Matthew 5:1-16a

Before we open the chapter, let's speak to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we quiet ourselves in thy presence today to give thanks again for the privilege to be gathered around the Holy Scriptures. And our Father, as we've come to open this chapter, we pray that the Spirit of God would have his way and that our thoughts would be guided by him, and this would be a time that every single soul in this little room would be fed and even filled by thy holy teaching.

Our Father, we need food for growth, we need food for strength, and so our Father, we look to thee to meet this need in a very real and a very special way. Thou dost know the times in which we live where sin is so rampant and abounding and blatant and offensive in thy sight. And our Father, we, as thy people, we become tuned out to it as it were, and it doesn't grieve us like it should.

And our Father, we pray that this would be a day that we would be fed and restored even to the freshness of our salvation and the beauties of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so our Father, we ask these things now not for our own glory, but for his glory and for the benefit of we thy people as we ask in the Savior's worthy and precious name. Amen.

We'll read Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, and there are outlines available if anyone needs them. You may not go by them, but at least it's something to keep us on the track if we get sidetracked. Matthew chapter 5, verse 1. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirits, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after 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 children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted. It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. The Lord will bless us and redeem His Word. I'm not much of a carpenter.

I'm not going to build much of a porch today. There's a lot of different minds here with different appreciations of these Scriptures. But I would like to say this.

What has spoke to me in this chapter, in the study of this chapter, is particularly verse 13. And I think it applies to the whole chapter, so I'm going to mention it now in the introduction. If the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? And we'll get to this more deeply when we get to it.

But the whole idea... I've often been confused about the salt, and it seems as though the Spirit of God never says what it was used for. We can use our imagination of the preservative and all the things that we'll talk about later. But the whole point is the freshness.

The salt has lost its freshness, and it's no good. Whether it's for the salting of the food or for healing of the wound, it's lost its freshness. And as we go through this chapter, remind ourselves this.

When we come to the poor in spirit, the freshness in our own soul about the poor in spirit. This is the ideal of the kingdom, the ideal living. We're going to talk about the poor in spirit.

How about those that mourn for sin? If we have a fresh mourning for sin in our life, how about the freshness of our meekness? Is there a fresh hunger and thirst for righteousness in us? Is there a fresh mercy? Is there a fresh pure heart? Is there fresh peacemakers? The freshness. Because it really isn't that what happens to us, brethren. We're saved a while, and we lose our freshness.

We go through the motions, we go through the activities of assembly life, our daily devotions, and we've lost the freshness. So I hope we get a little bit of that back today. And you'll see on your outline, there's on the far right, there's a column that's left empty as Christ is our example.

I left that empty on purpose because I want thoughts from everybody here, the brethren audibly, as we go through this and we consider these attributes, to consider the Lord Jesus, and as we leave today, have a fresh appreciation of Him. So that's my introduction, and we'll get started. So we're going to look at the setting, first of all, where this is taking place in the whole big scheme of things.

Actually, the context starts clear back in chapter 4, in verse 23. Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in the synagogues, and as He proceeds, the following, the multitude of people gets greater and greater. And we come finally to verse 1 of chapter 5. He sees the multitudes.

He went up into a mountain, and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him. Now this mountain, according to the archaeologist, is near a town that's now called Telhum. It was the ancient site of Capernaum.

But anyways, so why, my question is this, why is He going up into the mountain? Would it be because He's talking about the kingdom of heaven, so typically He would be elevated to that position? Could be. I think we have other occasions when He went to the mountain to separate Himself from the multitude. That's what strikes me here.

He was getting so busy, so congested, He went away, away from them, and it seems that His disciples, first of all, I think, as you perhaps can see, that the majority of the teaching in this sermon on the Mount of Olives is for the disciples. It's not a gospel message until you get into the middle half or the last half of chapter 7. And we find so often when He was just taking up the Pyramid of Mark, He said to the disciples, come apart the rest of the while. When the people saw Him going away, by the time He got to the other side, the people were already there, so people seemed to gather away.

So then, is this, in the beginning of this sermon, so to call it, are the multitudes with Him, or is He alone here with His disciples? I would take it it's His disciples, just because that's how the Spirit of God points it out. His disciples came up, He came and He opened His mouth and He called His disciples. I don't think He isolated Himself from the multitudes, specifically to His disciples.

When you get to 13 and 14, He wouldn't be saying that to the masses. Right. He says there, in another passage, that to them it was given to know about the Kingdom, but to the others it was hidden.

So He's speaking here about the Kingdom, so I would take it it'd primarily to His disciples at this point. When we speak of mountains to His scripture, I think many times, there's many things that mountain can mean, but oftentimes it's a place of revelation, a mountain transfiguration, so I think He's revealing truths to His disciples here, His followers. I just like the thought, especially there, when He was said His disciples came up again, they were attracted to Him, He was like the Lord in the midst.

That expression is used most of the time in Matthew's gospel, came unto Him. I looked it up, that is a characteristic of Matthew, the approach to the King. In Mark it's only used four times of people coming to Jesus.

In Luke it's used seven times of people coming to Jesus. In John it's not used at all, it's used the person coming to Simon Peter. But in Matthew it's used at least 37 or 39 times of people coming.

Some that came to the disciples, but there's at least 24 different groups, or different people that came to Jesus in Mark, in Matthew's gospel. So it's a characteristic of Matthew of the approachability of the King. Remember Esther, she couldn't approach the King.

Not without, you know, she said, if I perish, I perish. But here's a different kind of King, and He is one that's approachable, and He wants to be approached, and He is in a place of authority on the mountain. There are probably about 10 mountain scenes in Matthew's gospel, and this is the second one.

The first one was in chapter 4 with the devil taking them to an exceeding high mountain. Here's the southern mountain, and the last mountain is, he's on a mountain going backwards, and there's Mount Calvary, and there's six others up there. But the point is, is the approachability of the King, that's what I'm getting to.

In the place of authority, again, He's approachable. If you were speaking to the multitudes, you would have been speaking the way of salvation, and here you're speaking the way of righteous living. Well, this third mountain goes through chapter 7, and at the end there, in chapter 7, 28, it says, And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that people were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

I would think He went up into a mountain, and certainly He was mainly speaking to His disciples, but there were maybe a few scattered that were close enough to hear what He was teaching, because there wouldn't have been room in the mountain for Him. The multitude. That word that was read, the people were astonished, that is the same word for multitude.

So, that's why I say, by the end of His discussion, and some have suggested that this sermon on the Mount may actually just be the condensed notes of perhaps more than a day's worth of teaching, and in that time others would come. I think we can agree, as you pointed out, that the character of His teaching at the beginning here is for the disciples. You probably could contrast this, I don't know if you were going to go there, Brandon, but there are some similarities with the giving of the law, but some very contrasted, and brought out by the approachability of Christ.

It was a place of thunderings and lightnings, and keep your distance. And Moses was just a servant, and here it's the King, Matthew chapter 1, is called Emmanuel, which is God with us. The King in their presence sits down, and they're coming to Him, so it's a thought of approachability.

But it's the issuing in, not of a new law, that will be for the next batch of readings, but the announcement of the lawgiver, the true lawgiver, and it's a far different scene. It's a characteristic of this gospel as well, that David, the son of David, the son of Abraham, David's the first human being named in this gospel, because he's a shepherd king. And the shepherd king was with, I'm thinking of 1 Samuel 16, of David was with a sheep, and he had a sheep around him.

Four times it's mentioned in 1 Samuel 16 and 17 that the sheep were involved. And here the Lord, as He is, His credentials, or the genealogy is given Matthew 1 as the right to be the King. And now He's been proven to be holy in a place of worthiness as a King.

The devil couldn't find anything wrong with Him. And now He's coming out with the constitution of the kingdom. This is how my kingdom is going to be.

And it's in a sense a welcoming kingdom, because it's with people. But His first interest is with the sheep, just like David was. And so here's a shepherd king, and he's dealing with these sheep.

First of all, His disciples, and I agree with Brother Ken, that by the end of this discourse, there are people who are listening, and they're just enthralled with His words. They're just taken up with, this is beautiful. And they're drawn to Him.

Like the blessing that came to other nations through the kindness of David. The blessings that will come to a multitude through the kindness and the care of our Lord Jesus. So is that, I'm going to labor my point here, the approachability of the King.

How fresh is that to us? Really. We pray. Maybe we just say vain repetitions because we pray the same thing every day.

I don't know. But how fresh is the blessing that we approach the King? Just think about that. So verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Most Greek dictionaries would say that blessed means happy. I found one that went a little bit further, and it said fully satisfied. And I like that better.

Fully satisfied. We've got several times here in these next few verses, and we're going to learn what a person, where a person really finds true satisfaction. So fully satisfied are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It seems to be the opposite of proud. So it's humble and dependent. I wish to back up a little bit to a general application of these things.

What has been brought up? We have, right from verse one, we have evidence that this is the gospel of the King. And then we have the prophetic scriptures quoted again and again, showing that this is, Jesus was born in the right place, and all of the signs, all the scriptures were fulfilled, that this is the King. Then we have the proof that morally he is competent and fit to be the King.

So now the King is going to declare the characteristic of his kingdom. And if a Nebuchadnezzar or someone is going to do that, they're going to surround themselves with self-sufficient, proud, great people. And yet the King lists his subjects.

It makes me think of David and the whole group of people gathered here. Who was it? The rich, the mighty, the noble? It was the people who were in debt and distress, and people that had nothing to offer to him, as far as David's concerned. That's who the kingdom of heaven is made up of.

Maybe we should say now, rather than later, that these things here in the Constitution, this isn't how a person gets to heaven. We've got to be clear on that. This isn't a recipe on how a person gets into the kingdom of God.

These are the characteristics of people that are saved. The entrance into the kingdom is John chapter 3. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And so these aren't things that we do so that we get into the kingdom.

These are characteristics of those that are saved. And that's what I wanted to, when I said about the freshness, all of us that have been saved have been to this place where we were poor in spirit. One dictionary said it helpless.

Nothing that we could do to save ourselves. Completely bankrupt. Needing some help from some other source in which we found full satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So just to emphasize that. This isn't good living gets us to heaven. It's the blood of Christ and faith in him that is the entrance into the kingdom.

You mentioned the kingdom of God. This is the kingdom of heaven here. How do you define the kingdom of heaven? Most places it's interchangeable.

Uh, in my thinking, I think of who is ruling. And we know that the heavens as far as the stars and things like that don't rule. But God, it involves heaven.

And so in my mind, it's synonymous for the most part. It isn't 100% that way. But in here, the kingdom, I think for our discussion, the kingdom of heaven is only mentioned in Matthew.

And the kingdom of God is mentioned other places. I think for our discussion today, it's one of the same. Matthew uses the kingdom of God in, for example, chapter 6, verse 33.

I think there's five times he uses the expression, the kingdom of God, or 5.33, but 6.1 is the kingdom of God. I like what one author put it. In the Gleaves of Daniel, there's the expression, the kingdom of the God of heaven.

So you can either call that the kingdom of God, or you can call that the kingdom of heaven. I like to think, and I'm just throwing this out as a possibility, you can think about it. Books have been written on the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven.

We're not going to spend all day, because when you're all said and done, I think Brandon said right, for our purposes, we don't need to make a distinction. But there is no question that Matthew has a Jewish flavor to it. It should have.

I mean, you're just coming out of the Old Testament. If you read your Bible consecutively, you're coming out of the Old Testament, all the promises of the kingdom and the glory that is to Israel. And what do you expect when the Messiah comes? You'd expect a continuation of that.

And that's what you have, but they didn't receive it. But they were occupied with an earthly kingdom. And it just seems to me that it's very fitting that Matthew should emphasize that this is a heavenly kingdom.

The Jews believed in God. They had no question about God. The kingdom was the kingdom of God.

But what they needed to be reminded of in this teaching here will remind us that it's heavenly principles that govern this kingdom. It's not... Something that helped me a long time ago was when it says the kingdom of heaven is the sphere of which these features rule. When it's the kingdom of God, the emphasis is on the one who is doing the ruling.

So it relates us with him. And the other relates us with the sphere in which he rules. So yeah, they're one and the same.

How are you going to change it? He's the one who made the heavens. It's the sphere in which he rules, or the emphasis on the sphere who's doing the ruling. The one who's doing the ruling.

And I don't think... I can't spend the rest of the day on this. And it's a no problem. But an incremental point for clarification too.

The kingdom of heaven, my question is, would that include the earth? Yeah, yeah, it would. Just for clarity. The spirit, blessed are the poor in spirit.

The spirit links us with God. It links us... That's our connection. And when we have a poverty-stricken attitude about ourself, who are we dependent on then? We're dependent on God.

And in the sphere in which he's going to rule, the characteristic of that sphere is dependence on him. Not dependence on a Gentile-dominated king. And that's why when John 19, when they say, we have no king but Caesar.

I just... I've often wondered how that just cut to the Lord's heart. Because here was a people that he wept over. And they say, we have no king but Caesar.

A Gentile man. And it just hurt me. Remind us in the scripture, except you repent and become as little children, we shall then no taste enter the kingdom of God.

That goes along with our thought. Become as little children, the thought of helplessness. And then he says, then theirs is.

Presently. Right now, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. There will be.

Theirs is right now. What's that? The resources of heaven are all theirs. Because why? Because we're dependent on the one whose heaven it is.

It's his. So when we depend on him, we're poor and scared. I can't do anything of my own.

I trust him. He's going to have to deal with this. He's going to bring it all.

All the resources of heaven is that individual's. Now is that just for Jewish people? No, it's for us too. Brother Jim, looks like he had something to say.

I was wondering, on the Sermon on the Mount, is there any of the teaching that the Lord Jesus gave that stands in contradiction to the apostle's doctrine and what we are to adhere to today as Christians gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus? Or is there one of the same in its functional purposes? There's a lot of different scriptures. I got several of them listed here, especially in James. It's almost a repeat.

A lot of places of this, these first 16 verses. So I would say there's no contradiction. The reason I say that is some people will be very staunch and they will see the teachings that we find as to the king and the kingdom.

They want to look at that and get truth relative to the assembly. This pertains to his kingdom, and they kind of leave the assembly out, and there's some very distinct teachings that we believe belong to us today. So this is not just necessarily in the wide view to God's kingdom, but it's very applicable to the assembly.

They want to take Matthew 18 and 20 and say that's for us, but other parts of some other teachings in this particular gospel, they want to denounce and say it's Jewish flavor and it's just for the kingdom as if the truth of the assembly has nothing to do with the kingdom. And I believe that fits right into the overall view of the kingdom of God. So the one that is ruling in the kingdom is also ruling in the assembly? I would think so.

Isn't that the assembly in the kingdom? It's part of the overall view of the kingdom, I'm sure. I'm saying the assembly's in the kingdom. It's under the rule of God.

The assembly, I hate to say it's a microcosm, but it is in the local assembly today. It's what God intends and will have this world see in the coming times. So as he's seeing all the principles of an assembly function now, it's as though he's saying this is going to be expanded in the millennium.

So then what you're saying then is when the kingdom is manifested, that's what you're going to have. So now the kingdom is in mystery form, spiritual form, and when the king comes on earth to reign, what's the difference there? Can you explain that for us? It's going to be, say, mystery form, yet we see it, but the others don't. It's going to be on display universally.

Now it's on display. Angels look in. We who are in the assembly are learning of it.

But God is saying, I'm going to take something that he sees so beautiful that's in a local capacity. He says, I'm going to make those principles, dealing with headship, lordship, all that features the authority of the spirit of God, his presidency, all the features of a local assembly. He says, I'm going to make that on display universally.

So angels and men and kings and people, all nations of the earth are going to recognize what that little assembly there in Ontario did years ago. That's exactly what the whole world is talking about now. Just like we sing the songs of glory, the day is going to come when they're going to be singing the songs of glory all over the world.

Whose glory is going to be? Not the glory to some rap star. It's going to be the glory of God and the glory of the Lord. He's translating this into the kingdom of God, Colossians 1 and 14, and I don't know how far we can take a good quotation from a good man, but I know Mr. Maxwell already said, I'm not only an assembly man, but I'm a kingdom man, and I think it's God's value.

The same God who is over the kingdom is the same character that the assembly is all about. So how can we, how can we pull one and say, well, one's totally different. They have the same character.

God is the same. Well, I just, I just wanted to look at the veracity of this relationship with the assemblies today, and we profess to be Christians. These features should mark every, every assembly.

So we're, we're in spirit. Our dependency is on God. How are we going to, how are we going to fix the problems of a local assembly? We're going to hire wiser men to come in and have counselors come in and, and, uh, uh, all these advisors.

You know, we know that we're in God. It should be characteristic of every believer. Every believer, yeah.

And then the believers make up the assembly and it just gets bigger. So is that what we're seeing here in this passage is who is he actually addressing? Individuals. Can we say that? We're seeing individuals addressed here.

So the believers too, in the church, not necessarily church law. Characteristics we should see from individual believers, not, not church law necessarily. And the principles that we find in the, in the Sermon on the Mount will be developed in other teachings of the New Testament later on.

That's what, well, I won't get into that. It's a, it's in seed form. It's in germ, germ, uh, seed form or germ, germ form.

And then it's expanded in other places in relation to the spirit of God's taking a certain issue and expanding those. But it's all started here in the Sermon on the Mount. Something that's helping me understand the kingdom of heaven is that it's really the ethics and the tenor of heaven itself that God wants displayed on earth.

So we're looking at keys here to heaven's resources, really, if you come down to these verses six through, uh, 11. It's understood, though not directly stated, but blessed, blessed by whom? That's understood that it's God who blesses, and who has control to dispense the kingdom of heaven and all these other blessings that are accompanied, that accompany only God will meet all these needs. Only the king, the king and the kingdom.

That's the sovereign there in point number two. But, uh, so there's, is the kingdom of heaven. Paul already mentioned that it's a present possession.

That'd be a way to, to, uh, understand that. The word is, is, is present indicative. So it's something that's continually happening and it's a certainty that it is happening.

It's what kind of is right now. It's not future. It's present.

Present indicative. That's why I enjoy so much the definition of a fully satisfied, as far as blessing. When we display these characteristics and live in them, fully satisfied, a sister recently shared her idea of blessing with me.

It was the capacity to enjoy, and I really, I really like that definition of blessing. Capacity to enjoy. Well, I'm just kind of happy with the word happy.

Because if you go through here, the, it almost sounds contradictory. Happy are the poor in spirit, but it's not contradictory. So you pointed out, well, it's an understanding that I'm not sufficient in myself to, to, uh, do the things that I need to do.

I have all the resources of heaven to rely upon. So I can be happy in that, in that thought and knowing that it's, it's available. I went, when we went to school at college, we had a chant that says at football games, we had, we got pride.

We got pride. But it's so contradictory to this. But the, just, just go down through here and see how many worldlings out there would think this is the way to be happy.

Just read through these. Blessed are they that mourn. Happy are they that mourn.

Happy are the meek. They get trifled all over. I'm sorry.

I don't mean to go ahead. But anyway, I'm happy with that. But in verse three, we agreed that the poor in spirit, and that's a relation to God.

It's a relation toward Him. Because when we come to mourn, it's not toward God. It's, it's, we're seeing things that are going on that just cause us to hurt.

So it's out, in a sense, it's looking around and seeing all the injustices, all the unrighteousnesses. It's mourning for sin or over sin. So in a sense, it's toward, toward others, toward society, toward this.

Then we come in and the meek, there's an inward. That's the way I am. It's toward me, inside.

So, I mean, there's, there are different areas where these blessednesses totally are targeting. So it's targeting every area of our life. Maybe just one more definition of blessed.

I like to think of it as being in God's favor. Happy is also good. When I think of the word, that's generally my thought.

Just for those who like words, that word poor. I understand from the, those who know, there are three New Testament words for poor. And this is the one for utter destitution.

This is the lowest of the poor. It's the same word that's translated beggar in Luke 16. So this, this is real poverty.

It's not, it's not just less proud than the rest. This is utter destitution. So is there, as we go down through these, is there a progression? Is that one verse, the next verse building on the verse before it type of a progression? It seems like there's an understanding, at least in the person's thinking.

First of all, that I'm helpless. And then there's a realization of sin and the mourning over it. And it seems to be growth and a believer until you get down to being persecuted, till you get to that level of maturity.

Is that in my imagination? Or is there something to that? I think there likely is. I read one writer who developed that and did a good job of it. But he admitted himself to a lot of people didn't see that.

So I think we can enjoy it. Perhaps it's kind of like the fruit of the spirit in Galatians chapter five. It is the fruit of the spirit, not plural.

It's not like you get. I have this one, and you have that one, and so and so else has the other. Same way here.

Paul's not the one that's poor in spirit, and I'm the one that mourns. No, this is to be characteristic of each individual. All of these characteristics.

Well, I mentioned the spirit of God. If we look at chapters five, six, and seven as another Sinai, and we say, this is what I need to measure up to, to be a good Christian, we're going to put ourselves in Romans chapter seven. I don't know if it expands on the idea or not, but when we think of poor, maybe it's already been mentioned, but we need to think a little bit, I think, of empty.

Because when we mentioned pride, that's something that we look inward saying, well, this is me. And self-sufficiency, well, if we go to 2 Corinthians chapter three, I'll just read the verse for us. In verse five, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.

So again, I think when that individual comes to that realization that of himself is completely empty, and the only way they're going to find that sufficiency is of God, it does allow the individual to move into these next verses, because if a person really is self-sufficient on themselves, how do they come into the benefit or the blessings of the verses that are involved? And I guess you can see somewhat of a progression of this. Most people run out, because if we come to verse eight, we have a pure heart. Well, positionally, that's the same, right? And then you go on, and as we were walking before in our salvation, there's certainly persecution.

If we're living for Christ, you're going to find persecution in your life. And then you come to the salt of the earth, well, that's the condition, and then there will be a mission. The light of the world will go out.

And so there is a little bit of that, as you see there. What Norman brought out, just this one illustration of hundreds we can give, are the principles. In Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the period offer are brought out in the epistle.

The principles come back, right, to the words of the Lord Jesus. Paul speaks even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't quote a lot of them verbatim, but they're built on.

That's the point. There's a term that's used, progressive revelation, that God has given the initial seed of truth, and then later on, it's progressively unveiled or developed. It's called progressive revelation.

That's why after Matthew 1, 1, we don't close our Bible and say, well, that's all I need to know, because the rest of our Bible is important. It's developing truth that has gone before. Progressive revelation.

How can we identify the they? The they in here. They're they that are poor, they that mourn. This characteristic, does that apply to everyone or just individuals in that group? I would say it's real similar to the whosoever of John 3, 16.

The true subjects of the kingdom. You look at, you look at the Gentile kingdom, and you look at the kingdom of God, the kingdom of his son, and the Gentile kings have, Gentile kingdom have certain characteristics of their subjects. The Lord is saying, these are the characteristics of the ones that are subject to my kingdom.

They are poor in spirit. They mourn or lament. It's not that you go around with a sad face.

There's this inner strength to maintain righteousness in a world that is so unrighteous. So you treat people right, instead of taking advantage of them or do stuff that is just wrong. You treat them right.

So then how was our Lord Jesus Christ poor? These are characteristics of people in the kingdom. He is our example. Just to put the focus on him, he was never helpless, but he was always dependent upon God.

Would that be right to say? So he always depended upon God. He never did anything apart from his God. He humbled himself.

He rolled himself over onto earth. And when we come to the mourners, well, he wept over Jerusalem, and the people that rejected him. Can someone emphasize really what it means to mourn over sin? It's not only when we sin and it grieves us and we mourn over it, but the idea really is sin in general, isn't it? Sin everywhere.

And we look at the nation in which we live and all the sin that is being legalized and promoted. And some watch the sin on TV and the computer and the internet. And we become so desensitized to it, we don't mourn.

So that comes with our relationship and our communion. And in the dwelling Holy Spirit, if we're in good communion, we have a conscience that knows when we sin. And that conscience, we're aware of that.

I'm sure I'm speaking for everyone here. When we sin, we are ashamed or we turn to God. That's the idea.

And so we have a conscience. There's a pure conscience. We come to that first conscience.

So when we look at the conscience, and that's what tells us, hey, that was wrong, I feel bad about that. We turn to mourn, we grieve it. We realize we've done wrong, and we grieve this Holy Spirit.

We turn to God, we turn back to Him and to Him. So I think that's part of it is the conscience. So those that mourn... Go ahead.

No, I was just going to say being sad for the fact that we realized it. And it says that they shall be comforted. I looked that up.

It seemed to have the idea of they shall be called near. And that's beautiful. Called near to the king, to the side of the king.

That goes to the comfort of God in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 4. The things that we go through in life, God brings a consolation that comes right alongside. And that we're able to help others because we've been comforted of God. So the things that we go through are for a reason.

Yeah, Paul. Know what? Empathy has part of this thing. It's compassion.

And not only that, when you look at the word also, encouragement. Why would you come to Him, right? He wants you there. The thing is, we often look at the unrighteousness as all the vital things that you mentioned.

But what about pride? What about arrogancy? What about legality? What about just looking down our nose at people and say, I'm so much better than they are. I'm so much better. Now, which is worse? Watching pornography on the internet or having pride in your heart? Which is worse? Sin is sin.

Sin is sin. Proverbs 6, 17. Six things that our Lord hate.

The 16 that is. Day seven are an abomination to Him. The first on the list is a proud look.

It doesn't say the adulteress or the adulterer or the vile person. It says a proud look. And we talk about freshness.

Did the Lord Jesus ever look down His nose at an individual who was truly in need? No. The Pharisees wouldn't talk to the woman in John 8. They wanted to kill her. But the Lord did.

The Lord talked to her. See, and that tells me a lot. Am I too proud to talk to someone who is so unlike what I believe? I think the morning, there's a contrast coming up in my mind.

The morning is really an internal function. It's a contrite heart. Where meekness, not to contradict what's been said earlier, but meekness, I think, is a visual awareness of another person.

It's a result of a person who is a teachable spirit, who is subject. I think it's more of a visible thing. See, along with that, there's more than one.

It's an internal thing. And when we've gotten a good look at ourselves for salvation, for sin salvation, it should keep us humble, realize the Apostle would say, if you knew what that is, you'd say, in my flesh, well, what do you think? So what we are, we are by the grace of God, which I finished the thought I had before, as far as, these are not rules that we are to accomplish in the flesh. This is anticipated that believers are going to be in the wealth of the Spirit of God.

Otherwise, this is not another repetition of the law, only making it, breaking it down, not just tighter. No, this is something that we should be like, like the Israelites should have been. We should have said, oh, this is, I can't, I can't do this.

This is too difficult for me. But by the grace of God, by the Spirit of God, we can. We want to, that's what we'll find in verse 6 there, I suppose, we want to.

Blessed are the meek, verse 5, for they shall inherit the earth. The definition of meek that I enjoyed the most was someone who sees themselves as they really are. And if we see ourselves as just a sinner saved by grace, that's, that's all we are.

If we got what we deserved, we'd be separated from God forever. Fully satisfied are those that see themselves for who they really are. Satisfied in Him.

This word meek, as you all know, is only used, I think, three times. The other is Matthew 21, verse 5, and you talk about the king, well, Christ, this is, this is who He is. The king cometh unto the meek, and right upon the cold, full dams.

So here's the king coming in in the meekness. And then the other time it's mentioned, it's 1 Peter 3, verse 4, that they put on a meek, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God, a great, great price. So is meekness being tread upon? Is that the, is, is meekness, maybe I missed it.

What is the definition of meekness? I know you just, just mentioned something. Is meekness being a doormat? Is that, I'm willing to be your doormat. Is that meekness? Power under control is a simple definition.

So I have the power to act out of something, but because of whatever order this is involved, or subjection, then I'm under, is power under control. So I have the ability, as power under control, to turn my case over to God, and let Him deal with things. I'm not going to take it into my own hands.

Why? Because I'm poor in spirit. I have no ability. And so here we are, we're, we're, let God take control.

And the Lord Jesus did that. First Peter chapter 2, when He was reviled, He reviled not again. But what did He do? He committed Himself to Him that judges righteously.

He says, I'm going to turn my case over to God, to the Father. God will take care of it. And He allowed all the, all the, just the garbage to happen to Him.

That's just terrible. But He allowed that. And that is meekness.

Meekness is not a thing or a put-on facade of lowliness. The meekest man, apart from our Lord Jesus, was Moses. And this is what he says at the end of his life.

I found it interesting. It's in chapter 33 of Deuteronomy. He is saying this.

The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he's attributing everything in his life that he had the privilege to do. He's attributing it to God and not himself.

So, it's self-taken out of the thing. You know, sometimes you can hardly talk with one to be a very important. People know what we think of ourselves and that is maybe something special when we think of ourselves.

That has nothing to do with meekness. Here's Moses and he is attributing everything to God in his life. And he's not looking for any praise for himself.

You know, he could have said at the end of there, he says, don't you know all that I have done for the children of Israel? That is not in the context at all. It's all about looking the other way and giving God credit and keeping yourself out. David's behavior towards Saul before he was taken to the throne was in a meek spirit.

And even when he took the hem of his garment with a knife, he actually felt remorse for that because it was God's man and he was going to leave it in God's time. The Lord Jesus in the garden when Peter took Malchus' ear off, he said, don't you know I could call twelve legions of angels more than that? And he didn't. So he had power and authority but didn't use it.

It's also one of the ninefold manifestations of the fruit of the spirit. So it should be characteristic. We move again from here to the New Testament epistles.

Chapter 11, the Lord Jesus said, I am meek and lowly in heart. It's a very closely related word for me because it's the same thought. The Lord Jesus is the example.

I am meek and lowly in heart. If he was meek, he certainly ought to be lowly in heart. I think he said, if my kingdom were of this world, I would fight.

So it's like when you've been harmed or wronged, you don't take the initiative to defend yourself. You just leave it in the hands of God. And you're not one to retaliate because you know that's not your place.

I think the definition from the Greek helps a little bit with it. And this idea has been brought up by Brother Paul right here. The word is pros, which really describes a powerful stallion, broken and able to be ridden.

So it expands into the idea of usefulness because we take a look at Moses who was meek and what could he have claimed as his own. He could have claimed his position as Prince of Egypt. But how would that have fulfilled then to be of usefulness to his own people? Wouldn't you say on all of these examples, isn't the Lord saying what it's going to be like in his kingdom, the Millennial Kingdom, compared to how things are today? If we look at all of these, I'd say the majority of people would look at these things as weaknesses.

Well, Israel was the same way. The Jews were the same way. That's how they looked at these things.

They thought if they were poor, well, they were cursed by God. But God's saying he'll create his righteousness back in Isaiah 11. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.

And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and the breath of his lips, shall he slay the wicked. And I think that's the whole gist behind this, is how great and righteous his kingdom will be, because he will be the judge of it. He will be the head of it.

Compared to how things are today. Right. Everybody, like you say, everybody looks at these things as weakness.

But for us, our strength is made perfect in weakness, because we're all dependent upon him. As Brother Jim mentioned earlier, can you see the power of a local assembly if these features are seen in all of us? I thought as we go through the next chapter, we'll see a solution to all the problems that play us. And right here, we're dealing with a heart.

We're dealing with a root. That's why we just separated this section out a little further. This is the very foundation.

If we would make it our goal to be fresh in these things, all these bickerings and strifes and contentions and all those things, wouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't be an issue. If they are, as we're going to find later on, ways to solve those problems, it still takes these attitudes in order for those solutions to work.

As far as what Jaffa said, there's no doubt. We shouldn't. We should be balanced and fair to recognize that there will be a day when there will be the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven on earth.

No one has to mind. And I expect this. This will be the character.

This will not be laws to be lived up to. This will be the character when we go into it. There will be a generation who will be born, there will be several generations perhaps.

But these verses will have tremendous meaning to Israelites passing through great tribulation. We should be fair with that. This scripture, we can't hog it all and say, this is just for us now.

No, this is going to have perhaps far more literal and meaningful application than you have those who are persecuted in the great tribulation. And they will be looking. They shall inherit the earth.

They're going to be able, they can go back to the Old Testament. They'll be able to trace in the beginning, the end of the Old Testament, that truth that God is going to fulfill that. But in the meantime, we are in the kingdom.

He said, very present day. And so we are in the kingdom. And these principles are totally consistent.

God doesn't have different sets of rules for different sets of people. As far as inheriting the earth, our Lord Jesus is the heir of all things. And we're joined heirs to him.

So no problem. We don't have to throw out the whole chapter because of the person inheriting the earth. But if our hope is in heaven, no, we are going to inherit all things through Christ.

So blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Is this to be filled with this, is that a, it's, I shouldn't maybe word it that way. It's not that we're filled and we are satisfied, but yet in the same time, it's never enough.

And that makes any sense. We want more. And that's a good thing to use in the gospel, but that's not what we're referring to here.

We should all be of that attitude, hunger and thirst after righteousness, to fill, feed on the Word. Job has said, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Is that a song? Then I'm satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

So the fuller sense of being satisfied will perhaps come in the future. But to whatever capacity we are able to contain, the more we hunger and thirst, the more we're able to, he says, to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, is the same greatness. You can be filled with it, but you can't encompass the whole of it.

So the filling there is the idea of satisfaction. So satisfied in God's will. So there's some very powerful things in human life, is hunger and thirst.

And in that spiritual realm, it's hunger and thirsting after righteousness. So it's taking us beyond the physical into that which is spiritual or moral. And they will be satisfied in God's will.

Does that link us a little bit with Romans 12, 12-1, that we may approve what is that good and acceptable, perfect will of God? Here's an individual satisfied in God's will. According to his will, and you mentioned his will, Paul, and that's really what the idea of righteousness is. It's the conformity to God's will or to God's authority.

When we think of righteousness, and we can take it off in a little, we had a wonderful study of this last year, but righteousness is the conformity to the sovereign power and authority of God. So that's what we're seeking, and that's what we hunger after. That's the idea of, as food, we're always wanting more.

We're hungry and thirsty for it. There's always the idea of looking for that sustenance, I guess is the way to put it. And that is the righteousness, conforming to the will of God.

So where do we find this will? Where do we find this will? How do we get filled? Through the Word. Like Psalm 119, it's always taken up with the Word. Paul made reference to Romans 12, but the idea there really is to be exercised, to pursue after righteousness, to be acceptable to God.

And if we don't, if there's a neuter tense, there will be automatically conformed to this will, unless we are exercised. So to this particular thing, to pursue those things. Doesn't Paul say a similar thing in Philippians 3, when he speaks of, I won't read it all, but that he puts faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know Him and Him down further.

Verse 13, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things, which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things, which are before, I press toward the mark, the prize of high calling of God in Christ. So it's like, he's not satisfied with where he is, but he knows someday he'll make the mark. He's stretching himself out.

Right. So it's a different metaphor maybe, but it's the same thought. The Lord Jesus said that He had meat to eat that they knew not of, and it was His meat to do the will of the Father.

That's the idea. If we don't hunger and thirst, as it says here, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. There's no doubt it could be linked to where Brandon went in the very beginning, in verse 13, salt hath lost his staple.

That's exactly what happens. If we don't hunger, if we don't thirst, we won't be filled. We don't seek after the things of God, and we no longer want to go forth as men and women of God.

And the salt has lost its staple. If we're not really hungry, we're filled with something else. That's right.

You're seeking it now. A full soul loatheth honeycomb, but to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. And so, in my own life, is when I have a hard time getting into the book, it's because I filled it with something else.

So what am I feeding on? I've used the illustration many times. We used to get the Newsweek magazine in school, and we always had to read it because we had new stuff. But I tell you, it was the most depressing book, or depressing magazine.

It's like, oh, what do I have to do? Well, I didn't do the class. But it's like, I can't fill my soul on the Newsweek magazine. We have to get into our Bible.

We're too busy to pray. It's a good thing to be apprised of what's going on in the world. But we don't fill our soul in the spiritual realm in the books of this world.