In the sermon 'Blessed by God, Despised by the Ungodly' by Jason Dohm, the text of Matthew 5:7-12 is examined, particularly the Beatitudes, which highlight the counterintuitive nature of the Christian life—a kingdom that is 'upside-down' compared to worldly values. The sermon emphasizes that the Beatitudes focus on character rather than conduct, underscoring that Christianity is about a transformation at the core of one's being. Each Beatitude is explained as a reflection of what a Christian is, not what they do, and is linked to other Scriptures to deepen understanding. The importance of being 'poor in spirit' as the entry point to the Kingdom of God is stressed, with each Beatitude building upon the previous one, leading to a composite view of the Christian character. The sermon also discusses the difference between genuine and counterfeit expressions of these qualities, and warns against expecting the unregenerate to exhibit Christian virtues without a heart transformation by God. The preacher emphasizes that persecution is inevitable for those who live godly lives, but it must be for righteousness' sake, not due to other causes. The sermon concludes by urging believers to examine their hearts through the lens of the Beatitudes and to seek a deeper maturity and reflection of Christ's character.

Our text today is Matthew 5 from 7 to 12. To help with the context, I'll be starting in verse 1. 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." Father God, we pray that you would open our hearts to receive your Word, your teaching. We ask you to speak clearly through Jason.

And we invite your Holy Spirit to work mightily in this place. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. Does the sound okay? All right.

So the title of the sermon last week was the upside down kingdom of Jesus Christ. And in the Beatitudes, we're just faced with the fact that Everything that Jesus is advocating for is completely against the grain of what the world is telling us. And so the world of Jesus Christ really is a kingdom that is turned upside down. If you want to be appreciated by the world, you cannot be a Christian is the central argument that is being made here. So we have an upside down kingdom that those who trust in Christ have been called into.

We're in the middle of our eight Beatitudes. And last week we bit off the first four, which were Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. So we covered each one of those in detail last week. And with each one, there was another pocket of Scripture which really helps us to understand what's at the heart of each one of those. With Blessed are the poor in spirit, We had Luke 18 which talks about the Pharisee and the tax collector.

And the tax collector was a man who was actually poor in spirit. The Pharisee was there. He was congratulating himself on not being like other men. And the tax collector is there. He won't even raise his eyes to heaven, but with his eyes on his feet, he says, God have mercy upon me a sinner.

This is the essence of what it's like to be foreign spirit. For, blessed are those who mourn, we had Luke 19, which has Jesus weeping over Jerusalem because they did not know the day of their visitation. So the heart, the essence of someone who mourns is someone who sees the devastation of sin in this world. His own sin and the sin of those around him. And it causes him not just to be disgusted, but also to weep, because people are missing the day of their visitation and how God would long that people would repent and be saved.

For blessed are the meek, we had the words of Peter in 1 Peter 2 that says, when Jesus was reviled, He didn't revile in return. But instead of reviling in return, He committed Himself to God. And that is the essence of the meek. The meek is not set in contrast to being mighty as if some people are meek and some people are mighty. Many mighty people are actually very meek.

It has everything to do with the heart that doesn't revile in return when we are reviled, and that commits himself or herself to God at knowing that God is a righteous judge. And so the meek person is done with themself. And they're not concerned with themselves. They're not defending the turf of self so that they're offended whenever they're reviled, but they're done with self and they're entrusting themselves to God. And then with those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, we see in Philippians 3 that Paul looked at all the body of the things that he used to value and appreciate and he says, those things are rubbish.

Those things are rubbish. So that he might gain Christ. And then He concedes in Philippians 3 that He hasn't been perfected, but He says, I'm reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press on to lay hold of those things for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me. And that is the essence of hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

One is to look back and say, all those things I used to love, all those things are rubbish. They're dung. I'd rather have Christ. And then an acknowledgement that I'm not perfected, but forgetting the things that are behind, I press forward. So that was the essence of what was talked about last week.

We just have to keep reminding ourselves that fundamentally the Beatitudes are about what a Christian is, not what a Christian does. It is about character and not about conduct. This is so important because as we deconstruct the Sermon on the Mount, we always need to come back to this, that Jesus started here. Jesus starts with the character of the Christian. He does not start with the conduct of the Christian.

And there's no sense expecting these things of the unregenerate. This is nonsense. And so while we might desire to see ungodly people act in godly ways, this is not a reasonable expectation. A work of God must be done in the heart of man before we can even start talking and addressing conduct. And this helps us to understand where we should start in our conversations with the regenerate as well.

Their big problem isn't that they're living with their girlfriend. That's not their big problem. Their big problem is they have a heart that is at war with God. And it works its way out in these things that we find so unsettling, but It's not the heart of the problem. It's just the symptom of the problem.

D. Martin Lloyd-Jones says this, a Christian is something before he does anything. And we have to be Christian before we can act as Christians. So as we go through the Sermon on the mount, we're going to continually come back to this point. A Christian is something before he does anything.

Christianity is not a veneer that we staple on the outside. It's not something that just is erected on the surface, but actually it's something that's done at the very core of a man or a woman or a child, and it works its way out in these things. So another thing that we're seeing about the Beatitudes is that each one of them has a counterfeit. There is a faker alternative to each one of these things that looks sort of like it on the outside. And somebody can staple up a veneer and say, I'm a Christian, and have some semblance of these things, but it's not true.

It's not real. It's not a sign of being regenerate when that's happened. In the Beatitudes we have a composite view of the Christian. In other words, it's not an all out cart menu where we take a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but this is what a Christian is. That is the argument that Jesus is making here.

And since Jesus is God, we'll accept his argument. This is what a Christian is. So while not each one of these character qualities might be in full bloom in every one of us, Every one of us who has actually been regenerate has the seed of this and it ought to be growing. And we ought to be seeing increase of this in each one of our hearts. This is the nature of the Christian.

When we talk about new birth, about being born Again, this is what's being said. Christians used to be one thing, and it's not very flattering what we all once were, but they have become something entirely different and this is the thing that's entirely different. And that's why we say that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is an upside down kingdom, or maybe it's the only right side up kingdom. In any event, it's completely contrary to what we see in the rest of the world. I hope you're being tested by the Beatitudes.

I hope we're not skimming over the surface of these, But I hope we're feeling the weight of these things pressed on us, because it really has to do with our state and our maturity. Are we really Christians? The Beatitudes should be causing us to ask ourselves that. Are At least the seeds of this, at least in a small degree, is this what we are in our inner man or aren't we? And if we successfully pass that test under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, then we ought to ask ourselves in what degree do we have these things?

Are we mature or are we still babes? Finally, we saw how important it is to not view these as haphazard or random. They are being given in an order and the order matters. And it matters that poor in spirit was the first beatitude. Because this is the entry point into the Kingdom of God.

That there's a recognition that we are nothing and that God is everything. And that we are vile before Him and we need to be redeemed. This is the beginning point for every Christian. And so these things build on each other. When that is established in a person, they begin to mourn over their sin.

When they begin to mourn over their sin, then they deal with the issue of self, and they become meek, etc. So these things are very interrelated and they're not haphazard and they're very progressive. Jesus has building blocks and he's building up. This week we'll finish off the Beatitudes. We'll tackle the final four.

And then next week we'll be in Matthew 5, 13-20 where we talk about how Christians are salt and light and we'll talk about how the coming of Jesus, how the fulfillment through the coming of the Messiah relates to the law and the prophets which should be a fascinating study next week. So write to the text. Verse 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the merciful.

Made happy by God are the merciful. And it's because they shall obtain mercy. As with last week, There is a counterfeit version to mercy that is out there in abundance. And it's this, it's the easy going person who is willing to let everyone off the hook for everything, that wants no part of confrontation for sin, that wants no accountability to any sort of a standard, but they're willing to let everything pass by so that there are no ripples in the water. And for each one of these qualities, we have to keep coming back and say, The version of this quality that isn't counterfeit is the Jesus version of it.

It is the version of it that we see in God. Though there may be counterfeits, when we look at how Jesus exemplifies it, we'll be able to sort the counterfeit from the real. And so the version that simply doesn't care about the breaking of the law or of the consequences on others that come whenever we break the law is unthinkable in this. That is not the Jesus version of mercy, of being merciful at all. We also should think about how this beatitude fits with the other beatitudes because again, they're not haphazard.

So When we are poor in spirit and we acknowledge what we really are before God. When we mourn over our sin. When we are made meek. We are given meekness in our inner man by God. Not only does this fundamentally change our view about ourselves, but it instantly completely transforms our view about all of our neighbors, all of our co-workers, all of our enemies.

And when we get off of our high horse and see ourselves rightly, the view of our neighbor changes where we might have been on our high horse with our neighbor thinking that we were so superior to our neighbor and so there was no room for mercy in our heart. Now because we've seen and been given much by God that we begin to see not only ourselves through this filter, but our neighbor through this filter as well. With this one I want to take us to a passage that actually talks more about the antithesis, the opposite of mercy, because we're going to go to a passage in Matthew 18, so you can start turning there now. But in Matthew 18, we're given the parable of the unforgiving servant. And in this parable, we're given the absurdity of the notion that someone who is poor in spirit, who mourns over their sin, who has been made meek, could be unmerciful to another.

So if you'll turn to Matthew 18, we'll be starting in verse 23. Matthew 18, beginning in 23 and reading through the end of the chapter. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10, 000 talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.

The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master, have patience with me and I will pay you all. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay me what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him saying, have patience with me and I will pay you all.

And he would not, but he went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servant saw what had been done, they were very grieved and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave All that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you, and his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses." One of the things that we see in this parable is that there is a fundamental difference between this servant and the person who has the character of the Beatitudes.

This servant says, have patience with me and I will pay you all." Now the context of this, what this is being applied to, is the forgiveness of sins. I will pay you all. What man can say to God, I will pay you all. Be patient with me God. I'll pay all for my sins.

Just give me more time." This servant in the parable is fundamentally different from the man that has the character of the Beatitudes established in his heart. Because the man who has the character of the Beatitudes established in his heart says, God, I am nothing. I am poor. I am blind. I am wretched.

I am naked. And then God says, I counsel you to come. Buy without money. And so there's a fundamental disconnect between the servant in the parable and the man or the woman who has the character qualities of the Beatitudes in his heart. The servant here has no interest in his master.

He has interest in being forgiven the debt. He does not have the heart of the master. He does not have his master's heart. He just is interested in being out of trouble. The unforgiving servant isn't made by the circumstances of the parable.

That is fundamental to understanding this. He isn't made by these circumstances, he's just revealed by it. What he has always been in the inner man, he's no different on the first day of this parable than he is on the last. And yet time and circumstances have come and caused what was always in his heart to bubble up and infest itself on the surface. And so he was always unforgiving in his heart.

Even when his master forgave him, he didn't understand the forgiveness of his master and therefore he wasn't willing to apply the same mercy that he received to his fellow servant. D. Martin Lloyd Jones says this, If that unrighteous, cruel servant would not forgive the servant who was under him. He was a man who had never understood forgiveness or his relationship to his master. We proclaim therefore whether we have received forgiveness by whether or not we forgive.

If I am forgiven, I shall forgive. If I am not merciful, there is only one explanation. I have never understood the grace and the mercy of God. I am outside of Christ. I am yet in my sins and I am unforgiven." It's easy to get the cause and effect reversed here.

So that we begin to overthrow salvation by grace alone through faith. And we say, I'm now earning forgiveness by being merciful to my brother. But the argument that is being made here is exactly the opposite. That the mercy of God is actually the source and fountainhead and reservoir of the mercy that we are to give to our brother. It's not that we're earning the mercy of God by being merciful to another.

It's that we have an understanding of the mercy that has been applied to us and it makes us so free with our mercy. The believer who has this in maturity in Their life is so free with mercy. They're so hard to offend because they know the mercy that has been given to them. And so they're free with it. They're free to give it because they know that they have received it.

There's a second passage that tells us now that we've looked at what mercy doesn't look like, there's a second passage where Jesus explains with great clarity what mercy does look like. And that is in Luke 10 verses 30 through 37. We won't go there, but you're all familiar, it's the parable of the Good Samaritan. And a man is going from Jericho to Jerusalem. He is set upon by robbers who beat him and strip him and leave him for dead.

And two men come along the road. The first is a priest, the second is a Levite. They see him, they see his condition, but they just pass by on the other side. We don't know their motives, but we've passed by many times ourselves, so we probably can guess what their motive might have been. But in any event, they see his condition and they pass by on another side.

And then comes a Samaritan, a man who was born an enemy to the man who was lying by the side of the road and has been beaten and left to die. And the text says, when he saw him, he had compassion. And he actually binds him up and he takes him to an inn and he pays for all his care and he tells the innkeeper if it ends up costing more I'll be back to pay more. And this is the nature of mercy. And then this text ends with this.

Jesus saying to the expert in the law, So which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And he said, he who showed mercy on him." This is the nature of mercy. When we think about mercy and what it means to be merciful, what it means to have this character of mercy established in our hearts. Our minds should go to the parable of the Good Samaritan who came upon this man who had already been passed up multiple times by people who should have helped, had every reason to help, had all the teachings that would say they should help, who talked about helping, who had an appreciation for helping but still passed by on the other side. And he actually, instead of talking about helping, actually helps because he sees Him and he has compassion on Him.

So I want you to notice when we say, what is the scope of mercy? How broad the scope of mercy is. This is not mercy on people who were naturally inclined to love. This is not people who were naturally inclined to appreciate or to be like. But this is a Samaritan who has been despised all his life by Jews, coming upon a Jew who is in need of help, and instead of saying, now I have the upper hand, and passing by, he helps.

This is the nature of mercy. Jesus will say before we get to the end of Matthew, in Matthew 9 we'll see it, in Matthew 12 we'll see it, Jesus will say, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Isn't that a curious statement? Why would Jesus say that He doesn't desire sacrifice? And it's because he is the sacrifice.

What is a sacrifice to God? What were all those 2, 000 years of sacrifices of bulls and goats and sheep and turtle doves and all sorts of things dying, not one of them actually paid the penalty for sin. The blood of bulls and goats could never pay the penalty for sin. They were all symbolic. Every animal that ever died under the old system was all symbolic.

All only pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ who was the sacrifice. So when God says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, it's because sacrifice is His business. And mercy is our business. Our sacrifice is not really a sacrifice, it's just symbolic of what Jesus Christ would come to do. Mercy is our business and sacrifice is God's business.

And of course, mercy is His business too. The work of the cross is the centerpiece of all mercy. And now, having received the work of the cross, will we defraud our brothers and sisters of mercy? Will we hold things in our hearts against our brothers and sisters after the sacrifice has been made and Jesus has accomplished the atoning work for our sins on the cross. Will we now defraud our brothers and sisters out of the mercy that is due to them?

In what way are the merciful blessed? They obtain mercy. They obtain it themselves. Here's what we find. That the mercy of God is both the source and the result of this beatitude.

In other words, we're merciful not just because, but because we've received mercy. The mercy of God is the source of our being merciful. And it's also the result. When we are merciful, we receive the mercy of God. Everyone is familiar with the term vicious cycle.

You know what a vicious cycle is, don't you? It's just a downward spiral where one thing triggers another thing and triggers another thing and it's just getting worse all the time. This is actually a virtuous cycle and they're hard to find. But this is a virtuous cycle that God would pour out mercy upon a people and they would understand that they've been given mercy, that they've been forgiven much so that they would love much and they'd be free with their mercy. This is a virtuous cycle that the mercy of God is both the source and the result of this beatitude.

Verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The pure in heart made happy by God. And the top again hand is the condition of the heart. Not the head, but the heart.

Christianity is not at its core about doctrine, about intellectual assent to a certain number of propositions. Although that is part of Christianity, is not the core of Christianity. Doctrine is not the core of Christianity. But the condition of the heart is the core of Christianity. Not the external things, not the things that All of us can observe about you and you all can observe about me.

That's not at the core of Christianity. It's related of course, but it's not at the core. The heart is at the core. And we'll see as we proceed through the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is going to begin an exposition of the law, and He's going to throw out all that intellectual stuff, He's going to move right past that external stuff, and He's going straight to the heart, because it is at the core of our faith. Not our brains, what we know, and how intellectually capable we are, and not all those things that we build up on the externals so that we can feel good about ourselves and won't be frowned upon by our neighbors, but the actual condition of our hearts.

The topic at hand is the condition of the heart. 1 Samuel 16, 2nd half of verse 7. For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. We love the other stuff. We love the intellect.

We love parsing doctrinal subtleties. And we are prone to have thick heads and skinny hearts. This is what we're prone to. We're prone to have fat heads but skinny hearts. And God wants us to have fat hearts.

He wants us to be large hearted. And These other things are the counterfeits to this beatitude. So what does it mean to be pure in heart? What does that mean? Is it imputed righteousness or is it personal holiness?

Is it the work that Jesus Christ has done for us on our behalf that allows us to be cleansed? Or is it our actually striving to lay hold of those things which are ahead? Our doing whatever it is in our power to do to be set aside for God's purposes. Is it this or that? And the answer is yes.

It's this and that. Because the teaching of the Bible is that these things are separate, but they are not separated. In other words, they are distinct concepts. Personal holiness is different than imputed righteousness. But the Bible always joins them together and has them side by side.

They are distinct, but they are not separated. Separate but not separated. And when they are genuine, when either imputed righteousness or personal holiness is genuine, you find them together. You never find a genuine instance of one or the other off separated as if it could exist apart from the other. And this is why James takes up a lot of space talking about how faith isn't dead.

It's alive and producing things. And there's a genuine faith, an alive faith. There are two senses to the purity of being pure in heart. There are two senses of this. Cleansed and unmixed.

Both of these are part of being pure in heart. Cleansed, Psalm 51, 10. David says, create in me a clean heart, O God. And the sense of this is that there's nothing to be done on our part. It must be the work of God that He would cleanse what is impure.

That all the impurities would be washed away completely by the work of God with us bringing nothing to the table. Create in me a pure heart, O God." The things that the Bible actually says about our heart in its natural state are very unflattering, isn't it? Matthew 15 verse 19, For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, Jeremiah 17.9. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

Congratulations on the state of your natural heart. Isn't this just a wonderful thing? And we walk into the bookstore and see what's written about the heart, the desires of my heart, and all these things that are completely unbiblical hogwash. Out of your natural heart spring all manner of defilements. So When we think about purity of heart, we cannot think about our heart in its natural state.

But a heart that God creates, created me a clean heart, O God. Secondly, it's unmixed. It's unmixed. We think about pure gold. It is cleansed of all impurities, but it's also not alloyed with other metals.

I don't know if there is such a thing as a gold-platinum mix or something like that, But even though platinum is actually more costly than gold, if you're looking for pure gold, you wouldn't be looking for that kind of an alloy. Because pure gold means gold that's not mixed. And A pure heart is an undivided heart, a heart that's not mixed. This goes to the first and great commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with what?

With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. It's an undivided heart. It's a heart set upon God, consumed by God, and so that there is not room in this heart. All this heart is given to God and there's not room for these other things that we'd like to join to it. No.

The Bible will have none of that. A pure heart is an undivided heart. It's an unmixed heart. And we just have to say in this category, aren't we utterly incapable of this as well? We think such happy thoughts about the first commandment.

The great commandment, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And we're thinking happy thoughts, yes, that's beautiful, that's beautiful. That's not beautiful. That is crushing. How are you, brothers and sisters, against that standard?

Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind? Is there anyone here who would represent that they're doing that? And how many times do we read over the top of that and say, oh, this is beautiful. This is not beautiful. The weight of it is crushing and should cause us to run to the cross for mercy.

All our hearts, are you kidding me? How many other affections do we have that we're mixing in? God desires that we would be undivided in our affections. So this is not something that's in contrast to poor in spirit. On this hand we have poor in spirit.

On the other hand we have pure in heart. You can be this, but not this. You can be that, but not this. No. These things, they go right together.

Being pure in heart is not different than being poor in spirit and mourning over your sin at all. In fact, one flows from the other. Purity of heart actually flows from a recognition of what's really in there, what's really in that heart of yours. Because it causes us to deal with sin and to run to Christ for cleansing. And so that all those other things that we're mixing with, all those rivals are dealt with under the mighty hand of God.

In what way are the pure and heart blessed? They shall see God. And as with many of the other beatitudes and the blessings that are pronounced, there is a present sense of this and there is a future sense of this. And it's all summed up very beautifully in 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, verses, the first part of verse 12. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now we see in a mirror dimly. There is a sense in which we see God today by the eyes of faith. Hebrews 11 talks about Moses and it says, As though seeing God. So Moses looking through the eyes of faith saw God. And this is what's being said in 1 Corinthians 13.

We see today In a mirror dimly, but we see today God. We see Him, but it's reflected. The lighting is not very good. And a day is coming where we'll actually just be face to face. No mirror, great lighting.

And we'll see Him. The pure in heart, we'll see Him. The Bible says without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Without holiness, we will not see the Lord. So this is not for super Christians, this is for what?

For Christians. Basic old Christians. Regular old Christians. Not super Christians. Without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Verse 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Made happy by God are the peacemakers. To Ephesians 2. Turning your Bibles to Ephesians 2.

I think we're ahead of schedule. I was looking at my watch and I was just shocked. The train's ahead of schedule. That's alright. Probably end off schedule anyway.

Ephesians 2, starting in 14 and reading through 17. And in Ephesians 2, 14-17, what Paul is doing is he's talking about the new relationship between Jew and Gentile. There's always been a relationship up to that point in time between Jew and Gentile where they're very separate. And Paul is addressing what the new relationship under the new covenant between Jew and Gentile is. Ephesians 2 verse 14.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. And that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near." In this text we have both the definition and the nature of peace. The definition is made both one. You had two, they were at odds with each other.

The Old Testament ordinances actually created distinctions on purpose so that the people of God would be known as peculiar. They'd be different. They wouldn't eat pork. Everybody else eats pork, they wouldn't eat pork. Everybody else is one way and their males would be circumcised.

Everybody else is doing one thing but the people of God are doing sacrifices and they're going up to Jerusalem three times a year. So you have all these ordinances. And actually one of the main purposes of the ordinances is just to make the people of God different. And so this is what's being said as the barrier, the wall of separation that is broken down. And God is making both one.

This is no ceasefire between Jews and Gentiles. This is not just simply a ceasing of hostilities. This is actually taking two things and making them not just not at war with each other, but making them one. He made both one. This is the peacemaking that's described in Ephesians 2.

And the nature of the peace is given right off the bat. He Himself is our peace. Jesus Christ Himself is our peace. So away with these false prophets who heal lightly and say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Jeremiah talked about that.

God has no interest in the unregenerate letting bygones be bygones. Did you know that? That's not what God's interested in. That Two unregenerate parties with God nowhere in the pictures making nice and letting bygones be bygones. And so the counterfeit peacemaking is a peacemaking that is brokering a halfway point between people who don't have God in view.

That's the counterfeit point. And that's everywhere. Look at all your peace summits. Look at all the peacemaking efforts that you're aware between family members in businesses, and most of it fit that description. How can we find a way to split a difference so that we get along and God is nowhere in the picture?

That is counterfeit peacemaking. That is not at all what the Beatitudes is describing. The work of the cross makes peace with God, and this becomes basis for peace between men. So is it all just peace with God? No, it encompasses peace with men too.

But the basis of it is the work of the cross. So any peacemaking that doesn't have the basis of it, The work of the cross is faker peacemaking. It's false. It's counterfeit. D.

Martin Lloyd-Jones says this, and by the way, I read more than him, he's just very quotable. So he's the guy that gets the airtime. There's a lot of other commentators that have contributed content, but it's clandestine. I don't give them credit. D.

Martin Lloyd-Jones, I'm giving credit. He says this, the trouble according to the Scripture is in the heart of man. And Until the heart of man is changed, you will never solve his problem by trying to make manipulations on the surface. Most peacemaking today fits that definition, that it's just manipulations on the surface. According to the Scripture, the trouble is in the heart of man, and nothing but a new heart, nothing but a new man can possibly deal with the problem.

It is out of the heart that evil thoughts, murders, adultery proceed, and while men are like that, there will be no peace. Amen. While men are like that, not having dealt with the core of the problem, but just sticking band-aids on the outside as if that's a real solution, that is not peacemaking. Isaiah 52, 7 says this, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says desire, and your God reigns. Beware of peace without Jesus.

Beware of trying to make peace without the Gospel on your lips. Isaiah 52, 7 says that, The man whose feet are beautiful is the one who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things. This is the Gospel. The Gospel must be at the center of all of our peacemaking efforts. The Gospel is at the center of the peacemaking that is being described by Jesus in the Beatitudes.

In what way are peacemakers blessed? They shall be called sons of God. If you're still in Matthew 5, which you should be, If you're still in Matthew 5, look at verses 44 and 45. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He makes His Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust." The argument being made here is that Christians act like their dad.

That's what Christians do. They act like their dad. Their heavenly father. And this is the essence of peacemaking. When we're cursed, we bless.

When we're hated, we do good. When we're persecuted, we pray. Not just to smooth things over, but we're actually proactively doing things contrary to what overthrow the barbs that are being sent our way in the name of Christ. It's in the name of Christ. This is real peacemaking.

That cursing comes in one direction and blessing goes back in the other. That hatred comes in one direction and good goes back in the other direction. That persecution comes in one direction and prayer goes back in the other direction. This is the essence of peacemaking. And this is what makes us like our Father in heaven.

Because He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. God in the New Testament is called the God of peace five times in four different books. The God of peace. This is all wrapped up in who God is. If we want to be like God, we must be a peacemaker because He's the God of peace.

Jesus Christ is the Prince of peace. And not only will we be sons of God, we'll be called sons of God. I think that's significant. We'll actually be known. We'll actually have a reputation of being gods because we act so differently.

Because when we're persecuted, we send prayer back in the other direction. Verses 10-12. I'm putting these together because I believe verses 11 and 12 are really in a way an exposition of verse 10. They all hang together. 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." 2 Timothy 3, 12, yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. No exceptions, categorical language. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And this is the promise also of the Sermon on the Mount of the Beatitudes.

What do we already know from the Beatitudes? Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. So as we hunger and thirst for righteousness, God actually fills us. We are righteous and we are being made righteous and the world has a counter reaction to that. Which is why on the front of your notes page, the title of the sermon is Blessed by God, Despised by the ungodly.

This is how it works. If you want to be blessed by God, brace yourself to be despised by the ungodly. We're promised to it. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Now there's a critical distinction.

This is not just any old persecution. There's a lot more persecution than there is persecution that fits the qualifier here. Which is For righteousness sake. For righteousness sake. Not for the sake of your zeal.

Not for the sake of your cause. Not for the sake of your political persuasions. I think we ought to have zeal. I think we ought to have causes. I think we ought to have zeal, I think we ought to have causes, I think we ought to have political persuasions.

All I'm saying is the persecution that flows from those things, along with being knuckleheaded and other things that aren't as good as zeal, causes, and political persuasions. There are many more things that are less noble than those things that we get persecuted for. And a lot of times we want to lump that persecution that we've actually brought upon ourselves if the truth were to be known into this category and we just wait for the blessing. But it doesn't fit the criteria is all I'm saying. And Peter takes up this topic in 1 Peter 2 verses 19 and 20.

Peter says this, For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongly. For what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God." So Peter is making a distinction. There's one kind of beatings, which is you are getting beaten for your faults. And Peter said there's no commendation here for those who are beaten for their faults.

There's nothing noble, desirable about that. It's actually when you're suffering persecution for righteousness sake that it becomes commendable. Now there's another side of this. There's one side that you're not actually suffering for righteousness sake. There's another side where the righteousness is actually counterfeit.

It's faker righteousness. It goes like this. It flows forth in a statement like this. I'm righteous but I'm not being persecuted because I'm an American. Americans appreciate righteousness and so we shouldn't expect a lot of persecution here because we just live in one of those cultures that has a godly heritage and so I'm probably not going to be persecuted because I'm American.

Here's what D. Martin Lloyd-Jones says about that. It cuts like a knife and I think it's good that it cuts. I think probably many of us have made this argument. Hey, we live in America.

There's an appreciation for these things here. It makes sense that we're not being persecuted. And D. Martin Lloyd-Jones wants to argue against that and give us another perspective and cause us to think differently. He says this, the good and noble are very rarely persecuted because we all have the feeling that they are just like ourselves at our best.

We think, I am capable of that if I only put my mind to it. And we admire them because it is a way of paying a compliment to ourselves. But the righteous are persecuted because they're different. That was why the Pharisees and the scribes hated our Lord. It was not because He was good, it was because He was different.

There was something about Him that condemned them. They felt all their righteousness was being made to look very tawdry. That was what they disliked. Isn't this so true? Was Jesus in a time where goodness and nobility weren't appreciated?

No. It was. In fact, they built up great systems to show how good you could be and how noble you could be. And yet, and by the way Jesus did you know really quite well against even all the systems that they had built up and yet they hated him because he was different because He had a different brand of righteousness than they had. And it was actually so genuine that they became nervous when he was around them.

The righteousness that they constructed began to look quite tawdry, quite insufficient, and quite broken down, quite worn out. And they didn't like that because they liked their kind of righteousness and not His kind of righteousness. Turn in your Bibles to John 15. John 15 is Jesus elaborating this kind of righteousness and the reaction that it's bound to encounter. Encounter.

John 15, chapter 15, verses 18-25. So we're going to call this Jesus' exposition on the Beatitude. Because He's enumerating on these points. John 15 verse 18, If the world hates you, you know it hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world will love its own.

Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they keep My word, they will also keep yours.

But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin.

But now they have seen and also hated both me and my father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled, which is written in their law, they hated Me without a cause. One thing we ought to just notice from this text is there's no sense biting our fingers and trying to figure out why we're being persecuted. Jesus says here they persecuted Me without a cause. Not that there was no reasoning behind their persecution, but that there was no justification for it.

There was nothing really at the core of all their thinking about why they were persecuting Jesus that was legitimate. And so for us to bite our nails and agonize, well, what is it about me? They don't like me. They hate your Father. That's what they don't like about you.

They hate God. Notice the good company we are keeping when we're persecuted. It's Excellent company. Abel persecuted by Cain. David persecuted by Saul.

Elijah by Jezebel. Jeremiah by everybody. Daniel by those who were jealous. The apostles. Great men and women of church history, the martyrs.

But first and foremost, Jesus Christ. All of that other suffering was for the sake of Jesus Christ. The hatred really wasn't directed against these people. Indirectly it was. Directly it was a hatred of God.

And this is a particularly searching test. This is a withering cross-examination of your life and mine. All those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. If you were of the world, The world would love its own. Have we made too nice with the world?

So that we're of the world and the world just has such an appreciation for us because we're so nice and noble. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, did they persecute Jesus? Most assuredly. They will also persecute you.

Luke actually takes this and flips it around in Luke 6 which may or may not be a parallel passage to the Sermon on the Mount. But Luke says, Woe to you when all men speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets. This is the exact mirror image of what we see in the Beatitudes. If you're righteous, they'll treat you like the prophets.

But if they speak well of you, you're like the false prophets who they had such an appreciation for. Peace, peace, they were saying, but there was no peace. Matthew 10, verses 35 and 36. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be those of his own house. So we think persecution.

We can't just think the world versus the church. Right? Because if that's your expectation, and alarmingly for a shockingly long time in my Christian experience, That was my expectation. That when persecution came, it would come from the world because they didn't like what we were saying about their sin. More often than not, that's not where the persecution comes from.

A man's enemies will be those of his own household. That's when I titled the sermon. Originally it was, Blessed by God, Despised by the world. And as I got to thinking about this, I thought, I've got to change that. It needs to be despised by the ungodly wherever they may be.

In your home, in your extended family, in your church, so often persecution has come from the nominal Christians, or from the very religious who like the name but don't like what Jesus actually teaches. And then we have this phrase, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Be happy about those persecutions. Rejoice. So there's three levels of this.

One is you're persecuted and you just don't retaliate. That's kind of step one, isn't it? Just not hitting back at its basic level. But then there's a more mature progression to that where it becomes no resentment. It's easy enough not to hit back, but just to stew on it and to boil inside and to think about it and to play it over in your mind over and over and over again.

So Christian's won. He doesn't retaliate. But in addition to that, he also doesn't boil. He doesn't stew in his own juices. He doesn't carry around resentment about the persecution.

And then there's a level even beyond that where we rejoice in the persecution. Where we can see all the way to the other side of the persecution that it really doesn't have to do with us and our choices and our theology and the things that we've been saying, doing, thinking, it has to do with their condition with God. And so we see all the way through it and we say, what a blessing to suffer for the name of Christ. And we rejoice. In what way are the persecuted blessed?

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Great is their reward in heaven. The first beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Great is their reward in heaven.

The first beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The last beatitude, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." We have these book-ended. And it's a beginning and it's a summing up. That those who are like this, those who are like the Beatitudes have actually been transferred out of one kingdom and into the other. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

They've been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. So the first and the last and everything in between. This is what a Christian looks like. 2 Corinthians 4, 7 Paul says this, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Paul is calling all these persecutions that the ungodly can bring to us, and he's saying those are just light afflictions.

Momentary afflictions. And God is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. They're not really even worth comparing. These little momentary afflictions with the glory that's coming. And that's exactly what's being said here as the reward.

Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven and great is your reward in the kingdom of heaven. No mind can conceive what is waiting. Your mind cannot conceive for what is waiting. Now, There is a brand of thought out there that thinks that we shouldn't care about the rewards. This is unbiblical hogwash.

We should care very much about the rewards. We should think about them. We should hope for them. We should long for them. And there's nothing wrong with doing so.

And the brand of thought is out there that there's something unrighteous about really wanting a reward. That it's really more holy to just do it because these things, because it's our duty. Well, That's not exactly what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that those who would actually serve God must believe that He is a rewarder. And it is not to our shame to have the rewards of God before us as we live our life.

Now, within that, all the other things are true as well. God is our greatest reward Himself. He is the best reward that we'll ever receive. And so, He always is at the top of the list when we think about our rewards. Genesis 15, 1.

I am your portion, your exceedingly great reward, God said to Abraham. These are powerful tests of our state and our maturity. Are we poor in spirit? Do we mourn? Are we meek?

Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness? Are we merciful? Are we pure in heart? Are we peacemakers? Are we persecuted for righteousness sake?

Are those things existing in us at least a kernel that can grow? That we can excel in more and more? That we can increase in and abound in? And if so, why are they so puny? Why?

Let's fan the flame, brothers and sisters, so that people will actually see that the kingdom that we're in is upside down. It's completely contrary. That they'll see our good works that flow from being poor in spirit, merciful mourning, on and on. That flow out of that and they'll glorify our Father in Heaven. This is the will of God.

Are you allowing yourself to be sifted by the beatitudes? Or are these things just skimming along the surface? Isn't that a nice sermon? When's lunch? We should allow ourselves to be sifted by these things.

They are tests of our state and our maturity. And we should take the opportunity that God has set before us to examine ourselves, to examine ourselves, if we be in the faith. And if we are where we ought to be, or should we not go further faster? And pray and lay siege to God that He would help us go further and faster, make us go further and faster in the faith so that our progress would be evident to all. May we found to be true subjects of Jesus Christ.

This is what the Beatitudes are about. What does it look in a life where true repentance has taken place? Where confession of sin, not hiding sin, but confessing it and actually turning from it, what does that look like? It looks like these things. These are eight things that it looks like.

When a person really repents. When a person really goes from one kingdom into the other Kingdom. And may God bless us in these very unexpected ways. The world isn't looking for these kind of character qualities. The world isn't looking for these kind of blessings.

But they're the best character qualities. They're the best blessings. And may we put all our weight there. God be true and every man a liar. We would believe that these are the best things.

Let's pray. Father, You are true though every man be a liar. Your ways are the best ways. And we desire to have an affection for them in our hearts. Please, please breathe an affection for these things in our hearts.

Cause us to love them, Lord, to desire more than anything else in this world, to be poor in spirit and to mourn over our sin and others and to be meek. And on and on and on, God, may we have these things firmly established in our hearts, not because we're doing something, but because we are something, because we have been transformed. We have been born again. May it be so among us, Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen.