(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Father's Day, we pray that you go back to God with the Holy Spirit, and that you lay down the heart of the heart, and that you limit the tractors, and that you do so today. Amen. All right, amen. Well, we are done obviously with the Father's Day series. What a blessing that was. We're going to start a new series this morning called the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to take some time and go through the Sermon on the Mountain. I know before the Father's Day series I was doing some stuff about my dad, lessons I learned from living with a zombie. So the way that's going to work is we'll kind of come back and forth to those throughout the year. And the same with this, next week I've got something else planned, so we'll kind of just play it by ear. I've got a schedule, but some things have come up and some new ideas, so I've got to figure out how to work those things into my preaching schedule. But with that being said, we're in Matthew chapter number 5. If you would, just for context, let's go back to Matthew chapter number 4 real quick, because we need to understand some things. So the title of the sermon this morning is Don't Mess with the Blessed. Don't Mess with the Blessed. And obviously the topic this morning is what's called the Beatitudes. Who's ever heard that term? Everybody in here has heard that, right? The Beatitudes, exactly. What does that mean? That means blessedness, right? And we're going to get into that here in a moment. We're going to talk about that, what that means, what that doesn't mean. But the first thing that we need to understand as we go through Matthew chapter 5 is context. Who is around? Who is Jesus talking to? Who is this meant for? What does all of this stuff mean? For example, why does he just start off with the blessedness, right? Why does he just start this sermon off? Have you ever wondered that? Well, I'm going to give you the answer to that this morning, because these are important things that you need to understand and you need to know. Because right now, you know, we've got a bunch of people protesting in our church, you know, for obvious reasons. And the main reason is because most people do not understand the Bible. They do not understand the Word of God. And the first thing that I want to bring up before I even start is Matthew chapter number 5 is not a checklist to verify whether or not you're saved, okay? There's one checklist, and that's the answer of a good conscience. Have you placed your faith on Christ, right? The Bible says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus is the one that took away the sin, not you, not me, not us, okay? Salvation or righteousness is imputed unto us. It is freely given unto us if we accept it. So you have to understand these things as we go through the Sermon on the Mount over the coming weeks. But again, just for context purposes here, you kind of need to know your way around the Bible. Like, for example, last week, this guy who's saying out there that I preach clan Jesus, right? You know, he tried to challenge me and say, you know, I want you to read through the Sermon on the Mount and fast and tell me one thing you're doing on there. Well, I can tell you multiple things I'm doing on there and multiple things you aren't doing on there, okay? But furthermore, you know, I was like, okay, I'll do that for you. What chapter does the Sermon on the Mount take place in? He's like, you tried changing the subject. No, what chapter? Okay, what chapter of the Bible is that? Well, I don't know the numbers. Hold on for a second here. You're going to walk up and challenge me to something? And you don't even know what chapter of the Bible you're talking about? That's a disgrace. That's disgusting, okay? And things like that should never be said about God's people. And if you just listen to the filth that comes out of their mouths, you'll know right away they are not God's people. The vileness, rather, is what I'm talking about. Okay, so back up. Matthew chapter number four. So if you're familiar with this, this will be repeat. If not, we'll just give you the context here. At the beginning of Matthew chapter number four, you have Satan tempting the Lord Jesus Christ. And how does the Lord respond to him? With scripture every single time. Why is that important? Because that is how we defeat the enemy, okay? The weapons of our warfare today are not carnal, okay? We're not interested in taking up arms to go out and conquer the world, you know, kind of like they were doing in the Old Testament, okay? That was for a different time period. Our weapons are spiritual. It takes place in the pulpit and in the pew. Both are very important, and you'll see that next week if you listen to my sermon that I'm going to be preaching in Arizona. But, again, let's look at Matthew chapter four, verse number 23. So after the temptation of Jesus, after he obviously rebukes the devil with scripture, the devil flees for a season, now what's going on is Jesus begins his ministry, and he's going around and he's teaching. Look at verse 23. The Bible says this, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. Okay? And when it says all there, it means all. Jesus is healing the sickness of people who are not saved, right there in infirmity, but he's also healing people physically, okay? Why is he doing this? Well, these were signs confirming, okay? Remember what the Bible says, that the Jew requires a sign. The Jew seeks after a sign, and he's doing these things as a testimony that he's not like other people, okay? Because, think about it, these people here, and people throughout all time, people right now, are suffering from physical ailments, okay? And here you have someone show up on the scene, he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom, which is the same gospel, okay? There's not different gospels. People were saved in the Old Testament the same way that they're saved today, okay? By believing on God, by calling upon the name of the Lord. Only, obviously, in the Old Testament, they didn't know the Lord Jesus, so they wouldn't call on him, but they would call upon the God of Israel, okay? That's what he's doing. He's saying, repent. If you read the chapter, he says, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. What does that mean? Well, the first thing you have to understand is that the word repent does not have emotional connotations to it, okay? It's not just feeling sorry. Repent means to change your mind. You type that word into your Bible software, and you'll see that God repents more than anyone in the Bible. Does God have sin? Absolutely not. He doesn't. What does that mean? It means he's changing his course of direction, just like when he sent Jonah to Nineveh, right? Sent Jonah preaching the good word, preaching the warnings to those people. They believed, they changed their direction, they said, you know what? We're going to stop doing whatever it is we're doing, and we're going to actually believe this prophet here, and it says that God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto the city. So when Jesus is here teaching people to repent, he's saying, hey, you need to change your mind. Change your direction. You guys are trusting in this false human achievement religion, which teaches that you're saved or you're justified based on your works, which has never been true, which is not true, because no one has the capability to do that. And so it says he's teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness. Look at verse 24. And as a result of this, look what it says. And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. Again, that's going to cause fame. That's going to cause you to get popular very quickly. You know, you say again, what's the point of that? Why do we need to know and understand that? Well, think about this. We have entire denominations today. You've got mega churches where they have a pastor that gets up and calls people forward and does a prayer on them and touches them on the forehead and says, you know what, you're healed now. What's the result of that? Well, the result of that is people not understanding the Bible, people trusting in man, because those healings are fake. It's obvious, right? It's always like, oh, you had a little twinge in your knee this morning. How's that feel? Oh, you had a little headache. Oh, guess what? And you're healed, right? You don't see these Pentecostal preachers, what I'm talking about. You don't see them going down to the hospitals and actually healing and curing people. If you did, their fame would be abroad. It would be like is described in this chapter here. Multitudes of people would be following them. Now, they do have crowds following Pentecostal preachers today, but largely it's just to see the show. It's just to see the theatrics and so on and so forth, okay? Verse 25, it says, and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond Jordan. So it's not just the Jew necessarily that is following him here. His fame is literally going throughout the entire region. All types of people are hearing about the wonderful things that he's doing, okay? Now, go to Matthew chapter number five and we'll pick it up in verse number one. So again, there followed him great multitudes of people and then right away. So again, just because you're in a new chapter doesn't mean a new thought, doesn't mean a new subject. It says and, right? So it's connecting the end of verse 25 in chapter number four. So again, what's going on here? We have the multitudes following Jesus. Why? Because of his fame. Why is he being famous? Well, it's because he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom, but more so because of the healings, okay? More so because of the miracles. That's what the people are drawn to here, okay? Now, look at verse one. It says, and seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, okay? Look at verse two. And he opened his mouth and taught them saying, okay? Keep your place there. We're going to come right back to it, but go to chapter number seven. Go to Matthew chapter number seven real quick. Okay, so, so far you need to have some things in place before you start reading the Sermon on the Mount, okay? Who are the main characters in the story here? Well, you have Jesus. He's the one doing the teaching. You have the multitudes, and you have the disciples, okay? So you have those three here. And when you're reading verse one and two, it almost seems like he's just talking to the disciples, okay? And I'll clear that up for you here in a second. So at the end of this teaching here, at the end of the sermon here, Matthew seven, look at verse 28. Look at what this says. It says, and it came to pass when Jesus had ended these things, the people were astonished at his doctrine. So notice what's going on here. It doesn't just say the disciples, does it? No, it says, and the people were astonished at his doctrine. Why were they astonished? Why were they drawn to this? Look at verse 29. For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes, okay? Now go back, if you would, to Matthew chapter number five. Now, another thing that I want to establish before we move on here is that the Sermon on the Mount here is not like double inspiration. It doesn't, you know, it's not like it contradicts the rest of the Bible, okay? That's what the world is trying to do to this church right now. That's what these people are out there saying amongst the other filth and vile things that's coming out of their mouths. But they're saying you don't have love. You don't follow the Sermon on the Mount. You don't know anything about love. You don't know anything about coexisting and taking care of people and all of the things that you guys commonly hear, okay? But we'll get into that here in a moment. So quick review. What are we dealing with here? We're dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, okay? He's the one doing the teaching. We're also dealing with a multitude of people that are following him, okay? And we're dealing with the disciples. Now the disciples here are the ones that are getting the teaching, right? They're the ones that we know are saved. They were chosen by him. They were to absorb these things so that the Holy Ghost later on would come and extract them from their deep memory banks so that they could preach and teach these things in the process of starting up New Testament churches, okay? So again, these things are not a checklist, okay? Let me just do another quick review before we get started. These things are not a checklist to see whether or not a person is saved. A person is saved by faith, okay? They are not saved by works. They are not saved by probation, okay? We talk about this all the time. That is the first thing that you need to make sure you explain to people when they try to take you here and debate you or have a conversation with you, right? You need to understand that this is not a checklist on how to be saved. And the second thing that we need to understand here is why does he start off with what's called the Beatitudes, with these blessings? What's the point here? Well, think about what he just got done doing. He just got done healing the sick and the lunatic, I mean, just the people that have all different types of sickness, right? And these people are following him because they want to see a show, okay? And so what does he do? He starts off teaching them what true blessing is like, okay? He's teaching the disciples, okay? Understand that. He's teaching the disciples doctrine, deep doctrine. But he's also speaking to the crowd. He's also speaking to the multitude. And he wants them to understand, hey, though you've seen these miracles, though you've seen people get healed, so on and so forth, that's not what life is about. This is being done for a special, specific purpose, okay? That is his point. And then he's going to begin to teach us what it really means to be blessed. And again, the title of the sermon is Don't Mess with the Blessed. You might be thinking, well, or else what? Well, what I really mean by that is we don't want to be messing with ourselves when it comes to blessings. As God's people, we need to realize and understand when we are truly blessed, okay? And I'll tell you right now, this church is blessed. And you're going to see that as we go through these things, okay? Now, obviously, if Christ were to come back right now and heal Vic of being a lunatic, I'm just kidding. We would all rejoice. But you get the point here, right? Real blessings are what he is teaching us here in this chapter. So we're not going through the whole chapter today. Again, we'll come back. We're just going to focus on what's called the Beatitudes or the blessings, okay? So with that out of the way, why start with the blessings? Well, obviously, it's to teach us the truth. So let's look at verse number three here. So verse number three, first thing up says this. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, okay? Keep your place there, but go to Psalm chapter number 51. Psalm chapter number 51. So quick question. Jesus says, okay, hey, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What does that mean? What can we take from that statement? You know, some of you might be thinking, well, what's going on here? Like, if we're indwelt with the Spirit of God, you know, if we're indwelt with the Holy Ghost, why in His, you know, wisdom is unsearchable, His riches are eternal, they're everlasting. What does that mean to be poor in spirit? Well, you're going to see that here in just a second, okay? Again, the world gets this wrong, okay? The world thinks, oh, you know, if you're just, you never have any confrontation with anyone, you just never stand up for yourself, you're just always taking a beating, you're just a super weak, I mean, meek person, then that means that you're saved and that means that you're really blessed. That's not what he's talking about here, okay? Poor here simply means distressed, okay? You're going to see that all of these things are the opposite of pride, okay? That is what it is. Psalm chapter 51, look at verse 17. So the Bible says this. It says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, thou wilt not despise. Go to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter number 16. It kind of keeps something in this neighborhood because we're going to go to the Psalms and Proverbs a lot this morning. So the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. Now, does that mean we need to be like a monk and just always serious and just, you know, inflicting punishment or something like that to ourselves? No, not at all. But here's the thing. If you live the Christian life in a disciple mode, which is obviously what God wants, you know, we're saved unto good works. We're saved so that we can do good works because apart from salvation, any good works that are done are dead works. They are nothing. That's what the Bible teaches. Our works without Christ are as filthy rags. That is what the Bible teaches, okay? But the Bible says here in Psalm 51 that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. So think about this, you know? We have, you know, various times throughout the week where we go sowing. You know, you guys are taking care of families. You're reading the Bible. You're praying. You're literally offering up spiritual sacrifices all the time. And guess what? It's a spiritual sacrifice now even more to come to this church. Why? Because of these clowns out here making it difficult, yelling, driving through the parking lot and honking, trying to intimidate, trying to bully us, right? Think about that, you know? If you can learn to endure that, if you can learn to just brush that off and rejoice in that and realize that you're more blessed in this situation right now in this church than you would be if you got healed from a migraine, if you got healed from a broken leg, or you got healed from some crazy disease, right? Because the blessings that you get from this, from being poor in spirit, are eternal, right? They transcend this life. They go on into the eternal, which is what really matters. That's what is important for the believer, okay? So when Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit, hey, blessed are the people that are not full of pride, right? And if you are following Christ as a disciple after salvation, which is what he wants, guess what? You're going to have several moments where you're poor in spirit, okay? The things that these people say are going to make you poor in spirit. They're going to break your heart because they are disgusting, because they are filthy, because they are vile. These people are full of lies, is what they are, out there saying that we preach clan Jesus. I mean, this just blows me away because most of this church, when everybody's here, are brown or dark skin, you know? And it's like, how are you going to sit there? Like this guy comes up to Kevin last week, and I'm never going to forget this. And he looks at me and says, you preach clan Jesus. And I look at Kevin and I'm like, Kevin, you're black. You know, why are you coming to this church, you know? And that guy proceeds to tell Kevin he's not really black. A white guy telling a black guy he's not black. How does that work? Hey, blessed are the poor in spirit. Proverbs 16, look at verse 19. Look what this says, better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud, okay? That is what the Lord is talking about. That type of attitude here, right? Now look, obviously there is a time to love. There is a time to hate. There is a time for peace. There is a time for war. Solomon tells us that in Ecclesiastes. We get that. We understand that. But overall, we want to seek to be a humble people because when we're not, what's the result? Strife every single time, right? And people say, well, you brought all this stuff on yourself. Look, all I did was preach the Bible. That's all I did. I preached the Bible a month ago. Someone found it. Put it out there on social media. And next thing you know, we're on the news and we're the most hated church in the entire state. It is what it is. I didn't go asking for this. I just preached the Bible and let whatever happens, happens. Go to Proverbs chapter number 29. So understand here, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, okay? What does that mean? That means that you are blessed when you are going through these situations that break your heart, that cause you to be poor in spirit, to have a sad countenance. But again, all throughout the Bible, all throughout the Psalms and the Proverbs, better it is to be of an humble spirit than with the lowly, right? That's the big draw today. That's the big problem today for a lot of Christian people, right? Is they come for a little while and then all of a sudden the world starts calling and starts tugging and hey, do you really need to go there all the time? Every week? Do you really need to do this? Do you really need to do that? Look at what you're missing out on. Look at all the spoil. Look at all the riches that you're missing out on. And you guys know as well as I do, a lot of people unfortunately that are saved, that are Christians just kind of fall into that route, right? Are they blessed being poor in spirit at that moment? No, they're not because they've decided to seek after Mammon. They have decided to seek. Now they have a loss of salvation because that's impossible. But the point is they are no longer living that blessed life. They have exchanged that for what the world teaches as a blessing, which is having an abundance of goods, okay? Now of course it feels great to be able to afford to buy the things that you want. As long as you understand, you can have those things as long as they don't have you, okay? Proverbs chapter number 29. Look what this says here, verse 23. It says, So we need a purpose in our hearts as much as possible to let go of pride. That's why it's anti-pride month at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. We are the resistance in this state. I'm not trying to be arrogant. I'm not trying to be proudful. Look, we don't go out there and pick at people. We don't go to their clinics. We don't go to their bars. We don't yell things at them, right? We're not trying to harass them. They're harassing us, okay? But what is that? You know what that is? That is an honorable thing. We're here every week. We're here every Sunday. We're here every Sunday night. We're here every Wednesday. We've got soul winning. This is what we are about, okay? And so I said it last week and I'll say it again. We own those people. Those people belong to us. God has, you know what God's doing? He's literally, through our humility and through just preaching the word and realizing, hey, it's not us that are proud. He is literally putting them under our feet and displaying that to the entire world and the world that we can't see. And you say, how does that work? Think about it. Look, I woke up this morning and it was like 15 missed calls, eight missed text messages. I said it last week and I'll say it again today. These people can't sleep because of this church. We own you. You belong to us, right? And we are in Christ. The kingdom of heaven is here. And guess what? The things that they do, the things that they say do cause us from time to time to experience a broken and contrite spirit, a broken heart. But you know what? In that, you have to know this, that you are blessed. That that blessing is eternal. That blessing they cannot take away from you, okay? Now think about this here. Talking about this being humble and being meek. Let's talk about Moses for a second here, okay? What does the Bible say about Moses? He was the meekest man alive, right? Here's the kicker about Moses. Moses actually murdered somebody. Think about that. Now I'm not advocating murder, okay? Don't clip that and put that on social media, okay? Just making sure we don't go down that road. The point is he was still able to lead with authority, okay? He was a great man of God, but yet we still read about him losing his cool. He didn't get to see the promised land. He murdered that Egyptian. I mean, he had his issues, okay? You say, why bring this up? Because we're still gonna have our issues, okay? Understand that. Those things are in the Bible to comfort us, right? Because guess what? Tomorrow you're gonna say, think, or do something and be like, man, if anyone ever saw that, they wouldn't even think I was saved, you know? We are sinners. We are all sinners. We have issues, okay? And that's not to say that we're all vile. So go back to Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter number five. So again, verse number three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So understand you will have these emotions of a broken spirit, of a contrite heart because you're sacrificing spiritual sacrifices unto the Lord, but the point in the teaching here is very, very simple. Your rewards, your wages are far exceeding what you're giving up here on this life, in this world is what I'm trying to say, okay? Look at verse number four. Let's move on. So next he says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Well, all of us have to mourn from time to time, okay? But really, you know, if you ever wanna get a glimpse of what that looks like, go read Revelation chapter 21. Verse four to be specific, what does the Bible say? That God will wipe away all tears from our eyes, okay? That day is coming, so when you are sad, when you are mourning, when you have experienced loss, understand it's only temporary. That pain is temporary, it will go away and you will be comforted. Look, these are promises, these are guarantees. The world cannot understand the Bible, okay? They cannot understand the Bible. Yeah, they can read the English language but they cannot get these concepts. They cannot digest these things. Look at verse number five. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The Jehovah Witness's favorite verse right there. You know, Saul winning, a lot of times they'll come up to you and they'll say, who shall inherit the earth? Yeah, it's like the meek and that's not you, okay? End of story. And by the way, it says meek, not weak, okay? Because seriously, we're being told today that we just need to have, look, somebody has mailed me this letter twice this week and I shared it with Brother David yesterday before, Sauling. It's like this five-page pamphlet, okay? And I'm not even gonna read it all. But it basically says, you know, you're going to hell if you have a gun, okay? If you have a concealed carry, if you defend yourself in any way, if you stick up for yourself verbally, physically, any of that stuff, you're wrong and you're basically going to hell and every, you know, every Baptist preacher in America or whatever has this problem and blah, blah, blah. It's in the trash. You're not gonna be able to read it. But that basically sums it up, okay? Look, that movement out there is growing, okay? There are people out there pushing that and saying that and some of these people out there are yelling that, you know? They want Genesis 19. They want the right and the privilege to murder and pillage whoever comes across their path. That's the ultimate goal. That's what they want. We've already seen that. Go read Genesis 19. Go read Judges 19. Go study the kings and just understand and get some discernment and learn what a wicked person is and what their agenda is and what they are about and it won't be a shock to you. It won't be a surprise to you. In fact, you will learn, hey, guess what? The meek shall inherit the earth. He doesn't say the weak shall inherit the earth because the weak person is a fearful person and the last time I checked from reading Revelation, fearful people have a real hard time getting saved, don't they? Is there, well, if I believe on Christ and that means, you know, I'm gonna be different and, you know, my family's gonna reject me, right? Isn't that what the Lord talked about, right? That's how people are. We don't want to be like that, the meek. Moses was meek but he was still strong. He was still, I would say he's still a man after God's own heart, you know? Definitely I would say that. Okay, so we're gonna leave off there. Go to verse number six here. Look at what verse number six says. It says this. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. We're gonna spend some time coming back and talking about righteousness, okay? Remember, the Bible says Noah was a preacher of righteousness, okay? Now, what does Romans 3 10 say? There's none righteous, okay? Well, we're gonna connect that. We're gonna talk about that here. We'll come back to that concept here in a moment. Look at verse seven. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain. They shall obtain mercy. I mean, that is so true even in this life, right? Right, we don't ever wanna be the kind of Christians that we're just like going around and just hammering each other. Hey, did you read five chapters today? Why not? What's going on with you? You backslide? You know, having that kind of holier-than-thou attitude, right? Right, keep your holiness to yourself. Be a living epistle, okay? That's how you lead people. That's how you inspire people, right? Not by auditing everyone. Oh, you're not wearing this. You're not doing it. No, no, no, we don't wanna be like that, okay? Look, show some mercy, okay? Look, I tell you, God has been super merciful to me since I've moved here. And I've done some stupid things. I've made some bad decisions. And God's had mercy on me to the point where I'm like, okay, I get it. You know, so I quit messing with people, you know? Just say, hey, I'm just gonna leave you alone. You do what you wanna do, okay? So that's the application there. Look at verse eight. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. So who is this written to here, ultimately? Who is this spoken to? Who is this truly meant for? The saved, right? Because Jesus told us that, you know, man, apart from Christ, his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. You know, I mean, who can know it, right? I mean, you read that in the Old Testament. You read that same principle throughout the entire gospels, right? So it's that new heart. It's that new man that he's talking about, okay? What does that mean? Guess what? That means that if you're not saved, you're not gonna see God, unless it's at the great white throne judgment, right before he tosses you into the lake of fire. How many people understand that? So somebody says, hey, name one thing that you're doing for me, you know, that you're doing for Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. Well, this is your answer. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Everybody who's saved is pure in heart because that righteousness that we don't have inherently, that we have not earned because we can't earn it, was imputed onto us the moment we believed and got saved. Okay? So guess what? We're all doing that. The problem is they aren't. And so therefore they do not understand these concepts and the Bible. Go to Psalm chapter number 27. Psalm chapter number 27. You know, on your own time, we don't have time to read the entire chapter and break it down. I wish we did. But if you read all of Psalm chapter 27 and you read Matthew chapter five, six, and seven, I mean, it fits like a glove. There's just so much there. We could spend months on it, but again, we just don't have the time. But let's look at a couple of things here. So verse eight of Matthew five says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. That is talking to the safe. That is talking to the Christian, the believers. So Psalm chapter 27, I want you to see this here. Look at verse number eight. Look what this says. So the Psalmist here says this, When thou saidst, seek ye my face. My heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. The question is, is that our attitude today? Or are we just out there seeking the spoil from the world? Look at verse nine. Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, Oh, God and me are a team of salvation. A lot of people have that attitude. Well, it's a team effort. Salvation is a team effort. You turn from all your sins. You completely just renew yourself. And then he saves you. That's blasphemy. There's no way to prove that from the Bible. That is not true, right? He says, Oh, God of my salvation. Now, who do you think wrote this here? Somebody who actually understood what it was like to be saved physically through many situations, right? From Saul, right? From the Philistines. From all kinds of enemies. And somebody who obviously desired to see other people saved. Because if you were with us when we studied Samuel, you'll see that David's influence and David's seeking after God's own heart caused a lot of people that didn't grow up in the nation of Israel to actually be saved. We don't have time to look into that, but that's a characteristic of David. Look at verse 10. It says this. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. How is that not? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Look, you decide to serve Christ, believe the Bible, you're gonna lose some people. The odds are against you. You're probably gonna lose some friends, you're gonna probably lose some family members, and you're probably gonna lose some neighbors and just regular people out in the community. It's going to happen to you. But that's okay. Look at verse 10. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. That can only happen to the pure in heart. And again, how do you become pure in heart? By being saved. That's the only way. The Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We have nothing to do with it. It's too late. You're a sinner. We are sinners. Therefore, the only way we can be pure in heart is for him to have saved us. Keep your place there, right there in Psalm 27. Go to Matthew 5 again. Let's look at this next verse here. Now, everything that I'm talking about this morning is gonna hinge off of what we are about to read and what we are about to really, truly understand here, which if you've been around a while, you know it's gonna be the bottom line. Look at Matthew 5 and look at verse number 9. And look what he says next. So after the pure in heart, look what he says. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Okay? Guess what? People love to just take that out. Blessed are the peacemakers, and your sermon wasn't peaceful, who here thinks that the book of Jude's peaceful? I think it is. What about Revelation? What about Matthew chapter 23? What about Genesis 19? Judges 19? The entire Bible is peaceful, okay? And you'll see what I'm talking about here in a moment. But blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. It is no secret. Go to Psalm chapter 28. It's no secret. Go to Psalm chapter 28. It's no secret that we are called to try to live peaceful among men whenever possible. I get that. You get that. We all understand that. But what does that mean, and what does this look like here? Blessed are the peacemakers. Would it be said of Shield of Faith Baptist Church, hey, you guys are peacemakers. Well, let's take a look here. Psalm 28, look at verse number 3. It says this. Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which, notice this, speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts, okay? Go to Psalm chapter number 29. Understand this, guys. Peace is greatly misunderstood in the world today. I'll be honest. Most people that are Christians that are saved, they have no idea what this means. What is the concept of peace? Because as you just read from Psalm 28, verse 3, right, draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors. So you have a peace that's taught out in the world, but then you have the peace that we are taught in the Word of God, and they are polar opposites. They are completely different. So you can see that the peace that is spoken of in the world, it's talked to their neighbors, okay? Very important, because not every man alive, not every woman alive is our neighbor in the Bible. All those verses in Hebrews, and we've spent time talking about this, right, our neighbor is our fellow brother and sister in Christ, okay? And before, I mean, this is the last church in this state that you could say doesn't love their neighbor anyways, their physical neighbor, because we go out and knock on people's doors every single week and try to give them the gospel, okay? We're not out there knocking on people's doors and trying to preach to them Leviticus 2013, okay? I just put that on the voicemail because, you know, hey, why not? It worked for steadfast, it's gotta work for us too, okay? But again, you have this peace in the world, and what's their peace? You know, love, joy, no hate, okay? No hate. Well, as soon as you say that, no hate, that means you can't hate wickedness. That means you can't hate evil, right? But what did the psalmist say? Draw me not away with the wicked. That's a judgment. Understand, that is a judgment to say that, right? Those people do not get that. Those people do not understand that. Look at Psalm 29, verse number 11. The Lord will give strength unto his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace, okay? What does that mean? That means that the peace that we need to have comes from him. It comes from understanding, for example, the Bible, especially what we're talking about this morning. The beatitudes, the blessedness, it all centers around peace. But here's the thing, right? You read verse three, four, five, six, seven, you're reading all these beatitudes, right? And when you really think and you study and you compare scripture with scripture, it's all about finding peace in a wicked world. It's finding peace amongst adversity, in warfare, if you will. Look, the Lord will give strength unto his people, right? So we need to understand that the peace of God is strength, okay? What gives us courage? Why do we keep coming back to this church? Why do we keep reading the Bible? Why do we keep drawing that line in the sand? It's because God has given us strength, which is peace. But do you understand it? Do you know what that means? Do you realize the severity of this? Go to Psalm chapter 34. I'll keep explaining this. This is the kicker right here. Psalm 34, look at verse 14. The Bible says this. Depart from evil. Psalm 34, 14. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Now hold on for a second here. The peace of the world says you can't hate anybody. That's how you've arrived at peace. You hate no one, you hate nothing. But wait a second here. Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, meaning you have to make it, okay? You have to understand it. You have to be given it. It's your strength. They shall be called the children of God. This says, depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. That means this, and this is the whole point of the sermon. You cannot enter into peace without departing from evil. You cannot enter into peace without departing from evil. So when people are throwing their slurs at you, you're hateful, you're judgmental, you're this, you're that. You know what? This is you. You're at peace. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Guess what? Peacemakers take the word of God and they preach it. They stand upon it, okay? Why? Because we are called unto righteousness. Righteousness is not just salvation. Righteousness is God's moral standards, his judgments, right? His things that are justifiable. And this verse here in Psalm 34 says, depart from evil. That's what we've done. That's what we are about. We don't want to yoke up with these crazy churches. You know this church over here, this compelling church? They have welcomed these people to park in their parking lot so that they can have ease of access to come and harass us. But you know what? That's okay. We are still at peace. We still have strength. You say, why? Because you know what? All we did was depart from evil. All we said is, hey, the Bible says that these people are wicked. They're not allowed in here. End of story. It is what it is. If Jesus were literally ruling and reigning right now, they would not be allowed to even exist. That is Bible doctrine. I did not write that. I just preached it. And in preaching that, our church said, you know what? We're going to depart from evil. We're not going to embrace pride. You know, one of the people that were harassing us last week, these young girls, they were like, well, the church across the street gave us pride flags. And you and him, they worship the same God. No, no, we don't. No, but we certainly don't worship the same God as these Episcopalians. We have different gods. Our God says, hey, depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. But here's the thing. You cannot enter into peace without departing from evil, without knowing how to discern good and evil and how to stand up against it properly. And you do that by the word of God. Right? Again, we're not the ones going into these bars and blowing the places up and shooting everybody. I heard there was a shooting in Norway a couple days ago. You know, somebody went to a sodomite bar and just blew a couple people out and shot like, I don't know, like 30 people or something like that. Yeah. You know, it's like, well, you know, that's how the Islamists do it. I mean, but that's not our calling, right? You know, that's not our calling. But here's the thing. I feel like we've drawn more attention just preaching the Bible than that guy has, you know, doing what he did. That's crazy. But that's the word of God. That's how this battle was meant to be fought. Now, let me also say this, okay? My bottom line is this. You cannot enter to peace without departing from evil. That does not mean that you're not gonna sin. That does not mean you aren't gonna make mistakes. That does not mean you're not gonna yell at your wife, you're not gonna yell at your husband, you're not gonna lose your cool from time to time. Those things will happen. The question is, what side are you on? That's, I mean, that's what's going on here. Are you on the side of evil or are you on the side of good? That's the question. And when you have departed from evil mentally, that's what God accepts. I mean, think about Moses. It would be said of Moses, hey, he departed from evil. It would be said about David, hey, he departed from evil. But both of those guys did some crazy stuff that no one in here has ever done. You know what I mean? Think about that for a second. Depart from evil. Whose side are you on? Okay, Psalm chapter 37. Go to Psalm chapter number 37. Look what this says here. Verse 11. It says, but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Okay? We can, isn't it crazy? We don't have to take up arms and go into people's bars and blow them out. All we have to do is be meek, believe the word of God, stand upon it, preach it, receive that peace, that strength from God, and guess what? The battle fights itself. God fights for us. But the result will be, we will inherit the earth. When the new heavens and the new earth appear, the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven from the Lord God, guess what? We will be a part of that. And it's not because of our merits. It's because we decided to believe. We decided to become part of that group of people that are the pure in heart by putting our faith and trust on him. Go to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Go deep into that book too. We're gonna go to verse 165, okay? Go to Psalm 119. I'm gonna show you how to apply this in your life, okay? Very important here. This is the verse of the month, I guess. I don't know. It's one of my favorite verses. Psalm 119, look at verse 165. What are we doing? We are talking about peace. What is the peace of the world? What is the peace from God? Okay, you're starting to see that. The peace from God calls for action. It calls for judgment. It calls for a departure of evil and all manner of wickedness, okay? But look, this will keep you safe. Psalm 119, verse 165. What does it say? Great peace have they which love thy law. And what else? And nothing shall offend them. Okay? You know what that tells me today? That most of these snowflakes out here today absolutely do not have peace and they definitely don't love God's law. So when these people come at you and they say, hey, oh, I'm a born again Christian and I think what you're doing is hateful and I'm gonna get your picture and I'm gonna put it all over town so the people know who you are. Guess what? They are lying to you, okay? They are not saved. They do not have great peace and they do not love the law of God. You need to love the law of God which is Genesis to Revelation. The entire Bible, okay, that is the law of God. Everything works like it's supposed to. It fits together like a glove. It fits together like a puzzle. But the Bible says great peace have they which love thy law. You know, sometimes people ask, how you doing out there? We're doing great. We're doing awesome. Nothing can shake us. Why? Because we love God's law. And that law, that love rather for the law gives us peace. It gives us comfort, right? It takes away anxiety. No one in here should be having anxiety because of this, okay? No, no, no, we own them. They work for us. When we're here, they're here, right? When we speak peace, they speak vile. They work for us. We own these people, okay? Think about that. Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. Go to Psalm chapter 120. Psalm chapter 120. Look at verse seven. What does that say? I am for peace but when I speak, they are for war, okay? So the peace that comes from God, I'll say it again, it requires judgment. It requires firmness. It requires confrontation from time to time. The world, they hear that. They don't like that. No, no, no. No, don't judge anyone. And love thy neighbor and love is kind and love is love. That's all they know. That's it. Oh, and Sermon on the Mount, okay? Type in Sermon on the Mount in your Bible software, your King James Bible software. It's not gonna come up, okay? It's a title that we gave, that man gave to the passage and I don't have a problem with it but I'm just simply saying they don't understand the word of God. I am for peace. Look, our church is for peace but we're for the peace that comes from God, right? We're not about compromising. You know that lady that wrote that article? She wrote this article a couple days ago and, you know, just keep messaging, you know. How come you haven't met with the interfaith coalition like you said you would? First of all, I didn't say I was gonna meet with them. I said if they send somebody to me that knows the Bible, we'll sit down and talk. I'll explain my position. I was like but I'm not backing down from anyone ever. I said no one in our church will back down from anyone ever. We aren't doing anything wrong. We have the peace of God and the Bible says blessed are the peacemakers. We are making peace. I am for peace but when I speak, they are for war. They are for war, right? That denotes truth. That denotes power. That denotes judgment. That requires a departure from the circuit of the world which is evil, okay? We need to understand these things. Go to Matthew chapter 5 again. So hopefully that makes sense. The peace that is described in the Bible is different than the peace that is in the world. Their peace is as long as they get what they want, then they're happy. That's peace to them and they want to force that on us and we're not going to take it. We're not going to accept that. We're going to keep preaching the Bible, the whole counsel of God and keep moving forward. That is what we are called to do. We are not called to be cowards. We are not called to be discouraged. We are called to be strong, okay? So let's move on now and go back to the subject of righteousness, okay? Look at what this says in verse 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, okay? Keep your place there but go to Matthew 14. Matthew 14. So again, what is righteousness? First of all, how do you get righteous? Yeah, it's imputed unto you. Romans chapter 4, very clear. It is not something that you have earned. If that's your answer, oh, I'm righteous because I earned it, wrong. We need to have a conversation, okay? We need to get you saved because the Bible is clear. Righteousness is imputed unto you. It is given unto us by believing, by being born again, by being converted, okay? I don't have time to preach the whole gospel right now but you understand the point. It's not something that we earn. But what does it say? Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, okay? This I would say is a mild persecution. I say mild because, you know, we're not like in Acts chapter 10, 11, 12, 13, right? No, we still have our rights from the government, you know? And unfortunately today, the sad state that this country is in, people are mad about that. So, Idaho Press just wrote that article that said, I forgot what the title was, but they quoted a rabbi in the article, okay? And this rabbi is like, you know, Jones' sermons are problematic and the only reason he can say those things is because of free speech. Hey, where's the outcry for that, Idaho Patriots, huh? Idaho Freedom Foundation, where are you at on that statement? Why isn't that in the news? That's communism is what that is. That is wicked is what that is. That is filth, that is disgusting. Oh no, my sermons are problematic and they are. And they are. And they should be because we are peacemakers. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. That's not just for the pastor, that is for everybody in here. That is for you, that is for the church, that is for all of us, okay? But going back to this, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, right? Preaching the Bible has brought a little persecution to our church. It is what it is. But understand, hey, it's time to start leaping for joy. It's time to rejoice. Because we, not just me, we, our church, because you stand for this, we stand for this. We are literally being rewarded in eternal places that we can't even see right now. Don't forget that, don't ever lose sight of that, okay? I want to show you something here. John the Baptist. What hill did John the Baptist die on? Calling out wickedness. Yeah, calling out political wickedness, that's right. Look at this here. Matthew 14, look at verse number 3. So the Bible says this, it says, for Herod had laid hold on John. So he's just recapping. At this point in the chapter, John the Baptist had already been beheaded, but let's just read this. It says, for Herod had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother, Philip's wife. Now the Bible says that John the Baptist was a preacher. He was a preacher of righteousness. He preached the gospel, you know? I mean, he paved the way for the Lord Jesus Christ, but look what it says in verse 4. It says this, for John said unto him, it is not lawful for thee to have her. Wait, what is that? You know what that is? That's blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. John the Baptist was preaching righteousness. He was simply saying, hey, dude, your actions, you flaunting around here with your brother's wife, you wanting to give up to half the kingdom because your niece danced for you, that's wrong. And he lost his physical life for it. But it's kind of interesting when you read the rest of chapter 14, Jesus just goes on about his business. Why is that? Because his is the kingdom of heaven. John didn't go anywhere. He just changed locations. He didn't die. Saved. All he did was change locations. Still talking, still thinking, still worshiping God. Don't fear them which can kill the body. That is the point. Look at verse 5. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet. Go back to Matthew chapter number 5. Let's look at verse 10 again. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Look. Preaching the word of God. The whole book is righteous. Every judgment that God gives is righteous. Now obviously the Bible records things like, I don't know, let's pick Doeg the Edomite. Doeg the Edomite. Who remembers him? He was a guy that when Saul was like, doesn't anybody feel sorry for me? Doeg was like, I do. I'll do whatever you want. I feel sorry for you. He's like, good. Kill all these priests. Doeg does it. Does that mean God endorsed that? No. Of course not. It's just telling you what happened. Right? But you know what? Whatever Doeg got later in his life was righteous. He deserved that. The punishment that Saul got through circumstances and through his poor decisions, guess what? That was righteous. The whole Bible is righteous. It's God's law. It's what we preach. It's what we believe. That's what we live by. Okay? And what does it say here? Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. So this persecution, you know, don't let people say, you know, is that really the hill you want to die on? Is that the, obviously we're not trying to be stuck on that stuff for forever and a day. We've got a lot of Bible to cover, you know, and we'll have to do it again. But I mean, just understand, yes, John the Baptist lost his life for calling out adultery. Okay? If we lose some friends, if we lose a building, if we lose a car, whatever it is from preaching the righteous and not allowing these wicked people into our services, so be it. We're still blessed beyond measure. That is the application. That is the point. Let's move on. Look at verse 11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. Guess who that is? That's the imperial wizard out here. See, you know, he is saying, oh, you preach clan Jesus. Don't you tell me what Jesus I preach. I'm not up here in a white robe today. Get out of here, man. Go to Psalm 27. We're getting close to being done. Psalm 27. Getting close to being done. Psalm chapter 27. So obviously, you know, Jesus just reinforces verse 10. You know, understand that you're blessed. Understand that when they persecute and they speak all manner of evil against you, hey, guess what? It's time to start getting excited. It's not time to start fearing. It's not time to start backing down. It's not time to hide. No, no, no. No one's going to put us in the closet, okay? The word of God is going to put them in a closet, and it's a hot closet, okay? All right. Psalm 27. Look at verse number 11. Look what he says. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Verse 12. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. That is happening to us right now. I talked to you on Wednesday. The world has a hatred. They just call it love, and their hatred is a cruel hatred. Right now, what they're doing is they're bothering people trying to get into these businesses. I just got a message. That's what they're doing. They're harassed. They will harass anyone that they can to get their way, but you know what? Our prayers deliver me not, verse 12, deliver me not unto the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. All right? I walked outside to see Brother Scoglin. I got here, and these guys are song leading with their fingers up. What's the point? There are kids. There are children out here, and you're saying filthy, vile, wicked things, but don't worry. That's a testimony to them. That proves to you that they are groomers. That's what they are. They are pedophiles. That is what they are. Prove me wrong. Prove me wrong. You can't, and you know you can't. Look at verse 13. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Look, that is powerful. That is key right there. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord. You say, what does that mean? That means the beatitudes, the blessings. If you were blessed today, would you even realize it? Do you even know what that looks like, and it looks like being part of this church right now? Amen. This church is blessed. And our friend churches, you know, all believers, people who believe the Bible, people who don't even believe the same, you know, other doctrines that we believe, right? But they got salvation right. They got the right word of God. You know what? They go through persecution too. Right? There are other Baptist churches that go through persecution. There are churches, you know, there's a small amount of them that aren't Baptist. They have, they don't have the word Baptist. It's just a regular church, but they have the King James Bible. They have the right gospel, and you know what? They get persecuted too. This isn't some denominational type thing. It's about being a Bible-believing Christian, plain and simple. He says, I had fainted. I would have dropped out unless I had believed all the goodness. And so my encouragement for you this morning is for you to understand, hey, you're blessed, but can you see it? Do you understand it? You know, obviously, a temporary blessing would be the last part of Matthew 5 with the healings and stuff. Great, wonderful things. But it doesn't even compare with the opening of the Sermon on the Mount about real, true blessings, which seem to come in the midst of adversity, persecution. Okay? That's where the real blessings are. Look at verse 14. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. This is a plea. He is pleading with you. Hey, don't give up. Don't faint. Learn how you are blessed. Trust this, and guess what? You will find peace, great peace have they, which love they law. We are almost done. Matthew chapter 5. Last verse, we're going to go over verse 12. Matthew chapter number 5. Look at verse number 12. So it all comes down to this. Verse 12 says, rejoice and be exceeding glad. Okay? Why? Because of the persecution. Because of the lies. Because of the misunderstood peace that we preach here. He says this, rejoice and be exceeding glad. This is why we'll have a potluck next Sunday night. This is why we're going to go to Nampa and turn that place upside down next Saturday. Because we are exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Do you get that? Your reward is not here in the now. It is in heaven. It is in eternity, and it is yours forever. It does not rust. It does not corrupt. Moths do not come in and destroy. Bugs don't get inside of it. It is solid. It is eternal. It is directly from God. Rejoice, be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets, which were before you. Last verse, John 4, 36. Last place we're going to go, and we are done. John chapter number 30, or I'm sorry, John 30. Yeah, go to John 30. Go to John chapter 4. John chapter number 4. Look what it says. Verse 36. It says this. And he, this is Jesus speaking here. He says, and he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. I wanted to leave you with the beginning of that verse there. And he that reapeth receiveth wages. All the work that you do for the Lord. The little things you do for each other. The things you do for people out in town. The righteous things that you stand for. You will be compensated for those things. That's why in Matthew 5, 12 it says, Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Right? The problem is, believers get caught up into the world and to the point where they lose sight of that. Okay? The point is, you're blessed when you don't lose sight of verse 12. And again, all of this hinges on this fact right here. You cannot enter into peace without departing from evil. You can't experience verse 12 if you have not understood the peace which comes from God. Again, don't mess with the blessed. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church. Just pray for those that are experiencing allergy symptoms, Lord. And I just pray that you keep us safe. Bring us back tonight safely, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Alright, we're going to sing one final song this morning. Before we head on our ways, we'll head over to song number 411, Hold the Fort. And let's go out singing with all our heart. Amen. Song number 411, Hold the Fort. Oh, my comrades, on the first. Oh, my comrades, see the signal ringing in the sky. The glory of Christ is now appearing. Victory is now appearing.