Norris, John: The Beatitudes Matt 5 ~ Richmond

I would like you to turn with me to Matthew chapter five. In the singing of our hymn, we were singing about likeness to Christ. I don't know how you felt, but I was moved as we sang that hymn, and deep in my heart expressed the desire before God to be more like him. I'm going to read the Beatitudes to you that are found at the beginning of Matthew chapter five. And the virtues that are set forth in these Beatitudes are everyone in some way revealed in the Lord Jesus. And of course, the Beatitudes bring before us a full portrait of an ideal citizen of the kingdom of God. You notice as I read, there are seven virtues. There are eight beatitudes, and it's only one who has divine life can exemplify these virtues. Eight is the number of new beginning. The word blessed does occur nine times. You'll notice that as we read. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set or sat down, his disciples came unto him. Now you'll notice he is speaking to disciples. This is not the plan of salvation, a discourse to disciples. 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 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 say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Blessed and be ex- rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. And then afterward we read the words, ye are the salt of the earth, and in the fourteenth verse, ye are the light of the world. Now, first of all, we should ask ourselves, what does blessed mean? Well, generally, we are told that it means happy. So that one preacher had a sermon on those whom Christ calls blessed, or those whom Christ calls happy. But looking into the word carefully, I find that... these, this word blessed might be rendered, how blessed and prosperous... are the poor in spirit, and so on. I understand it means if one is blessed, one is the object of divine favor. I understand it means the smile of God is on that person. So now, if we want to live in the smile of God and in the favor of God, then these virtues should be exemplified in us. Now, I don't believe we should put the Sermon on the Mount into the deep freeze until the millennium. Here are three very important chapters. And since the Lord speaks on a mountain, it would suggest to me the elevated character of our Lord's teaching at this time. To practice what is contained in the Beatitudes, one must have divine life. One must have experienced the new birth. And I understand that the Sermon on the Mount is for all who acknowledge Christ as king, whether in the past, the present, or the future. I don't believe we should say that it is exclusively Christian, because remember the words, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Surely that is pointing on to the literal reign of Christ o- o- on earth or over the earth. A- and then, of course, although the sermon has a very distinctive Jewish flavor, such as when it mentions the council and the altar and Jerusalem. We shouldn't give the Sermon on the Mount an exclusively Jewish application, so that it doesn't apply to us at all. Of course, it has an application to us. Now, may I say this, that joy is normal for every Christian. How blessed are the poor in spirit, how blessed are the meek, how blessed are those that mourn, I, I want to be very simple, and I want to go down these verses rather slowly, but to deal with them briefly. Blessed are the poor in spirit. All the world would say, blessed are the rich. No, this says, blessed are the poor in spirit. What kind of people are these? They are the lowly, the humble, the self-abased. They are believers who acknowledge their own weakness but are depending upon God. Blessed are the poor in spirit. You see, self-exaltation is sin, and only the king shall be exalted in the kingdom. The man who is poor in spirit, the dust is his place, and God is the sovereign of his life. The poor in spirit are those who tremble at God's word. Let me remind you of these words in Isaiah sixty six and two: To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit that trembleth at my word. I wonder, does that characterize you and me, my dear brethren and sisters, that we tremble at the word of God? Whereas we acknowledge our own insufficiency, and well, whereas we acknowledge our own weakness, we are living a life of dependence upon God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. But these words refer to sorrow for sin. Maybe sin in my own life. Such as when the psalmist said in Psalm fifty one and verse four, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Sorrow for sin. But also... sorrow because of the conditions in the world today. All the moral condition is so terrible, and surely God's people grieve over the condition of things in the world, and we grieve over the fact that there are so many who are rejecting our Savior, and they have no room in their hearts for God's Son. Psalm one hundred and nineteen verse one three six says, streams of water run down my face because they do not observe thy law. Well might we warn over conditions in the world and men's rejection of Christ, but well might we warn over sin in our own lives. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. You know the Tyndale rendering is they shall be strengthened. When it speaks about believers walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, perhaps we could understand that to mean strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Whereas we mourn over our sin, or we should. Oh, if there's sin in our lives, how we should mourn over it and judge that thing and put it away from us. And then look to the Lord to strengthen us. That we'll do better in days to come. We shall be comforted by strengthening. Now, what about this? Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Oh, my dear brethren, if you are meek, you are like the Lord Jesus. He was meek and lowly in heart. Wonderful subject. Did you ever think that the Lord Jesus lived out the truth of the Beatitudes for thirty years, and indeed the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Thirty years he lived it out before he talked. It's much easier for me to stand here and preach today than to live this out in my life. And I'm not saying I'm meek, because if I did, I wouldn't be. But you know, meekness, I can go into too much detail, but some of these things you'll have to develop for yourself. But meekness is an inwrought grace of the soul, with its exercise chiefly toward God, and then afterward toward men. Meekness. I think it's Mr. Vine who says, in a meek man there's an utter lack of self-assertiveness, even of self altogether. He is neither elated when things go well, nor is he depressed when things do not seem to go well. His concern is doing the will of God. Now, if those aren't the precise words of Mr. Vine, that's something along the line of what he says. You know, this word for meekness is a word for a horse that has learned to be controlled. You know, a jockey says his horse is meek when the horse does exactly what he wants it to do at precisely the time he wants it to do it. If it's starting the race, the horse will immediately respond to his master. And a meek man is one who will always be ready to bow to the will of God meekly. He says, Lord, this is thy will. I'll do it. And if we had time to go into this subject, I could show you furthermore that a meek man is a man who bows uncomplainingly to the discipline of God. You know, I think, beloved brethren, we've seen something of this today, as our beloved brother has spoken to us. An uncomplaining acceptance of the discipline of God in his life. I hope, if or when I come to the same place, I'll manifest the same. But I, I want to say this, my dear brethren, that, uh, self-assertiveness is not of God. I know it's being taught in many places that we are to be self-assertive, but I believe that self-assertiveness is sin. What is it man would? To be gentle, to be mild, to be yielding, easy to get along with. I don't stick up for myself. Negatively, it is the lack of self-assertiveness. I'm not vain, I'm not haughty, I'm not resentful. My dear brethren, God help us to be like the Lord Jesus, to be meek and lowly in heart. Our Lord Jesus meekly accepted the will of g- of the Father for him and never once displeased the Father. What a lovely person is the Lord Jesus. You know, we worship him not merely because of what he has done for us, but because of what he is in himself. Now, I'll have to hurry. Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. I wonder, are we yearning to live a righteous life, to be righteous in our lives and in our homes and in the business, wherever. All my brethren, there's one thing we should be, and that is straight up and down as Christians. Job was an upright man. I hope we're all upright. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled, they shall be satisfied. My dear brethren, we'll be satisfied now. He filleth the hungry with good things, with choice gifts, says Mary in her Magnificat. And we are satisfied now, but we'll be satisfied in the reign of Christ. And now, I realize I'm not hitting everything, but blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Oh, I hope we're merciful. I never want to be a hard man. I've never found a hard man to be a godly man. We had a brother in the assembly in Ireland where we were in fellowship. He was so true to the word of God. He was such a faithful man, but the grace of God seemed to be shining from his face. Full of compassion and pity for those who are suffering because of sin or because of sorrow. And it's not merely kindly feeling, but kindly action. And it's illustrated by the Good Samaritan who acted kindly toward the man he found on the Jericho road. Oh, how kind he was. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. You know, hard men meet with hardness, generally speaking, and merciful people meet with mercifulness on the part of their fellows. But let me remind you, my dear brethren, that the merciful obtain mercy from God every day. Mercy that is needed to live the Christian life. Because let us remember this, we cannot live the Christian life by carnal energy. It is only by the strength and the mercy that we get from God. And I can't help thinking that there's something of the government of God in this, since it's the kingdom that's in view. If I deal in stir- and I can't help thinking that there's something of the government of God in this, since it's the kingdom that's in view. If I deal in stern justice with my brother, then God is going to deal in stern justice with me in his government. And likewise, if I'm merciful, God is going to be merciful to me in his government. And maybe there's an application to the judgment seat of Christ as well, because if I am not merciful, the reward will decrease accordingly. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You know we're going to have revelations from God through his word. We're going to see God in Christ one day. We're going to see him in all his glory. Blessed are the pure in heart. Pure in my thoughts. You know, this is not outward consistency. This has to do with inward holiness. If all our thoughts were written on a board for everyone to see, maybe we would all bow our heads with shame. Inward holiness. Oh, that my thoughts may be holy, that my motives may be holy, my intentions may be holy. Blessed are the pure in heart, my affections pure. Blessed are the pure in heart, pure desires. You know, as I'm speaking here, I'm sure that many are going over their own lives, and they're asking themselves the question, is it true of me that I'm pure in heart, that that which is the s- the sphere of unholiness, the heart of man, now becomes the sphere of holiness? Now, I can't say any more about that. Blessed are the peacemakers. You know, strife and discord are the works of the flesh. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called, really it's the word sons, the sons of God. They have the character of God. They have the character of their father, who is the great peacemaker. Blessed are the peacemakers. Not those who are of a peaceful disposition, not here, but those who are peace makers. Not blessed are the troublemakers. Oh, if you want to live in the favor of God and in the smile of God, brethren, you've got to put these words into effect. The Christian should be the truth incarnate. Christian truth manifested, that is moral truth manifested in a man and in a woman. Blessed are the peacemakers. One of the things that God hates is the sowing of discord among brethren. If there were more of Christ about us, there wouldn't be as much division. There wouldn't be the strife there is, because strife comes from the flesh. Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called the sons of God. They're like God, the great peacemaker, who gave his son to die for us that we might have peace with him. And we are peacemakers, aren't we, when we go out, as our brother's been exhorting us, and speak to others about their soul, beseeching them to be reconciled to God. Blessed are the peacemakers. They shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are they which perse- are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Imagine rejoicing over being persecuted. Ah, but for righteousness' sake. Ah, that's it. 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. You know, that's more precious than for righteousness' sake, for Christ's sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they, the prophets, which were before you. So there's the full length portrait of a true and ideal citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Now, may I say this as I close? The Lord Jesus said, ye are the salt of the earth. And you know, Christians, someone has said, should bring piquancy into society. Salt doesn't cure corruption, but it stays it. It hinders it. It holds it in check. And we are the salt of the earth. Ah, but the salt that is used in the land of Israel may lose its savor. Wherewith shall it be salted when that is so? Then it's good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trampled under foot of men. My dear brethren, when we manifest these virtues, there is spiritual tang and piquancy. But I'm afraid some of us have lost our tang. We've lost our savor. We'll only be the salt of the earth in the measure that we manifest the virtues of the Sermon on the Mount. And my dear brethren, we'll only be the light of the world in the measure that we measure up to those Beatitudes. You know, the Lord Jesus was the light of the world. Now we are the light of the world. We're like the moon reflecting the glory of the sun. But what I say in testimony is not going to be of much weight unless there is moral Christian character after the order of the Beatitudes. May God help us.