If you would please open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5, we're going to be looking into the very beginning of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and what are known as the Beatitudes in those first 12 verses of Matthew chapter 5. And you see that the sermon title this morning is, The Blessed Life. This ties in very well with where we are in Galatians 5, talking about what the life lived by the Holy Spirit of God, what life by the Spirit of Jesus Christ looks like. Here, Jesus also has some descriptions of what life in Christ looks like. And so I think these will tie together very well with where we are in our current study. If you would follow along in your Bibles, There's a pew Bible in each pew. If you'd like to open up the pew Bible, we'll be reading from the English Standard Version. Follow along as I read Matthew 5, verses 1-12. Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to 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 those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. That is the beginning of the greatest sermon ever preached. The preaching of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the one who had the Spirit without measure. Do you know that's what he says about himself? I believe it's in John chapter 5 verse 44. That the one who is from God speaks the words of God and that God has given him the Spirit without measure. That's what makes this sermon so remarkable, so amazing. And here in Matthew chapter 5 verses 1 through 12, we really have the opening statement that summarizes the whole sermon. Now let me give you a little bit of background on this sermon so that you understand where these words were given and what the context is. Of course, there were no chapter breaks when Matthew wrote the gospel. That's something that has been added for our convenience. So to really understand Matthew chapter 5, you've got to read the context back in chapter 4. And you see here that in Matthew chapter 4, verse 17, that Jesus has begun proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. From that time, Jesus began to preach saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." So, Jesus' ministry is summarized, His preaching, His teaching is summarized by this statement. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, when something is at hand, that means that it's close, that it's nearby. It's not here yet, when Jesus is talking about it, but that it is ready to come. And the kingdom of heaven is something that God has been talking about for quite a while, leading up to the time of Jesus. That if you're familiar with your Old Testament, you're familiar with the prophets, and the prophets were always talking about this coming time of God's kingdom. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, all of the twelve. Daniel, these men looked forward to the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God that was going to fill the earth with righteousness. And so, with all of that Old Testament historical background in the mind of these Jewish people, Jesus shows up and says, you need to repent. And when we hear the word repent, we sometimes think of, you know, the crazy guy on the street corner with the sign, and that he's just yelling and arguing with everybody. And that is kind of a caricature of what it means to be a preacher of repentance. But to preach repentance means that there's something wrong with us. There's something wrong with us, and that's what leads to something wrong in the world. You guys have been alive long enough, you've read enough newspaper, you've been around people long enough to recognize there's something wrong with people. That the world is not the way that it's supposed to be. Things are out of sorts. And what is wrong in the world isn't the government systems, it's not the political situations, it's not your parents. What's wrong with the world is inside of every one of us. It's not the system that brings evil into the world, but it's the evil that is in our hearts that leads to those evil systems. And that's what Jesus taught repeatedly, that it's nothing outside that defiles a person, but it's the evil thoughts and the evil desires from within us that cause us to ruin our lives, ruin the lives of people around us. It causes all of the wars in our families, wars between nations, all of the suffering and evil. It's because of sin. So Jesus comes as a preacher of repentance, showing that we need a change from the inside out is going to set us, and then through that, set the world right. And that's what repentance is really all about. That recognition that we're not right, and we need to change, and that only God is able to make that change, so that we are ready for His kingdom. We don't live as citizens of this world, but we're looking for the kingdom that comes from the God who has created all things and who is redeeming all things. This is the same message that John the Baptist preached. If you turn back a page or two in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter three, verse two. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and in verse 2 of Matthew 3 it says, his message, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So the same message that John the Baptist preached is the same message that Jesus came preaching, and so the Sermon on the Mount has a lot to do with repenting, so that you're ready for the Kingdom of Heaven." This is Jesus' whole message. This is His whole point. And this is what we are still in the business of doing. Saying that the Kingdom of God is close. It's drawing near. The Judge is standing right at the door. He's going to raise everyone to life and everyone is going to be accountable before the God who has created us. He's going to open the books. He's going to show everything that you've said and done and that you are not righteous. And so this is what the context for the sermon is, and this is how we interpret the words that Jesus speaks here in these Beatitudes. It's a Latin word that means blessed. And that's why we refer to these as the Beatitudes, because each one of these opening statements starts with that word blessed. And the word blessed is a very important word for us to understand. Now, it sounds like a church word, and it's not necessarily a church word. It was a regular word before it became a church word. And what it means is that you are in a good place. Sometimes people, you know, there'll be celebrities that go on television after they've gone through rehab or after they've gone through a divorce, and they'll be sitting down and talking with Oprah or whoever, and they'll be asking them, you know, how's your life right now? How are things going for you after all you've been through? And very often, you know, the celebrity will say something like, well, I'm in a really good place right now. And then they'll go on and describe about, you know, what blessings are in their life. And that's what this word means. It means that objectively, and subjectively, that you're in a good place. The way that David used this idea in the Old Testament was, in one of his psalms he said, the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. And you might hear that and say, well, that doesn't make any sense to me. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. And what that means is in the Old Testament, they had inheritances and that they were divided up by lines, that the property that you got from your parents, who got from their parents, it was marked off with lines. And we still have property marked off with lines today. You can have a surveyor come out and show you where the line of your property is. And so, David was saying that the portion that God has given me, that has come down to me in life, it's good, it's pleasant. And that's what this word blessed means. It means you're in a good place, it means that what you have received in life is an actual really good thing. It's not just that you feel good, it's not just that you're happy, but it's that you are in an enviable position. That you're in a position that you want to be in and that other people would want to be in. That's what it means to be blessed. So let's go ahead and jump in then and take a look at each one of these in sequence. So the Beatitudes come then in verses 3 through 12. The first of these is the poor in spirit. In verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And what I want you to notice about this one and a lot of the ones that follow that we'll be looking at afterwards is that Jesus has a very different idea of what it means to be in a good place than what people normally think. That Jesus' idea of being blessed is very different from what you might get from watching talk shows. That when the celebrity says he or she is in a good place, she or he is usually meaning something very different than what Jesus would identify as being in a good place. And that this is common not just for celebrities, but for everybody. That the people that we envy, the people that we want to be like, the people that we say, man, I wish I had their life, Jesus says, no, you don't really want their life. No, they're not really in a good place. But that the place that you want to be is actually very different than what you think you want to be. And this first one sounds that note pretty well for us when Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit. And most people think, hmm, blessed are the poor. That's not exactly what I was shooting for. That's not exactly what I was aiming for. I'd like to be rich in spirit, sure. Rich in spirit sounds good. I'd like to be rich in money. I'd like to be rich in lots of ways. Rich is good. Poor, not so good. In fact, the word here for poor is not just the word for not having enough. It's the word for having nothing. It's the word for deep poverty. Abject poverty. Blessed are those who have nothing spiritually. Like what? How is that blessed? That doesn't sound good. It's not what Oprah says. So let's explain it. What does it mean to be poor in spirit and why is that such a good thing? Well, this is an idea that you find throughout scripture. It's not something that is unique here in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus doesn't come up with this stuff in a vacuum, but he has been teaching this for centuries. Well, how has Jesus been teaching this for centuries? Because he existed before the world was. And all of the words of Scripture are actually the words of Jesus Christ. Not just the red words in the Bible, but the whole Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ, that He is the Word of God. And when the prophets received the Word of God in the Old Testament, do you know who they were receiving? Jesus, before He was Jesus. And so he's been teaching these things for a long time, even before this. And so we can look at some of those examples of what Jesus has been teaching through the Old Testament prophets concerning poverty of spirit. And I want you to go back with me to the book of Job. Go back to Job chapter 42. You talk about the blessing of somebody who has nothing. Well, that's Job. Job was a man who was rich. Job was a man who had everything that he wanted in his life. His kids were doing well. His business was doing well. His family was doing well. His health was doing well. And then boom, he lost it all. His kids died. All of his wealth was taken away from him by raiders. And he lost his health in the most excruciating and painful way. You might look at somebody like that and you say, well, he went from being blessed to not being blessed. However, that is not the message of the book of Job. The message of the book of Job is that his real blessings were not those things that we always want in life, but his real blessing was his righteousness, his godliness, and that he even became more blessed and more rich through losing everything because in Job chapter 42, he was able to say this. It's at the end of the book. After Job has learned everything that God wants him to learn through this experience and through God's revelation of himself to Job in the previous chapters, Job answered the Lord and said, I know. that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without understanding, without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear, and I will speak. I will question you, and you will make it known to me. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear. but now my eyes see you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." Job became poor in spirit through his experience of losing everything and learning the difference between what God knows and what God can do versus what you know and what you can do. What you know and what you can do is nothing in comparison with what God knows and what God can do. In the previous chapters in Job, God had been questioning Job, saying, do you know how the animal kingdom works? Do you know how the eagle flies? Do you know where Behemoth gets his strength? Do you know where the snow and the rain come from? Do you understand all things? Were you there when the world was founded and I laid the foundation of the earth? Do you understand all of this and can you explain it to me?" And Job says, no, I can't. I don't know. So I'm just going to listen to you because you know and I don't. That's what it means to be poor in spirit. It's to come to the end of yourself and to say, I don't know how to live my life. I don't know what direction to take. I don't know what's purposeful and meaningful and valuable. God, you know. And I'm going to listen to you. That is the blessed person. The person who is not self-sufficient. The person who is not self-reliant. Right, Norm? Like we talked about in Sunday school. But the person who sees the all-sufficiency and relies completely on the Creator God. This is the blessed man. who despises himself. I have nothing. I am spiritually poor. I have nothing in myself. And it's all God. It's all Jesus Christ. Come with me to Isaiah 57. Forward from Job, you go through Psalms and Proverbs, and you come to the large book of Isaiah. Isaiah 57 and verse 15. Remember what Job said. I'm going to ask you questions. I'm going to listen to what you say. You know, I don't know. It ties in well with the way this verse starts in Isaiah 57, 15. Thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with Him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Think of it this way. Men are always trying to get to the top. But if you get to the top, think about a mountaintop. There's no life there. There's no trees. There's no fruit. There's no flowers at the top of the highest mountain. But where do you find life? It's in the low places in the earth. It's where the water runs down into the valleys, where there are trees, where there is vegetation, where there is life that springs forth. And that's the way it is spiritually, that if a man exalts himself when he thinks, I know, I'm going to be captain of my own life, determine my own fate, follow my own inclinations. Death. But if a man lowers himself, if he says, I am going to take the spot down at the very bottom. I'm going to stop climbing up to the top and I am going to humble myself. The waters of God's Word run down into that low place. and bring forth much fruit, much life in that person. God dwells on a high and holy place. But He says, I also dwell with the one who is contrite and lowly of spirit. God delights to revive the spirit of the lowly. He delights to revive the heart of the contrite. God has an upside-down kingdom. That to be great in God's kingdom, you have to be least among men. To be great in God's eyes, you have to despise yourself. You have to repent in dust and ashes the way that Job repented in dust and ashes. And what did God do for Job? He blessed him. Blessed are the lowly of spirits, the poor in spirits. Psalm 34, 18, don't have to go there. It says, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Number two, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. This follows well with being poor in spirit because people who are poor are often very sad. Happy are the sad. Again, everything's backwards in the Scriptures. Our thinking is what's messed up. And so when we come to Scripture and we read it and we think, well, that doesn't make any sense. And God does this to show us how we have valued the wrong things and we live in a world that is upside down. And that in order for things to be made right, God's got to turn it back on its head again. Blessed are those who mourn. You're in a really good place when you're really sorrowful. When you're really sad. God says, I will comfort you, just like He said in Isaiah 57, 15. He delights to comfort those who are sorrowful, who are mournful. Now, what kind of mourning is Jesus talking about here? There's lots of people in the world who are sad, but not all of them fit into this category. There's lots of people in the world that are depressed, but not all of them are blessed. So what kind of depression, what kind of sorrow, is the blessed kind that Jesus is talking about here. Well, again, we're thankful that we have a lot of Scripture to learn from, so that we're not left just to guess with a few verses here and there, but that we can interpret Scripture in the light of the rest of Scripture. God has given us a full revelation that we can read and compare. Come with me to the book of James. James was a brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, but that doesn't make him significant. What makes him significant is that he learned the Word of God, and he loved the Word of God, and he taught the Word of God. And so, the book of James is very much like the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, we could reference James a number of times this morning. We'll see how many times we get here. But in James 4, verses 8-10, you see what Jesus was talking about when his disciple and brother helped explain exactly the same thought. James 4, verse 8. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you. Being wretched and mourning and weeping in verse 9 is really what we're talking about here when we're saying, blessed are those who mourn. It's a mourning over sin. First and foremost, it's a mourning over your own sin. That a blessed person, somebody who's in a good place in God's sight, in reality, because God's sight is reality, right? People who are in a good place in God's sight are those who are sorrowful because of their own sin. Your sin should grieve you. It is ugly. It is evil. It is disastrous. It has eternal consequences that go beyond my ability to paint with words. And if you are not grieved by your sin, then you don't have any spiritual insight. You don't have any spiritual understanding. But if God has revealed to you the depth of your sin, and you're starting to understand the seriousness of it, and you're starting to hate it the way that He hates it, then it makes you sad. And you're sorrowful that this evil is within you. And that's the call to be wretched. Not because the economy is bad or you lost a lot of money in the stock market. That's not a reason to mourn or be wretched, to weep. But because of the sin that is in you. And secondly, because of the sin that is in the world. This is referenced a number of times in Scripture that there is sorrow because of the sin that is in the world. Go back to the book of Psalms. Psalm 119. Psalm 119 and verse 136. What kind of mourning is Jesus talking about? Well, James helps us to understand it. Psalms helps us to understand it. Psalm 119, verse 136 says this, My eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep Your law. The fact that the world is full of sin is why Jesus Christ was a man of sorrow. It's not just because he suffered for the sins of the world, but while he was in the world, he wept over the city of Jerusalem for their unbelief. He wept over the consequences of sin in the life of his friend Lazarus. That there's no place in Scripture where it is recorded that Jesus laughed. And I'm sure He laughed, but it's something that is not recorded because God wants to remind us that this is not a happy time. And Jesus being a wise man, Jesus being the blessed man, He was a man who mourned. He was a man who wept. So if you go through life and it's like, happy, happy, joy, joy, I like my video games, I like my life, I like my job, I like my car, I like my house, I like my family, I'm just happy all the time and the world is great, you're not blessed. You don't understand. You're living with blinders on. Just because it's not happening here, doesn't mean that it's not happening. And there are lots of things happening here that you also should be very sad about. There is coming a time when there will be unmixed joy. There is coming a time of true peace in the world, true righteousness in the world, when things are the way they're supposed to be and that you'll be able to enjoy it fully. You'll be able to laugh, you'll be able to play, you'll be able to live life to the fullest the way it was created to be, the way that God has redeemed it to be, but that time is not yet. Even though we're living in this bubble of safety in America, doesn't mean that there's not blasphemy. There's not divorce. There's not abuse. There's not immorality. There's not all kinds of evil going on constantly in every place that should cause us to grieve the way that grieves the heart of God. This is not a happy time. The only happiness that we have in this time is the Gospel. and that God is saving people. That is the only good thing that is happening in the world today. We can rejoice in that. Everything else causes us sorrow. Those who are poor in spirit are those who mourn over their own sin and because of the sin that is in the world. And the heart of Jesus Christ expressed in Psalm 119 is, My eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. And if your eyes don't shed streams of tears because of the sin that's in the world, then you're not as blessed as you could be. And you need to ask God to give you His eye. Eyes that are able to mourn and weep and be sorrowful and be miserable with His sorrow and His misery. And when you do, you'll have His comfort. You'll have His nearness and you'll be truly blessed. Like we talked about last week, the joy that the Holy Spirit produces, it's not a blind joy. It's not a joy that just focuses on the positive and doesn't think about the negatives in the world. It's a joy that weeps because of the negatives in the world, and yet has the confidence to be able to say, with Jesus Christ, I have overcome the world. For all of its sorrow, for all the depths of the despair that is here, Jesus Christ is sufficient. He is powerful. He is able to give a joy that surpasses that. Number three. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." What does a meek person look like? A meek person is a person who's gentle. That's another way that this word is translated in the New Testament. Somebody who is gentle and meek is somebody who is able to patiently put up with being wrong. He's not somebody who strikes back and fights for his rights, but he's somebody who just allows people to step on him and he takes it. Now, we think of somebody like that and we think, well, that's somebody who's weak. It's just somebody who can't fight back because that's the only reason why you wouldn't fight back is because you can't. Jesus Christ had the power to fight back, but he didn't. Because he was neat. He was gentle. He had his power under his control. And that is what made him the blessed man. If you want to be blessed like Jesus Christ, then you're not a violent person. You're not an irascible person. You're not an ambitious and arrogant person. But you are subservient. Subservient does not sound like the blessed life. But it is. You're somebody who's submissive. You're not somebody who flouts authority and throws it back in their face and says, make me. You're somebody who obeys your parents. You're somebody who obeys your husband. You're somebody who obeys the government. Whether your husband and the government are respectable or not, You are in control of yourself and you choose to obey the authorities that God has put up. Do you know that Jesus Christ is given the title in the book of Isaiah, the servant of rulers? King of kings, Lord of lords. Servant of rulers. The suffering servant is one of my favorite titles for the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what we are called to be as Christians. Christian is somebody who follows Christ. A servant of rulers. Are you a servant of President Obama? If you're a Christian, you are. The tough and overbearing get their way in this life. The meek get run over. In God's economy, He turns things around. You just wait for Him. The meek will inherit the earth. If you don't take it, you wait for God to give it. If you're still in the book of Psalms, go back to Psalm 37. I told you the Word of God was speaking long before Jesus Christ was born. Psalm 37. You can read the whole Psalm. And it's a commentary on blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Just go ahead and read. I probably won't make it all the way through. At least the first half. Fret not yourself because of evildoers. So you mourn over the evil in the world, but you don't fret. Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you. He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in Him and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. You don't have to do it. You don't have to vindicate yourself. You don't have to fight for yourself. You don't have to stand up for your rights. God will stand up for those who choose by His power and faith in Him not to stand up for themselves. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in His way, over the man who carries out evil devices. How is it that the ruthless can have their way and they can get to the top and everything seems to work out for them? Isn't this God's world? How can God let this happen? Refrain from anger. Forsake wrath. Threaten not yourself. It tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off. But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land." Do you hear that? Inherit the land. You can hear the words of Jesus Christ. The meek shall inherit the earth. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. but the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, and he sees that his day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy to slay those whose way is upright. Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Better is the little that the righteous has, blessed are the poor. Then the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless and their heritage, their inheritance will remain forever. Well, you get the idea. Number four. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Come back to the Matthew passage, Matthew chapter 5 and 6. I told you before that the Beatitudes kind of summarize the whole teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, and the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes summarize all of the teaching of Jesus Christ. And in Matthew chapter 6, verse 33, you have a further explanation of what it means or what it looks like to hunger and thirst after righteousness. And again, we're talking about being hungry and thirsty, being a blessed condition. And most of us don't live life knowing what it really means to be hungry and to be thirsty. Because there's a 7-Eleven on every corner and if I'm thirsty, I go in and I get a big gulp and I'm good. And there's plenty of food in my pantry. If I'm hungry, I just go grab whatever I feel like eating and I'm good. But you understand that it hasn't always been this way and that there's a lot of people in the world that don't have anything to drink. or not nearly enough. And they don't have anything to eat and not nearly enough. And that's the kind of hunger and thirsting that we're talking about here. It's not like you're sated and you're not hungry. But we're talking about somebody that has a burning hunger in their stomachs and their throats are parched It's like when I was in baseball practice, when I was in high school, and you'd be out in the 95 degree heat, and the wind is blowing, and the dust from the infield is inside of your mouth, and you've got that dirt taste in your mouth all afternoon, and nobody brought anything to drink, and then you have to bike home several miles with already being completely parched, and then you get home, and you're like, Water, Pepsi, anything. Pour it down my throat. I need it right now. That's the kind of thirsting that we're talking about here. And it's not a very fun condition to be in. But Jesus says that, again, turning the world upside down, that's where blessing is found. It's when you have that kind of hunger. It's when you have that kind of thirst for righteousness that says, I don't have it. And I need it. And I need it now. And I'm going to seek after it first. I don't care what's on television. I don't care what's going on with the family. Give me something to drink. I'm dying here. Matthew 6, verse 33 then says this, But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. What are all the things? Well, it's the food and the clothing. They're kind of important, but again, we take it for granted because we've never lacked for food or clothing. What we need more than food. What we need more than clothing. I would rather be freezing out in zero degree weather than to not have God's righteousness. I'd rather be starving with an extended stomach than to not have God's righteousness. That's what I'm seeking first. That's my passion. That's my heart. God says if that's you, then you are blessed. The prophet Jeremiah said, you will seek me and find me, speaking for God, the word of God. You will seek God and find God when you search for him with all your heart. This is a lesson I had to learn as a young man, that God was not something to add to my life. It's not like, hey, I've got all this good stuff going on for me. I'm good in school and I like to play sports and I've got a good family. Oh, you know, might as well throw God into the mix too and have heaven and eternal life. Why not? Sounds good. But that's not how you find God. People who do that don't find God. They find some idol. They find some false God. They find some false religion and they throw it in with the rest of the stuff in their life and they're like, okay, got that taken care of. Now let's go on to my career. God says, the only way to find me is when you search for me with your whole heart. That I'm all you want. I'm all you desire. And nothing else begins to even compare to the desire that you have to know God. And when that's your heart, then you can know God. But He's not going to give Himself to you if you don't value Him. You know, I've got kids. They don't necessarily know the value of something. Some of you might know that I'm kind of a geek and I collect G.I. Joes. I've got some that are worth hundreds of dollars, okay? And I don't give them to Aiden to play with. Because he doesn't value them. He's going to break them. And so God does not give the unlimited value of himself to people that don't understand what he's worth. It's just wisdom. It's just right. You don't do that. And so if you want God, then you have to learn that he is worth more than anything you could ever possibly desire. And when you understand that, then you can have the greatest gift God can give to you. The gift of himself. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Number five. Blessed are the merciful. They shall obtain mercy. This ties in very well with the meek. Somebody who doesn't seek vengeance. Somebody who doesn't hold a grudge. There's a lot that can be said about this and the reward that's on it. Let me just say this. You don't get forgiveness of sins initially, eternally, by being a merciful person. That's not what Jesus was teaching here. Some people misread Jesus by saying, well, the way that you get to heaven is if you're a forgiving and kind person. That's not how you get your sins forgiven and go to heaven. Jesus is speaking to his disciples. He's teaching those who already believe in him. when he's giving this lesson. He's not saying this is how you become a disciple. He's saying this is how you live your life as a disciple. This is how you live your life as somebody who's already been forgiven. You say, well, if I've been forgiven, then why do I need mercy? If I've been forgiven, then why do I need forgiveness? Look at 1 Peter 3. Again, we have questions and we want to understand Scripture, so we understand it in its own context. Don't listen to somebody that doesn't show you from Scripture what God is saying. He comes up with his own interpretations and his own ideas without showing it from all of God's Word. 1 Peter 3, verse 7. Again, a letter that Peter is writing not to people that don't know God, not to people that don't believe in Jesus, but he's writing to disciples, he's writing to Christians who've been forgiven, And he says in 1 Peter 3, 7, that husbands should live with their wives in an understanding way. That's a big command because, man, husbands do not understand wives, do they? It doesn't come naturally for men to understand women or the reverse. By God's grace, husbands can live with their wives in an understanding way, and this is done by showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life. And notice this last part. So that your prayers may not be hindered. That men, if you don't honor your wife, if you don't live with her in an understanding way, then your prayers are going to be hindered. And it's like, what? I thought that I had Jesus as my high priest, I have forgiveness of sins, that it's not dependent upon works, and that God will always hear my prayers and answer my prayers. It's grace alone, right? It's not works. Well, yeah, it's grace alone how you get saved, but that after you're saved, that you have a Father who loves you. And your Father is going to train you to do the right thing. I love my kids. and they have forgiveness for anything that they've done, and I'm never going to boot them out of my family for anything that they could do. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to train them, that I'm not going to discipline them, and that I can do that by giving rewards, giving things that they ask for, or not giving things that they ask for. If one of my kids starts to be selfish and is not sharing, then I say, well, I was going to give you a birthday present, but you haven't been sharing, and so I'm not going to give you one until you learn how to share what you have with your brother or sister. And that's a good, loving thing for a father to do. And so in the same way, God says, if you aren't going to be merciful towards your brothers and sisters, then I'm also going to withhold mercy from your life. I'm going to withhold some of the good gifts that I could give you, and I'm going to let you eat some of the results of your own foolish decisions until you learn to do what's right and not to be merciless. So, that's what Jesus is talking about when He says that the merciful obtain mercy, that we have the fullness of the experience of God's blessings in our life, that mercy of God poured out upon us, not giving us what we deserve, when we don't give other people what they deserve. Yes, I deserve for you to not like me. I say things, I do things that should cause you to not like me. But God says, you need to be merciful to me. And then when you do that, God's going to be merciful to you. And vice versa. Number six. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The word pure in heart has the idea of having a clean heart. And we get a clean heart from the Gospel, from God's Word. God purifies our heart. He cleanses our heart from sin. And those who have experienced that are those who can see God. Remember in the Old Testament when the angel of the Lord would appear to people and they would be worried that they were going to die? Because sinners, seeing the fullness of God's holiness, it burns us up. Our God is a consuming fire. If you in your sin were to come into the presence of God, you would burn. and not just for a little while. But the Scriptures reveal that those who stand before a holy God in their sin burn in a lake of fire and their torment goes on forever and ever. You can't see God in your sin and live to tell about it. There's death and there's the second death. But those who have been cleansed Those who have been purified by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith in what He has accomplished on what this cross signifies behind me. Paying the penalty for sin once and for all. Rising again to be a living Savior so that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Shall receive a cleansing in their heart that allows them to experience God in joy. The book of Jude says it in one of my favorite ways, that we are able to stand in the presence of His glory, and with great joy. Those are the blessed people. The people whose hearts have been cleansed by the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, we could do a whole sermon, obviously, on each one of these, and we're moving through pretty fast. Let's get the last two quickly. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." To be a child of somebody is to have their character, to have their qualities. You have the same eye color as your parents. You have the same hair color as your parents. You end up being about the same height as your parents. You have a lot of the same personality traits as your parents. Sorry, it just happens that way. But to be a child of God is all good. There's no downside of having his character, of having his qualities. And one of God's qualities is that he makes peace. You can tell a real Christian by whether or not they are somebody who increases peace among the family of God, or whether they are a divisive person. Somebody who causes division in the body of Christ, somebody who is arrogant and selfish and pits his own desires against the desires of others, that is a person whom God will wreck. I don't care what his testimony is. I don't care what his doctrine is. I don't care what he says. Church wreckers, God will wreck. If you're not a peacemaker, you don't have strong evidence of conversion. The whole Gospel is about peacemaking. The whole Gospel is about a God who is completely in the right, and a people who are completely in the wrong, and God doing everything at great cost to Himself in order to say, I want peace with you, and I'm willing to die for it. And if you don't understand that, you don't understand the Gospel. And if you can't forgive your brother, then you understand nothing about the forgiveness of God. You say, well, the church has hurt me, and so I just don't go. What if God had taken that attitude towards you? Timothy, you hurt me, and so I don't want anything to do with you. He had the right to do so, but he didn't. Come with me again to the book of James. James 3. We're in 1 Peter. It's right before 1 Peter. James 3, verses 17 and 18. Let's back it up and catch verse 13. Who is wise in understanding among you? Now if I have all wisdom, understand all mysteries, I'm the guy that knows the Bible. Who is wise and understanding among you? By His good conduct, let Him show His works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure. Blessed are the pure in heart. Then peaceable. Blessed are the peacemakers. Gentle. Blessed are the meek. Open to reason. Full of mercy. Blessed are those who show mercy. and good fruits, impartial and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness, hunger and thirst for righteousness. It's sown in peace by those who make peace. So far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men. Whatever is in your power to make peace with you and another person, do it. and you will be called a child of God. You will be demonstrating that you have His character quality, that you have His heart, that you have His life living in you. Finally, turning the world upside down as usual, Jesus says, blessed are they that are persecuted. And this one gets an extended commentary in Matthew chapter 5, where verses 11 and 12 are also about this one in verse 10. Let's just read them all once again. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you. He makes it personal. The others were all they, but this one he drives home with a special force and says, blessed are you. when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad. Very glad. Exceedingly glad is the word that is there. For your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." This is possible. It can be done. It is possible to rejoice when you are persecuted. It is possible to recognize when people hate me because I'm a Christian, that it is the best thing that could happen to me." Notice that the promise is the kingdom of heaven at the end of verse 10. And this is where he started in verse 2, verse 3, with the promise for the poor in spirit that theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So, the inheritance of the kingdom which is what he was preaching. Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Change the way that you think. Change the way that you are on the inside, because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. How do you change? Faith in the Word of God. And that change produces within you these things. Core and spirit. Mourning over sin. Meek and gentle towards all people. a hunger and a thirst for righteousness that is beyond any other desire that you have, showing mercy to those that have wronged you, being cleansed in your heart, the desire and the actions of making peace with yourself and others and between warring parties, and the promise that we get to enjoy persecution. You get to enjoy persecution. To you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His name. It's a gift that God gives you to suffer in the name of Jesus Christ. So don't be afraid. Young people, you're growing up in a world that is becoming very hostile towards Jesus Christ. The Internet is full of hate towards the Word of God and faith in Jesus. Don't be afraid. Don't worry. Parents, don't worry for your children. Don't worry for your grandchildren. It is a gift to suffer for His name. If they are counted worthy of suffering for His name, there is a rich reward. Don't you want good things for your kids? Don't you want good things for your grandchildren? Then have faith. The good things are the eternal things. The spiritual things. The inheritance that God is going to give to them. the blessings and the Kingdom of Heaven of having suffered for His name. You don't want your kids to show up to the Kingdom of Heaven and have no scars, have no persecution, to have no suffering. To be able to stand next to Pauly Carp, who burned in the fire for Jesus Christ, and for them to say, nobody ever said anything to me. Nobody ever hated me. I never suffered a thing for Jesus Christ. That's not an enviable position to be in. Blessed are you when people revile you, when they persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you because of Jesus Christ. Rejoice and be glad in that day, for your reward is great in heaven. Who are the blessed? Who's in a good place? It's not the celebrities, I'll tell you that. It's the poor in spirit, the persecuted Christians, the people who are crying tears in their prayer closets because of all the evil that's in the world. The people who want God's righteousness more than anything and are so hungry for it. People that are making peace in God's family. Those are the blessed people. Those are the people that are in a good place in life. And they have all the fruit of the Spirit to show for it. Let's pray. Lord God, bring repentance. There are people here that need repentance. You know them. You know their hearts. Repentance is a gift from You. It's not something we can work up on our own. That's why I pray to You, God, to give it. And Lord, for those here that have been given that gift of repentance, let us continue to change the way that we think. Let us continue to be changed by Your Word in what we feel. May we continue to have our imaginations transformed by the power of the words of Jesus Christ to be able to see the world the way that He sees it. To be able to see our lives the way that He sees them. To be able to see blessings the way that He understands blessings. So that having our eyes open, we can walk in His ways and experience all of the sorrow that is His so that we can experience all the comfort that is His. To experience all the persecution that is His so that we can experience all the reward that is His. To experience all of the mercy that He gives so that we can show that mercy to others and have Your mercy poured out even more richly into our lives We thank you for hearing us in these prayer requests that are prayed according to your word and according to your will so that we have confidence to know that we have these things, that you will answer, that you will give, that you will pour out these spiritual blessings upon our hungering and thirsting souls in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who is our Savior, who is our leader, who is our hope. Amen.