Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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And now our God and Father again
we do come to your word. This
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is your holy inspired word. God. This is not the words of man.
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These are the words that you have
seen fit to give to the Church
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of God, for our help,
for our sustenance, Lord, for our
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guidance in our life, for our
edification, for our comfort, Lord,
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for our exhortation. You have given
us this word in your holy and divine
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wisdom. You have said, these
are things my people need to know.
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And so God, we come to
your word, recognizing first of all that
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it is your word in a way
that is unlike anything else we can do
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or give. This is your holy
inspired word, and God, it is
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a great gift to us. It
is something that helps us extremely Lord in
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our life, and we thank you
for it. And there was much for
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us to glean from it, to
learn from it. And as we come
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to what may be somewhat familiar passage
Versus to us this morning, I pray,
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yet, Lord, that you would
now glean new things out of this
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Lord, out of these old texts
that perhaps we have read many many times.
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But yet Lord, you are able
to make all things new, and
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we pray you would make your word
new to us this morning and speak to
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us in a new way, and
Lord maybe in some old ways as well
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that we need to be reminded of
once again. But Holy Spirit, it
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is your guidance. It is your
illumination that we seek today. You who
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inspired these words. Now I pray
you would illuminate them to your people,
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for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Yeah, if you want
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to follow along, if you can
turn in your bibles to the sixth chapter
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of Luke. I'm going to begin
with verse seventeen, and I will be
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reading through verse twenty six. So
I remind you as I read these that
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this is God's holy Word. And
he came down with them and stood on
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a level place with the great crowd
of his disciples, and the great multitude
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of people from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the sea coast of Tire and Sidon,
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who came to hear him and to
be healed of their diseases, and
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those who were troubled with unclean spirits
were cured, and all the crowds sought
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to touch him, for power came
out from him and healed him all.
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And he lifted up his eyes on
his disciples and said, Blessed are you
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who are poor, for yours is
the kingdom of God. Blessed are you
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who are hungry, now, for
you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you
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who weep, now, for you
shall laugh. Blessed are you. And
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people hate you. And when they
exclude you and revile you and spurn your
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name as evil on account of the
Son of Man, rejoice in that day
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and leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven,
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for so their fathers did to the
prophets. But woe to you who are
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rich, for you have received your
consolation. Woe to you who are full
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now, for you should be hungry. Woe to you who laughed, now,
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for you show mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all people speak
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well of you, for so their
fathers did to the false prophets. Amen.
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Thus in the reading of God's word, please be seated. So we
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moved forward in the Gospel of Luke. This morning. I've been preaching with
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you through the Gospel of Luke.
I have one more message on this gospel,
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which will be next week. Last
week, we looked at Versus twelve
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through sixteen, which talked about the
calling of the twelve apostles out of the
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greater group of the disciples that were
following Jesus. We noted last week how
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Jesus spent the entire night in prayer
before he did this, and the choice
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was revealed to him by his father
of those that he should choose to be
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called apostles. And so today we
have a very famous servant, a sermon
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that will go from uh this verse
here all the way through the end of
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the chapter. And since I have
one more week, I should easily be
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able to never mind. Uh No, but we're going to give it a
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try. We'll we'll see if we
can go a little ways anyway this morning
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and then go a little bit further
next week. But let's start with the
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kind of the introduction to this passage, which is Versus seventeen to nineteen.
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And we're gonna have a very similar
discourse here to one that we know very
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well that is found in Matthew chapter
five to verse seven, or chapter seven,
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which we refer to as this sermon
on the Mount. And uh it
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is referred to as a sermon on
the mount because it was given on a
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on amount. So now you've learned
something this morning. If nothing else.
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And here we are told that in
verse seventeen, and Jesus comes down from
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the mountain where he had been praying
and where he had appointed the apostles,
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and the e s V Says that
he stood on a level place. So
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some people call this the Sermon on
the plane. Some people call this the
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Sermon on the level. But others
argue for the fact here that the sermon
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that is found in Matthew five called
the Sermon on the mount and a sermon
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that is found here in Luke that
is called the Sermon on the Level,
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are indeed the exact same discourse.
Let's speak a little more of that in
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just a little bit. But we
have a great crowd of his disciples again
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in verse seventeen. Last week,
remember Jesus called a crowd of his disciples,
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and out of those disciples he appointed
twelve that he called apostles. And
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here again we have the same group
surrounding Jesus, a great crowd of disciples
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that are there. Also a great
multitude of people are there as well.
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These people come from Judea, Jerusalem, and even the sea coast of Tire
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and Sidon. And this tells us
now that the follow ween of our our
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Lord is becoming greater that people from
further out are now being aware of his
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ministry and what he does, and
so they are coming together. We see
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the beginning of the fulfillment of some
four among those who know me, I
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mentioned Rahab and Babylon. Behold Felicia
entire, that's the one mentioned with cush.
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This one was born there there,
they say. So we see now
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some of those that are coming from
these far reaches, that are coming to
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be born are the king into the
Kingdom of God. And so we see
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this happening. And these people are
coming to hear, and of course also
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to receive from the Lord, which
might be maybe selfishly they're more important reason
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for coming, but they're going to
hear perhaps the most famous sermon that has
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ever been preached. So they're gonna
be happy they didn't choose that day to
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miss church because they can always say
I was there the day the Lord delivered
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that message. And so of course
verse eighteen informed us to not just coming
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to hear, but they're also coming
because they have need. They have diseases,
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they have unclean spirits, and so
our Lord is going to of course
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heal many of those that come,
if not all. And then in verse
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nineteen we see that all those who
have illnesses or uh, whatever they might
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have, they are seeking to touch
the Lord. And we are told that
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power came out of him and touched
them all. It's a very similar phrase
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in the account of the woman with
the issue of blood in Mark chapter five,
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verse thirty, where remember she came
because she'd been to many doctors and
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grown worse, and she said,
if I can but touch his garment,
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I will be made whole. And
she does touch him, and she is
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made well. And then it says
Jesus perceiving in himself, that power had
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gone out from him. That's similar
phrase to hear again, power has coming
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out from him, so that many
people are being healed well. Let me
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return to the question I broached earlier. Is this sermon in Luke chapter seven
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the same sermon that we have in
Matthew chapter five through seven. Now there's
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certainly many similarities between the accounts,
there's no question about that. Luke's account,
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however, is quite a bit shorter
than the account of Matthews, only
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being part of one chapter, where
Matthews is pretty much all of three chapters.
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But as far as similarities, both
of the sermons begin with beatitudes at
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the beginning, uh, and both
of them end with the parable of the
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two builders, one who builds on
the sand and one who builds on the
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rocks. So they're similar in that
part. But again Matthew says this sermon
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happened after Jesus went up on the
mountain, where Luke specifically mentions it happens
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after Jesus came down from the mountain
to the level. Some would say,
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well, that can be reconciled.
It could be that Jesus was coming down
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from the mount but he didn't go
all the way to so some ascended up,
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and so he met on a level
plateau somewhere between the top some of
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the mountain uh and the bottom as
well. Um, that's possible. It's
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certainly true. The two accounts are
not identical completely. Philip Riickan mentions in
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his commentary that the basic problem and
saying these two are the same sermons is
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the content. Uh. There are
so many differences in content. But has
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Hendrickson notes in his commentary, he
says that this proves to us that the
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apostles were not mere copyist. In
other words, you know, if we
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read the exact same sermon in Luke
that we read in Matthew, we'd say,
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well, Luke just copied Matthew.
But here we see that obviously he
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doesn't just copy Matthew. It's also
mentioned by some that Matthew tended to write
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his Gospel to the Jews, and
so of course he begins his gospel with
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the genealogy that traces back to the
two people. The Jews would be interested
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to know about Abraham and David.
Christ has ancestry there, and of course
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they would say that Luke kept out
much of the Jewish content of the Sermon
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on the Mountain. That's why it
is different. It is certainly possible that
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Jesus also could have repeated a sermon
that he gave on a different occasion.
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I have been known uh to repeat
a sermon that I have preached to a
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different audience when I go to a
different audience. And I think Our Lord's
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sermon would be much more of greater
worth to be repeated than one that I
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have preached. Calvin said, those
who think that Christ's sermon, which is
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here related, is different from the
sermon contained in the sixth chapter of Luke's
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gospel he's writing on Matthew. There
rest their opinion on a very light and
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frivolous argument. So Calvin obviously believed
it was the same sermon. Well,
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I'm not going to solve it for
you this morning, but I just thought
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i'd give you the different opinions.
But now we're gonna look as we begin
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the actual sermon in versus twenty through
twenty three. This is the important part.
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And so in verse twenty, Jesus
begins by lifting up his eyes to
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his or on his disciples. And
I mentioned earlier in verse seventeen there was
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a great crowd of disciples. And
I mentioned also that last week that Jesus
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had called the great card of the
disciples to him to the mount, and
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out of that great crowd, he
chose twelve specifically, And we talked about
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that number twelve and how important that
was, which we also saw in Acts
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chapter one. And so the question
is, when Jesus is giving this sermon,
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is he particularly directing it at the
apostles, or is he particularly directing
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it on the greater crowd of disciples, or is he directing the sermon to
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the multitudes. Now is a pastor
and a preacher of God's word. I
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try very hard not to target individual
people in my messages, even though I
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can say at times it is very
very tempting. UM. I don't know
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Pastor Chua ever has that same temptation. But UM, I try to be
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very careful to not have certain people
in mind when they come upon a particular
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text, although they do come to
mind. But the problem is when you
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do that and you have somebody in
mind. This is what I found out
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earlier in my ministry. When you
have someone you're trying to target and you're
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kind of preaching at them without them
knowing that, you find out at the
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end of the message that that particular
point didn't register with them at all.
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But then some dear saint of God
who has no problem in that area that
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you can discern, comes up and
tells you how she was so affected by
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that particular message. So it just
seems better to just try to tailor the
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message so hopefully you can make application
to everyone. But by saying to that
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crowd, are saying to the disciples, blessed are the poor. There is
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a special way it could be taken
the disciples, because they have now been
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called as apostles left everything to follow
him, so they indeed would be perhaps
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the primary recipients of this particular sermon, But of course it goes out to
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everyone, and so in verse twenty
we have the first of Luke's four be
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attitudes. Matthew all actually gives us
nine, although brother copas that we have
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been praying for the past here Um
actually says they're ten. But I tried
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to get ten out of Matthew.
I couldn't do it, so I don't
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I guess I won't be able to
ask him, but I would like to
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know where he gets ten. But
all four of Luke's do have a corresponding
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one that is found in Matthew.
But Luke's four be attitudes are followed by
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four woes, which Matthew does not
give to us, And then the first
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two um be attitudes. We do
see a difference from how they're found in
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Matthew. In Matthew, well,
let me say this. In Luke he
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stops at the physical characteristic. He
says, blessed are the poor? Blessed?
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Are you that hunger? Now?
He stops there, But in Matthew
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he goes on to add a spiritual
characteristic, so you might be familiar with
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the Matthew beattitude. Blessed are the
poor in spirit, and also matthews Uh
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be attitude about hungry. Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
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And so we have this difference,
and Michael Wilcox says, and he's be
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attitudes. Jesus teaches us to prize
what the world caused calls pitiable, and
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suspect what the world thinks desirable.
And so if we combine the first four
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beatitudes, we find a blessing found
upon the poor, the hungry, the
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weeping, and those who are hated
by man. Now the problem is,
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if we take just those four physical
characteristics without adding anything to them, we
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could say that Jesus is pronouncing a
blessing about anyone in those conditions, whether
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they are believers or not. Because
you may not know this. There's poor
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unbelievers, there are hungry unbelievers,
uh, there are mourning unbelievers, all
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all of these things. And uh
J. C Ryle says, we must
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take good heed that we do not
misunderstand our Lord's meaning when we read these
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expressions. We must not for a
moment suppose the mere fact of being poor
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and hungry and sorrowful and hated by
man will entitle anyone to lay claim to
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an interest in Christ blessing. The
poverty here spoken of is a poverty accompanied
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by grace. The want is a
want entirely entailed by faithful adherence to Jesus.
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The afflictions are the afflictions of the
Gospel. The persecutan is persecution for
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the son of Man's sake. Jesus
does clarify that in the last one,
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where he says it is they received
this hated by men, and that on
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account of the son of Man.
But I don't think we want to completely
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disregard the physical characteristics either. It's
a little difficult here, but we need
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to walk a line. Calvin says
on the first beatitude, Luke gives nothing
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more than a simple metaphor. But
as the poverty of many is accursed and
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unhappy, Matthew expressed more clearly the
intention of Christ. Well, let me
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start with that first beatitude. Blessed
are they? Or blessed are you?
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Who are poor? Is Jesus seeking
to foster class warfare? Warfare? Here
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is he seeking to exclude the non
poor from being blessed Proverbs thirty indicates it's
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actually better neither to be rich or
poor. The writer says in versus,
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haven't through nine two things I ask
of you? Denied them not to me
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before I die? Remove far from
me falsehood. In line, give me
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neither poverty nor riches. Feed me
with the food that is needful for me.
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Lest I be full and deny you
and say who is the Lord?
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Or less I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.
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There, the writer combines, looking
forward to the two first beatitudes that Jesus
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gives here and says, I don't
want to be hungry or full, and
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I don't want to be rich or
poor, because both have their particular danger.
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So that if we just say Jesus
is only speaking to the physically poor,
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now we have kind of a contradiction
between the beatitudes and the writer of
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the Proverbs, and we don't want
to do that at all. Ambrose,
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Saint Ambrose said, poverty is neutral, and I think that's a pretty good
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summation. Jesus will tell a parable
later on that you're very familiar with,
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and Luke sixteen about a certain rich
man and a poor man named Lazarus and
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in the parable, you might remember
the rich man goes to Hades, but
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the poor man goes to Abraham's bosom. But I don't think it's proper from
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that particular parable to say all rich
people are going to Hades and all poor
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people are going to go to Heaven. Augustine noted, he said, poor
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Lazarus is taken into the bosom of
rich Abraham. And that's an interesting way
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to look at it. But I
think the point of the parable is more
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how the rich man treated Lazarus,
how he dealt with his riches, more
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than the fact that he was rich. There are many blessed rich people in
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the Bible, just to name a
few. Abraham, as I just mentioned,
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job was a rich man, David
Solomon, because not all of his
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life was David rich, but Solomon, Joseph of Arimathea, and the Gospels
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and so. But those who are
rich, according to the scriptures, need
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to be careful. And this you
know probably most of us here today,
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I don't know all your financial condition. Probably most of us would say,
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well, we're not rich. But
then again, if we compare ourselves to
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many of the people in the world, we are pretty much rich and we
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could understand that. So Luke Jesus
says, later in Luke verse twelve,
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verse fifteen, take care and be
on your guard against all covetousness, for
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one's life does not consist in the
abundance of his possessions. Later in Luke
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eight, Jesus says, it's easier
for a camel to go through the eye
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of a needle than for a rich
person to enter the Kingdom of God.
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I do believe, by the way
in that scripture he's talking about a literal
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rich man and a literal eye of
a needle, not a gate in the
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temple wall. That's that's my own
thinking there. But above all, we
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need to be those people, whatever
our financial condition. We do need to
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be those who are poor in spirit, who do not think of ourselves more
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highly than we ought to think.
There's a lot of scriptures in the Bible.
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I'm not going to read them to
you. You know, many of
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them that exhort us into humility.
In verse twenty one, Luke has Jesus
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blessing those who are hungry. Now
again Matthew says hunger and thirst for righteousness.
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But again those who are hungry again, not saying that Jesus is just
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addressing it to the physically hungry.
But those who are, the Bible says
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in Revelation seven sixteen, they shall
hunger no more, neither thirst anymore.
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The sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat. And so I
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think again, yes, there is
an application to those who are physically hungry,
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but I think it's more towards a
spiritual hunger and thirst. And I'll
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come back to that in the application. The second part of verse twenty one
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refers to those who weep now and
the promises that they will laugh in Matthews,
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he says, those who mourn,
and they will be comforted. So
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in Luke they're gonna laugh in Matthew, they're going and to be comfort But
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again here it seems to me that
we must be looking more at the spiritual,
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because certainly every human being who has
ever lived in any length of time
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upon this earth has at some point
or another mourned about something. But we
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cannot say from the scripture that every
single one of those people who have mourned
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will be comforted. But if those
of us who are believers, we do
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read in Revelation twenty one, he
will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
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and death shall be no more.
Neither shall there be mourning, nor
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crying, nor pain anymore, for
the former things have passed away. And
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those people are described in verse three
of that chapter of those whose God,
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who God is their God. And
so when I say this morning that we
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can be those who are mourning,
I'm not saying that therefore as Christians we
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ought to always be glum and downcast. Maybe you, like I have known
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some people like that in your life, who always seems uh to be down.
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They never seemed to be happy.
You you've never seen this. And
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I remember in one of my first
churches, I had an intern that was
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working with me, and she was
she said, um, not not an
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OPC intern, obviously, but she
she said about a particular woman who was
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kind of a pain to me.
And she said, I've never seen her
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smile. And I thought, that's
true, I never have, uh.
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And so the Bibles and tam we
should be like that. The old the
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old evangelist Gypsy Smith, not a
Presbyterian as far as I know, but
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but he said a lot of Christians
go around with faces so long they could
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eat open me. A lot of
a gas pipe uh. So, we
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don't want to be those kind of
people. Um. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote
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an interesting thing in his diary one
one Sunday. Uh he wrote, he
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wrote this, Um, he said, I've been to church today and am
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not depressed. I don't know if
he always got depressed after being in church,
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but that's what he wrote in his
diary. Um. So Proverbs seventeen
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twenty two. We know, perhaps
the scripture of joyful or Mary Heart,
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the King James says, is good
medicine, but a crushed spirit drives up
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the bones. There's debate. I
don't know that it's ever gonna be answered
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until we get to heaven. That
there's debate about whether Jesus ever laughed.
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People have debated that. They say, you know, the Bible tells us
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that Jesus wept, but they never
tell us that Jesus laughed. But then
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that is an argument from silence.
That's just to say, you know that,
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therefore Jesus never coughed or sneezed or
went to the bathroom, because the
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Bible doesn't say that. I don't
know that we can argue that way.
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So I don't know in my own
mind I think he did, but I
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won't. I'm not gonna have a
theolological argument with you after the service about
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that. So the last beatitude in
our text verse twenty two, blessed are
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you, and people hate you and
they exclude you and revile you and spurn
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your name is evil and account of
this on a man. And again here
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we're not saying this is the attitude
is for anyone who's ever been hated or
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people don't like to be around you, or all of those things that they
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exclude you, and uh and so
uh it's for those even as Christians.
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I'd say, people can hate you
and not hate you for being a Christian.
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If you understand what my meaning there, that people may hate you,
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but not as being a Christian.
And to illustrate that, let me let
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me bear my soul to you for
a little bit here this morning. I
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have to confess to you. I
hate I hate, I absolutely hate calling
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call centers. I despise it.
But if you listen to me on some
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of those calls, you would quickly
pick up that I hate calling call centers.
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Recently, I have been dealing with
the company that messed up in order
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I made for shoes that I wanted
to have here in Tucson, so I
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put my shipping address as Tucson,
but they instead decided to send it to
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my shipping address UM, which is
some kind of glitch I guess between some
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sites and PayPal and if you pay
by PayPal to call anyway, that was
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that was what happened. So I
UM, I tried calling their call center
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twice and after waiting fifteen minutes to
call, just disconnected. So I did
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it again and the same thing happened. So then I went online and I
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sent them an email saying I'm trying
to get ahold of you, but I
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haven't been able to, so please
I need these to be shipped to my
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address here in Arizona. And uh, I didn't hear anything from them,
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and then finally I found out,
hey, we've delivered your order. And
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then I got a response back about
well we already delivered it and all of
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this and trying to resolve this,
I had made two or three calls and
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it was not like my last call
or it's just really I know, this
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is hard to believe. It's such
a gentle soul as I, but I
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was really frustrated, really frustrated,
and I was talking to someone and I
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don't know, it wouldn't have mattered. I don't think who I talked to,
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but I was upset at that time, and um my upset spilled over
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very clearly to the gentleman that I
was talking to. And when I ended
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the call, I realized that that
representative probably didn't like me very much,
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and it had nothing to do with
the fact I was a Christian. It
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had everything to do the fact that
I was a jerk. And I realized
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that, and so I ended up
because of my conscience, writing an email
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back to the say to the call
center saying please, to this call center
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representative, please extend my apologies.
I was frustrated. I treated him in
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a way that I shouldn't have,
and so I'm sorry. And uh so
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again, we need to be careful
and people might not like us for other
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reasons and they might have nothing to
do with our faith. And we oh,
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people hate me, I'm going to
get a big reward. Well maybe
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not, so think about that.
But this prophecy does contain, I mean,
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the beattitude does contain the prophecy,
and the prophecy is that indeed the
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people of God are going to be
persecuted and they are going to suffer.
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Dietrich Bonhoffer, who had every right
to write the two different rights there on
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this particular subject, said, suffering, then is the badge of true discipleship.
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The disciple is not above his master. Following Christ means suffering, because
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we have to suffer. That is
why Luther reckons suffering among the marks of
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the true Church, and one of
the memoranda drawn up in preparation for the
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Augsford Confession similarly defines the church as
the community of those who are persecuted and
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martyred for the Gospel's sake. Discipleship
means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and
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is therefore not at all surprising that
Christians should be called upon to suffer.
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In fact, it is a joy
in a token of his grace. Kelvin
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said, we cannot be Christ's soldiers
on any other condition than to have the
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greater part of the world rising in
hostility against us and pursuing us even to
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death. Now I'm not sure if
this is just a pastor Kufus thing or
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other people can join with me,
but oftentimes in my prayers and in my
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daily thinking, I'm saying, Lord, why am I not more persecuted for
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my faith? I wonder that you
could call me a masochist if you'd like
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to, But I do oftentimes wonder
this, and I'm not trying to ignudge
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you into behavior that would just have
this to happen. But I do think
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if we really lived out our Christian
faith they it ought to be lived out,
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that we would face more persecution.
I can tell you there was a
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time in my life, and some
of you perhaps can identify with this as
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well, and excuse me from my
Pentecost to lingle here, but there was
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a time I was more on fire
for Jesus than I am now, and
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I received a lot more persecution in
those days. And I could tell you
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some of those things, but I
don't need to glorify that. But I
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can tell you a lot of more
people nowadays like me than used to like
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me. You can just think about
that, okay, Well, let me
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deal with the last three verses.
The four woes that correspond to these be
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attitudes as well. Do we have
the blessings and the curses? Amount evil
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and mount Garrison here in the sense, and the word woe means more like
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alas or or a lamentation, not
not a condemnation that Jesus giving, but
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saying, woe to you, alas
to you, how terrible to you when
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people speak well of you? For
example in verse twenty six, and again
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I'd say why do people speak well
of you? And Jesus compares this to
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the false prophets. J c Ryle
said, to be universally popular is a
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most unsatisfactory symptom, and one of
which a minister of Christ should always be
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afraid. It may well make him
doubt whether he's faithfully doing his duty and
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honestly declaring all the counsel of God. Well, I don't have a lot
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of time to talk about those woes, so I'm going to skip forward,
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so that confinishist message today. Let
me make a couple of quick applications and
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have a couple longer ones. The
quick application is as as we look at
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the blessings and the woes that Jesus
gives. I think it is a good
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application to us as preachers. We
can't all be all blessing and we can't
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be all woe. We can't just
give our people the blessings all the time,
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which I've been to churches where that
is exactly what happens. But neither
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can we be those that always give
the woes that I've been to churches like
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that. We need to be able
to give law and gospel as pastors,
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and we need If we neglect either
one of those or either the blessing of
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the woes, we're not going to
preach the full consul of God. Secondly,
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about rich and poor, I just
want to mention, which I may
402
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have mentioned before, but recognized,
that riches do have an inherent danger those
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of you that are in the parable
study. No we talked about is the
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deceitfulness what Jesus calls in Matthew the
deceitfulness of riches, which means that every
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time we touch money, we have
the possibility of being deceived in some way,
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and we need to be careful how
we use money and what we do
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with that. And again, riches
are deceitful because they can even mask our
408
00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:26.640
desire for them or how much of
a hold they have on our life.
409
00:31:26.680 --> 00:31:30.559
We think sometimes it doesn't affect us, but sometimes we are deceived, and
410
00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:34.720
indeed it does have an effect on
our life. But I want to make
411
00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:41.599
a couple like I said longer applications
One is what is it that you and
412
00:31:41.640 --> 00:31:47.599
I hunger for? And again it's
a convicting thing to me to wonder how
413
00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:52.960
much I actually hunger and thirst after
righteousness when I read the words of the
414
00:31:53.000 --> 00:32:00.440
Psalmist and Song forty two has a
dear pants for flowing streams. So pants
415
00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:04.920
my soul for you, Oh God, my soul thirst for God, for
416
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:08.960
the living God. When shall I
come and appear before God? Or so
417
00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:15.480
I'm sixty one? Oh God,
you are my God. Earnestly I seek
418
00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:20.519
you, my soul thirst for you, My flesh faints for you in a
419
00:32:20.680 --> 00:32:24.920
dry and weary land when there is
no water. And let me say to
420
00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:30.000
you, just from personal life,
my own personal life, it's very possible
421
00:32:30.039 --> 00:32:36.079
for our spiritual hunger and thirst to
diminish over time. There can be a
422
00:32:36.200 --> 00:32:42.359
cumulative effect of sin. There can
be an accumulative effect of our interaction with
423
00:32:42.440 --> 00:32:45.559
the world that can cause this to
happen. I'm not trying to put anybody
424
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:51.480
under condemnation. I just examined my
own heart. I'm just telling you what
425
00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:58.480
I feel. Two of the commentaries
that I consulted both mentioned a parable that
426
00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:02.359
was told by sore and care reguard, which is very, very applicable to
427
00:33:02.519 --> 00:33:07.119
this particular beatitude, and so I
thought I would share it with you this
428
00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:10.920
morning as well. And maybe you've
heard this. A wild duck was flying
429
00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:15.400
northward with his mates across Europe one
spring. En route, he landed in
430
00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:20.440
a barnyard in Denmark, where he
quickly made friends with the resident tame ducks.
431
00:33:21.759 --> 00:33:24.640
This is a kind of a fictional
story. The wild duck, enjoying
432
00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:28.960
corn and fresh water, decided to
stay for an hour, than for a
433
00:33:29.039 --> 00:33:32.240
day, and for a week,
and finally for a month. At the
434
00:33:32.319 --> 00:33:37.000
end of that time, he contemplated
joining his friends in the vast Northland,
435
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:39.759
but he'd begun to enjoy the safety
of the barnyard and the company of the
436
00:33:39.799 --> 00:33:45.559
tame ducks, so he stayed for
the summer. One autumn day, when
437
00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:50.640
his wild mates were returning overhead,
he heard their quacking. It stirred him
438
00:33:50.680 --> 00:33:53.440
with delight, and he enthusiastically flapped
his wings and rose into the air to
439
00:33:53.519 --> 00:33:59.200
join them. Much to his dismay, he could rise no higher than the
440
00:33:59.240 --> 00:34:01.880
eaves of the bar, and as
he waddled back to the safety of the
441
00:34:01.920 --> 00:34:06.759
barn yard, he muttered to himself, I'm satisfied here. I have plenty
442
00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:09.880
of food and the area is good. Why should I leave? So he
443
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:15.039
spent the winter on the farm.
Next spring, when the wild ducks flew
444
00:34:15.079 --> 00:34:19.039
overhead again, he felt a strange
stirring in his breast, but he did
445
00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:22.519
not even try to fly to meet
them. When they returned in the fall,
446
00:34:23.079 --> 00:34:28.440
they again invited him to rejoin them, but this time the duck did
447
00:34:28.440 --> 00:34:32.039
not so much as noticed them.
He simply kept on eating the corn.
448
00:34:34.559 --> 00:34:37.320
And I think sometimes in my own
life, I'm just eating the corn.
449
00:34:38.360 --> 00:34:43.000
And I realized how true that can
be. And let me ask you a
450
00:34:43.079 --> 00:34:46.880
second question. I realized these are
searching questions this morning. What is it
451
00:34:46.920 --> 00:34:52.280
that you weep for? What is
it that you mourned for? There are
452
00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:58.920
many things we weep for that the
ungodly people weep for as well. And
453
00:34:59.039 --> 00:35:02.360
we lay our beloved into the ground, we weep for them, so to
454
00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:07.880
the young godly. When we hear
of somebody's sad condition, or some terrible
455
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:13.559
tragedy has happened somewhere in the world, we weep, But so do the
456
00:35:13.639 --> 00:35:16.760
ungodly. When we watch a story
or a movie with a sad, er
457
00:35:16.840 --> 00:35:22.679
happy, ending we may weep.
I mentioned to some of you that one
458
00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:27.280
of my favorite movies is the Australian
movie called The Castle, and I think
459
00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:30.159
I've seen it five or more times, and I've cried at the end of
460
00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:34.199
every time, at the end of
the movie. Does that make me spiritual?
461
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:38.320
Does that make me someone that Jesus
is speaking of? Here? But
462
00:35:38.360 --> 00:35:43.440
do I weep about the things of
God? What about the condition of the
463
00:35:43.519 --> 00:35:46.519
ungodly in this world? For those
who are lost in perishing? Do I
464
00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:52.559
weep for them? Some he who
goes out weeping, bearing seed and sewing,
465
00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:58.519
I shall come home with shouts of
joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
466
00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:02.800
I mentioned earlier the spiritual fire.
I can honestly say I don't weep
467
00:36:02.840 --> 00:36:07.559
for souls as much as I once
did. What about the condition of the
468
00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:13.360
church today? Do we weep for
that? Jeremiah, a voice on the
469
00:36:13.400 --> 00:36:16.920
Bear heights, has heard the weeping
and pleading of Israel's sons. Because they
470
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:22.360
perverted their way, they have forgotten
the Lord their God. So six my
471
00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:29.880
eyes shed streams of tears because people
do not keep your law as a ten.
472
00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:32.039
Six and Ezra withdrew from before the
house of God, and went into
473
00:36:32.039 --> 00:36:37.920
the chamber of Johohanna, the son
of Elisha, where he spent the night,
474
00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:42.599
neither eating bread nor drinking water,
for he was mourning over the faithlessness
475
00:36:42.679 --> 00:36:46.000
of the ex house Philippians three eighteen. Paul says, for many of whom
476
00:36:46.039 --> 00:36:51.119
I have often told you, and
now tell you even with tears walk his
477
00:36:51.400 --> 00:36:57.119
enemies of the cross of Christ.
And I asked myself when I read these
478
00:36:57.119 --> 00:37:00.320
scriptures, how often do you mourn
for them? How often do you weep
479
00:37:00.360 --> 00:37:05.280
for them? And again, I'm
not trying to condemn you or put anybody
480
00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:09.760
under some condemnation, But it's questions
that we can ask ourselves as we hear
481
00:37:09.800 --> 00:37:16.840
our Lord's blessing put upon these conditions. In one last application, concerns blessed
482
00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:22.960
are the poor, John McArthur writes
the rich in view here are those who
483
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:27.559
imagine themselves to be rich in the
spiritual realm, who think that their righteous
484
00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:32.159
deeds are sufficient to obtain salvation.
Now, I don't think I entirely agree
485
00:37:32.280 --> 00:37:36.960
with John MacArthur there. I don't
think that's entirely what Jesus is talking about
486
00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:40.960
here. However, I do think
he makes a very good point in coming
487
00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:45.400
to Christ. We have to come
as our songs that we saying. We're
488
00:37:45.400 --> 00:37:49.480
saying one at the beginning will sing
one of the end of sinners, poor
489
00:37:49.480 --> 00:37:52.960
and needy, poor and wretched,
that we come to the Lord not with
490
00:37:53.119 --> 00:38:00.920
anything of ourselves. We are beggars
who have nothing to offer. We have
491
00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:06.159
nothing, we contribute nothing. Our
salvation is only through Christ and only through
492
00:38:06.159 --> 00:38:08.519
His death, and has nothing to
do with anything I do or don't do.
493
00:38:08.559 --> 00:38:12.039
It. Even as I'm talking about
some of those things this morning,
494
00:38:12.239 --> 00:38:16.480
my salvation in Christ has nothing to
do with those things. It is totally
495
00:38:16.880 --> 00:38:23.519
of God's free mercy. I want
to tell you a little story. I've
496
00:38:23.559 --> 00:38:25.760
told him many places. I don't
think i've told it here, but if
497
00:38:25.760 --> 00:38:30.280
I have, please forgive. I'm
old, I forget, But this this
498
00:38:30.400 --> 00:38:35.000
is the story, and it talks
about a man who goes to heaven is
499
00:38:35.039 --> 00:38:37.840
met by Peter at the gate.
This is also an apocryphal story, in
500
00:38:37.880 --> 00:38:39.559
case you're wondering, it's not not
a true one as far as I know.
501
00:38:40.719 --> 00:38:45.920
And anyway, Peter says to the
man as he comes, we're glad
502
00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:50.880
to have you here, and we
like to admit you into Heaven. But
503
00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:53.920
you know in order to get in
you need a thousand points. And the
504
00:38:53.960 --> 00:38:59.199
man said, well, thousands,
thousand points. How to get points?
505
00:38:59.199 --> 00:39:01.119
And Peter said, what, Just
go through your life with us and tell
506
00:39:01.199 --> 00:39:05.840
us the things you've done, and
we'll let him up. I said,
507
00:39:05.880 --> 00:39:07.480
well, okay, he says,
well, I'll tell you this. So
508
00:39:07.639 --> 00:39:10.360
I was. I was a deacon
in my church. This isn't Andrew Bill,
509
00:39:10.679 --> 00:39:14.880
But I was a deacon in my
church, and I served the church
510
00:39:14.920 --> 00:39:17.119
for over forty years, and I
served them faithfully. I was even the
511
00:39:17.159 --> 00:39:22.239
treasurer for a while, and I
did this all time. And I think
512
00:39:22.239 --> 00:39:23.800
my church said I did it faithfully
and honorably, and I did what I
513
00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:28.400
was supposed to do, and I
did that for forty years. Peter goes,
514
00:39:28.960 --> 00:39:36.000
great, five points. Oh okay, well, he says, let
515
00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:37.840
me let me think about that.
He said, Well, i'll tell you,
516
00:39:37.840 --> 00:39:44.119
he said, I in my church, I taught junior high boys Sunday
517
00:39:44.119 --> 00:39:50.199
school. And I taught it for
many, many years again, maybe as
518
00:39:50.199 --> 00:39:53.159
many as forty years. Again that
I taught these boys Sunday after Sunday,
519
00:39:53.159 --> 00:39:57.719
missing only one or two Sundays a
year. And I faithfully talked to those
520
00:39:57.719 --> 00:40:00.239
boys and so some of them grew
up to be men of God, and
521
00:40:00.639 --> 00:40:05.079
and and nobody in my church wanted
to teach that class. And I did
522
00:40:05.119 --> 00:40:10.440
it faithfully, and Peter goes fantastic, that's another five points. He goes,
523
00:40:10.440 --> 00:40:15.599
well, um, he said,
I I always visited my neighbors.
524
00:40:15.800 --> 00:40:19.760
I went door to dorthwalk up my
town. I handed out tracks to every
525
00:40:19.760 --> 00:40:22.920
place in my town. And my
neighbors from my neighbors were sick. I
526
00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:24.519
always made meals for them, and
I took the meals over to them,
527
00:40:24.679 --> 00:40:29.880
and they offered to pray with them. And I did this at different places
528
00:40:29.920 --> 00:40:34.440
and different times as I moved around
the town, and and I was always
529
00:40:34.440 --> 00:40:39.239
saifeful. And Peter's great. Five
more points, and the guy started thinking,
530
00:40:39.239 --> 00:40:45.400
he goes man five, he says, well, he said fifteen points.
531
00:40:45.480 --> 00:40:47.039
He says, he says, at
this rate, I'm never gonna get
532
00:40:47.079 --> 00:40:50.880
into heaven. But by the grace
of God, Peter said, that's nine
533
00:40:51.639 --> 00:40:55.400
five points. Come on in.
Well, the point is, I think,
534
00:40:55.400 --> 00:40:59.760
obvious, we're not gonna get into
heaven because of what we've done.
535
00:41:00.119 --> 00:41:02.679
We're not gonna make it there.
We're gonnaly make it because of what Christ
536
00:41:02.719 --> 00:41:07.079
has done. And we can rejoice
in that. And if you never have
537
00:41:08.119 --> 00:41:13.360
come to the cross, make Christ
your lord. He's not asking for anything.
538
00:41:13.880 --> 00:41:16.039
As the song said this morning,
if you wait until you're better,
539
00:41:16.239 --> 00:41:21.679
you're never going to come. And
that is so true. It says as
540
00:41:21.719 --> 00:41:25.719
well. The only fitness he requires
is to feel your need of him.
541
00:41:25.840 --> 00:41:30.559
That's it. Just to be able
to say I need you, Lord Jesus,
542
00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:37.280
and he will come to that prayer
to you that are hungry, and
543
00:41:37.320 --> 00:41:40.239
he will feel you can we pray, Our Lord, We do thank you
544
00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:45.280
for your word this morning. We
thank you for the way it comforts us,
545
00:41:45.320 --> 00:41:50.679
but it also stirs us up,
and it also perhaps helps us to
546
00:41:50.719 --> 00:41:57.199
look at our own lives as to
how much we fit the characteristics. So
547
00:41:57.320 --> 00:42:01.639
Lord is believers that are here I
are, You would indeed stir us and
548
00:42:01.719 --> 00:42:07.440
help us, Lord to examine our
own lives and Lord to know where perhaps
549
00:42:07.440 --> 00:42:13.840
there are deficiencies that you would have
us address. We want to be those
550
00:42:14.039 --> 00:42:16.840
who are blessed because of our hunger, who are blessed because we mourn,
551
00:42:17.639 --> 00:42:22.440
who are blessed because we're persecuted,
not for wrong reasons, but persecuted on
552
00:42:22.480 --> 00:42:27.239
account of the son of Man.
And Lord as well, I ask if
553
00:42:27.239 --> 00:42:30.920
there are those who have never truly
committed their lives to you, and Lord,
554
00:42:30.960 --> 00:42:37.679
they've never come by your grace and
by your calling and by your sovereign
555
00:42:37.760 --> 00:42:42.199
election, that even so, in
this message and serving this morning, they
556
00:42:42.239 --> 00:42:45.440
may be drawn to you. And
that would be the greatest thing that could
557
00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:51.199
happen. But Lord, I ask
you to help us all to realize who
558
00:42:51.199 --> 00:42:55.159
we are and to be thankful for
the marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
559
00:42:55.920 --> 00:43:00.920
grace that exceeds our sin and despair. Here we thank you, Luke,
560
00:43:01.360 --> 00:43:05.880
for these things we prayed in Christ's
name. Amen.
