Sermon On The Mount - Part 2

Grace be with you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I too am thankful to be here and thankful for what we've heard and to be in your presence. Yeah, and just I can say amen and appreciate what was shared. I want to, I'm minded to continue the series that I started a few weeks ago about the Sermon on the Mount. So let's stand for a word of prayer before we get started. Oh Father in heaven, we thank you for being our God and Father and for sending the Lord Jesus Christ to teach us the way and to live and die for us and that you rose him up again and for the hope of the resurrection we thank you for all these things. Pray Lord that you could help us here today, that your spirit can be present, that you would give me a clear mind and thoughts and words that could be edifying to all of us and bring glory to your name and just pray for your blessing on this entire day and be with those who aren't here whether it be sickness or some other reason just minister to their needs as well in Jesus name, amen. I don't know how many of you have heard the term a new world order. It's a term you might hear people talk about who are afraid or concerned or just think that something big is going to happen in the way the world functions. I was once listening to probably on talk radio I heard one of these conservative speakers make a statement that gave me a lot to think about. He said the way to rebuild a nation is to attack its culture and I just thought a lot about that. I thought of like oh yeah I mean this guy was concerned about stuff I'm not concerned about but I thought of things I was told when I was wanting to walk more fully in the ways of God and I was in this setting where we had long held cultural ideas thinking and practices that I thought needed challenged. Anything from the language we would preach to a whole host of other things and I was told you can't do that. You can't change the culture. You can't change the language without losing the faith and history proves it. Facts are stubborn. Everybody who's tried this doesn't in this case say Amish and it really does work this way if you want to rebuild a nation you can attack its culture and out of it you can change the way people think. You can change the way people practice and you can rebuild something else out of it. If you want to make sure that you don't lose your culture just make sure you never think differently. Just make sure you never think in new ways or entertain any new ways of practicing things. But about 2,000 years ago this man Jesus came into the world and he started a new world order. In the last message we talked about the word of God and how it became flesh and dwelt among us here and how in the beginning the word of God went forth from from or the word went forth from God and made out of the chaotic disordered elements it brought life and order and a well-ordered universe or world that had life and light and order because creation and the elements heard the word of God and obeyed it. So now this word that was made flesh and came down here to us he went up on the mountain and that's where we left it. He went up on the mountain sat down and was about to speak. Now before I get into those words that Jesus said I'd like to give us a few more things to think about. So it's not entirely clear to me whether there was a multitude of people there or just the disciples. It says he seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain and the disciples came to him. If you read the account in Luke which I don't necessarily think is the same sermon but there in Luke 6 on the sermon on the plane it does say that there was crowds but then he then he gave his attention to the disciples and addressed these things to them. So I'm inclined to think that's kind of how it was that there was more people there than his disciple but I could be wrong about that. Either way the people who were there were either convinced or thought it possible that this man Jesus was the anointed one the Messiah who they've long been waiting for. If there was one thing that was drilled into every Israelite boy and girl was that there is a coming deliverer. They knew their history. They were well familiar with the Psalms and the poetry and the literature. It was drilled into these people as they were growing up. Terms like being rulers of creation, terms like the kingdom of God, a messianic era being established. These were all all things that they were taught. In that song that the Israelites sang when they came through the Red Sea they call it the Song of the Sea. When Israel was delivered from Egypt and the Egyptians were drowned there in the Red Sea they sang that song and it ends by saying and the Lord reigns forever and ever. That the Jewish people had a creed, maybe several creeds, but a creed that they read daily or quoted daily in which they would say things like I believe in perfect faith and in the God who created all things that are created. The twelfth article of that creed says I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah and though he tarry yet will I wait for him wait for his coming. They longed for the glorious days of King David and the early years of Solomon when they were the wonder and the awe of the nations. When they had all the promised blessings that came to them they were blessed in the city, they were blessed in the country, they were blessed in their storehouses and in their reserves, they were blessed in their coming in and in their going out. Their enemies came against them one way and fled before them seven ways. They lent to many nations and didn't borrow, they were the head and not the tail, they were above and not beneath. But now they were under the iron rule of the Romans. This is known as the Pax Romana era. Sometimes that era is described as the golden age of peace between nationalities within the Roman empire, but I think that golden age only applied if you were a Roman. To the Jews this was not a golden age. They had become the tail and not the head. They were beneath and not above and that in their homeland. So for several generations already the Romans had taxed the people and taxes kept going up and up and up until people were forced to sell their lands and now they were forced to become a debt slave. And so now these people might be working as slaves in the vineyards, in the fields, in the olive groves that their great-great-great grandfather owned and now they were working in them as slaves. This was not a good thing and they longed for a deliverer. They knew that the promised one will sit on David's throne and establish his kingdom forever. Now could it be that this man, this Jesus from Nazareth, is this man? Could he be this one? Every pious Jew probably for centuries has been asking this question that John the Baptist asked, are you the anointed one? Are you the one we're expecting? And now could it be that this man, this penniless man who's been walking along the Sea of Galilee and just kind of presumptuously telling some fishermen, hey you come follow me. Could he be the one? I mean in our day and age what do we think when one of these religious guys raises up and starts gathering people to himself and saying there's a big movement about to happen and it's all going to revolve around me. We get pretty suspicious don't we? But for the Israelite he had to ask himself, is this the one? Might this be him? After all he's been he's been walking around here, he's been laying his hands on people, he's been doing some miracles, and he's saying repent, stop, change your thinking, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And they're asking themselves, is he the one? Is he going to start a revolution? Is he going to rise up in power and overthrow Herod and deliver us from the oppression of the Romans? Is he going to restore these blessings that we've all lost? The blessing of strength and power to regain the land that we inherited? The blessing of wealth and prosperity? The blessing of laughter and comfort? The blessing of full granaries and satisfied bellies and the blessing of having a good reputation and being highly esteemed? Might he restore all those blessings? And so they follow him up on the mountain to see what he says. And he says, 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 the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say, all men are evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. What do you think is going through these people's minds? This is otherworldly thinking. Can you start seeing the connection between what these people are thinking now and how it affects what they think when they later hear what Jesus said that night to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. When he says things like, except you become as a little child, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. He's rebuilding a nation. He's bringing in a new world order. Let's look at these blessings. They're often called the Beatitudes. This word blessed, I think I think it might be the best we can do in English, but depending what translation you have, it might say happy. I don't think that does a very good job. The Luther German translation we used to use said Selig, which is the same word as saved, which I don't think is quite accurate either, or it's not the same word that would sometimes be used as in saved for salvation. And so maybe blessing is the best we can do in English, but I think it has a deeper meaning than just blessed. It means supremely blessed. To use the word happy is just a bit too commonplace talking about feeling or emotion. I feel like the word saved is not quite accurate either. I'm going to give it a different definition today, or my own definition. I think we could think it divinely privileged. Divinely privileged are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We're divinely blessed. Oh, you know, when someone seeks a citizenship in a different country, they often go because of the privileges there. They want the freedom, the opportunities, the protection, or whatever, that they think the privileges of me, if they go through the hardship, the discomfort, the risks to get into this country, they think it's worth that for the privilege that they think they'll have there. The kingdom or the nation of Jesus has some pretty extraordinary privileges. Heaven will be ours. We will inherit the earth. We'll see God and we'll be his children. Those are some of the divine privileges we can have. So he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This means partly, this means humble, but it means more than just humble. There's a reason Jesus didn't just use the word blessed or the humble. This word poor, it leaves the impression of a beggar or a pauper. In Luke 16, where it says a certain beggar named Lazarus, that word beggar there is the same word that's being used here. And in James, where he talks about not being a respecter of persons and says, if one man comes in here with a rich man with a ring and a goodly clothes, and you say, sit up here, and then here comes a poor man in a dirty clothes, that poor man, same word. It's talking about a very, very poor beggar. And so privileged is the beggar in spirit. We see beggars sometimes holding signs made up just cardboard and write on a sign, please help. Homeless, please help. Crippled, please help. At the end of the rope, anything helps. And even the beggars around here, I'm sure some of them are really desperate. When I was in the Philippines a few years ago, I saw this one day. I saw this woman, perhaps the frailest, skinniest woman I've ever seen. And she, and there was just people walking by. I saw her from across the street first. And she was sitting or squatting there on the sidewalk, and she had this little tin can. And she would bang it on the sidewalk and then lift it up, hoping people would put something in. And then bang it on the sidewalk again to rattle and make a ruckus. Hold it up. Bang it on the sidewalk. Like the desperation in her whole expression and the way she was going about this just left this, really left this impression on me. I think that's what he's talking about. Blessed are those who beg in desperation, not for carnal things, but for spiritual things. Do we recognize our homeless, helpless, crippled, end-of-the-rope condition? The last chapter of Isaiah says, the Lord says, To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Now, I want to, I want to bring, it's always bothered me just a little bit when people have, when people have read this, blessed are the poor in spirit, to merely mean humble. Because when you look at Luke's, when you look at the account in Luke 6, Jesus says this, blessed are the poor. He doesn't say the poor in spirit, he just says blessed are the poor. And then, as if we're just supposed to assume that he means, that that's just not added, he says, and woe to the rich. And I, I don't think Jesus is saying two different things here. I think, I think he's giving, giving the same message. I don't, I don't necessarily think this was the same sermon preached, but I think he's giving the same principle here. I think, I think it could be summed up by saying, blessed is a person who is willingly, inwardly, and outwardly poor and humble. There's a difference between willing humility and forced humility. There's a difference between voluntary poverty and forced poverty. Someone who's poor because he's lazy and wasteful, or it just, it just happens that that's his lot in life, but, but he longs to be rich. This blessing that's spoken doesn't apply to that. And someone who's humiliated because of his shameful deeds, this blessing doesn't apply to him either. And, and we all know that, that humility is elusive, but maybe it's not as elusive as we sometimes want to make it out to be. For instance, if you see a plain, small house with no decorations, it's obviously there for a shelter. Maybe, maybe the man built it with some mismatching material. Like, do we not rightly say that's a humble setting? Now, it may very well be that the man who built this thing might have pride. He might have this secret pride. He might even be proud about his place and like to show it off to people. It's altogether possible. So, so yes, it is somewhat elusive. But, but the thing is, the man who, the man who builds himself, this great immaculate place, and he, he, he, he makes this huge place, and he, he puts great pillars on his porches, and he makes the great gated entryway, and a long paved driveway, and, and has this, this great looking estate. Can we at any time rightfully say, that man is poor in spirit? It doesn't fit. It doesn't work that way. It's, it's, we can rightly call that a rich setting. And, and, and, and unless, you know, unless, unless this man is in the process of a big heart change and hasn't yet done something about it, it does, it, this man is not poor in spirit. Not, not any more likely than a camel going through the eye of a needle. And you might say, well, all things are possible. Okay. All things are possible through God. But only if the person becomes voluntary inwardly and outwardly poor and humble. Earthly things are so tightly bound to the fabric of our lives. Like God, God never addresses the idolatrous heart without, without there being some ramifications to the idol. Right? God never addresses the person with an adulterous heart without there being some ramifications to the adulterous relationship or, or the gluttonous man without some ramifications to his extravagant dainties or the covetous man without some ramifications to his riches. It just doesn't work that way. Now we could take away the idol and he still might have an idolatrous heart. We could take away the, the person that somebody is committing adultery with and he might still have an adulterous heart. That's altogether possible. But we can't take away the idol, the idolatrous heart without, without something happening to the idol. Hence Jesus says, clean first the inside of the cup and the platter, and then the outside doesn't matter. No, the outside will become clean. We can take away all our earthly possessions and not be poor in spirit, but we cannot become poor in spirit without it having some ramifications to our earthly possessions, or at least if we don't have any or many, at least the way we view this stuff. We're not, we're not desiring that. Basil of Caesarea said, poverty is not always praiseworthy, but only that which is practiced intentionally according to the evangelical aim. Many are poor in their resources, but very grasping in their intentions. Poverty does not save these. On the contrary, their intentions condemns them. Accordingly, not he who is poor is necessarily blessed, but he who has considered the command of Christ better than the treasures of the world. These the Lord also pronounces blessed when he says, blessed are the poor in spirit. So now to that debt slave who was toiling away from sunup to sundown and still poor, but he was so much wishing that he could claw his way up there till he was up, till he was the head and not the tail, till he was above and not beneath. This was a whole new concept. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed or divinely privileged is the person who from within his inner man is voluntarily a poor, humble beggar. And what should a humble man beg for? The prophet Zephaniah says that the humble should seek more humility. There's the kingdom of heaven and they'll be the privileged citizens of this new world order. Let's go to the next one. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. I don't know, but perhaps in the Jews, in the Israelite people who are hearing this, something's going off in their mind. They're thinking, oh yeah, that's what the prophet Isaiah said in that thing that we've often heard. It's like when the anointed one comes to proclaim the acceptable ear of the Lord, one of the things he said is he will comfort those who mourn. This too doesn't mean any kind of mourning. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Esau wept because he was jealous over his brother. Delilah wept because she was trying to manipulate Samson. Ahab wept because he couldn't get his way. But none of these work to repentance and none of these were blessed weepings. None of these were tears and weeping and mourning that we could say, a blessing is he that mourns. But what about the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears? She was weeping because of her sins. Or the prodigal son who came to the end of himself and wept over his poor choices. Or Peter after he got done denying Jesus and went out and bitterly wept. Like these people saw how much they had offended their masters, their Lord, and they wept. And this was a blessed weeping and they were comforted. Jesus wept frequently. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He wept at the devastating effects of sin and the curse and the things that distorted his creation and the intentions from the beginning. He wept when Lazarus died. Death was not something that the Word of God brought to the world. Death was not a part of that. It was what came and distorted what he created. He created life. He mourned when the people scattered like sheep without a shepherd. That was not his intention. He mourned when he rode into the city of Jerusalem and beheld that city. He wept. This great city of Zion that's supposed to be the representation of God to all the world. And it is killing the prophets and it's about ready to kill the Son of God. And he weeps. He wept in the garden over sin, over deception, and over the evil plot that was taking place. The Hebrew writer says in the day about Jesus, it says in the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplication with loud crying and tears. If we are to weep with those who weep, we should weep about the same things that Jesus wept about. There is something foundationally wrong with dry-eyed Christianity. You remember that story in the last message about the crack in the foundation? There's something wrong in the lowest basement if the church has no tears. Sometime when you get a chance, go read the vision that Ezekiel had, either in chapter 6 or 9, I think. And Ezekiel sees this vision and he sees six men come in, I think, through the north gate into the city. And they were all armed with a weapon of destruction. And one of them was clothed in linen and he had an ink horn in his hand. And the Lord tells the one with the ink horn, go through the city and put a mark on the forehead of everyone who sighs and cries over the lawless deeds done in here. And so the man with the ink horn goes through the city and he puts a mark on the forehead of all the people who wept. And after that, he said to the others, go, destroy, spare no one, no children, no women, no old men, no virgins, nobody, except don't come close to the ones with the mark on their forehead. And they went through and they slaughtered everybody else. That day is coming when the cup of the Lord's wrath will be full and woe unto them that laugh now. But blessed, divinely privileged are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. That word comfort was something Brett and I were discussing a little bit yesterday. It's a difficult word. It's maybe appropriate, but if you look in the Strongs, the translators translate that word in so many different ways. Beseeching, it's used a lot. Words that I can't even quite make the connection. But I don't have a better explanation. I once heard John D. Martin say, and I don't know where he got this, but he said the word means to brave together. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall brave together. I'm not sure where he got that. The next one is blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The phrase inherit the earth is a common phrase in Israel's poetry and literature. It would have been a familiar term. Blessed, the blessed people would inherit the land, the cursed people would be cut off from it. That was a very, very common thing for the Israelites to understand. Now these people were looking for a conquering deliverer, someone to take their land back from the Romans and return it to them. And he says, blessed are the meek, the gentle. The very thing Norman talked about here in the opening. Blessed are the gentle, the mild, the meek. Now meek does not mean weak and timid. It means strong and gentle. You know, Moses, it's said of Moses that he was the meekest man on earth, but he was, when he was still in Egypt, he was a strong, powerful man. He had a lot of power and political power and he had an army to back him up, but he wasn't gentle. He was not at all gentle with that man that he found wrong. He killed him and buried him in the sand. Not until he went and took care of sheep and was a shepherd out in the wilderness with someone else's sheep for 40 years did he become the meekest man on earth. And from there, he didn't lose his power, but he became gentle and he subdued kings and giants and he led Israel to inherit the land. Jesus was meek and lowly. He was not weak and timid, but he was strong and gentle. Strong enough to make the wind stop and the sea go calm. Gentle enough to take little children into his arms and onto his lap. Clement of Alexandria said the meek are those who have quelled the battle of unbelief in the soul, the battle of wrath, the battle of lust and the other evils that are subject to them. They shall inherit the earth. That is the earth to come. Abraham was promised an inheritance of land, but he never received it. In all his days on the earth, he never received that promise, but he believed it and he waited on it. Who received it? The generations that rose up after him. And I think what we learned from that is like, we are pilgrims and strangers here. We'll be meek. We'll walk here and we will wait on the promised new heaven and new earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for they shall be filled. Hunger. This word again is not how you might feel at noon after having eaten a big breakfast and you're a little bit hungry. This word has the idea of pining with hunger, of craving, of being famished. The kind of hunger that you have when you can think of nothing else until you're satisfied. The prophet Amos says in chapter 8, Behold, the days will come, says the Lord, that I will send a famine across the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but famine to hear the words of the Lord. My uncle John would tell me this story, how he went to listen to a speaker who had lived through some of the time of the Iron Curtain and Stalin in Russia and how, I guess it was probably when at the end of the, I'm not exactly sure the timing this speaker was talking about, but there was a time when some Christians from the U.S. or somewhere had the privilege to come in and speak to the people about the Bible and about God. And he said the hunger that these people had, he said they had this building and the people crammed into it until they couldn't get another person in to hear what these men said. And this speaker said it was so packed full that if you raised your hand up here to wipe the sweat, you could hardly get your hand back down. If you raised your foot, you couldn't find a place to get it down on the floor anymore. That's how hard they packed in there. And come noontime, the preacher said, maybe we should break, maybe we should stop and get a bite to eat. And the people said, we didn't come here to eat food. We came here to hear what you have to say. Such a hunger, such a thirst. The hunger and the thirst ought not to be just to hear the word, but for righteousness. Not just to hear the preacher, but for what is right. Divinely privileged are we if we have this intense craving for what is right. And remember what Luke says after he says, blessed are the hungry, he says, woe to you who are full now. Someone once said, if we do not hunger for God, we are full of ourselves. John Chrysostom said he did not say, blessed are those who hold fast to righteousness, but blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. We must pursue it with all our desire. The psalmist repeats this theme over and over again. As the deer panteth for water, so my soul panteth for you. The next one is, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. I had seriously considered doing a message per each one of these, but I just didn't want to drag this series of messages out so long. But I'll try to keep moving. And maybe we'll come back to some of these as we go through the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. Merciful, a synonym with that is compassionate. Blessed are the compassionate. Blessed are the merciful. I want to read a passage to you out of Hosea chapter 6 verses 4 to 7. He says, what shall I do to you, O Ephraim? And what shall I do to you, O Judah? Your mercy is as a morning cloud and as the early dew that goes away. Therefore I have cut off your prophets. I have slain them with the words of my mouth, and my judgment shall go forth as the lion. For I desire mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than whole burnt offerings. But they are as a man who transgresses the covenant. There they despise me. You get this idea here, what the prophet is saying. You know how it says your mercy is as a morning cloud and as the early dew that goes away. You know how in the morning when everything is just laden with dew drops, there's a freshness, a really, really blessed freshness about it. All the grass and the plants seem to be really vigorous and full of life, and everything just smells good, feels good, looks good. But then soon after the sun comes up, that all disappears, and as the heat of the day comes, these plants start looking flimsy, and they're more withery. The life and vigor that you saw there isn't there anymore. He's saying that's how your mercy is. He doesn't want that. He says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, a mercy that doesn't just last for the first short while of our Christian life. Jesus once sat in Matthew's house. I believe it was Matthew's house, eating a meal, and there were a bunch of tax collectors there. Matthew was a tax collector. I imagine it's his old friends gathered together there, and Jesus was eating a meal with them there. The Pharisees complained about that. Why do you eat with sinners and tax collectors? Jesus said, it is not the healthy that need a doctor. Then he made reference to this passage in Hosea and said, go learn what this means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. It's too uncommon. It's too uncommon after a little while, after we've tasted the goodness of God, and we've experienced his mercy, and we get a little aged, and we get a little seasoned to think we've become the judges of right and wrong, and mercy goes out the door, just like that morning dew. He's saying he doesn't want that. He wants us not to once have shown mercy. He wants us to be merciful. Imagine a doctor who says he's only going to practice his medical work on healthy people. Imagine a remodeler who says he's only going to work on new houses. God is merciful, and he desires all to repent. He knows that if it wasn't for compassion, no one could stand before him. We too must be merciful. I found this quote out of the Apostolic Constitution that is really powerful. It says, receive without doubting anyone who repents. Do not be hindered by the unmerciful man who says we must not be defiled with such people nor even speak to them, for such advice is from the men who are unacquainted with God and his care. Such men are unreasonable judges and unmerciful beasts. And remember, mercy is something that is not deserved. If it's something that's deserved, it's no longer mercy. The terror of the Lord is great, and if we never come to recognize how great the terror of the Lord is, we also fail to understand just how great his mercy is. I encourage you sometime to read the book of Micah, and notice how that book is just full of severe judgments, but it ends up with hope, because he says, I'm merciful. He ends up there somewhere, maybe not at the very end, but he ends up saying, at the end there is hope, because there's mercy. And he does not keep his anger for a witness, but he delights in mercy. His terror and his judgment is great, but so is his mercy. I want to read a passage to you out of Proverbs. I thought about this passage this week, and it reminded me of something. Proverbs 1, starting in verse 25, it says, Listen to this. I remember, I don't remember my age, but I remember as a boy, hearing a preacher talk about this passage, and talk about how those who won't hear God, the day is going to come when they're going to be in dire straits and deep trouble, and they're going to call out to God, and God's going to laugh at them. And it struck terror in me, the thought that I could be in this great dilemma, crying out to God, and he would stand there and laugh at me. But the thing of it is, that's only the one element of God. His mercy is as great as his terror, and mercy triumphs over judgment. We see another side of God. In this passage, it is the voice of wisdom speaking. And yes, yes, the voice of wisdom comes from God. Yes, that is apart from God. Yes, it is something to take very seriously. But there's another element of God. We would see it very plainly in the story of the prodigal son. That prodigal son had done exactly what it says here. He had despised the council, gone and squandered the inheritance. But what happens when he comes back? The father takes him in. He makes no mention of the wasted money. He makes no mention of anything. He takes him in. His son came back home. That is mercy. Did that son deserve it? No way. But that's what mercy is. If we are merciful to others, we will obtain mercy, which is to not do or not wish upon them what they justly deserve. Just let that sink in. Not the first few days of our Christian walk or the first few years, but all the days of our life. Compassion is a powerful tool in helping others. That's why Jude said, on some have compassion making a difference. I once read this story. It's a little humorous, but there were two boys, one a little bit older than the other one, but they were carrying a church bench. You know how they are. It's not like the one end is heavier than the other, but they were carrying it. The little boy was struggling. It was too heavy. He couldn't carry it. The older boy said, here, you take this end. I take that end. This end is heavier. They switched sides, and the little boy could carry it just fine. But just that recognition that he's got a heart of compassion for him, just gave him the strength he needed. Divinely privileged are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. In Psalm 24, he says, who will ascend to the mountain of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He who has innocent hands and a pure heart. He who does not lift up his soul to vanity. He who does not swear deceitfully to his neighbor. He shall receive blessing from the Lord and mercy from the God of his salvation. Pure, clean. Though it can mean what we oftentimes might think, to be pure in our thoughts, to not have lustful thoughts or something like that, it's not quite what it's talking about here. It is talking more about uncontaminated, having our heart, our thoughts, our reasoning, our intentions, our motives, and our emotions, to have those things uncontaminated, to have them pure, set on God and nothing else. And what does he say about that? He says, those will see God. That's not a small deal to somebody who's familiar with what the Old Testament was saying. God is a consuming fire. Nobody sees the face of God and lives. And yet he says, the pure in heart will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. In the beginning, when the word of God was spoken, out of all that chaotic confusion of elements mingled together in disorder, they obeyed the word and things gathered into their right places. Water went where water belonged. Land went where land belonged. Light where light belonged. Darkness where darkness belonged. And there was order. There was peace. And they stayed within their bounds. When Jesus, the Son of God, was born, the angels came and said, peace on earth. The prophets had said that he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace. There's no wonder that he says the peacemakers will be called the sons of God. What a divine privilege. You know, there's a sense in which we should all be servants, right? But God calls people servants who aren't peacemakers. He calls Nebuchadnezzar his servant. He calls Cyrus his shepherd. But to be his children, to be his sons, we must be peacemakers. Clement of Alexandria said, blessed are the peacemakers who have subdued and tamed the law that wars against the resolution of the mind. They have tamed the menace of anger, the bates of lust, and other passions that war against the mind. Tertullian said he calls the peacemakers the sons of God. Listen to this. Do the impatient have any kinship with peace? Even a fool can say that they do not. Sons or children live under the same father and under the same household. So peacemaking is something we must practice with each other in brotherly love. The only way we can live in his family is by living in brotherly love together. John Chrysostom said the peacemakers are those who do not strive with one another and who reconcile those that strive. So they are rightly called the sons of God, seeing this was the chief employment of the only begotten son to reconcile things separated and to bring peace to things at war. Remember what the prophet Isaiah had said? We touched on it last week, or last message. One of the things he said that would be a part of this new coming, this new anointed one that comes, is that they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's interesting to me, and I think there's no mistake, why this follows the other one. In fact, why this follows peacemaking. These are all tied together. Look at this. It says blessed are those who hunger or have this craving for righteousness, right? Righteousness. We want what's right. And on the heels of that, he says, and the merciful, right? We need to be merciful. And on the heels of that, the pure in heart, those who want purity, no contamination. And on the heels of that, the peacemakers. Be at peace. And on the heels of that, who are persecuted. Why? Because though we are to be peacemakers, we ought not make peace with the world. All those who live godly will suffer persecution, Paul said. If we live by the spirit, we'll be scorned and ridiculed and mocked for our consecrated lives. Even accused of not being peacemakers because we don't give in to the ungodly ecumenical spirit of the day. If we take Jesus serious and we go into the world and we teach men to observe all the things that he commanded us, we will be persecuted. We may not shed blood. We may not hang on a cross or meet the flame, but we will be persecuted. I think consistently through the ages, those who evangelize get persecuted. And many, many, many, many Christians through the ages could have saved their reputation and they could have been spared from suffering and death if they'd have been quiet. And sadly, many have done just that. As it was with Isaac and Ishmael, he that is born after the flesh persecutes him that is born of the spirit. But remember this, it must be for righteousness sake. In order for this blessing to reach us, some people are simply facing the consequences of foolish behavior. They call it persecution, but it's not a persecution that's blessed. Peter says something like, for what glory is it if you're buffeted for your faults? That's no glory at all. He says after that, Jesus says, blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Great is your reward in heaven. He says, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Can we do that? For great is your reward in heaven. How many people in here love to get slandered? I'm not saying we should love to get slandered, but this is a mild form of persecution, at least to those who have faced sword or flame or cross or beasts. But I will admit that verbal attacks and slander don't make me want to jump for joy. Again, there's a few things that have to be in play. It has to be false and it has to have been for his sake or else it's not a blessing. A quote here says, in order for the falsely accused to have a claim to this blessing, two things are necessary. First, it must be false. Second, it must be for God's sake. Otherwise, he does not have the reward of this blessing. If people abuse and attack us because of our sins, for political positions we take, or for any reason other than Christ, then we are not blessed because of their reproaches. But it is a divine privilege to be counted with the prophets. And that's what he says here. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for this is what they did to the prophets. The disciples were able to rejoice because they were counted worthy to suffer. Divinely privileged are the persecuted for righteousness' sake. I think we could... I'm almost done here. I think through all this we could sum it up by saying that Jesus is telling these people, divinely privileged are those who are beneath and not above, for my sake, for they will rule over heaven and earth. And if you're one of those people that was on the mountain that day, if you were born in an Israelite family, and you had this whole culture and way of thinking about this, and you heard this message, you would recognize this is a new world order, a new creation. Some of the things here, and for sure some of the things we'll get into later, was a pretty severe attack on the culture of the Israelites. And it would have a great impact in how you understood what Jesus meant when he said, you must be born again. Jesus came to reorganize our values. He came to teach us and show us how it would look, and how it looks, if Jesus takes back the earth and establishes his reign. And what it looks like if creation, earth and creatures, hear the word of God and do it. May the Lord add his blessing. Open it up for comments, corrections, thoughts. I've been blessed with being here today, and thankful for all that was shared. In the opening, I was blessed with the teachings there in Galatians, and appreciated them. I don't want to take a lot of time, but I just real quickly, I'm beginning to see this first part of the Sermon on the Mount here in Matthew, like the beginning of Christianity, the core, the center, the beginning of life in us, is when we're these things that were described and portrayed, the poor in spirit, and those that mourn, and meek, and then, I probably have mentioned this before, but, and hunger and thirst. And then, we start becoming converted. There's something happening within us, and we become merciful, and we become pure. We seek to be peacemakers, and maybe then, we become strong enough, and we start getting persecution. I just see this pattern of a lifetime, whether it be long or short. Some people profess Christ, and very quickly, they were killed, and they didn't have much of a time of this changing like that. But I think most Christians probably live a little longer than that. And this New World Order is tied very closely to conspiracies, and for that reason, it kind of doesn't sit right with me. But without that connection, it sounds good. But I appreciate the wording, but what's connected to it, I do not appreciate. Yeah, I just want to say thank you, brothers, for sharing. I wanted to read a verse here that just kind of summarizes my thoughts. First Thessalonians, Chapter 5. We read it in the Bible study last Monday. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray, God, your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think that would be my thoughts, especially what we heard being said about being chendol, peace, and then peace, peaceable as well. To truly have this, we need to go to God to find a pattern of it. Like here it says, the very God of peace. And so the very God of peace is the one that should make us wholly in every way, like in every aspect of our spirit, body, and soul. And the reason for that is so that we are blameless. And that then would be, somehow in my mind I had that all tied in then with like this, what was your word again for the blessing, Duane? Divinely privileged. Divinely privileged. Like to be divinely privileged, I think that all ties in with being like blameless, blameless, without air in areas of being pure, merciful, meek, peacemakers, and all the things that were touched on somehow. This verse came to my mind probably because we read it in the Bible study, but also I think of the Apostle Paul being like a commentary of the Sermon on the Mount. You can just hear him re-saying things, you know, saying things in a different way, but pretty easy to see where they come from. So thanks for sharing that, brothers. Thank you, Brother Duane, and I know you could have spoken for two hours on each one of them. And it's words of life. I know that Jews said when they heard this, or they heard it, said it another time in John's gospel, right? Never has a man spoken like this. So those words, nobody ever spoke like that before. So you repeat them, and we meditate on them, and they're just higher than our brains can attain in all those beatitudes. We listened to, I had my wife listen to a debate between a denomination of preacher, so to speak, and a Jewish man yesterday. And the Jewish man agreed with the beatitudes that they all, Jesus didn't say anything new, they all basically repeated in the Old Testament. But then the preacher said, yeah, but when you come to Isaiah 53, now what are you going to do with Jesus? Now what are you going to do with him? And it was excellent, the way, you know, they can't say anything about Isaiah 53. Anyway, one thought on blessed those who hunger and thirst. And Jesus did say that he is the bread of life. And many of the disciples laughed at this, unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life. And the early Christians, of course, said that that was talking about communion. And we're going to shake that shortly, the bread of life. And the other one would be, that's, you know, he did say, how did he say it in John 6, this is the food of God, or this is the bread of, that doesn't perish in eternal life. John 6, 27, this is labor, not for the food to perish, but for the food that gives eternal life. And that would be the bread, you know, he's going to give us, and he's the bread of life and things like that. The other one would be hunger and thirst. Yeah. Some of you know, I'm going with this, but the thirsting, Jesus said that he is living waters and many things about living water. And he did say to Nicodemus, unless you're born of water in the spirit, you cannot be born again. And so someone might say, well, how are you going to connect water with drinking thirsting? And then we just use one verse and I'll hand it over to someone else. And 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 12, it does say in 12 and 15, for as the body is one and has many members and all the members of that one body being many, our one body as also is Christ, so also is Christ. Verse 15, for by one spirit, we are all baptized into one body, for one spirit, we are all baptized in one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be born to free and have made all to drink into the spirit, to drink into the spirit. It's a mystery, but I ascribed, as you know, that bread is communion and water can also be baptism. And I can be corrected in that. The Lord be magnified. Who has given up his life to redeem us from our deeds? Let our hearts sing his song, with the help of his glory, when the Word in flesh appears. For he came to renew us, and of death renewed us here. What shall we now say? Shall we sin that grace abounds? Brethren, may it never be that in us this heart is found. Let us come for thee to the throne of grace in time of need, to find help for our troubles and the grace that makes us free. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, praise the Lord. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, praise the Lord.