The Sermon on the Mount 2

The Sermon on the Mount 2

Well last week we began working through Matthew chapter 5 in our Study through the book of Matthew and as we came to chapter 5 we we talked about how this was the beginning of The sermon on the mountain and that as Christ opened this particular sermon one of the most famous teachings in all of Scripture that he did so by working through.

These.

What we know as the Beatitudes what we see in chapter 5 or the beginning of chapter 5 is is The king himself sitting down and beginning to teach with divine Authority and so as he begins to teach.

He begins.

By delivering something that is much more than this moral code or vision of human goodness it is a declaration Concerning the life and the character of Kingdom citizens. And so what we see described for us is is this Reality of what grace does Once men are Regenerated by the work of the Spirit and Christ has taken hold in their lives.

Having that viewpoint as we enter this conversation about the Beatitudes is essential because as we do.

So we we are.

Able to turn away from the ideas that the world have implanted that this list of blessedness is simply this Self-righteous thing or this or we have a response of despair because we know we'll never achieve them.

The proud man will recognize that it is his self-righteousness and He will imagine again that he has not achieved them. An honest man will Recognize that he is not achieved them, but when we see them as marks of grace when we see them as transforming mercies of Christ as response to the holiness that we come into contact with and that we pursue and desire.

Then things begin to change. We begin to understand that the same Savior who? pronounces these blessings is the same Savior who produces this character in his people by the work of his spirit through the power of his word.

The Order and Purpose of the Beatitudes

Once again scripture reveals to us an order. To God's revelation. We've talked much in here about God being.

Orderly.

Not leaving things to chance or to chaos and here again. We see that order Displayed just as we do throughout scripture. And so what we see is that the order in which the Beatitudes are Revealed it's not a random list.

It's not as if these are different characteristics. It is that this is describing the man and woman of God. Last week we saw that he began with the poverty of spirit because only by beginning there and understanding that we have That we are poor in spirit.

Will we come? Rightly to God because we have emptied ourself of Self-confidence and know that we have nothing in which to place our trust, but Christ alone after that he moved into the reality of those who mourn Being blessed and we talked about that this morning is not morning as we think of over the loss of a loved one.

But it's mourning over the sin in our lives. We we see that the sin has made us poor. And because we are poor we have no Righteousness of our own and we come Empty-handed before God. This morning we come to lowliness and we see that one who has been humbled Cannot continue to live in Self-assertion.

So once we understand that we are poor in spirit once we understand that we are those who mourn. We know that there is nothing in and of ourselves and we come humbled before God and because of that we see that we will inherit and Then we see this Hunger and thirst for righteousness that is Generated in the one who truly understands his emptiness who mourns his sin and longs for the righteousness that will allow him into the presence of Almighty God a righteousness that we ourself do not Possess.

Beatitudes as Characteristics of All Kingdom Citizens

We must take some care However some caution. And and I alluded to it a moment ago. We have to remember That as we read through these Beatitudes They are not describing different types of people. This is not those who are poor in spirit are different from those who mourn are different from the lowly are different from those who hunger and thirst for righteousness what we see being described for us are characteristics that define and.

Describe.

Every person who is a citizen of the kingdom. So brothers and sisters as citizens of the kingdom of God these are Characteristics or attributes that should be developing.

Within you as.

A result of the work of Christ. It is for this reason.

That as.

The Sermon on the Mount begins. Jesus immediately lays the axe at the root of all false religion and the reason is is because false religion wants to polish to make shiny the visible life.

But the.

Perception that you give to others. It has this desire to produce outward discipline to make you adept at Using religious language to be publicly devoted and morally respectable. The truth of the matter is False religion can never produce what is genuinely produced in the regenerated.

Heart.

False religion will never produce What the Spirit of God produces? By the grace of God. The salvation that is found in Christ alone. According to the Word of God for his glory. The flesh can imitate many things.

But the flesh cannot make itself humble before God. It is only grace That does this. And with that in mind We come to our text for this morning found in Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 1 reading down through verse 12.

As we talked about last week each week as we study these beatitudes We'll read the entire section and then we will focus in on the specific verses that we are dealing with for that week. So for this week, we'll read 1 through 12, but our focus will be verses 5 and 6.

And so having found your places I Ask that you stand 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 thirst the first verse reading from the LSB version 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? Well, they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart. Well, they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Well, 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 gracious God and Heavenly Father. Once again, we thank you for the reading of your Holy Word. Father we confess before you that your word is true. That it is searching that it is good and that it is all sufficient for all things.

Or as we come now to the words of our Lord Humble us Under the authority of Christ or we pray that your spirit teaches us what it means to be lowly before you. To no longer grasp for our own way or our own honor or our own control.

That within us is awakened a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. The righteousness that is found only in Christ. When I pray now that we are fed by your word conformed by your spirit and That we behold the beauty and sufficiency.

Of.

King Jesus for it is in his name that we pray. Amen may be seated. So as we open up verse 5, which is the third beatitude we read blessed all the lowly. Now as we read that many texts and most of us here who have any familiarity with this text Will be more familiar with the use of the term meek.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. But the word meek is a very helpful word when it is rightly understood. One of the issues however has become.

Meekness Rightly Understood: Strength Under God's Rule

This.

Misunderstanding that the world has generated around this term. Meekness. If you if you were to go out and ask most people in the world today What you will get is that the term meek or meekness defines weakness.

It describes someone being weak however As opposed to this weak man being a timid passive.

Fearful.

Easily manipulated unable to stand for anything kind of person or Lacking courage of some type. Meekness is actually strong submission strength brought under the rule of Almighty God. And when we begin to understand meekness in that manner versus this idea of being weak and being lowly It really begins to change our entire dynamic.

It is the humility of One who is subdued by grace. It is a result that comes Because we have been subdued because we have no need to any longer exalt ourself Defend our pride or wrestle for some type of control.

When we rightly understand this beatitude we see immediately that it flows directly from the first and second that it that the lowly man or the meek man is the one who has been made poor in spirit and mourns over his sin and Because of these two things he is humbled.

He is lowly. He is meek. He has stood before God he rightly or she rightly Understands that they possess nothing in and of themselves to commend themselves to God that they are grieved over their sin.

Understanding it as.

Rebellion against God. And when we understand these things we simply cannot remain proud in The way in which we were proud.

Before.

Grace has broken the back of our self-importance. We no longer see ourselves as the center of all things. The world no longer revolves around us the dominion of pride in our life has been Broken and we are no longer in our own eyes the measure of all things because of that.

What we see is that our posture before God Changes the lowly man that the meek man takes God's Word and receives it. Without argument without dispute we hear the whisper of the serpent did God really say.

And the lowly man has received the Word has studied the Word and responds according to the Word. We submit To the way God deals with us even when life is painful even when things seem difficult even when We see it not going the way that we think it should we still bow beneath the providence of God?

And we don't blame God. We don't accuse God. This doesn't mean that we don't cry out in sorrow. It doesn't mean that when we see the situations around us. We don't feel the weight of that affliction. It doesn't mean that we don't have questions.

If anybody ever tells you that means you don't have questions. They aren't paying attention. Questions will still exist. The difference is the way you approach not only the question but the response or possibly even lack of Response what we do is.

We refuse.

To put God on trial and When we stand that way we stand in good company. We stand with Job who says Yahweh gives and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahweh. We stand with Eli who says it is Yahweh let him do what is seems good in his eyes.

It's the same approach our Lord took on the night before he was.

Crucified.

Before he bore our curse as he prayed in the garden. Not my will But thine. A .W. Pink once wrote meekness is the opposite of self-will toward God and of ill will toward men. It's a fitting description because in in In meekness when we look to God we don't insist on our own way.

When we look to man that we don't insist or burn with bitterness. We don't desire to Retaliate. We don't see every disagreement as an attack upon our dignity. We don't have the answer to every slight.

We don't have to expose every critic. We don't have to win every contest of words. We can suffer wrong Without being consumed by it. We can speak the truth. We can speak the truth in in a way without a quarrel some spirit without this haughty Spirit and we can stand firm Without necessarily having to be harsh.

Problem for most of us is this is absolutely not a natural position for us. First of all it goes against our nature which is sin. Second of all it goes against the way that we have been taught and raised.

We have been taught to assert ourselves. To defend ourselves. To demand our rights. To never let anyone Disrespect us. To make sure that your voice is heard. To build our platform form to find our.

Truth.

To protect our name. And Christ says blessed are the lowly. When the world sees people we admire. Aggressive self-confident dominant ambitious people. These are the people that are elevated in stature.

We talked before about the Corinthians and their form of Meritocracy being the the more merit you bring to a society the higher your rank. We live in the same world. And yet Christ pronounces the opposite.

He pronounces a blessing upon those who have been brought low by grace who now live Under the rule of God rather than in the tyranny of ourselves. If you look in the Old Testament in the 37th Psalm David writes,.

But the lowly will inherit the land and delight themselves in an abundance of peace. Psalm was written by people who were tempted to envy the wicked. It records how evildoers seem to prosper that the arrogant seem and appear to succeed in the violent to gain ground.

And In those moments the righteous may be tempted to rage or to imitate the world's methods. Because we're worried and we want to progress and we want to move forward and we want to attain this.

Acceptance.

But God says throughout his word Do not worry Trust in me Place your self and my hands dwell in the land that I have given you Cultivate the faithfulness To me that I have demonstrated.

To you.

Commit your ways.

Rest in.

Him the meek inherit not because they grasp But because they wait because they rest. Notice what Christ says Blessed are the meek For they shall inherit.

The earth.

He doesn't say they might. He doesn't say that if you fight hard enough you can gain it. He doesn't say that if you manipulate enough or scheme enough. She's enough. Then you can inherit it it. Inheritance is received by gift.

It is part of the promise That has been given. This promise looks all the way back to the inheritance that Israel is promised. It looks all the way back To what Adam and Eve were given in the garden? It looks all the way forward Until all things are fulfilled the inheritance is Pointing to the day when Christ Kingdom is finally fulfilled.

When wickedness is cut off when righteousness will dwell and the people of God. People of God will be face to face with Almighty God and He will wipe away every tear and pain and sorrow and death will be no more.

And they will dwell with him and he will dwell with them. The inheritance again is seen throughout all of Scripture. Adam exercised Dominion under God, but the fall forfeited that blessing. We just got through dealing with the fall of man in Sunday school this morning through our catechism question.

We talked about how that fall meant that we lost What was originally given later in Scripture we see Israel brought into the land. But their possession of the land Exposed the same problem of sin and shame and rebellion and again they lost David ultimately received the kingdom.

David himself however the man after God's own heart still Failed he was still in need of a greater son and so Christ comes as The last Adam the true Israel the true son of David the heir of all things.

Those who are united with him Receive the blessings of him. And so since these descriptions within the Beatitudes the blessed Things virtues that we see here Describe the people of God. The people of God are those that are united with God.

Then we see how the meek inherit the earth because Those who belong to him inherit all things Through Christ. It's necessary for us to have a right understanding of this and the reasons are that one it helps us to guard against Confusing meekness with weakness like we talked about earlier.

It can it refuses to confuse meekness with being defeated.

The world views.

That stance as defeatism We may appear to lose in the present age. We may be overlooked. We may be slandered. We may be mistreated. We may be passed over for worldly advancement. And I know that doesn't sound like preaching that you hear in a normal church anymore.

Does it. But that's because much of the church has become the world. And so they're going to preach what the world preaches instead of what the word preaches. Listen. The word teaches that You may suffer.

That You may Deal with things in your life, and that is because you will not follow the ways of the world. The world says That you're weak. The world says that you're defeated. Christ says. Christ says You're blessed, and you will inherit.

You will inherit Because your inheritance is not Affected by your present circumstances. What do I mean by that well? Maybe you don't have two nickels to rub together. Maybe the job that you have is not the job that you wish you had.

Maybe you always dreamed of being The owner of your own company, and you've had to settle for just working nine-to-five and putting food on the table. The world has deemed you a failure. Your inheritance Found in Christ does not depend on your current Situation or circumstance.

It depends on Christ and on Christ alone. You are blessed because God has secured your inheritance through Christ Jesus.

Period.

The Meekness of Christ

John Calvin commented on this promise. He observed that the children of God May be reckoned that the filth of the world yet. They do not cease being heirs of the earth. If we need an example of meekness there is no better place to look than the supreme example the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Christ is not merely the teacher of meekness. He is meekness incarnate. In Matthew chapter 11 verse 29 Jesus says to us take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and Humble in heart. That word gentle that's translated is the exact same word.

As the word that we have translated this morning as lowly or that you're more familiar with being translated as meek. That's the exact same Greek word. And if we're honest with ourselves, we will understand that there has never been anyone stronger than Christ.

After all he was obedient to the point of death Willingly placing himself and Giving up his life for the sake of his people and yet at the same time there has never been anyone who has been meeker. Let's think about it if you actually if you go back up to chapter 4.

And you look at verse 24 in chapter 4 of Matthew. We we read where the the news spread about Christ throughout all of Syria. And they brought to him all who were ill suffering with various diseases pains demonet demoniacs Epileptics paralytics, and it says that he healed them all he demonstrates his authority over all of these things.

We have seen the authority of Christ if you continue to read through the Gospels you continue to see the authority of Christ. If you understand the resurrection you understand that the authority of Christ extends to the point that he is a Has authority over all things even death and.

Then as he prepares to ascend he tells us all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth. All things are subject to them. If you think about his ability. Even Satan recognized in the temptation that he had the ability to summon leagues of angels to him if he needed.

What kind of man comes out from the bottom of a boat? Speaks to the wind and the waves and they respond.

That's authority.

We see he has Authority. We see he has power. We see he has strength. Yet in all of this. He doesn't use it for selfish display. He doesn't use it to promote himself in fact. We see quite the opposite when when he is reviled he never reviles in return as he was strapped to the whipping place and.

Scourged.

With enough power To call down legions of angels to to completely turn the tides to with a word Change places with every one of those that was doing this to him. Yet He took it. He never uttered a threat.

He went silently willingly Because he wholly.

Fully.

Entrusted himself to the father to the one who judges righteously and. So on the cross we see Meekness in its highest earthly display. We see the Son of God being mocked on mocked spit upon hung across on the cross falsely accused scourged.

And yet. There is no response with the simple rage. There is no answer to defend his honor. He simply willingly lays down his life. The cross is not the triumph of human power over divine helplessness.

It is the sovereign obedience of the Son to the Father. It is perfect strength under perfect submission. It is the very definition of love holiness justice and mercy meeting In the sacrifice of the Lamb.

Becoming Meek Through Christ's Transformation

So our meekness our meekness Has to be Christ shaped. Listen, we don't get meek by doing something in and of ourselves. We don't get meek by going home and deciding. Okay guys. So here's how I'm gonna live this week to make sure that I'm meek.

I'm gonna do everything that I can in my power to just keep my mouth closed. Clench my fists when I need to and plow through and just submit to everything. That's not meekness brothers and sisters. It's not meekness when you have to tell everybody how well you're doing.

If you have to start the symbol sentence with I you know, I'm a humble man. You're not a humble man. That's not the way that works.

Meekness is is.

Becoming.

You become meek as you are humbled by the gospel as you are conformed to Christ as the words of.

Scripture.

Changes who we are. The spirit drives away things like anger wrath malice slander. It pushes all of this out and Clothes us in compassion in kindness and humility and gentleness in Patience. You should write those definitions.

You should write those words down and go home and define every one of them. Make sure you understand what they really mean. The more you understand what they mean the more you understand that that's not your ability.

It's God's in our homes. Meekness refuses to dominate by harshness or me nipple manipulate through our actions in.

The church.

It receives correction.

It.

Pursues peace. It refuses to turn every matter of preference Into war. What do I mean by preference? Well things like the music we play or the color of the carpet or whether you do or don't have hymnals or You get my picture.

There are some things that are foundational and we absolutely must stand on. There are some truths that we don't compromise because they're not a matter of preference. There are some things however that are a matter of preference.

That we do not turn into war. JC Ryle wrote. Humility is the very first letter in the alphabet of Christianity. The lowliness Christ blesses is not some decorative addition to your life. It's not a box to be checked.

It's not a place to a T attain. It is fundamental. A Proud man can be religious. But he is not walking in the spirit of what we see here. A proud man can be religious. He can show up to church every Sunday.

He can put on a great show. He can do all of the things that you would expect and still be. Wearing his pride the lowly are blessed because grace has taught them to stand low before God and to walk gently.

Among.

Men and so as we see. Being low or meek. We move from verse 5 to verse 6. And in order to get to verse 6 First of all you had to go through 1 through 5, right? Which meant that you had to go through somebody poor in spirit.

Somebody who's mourning. Somebody who's meek. Somebody who fits these categories. Somebody who? Understands who they are. Somebody who is really in this situation recognizes that they have no righteousness and so they begin to hunger and thirst for that righteousness.

Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness: The Appetite of a Kingdom Citizen

So we have an appetite of a kingdom citizen. We have the desire of someone who has been brought into this kingdom. They have been humbled under the hand of God and they desire More than just this casual desire.

It's no mistake. There's no descriptive effort here that that gets to a different point other than hunger and thirst are fundamental.

Necessities.

Go without food and you hunger. Go without water in an arid land and you thirst. They are a craving a longing a need a pursuit. Unfortunately, we turn them into other things. We turn hunger and thirst into gluttony and As much as we can imbibe sometimes.

But at their very core at the very root of what they are they are this desire. It's not a polite interest in righteousness or admiring holiness from a distance. It is a it is a an effort that moves toward these things without being stopped and we need to understand the righteousness that we're talking about here because we see Righteousness in Scripture and we got to understand that there's different types and different things that are at play.

There's a forensic or Identifying way and then they're a righteousness and then there's a transformative righteousness. There's a righteousness that we need before God and then there is a righteousness that God works Within us as we are saved so we talk about them in two terms justification and sanctification.

Justification being the righteousness that you receive the imputed righteousness of Christ at the moment of faith. Sanctification is the righteousness that is built up in your life over a period of times as you are brought into.

Living the way that God has commanded you to live both are important. But the first and deepest need of us as individuals is the righteousness Received by faith in Christ apart from that righteousness.

None of the rest matters. Apart from receiving the righteousness of Christ any righteousness that we attain after that when we think we're in Sanctification is merely just us trying to work ourselves into heaven.

It is by faith alone in Christ alone that we receive true declaration of being made right. That term declare is an important term. Because what it says is that we don't do anything to earn it. You have been declared righteous that means God Has looked at you.

Seeing it not your filthy rags. But the righteousness of Christ imputed to you and has made a declaration that you are righteous. It doesn't mean you're perfect. It doesn't mean you're you're without sin at this point.

It means that your sin was paid for on the cross of Calvary and You have been declared Righteous and then you enter the point of sanctification where you are being made Righteous. The difference being the righteousness that we talked about initially is Martin Luther described as being an alien righteousness.

Because it comes from outside of us. It comes through the gift of Christ. It is not produced by us. It is given to us in Christ. Now whether we want to admit it or not, most of us in here are prideful people.

The fact that we don't want to admit it just proves that we're prideful. We have too much pride to admit that we're prideful and that's prideful people. We don't want anybody doing anything for us. I Don't need your help.

I can stand on my own two feet. I Can achieve things on my own. I don't need to rely on anyone or anything to accomplish what I need. But brothers and sisters you cannot accomplish this righteousness on your own.

John MacArthur wrote the righteousness that satisfies is the righteousness of God not the righteousness of man. You want to stand right before God. You will never do it on your own. You will never do it with your righteousness.

It will only be the righteousness of Christ. The world has many different versions of righteousness. We as men are always inventing standards by which we are judged and held and By which we can pronounce ourselves Acceptable and and if we can't pronounce ourselves acceptable, well, that's okay.

We can just change the standard, right? We can just adjust. That's why we want to see everything as subjective truth. Versus objective because objective truths can't be adjusted because they're found in the object the object being God Almighty.

Subjective truth. Well, you can just change it the drop of the hat because you know. If you don't really like that color brown, just call it a different color brown. All the while it's still brown. Okay, how many different shades there are yet that?

Justification is.

Not.

Satisfying this hunger that that we're talking about here That justification actually creates. The hunger that we're talking about here that justification that righteousness imputed to us by Christ generates a Hunger and a thirst for a different type of righteousness.

And this is where Sanctification comes in even though we rest in the imputed righteousness of Christ. Even though we understand that this is the imputed righteousness of Christ by which we are declared right by which we are ushered into.

The kingdom of heaven.

The effects of that or.

Such that we.

Begin to desire the righteousness of God. We begin to desire to be practically righteous in life. We want Christ formed in us. We want to mortify the flesh. We want to mortify sin. We don't we don't hunger and thirst for this righteousness in order to become accepted.

We hunger and thirst for this righteous because we are accepted. We understand that we're accepted and because we're accepted we desire to move in this direction. We yearn for this. This is one of the greatest evidences that you truly are regenerative.

That you truly are made new. Because you desire to grow that listen the natural man. He wants relief from guilt. He wants to escape hell. He wants to live as comfortably as he can in trouble. He wants to maybe morally approve improve his life if it will help his current situation.

The opposite of that is The desire to be holy. Because God is holy. The opposite of that is to desire righteousness to grieve. Sin to be conformed to Christ. Hunger is not just for the gifts of God. It's not to go through here and say okay.

Let me find all of the promises. These are the things that I desire and I don't want any of the other stuff. Right. This is why we do things like say. Oh, well, you know it scripture says if anything you ask you get it.

So we can just name and claim it without really evaluating what the entirety of it is because it's gone. It's all got to be according to the will of God. And when it's all about us, it's not according to the will of God.

This is why when we look at this list right here in chapter 5 of blessed blessed blessed blessed blessed. We won't say okay. These are all different kinds of people, right? So that we have these over here that they're poor and so they're blessed and we have these people over here.

They're mourning so they're blessed and we got those people over there now that little group over there. They hunger and thirst for righteousness. They're blessed. But these are all different people versus being characteristics of individuals who are members of the kingdom of Almighty God.

Thomas Watson wrote a man may hunger after the world but he does not hunger after righteousness till God has changed his heart to hunger for righteousness Is to bear the mark of a renewed heart. It is the appetite of a new creature and it exposes the emptiness of the world.

The world promises without delivery. It offers distraction. It offers pleasure. It offers achievement. It offers wealth. It offers endless bread that can never satisfy. It even offers broken cisterns that hold no water.