As we come to our first session this morning, as we seek to continue our discipline in the Sermon on the Mount, you'll be hearing this Sermon on the Mount for some time to come in the future. And I hope that you get acquainted with it as we continue to consider it. Matthew chapter 5, verses 7 and 8, is our considered portion as a matter of fact we may go beyond verse 8 but we are not sure we probably go down to verse 9 of Matthew chapter 5 so please continue to consider the first sermon recorded by the Lord Jesus that is known to us as the Sermon on the Mount. It is an important sermon and it is very interesting that it is placed first because Jesus came as the Lord giver as well as the King. And as the King, he's given instructions concerning the kingdom, the type of kingdom he rules over. While many can become citizens of an earthly kingdom by various outward methods and by giving signs and filling out forms and promising allegiance, entry to the kingdom of Christ is different. It is based on an internal work done by the king. Many view the Sermon on the Mount as a classic piece of literature. I've read some secular men who view it this way. But it is not a classic piece of literature. It is a demand that the king is placing on men to enter the kingdom. Wonderfully, the king himself is the only one who can meet such demands and has the ability to enable his subjects to meet those demands. So let me introduce this to you as I ought to. We come to 7, 8, and 9 of Matthew 5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. We should have gotten used to the direction we are taking in the exposition of these Beatitudes, and we should be able to do it ourselves. The same biblical principle used to interpret the rest of the Bible is the same principle used in interpreting the Beatitudes. because the Bible is its own dictionary. And Jesus, as the perfect teacher, is using that method in giving us the Beatitudes. You hear what I'm saying? You follow what I'm saying? Gene, you follow what I'm saying? The teacher is giving us an example of expository Bible teaching. The Bible is his own dictionary. I've heard that in my 20s. I heard that and I never figured out what it meant. The Bible is his own dictionary. The Bible is his own commentary. You don't interpret the Bible with Webster's Dictionary. When you want to find out the meaning of the word or a word, you don't look at Webster's Dictionary and get the English definition of the word. You get the interpretation from the Bible, the original language. That's why it is important that we don't know Greek, but that is why it is important that we trace words that we can have an understanding of the word. For instance, the word blessed. If you were to take Webster and look at blessed, they would define it differently than when you study the Bible. There are two fundamental suppositions that are worthy of repeating lest we forget. One, the Beatitudes are an exposition of the moral law. You never heard that before? You've heard it 10 times already. I hope you swallow it and you digest it. And you may meet some that may refute that, but that is not, that's okay. Two, the Bible also hints and describes the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is what we all should look for in our lives, for assurance of salvation. As a matter of fact, Romans 8 says, Cannot please God we cannot be these things in the flesh But you are in the but sorry, but you are not in the flesh But in the spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ He is none of his Romans 8 8 and 9 and this is a clear passage of that tells us who enables us to do God's will. And if we do not have that enablement to do God's will, Romans 8, 8 and 9 says unequivocally that if any man doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he's not of his. since this verse state that if one do not have the spirit they don't belong to christ how can we tell if he is residing in us how can i tell how how can what what gives me assurance well galatians 5 25 describes the same fruit of the Spirit, right down from 425, as well as Matthew 5, where we see this in the Beatitudes. Now, let me hasten to say, as one who is sharing this word with you today, let me hasten to say that no one will ever fully be controlled by these attitudes experientially, no one. I don't want you to think that some of us think that we are a cut above the rest. Or some of you may think that way, but you are wrong. I said last time that these fruit, if I may say, or attitudes are to be cultivated and we are to grow in grace. We are to grow in these things. We are to grow in humility. We are to grow in meekness. We are to grow in love. We are to grow in these areas. This hour we will approach three of the Beatitudes which we read and see how we can understand them based on the scripture. Verse seven, blessed are the merciful for there shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the merciful, for there shall obtain mercy. Now the one error that you and I must avoid in understanding this beatitude is that a person is never blessed by merit. The verse is not saying that if you and I are merciful, that God will be merciful to us. We must remember that any virtue that you and I show cannot be credited to us based on what the rest of the Bible says. Jesus said himself, without me, you can do nothing. There are a lot of people who go out there and seek to do deeds of mercy with the expectation of being blessed. This is not what the Beatitude is saying. The better way to understand this text, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy, is in the reverse, and say actually, because one have obtained mercy, they will show mercy. You understand how I switch it around? That's not how it is read, but that is what it means. A classic example is seen in the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18 where the Lord had forgiven him his huge debt and quickly after he went out and sought retribution from his servant who owed him a little, little, little small debt. You know that parable, right? He was brought before his Lord and the Bible says that his Lord was rough. and delivered him to the tormentors, that he should pay all that he was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also to you, if you from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses. Now this is the same principle that is reiterated here. The one who truly experienced mercy must show mercy. This guy, in the parable, it is a lesson that the Lord was merciful to him in a natural way. But obviously, the Lord was not merciful to him in a spiritual way. Otherwise, he would have shown mercy. And this is quite serious, you know, it's quite serious. Because if one says that they have been graced with mercy and bear a long time grievance, they cannot say that they receive mercy. But I'll extend this mercy a little further as I go on. There's a special mercy that those who have obtained mercy will show. We are not all for ourselves, but we seek to extend the greatest mercy because we have experienced mercy. Fact is that if we don't see this, we haven't understood mercy. And I would ask, I should ask you to address this. But first, John discusses this in a practical way by saying, how can we say we love God who we cannot see and don't love our neighbor who we can see? And I can make some applications here across the board that would embarrass everyone, but I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't go there this morning. Blessed are the merciful or because we are blessed with mercy, we will show mercy. And I can give you three ways in which the believer is called to show mercy and how he shows mercy. The other verse says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Now who can make themselves pure? No one. Who can see God? Who is the spirit? How to understand this verse? Blessed are the pure in heart. This beatitude leaves every person shut out of the kingdom. Totally shut out, if we're honest with ourselves. You see how the Lord is digging, digging at us in our internal being? He's just digging in and says, you want to know the kingdom rules? Here they are. You kept the law perfectly. You dot your I's, you cross your T's. You made your sacrifices. You came to every meeting, to the solemn assemblies. You brought in your palacteries. Blessed are the pure in heart. Every one of his listeners are stunned as they look inside, even me and you today. Some believe that the pure in heart are those who have had their sins purified through the saving the work of the Lord Jesus. This is probably correct. This is the only one, one can become pure in heart. You remember when the missionaries went out and there was a dispute over the law in Acts 15? A spokesman got up and he said, and God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, the Gentiles, even as he did unto us, the Jews, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. See how their hearts is purified? By faith. In other words, you can put that word faith and interpret it by Christ. Because it is not our faith that purifies our heart. It is Christ's faith that he gives to us. Some believe that such ones will see God in eternity. This is probably the correct interpretation. But others say that these ones will see God in time. Namely, in the person of his son. As we read the scriptures, we would see Christ. But there are various ways of believing person will see God, or the pure in heart, the ones who have had their sins covered. There are various ways these people would see God. They see Him in the events of time. They're not evolutionists, they're creationists. They see that all things work together for good. and nothing is out of hand. They see God in their sickness. They don't cuss God and die. We see God as the source of life and matter. We see Him. This is how we see God. And by the way, we see God in our lives and we honor Him. We see him today as he calls us out to worship. We see that. Blessed are those ones. Do you see him that way? Do you see him as supreme king and governor? Yes, we ought to see God. but we will see God when he comes in the person of Christ. Yes, the ones who are not blessed will see him too, but they will not see him in the light that the blessed ones would see him. We would see him as the one who comes to complete our salvation. This is the beatitude. Therefore, it is not only a present promise, it is a future promise, but it is a reality. And we ought to see God in this way. Not like some people lay down on their beds and they see Christ on the wall. They're mad. but see the Lord working in your life and honor him as God. The next beatitude, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. This is verse nine. Now, I believe that we are following a trend, and you probably can explain this beatitude. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Notice that all of the beatitudes are saying the same thing. I hope you see that. Cicely Gibson, you see that? All of them are saying the same thing. It is telling you, it is giving you the attitudes, and it is telling you why the blessed have those attitudes. This is one of the key Beatitudes that we can spend a little more time on by asking the question to Martin. I'm looking at you, sir. That you can answer this in your mind and you can see if you got it right. Who is a peacemaker? Would you call yourself a peacemaker? You can answer that yourself. Because the verse say that these ones are the children of God. Are you a troublemaker? Is a peacemaker one who parts fights in the streets? Is a peacemaker one who averts the possibility of military conflict? Mr. Kerry is over there trying to steer conflict. The man over there in Russia is no more a peacemaker than Hitler is. I'm not getting involved in no politics. You see this crazy world? it would always be in turmoil because of sin and sinners at the helm. Don't look for it to get any better. God is going to step in one day and bring everything to an end, to a close one day. He's not going to let those people push any button. He has a different plan. Is Desmond Tutu one of these peacemakers? Or is God speaking of a person who won the Nobel Peace Award? Are they peacemakers? Are they children of God? I don't think so. The first thing we should ask is what kind of peace Jesus is speaking of. The Bible already tells us that the world and its inhabitants is under the wrath of God. What peace you can get from people who are under God's wrath? The only peacemakers that can be in view are those who are seeking peace with God. And Ephesians tells us, for he is our peace. who have made both one, and have broken down the middle wall, the law of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enemy, even the law of commandments containing ordinances, for to make in himself of two. And the two here, we always say is Jew and Gentile, but it is Christ and man. We always go overboard and say that Christ came to make reconciliation between Jew and Gentile. And that's what the dispensations teach. And that's what I taught. But the reconciliation between the two is between God and man. And that's what some of you might be reading and thinking. Even though it is true that the cross is the central point of society where Jew and Gentile come together because of the cross and because of Christ, ultimately, it was man that was at war with God. It tells us that we are brought nigh. A peacemaker is one who has made peace with God. It is really the other way around. It is really God making peace with us, and not we making peace with God. You know, you have a lot of pictures of this in the Bible. You remember when the spies went into Jericho? You remember that, sister? You remember when everybody was looking to kill them? Remember there was this lady that stood out, and she was at the bottom of the totem pole. And she made peace with God, and she demonstrated that peace. How? How, Marie? How did Rahab demonstrate that peace? She demonstrated that peace by hanging a scarlet thread through the window, which directs us to the cross. Remember those other people that met Joshua, the Gibeonites, who heard that he was killing off the people? He came and he made peace with Joshua. Are you a peacemaker? Have you made peace with God? Or are you still at war with God in unbelief? and not converting, refusing to budge to the gospel, refusing. Frank, let me tell you, no one wins against God. No one. But a peacemaker is not only one who makes peace with God. A peacemaker seeks the peace of others. And no wonder we read how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good things, that publish salvation, that save unto Zion thy God rid of. Isaiah primarily focuses on Christ. who is the peacemaker, but Romans 10 focuses on those who preach the gospel. Isaiah used the singular noun, how beautiful are the feet of him. Paul used the plural, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. We see a beautiful cooperation of these three beatitudes in the epistle of James chapter three. Turn there with me. Let me read them to you. In James chapter three, James was discussing the wisdom of this world, and then he incorporates these beatitudes that I told you are the fruit of the Spirit. In James chapter three, we read he was discussing about envy, and he picks it up in verse 16 and says, for where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, you see, the fruit of the spirit, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy. and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Friend, this means that the one of the ways you can know if we are peacemakers is if we have an interest in seeing others making peace with God. Do you have that interest in seeing others make peace with God? You know what that is, right? I hope you know what that is. If you have an interest in seeing others make peace with God, You know what that is. I don't think I have to tell you what that is. And now you begin to understand the ministry of the church and the believer is seen here in the Beatitudes. The Jews weren't doing that. They weren't peacemakers. How is this done? Well, it is done through the medium of prayer. It is done through the means of giving. It is done through the effort of believers' witness. It is done through the engagement of missions. This is how it is done. This is what the church is supposed to do. This is the believer's interest because he's blessed. This is not the pastor's interest alone. So you have to ask yourself, am I a peacemaker in that category? I might be a troublemaker. that seeks to prohibit peace by disrupting the church. The Lord says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Now these three Beatitudes we have covered, as I said, are basically saying the same thing. Let me read them to you again. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Those who have obtained mercy, show mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. See his perspective in life. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. They who found peace, promote peace. Sometimes, you know, in your seeking to promote peace in the lives of people, you promote conflict. You know, sometimes in counseling with people, he says, But you're wrong. You're going down the wrong path. You shouldn't do that. I can't side with you for doing that. You're wrong. Instead of that, promoting peace, everybody promotes war. And that's what's happening over there. Friend, you're wrong. You're going in the wrong direction. We can't support war. You mean to tell me you ain't seeing what I'm seeing? No. And some of you don't want to see and hear. You don't want to see. As much and as plain as we make this gospel, we don't want to see. I wish somebody could give me the attention, this kind of attention. Concluding thoughts from these messages I share. Listen to these concluding thoughts. This first portion on the Sermon on the Mount is given to hearers to ask some searching questions of the soul that we are called to answer and to seek God. In fact, the Lord at the end of this sermon calls hearers across the board into account. Whosoever hear of these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him to a man that build his house on a rock. And the floods came and beat upon that house, and it fell not. But whosoever hear of these things of mine, and doeth them not, I like him unto a foolish man that built his house on the sand, and the winds came and the floods came and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." Jesus called hearers to application. He didn't preach a sermon and just left people in limbo and said, this is the sermon, this is the Beatitudes, this is what, this is the expectation. No, he completed his sermon by calling us to action. And we know that the only way we can fulfill that action is by the grace of God. He's calling us to salvation. Some of these soul-searching questions that come out of the Beatitudes were mentioned already, but we will look at them, highlighting them, again in the order they are given in understanding each meaning of each one. Beginning with the very first one in verse three. How is my attitude towards self? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs the kingdom of heaven. How worthy do I assume myself to be in the sight of God? Our Lord began with how men view themselves, showing that if we have a wrong view of ourselves, we may not inherit this blessing. How is my attitude towards sin? Ah, yes. Our Lord gets to the serious matter of man in Matthew 5, 4, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. What should we mourn over? James 4, 1, 9, and 10 instructs us. I will not read it. How is my attitude towards the things of the world, the world? How is my attitude towards the world? Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Do you remember Mr. Abraham and Mr. Lott? What happened to the two of them? You remember. Which one would you say was meek out of the two? Lott, apparently pressured by his wife, saw that the plains were well-watered. He lifted up his eyes and he said, Abraham, that's what I want. And Abraham said, Prince of Sodom, don't let it be any strife between us because we are brothers. If you go to the left, I'll take the right. If you take the right, I'll go to the left. Just let's separate. Mr. Lot took what he wanted and ended up with nothing. Mr. Abraham, follow the directions of God, and end up with everything, the very promise of God. Which one of the two would you say was meek? The one who was fighting over property, or the one who had faith in the Lord Jesus? How is your attitude towards the earth, that piece of real estate, that whatever? Yes, it is these areas that rival the kingdom of God. And the king knows them very well and comes to us with them. He was meek in that he refused all that the devil was offering him. How is my attitude towards the things of Christ? Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness, for there shall be filled. How is your attitude towards the things of Christ? You eager? Or are you sluggish when it comes to the things of Christ? How is my attitude towards the loss? The loss, we are converting. Everybody in the church is not converting. How is my attitude towards such? Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. How is my attitude? So remember, this sermon on the Mount is a model for preachers. No jokes, no excitement, no clapping of the hands. Searching questions to hearers. by the demonstration of what the children of God ought to be. Our Father, as we continue to open up your word, we pray you will help us to rightly divide your word. In Jesus' name, amen.