Identifying Believers, Part 1

Transcript

GRM 1026
4/19/2009
Identifying Believers, Part 1
Matt. 5:1-7
Gil Rugh

Before we start out next book study I want to take a little bit of time and look with you into the Sermon on the Mount. We won't be doing a detailed study of the Sermon on the Mount but I want to look at some matters in that sermon with you, some of them we'll be looking at a little more in detail and others just highlighting.

Start with me in Isaiah 2. In the Old Testament God promised the nation Israel a kingdom, that they would be the center of the earth, Jerusalem would be the capital of the world, and the Messiah of Israel would rule and reign over all. In Isaiah 2:2 we're told, now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills and all the nations will stream to it. Mount Zion, Jerusalem, will be the capital of the world, Israel will be the ruling nation and all the other nations will be subject to them. A mountain in the Old Testament is used to symbolize a kingdom. In Daniel 2 a stone cut without hands smashes the empires of the world and grows into a great mountain, a kingdom that Messiah will reign over.

Verse 3, many peoples will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths. For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many people and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they learn war. It is absolutely essential when we study the scripture we study it in a historical grammatical way. Many people take portions of the scripture, take a verse or a part of a verse and they are off and running, and don't give serious enough consideration to what is the context, what was God talking about when He gave that verse.

Verse 4, they will hammer their swords into plowshares and so on has nothing to do with us attempting to bring peace to the world today. He does not say that this is what we should be doing, He says this is what will happen. It will happen when Messiah rules and reigns on the earth. These are not the days that we are commanded to beat our swords into plowshares. This is describing what will take place in the kingdom that Christ will establish on the earth.

Come over to Isaiah 9:6, a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us and the government will rest on his shoulders. His name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, prince of peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness, from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. You see Jesus Christ, the One described for us as the child who will be born in verse 6, the government will rest on His shoulder. He will be sitting on the throne of David, verse 7. The Davidic Covenant, the covenant that God made with David that it would be his descendants who would rule and reign over the coming kingdom, II Samuel 7. And that would be a permanent kingdom. It will go on forevermore. And God will bring it about. That's the coming kingdom we're talking about.

One more passage, Isaiah 11:1. The shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, a branch from his roots will bear fruit. We're talking about the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the descendant of David. And then we're told the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him and so on. Come down to verse 6, the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little boy will lead them. We tend to pull out a statement like the little boy will lead them as though that's what we want to see happen in the world today, the kind of tranquil situation and peaceful situation and we allegorize this. He's talking about actual true things. And when Christ reigns in a kingdom on this earth there will be no hostility between wild animals and people. And you'll be able to tell your children, go play with the lions. Take that poisonous snake, play with it. Go roll with the elephants. Do something. That will actually be in the kingdom. Not those words. We're talking about a true change in this world.

Verse 7, the cow and the bear will graze together because the bear will be grazing and the cow will be grazing and their young will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox, it won't be eating the other animals. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. You see the holy mountain referring again, representing the kingdom. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And there are just many, many prophecies through the Old Testament regarding this coming kingdom. It is a literal, earthly kingdom, it will be established under the authority of Jesus Christ on the earth. When the birth of Christ was announced it was said that He would sit on the throne of David and He would rule in fulfillment of these prophecies.

So you come to Matthew 2 when the magi, the wisemen from the east came to Jerusalem they asked the question, verse 2, where is He who has been born king of the Jews. So here they come and they're looking for the One born king of the Jews. When John the Baptist appeared on the scene, a prophet in Israel after 400 years of silence, they call the time between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament the 400 silent years. Why? Because God has not sent a prophet to Israel, but now John the Baptist comes. And what is his message? Verse 2, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom that has been promised by heaven in the Old Testament prophecies, the kingdom that will be established by the zeal of the Lord of hosts, as we read. So John's message is what Isaiah said John's message would be, the voice of One crying in the wilderness. Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Then he tells the nation, you better repent of your sins, you better get ready because when Messiah comes there will be a sifting process. Not everybody is going into the kingdom. He will bring judgment. So verse 10, the ax is already laid at the root of the tree. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. When the Messiah comes, the end of verse 11, He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The chaff will be burned up with unquenchable fire, verse 12 tells us, while the wheat will be gathered into his barn. The wheat, the believers, will be gathered into the kingdom; the unbelievers will be cast into an eternal hell.

Jesus enters His public ministry when He is baptized by John at the end of chapter 3. At the end of chapter 4 He is led into the wilderness for the temptation. Then He comes and begins His public ministry to Israel. And what does He do? Chapter 4 verse 14, He quotes from Isaiah the prophet that light has come to the nation, the Messiah has arrived. And what is He preaching? Verse 17, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Down in verse 23, Jesus was going throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And why is He doing this? It is connected to the message of the kingdom because when Christ establishes the kingdom on earth there will be no war in that kingdom. You won't need any weapons of warfare. There will be no hostility between the animal world and the world of human beings, nor will there be any sickness or disease. So the Messiah comes healing people, demonstrating I am the prophesied Messiah, I am the One who will establish the kingdom, I am the One to bring peace to the world, I am the One to remove all the impact of sin, the disease and the suffering and so on.

You come into chapter 5 with that background and Jesus on a mountainside in Galilee gives an extensive sermon. Five sermons given in the book of Matthew, this is the longest one. Chapters 5-7 comprise what we know as the Sermon on the Mount because verse1 tells us He went up on the mountain and sat down and His disciples came and He taught them. So since He's doing it on a mountain it's called the Sermon on the Mount, the sermon given on the mountain. One of the very familiar portions of the scripture and many people quote portions of this sermon by Christ out of context and misunderstand what is going on. We're in the context of the kingdom that the Messiah is going to establish and what is going on the Sermon on the Mount is Christ is going to tell us who will be part of this kingdom. He's going to describe the people who are going to go into His kingdom. And in that context also be telling that some will not go into the kingdom. Look down to chapter 5 verse 19, whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever keeps and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

So in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is describing the people that will go into the kingdom that He, the Messiah, will establish. And He's telling them you will need a greater righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees have, who pride themselves in being the most righteous people on the earth. But if that's all you have, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you won't be going into the kingdom. You know what you need? Remember John 3, Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, one of the teachers in Israel. And Jesus said to him, unless you are born again you will never see the kingdom. What's He talking about? The kingdom that the Messiah will establish. Nicodemus, you're not going in unless you are born from above, you need a new birth. Nicodemus said, how can I be born again? We're talking about the salvation that God provides. He should have understood it. Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31 talked about the provisions of the new covenant that would provide a new heart, make a person new.

So Matthew 5-7 is giving a description of those going into the kingdom. Directed to Israel. But you understand, when you describe those going into the kingdom, you're describing believers, you are describing those who have been born again or born from above. So it is applicable to us as well. And we will be part of the kingdom that Christ will establish on the earth at a future time because that kingdom was not established at Christ's first coming because the nation would not have Him be their king. Remember in the context of the Jewish leaders crying out to Pilate, we have no king but Caesar. This man deserves to die. So they instigated the execution of their king. Nothing has changed from the standpoint of every prophecy of the Old Testament has to be fulfilled as it was given. There are some people, and I was reading some of this today, infiltrating even among those who should know better. The idea when Christ came and died on the cross He provided redemption. Now we have what we call redemptive hermeneutics. And that simply means that because of the redemption Christ accomplished now we can reinterpret everything in the Old Testament in a different way. No. God's Word always has to be fulfilled just as He gave it. Not one jot, not one tittle will pass away unfulfilled exactly as He gave it. So what we read, just those brief passages, prophesying a coming kingdom, and there are many, many others, has to be fulfilled exactly as they were given. Some day on this earth there will be perfect peace, there will be no problems among the animals, between people and animals, between people and people. It will be perfect harmony and the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as waters cover the sea. That has to happen. The death of Christ does not change any of that, in fact it's the death of Christ that will ultimately make that possible. Because we need redemption so sinners can be part of that kingdom and serve in the presence of a holy God.

So the Sermon on the Mount describes for us what a believers looks like, a saved person. That's true whether you are talking about an Old Testament person or a New Testament person, a church person or an Old Testament Israelite. We're talking about the character of God being produced in their life and then seeing themselves as God sees them. He's not even primarily telling them what they must do to be saved, He is describing what people who are saved are like. And it's a mirror we hold up to ourselves because the Pharisees and Saducees thought they were going to heaven. Jesus said, unless you have a greater righteousness than the Pharisees and scribes, you aren't going to be in the kingdom. Sometimes I may use those terms, the kingdom is not heaven, the kingdom is what will be established on the earth. Ultimately in the eternal kingdom heaven will come down and be part of the kingdom and they will be merged.

All right, let's pick up with Matthew 5. If you are in our study on Revelation on Sunday evenings you will be going through all of this in detail as we move through the book. Verse 1, Jesus saw the crowds, He went up and sat down on the mountain and after He sat down His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them saying. We have the beatitudes. That word beatitudes as we call them comes from the Latin word for blessing because each one opens up, blessed. So these are the blessings or the beatitudes. He is pronouncing blessing. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That word blessed, sometimes translated happy. Our word happy has so many connotations associated with it that it loses it significance. We're talking here about those who are spiritually blessed, spiritually prosperous. It becomes a way of speaking of a saved person who will be honored by God, blessed by God, receive all that God has prepared for those who love Him. So spiritually prosperous. There is a happiness, a joy in that. But we're talking about the blessings, the honors, if you will, that God brings to those who belong to Him. It's another way of speaking of a saved person.

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The poor in spirit. Jesus gives a sermon sometimes called the Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6 where He uses some of the same material. There He talks about blessings on the poor without saying the poor in spirit. The context indicates the meaning. Somehow people pick up some of these statements in the gospels and think our prime ministry is to the poor, that's what we are to be about, helping the poor. I received a mission magazine this week and the whole mission is geared toward ministry to the poor in different places in the world. It's headquartered here in Nebraska, in Omaha. And somehow when we are ministering to the poor and helping the poor out of their poverty or the destitute out of their difficulties we are doing the work of Christ. In the whole magazine the gospel wasn't presented at all. It's a good works. Doesn't mean there is anything wrong with helping people, but that's not the ministry we're given.

When Jesus says here blessed are the poor in spirit, He's not talking about the materially poor. He's talking about the poor in spirit, He's talking about those who have come to see themselves as God sees them. They are aware of their spiritual poverty. I am destitute spiritually and the word here is a word that would denote complete destitution. We see ourselves as God sees us as lost sinners.

Turn over to Luke 18:9, and He told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Note the context again. It's the people who are trusting in themselves that they are righteous, they see themselves as righteous. They viewed others with contempt because when you have self-righteousness you look down on others. Because you see the righteousness as something that comes from you. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer. I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get. And sometimes under the banner of Christianity we have the same kind of attitude portrayed, as though I can hardly stand these people. They are so sinful, they are so bad, they are disgusting to me. As though we were some kind of righteous people in ourselves, different from them. This is the Pharisee's attitude, his self-righteousness goes along with a contempt for others. We see this in some of the debates on morality today and the so-called Christian right prides itself, we would never think of being like that, I would never be like that. The Pharisees would never have practiced the kind of immorality that the pagans of their day practiced either. Jesus said that righteousness won't get you into the kingdom. In many ways this Pharisee was more righteous humanly speaking, he didn't do some of the things that this tax gatherer would have done. But he's not righteous in the sight of God.

What did the tax collector come and do? Standing some distance away, even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, he was beating his breast saying, God, be merciful to me the sinner. I tell you this man went to his house justified, declared righteous, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

So blessed are those who mourn, the poor in spirit. We'll get to mourning in a moment, they go together. The poor in spirit, I see myself as God sees me. I am an unworthy, undeserving sinner. You see where Jesus starts out, He just sits down and starts to speak to the people and teach them. Where do you start? Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, you see yourself as God sees you. That's part of our salvation, but it doesn't end when a person has trusted Christ. Do you see yourself differently? Aren't you amazed that God would saved you? You're aware of your sinful, undeserving state and yet God has saved you, made you new. You have a true view of sinful humanity.

Jesus just jumps into them. You understand He is addressing Jews. The Jews have the Old Testament as their background, this is not new material. It is material that they had chosen to ignore. There are people today who often use the Bible, but they use it the way they want. This is what the Old Testament told them. Come back to Isaiah 57, that great prophetic book. Look at verse 15, for thus says the high and exalted one who lives forever, whose name is holy. I dwell on a high and holy place. First you establish the position of godly character but then look at this. I also dwell with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. You see I am the high and exalted one, I live forever, my name is holy, I dwell in a high and holy place. But I live with the contrite. Amazing, God stoops to dwell with us and now He dwells within us as His people.

Those who are poor in spirit, the contrite, those who have seen themselves as God sees them. No matter how long you have been a believer, you are still amazed that God would dwell with you and in you, that His salvation is so great that you are so totally cleansed and forgiven that the God who is holy now dwells with you. Amazing.

Go to Isaiah 66. Again you see the emphasis, first God emphasizes His exaltedness. Verse 1, thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Where then is the house you could build for me and where is the place that I may rest, for my hand made all these things. Thus all of these things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, who trembles at my word. That's the attitude of the tax gatherer we saw in Luke 18. He didn't even lift up his eyes, didn't see himself as worthy. But sought mercy from God. He knew He was a God of mercy and he could seek mercy from Him. He was poor in spirit.
Later when Jesus addressed the seven churches of Revelation in Revelation 3 He addressed the church at Laodicea. What was their problem? They thought they were rich and had need of nothing. He said, you don't know you are poor, you don't have anything, you are spiritually destitute. No one ever gets saved that doesn't start here, folks. The tragedy is we think we can preach the message of Christ today without talking about sin. But a person who has never come to mourn over his sin, to be poor in spirit as these first two are going to talk about and go hand-in-hand, see themselves as God sees them has never been saved. It just doesn't happen. The Spirit when He comes, He will convict the world of sin. We like to remove sin fro the conversation because people don't like to hear about sin. They don't want to have to be poor in spirit. We spend our time telling them they ought to be self-confident, have self-esteem. It's the poor in spirit who are going to go into the kingdom that Christ establishes. I have to see myself as God sees me, which is how I really am.

Come back to Matthew 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Note He is describing a person here. He's not giving a promise that this is what you do, He's describing someone. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Whose? The poor in spirit, the kingdom that will be established will belong to them, they'll be part of it.

The second beatitude closely related to this, blessed are those who mourn. They see themselves as spiritually destitute, who have nothing, really, spiritually until God has intervened in their life. They mourn, they have a sense of the awfulness of sin. They not only see their spiritual poverty, but it brings grief, it causes them to mourn. Very strong word in the Greek language used for mourn here, for sorrow. We play down the idea that to be saved you don't have to cry....... You don't, but you understand you have to come to a real understanding of sin. That's given by the Spirit through the Word of God as he brings the conviction that only He can do to a heart and mind and I see myself as God sees me as I really am. And it's not a pretty picture. And we mourn over sin. And that doesn't change. Does sin cause you any less grief in your own life, in the lives of those around you. No, we mourn over sin.

Come back to Psalm 119. Here is the testimony of the psalmist. Verse 136, my eyes shed streams of water because they do not keep your law. I mean, here the psalmist in Israel looked around at the people who should be honoring the Lord and they weren't, and it caused him great grief. My eyes are like a river of water, they are just flowing out. He mourns over sin. Sin never becomes something attractive, something pretty, something desirable, something acceptable. It's something that makes me mourn, causes me grief.

Look in Isaiah 61:1, Messianic passage. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has set me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning. You see what is promised when the Messiah comes? Judgment upon sinners and the afflicted and salvation for the afflicted. Judgment on the sinners. Those who mourn He'll bring rejoicing. That's what is promised in the context of the Messiah. Those who are mourning, those who grieve over sin and look to the Messiah as the One who would bring them salvation.

Back up to Isaiah 40. This is the chapter in which we have the role of John the Baptist set out, another messianic chapter as he will prepare the way of the Lord. But we pick up with verse 1, comfort oh comfort my people, says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem, call out to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed. Comfort oh comfort my people. Why? They've seen their spiritual poverty, they mourn and now God brings His comfort. That's what we're talking about.

Come back to Matthew 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted. Comfort oh comfort my people. A description of those............ Does God want us sad all the time? No, but there are certain things that ought to cause us grief and sadness. The psalmist could weep over not only his sin, but the sin of Israel. We should weep not only for our sin, but sin when it comes up in the church. The church is not Israel, but as God's people sin does that not cause us grief, cause us to mourn. We should never come to the place that we are indifferent about sin. Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the gentle. We have in the King James blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Meekness, gentleness, humbleness, that's the flavor of the word. Sometimes hard to bring a word from one language to another and get the sense of it. We're not talking about somebody being timid, indecisive, wishy-washy. Some people are more relaxed, easy-going kind of people. That's not what we're talking about here, certain personality trait. We're talking about here a person who has a submissive spirit before God. This is a word that would have been used when a wild animal had been tamed, like you broke a horse and he's now been humbled, made meek. He was submissive, had been tamed. Christ Himself is meek, He's the humble One. He didn't need to be tamed in that sense but you get the idea of that humility, that meekness. Freedom from the spiteful spirit, that vengeful spirit. That gentleness that is to characterize us. Doesn't mean there will never be anger in our lives. Ephesians 4:26 instructs believers to be angry and sin not. So there is a time for anger. Christ who was meek came to the temple, was angered over their sin and their making the place where God was to be worshiped a place of merchandise and money making. And He displayed that anger as He drove them out of the temple. Moses in Numbers 12 is described as the most meek man on the earth at that time and you know what? He led a nation of millions. And sometimes he had to display anger and so on. But he was meek, he was humble, there was a submissive spirit to the Lord Humble, meek, gentle, they're not always out for their way, their ideas. They are submissive before the Lord.

They shall inherit the earth. What are we talking about? Come back to Psalm 37. This is not new material to the Jews. That expression inherit the earth, we'll note that and then we'll see the verse with the gentleness in it. Good verse that starts this psalm for a reminder to us as believers. Do not fret because of evildoers nor be envious toward wrongdoers, they will with quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb. You commit yourself to the Lord, verse 4. Come down to verse 9, for evildoers will be cut off. This is in the context of explaining why we see anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret, it only leads to evildoing. That would fit the context of being gentle. But we're looking at evildoers will be cut off but those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land. Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth. That's what we're talking about here. Evildoers will be cut off. Those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land. Look at verse 29, the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. We're talking about going into the kingdom. Back up to verse 11, the humble, there's the word we are talking about, the humble, the gentle, the meek will inherit the land. Three times that expression here—verse 9, verse 11, verse 29. We're talking about going into the kingdom when the land will belong to the righteous. So verse 29 told us the righteous will inherit the land. Verse 9, those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land. Verse 11, the humble will inherit the land.

So when Jesus told these Jews blessed are the meek, the humble, the gentle for they will inherit the earth, well that's exactly what the psalmist said. He's telling them about the kingdom and describing those who are going into the kingdom. Those who cease from anger and forsake wrath and don't fret, they have a submissive spirit to God and it manifests that in their conduct and behavior.

Back to Matthew 5. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied. Those who are going into the kingdom have an insatiable appetite for righteousness. Pictured as a hunger and thirst for righteousness. This is to characterize God's people, it does characterize God's people. You know when we are saved we become the recipients of the righteousness of God, we become partakers of the divine nature. We don't become divine but we become partakers of the divine nature. The character of God is now to characterize us. We are righteous by faith, when we believe in Christ, His death and resurrection we are declared righteous. Now righteousness characterizes us in all that we do. So we have a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. It's not like I trusted Christ as my Savior, He declares me righteous, got that taken care of and now I can get on with my life. No, now that is my life, a new life, a righteous life, a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. If you've been a believer for twenty years, do you have a less desire that God produces His character in you? Do you have a less desire to know God in a fuller way and a deeper way than you did before? That's what we're talking about, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

Come back to Psalm 42. This is a psalm from the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come an appear before God? This is in the context of mourning. We see how these things all tie together because the next verse say, my tears have been my food day and night, ____________ of those who mourn. But what is he thirsting for? For God. That's what we're talking about, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, more of God in the sense of a more intimate relationship with Him, a fuller relationship with Him, more of Him being produced in me, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. You know, we look at the Jews as Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount describing those who are going into the kingdom and we say, Pharisees, Saducees, disgusting people. How could they ............... Yet we have people, maybe some sitting here, who have claimed to have trusted Christ and have no more interest, no more hunger and thirst for righteousness than a cabbage. Oh yeah, I know I'm saved, I've trusted Christ. But do I hunger and thirst for righteousness? Can I say with the psalmist, my soul thirsts for God, the living God? Well, no, but I made a decision. What more do you want? No, a saving faith transforms us and we keep nurturing that and nourishing it. But that's what he's talking about.

Come over to Psalm 63. How does this psalm begin, a psalm of David. Oh, God, you are my God. I shall seek you earnestly. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Palestine is a desert land, they can identify with this. You are in a parched, waterless desert. Oh, for a taste of water. That's how deep and strong my thirst for God is. You are my God. He's not talking about an unbeliever here, he's a believer. You are my God, I shall seek you earnestly, my soul thirsts for you. He is describing a genuine believer.

You know the problem with Israel? You have all these Jews who thought they were okay because they were Jews. Jesus is sifting out and describing who the saved Jews were, those who would be going into the kingdom. You understand, this description is a good reflection for us, what a genuine saved person looks like. Is this what I look like? Yeah, I'm here because I have a passion for God, a thirst to know more of Him, I want to take in His word, I want it to become part of my life so that His life is produced in me, a passion and longing in me. I'm not fulfilling a responsibility, try to get in and out of here in as short as possible amount of time, time that doesn't interfere with the rest of my life when I'm doing what is important to me. That's not what a true believer looks like, folks. There is nothing gained by fooling ourselves like the Jews were fooling themselves and Jesus had to bluntly tell them, unless you have a different kind of righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees you aren't going into the kingdom. What a terrible thing to be deluded and get there and find out you're not going. You get to this in the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7 when it says many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord we did many ......... He'll say, I never knew you. You are going to hell, you're not going into the kingdom. A hunger and thirst for righteousness.

________ begin to sift out, how many people who claim to be believers really have a hunger and thirst for righteousness, for God. It can become _________, it just becomes routine. I was raised in the church, I made my decision, I got baptized and life goes on. It doesn't go on like it was for those who are truly saved.

Come back to Matthew 5. One more, the merciful and we won't go through this all. We'll pick up here. When God shows us mercy He changes us. _________ see what He is doing here, changing character. He's made us something other than we were. That's why Christ can describe a believer—poor in spirit, mourns over sin, gentle, humble, meek. These are the qualities that develop, now has a passionate desire for God, for His righteousness. That's what consumes me. I've received the mercy of God so now I am a merciful person. That's the foundation. You know what happens in these kinds of things and it happens in the Sermon on the Mount and religious people take the Sermon on the Mount and pull quotes out of it as though this what they are doing to please God. You understand that's not what the Sermon on the Mount is about. What we could do to please God, that's now what the Sermon on the Mount is about. We turn it around and say, these are the things we do to please God so we're acceptable to Him. No, no, no. We can't do things to please God. We can only come and believe what He has done for us, that's what brings His salvation to us. As a result of that certain things become characteristic of our lives. You know why people wear out and give up along the road? If they were never saved it is too hard, too frustrating, too empty to keep on trying to be something I'm not. I'm trying to do all these things to be pleasing to God. You understand you can try all your life to live the Sermon on the Mount and die and go to hell because you can only be saved by faith. You received the mercy of God. That's where He's going with the next beatitude. That's why I bring you to this before we stop. It's because we have received mercy that we show mercy. So blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. We are merciful because we have received mercy, so we show mercy. That's the point. And the mercy of God will be ongoing to us, I will be the recipient of the mercy of God endlessly. I will live in the love of God, the kindness of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God.

You understand those who are merciful will not receive mercy. They are going to hell. Well then I better work on being a merciful person so I can go to heaven. No, can't do it. You see it's a description. It's not telling you what you do, it's describing what you are, what you are as a result of God's salvation.

Turn over to Ephesians 4 as we close. We'll be picking up on this beatitude in our next study. Look at verse 31. He's talking about our conduct, conduct that is characteristic of a genuine believer, not conduct that will save you. Conduct that characterizes those who have been saved. Verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other. And we'll see as we proceed with this, forgiveness and mercy are used interchangeably. Forgiving each other, note this, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. That becomes the foundation because I've experienced the mercy of God, I know what it means to be forgiven, be forgiven a debt, be forgiven sin that cannot be measured. It's easy for me to be a merciful person. That's the point. I would be expected I would be merciful. I mean I forgive the little wrongs people do to me because I have been forgiven so much. And so in what we have in these beatitudes is we have the description of a person who has experienced the grace of God. And you know what takes place at the beginning continues on. Indeed the first time I really saw myself as God sees me, poor in spirit, mourned over my sin was when the Spirit convicted me of my sin that I might turn from that sin and believe in Christ.

But you know nothing changed. Sin hasn't become more beautiful, if anything it has become more ugly. I don't see myself as more righteous now. I thank God for the righteousness of Christ but it still is amazing that it was given to me, one so undeserving, isn't it? To you so undeserving? Doesn't it make sin even more a cause of grief. We get the idea from the psalmists as they write that they know the Lord, their sin is even more a cause of sadness and sorrow, it's so awful. I know what sin is like now that I know the holy God that I didn't know before. And now He has brought me into submissiveness to Him and I can live a meek, gentle, humble person. And it's His work in our lives He is describing, that hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Why are you here today? Because I want to know more of God, I want more of His Word because that's what enables me to know Him, I have a thirst for God, a hunger for God. I'm not just fulfilling a duty, I don't want to just hurry up to get on with the things of my day that I count important. This is my life, I hunger and thirst for righteousness, for knowing my God better. I know what it is to be a merciful person because I have experienced the mercy of God in a way that's indescribable, immeasurable. I've been saved. We'll see Christ illustrate this with a great parable and then see the testimony as a reminder to us as those who have been forgiven. Don't look down on those sinners, don't think you are better than they, don't shake your head in disgust and think how vile they are. I'm glad I'm not like they. You understand God says you were exactly like they, they most vile, disgusting, revolting sinner. That's how He saw you. The heart is deceitful and desperately above all things. God only knows how wicked our heart is, and yet He provided a salvation to cleanse and forgive us. I trust you've come to know the Savior.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for you salvation. Lord, what a blessing it is to study the blessings, the beatitudes, the description of those who truly know you, to marvel again at the greatness of your grace. We have received immeasurable mercy that has brought us an indescribable salvation. Now we are privileged to be something we were not. We have been made new. Lord, we look forward to the kingdom that the Messiah will establish on this earth and we will be part of that kingdom because He is our Savior. We have turned from our sin and placed our faith in Him and we give you praise for so great salvation. We pray in His name, amen.