The Beatitudes & The Gospel (The Beatitudes Part 3)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Think about that for a moment. You, if you trust in Christ, if you are following Christ, He has given us a new heart, right?

So the pure in heart is not somebody who's perfect and never does anything wrong. The pure in heart are the people who have received Christ as their Savior. He has given us a clean, a new heart. So the promise is, you shall see God.

You realize what that means? Well, I don't know. I have no, I don't know what that, I mean, how do you even begin to explain what that means or what that looks like? In Revelation 22 verse four, it talks about how in the new heaven and in the new earth, we shall see God's face.

Not the face of Jesus. We shall see God's, like God the Father's face, which again, it's hard to even contemplate what that means. But this, understand, this is the ultimate reward of man. Some of you were brought up in a church that had a catechism.

Some churches have them, some don't. But the first question is really any catechism is this. What is the chief end of man? And do you know what the answer is? What is the chief end of man? It is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

You realize that's the reward of the believer. That when we are in glory, when we see God, we will be with Him forever. A lot of us think that eternal life is the reward. Being forgiven of sin, well, that is a reward, I guess.

Eternal life, though, we think of as the reward. That's not actually the reward. Because there are others who have eternal existence, but they are eternally existing, conscious, without God. That's not heaven.

That's not something we want. So eternal life really is not the reward. Eternal life with God is the reward. God Himself, better put it this way, God Himself is the reward. You remember what God told Abraham in Genesis 15, 1?

He said to Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. That's my favorite. If I had to pick one beatitude, this is it. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This is the Christian's greatest reward.

Love Your Enemies and the Higher Ethic of the Sermon on the Mount

Verses 44 and 45, just skip ahead and look at it. Verses 44 and 45 further expand on the beatitude in verse 9, which says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. You know what the world's version of a peacemaker is?

You know what the United Nations calls peacemakers? There's these guys with machine guns standing there. They're peacemakers. That's the world's version of a peacemaker. It's not God's version of a peacemaker.

I realize that's necessary in the world we live in. I'm not saying that. But this is God's version of a peacemaker. Verses 44 and 45 expand on this. Jesus says, But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

See, if you're not convinced that the Sermon on the Mount is about showing people the deeper implications of the law, like you can't keep it, you're not keeping God's commandments. If you haven't realized it up until this point, you realize it now.

You know how hard this is, loving your enemies, blessing those who curse you, doing good to people that hate you? We usually want to do good to the people that love us. We want to do good to the people that do good to us.

Or if I do something good for a person, they'll pay me back. That's the way we are naturally. But it is a higher ethic. Bless those who curse you. How many of us are doing this perfectly? Zero, probably?

If you are perfect in this, you come and talk to me, maybe we'll make you the pastor of the church. I don't know, but I think there's only one person who did this perfectly, and that was Jesus, who on the cross, while people were mocking him and spitting at him and reviling him, what did he say?

Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He was able to do that. I don't think I would be able to do that. And if I was, if you were able to do that, it's only by God's grace. So he says, verses 44 and 45, I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

Why? Verse 45, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. And with this, we start to realize we have fallen short.

And I think many of the Jews listening who would have justified themselves, they thought, I'm redeemed, I'm a child of Abraham, I'm keeping the commandments. When they heard this, they're like, okay, I'm not really keeping the commandments.

But still, there would be people who want to justify their behavior. Most people, and this is all of us, I think in our natural condition, we want to make excuses. We want to say, well, you know, yeah, okay, but, and then we give our reasons why we don't really have to do this.

So this is challenging. I think we can all agree on this, right? The beatitudes, the things that Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. This is hard. This is hard. So Jesus gives his statements about poor in spirit, mourning over sin.

He gives more positive statements about being merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, being a peacemaker. And Christians, while it may be challenging at times, we do want to show mercy. If we have the Holy Spirit within us, we do have a desire for purity.

We want peace. We have to contend with the sinful flesh. And that's kind of the thing we have to deal with our whole life. But we do want these things. And now Jesus ends the beatitudes with something that really nobody wants.

So if you thought it's hard up until this point, guess what? It's only getting harder. Verse 10, blessed are those, happy are those, who are persecuted for righteousness sake. See, none of us want persecution.

None of us want the trials and tribulation that come in life that's kind of part of the Christian life. And you know there's a simple way to avoid persecution. And here in certain places in the world, people are persecuted where they're arrested, they're put to death for their faith.

That's not something that happens in this country, typically. But there still is Christian persecution. You know there are people who have lost their jobs because of their Christian beliefs. People speak against you and treat you poorly.

So there is a level of persecution. But you know there's a way to avoid persecution in the Christian life. You want to know what it is? Just don't do anything for God. Don't share your faith. Don't stand up for what's right.

If you want to save your own skin and save yourself grief, just don't do anything, don't say anything. Have no convictions, or if you have convictions, compromise them. And that's a sure way to avoid persecution.

The only problem with that, that's a sure way to lose your eternal reward. So Jesus says in Matthew 5, 10 through 12, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you. So I don't feel too happy when that takes place. And say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. Now that's the key. They're saying things that are false.

Sometimes they say things about us that are true. And that's not persecution. That's stuff we bring on ourselves. But those times where we are doing the right thing and we're attacked simply for our Christian beliefs or our Christian conduct or sharing our faith or serving God, Jesus says rejoice and be exceedingly glad.

Why? For great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You want to know who gets the greatest rewards in heaven? The people who do the most for the Lord. It's really that simple.

Persecution, Reward, and Choosing Between Two Kingdoms

So as we start to wind this up, Jesus is calling upon his followers and potential followers basically to choose a side. Choose a side. You can love the people of this world, but you cannot love this world system.

There's two kingdoms, right? We've been talking about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. That's one kingdom. Repent. The kingdom is at hand. But then there's another kingdom. There's the kingdom of this world.

The two kingdoms are conflicting kingdoms. And this is the proof. And the proof is how Christians are often ridiculed for their faith. So how can we be happy in the face of worldly opposition? Because we know we have a reward.

And ultimately, God is our reward. So this is why Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Mount. It's really to shatter self-righteousness. The people who think, hey, I'm good. You know, I was brought up in a Christian home.

Or, you know, I don't do this and I don't do that. Or I'm better than this person. Or I'm going to heaven because I'm a pretty good person. That really is self-righteous. And the Jews, many of them were self-righteous.

They thought they were doing enough good deeds to earn themselves a place in the kingdom. Can anyone do that? Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, he's showing everybody that nobody has kept the commandments.

We have all sinned and have come short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death. But the good news is what? That God loved the world so much that he sent his only begotten son to die on the cross for our sins.

All those areas where we're not living up, Jesus died to cover all of that. Jesus died so that there would be full forgiveness. Finally, just one last comment. To the person who said, no, I still think I'm a good person.

I still think God will accept me. You know, we could go through the commandments. Have no other gods before me? Are there things we put ahead of God? Sure. Don't bow down to graven images. Maybe you don't do that.

But how about taking God's name in vain? Taking God's name in vain. Keeping the Sabbath. Honor your father and mother. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Don't covet what belongs to you.

If we're honest, if the Jews listening to Jesus were honest, they would have to admit, I've fallen short. And once you realize that, once you understand the sermon on the mount and you understand the bad news, then you are poised to accept the good news of the gospel.

And I pray that every person listening today has done that. Let's pray. Heavenly father, I just thank you for the beatitudes and the sermon on the mount. And while it is a difficult message, because we know we don't really live up to it.

Lord, we are thankful and we can be happy because Christ came and he lived up to that standard for us. And he, out of an abundant love, has given us his grace. Lord, I pray that if there's someone here who has never given their life to following Christ, they would do that today.

And realize that this world, there's nothing in this world that will satisfy. There's nothing in this world that will truly make a person happy. The only thing that makes us happy is you. Because you have created us.

You have created us for your glory. And you're trying to teach us for our good. We thank you for that. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Moores Cornet Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, moorescornetchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.