Matthew 5:1-12 Part 1

[0:00] When I come to prepare, I get part way through and I think, this is a lot more involved than I thought. And in order to do it justice, I find myself struggling sometimes to get to exactly what the scripture is saying.

[0:15] And probably more than many, this morning scripture has challenged me, and you'll see why when we read it. But you will recall that we have read the first four chapters of Matthew's Gospel and we're on chapter five today.

[0:28] And chapter five is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Now, Matthew's Gospel, just to give you a bit of structure, the first four chapters give you credibility stuff for Jesus.

[0:47] It outlines who he is and why he has a right to call himself Messiah. And you can recall that using Matthew's genealogy and then adding to it Luke's genealogy, we work out that he was descended from all the right people to call himself Messiah.

[1:05] We saw that he was born of a virgin, as prophesied in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter seven. We saw that he turned up on time using the prophecies of Daniel, that the Magi turned up because they had had fellowship with Daniel.

[1:24] And so they arrived expecting to find the king. And we also know from the Magi's gifts that they not only expected to find the king, but they knew why the king had come.

[1:38] They bought stuff that was appropriate for a burial. They bought the right spices and they bought gold, which is the present you would normally give to a new king.

[1:49] And frankincense and myrrh to do with burial mostly. And so all of the first four chapters do this and they bring us.

[2:01] We remember also that what was foreclosed in the scriptures that Jesus would have a forerunner. And so we did a study on John the Baptist, who was that forerunner, as prophesied in Isaiah chapter 46.

[2:17] I can't remember. So everything goes towards the fact that Jesus was the predicted Messiah.

[2:28] And you notice if you've got one of these Bibles that does all the words of Christ in red, that from chapter 5 through to the end of chapter 7, it goes red. So the next couple of chapters, the next three chapters, 5, 6 and 7, we're going to be dealing with things that are recorded speech of Jesus, giving his first teaching.

[2:49] Now from here on, the Gospel of Matthew alternates between giving a discourse and then some examples of what Jesus did, his ministry, his miracles.

[3:03] So you get teaching miracles, teaching miracles, teaching miracles, and there are five of them, five discourses. This that we're dealing with this morning is the first discourse. And we know, don't we, from our study last week, that Jesus' ministry had already begun.

[3:22] And it began very dynamically. He was going around the region, preaching the Gospel, went back to his old hometown in Nazareth as well, where they kind of kicked him out and tried to kill him, wanted to throw him off a mountain.

[3:33] But it was a very dynamic time. And he was preaching the Gospel, he was healing the sick, he was delivering people from demons.

[3:45] It was a very, very active, dynamic, miracle-working ministry. And people flocked from miles around to see him. And we put a map up last week, if you remember, and it showed that these people had walked, some of them, 50, 60, even 100 miles, to get a touch from Jesus and to hear him teach.

[4:06] And they were all astonished at the level of his teaching, which didn't follow the tradition of the rabbinical teaching, which always was a quotation of past rabbis.

[4:18] What Jesus did was he didn't quote past rabbis. He came up with his own quotes because he was the Son of God. And he wrote all that stuff anyway, using human input to write it.

[4:30] So he didn't have to seek authority from others to say what he had to say. And that was unheard of among rabbis. So now we're going to get into this first recorded teaching of Jesus.

[4:45] You'll be pleased to know I'm not going to do all three chapters this morning. In fact, this morning, we're going to try to do the Beatitudes. And we may not get through them because I tend to try and keep this to 45 minutes.

[5:02] And I reckon you could give about three weeks to the Beatitudes. But let's see how we go. Let's read it together. So Matthew chapter 5.

[5:14] When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And after he sat down, his disciples came up to him. He opened his mouth and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[5:33] Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

[5:46] Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive 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.

[6:02] Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

[6:17] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. If your Bible has this title, the beatitudes, the word beatitudes means supremely blessed.

[6:38] And that seems a contradiction in terms from what we've just read. It says supremely blessed. And then it says you're supremely blessed, apparently, if you're poor in spirit.

[6:51] And you're supremely blessed if you're mourning. And you're supremely blessed if you're meek. My version says gentle, but the word is meek.

[7:02] And it kind of means you don't really fight your own corner. It's a humility. It's what appears in the Bible in other places, such as where it says, if someone strikes you on the right cheek, give them your left cheek.

[7:19] And if someone asks you to walk a mile with them, walk two. This is meekness. This is humility and preparedness to go the second mile and preparedness to lay things down rather than fight your corner.

[7:36] So why are you blessed in these circumstances? It's almost a contradiction. You're blessed if you're poor in spirit.

[7:47] Well, I think just by considering that, you can understand why I struggled to prepare a study this morning. Of the five discourses, this is the longest.

[8:00] There's 107 verses of this discourse. And the first thing we need to notice is, he went to this hill with a multitude of people, but he took his disciples to one side.

[8:15] And this first discourse was teaching the disciples. It wasn't for the general public. This was not evangelism. This was teaching godly principles to the people who believed.

[8:28] We don't know how many of them there were. But it was a smaller multitude than he started with. It might have only been 12, but I suspect there was a lot more, because as we got close to the crucifixion, they all ran off.

[8:43] So I suspect there was a large number of believers. And it was believers to whom he was addressing this discourse. And I think as a church, we must take note of this.

[8:54] The church, and I know there are some who would disagree strongly with what I'm about to say, the church meetings are not the place for evangelism.

[9:07] They are the place for building up the body of Christ. They're the place for the flock to find food. We feed the flock in the church. I've been to many churches where every single meeting is an evangelistic meeting.

[9:23] And without exception, I can say that in all of those churches, the congregation were poorly taught. They had no depth. They didn't understand a lot of the things that keep us going in the faith, a lot of the deeper principles.

[9:38] They hadn't answered for themselves all the awkward questions. They just turned up and gave a gospel message every week. And I went to many churches like that as a young Christian. That's not the purpose of these gatherings.

[9:50] The purpose of these gatherings is to feed the flock. Evangelism is what you do with unsaved people. And you don't get very many unsaved people come to these meetings. Evangelism is what you do with your friends and your unsaved family members, where you kind of gossip the gospel and you introduce the gospel, I hope, at every single opportunity.

[10:11] Right? When they say, what's my father? Was one who, you asked him the time. He'd say, it's time you got saved. He never missed an opportunity to get in with the gospel.

[10:24] But the church meeting is for feeding. It's the food trough of the saints. And so he starts with his disciples.

[10:35] So he takes these believers and he says to them, and he took a rabbinical stance here, where it says he sat down. They were all standing up. He sat down.

[10:47] That is a typical Jewish rabbinical thing to do. Right? And we do this where all of you sit down and I stand up. I like the other way around.

[10:58] I think I should sit down and you should stand up. Having said that, this particular discourse, if you read it straight through without stopping, you're talking, what, 15 minutes? I think I'm going to be here longer than 15 minutes.

[11:12] So it's better if you sit. But the typical rabbinical thing was the rabbi sits and delivers his teaching to a standing congregation. And one of the reasons they were standing is so they wouldn't fall asleep.

[11:26] Which I think is funny, having had people fall asleep when I've been speaking. I'd like to think it wasn't that I'm that boring, but you never know. So he starts to teach and he says, blessed are you if you're poor in spirit.

[11:44] What does it mean to be poor in spirit? And how can it be a blessing to be poor in spirit? Well, what it means, if you dig around in the words of it, it means you're not spiritually arrogant.

[11:58] You haven't put yourself up on any spiritual pedestal. Now, of course, their society was absolutely full of religious people who put themselves up on spiritual pedestals.

[12:11] We are the keepers of the law. We live by the letter of the law. And they kind of demanded from the people that the people put them on a pedestal because they were religious.

[12:25] And they went around with their phylacteries tied to their forehead. And they made loud prayers in public and did all sorts of public demonstrations. The modern phrase for this is virtue signaling.

[12:36] I don't know if you've come across that phrase recently, but a lot of the political things that are going on at the moment, people deliberately do things so that everybody will know they're doing the right thing. That's why you get so many film styles getting into the periphery of politics and trying to say things that are in keeping with the acceptable narrative.

[12:56] That's what this sermon is saying. You don't need to be like that. You need to realize you are an unmitigated, dire, horrible, unrepentant until recently, sinner.

[13:11] You have no spiritual status. Because it's only from that point of saying, we said it when we studied John the Baptist. I'm just a voice.

[13:23] John the Baptist, the greatest prophet that ever lived, said, I'm just a voice. I'm not even fit to carry your shoes. I'm just a voice. So, this is what it's saying.

[13:37] You are blessed if you've got this true perception of your own spirituality, which, outside of Christ, there's nothing.

[13:48] There's nothing you have to boast about other than the fact that you are in Christ Jesus. All you're boasting is reserved for him. St. Paul said this when he said, you know, I boast of nothing save that I am in Christ.

[14:04] He never elevated himself. He elevated Jesus all the time. John the Baptist did the same thing. So, the reason you're blessed is because you understand your own destitute position spiritually.

[14:22] Because from there, you can go anywhere in Christ. And it's necessary to perceive that you are a sinner and that you are in that dire straits position, that you are spiritually destitute.

[14:34] In order to come to Christ and be saved. The ones who remain spiritually arrogant don't ever come down to that point of repentance and get saved in the first place.

[14:47] That's the point that's being made here. So, he's saying this to believers now. He's saying, you are blessed because you're poor in spirit. You have no heirs and graces.

[15:00] We should all have no heirs and graces. And please, if you ever see me with heirs and graces, give me a slapping. Because it's so easy for people who preach to develop heirs and graces.

[15:13] I don't want them. Then it goes on and says, verse 4, Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Now, if you're mourning, you normally mourn for someone who's died.

[15:27] Or something you have significantly, or something significant that you own that you have lost. Now, you don't associate mourning with blessing.

[15:39] When you've just lost someone, you've just been bereaved, or you've just lost something valuable. Normally, you're glum. You're down in the mouth. You wish you hadn't lost them or it. You are someone who normally would be sad.

[15:55] And yet it says, blessed are those who mourn. So, once again, we have to say, well, the loss of what is being mourned here?

[16:06] That means that you're blessed. And most of the speakers on the topic come up with a variety of things, most of which I would agree with. They mourn, for example, that Christ had to die to pay for our sins.

[16:21] So, you know, that's one consideration. There's room for mourning there. When you look at the brutality of the crucifixion. I mean, I think it was Paula said to me a week or two back.

[16:38] She sometimes wonders and says, why does there have to be so much blood? But I think maybe part of the answer to that is that it helps us to mourn.

[16:52] We got ourselves in such a mess. We lost complete favour with God. There was nothing in us that was desirable for God whatsoever.

[17:04] We were abhorrent to him. As it says in Romans, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were at our most abhorrent, Christ died for us.

[17:15] So, two things. We can mourn the fact that we fell so far. And we can mourn the fact that God himself had to come and die to set us free from that.

[17:29] So, it is mourning because you are bereft. I mean, there are times, I can't speak for you, but there are times when I consider what Jesus did for me.

[17:43] And it reduces me to tears. But by the same token, whilst I mourn that, I know that without that I would never have been set free.

[17:55] I would never have been saved. And I wouldn't have the future that I now have. None of which I can earn myself is another reason for mourning. I can't make myself right with God.

[18:11] I'm a sinful man. I can't do it. So, I mourn that fact that I'm so sinful and so incapable, yet I'm absolutely provided for by what he has done.

[18:25] And so, I get there, not by anything I've done, and I'm under no illusion. I didn't contribute to my own salvation. My friend Bill put it like this.

[18:36] He said, it's like having a motorbike accident and finishing up in the ditch with broken arms and legs. And you're lying there groaning. And somebody comes up and says, can I help you out of the ditch? And all you have to do, you can't help yourself out of the ditch.

[18:48] All you have to do is say, yes, please help me out of the ditch. And I think when we get to that state, and I did get to that state 40 years ago when I first got saved, I did get to that state where I knew that I was ugly.

[19:07] I mean, you would not have loved what I was, and God certainly wouldn't have loved what I was, because of any attributes of mine. And at the same time as I knew that, I knew that he did love me.

[19:24] And he came to me with his salvation, not because of anything I'd done, but in spite of everything I'd done. And that has never, ever left me.

[19:39] And when I consider it, it still brings me to the brink of tears, that when I was at my most abhorrent, he loved me. So, I began to understand that.

[19:57] Now, please bear with me, because I don't feel I have yet fully understood this. Because it kind of ties your brain in knots. But I can mourn my own inadequacy.

[20:13] I can mourn the fact that my sin was the cause, with a few mates, my sin was the cause of Christ being crucified. And he could have walked away, but he didn't.

[20:27] That's why I'm blessed. I mourn the reason it happened. I mourn the fact that Adam sinned. And through Adam, I sinned. I mourn all of that. But I'm blessed.

[20:40] Because I saw that. Because God showed me that. And because that paved the way for me to get saved. Am I making sense?

[20:51] Because when I first started to put this together, I wondered if I was making sense to myself, never mind other people. This whole thing about mourning.

[21:06] If you turn to Isaiah, chapter 61, you will see what I believe is a prophetic prediction or reference to this whole thing.

[21:26] Now this is the scripture that Jesus quoted when he stood in the temple in Nazareth. And after he'd finished doing this particular thing, they tried to throw him off a cliff.

[21:40] But this is the scripture he quoted. And he said, The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted, sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners.

[21:57] To proclaim the favourable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, and to comfort all who mourn. Everything that Jesus did was to comfort those who mourn.

[22:14] It doesn't say here that they were mourning the dead, although that still, I mean, when my father died, yes, I mourned his passing, but I knew where he'd gone, so I didn't stay in mourning for very long.

[22:27] In fact, there was a point at which I became quite jealous of where he'd gone. So, but this was to comfort those who mourn.

[22:39] And if we read on a bit, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, now you've got to remember that Zion is Jerusalem in Israel, and they didn't do much by way of mourning, not sincere mourning anyway, they made a lot of noise.

[22:55] You had people wailing, and saying loud prayers, and doing a lot of insincere stuff. But real mourning from the heart, it says, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the soil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting, so they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

[23:25] So there was a, there's a sense in which, when we come to that place of sincere mourning, he gives us a garland instead of ashes.

[23:37] What were the other things? Garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning. Out of our mourning comes gladness. Now he's saying this to disciples, some of which, obviously don't get it, because later on they're saying to him, when you enter your kingdom, can I be on your right hand, and can I be on your left?

[24:00] Can I have pride of place? And what Jesus is saying all along is, there is no pride of place. In fact, what he says to them at that point is, if you're going to be the first, what you need to do is put yourself last.

[24:20] You need to be the absolute servant. And he demonstrated that by washing some very, very stinky, smelly, horrible feet, which is the job that the lowest servant of the household would have done.

[24:33] And the example he set them was not to put themselves up on any pedestal, but to mourn where they had come from. So, then it goes on and it says, blessed are, we're going back into Matthew now, Matthew chapter five.

[24:53] This version says, blessed are the gentle, and many versions say, blessed are the meek.

[25:20] And as we said, this is humility, is what we've just been talking about. Jesus' example to us, and remember in Ephesians chapter five, he says we should be imitators of God.

[25:31] God's example was you wash feet. And I always think it's an interesting little thing to conduct in your mind if you visit a church.

[25:47] Is the person that leads the church prepared to do the mucky jobs? Because if they're not, I don't think they should be standing here. And I've been in some churches where they go, I'm the pastor, I don't do that sort of thing.

[25:59] A proper pastor will not be shy to wash the cups, clean the loos, clean up the vomit, or do anything else because that's what we're supposed to be.

[26:09] We're supposed to be servant-hearted. And he won't do it to make a big display of what a wonderful chap he is either. He'll just do it on the quiet and sidle off and do it. Most people won't even know.

[26:23] And I think meekness is this humility where you are teachable and you're content to do the will of God rather than insist upon your own way.

[26:40] I had a conversation at the start of this meeting when we first came in about that there are people who leave churches who always are defending what they've said.

[26:51] They defend it, they defend it, they defend it, they defend it. Even when it's clearly wrong, they still feel that they need to defend it. If you're wrong, have the courage to stand here and say, last week, I was wrong.

[27:04] And correct what you've preached because we are all fellow seekers after the truth and in God's eyes we're all equal. and if I teach you something wrong and you spot it and you point it out to me and we get round the Bible and we come to the conclusion Ray was wrong, Ray needs to correct that especially if you're teaching because you get a double punishment if you teach wrongly.

[27:31] And it starts with this being meek. I am happy to be wrong. So the meek are those who will emulate Jesus, the ones this was preached to disciples who were to crucify the English language unmeek.

[27:51] They weren't meek at all. Can I be on your right hand? Can I be on your left? Rather than can I just get in the door? You know?

[28:07] They wanted to be at his right hand and his left when in fact what Jesus said the first must be last and the last must be first and you've got to be prepared to wash feet. And if you want in fact let's turn in Mark chapter 10 Mark chapter 10 verses 35 to 45 the point here is Jesus was meek.

[28:54] So James and John the two sons of Zebedee came to Jesus saying teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

[29:08] I think at that point I would have stood back and waited for the bolt of lightning but anyway God was gracious and merciful as he always is and he said to them what do you want me to do for you?

[29:19] And they said to him grant that we may sit on your right one on your right and one on your left in glory. But Jesus said to them you do not know what you're asking.

[29:30] Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised? They said to him we are able not arrogant at all really and Jesus said to them the cup that I drink you shall drink and you shall be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised but to sit on my right or on my left this is not mine to give but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

[30:02] Hearing this the ten began to feel indignant with James and John calling them to himself Jesus said to them you know that those who are recognised as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great men exercise authority over them but it is not this way among you but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant.

[30:27] Now just pause there for a moment. In order to become great in this kingdom of God you don't have to serve insincerely you have to change your heart so that that service is sincere.

[30:42] And that involves getting on your knees before God and saying Lord please take away the arrogance from my heart and please generate in me the servant that you would like me to be.

[30:53] Verse 44 And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all not just servant of all but slave of all this is the word doulos it's not diakonos which would be the servant in the form of a deacon this is doulos the lowest of low slaves for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

[31:24] So the whole point of meekness is you're happy to serve sincerely from your heart it's not something you have to be talked into it's not something you do to impress it's not I don't know any other way to put it than it's actually I love to serve you nothing lifts me up more than to do something really mundane and filthy for you and I can't put it any clearer than that but the servant heart is the meek heart and then you've got this next one and again I think God has to awaken I'm going to say something and then we're going to return to it and I don't know whether we'll get through all the Beatitudes today but I will return to this at the end of the Beatitudes the whole of the study of the

[32:27] Beatitudes speaks of putting on Christ what he's saying is look at yourself as you are and now put on Christ and that was said most succinctly to the churches I think in the book of Ephesians was also said in Colossians but let's take the book of Ephesians and look at chapter 4 and verse 17 and Paul is saying this which I think is a very similar message and he's saying it to believers he's not saying it to the unsaved this is to a church and he says this verse 17 so this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the

[33:28] Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind this is an Ephesian church there's a lot of Jews in it but it is a Gentile church and he's saying to this Gentile church don't walk like the Gentiles do so he's saying don't walk like you would normally walk I think verse 18 being darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart and they having become callous and having given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness but you did not learn Christ in this way if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him just as the truth is in Jesus that in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which is in the likeness of

[34:36] God and has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth so I think what Jesus is saying in the Beatitudes and Paul is saying here is whilst getting saved is actually effortless you simply need to understand your own predicament had this conversation with some of the youth on the Christianity Explored course once upon a time I was a canoeing instructor and I took some kids down a piece of rapid river in Devon and there was one particular part of it that if you fell out was particularly dangerous and so I put myself on the end of a rope and got somebody else to hold the other end and if anybody came stuck on this dangerous piece of water I would jump in get them in a bear hug and we would be dragged out but they were in danger that they could see and understand not one of them said it's alright

[35:37] Ray I'll rescue myself not one of them because they understood their predicament and when I got them out they said thanks! for that because they had a capable rescuer in a situation that required a capable rescue the whole of mankind is in that situation but often they don't see the danger they're in this spiritual danger of you might miss out on heaven is kind of invisible unless you're looking for it and God kind of puts it under our noses and says you need to be saved from this and too many of us say no I don't I'm not going to worry about that I'm enjoying life as it was in the days of Noah so will the coming of the son of man be they're marrying they're giving in marriages they're all out on picnics they're having wonderful time and the flood is coming and they don't even know it and if they did know it they would be clamouring!

[36:39] to get on the ark which they were when it was too late so what Paul is saying there and what I think Jesus is saying to the disciples by pointing out these things is you need to put on Christ you've been saved you've stepped through the gate now you need to act you're not acting to get saved this is not salvation by works and it's not righteousness by works what it is perceiving that you're poor in spirit perceiving that you're actually in the place of mourning and then the next one is blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and if you're hungry and thirsty you will pursue food Sharon asks me food and I'm hungry I say oh yes please I don't go now I don't need to eat hunger and thirst is used here to describe what should be a driven nature to consume something right if you're hungry you were driven not just to find food but to consume it this is if someone hungers and thirsts after righteousness what you need to do is give them righteousness because they are hungry for it and they want to consume it

[38:11] Jesus said in Matthew 6 verse 33 you don't need to turn there it's just one line it says seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you so all these things are all the things of the kingdom of God and if you want all the things of the kingdom of God to be added unto you you need to pursue righteousness and what I want to say in this the church is afraid of people who preach doing stuff you don't need to do stuff to get saved it's all by grace yes it is salvation is by grace but our heavenly father didn't only want to save us he wanted us to be disciples and disciples are actively pursuing him the disciples of Jesus on this day walked miles and sat on a hill to listen to him they didn't sit at home thinking well that's okay now

[39:18] I'm saved I'm going put my feet up there was an active thing going on and what Paul says to the Ephesian churches put on Christ cast off the old self it strikes me that these are dynamic phrases does it not you that you have to make war on your own sin for the rest of your life and in all and every situations for the rest of your life you are trying to put on Christ so we find rest in God's provision yes it's satisfying and then we read the prophetic scriptures about our destiny in which we are told that at some point in the future this corruption is going to put on incorruption this mortality is going to put on immortality I have a future in heaven and

[40:20] I don't think that much of what I do since being saved is going to change what that looks like but rather than simply wait for it to come upon me I want to be found running towards it so I don't think this is mandated I think what Jesus is saying here is if you want to be disciples rather than just saved objects you need to pursue it there needs to be an activity to what you do you pursue righteousness and for me that starts with making war on my own sin and I'm sure many of you will have had this experience that what you used to do before you were saved is probably far worse in human terms than you now do the things you used to entertain in your mind and before I was saved one of the things I was among many was a thief!

[41:21] one of the things I stopped doing when I got saved was helping myself to things that didn't belong to me and I did go through a period where there was that temptation and I had to go no I don't do that anymore I don't even feel the temptation anymore what I do find now is if I say an unkind word to Sharon pornography and all sorts of things to convict me now it just takes when I've been unkind I get that I'm in mourning immediately why did I do that you idiot Ray and I mourn!

[42:13] and I realise I'm still very poor in spirit but that makes me pursue God more because I don't want to be that kind of man so I want to go looking for him and his righteousness so blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied we know that satisfaction when you finally overcome a besetting sin and we do know that there will come this time and it's in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 53 and 54 when ultimately I don't sin anymore because God has taken corruption off me and put incorruption on me and so sin in the final analysis will be defeated as will death because this mortal will put on immortality now that process is in train and

[43:14] I know under my own strength I couldn't do that but that satisfaction is there and is yet to come I will be satisfied and I think it'll be more satisfying if it's what I've been pursuing in life I didn't I didn't get saved to stay a sinner I got saved so that God could change me from glory into glory and so my pathway should be from glory to glory to glory to glory not to sit in sin for the next 20 years and then when I peg it immediately go to glory and be disappointed with my own attitude to God which should have been to pursue him now out of time and we'll do the rest of the beatitudes so next week we'll start with blessed are the merciful but Father thank you for this word and thank you that I have found it really convicting and I hope it brings conviction to all of us that we would run after you your word tells us that if we seek you out with a whole heart you will let us find you and that's true of salvation but I think it's also true of life where when we struggle when we put ourselves before you when we cry out to you when we say

[44:43] Lord change my heart please change my heart you then do change our hearts and you honour what we've asked for when it's in pursuit of your righteousness and I ask you to plant in our hearts something where we wouldn't be lazy Christians but we would be Christians who understand our true position in the great spiritual world world and that we're blessed because we're because we've become humble because we mourn our own state because we recognise our poverty of spirit when we step outside you and that we will be supercharged to pursue your righteousness in Jesus name Amen