Picture here of Jesus Christ preaching the great sermon on the mountain that we could apply to our lives and understand these great truths.
Such a great chapter, we can only scratch the tip of just the surface.
We can only just get the tip of the iceberg.
But Father, please reveal to us something that would help us to grow and be more like you and to be more zealous for you, dear God.
In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Now, we've been going through the book of Matthew, just a quick review.
Chapter one, we saw the genealogy of Joseph.
We saw the birth of Christ. Chapter two, we saw Jesus' early life being persecuted by Herod.
Then in chapter number three, John the Baptist came on the scene.
He preached a great sermon, and then he baptized Jesus at the end of that chapter.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, if you remember in chapter four, he was led up with the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
He fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He didn't eat any food. He drank nothing but just water.
For 40 days and 40 nights, he overcame those temptations from the devil by the Word of God.
And when he was through with that testing period, he left the wilderness, and he went to the seaside of Galilee,
and he chose some men there, Simon and Andrew, and then James and John.
He told them that they'd be fishers of men. He said, I'm going to teach you how to be a soul winner.
And he got them on board with him, and he gathered his disciples to him.
And then at the end of chapter four, he started preaching and going around to the synagogues.
He was preaching all over that area, all over that region, and he was healing every sick person that was brought to him.
All sick people, it says, he healed. And his fame went throughout all Syria, the Bible says,
and great multitudes of people followed him from beyond Jordan, from Jerusalem, to capitalist, and all these places that were listed.
Now, in chapter five, verse one, we're picking up right where we left off from there.
Jesus has these great multitudes following him. And the Bible says, in verse number one,
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.
Now, a lot of times we think of the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus preaching to this great multitude that was gathered.
But it seems to me that he preached to the multitudes, but when he saw these throngs of people, at this point he departs into a mountain.
And the Bible says his disciples came to him, into the mountain, to hear this great sermon.
And it says in verse number two,
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Now we're going to enter a section here that's called the Beatitudes, commonly.
You'll see this often on picture frames and greeting cards, and these are very famous portions of scripture here.
Great truths here, the Bible says,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You know, who's going to go to heaven but those that are poor in spirit?
You know, in order for somebody to go to heaven, they must be poor in spirit, and let me tell you why.
The people who are puffed up in their spirit, who think that they got it together,
they think that they're going to go to heaven because of their own merit,
they live some kind of a righteous life, they've turned away from something that they felt like was wrong,
and now they're living for God, and they think somehow that that's going to get them to heaven.
Now, that person's not poor in spirit, they're lifted up in their spirit.
They're saying, I am it spiritually, and God says, no, you're not.
You need to be converted and be like little children, you need to be poor in spirit,
you need to realize that you're a sinner, you need to realize that you have no way of getting to heaven,
except through the blood of Jesus Christ, and come to him as a little child with that childlike faith,
and say as the man that said at the temple, be merciful to me, a sinner.
And so that's what Jesus is saying here.
Then the second one here says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Now, the first one we can understand that, that makes sense.
He said, blessed are the poor in spirit, they're going to get saved because they understand their sinful condition.
But the second one here, blessed are they that mourn, why would it be a blessing to mourn?
Think about what mourning is. That's crying, that's weeping.
That's being in happiness, upset about something that's happened, something terrible that's happened.
Why would it be a blessing to mourn?
Boy, you think about somebody who's blessed, and you hear a lot of these preachers that will preach kind of a prosperity gospel,
where if you do what's right, and if you're reading your Bible, and if you're going to church,
boy, you're going to have money, you're going to have, your relationships are all going to work out great,
you're going to have good health, you're going to live to be 120 years old, and God is blessing you.
And they'll have a guy up on TV, and he's got gold rings across his finger,
he's got a big diamond stud right here in his tie, and he's wearing an Italian suit,
and he says, look at how God is blessing me.
But that's not what God is saying here. God is saying blessed are they that mourn.
He's saying blessed is the man who's had something happen to him terrible in life, and he's mourning about it.
Why? Why would it be a blessing to go through trials in this life?
Why would it be a blessing for me to go through something that would bring me to the point
where I'm to tears, where I'm mourning, and I'm weeping?
Why would that be a blessing? Well, the answer's right here. It says blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. See, the Holy Spirit of God, if you remember in John 14,
is called the comforter. The Holy Spirit, he could have called himself many different things,
but God chose to call him the comforter, because there's nothing more blessed
than to go through that sorrow and that heartache, and to have the Holy Spirit comfort you.
Turn, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 61. I want to show you a scripture here. Isaiah chapter 61.
You see, the people who go through life, while you're turning there, I'm going to explain.
The people who go through life without going through problems, the people who go through life
and it's just a bed of roses for them, the people who go through life without the heartaches
and the trials that would cause them to mourn, they are not happy.
Let's go find the most prosperous person in this world who's just living it up tonight,
they've got all the money they need, they've got everything they want, and like Solomon,
when he had everything he wanted, he looked, he said, I hated life.
That's what Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes. He said, whatever I saw, he said,
if I saw something, I wanted it, I just took it for myself. He said, I withheld not any pleasure from myself.
And he got to the end of it, he looked at it, and he saw the vanity of it,
he saw how empty it was to just get everything you want and to have everything on a silver platter.
And he said, everything the world has to offer is so empty, he says, therefore I hated life.
He wasn't blessed. You say, well, but I thought he had all the money, I thought he had all the power,
I thought he had all the fame and the esteem. No, he was not blessed. He hated life.
And so look at this in verse number 3, it says, to appoint unto them that mourn.
So we're talking about the same group of people that God's talking about, people who go through the hard times.
People who are in mourning, it says, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
You see, God says, I'm going to take the mourning, I'm going to take the hard times that I put you.
You say, God, why are you putting me through this hard time?
Because God says, that is the building material that I'm going to use,
I'm going to take your mourning and I'm going to turn it in to joy.
How? Well, look what it says here. It says, the oil of joy for mourning.
You know, the oil in the Bible is a symbol of the Holy Spirit as you look throughout the Bible.
And God says, you don't understand, when you go through the trial
and you're mourning and you're at your wits end, as the Bible says,
he says, I am going to give you the comfort of the Holy Spirit
and the joy that you're going to have from being comforted by the Holy Spirit,
the joy that you're going to have when you can go through a hard time,
when you can go through a trial and then, as it said here, you will be praising God
through that hard time and say, you know what, I don't care about my circumstances,
I'm saved, God loves me, I've got the Holy Spirit living inside of me,
I've got the Word of God. Praise the Lord, for he is good,
for his mercy endure forever. And boy, if you can go through a hard time
and just start praising God like that, you'll have more joy than the guy who has everything.
Come to him on a silver platter. If you can learn to go through that trial
and come out praising God. And it says, he's going to be glorified
and I can't help but notice in this verse at the end here, it says
that they might be called trees of righteousness. Well, the first thing I think of
when I see that verse is Proverbs 11 30. The fruit of the righteous
is a tree of life and he that win at souls is wise. He says the guy that's a soul winner,
he doesn't live the life of a bed of roses, he goes through hard times,
he goes through mourning where God puts him to the test, then God comforts him,
he comes out praising God and then he's more productive,
he's a fruitful tree that's turning all kinds of people to righteousness
and God says he's praising God, he's got joy and he's
righteous and I'm glorified and he has more joy in the long run.
You see, don't go through life trying to eliminate all your problems
and trying to get all your ducks in a row. Go through life saying, whatever God gives me,
it was a great day in my life when I realized this, I wake up in the morning
and whatever God puts on my plate, I'm going to eat it. And I mean that figuratively
the events of life that God sends my way, I'm just going to take it and I'm going to
praise God and whatever the circumstances are,
I just need to be praising God. And if I praise God, God's going to turn my mourning
into joy, he's going to comfort me. Now look back if you would at Matthew chapter 5 where we were.
I love these Beatitudes, this is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible,
in fact Matthew chapter 5, but it says, Blessed are they to mourn for they shall be
comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
Now what does it mean to be meek? Well I was studying through the Bible
and I like to get my definition of worth straight from the Bible, not just go to some
dictionary. Anybody can pick up a dictionary and look up a word, but I like to look
at what God uses this word and I noticed that he associated the word meek
with the word lowly and I saw kind of something
about humility here and meekness. And then as I was studying
this out, I found a passage in the Bible that talks in depth
about this exact thing, about the meek inheriting the earth. Turn if you would to Psalm 37
If you just open your Bible right to the center of the book of Psalms
Psalm 37, this is one of the greatest Psalms
I think, this is one of my very favorite Psalms, I'd love to read the whole Psalm right now
but if you would just turn to verse number 7 of Psalm 37
You see, what is meekness? Well
as you'll see in this passage I'm about to read and as you'll see
just throughout the Bible and as you'll see later on in chapter 5 if we get there tonight
toward the end of chapter 5, you'll see that meekness
is what Jesus talks about a little later where he says
somebody sues you with the law and they want to take away your coat, give them your cloak also
See, meekness is when you don't feel the need
to vindicate yourself on people who do you wrong. That's what meekness is
and that's what you're going to see right here in Psalm 37 verse 7
Rest in the Lord, it says here, and wait patiently
for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth
in his way, because of the man who bringeth
wicked devices to pass, cease from anger and forsake wrath
fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall
be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they
shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be
Ye thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be
But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight thyself
themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked ploddeth against the just
and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him
for he seeeth that his day is coming. You see, what God is saying
here, and I think the key here is in verse number 13, I'm sorry
verse number 12 where it says the wicked ploddeth against the just. What we're dealing with here
we're dealing with the wicked people of this world who rip you off. The wicked people of this world
who do you wrong. Now there are people who will slander
you with their words. They'll tell lies about you. They'll tell stories
about you. They'll try to drag your name in the mud. There are people who will rip you
off financially. We've all been there. We've all
been swindled financially if we've lived this life at all. And
there are people who will do you wrong. Now you can have this attitude of, well
if somebody is attacking me, I've got to vindicate myself.
I've got to defend myself. I've got to get back at this person
and they're going to be sorry and I'm going to show them
that's the opposite of meekness. Meekness is when you understand
this concept that the wicked's day is coming
vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. And when you understand
that the wicked's day is coming and that if you're righteous you're going to
inherit the earth. God's going to set up his kingdom on this earth someday for a thousand
years. You're on this earth for just seventy years
maybe eighty years. And so put up with a little wrong now he's
saying because God says I know what's going on. I know who's right and who's wrong.
You don't have to defend yourself. Great advice when somebody
slanders you and somebody says something bad about you, just ignore it.
If you live for God, defending yourself will become
a full time job if you think you have to defend yourself every time somebody attacks you.
Because the person who lives, the Bible says ye and all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
The Bible says you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. And so what happens
is we are going to be under attack. When we're on the battle line
when we get in the fight we're going to stir up some forces
of evil a little bit when we do that. If we step out from the crowd and we step out of
mediocrity and say I'm not just going to be the run of the mill soul winner
I'm going to be somebody who is a fruitful tree of life
I'm going to get many people saved. I'm going to live for God. I'm going to separate myself
from the world. Boy, the devil is going to point his guns at you.
And if you just say well I'm going to defend myself. I'm not going to let people talk bad
about me. Good night, this is going to become your full time job. You're going to become
unproductive and the devil has won the battle because he's got you all busy
trying to defend yourself. No, meekness is where you say
oh, you want to slap me on this cheek? Here's the other one. Hit me again.
I don't feel the need to defend myself because God knows
what's going on. Your day is coming and I'm going to inherit
the earth because I'm meek. Now, I was
reading this and just as I'm reading my Bible sometimes
my heart burns within me. Sometimes it burns with anger and I was reading this
passage here and this ties in because
it talks about anger in verse number 8. But I was reading verse number 7.
It says, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because
of him who prospereth in the way, because the man who bringeth wicked devices
to pass. I was thinking about the people in this world who prosper.
Who are successful financially and otherwise. Who bring wicked
devices to pass. You know what I was thinking about? For some reason this popped into my mind.
I don't know if the Holy Ghost has put this into my mind or if I just thought of this because
it's something that you hear about all the time. I was thinking about the abortionist.
I was thinking about the abortion doctor. I was thinking about the guy who drives his Mercedes Benz
to work every day. He gets out of the car and he butchers human life
for a living. He murders children for a living. He practices
infanticide on newborn and unborn children.
And I thought to myself, look at the wicked, ungodly man.
He's prospering. He's driving to his fancy house. He's driving his fancy car.
He's wearing his fancy clothes. And the truth of the matter is
we live in a day, we live in a country where there's no justice for this
kind of murder that's going on. The Bible says, who so shedeth man's blood?
By man shall his blood be shed. That's what God said as soon as
Noah got off the ark. He said, the earth's been filled with violence one time. I don't
want it to get filled with violence again, so I'm going to institute the death penalty for murder.
And he said, by man shall his blood be shed. He said,
I'm leaving it up to you, mankind, to execute criminals,
to execute murderers. But we're living in a day where justice
is not being executed in the United States of America
and so to the tune of 3,000 of these innocent human lives are taken
per day. That must enrage God. And I'll tell you
something. I'll make it clear right now. The doctor
who prospers, who is bringing wicked devices to pass
this ungodly murderer, black-hearted devil
should be taken out like a dog and shot. That's what
the Bible says. And so back then they picked up stones
and threw them at people until they were dead. But now what they do, they take those same stones
and they put them in a furnace and they melt them down and
they get the metal out of them and then they shape it into bullets and then they put the bullets in a gun
and they don't throw it anymore. They just pull the trigger and it gets thrown
by an explosion. But it's the same thing. It's the same
thing. And so God says he needs to be executed. But
should I go through life just angry, mad,
wrathful? You know, if you listen
to talk radio all day it'll do that to you. You turn on the talk radio and you just get
enraged just listening or even just watching the news can just get you mad.
But God says no, no. He says don't worry about it.
Don't fret about it. He says his day
is coming. See, that man is going to have a place in hell
reserved for him where he's going to be punished for every baby that he's ever
butchered. And God says his day is coming, but my friend
those of us who sit here and watch our nation destroyed
around us, those of us who suffer with the nation
because I'm telling you something. When one
member of the body of this nation hurts, we're all going to hurt.
It affects us. If God brings judgment on this nation
it's going to affect everybody. We're not going to live in prosperity when we're
thumbing our nose at the things of God, when we're condoning homosexuality
and abortion in this country. God's blessing is going to leave this country
all of us. All of us suffer. And so
we're here and we're being affected by it.
We're trying to raise our children in an ungodly nation, but I'm going to tell you something.
The day is coming, my friend, and it's not that far off
because this life is just like a vapor. It appears for a little time and vanishes away.
But there's a day coming, my friend, when Jesus Christ is going to
return to this earth. His feet are going to set down on the
Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives is going to split in two
and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced
him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so, amen. I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, and Jesus Christ
is going to set up his kingdom on this earth, and my friend, the meek
shall inherit the earth. And we are going to rule and reign with Christ
for a thousand years. Now I'd rather get in the
fight a little bit now and rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years
than to prosper with wicked devices now
and then face God as that ungodly man will face him, unless he gets
saved, of course, and his sins are blotted out. But
I'm telling you, I'd rather be in my shoes than the guy who's ripping me
off who's not saved. I'd rather be the meek who
says, I'll suffer some wrong now. Sure, hit me again. Sure, you want to take
my coat from me? You want to steal my money? Fine. But I don't, I'm not
going to make a full-time job of defending myself, I'm going to make a full-time job of serving God.
And of loving God. And so, let God handle it.
That's what meekness is. Simply, meekness is when you say
God will defend me. I don't have to defend myself. God will defend me.
That's what meekness is. Now meekness is not weakness.
Meekness is not being a sissy and letting
your kids walk all over you or something like that. If you're an authority
figure, you need to rule your house. But what I'm talking about is people out
in the world, people that are our peers who are trying to rip us off,
we can't always just be defending ourselves. We've got to say
I'm going to be meek. I'm going to let God defend me. I'm going to let God take care of it. I heard a
saying one time that said, there's a scoreboard in heaven and it always reads the right score.
So sometimes things on this earth don't look right.
They don't appear the way that they really are. But God knows who's right. God knows who
loves them. God knows who's living for him. But let's move on from that point to the next one here.
I want to get through these. Blessed are they which do hunger and
thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Boy, I love this one.
Blessed are they which do hunger. Now think about it.
Is hunger necessarily a positive thing?
Well, hunger is something that I would consider
almost discomfort if you're hungry. Now when you're full, you feel good.
But when you're hungry, something's lacking. You want something.
Man, I'm starving. I'm hungry. Now is that a comfortable feeling or an uncomfortable feeling?
It's a little bit uncomfortable. And a lot of these are a little bit paradoxical. They're not quite the way that they
seem. You say, blessed are they that are hungry? Well think about this for a second. Let me
use an illustration. Let's say I could serve you a meal right now.
And you could eat this meal one time. And you would never be hungry again.
Now is that something that you want? Well, maybe not.
Because isn't there a certain joy in having the
appetite of hunger and then fulfilling that appetite? I mean,
don't you love to eat? Now do you like to eat when you're full or do you like to eat when you're hungry?
Boy, the Bible says the full soul loathes at the honeycomb,
but to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. Boy, when you're hungry,
things just taste better. Whenever I know I'm
going to a good restaurant or I know what I'm doing, sometimes I'll skip a whole meal before that.
Just so that I can just fill up with this meal, just so I can be starving and
just enjoy and savor the flavor of every bite. And so God is saying
the Christian life is not this life where you fill up
and then, boy, you've just arrived. You are just it.
No, he says the Christian life is a cycle of being hungry
and thirsting for righteousness and then God
constantly filling that appetite. Well here's how I know that. Because he didn't
say, bless are they that hunger and thirst have righteousness, for they
shall be full. He said they shall be filled. See, that's a
verb that's on, they're filled and filled and filled. It's not, they're full. Full means
it's done. Filled means they're being filled. And so I want
to be hungry for righteousness and be filled. I want to be hungry
to get people saved and I want to go fulfill that appetite
and have people saved. And then what am I going to do? Well, I'm done. No,
I'm starting to get, man, I'm starting to get hungry again. It's been a couple of days. I'm ready to
go again. I'm hungry. I want to get people saved. I read my Bible
and I fill up on the truth
and God, it satisfies me when I read this.
But the next day I'm not satisfied anymore. The next day I'm hungry again. I need to get
this thing out and read it again. And see, that's what the Christian life is about.
Hungering and thirsting for righteousness and being filled. What are you hungry
for right now? Are you hungry for
this food? Are you hungry for the
appetites of alcohol? Are you hungry
to get the rock music on and fulfill that
appetite, get your fix of rock music? Are you hungry to
get your comedy from the television so you can laugh? Or
are you hungry for righteousness? Are you hungry for what God has to offer you? Because
if you're hungry for those other things, I'm telling you, you're not going to be filled. If you're hungry for money,
you're not going to be filled. If you're hungry, you're going to be empty.
See, the opposite of being filled is empty and that's the way Solomon felt.
He felt empty. He said it's vanity.
There's nothing there. It's not worth anything. And so when you hunger
and thirst for the things that are of God, it'll fill you up every time.
But don't be deceived because it's not going to fill you up long.
You're going to be hungry again and fill it up even more the next time.
But after that, the next one here, blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst. After Christ's, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy. Well, that one kind of is self-explanatory.
But if you show mercy to people, that's going to
determine...let me put it this way. How you treat other people,
I think that that has something to do with the way God's going to treat you. If you're very
merciful in your attitude toward other people and you are not
just quick to get angry with me, then maybe God's not
going to be as quick to get angry with you. But if you don't forgive others, they're
trespassers. You're asking God to be hard on you and maybe God's going to treat you
a little bit the way that you treat other people. And so if you want to obtain mercy from God,
show mercy to your fellow man. And God will say,
I'll show you some mercy. And I'm going to bless you because you're merciful,
and I'm going to be merciful to you. Oh, here's a great one.
Verse number 8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God. Boy, I love this one. And this is a whole sermon.
I preached on this, I believe about a month or two ago, I preached a sermon
to this effect on this verse here. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Now, it's not talking about physically seeing God.
God said, no man shall see my face and live. He said, no man hath seen God
at any time. We saw the only begotten Son of God, which was God in the flesh.
We saw that manifestation of God, but God is a spirit, God the Father,
and nobody's going to actually see God physically.
But what does it mean to see God? Well, I want to know
God. To me, seeing God is kind of like when somebody says,
man, I see it. I understand it. I know God.
One of my favorite passages, and I've preached this many times, but Philippians chapter 3,
that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death.
He said, my desire in life is to know God. Back up a few verses.
He says, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. Again, he's saying, all the things that were gained
in me I counted loss for Christ. He said, why? Why did I turn
my back on everything that I'd earned? Why did I turn my back on my
education and my degrees and my
accolades and my finances and my fame and my position?
Why did I turn my back on those things? Because I wanted to know
what Jesus Christ. Now you say, well, what's the big deal
about knowing Jesus Christ? Well,
you need to understand that knowing Jesus Christ
is the greatest pursuit in this life, is to know God.
To see God. To know Jesus Christ. You say, well,
I want, you might say, I want to see God. I want to see
God. I want to know God. How can I know God? Well,
very simple. Paul had to turn his back on some things
in order to know God, and God is saying here exactly what we have to do.
He says, you need to have a pure heart, and the more your heart
is pure, the more the haze is going to go away and you're going to be able to
see God. You're going to be able to understand this book. You're going to be able to see God.
Now let me ask you something. This theater
down here, is it so appealing that you'd rather see the R-rated video
down there than to see God? Can you compare what's playing
down at the theater down there? Can you compare what the world has to offer?
The Hollywood whoremongers and the idolatrous,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers down in
Hollywood, putting out the movie. Do you want to see what they want to show you?
Or do you want to see God? And God says,
if you're pure in heart, you'll see God. And boy, I'll tell you something,
those movies are cool, man, but not after you've seen God.
Those movies are cool. They're exciting. And boy, things are blowing up
and everybody looks so beautiful and everybody's pretty and handsome
and it's exciting and wow. But when you
see God, you'll say like Paul said, I count
it but dung. He said to me it's like dung
compared to the things of God. It's like trash. I can't even believe
that it ever meant anything to me because now I've seen God.
See, you can just
choose what you want to look at. You can look at the things that the world has to offer. You can look at all the
filthy billboards. You can look at the filthy magazine or you can see God.
You can look on the wine when it's red, when it's colored
into the cup and when it moves itself right. You can look at the alcoholic beverage like God
commanded you not to look at it. You say, is it right to drink alcohol? Well,
I don't care whether it's right to drink alcohol. God said don't even look at it.
Drink it? Are you kidding? He said don't look at it.
And so do you want to see booze or do you want to see God?
It's a choice. Then you say I want to see both. No, you can't do that because you've got to have a
pure heart. You've got to purify your heart. Every man that has this hope in him
purifies himself even if he is pure. And the more you purify yourself
the more you're going to see God. And the more joy you're going to have of seeing and
knowing God and everything else is going to seem pretty lame after you see God.
On to the next one here.
I'd love to just preach on that. But the next one says
blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
Now peacemakers here, the first thing I thought of was
a weapon. When I thought peacemaker I thought of a gun from the old west.
But it doesn't really say the peaceful. And a lot of
the peaceniks of this world will tell you that it's never right to fight. We need to just
have peace at any cost. Let's have peace among the
brethren. And what they mean is let's get along with every
denomination out there. Let's get along with the Charismatics
who believe he can be saved. Now I'm saved. Now I'm not. Now I'm saved. Now I'm not.
And let's get along with people who want to bring in other Bibles and they want to bring in a rock band.
Let's get along with everybody. And let's get along with Saddam Hussein. Let's get along
with Bin Laden. And if we would just, what was this thing about
this thing? My wife tells me the news. She keeps up the news better than I do somehow.
But this thing in Iran, they said, you know the Iranians
are building these nuclear bombs, right? And they're developing nuclear weapons.
And so the European Union said, we're going to buy you a power
plant. And then that way maybe you'll use all your
nuclear stuff to build, and you can just make power with it.
And so they said, maybe if they see just our kindness, because
we're giving them a free power plant, maybe they'll decide not to build a bomb
to blow Israel off the face of the earth. And maybe they won't want to nuke the world
anymore. And maybe they'll just want to hold hands with us.
And we can all just get along. We have world peace. That's ridiculous.
Those Iranians want to blow us up. They want to kill us all.
I mean, that's the truth. The guy says it. And they're like, you stop
that now. And the Iranian guy's like,
curse you in the name of Allah. We're going to destroy you. We hate you. And they say,
oh, but if we could just love him a little bit. Because I saw it on
Sesame Street when I was growing up. If you just love everybody and kind to everybody, it solves
everything. And like Barney and Friends, if I share, then that means care.
And then we'll all get along. And so, no, that's not what...
The peacemaker is the guy who takes that sucker and sends
him to his maker. That's the peacemaker. And sometimes a peacemaker
could be somebody who, you know, solves a problem
and brings peace between people. But sometimes a peacemaker might be somebody
who says, I'm going to go fight in World War II and
defeat Nazi Germany so that we can have peace in the world. That guy's making peace.
And so, that's what I thought of. But anyway,
the next one here, blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. And then here
God gets, it's interesting because so far we've been talking about everybody in the third person. Like, blessed
are they that this, blessed are they that this, blessed are they. And then
all of a sudden it gets personal. He says, blessed are you. Wow.
So now he's talking right at you now. 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 exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven.
For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Wow. He says, blessed are you when men shall
revile you. That's talking about somebody just
telling you, almost like cussing you out is the idea
that I get from that word just looking through in the Bible. Persecuting
you, harassing you, saying all manner
of evil against you falsely. I mean, what they're saying is not true. It's not like they're criticizing
you for some legitimate, and they're making things up. And saying it against you
for my sake. He says, rejoice, be exceeding glad, for so
persecuted they the prophets which were before you. He says, look, that's how you know you're on the right
team. When you're kidding, he says, rejoice and say, glory to God
I must be doing something right because people are attacking me
and I'm serving God and people are attacking me, I must be doing right. Because he says, they persecuted all the
prophets which were before you. They persecuted me. They called the master
of the house Beelzebub. He says, what do you think they're going to call you? They called
Jesus Christ Satan, literally. He says, what do you think they're going to call you that
you're going to call Jesus Christ? And so, again, this ties into
what we're talking about meekness. Just count it all joy, brethren
when people wrong you because God's going to bless you for it
and you can be rejoicing that God is going to reward you.
So that sums up the Beatitudes there. Kind of almost a little bit
paradoxical. They don't quite make sense unless there's a God, then they make sense.
But if there's no God, they wouldn't make any sense at all. That's why the world doesn't really understand some of these
concepts. Now, I'm going to skip down to the very end and show you something real quick just to tie in with that.
Look, if you would, at verse
number 43.
I'm going to go back, but I want to show you this verse that says,
Ye have heard that it had been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy.
But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for ye may give the sun to rise
even on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. And look at this,
it says, If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans
the same? And if ye salute your brethren, only what do ye more than others?
Do not even the publicans sow? And here's the key verse of the entire chapter.
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect. See, God is trying to show us a higher
standard, and you'll see this throughout this chapter, and I don't have time to preach the whole chapter, unfortunately.
But what God does here in this chapter, in the latter portion,
and this ties in with the Beatitudes, that's why I'm bringing it up now before I get to the other thing.
But he says here, I'm not come to destroy the law and the prophets.
He says, I'm not come to destroy, I'm come to fulfill. And he
says, this is what was preached in the Old Testament. These are the commandments that were in the Old Testament.
He says, let me take it up to another level.
Because, see, the Bible says, to whom much is given of him
shall much be required. Now, the people in the Old Testament, they didn't have the whole
66 books of the Bible. They didn't have the book of Revelation, where they
could read about Jesus coming back and how the meek are going to inherit the earth
and all this, and then see it all laid out. They didn't have this book right here.
And they didn't even have the Holy Ghost indwelling them, opening their eyes
to see some of the things that we see, because we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the
New Testament. And they didn't have everything that we have. And so
God, and here's a common misconception. People have this idea out in the world that
the God of the Old Testament was this mean God, and just
strict, and just hard nosed, and that is not true
at all. And they have this idea in the New Testament that he's just
just love one another, just if it doesn't bother you, whatever your conscience
tells you, just go with it. But see, here's the thing.
Yes, God was very strict in the Old Testament, had a lot of laws, but really
God will let more slip. He'll let more slip in the Old Testament.
If you think about David, you know that King David is married to three different women
at the same time. Now, good night.
That's bad. But God kind of, I mean, it was wrong.
It was a sin, of course. But God let it go
more than he would today, I'll tell you that right now. And a lot of things in the
Old Testament where God's expectations, I'm sorry, but just reading through the Bible, it seems like
God's expectations were a little bit lower in the Old Testament. Times of
this ignorance, God winked at on some things. But now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
And so, in the New Testament, God seems to be
raising the bar. I mean, think about it. This is the first sermon that Jesus preached
in the New Testament. I'm not saying chronologically, but
the first one that he wants us to see as we pick up the Bible and read it, he says,
I'll show you a sermon where I'm talking about, you've heard that it's been said,
in old time, thou shalt not kill, but I say unto you,
don't even be angry at your brother without a cause. And he says,
you've heard that it was said, don't commit adultery, but I'm saying to you, don't even
look on a woman to lust after her. Now, of course, it was always a sin
to lust after women. It was always a sin to be angry at your brother without a cause.
But see, he's saying, I'm making you responsible for this. You need
to be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. He says, you know,
you've been teaching that if you wanted to put away your wife, give her a bill of divorce,
but I'm saying to you, I'm saying if you
divorce and remarry, your wife's swapping. You're committing adultery.
And he says, you've heard that it was said to swear to God
and just, whatever you swear to God, be sure and do it. He's saying, look, I don't even want you to swear
at all. I want you to just say yes, and that means you're going to do it, because
you're a man of your word, and if you say no, that means you're not going to do it, and you don't have to
adjure some oath to God. God says, no, that's
from evil. That's wrong. He says, I want you to just keep your word.
And he goes on very strict commandments here, and he's saying,
I want you to take your Christianity up a notch. He says, I want
you to take it up to being a level of perfection. He says,
you know, and look, nobody's perfect, are they? But he says, that's the goal.
That's what we're working toward. That's my standards, and we need to purify ourselves.
We're never going to be 100% pure in heart. Job said,
who can say I've made my heart pure? I'm purified from my sin.
But we can purify ourselves even as he's pure.
We can be in that process of purifying ourselves, hungering and thirsting for
righteousness, being filled, growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. And so we've got to constantly be
moving forward, not the status quo. Notice what he said,
what do ye more than others? What separates your Christianity from
everybody else out there in the world that's not even saved? He says, you ought
to be living at a much higher standard because you're my children. He keeps bringing
that up about the children of God. He says, you're my children, you ought to be living
at a higher standard than the world around you. Why? Well, let's find
out why. Look at verse number 13. Why do we want to live at
this high standard? And I'm going a little bit out of order just because I'm going topically through
the chapter a little bit. But why does God want us to live at this high level
where, good night, this is hard. People blaspheme
me and I'm supposed to say, praise God.
That means that God's going to bless me because I'm me and I'm taking it
and I'm letting God take care of me. Well, why?
Well, let's look. It says, 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
and to be trodden underfoot 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. This is verse 15 in chapter 5. But on
a candlestick and to give it 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. So here's what he's saying. The purpose of you
living this righteous life, the purpose of you living this high standard
life of saying, I want to be perfect. I'm not trying to see, well, does
God allow me to do this and so? No, I don't care what God allows.
I want to know what is God's ultimate desire
for what I would want to be the greatest choice. Not, is this music okay?
Or is it the ultimate in music that Jesus Christ wants me to listen
to? Or is this clothing okay? Or is this exactly
what Jesus would want me to wear? Exactly what he wants me to wear. I mean, that's
the difference in the attitude. And that's why he says in this chapter, except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Because that was the scribes and
Pharisees attitude. Remember the Pharisees came to Jesus and they said,
can a man divorce his wife for every cause? Can we get by
with this saying of divorce? What exactly can we get away
with? Can he tell us exactly what? And Jesus says, wait a minute.
Why don't you go back and see what God originally intended when he made them
male and female and said that they too shall be joined into
one flesh. And why don't you instead of looking for some way
that you can get away with some lust that you have or get away
with some discontentment that you have with what God gave you or get away
with some covetous desire that you have for somebody else's wife.
He says, why don't you just ask yourself, what exactly does God
want for me? What's the greatest thing I could do? What's exactly what he
intended when he put man in the garden of Eden? He said, I want one man and one woman
to be joined together for life. And so that's what you ought to ask yourself.
What exactly does God want me to wear? What exactly does God want me
to do? What exactly does God want me to be? What exactly
does God want? Not how much can I do and
it's not considered a sin. Yeah, it's a totally different attitude.
Well, what's the purpose? The purpose
is so that other people can see our righteous life
and glory is going to go to God it says. God's
glorified by us being seen by this world
and they see the righteous life that glorifies God. You know when they see
some preacher who lives in sin
and who does wrong, that
is a shame to God. When they see somebody who's a Christian
and a soul winner and a Baptist and they see that person just
living just like the rest of the world, they see the opposite of bringing glory to God, that's bringing
reproach to God, that's bringing shame to God. And you see
we want people to see the good works
because we want our light to shine. Why? Because we want the light
of the glorious gospel to shine in their hearts. Because we want the light of the glorious
gospel to shine so that people would be saved. Because
people are going to be saved if we live a righteous life and then open our
mouth and preach the gospel, there's more power than if we just
live the righteous life. I'm sorry, if we don't live the righteous life
and then we open our mouth, they're going to take us very seriously. Now, should we just
live the righteous life and just
hope that people are just going to come to us and fall on their knees and say,
I want what you have, you're so godly, can I be like you?
That's never going to happen. That's why God said, open thy mouth as we
preach. Open thy mouth for them that are appointed under
destruction. And he says, preach the gospel to every creature.
And so God, it's not enough to live the lifestyle, but you know what, both.
God wants the whole package. He wants perfection. He wants
righteous life, shining light of good works, and then
the testimony of Jesus Christ out of your mouth. And there you go,
people are going to be saved. God's going to be glorified. Now,
one other thing here, look at verse 13, it says, ye are the salt
of the earth. He's talking, he's saying, we are the
salt of the earth. He's talking to Christians. Ye are the salt of the earth,
but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be
salted? It sends forth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be
trodden underfoot of men. Here's what he's saying. He's talking
to the born again Christians. He's talking to independent Baptists who are living right, who
are believing right. He's saying, look, you are the salt
of the earth. He says, the earth is a wicked place, but there's only one
thing that's preserving it. There's only one, that's what salt does, it's a preservative.
There's only one thing that's preserving it. There's only one thing that's flavoring
it with a savor. That's what the word savor means, a flavor, a taste.
He says, there's only one thing that's giving this world any kind of a
flavor of anything good, anything of God, and that's you.
You are the only person, you're the only crowd, he's saying,
that is disciples to those that came to him. He says, you're the ones who are
to preserve it. You're the ones who are giving any kind of hope to this world.
But, if the salt, that's you, has lost his savor,
wherewith shall it be salted? He's saying,
when God's people no longer taste like God's people,
he says, this world's in a mess.
He's saying, it's not going to be salted at all, and it's not going to be preserved
at all, and it's not going to taste anything like Christianity. What do I mean?
Well, if you think about it,
when you walk into church, think about how we metaphorically,
even in our day, use this word flavor. We use it just
as kind of a, if I walk in and I could say, I walked
into that church and it had a very
worldly flavor to it. It kind of just reminded me of
walking into a Las Vegas nightclub, because there were
people up on stage, and they had spotlights on them, and they
were singing, and they were really getting into it,
and people clapping, and glorifying the guy who's up on stage,
singing, and performing, and
is that a flavor of the things of God, or is that
more a little flavor of the world? That's a little bit of flavor of Las Vegas. That's a little bit of flavor of a nightclub.
And so, what kind of a flavor should this
church have? This church should have a flavor of the King James Bible.
This church should have a flavor of Christianity.
These songs that we sing should have a distinctly Christian flavor,
a distinctly righteous, godly flavor. Not a flavor like the Backstreet Boys,
not a flavor like Britney Spears, not a flavor like
some kind of NSYNC and these groups that are out there.
He says, no, I want it to have a flavor of God's people.
I want it to be a distinct savor. He says, you're the only salt there is.
Nothing else tastes like you. See, there's no other music that tastes like this music.
This is distinct music, let's face it. The hymns of the faith,
God's people have been singing for hundreds and hundreds of years.
It's distinct music. It has a certain flavor. It has a certain taste to it. God says, if you lose
that taste, your music is good for nothing.
He said, I'm going to throw it out and step on it. That's what he says. He says, it's good for nothing, but to be
cast out to be trodden underfoot of men. You see,
Christianity is losing its flavor
today. And we need to get back to the
unadulterated, powerful flavor
that comes from
unwavering heed to this book.
Not to just, look at how things change.
Look at how things change. Look at how churches change just over time.
And boy, the sales are just constantly being dipped everywhere.
The music is constantly changing. The emphasis is changing.
I get brochures and things from
churches and they look like, it's like, you get one from the
charismatic church, independent Baptist church, they look exactly the same.
And maybe they're different, but they look the same. And they taste the same
when I got that mailer. And so, what happens is
when we lose our flavor
there's no hope. But see, here's the positive side of the coin.
We're talking about the book of Revelation on Sunday night.
We're talking about where things are going. And we know that things are going
down before they get better, of course. But here's the thing.
In this nation, it's not hopeless. I'm not up here doom and gloom
saying, this nation is going to hell. There's nothing we can do about it.
It's terrible. Let's all just commiserate. No.
We can salt this nation.
We can. How are we going to do it? Well, number one, we've got to get our flavor back.
We've got to get some serious flavor of being exactly
what God, perfect, like he says here, following God's guidelines to
the T, looking for the greatest that we can be. Let's get our flavor
back. Then let's let that light shine. He said
first get the flavor in verse 13. In verse 14 he said, now let that
light shine out to the world and now you can get more people
saved. And then they'll get that flavor and if you can get enough salt in this world
you preserve this world. You get enough salt in this nation, you preserve this nation.
Let's face it. This nation was never started with 100% righteous
people. There are all kinds of ungodly people in this world from day one.
But back then, here's the difference. Back when this nation was founded, there were enough godly people
in this country that kept it right. God's people that
were the salt of this nation that kept it right. All through the years
it's been that way. And it's been kept right. Boy, in this century
it's been really just going downhill very fast. Because why?
Because the salt lost its savor and it could no longer salt
the world and then the light stopped shining and so
there's less and less of God's people and then the ones that there are lost their savor and so
they're good for nothing, God said. And so
it's not too late. Because we can salt this nation, we can
keep this nation right for our children. We're not doom and gloom.
We can turn this city upside down with the gospel
in Tempe, Arizona. Maybe we can't save the whole world ourselves. No, of course not.
But we can salt this city. We can get all kinds
of people saved. We can have great victories. We can see this church grow if
we would get our flavor from God and not from the world and then if we
would just let the light shine, take it out of the bushel, go soul
winning, knock on doors and just shine that thing.
That's the answer. And so I'm not up there. Look, if I thought it was all
doom and gloom, you know what I'd do? I'd just pack it up right now. I'd go to some
like Jeremiah said, he wanted to just go get a cabin somewhere and just
be by himself and just forget the whole mess that was going on with his nation
and just enjoy his family or whatever. You know,
I'm in the battle and you're in the battle because there's hope.
Because there is a chance to get people saved. Because there is a chance to salt this
nation. Because there is a chance to see God's
kingdom go forward again in this nation once again. There's a chance
for many people to be saved. And there's a chance that we could
re-salt this thing and get our flavor back of our Christianity,
of our Baptist culture and righteous living
from the Bible. Bottom line, if you only
get one thing from the sermon, let's say, it's this thing about Wednesday
night. It's like Sunday morning and Sunday night it's a little more pinpointed on maybe one specific thing.
Wednesday night it's such an overview because we just did a whole chapter talking about all kinds of
things. So here's the one thing to take with you. If you don't take anything
else from the sermon, just take this with you. Just think to yourself,
I need to be a higher level
than what everybody else is doing around me. And you say, well
that's not right to compare yourself. Well God did because he said, what do you more than others?
He said, look around and say, I'm going to be cut above what I see.
He says, I want to be perfect because I want to be cut above what I see
because I want to be perfect as my Father in Heaven is perfect. See, he says, this is why I want the comparison
to be with God. And so don't ask yourself, what can I
get away with? Is this okay? Will God accept this?
Say, what is exactly the ultimate that God wants me to do?
How could I be just as righteous and as salty
as I could possibly be? That's what I'm looking for.
I want to do the maximum for Jesus Christ. I don't want to be minimum. I want to be
the maximum. I'm pressing on the upward way. New heights
I'm gaining every day. Still praying as I'm onward bound.
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
That's what's being taught in this show. That's the way I see it.
It's great, great preaching. And it's preaching
maybe not for everybody, but it's for those that are willing to come into the mountain
where Jesus is. And he says, okay, you came to me.
So I'm going to give you the advanced lesson. I'm going to give it to you
the perfection sermon. And a great sermon.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.