The Beatitudes are some of the most well known verses in all of scripture. But despite this popularity, they aren't often understood or applied to God's people today. What do these blessings mean and what do they teach us about the kingdom of Christ? Ultimately these memorable verses teach us about what the genuine Christian life look likes. These verses help us to understand what it means to be truly brought to saving faith and to be a citizen in the Kingdom of God.

Well, Ron, it really is a joy to be here and you've asked me to do something that I'm so delighted to do It's the thing that I would rather do more than anything else if I'm ever speaking and that is to is to do Exposition on a passage of scripture and that's what that's one of my jobs is to work us through the Sermon on the Mount and we'll start in Matthew 5 chapter 1. So please open your Bibles to Matthew 5 and we're just going to cover tonight the Beatitudes, all of them, and the Similitudes, and what we'll see in the Sermon on the Mount is many things, but one of the things that you see over and over again is what does the authority of God look like? What does it do to you? What kind of person does it make you? So there's this beautiful picture of it and the setting of it really is very clearly laid out in verses 1 and 2.

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him then he opened his mouth and taught them saying and so here the Lord Jesus Christ is on a hillside and he's he's brought his disciples to come and To be before him he's speaking to his disciples if you can picture the moment people have just been fed thousands of people have just been fed and and now his disciples are being brought to him. And he opens his mouth and he begins to teach his disciples and we don't know who all heard this, maybe multitudes heard, but for sure, this was directed to his disciples. It's a message to his sons. And in this sermon that's documented here, you find a shepherd speaking to his sheep. He opens his mouth and he speaks to his sheep.

And this is the way that sons and daughters have always made their way in the world. That is by the word of God. When the Lord opens his mouth, then they have been spoken to by a shepherd. And what you find here is a picture of the shepherd of Israel, and he has his disciples there with him, and he's explaining to them what his kingdom is all about. So with that, let's pray, and then we'll move into this text.

Oh Lord. We thank you for the beauty of your word We thank you for your son for his goodness for his mercy For his power and for the way that he speaks to his children. Oh Lord we thank you for these words here and I pray that you would come and open up our eyes that we might see the beauty of your kingdom. Oh Lord, show it to us as we're together walking through these great words that you have given to us for our own nourishment. Oh Lord, we pray for your help.

Amen. So we come to this passage of Scripture and I'd like to read it. We're gonna read Matthew 5, one through 16. This is the section that we'll be dealing with tonight. And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain.

And when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." So this passage of scripture is very precious to me for many reasons. You know, it's a passage of scripture that when we have interns in, we have them memorize the whole Sermon on the Mount. It's such a help to them. When I was preaching through this last several years ago in our church, over a dozen people were converted while We were on the Sermon on the Mount. People who'd been in our church, thought they were Christians, recognized they weren't.

Recognized that the Lord Jesus Christ was describing them. And they repented. And they entered the kingdom of heaven. And since that time we've seen such fruit from their lives, and they've known the delights of the Lord that they never knew before. They knew a religion, they knew a way, but they didn't know the Lord of the way.

So this is a very precious text for me to read. The background really, to understand what's happening here, you've got to go back to chapter 4 verse 16. But go ahead and look back there. You'll see the background of this passage. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.

From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The whole background to what the Lord Jesus Christ is communicating here is a movement of repentance that was taking place right before his eyes and and the theme the theme of this is that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Everything that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of here in the Sermon on the Mount is really a description of his kingdom. And He's establishing a new community. He is explaining to his disciples what it means to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

He's showing what the authority of the king looks like. He's showing what happens inside the heart of the sons and the daughters of the kingdom. And what the Lord Jesus Christ is declaring is that their religious kingdom that they had been existing in had become corrupt. And there was no life and there was no power. There was really no joy in it.

And so the call is to repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand because the kingdom of heaven is so different when you compare it to the kingdom of man. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking about that kingdom and he's really declaring who belongs to that kingdom and you can see it all through the Sermon on the Mount where he is explaining what it means to be a member of that kingdom. And as you read this, you should always be asking, am I a member of this kingdom? Because He is speaking to sons and daughters of a kingdom. For example, in verse 3, he says, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In verse 10 in chapter 5, he says that for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In 519, he said that these certain people shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven those who who do not teach and obey the law of God He says that there are some who are great in the kingdom of heaven and in 520 there are some who will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven In chapter 6 verse 10 we read the words your kingdom come and in 633 we read the words seek first the kingdom of God. In in chapter 7 verse 21 We speak of those who shall enter the kingdom of heaven. So this is about what it means to belong to the kingdom of heaven. And so the question that we should ask is, am I a member of that kingdom?

And it's also a section of scripture where there's a constant call to repent of dead religion. And it's also a sermon where false teaching is being corrected in the Jewish church. And that false teaching does exist today as well. And what the Lord Jesus Christ says about the false teaching in the Jewish church can so easily be applied to our own day today. Because we have errors upon the church today and and the Lord Jesus uses this phrase you have heard that it was said but I say to you in other words your whole framework has gone wrong and the way that you're interpreting scripture is wrong and so the Lord Jesus comes and he interprets the scriptures and he he takes his disciples back to the Old Testament and he explains what these laws meant, because they had turned the laws of God into something that they were never meant to be.

And so rather than rejecting the law of God, the Lord Jesus Christ makes an exposition of the law of God, and he declares the perpetuity of the law of God. The Lord Jesus is also in this sermon calling his disciples not to trust in outward appearances but to examine their hearts. He reveals how the Old Testament scriptures really were just as much about the heart as anything that the New Testament writers ever wrote about. And you have the whole matter of the heart and the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of it. Now, there are two sections before us tonight.

And the first section spans from verses 1 through 11, and these are known as the Beatitudes. And the Beatitudes disclose who you are before God and man. He speaks of the inner life and the outer life. And the first four of the Beatitudes speak of your relationship with man. And so in this first section, in these eight qualities of those who belong to the kingdom of heaven, the first four are really like the first part of the law.

That's the law of God, the first part of the Ten Commandments, which speak of relationship with God. And the second are relationship with man, in the same way that the second half of the Ten commandments speak of your relationship with man. And what you find here is a full picture of what it means to glorify God. And then we'll also deal with the similitudes in verses 12 through 16. And there the Lord Jesus shifts from who you are before God and man to what you are before the watching world.

And he says you are both salt and you are light. So he provides these images to help us to understand what we are to be in this world. And all of it really describes what it means to be a member of God's kingdom. And so you can picture the Lord Jesus Christ. He's there on the hill.

He is their shepherd. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And he has gathered his subjects together with him and he's speaking to them about his own kingdom. He's explaining his kingdom to him. You know, there never was a more wonderful kingdom than the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

There never was a greater king than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And here the Lord Jesus Christ stands as a shepherd and as a king, king of his people. Now in the Beatitudes we find these eight characteristics of people who belong to the kingdom of heaven. You could also call them eight characteristics of a happy people, because it is a happy kingdom. It's interesting that he begins with a disclosure of his will for his people and his kingdom with the word happy.

That should strike us. And all of these beatitudes are structured in the same way. Blessed are, and then he explains this quality, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's the pattern of logic that the Lord Jesus Christ is working through here. And the word for blessed that he uses is the word macarius, and he is not speaking necessarily to a feeling of happiness, but rather to be in a happy situation that brings forth happiness.

To be in a happy place. The kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now these eight qualities that you find here that characterize every person that belongs to the family of God in his kingdom, Every one of these qualities you can find in God's people wherever you go. You can go to any country in the world. You can go to any subculture, any people group.

You can go to the rich. You can go to the poor. You can go to every part of the United States. You can observe every personality type. You can observe every person in the world, and if they belong to the King of the King of Kings, you will find these things there.

So it's a beautiful picture of the way that the kingdom of heaven operates. It really describes the clothing of Jesus Christ, how it fits and how it looks and how it presents itself when you're clothed with robes of righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so these first four focus on your relationship with God. Let's begin with the first. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

You know, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? You're poor in spirit when you realize that you are bankrupt and that you are trusting in the wealth of someone else. You're trusting in the wealth of the king of kings. This is not physical poverty. When he says, blessed are the poor, he's not talking about physical poverty at all, but poverty in respect to the Spirit.

And so the Lord Jesus here in the very first beatitude starts with the most fundamental principle of what it means to be a Christian. And that means that you enter the kingdom of heaven when you finally come to the place where you can admit that you're not all that you thought you were. And so the Gospels first work in a person's heart is to show how bankrupt they are, how unable they are to save themselves, how their righteousness is as filthy rags and it's worth nothing. This is the essence of repentance. It's a demonstration of one's own poverty.

And it explains how in the kingdom of heaven there's first of all an emptying before there can be a filling. And Lloyd-Jones, the great preacher of the 20th century, said this. He said, it means a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and of self-reliance. It is nothing, then, that we can produce. It is nothing that we can do in ourselves.

And so we enter the kingdom of heaven bankrupt. No one ever entered the kingdom of heaven without being poor in spirit. It's the opposite of pride. It's the opposite of self-righteousness. Because you cannot be happy and proud at the same time.

And the Lord Jesus begins at the very beginning of everything, and that is spiritual bankruptcy. There are many examples of this in scripture. Isaiah is one of them. When he saw the Lord, do you remember his reaction? He said, Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King we could we could speak of of the Apostle Paul and his knowledge and his his sense of his neediness when he cried out wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death.

You could see it in the Publican and the sinner in that story in Luke chapter 18, where the sinner said, be merciful to me, a sinner. These are all personalities in the Bible that disclose to us what it's like to finally come to the end of yourself and say that you are bankrupt and you have no hope at all in anything you have to save yourself. That your only hope is in Jesus Christ. And that He is the rich one. He's the one with riches immeasurable to add to your account.

Jesus spoke to Nicodemus and he said, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And so here is a picture of poverty of Spirit. And this is the first step in salvation. When God opens your eyes out of his loving kindness and his mercy and he shows you that you have nothing to offer. Nothing in my hands I bring.

Simply to thy cross I cling. And so when you know that you're poor in spirit, something happens to you. And that brings us to the next beatitude. You mourn for your sin. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." And this brings us to the fact that a true believer mourns for his sin.

His whole relationship with sin changes. He used to love his sin and celebrate his sin, but the mark of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ marks a change that has happened in his whole thinking about life. Instead of celebrating sin, instead of longing for sin, he mourns for his sin. Now it sounds wrong, doesn't it, that mourning would be some desirable quality, but that's what Jesus is saying. It's good to mourn, at least it's good to mourn in this way.

You know, the world says, forget your problems, drown your sorrows, you know, happy are you who go for all all the gusto you can get. Avoid mourning. Medicate it, entertain it out of your thinking. Do something to get away from your mourning. This is the work of the devil in the mind of a person.

But the Lord says, no, you must mourn if you ever hope to be happy because the Lord Jesus says that mourning is the beginning of happiness. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is declaring this to his disciples. There are different kinds of mourning. There's worldly mourning. It's not the same kind of mourning you get when you're thinking of carnal things, like when you lose your house.

That's perhaps a worldly mourning. There's an evil mourning, like Ahab who was sorrowful because he couldn't have Naboth's vineyard. He was so covetous and his covetousness drove him to mourning. But this is The mourning of a true believer who mourns for his sin. This is a picture of a person who, when he hears a filthy song or there's a filthy thing in a film or something in his mind or something like that.

He mourns rather than longs for more. And the question is, am I mourning? You know, maybe you've heard the story of the two pigs, the two little pigs. Well there's the Christian pig and there's the non-Christian pig. Two pigs are walking along the road and there's a filthy puddle right there and they both fall into the puddle.

Well the first pig is a worldly pig and he falls into the puddle and he just loves that puddle and he is slithering around in that slime and muck and stink and he finally gets out and he says, I hope there's another one down the road and that the Christian pig falls into that same puddle And he gets out as fast as he can. He stumbled into it and he gets out and he wants to avoid the next pigsty. That's the difference. One pig loves the stink and the slop and the other does not. The other mourns for it and moves on his way.

And this is a mark of true Christianity. And if one is not mourning for their sins, it means that they've not experienced the kingdom of heaven and they've not experienced the happiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thomas Boston spoke of gospel mourning. He says that, first of all, gospel mourning is for sin in particular. The deceitful man is occupied with generality.

Secondly, gospel mourning must be joined with a hatred of sin. Number three, gospel mourning in some cases is joined with restitution. Next, gospel mourning must be speedy mourning, and we must take heed to our repentance Next gospel morning for sin is perpetual It's different than you know hearing a sermon and then shedding a few tears but they're soon dried up and then there's no more mourning for sin. But we need to understand that if we're going to be happy, that mourning for our sin is critical. And we are comforted when we mourn.

And once someone has seen his his poverty of spirit and his bankruptcy, and then he mourns for his sin, which pictures the repentance that was necessary for for his conversion, that was brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit. And this brings us to the next length in this marvelous chain of the happiness of God. Blessed are the meek, that's in verse 5. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now meekness is not weakness This is not timidity it's not tentative retiring wimpy nests of any kind The word meek is really a power word, and it pictures a horse that has been quieted, and it's under control, and the horse is as strong as ever, but the horse has been broken.

He can still kill you with his hooves or he can crush you with his body and he can do whatever he pleases, but he has such a level of control that he chooses not to. And this is the picture of meekness. It's power under control. And it's the control of God. And it's the control that the Lord Jesus Christ pictures in Psalm 40, verse 8, where he says, I delight to do your will, oh my God.

Your law is within my heart. This is the person who has been broken, broken to such a degree that he desires the government of God, desires the control of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said, take my yoke upon you, take my yoke. You know, the yoke of the world is such a harmful and troublesome yoke, but the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ, it fits. It's a wonderful yoke, but it is a yoke.

You are under his authority, under his government, and when the Lord Jesus Christ says, blessed are the meek, he's speaking of Happy are those who desire the government of God, who desire the control of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul said, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. He's contrasting the drunkenness and the feeling of the Holy Spirit to illustrate the aspect of control. That it's the Holy Spirit that brings the control that you need and that you desire. And there's meekness in two directions.

Meekness toward God, looking toward the control of God. The humble and the submissive spirit that says, Lord, whatever you want to do with me, do it to me. Take my life. Do with me whatever you will. I am your servant.

This is this is meekness It's the eye. It's the opposite of of Self-government and there's also meekness toward man. It's the virtue that makes men able to live in society without being angrily divisive and and and full of fighting all the time, but seeks reconciliation and peace. But the control of God brings so much happiness. Meekness toward man may include bearing of injuries and forgiving.

The Lord Jesus Christ was meek. In fact, he said, take my yoke upon you for I am meek and lowly in heart. Moses was meek. He was the meekest man, but the promises here They shall inherit the earth in other words God rewards meekness with favor And those without the Spirit of God have no inheritance. They have no inheritance They're not sons.

They will inherit hell But but the meek will inherit the earth in other words, even though they've given up everything They have all that they need This is the miracle and the beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven. When you lose your life, for His sake, you'll find it. When you're meek and you learn to hate your own government, then you inherit the earth. The most surprising thing happens to you in the kingdom of heaven. And then next, the fourth quality of the member of the body of Christ is in verse 6.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now notice there's a turn in the emphasis in verse 6 to the positive. When you are poor in spirit, when you are mourning for sin, when you are meek and you're seeking the power of the Holy Spirit, not your own power, then something happens to you. There's a positive force that ends up getting released in your life. And that is, there's a hunger and there's a thirst.

Something happens positively in your soul. You begin to want to establish the kingdom of heaven in your heart and you hunger and you thirst for it. You long to be holy. And the imagery is really remarkable because it really is the imagery of a driving force And the Lord Jesus Christ takes these two very powerful forces, hunger and thirst. And we face these every single day, hunger and thirst.

And he's trying to help us understand his kingdom. But once a person has been born again and the Holy Spirit has filled him, he has a hunger for God. And you cannot hunger until you have seen your poverty and mourn for your sin and tempered by the Holy Spirit. And then you feel the emptiness that you cannot feel and so God gives you a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. By the way, here's what it's not.

It's not primarily a hunger for morality, but it does include God's moral law. It is a hunger for God. It's not, first of all, the hunger for getting your act together because you did something stupid. It's actually a spiritual, Holy Spirit-induced hunger for God. Not to put on a show, but to have something real on the inside.

A real hunger that's yours. A real thirst. It's not put on. It's not so that you would appear to be somebody, but that you would long to have someone ruling in your heart. And that one brings the righteousness of God.

It's like the hunger of Jesus Christ himself when he said, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. So something happens to that person. They first of all they hunger and thirst for righteousness but what else happens? They're filled. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.

And that great chasm of emptiness is filled. With what? With the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then fifthly, now we turn to what you are before God, I mean what you are before man. Verse seven, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Now he's speaking about your relationships with mankind.

And with the power of the kingdom of heaven operating, then you have a changed heart for people. Your conversion changes your dispositions towards people. It modifies your responses. It makes a person an agent of mercy. This is why it's been my observation my whole life long.

The primary feature that emerges in the life of an unbeliever when they become a Christian is that they're actually just a lot nicer. There's more love in their heart because they've received mercy, then they have mercy. Well it is true that some who are converted become so bold about their newfound faith and they offend everybody. Sometimes, sometimes that is an evidence of a false conversion. Because those who have received mercy, they give mercy.

And this is why the Lord Jesus Christ says, Blessed are the merciful, happy are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." And mercy is a disposition of the heart that takes into account the sufferings and the miseries and the hardships of others And it's a heart of compassion. It's a mark of the new man. The Lord Jesus Christ was moved with compassion many times in his ministry, and this is how it's displayed. It's a part of wisdom as well. James chapter three verse 17 says, But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." And he goes on to say that mercy triumphs over judgment.

Imagine a marriage without any mercy. It's an unhappy marriage. Imagine a workplace without any mercy. Imagine a church without any mercy. You have a church without any mercy and you have a pinched, truncated, twisted kind of organization that doesn't reflect the kingdom of heaven.

But God says that he desires mercy over sacrifice. And mercy is weighty. It's weightier than ceremonies. And he delights in mercy. But mercy also needs to be carefully defined.

Can you be merciful and still use the rod with your children? Yes. Can you be merciful and even penalize an employee for poor work? Yes. Can you be merciful but still engage in church discipline or even excommunication?

Yes. These are all expressions of mercy. Apathy is not mercy. Loving peace more than you love mercy is not mercy. Mercy may include exhortation.

This is why the Lord Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees, you brood of vipers. That was the most merciful thing He could have said to them and then number seven blessed are the peacemakers Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God What is a peacemaker? This is a person who has it in his heart to make peace. It is an activity. It is something that he does.

Peace is broken and someone does something. He becomes a peacemaker. He may pray for peace, he may speak peace, he may draw people together to make peace, and he's involved in this work of bringing people to reconciliation. But a true peacemaker makes peace God's way. He's not speaking of peace at any price.

Peace at any price is not what Jesus is speaking of. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I did not become to come to bring peace but a sword. And so the focus is peace with God. Peacemakers bring the Word of God. And sometimes the Word of God causes division.

And it breaks up the peace in a way. But it does not break up the peace of God. It breaks up the peace of man, but often the peace of God is divisive and it causes a divide. It even divides families and it can divide churches. But we must always make sure that when there is a divide, that it has been made by God and God alone, and not because of our angry disposition or our divisive spirit, because it can be that way as well.

Number eight, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Verse 11, blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Here he's speaking of the happy church that's also a persecuted church. And I think what we recognize here from the Lord Jesus is that a true church is a persecuted church.

The devil is always at war against the saints and he always raises up slander and derision and misrepresentation and hatred toward those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And men who desire to live a righteous life, they will be persecuted. This is a promise of Scripture. If you follow God by obeying his word, then it makes you strange in the world. And the strange people are not praised.

They are persecuted. And the Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledging that. I think it was Soren Kierkegaard who said, the problem with Christians today is that nobody wants to kill them anymore. And that's because Christians don't really stand on the truth of the word of God anymore. Today we're seeing that like never before.

Major denominations completely abandoning the very clear teaching of Scripture on the whole matter of gender. And you have the state now who's persecuting companies and will probably be persecuting churches over this matter of gender. And you who are shepherds who preach the word of God, many of you will most likely be visited in prison by your wives and your fellow church members if you preach the Word of God. Because right now the state is persecuting the church over matters of gender. Pray that it doesn't escalate, but if it does, the Word of God will be exalted in the land.

And there will be happier Christians in the land. The church is never happier than when it's persecuted, because it is it's then that they know who their Redeemer is and that he lives. But the secret of happiness in a church is its persecution. And God desires to use persecution for the happiness of his people. He cares so much about happiness that he would bring persecution to you so that you would be more blessed.

That it would wean you from your worldly affections and your desires. It would tell you that this world is not your home and you would be so much happier the more you understand that this world is not your home and that this world is not your portion. There are no happier people in the world who've given up on the idea than that this world is their portion. The most miserable of the world are still trying to make their way in the world to have a portion in this world. And Jesus is so kind and so gracious toward his church that he would he would persecute them even so that he would make them happy.

He says for that this is a sign of membership in the kingdom of heaven. He says, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and there is reviling and persecuting and saying all kinds of evil falsely. And the response should be rejoice and be exceedingly glad. And that we should not be surprised if the world hates us and hates the laws of the kingdom of heaven. We'll get to those laws tomorrow.

And then the Lord Jesus Christ shifts from who you are to what you are. He turns from the Beatitudes to the Similitudes and he speaks of what we are. Verse 13, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and to be trampled underfoot by men." And so the Lord Jesus Christ says that if you if you mourn for your sin, and you love the government of God then you will be persecuted but you will be the salt of the earth And notice that he speaks in the plural. You – you plural – are the salt of the earth.

You collectively as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking of God's family in the world and the way that they operate together, the way that all the gifts of the ministry of the Holy Spirit work together, the way that all the personalities and the way that all the various true churches in the world are in the world. They are salt. This is the cumulative ministry of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world. God has left His Church in the world for a reason, to be salt in that world.

And this is the body of Christ that is in view here. And so the question we should always be asking as a church is, are we acting like salt? And as salt is divided into grains, each grain of salt should ask itself that same question. Am I acting like salt in the world that I have been put in. So you have all of the salt being put together, becoming this plural body of Jesus Christ.

Now salt is used for many things in the Bible. It's used as a picture of eternity. It's used as a covenant that would not pass away. It's used for purification. It's used for seasoning.

It's also used for cursing. Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt. And in Judges chapter 9 verse 45 the Abimelech sowed the city with salt in order to destroy it. So it's also used as as cursing. But salt is useful to God in the world.

It's a preservative, primarily. Do you know that God uses his church to preserve the world? This is what it was like in Sodom. You know, if there were only a few more righteous in Sodom, God would have saved Sodom. And you look through the Bible, God rescues nations because of a remnant.

He does it over and over again. He holds back his judgment because there's a remnant in the world. God has not destroyed the world, I'm confident, because of the Church of Jesus Christ. You know, the world would be spinning off and out of its access into destruction if the Church of Jesus Christ was not in the world. Because Jesus Christ, He holds back His judgment because of His church.

The unbelievers don't understand this. While they hate and slander the church, they don't know that the actual presence of the church is what is holding back the wrath of God on the world. And his forbearance and his loving kindness is being extended to the world because there is a true church in the world. There is salt in the world. But the Salt can become good for nothing and to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

And then he changes from salt to light. He says, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." He says, You are the light of the world. Now, doesn't that sound ridiculous, audacious, and outrageous that actually the Church is the light of the world?

You know, the Church seems to be in such trouble today. There seems to be apostasy everywhere. There seems to be weakness everywhere. Yet the Lord Jesus Christ says that the Church is the light of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ often has a different opinion of the Church than we do.

He knows the true church and the light is shining in the darkness as the Lord Jesus Christ said and the darkness cannot overcome it. John 1 5 says this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all." What this means is that the light that the church has is the light of God himself. It's a reflected light. Our light only shines bright and right when it's the light of the Father. And the light shines in the hearts first.

2 Corinthians 4 says, For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And then the Lord Jesus gives several images right in a row. The image of a hill, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. And a basket, that you don't light a lamp and then put it under a basket. But then he gives the image of a lampstand, you put it on a lampstand, And it gives light to all who are in a house.

All of these images the Lord Jesus Christ is using to explain what light does. And then he says that it causes good works to be seen. He says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven. That is the result. That the light has come into the world.

And there are people who they began to hate the darkness. And they began to love the light, and they mourned for their sins. And they desired the government of God, and they became lights to the world. And so the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of what you are in the world. He first speaks of who you are in these first eight beatitudes and then what you are in the world.

And it really, it shows what a wonderful kingdom it is. It shows how it's a kingdom where people change. And they change for the better. And they change for real. They change from the inside out.

You know, Christianity always begins inside and works out. Paganism and legalism always starts on the outside and works in. But unfortunately it never gets to the inside. This wonderful kingdom, this wonderful kingdom where there's poverty of spirit, where people say I'm bankrupt and I'm trusting in one who's infinitely wealthy. This Kingdom where they mourn for their sin.

This Kingdom when they are meek and they desire the government of God. This Kingdom where they hunger and thirst for righteousness and the whole structure of their affections have changed and they want something better and more beautiful and different. This kingdom of the merciful people whose hearts have been changed and now they have mercy. This kingdom where there's purity of heart. This kingdom of peacemakers.

This kingdom of the persecuted. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of what his kingdom looks like. And there He is, the shepherd, the shepherd king, speaking to his disciples so tenderly and explaining to them the secrets of His kingdom. And He begins at the beginning of the kingdom of God and that is with the one who is bankrupt, the one who mourns for sin, the one who is repented. In keeping with everything that Jesus Christ has been saying in the Gospel here, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

There never was a better Kingdom. There never was a better Shepherd. There never was a better Law. There never was a better happiness than the happiness that comes from entering into the kingdom of heaven. And so here in this first deposit of what the authority of God looks like, I commend you to God and the word of His grace, which creates in the human heart so polluted, so damaged, so harmed, so vile, it creates a new purity that keeps on growing and growing and growing unto everlasting life, where there are everlasting mercies in the everlasting kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I bring to you that kingdom tonight. Do you love that kingdom? Do you want that kingdom? If you do, then these words have been a blessing to your heart. But if not, perhaps they've caused consternation.

And if you've not entered the kingdom of heaven, I'd love to talk to you about it. I'll be here all evening. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we love your kingdom. We love your lovingkindnesses.

Oh what a shepherd. Oh what a Savior you are. To reach down and save sinners and change their hearts and make them new and make them happy. Amen.