Burrow, L: The Sermon On The Mount-01

My friends, I am always afraid of the man who's got it made. He hasn't. It is only as I realize my minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day dependence upon him who alone is able, that I accomplish anything meaningful at all. Poverty of spirit means you're profoundly aware that in you there is no strength, that in you there is no wisdom, that in you there are no resources. And why is it such a thing that God congratulates? Because it casts us upon the Lord. Dear old Paul in prison, having turned half the world upside down for Christ, what did he say? I haven't yet arrived. I haven't yet achieved. Not as though I were yet perfect, but he said, I strain, I agonize. That's the word he uses, I agonize, I strain every nerve, every muscle, every fiber, every ounce of strength that God has given me, if I may apprehend that for which Christ has apprehended me. Do you remember the nearly last words of the Lord? It was the magnificent word tetelestai. What does it mean? Not it is finished, but it is finished and the result remains. That's in the perfect tense. And the focus is not so much on the action, but on the glorious permanent result. Will you be able to say at the end of the journey, the work thou gavest me to do, I have finished? You won't, unless you know poverty of spirit. Because poverty of spirit realizes its own lack of resources and casts itself upon the one who alone is able to provide the divine resources. Blessed, happy and holy is the man who doesn't go to battle in his own strength or by his own cunning, but his eye is upon God. John, in his advanced old age, what does he say? He does not yet appear what we shall be. He's not looking back, he's still looking forward. Every true believer has this poverty of spirit that looks forward to what is yet to be, for the yet best is yet to be. My friends, it puts a spring in the step, and it puts hope in the heart, and it puts love in the life, and it puts faith into everything we do. When God can look down upon us and say, makari oy, happy and holy, because this man realizes that in himself he is nothing, he's got nothing, and so what is available to him? All the resources of glory. If I go to battle at my own charges, I can assure you I won't last one day. But if I go at the charges of the living God, I've got all the riches and glory to draw upon. The words that I speak, says Christ, I speak not of myself. The works that I do, I do not of myself. It's the Father, it's the Father. So that's the first one, and I guess the clock has beaten us. I was going to go on to the next one. Happy and holy are those who mourn. Well, if a poverty of spirit could be rendered a sense of need, what is mourning? It's a sense of loss. My friends, my daughter Helen died almost twelve months ago today, and uh, we were away out of town when she was drowned, and when we got back, we had to go and find her in the morgue. There she was, looking like a statue, totally lifeless. I've known what it is to mourn on a personal basis, in a very profound way. They don't know that I have yet learned to mourn for the loss of earth to that extent. When the Lord looked at the multitude, he had compassion on them. He said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem that kills the prophets, how often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. Mourning is concern. That's what it is. When you love a person, you miss them. When you see a situation going to rack and ruin, and it fills your heart with sadness. That is the spirit of mourning. When you see someone go wrong and you long to see them go right, that's mourning. It's concern. He loved me enough to die for me. That's the spirit of mourning. He came from heaven's glory and the love of his Father for him to receive the cold shoulder, the abuse, the misunderstanding of men. Why? Because God knows what it is to mourn. He mourns when he sees the work of his hands marred by sin. When he sees me, whom he made to glorify him, doing less. Do you mourn over yourself that you're not more Christ-like than you are? If you do, you're in good shape. But if you're satisfied, you're in bad shape. I remember Bishop Stanway once being asked by a young girl at an EU house party in Sydney. Sir, she said, what are we going to do? Uh, uh, the morals of our country are going down the drain. And the old bishop said to her, does it bother you that they are? Oh, she said, more than I can tell you, bishop. He said, and that case, it's all right. Blessed are they that mourn. Shall we pray? Father, we thank thee for these profound insights into the deeper dimensions of life that have been left us by thy Son, our Savior. We pray thee that we may so live that thou mightest look down upon us and say, there go sons so blessed of God, congratulated, acknowledged, one of whom thou can say, my beloved son, my beloved daughter, in whom I'm well. Cleanse our thoughts of secret sin. Make our lives transparently real. Grant that what we are on the surface, we may be through and through, that we may have the joy of the Lord that adds no sorrow, that we may have the holiness of God, without which no man sees thee. As we go about our studies today, may we do them with love in our hearts, with hope, and with faith, that thou will take these weak hands of ours and use them for thy glory and thy praise. Amen. We have been considering the life that is makarios, the life that is blessed. Sometimes, you know, we're inclined to imagine that this is peculiarly a New Testament notion, and, uh, the liberal scholar would try and persuade us that the God of the Old Testament is not the same God as we see manifested in the face of Jesus Christ. I eschew all such statements. That is my God, and that the God is now on this plain holiness and happiness of the life that receives the well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. It's a life that must start well. It's a life that must run well, and it's a life that must finish well. As I look around, I, I can't tell you how profoundly I pray, Lord, that no man, no woman who passes through the portals of ADI, that they should start well and finish badly. You see, the fact is that the Lord Jesus Christ finished not somehow, but gloriously. And this is the, this is the kind of life that is macharios. This is the kind of life that's yulakatos. This is the kind of life that is blessed. The work thou gavest me to do, I have finished. Now, as I look back down the years, I can remember how some young people started married life with high hopes, high ideals, high ambitions. And And it it has. hasn't finished well. Right through the scriptures, you find people who started well, finished dismally. And even in the annals of this beloved school, there have been some who've gone through and haven't finished. And the eulogatos life, the makarios life, is one that not only starts well, it runs well, and it finishes, as I said, not somehow, but gloriously. And the crown of life is waiting at the end of the journey, and none other than the Lord himself to put it upon our head. Why do we want such a crown? In order that we may lay it at his feet and say, Lord Jesus, if ever I loved thee, I love thee now. Look at this verse, amen, William? And he gives us some extremely explicit and important aspects of the life that is blessed if we're gonna finish well and not, uh, start well and, uh, peter out. He says, as does Paul, I press toward the mark. I fight not meeting the empty air. I keep my body under, lest having preached to others, I should myself be disqualified. As Hebrews says, let us run with patience, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. You'll notice that there are three threes in that first verse. The first tree is a matter of motion. It's walking, standing, and sitting. The second tree is a matter of character. First of all, it's only advice. Then it's ways. Now they have turned into habits. Finally, it's the seat. It's now solidified into character. And then you'll notice that the kind of company is worsening. First of all, it's only the worldly wise. Then it's the sinner, and finally, it's the person who pokes muck in the face of God. And the psalmist in this opening psalm, this peel of peels that opens the, uh, spiritual diary of every child of God, this hymn that marks the beginning of the hymnal of the child of God, pleads with us that if we want to have a life that is happy and holy, a life that is pleasing to God, a life that God can congratulate, that we not start walking in the advice of the worldly wise, because it'll slow you down. You'll stand in the way of sinners, and that'll slow you down still more, and you'll be bogged down. You'll be seated in the seat of the scornful. Now, the worldly wise live even within the ranks of our churches. Don't get too religious is one of their favorite remarks. Now, my friend, don't go overboard. Let's observe a bit of balance in this thing. Have you ever heard them talking to you like that? What on earth do you want to get up at six o'clock for? What do you want to get up for? And if you don't have some other motive than the fact that the horn went, you'll find that when the horn doesn't go, you won't. In other words, if in these days in which you are learning a discipline, you don't get to the stage where you take over the discipline and it comes from within. So that whether there's a horn or whether there's no horn, you keep this holy appointment with the living God, day after day, year after year. And you'll find too, that if you don't have to, your Greek goes to pot. Yes, it does. And your Hebrew goes to a sh- uh, shivers too. I tell you. Nothing stays that you don't work at, and the knowledge of the word of God that you have today won't be yours in five years time if you take the advice of the worldly wise. My friends, the advice of the worldly wise gets your priorities wrong. Before the Lord, while you've got these glorious years here, get your priorities straight and say, I come wind, come weather, one who will constant be. I've made my vow, and I will not turn back. I'm gonna fight clean. I'm gonna run in the strength that the Spirit of God gives me. I am not taking the advice of the worldly wise. Because if you don't get to that stage, you won't get to the next stage. The life that slows down is the one that listens to the plausible siren voice of the worldly wise that says, well, brother, you've worked so hard, you ought to take it easy now. Man, the number of times I've been told this. You're too sick to go all the way down to ABI. Sure, I can't scarcely lift my sh- shaver anymore. I have to do it in two bouts. So what? I nearly at the end of the journey now. I'm not going to finish somehow by the grace of God. Let's finish gloriously. Let's not take the advice of the worldly wise, neither while you're at ABI nor afterwards. Covenant with the Lord now, that when you hear the plausible nonsense of the world, that you put a finger in either ear and start running in the opposite direction. It's about the safest thing to do, because it sounds good, it sounds sensible, and if you listen to it long enough, you'll get, you'll say, you'll be convinced by it. You know why I started teaching LDH in the New Zealand Bible Institute? Because I read the testimony of one of the graduates of that school who went on to one of the theological colleges, which is more liberal than any other school I know in all the world. And when he'd been there just two years, he wrote this testimony in the magazine of the church to which he belonged, in which he said, I thank God for my conversion out of evangelical nonsense, out of evangelical, uh, fear and, uh, captivity into the glorious liberty in which I now stand. He said, I'm convinced that God is so loving that he wouldn't condemn anyone. So he said, I don't have to worry about the lost anymore. I can go golfing instead. My friends, that sounds really beautiful, but it doesn't have to be true. And the worldly wise will ply you with things that sound plausible but are not according to the Word of God. I know a young fellow who was a, a mighty force for God, and he taught his Sunday school class the whole council of scripture. Some of the parents didn't like it, so they had a teacher's meeting, and they voted that they didn't believe in hell, that they didn't believe in the devil, and therefore pleased to resign from our Sunday school because we don't want you teaching those things to our children. We don't believe in them. Well, maybe you don't, but it doesn't make them untrue. The worldly wise is the worst counsel that you can have, because if you walk along in his advice, take his thoughts out, you're finished as surely as I'm standing here, sitting in the seat of the scornful. Here's a hardened character, no longer able to enjoy the things of the Lord. Now, does that mean we live in a vacuum if we don't take the advice of the worldly wise, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful? No, it doesn't. It means that we delight in the law of the Lord. We make it the sweet morsel under our tongue by day and by night. When did you last see a glorious new truth all for yourself from the Word of God? There should never be a day in which the Lord doesn't show you some precious nugget from the Word. I was talking to some young people that came to see me the other day, and I said, did you notice the word says, ask and you'll receive. God's got all sorts of goodies on the shelf just in front, you know, for those who ask, righto, help yourself. But then there are some on the top shelf for those who seek. You got to go and get a step ladder for them, and if you're going to reach them down, you're going to climb up and reach them down. Seek and you'll find all the, they're the real good goodies up there. But then the Lord has some in reserve for those who bring a pick and shovel and a will to work, because he says, knock and it will be opened unto you. There's gold in them there hills for those who not. But I can assure you that they gotta get the overload off first. Before you get down to the pay dirt, there's quite a lot of other dirt you remove, kind of like Greek vocabs and Hebrew words. I tell you, it's a lot of work finding some of the choice truth. I asked me to share with you one that I got dug up yesterday, and I'm about to dust it off now. But oh, it's a beauty. I'm sure it's at least this big. And when you get a nugget that big, I tell you, you're rich. I'm going to take it into the corner where nobody's looking and dust it off, one of these things. It's a little Hebrew word misper. You look it up. It occurs four hundred and sixty four times at judgment, and umpteen other times there's umpteen other things. And when you then find a word that's translated in all that many ways, you can say to yourself, I've hit on a nugget. It's one of the three great qualities of God. He's the Almighty, he's the All Gracious, and he is the Nesper God too, but no more of that some other time. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he finds enjoyment. My friends, we're on the wrong foot if when we get out of classes, the only thing we long for is to get away from our studies. We're on the wrong foot if what we learn in, in our and your is the light, it's in the law of the law. There was a very famous rabbi called Rabbi Ben Traden, and he, uh, wrote a long to his, of his statements, and talk not of the law, then is their conversation accursed. In other words, even in our ordinary conversation, the word of God doesn't find that it belongs naturally, not as something that we import as a kind of afterthought, but as part of life itself. If out of the overflow we aren't a blessing to others, then we need to delight ourselves in the Lord of the Lord. Now, have a look at this life that's eulogatos. Magarios, blessed. He's like a tree planted by rivers of water. Plenty of them around these days. That brings forth fruit in season. His leaf doesn't wither away, and what he does, God prospers. What is he saying? That the life that feeds upon the word has seasons to it. I remember when I received the Lord as my savior, it was spring. I thought I was going to get the world converted overnight. There was no trouble to me. You know, I had a great God, I had a great message, but nobody else thought so. And so the blossom all fell off and became part of the mud. But the tree wasn't dead. It was at the next stage. Spring is a time of blossom and bees and birds and the blooms, and oh, it's a great time, but it doesn't last. After the flowers have all all gone and the fragrance of spring is over, then comes summer. Oh boy, summer's hot stuff. And unless there's lots of water there, it'll be a time of welting instead of rapid growth. But if you look among the leaves, you'll find that there is a little fruit there, nearly all skin and a bit of pip. And what isn't skin and pip is about the flavor of sulfuric acid. But you see, it's not really ready to be picked yet, and if you do, you'll get molly grubs. I've tried it, I know. But leave it there a little longer, and the Lord of harvest will see to it the summer is followed by autumn. And when autumn comes, the wind starts to tear the leaves off, and you don't look very good. But that's what exposes the fruit to the sun for itself, and it starts to color up. Don't squeeze it to see if it's getting soft, and then he bruises it. The Lord knows how to ripen the fruit. Let's not be pinching it to make it ripe fasten. Leave it there. And then the Lord of the harvest comes, and he takes the fruit. And then what happens? Winter sets in, and the last leaves drop off and become part of the mud and sludge under the tree, and the whole thing looks dead, but let me assure you it's not dead. It's getting ready for spring. If winter comes, spring is not far behind. The life that is Makarios goes through these phases, and next spring it's a better spring than it was last spring because the tree is a lot bigger. Last summer it only had one peach on it because it was only about so high, but this summer it's this big and there are half a dozen peaches on, and next spring I assure you that there might even be a half a case of fruit. Winter, spring, summer, autumn, like a tree planted by the rivers of water. The life that is makarios, the life that is blessed, is one that is growing and growing, and it does have times of rapid growth. It has times of seeming barrenness. And if you haven't had fruit for the glory of God lately, may I make a suggestion? You ask God for winter, because winter is always the preparation for spring.