Man, the title of my sermon this morning is the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes.
This is the section at the beginning of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 1 through 10, where we have
these eight statements given, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that
mourn, et cetera.
And the reason that they're called Beatitudes is simply from the Latin word.
If you're reading this in a Latin Bible, every single line starts with Beati, Beati just
means blessed.
So it's just a fancy way of saying these are blessings or telling you how to be blessed
or how to be a blessed person.
These are called the Beatitudes.
Now let's just start out with talking about what the word blessed means, right?
Because this is what's repeated over and over again and sometimes the simplest terms are
the ones that we don't necessarily grasp or understand because we take them for granted.
So let's stop and think about what does it mean to be blessed, okay?
Well, the opposite of blessing is cursing.
So if I were to bless someone, it means that I'm wishing well upon them.
So if I say to them, have a great day, I have blessed them.
If I say to somebody, drop dead, then I'm cursing them, right?
If I say, may you go out of here and slip on a banana peel, okay, that's a cursing if
I'm wishing ill upon them, whereas a blessing is when I'm wishing them well.
So those two words are pretty easy to understand, blessing and cursing, the two opposites.
So to be blessed basically means that it is going well with you.
And often the word blessed in the Bible is swapped out with the word happy.
Sometimes instead of saying blessed is the man, it will say happy is the man.
So everybody wants to be blessed, right?
We don't want things to go bad for us.
We don't want curses to be upon us.
We want blessings to be upon us.
And we're especially talking about being blessed by God, right?
So when it says blessed, we could ask the question blessed by who?
Blessed by God, right?
So this is the person who is blessed.
This is the person who is happy.
This is the person who we would say is a success and they are doing well.
Another opposite for this would be the word woe, woe unto you, okay?
That's the opposite of being blessed.
Now before we get into Matthew chapter five and looking at the Beatitudes, let's jump
over to Luke chapter six and look at a similar passage that's a little bit simpler.
Matthew five is a little more complicated.
So let's go to the simple passage first and tackle that.
And then whatever we learn over there in the simpler passage, we can bring it over to Matthew
chapter five and understand it a little bit better.
Now in Luke chapter six, Jesus preaches a very similar sermon.
It's not the exact same sermon.
And the proof of that is that the sermon that he preaches with the Beatitudes in Matthew
five is called the Sermon on the Mount because it talks about Jesus going up into a mountain
and teaching.
Whereas in Luke chapter six, it talks about Jesus coming down from a mountain and being
on a plane.
So Luke six is often known as the sermon on a plane.
And little children, we're not talking about an airplane, all right?
We're talking about a flat piece of ground.
So these two sermons are different sermons that are preached in two different places.
But of course, every preacher is going to repeat important content, important material
to a different audience or just to remind people of things at a later date, et cetera.
So in Luke chapter six, we don't have the eight Beatitudes of Matthew five, but instead
we have only four.
It's a much simpler passage.
Look what the Bible says in Luke six verse 20.
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, blessed be ye poor, for yours is
the kingdom of God.
Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled.
Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh.
Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company,
and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil.
For the son of man's sake, rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy.
For behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the like manner did their fathers under
the province.
So when we look at this, we see that the four people that he calls blessed are four groups
of people that we, if we had a worldly mentality, would think, boy, these are the people that
are not being blessed, right?
Because who is it that's blessed, according to this?
People that are poor.
Do we look at poor people and say, what a blessing?
No, we would look at the rich and call them blessed, right?
Just from a carnal, worldly mentality, not thinking about Christ or the Bible.
Just humanly speaking, an average American in 2019 is going to look at being rich and
say, boy, that's happiness.
That's success.
That's a blessing.
Isn't that what they would think?
And they would also look at people that are hungry and they wouldn't think that's a blessing.
They don't think that makes you happy or that that is success.
What's next?
There's the poor, the hungry, those who weep.
They wouldn't look at someone who's crying and say, oh, you're crying?
You must be happy.
You must be blessed.
You must be a big success, okay?
And then look at the next thing, blessed are you when men shall hate you.
Look, again, this is the opposite of what someone with a worldly mentality would think.
What typically a person with a worldly mentality would think is that if people like you, if
you're popular, the community loves you, everybody speaks well of you, you're the man of the
year, the man of the hour, you're getting the keys to the city, you're the president
of the rotary club or whatever, that's when they would say you're happy, you're a success,
you're blessed.
But Christ is teaching the opposite, but he explains why.
He doesn't just expect you to take by faith, oh, by the way, it's a blessing to be poor,
hungry, crying, and people hating you, because that'd be a little bit hard to swallow, wouldn't
it?
But he explains it.
He says, blessed are you that hungry now, for you shall be filled.
Blessed are you that weep now, I'm in verse 21, for you shall laugh.
And why are people blessed when they're hated?
Because they also hated the prophets which were before them.
He's telling you that righteous people are often hated.
And then of course when he says in verse number 20, blessed be ye poor for yours is the kingdom
of God, we have to understand that possessing the kingdom of God is greater than any earthly
riches that we could possibly possess.
Now if we jump into the woes, it's going to help you understand.
Look at verse 24, but woe unto you that are rich, see these are the opposites, for you've
received your consolation.
You know why it's a shame and a woe for those that are rich is because they have their reward
right now, they have their consolation, and guess what, it's not that great.
That's the best they're going to have though.
But do riches bring happiness?
No.
Verse 25, woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger.
See it's better to hunger first and then be filled than to be filled first and end up
hungry.
And then he says, woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep.
Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false
prophets.
So when we look at all the things that the world would say make you happy, like having
a great reputation, everybody loving you, praising you, exalting you, and giving you
fame, Jesus says woe unto you if that's you.
When we think of riches, oh that's success, that's happiness, he says woe unto you.
Oh, being filled, having everything we need, eating all the food we want, woe unto you.
Laughing, having fun, big smile, woe unto you.
So we see that Christ is teaching something that is the opposite of what things appear
to be in this world.
He's showing us greater wisdom beyond just the outward appearance where we look at someone
laughing and say, oh that must be a happy person.
But you know the Bible says, even in laughter the heart is sorrowful.
You know we go down to a place where people are partying and drinking and having a good
time.
You know we're going to see a lot of smiles and a lot of laughs, but guess what?
We're going to see a lot of people that are not happy and they're not blessed.
They go home and they cry and they're sad, it's a facade folks.
We go to a rich neighborhood and see all the fancy cars and the fancy houses and we say,
oh these must be the happiest people, they're so blessed, until we talk to them and hear
the grouchy attitudes, the grumbling, the complaining, the rudeness, the bad attitude.
They're not happy folks.
Christ is right, the world is wrong.
Let's dig into this more deeply though in Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew chapter 5 is a very significant passage, why?
Because when you open your New Testament and start reading, this is the first preaching
that you get from Jesus.
I mean you get a few comments in chapter 3 and chapter 4 where Jesus says a few things,
you know, come with me and I'll make you fishers of men, or when he says things like, suffer
it to be so now, for those to become and those to fulfill all righteousness.
So you get these few things of, hey follow me, I'll make you fishers of men.
But the real sermon starts in chapter 5.
So chapter 5, 6, and 7 are one sermon, called the Sermon on the Mount.
And God in his providence allowed our Bible to start with this in the New Testament as
our first sermon.
Of all the sermons recorded by Jesus, this is the first one.
And this is the intro to the first sermon.
So God put this list in a special place of preeminence in the Bible.
So it's worth paying attention to, amen.
Certainly the Bible is worth paying attention to, but especially this.
So we're going to go through each of the eight beatitudes one by one and explain them.
Okay?
So let's start in verse 1.
It says, seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, hence the name, Sermon on
the Mount.
And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them
saying, and then we get into the first beatitude in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Now notice, he doesn't just say, like he said over in Luke 6 in that sermon, blessed are
the poor.
Here he says blessed are the poor in spirit.
What does that mean?
To be poor in spirit.
Obviously it doesn't mean that you're spiritually lacking, because how in the world would that
be a blessing by anybody's estimation, right?
You don't want to be lacking spiritually.
The more spiritual we are, the better.
When he says blessed are the poor in spirit, he's talking about a person who on the inside
has the mentality of a poor person, okay?
And let me explain what I mean by that, because it's not necessarily a blessing to be poor,
because there are some rotten people who are poor.
There are people who are poor, who have no character, they're a rotten person, they're
a bad person.
Being poor physically isn't just a guarantee, yeah, you're blessed, you're a success, just
by virtue of being poor.
What if you got poor by being an idiot?
What if you got poor by being lazy?
What if you got poor by doing stupid things, right?
There are good poor people, and there are bad poor people.
So when he says blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, he's
emphasizing the fact that we're not just talking about how much money is in your bank account,
but we're talking about the mentality of being poor, which means to be humble, having an
attitude that is not the puffed up, arrogant, high-minded attitude of the rich, but rather
the humble, meek attitude of the poor.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Think about it, the Bible says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
So if it's virtually impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, of course
it is possible though, because Jesus says with men it's impossible, but with God all
things are impossible, it shows that the mentality of the rich man is in exact opposition with
salvation.
You got the mentality of rich people here, you got the gospel here, these two things
aren't compatible.
That's why it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to
be saved, because being rich and accepting the gospel are not compatible, humanly speaking
this is a gap that cannot be bridged.
But yet there are some rich people who are saved, how?
Because they're poor in spirit.
How did they get saved?
How did they get into the kingdom of God?
They're poor in spirit.
Because on the inside their attitude, their spirit, their heart is not that rich puffed
up arrogant attitude, and especially the attitude that says, well I did everything myself.
You know, I'm where I am because I built this business and I worked harder than everyone
else and I was smarter than everyone else and I made better connections than everyone
else.
That's a rich man's mentality that's going to keep him out of heaven, why?
Because getting to heaven is all about relying on someone else completely.
Now what we have to understand is that the poor in the Bible is not what we think of
as poor.
We think of people who just don't make a lot of money as being poor.
People that are called poor in the Bible are typically people that are very destitute,
a lot more poor.
You know, we think somebody who just doesn't have a car is poor in America.
We say, oh man, that person's poor.
When the Bible's talking about people that are poor, it's typically talking about people
that are relying on other people's charity for their very survival.
These are, you know, the lame man, the blind man or whatever that are begging alms outside
the temple.
I mean, these people are fully relying on someone else to even exist.
It's not that they just don't eat steak very often.
They eat a lot of hot dogs and spam and bologna.
That's not what it's saying.
Or they, you know, they have an old car.
Them and their wife share a car.
That's not what we, we talk about going to a poor neighborhood.
Those people are still able to take care of themselves.
They live pretty well compared to the rest of the world even, right?
So when Jesus is talking about being poor in spirit, it's that mentality that basically
is not relying on self but is relying on someone else and realizing, hey, I can't do it on
my own.
I'm poor.
I need help.
I can't do this on my own.
Well, guess what?
That's the type of person who's going to heaven.
When they say Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe, they're actually trusting what Christ
did to get them into heaven instead of trying to get to heaven on their own works, their
own righteousness, their own merits.
That's the rich man's mentality of, hey, I've done it all myself.
I don't need help from anybody.
You know, the poor use it in treaties, the Bible says.
Please help me.
But the rich answer it roughly.
I don't need anything.
I don't need you.
I don't need help.
I got this, right?
Well, when you translate that over to salvation, that's not going to work.
You better come to Jesus like a beggar.
You better come to Jesus on your knees.
You better come to Jesus hat in hand.
You better come to Jesus like a poor person who's literally going to starve if they don't
get the help that they need.
That's what it takes to be saved.
You've got to fully trust in Jesus, not bring him your good works and say, here, let me
show you my portfolio.
Let me show you my resume.
No, it's more, it's like, look, I just need mercy.
I just need grace.
That's salvation.
So blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
What the world will tell you, you're more blessed if you have an attitude that says
I can do everything myself and I don't need help from anyone and I'm just independent.
Isn't that what the world would say?
Oh man, you're, you must be so happy.
You go girl.
You independent woman, you, you don't need any man to take care of you.
You're going to do everything yourself and you got this, but yeah, Hey, that's not blessed.
Blessed are the poor in spirit that are willing to admit, Hey, I can't do everything on my
own.
I can't rely on myself alone.
Okay?
I need help from God.
I need help from my parents.
I need help from a husband.
I need help from the boss.
I need help from my supervisor work, whatever the case may be in your life.
I need help from this person.
You know, it's okay to need help with things, right?
Don't be puffed up and arrogant.
Be poor in spirit and Hey, why are the porn spirits so blessed?
Hey, there's the kingdom of heaven.
Anybody who doesn't have an element of this poverty and spirit is not even going to get
to heaven because it takes that poor and spirit attitude to even trust Christ as your savior
instead of trying to do it on your own.
Let's move on to the next one.
Excuse my voice.
I'm losing my voice for some reason.
Blessed are the poor and spirit for there's the kingdom of heaven.
But secondly, in verse four, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.
Lesser are they that mourn.
There is a time to mourn.
Ecclesiastes tells us to everything there's a purpose there to everything.
There is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven and there's a time to laugh,
but there's a time to mourn.
We shouldn't go through life only jovial laughing, having a good time.
There are times of mourning that are important.
Keep your finger in Matthew five because that's where we're going to stay, but flip over to
Ecclesiastes chapter seven.
Ecclesiastes chapter seven and I'll read for you from James four verse eight.
It says, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts you double minded.
Watch this.
Be afflicted and mourn and weep.
This is what God is telling us.
He's telling us be afflicted, mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up.
Basically in our modern vernacular, God's saying, wipe that smile off your face.
As every parent has said to their child at one time or another, wipe that stupid smile
off your face, right?
Who's had your parents tell you that at some point?
Probably everybody.
I know I've said it.
We've all said it and it's all been said unto us.
Okay, wipe that smile off, quit smiling, get that smile off your face.
You know, hey, hey, let your laughter be turned to mourning, let your joy be turned to heaviness.
But the world tells you, nope, it's just rah, rah, fun, fun, ha, ha, everything's a joke,
everything's fun.
No, there's a virtue of godly sorrow.
Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of, the Bible says.
And so sorrow has its place.
He's telling people that are sinful people, cleanse your hands you sinners, purify your
hearts you double-minded, be afflicted and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned
to mourning and your joy to heaviness, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he
shall lift you up.
Look at Ecclesiastes number seven.
Verse two, it's better to go to the house of mourning, aka Faithful Word Baptist Church,
no, I'm just kidding, than to go to the house of feasting, how's that for a church name?
House of Mourning Baptist Church.
I don't think it would be very popular, they'll say, man, that sounds like a downer, depressing,
you know, let me go to fun, fun, party, joy Baptist Church, but you know, it's actually
better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.
You know, sometimes you need to go to a place where maybe you hear some preaching that might
make you sad, get you down, whatever, but you know what?
The Bible explains it, I don't want to steal my own thunder here, let's keep reading.
It says, it's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting,
for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart.
You know what he's saying?
You're going to end up there anyway.
Did you catch that?
The Bible is so great.
It's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that's
the end of all men.
I mean, everybody's going there.
And the living will lay it to his heart.
Okay, look, the people who say, oh, forget the house of mourning, forget that church
that preaches hard against sin, doom and gloom, fire and brimstone, negative, it's a downer,
hateful, whatever.
They want to go down to the fun, fun, fun party church, guess what?
They're going to end up crying.
What did he say?
Woe unto you that laugh.
Why?
Because you're going to weep.
Woe unto you that instead of being in church on Sunday morning, you're out on Saturday
night, dancing and partying and getting drunk, where, hey, oh, believe me, you're going to
do the weeping.
I'd rather schedule my suffering.
I'd rather plan to weep.
I would rather schedule a time and say, you know what, hey, I'm going to go and I'm going
to go through the sadness, the sorrow, the mourning, the weeping.
I'm going to work and study God's word and get the sin out of my life, do the right things.
I'd rather schedule my hunger.
Look, because you're going to go through pain and sorrow anyway if you're just fun, fun,
party, party, think about it.
Why?
Because the consequences of sin are going to catch up with you and then it's going to
be a lot of mourning.
Or what about the person who won't even get saved?
What about the person who just won't even listen to the gospel, doesn't even get saved?
Where are they going to end up?
They're going to end up in hell and you know what, there's going to be weeping and gnashing
of teeth and they might have had a lot of laughs in their lifetime, but when they get
to hell, it's not going to matter how many times they laughed or how much fun they had, is it?
But even in this lifetime, we see the fun party crowd brought to their knees over and
over again.
I'd rather get on my knees on purpose.
I'd rather schedule a time on my knees than to have God have to bring me to my knees.
You understand the difference?
It's like people say, oh, you know, and I'm just bringing this up because we just did
that big endurance thing yesterday where we're out biking for 50 miles and people are running
and hiking and everything else.
You might look at that and say, oh, how is that fun?
That sounds painful.
That sounds like suffering.
But you know what?
Woe unto you that are sedentary now.
But here's, hear me out, folks.
You think to yourself, oh man, that sounds bad, but you know what's even more painful?
Open heart surgery.
You know, you know, oh man, that sounds painful.
You know, going out and exercising, going through it, you know what's even more painful?
Not exercising.
All the disease that you're going to get, all the bad health that you're going to get.
Think about it.
Say, oh man, that food, that healthy food, it doesn't taste that good.
Yeah, but woe unto you that want to party in your mouth every meal because you're going
to have a pretty bad taste in your mouth when you're eating hospital food.
That stuff's nasty.
You know what I'm saying?
Look, the point is, schedule your suffering.
You know, you go out and you exercise and you schedule that suffering and then you'll
laugh later when you're feeling good from the effects of a healthy lifestyle, right?
So that's kind of a carnal example.
But spiritually speaking, we could see that example's abound.
You go out and enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and then you weep and suffer
and mourn and you end up a failure.
You know, I'd rather suffer, bite the bullet, go through some hard things, do some hard
things in my life and then spend the rest of my life enjoying and then spend all eternity
enjoying than to have all the fun, fun, fun when I'm a teenager and in my 20s and then
the rest of my life suffer from the consequences of those stupid decisions.
Think about that.
See, when some people are out drinking and partying and fornicating, other people are
seeking the Lord.
Other people down at the house of mourning on their knees.
Guess what?
Both people are going to end up on their knees.
But I'd rather be on my knees in front of God's altar than to be on my knees in a toilet
in a dirty bar bathroom.
You're going to end up on your knees either way, folks.
I'd rather end up on my knees because I chose to be on my knees praying to the Lord God
than on my knees because I'm puking up a bunch of alcohol and I'm on my knees in whatever
the horrible situation.
So anyway, I've got to move on for the sake of time.
But let's keep reading this.
This is a great passage.
It'd be easy to spend the whole sermon in Ecclesiastes 7, but I've got to get through
all this.
So sorrow is better than laughter, it says in verse 3, for by the sadness of the countenance,
the heart is made better.
Suffering makes you a better person.
Sorrow and sadness make you a better person.
That's why you're blessed if you mourn.
Why?
You're blessed if you mourn because it makes you a better person.
And blessed are they that mourn because they shall be comforted.
God's going to comfort your mourning.
God's going to wipe away your tears and the end is going to be peace.
The end is going to be blessedness.
The end is going to be good.
Then he says this in verse 4, the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but
the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
Mirth is just joy, partying, having a good time, laughter, things like that.
Verse 5, it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise, aka Bible preaching, than for a
man to hear the song of fools, aka all the music on the radio.
Right?
I mean, and what are people listening to today when they're driving down their own car?
Often they're going to be listening to all the world's music.
That's the song of fools.
Other people pop in some Bible preaching and what are they listening to?
The rebuke of the wise.
Oh, it's so negative.
I'd rather listen to this joyful uplifting stuff.
Well, you know what?
I want to have joy too.
We all want to be happy.
We all want to have joy, but you know what?
The Bible teaches the way up is down and that seems counterintuitive, but the way up is
down, right?
You humble yourself.
You go down and then God lifts you up, right?
The world says, hey, just climb that ladder.
Just go up, up, up.
Just lift yourself up.
Get yourself.
No, no.
Get down and God will lift you up.
That's what the Bible's teaching.
So it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Back to Matthew chapter five.
Hopefully you're keeping your finger there the whole time and then now it's time to move
your other finger to Psalm 37.
Psalm 37.
Now I want you to take the thumb of your right hand.
No, I'm just kidding.
You don't want to get too complicated, all right?
We're going to use all our fingers this morning.
All eight Beatitudes are going to have a parallel scripture.
Anyway, let's go back to Matthew.
So we're going through the Beatitudes one by one.
We saw first of all, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
No matter what your bank account says, whether you're literally poor, literally rich or somewhere
in between, you should all be poor in spirit.
I should be poor in spirit.
Number two, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
We see how mourning is the blessing because you're going to have joy down the road, right?
Just like you're out there slogging through that run or bike ride or whatever and you're
mourning sometimes as you go through it, but when it's over, you rejoice.
You feel great afterward.
You feel great about it the next day, but what about when you go out partying and indulging
the flesh?
Do you feel great about that the next day?
No.
You feel great about it while you're doing it, but the next day you feel rotten.
Which one's better?
Which one's more blessed?
That's a carnal example, but I'm using it as a parable to illustrate the spiritual truth
because it's the same principle that applies.
So number two, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
And then we see the third one in verse five, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.
And this is written directly from Psalm 37.
This is one that is not original in Matthew five.
Jesus is basically quoting the book of Psalms here with this one.
Now let's talk, before we jump into Psalm 37, let's talk about what it means to be meek.
Okay, meekness is a word that has to do with humility, gentleness, long suffering, and
kindness.
Okay?
And these are all biblical virtues.
These are all things that God says we should have.
We should be humble, we should be gentle, we should be long suffering, and we should
be kind.
These are all virtues.
These are good things, right?
Now the problem with the word meek today in 2019 is that it has taken on a secondary definition.
So if you look up meek in the dictionary, definition number one is a good definition
of being humble, kind, gentle, long suffering.
But then definition number two says, oh, this is just somebody who just lets people walk
all over them, and they're just a weakling, and they're a coward.
You know, they kind of have this other definition that makes it sound bad to be meek because
of the fact that you're basically just a victim.
You're just a sucker or something like that, okay?
That's not the biblical meekness, though.
We need to stay on definition number one, okay, because that's what the Bible teaches.
Now let me give you an example.
There's a guy in the Bible who the Bible says was more meek than any person on the face
of the earth.
And that person was Moses.
It says that Moses was more meek than any man that was on the face of the earth.
And that is said in the context of Miriam and Aaron attacking him and saying, hath the
Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?
Hath he not spoken also by us?
So they're acting like Moses is puffed up, proud, high and mighty.
That's what they're accusing him of.
So God, the narrator, tells us, no, actually, they're wrong because Moses was the meekest
man on the face of the earth, which is why God even chose to use Moses in the first place.
Because he uses the humble and the meek to fulfill his will.
But what I've noticed in the Bible, and this is a whole sermon in and of itself, is that
whenever you have a strong leader executing God's will, they're always accused of being
prideful 100% of the time, over and over again.
That's why I preached a sermon a while back called pride versus strong leadership.
Because people will look at strong leadership and say, oh, you're prideful.
You're proud.
You know, a father who rules his home, oh, that's pride.
Or a pastor who strongly leads the church, oh, he's so prideful.
No, don't confuse pride and strong leadership because Moses was a very strong leader, yet
he was very meek.
What about Jesus?
Jesus was meek.
Jesus said, I'm meek, in Matthew chapter number 10, I believe.
He said, I'm meek.
And then we see him, though, exercising strong leadership and ruling over the disciples and
obviously he's going to come back and rule with a rod of iron.
Meekness is a virtue, okay?
So it has to do with being humble, gentle, long-suffering, and kind.
But it doesn't mean that you let people walk all over you, and it doesn't mean that you're
a weak leader and that you let people do whatever they want.
That's not what it means.
So don't mix these things up.
It means being humble.
Leaders should be humble.
And why was Moses humble?
Look, when God came to Moses and told him to lead, he had to be practically begged to
lead.
He wasn't just all about advancing himself and getting a position and getting a title
and being a big shot.
The guy's living out in the backside of the desert for 40 years just doing his own thing
He's just happy to work for his father-in-law and just do his own thing and just tend the
sheep and he's not even leading anything.
He's just doing his own thing.
He's working for someone else.
And God comes to him and tells him he's going to go to Pharaoh and say, let my people...
He doesn't even want to do it.
Why?
Because he wasn't a prideful, arrogant person.
Now, once he obeyed the call of God, he's going to do what needs to be done.
Not because of pride or arrogance or lifting himself up, but because of the fact that he's
obeying the Lord.
But he's humble.
He didn't think of himself as being a great person.
He talked down on himself, if anything, to a fault in that chapter, Exodus 3 and Exodus
4.
So look at Psalm 37, verse 8, and we'll see what it means when Jesus said, blessed are
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
He's actually quoting this passage.
It says in Psalm 37, verse 8, 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
shall inherit the earth.
Does that sound familiar?
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be, yea, thou shalt diligently consider
his place, and it shall not be, but the meek shall inherit the earth.
That's what I was saying.
Jesus is giving an exact quote of this.
But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight 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 seeth that his day is coming.
Go to Mark chapter number 10.
What we see here is a contrast between the wicked people who are trying to take over,
and they're trying to gain power, and they're fighting, they war, like it says in James,
where they kill, and lust, and desire to have, and cannot obtain.
The wicked versus the meek, who's not out for himself.
He's not out to lift himself up, or steal something that belongs to someone else.
He just wants to humbly do his own thing, live his life, be good.
He's going to inherit the earth, and these people who are out trying to grasp and seize
everything for themselves, they're going to get nothing.
They're going to be gone.
They're going to disappear, right?
He says that they're going to die, and God's going to laugh at them, and destroy them.
Their day is coming, but the meek, the people who are just humbly, gently, kindly, long
suffering and doing the work of God, they're going to inherit the earth, even if on this
earth they're not seizing everything, and they don't have a big portfolio or bank account.
Look at Mark 10 verse 42, but Jesus called them to him, and saith unto him, Ye know that
they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and
their great ones exercise authority upon them.
So basically the Gentiles, when they look at people who rule them, in the parallel passage
in Luke where Jesus makes the same statement, he says they look at the people who rule over
them as benefactors.
Like they look at Caesar as someone who just loves them and cares about them and does good
things for them.
So the world has this view that conquerors and rulers and people who are taking things
from other people, that they're the ones who are the blessed.
They're the great ones.
Right?
But what does the Bible say?
Verse 43, but so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you shall
be your minister.
Minister means servant.
And whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be the servant of all.
For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many.
So the Bible says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
What he's saying is, you don't have to go out and seize everything and grasp everything
and trample everybody, dog eat dog, and climb over everybody else to get to the top.
And you're going to have your ego and arrogance and pride driving your success and you're
going to just plow over everybody and take it for yourself and you, no.
Because you know what?
That's all going to be gone.
Because whatever you achieve in this lifetime, this life's just a vapor that appeared for
a little time in the vanish of the way.
It's actually the humble, meek servant who cares about other people, who loves other
people, who puts other people first and makes himself a servant, not a despot.
He is the one who's going to inherit the earth, the Bible says.
So it's more blessed to be meek.
Well, but if you're meek, you know, everybody's just going to walk all over you.
Well, that's what the world wants you to think.
That actually being meek is going to cause you to inherit all things.
And again, we're not talking about core leadership here.
Okay, obviously leaders have to rule.
But what the people that are the bad example are doing, they're ruling over people that
are not under their authority.
They're trying to take things that don't belong to them.
You see the difference?
See the wife who basically just decides, you know what?
If I submit to my husband, then I'm not going to get what I need and I just need to throw
a big fit and pout and fuss and murmur and complain and fight, you know, to grasp and
seize what's rightfully mine.
How about the meek and quiet spirit that the Bible says women should have when he said
that it's better than any outward adorning, anything you could do with your hair or with
your face or your clothing or your shoes or whatever.
He said, how about a meek and a quiet spirit?
See the meek wife is going to inherit the earth instead of the wife who's trying to
usurp the authority.
The meek child is going to inherit all things, not the one who says, give me the portion
of the inheritance that falls to me now.
I don't want to wait.
Give me everything now.
Give me the money now.
Give me the goods now.
Okay.
How did he end up?
He ended up in the pig pen with nothing and then even when he comes home, he's downgraded.
His inheritance is gone.
See the difference between the meek that are going to inherit the earth and those who lack
meekness, they do not go far.
Okay.
Let's look at Matthew five verse six.
Let's look at the fourth thing.
So we saw number one, blessed are the poor in spirit.
Number two, blessed are they that mourn.
Number three, blessed are the meek.
And then he says here in verse number six, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness for they shall be filled.
They shall be filled.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.
You know why?
Because righteousness is something that if you crave, seek, hunger for it, you will be
filled.
It's satisfying when you get it.
Have you ever been really hungry for something but then when you got it, it was a disappointment.
It was a let down.
It was not all that it was cracked up to be.
Think about an experience like that you've had in your life where you got all excited
about a certain meal or a certain drink or a certain food, whatever, and you got it and
you're so excited and then it just wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.
You know, oh, disappointment, this isn't what I wanted.
I thought I wanted it.
I thought it was going to be good.
I misread the menu or the cook is having a bad day or whatever.
It's overcooked.
Something went wrong and it's just like, meh, it wasn't even that good.
Or you eat it, it makes you sick.
Oh, so good.
And then you get sick and vomited up.
You know, look, this is the way a lot of things in life are.
Okay, how about Amnon?
You remember what he was hungry for?
He was hungry for Tamar.
He committed that horrible act of fornication with Tamar and you know what, as soon as he
was done committing fornication with Tamar, he hated her.
So was he filled?
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for fornication.
Nope, they're not going to be filled.
They're not going to be satisfied.
They're not going to get a blessing.
See, if you hunger for the wrong things, you don't end up getting filled.
Here's a great verse.
Listen to this.
Ecclesiastes 5, 10.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance
with increase.
If you love money, if you love riches, are you going to be filled?
Are you going to be satisfied?
Are you going to get to a point where you say, I have enough.
This is great.
I am.
I've arrived.
Nope.
You're not going to be filled.
But blessed, here's the blessed appetite.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Why?
Because it satisfies.
They're going to be filled, right?
They will be filled.
Here's another good verse.
Habakkuk 2, 4.
Behold his soul which is lifted up.
What's that mean?
Lifted up.
Your soul is lifted up.
Pride, right?
That's a theme here in the Beatitudes.
The theme is being humble.
The theme is that the way up is down.
The theme is submitting to God and not following the ways of this world, but letting God lift
you up.
He says, Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall
live by his faith.
Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he's a proud man, neither keepeth at home,
watch this, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied,
but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people.
This is talking about a great king who's conquering kingdoms and ruling, and it says that he enlarges
his desire as hell.
He's like the grave where he can never be satisfied.
Now why does he use these two illustrations?
Because we know that hell is getting larger.
The Bible says in Isaiah 5-20, hell hath enlarged herself, right?
So hell is continually getting larger because more people are going there.
Another thing that is never satisfied is the grave or death.
Why?
Because the grave or death is claiming new victims every few seconds, right?
Every few seconds death claims another victim.
Does it ever say, alright, enough people have died?
No, death is never satisfied.
The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 30, there are three things that are never satisfied,
yea four things that say not, it is enough.
They never say it's enough, it's over.
The grave and the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water, and the, man, I
have quoted that in so long, the fire, there we go, man, I've quoted that chapter like
for literally 20 years, but when you get up in front of people, it's like, ah.
So anyway, yea, you know, he gives some examples that the barren womb, the barren womb, you
know, when women are not able to have children, that's a really hard thing for them, right?
And they're not satisfied.
They don't say like, well, that's alright.
Even if they say that on the outside, you know, on the inside, it's typically a burden
for them.
So if you know a woman who is not able to have children, be gracious with that person.
You know, I remember there was a time when there was a particular lady, and it's no one
who goes to our church here or anything, but there was a particular lady that said and
did some crazy things, and some rude things, and some wrong things, and somebody brought
it to me, and I told that person, I said, but you know what though, like, she really
wants to have kids and can't have kids, and it doesn't excuse what she did, but show her
some grace, have some understanding, because she's going through a really hard time because
of that.
I mean, think about the lady in the Bible who couldn't have kids, right?
And she grabs hold of her husband and says, give me children or else I die, right?
I believe it was Rachel who said that to Jacob, you know, give me children or else I die.
And he said, well, am I in the place of God that is withholding from you the fruit of
the womb?
I'm not God.
But you know, the barren womb is not satisfied.
The grave is not satisfied.
The fire that sayeth not, it is enough.
It just keeps burning, right?
Till somebody puts it out, it's just going to keep burning.
It doesn't just get full and stop.
The fire will just consume as much fuel as you give it, right?
And of course, the earth is not filled with water, right?
It keeps raining and raining and raining, but it just keeps getting absorbed and evaporating.
It's never satisfied, right?
So the Bible is saying that prideful people, rich people, conquerors, kings, drunkards,
the Bible says in Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 5, you know what?
Their desire is enlarged like hell.
It's like death.
It can never be satisfied.
But blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
They shall be filled.
Is the drunk ever going to be satisfied of just, man, if I just drink one more drink,
that's all I'm going to, I'm never going to need to drink again.
That'll just, one more, one more, one more fornication, you know, one more adultery,
one more drink, one more big sale and make more money.
Is that what people, is that how rich people, drunks, prideful, arrogant, worldly people,
is that how they think?
No, it's never enough.
They're never satisfied.
They're like hell that constantly enlarges itself.
It's like death that can never be satisfied.
Let's go to Matthew chapter five again, look at the fifth beatitude, Matthew chapter five
verse seven, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
It's a blessing to be merciful.
Why?
Because you'll obtain mercy.
Of course, James 2 13 says, for he shall have judgment without mercy that it showed no mercy
and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
The Bible says he shall have judgment without mercy that has showed no mercy.
So if you show no mercy, you're not going to get any mercy.
Whereas if you're merciful, you'll obtain mercy, right?
Whatever judgment wherewith you judge, therewith shall you be judged, right?
You're going to be judged according to how you judge others.
If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.
If you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses, right?
So blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
Let's look at the next one, verse eight, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
This is the seventh out of eight beatitudes, so I'm almost done here.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Let's start out by talking about literally seeing God first of all, and then we'll talk
about figuratively seeing God.
So blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Well the pure heart, listen to Acts 15, 8, and God which knoweth the hearts, bear them
witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, and put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Did you get that?
Acts 15, 9, purifying their hearts by faith.
Well that makes sense.
If our heart is purified by faith, blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God.
If you get saved by putting your faith in Christ, you're going to go to heaven, you're
going to see God, amen?
So he says, blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God.
The Bible also says in 2 Timothy 2, 22, flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness,
faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Calling on the Lord out of a pure heart, he's talking about with people that are saved,
right?
So those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, those who purify their hearts by faith,
they're going to see God.
But not only that, when we think of a pure heart, we're talking about a sincere heart.
Sincere and pure are two words that are very closely related.
A sincere heart is the one that actually humbly realizes they're a sinner, that Christ is
their only hope and calls out to Christ, poor in spirit, right?
So what about figuratively seeing God?
So that's literally going to heaven and seeing God.
But often when the Bible says see, it means to perceive, understand.
The Bible talks about how through faith we see that which is invisible, through the eyes
of faith, right?
And even today in our modern vernacular, if someone explains something to us, we will
often say, I see.
I see.
What does that mean?
I understand.
So when the Bible says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, this has
to do with actually understanding God, perceiving God, comprehending God, understanding where
he's coming from.
And the thing about that is that if we're out there with a rotten heart and a rotten
lifestyle, we're not going to be close to God.
We're not going to see God.
So a good verse on this is James 4.8, draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
Purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
That's going to help you draw nigh to God and see God, figuratively speaking.
If you want to understand the Bible, you've got to be a doer of the work, the Bible says.
If you want to understand the Bible, you've got to purify your heart, you've got to be
a person who's sincere, you've got to open the Bible sincerely wanting to know the truth,
and you have to love God, obey God, do the work, then God's going to open up the scripture
to you.
So that's the blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God, figuratively.
And then lastly, number eight, Matthew 5-9, the last beatitude, or I'm sorry, I got off
count here.
That was six, this is seven, sorry about that.
Verse nine, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
Matthew 5-9, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
Now what does it mean to be a peacemaker?
Just right on the surface, a peacemaker is someone who would be a mediator between people,
like let's say two people are fighting, they're not getting along, they're arguing, and a
third party comes along and sets them at one again.
A third party comes along and figures out what the problem is and finds a way to peacefully
resolve the situation, so they avoid fighting.
People are fighting and they come over and say, hey, what's going on, let me help, and
they resolve things, they're a mediator.
Now we're not talking about being a busybody in other men's matters, just sticking your
nose in things where you don't belong and gossiping and stuff like that, but what we
are talking about is someone who sincerely, truly wants to step in and solve a problem
and fix things and find a solution for people that they can both agree on where we can have
a win-win situation where everybody's happy, right?
See the Bible says that if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, dwell at peace with
all men.
So we want to have peace in our church, peace at work, peace at school, peace in the neighborhood,
we want to have peace in our country, we want to have peace any time we can, in any situation
we can.
If it's possible, we should strive to have peace.
If you just passively go through life just letting whatever happen, that's not a recipe
for peace.
If you want to have peace, you have to work toward peace, there has to be effort put into
peace.
You have to be a peacemaker, not a peace sit back and let it happener.
A peacemaker is one who makes peace.
So they make peace with other people between them and others, and they also make peace
between two third parties.
That's a peacemaker.
That's pretty easy to understand.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
Nearby shall all men know that you're my disciples if you have love one to another.
Does that make sense that people would look at you and say, you know, you're a godly Christian,
you're a child of God, you're a peacemaker, that's a Christian virtue, being a peacemaker.
Not somebody who's stirring up strife, causing trouble, but trying to reconcile people.
Now look, there are some people that we can't reconcile with, nor should we reconcile with.
That's why the Bible says, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, dwell in peace with
all men.
We can't make an alliance with the devil for the sake of peace.
Hey, let's see if we can get God and the devil to work out their differences.
No.
And we can't get the devil's minions and the children of God to work out their differences.
There are some irreconcilable differences there.
But what about when godly Christians have differences?
What about when brothers and sisters have differences?
What about when a husband and his wife have differences, right?
If we can step in and help them.
I mean, what if you know a married couple, and they're struggling in their marriage,
they're at each other's throats, they're on the verge of divorce.
What if you could get in there and provide some help and counseling and solve that problem?
Boy, wouldn't that be a virtue?
You'd be a great peacemaker.
You made peace in that home.
So that's what it means to be a peacemaker on the surface.
But then there's another secondary meaning that a peacemaker would be one who helps people
make peace with God.
Because right now we're talking about making peace amongst people.
But also people that are not saved are at enmity with God.
And actually getting people saved is a form of being a peacemaker because you're helping
people make peace with God, which is the most important peace that they'll ever make.
For example, the Bible says in Romans 5, 1, therefore being justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2, verse 14 says, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were
not.
Jesus, according to Ephesians 2 there, is the ultimate peacemaker who basically was
that mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
He's the ultimate peacemaker who made peace between God and sinners, peace between God
and the Gentiles, peace between God and those Jews that believed on him, those that were
nigh and those that were afar off as well.
James 3, 18, here's a great verse, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of
them that make peace.
Now literally, James 3, 18, in context, is talking about making peace between people
because it's contrasted with bitter strife, envy, and people who are not getting along
in the church.
And then he's talking about the opposite of that, the fruit of righteousness is sown in
peace of them that make peace.
But it's interesting that the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that win
its souls is wise.
So there's another secondary meaning there of the fruit of righteousness, what's the
fruit of righteousness?
It's a tree of life, and he that win his souls is wise.
The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
So when you're going out soul winning, you're bringing forth the fruit of righteousness
by winning people to Christ, and what are you doing?
You're making peace.
Because you're taking a guy who's at enmity with God, he's at enmity with the Lord of
the universe, and what are you doing?
You're reconciling him to God.
You're making peace between that person and God.
So you're a great peacemaker.
So the soul winning times are literally peacemaking times.
We're going peacemaking.
Let's not change it to that, but that's what we're doing if you think about it.
And then lastly, so I got a little off kilter there on my numbering.
That was number seven.
And then number eight, the last of the Beatitudes is in verse 10, blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
See, if you're persecuted for your faults, there's no glory in that.
If you go out and steal and get thrown in jail, you're like, you know, Paul, a prisoner
of Jesus Christ.
No, that's not going to work.
But if you go out and you're out soul winning, preaching the gospel, let's say you're doing
missions or whatever, or just preaching anything in the Bible gets you in trouble and gets
you arrested, like John the Baptist preached about divorce and remarriage and he got thrown
in jail and eventually got his head cut off.
If you preach the word of God, if you're approached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, the
Bible says.
So hey, you're blessed if you're persecuted for righteousness sake.
Whose is the kingdom of heaven?
Look, I'd rather have the kingdom of heaven, I'd rather have Christ and a mansion and glory
than all the casinos and the hotels that Trump has or all the wealth and the billions and
the riches.
Now, admittedly, all men don't speak well of him, but he's not poor in spirit either.
He's got a few X's and a few O's on the Beatitudes.
But you know what, what we need to have, we need to get this whole checklist, friend.
We need to take the Beatitudes and say, this is the kind of person that I want to be.
Who does Christ want his servants to be?
He wants us to be what?
Poor in spirit.
What does he want us to be?
He wants us to be people who know when to mourn, when it's appropriate to mourn.
What does he want us to be?
He wants us to be meek, right?
Not arrogant, pride-filled, puffed up.
What does he want us to be?
He wants us to be people who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
He wants us to be people who are merciful.
He wants us to be pure in heart.
He wants us to be peacemakers and inevitably we're going to be persecuted for righteousness
sake because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Now there are eight points in the Beatitudes.
You strive to be like point one, point two, point three, point four, point five, point
six, point seven.
You don't strive for point eight because point eight is the natural result of carrying out
points one through seven.
So work on points one through seven, do all those things, obey the word of God and point
eight will be a result of that.
And when you're going through that suffering and persecution and you get down, then just
realize wait a minute, this is a blessing.
This is the blessing of God.
So what the world thinks is success and happiness is not real folks.
It's an illusion.
It will not satisfy you.
God is giving you a recipe for true blessedness, true beatification, true happiness is right
here in the Beatitudes.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Thank you for this great sermon that you preached.
Of course, we only scratched the surface of it this morning with just the intro to the
sermon that you gave, Lord, but please just help us to learn the Beatitudes and to make
these Christian virtues that we find in the Beatitudes, to make them a part of our character
and to make them a description of who we are as your people.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.