Matthew, 5:1-12

Well, I guess most people know what we're studying, Matthew, chapter five, six and seven, and I feel like the. We've been in a group preparing for takeoff into space. Brother Verne is taking us through the context and the content and the concept. We've had three Sundays of getting ready for this flight. So we're taking off today.

So Matthew 5, if you have your Bibles, you want to turn there if you're one that marks your Bibles. And I think that's a great thing to do. This is a Bible church. Some of you maybe mark your Bibles after you get home, but it helps me a lot if I can mark things so that if I come back to it, it helps me not to have to dig quite as hard again.

As we have talked and getting into this, let's just briefly review. What are the various interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount that we've heard, that we've talked about? What's the various interpretations? Some have thought it's for salvation, for instance. It's a salvation message. Not only for salvation for individuals, but they think it's a salvation for society.

You know, and so society just live by the golden rule. How many have heard that? Just live by the golden rule. You know, are you a Christian? Of course I'm a Christian. I live by the golden rule. The problem is that people don't do that. And you can't be saved that way. What's another thing that you've heard about? Yeah, rules. Yeah. Okay. All right. And what else? Anything else? Moral teachings.

And some have thought that it is a description of the millennium. this millennium. But there are different things that would prove that. As we go along, we may look at some of those, like when we come to Matthew 6, 10, your kingdom come, why would they be praying, thy kingdom come, if it's already in the millennium, you know. So, and there's other things that we won't go into in this message, but maybe the other teachers as we come along. I'll be working with you, and you're working with me on chapter 5. And so we'll have four lessons together and then Brad will have some and then back to burn.

OK, also the some people think in the covenant people and others that the sum of the amount is to apply to life today. They have spiritualized Israel. to be that now we are Israel. We're spiritual Israel. And they believe that the teachings of these teachings are for us to apply to our life today.

Now, we know that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, right? Second Timothy 316. And it's profitable. All Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in the righteous that the man of God might be thoroughly furnished into every good work. So we know that these are profitable for us and they show us and teach us different things.

And so we're going to study about that. I think the best that I've heard so far, the best thing and the way we're going to look at it is that it is an interim way of living for the disciples in Christ's day and it is It is to look at it as an interim time, an interim way of living. You might say a moral code, a way of living for the nation of Israel awaiting the coming kingdom. We'll talk about that and review that idea in a little while. Okay. Matthew chapter five, one through 12.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 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 gentle, 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 the 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. So we're going to take verses 1-12 now. Let's look at verse 1 here. When Jesus saw the crowds. Now, these crowds. Who were these crowds? Look back at chapter 4. And then we have verses 23-25.

Jesus was going throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Not the gospel of grace. The gospel of the kingdom. and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about him spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases, and pains, demon acts, epileptics, paralytics. And He healed them. Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond Jordan.

So these were the crowds. And the Scripture goes on to say here, He went up on a mountain and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. Now, when we think of the disciples, we usually think of the twelve, but there were more who were disciples, who were following Him. And, you know, the word disciple basically means learner. And so a number of these disciples were true believers. They believed that Christ was the King. They had received this truth. And so they were true followers of Christ. But some were not true, as we know. Even Judas Iscariot was in this group.

And then there were others we see in John 6.66 who, when they heard him talking about some hard things, they just turned from him.

And we see that in John 6.66.

So this Sermon on the Mount gives us interim ethic. You might say moral code, or the way they are to live. And that's for those who have accepted the Messiah, the King. So, it's not intended to be an offer of the plan of salvation for them, or for the unsaved people. When He was on earth, this had direct application to those who had responded to this message of repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

If we had been there, just think of it this way, if we had been there, what would we be waiting for if we were one of these true followers of Christ who really desired repentance or we had repented, what would we be waiting for? Well, if you read the notes, you see the kingdom. What would we be thinking about? Well, how shall we live now in anticipation of this kingdom? And since Jesus is the King, the Messiah, what do we expect of us?

And what is this fruit that John the Baptist spoke of when he said, bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. Bring forth that which shows real repentance. So all of these questions are answered as we look now at these chapters, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. So this sermon is distinctively Jewish, and you have already heard some of this from Vern.

In chapter 5, we see Jesus' followers here, those who possess these qualities, they become heirs of the kingdom, it says, in verse 3 and 10. And it says that this reward is on earth, that it's an earthly reward. They're going to inherit the earth. And only to the Jewish people, we know, Is this promise given of this kingdom on the earth? And you go back to the new covenant in Jeremiah and you see that the promises are there for them. And by the way, the new covenant for Israel is has not been fulfilled yet.

And so certainly if these Jews knew their Old Testament, and I think many of them did. They know what Christ is talking about when he speaks of the kingdom and where it's going to be. It also, we see it speaks of, refers to the Sanhedrin in chapter 5, verse 22, and to the altar in 5.24, to Jerusalem, the great city of the great king, 5.35. So the Jewish flavor is definitely in this passage, these passages. Now the standard of righteousness that the disciples were familiar with was that which was presented by the scribes and Pharisees, and Verne has talked about that.

How many laws were there, Verne? 613 laws. So they had added so many things to the law of Moses that the people just thought that was it, you know, that was it. That's the way it is. And so they thought that was the law. So we're going to find out when we get to it next week, when the Lord says, well, I think now I've come to destroy the law. Well, he was clarifying to him, you know, because they some of them no doubt thought he was destroying the law because here he is, you know, in his life.

He's not there. The disciples aren't fasting like the Pharisees and scribes and those that were fasting. There's other things they weren't observing the Sabbath the very same way. And so so anyhow, Jesus's teachings are going to be there's going to be a concern about, you know, what's he really teaching? And of course, the Pharisees were concerned with external things. But Jesus is going to be teaching these inner characteristics here in this sermon. And we're going to see really that really we're going to see principles in this passage. that are carried over into the church age as far as principles.

Meekness, which is like, we know that's the fruit of the Spirit and that type of thing. Okay. So the Lord, He opened His mouth and began to teach them saying. So this sermon deals with the ninefold blessing, the ninefold blessings. And these things are promised and provided for the faithful person who is anticipating the kingdom. These blessings are for those who have certain characteristics. The teachings of Jesus here go to the heart and to the spirit of the matter. His teachings are not like the superficial teachings of these outward rules, you might say, of the religious leaders of that day.

So, in Isaiah 6.13 we read of the holy seed and that's the believing Jew. He has a position of blessing that will be realized at the coming kingdom. The condition that they are to be walking in is stated in each beatitude. These blessings are in clear contrast to the blessings that we find in our position in Christ.

We know that we gain our blessings immediately when we have received Christ as our Savior, when we are saved, when we're born again, Ephesians 1.3. And we know that all of our blessings are in heavenly places within Christ. And so it's a tremendous difference there. We need to keep that distinction. All right. Up to this point, have I created any questions? Okay. Well, I can't believe it. All right. Now, all right.

Verses three through six deal with four characteristics in relationship to God. First, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The Greek word blessed, makarios, means supremely blessed. Blessed speaks of a condition of wholeness, completeness because of God's acceptance and approval. And the word poor refers to a beggar, a tokus, a beggar, a pauper.

So the poor in spirit are those who acknowledge their own spiritual weakness and helplessness. Those who depend on God's omnipotence, his power. This is an attitude of sensing one's own spiritual needs. It describes a person who is nothing in his own eyes, and feels that the lowest place is his right spot. The opposite of being poor in spirit is to be self-sufficient, self-confident, and prideful. Remember the person who said, depart from me, Lord, for I'm a what? They realize their poorness. I'm a sinful man. So God, there's something about a righteous person that realizes their own lack.

And so, in the Old Testament vision of the coming manifestation of the King, it is said in Isaiah 57, 17, I dwell on a high and holy place and also with the contrite and lowly in spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

The word for, we find that in each beatitude, it means because, and it explains why the person is blessed. And note that the reason for blessedness, wholeness, is a spiritual quality in each case. Now, he speaks of this in this beatitude of the kingdom of heaven. It's used 33 times in the book of Matthew. And Matthew is the only gospel that uses this term. Why do you think that is? written to the Jew.

That's right. And they avoided using the name God, didn't they? Isn't that right, Vern? Yeah. And actually, the custom, frankly enough, is carried over to our language, where instead of saying God forbid, we'll say heaven forbid. Instead of, you know, using the name God, using the word God, we will in several parts of our own language replace it with heaven. Good. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Where's that baby? Where's our baby? No! The only baby in our class is not here.

Okay, speaking of the kingdom of heaven, Christ does not mean heaven like we normally think of heaven in the church age, you know, when we die we're going to heaven. the scene of glory on high, but rather he looks on the earth or at the earth as under the rule of heaven. The Lord really refers to the rule of God, the God of the heavens over the earth and here on earth. He does not speak of the church here.

I tell you, for years in my immaturity and inexperience, I have misapplied chapters 6, 7, and 8. And it's so good to be learning and that we have this study. I think Winnie and Joanne, I think you're the ones that asked us to do this study. You have provoked us to love and good works. I never would have chosen this study. But I'm glad we're in it. I tell you, I've never had anything more difficult to study and to work with. And we're still in the middle of it all, really.

They're not easy passages. Right, Nancy? You're doing this with your Tuesday night study? We're doing Luke, the Gospel of Luke, and right now we're at the Sermon on the Plain, which is kind of a parallel passage, but not the same sermon, but it's very similar. Uh-huh. Gotcha. All right. All right.

Now, what do you think that the disciples thought of when they heard the kingdom of heaven? Well, of course, if they were spiritual minded, they thought of Daniel. If they were in the Word, they would have thought of Daniel. Because Daniel, like in Daniel 2.44, it says, In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. And that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all the kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever." Daniel 7.

Also, Daniel 7.13 and 14. I want to read that for you too.

You don't have that printed out on your sheet, but Daniel 7.13 and 14.

I keep looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like the Son of Man was coming. And he came up to the Ancient of Days, and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

And so we see, we're not going to get into the 10 kings and all of that right now, but that'd be another study we could do what's happening even today, where we can see the setup in the European nations for the revival of the 10 tolls of Daniel. And so that's another thing if we had time, we'd do that, but not right now. So under grace, We who are Christians, now in each of these Beatitudes, I'm going to try to look at it just briefly in regard to how we look at it and can see the aspect of for us. All Scripture is for us, not to us. You understand that? How many of you are dispensational? Don't put your hands up. How many of you bought a lamb this morning? Well, you're dispensational then. You didn't bring a lamb today.

Because that was required under law for your sin. Thank the Lord we don't have to do that. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses from all sin. By Him all who believe are justified from all things by which you cannot be justified by the law of Moses. Man, it's a done deal. Thank God for the cross.

Alright, so under grace, we are Christians, do not have to beg because of helplessness. We have spiritual boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, Hebrews 10, 19. And we are already positioned in heavenly places in Christ, as we've already said. So our sufficiency is of God. Thank the Lord. Alright, so certainly, We realize our need, we're spiritually needful of ourselves when we look at our old Adam, our old nature.

But to me, it's like when I was a little kid, we had these two little dogs, these little magnets. Remember those? If you know those, you're getting old if you remember those. And if you turn them one way, I think if you turn their tails together, they would go this way. And if you turn their heads together, they'd go this way. They're magnets. They would come together or they'd repel.

To me, the Lord leaving the old nature is just something to get us to God. I mean, to jet us to God. To say, Lord, Thank you that I can walk in Christ today. It just reminds us, you know, that that's the ring of truth of what Christ has done, because we need Him and what He's done for us.

OK, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Mourn. Pentheo means to grieve. To mourn means to develop a sensitivity to sin. One mourns because of his sense of personal spiritual bankruptcy. There was also mourning done by the spiritual remnant of Jesus Day who was mourning over the humiliation of Israel and because of the nation's sins. The prophets connected Messiah's appearing with the comfort of his people, Isaiah 41 and 2. Verses 1 and 2.

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare has ended, and that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Isaiah 66, 13 is another one. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem. So they were looking forward to knowing that when the Messiah would come, He would give them comfort.

So we as Christians, of course, are able to rejoice in the midst of suffering, you know, rejoice in the Lord always. And then 1 Peter 4, 13, we see, but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.

So our comfort comes by way of the Holy Spirit, who is a comforter, and He comforts us as we are in His Word, as we meditate on His Word. It's a wonderful thing, you know, especially to meditate on the Lord early in the morning when everything's quiet and you've rested from the night and all the tensions are gone, hopefully, and you're there in your bed or in the quietness of your quiet time, and the Lord It opens up your eyes and your understanding that a verse really just rings with truth. Isn't that a tremendous experience? Oh yes, that's it, you know. He is, and the Lord comforts us.

How much comfort there is for a sinner, and also for a Christian. to get to know that the Spirit of God will comfort us and enlighten us in His Word. So Romans 15, verse 4 says, For whatsoever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and encouragement, comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope. Okay, blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

How many of you want to inherit the earth? Oh, not the earth. Remember the years ago, and the book still is out, there was a lady that wrote a book called Back to Eden. Who wants to go back to Eden? We're positioned in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Who wants to go back to the state of the first Adam? The last Adam. We've been placed in him. Don't look forward to inheriting the earth.

The word gentle, prose, means mild and by implication humble. And the King James says meek. It means to have a quietness, a quiet confidence in God. It is a recognition of and submission to God's authority and sovereignty. And this quality shows up in a person when they're flexible. There's self-control. There's freedom from malice and vengefulness. Meekness is an expression of genuine humility toward others.

I remember when I was working up in the mountains above Oroville, California, and I came down from to go to my job at Oroville Christian School where I was teaching music. I came down and got there and there was no school that day or something to that effect. And I thought, nobody told me that. And I had just been studying meatness.

So guess what? I had a great opportunity to not get mad at anybody or to get upset at all. I thought, well, Lord, what do you have in mind now for me? There's something here in town. So I don't remember just exactly what happened that day, but I looked to the positive aspects of it. And I think that to me in my own life, that was a good example of me being able to learn to apply meekness.

But the Lord says there is a blessedness. For those that are gentle here, they're going to inherit the earth. Now, that's not, you see, that's not to us, but it's for us. I mean, because meekness is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance. Against such, there's no law. So, the Lord, thank God, He gives us that inner quality and desire to abide in Christ where we can find this fruit of the Spirit.

So the Jewish concept of the messianic kingdom was that it was going to be earthly. And Messiah would rule over Israel and the nations on the earth. Psalm 2 verse 8. Ask of me and I will surely give the nations for your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession.

In the church age, Of course, gentleness, as we've already said, is a fruit of the Spirit. This meekness also, this meekness of those who are Christians, is a meekness of Christ himself, who is our life. 2 Corinthians 10 1a. Now, I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Believers in this church age do not look forward to inheriting the earth, of course we've said, and so we're already seated in heavenly places in Christ.

We're partakers of the heavenly calling, Hebrews 3.1.

You might want to write that in your notes, Hebrews 3.1. All right, any questions about meetness? Okay.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. In Matthew's gospel, the term righteousness is in the sense of personal holiness, faithfulness to God's will. It's not used as an aspect of imputed righteousness, like when we think of justification. It's not that. It is that which would apply to a person living a holy life. And I guess in our context, we would think of sanctification, you know.

It's not talking about justification, but it's speaking of a righteousness that would be seen before men. Psalm 15, 1 and 2, O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? He who walks with integrity and works righteousness. So you see there's some works involved in that.

Believers in our day are filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ and unto the glory and praise of God, Philippians 1.11. So now we go to five characteristics that are in relationship to man. Okay, first of all, we see blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Merciful.

I can't pronounce that one. Do we have a Greek scholar here that can say that one? Alright, go ahead. Go for it. You can read it there. L-A-A-M-O-N-E. Compassionate. Is that good enough? Okay, in this verse, mercy from the Lord is made to depend entirely on the exercise of mercy toward others.

A similar thought is found in Matthew 6, 14, and 15, that if you forgive others, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, you will not be forgiven. Psalm 18, 25, With the merciful, you will show yourself merciful. With the blameless man, you will show yourself blameless.

Well, I tell you, this verse has been misapplied so much. If you don't forgive, you're not going to be forgiven. How many have heard that before? And I've put the law on people with that thing before, too. If you don't forgive people, you're not going to be forgiven. Straighten up. Put them under the law.

And there are organizations, Christian organizations, at least I know of one, who teach this and teach that if you don't forgive, you're going to be put in a prison in your own heart, so to speak. And in some regards, I wonder, you know, like if you look in Paul's epistles, you see the men who were turned over to Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme. There is a certain aspect that when a person doesn't forgive, that they tend to get bitter. Have you ever noticed that? There's a bitterness there, but it doesn't For a Christian, to be a Christian, you don't lose your salvation. You're not saved by works. I mean, we know we're not saved by works. So, definitely, we know from looking at it from the church, and the church, we do not have to worry about that.

But, of course, we're going to prove that we're really saved if we do forgive. Ephesians 4 and 32, we forgive on what basis? That we're already forgiven. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. He's already done it. It's a past tense. So we forgive on that basis. And it's grace. Thank God we're under grace and not under law about these things. But I think we've probably all seen Christians who are bitter because they haven't forgiven, but it doesn't mean they're not going to be Christians because they're like that. They're just carnals the way I look at it.

Okay, so blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I remember singing a solo one time at a church that was this song. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. It's a great verse, but it wasn't really, you know, direct application to the people I was singing it to. The promise to this remnant of Christ's day is that if they are pure of heart, they will see God. And when I look at these Beatitudes, this is the way I see them, that these people, the ones that are really believing and have received the King and they really belong to the Lord, they are people who are going to demonstrate purity of heart.

And the Lord is just telling you, you know, if you've got this attitude, you're blessed. You know, for us in the church age, we say, well, if you've received Christ, if you believe that Christ died for your sins, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day, then you're a Christian and you are already blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

So I don't see him putting them under any law here. What would these be attitudes? You do this and then you'll be blessed. He is saying, you know, you've got this attitude of mourning, you're blessed. You've got this attitude of meekness, you're blessed.

You see what I mean? Now, if you disagree, I'm not real dogmatic, but in what little study I've done on this, that's what I've come up with. Do you see it that way, Brother Vern? Or are you on another subject? He thinks on several tracks. All right. Great. All right. So all right here.

Pure of heart. So this is the promises to this remnant in Christ's day is that if they are pure of heart, they will see God. Your eyes will see the king and his beauty. Isaiah 33, 17 and Psalm 24, 23 and four, who may ascend to the hill of the Lord and who may stand in his holy place. He who has clean hands and a pure heart. So, definitely, they should have pure heart. But this, for them, is something that I believe that God gave them through His Word.

There was a cleansing. You read the Psalms and you know that David realized there was a cleansing from God. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way. By taking heed thereto according to thy word, thy word if I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Yes, sir. Do you have to be saved to see God? Now say that again. Do you have to be saved to see God?

Well, that's a good question. Who'd like to answer that? That is so easy that even my secretary can answer that. There's a story. I've got to tell you this story. I'm just dying to tell you this story. Hold your question. I know you're serious. But let's answer that question. I better not cut up here too much. I tend to get a little silly sometimes. What do you think, sir? I was asking.

My natural reaction to such a statement is that we're talking about people who are saved. And it is. And these people are. He's talking basically to the remnant of these Jewish peoples who have received Him as King, who are saved. How did anybody in the Old Testament ever get saved, folks? Anybody? By faith. The just shall live by faith. There was no one in the Old Testament ever saved other than by faith. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. So, these people he's talking to, But so did that answer your question? OK, can you state it again a different way? Did I make a statement to be saved, to see God? Yes. That's the question. OK. Yes. That's your yes. Yes. And you know, no. Right. All right. I'm sorry. Don't you hate people? You ask them a question. They go to a long length of things and never answer. All right. That was a great question. OK.

Let me tell you my story real quick. There was this you may have heard this. There was a professor and his chauffeur. They went all around the country and the professor would give his lecture on science or something like that. And after a while. The professor got tired of getting this this message. And so he said to the chauffeur, how about if you give the talk tonight? Because you've heard it so much, you could do it backwards.

And so the chauffeur agreed to take and be the professor. So he put on the professor's clothes and the professor put on the chauffeur's clothes. So that night, the guy gets up there and he gives the lecture, the scientific lecture perfectly. It was it was magnificent. The chauffeur sitting back there in the back, who was really the professor.

And so somebody asked this question. And so the chauffeur who was in disguise up here as a professor said, sir, that question is so easy that even my chauffeur can answer it. So. So my chauffeur is here. His name is Byrne. He gives me great security. By the way, he edits my lessons for me.

Thanks, Lord. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. This is the character of heart of those who have placed their faith in God. And this is looking at it from from the Jewish viewpoint during the time of the Christ presentation. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Gospel to the Jews. Yeah. They shall see God.

Who is he talking about? in what context will they see him? Was he saying, you will recognize me for who I am? Yeah, you'll recognize me for who I am and one more thing, when will they ultimately see him in the coming kingdom? He will be God's dwelling on earth.

Yes, that's good. And multiple passages in the Old Testament refer to the coming Messiah as this is the Lord who is coming. God's feet, in Zechariah 13 and 14, God's feet will touch upon the Mount of Olives when He returns. Wonderful. That's great. We shall see God. And don't we, I mean, we are pure because of the blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin.

So there is that aspect for us as believers in the church age. that we certainly going to see Christ face to face and look at Hebrews 2.9 but we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels namely Jesus because of the sufferings of death crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone so This certainly is directly to these believers in this day, but also we can see this is true for us also, as far as he has given us that qualification to be in his presence.

Yes. I can see how you see it as someone who, non-believer or something, who goes into scripture and just turns to a page and points and comes up with that verse. It does look like that they read it on a cursory reading, say, blessed are pure in heart for they shall see God. And they say, well, I'm pure in heart, you know, so I'm a good guy. I'm there. Yeah. And they could take it as a.

But it's all in relation to how does God see man? He sees all of our righteousness as filthy rags. He sees there's none good, no not one, that, you know, unless we're born again Christ, you won't see the kingdom of heaven. Unless you're born again, you know, the words to Nicodemus, you must be born again. So, in the case of everyone, we must, by faith, have The six, you know, be born again.

Yes. That what? OK, the judgment seat of God. Of course, there's the judgment. Now, wait a minute. Or you think now when you say judgment seat, remember this. That judgment seat refers to the judgment of believers for rewards. You're thinking of the great white throne judgment where there'll be no there'll be no Christians judged there. Well, OK, what about the unbelievers who go before God and get judged and thrown into the lake of fire because their work, their name's not in the book of life.

So they'll actually see him in that moment. Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it won't be one they want. That was a good question. Yeah, that's good. That's good. That's very good. They will see God. Yeah. Yeah. And it won't be blessed. They won't be blessed. That's good. Yes. You know, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the thing is, if you look at it, will they see God? Yes. For a time. Yes. That's it. That's it. All right. Let's go on.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. Isaiah 52 7. How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announced salvation and say design your God reigns. So we know the work of righteousness is peace.

Hosea 1.10 says, yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it is said of them, you are not my people, it will be said, you are sons of the living God. So under grace, to be a peacemaker, of course, we know is to take the message of peace, the gospel to the lost. God has made peace through the cross, and the gospel is called the gospel of peace.

Romans 10.5, And how shall they preach unless they are sent? It is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Yes. Romans 10, 15, thank you for correcting that last reference.

OK, let's go on to, blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Again, the word righteousness here refers to, in the sense of personal faithfulness to God and his will, it has to do with personal holiness. In this age of grace, Christians suffer with Christ and for his sake, and our reward is in heaven. So, not the kingdom of heaven, but our reward is in heaven.

2 Timothy 3.12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer or will be persecuted. And then we come to the fifth one here.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. So, notice this expression here, falsely say things. The persecution is because they falsely say things. The motive for their attack is because of Christ. Association with Christ brings personal insults, persecutions, accusations that are false.

And we see this persecution come on the followers of Christ even before he ascended. For instance, Lazarus. Remember, they were going to kill Lazarus after he had been risen from the dead. Poor guy. And then, of course, the blind man who was healed of his blindness. They were really insulted and they gave him trouble. And Mary, who was anointed at the feet of Christ, why are you not anointing His feet with that expensive oil? She was harassed by Judas, I believe it was, and there's many examples of this.

In Philippians 1.29 we see that believing and suffering are part of a Christian's lot. For unto you is given not only to believe, but also to suffer. And so, this is our lot. Now, look at this last idea here in this.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. The Lord goes on to clarify His disciples calling in ministry on earth. He does this to encourage them to endure this persecution. To fulfill God's purpose for them. And He gives them a forward look. He says, your reward is great in heaven. He gives them a look back. They persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And so, Peter reminds us here in 1 Peter 4, 12-17, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fire ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing. so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or thief or theft, evildoer or troublesome meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but to glorify God in this name.

For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God, And if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? So here we have seen in these Beatitudes that these things are given to the believing remnant, this code of ethics, our way there to live, waiting on the kingdom. And we've seen that we have There are things there for us to see that all of these things actually we've talked about, these characteristics that he was saying they're blessed for, we find that we have those same blessings in Christ. We find them all under the principle of grace and to His glory. Any questions or anything you wanted to add to this? It's not an easy subject, but it's a wonderful thing for us to know and to be able to to be able to see how it fits in as we study scriptures.

Yes. I just want to make sure I've got the takeaway. When I read Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 5, I should think Millennial Kingdom. Which is confusing because it's on Earth, not in heaven, right? Yeah, it is. Uh-huh. Why is it called the kingdom of heaven? OK. OK.

In the notes, as you review them, you'll see that I covered that. There's so much here. I have to admit, you know, I've spent hours on this study. Hours. So I don't expect you to grab it all at once. Did you want to say something burn there? Yes. If you don't have those here. Yes.

Yeah. as a Jew rather, the Jews would not say the name of God. If you notice in the Jewish writing, they'll put G underline D because they won't say God. So Matthew, instead of saying the name of God, would say the kingdom of heaven. As you said earlier, meaning that which is the kingdom, which is under the control of God in heaven.

Very good. Thank you, Nancy. Yes, it's it's we study to show yourself approved under God workmen that are need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We need to be able to see how to divide it and see how God is. Everything is for us, but not to us. And we need to see that.

Otherwise, like me, I one time went to court. And I, you know, with the Scripture and the Beatitudes, don't resist it if somebody takes you to court, you know, just give them everything, you know, I mean. And the guy said, do you have anything to plead? I said, no, nothing. In other words, give her everything, whatever she wanted. And thank the Lord she wouldn't ask for too much. But, you know, I mean, you can lose your britches real quick.

I mean, so we need to learn how to apply the Scriptures. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. And I pray for each one that there's been no confusing today, but that somehow that you'll clear these things up in each one's mind, that we might learn to rightly divide your word and to praise you and rejoice in the wonderful positions and position we have in Christ Jesus. Thank you for this time. Jesus.