In the sermon titled 'Blessed Are the Merciful,' Paul Carrington explores the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, emphasizing the foundational aspects of Christian character. He discusses the importance of 'being before doing,' highlighting that a Christian's identity should precede their actions. The sermon delves into the nature of mercy, pointing out that believers, having received mercy from God, should naturally extend it to others. Carrington contrasts external religious practices with true purity of heart, noting that God desires inward transformation leading to holiness. He further explores the role of peacemaking as a reflection of holiness and a hallmark of those who have experienced God's peace. The sermon underscores the practical implications of these teachings, challenging believers to examine their relationships and attitudes toward others. Carrington warns against pride, envy, and perfectionism as barriers to peacemaking and encourages listeners to strive for peace in all their interactions. The overarching message is that the Beatitudes call for a radical transformation of character, which may lead to persecution in a world that does not understand these values.

Well this afternoon we're going to be back in Matthew chapter 5 and we're going to be looking at the Sermon on the mount. So if you have your Bibles, please open with me and we're gonna spend this time with our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, one of the things that's amazing to me is here he is on the mountainside and to preach he sits down and he opens his mouth and his disciples come to him and he begins to speak and he opens up with these beautiful words we'll read in verse 3 down to verse 10 he says this 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 the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you so much for recording these words here of this very first sermon preached by our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ, on what it means to be citizens of this wonderful kingdom that you've opened to us Lord. Thank you for saving, thank you for working in us, thank you for your constant presence.

We couldn't take a step without you Lord and we depend on you today to help us and encourage us oh Lord. So be with us now as we open your word as we spend this time together. May you be magnified and glorified and your people helped. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen.

You know, just this past weekend on Friday, actually, I was speaking with a brother and he was telling me about a recent home purchase that they've made. And one of the things he was explaining to me was the condition of the home and how the problem with the home happens to be in the foundation that they purchase this home. And so they, you know, you can get the floors done, you can sheetrock all the walls, you can do all these things. But if the foundation is bad, that house will forever face problem after problem until at some point in the future, it's going to collapse in on itself. Until it's addressed, you really can't go forward.

And so he said to me, he says, my first order of business was to make it a rock solid foundation. And what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing here in the Sermon on the Mount is he starts off by discussing, what is the foundation of the Christian life? What does it mean to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? What does it actually mean? What are the people like that enter in and are welcomed at the table of the Lord.

Well, the very first thing he does is with these Beatitudes, as we've seen, he focuses on being before doing. There's no instructions in these first opening verses, do this, do that. Martin Lloyd-Jones, he says that a Christian is something before he does anything. And we have to be Christian before we can act as Christians. And so this is kind of the foundation that I really want to emphasize upon which everything else that we're going to get into as the Sermon on the Mount proceeds, it rests on this being before doing.

And if you're not a Christian, we were just talking outside, the young men and I, don't get the cart before the horse. You know, we live in an age where moralism is really the order of the day. It's all too easy to just try to behave your way into God's good grace. Just two weeks ago, actually, I was with a couple of unbelievers and we were talking about God and I was interesting hearing their different views of who God is and what he requires of man and they kind of came to the end, I'm listening, we're talking, interacting, And they came to this kind of conclusion, you know, at the end of the day, one person said to the other, it seems to me that all God wants us to do is to be kind to others. That's all God really wants.

You can boil it down whether you're Hindu, Muslim, whatever, Christian, but really all the religions just kind of point towards being nice to other people. It was, you know, the other person agreed and then they quoted actually from Matthew chapter 7 verse 12, the Golden rule. So they jumped right to the golden rule and they both seem kind of quite satisfied and settled that this is all that God wants and I was looking at them I said so Jesus Christ came, he lived, he died and rose again so that we would be nice. Is that really the conclusion of the matter? You see, a lot of times people try to end run what God requires up front, but he gives them to prescription.

This is what it's like to be a citizen of my kingdom. He says you can't end run what I'm about to say to you. Here there's a step-by-step logical process that he's uncovering here in these opening verses. And if you remember what we talked about, we talked about being poor in spirit and how this is the regenerate heart. He begins to get a sense for the first time perhaps of his own utter bankruptcy.

You mean I've got nothing. Not only do you have nothing, but you're a debtor and you're deserving of punishment. You have not a shred to recommend you to God. Blessed are you. Then he goes on to talk about the man who's brought to actually see his sin face to face And it's worse than he actually thought.

And he's brought to mourn because of his actual condition and position. Well, the third one is meekness. And he agrees with God. He's not fighting. He's not defending.

And he begins to see, I'm undone. But things take a turn in the fourth beatitude. It's so beautiful. For the first time, the man looks outside of himself, as you would kind of think of it here, and he begins to hunger and thirst for a righteousness that he doesn't really possess, something that he can never ever foster in his own self and with his own efforts. And like the madman Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress, he finds himself running from the city of destruction.

Do you remember what he's saying? He's saying, life, life, eternal life. And John Bunyan, he says this, he says, to his friends he seemed a lunatic and they tried to stop him but he cried back all which you shall forsake is not worthy to be compared with a little of that which I am seeking to enjoy I seek an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away and is laid up in heaven and safe there to be bestowed on them that diligently seek it." And so here we are, if you look at the first four of the Beatitudes, the last one is, "'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled. Well here's the question here what's what's the inevitable result of seeing your bankruptcy and then having it totally relieved by God himself and then not only that but you actually find yourself at his banqueting table, eating and drinking. Do you see the flow?

The next logical result would be a merciful spirit. You've been shown mercy. And so the Lord, he says this, and we're only going to be doing three today, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. The question is, how could it be otherwise? Right?

The mercy that you've received, it becomes the mercy that you begin to extend to others. And so think of it for a second if you go through the Bible especially in Isaiah before conversion, what are all the creatures that an unbeliever is referred to? It's pretty fascinating. You know you see the sinner as a wolf, as a leopard, as a lion. In other verses of the scriptures you see the sinner as a wolf, as a leopard, as a lion.

In other verses of the scriptures, you see the sinner as a bee that stings. There's all sorts of things, an adder. That's how man in his natural state is described. And none of these animals or creatures, if you notice, none of them are known for mercy at all. But now the believer, his entire world has been changed, hasn't it?

He's a new creation. And because of his own experience with the Lord and what he's received and his being welcomed at the table and eating and drinking and being filled with God's righteousness, it colors the way that he looks at everyone that he meets. And I want us to go through this here because one of the most important things I think, you know, is to never forget where you're coming from. You know, the scripture, he says it like this, I think it's in Isaiah, he says he recommends that you remember the rock from which you were hewn and the hole of the pit from which you were dug. And that hopefully conditions the way that you look at others.

And so blessed are the merciful. Well what does it mean? We can also ask, well, what doesn't it mean? It doesn't mean all God wants from me is to be nice to others. That's not what it means.

It doesn't just mean just be pleasant, be agreeable. That's not what it means either. It's not a happy-go-lucky kind of live-and-let-live disposition. So what is it? I think it's a simple way, why be complicated?

You know, I read a note the other day, we have a group going on with the different brothers, one addressing the commissioners, another one addressing Hurricane Helene. And I wrote a note for my brother just before we were all going to go on Saturday to this Pride Fest that they were hosting. And I love what he said. And this really encapsulates, I think, what this means, blessed are the merciful. He says, please remember that they're lost and will suffer eternal wrath if the Lord does not show them mercy.

Pity them." We could also point to even our local church's overwhelming response to the hurricane and all that went on here in terms of what can we do. Let's even, hearing Mr. Brown, he's telling us he had to shut down the donations through the Church and Family website because of the overwhelming response. What does it mean to be merciful? It's a disposition of pity plus action.

It's an anxiety to relieve what you see to be a problem or to see to be pain. It's a somebody who says, there's trouble, I must relieve it. That's the spirit of mercy. It's the idea, Isaiah says it so beautifully in Isaiah 58 of drawing your soul out to the hungry. Not just, oh I wish I wish he had something and you just continue, but there's something going out of you to somebody else and the root of it is because of what God has done for you.

And so I just want you to consider God is merciful, isn't he? And this is really going to the root of everything. In fact, mercy is at the backbone of the world's most quoted, most known scripture, John 3.16. God, He sees the need of man and He relieves it. He rushes into action and He sends the very best of heaven to solve the problem.

And so the man who's merciful, just Think of it like this, he looks at the ravages of a sin-ravaged world and the people around him, and he's full of concern. He's not indifferent. This is what it means to be merciful. Happy is that man. And I would just add one thing, just think about it here, you know, we're very much close to what happened in the West.

We just saw what happened down in Florida with these different hurricanes sweeping through. You know, the physical devastation that we witnessed was real, you know, over the last couple weeks. It was really bad, But it pales in comparison to the reality of the spiritual devastation all around us with your neighbors, your family that doesn't know the Lord, maybe co-workers, strangers. And I couldn't help but think, think of the mobilization and the effort that we exerted to relieve the physical suffering of people. And that is a real thing and we ought to do that.

That's not a secondary or useless side thing. But we had signal groups, we were strategizing, there's food, water, again, too much giving, we got to close the doors. But all of that mobilization to meet a physical need what if we actually saw the need of our fellow man around us and had that same vigor and desire to relieve the suffering because really the only thing that a man has is finding Christ And this is those who are merciful. We want other men to taste, to see these same things as well, to relieve the spiritual devastation. So one thing I just want to leave with us is this.

Consider, how do you think about other people? Maybe people that are so distasteful, doing things that you don't like. And what do you say about other people? How do you talk about other people? Just being very practical, it'll tell you something here.

So the question is not, am I nice? Because a nice man can go to hell. Rather, am I merciful? Is a good question. Am I merciful?

We're going to the foundation here. As a fruit of what I've experienced, do I no longer see men as I used to see them? Is a good way to put it. You know, Proverbs 11, 17, it says, the merciful man does good to his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh. And so the merciful man is a happy man.

Well, because the Christian has had his hunger, his thirst filled from God's table, he's begun to develop this merciful spirit. Next we're going to come to something that is really the Lord's primary aim in the next verse, which is heart religion. You know, the Lord is, He's interested in the hearts of His listeners, primarily. It's the fountain from which everything else flows. And so, Christ, remember the time that He's preaching in, There was a lot of externalism and rule-keeping and all of these things here, but he's now going to talk to them about inside out religion.

And that was kind of foreign to the people in his day. He says this, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And you know what a marvel. I was just thinking about this as as we were listening to the sermon this morning. The sermon on the Mount starts off with blessed are the poor in spirit but now he says blessed are the pure in heart.

This leap, this chasm that exists between the man who was brought to an end of himself and now is pure in heart. This is speaking of the great renovation that's taken place in the heart of the believer. You know, the Pharisees, they were masters of external purity. And you had this other group called the Essenes. This was a group that was intensely devoted to ritualistic ceremonial cleaning.

They would have multiple baths a day and they would wear this white linen to represent this purity. But Jesus is saying something entirely different. He's talking about purity of heart. You know a few weeks ago when I was on a trip, I was in someone's room and I was looking on the wall and on the wall they had a picture of these kind of I would call them social icons you had Martin Luther King Jr. You had Mahatma Gandhi there were some other people on this wall as well these kind of again just kind of a secular saints you know people that you can't say anything negative against because you'll get crucified by the culture.

But really, all these men are, they're painted supplicers. But Jesus, he's driving at something different. He's driving to the heart. You know, and even I love what we heard this morning because after so many years of walking as a Christian, you know, if you're like me, you can really relate with the Apostle Paul, oh wretched man that I am. I haven't really come all that far, I haven't come as far as I've wanted to come.

And who will see God? Here's the problem. He says, the pure in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And so you run into this conundrum.

You know Proverbs 20 it asks it like this, who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin. Who can Who can put up their hand and say that? So we run into this problem here and in this Beatitude, I love how Matthew Henry, he says it like this, he says holiness and happiness are fully described and put together. The heart must be purified by faith and kept by God.

It's this justifying work of the Spirit that makes us pure in heart and then we keep our heart for God, right? The thing here is after being made pure, the man who's been made pure, his bent, I love this word, his bent is toward holiness. He still fights and struggles, he's got these two men living in him if you will, but his bent, I want the things that are holy. I want to walk in the way, oh Lord forgive me. I can't believe I said, this is not just a man who's passive and cavalier, right?

And it's people who are not full of guile or scheming and plotting at every turn, backstabbing, but there's a desire to be holy and to live beneath God's gaze. You know, and essentially Jesus is telling his disciples, I don't want you to be merely concerned with ritualistic, ceremonial, outward purity. That's easy. Isn't it easy in comparison? I want, I want to get at your thoughts, your emotions, your passions.

That's what he means, blessed are the pure in heart. And so to do that, He gives us a new heart. He gives us new desires. I think we've heard before God gives you a new wantor, right? This is kind of the idea.

And so don't deceive yourself. You do have a role in keeping your heart. It's, You know, we talk about grace and grace is monumental, massive, but you also have a responsibility to keep your heart with all diligence. That's your job. And so at the very outset of the Sermon on the Mount, really the beginning of the New Testament, He tells us that true purity of heart desires holiness, wants the things that are good.

It sees the spiritual war inside the old man against the new and all these different things. And so we ask the question, am I merciful? Right? We should also ask, am I careful to keep my heart pure now that I've been justified by faith? It's very important.

Are my thoughts, my motives, and other things gradually being purified little by little? You know? Or am I still being enslaved by my emotions, my feelings, all these other things that conspire against me? You know, yesterday, I think it was yesterday, Pastor Trent, he was talking about the spiritual war that we're in, And he said this, he says that the devil would be just as happy to have you a legalist as he would an antinomian. I thought that was really interesting.

You know, the two men in the greatest danger in the world are probably the one on the one side who sees no need for purity, and on the other side the one who is focused exclusively on how he presents to others. Right, these are two men that are in grave, grave danger. And so keep these things in mind, blessed are the pure in heart. God is after true purity. And I would just add something here that I think is a byproduct of what God has done in you and this purity of heart.

You know the man who is pure in heart, he's gonna see God in his glory, all his glory one day. We know that that's a promise that we'll see him face to face. But he does also see God's handiwork right now. Isn't it amazing? Because I remember when I first got saved and it was the first time I recognized the leaves changing.

20 years old, I'd know the leaves had changed, but this time I'm looking at it with different eyes. I'm looking at it with a marvel how beautiful it is. And a man who is being worked on by the Lord, he's gonna look at the stars with wonder. He'll look at a leaf or something like a newborn baby or other things and because of that you're seeing the handiwork of God. You're in a sense blessed to the pure in heart for they shall see God in almost everything around us.

It's a beautiful thing. You see him in the ocean, even in a human cell, whatever it is, everything we look at, a flower, and you begin to say, God is an amazing God. You're, in a sense, seeing God, but you will see him face to face one day. And so if purity of heart speaks of holiness, well what better description of holiness than in the very next verse. Have you ever thought of being a peacemaker as a reflection of holiness?

He says blessed are the peacemakers in verse 9, for they shall be called sons of God. This is amazing. And so naturally flowing out of what it means to be pure in heart, right, that The man who was previously a lion, could be a scorpion, a snake, is now a peacemaker. This is a massive change that's taking place. The man is entirely different from what he once was.

You know, the Lord Jesus, he links it to becoming, be called a son of God. There's like this family likeness, blessed are the peacemakers. Why? Because you're, it's this family resemblance. You shall be called sons of God.

You've spent time with the Lord who is the God of all peace. In fact, in Romans, Paul refers to God twice as the God of peace. Jesus himself is the Prince of Peace. And so One of the rarest things though in our world is a peacemaker when you think about it. And just as man, he can't make his own peace with God, can he?

He can't do anything to do that. He really can't make peace between himself and others. And so we live in a world where you go to a village in Africa and there's, I hate that guy over in the hut, you know, and then you go to a place in a business down at a financial district and it's the same thing. Doesn't really matter the levels of sophistication. Man can't find peace because he doesn't have peace himself.

He can't make peace with others. You know, I remember reading here about, you just look at the past century that we came through, the 20th century. World War I ended and all the leaders got together and they said this will be the war to end all wars and they formed the League of Nations. We're gonna do it. In less than 20 years you have a war that's magnitudes worse than World War, World War I.

You know you had a man named Chamberlain and if you're not careful you would confuse him with being a peacemaker. But there's a difference between a peacemaker and an appeaser. And he tried to appease Hitler. Peace in our time was his great saying. Of course, it didn't work out.

World War II unfolded. And we didn't learn. After World War II, scrap the League of Nations, we're going to rebrand and call it the United Nations. And it's been a ridiculous mess since then. They formed things like the European Union because they figured if we can unite all of Europe where all the wars seem to really start and we have a common economy, then surely we're going to have peace because it wouldn't be economically advantageous to attack someone when you're so tied at the hip.

And so they tried that, but of course we get Brexit and then maybe Spexit, Spain leaving or France or some other it just nothing holds together every attempt of man not to mention communism to achieve utopia this place of peace and beauty they had to kill a hundred million people. Every attempt of man, he can't make any peace, he just can't. And men who don't know peace can't make it. That's really the problem. And what does peacemaking require?

It doesn't require appeasement. In fact, I would probably say that our culture is largely in the place that it's in because of the Church's strategy of appeasement over the last century. You know, Watson, Thomas Watson, he's writing a commentary on this very verse, and he's writing beautifully, and then you can just imagine him sitting at his table. He says, oh, that England had more peacemakers. Oh that our church, oh that we, each one of us, was a peacemaker.

But again, before men can be peacemakers, they must have peace themselves. And so one of the things that you can do is look at the lengths that God has gone to to make peace with you. It's beautiful. What lengths will you go to to make peace with others? So a good question to ask is, am I a peacemaker?

Am I a repairer of the breach? There's a breach there. I said something or that person said something or this thing has been going on for years. Am I a repairer of the breach? Are my human relationships characterized this way with peacemaking?

When I look around are my relationships marked by peace or by strife? These are some good questions. You could say, well, my relationships are marked with strife, that's because everyone else around me. Well, that might tell you a little bit about the source of the problem. If you can only live peacefully with everyone else's on eggshells around you, then chances are you're not conducting yourself as a peacemaker.

Watson says it like this, he says that religion is suspicious which is full of discord. So keep that in mind here. Remember one of the most helpful things, practical things is to remember you live on a fallen planet And you're surrounded by people who do need mercy. And peace isn't a natural result of what's happened. Everything we see is devastation, relationships, countries, you just keep expanding out, everywhere you look it's a problem.

But you are called to peace. That's what the Bible says, 1 Corinthians 7, you are called to peace. And you will be happy and God will be glorified when you are a peacemaker, when you take it upon yourself. So the true Christian seeks to restore peace wherever it's broken. You can look at your own life, family, church, whatever, neighbor, relationships, and you're bringing peace to that situation as best as you can.

Well, what are some hindrances to peace? I thought this might be helpful. The very first one that comes to mind is pride. And Proverbs 13 says it like this, where there is strife, there is pride. So wherever there's strife and problems in relationships, the root of it is going to be there's pride there.

So may the Lord help us. Envy is another one. Proverbs 27 says, who can stand before envy? You see that all through the Bible, you see that all through our world, even today. Another one could be perfectionism, where you just set expectations of people too high, and you're constantly disappointed.

You know, I love what, I think it was Watson again, he says this, it is the manner of the world to look more upon the sun and an eclipse than when it shines in its full luster. You know, when it's blocked, when there's some sort of impediment, That's when we're more likely to kind of look at the eclipse and look at the problems of people. That's kind of what he's getting at here. Or another hindrance to peace could be blaming, you know. Isaiah says it like this, if you take away the putting forth of the finger, then your light shall dawn in darkness." Are you easily vexed or provoked?

1 Corinthians 13 says love is not provoked. That word simply means irritated or aggravated or aroused to anger. So again, we're talking about very practical subterranean work of the Spirit in our hearts. Watson said this, if Christians must be peaceable minded, What shall we say to those who are given to strife and contention? To those who like flax or gunpowder, if they be touched or all on fire, how far is that from the spirit of the gospel?

So Don't be like that. Don't be easily provoked. Being touchy. You know, also do not take heart to heart everything people say, Ecclesiastes. Lest you hear your servant cursing you.

For many times also your own heart has known that even you have cursed others. If you begin to just not take yourself so utterly seriously and every little slight is taken to heart like a dagger, you can be a peacemaker. And then of course my favorite, Speaking when you should be quiet. This is probably a problem for a lot of us as husbands, men, learning when to be quiet, when to say something, when not to. But here's the thing.

Do you care about the glory of God? Then be a peacemaker in the world. Strive to prevent contention, strife, war in your home, in your church. Be someone who diffuses peace. And the only way you can do that is when there's a temptation to a problem, to war, to some sort of situation that could easily spiral and get out of control.

But now the Christian says, I have a different master, I'm gonna restrain myself, I'm gonna do what my Lord says and try to be a peacemaker. And so we've looked at being merciful, we've looked at being pure in heart, and now being a peacemaker. These are character traits of the new man in Christ's kingdom. And we're all, you know, we're all on a journey. None of us have these things locked down.

I remember when I used to be like this, but now I'm like this. We're still struggling through and you're gonna be struggling through. But this is a description of the character of the people of God in whatever measure that God allows. And so I just want to ask, I started off with the foundation. How is your foundation?

How is your foundation when we look at these very practical aspects of what it means to be a Christian? Well next time we're going to see this, that so foreign are these traits to the world around us in this fallen planet that we're on, that it will inevitably lead to persecution. You would think if you are a peacemaker then everything around you will be nice, but it's exact opposite. The very next verse that falls on the heels of this. Blessed are those who are persecuted.

For righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you here this afternoon and thank you for your word. Lord, I pray and ask you, Father, to make these things more true of me. I ask you to help me to be more merciful and help my brothers and sisters.

Lord, help us in our pursuit of holiness, Lord, in the very heart to have holiness growing and increasing in our passions and desires to be after the things that you have said are good. Lord we pray also in our family relationships, in our church relationships, in our relationships with neighbors or co-workers Lord that we would be peacemakers that we might glorify your great name Lord we can't do any of this alone and so we look to you the builder the maker Lord our Savior please help us as we leave this place and go into our practical living for the rest of this week, Lord, we pray that you would be with us to stop us and to help us to live before you, pleasing in your sight. Help us to stop before we resort to our regular ways and to live as you would have us to live in this world on this fallen planet. Thank you Lord for your kindness and teaching us and for being with us and instructing us in your way. Thank you Lord.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right.

Well,