Please turn to Matthew 5. We will begin with verse 1.
And 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.
Verse 20:
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.
Verse 48:
Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, how we bow before Thee. Thou dost love us so much, and Thou dost love us to the end, even to the uttermost. For this, we are all grateful.
As we gather around Thyself this morning, we pray that Thou wilt once again open our hearts. May Thy love fill our hearts. May Thou open our inner ears, that we may see Thee. May we see Thy beauty and Thy glory, that we may be attracted to Thee.
May we open our hearts and allow Thee to fill us, that Thy name may be honored and glorified. We trust Thy Holy Spirit to open Thy word to us and lead us into Thy truth. We ask all in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us together again this morning. We are especially thankful to the Lord that He should invite us to His own table, and once again we should taste His love. His love is really sweet.
This time our burden is on the so-called Sermon on the Mount. Here you find our Lord Jesus: He went up 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 are not only children of God; He has given His own life to us. But at the same time, we are also being called to be His disciples.
Only His children can be His disciples, because the learning of our Lord Jesus is an inward thing. It is not an outward imitation. Without His life within us, we cannot learn of Him. If we have His life in us, then we are able to learn of Him, because this learning is an inward learning.
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 Sermon on the Mount. Of course, there is one Person, and that is the Lord Himself.
The Lord is not trying to give us a new law 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 His life.
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. You will live the kingdom life; you will live a life of heaven upon the earth.
The Sermon on the Mount is actually a description of the life of our Lord Jesus. He has come to this earth and has lived this life, and 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 His life may be fully realized.
We are here as His disciples, and 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 thank God, 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 of the mountain begins with the Beatitudes. You find the Lord saying, “Blessed,” eight times. Perhaps you find it nine times, but usually we call them the eight blessings because the ninth and the eighth are put together.
The word blessed in the original Greek means happy. Now, who are those who are really happy? Happy are those who are poor in spirit.
We will find how very different this is from the world. In the kingdom of this world, we find happiness somewhere else—not in what we have seen described here. But this is the true happiness. This happiness comes from above; it bubbles forth from within. It is a happiness given by God. 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 happy, the kingdom of heaven may consider sorrow; and what the kingdom of heaven considers happy, the kingdom of the world will not understand.
In these Beatitudes, the emphasis is not on doing. He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek.” The emphasis is not on doing; it is on being.
You are a person who is poor in spirit. You are a person who mourns. You are a person who is meek. Everything here emphasizes being, not 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 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. You see the picture of our Lord Jesus, because this is what He was when He was on earth. This is what He demonstrated to us.
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 as you find in the Beatitudes. What is important here is Christian character.
There are some people who take the Sermon on the Mount as Christian ethics, especially those who are liberal in Christianity. They love the Sermon on the Mount, but they do not care about the other parts of the Bible, because they say the Sermon on the Mount gives us Christian ethics.
They say it is higher than what you can find in the world, and it is a Christian ethic at which we should aim. We should try our best to arrive at such high moral standards.
In other words, we use our natural life and 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 nature will develop into a new character. This alone is Christian character.
If you consider the Sermon on the Mount as Christian ethics and 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 you are proud. You are telling people, “See how humble I am.”
It is hypocritical. It is not real. It is just something imitated; it is something completely outward.
Brothers and sisters, the Sermon on the Mount is not Christian ethics. It is Christian character. It is the nature of this life.
Let us, from the very beginning, lay hold of this: 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. Some people are very dynamic; some are very charismatic. Some people have real power. They are rich in position, rich in wealth, rich in friends, or rich in learning. We say these people are blessed because they have gained.
But in the kingdom of heaven, you find, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” What do you mean by poor in spirit? Poor in spirit does not mean having a poor spirit. Some people have a very bad spirit. That is not what is meant here.
Let us 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 that He tried to grasp, because He is God; He is one with God in the same glory.
Yet the Bible tells us that He emptied Himself. Of course, He could not empty Himself of His deity, because that is what He is. 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. Instead of the form of God, He took upon Himself the form of a bondservant. Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and 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 to become poor in order that we may 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. We think we have good. If we are not perfect, at least we have some good; and 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 reduced to zero, we come to the place of being poor in spirit.
In other words, before God we realize 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, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them. This is the first blessing, and it is such a beautiful blessing.
Then it is followed by, “Blessed are those who mourn: for they shall be comforted.” The mourning here is not mourning for yourself.
Naturally, if we are not proud of ourselves, then we may develop a kind of self-pity. We feel that we are not as good as other people, develop an inferior complex, begin to pity ourselves, and become more and more discouraged. This is not what is meant here.
Why are those who mourn blessed? Because this is what our Lord Jesus was while He was on earth. You remember Isaiah 53:3-4. He is “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” and “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”
In other words, He was not sorrowful for Himself. He was not grieving for His own reasons. But because He is love, He is full of compassion.
When He looked upon this world, He wept. 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 mourning.
We should not try to pity ourselves, but we should be filled with the compassion of God. We should be sympathetic toward the world. Because of this, you shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” You remember our Lord’s words 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. What do you mean by meekness? Meekness means selflessness. 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, Matthew quotes 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 strives, and yet He gains the earth.
You remember Abraham and Lot. Abraham allowed Lot to choose whatever he felt was the best land. Abraham did not strive. But after Lot left, God said to Abraham, “Look east and west, north and south. Whatever you can see is yours.” Even what Lot had chosen, God also gave to Abraham.
He is meek, and because of his meekness, he inherits the earth. In other words, you do not need to strive for yourself. If you are meek, God will give it to you.
The meek does not mean that 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 self-righteousness; this is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
But if you really seek true righteousness, you will be filled. God will fill you with it.
In Hebrews 1:9, you find that our Lord Jesus, because He loved righteousness more than anybody else, God anointed Him with joy.
When our Lord was on earth, how He sought righteousness! He did right in the sight of God, and because of that, He was filled. We need to be hungry and thirsty after true righteousness.
We humble ourselves, realizing that we have no righteousness of our own, but Christ is our righteousness.
Then He said, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” God loves mercy.
The Pharisees began to criticize the Lord Jesus because He ate with sinners and publicans. Our Lord Jesus said, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” When our Lord was on earth, He was so merciful.
What is mercy? Mercy is showing 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. A servant owed his master so much, and 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 and demanded payment. When his fellow servant asked for mercy, he would not give it, but put him into prison.
When the news came to the master, he called his servant back and said, “I forgave you so much, and yet you do not forgive.” Because he did not show mercy, he was put into prison.
Really, 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.
One day, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, if we have shown mercy to others, mercy will triumph 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? Purity of 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 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, even the death of the cross, He would accept it. He would drink that cup, because He was pure in heart. Therefore, 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 removed. We should have no ulterior motive before God. We should 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 is the Prince of Peace. He came into this world to bring peace.
On the cross, He made peace between Jews and 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 Jesus never compromised, but He made peace between man and God. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles, and we also should follow in His footsteps. Then we show ourselves to be sons of God.
“Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” 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 that.
Brothers and sisters, we shall follow Him. The life within us will give us strength to endure and to suffer for righteousness’ sake.
Other people may do certain things, but you cannot, because you have His life. That righteous life will not allow you to do the same things as the world is doing.
We who are the Lord’s must practice righteousness because God is righteous. 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 outside the gate and suffer together with Him—to suffer for the name of the Lord and 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. Let that life live out. Then you are really in that blessed position.”
Dear brothers and sisters, by the grace of God and by the working of the Holy Spirit 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. We will be salt that prevents corruption.
Even though the world may look down upon us, they do not know that it is the Christians who keep this world from total corruption. It is the Christians who slow down the process of total corruption.
We Christians serve a purpose in this world. We are keeping the world from total corruption, and we are to be the light of the world—to shine upon the darkness, to expose what is in darkness, and to show what the real light is.
This will become our testimony on this earth. This is how the Sermon on the Mount begins: it is a blessed life.
Then it is followed by this statement:
Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.
What is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? In a sense, it 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 a righteousness.
But what was their righteousness? Their righteousness was according to the law. You remember Paul, when he was Saul. He said that according to the righteousness which is in 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 external, 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. Such 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 illustrations 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 is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and what is the righteousness that exceeds it.
Without going into details, just take the principle. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is all outward. It is human effort, and whatever is of human effort can reach only outward correctness. There is nothing real in it.
But 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; it is living and real. That is the difference.
Brothers and sisters, what the Lord is trying to teach us is that the Sermon on the Mount is not something merely outward. It comes from within. It is the overflow of life. It is supernaturally natural.
At the end of Matthew 5, the chapter concludes with this statement:
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 they have, has a certain manner of life. But we have a new life in 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, He expects us to be extraordinary. For a Christian to live an ordinary life is a shame. 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 say, “How can I be perfect as God is perfect?” God is perfectly perfect; our perfection is relative.
Let us use an illustration. In 1 John 1:7:
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, and there is no variableness or shadow of turning. That is God.
But the Bible says, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light.” In verse 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, and it will shine.
When you first believe in the Lord Jesus, you have that life in you, and that life has the nature of light. The nature of that light is the same nature as God, who is light. But you may have only one candlepower of light, while He is one hundred candlepower.
If you walk in that one candlepower of light, your fellowship with God will be uninterrupted, because the nature of the light is the same. Even though you know only a little and have life only a little, if you walk in the light of life, there is no hindrance between you and God in fellowship.
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.
Then you begin to see what is of God and what is not of God—things that you have never seen before. What do you do? You walk in the increased light. Then your fellowship with God is uninterrupted, and you grow a little more.
Then you have more light. You see more clearly. Can you still walk in the lesser light? If you walk in the lesser light, your fellowship with God will have problems. You need to repent, and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse you.
Then you follow the greater 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 of all, He puts His life in us, and gradually that life shines. If He gave us all the light at once, we could not stand it; we would be overwhelmed.
How lovely He is! How gently He treats us! Gradually, as our life begins to grow, more light is given. If we follow that life, then gradually a new character is built.
The Holy Spirit transforms us from glory to glory. That is the kingdom of heaven.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, Thy kingdom is real. Thy kingdom is an inward reality. Thy kingdom is of life, and how glorious is that life!
Thou art 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 that we may be like Thee. In the name of our Lord Jesus.