclude—even some evangelicals—they conclude that this is a patchwork of isolated sayings from different places, different times, to different people under different circumstances, that Matthew and then later Luke, with some differences, patched together and put into non-existent periods in the history of Christ. Let me tell you, that is far from the truth. A great Scottish scholar said, this is a unity. It's harmonious in all its parts. It's coherent throughout. progressing in the most rational order from beginning to end. This is the sermon Jesus preached there by the Sea of Galilee. It's a continuous sermon, but having said that, it's not very easy to analyze. One thing we will say, and that is that it's about the kingdom. If you keep that in mind, this is the King speaking about his kingdom, its subjects, and its practices. We'll do ourselves good, I think, if we look at Christ here addressing a subject—actually, it's the title of a book written by an American Reformed Baptist preacher, not on this passage—but it's about God's righteous kingdom. I want you to think, first of all, in what we read this morning, in chapter 5, that Christ speaks about the subjects of his kingdom. He talks about them in chapter 5, and he goes down, verse 3 through verse 16, in the blessings and then the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Notice their character. Blessed! I don't want to stop and push this too hard. But this is a challenge to me. This is something I have to come back to again and again in my own private time with the Lord. The very first word the Lord Jesus uses to describe his people is that they're a happy people. They're a happy people. Now, when we read on, we will find that they weren't always in the best of circumstances. In other words, in the eyes of the world, they had no reason to be happy. But this is the abiding characteristic of the people of God. They're a happy people. The kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, what is it? It's righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's the character of God's people, a happy people. And I say that challenges me, because I find that it is the most natural thing in the world to become a grump. You have seen that card, you know, or that magnet for the fridge that a lot of women like to get. I'm sure your wife's as bad as mine, and put up things on the fridge that are meant to be reminded of their husband. And I remember going through a store, and Joan pointed this one out to me, and it says, sometimes I wake up grumpy, and sometimes I just let him sleep. Well, I don't think I'm the only one that has that propensity. It's very easy to become a grump. It's very easy to get so embroiled in the circumstances of life, so weighed down with the cares of the world. We don't have enough money. We don't have enough of this. We don't have enough of that. We don't have enough of the other thing. Our health isn't all that we want it to be. The children aren't perfect. The job's not all that I want it to be. And these people around me in the church, some of them are strange people. You know, I have gone to church for a month, and nobody has spoken to me. Of course, the other people are saying the same thing about you. You know, I've been there for a month, and every time I've looked at that person, they've just turned their head away. Grump, grump, grump, grump, grump. And before you know it, you have a culture of sadness. Whereas the characteristic that overrides everything else about true believers is subjects of the kingdom of God, according to these words of the Lord Jesus, they are a happy people. Why shouldn't they be? Why shouldn't they be? I wish I could remember how Ken Connolly put it exactly when he was here. when he was in the airport and somebody wished him a good day and a happy day, and he told them, well, why shouldn't I be happy? God is my Father, Christ is my Savior, the Holy Spirit indwells me, I'm saved, I'm washed in the blood of the Lamb, and I'm going to heaven. Why should I not be happy? You know, happy people. I was challenged to read about a man that we don't think of as an evangelical Christian. In fact, he was a leader of the High Anglican Party in the Church of England. He was what was called a Tractarian. He was half Roman. And I'm talking about E. B. Pusey. Don't want to talk too much about Pusey, but Strange thing for all that, his commentary on Daniel was one of the great standards against liberalism and rationalism. But Pusey had a rule for himself in life, and he lived by it. This challenges me, because I have to confess I haven't lived by it. Busey said, I will never complain about what God sends. If it rains, I have no complaint. If it snows, I have no complaint. If the wind blows, I have no complaint. Why? Because this is the day that the Lord hath made. the circumstances that God sends me, I'm going to accept them because God has sent them. They're sent by a Father's hand. And if I don't understand them, and they hurt the flesh, it's still for my good, and I'm going to rejoice in the Lord who sent these things, even if the things themselves are difficult to bear." Now, happy people, Are you happy this morning? Has the awesome reality of your salvation got such a grip of how you think that it's governing how you feel, that it's overruling the circumstances of life, that it's overruling all the things that in themselves, if you dealt with them in isolation, would drive you to distraction? Is the truth of the gospel really gripping your heart to such an extent that it is shedding its light to chase away those shadows. Are you a happy Christian this morning? Have you lost the joy of your salvation? We often say that you can't buy happiness. Money doesn't make you happy. Good health doesn't make you happy. All those things—no thing can make you happy. We often say that. But the reality is, we fly in the face of God and we forget the joy of salvation when we don't have these things. Jesus says the character of these people is they're happy. Now, you'll notice how he describes them. They're poor in spirit. They mourn. You get the irony there. We'll deal with that a little in a minute. Blessed, happy are the mourners. More than a little irony there. But you've got all these descriptions of their character. Can I make it clear to you that These people don't become subjects of the kingdom because they're poor in spirit, because they mourn, because they're meek, because they hunger and thirst, because they're merciful, and because they're pure in heart, etc. No, no. Rather, these are the things that the subjects of the kingdom, who become subjects in another way, these are the things that characterize them. In other words, they're the result of their being subjects of the kingdom. They are not the cause. For example, in chapter 6, verse 33, the Lord Jesus speaks about seeking the kingdom. Seek ye first the kingdom. In chapter 7, verse 12, he speaks about entering into the kingdom. Now, in all of Scripture, And I realize I'm mixing metaphors somewhat here, but in all of Scripture, there's only one entrance into life. Jesus said, I am the door. Realize, different word, different figure, but the truth is the same. There's only one entrance into life. When Jesus said, I am the way, when he says, I am the door, he's saying, I'm the only way in, and I'm the only way that will take you there. And similarly, when we come to this fifth chapter of Matthew, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking still of people who are saved the only way that people ever could be saved. That's why at the end of chapter 7, he speaks of those who hear and who obey him. In other words, you become a subject of the kingdom by the obedience of faith. How do you become a subject of the kingdom of Christ? By trust in Christ. Hear and obey. That's the obedience of faith. And when you come to Christ in faith and trust, then you enter into the kingdom. these Beatitudes may be taken as a sort of a spiritual biography. I'm not going to do that, because if you have a very elephantine memory, you'll remember that when we studied the Beatitudes, that's how I dealt with them—as a biography of a believer. But they may also be taken quite simply as a description of the graces of true Christian character. I've said, Christians are happy. But listen, they're also poor in spirit. The idea of poor in spirit is that all self-confidence is destroyed. All self-righteousness is removed. They are poor in spirit. The Bible knows nothing of this iniquitous, humanistic, self-esteem movement. this beating-your-own-chest-what-a-wonderful-good-boy-am-I." The Bible knows nothing about that. That is a wicked parody of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Christ. You can think that one out for yourself. It's a wicked parody of it. It's the devil's counterfeit. Christians are poor in spirit. They mourn. Why on earth would they mourn? And where's the happiness in mourning? Indeed, where's the happiness in having no self-esteem? I'll tell you where the happiness in having no self-esteem is, because the more I see myself as a sinner, the more I see Christ as a Savior, And the more I see the perfection of Christ and the imputation of his righteousness to me, and how he clothes me with the garments of salvation and with the robe of righteousness, and decks me as a priest would deck out in all the robes of his glory, the more I see that. then the more I realize I'm accepted by God, not partially but totally, not conditionally but absolutely, not temporally but eternally, because I don't need some esteem in myself when I have Jesus Christ as my righteousness. Man, that's true blessedness. You don't need to dream up that you're better than you are. You just gotta see what you are in Christ. And oh, the man or the woman who can understand what they are in Christ has the key to happiness. Where's the happiness in mourning? Well, there's good cause to weep as well as to rejoice. If you turn back to the prophecy of Isaiah, you'll find there's a weeping for Zion in chapter 57, verse 18. For example, Here's the promise of restoration. I've seen his ways. I will heal him, I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. Turn over in Isaiah to chapter 66, and in verse 10. I remember preaching in this some years ago in this pulpit. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her. Rejoice for joy, all ye that mourn for her." There's a whole lot to be happy about. But you know, when you look at the church of Christ today, there's a whole lot to mourn about. When you look in your own heart, there's a whole lot to mourn about. We may mourn for Zion. We may mourn for her apostasy. We may mourn how the walls are torn down. We may mourn how the ungodly and the enemy have infiltrated the ranks of the people of God. We may mourn how her friends are deserting her in this day of great trouble and trial. We may mourn how those who profess to be true believers and true preachers are turning aside after harlotry and idolatry. We may mourn the apostasy of our day. I get sick listening to these preachers who are always tom-thumping and telling us, what a wonderful revival we're having today. This is an age of crass and gross apostasy. It's what it is. On every hand, There's a demand. I intend to deal with some of this in our Reformation Month services. The apostasy from the truth of the gospel that's taking place all around us, even on the part of so-called evangelicals. Dr. Paisley would rightly say, emphasis on the jelly. There's much cause to mourn. There's also cause to mourn our own spiritual powerlessness. The lack of power in prayer, the lack of power to move the hand of God, that's something to mourn about. And in the free church particularly, it's something to mourn about. something I cry to God about on a regular basis and mourn about. I have been in prayer meetings where we have seen God instantaneously give us the assurance of an answer, and we have seen miracles of power as God answered prayer. Where is the power of the prayer meeting? We mourn the loss of power in prayer, the loss of power in preaching, the loss of power in soul winning, the loss of power to put the fear of God in the enemies of truth. It's a cause to mourn, but it's a good thing to mourn, because God says, I'll comfort her mourners. Don't we often sing, O mourner in Zion? How blessed art thou! For Jesus is waiting to comfort thee now. Fear not to rely on the word of thy God. Step out on his promise. Get under the blood." God comforts the mourners. It's a characteristic. of the subjects of the kingdom. You can't help but mourn when you see the rebellion against the king and his kingdom all around us today. Then they are meek. They humbly follow their Lord in submission to his will. What God does is good enough for them. What God says is right for them. They say, not my will, but thine be done. and they hunger and they thirst after righteousness. They are blessed as meek people seeking the will of God, and they are blessed with their passion for God. Now, again, I want to emphasize this. Something is happening in Reformed circles today, at least in some Reformed circles today, that I want to blast, and I use that word advisedly, as one of the most hellish things that is happening in Christendom and is happening in Reformed churches. I get Reformed literature from a particular branch or branches of the Calvinistic churches. And they are so intellectually egghead that they are willing openly to mock—openly to mock—a passion for devotion. That is pietism. And it seems that the filthiest word that these people can use is the word pietist. To weep in prayer. We don't need to do that. to weep over souls, to cry with a burdened heart for revival. No, that's beneath the dignity of these deformed Calvinists. I want to tell you, my friend, if this is pietism, by the grace of God, this will be a pietistic church. Jesus said, blessed are they who hunger, and they thirst, and they pant as the heart pants after the water brooks, and they pour out their soul, and they're yearning for spiritual experience. Yearning for it. Men and women, let me say this. I love the orthodoxies of the Reformed faith. And I have no apology to make for being what the world nicknames a Calvinist. That's simply somebody who's willing to let that Bible speak on all its pages. I want to tell you that any religion, be it Calvinism or any other-ism, without a heart on fire, with a passion for God, has no right to the name of Jesus Christ. Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Happy the man who's treating others as the Lord treated him and treats him still. You received mercy, did you not? Then go and give it. Aye, not only to tell men about the mercy of the Lord, but show mercy to them yourself. You remember that parable of the Lord Jesus, of the servant who owed what in modern terms would be millions, and he had nothing to pay, and his master said that he would frankly forgive him. that same servant went out, and he found another lesser servant who owed him about half a dollar in our terms, or a dollar. And he says, give me time! And he wouldn't. He took him and threw him into prison. You remember that? Is that not how many professing Christians deal with others? You know, you should have been in hell today. Deeper down than Tyre and Sidon or Sodom and Gomorrah or Capernaum and Bethsaida and the cities there around, you should have been in the deepest hell and the outer darkness, burning in the wrath of God. And you hadn't anything to pay. You couldn't offer God anything, and he fully, frankly, and freely forgave you. Now, some Christian lets you down, doesn't measure up. In some way, he's disappointed you, hurt you, or done you wrong. What do you do? You catch him by the throat. Oh, not physically. You don't want to end up in jail. But, man, your heart's as hard as hell can make it. And you get bitter and angry and resentful and rejecting. And you wonder what's wrong in your Christian life. You wonder why you can't pray. You wonder why the Bible's a closed book. You wonder why you come to church. It doesn't get through to your heart. You wonder what's wrong between you and the Lord. Why is the zeal, the zest, the joy, the light, the fire, and the power, why have they gone out of your Christian experience? You wonder. Blessed are the merciful. It's good to treat others. as the Lord has treated you. Blessed are the pure in heart. They know that the Lord desires truth in the inward parts, that he's not satisfied with the religious show, and they're not satisfied with the religious show either. They're pure in heart. That's where real purity resides. God save us from the pharisaical washing of hands. pure in the outside and like a corrupted sepulcher in the inside. God save us from impure hearts. Pure in heart. What a blessing. to know the power of the blood and the sanctifying might of the Word and the ministry of the Spirit in the inmost soul, breaking the power of cancelled sin and setting us free, free from the filth of the world in our thoughts and in our purposes and in our loves. free to be pure in heart. I want, dear Lord, a heart that's pure and clean, a sunlit heart with not a cloud between, a heart like Thine, a heart divine, a heart as white as snow on me, Dear Lord, a heart like this bestow. They're pure in heart. I want to tell you there's nothing that will make for happiness more than inward purity. A clean heart. They're peacemakers. Now, understand this is in the kingdom. I am all in favor concerning negotiations that jaw, jaw, and you gotta understand he was pronouncing this as an Englishman. The English don't pronounce their R's. I don't know, but the English alphabet, as it's pronounced, the letter R doesn't exist. It's ah, A-H, a bit like Boston. And he said, wa, wa, or jaw, jaw is better than wa, wa. Jawing is better than warring. Talking is better than fighting. So yeah, good to make peace. All the armchair generals who are wanting quick wars are usually people who haven't been much to war. The people I have talked to who were through great wars never want to be in them again. But this is not talking about your politicians selling out this principle and that principle in the name of peace. This is talking about in the kingdom It's spreading first the kingdom of peace and the peace of the kingdom. It's a gospel peace. But more than that, it is this peacemaking attitude among the subjects of the kingdom. It's the very opposite to being a troublemaker in the church and a fault finder and a backbiter and a divider. It is making peace. We have a saying in Northern Ireland about people of a particular ilk, that they would cause a fight in a graveyard. You ever met that kind of person? They could disturb the peace of a cemetery. They could have the corpses at war. I've seen them in church life. I've seen people who will have a conversation with you, and then they'll go and report that conversation, only they will report in your name what they said, and then stand back to see what's happening. Tittle-tattlers, teal-bearers, they separate very friends. The very opposite to the peacemaker. In the kingdom, give yourself to the causing of a biblical, spiritual, Christ-centered, peaceable unity among the people of God. Give yourself to it. Let it burden your heart. Don't be inactive about this. These are not peace receivers. These are peacemakers. They spread the peace. They're a forgiving people, not a resentful, bitter people. They're a people who are seeking to draw together. How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. How good it is. I don't want to get into the 133rd Psalm today. We might never get out of it. But if you look at that, you'll see how God describes it. He describes it first as the holy ointment with which Aaron was anointed. It came over his head. You see, the anointing starts with the head. It flows from Christ to the body, down to the beard, and down to the skirts of his garments. It's often been pointed out there's no mention of flesh, because that's the great enemy of unity. But I think the idea is clear that when you're united to Christ, He pours out His Spirit, and that Spirit is going to every part of the body. And all who are in union with Christ by the ministry of the Spirit should be enjoying their union with each other. We've got to get beyond the mere toleration of Christians by other Christians. There's got to be that honest-to-goodness commitment to one to the other in the peace of the gospel and in the unity of the body of Christ. It's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then he says it's like the Jew from Mount Hermon, actually, the waters from Mount Hermon, the dew would come down, and it would saturate even the whole of Israel. The whole of the Galilee would be greatly benefited. And this is what he's saying. There is a heavenly dew. There is the blessing of heaven when God's people are so enjoying this unity of the Spirit. Peacemakers in the kingdom. This is the characteristic of the people of God. they're persecuted. Oh, they will have a price to pay. You see, they're blessed, and at the same time, they're blasted. They're loved by God, they're hated by men. They're enjoying Christ, but the world isn't enjoying them. They'll be persecuted. That's why he goes on to talk not only of their character but their conflict. Because all that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, Paul could say, the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. This is their conflict. Can I say this to you? And this is going to become more and more clear as we go on. The subjects of the kingdom of God will get enough hatred and opposition from the world without you and me adding to it. Never forget that. There's times you'll come to church, and I'm gonna be very, very down-to-earth and very practical here, for I've found this to be so true in years of working with people. There's times you'll come to church, and you'll look at somebody's face and say, what on earth's wrong with him or her? What have I done to him or done to her? Man, he looks sour this morning, and maybe he is sour. Just remember this. That's a time not to muck, but to minister. When we come to church, From all our diverse backgrounds, with all the unseen things that are going on in our homes and in our lives, we come with burdens. Not everybody can put on a mask and hide the burden. Sometimes it comes out on a fairly dark-looking countenance. That's why I'm always a wee bit worried when you judge people, and I hear this all the time—well, not all the time, but altogether too often—in this, in the evangelical culture, the fundamentalist culture here in the States, I hear this fairly constantly, judging people by their countenance. Be very careful. Be very careful. I've seen in God's work, people come to church And the miracle isn't that they came with an ugly-looking countenance. The miracle is they came at all, there with burdens breaking their heart, not knowing to whom they could turn, not having anybody in whom they felt they could confide. What a work of the devil it is when they come among God's people. Instead of the upholding, the love, the ministry of fellow saints, all they get is a bitter criticism that they don't look better. God's people are in the conflict, and we're in it together. But we have a confidence—and I have to finish very quickly—the confidence is in the promises. Do you notice for every one of these characteristics is a promise? the confidence is in the prospects. Great is their reward in heaven. Paul, reaching the end of the journey, could say, Henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing. That's our confidence. And a word, quickly, about our calling. We're sought. were light. These are the subjects of the kingdom—salt and light. The quickest way I can deal with this is to do something my wife hates me to do, and that is to give you a quotation from another preacher, J. C. Ryle. Ryle said, if words mean anything, we're meant to learn from these two figures—that's from the salt and from the light—that there must be something marked distinct and peculiar about our character if we are true Christians. Have we grace? Then it must be seen. Have we the Spirit? Then there must be fruit. Have we any saving religion? then there must be a difference of tastes, of habits, and turn of mind between us and those who think only of the world. Salt and light evidently imply peculiarity of both heart and life, of faith and practice. And Ryle said we must dare to be singular. The word singular quite locally or colloquially today would be, dare to be different. Dare to be the one out of step with the world. We must dare to be singular and unlike the world if we mean to be saved. If we are Christians, then we're salt and we're light. What does that mean? It means we're called to do some real spiritual good in the world. You and I are not here just to get through. We are not here simply to put in the time. We're not here simply to earn enough dollars to put food on the table and clothes on our back and keep a car on the road and put the kids in school and go through the treadmill of human existence. That's not why we're here. We're here to do some real spiritual good, and if we're not doing spiritual good, we are failing in the very calling of our being subjects of the kingdom. We are called to carry the savor of grace into a world that's stinking with the corruption of wickedness. We are the salt of the earth. We are to act as a purifying and preserving agent. And let me tell you the greatest thing that Christians can do for America. It's not to join a political party. If you want to be involved in a political party, do it very carefully. But I'm not here to fight with you in that. That's not the best thing you can do for America. To lower the tax rates. I'll be very happy if you can do that. Get mine down first. But that's not the best thing you can do for America. Best thing you can do for America is to be a pure, holy, dedicated, separated, Christ-like, subjectivist kingdom, and spread that pure gospel wherever you go. That's what will purify, and that's what will preserve this nation. And I want to tell you something, you may not like it, If America continues to reject the gospel, it will not be worth preserving any more than Britain or my own little province in Northern Ireland. Many a time as I go there and I see the corruption and you get the stench of wickedness and the rejection of the gospel, I've told our men this. unless God intervenes very quickly. There's nothing here worth preserving. Don't tell me it's democracy. I would much prefer democracy to tyranny, and I love the freedoms and all the rest of it, but don't tell me that democracy can take the place of the gospel. That's not going to preserve, and it's not worth preserving the nation for. You're the salt. You're the light. Shine with the light of truth and holiness. Truth preached and truth practiced. Let your light so shine before men. Don't hide it under a bushel. Let us be as a city that's set on a hill. Why? We are the subjects of the kingdom of God. that is of this character, endure this confidence or this conflict in the confidence that the promises and the prospects of the gospel are ours, and let us pursue this calling as the subjects of the King of glory. Now, I didn't get very far. Actually, I got maybe a quarter of the way of where I wanted to get to this morning, but time will tell if we'll ever get the other three quarters done. I trust the Lord will bless His Word to our hearts, and I trust that Christ will minister to you personally, and you'll go away astonished and moved, because he has spoken with authority and with blessing to your heart. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Let's all pray. In a moment the meeting will be over. We're talking about the subjects of the kingdom of heaven. the subjects of Christ the King. I trust that you're numbered among them. They alone have a right to be happy. Any other happiness is what Solomon called the laughter of fools. It's like the crackling of thorns under a pot. get to Christ this morning. If I can help you to Him, I'll be happy to meet you and do so. Father in heaven, bless Thy Word to our hearts, write it indelibly upon every soul. We pray, our God, this day that Thou wilt use the Word, bring those who have been rebels to Christ to be subjects of His kingdom. We pray that Thou wilt bless those who are Thy subjects. Lord, give us these characteristics of grace, and God grant that Thou wilt make us a people who are truly happy in the Lord. So hear our prayer and answer us abundantly. Part us with Thy blessing and keep us in Thy fear. Be our portion this Sabbath day and evermore. Amen.