The Sermon on the Mount 1

Well, this morning we come to a passage of Scripture that is very familiar.

And so as we have worked thus far in the Gospel of Matthew, we have seen this glorious truth of Christ being proclaimed as the promised

King revealed in the Old Testament. As we've worked, we've seen that He's not just a teacher among teacher.

He's not just a prophet among other prophets. He is the

Son of David. He is the Son of Abraham.

He is the Son of the Living God. In fact, He Himself is

Emmanuel, God with us. And so as we have looked at this through examining the royal lineage that Matthew laid out for us, as we saw it in the miraculous birth, as we looked through the preservation in divine providence that God kept

Him through all of these things in order to fulfill this, we watched as He obediently fulfills righteousness by being baptized, we saw

His defeat of Satan in the wilderness, and we have seen

Him begin to call men and women to Him in the preaching of the

Gospel in repentance to leave and to follow

Him. In fact, as we closed out last week, we saw at the end of chapter four that Jesus has become a figure that has begun to draw great crowds.

Now as we have discussed that the mere reality that there were great crowds did not necessarily and still does not necessarily indicate true conversion, but we do see that His fame has spread throughout all the land.

In fact, in verse 24 of chapter four, we saw that it had spread throughout all

Syria and that they were bringing to Him all of those who were ill and suffering with various diseases, pains, those who were possessed, those who were epileptics, those who were dealing with very different things, and it says that He healed them.

And so He displayed His authority over these illnesses, these sicknesses.

So as we come to chapter five, we see a shift in Matthew's Gospel.

We move from this preparation into the ministry proper.

We really get into the teaching aspect of Christ's life.

Most notably, as we come to chapter five, we begin one of the most famous passages of Scripture that will take us through the next couple of chapters, and we have come to know it as the

Sermon on the Mount. And the title comes from the very first verse here that we will take a look at and the fact that Jesus went up on the mountain and then began to teach.

This particular passage, the entire sermon, but even more specifically the

Beatitudes, the first opening segment of His message, is probably some of the most well -known and well -quoted or over -quoted

Scripture that you will encounter. And as the most well -known and often quoted, unfortunately it is also one that is misused.

There are those who treat this as an ethical masterpiece. Yet while they treat the words as an ethical masterpiece, they regard the speaker as someone who they do not really desire to follow.

Some see this as a general moral code that applies to all of mankind as though somehow fallen sinners in their own nature and by their own strength can produce these results and actions.

There are others who reduce this to a social vision and they use it to shape culture and shape leadership principles.

Yet again, rejecting Christ Himself, they don't desire to have this along with redemption, sin, grace, and the kingdom of heaven.

They want it separated from all of those things. But the reality of what we get here is not this abstract teaching around morality.

This is not a ladder by which sinners can attain heaven. This teaching, this is a teaching regarding the character of those who belong to the kingdom of God.

This is a key understanding. This is something that we need to grasp so that we rightly understand the passages that are before us.

If we begin to look at all of these passages simply as good moral teaching or ways to live to attain something, then they become relevant for all people versus instructional for those who believe and belief no longer becomes necessary in order to live and so we destroy the gospel.

As we look at our true natural virtues, as we look at what has been granted to us by the federal headship of Adam and the reality that we are fallen sinners who sin because it is our nature, then we recognize that this is not something that we are capable of.

These personality traits are not personality traits that are found in everyone.

These personality traits are only there because they are marks of grace.

Martin Lloyd -Jones wrote, the Sermon on the

Mount does not tell men how to become Christians. It describes what

Christians are. Now this is contrary thinking to most people today because our impression often of the

Gospels is that the Gospels exist for the sole purpose of telling people how to become a believer.

But that's not why they exist. They exist to teach us what it means to be a believer.

Surely the words are there that do tell us how to become a believer. John 3 .16

obviously shows us that all who believe are saved.

But the majority of the writing and the teaching that we find here is instructional for believers.

Grace comes, new life comes, regeneration comes, and then evidence of that becomes the character of us as believers.

And so one of the things that we see happening in the Sermon on the Mount is a continual strike at the heart of false religion.

You see, false religions are always set up and they always have this content that is on the outside of the cup without really wanting to deal with what's on the inside of the cup.

We want to polish your life. We want to make you look really good.

We talked about this a little bit in Sunday school where you have this appearance as though you were a believer, but there's no true internal change.

This passage over these next few chapters in the book of Matthew, this sermon of Christ's literally measures men by external, or refuses to measure men by external obedience, refuses to measure men by their religious adherence, it refuses to measure men by their public acts of devotion, or by comparison with one another.

In other words, I do more in the church, so therefore I'm better than you.

I'm more saved than you. I'm more of a Christian than you. One of the great errors that we see in the texts throughout

Scripture is this error of the scribes and Pharisees.

They weren't irreligious men. We need to understand that these men were men who vehemently pursued religion.

They practiced intensely. They knew the language of Scripture. They practiced prayer.

They prayed every time that they were supposed to pray. They observed all of the fasting, the giving, the ceremonial obedience.

But the problem is, is their religion was a monument to self -righteousness. It was a monument to achievement.

It regulated their hands, but it left their heart proud. The same way false religion still does us today.

It regulates our hands, but it leaves our heart proud, angry, lustful, deceitful, and ultimately cold towards Almighty God.

And so Christ begins somewhere completely different. He doesn't begin

His sermon and His teaching with external issues.

He doesn't begin His teaching by saying, listen, you're not obeying the letter of the things that you have been given.

Rather, He begins with poverty of spirit.

He begins with mourning, with meekness, with hunger, with thirst for righteousness.

Before He ever teaches His disciples how to pray, how to give, how to fast, how to resist anxiety, how to judge rightly, or build upon a rock,

He describes what kind of people they should be by the grace of God.

Too often we want to run the race ahead of ourselves instead of understanding what

Christ is teaching regarding what His citizens should look like.

And so we will begin this morning, and we will carry our conversation of the

Beatitudes over several weeks. But each week we're going to read the Scripture in its entirety.

For those of you who were here when we walked through Exodus over the Ten Commandments, one of the things that we did that just felt like it brought a little extra was being reminded each week as we worked through those

Ten Commandments of the entirety of them. And I think the Beatitudes should be the same way.

So we'll begin this morning reading Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5, verses 1 through 12.

Each week we'll repeat verses 1 through 12. We will just focus on a different part. So as you have found your place in your copy of God's Word, I invite you to please stand in reverence for the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, complete, and certain

Word. In the Gospel of Matthew, beginning in the fifth chapter, in the first verse, reading through the twelfth, we find these words.

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain. And after He sat down,

His disciples came to Him. And He opened

His mouth and began to teach them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the lowly, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Our most gracious Heavenly Father, as we come before you this morning in all reverence and humility with thanksgiving, we acknowledge you as holy, holy, holy.

Father, we know that the earth is filled with your glory. We know that you dwell in unapproachable light, and yet in your mercy and in your grace, you draw us sinners near to you through Christ Jesus our

Lord. Lord, we confess that we do not come before you with anything in our hands, anything that commends ourselves to you.

Rather, we come needy. We come dependent. We come poor in spirit.

Father, we acknowledge that apart from your grace, we are without righteousness, without strength, and utterly without hope.

Father, we ask now that as we expound upon your word, that you would give us ears to hear and hearts made tender.

That you would guard us from hearing this as though it were merely a moral lesson or a standard, but rather that we would see

Christ. That we would see a king who speaks with authority in a kingdom built not on human pride or self -confidence or outward appearance, but upon the gracious reign of our

Lord in hearts redeemed. Humble us where we are proud.

Expose false comforts in which we trust. Strip away our self -righteousness, religious presumptions, and careless familiarities.

Teach us what it means to be poor in spirit before you. What it means to mourn over sin.

Not because of its consequences, but rather because it is against you.

And Father, even as we understand what it means to be poor in spirit and to mourn over the sin in our lives,

Father, do not leave us in sorrow, but show us the

Savior who receives the brokenhearted, who forgives, who gives the kingdom.

We just pray that Christ be magnified, that your words pierce, heal, convict, comfort, and conform us in all ways to our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. So as Matthew begins this passage, we find a couple of introductory words before Jesus begins to actually teach.

Typically speaking, if you are to encounter a passage or a sermon or message on this particular passage, honestly, you probably get skipped verse 1 and 2.

However, we need to notice a couple of very important things that occur in verses 1 and 2, the first of those being that he went up on the mountain, the second being that he sat down and then his disciples came to him.

Now, this is not an incidental setting. I've heard many sermons on the mountain where this particular part of the passage is almost referred to as, well, you know, back in those days, they would stand at a certain place and speak in a certain way so that their voice would carry and people could hear.

And while all of those things are probably true, they miss the biblical importance of where Jesus is and what

Jesus is doing. As we look at Scripture, mountains are places of revelation.

Mountains are places where we see God revealing himself in some manner.

Moses ascended Sinai. Eli ascended

Horeb. And yet here, more than just them ascending to receive revelation from God, we have something that is compounded greatly.

Because you see, Jesus is ascending the mountain, and yet Jesus is not ascending the mountain to receive revelation.

This is a key point. It is necessary for us to understand that as he ascends, he is going to begin teaching under his own authority.

Now, to be sure, he, again, operates under the Father. But we need to be reminded of the

Trinity here. We need to understand that as Jesus comes up on the mountain, he's not hearing words from heaven and then delivering them.

If you'll notice what verse 2 says, verse 2 says, And he opened his mouth and began to teach them, saying,

You see, as Moses ascended, he was just a servant in God's house.

Christ is the Son who is over God's house.

Moses said, Calvin observed that Christ appeared in the character of a new lawgiver.

And he taught in such a way as to assert his authority over all human teachers.

Now understand, Calvin is not presenting Christ as a contradiction to Moses.

Christ himself will deal with that later as he comes to remind us that he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but in order to fulfill the law and the prophets.

What he is saying is that rather than Moses pointing,

Christ speaks as the one to whom Moses continually pointed.

That he is the King greater than David, the priest greater than Aaron, and the

Son in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen.

And so the posture of Jesus as he ascends the mountain and sits down is also significant.

Different from today's way of teaching or preaching or doing these things where we stand up before a crowd and that day and time and that culture, the teacher, the master would sit and instruct.

A seated posture communicated authority. It communicated a deliberateness and a formal instruction that was about to occur.

And so even when it seemed to be in an informal setting, even when it's on the side of a mountain and the people are sitting around, it's still a formal time of instruction.

They didn't enter into a classroom and sit at little wooden desks with a little pencil groove marked out of them so they had a convenient pencil to take notes.

They sat around and they listened as the master spoke.

To be sure, there were large crowds. First part of verse one, now when

Jesus saw the crowds, crowds necessarily indicating more than just a few.

But even in that, this message is being delivered and heard by many, but it is being addressed to those who actually come as learners, as followers.

Notice it says that he saw the crowds. He went up on the mountain. After he sat down, the disciples came.

Then he opened his mouth and began teaching. He didn't just begin teaching to the crowds.

He began teaching to the disciples, to those who followed him.

Now we've talked before that there are two different kinds of disciples mentioned in Scripture, a big

D and a little d. Big D disciples being the 12 specifically chosen, called by name disciples.

Little d disciples being those who followed Christ, who are not necessarily named, but they are followers nonetheless.

And then we have the crowd, who are not necessarily followers, true followers, but merely those who are there.

And so this sermon, this message, is a publicly delivered sermon, but it is not a sermon that flatters the public.

It is a sermon that addresses kingdom needs, and only by grace can the hearer receive the word rightly.

The opening word of the

Beatitudes, of all of the Beatitudes, is the word blessed.

Blessed is a word that we should not reduce to or define or describe as mere happiness.

I've literally seen this passage been taken and used the word happy for the word blessed.

The problem with using the word happy is happy is a feeling, and feelings are an emotion, and emotions are fleeting.

Emotions depend upon your circumstances. Being blessed here goes beyond your circumstances.

People are happy when health is strong, finances are stable, family is peaceful, plans are succeeding.

But to be blessed, to be blessed as Christ is describing it in the

Sermon on the Mount, is something that is deeper than our circumstance. What it says is that even in the midst of our circumstance, even when it seems like we should not be at peace, like we should not feel these ways, that we should not understand, that we should not hunger and thirst, it is a settled spiritual thing that occurs even when outward circumstances seem to go against the people of God.

You've witnessed these. Other people have witnessed this. How do you stay calm when all of this is going on in your life?

Because I know the Master. I know the one who can crawl from the bottom of the boat, step up and say, winds be still, and they're silent.

So nothing this world has to offer, as challenging and as difficult and as hard and as rough as it can be, shakes this.

That's the blessedness that is being demonstrated. This is why, when we read this passage, people have a hard time with it in some ways, and why we end up with different, altering explanations for what it means.

Because it doesn't sound natural to the natural man. Because what we would expect to see are things like, the blessed are the powerful, the successful, the confident, the admired, the self -sufficient, the comfortable, those who were applauded.

That is how we would define being blessed. The world's kingdom is built on pride, arrogance, self -confidence, self -promotion, ambition.

However, Christ's kingdom begins here with emptiness, with brokenness, with dependence, and with repentance.

And so as we examine these, we are confronted with something that immediately deals with the depth of our true nature.

He opens with the first, and it is a foundational statement.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me in Scripture, or not in Scripture, but in the world, and unfortunately quite frequently in churches, is that we think we can remove the foundation of stuff and still have it stand.

We begin with very simple things. Oh, just take the Old Testament out. You don't need that. That's the

God of the left side of the Bible. We're worried about the God of the right side of the Bible. Problem is, same God. And the foundation that is laid in the

Old Testament is revealed and fulfilled in the New. And so it's necessary that we take these and we understand, number one, the first one is foundational.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Everything that follow rests on this.

Because until you and I understand the reality of spiritual poverty, we will never mourn over our sin.

Until we understand that our pride and our pride has now been humbled, we cannot be meek.

Until we know that we have nothing in ourselves, we cannot hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Why? Because we're still seeking self -righteousness. We still think we've got it.

We still think we've made it. We still think that we can attain it. You see, poverty of spirit is not one grace among many.

It's the gateway. It's the beginning. It's the opening. It's the understanding.

To be poor in spirit obviously doesn't mean to be financially poor. I remember just a year or so ago

I posted a message. I don't even remember what the message was, but I quite clearly remember talking about people being poor in the message, about not having, and specifically we were discussing spiritual things.

I get this comment online about, well, I thought all Christians were supposed to be rich. I'm like, brother, you ain't been to a church yet.

You've maybe been to places that said that, but you haven't been to a church. But at the end of the day, this has got nothing to do with financial gain.

Listen, absolutely. Being materially poor can help us understand and be more aware of our dependence, because we lack, right?

And we understand what lacking means a little better. But in this situation, in this circumstance, it's not about that.

It also doesn't mean that we adopt this gloomy personality. We don't walk around going, woo, it's me.

Everybody here has seen Winnie the Pooh, right? And Winnie the

Pooh's great friend Eeyore, right? Eeyore's always walking around. He's down in the dumps.

He's moping. That's not the picture of what's being painted when we talk about being poor in spirit. We're not sitting here speaking endlessly about ourselves in this miserable term.

Being poor in spirit is not theatrical humility. It's not pretending to be something.

It is an honest spirit. It is an honest spirit of actual recognition of who we are and the truth that we are absolutely, spiritually bankrupt.

That we are without. That we have nothing in ourselves with which to purpose, deserve, or maintain the favor of Almighty God.

We use a term called total depravity. Some people go, oh, we don't want to hear that kind of word.

But it helps us to understand what it truly means. That we have no ability within ourselves to come to God.

That unless the spirit of the living God moves within us, regenerating us, making us able to come, there is no capability.

To be poor in spirit means the end of boasting, the death of self -righteousness. It is the empty hand of faith opened to receive.

One of the realities of scripture is that this is a point that is relentlessly dealt with.

I never quite understand how this particular piece becomes so difficult for people to see in scripture.

And typically the response I get is, well, you know, Beth, that's something Paul made up. No. We can go back to the

Old Testament. To be sure, Paul nails it in Romans chapter 3.

He declares that none is righteous, not even one. But we need to understand

Paul is not quoting Paul. Paul is quoting God. Paul is pulling directly from the

Psalms. Isaiah describes it as that our righteousness, our self -righteousness, that which we are capable of is that of filthy rags, polluted garments, uncleanness.

Our best is filthy. Jeremiah. Jeremiah wouldn't be very popular today.

Because Jeremiah said, hey, the heart is deceitful above all else. That it is desperately sick.

The world today says, ah, just follow it. Yeah, follow that thing which is desperately sick and wicked above all else.

Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 says we're dead in our trespasses and sin. Brothers and sisters, dead men don't contribute to their resurrection.

I don't care what anybody says. Dead men do nothing.

Dead men do nothing. There is nothing that we can contribute.

We are spiritually bankrupt. Bankrupt men don't pay their debts.

Because you have nothing from which to pay them. Guilty men don't erase their crimes by simply standing and saying, well,

I promise I'll do better next time. Our condition, the condition of the natural man, the condition of the sinner is not a condition of weakness that needs mild assistance.

It is spiritual death requiring resurrection. That's the only, the only, the only way that it is made better.

That's why the gospel is so offensive to proud flesh. Because proud flesh wants to bring something.

We want to bring morality. We want to bring sincerity. We want to bring religious heritage.

We want to bring church attendance, baptism, knowledge, tears. We want to bring something.

We want to contribute. And in fact, when we cannot tribute, we feel as though we have failed.

Because that's the way the world has conditioned us. We need some kind of individualized effort that we can point to and say, look what

I did. Look what I accomplished. But to be poor in spirit really truly means nothing in my hand

I bring. But we got to be careful.

We need to understand that this doesn't deny the necessity of obedience in the

Christian life. What it does, however, is refuses to credit our acceptance with God based on our obedience.

Our acceptance with God is not based on how well we obey. We obey because we've been accepted.

We obey because we have been declared right. We obey because we have been resurrected.

It is not despising good works, but knowing that good works are the fruit of salvation.

We don't run from it going, oh, no, no, no. We can't talk about the obedience word in church, man. You expect me.

Wait, wait. No, no, no. God says I don't have to live that way anymore. He fulfilled everything, so I don't have to do that anymore.

I don't have to live how He's commanded me to live. I don't have to obey the way He's commanded me to obey. I get to live the way

I want to live. We talked about that just a tiny bit this morning in our

Sunday school. We used a big churchy word, antinomianism. The idea that you can live freely, just do what you want to do because it's all covered.

That the law doesn't apply in any way, shape, or form. That's one ditch. The other ditch is legalism.

Legalism is where you take the law and you seek to obtain salvation through the law.

Where we walk is understanding that obedience is a result of the salvation because we have nothing to offer.

And Christ has done it all. Charles Spurgeon, when he preached on the

Beatitudes, says, The way to rise in the kingdom is to sink in ourselves.

The world nowadays, however, says you want to rise up? You want to get bigger? You need self -absorption.

You need to be yourself, to believe in yourself. Scripture says deny yourself.

The world says trust your heart. Scripture says the heart is deceitful. The world says you're enough.

The word of God says you aren't. It says Christ and Christ alone is enough.

I know that busts people's bubbles left and right. Look, man, you can't tell me I'm not enough. You're not. You're not.

But thank God Christ is. We see him,

Isaiah, as Isaiah encounters Christ in Isaiah chapter 6 when he's standing in the throne room.

And he sees the king high and lifted up. We experience what this spiritual poverty means.

Listen, you want to know what it means to be poor in spirit? You want to understand what verse 3 says, blessed are the poor in spirit?

Go read Isaiah chapter 6. It doesn't take very long. Isaiah describes it for us immaculately. As he stands before the living

God. As he witnesses the glory of God filling the whole earth.

As he sees the seraphim crying out in antiphonal response, holy, holy, holy.

And Isaiah says, woe is me, for I am undone.

I am a man of unclean lips amidst a people of unclean lips.

That, my friends, is being poor in spirit. That is understanding exactly who you are.

The sight of Almighty God produces real sight of self.

You and I, we tend to think highly of ourselves because we think lightly of God. The more lightly we think of God, the more highly we esteem ourselves.

God's holiness, when it presses upon us, drives our self -confidence and self -reliance into obliteration.

Because when we truly understand his holiness, we realize we have nothing.

We also see the same thing happening with Peter. You know the passage.

Peter, the one who denied Christ. The one who was willing, according to his words, to go where Christ went.

To do what Christ did. Yet on that night, that fateful night, he denied him three times.

And then as we get to the post -resurrection life, Peter and the disciples are out fishing.

And there's this miraculous incident.

Jesus, standing on the banks, tells them to cast their net on the other side. They bring in so many fish, it's ridiculous. Peter literally leaps off the boat, makes his way to Christ, falls in front of him, and says,

Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. That is understanding what it means to be poor in spirit.

That's not a systematic theology lecture. This is a response to an awareness that you are standing in divine presence.

Job, after all his speeches, suffering, his questions, God reveals himself.

And Job then says that he despises himself and repents in dust and in ashes.

The presence of Almighty God humbles the soul. Thomas Watson wrote, Till we are poor in spirit, we are not capable of receiving grace.

He didn't mean that poverty of spirit earns grace. He meant that a proud man will not stoop to receive what grace gives.

Pride fills our hands and our heads and our hearts with imagined treasure.

Humility opens them. In fact, if you look at what was happening in Laodicea in Revelations chapter 3, we saw a church proclaiming that they were rich, that they had become wealthy, that they had need of nothing.

But Christ called them poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked.

Their assessment was the exact opposite of Christ's. I often wonder where our assessment would be in that same scenario because we can sing, we can serve, we can give, we can speak, but we can also remain blind to the true condition of who we are in our heart.

Poverty of spirit is also merciful because it brings us out of delusion and into reality.

We live in a world that has that backwards. They think being merciful leads you into a delusion, that if you're deluded about something, let you just keep being deluded about it and it's okay.

Don't tell anybody the truth and that the truth is subjective. It's subject to the changes in the wind.

But the reality, brothers and sisters, is that that's not merciful. The statement of Christ to the people is one of mercy because the promise here is given only to those, if you'll notice, to whom belong the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It's not given to those who claim that they are worthy. It's not belonged to the self -righteous

Pharisee. As we move forward, you'll see it belongs to the tax collector who humbles himself, who sees that there is nothing in himself.

The tax collector who would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and cried out for mercy.

Christ says he went down justified. Why? Because God justifies the ungodly who cast themselves upon his mercy.

The poor in spirit receive the kingdom because they receive the king as their only hope. They have no other.

But this must not be confined to the beginning of the Christian life. It is not as though we graduate as we move into our life and we move away from dependence.

We never outgrow grace. We grow in grace, but not beyond grace. The longer we walk with the

Lord, the more deeply we understand our dependence. Spiritual maturity should never make us look boastful.

Spiritual knowledge should never make us arrogant or prideful. We should never be one who say, look how far

I have come. We should be ones who say, by the grace of God, I am what

I am. We should be ones who are grateful.

The saints, the believers nearest to Christ are the believers who are most aware that every breath we take, every act of obedience that we perform, every victory over sin, every preserving step of our lives is a demonstration of the mercy of Almighty God.

I've had conversations before with believers who are troubled because the more that they walk with Christ, the longer they walk with Christ, the more they see sin in their life.

And they're like, I don't understand. I'm supposed to have less sin, but I seem to have more sins.

And it's like, no brother, you're just seeing what was already there more clearly.

You're just beginning to understand as you learn and you grow and you develop as to what is sin.

They expect maturity to make them feel stronger in themselves, but what they find is that they feel more weak.

But that is, brothers and sisters, where you find reliance on God and the weakness, because the

Spirit reveals this sin to us, not to drive us to despair, but to drive us to Christ and to drive us again to Christ and to drive us again to Christ, because left to ourselves, we're driving in the opposite direction.

Left to our flesh, we go the other way. Poverty of spirit is not unbelief.

Poverty of spirit is the soil in which faith grows. And so as Jesus continues, he moves from poverty of spirit naturally into mourning.

Now the mourning that we see here is that sounds odd to us because we use the word in a different way.

The second here declares that those who mourn are blessed because they shall be comforted.

Now when we talk about mourning here, we're not talking about the loss of something.

That's what the world distracts us with. When we hear the word mourning, the world says to us, it is because you have lost something that you are mourning.

It is because something has been taken away that you are mourning, because it's distracting us with entertainment, with noise, with humor, with business, with pleasure, with denial.

The reality, however, is when we are mourning in this situation, when

Christ is blessed are those who mourn, what we are mourning is the sin in our life. We are feeling the weight of sin, the weight of death, the weight of judgment, the weight of eternity.

We feel the true implications of those things, and Christ pronounces a blessing upon that.

Don't misunderstand, Christ, the scripture certainly teaches God comforts his people in every affliction.

God is always there for you and with you. No matter what you're going through, he's there.

But this goes much deeper. We put so much emphasis on that. We put so much focus there that we miss how much deeper this really is.

How much more important this is. You see, the first beatitude here, blessed of the poor in spirit, allows us to see sin truly.

The second here shows us that we feel sin deeply.

That we don't treat it lightly.

But it's also not a mourning of mere regret. Regret, in fact, could be, and quite possibly usually is, entirely selfish.

Usually it's because that sin has damaged some kind of relationship. It's created some kind of discomfort for us.

There's been some kind of consequences in our life. But that is not what we're talking about.

This is Godly sorrow. This is truly grieving sin.

Not because sin has created something in our lives, but because sin is against Almighty God.

The best example in all of scripture comes from Psalm 51. If you're unfamiliar with Psalm 51, it's one of those psalms that you really should know very well.

Psalm 51 was actually the psalm that was repeated by many of the reformers who were being led to death.

And many people don't understand why that was the case. Psalm 51, written by David immediately after his encounter with the death of his son.

It comes from the heart that is grieving the sin that has been exposed by Nathan the prophet.

And although we know the story, we know that David egregiously sinned against Bathsheba.

He egregiously sinned against his family. He definitely egregiously sinned against Bathsheba's husband,

Uriah. But David, in Psalm 51, doesn't hide behind excuses.

He doesn't blame circumstances. He doesn't say, oopsie, I made a poor decision.

He doesn't go to Bathsheba and to Uriah. He couldn't go to Uriah at that point.

Or to his family and say, I've sinned against you. He goes directly to God and his words are,

I have sinned against God alone. Why would he do that?

Because he understands that the deepest level, that is what sin is.

R .C. Sproul frequently emphasizes the holiness of God. One of my favorite books is his book,

The Holiness of God. If you don't read anything else by R .C. Sproul, you should read The Holiness of God and Chosen by God.

Those two should be on every believer's bookshelf. But in the book,

The Holiness of God, R .C. Sproul defines sin this way. Sin is cosmic treason.

Sin is cosmic treason. It is treason against the creator of the universe.

It's not a small defect. It's not a harmless mistake. It is literally rebellion against God himself.

It is us, the creature, elevating ourselves to the position of Lord or God.

It is us saying that we know better. And when the spirit opens a sinner's eye to reality, and we truly see that we have sinned against almighty

God, that we have sinned against the creator, then mourning naturally takes place.

Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 draws a distinction between worldly grief and godly grief.

Worldly grief produces death. Godly grief produces repentance leading to salvation without regret and to life.

Worldly sorrow hates consequences. I've got to deal with the situation now that I've created.

Godly sorrow confronts and hates sin.

Worldly sorrow says, I'm sorry I was exposed. Godly sorrow says, I have sinned against God.

John Bunyan, who we should all be familiar with from his most famous writing,

Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan also wrote many other things.

In a book called In Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, by the way, if you study

Bunyan a little bit, you'll know when he says the chief of sinners, he's not talking about anybody but himself. He would be the first to tell you that's exactly who he's talking about.

He writes these words. Well, he describes the anguish of consequence under conviction.

But then he also magnifies the mercy of Christ towards burdened sinners.

He describes in Pilgrim's Progress the sin of Christian as being this weight on his back, this pack.

And if you'll notice, as the book progresses, it gets heavier and heavier.

The burden gets heavier. The load gets heavier. Why does it get heavier? Because he's more conscious of what it is.

He understands it more fully. His burden is deeper.

And that burden is not removed by pretending that that burden is light. That burden is only removed by Christ.

It is only removed as a movement of the gospel. The law exposes guilt in order that the sinner may see the glory of Christ in our day and age.

This should serve as a correction when we begin to truly understand these things.

Because you see, what we want in modern religion is comfort. We want comfort.

I can't tell you the number of times I've heard arguments, true arguments, over the temperature or the seating arrangements or the color of carpet or the fact that we do or don't have a projector or the statement that, well, that's just not really for me.

It's not my style. It's not the kind of songs I like to sing. I don't want to sit and listen to somebody yap for an hour and 45 minutes.

The reality is, it's not about us.

It's not about us. It's not about comfort. It's about being convicted.

But we also want assurance. We want to be comfortable, but we want to be assured, but we don't want conviction in either one of those.

We don't want to be confronted. We don't want to have mourning. We want forgiveness, but we don't want to repent.

We want to keep doing the things that we're doing because those are the things that we enjoy doing. Even when they are sinful, we still desire to do them.

We don't want to repent. We want grace, but we do not want to submit.

But again, just as being poor in spirit doesn't simply mean that at the beginning of our

Christian walk we're poor in spirit, neither does mourning. Neither does this godly understanding.

We mourn the remaining corruption in our flesh.

Let me put it to you in a different way. We mourn cold prayer. We mourn lukewarm

Bible study. We mourn dullness in worship. We mourn pride in service.

We mourn when we have this selfishness that happens in relationships.

How about when you're in the midst of suffering or trials or some aspect of life, and well, let's just be honest, it's not happening fast enough for me.

Yeah, patience is one of those big things, isn't it? Mourning, impatience, to be able to simply rest in God and wait on His right timing, right?

I'm just going to be honest with you. If there's anybody in here who says that they don't struggle with waiting on God, then we need to have a conversation after church because I think you're a liar, okay?

And I just want to confront your sin in a loving way because we struggle with it.

Why? Because we know better. We know how to fix it, right? So if you'll just listen to me, we'll fix this thing all up, we'll make it really right, we'll be good, and we'll move on to the next thing we've got to deal with because we have a list.

We need to mark things off our list. We mourn as a beloved child who is grieved that we have sinned against a father.

One of the best ways that I have ever seen this put on display in my own life was many years ago now, but our son

Jonathan was, I don't know, five, six maybe. And for whatever reason, he was throwing rocks at the house.

You know, he's a boy. It's what they do. And he busted the glass on the front door, the storm door.

And he comes and tells us one of the things about him he always would confess. He was really good at confessing.

He would just tell you he did it. But I can remember him coming in the living room, and he had a sock.

And in the sock was all the change he had because he was sorrowful over what he had done.

That still doesn't compare. But that's what I think of when I hear being sorrowful because we have sinned against a father.

But it's vital that we understand that Christian mourning is not hopeless misery.

It's not the despair of Judas to the point where we need to go and take our life. It is fleeing to Christ.

It's like the sorrow of Peter who wept bitterly after denying his

Lord. And then he was restored by the very Savior he denied.

The tears of repentance do not wash away the sin in our life.

Only the blood of Christ can do that. But those tears do reveal that a heart no longer loves sin as it once did.

It reveals that grace has made us tender before Almighty God.

This is why Jesus promises the comfort. It's not sentimental comfort.

It's gospel comfort. It's the comfort of pardon, of being cleansed, of being reconciled, of being adopted, of having hope.

The comfort that we feel as a believer when we know and we are reminded that Christ came into the world to save sinners.

When we see that the Son of the living God bore the curse on the cross of Calvary in the place of His people.

It's the comfort that we feel when we understand that the justification necessary to stand right before God is given to us because of the work of Christ.

It's the comfort that we know because we know that grace is sufficient.

And again, this comfort continues because we know that as we confess our sins we have an advocate in Christ before the

Father. When Satan tries his condemnation tactics on you, you know that the blood of Christ speaks on your behalf.

And then there is the day that that comfort will be made complete. There is the day when the mourning of the believer will be gone.

Why will it be gone? Because we'll be in New Jerusalem and there will be no more sin.

There will be no more sin. That war that we feel within will cease.

There will be no more temptations that weary us. We will experience the reality of God who wipes away every tear, who will be with us.

And so the comfort that we see promised here begins right there, but it finds its fulfillment.

It finds its fullness in the new heavens and the new earth.

So we see that even in just these first two Beatitudes, even in the very opening of this sermon,

Christ begins overturning natural expectations. He doesn't gather his disciples and tell them how great they are.

He doesn't tell the people how wonderful they are and they're okay and that they should just be themselves and they should find their own truth and that they should trust their heart.

He confronts them. He tells them that those who are poor in spirit and those who are mourning are blessed, that the kingdom belongs to those who know they have nothing, and comfort belongs to those who are grieved over the very sin that Christ came to pay the penalty for.

And so this confronts every person who hears, believer and non -believer.

Because here's the thing, no matter who you are, you have to answer the question. You have to answer the question, are you poor in spirit?

Not merely religious, not merely moral, not acquainted with Christian language, but truly poor in spirit before God.

Have you stopped pleading before God your own righteousness? We talked in Sunday school this morning about how we refer to people as being good and nice and all of these things, right?

Do you think of yourself in that way? Do you hide behind your religious activity?

Man, I taught Sunday school. I was chairman of the committee of whatever.

I was the preacher. You see, those are religious activities.

And even the man standing here today before you can't stand on the fact that I'm standing here today before you.

Because in my effort, this is just as much a filthy rag as anything else.

Are you mourned over your sin? Not the consequences, not the embarrassment, not the difficulty, not what happens because you got caught, but because sin is sin.

Because it is against the very God who made you, who sustained you, who has given and shown mercy and grace.

You see, the good news is Christ does not turn away the poor in spirit. He does not despise the mourner.

He doesn't crush the bruised reed. He doesn't quench the faintly burning wick.

Yes, he brings the proud low. Our line in our psalm today from Psalm 18 was that he brings down the eyes of those who have been lifted up.

Yes, he brings the proud low, but the humble he receives.

Yes, he exposes self -righteousness. But brokenhearted, those who come empty -handed find an inexhaustible

Savior. Spurgeon said there are no crown -wearers in heaven who were not cross -bearers here below.

We may add that there are no citizens of this kingdom who did not first come as beggars.

The way into Christ's kingdom is not paved with human pride, but divine mercy. And so the

Sermon on the Mount did not begin by giving us a burden to carry on our own strength. It actually begins by stripping us of the illusion that we have any strength at all.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, not because poverty itself saves, but because those who know their poverty flee to the riches of Christ.

Blessed are those who mourn, not because tears atone, but because those who mourn over sin find comfort in the one whose blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

This is just the beginning of the character of the citizens of the kingdom.

This is the gracious work of God in our lives, and it is the only safe place for sinners to stand.

Low before God, empty of ourselves, mourning over our sin, looking holy to Christ, the

King who blesses the broken and gives the kingdom to the poor.

Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the words of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that our pride is not flattered, but graciously is brought low.

Lord, we confess that we are often slow to see our poverty and very quick to excuse our sin.

We ask that you forgive us for the ways in which we have trusted in ourselves and for the reality that we have treated sin lightly.

We ask that you grant us true poverty of spirit, that we are a people who know our need and who cling to Christ and Christ alone.

Grant us godly sorrow that leads to repentance. Comfort us with the gospel.

Remind us that the blood of Christ is sufficient, that his righteousness is perfect, and that his mercy is greater than all of our sin.

Keep us low before you and near to Christ. And let the character of the kingdom be formed by your spirit.

May we walk as those who belong to the king, longing for the day when mourning will cease and your people will be forever comforted in your presence.