Living out the beatitudes

Could we look at the gospel of Matthew chapter 5 please? Matthew chapter 5. Oh, it's good to see everybody here after having a good lunch. Verse 1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up on the mountain, on a mountain, and when he was seated his disciples came to him. Then 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 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 sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.

For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now very interesting, this is the first teaching of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. Interesting what God has chosen to have here.

You know, there may be many things that you and I can't do. Like preach the thousands, like Charles Spurgeon did in London many years ago. Or bring the gospel to inland China like Hudson Taylor.

Or even write a excellent commentary on Luke like Norman Crawford. But these verses that we've just read, they tell us what God is looking for in you and me. No matter whether we've been saved a few weeks or several decades.

There may be many things we can't do, but this is what God is looking for from you and I. The Beatitudes, as they're often called, make it clear that the principles of the kingdom of heaven are very different from how the world looks at things. And unfortunately, we can be so affected by the way the world looks at things. That's one reason I need to read the Bible, to see what is important to God.

But these principles that we've been reading here at the beginning of chapter five, they have to do with inner character and not just external formalities. Now it isn't that the external isn't important, but it's the character that's most important. It's often been said it's not so much.

God is looking, first of all, what he can do in us before what he can do through us. So these characteristics describe those who have been born again and who are now in the kingdom of heaven in its spiritual form, and who will be in the kingdom of heaven when it's manifested here on earth in a coming day. So this is what God is looking for.

But in ourselves, we don't have the spiritual resources to put these verses into practice. So let's look at some of them. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get through all of them.

First one in verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You know, for many years I struggled, what does this mean poor in spirit? But before we get to that, blessed or blessed.

Often referred to as meaning happy, but it has a thought of having God's approval. And really there's no higher blessing than having God's approval. This is what he's looking for.

This is what pleases him. First of all, he says the poor in spirit. But what is that? What's the opposite of being proud in spirit? The opposite of being rich in pride and being rich in self-sufficiency.

It's recognizing something of the righteousness and holiness of God, as well as the sin and corruption of our own hearts. Now we had to come to this point before we were saved. Our spiritual poverty.

We still need to realize in ourselves, we are spiritually poor and that we're unable to please God in our own human effort. Does your lack of ability in whatever area bother you sometimes? Or your lack of self-confidence? The Lord has to empty us before he can fill us. And doesn't he bring things into our lives from time to time for this very purpose? And maybe God is doing that with you as I speak.

So we need to become poor in spirit if we want God's approval and if we want to become rich in God's spiritual blessing. Now the Lord says, blessed are the poor in spirit. That's just really our spiritual poverty in ourselves.

And to me, the word of God is so encouraging because if we're honest, we realize what the Lord Jesus says, without me you can do nothing. And yet the world will tell us, you know, do it yourself. But the Lord says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In a coming day, we won't be poor in spirit. We're going to be like the Lord Jesus. And we're going to be in a kingdom unlike any other kingdom this world has ever known.

And there have been some impressive kingdoms in the course of world history. Brother, sister, we're going home. The older I get, the more I'm looking forward to it.

And to be with the Lord when he reigns on earth, when he's given the place that he deserves, when righteousness will reign, how different from the world in which we find ourselves now. So the Lord says it's a great blessing to be poor in spirit, to be dependent on him because the best is yet to come. Secondly, verse four, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Now mourning has to do with sorrow, sorrow for sin, our own sin, and sorrow for the sin of others. The world says eat, drink, and be merry. Life's a party.

But sin bothers a believer and it should. Now sorrow for sin was necessary. It's salvation.

Second Corinthians says godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation. And in a Christian life, sorrow for sin is normal. Before the Lord used Isaiah, we read that Isaiah said, woe is me.

I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Before the Lord used Paul, in Romans 7, Paul says, oh wretched man that I am. And he was on to say the things I want to do, I don't.

And the things I don't want to do, I do. And I think each one of us can relate to that. Mourning for sin requires honesty with God and honesty with ourselves.

Again, another reason why we need to read the word of God, to see ourselves as God sees us, to see the world as God sees it. I'm so thankful for 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9. Spoken to believers, written for believers, that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us for all unrighteousness. This is a parental forgiveness for those who've been born again.

This has to do with judicial forgiveness. That took place the moment we put our trust in the Lord Jesus. The penalty of our sin was taken care of because he took it all when he was on the cross.

But in our relationship now with God as our father, things can come into our life that are like a cloud between us and him. And we don't enjoy the fellowship with him that God wants us to have. You know, God's ways are so good.

I mean, not only does he save us from the destruction that we deserve, eventually in hell in the lake of fire, but he's made it possible for you and me to walk in this wilderness world with a God who is holy. And we are far from that. But he's made it possible, he says, that we confess our sins.

He just wants us to be honest. And when we blow it to tell him about it, and he says, it's taken care of. You know, the devil will try to get us to sin, and he'll try to get us to beat ourselves up, kick ourselves around the block a few times.

But what about the sin of the world? Do we mourn about it or just talk about it? I mean, we're all astounded, I think, by the things that are going on. What's wrong is promoted as being right, and what is right is said to be wrong. And nobody wants anything, most people don't want anything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, the Lord Jesus was a man of sorrows. We're speaking about, blessed are they that mourn. He was the man of sorrows.

We read about that in Isaiah 53. He knew what it was to weep. And each time he wept, sin was involved.

At the grave of Lazarus, when he wept over Jerusalem, he knew they were going to reject him. And when he wept in Gethsemane, I take it, the night before he went to the cross. Blessed are those who mourn.

But the Lord says, for they shall be comforted. You know, there's tremendous comfort now in being saved and knowing that our sins have been forgiven. There's comfort in deliverance from the penalty of sin and the power of sin in our lives, and the presence of sin in the next.

But think of those in hell, no comfort there. We read about the rich man in Luke 16. Lazarus was comforted, not the rich man.

For the Lord Jesus on the cross, there was no comfort. He says, I looked for comforters, but found none. No comforters for him, so that he could comfort you and me.

We read in 2nd Corinthians about the God of all comfort. In a coming day, brother, sister, there's going to be ultimate comfort. Revelation 21 tells us he's going to wipe away all tears, and there's going to be no more sorrow, no more mourning.

So he says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now, there seems to be a progression here. The poor in spirit realizing our spiritual poverty.

And then in verse 4, those who mourn acknowledging our sinfulness. And now verse 5, blessed are the meek. And it seems that's the position we should take in view of verses 3 and 4. Blessed are the meek.

What's that? Well, it's the opposite of being self-assertive, being haughty, being arrogant, being aggressive. It's a willingness to take a low place. It's not seeking my own rights, not trying to advance my own agenda, not pushing myself forward.

It's a humble and gentle attitude to others. Isn't that what characterized the Lord Jesus? He said, I am meek and lowly in heart. Brother, sister, this is what God is looking for.

This isn't what the world is looking for, but this is what has God's approval. If that's what we're interested in, and I believe that's the reason we're here. One reason we're here.

Now, being meek, as often said, doesn't mean being weak. Doesn't mean being a pushover with no backbone, being a doormat. But it is a willingness to submit to God's will.

Do we love him enough to be able to say, Lord, not my will, but yours be done? We always find out his will is the best. The devil will try to twist that around and think that it's going to be the worst. But he's the father of lies.

So how do we get to be meek? Just personality. I know personalities are different, but Galatians 5 tells us that meekness is a fruit of the spirit. It's a quality that the spirit of God produces within us when we let the Lord have his way in our lives.

Many New Testament verses teach that meekness should characterize us as Christians. So would you say that you're meek? Would others say that you're meek? This is what God is looking for. I'm not making this up.

Some of you probably never knew John Norris. He was a former editor of Truth and Tidings before Norma Crawford, before Sandy Higgins, before David Peterson. He lived up in Sault Ste.

Marie, Ontario. He had some severe health issues for many years. I think about 10 years he couldn't preach, travel around.

We were up in Alpena, Michigan, just a few hours from the Sioux. And there was a new assembly there. And one weekend he asked if he could come down.

And of course, we were delighted. And I remember just enjoying so much spending time with him. He wasn't able to preach, but he was able to enjoy the Lord in those 10 years.

But then Mr. Norris died. And I went to the funeral. Norman Crawford took the funeral.

And Norman's text was 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 1. The meekness and gentleness of Christ. The little I knew Mr. Norris, I thought, how appropriate. But what a testimony.

The meekness and gentleness of Christ. You know, these qualities we see here in the Beatitudes. Just imagine now, if we all, if this characterized us, would it make a difference in our assemblies, in our homes? I hope I've changed a little.

But in the past, my wife has said that driving brings out the worst in me. And what she meant, I think, was, you know, just imagine you're driving down the road, 50 miles an hour. Somebody pulls right out in front of you going 25.

And often there doesn't seem to be anybody driving the car. You can't see their head. You ever had that experience? I don't know why this is, but I'm not against short people.

But anyway, my response has been in the past, and I have to fight against this. It's just, well, letting them know what they've done, right? I mean, so my wife doesn't know I'm going to stop six inches from the bumper. So she's not happy.

And really, I don't feel like stopping six inches. I feel like giving them a little bump. Meekness? No.

Lord says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. What does the world say? Grab all you can, while you can, in whatever way you can. Even if it's at the expense of others.

Doesn't matter. Survival of the fittest, or you'll never get anywhere. What does the Bible say? What does God say? He says, Christ has been appointed heir of all things, and that we are joint heirs with Christ, and that we're going to reign with him.

Now, I know there's difference of thought on this, but I'll be surprised if we don't live on the earth during the millennium. And I know others look at the satellite theory, and that's fine. But if that's so, if we do live on the earth, do you ever wonder where and what you'll be doing? I know it's just hypothetical.

We leave that with the Lord. But the Lord never does things in half measure. There might be a lot of things we don't have, a lot of things you don't have in this life, and yet he's, God has blessed us so much.

But in the next life, we're going to inherit the earth. The Lord is going to reign in righteousness. It's going to be so different from this world that we know.

Brother, sister, we're going home. But in the meantime, God wants us to represent the Lord Jesus here on earth, to bring honor to him. And this is one way we can do it, even though we might not be able to do some great things.

So just a brief recap here. We've read, blessed are the poor in spirit. That's the opposite of being proud in spirit, the opposite of being rich in pride and self-sufficiency.

And it's realizing in ourselves we're spiritually bankrupt. Then we read, blessed are those who mourn. That's the sorrow for our sin, the sin of others.

Do we pray for the sin of others? For our countries? And then he says, blessed are the meek. Being willing to take a low place, being willing to submit to God's will. Now, these three things, even these first three verses, they have to do with the emptying of pride and self-sufficiency.

The Christian life, it's all about the Lord. It's not about us. Paul realizes, Galatians 2, he says, I've been crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And this life I live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

But let me just touch on briefly a few of these others here. Verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Well, it's possible to hunger and thirst for many things, for money, for pleasure, for fame, power, popularity.

And I think of the prodigal son we read about in Luke 15. He hungered and thirsted for things, and it only brought emptiness because he was hungering and thirsting for the wrong things. The Lord Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Hungering and thirst for righteousness. Now, before we were saved, we wanted to have a right relationship with God. But this may be speaking more about a practical righteousness, doing what's right.

It's conformity to the word of God and the will of God. So again, I need to find out what does God want me to do? What is righteousness? Because we live in a world where the world thinks wrong things are righteousness, whether it's immorality, abortion, gay rights, gender fluidity, and so on. Hungering and thirst for righteousness.

The Lord says, blessed are they, for they shall be filled or they shall be satisfied. Again, the prodigal found out the ways of the world don't satisfy. What does God say? We have this text that my wife had one of our daughters make that we got on the wall of our dining room.

Psalm 107 says, he satisfies the longing soul. Does God mean what he says? The devil doesn't want us to think that that's true. He satisfies the longing soul.

You know, in the coming day, the Lord is going to reign in righteousness. We're going to be fully satisfied, totally satisfied then. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

Now, mercy is compassion and care for those who are in need and in distress. It's kindness to the helpless. So what's my attitude toward those in need? Easy to be critical.

Isn't it easy to be critical? What's my attitude toward those that aren't saved? You know, it just reminds me of, is it Mark chapter 10, the Lord Jesus coming through Jericho and he sees Bartimaeus, poor blind beggar by the side of the road, who called out to him for mercy and says, and the Lord stood still, took time, met this man's need, physically as well as spiritually, I take it, because we read that Bartimaeus followed the Lord Jesus on the way. What's our attitude toward those in need? I think most of the time we don't realize what people are going through. We can be critical, but brother, sister, has not the Lord shown us great mercy? I mean, the fact that we're here today, you think of where we could be, where we deserve to be.

It's only the God's mercy, his compassion and kindness that he's shown us, revealing to us our need and the sufficiency of the death of the Lord Jesus to meet that need. Years ago at Sings, we used to sing a song by Dottie Rambo. It's to the tune of Danny Boy, says, he looked beyond my faults and saw my need.

May the Lord help us to do that, to look, the Lord looked beyond our faults. Did he not saw our need? I'll tell you, the lady that brought me the gospel, when I was a 25-year-old hippie, she looked beyond my exterior. She saw my need and she looked beyond the fact that I argued with her and was rejecting the gospel that she was trying to bring to me.

She realized I had a need that only the Lord could meet. And she was exactly right. I'm glad she didn't give up on me.

Verse 8, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Well, there's a problem here because our hearts aren't naturally pure, are they? Jeremiah says the heart's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Thankfully, we can confess our sins, as I mentioned, and be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

But in Matthew 23, Christ said to the scribes and Pharisees, you outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and wickedness. So the Lord is looking for inward purity, not just an external whitewash. You know, we can be looked down at the Pharisees, but I think there's a little bit of the Pharisee in many of us.

Now, I know that purity is generally scorned by the world, whether it's moral purity or even in the realm of business. But we need to make sure we don't compromise our integrity. The Lord wants even our motives to be pure, why we do what we do.

But I like this. He says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I know there's a coming day we're going to see the Lord.

I know. But doesn't the Lord want to reveal himself to us now? Sure he does. When he was here on earth, when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, he was continually revealing himself to the Lord as they were able to take it in.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Verse 9, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. I've known troublemakers.

I think of one man in particular. I don't know if he's still alive. An assembly fellowship and yet talk about a button pusher par excellence.

There was just tension. I don't know what made him tick. I should have looked beyond his faults and saw his need more than I did.

But I've also known peacemakers. You know, the Lord Jesus was the ultimate peacemaker, made peace by the blood of his cross. But the Lord wants you and me to be peacemakers in every area of our lives, in our families.

Young people, are you a peacemaker with your family? Teenage years are tough. I know that. How about in the assembly? Am I a peacemaker? How about at work or at school? How about with our neighbors? I know there was a couple of years ago, we had a neighbor that wanted us to cut down some of our trees or some of the branches.

And I won't go into all the details, but I'm glad I have a wise wife and that I didn't. She didn't let me respond the way I felt like responding. I wouldn't have created peace.

But it says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. We read in Hebrews 13, God's a God of peace, and we should display his character. And something else, those of us that have children under our roofs, don't we want our kids to get along? Do we not think God wants us to get along? But then finally, verses 10, 11, and 12 really are part of one beatitude, if you can put it that way.

It talks about persecution. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You know, if by the grace of God, we put some of these earlier beatitudes into practice, we can expect to be persecuted.

Because these beatitudes, Christ lived them. And he was persecuted. So we shouldn't think it's surprising if we get some degree of persecution, whether it's at work or school or wherever.

People hate a righteous life because it exposes their own unrighteousness. But sometimes we experience hatred and persecution, and it's because of our own foolishness. Verse 11 talks about people saying all kinds of things, all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

We need to make sure it's falsely, and that we don't deserve what they're saying. So I want to add more. I don't know how you feel when you read these 12 verses in chapter 5. It convicts me because I can put the emphasis on wrong things and miss out on what's really important to God.

So these beatitudes are describing what God's looking for, Christ-like character. And he tells us about character that may not seem very desirable now. Poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the persecuted.

But there are promises here that include the highest possible blessing. God wants the best for us. The highest blessing, blessing that is eternal, and blessing that will last forever.

Brother, sister, may the Lord help us by the grace of God. To live this. It doesn't depend on our own intelligence or our own ability.

He just wants us to realize it's letting the Lord Jesus live his life out through us. May the Lord help us to live out these beatitudes and have God's approval.