A guest speaker, you want to introduce them
well.
I'll tell you what I know about Brother
Paul Washer, okay?
I know that his desire is to preach
the Word of God, that God would be
glorified.
And I cannot think of a more wonderful
introduction than to introduce a man of God
to preach the Word of God.
So Brother Washer, if you will come.
I would like to thank you for the
great privilege that is mine to be here
with you and to preach.
And before I go any further, I would
like to thank you for your hospitality, the
place that you've prepared for me.
I thank you for the snacks that were
left and just your kindness.
The pastor asked me, he said, well, is
everything suitable to you?
I said, Pastor, you're talking to a man
who's lived in a tent.
Anything is suitable to me.
But it is wonderful and I thank you
very, very much, very much.
Oye, hermana, como estas?
Bien?
Ah, que bien.
We have almost a family, I guess.
My wife is Latin and it's such a
blessing always.
It's good to see you here.
Good to see you.
All right.
Before I go any further, I'd like to
go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, I come before you in the name
of your Son, Jesus Christ.
And I have nothing except Him.
And He is sufficient.
Father, I renounce all hope in piety, all
hope in devotion.
Lord, I have come to know that I
can't even sing of my love for you
because it's such a pitiful, fickle thing.
I rejoice.
I disdain what I have done and I
rejoice in what you have done for me.
I thank you for your mercy that's new
every morning.
I thank you for your grace that knows
no bounds.
I thank you for your kindness.
And I would pray, Lord, that you would
work in me and change me, work through
me.
And, Lord, I am well aware that the
only reason I stand here tonight is because
I am the most vile, the most base,
the most thing that is not, the weakest.
You always use the weakest.
And I praise you.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
I want us to go to Matthew chapter
5.
Matthew chapter 5, verse 13.
You know, before I read this text, it's
important to understand that although we must preach
what God has laid upon our heart to
preach, that very often what He's laid upon
our heart to preach cannot be separated from
what He's doing in the preacher's life.
And I do feel led of the Lord
to preach on what I'm going to preach,
but I want you to know that this
passage is not just something that I have
exegeted or studied, and I'm going to relate
it to you, but it is something that
God continues to use in my life to
break me into a million pieces.
And the only reason I have authority to
preach this is because it's true, and because
God's used it as a hammer in my
own life.
It is not because I have succeeded in
these things or am an example of these
things, but these are the very things that
the Lord is bringing to mind to show
me that I'm not as Christ-like as
I would suppose.
Let's read verse 13.
You are the salt of the earth, but
if the salt has lost its taste, how
should its saltiness be restored?
It is no longer good for anything except
to be thrown out and trampled under people's
feet.
Now, this passage is often read about how
the church and Christians ought to come out
of the salt shaker and be poured out
on the earth.
This passage is often taught in a militant
sort of way that we ought to go
out there and we ought to affect our
culture and we ought to change our culture.
We ought to have a purifying effect upon
it, a preserving effect upon it.
Our lives should be such that they add
flavor to the dull fallen world around us.
And all that's true, but that's not the
main point of this passage.
It's talking about something much more profound.
And it's this.
There are certain elements or properties that make
up salt.
That's just all there is to it.
Now, you take those properties out, you no
longer have salt.
Even if you take those properties out and
replace those properties with some other things that
are very splendid, it still doesn't matter.
Salt has certain characteristics and you take those
characteristics, those properties, those elements out and you
no longer have salt.
That's the point he's making here.
True discipleship, true Christianity, true Christlikeness has certain
properties, certain characteristics, certain elements.
You take those out and even replace them
with good things, you no longer have Christianity,
you no longer have Christlikeness.
You have some perverted, deformed monster.
But you no longer have what Christianity is
really all about.
Now, the question is, what are these elements?
What are these characteristics?
Now, I could go all through the Bible
in proof text, I could pull out verses
here and there, but there's no need for
that.
Because in the context, he teaches us what
are the basic building blocks, the basic characteristics,
the defining demonstration of true discipleship, of truly
following Christ, of a Christlike character.
He says this in verse 3.
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 meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive
mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You know, I was preaching in a place
one time that desperately needed a pastor.
The church had been destroyed by a renegade
of a man.
He had pastored them for many years, almost
two decades, but he had acted like he
was some sort of God or Lord over
them.
He had despised them, he had abused them,
he had done all sorts of things.
And I got up to the pulpit, I'll
never forget, one Sunday morning, that Sunday morning,
the first Sunday morning, and I preached, and
afterwards, after preaching, God seemed to tremendously move
in the sermon and the service.
Afterwards, I stepped down from the pulpit and
a great group of people came forward and
said, you need to be our pastor.
And I looked at them and I said,
are you out of your mind?
And they said, what do you mean?
I preach one sermon and you think I'm
qualified to be a pastor?
You see, I've heard people say, Paul Washer
is a man of God.
How do you know that?
I mean, how do you really know that?
The devil speaks well and can wear every
sort of mask you can imagine.
What is the defining characteristics of a man
of God or a woman of God or
a child of God?
Is it their ministry?
The fact that a lot of people come
to hear them?
Or God has used them to send out
missionaries or this or that or some other
thing?
Is that the defining rule to tell us
that they're truly Christ-like?
Absolutely not.
Here is where we see what we are.
Right here.
This tells us whether we're walking with God
or not.
Whether we're filled with the Holy Spirit or
not.
Whether we're growing in Christ-likeness or not.
Maybe whether or not we're saved.
Because the old Puritans used this text as
a means to grant assurance to believers or
to take assurance away from false professors.
You see, because the test here is this.
Not all the things we know.
Knowledge is very important.
I study the Word of God.
It's my job to teach the Word of
God.
Theology is extremely important.
And the reason why Christianity in America is
in such a state as it is is
because of a lack of good theology.
But at the same time, it's not just
what you know.
I was teaching a group of students a
while back and I said, you've already got
more truth in your head than you'll ever
be able to obey.
And it's not just doctrine.
It's not just ethics.
Pharisees have ethics.
They have more rules than they've got paper
to write them on.
It's not just homeschooling.
It's something much deeper.
The true Christ-likeness that is described here.
You know, I heard a preacher years ago.
It was Leonard Ravenhill, actually.
He said, the world isn't looking for a
new definition of Christianity.
It's looking for a new demonstration of Christianity.
But you know, we've even messed up the
idea of what that demonstration is supposed to
be.
Is it just supposedly powerful preaching?
Or is it supposedly miracles or this or
that or some other thing?
Or is it character?
Is it Christ-likeness?
Is it looking like Him, talking like Him,
acting like Him, loving like Him?
You want to know whether or not I'm
a man of God?
Look at the way I treat my wife.
How loving and compassionate and kind and merciful
I am.
That will tell you what I am.
Not a sermon that even the devil could
preach.
You see.
So, let's look at this passage.
First of all, I want you to see
something.
In verse 1, it says, Seeing the crowds,
He went up on the mountain, and when
He sat down, His disciples came to Him.
Now, I don't know if you've ever been
to Israel, but it's really difficult to find
a mountain.
Why does He say mountain?
Well, it could be called a mountain.
It's the infallible Word of God.
But there's a much deeper reason why He
uses the word mountain.
There's one other mountain, very, very important in
the Bible.
It's found in the Old Testament.
Moses went up on it.
And when He came down, He came down
with the law of God written with the
finger of God.
And that mountain always is an expression of
authority.
Here is the law.
Here's the big stuff.
The important stuff.
The stuff that's been given by God.
It is not a vain thing, Moses would
say.
It's your life.
Well, guess what?
That's why Matthew is using this terminology.
Remember, Matthew was writing to the Jews who
held Moses up above everything.
And he's saying, well, one greater than Moses
has come.
And now He sits on that mountain.
And He opens up His mouth.
And He teaches His law.
And so many people think that in Christianity
and in the New Covenant that the bar
has supposedly been lowered.
Boy, I'm glad I didn't have to live
back in those Old Testament times when it
was really difficult to serve the Lord.
Oh, my friend, you're so wrong.
The bar was not lowered with the coming
of the one greater than Moses.
The bar was raised.
Moses talked about tithing.
Jesus talked about possibly giving everything you have
away.
Moses talked about loving your neighbor, your fellow
Jew.
Jesus talked about loving the very ones who
crucify you.
It's a completely different world now.
It's not external.
It's not just doing the right things.
It's being the right person.
It comes from within.
And that's frightening, isn't it?
Sometimes we think too much of men.
Do you realize that?
We think, boy, there are some special guys
out there that have really got it on
the ball.
Well, I've yet to meet one.
And I've met some of the big ones.
I've yet to meet one.
Do you realize that you would not want
your entire life exposed, even the last week
of your life exposed?
Every nook and cranny of it, every moment
of it.
Do you realize that?
You'd do anything to keep that from happening.
Guess what?
So would I.
You see, don't call anyone Christ or Father
or Great Teacher.
The only thing you are are brothers.
That's all you'll ever be.
And there's no great one among you except
for Jesus Christ.
And all's we are are brothers and sisters
and Christ.
And the one who is going to preach
to you is just as needy, if not
more.
God can't work.
As long as we live in this delusion,
then what did you come out here to
hear tonight?
An expert?
I want to be like Jesus.
Do you?
I'm not like Jesus, but I want to
be.
Verse 2, it says, well, let's stay in
verse 1 for a moment.
He went up on the mountain and when
he sat down, his disciples came to him.
His disciples came to him.
His disciples will always come to him.
To him.
They will not be satisfied with anyone else.
They won't.
And even though he'll say things to them
that they will not understand, they can't go
and just walk away shaking their head because
they know they've got to understand it because
they know that he alone possesses and teaches
the word of life.
Disciples will always come to him.
I know so many people in America today,
it seems like they run to and fro
throughout the land looking for a teacher.
To and fro throughout the land, lifting up
men, finding something or someone.
Your only hope is to run to the
teacher, Jesus Christ.
And if you're a disciple, a true disciple
of Jesus Christ, you will not be satisfied
with anyone but him.
No man is to stand as your priest.
Not even the pastor.
You have one priest, Melchizedek, the one who
has been lifted up on high, Jesus Christ,
and unto him you must run.
He's the only one who can explain this
passage to you.
He is this passage.
These are not just his words, these are
an accurate description of him.
He says in verse 2, And he opened
his mouth and taught them, saying, Wouldn't it
have been something to have been there on
that day?
A wonderful privilege, a terrifying privilege.
To whom much is given, much is required.
You know there's danger in us going any
farther.
You know that preaching is an extremely dangerous
thing.
Did you know that?
It's dangerous for me because if I'm wrong,
I'm found to be a false prophet, and
on the day of judgment I'll undergo greater
condemnation.
It's dangerous for you if I tell the
truth.
Because you'll be held accountable for it.
You will.
Now, before we go on, I want to
say one other thing, and it's this.
We live in a culture of doers.
And we basically judge ourselves and judge others
based upon how we perform.
And that is why in Christianity today, it's
all about ministry.
What you do, the size of your church,
how well you perform, what you've done.
That really has very little significance in the
kingdom of Jesus Christ.
In the kingdom of Jesus Christ, it is
this.
What you are becoming.
The way your character and your life is
being transformed.
And when I say character, be very, very
careful.
Because this is not just about doing a
character study.
This is not just about trying to add
on to your life certain qualities.
Because even that can become legalism and death.
It is about drawing near to God through
Christ.
It is about Christ being the vine and
you being the branches.
It is about not your ability through the
power of your own will to live a
certain way, but to be connected to the
vine and the life of Jesus Christ being
lived out through you.
There is a big difference.
One is legalism and the other is spirituality.
And over all these things is love.
When I was driving here this afternoon, I
had the radio on and I was listening
to a lot of the hearings and things
that were going on.
And there were a lot of men who
I consider rather wicked, speaking wicked things.
And I won't say that the Lord spoke
to me because I didn't hear a voice.
But just a question popped into my mind.
One of the speakers who I considered most
vile in politics was speaking.
And a question popped into my mind.
Do you love Him?
Do you care for Him?
Do you care for His soul?
Do you think that you would be any
different from Him if it hadn't been for
my grace intervening?
What do you have that you have not
received?
And if you have received it, why do
you boast?
Who do you think you are apart from
me?
Do you love Him?
You see, over all these things, love.
Unconditional, self-defacing, sacrificial, washing feet of your
enemy, love.
Now, let's look at some of these characteristics.
First of all, the word blessed.
What does that mean?
I really don't know.
And I'll tell you why.
It's just too big.
It's just too big a word.
There are so many ways of looking at
it that we could literally spend the entire
week just going over what does it mean
to say blessed.
It's like a great big bag with everything
good from God put in it and handed
to you.
It's a state before God, a relationship with
Him.
It's reconciliation.
It is peace.
It is approval.
It is intimacy.
It is blessing.
It's everything.
Who is blessed?
The one who's done a lot?
Or the one who is like Jesus?
He goes on and he says...
Let me stop there.
Let me say something to the young men.
Young men, when I became a Christian, I
can't tell you how many times through the
night I would pray with tears.
God, I want to be used of you.
God, I want to preach your word.
If I could go back, I would have
changed all those prayers.
I would change all of them.
I don't care so much now about being
used by Him.
I don't care that much for preaching.
There's a greater thing that I missed.
All the prayers I prayed about being used
of God, I should have prayed, Lord, make
me like Jesus.
The rest of the stuff would just take
care of itself.
Make me like Jesus.
And after all, young man, why do you
want to be used of God?
What's the reason?
So that you'll be something?
So that you'll not have to hang your
head on the day of judgment?
Instead of praying, oh Lord, use me, maybe
it would be better to pray, Lord, use
my brother and let me carry his bags.
Exalt my brother.
And make me his helper.
Oh, don't esteem things that the world esteems.
Esteem that which Christ tells you to esteem.
It says, blessed are the poor in spirit.
What does it mean to be poor in
spirit?
Does it mean to be sad?
Well, no, not really, but it could, but
not really.
What does it mean to be poor in
spirit?
It is having nothing.
It is recognition that apart from his grace,
apart from his unconditional love, apart from his
kindness, you would be the vilest creature ever
made.
And that even now, if he did not
sustain you in what he has done for
you, if even one fraction of a second
before you entered into glory, he were to
take his hand off of you, you would
deny him.
That you have nothing of which to boast.
Nothing except Christ and Christ alone.
I used to tell young preachers, you need
the power of God on your life to
preach.
Now I tell them, you need the power
of God on your life to breathe.
Did you bring yourself into existence?
Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps?
No.
Do you sustain your existence?
Breathe in, breathe out.
Who gave that to you?
The things that you've accomplished, who gave you
a mind and hands that work?
And the gains you've made in Christianity, what
enabled you to do that if they were
indeed gains?
The grace of God.
If you have any other boast, you're going
to hell.
I had a preacher call me a year
and a half ago and he said, I
want you to come preach in my church
because I'm very afraid that many of the
members are lost.
I said, what makes you suspect them?
He said, they're all homeschoolers.
I said, oh really?
I said, I homeschool my little boy.
What are you talking about?
And he said something that terrified me.
He said, you make anything other than Jesus
Christ your banner and your boast and your
pride.
You've departed from the faith.
He said, I've got people in my church,
if you tell them to get up and
give their testimony, it will start off like
this.
Five years ago I learned about homeschooling.
He said, I fear for their salvation.
Is that not true?
It is true.
You can cross every T, dot every I
and your child will become a two-fold
son of hell apart from the grace of
God.
Don't you realize that?
Don't you realize?
Nothing in our hands do we have, but
that God be merciful.
One time God moved in a place and
people were coming forward.
And I went down and this young boy
was crying out to God.
And I thought, well, I'll just go down
there and pray beside him.
And he was crying out, oh God, I
just want you to give me what I
deserve.
I tapped him on the shoulder.
I said, no, no, no.
He said, why?
I said, no, no.
Don't you ever do that again.
Because the only thing you deserve is hell.
And if He were to give you what
you deserve, and He just might if in
your heart you want Him to give everybody
else what they deserve.
Do you understand?
Give those politicians what they deserve.
Okay?
Would you like to stay in the room
while I do that?
Because you'll be included in the bunch.
What are you?
You will never be anything except a recipient
of the grace of God.
Add to it undeserved.
Undeserved.
An old preacher, one time I heard him
say, you talk about passing through the eye
of that needle.
You'll not pass through the gates of glory
with one shred of self-righteousness on your
back.
As a matter of fact, that's what God
does when He saves a man.
Sometimes I have young people come to me
and they'll go, you know, the Lord converted
my heart.
He saved me.
And I was just like walking with Him
and it was just so wonderful.
And I wanted to read my Bible all
the time and I wanted to pray all
the time and I wanted to witness all
the time.
And now it's just like I have struggles
reading the Bible and I have struggles praying
and I have struggles and I'm becoming what
I hate.
I said, you're not becoming what you hate.
You've always been that way.
God is just showing you what you are.
You see, when you're converted, He'll give you
a short time there of holding your hand
and helping you a great deal.
And then what He'll do is He'll begin
years and years of working death in you.
Boy, I'm never going to become a TV
preacher with a message like that, am I?
He's going to spend years and years of
working death in you, of destroying every bit
of self-confidence, every bit of confidence you
have in the flesh, He's going to destroy,
but He will not leave you with despair
because as He takes away each shred of
self-confidence, He will replace it with more
and more knowledge of the perfect work of
Jesus Christ.
That's what God's doing in the lives of
many of you.
And young people, if you are in the
faith, that's what God will do with you
because He can do nothing with you until
He does that to you.
You start off, a young man like me,
I was converted, the next day I'm preaching,
a couple of weeks, and then I'm street
preaching and I'm just like a flaming, breathing,
walking John the Baptist.
Boy, I thought that I was something.
Then I began to see that I couldn't
do what I was telling other people to
do.
And I had no strength in myself.
And He began to kill me.
Why is that necessary?
I had a young guy come to me
a while back and he writes me this
long letter and he's a very godly young
man.
He's writing me this letter and he's saying,
you know, I'm ignorant of the things of
God.
I don't have any zeal.
I'm just so ungodly and unrighteous.
And so I wrote him back.
I said, dear brother, you are much more
ignorant and much more ungodly than you now
realize.
I have the gift of encouragement.
And he called me up on the phone
and he goes, thanks?
And I said, let me tell you something.
I said, it's very possible that you are
more godly than I am, but I'm happier
than you are.
He said, what do you mean?
I said, if you wake up in the
morning and you cross every T and dot
every I throughout the day and do all
the things you're supposed to do, have that
quiet time of yours and witness and do
this and that and everything, how do you
feel about yourself at the end of the
day?
He said, well, I feel pretty good.
And I said, well, when you get up
and you don't do any of that, how
do you feel?
Well, my joy is all gone.
I'm just shaken in my confidence.
I said, young man, God's trying to save
you from idolatry.
He says, what do you mean?
I said, young man, your joy and confidence
comes from your performance.
My joy and my confidence comes from the
finished work of Jesus Christ on that cross
2,000 years ago.
I've lost all hope in the flesh.
Poor in spirit.
Father, it's waking up in the morning and
opening your eyes and realizing with fear, I
better not move a quarter of an inch
to the left or a quarter of an
inch to the right without your power, lest
I deny thee.
I need you every hour, most gracious Lord.
If I have anything that is good, it
has come from you.
If I am something different from the fallen
worldly men around me, it is only because
you separated me and put me in your
corral and you keep me there.
I can hold no disdain in my heart
because if it had not been for your
grace, oh God, I'd make Hitler look like
a choir boy.
You see?
Even when we see the world so wicked
and twisted and perverted and powerful, so undeserving
of love, so deserving of wickedness, and you
cry out for them to get what they
deserve, you laugh at their downfall.
I'll never forget I was preaching at a
Christian university when the whole scandal broke loose
of Bill Clinton.
And I'll never forget, I went into the
men's restroom, had to go preach.
I went into the men's restroom and I
heard some professors there talking and they said,
we got him this time.
There's no way he can get out of
it.
I mean, we got him this time.
And I went to them and I said,
is that even Christian?
Is that Christian?
You got him this time?
Should your heart not break in a million
pieces and you fall on your face and
cry out to God?
Convert his heart, oh Lord.
Have mercy upon him, oh Lord.
Protect his daughter, oh Lord.
The shame she's going to have to bear.
No, we got him this time.
That's not the Spirit of Christ.
That's the Spirit of Rome in everything.
Well, I do this.
That other family, they have no biblical principle.
And what makes you different from them?
If in fact you are, you may be
worse.
God will take a bumbling parent and bless
his child over a very, very knowledgeable, self
-righteous one any day.
He hates pride above everything.
He hates pride.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.
Poor in spirit.
If you were to walk up to a
man or a woman or a young person
who truly was poor in spirit and to
suggest that there was something in them noble
and good apart from Jesus Christ, they would
become so nauseous as to vomit.
They would cry out, flee from me.
They would hide their faces.
Nothing in my hands I bring simply to
the cross I cling.
We need Him.
Whatever is done in our midst, whatever wickedness
is around us, there is only one that
makes a difference between the most vile and
the most noble, and it is Jesus Christ
and His work on that tree.
What should that make us?
Full of appreciation.
Full of gratitude.
Full of joy.
Full of compassion.
Full of mercy.
Full of grace.
Oh God, save the Madonnas of the world.
Oh God, watch the news only to pray,
to bless.
When was the last time you blessed an
enemy?
When was the last time you asked God
to bless someone who you know is working
to bring persecution down on your head in
this country?
When was the last time you mourned for
families that aren't biblical instead of scoffing?
You see?
It's a whole other world out there.
A whole other world.
Jesus' love is very radical.
Very radical.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.
What is this kingdom?
Well, it's kind of the yin and the
yang of Christianity.
I used to say that when we studied
theology there in the seminary.
Why?
Well, it's an unusual thing.
It's kind of like a train.
You know, if you're standing there going to
catch the L in Chicago or there in
London.
The train has come.
At least the engine.
It's come, but it's still coming.
All the cars haven't arrived.
There's a kingdom and it is present.
It's not something just future.
It is present.
It is the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
It is a kingdom that opposes Rome and
all kingdoms like Rome.
It's not a kingdom made of metal or
spears or bureaucrats, thank God, government in the
sense as we know it.
It's not something that can be brought about
by human will or force or even voting.
It is a kingdom that He has brought
about by His own right hand.
It is a kingdom where He reigns and
He is Lord and those who belong to
that kingdom are children.
One of the things I love to work
with wood and sometimes I'll go up to
a lumber mill that's run by the Mennonites
and the one thing that I really appreciate
about the Mennonites, one of the things of
Mennonites is childlikeness.
It's to be childlike.
To be simple and childlike.
In this kingdom of Christ, there are no
great men.
They're children.
Now, there's something wonderful about children.
I have a little boy that's four and
another one that's two.
And they really don't have much concern about
reputation.
They haven't learned that evil yet.
They don't even know what it is.
They're so free.
Even though they're fallen and even though they
must be regenerated, they must be saved, they
are so different still as children.
They are not about all the things that
seem to creep into Christianity.
They're playful.
They make no boast about what they make
or what they can do.
They just are.
What is your Christianity like?
What's it like?
Is it just a whole bunch of right
stuff that you do?
Could it be described ever as an explosion
of joy, of life, childlikeness?
I go hunting.
If I don't kill something, I'm all upset.
Come back home, sopping wet, covered in snow
and everything else.
My son, he's sitting in the blind.
He's just happy to be there.
He doesn't care if he sees a deer,
a turkey, anything.
He's just happy to be here.
What does your Christianity look like?
Let me ask you something about your life
before your children.
Do they see a poverty of spirit in
you?
Or do they see a brokenness?
A tenderness in the sense of quickly noting
sin in your own life?
A dependence upon God?
A dear friend of mine that's forgot more
about God than I'll ever know, he's got
a sermon on the violent taking the kingdom
by force.
And he makes a very, very important statement
in there.
He goes, when I say that violent men
come and take the kingdom by force, enter
into it with might.
Many people misunderstand thinking that here we have
some of these strong-willed men who say,
bless God, I'm going to enter into the
kingdom.
No matter what happens, I'm going to do
it.
He said that's not what he's talking about.
He's talking about men who are violent because
they are so desperately needy.
They know there's no other hope but to
be in the kingdom.
Do your children see, parents, that have come
to some solid realization that Jesus Christ and
Jesus Christ alone is the only hope we
have or ever will have.
And that although all the other things we
do are good, and our lifestyle can be
biblical, still all of it in the end
is dirt and dust, lest God move and
be gracious to us.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn.
Over what?
Well, we've already touched on part of this.
Mourning is simply an expression of poverty, of
spirit in one sense.
But mourn over what?
Over what?
Over ourselves.
When was the last time you went to
someone else?
Well, let's make it personal first.
When was the last time you wept over
your sin?
When was the last time, sir, you wept
over the fact you did not treat your
wife with tenderness?
When was the last time you wept over
the fact that you were self-centered?
You see what I'm saying?
You see, here's what we do.
You remember, for years and years, decades and
decades, they tried to break the four-minute
mile.
You realize that?
I mean, it was just an impossibility, they
said.
And then what happened?
One guy broke it.
And then what happened?
A couple weeks later, another guy breaks it.
And then another guy breaks it.
You set something up as a standard and
you never go any further.
I'm afraid that one of the things that's
wrong with the church today is we've set
up the Ten Commandments and some external rules
and say this is the standard.
And no one goes any further.
You say, well, I'm a righteous man.
Why?
Well, I don't have false gods.
I keep the Sabbath.
I don't take the Lord's name in vain.
I don't make images.
I honor my father and my mother.
I don't steal.
I don't commit adultery.
But you see, it goes so much deeper
than that.
That's the bones of the thing.
It's not the real thing.
It goes so much deeper.
Do you mourn over the fact that sometimes
when a brother's approaching you in your heart,
you're thinking to yourself, oh gosh, I wish
they weren't here.
Does someone begin to pour out their heart
to you and you think, I've got other
things to do, this person.
Are you ever rash?
Are you ever hard?
Self-centered.
I mean, it just goes on and on
and on.
There's so much to mourn over.
And for men, I would probably say the
greatest thing over which to mourn is treating
our wives as an extension of ourselves and
not as their own person who will receive
a name that only they and Jesus will
know.
They're their own individuals.
Laying down our lives for them.
Treating them as Christ treats the church.
You see, there's so much that you can
do outwardly.
But inwardly, it's not that good.
Blessed are those who mourn.
Mourn over what?
First of all, they mourn over their own
sin.
Now, let me show you something about Christianity,
the way it works.
If you remember when Jesus comes in the
book of Mark chapter 1, He comes and
He says, the time is fulfilled.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
And what is your response?
Repent and believe the Gospel.
He described the Christian life there.
Those are both present tense imperatives in the
Greek.
What He says is the kingdom of God
is at hand.
Now spend the rest of your life repenting
and believing.
That's what the Christian life is.
Repenting and believing.
Now, how does it work?
It works this way.
Because you have to understand there's a difference
between repentance unto life and a repentance unto
death.
Judas had a repentance unto death.
Peter, a repentance unto life.
And it works this way.
The moment you become a Christian, how do
you become a Christian?
You have a revelation of God, of His
holiness, of His righteousness.
You have a revelation of your sin and
you repent.
But if that's all it is, then you're
left in despair.
There's a righteous God who's going to judge
you and you're a sinner.
But it's not left there.
Because not only does God reveal His righteousness
and His holiness, but He reveals His grace
in the face of Jesus Christ.
And so with this new glimpse of God's
holiness and righteousness, this new glimpse of sin
and self, you are cast into repentance, but
repentance does not lead to despair because Christ
is revealed and the grace of God in
Him is revealed and so you're lifted up
with joy.
And then what happens?
Well, you wake up the next morning a
greater revelation of God's holiness which leads you
to a greater revelation of your own sin,
which leads you to greater repentance and mourning.
But with that comes a greater revelation of
God's love and His grace which lifts you
up to greater stages of joy.
And that's what he's talking about here.
Blessed are those who mourn.
Blessed are those who have begun on this
path of salvation.
A path where they are constantly knowing more
about God.
A path where they are constantly knowing more
about self.
A path where they are constantly repenting more
and more of self-trust and self-reliance
and self-righteousness, but a path where they
are not cast down because they are seeing
more and more of my grace and are
lifted up with greater and greater joy until
the end.
You have an old saint at the end
of his days.
He's a thousand times more holy than when
he began, but he sees himself as a
thousand times more unrighteous.
But he is not cast down with despair.
He is a thousand times more joyful because
the revelation of the grace of God in
the face of Jesus Christ is so complete.
It's never about arriving.
It is just the opposite.
I see so many people, they wouldn't say
it this way, but it's like they all
think, one day I'm going to reach that
level.
And boy, I'm really going to walk with
Him.
You reach that level, you're a Pharisee.
You ever come to the realization you've reached
some level, you are in mighty big trouble.
Mighty big trouble.
It is a journey.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall
be comforted.
When was the last time you mourned over
your sin?
When was the last time you truly felt
God Almighty comforting you?
Now, how does He do it?
He doesn't do it like modern psychology or
like Pharisees either.
Let's take Isaiah, for example.
Isaiah, you know, in the year the king
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord high
and lifted up, and His train filled the
temple, and above Him stood the seraph, and
each one having six wings, with two they
covered their face, with two they covered their
feet, and with two they did fly, and
one cried unto the other, Holy, Holy, Holy
is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of His glory.
And the post of the door moved, and
the voice of Him has cried, and the
house was filled with smoke.
And then said I, what?
Woe is me, I'm undone.
Literally in Hebrew, cut me off, kill me.
Somebody please step forward and kill me.
I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell among a people of unclean lips.
Modern psychology.
Oh, Isaiah, look, you're taking this too hard.
You're really not that bad.
Oh, come on.
Let's go have ice cream.
You shouldn't think these things about yourself.
They're so negative.
Modern psychology.
Modern Phariseeism.
You're right, you piece of scum.
You just need to get down there, and
I don't think you're ever going to get
back in our fellowship again, because you just
don't qualify.
You blew it, buddy.
You went one step too far, and don't
say I didn't tell you.
Right?
And then God's way.
Okay.
Yep.
Yeah.
You are a man of unclean lips.
And yes, you do dwell among a people
of unclean lips.
One of you angels go over there and
get a coal.
We're going to cleanse this man.
And then we're going to raise him up
and send him out.
You see?
A broken piece of cane.
He won't throw away.
Right?
Smoking wick.
He will not snuff out.
What does that mean?
I'll tell you what it means.
Little kids going down to the river.
They didn't have Wal-Marts back then.
You had to make your own toys.
Go down the river.
You get a piece of river cane.
Down at the Jordan.
What do you do?
You whittle it out a little.
Makes a great flute.
There's only one problem.
Fragile cane in the hands of bumbling little
fingers.
They're going to break.
Cane breaks.
Kid looks at the cane and goes, it's
broken.
Throws it away.
Why?
He's not going to mend that thing.
There's trillions of other pieces of cane around
here.
I mean, there's cane everywhere.
I'm not going to go back and get
that broken thing.
Just throw it away.
There's more where that came from.
And then you walk into a house.
When I was a little boy, we would
have these ice storms.
Just terrible ice storms.
And we'd have no electricity.
No heat in the house.
Be 10 degrees below zero.
Dad would put wood on the fire.
We'd have these kerosene lamps.
And he'd say, boy, those people in the
north are very backward, aren't they?
We'd have kerosene lamps.
And the worst thing that could ever happen
during an ice storm was this.
That the oil burned out of one of
those lamps.
Because when the oil burns out of the
lamp, you know what happens?
The wick starts burning.
You've never smelled anything quite so bad as
the wick burning.
And the moment it happens, you grab the
lamp, you grab the wick, you grab the
whole thing, throw open the door, and throw
it out in the snow.
Stinks up the entire house.
Stinks the whole thing up.
Can't even live in there anymore.
Throw it away.
Okay, that's not what Jesus does.
Somebody's all broken.
The cane's all broken.
Can't play music out of it.
Just makes noise.
Sounds terrible.
Ruins everything.
Seems like everywhere that fallen believer goes, he's
just making noise and making ruin.
It's horrible.
Get him out of here!
Jesus goes.
A broken cane, He will not discard.
Brings it back.
Fixes it.
Believers grieve the Holy Spirit.
Done some atrocious thing.
Stunk up the church.
Stunk up everything.
Jesus goes.
Cleans out the smell.
Cleans out the lamp.
Cuts on the wick.
Lights the thing.
Fills it full of oil.
Gets her all going again.
Now, I believe in church discipline because it
is not punitive.
It is for the restoration of the fallen.
I believe in all that.
Don't think I don't.
What I'm talking about is this.
The man who is poor in spirit and
the man who mourns is going to be
gracious and in that sense is going to
be Christ-like.
Is going to be Christ-like.
Now, I want us to look at a
few more things if we can get on
down here.
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit
the earth.
Now, I know you've all heard, well, this
says meek doesn't mean weak.
That's true.
It doesn't mean weak.
Moses was meek and he wasn't weak.
Jesus was meek and He was not weak.
What does meek mean?
Something that we have forgotten.
You know, back in the 70's, we went
from John Wayne to Alan Alda.
You know, from John Wayne to Donahue.
And I mean, the idea of what a
man is became effeminate.
But I want to tell you something.
As a spirit-filled Christian, you go back
and watch some of those John Wayne movies.
And you see how fleshly and self-centered
and ungodly that man was.
That will get you whooped in Texas, but
I still have to say it.
Look how self...
It is so amazing how self-centered he
is in those movies.
How thoughtless...
It's unbelievable.
There is so much flesh in there, it's
unbelievable.
It's not Alan Alda, but folks, it's not
John Wayne either.
The word meek in this context, the best
way to communicate that would be something like
gentleness and tender-hearted.
Gentle.
Are you a gentle person?
Now there are times when...
Well, you're just not supposed to be gentle.
I know that.
I was raised on a cattle ranch.
Raised Charlotte cattle and quarter horses.
You jump off a horse onto a steer
to put him in the ground.
You're not going to be tickling him under
the chin.
But I'm not supposed to handle my wife
like cattle.
And I'm not supposed to handle other believers
like that either.
I am to be a man who in
one sense will draw a line in the
sand and say, ah, it stops here.
Stand my ground.
Fight for righteousness.
Have convictions.
But at the same time, I'm to be
a man who is gentle.
A man who is gentle.
One of the greatest problems that we have
many times is we think that everything just
revolves around us.
Now women do this too, but especially men.
Just everything revolves around us.
The man is the head of the home.
That is true.
I love teaching on that, especially in places
where they don't like to hear it.
But the fact of the matter is my
wife is not an extension of me.
She is a person in her own right
and she is not like me at all.
If there's one thing I've learned after 12
years of marriage, my wife is not like
me at all.
And that's why I've got to be careful
not to give her what I think I
would want.
I don't need gentleness.
I really don't.
I need someone to help me skin a
deer.
Hold this part right here while I cut.
I don't need gentleness.
My wife does.
Isn't it amazing that in that famous Ephesians
passage the Bible does not command the wife
to love her husband?
You know what's amazing there is this.
I do not need my wife coming to
me several times a day saying, I love
you, I love you, I love you.
Oh, did you know I love you?
I don't need to open up my lunchbox
at the office and get a little note,
I love you.
I mean, once in a while, sure.
But I mean, my goodness, guys are going
to start talking.
But if my wife does not respect me,
I'll collapse.
I need her respect.
What does my wife need?
She needs to hear, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you.
I don't need gentleness.
I have two boys.
They were raised in the swamps on the
Ohio River.
I take them there all the time.
They are wild men and I want them
to be wild men.
They've got to be wild if they're going
to fight all those dragons that are out
there.
There's nothing gentle about me and my two
boys.
Ask the cats that live in the area.
But see, my wife does need that.
What I'm trying to say, this goes much
farther than just family.
Gentle.
We are like a bull in a china
shop so many times with other people.
So cold.
Now, I've been talking about the man.
Let me talk about the women for a
minute.
Gestapo homeschooling moms.
Yeah.
They're the worst.
I'll never forget one time.
I'm sitting there.
My wife and I go to a restaurant.
One day, just one day.
It wasn't even one day.
It was like half a day.
My son had a pacifier in his mouth.
If you're homeschooling, you don't let your kids
use pacifiers.
And this lady comes out of the bathroom.
I'm sitting there waiting for my wife.
She's going to the bathroom.
I've spent most of my life waiting for
my wife.
And I've got that little buggy there.
And this lady comes out and she looks
at my son and she goes...
And then the daughter comes out.
The girl's six years old and she goes,
Oh, mother!
And I'm like, He's not that ugly.
Mother.
A pacifier.
I know daughters, just some people don't know.
I literally want to go over and smack
her.
It's like, what are you doing?
Here's the thing.
When you get to this thing about gentleness
and love, and that maybe there's people out
there more messed up than you are and
who can't do all the things that you
can do because you're just so talented and
spiritual.
It's about looking at what you are and
realizing apart from Jesus Christ, I'm dead and
I'm worse than dead.
It's about looking at what you are and
mourning but not in despair because you look
at the grace of God and the face
of Christ and you know what?
You realize I'd be in hell if He
wasn't kind to me.
Maybe that's a clue that I need to
be kind to other people the same way.
I'll never forget this lady who did horrendous
things in our church.
I'm not the pastor there, but she did
horrendous things and she was disciplined.
And she came back and one morning she
came back and even myself, she went forward
and was weeping and I thought, I don't
know if this is genuine or not.
And I told my wife, and everyone just
sat there and the lady was on the
front there and she's just weeping and everyone's
just looking at her.
And I thought, isn't there any Christians in
this place?
And so I told my wife, I said,
I'm going to go down.
And I went down and I knelt down
beside her and I began to pray with
her.
And people got so mad at me.
And somebody said, how can you do that?
And I said, because if there's no hope
for her, we all go to hell.
All of us go to hell.
You see, the gentle fathers teach your son
to be men, teach him to wrestle in
the dirt, kill squirrels with a BB gun,
all those sorts of things you're not supposed
to do nowadays.
Teach him to do it all.
In season, but do it all.
But teach them also to be gentle when
being gentle is appropriate.
Now we'll go with one more here.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Most of you probably have never heard of
T.W. Hunt.
He's a man very famous for writing books
on prayer and teaching on prayer.
And he was a mentor of mine years
ago.
And he did something for me.
The man was quite amazing.
He prayed three hours a day just for
his students.
And one day I walked into his office.
His name's T.W. Hunt.
And one day I walked in his office
and I look like something the cat had
drug in.
And he'd always look at me and go
like this.
What's wrong, Paul?
And I just, you know, Dr. Hunt, I'm
just so unrighteous and I'm just so wicked
and I don't know how to pray and
I'm so ignorant and I'm just all these
things.
And I'm sitting there in the chair and
finally when I ran out of breath, I
just kind of slumped over.
Sing that old hymn.
God, you're holy and I'm a worm.
Step on me and watch me squirm.
I just had lost all hope.
And Dr. Hunt walked over there and he
came up behind me.
I thought he was going to strangle me.
I thought he had enough.
He came up behind me and he laid
both hands on my shoulders.
And he said, in the name of Jesus
Christ, I pronounce you blessed.
And went and sat down.
And I had kind of like that deer
looking in the headlight look like what did
you just do?
And he said, you don't understand what I
just did.
And I said, no.
He said, have you never read, blessed are
those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for
they shall be filled.
Paul, listen to yourself.
No man could be any more blessed than
you are at this moment.
You walked into my office.
You're beside yourself.
You are so hungry and thirsty for righteousness.
You find no peace.
You're looking after it like it was the
last morsel of food left on the planet.
Paul, you feel as though if you don't
become more like Christ, you're going to die.
God pronounces you blessed.
And Satan is using a great thing to
condemn you.
Paul, I would be fearful for you if
you walked in here satisfied.
You see, so many times, believer, you'll look
at yourself and you'll just go, I'm just
so unrighteous.
I'm just so this.
I'm just so that.
I want to be more.
When is it going to come?
And then Satan will take that and condemn
you with it.
When what you ought to realize is you're
blessed.
You are hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
And you will be filled.
You will be satisfied.
And not just in the parousia.
Not just in the second coming.
And not just when you step over in
glory if you die before Christ comes.
But there will be throughout your life times
of visitation from the Lord when He will
allow you to see glimpses of growth and
glimpses of His working in your life.
Now, you're probably thinking, well, this has all
been for believers tonight and that's good.
We needed to hear this.
Okay, but it's also for people who think
they're believers and they're not.
Let me ask you a question.
It's a word that will literally transform your
life.
Every time you study something in the Bible,
ask yourself, reality.
Is this a reality in my life?
Number one, are you trusting solely and only
in Jesus Christ and the grace of God
revealed through His perfect work?
Are you clinging?
Are you like a man shipwrecked at sea
with only one board to cling to and
that is the cross of Jesus Christ?
Are you a person who lives without any
dependence whatsoever upon Jesus Christ and His finished
work?
Because that's the difference between a believer and
an unbeliever.
Maybe you go to church, but let me
ask you a question.
Is there a reality that Jesus Christ is
everything?
He's all that I have.
Apart from Him, I go to hell.
Blessed are those who mourn.
Number two, when was the last time you
really took sin seriously?
When was the last time God showed you
sin and worked repentance in your heart and
broke you?
And maybe you had to go confess it
to someone you'd sinned against or an attitude
or something.
When was the last time God dealt with
you about your lack of conformity to Jesus
Christ?
When was the last time?
You know, the Holy Spirit, one of the
ministries is He'll convict of sin.
Not just the world, everybody.
Is there a ministry of the Holy Spirit
in you convicting you of sin?
You know the difference.
It's amazing, and I share this in another
sermon that I've often preached about assurance, is
that it's amazing that when God begins to
work in a church and deal with people
and people maybe start weeping or seeing their
sin and mourning over it, it's always amazing
that the people that are broken in the
church are always the most godly people in
the church.
And the people who are carnal and wicked
and uncaring sit back there cold as a
stone as though nothing was said.
Why?
You're seeing the difference between the believer and
the unbeliever.
The true believer is not sinless.
The true believer has a reality of their
sin and mourns over it.
Now, gentleness.
Is Christ making you gentle in the ways
that you need to be gentle?
How gentle is Jesus Christ with His church?
How gentle are you?
Father or husband with your wife, how gentle
do you seek to be?
Mother and father with your children, how gentle
do you seek to be?
You know, it's an amazing thing, and I
found this in my own life.
When you're not gentle with your children, it's
usually because you're not disciplining them properly.
I know that sounds like two just total
contradictions, but it's true.
I'm not going to be here for long,
so I'm kind of following rabbits every once
in a while.
But if you find that you're becoming exasperated
with your children, it's because you're allowing them
to get out of line and you're not
disciplining them.
You discipline them, and they begin to walk
correctly.
Then there's the room then for a spirit
of gentleness to break forth.
If you're exasperated and angry and tired of
your children, it's because they're running out of
line.
And they're running out of line probably because
you're not teaching, exhorting, disciplining.
But also realize this.
I see so many guys say, I'm a
disciplinarian.
Well, are you a lover?
Because you have to be a disciplinarian in
the context of being a lover.
You see, people ask me all the time,
man, you spend so much time playing with
your boys.
I go, yeah, why?
So I can beat them.
And they say, what do you mean?
And I say it that way just to
prove a point.
I say, look, when I spank Ian, he
knows that the guy who's spanking him is
the guy who plays with him, loves him,
can't wait to see him, takes him deer
hunting even though I'll never kill again a
deer as long as I live because my
son makes more noise than a train going
through the woods.
He knows this dad is crazy about me
and therefore if he does discipline me, it's
out of love.
See?
So you can't be a disciplinarian unless you're
a lover.
Now, are you hungry and thirsty for righteousness?
Or are you pretty much satisfied?
Have you pretty much arrived where everybody else
just pretty much ought to kindle their own
flame in your fire?
Come on over here.
I'll show you how to do this Christianity
stuff.
Have you got it down pretty good?
You done alright now?
Or are you still hungry and thirsty for
the righteousness of Christ?
You know, it's amazing.
I preach in a lot of churches, some
of them very large, some of them very
liberal.
And when I go there, I would preach
nothing like what I'm preaching to you.
I would preach to them on rules, precepts
and commands, what the Bible says about biblical
families, clothing, all sorts of things.
But God didn't send me here to preach
to the choir.
You all agree with most of that stuff.
You want to have biblical families.
You want to do the right thing.
So in order to make you guys mad,
I need to preach on something completely different.
We all have weak spots and usually our
strengths are our weaknesses.
A person very serious about having order and
walking in godliness with the entire family sometimes
needs to be reminded about mercy and mourning
and gentleness.
You see, I don't know where this week's
going.
I don't even know where tonight's going.
But this is what it means to be
like Jesus.
Not just the rules that you got down.
This is what it means to be like
Jesus.
Maybe if I have time, I'm going to
teach on the legacy I want to leave
my boys.
And that is a legacy of just life.
I know it's hard to imagine, but when
I'm on the farm where I live, I
wear bib overalls.
I've always loved bib overalls.
I don't know, maybe it's because I watched
Green Acres when I was a kid.
I have no idea.
The legacy I want to leave my children
are this.
Both those boys looking out the window at
dad in the middle of that bean field
and looking at mom going, mom, why is
dad dancing out in the middle of that
bean field?
And mom, I sure am glad we don't
have neighbors because our dad would be locked
up.
And for that mom to say, your father
was a very wicked man at one time.
He was lost by his own hand.
He was a rebel.
He was bound for destruction.
God's made him a prince.
He's a prince.
And that's why he dances.
That's why he's happy.
You see?
Life.
Let's pray.
Father, I pray that You would help us,
Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Pastor?
Some of
those things about gentleness.
Some of those things about meekness.
And I'm sure there's many of us who
need to hear that and a lot more.
Church, I want you to bow your heads
with me for just a moment.
We'll let Kim play through a few standards
of a hymn for choosing.
If the Lord spoke into your heart tonight,
as Brother Paul made very clear, this is
not just for Christian people.
If you're here and God's revealed to you
that you're not a Christian, and you've seen
your guilt before Him and you know that
you need mercy, we have counselors that are
ready and excited to speak with you and
show you from the Word of God Christianity.
If you're here this evening and you are
born again, if God saved you and He's
dealt with your heart over some sanctification issues,
and He's dealt with your heart over some
love issues, take this opportunity to do business
with your Heavenly Father.
Confess sin.
Be restored in a right relationship if something
has been severed.
Dads, maybe you haven't been kind.
Maybe you haven't been gentle.
Take some time to ask God to grant
you repentance.
However God has dealt with your heart this
evening, would you respond to Him in the
next few moments?
Father, we thank You for Your Word.
We pray, Lord, that You would empower Your
Word this evening.
Lord, that You would mark it on our
hearts the things that we've heard tonight.
Father, we ask that You would conform us
into the image of Your Son.
Father, we thank You, Lord, that You would
bless us and that You have reminded us
that the law was easy, and grace is
difficult.
Father, help us to be gracious in Christ's
life.
Lord, we know that You've called us to
be conformed to the image of Your Son.
And Father, we ask that You would do
those things in us, in Jesus' name.
Amen.