God's Ways for Us

Matthew chapter 5, please. Gospel in Matthew chapter 5, verse 1. And seeing the multitudes, he, the Lord Jesus, went up 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. In these 12 verses, we see God's ways for us. We've been looking at God's ways with different people.

This morning it was Moses and the Israelites. God's ways for us, and really what it is, it's Christ-like character. We get here the principles of the kingdom of heaven.

And they're totally different from the kingdoms of this world. You know, the world talks about counterculture. This is the counterculture.

God's ways are different than man's ways. God isn't just looking for external formalities. He's looking for inner character.

And much of Judaism, when the Lord was here, it was just concerned about external rules. And we're not immune from that either. But this emphasis on the external may be one reason why John the Baptist and Christ preach repentance.

They said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So what we read here, these are spiritual qualities, a description of true Christianity. And really they provide a key as to how we can be content even when times are difficult.

But we need to remember that in ourselves we're not able to put these principles into practice. This is the first recorded teaching of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. And what right did he have to say these things? Well, interesting how it leads up to this.

The first four chapters, of course, give his credentials. That he is the rightful Messiah King. In chapter 1 you get his genealogy.

He's descended from Abraham and David. And, of course, the Old Testament Scriptures say the Messiah would come through them. Again and again you get the testimony of Scriptures.

It says that it might be fulfilled. It is written. Again and again the Scriptures are being fulfilled.

In chapters 2 and 3 you get the testimony of the wise men come out of nowhere. The testimony of John the Baptist and then the testimony of God himself at Christ's baptism. And then in chapter 4 you get Christ's victory over sin and Satan and his temptation.

And then begins to talk in the last verses in chapter 4 about his public ministry. How he was teaching and preaching and healing. And verse 25 of chapter 4 says great multitudes followed him from all over.

But then going on from where we read, from chapter 5 verse 13 on, really get the conduct of those in Christ's kingdom. In chapter 6 and to the end of chapter 7. But it's the character of those in Christ's kingdom that I want us to focus on just for a little while here today. The character of those in Christ's kingdom.

This is the character that the Lord values and blesses. It's his way for us. So verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now we often hear blessed means to be happy and that may be part of it. But scholars say the word blessed really has the thought of having the approval of God. This is man's highest good.

There's no greater blessing. And I don't have to tell you it's so easy to seek man's approval more than God's approval. The poor in spirit.

What's that? Well I would suggest it's the opposite of being proud in spirit. The opposite of being rich in pride and self-sufficiency. And what a contrast to the world.

Poor in spirit. That wouldn't fly too well in the political realm, the entertainment world, sports world, and much of the religious world. Poor in spirit.

It's recognizing something of the righteousness and holiness of God as well as the sin and corruption of our own hearts. It's being honest. It's being real.

Acknowledging our spiritual poverty is necessary when it comes to salvation, right? We think of the publican there in Luke chapter 18. He beat on his chest, said, God be merciful to me the sinner. He took the low place.

Poor in spirit. But it's necessary in believers too. We think of Gideon.

He says, I'm the least in my father's house. Jeremiah said, I cannot speak for I am a child. So poor in spirit.

It's realizing we're totally unable to please God by any human effort. That we are spiritually poor. Does your lack of ability ever bother you? Your lack of self-confidence? There's a high school not too far from where we live.

And they have a sign out front. And they have, at times, asset of the month. And a while back, the asset of the month was personal power.

Well, I know they want the kids to have a positive mindset. But I thought personal power. We don't have any personal power.

God wants us to realize that. In fact, we need to be emptied of self before we can be filled by the Lord. We need to become poor in spirit before we can become rich in God's spiritual blessings.

So he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that how we enter the kingdom of heaven? In chapter 18 of Matthew, Lord Jesus said, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Kids realize a lot of things they can't do.

They're dependent. But dependent should characterize us now that we are in the kingdom. In the next verse in Matthew 18, the Lord says, whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

The Lord Jesus was the totally dependent man voluntarily. He said, I can of myself do nothing. Is that our attitude? God can bring things into our life where we realize we can do nothing.

We're dependent on him. In a coming day, we won't be poor in spirit. We're going to be like the Lord Jesus.

And we'll be in a kingdom unlike any other kingdom in this world. The Lord, the Lord will reign in righteousness and power. And we're going to reign with him.

So what most characterizes you or me? Poor in spirit. Proud in spirit. The world would try to put us into the mold to be proud in spirit.

Lord Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit. He says it's a great blessing to be poor in spirit and dependent on him. And the best is yet to come.

Our brother has been speaking of what it's going to be like to be with the Lord. We can't imagine. And I'm going to say again what I said last night and what Brother Clive already mentioned.

The older I get, the more I'm looking forward to being with the Lord. This man who I've never seen with these eyes, but I know one day I will. But I don't look forward to the dying process.

In fact, it scares me a little bit. But I realized one more thing I have to trust the Lord for. I had to trust the Lord to be able to come here for this conference again.

If it was just up to me, I would have run the other way. But then secondly, verse four. Lord Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn.

For they shall be comforted. These are this is tremendous teaching. It flies in the face of the mold that the world is trying to put us in.

I'm so glad we have the word of God in our own language. Blessed are those who mourn. Mourning is sorrow for sin.

Our own sin, the sin of others. And it's likely connected with the poverty of spirit in the preceding verse. Sin bothers a believer.

The world says, eat, drink and be merry. Party on. Sorrow for sin is necessary for salvation.

Second Corinthians says, godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation. And in the Christian life, sorrow is normal. Isaiah chapter six says, woe is me.

I have a man of unclean lips. He realized his sinfulness. In the New Testament, Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am.

You know how he goes on there in Romans seven. And I don't know about you, but when I was saved, things, sin that never used to bother me. Before I was saved, then it bothered me after I was saved.

So mourning for sin requires honesty with God. So it's going to involve reading the word of God to see ourselves as God sees us. To see the world as God sees it.

It's going to require confession of sin. Somebody might be thinking, well, just a minute here. Being sore for sin.

There's lots of sin in my life. I don't want to go around morbid like. I likened it to this, perhaps.

You know, you take the lid off a garbage pail and it's been there for a while in the sun. And you put your head in and it smells. Well, you don't keep your head in there.

You put the lid back on. And God wants us to be honest, to confess our sin when we've sinned. And he's so gracious.

He's made it possible for sinful creatures, weak creatures like us, to walk with a holy God. First John 1 and 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That's a parental forgiveness.

And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God doesn't expect us to be perfect. He knows we're not.

But he expects us to be honest. When I was first saved, I had habits that I had a terrible time with. I finally knew I was wrong from reading the Word of God.

And I remember crying out, Lord, when are you going to deliver me from this? And some things I had to confess over and over and over again. But I had no other choice. I didn't want to go back to living the way I was.

The Lord was my only hope. So, do we mourn for our own sin? How about the world's sin? Do we mourn for it or do we just talk about it? I'm guilty of this. You know, we talk about it.

It's in our face. The world. They say right is wrong and wrong is right.

I used to be there. I never read the Bible until I was 25. And if you're doing the math, you're right.

I'm 77. 76, I'll be 77, God willing, on Monday. Right is wrong.

Wrong is right. Isn't that what the world says? Christ is marginalized. Keep him out of the equation.

And people all around us going to hell. Would that it gripped me more? The Lord Jesus was a man of sorrows. We read him weeping at the grave of Lazarus.

Weeping over Jerusalem, the judgment coming. Weeping at Gethsemane. And each time he wept, sin was involved.

But the Lord says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. They shall be comforted. There's comfort in being saved and having our sins forgiven.

There's comfort in deliverance from the penalty of sin. And little by little being delivered from the power of sin. There's comfort in knowing that one day we'll be delivered from the presence of sin.

But for those in hell, no comfort. Luke 16, Lazarus was comforted. The rich man, no comfort.

The world has its imitations of comfort. Some of us bought into those things big time. Some of those that were into alcohol.

There's even a whiskey called Southern Comfort. Yeah. What a lie.

No comfort that lasts. I'm so glad, brother and sister, that our God is the God of all comfort. You read about Paul there in 2 Corinthians and all the things he went through, but he starts out that letter.

Talking about the God of all comfort. Well, I know sometimes it doesn't look like God's going to bring us through. Sometimes it doesn't look like he's the God of all comfort.

But don't count him out. Because the last chapter hasn't been written while you're still breathing. We have the God of all comfort, but for the Lord Jesus on the cross, there was no comfort.

Psalm 69, he said, I look for comforters. Didn't find any. In a coming day, there'll be ultimate comfort.

What do we read in Revelation 21? He's going to wipe away, one day he's going to wipe away all tears. No more sorrow. But he says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Verse 5. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The meek. Does it ever bother you that you're not as aggressive as people want you to be? Not as assertive, maybe your boss or somebody wants you to take assertiveness training.

God blesses the meek. That's what he says here. Blessed are the meek.

Not the haughty, the forward, the arrogant, the aggressive. Well, what is meekness? It's the opposite of being self-assertive. It's a willingness to take a low place.

And it follows with verse 3 and 4. Poor in spirit, those who mourn. It's a humble and gentle attitude to others. It's not seeking my own rights.

Not trying to advance my own agenda. Not pushing myself forward. It doesn't mean being weak.

Being a pushover with no backbone. Doesn't mean being a doormat. But it is a willingness to submit to God's will.

We see it in Abraham back in Genesis. Remember with Lot? Abraham said, basically, if you go to the left, I'll go to the right. You go to the right, I'll go to the left.

He wasn't pushing his own agenda. Of course, the ultimate example of all these things, the Lord, the master teacher, the ultimate example of all these things, said I'm meek and lowly in heart. And that wasn't boasting.

It was just the truth. Can we produce meekness ourselves? I know some people's personality might tend more to that than others. But meekness is a fruit of the Spirit.

We read about that in Galatians 5. You know, there's many verses in the New Testament that teach that meekness should characterize you and me. So, does it? Would you say that you're meek? Do others think that you're meek? I don't know if you ever met John Norris. He's home with the Lord now.

He's the editor of Truth and Tidings before Norman Crawford. I had the privilege of being at his funeral up in Sault Ste. Marie many years ago, Sault Ste.

Marie, Ontario. Norman Crawford took the funeral, and his text was, The Meekness and Gentleness of Christ. That was John Norris.

I don't think I'm too much like that. Something just happened recently to reinforce that in my thinking. Last fall, our neighbors, it sort of sits kitty-corner between us, our house, and their house, and there's a bunch of trees in the middle, and we don't see them much, but I knew they were putting in an in-ground pool, and it was no small thing.

It was quite the deal. Fine, they want to have a pool. No problem.

My wife was out in the garden. She was born on a farm, and you can't keep her out of the dirt. She was out there, and the man, the neighbor, started talking to her, and he was concerned about trees that are on our property, but some big branches.

I mean, we have some huge trees. They were hanging over his pool, and he didn't like that. So my wife told me, Well, you know what my first instinct? Great, he spends all this money for this pool, and now he wants me to spend all this money and cut these trees down.

Well, I told my wife I'd pray about it. She said, What are we going to do? She went online and found out. I didn't know this, but we'd be liable.

Even though the trees were over his property, since the trunk of the tree is on our property, if one of those huge branches fell down, we'd be liable. And I found out. We had somebody to estimate how much it would cost.

It wasn't as bad as I thought. But I'm glad for my wife's example. I was furious when I first heard it.

Not too meek. I've got a lot to learn. Something else.

This is like true confession here, I guess. My wife says that driving brings out the worst in me. She hasn't said it for a while, but she probably thinks it.

And what I'm talking about, and I think the men will know what I mean. You're driving along at a good rate of speed. There's nobody behind you.

Somebody pulls right out in front of you, going about 30 miles slower than you. You know what I feel like doing? And what I often do, I come as close as I can. I feel like giving them a bump.

Just, what are you doing? Not too meek. Not too meek. But the Lord says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

What does the world say? Go for the gusto. Grab all you can, while you can. Whatever way you can.

Even if it's at the expense of others. They say you'll never get anywhere. It's survival of the fittest.

What does the Lord say? Our Savior has been appointed heir of all things. We're joint heirs with Christ. We're going to reign with Him.

Now, I know people have different ideas on future events, and I'm no expert on future events. And it says they shall inherit the earth. I'll be surprised if in the millennium, in the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus, if we're not here on earth.

Now, I know some think we're going to be in a satellite city, and I'm not being dogmatic at all. But blessed are the meek. Brother, sister, the best is yet to come.

We don't have to fight for every inch of whatever. For some people, the only paradise they'll ever know is in this world. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

It's possible to hunger and thirst for many things. Pleasure, money, fame, power, praise of man. And the Lord talks about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

Matthew 6. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. When I was first saved, I didn't know that you could get printed text. And I didn't know about that.

So, I think this is the first verse that I ever wrote on an 8 1⁄2 by 11 piece of paper and taped it to my wall. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. God is talking about here, the Lord is talking about a hungering and thirsting for conformity to the will of God.

Don't we have a desire for this? Lord, what do you want me to do? It's a hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Now, I believe we had that when we were saved. Paul could speak about not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.

We wanted to be right with God, but this is likely talking about a practical righteousness. So again, it brings us back to the word of God to find out what God considers righteous. Because the world often thinks that wrong things are righteousness, whether it's immorality, abortion, gay rights, gender fluidity.

But God tells us in His word, what is righteous. He says, Many of us have found out that the ways of the world don't satisfy. We read about the prodigal.

He came up empty, tried the world. And young people, maybe you don't think we know what we're talking about, some of us who have been there. Listen, the world does not satisfy.

You can try it, thousands do, but it's going to leave you empty, just like the prodigal in the Gospel of Luke there. The Lord's talking about how to find satisfaction. The Lord Jesus says, I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst. There's a coming day when the Lord's going to reign in righteousness.

And we're going to be satisfied. Brother John, what time is this meeting supposed to end? I'm sorry, I should have... 22? Okay. Okay.

Are you still with me? Verse 7. I'm not sure we're going to get all through all of these. We'll just see what happens here. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

What's mercy? I would suggest it's compassion and kindness for those who are in need or in distress. What's the difference then between grace and mercy? I don't know if you ever met Jim Valance, a respected elder and teacher in Stark Road Assembly in Detroit. Actually, the father of Dr. David Valance.

This is what he said. Grace has to do with guilt. Mercy has to do with misery.

Grace. God overlooks our guilt because of the death of Christ and gives us a free pardon. Mercy has to do with misery.

The Lord saw us in all our darkness and he came down and rescued us. Now, maybe I should say something here. It's often said that grace is getting what we don't deserve.

That is salvation. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. That is judgment.

Now, this may be a catchy way of remembering this, but I don't think mercy means not getting what we deserve. You say, why do you say that? Luke chapter 10, the story of what we call the Good Samaritan. You know, the man asked, who is my neighbor? And the Lord Jesus tells him the story about the Samaritan taking care of the man who was on the road there.

But notice at the end, the Lord said, so which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And the man said, he who showed mercy on him. It wasn't a case of withholding what the man deserved. The Samaritan showed him kindness and compassion.

In Mark chapter 10, Bartimaeus, we looked at it last night, cried out, Son of David, have mercy on me. He wasn't looking for Christ to withhold something. He was looking for Christ to help him.

What's my attitude toward those in need? So easy to be critical. But often we don't know what people are really going through and what causes them to do what they do. Again, I'm thankful for my wife.

A lot of times, I've seen it. I can't understand why somebody's doing something. I'm thinking, you know, they made their bed.

They need to lie in it, but she's got a softer heart than I do. And she's merciful to people. And I should show mercy, because God's been so merciful to me.

And hasn't he been to you? I'm showing my age now, but many years ago, we used to sing from the country and western gospel hymnal. Was that the name of it? But there was a song there by Dottie Rambo. He looked beyond my faults and saw my need.

That's what the Lord did for you and me. And he wants us to do that with other people. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

More could be said about that, but let me look at verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Pure in heart. Problem it is, problem is that our hearts are not naturally pure.

David said, create in me a clean heart, O God. And as I said before, I'm thankful that we can confess our sin and we can be cleansed from all unrighteousness. You know, purity is generally scorned by the world.

They think it's something for a bygone age when people didn't have any fun. But it said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You know, if we want the Lord to reveal himself to us, there needs to be purity of heart.

Because he is holy. Totally pure. I'm thankful that one day we're going to see God in a way we never have before.

The living God. The God of this universe. The God of heaven.

We're going to see him. Verse 9. And this is the last one. Second to last one.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Peacemakers. The Lord Jesus, the greatest peacemaker.

He made peace through the blood of his cross. But we can help in the spread of the gospel so that others can come into this peace. But shouldn't we be a peacemaker in every area of our lives? In our families? Am I a peacemaker? In the assembly? At work or school? With our neighbors? I was telling you about the neighbor with the tree.

You know, apart from my wife's intervention and the intervention of the Lord, I might have had a wrong response to that man. And the trouble is, last summer we had gospel tent meetings and I talked to him. I gave him an invitation.

I could have blown everything. Blessed are the peacemakers. Romans 12 said, If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men.

Years ago, there was a man in an assembly who was not a peacemaker. When he was there, whether it was in a meeting or even after, the tension level was way up. He never knew what he was going to say.

He would fly at you. He would say things. And he had his idea of what was righteous.

And if you didn't measure up to that, then he had it in for you. Not a peacemaker. When I think of peacemakers, I don't know if you knew Louis Smith from Jackson, Michigan.

Went home to be with the Lord a few years ago. Louis was a peacemaker. I know of two assemblies.

There was a great difficulty between them. There wasn't much come and go. And Louis spent time, because he knew both situations.

And God used Louis to cause those assemblies to once again be at peace. Blessed are the peacemakers. The Lord doesn't say, blessed are the troublemakers.

We can be a troublemaker. We can stir the pot. We can push buttons.

For they shall be called sons of God. Why is that? God wants us to display his character. A father wants his children to get along.

But let me close with this last one. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Interesting that verse 3, where this started, we get this expression, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

At the very end of the Beatitudes here, we get for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Is. And the ones in between are all future.

Shall. But, be that as it may, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. We can expect persecution that happened to the Lord Jesus.

And people hate a righteous life because it exposes their own. Like kids in school. Somebody tries to behave themselves or study for tests and do well.

It makes those who don't do that look bad. But sometimes we experience persecution because of our own foolishness. When I was first saved, I started teaching school there in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Inner city school. There was persecution, but a lot of it was because I had just been saved. And I was trying to live for the Lord, but never read the Bible before and made a lot of foolish mistakes.

But this is being persecuted for righteousness' sake. And later on, in verse 10, he says for, well, somewhere it says, for my sake. You know, persecution is not just physical.

It includes things people say. But how we respond to persecution can be a great testimony. Seem to be speaking a lot about my wife, but she gets this magazine called Voice of the Martyrs.

I don't know if you've ever seen it. Comes out every month or two. I don't read it all the time, but I read it sometime.

And it talks about believers in other parts of the world, in Muslim countries, communist countries, and some of these things that these people go through. Incredible. Incredible.

And many in conditions of poverty. Great hardships, but living for the Lord and suffering for it. But even in this country, while we may not get eggs and tomatoes thrown at us like they did in one day, it's the cold shoulder of the world.

We just don't fit in. We're like square pegs in a round hole. Now, there's no virtue in just being weird.

But God expects us to be different, not to live like the world lives. We're to be a testimony for Him. So, here in the Beatitudes, we're told about character that doesn't seem too desirable now.

I mean, we read about poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the persecuted. But these are promises that include the highest possible blessing. Maybe this is one reason the Lord gives us the Beatitudes.

He wants the best for us. The highest blessing. Blessing that's eternal, that'll last forever.

The Beatitudes describe what God is looking for in you and me. God weighs. It's God's ways for His people.

Now, let's pray. I'm sorry, we're not going to pray. Okay.

Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus for His teaching that is so different from this world that we live in. And Lord, you know the struggles we all face living in a world that is in opposition to you and to the Lord Jesus and to your word. We thank you for every believer in every place.

And we ask that you would help us to be the salt and light that this world needs. Continue to guide us, Lord. Leave us not to ourselves.

We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.