Will you please turn to Matthew 5? We will begin with verse 1.
But seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain:
and when He had sat down, His disciples came unto Him:
and He opened His mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.
For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Dear Lord, our hearts do bow before Thee. Thou dost love us so much, and Thou dost love us to the end, to the uttermost, for which we are all grateful.
As we gather around Thyself this morning, we pray that Thy love will once again open our hearts, that we may see Thy beauty and Thy glory, that we may be attracted to Thee, and allow Thee to fill us.
May Thy name be honored and glorified. We trust Thy Holy Spirit to open Thy Word to us. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us together again this morning. Yes, we are especially thankful to the Lord that He should invite us to His own table.
This time, our burden is on the so-called Sermon on the Mount. Here you find our Lord Jesus: He went into the mountain, and His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and began to teach them.
So, the Sermon on the Mount is addressed to the disciples of our Lord Jesus. Even though a great crowd also gathered around Him, yet our Lord Jesus addressed Himself only to His disciples. As a matter of fact, only His disciples are able to hear such words.
Thank God, we who believe in the Lord Jesus have received His own life. But, at the same time, we are also being called to be His disciples. Only His children can be His disciples.
The learning of our Lord Jesus is an inward learning. It is not an outward imitation. Without His life within us, we cannot learn of Him. But if we have His life, then we are able to learn of Him, because this learning is inward.
So our Lord Jesus opened His mouth and began to teach His disciples. We said yesterday that our Lord Jesus is not giving a new law.
The Sermon on the Mount is not a new law for people to keep, because, in a very real sense, there is no one in the universe who can keep the words of the Sermon on the Mount. Of course, there is one Person, and that is the Lord Himself.
Here you find that the Lord is not trying to give a new law for us to keep. He is trying to show what His life really is. We have already received that life, and He wants to demonstrate to us what that life can do for you and for me.
He is the King of the kingdom of heaven, and He is the personification of that kingdom. If you want to know what the kingdom of heaven is, look at the Lord Jesus, because He is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven expresses what His life really is.
He has already given us His own life. Now He is trying to show us what that life is able to do. If we live by that life He has given to us, that is the way we will live. We will live the kingdom life, a life of heaven upon the earth.
So the Sermon on the Mount actually is a description of the life of our Lord Jesus. He has come to this earth, and He has lived it once. Now He wants every one of us to live in the same way.
He is teaching His disciples. He is not trying to condemn us. He is trying to bring us to the place where all the potential of that life may be fully realized.
We are here as His disciples, learning our Master. It is a gradual and progressive process. Do not expect that you will be complete and perfect in one day. It takes a lifetime for us to learn our Lord Jesus.
So let us be encouraged. We may experience many failures, but then, through failures, we learn. Gradually, we come to know what that life really is. Let God be glorified.
Now, this morning, we will go right into the Sermon on the Mount. The discourse begins with the Beatitudes. Eight times the Lord says, “Blessed are those.” You may find that there are nine times, but usually we call them the eight blessings, because the ninth one and the eighth one are put together.
Now, the word blessed in the original Greek means happy. Who are those who are really happy? This is very interesting: happy are those who are poor in spirit.
We will find out how very different this is from the world. In the kingdom of this world, happiness is found somewhere else, and not in what we see described here. But this is true happiness. This is a happiness that comes from above, a happiness that bubbles forth from within. This is a happiness that is given by God, and when God sees us in this state, He is happy.
The kingdom of heaven is totally different from the kingdom of this earth. What the kingdom of this earth may consider as happiness, in the kingdom of heaven may be sorrow. But what the kingdom of heaven considers blessed, the kingdom of the world will not understand.
Now, in these Beatitudes, you find that the emphasis is not on doing. The emphasis is on being.
The Lord said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Here you find the emphasis is not on duty; it is on being. You are a person who is poor in spirit. You are a person who is meek.
Everything here has the emphasis on being, not on doing, because in the sight of God, being is more important than doing. In other words, what you are is more important than what you do. You do because of what you are. Everything comes from within your being.
It is not something that is being put upon you. It is something that comes from within. It is the outflow of life. In other words, it is character.
When you read the Beatitudes, immediately before you, you see a picture of our Lord Jesus, because this is what He is. When He was on earth, this was His life.
Now, brothers and sisters, God has given that very life to each one of us. That life was once demonstrated in the life of our Lord Jesus, and this life has been given to you and to me.
What the Lord is trying to teach us is to let that life live. If you allow that life to live, you will find the same things that you find in the Beatitudes. What is important here is Christian character.
Now, some people take the Sermon on the Mount as Christian ethics, especially those liberals in Christianity. They do not care about the other parts of the Bible, because they say that the Sermon on the Mount gives us Christian ethics. It is higher than what you can find in the world, and it is a Christian ethic to which we should aspire.
They believe that we should try our best to arrive at such a high moral standard. In other words, we use our natural life, try to educate it, cultivate it, develop it, and improve it until we begin to arrive at such Christian ethics.
Now, brothers and sisters, let us remember one thing: Christian character is not an improvement of our natural life. It is not trying to beautify our flesh.
Christian character is from a new life. God has given us a new life, and this new life has a new nature. If we follow that new nature, if we cultivate that new nature, then that new nature will develop into a new character. This alone is Christian character.
Why? Because if you consider the Sermon on the Mount as Christian ethics, and you try to arrive at it by your own effort, you may achieve something externally.
For instance, you may appear to be very humble. I remember when we were young, we tried to be humble. The way we tried was to bend our bodies, as if we were very humble.
But you know, when you bend your body, actually in your heart you are telling people, “See how humble I am.” So it is hypocritical. It is not real. It is merely imitation; it is something completely outward.
So, brothers and sisters, the Sermon on the Mount is not Christian ethics. The Sermon on the Mount is Christian character. It shows the nature of this life.
Let us, from the very beginning, lay hold of this honestly. It is not something that you try to achieve by your natural strength. It is returning to the life that is given to you and allowing that life to develop into Christian character.
The Lord said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is so opposite to the concept of the world.
In the world, you would say, “Blessed are the rich in soul,” because they can do everything. We say that some people are very dynamic, very charismatic. Some people have real power. We consider such people blessed because they will gain something.
But in the kingdom of heaven, you find, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Now, what do you mean by poor in spirit? Poor in spirit does not mean having a poor spirit or a bad spirit.
Look at our Lord Jesus. In Philippians 2:6-8, you find that our Lord Jesus, being in the form of God, was equal with God. This was not something He tried to grasp, because He is God. He is one with God.
And yet the Bible tells us that He emptied Himself. Of course, He could not empty Himself of His deity, but He emptied Himself of all the glory and honor related to His deity.
He emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a bondservant, being found in the fashion of a man. He was obedient to the Father, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is poor in spirit. Actually, He is rich, and yet He laid aside His riches and became poor in order that we might be enriched. This is humility. This is true humility.
The Bible tells us that God gives grace to the humble, and He resists the proud. Naturally, we are all proud. It is only through the dealing of the Lord that He shows us that in us—that is, in our flesh—there is no good thing.
How we think that we have good! If we are not perfect, at least we think we have some good. Because of that, we are boastful of ourselves.
But, brothers and sisters, when the light of God comes upon us, He will reduce us to zero. When we are all reduced to zero, we come to the place of being poor. In other words, before God we realize that we have nothing. We are nobody, and God is to be our all in all.
Humility opens the way for us to be filled with the fullness of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
Then it is followed by, “Blessed are those who mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Now, the mourning here is not mourning for yourself.
Naturally, if we are not proud of ourselves, we may develop a kind of self-pity. We feel that we are not as good as other people. We develop an inferiority complex, begin to pity ourselves, and become mournful for ourselves. This is not what is meant here.
Why? Because this is not what our Lord Jesus was when He was on earth. Do you remember Isaiah 53:3-4? He is a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Then it says that He bears our griefs and carries our sorrows.
In other words, He is not sorrowful for Himself. He is not grieving for His own reasons. But because He is full of compassion, when He looks upon this world, He weeps.
Brothers and sisters, because He loves us so much, He knows that we are not in the right place, and He is grieved for our sake. That is what it means to mourn.
We should not try to pity ourselves, but we should be filled with the compassion of God. We should be sympathetic to the world.
Then you find it says, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
You remember what our Lord says in Matthew 11:29:
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Our Lord Jesus is the meek One. Now, what do you mean by meekness? He is selfless, and because He is selfless, He can yield Himself completely to God. There is no opposition within Him against God, and He is able to carry out the will of God.
In Matthew 12, you find Matthew quoting the words of Isaiah 42:
Behold, My servant whom I have chosen;
My beloved in whom My soul is well pleased:
I will put My Spirit upon Him,
and He shall declare judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not strive, nor cry aloud;
neither shall any one hear His voice in the streets.
Brothers and sisters, this is what our Lord Jesus is. He never strove, and yet He gained the earth.
Do you remember Abraham? Abraham allowed Lot to choose whatever he felt was the best land. Abraham did not strive. But after Lot left, God said to Abraham, “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it.”
Even the land that Lot had chosen, God also gave to Abraham. He was meek, and because of his meekness, he inherited the earth. In other words, you do not need to strive for yourself. If you are meek, God will give it to you.
Now, meekness does not mean that because you are meek, you are weak. Actually, you find great strength in meekness, because you have the strength of the power of God.
“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Some people feel that they are very righteous. This is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. But if you really seek true righteousness, God will fill you with it.
Hebrews 1:9 tells us that our Lord Jesus loved righteousness more than anyone else. Therefore, God anointed Him with joy. When our Lord was on earth, how He sought righteousness! Everything He did was right in the sight of God, and because of that, He was filled.
We need to be hungry and thirsty after true righteousness, humbling ourselves and realizing that we have no righteousness of our own. Christ is our righteousness.
Then He said, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” God loves mercy.
When the Pharisees criticized the Lord Jesus because He ate with sinners and publicans, our Lord Jesus said, “Go and learn what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” He came to seek the sick, not the well.
When our Lord was on earth, He was so merciful. Now, what is mercy? Mercy is showing love and giving grace to those who are undeserving.
God has given us mercy. He has shown so much mercy to us. Should we not also be merciful to others?
You remember the parable our Lord Jesus told. One servant owed his master so much, and when he begged for mercy, the master had compassion on him and forgave all his debts.
But when he went out from the presence of his master, he saw a fellow servant who owed him only a little. He seized him by the throat and demanded payment. When his fellow servant asked for mercy, he would not give it. He put him into prison.
When the news came to the master, he called that servant back and said, “I forgave you so much, and yet you do not forgive.” So he was thrown into prison because he did not show mercy.
Brothers and sisters, we have been forgiven so much. How can we not forgive those who have offended us? If we do not forgive, even our prayers will not be answered. Mercy glories over judgment.
One day, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, if we have shown mercy to others, mercy will glory over judgment.
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
God looks upon the heart, not upon appearance. What do you mean by pure in heart? Pure in heart is more than having a clean heart. It means there is such purity that you are not double-minded. You have a single eye.
If your eye is single, then your whole body is full of light. If your eye is double, great is the darkness.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, was so pure in heart. In His heart, there was no one but the Father. He did not consider Himself. He only asked, “Is it the Father’s will?”
If it was the Father’s will, even if it meant death, yea, the death of the cross, He would accept it. He would drink that cup, because He was pure in heart. So He saw God all the time.
Those who have the life of the Lord must allow that life to grow until all our double-mindedness is dealt with. We should have no ulterior motive before God. We love Him because of Himself. Then we shall see Him with such clarity.
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.”
Look at our Lord Jesus. He came into this world to bring peace. On the cross, He made peace between the Jews and the Gentiles. He is the Peacemaker, and God wants us to be peacemakers.
To be a peacemaker does not mean to compromise. You find that our Lord never compromised. But He made peace between man and God, and He made peace between the Jews and the Gentiles. We also should follow His footsteps. Then we show ourselves as the sons of God.
“Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
This is the way they persecuted the prophets. Our Lord Jesus, because of the righteousness of God, would not compromise, and how He suffered because of this.
Brothers and sisters, we shall follow His footsteps. The life within us will give us the strength to endure and to suffer for righteousness. Other people may do certain things, but you cannot, because you have a life in you. That righteous life will not allow you to do the same things that the world is doing.
We who are the Lord’s must practice righteousness, because God is righteous. Our Lord adds one more word of challenge: if you are persecuted by the world because of His name, rejoice and be exceeding glad, because your reward is great in heaven.
Brothers and sisters, the world rejected our Lord, and we who follow Him should go out and suffer together with Him—to suffer for the name of the Lord and to suffer for righteousness’ sake. This is a demonstration of the strength of life.
At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord gives us these Beatitudes. He shows us Who He is and what He is. He says, “Now, you have My life in you.” Then you are really in that blessed position.
Dear brothers and sisters, by the grace of God, by the working of the Holy Spirit, and by the working of the cross in our lives, patiently we will inherit our inheritance. When we begin to demonstrate that kind of Christian character, this is the testimony of the kingdom of heaven.
We will be salt. We will be light. Salt will prevent corruption. Even though the world may look down upon us, they do not know that it is Christians who keep this world from total corruption.
Christians slow down the process of total corruption. We Christians serve a purpose in this world. We are keeping this world from total corruption.
And we are to be the light of the world, shining upon the darkness, exposing what is in darkness, and showing what the real light is. This will become our testimony on this earth.
This is a blessed life. Then it is followed by this statement: “Unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
What is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is something respected by the world.
At the time of our Lord Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees were models for the people because they had righteousness. But what was their righteousness? Their righteousness was a righteousness according to the law.
You remember Paul, when he was a Pharisee. He said that, according to the righteousness of the law, he was blameless. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was the righteousness of the law, but it was the righteousness of the letter of the law.
In other words, they tried to keep every letter of the law. But in keeping the letter of the law, they violated the very spirit of the law.
In the eyes of the world, they were very righteous, and yet their righteousness was hypocritical. Our Lord said, “Ye scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”
They kept everything externally, but there was nothing inward within them. Because it was an external righteousness, it was merely a kind of behavior. It was not character. It was not real. It was hypocritical.
Because of that, they became very arrogant and very critical of people. This righteousness is harmful instead of helpful.
Unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
To explain this, the Lord uses five illustrations. Two illustrations He takes from the Ten Commandments, two He takes from the statutes and ordinances, and one illustration He takes from the tradition of the fathers.
He uses these illustrations to show what the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is, and what is the righteousness that surpasses their righteousness.
Without going into the details, take the principle. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is all outward. It is human effort. Whatever is of human effort, all you can reach is outward correctness.
But there is nothing real in it. The righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees comes from within. It is of the heart. It is the result of life.
Because of this, it is living and real. That is the difference. The Lord is trying to teach us that the Sermon on the Mount is not a law. It is grace. It comes from within. It is the overflow of life.
It is supernaturally natural. Because this is supernaturally natural, you find that there is no effort, no striving, to make it happen.
At the end of Matthew 5, the Lord concludes with this: “Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Why? Because we have such a life within us. How can we live in an ordinary, common way? The world, because of the life it has, has its own manner of life. We have a new life within us. Can we live in the same common way as other people?
If that is the case, then how can we show that we have another life? With this new life of Christ in us, God expects us to be extraordinary.
For Christians to live an ordinary life is a shame, because, having this life in us, God expects us to be extraordinary. Do not be content merely to say, “Well, I am as good as other people.” If you are as good as other people, you are shameful, because you should be extraordinary.
God is perfect, and He wants His children to be perfect. But you may say, “How can I be perfect as God is perfect?” God is absolutely perfect. Our perfection is relative.
Let me use an illustration. In 1 John 1, we read:
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
God is light. He dwells in light. He is perfect light. There is no darkness in Him, nor any shadow of turning. That is God.
The Bible says that if you walk in the light, you have fellowship with God. What is that light? In 1 John 1:5, it says, “God is light.” In other words, you who believe in the Lord Jesus have the light of life in you. That life in you is light. It will shine.
When you first believe in the Lord Jesus, you have that life in you. That life has the nature of light, and the nature of that light is the same nature as God’s light. The quality is the same, but you may have only one candlepower, whereas He is perfect light.
You may have one candlepower, but if you walk in that one candlepower, your fellowship with God will be uninterrupted. The degree of light is different, but the nature of light is the same.
Even though you know only a little and experience life only in a small measure, if you walk in the light of life, there is no hindrance between you and God in fellowship.
But as you fellowship with God, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses you from all sin. Because of your fellowship with God, your life grows a little more, and you begin to see a little more clearly. You begin to see what is of God and what is not of God—things that you had never seen before.
Now, what do you do? You walk in that greater light. Then your fellowship with God is uninterrupted, and you grow a little more. Your life grows a little more, and you see more clearly than before.
Can you still walk in the former light? No. If you continue to walk only in the former light, your fellowship with God will have problems. You need to repent, and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse you.
Then you walk in the further light, and your fellowship with God again is wonderful. That is the way we gradually grow in life. So be perfect, because God is perfect.
Brothers and sisters, how we praise and thank Him! First, He puts His life within us, and gradually that life shines. He cannot do it otherwise; we cannot stand it.
How lovely He is! How gently He treats us! Gradually, as your life begins to grow, more light is given. You follow that life, and gradually a new character is built. By the Holy Spirit, you are transformed from glory to glory.
That is the kingdom of heaven.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, because Thy kingdom is real, we thank Thee. Thy kingdom is an inward reality. Thy kingdom is of life, and how glorious is that life!
We thank Thee for dealing with us so gently, for leading us step by step until we are conformed to Thy image.
Lord, show mercy again upon us. Lead us to the place where Thou art, that we may see Thee and be like Thee.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.