In the 22 years that I've walked with
the Lord and preached, I have seen storms,
and I have seen times of uncertainty, but
I have learned that God is always faithful.
He's never taken by surprise, and that things
are ordained of Him in the strictest of
sense.
There's not a maverick molecule in the universe.
And I do not trust in the ability
of men to hear God, but I do
trust in the ability of God to speak
to men.
That He who began a good working in
every party here will finish that work in
every party, in every party.
If it weren't that way, I would be
too afraid to get out of bed in
the morning.
Well, let's look at Matthew chapter 5.
We understood in verse 13, first of all,
that we're going to read that text again,
but we understood something very, very important in
Matthew 5, 13, that there are certain characteristics
essential to Christianity.
And those are the things that we should
focus on in our personal lives and that
our value in the kingdom is not determined
by our activity, but determined by our union
with Jesus Christ.
And that's we can do many things, but
if we are not conformed to His image,
we have not done the best of things.
Matthew 5, 13, you are the salt of
the earth, but if the salt has become
tasteless, how can it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything except
to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by
men.
Let's pray.
Father, I pray that you would use your
word to help us to be conformed to
the image of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And Father, I pray that you would grant
mercy and grace to strengthen all who need
to be strengthened, to comfort all those who
need comfort, to be our ever present help,
Lord, in our ever present time of need.
Amen.
You may be seated.
I want to take a look once again
at verse 13 quickly and then go back
to the characteristics which we were discussing this
morning.
He says something very, very important.
You are the salt of the earth, but
if the salt has become tasteless, how can
it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything except
to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by
men.
Our productivity in the kingdom of God is
directly related to our character and our Christ
likeness.
One of the great problems I have with
our seminaries today is that we are so
focused on knowledge, which is important.
Doctrine is extremely important.
I spend my life studying doctrine and teaching
doctrine, but we spend so much on doctrine
and spend even more time on models and
systems and programs.
But we spend so little time dealing with
the character of the seminary students.
In the same way, we need to be
very, very careful because we are, by and
large, Americans.
We are doers more than beers.
We are those who are active rather than
those who sit and ponder the great truths
and try to discern the character of our
own being.
And that needs to change.
It truly does.
Now, there is a balance.
There are people who are always meditating and
never do anything, and there are people who
are doing things and never considering their actions
or the character from which their actions come.
And in all things, there is moderation and
in all things there must be balance.
But if I were to look at the
Church of Jesus Christ in America today, I
would say our greatest problem.
It's not that we lack the resources to
do things.
Not that we lack the models, the programs
and the plans, but that we lack conformity
to the image of Jesus Christ.
Now, he says no longer good for anything.
Do you see how intricately our character affects
everything that we seek to do in the
Christian life and Christian ministry?
Many of you have children.
I don't want to run a rabbit here,
but I'll say it since I'm here.
Many of you have children.
You're concerned about what they will do when
they grow older.
You should be more concerned about what they
will be when they grow older.
Because it matters very little before the throne
of God what they become in this world.
Rather, does Christ enter into their lives and
are they conformed to the image of Christ?
It is all about character.
It is all about Jesus and our greatest
passion, even our magnificent obsession should be Christ
likeness.
To be like him in the most intimate
relationships that we have.
Otherwise, what we don't do becomes in a
great sense, null and void.
Null and void.
Now, let me step back here for a
moment and say something that's very, very important
to say.
You maybe heard this morning when I said
there's never been such a thing as a
great man of God.
The point that I'm trying to make is
there's never been a perfect man.
You take a look at Charles Spurgeon and
in my opinion, you'll not find a greater
preacher ever walked on the face of the
earth.
The man, well, let me put it this
way.
I was speaking in a conference, a reformed
conference a while back in Detroit, Michigan, and
everyone was there.
They love Charles Spurgeon.
They love Jonathan Edwards.
They just talk about these men all the
time.
And I stood up and I said, first
of all, I'd like to say that Charles
Spurgeon was a heretic.
And Jonathan Edwards was not as pious as
some of you believe.
And I went on and on and I
began to destroy all their idols.
And some of the people were actually getting
very, very angry.
And then I stepped back and I said,
you think too much of men.
You see, God does not use perfect men.
He uses men.
And so when I say that that we
need to be conformed to the image of
Christ, we also need to recognize that God
has always used men lacking something somewhere.
And that is why, my dear friend, we
need so much the body of Christ.
And we need to be open to one
another.
And we need to be open to the
word of God that comes forth from others.
We live in somewhat of a I don't
want to say it's a state of limbo,
but we definitely swing on a pendulum.
There is a real sense in which God
has done a supernatural, miraculous work in our
life, regenerating us, making us alive and making
us new creatures.
There is another sense in which there is
an element in our lives that's yet to
be redeemed.
And there is a struggle when I'm seeking
for a new missionary on the foreign field.
I do not look for the perfect man.
I do not look for the cleanest man.
I do not look for the man who
seems to be able to cross every T
and dot every I and just look so
special.
I do not look for beauty in the
man.
What I look for is passion in the
man, passion and a desire to do the
things of God.
You might be here tonight and you might
be very, very far away from anything that
resembles conformity to Jesus Christ.
My question for you is, is there a
passion in your heart to be like him?
Are you willing to say I am not
like Jesus in my home?
I am not like Jesus in my workplace.
I am not like Jesus with my children.
There are so many places where I am
lacking.
If you have reached that point sincerely, you're
not far from the kingdom of God.
There's hope for you.
There's hope.
And let's go on and take a look
at some of these characteristics.
We've already discussed poverty of spirit, which refers
to absolute dependence upon God.
Let me say this, a lot of modern
preaching today is all about all the great
things and pleasant things and lively things that
God wants to work in your life.
And we have to be very, very careful
because I have found that when God regenerates
a man, when a man is truly converted,
there is a real sense that God will
begin to work death in the life of
that man.
He says in his equal quite clearly, one
of the new covenant promises in chapter 36,
I will cleanse you from all your idols
and from all your filthiness and from all
your idols.
In order to bring you to a state
of dependence upon God, he has to blow
mighty winds upon you.
He has to tear down the stronghold of
your own self-confidence.
He has to do whatever and will do
whatever he has to do to bring you
to a point where you recognize you can
do nothing apart from Jesus Christ.
Absolute dependence, absolute dependence.
Then we talked about mourning, which for the
Christian is not a desperate thing.
We mourn over our sin, but we're then
lifted up and carried on the wings of
grace.
We know that our contrition will not end
in despair, it will not end in condemnation,
but the Lord of glory will raise us
up.
If we humble ourselves before the Lord, he
will lift us up.
He will.
That's his promise.
Blessed are those who mourn sensitivity to sin.
Let me just say for a moment, step
back because each one of these things is
a week's worth of study.
There are certain things in your life.
If you're a typical church with typical problems,
there are some things in your life that
dull your sensitivity to sin.
And it's fraternizing with the world.
There was a great violinist playing in Europe
and after he played an old, old man
about to retire and after he played, a
young man came up to him and said
this, Sir, I would give my life to
play like you.
The old man said, I have given my
life to play like me.
Do you want the spirit of God to
empower you?
Do you want the favor of God upon
your life?
Do you want to see God working?
Do you want to be sensitive?
Do you want to have a quick ear
and a willing heart?
There are things you're going to have to
leave behind all the things and all the
influences that dull your heart and make your
ears full of wax.
You're going to have to list those things
and take them out of your life.
One of the greatest problems in the church
today is the influence of media and television
and all sorts of things that just makes
us so dull to true godliness.
Church, do you want to be godly?
Do you want to be quick to the
call?
Do you want to be sensitive to sin?
It will come at a cost.
It'll come at a decision.
Some of you young men out here, you
want to be used of God.
Many want to be used with used by
God, but few finish the race.
Matter of fact, few even start.
You'll have to turn away from those things
which God despises and run to with a
passion the things that God embraces.
He says, blessed are those who mourn for
they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle.
I am a farm boy from Southern Illinois.
I come from a family of farmers and
ranchers, men who boast in their strength.
Men who you could suppose if they had
a flag, it would say something like don't
tread on me.
I carry that in me and it's not
of God.
God calls me as well as you to
be courageous.
He calls us to be strong in the
strength of the Lord.
He tells us that there are times when
we will have to draw a line in
the sand and say you will go no
further.
There may be times when we have to
lay down our life, but at all times
we are to be gentle.
Sir, do you seek to cultivate this characteristic
in your life?
Gentle.
We speak of the power of our Lord.
We speak of the courage of our Lord
and our Lord turns right back around and
says, do not confuse me with the Romans.
Do not confuse me with an empire of
steel.
Are you gentle?
Do you think that's a womanly, feminine characteristic?
Well, it is, but it's a manly one
also.
Blessed are the gentle for they.
What does it say about them?
They shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are the gentle.
Now, whenever we want to define a term,
we have to realize that Jesus Christ is
the great definer.
For example, if I say if I tell
you you need to be holy.
When I say that you people need to
be holy, I want you to know there
are probably just as many definitions of holiness
in this church as there is people right
now.
The question is, when I tell you you
need to be holy, how do we discover
what true holiness is?
We go to Jesus Christ.
And when the Bible tells us that we
need to be gentle, where are we going
to find a definition of that?
Where are we going to find an example?
And it is in the person of Jesus
Christ.
Everything you need to know is found in
the person and teaching of Jesus Christ.
So I want us to look for a
moment at being gentle.
And I want us to go to the
book of Matthew.
Chapter 11, verse 28, comes
me, all who are weary and heavy laden.
And I will give you rest.
Now, there's something about people who are weary
and heavy laden.
They're also usually quite intimidated.
And afraid.
And intimidated, afraid people do not come and
seek help from anyone but the gentle.
I always tell men that I'm teaching, I
always ask them, I say, how do children
treat you?
Because that's a great sign of godliness.
That's a great sign of the character of
Christ.
The children, are they comfortable around you?
They love playing with you.
Sometimes they want to pull you out of
the church and have you ride a scooter
outside in the parking lot.
You see, we had people coming to Jesus
that would go to no one else because
everywhere else they went, the door was closed.
Everywhere else they went, they were crushed even
more than when they came.
We're speaking about gentleness.
We're talking about the type of character in
which those who are weary, heavy laden can
come and actually believe they're going to find
rest.
They're going to find some help.
He goes on, he says, take my yoke
upon you and learn from me, for I
am gentle and humble and hard.
What an amazing thing.
Here's the man that stood against an entire
religious system, an entire empire.
He would teach those Pharisees and they would
get so mad at him that they'd rip
their clothes, they'd tear their hair, they'd grind
their teeth, they'd throw dirt up in the
air.
And then you'd look at him and say,
you want to hear another parable?
He backed down from no one.
But at the same time, at the other
side of this wonderful personality, this perfect reflection
of what manhood should truly be.
We see this man describing himself as one
who is gentle and humble and heart.
People looking at you, coming to you, would
they say that about you?
One time I told my wife, oh, what
a prophet.
I told my wife, I said, well, that's
just not my character.
And she said, you're right.
You need to repent.
That's not the way I made.
She said, but that's the way God wants
to remake you.
Comes to me, all who are weary and
heavy laden, I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me now.
So much teaching in the church today, and
this is what's very, very difficult.
You need to understand.
It is not a hard thing for me
to teach you.
But it would be a terrifying thing for
me to disciple you.
And what do I mean by that?
If I'm just teaching you from the pulpit,
I can say some really good things and
you all walk out of here saying, wow,
that was really nice.
Come live with me.
He says, come to me, watch my life
and learn from me.
Now, there there is where we find a
difficult thing.
He's saying, learn about humility by living with
me.
Learn about being humble at heart and kind
and merciful and all these things.
You want to know these things, then come
and live in my house.
That's quite an amazing thing.
I don't know many men, including myself, who
would make that statement.
If you want to know humility, then come
live with me for a while and watch
me.
Who would dare say something like that?
And yet that is the goal for our
lives.
I remember when I was in college at
the University of Texas and also in seminary,
I think I made a terrible mistake.
I can remember staying up all night asking
God.
God, make me a preacher.
God, I want to preach your word.
God, I want to have the power of
God on my life to preach your word.
And you want to know something, at least
to some degree answered it.
I preach all over the world.
There seems to be a measure of grace
on it.
I had other friends wiser than myself, and
they prayed something like this.
Lord, make me like Jesus.
I don't care to be a great preacher.
Make me like Jesus.
Could I have made a terrible error?
Yes, yes.
I would trade all my prayers that I've
ever made about ministry and preaching.
I would trade them all for prayers about
conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.
I would not feel intimidated at all if
you asked me to teach on the biblical
view of humility and gentleness.
I can do that.
I can go through the book of Proverbs
and teach you that.
What would intimidate me is if you said,
Paul, can I come to your house and
watch you for a while to learn about
gentleness?
I would terrify me.
I might be able to fool you for
a while.
I could guard myself.
But in the unguarded moment.
The real me would come out.
Now, I want us to look at him
and I want us to continue looking at
this.
He says you will find rest for your
souls.
You and I need to be people in
a sense where others can find rest in
us.
They can find a haven.
They can find a friendship.
They'll see someone who looks past their sin.
And as Christ looks past hours.
Are you a haven for people?
I have to be very, very careful here
because I want I want to share something
with you.
To some of you, this will sound about.
Well, I don't know how it will sound.
But I have known people who are very
needy and that's OK.
But I've also known people in the church
that are so needy that everyone else in
the church begins to run away from them
because every time they approach us because they're
needy.
They're always receiving and never giving.
And even unto you, I give this admonition.
Not only the strong need to be a
haven, but those of you who feel like
you are weak and needy, you need to
begin to reciprocate and also provide haven for
other people.
Also give.
And maybe in your giving, maybe in your
helping others, your problems will disappear.
A Christian can be needy, but we should
not always be needy.
A Christian should always try to at times
should be able to find haven in the
strength of others, but should not always have
to live based upon the strength of others.
One of the things that I'm doing here
right now, my wife would rebuke me for
if there's so much in this text, I
want to say everything.
But the primary purpose here is to say
that Jesus.
Was gentle and that gentleness was proven by
the fact that the weakest and the most
weary came to him, young people.
Let me tell you something, give a unique
opportunity because you're in grade school and high
school.
Now, let me share with you something about
that.
Some of the cruelest people on the face
of the earth are in grade school and
high school.
That's true.
Now, some of you have either been victims
of those cruel people or you've been the
cruel people yourself.
The thing about it is in every one
of your classes, there are certain children that
no one else plays with.
They make fun of the clothes they wear
and everything else.
And they're isolated and left out and hurt
and broken, and they don't even want to
go to school because of everything that happens
to them.
You know what?
You could be a haven for them.
You could reach out to them.
You could prove what the master says here,
you could be gentle and kind, and those
people would find rest in your Christ likeness.
You see what I'm saying?
Tell you what, when you look at this
stuff and start applying it, it's really amazing.
Now, another thing that I want to say
about the gentleness of our Lord in verse
18 of chapter 12, behold, my servant whom
I have chosen, my beloved in whom my
soul is well pleased.
I will put my spirit upon him and
he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
Here we would think the great captain of
the host has come in the name of
the Lord and powered by the Holy Spirit
to do a great work of justice.
Then he goes on in verse 19.
It's not battle array that he has placed
upon himself.
It's a mantle of humility and gentleness because
it says he will not quarrel, no cry
out, nor will anyone hear his voice in
the streets.
A battered reed he will not break off
and a smoldering wick he will not put
out until he leads justice to victory.
And in his name, the Gentiles will hope
the most ungodly pagan peoples of the planet
will learn to hope in this mighty one
of God.
But here's here's the text that I want
us to see in verse 20, a battered
reed.
He will not break off.
It's amazing that the Puritans actually spoke much
of this text, even a book on it.
Let me just share with you what he's
saying, talking about our Lord Jesus.
He said a battered reed, he will not
break off.
Now, in Israel, the children would sometimes go
down to the river and get a reed
because you can do so many things for
the reed.
But primarily, you can whittle one out, put
some holes in it, you make a fine
flute out of a reed.
But there's a there's a there's a thing
about a reed that's very, very difficult.
It's very fragile thing.
And in the hands of children, well, you
start working on that reed for a few
minutes, it breaks in your hands.
Well, what are you going to do?
You're going to spend the whole day trying
to mend this thing?
Of course not.
Throw it away.
Why not?
Why not throw it away?
I mean, there's billions of more reeds in
the river from which we can make our
musical instruments.
We don't need this thing.
It's broke.
It's cracked.
It's worthless.
Throw it away.
Get another.
That's not what Jesus does.
He begins to work in the life of
a person, young person, man, woman, child, begins
a good work in them along the way
that work becomes cracked, broken, chipped.
It appears to everyone else that it's useless.
We're so quick to throw people away, aren't
we?
But Jesus comes and he takes that cracked,
broken piece of reed that can't even use
it to carry a tune.
He takes that reed and begins to work
again.
You know, Satan is not only the accuser
of the brother and primarily is the accuser
of God.
I can imagine Satan to Jesus just working.
What are you working with that thing for?
It's already proven to be flawed.
It's useless.
Go get something else.
Christ just continues to work.
And then before you know it, he takes
that thing and puts it back to his
mouth and plays music, a greater music than
the flute could have ever played before.
They say to make an opera singer a
good one.
You have to break their heart for someone
to sing with passion.
You have to break their heart and love.
I believe that.
It's only broken things to play the sweetest
music, because everyone recognizes they were broken and
broken by their own doing.
But God came and fixed them and therefore
the creator get that much more glory for
himself.
And after all, that's what it's about anyways,
isn't it?
And then he says in a smoldering wick,
he will not put out.
Now in Peru, in places where I live,
we use lamps.
And even as a little boy, I can
remember in the terrible winters we might have
there in Illinois, sometimes electricity lines would go
down and we would be all around the
fire and we'd use kerosene lamps.
Now, there's something that young people don't understand
about a kerosene lamp.
When a kerosene lamp is filled with oil.
There will be a flame on the wick,
but the wick will not burn, it will
not consume itself.
But when the oil is gone from the
container, the wick begins to burn.
And when the wick begins to burn, it
is the most wretched thing you have ever
smelled in your life.
And someone walking in from a day out
of the house, working in the fields in
Israel, comes back and finds a lamp, the
oil is burned out of it, the wick
is burning, stinking up the whole house.
The only thing they're going to do is
take that fragile vessel, they're going to grab
it and pitch it right out the window
into the heat.
Why?
Well, it's ruined everything, it's stunk up the
house, it's horrible.
Not Jesus.
In his gentleness, he comes back, he takes
the wick, he cuts off that which is
charred.
He mends the vessel and then fills it
again with the oil of his spirit and
it burns brighter than ever before.
These are some of, just some of the
illustrations of what it means to be gentle,
to be gentle.
And he says, back to chapter five, he
said, Blessed are the gentle, for they shall
inherit the earth.
They shall inherit the earth.
And as I said, there's so much in
this text that makes me want to run
rabbits, but some of you are so trying
to inherit the earth now and you're not
waiting upon the Lord.
And the way this earth is at this
present moment, you really don't want much of
it.
It is time to live for the Lord
with all your heart and soul, mind and
strength and await an earth that will be
recreated by the power of God incorruptible.
A beauty so great that if you were
to catch a vision of it, you would
go mad.
The gentle will inherit the earth, not the
movers and the shakers, not itinerant preachers, not
people who cast out demons and prophesy in
his name and perform many miracles.
But the gentle shall inherit the earth.
The Puritans would use this text to determine
whether or not a church member was even
saved, because they would warn the church member,
if these characteristics are not in your life
to some degree, you need to worry about
the condition of your soul.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit
the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
How can I do justice to a text
like this?
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness.
What is righteousness?
What we're always thinking of us being right
and that's there.
But I want you to think outside of
the box for a moment.
When you think about righteousness, they hunger and
thirst for God's righteousness.
They hunger and thirst for God to be
vindicated.
They hunger and thirst for God's will to
be done on the earth, for God's kingdom
to come.
They hunger and thirst for every creature on
the face of the earth to fall down
in adoring worship.
They hunger for God to get all the
glory that God deserves.
You see, when we look at text, it's
always man centered, isn't it?
They hunger for God's righteousness to prevail and
for God to be vindicated and honored above
all so-called gods.
They hunger and thirst for that.
And then they hunger and thirst for the
righteousness of God in their own life through
Jesus Christ.
There are so many today who hunger and
thirst for a type of righteousness.
They're very zealous towards it, but it's not
according to knowledge.
And they are twofold sons of hell.
They do all sorts of things in order
to make themselves righteous so that they might
be acceptable before a holy God, proving that
they neither understand holiness or righteousness.
When you and I hunger and thirst for
righteousness in our own lives, it's primarily, as
the Apostle Paul said, to be found in
him, to be found in him, to be
trusting in no one, no other thing but
him.
I always go back to the Puritans because
I like the Puritans.
I don't agree with everything they say, but
I like them.
They spoke much when they talked about repentance
and they would say something that's quite unusual.
It's found in Hebrews, but it kind of
catches us off guard.
You've heard of repenting from dead works.
They would say repenting from good works.
Now, what do they mean by that?
Repenting from any trust in any work, even
that which might be a moral work to
gain some standing before God.
Yes, my friends.
You don't realize it, but many do that
many sincere Christians, they have accepted the righteousness
of God in Christ.
They have believed in Christ.
If you talk to them, they'll tell you
and they are sincere.
Truly, they are believing in Christ alone and
they truly are saved.
But in the practical working out of their
salvation, they are still trying to find some
position before God based on their own good
works or performance instead of resting in the
perfect work of Jesus Christ.
You say, well, Brother Paul, you know, you're
basically telling people to stop doing good things
and just rest in Christ.
No, my friend, if you're truly resting in
Christ, you will be more like Christ than
anyone with a moral agenda.
You see, a carnal lost church member will
hear these things and say, well, let's go
sin.
A Christian will hear these things and say,
if grace is this way, let us follow
the master.
Let us be holy.
Now, hunger and thirst for righteousness also means
a hunger and thirst in our personal lives
to be more like Jesus.
My dear friend, one of the problems that
I see in much in some reforms theology
is this idea that the law is the
supreme example of God's righteousness and that if
we want to be righteous, we need to
conform to the law.
And some people will say, you know, on
Judgment Day, the unbeliever will sit there on
one side of the scale and the law
be placed in the other and he will
be way.
That is not true.
Let me tell you how it's going to
work.
The unbeliever will be placed on the side
of that scale and Jesus Christ to be
placed on the other side.
The extreme, the maximum, the ultimate example of
true righteousness and holiness is embodied in a
person now, not just ten commandments, but in
the person of Jesus Christ.
That's why when we go to terms like
holiness and righteousness, we identify those and we
determine what they mean within the context of
who is this person, who is this Jesus?
It's all about Jesus and we do not
throw out the law.
We simply say that Christ is greater than
even the law.
Christ is our supreme example, because I want
you to know you can cross every T
and dot every I of that law and
be nothing more than a lost hellbound Pharisee.
We have to hunger and thirst to be
like Jesus.
Now, let me give you an example.
Some of you possibly have heard of T
.W. Hunt, a great man of prayers, written
many books, he was a professor of mine
and kind of I considered him a mentor
in a way and some things and would
go into his office and talk to him
and just amazing man of prayer.
And I walked in one day in his
office looking like something the dog had just
drug in.
And I'm just walking in kind of like
that seminary student I told you about this
morning, you know, I'm so unholy, I'm so
ignorant.
And I walked in and he said T
.W. Hunt would always go like this when
he'd look at me, go, Paul, what is
it now?
And I said, Dr. Hunt, I am so
unholy, I am so unrighteous.
I desire to be like Jesus.
I desire to my heart to be pure.
I desire to just be holy.
Oh, I just I'm just not content.
I'm just miserable.
And he's looking at me like this and
then all of a sudden again, he went
and he stood up and he walked over
to where I was seated.
He put both hands on my shoulders and
he said in the name of Jesus Christ,
I pronounce you blessed.
He turned around, sat back down and I
looked at him and he said, Paul, you
don't understand what I just did.
I said, no, Dr. Hunt, I don't understand
what you just did.
Paul, have you never read?
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness.
Paul, you walk into my office.
You're not content about anything in your life.
The only thing you want is to be
more like Jesus.
You want to be more righteous.
You want to be more holy.
You want to be more pleasing.
He said, boy, he said, listen to me,
you are blessed.
He said, if you walked in here content
about your spiritual state, it might be evidence
that you're lost.
Now, here's the point, church.
Many of the works of God in your
life, Satan is twisting around to make you
condemned.
You sit there and you go, I'm just
not as holy as I want to be.
I'm just not as righteous as I want
to be.
I want to know his word in a
greater way.
I want to be more like him.
And then you hear the voice of Satan.
Yes, you're not like him at all.
Condemnation, condemnation.
And you don't recognize that the words out
of your mouth is not a pronunciation or
a pronouncement of condemnation, but one of blessedness.
Those of you who are content with your
spiritual state ought to fear condemnation.
But those of you who seek to be
more like him.
Ought to worship God because he has done
a true work in you.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness.
Now, listen, for they shall be satisfied on
all accounts.
Dear flock, God will vindicate himself.
He has done it in the cross and
he will do it in the glorious appearing
of the one who died.
God's righteousness will prevail.
His will will be done.
His kingdom will come.
Whether this church participates in the work or
not.
To his righteousness, you'll be satisfied if you're
hoping for God to come back and prevail.
You will be satisfied.
Take heart.
No matter how beaten down the truth is,
no matter how much you see the truth
twisted on television by heretics who preach in
the name of Jesus, no matter what you
are going to see a day when you
will stand there in the flesh and God
will be vindicated before all men and all
men will bow before him and his truth
will be proclaimed and honored.
Count on it.
It's going to happen.
And being found in Christ.
Oh, my dear friend, he
could have made you righteous like the angels.
And that would have been enough.
But he did not do such a limited
work.
The righteousness of God in Christ.
That is why in that room, that holy
of holies with the presence of God dwells
in its fullness.
Those mighty beings that could destroy the earth
with a glance from their eyes, they bow
their head and cannot look into the face
of God.
And yet you will play among the foals
of his robe.
You will enter in where angels cannot because
you bear not the righteousness of angels, but
the righteousness of God in Christ.
You will be satisfied.
You will stand there one day.
You will be righteous.
Found righteous, declared righteous.
Not only that, my dear friend, you will
be righteous.
At this point, I can say this theologically,
there's not a righteous person in this room.
What do I mean by that?
We all still sin.
We're subject to sin.
So in that sense, we are not righteous.
When the Bible talks us talks about us
being justified or being made righteous, it's talking
about a forensic legal declaration based upon the
work of God and Jesus Christ.
You and I have been declared righteous because
Christ, when he died, he satisfied the justice
of God and appeased the wrath of God.
You and I have been declared righteous.
That is true.
But one day you will be righteous.
I try once a year to read the
Chronicles of Narnia.
I know it's a children's kind of book,
but you need to read them because you
never want to stop being a child.
When they come to the final great war
and then the renovation of all things and
Aslan, who represents Christ, comes and leads his
people into the land of his father.
Yelling to them, higher up, further in, because
the higher up and the further you go
into heaven, the bigger it gets.
And they're all running wildly.
That's what you do in heaven.
They were running wildly, passionately.
And they come to this tree and one
of them says, I've never seen anything like
this before.
And the fruit on it.
Oh, how I would give anything to take
from.
I so desire to eat from that fruit.
And I said, well, do you suppose this
is prohibited?
And the statement is made that is brilliant.
One says, I think we finally come to
a place where nothing is prohibited.
Where no desire that we have.
Will be taken away.
And why is that?
Because you will be perfectly righteous in the
kingdom of your father.
You will be perfectly righteous and every desire
of your heart will be a righteous desire.
And therefore, every desire of your heart will
be filled.
That's a wonderful thing.
Truly a wonderful thing.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
And I want to finish with seven.
I've gone on a little bit too long,
but it wouldn't be appropriate to stop without
touching this.
If ever there was a passage or a
verse of scripture.
That proves that Christians are still not perfected.
And must still battle with the flesh.
This is it.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive
mercy.
Now, what do I mean?
How could it be that people like ourselves
who crucified the Lord of glory, who took
God's son and nailed him on a tree
over a garbage dump and then receive mercy?
How could a people like us who has
received so much mercy ever need to be
reminded that we're supposed to be merciful?
You talk about flagrant, horrifying hypocrisy is when
someone stands up and just revels in the
mercy of God and then cannot extend that
same mercy to someone else.
Well, you just don't know what they did
to me.
I don't need to know.
That's never the issue.
I'll never forget the church I was in.
I was kind of known as, you know,
the very strict and all sorts of things,
always preaching on holiness and righteousness.
And one day, a person who had committed
horrendous atrocities came forward weeping.
And you could just see the congregation just
cringe.
And I went and talked to them.
They broke down even more and were crying
and threw themselves down in front of the
church and weeping.
Walked over there and held them.
I talked to them.
I got a call later on.
How could you even think about forgiving that
person?
We know they're a hypocrite.
We know they've done this.
We know they've done that.
How could you embrace that?
How could you do that?
And I said, if there is no hope
for that person, then I go to hell
too.
Then I go to hell too.
I have to, because if there's no mercy
for them, there's no mercy for me.
How many sins did Adam and Eve commit
before they were cast out of the presence
of God?
One, picking a fruit.
Yet my sins could not be added up
on the greatest calculator, the greatest computer.
Only in the books of God, the extent
of my sin is known.
You see, it's just a question of who
has sinned, not who has sinned more, because
once you've sinned, there's no other category.
We as a people should always proclaim truth.
We should never back down on truth.
Never.
We should always receive in mercy those who
are broken.
If not, we'll find ourselves broken and have
no one in whom we can find shelter.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive
mercy.
Now, does this mean that if we're not
merciful, God, we're going to lose our salvation?
What does this mean?
It is teaching us basically that the primary
characteristic of true conversion, true Christianity is mercy.
If I have truly experienced the salvation of
God, if I have truly experienced conversion, if
I have tasted and seen that the Lord
is good, if I have seen that he
has spilled, shed his own blood for my
soul, if my sins have been laid out
before the divine panel and I've been pardoned
in the name of Jesus Christ, then I
must forgive.
I must show mercy.
I must help.
My dear friends, there's enough destroyers in the
world.
Don't need another one.
And prophets, those of you who are prophets,
if you're not carrying a basin and a
towel and a bomb, then don't call yourself
a prophet.
Jesus was dangerous to some, harmless to others,
merciful to all who sought mercy.
Merciful to all.
Now, church, God will be faithful to
you upon that one thing you can count.
Now, let me ask you a question that
will determine your spiritual maturity.
Do you need anything else?
No.
God will be faithful to you and God
will be faithful to the man who has
left here.
God will be faithful to all his people
and he will finish a perfect work in
every one.
And on that great day, we'll stand there
and be found in him.
Let's pray.
Father, please help.
Please help your people.
Strengthen them.
Help your servant and strengthen him.
Oh, dear God, you are much bigger than
all of us.
I pray for your help.
Jesus name.
Amen.