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I am free as free in Thee, in His joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, in His joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that hath past ever been foretold. I have found the pleasure I once dreamed, in His joy and peace they gave, what a wondrous blessing I am safe from the awful gulf of sin. In His joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, in His joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that hath past ever been foretold. I have found that hope so bright and clear living in the realm of praise, for my Savior's presence is so great I can see His smiling praise. In His joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, in His joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that hath past ever been foretold. I have found the joy no time can tell how the slaves of glory roam. It is like the great earth flowing from springing up within my soul. In His joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory, in His joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that hath past ever been foretold. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, you soldiers of the cross, lift high His royal banner, lift the strikes of her voice. From victory unto victory is our reach, shall we be, till every foe is vanquished, when Christ is Lord indeed. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpet hall of fame, born to the mighty God, click with His glorious name. Be that our men now serve Him, against unnumbered foes, with courage rise with danger, and strength to strength upholds. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in His strength alone, the arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own. Look out the gospel armor, and watching unto prayer, where duty calls for danger, be never wanting there. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long. This day the noise of battle, the next I lift my soul, to give their over-coven, the crown of life shall be, be with the King of Glory shall reign eternally. I am thine Lord, I am thine Lord, I am thine Lord, I am thine Lord, I am thine Lord. If you could all find your seats, we're going to go ahead and get started. Once you've found a seat, go ahead and grab a hymnal. Let's sing number 429, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, 429. Let's make sure we sing it out nice and loud, it's the only time of year we sing these songs, so we've got to take it seriously, right? All right, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, number 429. Come on the first. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies. With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time, behold Him burn, offspring of a virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead singing, hell incarnate, Please ask men with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Hail the heavenlings of things, hail the Son of righteousness. Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His grace. While He lights His glory by, warn that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give a second birth. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Come, these iron nations, come, fixing us thy humble home. Rise when a womb is conquered, see, fruit in us the serpent's head. Adam's likeness now it fakes, stamp thine image in its place. Send an Adam from above, pre-escape sin, my love. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Excellent singing, everybody. Thank you for carrying me through that. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this Christmas season. We thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church and everyone that's gathered here together. Lord God, we ask that you fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit, help him to preach an edifying sermon so we can leave better Christians. We came in for your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, next up we have song number 434. O little town of Bethlehem, song number 434. Come on the first. O little town of Bethlehem, how sweet we see thee lie. Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shine the everlasting night. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. For Christ is born of Mary and gathered all her love. While mortals sleep the angels keep their watch a-wandering love. O morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth. And praises sing to God the King and peace to men on earth. How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. No ear may hear his coming but in this world of sin. Where each soul will receive him still the day Christ enters in. On last, O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us and pray. Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings well. O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel. Excellent singing. Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you did not already get a bulletin and you would like one of our bulletins you can lift up your hand nice and high. One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. And also we have our Bible Memory passage, Matthew 28 verse 3. Any child that's able, okay I guess we ran out of bulletins, I'm sorry to keep you waiting there. The Bible Memory verse though, if you are able to quote it and you're 18 or under you can get an ice cream immediately following the service. Also on the inside is our church times, our soul winning times, our stats. Also we have the list of our expecting ladies. So please be in prayer for all those who are expecting. We also have our prayer list. I'm going to come right back to this on the back. We have the note about our turkey bowl. So we're having a flag football game on Saturday. And we're going to be meeting there at the location listed in the bulletin. Brother Marcel is helping lead this and we've got several guys that are going to come out. It should be a lot of fun. So we're meeting from 9 to about 11 a.m. We're going to let the kids play and then we're going to let the men play, alright? So the teens and the men are going to play and we'll see who can win, alright? Also there's a cleaning volunteer luncheon December 22nd if you're interested. If you've participated in cleaning some of our volunteers you're welcome to come. And then if you want to learn about or participate you can come. We'll probably have a sign up sheet just to make sure that we are prepared for that. But we'll have a lunch on December 22nd. The 25th, so Christmas Day we're going to have both of our services and we're going to... I guess that's a Wednesday, I'm sorry. Isn't that a Wednesday? I'm like double... Yes, Wednesday. We're not having both services folks, okay? Don't show up in the morning. We're having our evening service. We'll have a candlelight service and we're having our Christmas cookie bake off. And so it's a great and fun event. Tons of people bring some really amazing cookies. So I've never seen cookies like some of the ones that people have made in some of the times past. Especially for the creative part of the competition and so I'm really excited about that. January 1st is our men's preaching night and pizza. And so if you'd like to participate in that we'd love for any of the men of the church just wear a button-up shirt and tie. And we can let men in the church that want to preach a sermon can preach probably about a five-minute sermon approximately. If we go back to the middle of our announcements and then we also had a handout. There was congratulations to the Milsteads on the birth of Preston Phillip. He was born on the 3rd, 1.41 p.m. weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces, 19 and 3 quarters inches long. And then on the back is also a note about the congratulations to the Smith family on the birth of Peter Johannes. He was born on the 5th at 4.54 a.m., 8 pounds 6 ounces, 20 and a quarter inches long. So congratulations both of them. And then our prayer list we'll go over this quickly and then we'll say a word of prayer as a family. We're continuing to pray for several here sicknesses. The Naims we've been praying for their grandmother. We've been praying for the Carlson's mother. We've been praying for Miss Miller's for her friend's mother for cancer treatments. We've been praying for brother Scott's parents for cancer also for nerve pain. We've been praying for the Garcia's for brother Tony for his health and his work. Also been praying for their daughter Krista who's also pregnant. I've been praying for the Foley's for his fiance. We've been praying for the brother Caputo for healing for his back. We've been praying for brother Alex for his work. We've also been praying for the Warner's brother who had a serious knee injury. We've been praying for the Hernandez's grandmother who's recovering from surgery. And then also Mrs. Goodwin wanted us to pray for our friend Sarah who's also having surgery and having some health issues. We pray for them. And then also brother Nick was asking for prayer for work as well. So several prayer requests there. We'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church family. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us this opportunity to be gathered here this evening. Thank you so much for all the ladies in our church are expecting. I pray that you just help them during their pregnancy. Please help them with their children's birth to have a timely birth. Thank you for the new births that we just had. I pray that you just bless those children. Bless those ladies to recover quickly and just help those families right now. I pray that you'd also just continue to bless our other church family that needs health. That needs maybe a miracle even for their cancer or for their sickness. I pray if possible that you would just grant them health. Please give them life. I pray that you would also comfort them during their time of tribulation and difficulty. Those who are hurting and struggling, I pray that you would just comfort them and give them as much peace as possible. Please bless our church family that needs a job or is looking for work. That you would just help them to find that. That they could get that blessing and favor. I pray that you'd also help those that need favor when traveling or in their relationships. I pray that you would just help to use our church to continue to reach people with the gospel and to get more people saved. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. That's all I have as far as announcements. We're going to sing our special song of the week. We've been doing in our handouts our third song. If you have a hand out there in front of you underneath the chair, it's Where the Spirit Blows. If you can find one of those, Where the Spirit Blows, we'll sing it out nice and loud. Alright, Where the Spirit Blows. And on the very end, when we will go, I want to hear everybody shout it out. We will go! Alright? Where the Spirit Blows. Jesus told me, over land and sea, Red, black and white, Speed in His sight. Where the Spirit blows, We will go! Go, go, go! Where the Spirit blows, We will go! Yeah! Going round to every town, Not just the Jews, Let's go and choose. Where the Spirit blows, We will go! Go, go, go! Where the Spirit blows, We will go! Father, Spirit, Son, These three are one. Holy Trinity, Always with me. Where the Spirit blows, We will go! Go, go, go! Where the Spirit blows, We will go! We, bison, fell, Send Christ to hell, But He arose, Crushing our foes, Where the Spirit blows, We will go! Go, go, go! Where the Spirit blows, We will go! Alright, on this last one, I really want to hear it. You gotta shout it out as loud as you can in the end. Alright? Ready? He heals a lame, Call on His name. Faith alone saves, Empty in His name. Faith alone saves, Empty is the grace, Where the Spirit blows, We will go! Go, go, go! Where the Spirit blows, We will go! Alright, excellent! As the offering plates are being passed around, would you please turn in your Bibles to Matthew, chapter number 5. Matthew, chapter number 5. . The Bible reads, And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain, and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the weak, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salts have lost the saber, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of man. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle, shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother Raca, shall be in danger of the counsel. But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath died, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him. Lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, comitteth adultery. Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all. Neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye should resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. That ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven, for he maketh his son to rise in the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publican so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this chapter of the Bible. Thank you for this church, Lord, and the salvations we've had. We pray that you bless Pastor Shelley, fill him with your Holy Spirit. Let him preach your word unto us and help us to receive it with an open heart. Praise in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, so we're gonna be going through Matthew five. It's a very long chapter, a lot of really famous verses, and so I cannot do this chapter justice in one Bible study. So I wanna make that clear that I'm not gonna be able to necessarily dive into everything that would be a lot of fun to really dive into, but I do wanna try and maintain kind of the attitude of the general consensus of the chapter and what is kind of the main point that's being driven, and we'll along the way stop and talk about a few passages that I find interesting to talk about this evening. But one thing I wanna do before I kinda go through this chapter is I wanna notice that in verse one, it says, and seeing the multitudes, he went into a mountain and when he was said, his disciples came unto him. I wanna show you a verse, and we're gonna stay in Matthew five mostly tonight, but go to John chapter six for just a second if you would. Keep your finger here, of course, coming right back to it. But I want you to understand that when the word disciple is used, it's not always immediately obvious what's being communicated because I think most of us typically think of the word disciple as just the 12th, and that's like the only thing we typically think of, but that is not how the Bible uses the word disciple. Really, you kinda have to think of the word disciple, I think, as the word follower. So just someone that was just following Jesus Christ. It's kind of like what a disciple is, and we, of course, understand that the 12 were the followers of Jesus Christ, okay? But I wanna show you this distinction because I think it's helpful. John chapter number six, look at the end of this chapter, in verse number 66. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him, then said Jesus unto the 12, will ye also go away? So I want you to understand that being a disciple is not only the 12, that it was really all the people that were following Jesus. And this is why I think that's important, go back into Matthew five, and why I wanna show you this is because not every one of the disciples was saved. Now, when I say that, I'm not talking about the 12 because the 11 were, of course, saved and Judas was not saved, and that's just clear. And there would be really no point in Jesus just trying to get those 12 saved. But when you have multitudes and you have a lot of people that were his followers, it's a mixed multitude, there's a lot of unsaved people mixed in this crowd. And so a lot of Jesus Christ preaching is geared towards getting people saved. And I think you have to understand that even Matthew chapter number five is gonna delve into the concepts of salvation and it's geared towards trying to get some of these people saved. But Jesus isn't only ever preaching just a salvation message, he kinda has a unique way of being able to teach us wisdom and give us all kinds of things we can learn from while also teaching people about salvation itself. So it's kind of like a double way to teach in this particular chapter. But a large section of Matthew five is geared towards trying to get people saved, I believe. Now, if we look at verse number two, it says this, and he opened his mouth and taught them saying. It's important, and some of these details just seem a little bit, I guess, just obvious, like you teach people by talking. But I think the Bible just uses this really clear language just so we don't even get confused. He opened his mouth and taught them. I think that we shouldn't undermine the value and the importance of verbal instruction, that verbal instruction is important and that Jesus Christ literally opened his mouth and taught people. And of course, this is how we teach people how to get saved is we open our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. And there's something about verbal communication, there's something about having a conversation with someone that can have a really important learning experience. I'm a little bit of a visual learner. I like to see things. I like to see the numbers, I like charts, and I like pictures, and I like all that kind of stuff. That really helps me. But some people are just really good at learning from verbal instruction as well, and I think we need both. But Jesus Christ verbally instructed and verbally taught his disciples, and we need people that are gonna open their mouths and teach the Bible. We have an epidemic of this world today where people don't know what the Bible says, they're not very knowledgeable, and we need people to follow in Jesus' footsteps and open their mouths and teach the Bible and teach what the word of God says. Now he taught them saying what? Verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs are the kingdom of heaven. As we go through verses three through 11 approximately, this is kind of what we are referring to is called the B-attitudes. I've always heard that terminology. So if someone says the B-attitudes, they're gonna refer to specifically like this verse, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs are the kingdom of heaven. That's one of them. And they're saying these next few verses are called the B-attitudes. I don't even know why you can look it up yourself. I always just thought of it's attitude, so this is the kind of attitudes you're supposed to have. That could be totally off from the etymology of that word. I don't even know, I don't even care. But it's always been called the B-attitudes. It doesn't really matter to me. It's just when someone's trying to be fancy and be like, what about the B-attitudes? And you're like, I don't even know what you're saying. They're just talking about this section of scripture, okay? So that's just to throw that out there. But this is really important verses and I think that they're really famous because they're really powerful. But they're kind of cloaked in a little bit of mystery here. Because it says blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs are the kingdom of heaven. What does that mean though? What does it mean that the poor in spirit are blessed? Well, I think that you have to understand that a lot of the things that are being mentioned here have a spiritual significance. And so he helps us along the way by saying poor in spirit. He's not necessarily saying being poor is a blessing because obviously being poor is not ideal. It'd be nice to have some things, have a car, have money, have whatever. Those are considered blessings. But think about this poor in spirit. It's almost more like an attitude if you think about it. And again, we're talking about the B, attitudes. So we want to have the right attitude, meaning we have the right focus, mentality, viewpoint when it comes to the world that we live in. What is someone that's poor in a sense is they're lacking. They're lacking, they don't have something. And I think when you're lacking, it causes you to take notice of that, to focus in on that, right? If you're without, if you're poor, you're kind of thinking like, how do I fix the situation? You're concerned with the idea of needing to improve that particular situation. And so if you're poor in spirit, I believe what it's trying to say is it's trying to say you're kind of focused in on the spiritual things, not the carnal things. That's what it's ultimately trying to point us to. Because if you're rich in something, the Bible is always pointing this picture of you feel like you don't need anything. Whereas when you're poor, you're feeling like you need something. You feel like you're lacking, you feel like you're without. And I think that what God wants is he wants us to have this attitude of feeling like we're poor, spiritually in a sense, in the sense that we need more. I need something, I need the Spirit of God, I need spiritual things. And so you're focused in on the things of God. You're wanting to remedy that particular situation. When we look at the church in the book of Revelation, the Laodiceans or some of these other churches, they're thinking that they're good because they're like, we're rich and we're increased with goods. And so they kind of have this attitude of they've already arrived, they don't need anything. And we'll notice if you go out and you knock doors and you talk to people today, who is not very interested in hearing anything you have to say? People that are rich, right? Because they don't feel like they need anything. They feel like they're good. Whereas people that don't have much money and they're maybe without or lacking, they're more receptive. They're more into the things of God. Why? Because it's almost like inherently they know they need something. They're searching for something. They want to remedy their situation. And so for us as God's people, he wants us to always have this attitude of like we're poor in spirit in the sense that we feel like we need God. In the sense that we feel like, hey, I haven't arrived. It's almost like a humility in a sense of we're saying I'm not rich in spirit. I'm poor in spirit. I need the things of God. I need to be focused on the things of God. I need more Bible. I need more church. I need to sing more hymns. I need to learn more of the scripture. I need to pray more. You're basically saying I need to do more. You're not, I'm good. I have everything I have. I'm rich. I've got it all. I've got it locked down. But rather you have this poor in spirit attitude and it says this, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What is the kingdom of heaven? Well, we explained this in a previous sermon but it's like the spiritual family of God. You've entered into the spiritual family of God and it's really in a sense in this world, it's the work of God. The work of God that's being accomplished in this life. And so who's going to accomplish the things of God? It's the people that want to. It's the people that are saying, hey, I need church. I need God. I need to go out and preach the gospel more. I need to do these things that are important and you have a spiritual focus. You're not focused in on the carnal things because obviously if you're poor carnally, let's put it another way. We just said poor in flesh. Well, then we might be focused in on making more money. We might be focused in on maybe you're poor in flesh like you're weak. So you're going to build yourself up. You're going to work out. You're going to try to remedy that situation. And so oftentimes necessity drives you to do things. And in a sense, by being poor in spirit, it can bring that necessity component to you saying I need more of God. I need to rely on him. You know, the poor are more likely to take a handout or recognize their need for help or a need for a savior. And at the same time, that could be in our situation where we have to recognize, you know, I don't have it all together. I need God's protection. I need God's blessing. I need God's help. If I need a job, I need God to help me. If I need to be protected, I need God to help me. I need God to help me to be a better husband. I need God to help me to be a good pastor. I need God to help me understand the Bible. I'm having a poor in spirit attitude of saying I need someone else. I'm relying on someone else. I'm not so rich and arrived and I've got it all figured out. And so he's saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Those are the people that are going to actually do the works of God are the people that recognize their need for God because God likes to use humble people. God likes to use the poor in this world, rich in faith to exercise his will so that he gets the honor and the glory. Think about it, the person that's poor in spirit after something great's accomplished, who's he going to give the credit to? God, because he realizes, hey, it wasn't about me. I'm poor in spirit anyways. I needed him anyways. He's the one that helped me out. He's the one that took care of me. He's the one that part of the Red Sea for me. He's the one that got me out of Egypt. He's the one that fed me with manna from heaven. He's the one that's basically nursed me. He's the one that caused my sandals not to wear out. He's the one that's allowed me to enter into the promised land. He's the one that's taken care of me all the way through. And so he gets all the honor and the glory. And that's why they're the ones that are going to have the kingdom of heaven. Whereas the people that kind of are full of themselves, prideful, they're taking credit for things they haven't even done, they're not going to be the ones used greatly by God. And so we must maintain an attitude. We must maintain a mentality and a viewpoint of being poor in spirit, recognizing our need for the Lord, recognizing our dependence upon him. He says, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. You know, mourning, this seems contradictory. Like all of these things seem contradictory to our flesh and what we think of. We think of mourning as being bad, being sad. But you know, there's things that we need to mourn for. And the response often kind of helps us with these particular situations. But what would be something that we should be mourning for? And who are the people that are blessed that mourn for? It's people who mourn for their sin. The people who mourn for their sin, what is going to happen? They're going to probably end up repenting, getting that right with the Lord, making a change, and then God's going to comfort them. You know, how about just getting saved? You have to at least at some level recognize that your sin is going to take you to hell and have some level of remorse or some kind of feeling about that, of being sad, and then recognizing, hey, I need Jesus Christ. And when you realize that he died on the cross for all your sins, you're going to be comforted from the guilt and the shame and the embarrassment of your sin. And you know, I was speaking to a lady this evening, and after preaching to the gospel and she understood it, she kind of choked up and was teary-eyed a little bit. And that doesn't always happen. You don't have to cry to be saved. You don't have to mourn to be saved. But you know what? I think for some people, they just recognize, wow, I have sinned, I have done a lot of bad things, and yet Jesus still loves me. Jesus still is going to give me free salvation. Jesus is still going to take me to heaven. And you know what, blessed are they that mourn, not just for salvation, but when we sin, we need to repent, we need to ask the Lord to forgive us so that we don't face consequences on this earth. You can't go to hell after you're saved, but you can still be punished on earth. And so blessed are those that mourn in the sense they take accountability for their sin. Here's another thing that's important, is people that are mourning for the lost. You know, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing issues with them. So notice, they go out mourning, but then they come back comforted because they recognize, hey, there are still people that wanna hear the gospel. Hey, there are still people that wanna get saved. Hey, there are still people that we can make a difference in their lives, and we need to go out there and preach the everlasting gospel and to rescue people from bad churches and false teaching and false religion and from the devil who wants to ensnare everybody's soul and take them down into hell. The devil wants to take everybody to hell, and he's doing such a good job at it right now because people won't open their mouths like Jesus and teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because people aren't mourning over the lost dying and going to hell, but rather they're watching some idiot on the TV make a fool of himself. And that's what's wrong with America. That's what's wrong with Christianity today, is too many people are just having fun while the whole world's dying and going to hell rather than mourning for the lost, mourning for the people that are dying and on their way to hell, mourning for all the sin and the evil in our society. But you know what, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. The Bible says in verse number five, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. What is meekness? Meekness is an idea of being humble. Meekness is an idea of not trying to elevate one's self, talking about your accomplishments or bragging about who you are, elevating yourself, making yourself get attention and glory and look at me and look at what I've done and look at all these things that I've accomplished. You know, we should really be more concerned with building others up, helping others, encouraging others. When you're just trying to scream, like give me attention, look at me, look at who I am, that really is kind of off-putting and especially to the Lord. And he does not like that. And so he wants us to be meek and notice for they shall inherit the earth. The humble will be lifted up and the humble will be the people that have the greatest rewards in heaven. And the people that were prideful, the people that were carnal, the people that are constantly bragging about what they've done, they are going to be the least in the kingdom of heaven. They're not going to be the ones that have the great things of this world. And you know, even from a general perspective, if we look at just the whole world as a populace, who are those that brag about themselves the most? I mean, we look at the major celebrities of today, the major sports athletes of the day, lifting themselves up. They've got posters of themselves. They have jerseys with their name on it and contracts that are all about them and shows all about them and drinks all about them. I think that, wasn't it Troy Aikman? Yeah, Troy Aikman came out with a new beer that's got his jersey number on it. It's called eight. Cause he was zero eight. So he's got his own beard. It's like, it's eight, man. Dude, you retired a long time ago. You won because of Emmitt Smith. You won because of a good offensive line. Like, and I'm not trying to throw shade. I'm sure Troy Aikman was decent, but he wasn't like the greatest quarterback ever or anything like that. And of course, when you lift yourself up, then you offer yourself to people like me to criticize you and say you weren't that great anyways. Whereas if you just stay out of the conversation and you don't bring yourself up, then maybe you can let another man praise the and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. And really it's embarrassing when you see men of God constantly going around bragging about themselves and talking about themselves and trying to elevate themselves and bring up all their accolades because it's just not a spiritual thing. We should be meek. We should be humble. We should praise other people. We should lift other people up. That is the attitude. And those are the type of people that when we get to heaven, God's gonna be like, hey, here's my guy. You don't need to tell us that you're great. God will tell us who was great because it really doesn't matter if you tell us you're great because every man sings his own praises. You know, it's a faithful man who can find. Every man will praise himself basically is what the Bible says. Let's keep reading. It says in verse six, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. We need to have an appetite for serving God. What is righteousness? It's doing right. So if you're hungry and thirsty, you're searching how can I do right better? I wanna do more right. And he's saying you're gonna be filled, why? Because there's more right to do than you can do. Essentially, the righteousness buffet has got more food than you've got appetite. But what God doesn't find very often in this world are people that have an appetite to do right, to clean up their lives, to get better. You know, we should seek to become a better person, not a worse person. We should seek to do more right in our lives, not less right. But so many people, they're not interested in the things of God. They're not interested in reading the Bible. They're not interested in following God's commandments. They're not interested in seeing how they can serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Whereas there's a huge buffet ready for those that are hungry, those that are hungry. There is more soul winning than you could ever do in your lifetime. There are more doors to knock. There are more soul winning missions trips to go on. There are more people than you could ever open your mouth and preach the gospel to than you could ever want. That buffet is open for those that are hungry. Hey, there's a lot of church service. I mean, there's three church services our church has a week. And if you speak Spanish, there's four. You wanna, you're hungry? We'll fill you up. You wanna learn the Bible? I preach really long sermons. I'll fill you up, man. I'll tell you what. And then if you just like the internet, I mean, you could listen to more preaching than the day exists if you wanted. Hey, you like the Bible? God's got more Bible than you can read in a day. God's got so much Bible. And look, by the time you get reading all the way through, you'll forget almost everything you read and you just start over again. And you just keep learning new things every single time. I mean, the Bible, while some of it can get a little dry once you've read it a couple dozen times, it's still just so fresh. And there's still so much new stuff. And it takes a lifetime to realize that you still don't know anything. And there's still tons to learn. And there's still tons to study. And so we need people that are hungry for soul winning and for the Bible and for serving. Look, there's plenty to do in church. There's plenty of families to love on. There's plenty of poor people to help. There's plenty of expecting ladies to go drop a meal off for. There's tons of people to pray for. I mean, did you see the prayer list? There's plenty of soul winning times to go to. I mean, there's more things to do than you could possibly do but we need people to have an appetite for things of God. We need people to have an appetite to say, hey, I want to go on church on Wednesday night. Hey, there's more seats here. Someone wants to come on Wednesday night, we got a seat for you. Hey, we got more Bibles. We got more track stand out. We got more Spanish Bibles. Hey, we got more opportunities. Hey, we're going to have a men's preacher night. You want to preach? But you know, well, but is anyone ever going to watch my sermon on YouTube and I get a bunch of likes and they're going to like me? No, your sermon won't be on YouTube because I'm banned on YouTube. Sorry. Sorry I ruined it for all you YouTube clickbaiters. Now maybe you could go afterwards post edit and go find it and put on your own YouTube channel or something. Just make sure you don't put me in it at all because you'll get banned, all right? But hey, there's still nursing homes. There's still your family. There's still friends. There's still the prison. There's still the county jail. There's still wherever. You can go preach until your heart's content. Oh, but will anybody be watching me? You know, some people only serve God while the camera's on. And you know what? That's not really serving God. Did you remember that? That you're not lifting yourself up. Some people only give money to the poor, that's next chapter, if they get seen and recognized and everybody can see that they're doing it. Some people, it seems like the only time they go soul winning is when the camera's on. And it's like, you know, we don't necessarily need to live our lives on social media to tell everybody how great we are. Now look, I'm not against people filming their soul winning. I'm not against filming soul winning. I'm not against filming all the works that we're doing because the Bible makes it abundantly clear in this chapter specifically that we should do this. Look at verse 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Hey, I wanna put a bright spot on soul winning, but we shouldn't be willing to only soul win if the cameras are on, okay? We should be willing to do it at both times. Hey, if the camera's on, soul winning. If the camera's off, soul winning. If it's raining, soul winning. If it's not raining, soul winning. If it's cold, soul winning. If it's hot, soul winning. You know, I'm not this fair weather, when the cameras are on, soul winner. You know, it's just whenever there's the opportunity. Why, because when you're hungry, you just eat. And that's what it's saying. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled because God's got more work and more righteousness than you can handle anyways. He just wants someone to get an appetite. We need more people to have an appetite. Verse seven, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. You know, it's something that God takes seriously is how you treat other people. If you never extend grace, you're never extending mercy, you're never giving people benefit of the doubt, well, then God's saying, that's how I'm gonna treat you. And I'm just gonna tell you, I want God to give me as much benefit of the doubt as possible. I want God to be really gracious with me when I screw up. I want God to kind of look the other way, or to help me out, or let things go. And we need to have that attitude as Christians. Now obviously, there's some times and places where we have to distance ourselves, there's some times when we have to confront difficult issues, and of course there's some people we even have to separate from in our lives. But we should, by default, be merciful, and we should extend as much mercy as we can, because God is gonna also then give us mercy. Verse eight, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Now this pure, I wanna go somewhere here, go to Psalm 24 for a moment, go to Psalm 24. I am spending a little bit of time on these verses just because they're really iconic, and so I'm trying to give you a quick thought here. We're gonna kind of speed up as we go through the rest of this chapter, but Psalm 24, when we talk about the word pure, pure can have a lot of different meanings. I believe that pure means two different things kind of combined in this. Number one, it's kind of the idea of cleanliness. So we typically think of purity in the concept of being clean. Pure water, clean water, and so when we talk about that, it has a context. But another way to look at purity is the idea of sincerity. And I think that the Bible brings both of these into the picture of not only are you clean, but you're also sincere. And I think that the sincerity is probably the more important point that's being brought up, because of course, no one's perfect. But what we should strive for is sincerity. And the Bible says in Psalm 24, look at verse four, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. So the Bible kind of uses these two words as very similar, clean and pure. Not lifted up his soul into vanity. Notice this, nor sworn deceitfully. So this is someone that's sincere, because an insincere person would swear deceitfully. Yeah, I'm gonna serve God. Yeah, I'm gonna do the right thing. Yeah, I love the Lord, but they're not sincere. They're swearing deceitfully. And whereas the person that's pure in heart, when they say I love the Lord, it's because they love the Lord. When they say they wanna go to church, it's because they want to go to church. When they give something to someone, they do it because they love the person. But you know, there are a lot of people that do things deceitfully. They're not actually sincere in their intention. They're not actually sincere in their words. They're not actually sincere in their heart, and their attitude, and their mind. And you know what, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Go if you would to Proverbs chapter number 20. You go to Proverbs chapter 20, and I wanna show you this again. Proverbs chapter number 20, look at verse number 11. So not only is cleanliness important in getting sin out of your life, it's also important to be sincere, and to sincerely love the Lord, and actually have good intentions. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 20, verse number 11, even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, notice this, and whether it be right. So notice again, when it's talking about a child, his actions, it's saying we can tell if this kid's actions and work is pure, because it's done right. And it's done with the right attitude, the right heart, with sincerity. Look at chapter 21, verse eight, it's right there on the page. The way of a froward, I'm sorry, the way of a man is froward and strange, but as for the pure, his work is right. We get a little bit deeper meaning here of purity. Not only is it cleanliness, but we're talking about sincerity, and doing that sincerity in uprightness, with righteousness. So someone that's pure in heart, they are sincerely trying to serve God. They're trying to do it with what the Bible actually says. And the Bible says those are the people that are gonna actually see God. Because the Bible says that we're supposed to worship God in sincerity and in truth. And you need both to truly see God, to truly understand who he is, to really have a grasp on who he is. Now think about this. Who is God? He's this. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. In a special, unique way, the Bible is God. Now obviously this is still text, and we get that, and God is a person, but somehow the word was made manifest and dwelt among us. And in some way, this is God. And think about this. How many Christians in this world are not seeing God? Because they're using an NIV. Because they're using an ESV. Because they're not actually pure in heart. They're not actually trying to figure out who God really is, and they're looking through a glass darkly, and they don't really see God. They don't really understand God. They don't know who God really is, because they're not sincere. They're not seeking him with clean heart, with a clean understanding. They're not seeking him and trying to do things right. They're just like, well, I don't wanna use the King James Bible. I wanna just use this paraphrase, or I wanna do, you know. And so they don't really have the right intention, because the right intention just be like, I just wanna know God. I just wanna see God. Where is he? And it's like, it's right here. Or they're trying to seek God in a TV show. They're trying to seek God in a book, like Harry Potter. There's this stupid book that's called like, Seeing Jesus in Harry Potter, or something like that. Yeah, those people aren't gonna see Jesus Christ in Harry Potter. You're not gonna see Jesus Christ in some cartoon, or some fictional story. You're not gonna see Jesus Christ at the Catholic church. You're not gonna see Jesus Christ in these modern perversions of the Bible. You know where you're gonna see Jesus Christ? In the King James Bible. Just opening it and reading the verses. You will see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Amen. And people today, they wanna make this a mystery. They wanna make it confusing. They wanna make it more complicated. It's really simple. Just open your King James Bible, and you will see God. Not only will you see God, you'll read the stories about Abraham and Isaac, and you'll see Jesus. You'll open the Bible, and you'll read stories about the different prophets like Moses, and you'll see Jesus. You'll see the Passover lamb, and you'll see Jesus. And you'll just constantly see God on every single one of these pages. Whereas those who aren't sincere, and aren't filled with the Spirit of God, they won't see anything. It'll just go over their heads. How many people are going to church today, and they're just gonna have Steven Furtick, Kenneth Copeland, whoever yell and scream about some nonsense today, they didn't see God. They'll come down an aisle, they'll get, shukalalalala, they'll smack him on the forehead, they didn't see anything. They'll be like Isaiah Salivar, or Salivar, what are you gonna call that weirdo, that freak, and he'll lie to them and say that he saw Jesus. They'll go to some Pentecostal church, and the pastor'll say like, I went to heaven, and I saw Jesus. I mean, I've heard this my whole life, because I grew up in those weird, cult-like freak show, clown show churches. And the pastors get up there, they just lie through their teeth. This one pastor gets up, and he's just like, yeah, I've been to heaven. It looks like a shopping mall. And I'm already like, that sounds like hell, buddy, okay? He's like, we're riding on Segways, and I'm like, what kind of weird, effeminate heaven is this that you're going to? I'm like, you're just a liar. How about these kids, there's these kids that write these books, saying that they died and went to heaven, and then later, like, yeah, my dad forced me to lie about it, and we made a bunch of money on the book, or whatever. That's not how you see God, folks. You see God through reading the Bible. Jesus Christ is the Word, and you know what? God is an equal opportunist, because we all have a King James Bible, and we all have the same opportunity to see him. He doesn't want to hide himself from people that want to see him. All it takes is sincerity. All it takes is a clean hand, just say, hey, I actually want to know him, and you just read the Bible, and you'll get to see him. You will see him, now sometimes it takes time, sometimes, you know, you read the Bible, and it may not make sense immediately, but the more you seek after God, and the more pure you are in heart, the more you will see him. The Bible says here, in Matthew chapter five, verse nine, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. We need more peacemakers in this world, and the world is very, it's very contentious, it's very divided, and of course, sometimes Christ even brings division. That's very clear in the Bible, but we should not be seeking for division, we should be seeking for peace, and especially amongst brethren. You know, it's a really bad sign when Christians or pastors, it seems like their ministry is dedicated to not seeking for peace with other brothers and sisters in Christ. Like, you know, it's one thing to fight against the unsaved, to fight against heretics, to fight against false religion, but to just be on a constant tear of just attacking other Christians, attacking other pastors, attacking other churches, attacking other brothers and sisters in Christ, you know, this is just a bad attitude, it's a bad spirit, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. And you know what, even the unsaved can see like, wow, this guy's always trying to make things right, and fix things, and help people, and give people a bit of a doubt, that must be a child of God. Whereas the guy that's always contentious and angry and causing problems and strife, they're thinking like, how is this guy a child of God? You know, if you really want people to be won over to Christ, stop being petty, and bickering, and fighting, and just causing all kinds of unnecessary strife. We already have enough division in this world, we already have enough haters in this world, we should be peacemakers, and we should seek for peace between brethren. No matter how much your brother is a bad brother, like, and I'm saying in the context of saved people, you know, we should still want some peace, we should always come to a conflict with an option of resolution. Not just, how can I just constantly attack you? That doesn't really help anything. We should be seeking for peace, and trying to help people, and those are the people that are gonna be the greatest Christians. The Bible says also, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. For my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So, you know, all this is like backwards to what the world thinks. The world thinks like brag about yourself, be rich, don't be humble, you know, don't necessarily cause for peace, don't be the bigger man and let things go, always, you know, hold people's feet to the fire, and then like if people are hating on you, that's somehow bad or something. Whereas the Bible is like almost flipping the script and saying, no, you kind of got all this wrong. And some people think like, well, why is it that so many people dislike you? Well, you know, it could be that I'm a bad person, that's an option, but it could also be they don't like me because I like Jesus. It could also be that they don't like me because I like what the Bible says. It could also be they don't like me because I preach the gospel. And you know what, sometimes people are gonna hate you for what, for righteousness' sake. There are some people that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, doing what is right, like having a church, like being a Baptist, like preaching the gospel, like taking a bold stand on the King James Bible, like calling out sin by exposing evil and darkness in this world. Those are things that many people will hate you for, but the Bible says blessed are ye when men shall revile you. Now also it says, and say all manner of evil against you falsely. This is what's so crazy. If you serve God, if you just go to church and you keep your head down, you just read your Bible, you just preach the gospel weekly or whatever, and you're just causing no harm to anybody, you'll have family members, friends, coworkers, and all kinds of random people just lie about you for no reason. And it's like, what in the world? Like why? They'll just make up all kinds of crazy, weird accusations that are just, they really just shatter the mind. I've just had this happen countless times, and I think God just helped me to just recognize what it's like so I can empathize for others, because I've had other people come to me and it's the exact same story. I'm not unique in this whatsoever, it's not being a pastor, it's being a Christian. It's not being a Baptist, it's being saved. And it's trying to do right. If you do this, it will happen. And it just blows your mind, it just takes you off guard, and it really makes, it fires me up. I hate being lied about. Who hates being lied about? Oh yeah, we all want to be, we all want to defend ourselves, we all want to set the record straight, and that's the temptation is when you've been lied about, is like, nuh-uh buddy, let me tell you what. And sometimes we defend ourselves, and I've defended myself several times, but not always, and honestly, probably not most of the time. But it eats at you. But what does the Bible say? Blessed are ye. What does the Bible actually say in verse number 12? Rejoice and be exceeding glad. And I've done that. And it's hard at first, I don't think that you're, this is not your first emotion. Your first emotion should be upset, because they lied about you. Your first emotion will be confusion, shock, you can't even believe it, you're, you know, like, what's going on? But then once you kind of like, recognize this happened, you need to then praise God for it, and say, you know what, thank the Lord that I've been counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ. And it's many times very clear. Sometimes it can be a little confusing, but it's usually pretty clear, I mean, it's like, if people are gonna just falsely accuse you about your good conversation in Christ, just count it a blessing, and just recognize it's their problem, it's not your problem. And don't have this need to persuade. If people are gonna just, ah, you're at a call, oh, you're just following a man, you know, they don't really have anything else to say, they're just conversation-enders, and that's a whole nother sermon in and of itself, but recognize, hey, the prophets were persecuted, you'll be persecuted, but you know what, you got rewards in heaven. Here's another thing that's crazy about it. You really can't force this to happen. Like, there's nothing you can do to cause this to happen. Because think about it, what you're doing, you're loving people, being kind, merciful, gracious, and pure in heart, and then they randomly lie about you. There's no reason why they did it. So if it happens, you have to just think like, wow, praise God that I was counted worthy to suffer. Because it wouldn't make any logical sense why you would help people, do good unto people, love people, be merciful unto people, be their friend, and then they'll just stab you in the back, lie about you, take advantage of you, despise you for no reason, fight against you, and be angry with you without a cause, and you're just like, I don't even get it. But that's just a blessing. Because you just got a reward in heaven that you did nothing to earn, in a sense, right? Because you didn't like go and antagonize them or poke them in the eye and they got mad at you. You were good to them. And by nature, you would think by being good, they're not gonna do that to you. So it's just completely backwards from how this world works. You would think like being nice to people, kind, doing right, they'll only be nice back. But then when you're actually doing it in Christ's name and you're doing it for the cause of Christ, they'll actually lie and treat you badly, and you're just thinking like, what in the world? But this is what you should recognize. Praise God that I get to get rewards when I didn't even do anything. I was just doing right. And you know, this is what happens, and I've seen it happen in people's lives. They start getting persecuted and lied about for no reason, and then they think like, I wanna quit church. They think like, I wanna stop. They wanna give up. They get discouraged. But honestly, it should be like you're on the right side. Like you're actually, it's like you just scored a touchdown. Like imagine you're playing the football game, you just, the guy just scored a touchdown, like a 90-yard touchdown, and he's like, I wanna quit now. You're like, whoa, bro, you're like on fire. You know, you're playing basketball, and the guy just keeps shooting threes and just swishing. Every day he's like, I'm done shooting. You're like, no, no, why would you quit? You're on fire. And it's like, hey, if you're in a church and you're serving God, and all of a sudden, people start lying about you and falsely accusing you and attacking you, you should be like, wow, I'm on fire. I need to go to more church. Like, I'm on the right path. I'm not on the wrong path. I'm on the right path. Now look, when people are getting mad at you because you tripped them and poked them in the eye and stabbed their tire with a knife, okay, well, now you need to get right with God, okay? But when you're doing nothing and you're just getting randomly assaulted and persecuted and lied about and whatever, you just need to just keep going. You need to be steadfast because you're getting more rewards in heaven. Don't give up when that stuff happens. Dig in. Become more spiritual. Appreciate the fact that you're getting rewards. And notice it said, great is your word in heaven. I mean, the Bible says, Marvel not my brethren if the world hates you. When someone hates you, don't be like, oh, they hate me. Can you believe this? Yeah, because you're a Christian. Join the club. That's how it works. It's like, oh, why do people hate a Baptist church? Well, that's what the Bible said would happen. You know, this is what should be the marvel. How come no one hates your church? How come no one hates your pastor? How come no one hates the sermons from your church? How come no one hates anybody at your church? That should be the marvel. Because the question is like, what are you preaching? What are you saying? How come nobody dislikes you? That should be the real red flag, not the one where it's like, hey, there's a mixed bag of a feeling here. Some people love this church. Some people hate this church. That sounds like the kind of church you wanna go to. Not the one that's all one of the other, okay? Now, it says in verse 13, ye are the salt of the earth, but of the salt of loss of saviour, wherewith shall it be salted? It sends forth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Night of the men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. So here the Bible likens us unto salt, likens us unto light. Notice that the salt, if it loses its savour, then it's not worth anything. Salt irritates, salt preserves. Salt has a specific job and a specific role. And you know what, as a Christian, as a Baptist, we are to be salty in the sense that what? Sometimes we irritate in the sense that we tell people that, you know, what the Bible says and the truth sometimes offends people, but it also preserves them. The truth doesn't hurt people, it helps people, but the truth can hurt a little bit. The truth can be a little bit irritating at times, but it's a preservative. The truth preserves. And if the salt stops being salt, well then it's not worth anything. How many churches are not worth their salt? How many churches no longer are an irritant? How many churches no longer are preaching the truths? Now they preach the truths that are comfortable, but the truths that are comfortable aren't preserving anything. We need some of those uncomfortable truths, otherwise it becomes meaningless. Just like that salt that's thrown on the sidewalk, if it's not gonna soak up any of the moisture, if it's not gonna do anything, then it doesn't benefit. If you pour salt on your food and you bite into it and there's no taste, then there's no benefit. And the reality is there's so many churches a day, there's so many pastors a day, there's so many Christians a day that have no salt. They're worthless. They don't ever say anything from the Bible. They don't do anything from the Bible. And here's the warning, what does God say about you? You could be good for nothing. There are some Christians that are good for nothing. And it seems like today that many men are measuring people, their family, their life based on things that are called vanity in the Bible anyways. I mean, think about this. What if you said, hey, I've raised my son and I'm proud of my son because he is not in jail, has a good job, he is educated, he's smart, he talks to me on the phone, he gives me presents. But wait a minute, does that accomplish anything spiritually? But what if this person doesn't go to church or doesn't go to a good church, never preaches the gospel, never does anything, it's good for nothing. And so many people, they brag about things that really at the end of the day are kind of vanity in a sense. Because what does that accomplish? You know what, we need to make sure that we're thinking about things that are spiritual and that have a spiritual benefit and that that's our focus, not things that don't have much value. Because we can be productive members of society, we could have great families, we could have lots of fun and it'd be all vanity, it's good for nothing and God says, hey, these people, let's just trot them underfoot of men. We need to be salty. And you know what, sometimes salt irritates and some people don't like it. But we're a light, we're supposed to shine in the darkness. We can't hide our light. I've talked to some Christians before, I've gone to Baptist churches where they weren't doing soul winning and I was trying to get people to go soul winning with me and this guy's like, I'm more of a lifestyle evangelist. I'm like, what do you mean? And then he proceeds to tell me, yeah, my brother, he has people just come up to him all the time just asking how to be saved. And I'm thinking like, first of all, I don't believe you, okay, number two, great for him but that's not you, right? I mean, hey, I know a guy that's a great lifestyle evangelist. Sure, but you're not. So why don't you come with me and we'll knock on people's doors and we'll ask them how to go to heaven. We'll just start the conversation because you know what I've noticed living on this earth for 37 years? I've never had a single time where someone asked me how to go to heaven. You know all the people that I've told how to go to heaven are people that I started the conversation. I'm like, hey, what do you think it takes to go to heaven? And I've had some pretty receptive people. There was a young guy that came to a bookstore. We're both shopping at the bookstore looking for Bibles. He didn't know what he was doing. And all I had to do is basically just say like, hey, you looking for a Bible? And that just started the conversation. Then I'm like, do you know if you go to heaven? He's like, no, will you show me? And I was like, sure. But if I hadn't said that, he would not have done anything. And there's so many Christians today, they're just walking around with a bushel over their light and they're never opening their mouth and asking people how to be saved. And then there's so many people that are close to them that aren't even saved and they think they are. There are so many family members who don't recognize or realize their family's not saved. And it's sad. Why? Because they just won't even ask them one time. Their brother, their sister, their cousin, their mom, their dad, their uncle. You know, we need to ask people what they believe because there's so many people that are lost in this world and it's so easy to be saved. And we need to let our light shine. Now the Bible says in verse 17, think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. So Jesus Christ did not destroy the Old Testament law. He fulfilled the Old Testament law. That's important. And specifically, he says in verse 18, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall know otherwise pass from the law to all be fulfilled. So the entire Old Testament is going to stay intact until all of it's fulfilled. I love how it's worded here because although we're reading English, it says jot or tittle. This is not English. This is not the English language that's being referenced here. It's talking about grammar and punctuation of another language. What is that language? Hebrew. Why would it bring up jot and tittle here so that just preserved in our minds for all of eternity, we'd recognize the Old Testament law was given in Hebrew, folks. And we know that it's Hebrew because it's jot or tittle. Not necessarily only because of an artifact or anything else. I mean, this is Christ confirming and making it clear that the Old Testament Bible was given in Hebrew and that not one jot or tittle would pass. He didn't say anything about the Greek language. He didn't bring up the Septuagint. He didn't bring up some other language. He didn't bring up Latin or Syriac. And this isn't translated in a vague way where it just goes into English and we lose that. No, he's saying the Hebrew. Why? Because God, I believe, has preserved the Hebrew Old Testament. And he's also, I believe, preserved the Greek New Testament. He's the alpha and the omega. He's the beginning and the ending. And then I also believe that he wanted the most popular and influential language of the modern century to get an accurate Bible and that the King James Bible is a perfectly preserved translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek. And that these three are one. That the Hebrew says the same thing as the English and the English says the same thing as the Hebrew and the English says the same thing as the Greek and the Greek says the same thing as the Hebrew and vice versa and all over the place. The Old Testament says the same as the New and that these are in unity. These three are one. These three agree in one. And that we have the word of God locked in all of eternity of English, of Hebrew, of Greek, that you can't break this three-fold cord. This three-fold cord is not easily broken because even if you destroyed one language and you still got the two, you could resurrect, I mean, it's basically impossible at this point to get rid of the word of God, even humanly speaking, let alone the fact that God's providence is keeping it. But of course, nothing's going to pass from the law till it's all fulfilled. And of course, Jesus Christ fulfills the law. Of course, the Old Testament still even speaks of the future things that are gonna happen as well. And Jesus warns in verse 19, whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Here's a great verse in explaining sometimes to people, I don't always use this when I'm preaching the gospel, but sometimes I do, to explain to them how even if you break the commandments and teach people to break the commandments, you can still go to heaven. Because notice this guy's still the least in heaven, but he's the least. And then the guy that's teaching the commandments and keeping the commandments, he's the greatest in heaven. And notice who's the greatest? The one that cares about even the least commandments. Oh, why are you fundamental Baptists? You're so uptight. You care about even just the one verse line commandments in the Old Testament. Like, it's not good for a man to put on that, put on a woman's garment or something. Or for a woman to wear a man's garment. You actually believe that? You actually care about that? Well, you know what, I wanna be called great in the kingdom of heaven, sorry about you. Sorry about you wanting to be the least in the kingdom of heaven. Just so you can dress like this godless, weird, effeminate, fag-loving culture of today. I'm sorry that you wanna side with a sinful and adulterous generation and not with God's word, because you know what, if you're ashamed of Christ and of his words, he'll be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory. But I care about the least commandments. I care about when the Bible says that you shouldn't print marks on your body. I care about the fact that the Bible says that a man should not put on a woman's garment. I actually care about these different things that are mentioned in the scripture. I care about all of them. I care about the fact that the Bible literally says that a stubborn, rebellious son should be taken out and stoned to death, I like that. I like every aspect of the Bible. I like the Bible that says, you know what, men should have short hair and women should have long hair. I like that women should stay home. I like that women should have kids. I like that women should submit unto their husbands. I like that men only should be the pastors. I like all of it. I like the King James Bible. You know what, we should care about the least commandments, not just the greatest. And you know who's gonna be the greatest in heaven? The one that kept the least commandments. Well, you know what, you keep going, you keep striving to be the least in the kingdom of heaven while I keep striving to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And you know what, none of us will ever arrive, none of us can ever know, but I do know this, if I'm breaking the least commandments, it's not gonna be me. I can know for sure I won't be in the good category if I'm gonna do that. I have a chance, at least, if I do and teach them. And you know what, that's for all of us. The Bible says in verse 20, For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, I'm not gonna be able to really dive into these verses the way I want to. Maybe I'll go through them in more detail in another sermon, just because there's so much good stuff here. But I think that verse 20 really changes the context of Matthew 5 a little bit, because I think that from now on to the end of this chapter, he's kind of using these examples in a way to try and help people get saved. Because notice again in verse 20, he's saying, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. So he's talking about entering into the kingdom of heaven, and he's saying that you're somehow, you would have to be more righteous than these guys. Now, I think that obviously they're wicked and the Bible talks negatively about Pharisees, but I think that he's kind of more alluding to the persona or the ideal of these people. Because in people's minds, if they were to say, who do you think is just the most righteous or who keeps the law the best? They would say the Pharisees and the Sadducees, okay? And not necessarily the Sadducees, the scribes, I'm sorry. Not the Sadducees, the scribes, but it's probably true. And here it is, it's definitely true in some cases. The apostle Paul made it abundantly clear that concerning the law, he was found blameless. So if we were to say, who was probably the greatest Christian in following the law at this time? It probably was people like Paul or one of these scribes or whatever. But even them, they fall short. And so he's just basically saying, pick the greatest person that you think in Christianity, whatever that group is, you would have to be better than them if you wanna enter the kingdom of heaven. He's trying to help these people realize you're not good enough. That's the point. The point isn't saying literally be more righteous than these people. The point is you can't. And then he's gonna use all these examples of showing you how you're going to fail. So that's how you have to kind of understand what's gonna be communicated here. But of course, then you get the double meaning that all these things are good. Hey, here's some good things to do. And we're just letting you know, wink, wink, nod, nod. You're never gonna do it either, okay? And what is the whole context? Look at the last verse. Be therefore perfect, even as your father was in heaven's birth. Jesus is basically gonna say like, this is how to be perfect, okay? Verse 21, you have heard that it had been said by them of old time, thou shall not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Rocka, shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Hey, Jesus preached about hell. What is the context do you think when he's talking about judgment, judgment, hell fire? What do you think the context is when he's talking about entering the kingdom of heaven? He's trying to explain to these people, you wouldn't be saved just because you didn't kill someone. How many people have you knocked on their door and you said, hey, are you sure you'd go to heaven? They say, yeah, I've never killed anybody. I mean, who's heard that? I've heard that. But you know, Jesus is saying, great, but have you ever been mad at your brother? Have you ever been angry? Have you ever called him a name? Because you're actually in danger of hell fire too. Not just the murderer, anybody who's even been angry with their brother. Now, is he saying that being angry with your brother is the exact same as murdering him? No. He's basically talking about layers and levels of sin. So murder, first degree murder, the worst. And then there's layers, right? There's manslaughter and then there's other things. Attempted murder. Then there's like going all the way down the line. He's going all the way to the other side of the extreme of where the sin starts. The sin of basically hatred or murder starts in the heart of just already disliking this person, being mad at this person, being angry at this person without a cause. And of course that's clarified in other places in the Bible. But it's not the same degree. It's not the same sin. Don't take these sins and say like, this is what people say. Oh, well, if you believe in the death penalty for murder, then have you ever been angry with your brother, hmm? And you're like, yeah, I have been angry, but that's not a crime according to the criminal code of God's law. God didn't say if you have a bad thought, put him to death. That's not the same. He's saying if you literally kill them, that was the thing that puts you to death. That was the actual crime that was committed. God's not criminally prosecuting people for thought crimes. But at the same time, hell is on the table for thought crimes. You could have never committed a actual crime. You could have never committed any crime whatsoever and still go to hell because you were angry with your brother because any sin will cause you to deserve hell. That's why salvation is so great that it covers all of our sins, big and small. But many people thought, oh, only big sins get you into hell. No, no, no, every sin. That's why we need a savior. Now it says here in verse number 22, I actually give it in verse 23. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and they remember that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled with thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, while else art in the way with him, lest any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou has paid the other most farthing. So here's some good advice, agree with people, don't allow them to take you to the, because everybody loses when it comes to this kind of stuff. And again, just always agree, try to seek peace. He says here in verse 27, ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shall not commit adultery, but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already, with her in his heart. Now I think that this is in there for a specific reason, because it's like, maybe somebody would be so prideful and arrogant to say, okay, well I've kept all the law, and I've never even been angry with my brother without a cause. Because everybody always feels like it was justified, you know what I mean? Everybody always thinks that their sin is justified, so they're always gonna be like, no, I was never mad at my brother without a cause, he always deserved it, he always deserved me. And so the person still in their mind thinks that they're good enough. And then he's like, okay, you thinking that you've never committed adultery, how about this, have you ever just thought about it? And then it's just like, oh, that's everybody. Look, this is not one of these things that's saying like, hey, you need to make sure you never do this. This is something that's like, look, everybody's gonna have done this. Now it's not saying do it, it's just saying let's just be realistic, let's just be honest, everybody is a sinner. The thought of foolishness is sin, no one will ever stop sinning. And so I think Jesus is trying to go, let's go to the most extreme, obvious, and prevalent sin of man. I mean, if you've ever read the Bible, you'll notice a lot of guys had a lot of wives. You don't think that they did this ever? You don't think they even had a bad thought? It's like, look, this is the most common temptation that a man is ever gonna have, and the point is, look, you're all guilty. And if you didn't get it after this point, you weren't gonna get it, okay? Verse 29, and if I write, I offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is probably for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if I right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is probably for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. He's saying, look, hell is so bad, you'd be better off just ripping your eye out or cutting off your hand than going to hell. So again, he's trying to appeal to the people that think like, no, no, I can repent of all my sins. Okay, here, gouge out your eye, cut off your hand, because if you were gonna try and not sin ever again, none of us could do it with eyes. You live in 2024 America as a man, and you're gonna tell me you're never gonna have a lustful thought ever again, you're a liar. You could even gouge out your eyes and you'd probably still fail. You could cut off your hand. I mean, you would have to be knocked out. You'd have to be like, just put me in a coma, and then you might still fail. The point is you can't do it. You can't be saved by repenting of your sins. It's by believing in Jesus Christ. Only the most prideful, arrogant, selfish jerk would think that he's saved by repenting of his sins. A liar is who would think that. No one can do it. And this is, it's funny to me, it's like Jesus is making fun of these people. Okay, cut your eye out then, chop off your hand. But then he's basically calling their bluff is what he's doing. He's just like, oh, okay, sure. But he's saying also it's that serious. I mean, if it was really, hey, Jesus is saying, cut off your hand right now or go to hell, it'd be like, bam, it's that bad. That's why we should take it seriously that people are dying and going to hell, it's that bad. It has been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, and whosoever shall commit adultery. I don't have time to dive into that, but we will in Matthew 19. Again, ye have heard that it had been said by them of old time, thou should not forswear thyself, but thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou cannot not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. So he's saying never divorce, which tons of people get divorced back then and now. He's saying never say I swear to God. And look, the swearing here is not talking about cussing. Okay, it's talking about making a promise. When Peter was being challenged about being a disciple of Jesus Christ, he wasn't cussing to convince them he didn't know Jesus. That's weird anyways. Why would that convince somebody? Hey, do you know Jesus? Beep. But do you know Jesus? That doesn't mean anything. And think about it, even if that was what was happening, it didn't even convince them. I've heard a pastor get up and say like, oh man, you know, when people cuss, it proves they're not Christians, because that's what Peter was doing. And I'm like, well, it didn't even work, though. Because they were still like, no, no, no, you're still his disciple, you know. But what was he doing? He was saying, I swear I don't know the man. I promise I don't know him. And the Bible is saying, when you do this, it's coming of evil. Wasn't it coming of evil when Peter did this? He's a great example to understand what this passage is actually saying. Oh, I swear to God I don't know the man. Why did he say I swear to God? Because he's trying to convince people and persuade them because he knows he's lying. Because when someone's not lying, they just say no. They just say yes. When someone's lying, I swear on the Bible. You're like, why? I swear on my mother's grave. That tells you the person's lying. There's something wrong about their statement. And look, it always takes me off guard when someone does this. Because you're thinking, like, especially Christians, you're like, you know that, like you basically are just saying I'm lying. You might as well just say like, hey, did you do this? I'm lying, yes. When you say, oh, I swear to God, I'm like, okay. It's like you're obviously just lying now. And we should recognize that when other people do this kind of stuff. We shouldn't make these over the top grandiose statements. We should just say yes, no, and keep the promises that we make. It says in verse 38, you have heard that it had been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say in you that you resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. So he's saying, hey, if someone does you wrong, instead of getting them back, just let it go. Please, can Christians learn this? Let it go. I know it's your favorite Disney song, but can you please put it into practice? Let it go. I mean, just come on. People just wanna just stay on something forever. It's just like, let it go. Turn the other cheek. Get over it. I just, if I could just press a button and make all of you do something, that would be it probably. It just pisses me off so much. I know I want you to go more soul-winding and all that other stuff, but I'm just saying, people, when they just come to me with this petty garbage, these petty little strivings and this whatever, you know, like so-and-so did this four years ago, let it go! Pastor, you don't know what happened five years ago. Let it go! But they said, let it go! Hey, when you come up to me, I'm gonna be like, did you talk to them about it? Yeah, let it go. Is it big enough to deal with? Nah, let it go. Hey, in marriage, let it go. Hey, even, let me tell you something, parents, with your kids, let it go, okay? Your kids are rough. Every kid's rough. Foolishness is bound in the heart of the child, okay? Don't wake up thinking like, my children better be perfect today. Just say like, you know what? As soon as you go to bed, just be like, I'm gonna let it go. I mean, think about the disciples. This is so funny. They're like asking you how many times to forgive their brother. Like seven times? And he's like, seven times 70. There's somebody out there like counting. Like 400, you know? It's like, dude, let it go! I mean, it's a consistent theme in the Bible, and a godly and a Christian attitude is to let it go. And you know what? The merciful, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Please, start turning the other cheek. He says in verse 40, and if a man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also, and Uster shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain, give them that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn thou not away, turn not thou away. You have heard that it had been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy, but I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven, for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the public is the same. So when someone lies about you, and someone attacks you, and someone takes advantage of you, and someone does something, just pray for them, move on, let it go. You don't have to settle the score. Not everything's gonna be right. God reigns on the just and on the unjust. Let it go and move on. Pray for them where you can, bless them where you can. Confront issues when you have to, but move on. Move on, move on. There's some people that are like a psycho ex-girlfriend, and they can't move on, and you know what? They're not right with God, and they're not acting like children of God, because children of God are the ones that let it go, are the ones that love their enemies, are the ones that are not constantly just attacking. In fact, not only is it saying not to attack people, and just let things go, it's saying if someone asks you for something, give them even more than what they asked for. Hey, someone's like, hey, can I have five bucks? Here's 20. Hey, will you do me a favor and do this thing? No, I'll do it even more. You know, it's like you're helping them even more. You're doing more than they even asked for. That's what God is like, and that's what God wants us to be like. And if you salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the public and so be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Hey, it's not about just the law. It's about being perfect. Jesus Christ is showing you how to be even going beyond the law, what the spirit of the law is, what true righteousness is like, what God is really like, and we learn two lessons. Number one, you're not good enough to get to heaven, and then number two, how we should react and how we should behave ourselves, and that God expects perfection, but he grants us grace. And this is how we should live our lives. You know, for my children, I expect them to follow my rules. I don't have a rule that I'm thinking like, I gave you this rule, but it's optional. No, no, no, my rules aren't optional. But then when they break them, I realize that they weren't gonna do that and they weren't gonna be perfect, and that's why I give them grace. And that's what God does for us. God expects perfection, we should strive for perfection, but then he gives us grace to make up for the fact that we're gonna come short and not be perfect. Okay, and that's how we should operate, that's how we should live our lives, is we should expect perfection from those in our world, but at the same time, we should extend lots of grace when they don't line up. But you know what, judge yourself first, expect perfection out of yourself first, so that you aren't gonna judge others more harshly than you judge yourself. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this great chapter and all this great wisdom and teaching that came from Jesus Christ. I pray that we too would open up our mouths boldly, and that we would teach our loved ones the things of God. I pray that you would help us to have the right attitudes, to be poor in spirit and to be meek, to be a peacemaker, to not be offended when people hate us and are mad at us, for us to have purity in our hearts so that we'll actually see you when we open up the scriptures. I pray that you would give us just wisdom and understanding when we read our Bibles. I pray that you would give us a hunger and a thirsting for righteousness, and that we would try to seek you and we would try to be perfect, understanding we never will be, but we would extend mercy to others as you extend mercy to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, amen. That was a great sermon. Next up, for our last song, we have 427. 427, We Three Kings of Orient Are. Should be a little more familiar with this one now. Sing it a couple of weeks ago. 427, We Three Kings of Orient Are. Song 427. 227. On the first. We three kings of Orient are, bearing gifts we traverse afar, field and fountain, moor and fountain, following yonder star. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with loyal beauty bright, rest where leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Born a king on Bethlehem's bay, gold I bring to crown him again, king forever ceasing, never over us all to reign. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, rest where leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Frankincense to offer have I, incense owns a deity nigh, rare and praising, all then raising, worshiping God on high. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, rest where leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Myrrh is mine, his bitter perfume, breathes a life of gathering glow, scarring, sighing, reading, dying, still in the soulful truth. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, rest where leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Glorious now, behold him arise, king and God in sacrifice. Hallelujah, hallelujah, through the earth and skies. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, rest where leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Excellent singing everybody. You are all dismissed. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"]