Take God Seriously

Introduction — an Important Note about the Beatitudes

Could you please take the Word of God and turn with me to Matthew chapter 5. We will read together verses 1-4.

Tonight, we will look at those first two beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

We will look at what it means to be “poor in spirit,” what it means to be someone who “mourns.”

Now, notice I said we will focus on what it means to be such a person. This is very important.

In the New Testament, you’ll find this pattern: God takes a great deal of time telling us who we are in Christ, and then He says, Go live like it. You can see this trend quite clearly in Paul’s epistles. In the first half of most of his letters (Ephesians is a good example), Paul reminds his audience of who they are in Christ, and then he devotes the latter half of the book to practical instructions regarding how they should live based on who they are.

The apostles got this method from the Lord Jesus because that’s exactly what He did in the Sermon on the Mount. These beatitudes—placed at the beginning of the Sermon—are describing the fundamental character traits that are supposed to be evident in every child of God, all the time. Jesus is saying, These are the people that will inherit my kingdom.

And you know what the Bible calls every one of us believers? “Heirs of the kingdom” (James 2:5)

So, if you’re sitting here tonight, as a born-again child of God, these promises at the end of each beatitude are for you.

Vs. 3: Yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Vs. 4: In heaven, you shall be comforted.

Vs. 5: You shall inherit the earth—one day, you will reign with Christ in His earthly, millennial kingdom.

But if these promises are for you, then so is the identity—these character traits—that are being described in these verses.

What do I mean?

Well, if we look at these beatitudes as isolated instructions that we can implement into our lives like task items, we’ve totally missed the point.

It’s like the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22.

If we treat that list of virtues as a task list, we’ ve totally missed the point…Ok, this week we’re going to work on love. We’re going to try to work it into our schedules. These are some things we can do to effectively love people this week. And then next week, we’ll work on joy. We’ll learn to smile even when we don’t want to, and we’ll try to master this second fruit of the Spirit.

That is not a biblical approach to the Fruit of the Spirit.

The Fruit of the Spirit is meant to show us: This is what it looks like when a believer is walking in the Spirit, letting the Spirit make him like Jesus.

The list is meant to be a thermometer of our Christian lives—a gauge that shows us where we’re at. And if love, joy, peace, etc. are not evident in our lives, the response isn’t to grit our teeth and try harder at being loving, joyful, etc. Rather, the answer is that we need to get right with God, we need to understand our identity in Christ, and we need to walk in the Spirit.

The same is true of the Beatitudes. If you find out tonight that you’re not “poor in spirit”, or you’re not someone who “mourns”, it will not be sufficient to add these as to-do items on your calendar.

Ok, at 7:00am tomorrow, I’m going to be poor in spirit by taking some time to pray, and then I’m going to take a few minutes to mourn.

That’s not it at all. Yes, we need to take time to pray, and that is one way that we express these beatitudes, but I want you to see that it’s much deeper than that. This is about your heart — how you think and feel, how you look at life. It’s about your very identity!

The rest of the Sermon will deal with what we do. But we are going to have an awful time trying to obey the rest of the sermon if we don’t take the time to really get these Beatitudes down. Our identity in Christ, our character will deternime our actions.

Too often, people rush to the “turning the other cheek” part without understanding why they should do that in the first place, and this approach leaves Christians feeling defeated.

So, when we look at these beatitudes, we should ask, Does my life look like this? And then if it doesn’t, we need to get serious about the problem. We’ve got to get at the root of what’s going on in our hearts, and we need to find a genuine solution.

Let these Beatitudes be like a doctor’s appointment. Let the Lord Jesus—that Great Physician—assess your life. Let Him show you what a healthy life looks like, and if He shows you that you’re in bad health, accept the diagnosis and take the prescription that He offers!

So, tonight...

We’ll look at the first two Beatitudes, which will shows us some character traits of a healthy Christian.

And then we’ll explain why it’s such a serious problem if these are not evident in your life!

And finally, we’ll give you the Lord Jesus’ prescription.

Blessed are the poor in spirit...

Last week, we introduced this Beatitude briefly. We saw that the word poor here means beggarly.

To add to what we learned last week, let me give you several statements about what it means to be poor in spirit.

Being poor in spirit is seeing ourselves for who we really are in the sight of a holy, all-powerful God.

Or, simply put, being poor in spirit is having a small view of self based on a big view of God.

Or, you could put, it’s humility that comes from a fear of God.

Now, I didn’t make those statements up—they are biblical truths illustrated by several characters in Scripture. I’ll give you a couple examples:

Do you remember Job? God allowed Satan to take away everything that Job had, including his health. And at first, Job responded very well—he made that sublime remark, “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” And the Bible goes on to say he “sinned not with his mouth, nor charged God foolishly.”

But after several rounds of debate with his philosopher friends, Job became exasperated. They had been telling him over and over that his tragic circumstances were due to his own sin, that God was judging him. But Job saw himself as a just man who did not deserve God’s judgment, and he resolutely defended himself before his friends. But eventually, he crossed a line. Could you turn to Job 31:35. Notice what Job says:

Job 31:35 “Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.”

And God heard this presumptuous prayer. Notice how God responds in chapter 38.

Job 38:1-4 “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.”

And then God proceeds to show Job how He controls everything in the universe.

God gives Job a chance to respond in chapter 40. Notice verse 1.

Job 40:1-9 “Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further. Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?”

There are many Christians—and probably some in this room—who are like Job.

They arrogantly look God in the face and say, “Lord I am righteous. I go to church regularly, I’m kind to those around me. I’m a good person.” They may not say it in a matter of words, but they hear God’s voice repeatedly without making any changes in their life.

Or like Job, some Christians take the stance of questioning God.

God commands Christians to do certain things and instead of responding with obedience, they question God. They ask, “Why do I have to do this?” They’re expecting God to explain Himself. And that’s what Job was asking God to do. Remember, Job said, “My desire is that the Almighty will answer me”!

But how did God respond? Did God gently sit Job down and explain to him why he had all those terrible things happen to him? No, God made no defense. Instead, he put Job on trial and said:

Job 40:8 “Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?”

And you know, sometimes we do this exact same thing. We tell God He’s wrong, so that we can justify our disobedience. God commands us to do something, and this is how we respond:

“Well, God, I would obey You, but You put me in the wrong family. If you had given me better parents, I could obey You.”

“Well, God, I would spend time with you each day reading the Bible and praying, but I have no time for that. If you had given me an easier life, I would have time for You.”

“Well, God, I would tell my coworkers about Christ, but you didn’t give me an outgoing personality.”

And so, multitudes of self-righteous Christians go years and years without acknowledging anything in their life that needs to change.

But look in chapter 42, after God has finished His questioning of Job, Job utters these words. He shows us why so many people are not poor in spirit, are not humble before God, and never change to become more like Jesus. Look with me in verse 1:

Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

They’ve “heard” a lot about God—in sermon after sermon—but because they’ve never really seen God or known Him personally, they remain unchanged. They go on year after year, no more like the Lord Jesus than they were the year before.

This is the arrogance that develops when a Christian does not legitimately spend time in the presence of Almighty God…because look what happens when a person does enter His presence!

Job 42:5 “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

This is what it means to be poor in spirit—to enter the presence of a holy God and to realize how small, how sinful, how “vile” we are before Him, and to fall on our faces, recongizning that we’re beggars!

We could look at more biblical examples; you can see what happens when someone stands in the presence of God:

Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5)

Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:28, 3:23)

Daniel (Daniel 10:8-11)

Paul (Acts 9:4-6)

John (Revelation 1:17)

And if these noble men—some of the greatest Bible characters—were poor in spirit before Almighty God, how much more should we?!

Job 1:8 “And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?”

But what about the next Beatitude? What does “Blessed are they that mourn mean?” Well, it builds on this first Beatitude, and so Job again will serve as a great example.

Blessed are they that mourn...

Job 42:6 “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Wow, that is it right there. We come into the presence of God and see ourselves for who we are—beggars who don’t deserve to stand in God’s presence, but as Christians, we’re thankful that He invites us.

But then when His holy presence exposes sin in our lives, we “repent in dust and ashes”—we admit to God that we’re terribly wrong, and we take it seriously. Dust and ashes is what Job mourned in when he lost everything. And he does the same thing now when after experiencing the holy presence of God.

James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, puts it this way:

James 4:8-10 “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

That is what it means to be poor in spirit and to mourn over our sin.

But we should also mourn over what the Lord Jesus mourns over—He was a Man with no sin.

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief...”

In the Gospels we find Jesus weeping on multiple occasions. And one of those was over this exact thing told us in Isaiah 53 — He wept over those who despised and rejected Him.

Luke 19:41-44 — how about us? Do we mourn over those around us who are dying and going to hell? Do we mourn over the sin of our country?

Why Should We Take This Seriously?

If we look at them as mere casual recommendations from the Lord Jesus, we are terribly mistaken.

In other words, when we read verses 3-12, this is often the deplorable mistake we make: Wow, that sounds really difficult. These beatitudes must be meant for fanatical Christians. Maybe one day, I’ll be like this. Maybe I could even try to be poor in spirit some this week, that is if I remember.

Or, [yawn] Ok, preacher, I get it…I’m supposed to be humble and meek, so on and so forth. I’ll see what I can do about that this week. It’s not likely that I’ll remember, but I’ll try.

NO NO NO! That’s all wrong! These beatitudes are describing exactly what EVERY CHRISTIAN should be!

Every single one of us in this room that has accepted Christ as our Saviour should have real joy in our lives—of all people, we should be TRULY HAPPY because we have been made the “blessed...children of God.”

Every single one of these beatitudes should be an accurate description of every one of our lives.

So as we look at each one, starting with “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” can I urge you, can I beg you to allow the Holy Spirit to examine your life! Be honest with yourself and with God. Ask God and ask yourself, Do these beatitudes accurately describe my life?

If they don’t, WAKE UP TO THE FACT THAT THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM!

But you might say, What’s the big deal? If I’m not a super Christian, I’m still going to heaven when I die, I’m still going to enjoy these promises. God is merciful and forgiving. Don’t worry about me. Besides, if you knew all that I was going through right now, you would understand that the beatitudes are the last thing I have time to focus on. I’m really tired, and I think God will understand if I put off these beatitudes for now.

Christian, can you please listen? This is the most serious matter you could possibly deal with. This is about your identity. This is about your eternal destiny.

But you say, “My eternal destiny is secure. Like I said, if I’m not a super-Christian, it’s no big deal.”

But here’s the truth—our disobedience is a big deal to Almighty God. I’m going to give you three results of not taking the beatitudes and this entire sermon seriously, three reasons why IT’S A MAJOR PROBLEM if our lives don’t look like this sermon. Look first in verse 13 at what the Lord Jesus says about Christians whose lives do not look like the beatitudes :

Matthew 5:13 “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”

So, the first result of taking a casual approach to the Beatitudes:

1. [In the words of the Lord Jesus] We’re good-for-nothing Christians.

God has left us believers on this earth to think like Jesus, to talk like Jesus, and to live like Jesus. We are to be his hands and feet on this earth—that is why we are called the body of Christ. We are the salt of the earth—our presence is supposed to make this world taste different; we’re supposed to be a preservative element that staves off God’s judgment.

And if we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to fulfill His work within us to make us more like Christ…the Lord Jesus says that, in all practicality, we’re good for nothing!

We’re granules of salt that are tasteless! Now, think about it. If Morton (the salt company) made salt that looks like salt, was called salt on the container, was sold for the same price…but was tasteless, how long would they stay in business?

So when God goes to grab you off the shelf, to use you to make a difference in this wicked world, are you even useable?

Are you beginning to see that it is a genuine problem if our lives don’t look like the beatitudes?

But maybe you’re still determined. You say, If God can’t use me—who cares? He can use someone else. I’m still going to heaven when I die, that’s what matters.

Well, look at verse 19: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

2. We will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

Let me ask you, how would you like to walk around heaven for all of eternity labeled “the least in the kingdom of heaven”? How would you like your reputation in heaven to be something like this: Well, he got here because he accepted Christ, but it’s obvious that he didn’t really appreciate all that the Lord Jesus did for him. He was a disobedient Christian. I mean, he got here, but he didn’t invest in this place.

Now, you may say, Pastor Tyler, I think you’re going too far. Heaven is a perfect place—there will be no element of shame there. God will put us all on equal footing, won’t He? THAT’S NOT WHAT MY BIBLE SAYS.

I Corinthians 3:13-15 “Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

Our works will be made manifest at the Judgement Seat of Christ.

II Corinthians 5:9-11 “Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.”

Galatians 6:7-9 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

I Peter 4:17-18 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

But perhaps you are still not convinced. You say, Heaven is so far away. And my life is so busy right now. I’ll have time to obey God later. For now, I just need to take care of myself and keep my life together.

Well, I’ve got news for you, you will miserably fail if you put off your obedience. If you ignore these warnings. If your life does not begin to look like the Sermon on the Mount, you will surely fail!

Matthew 7:26-27 “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”

For my final word of warning, I give you this third result that will come upon those of us whose lives do not look like the Beatitudes, this third result that will happen upon thosee who do not take the Sermon on the Mount seriously.

3. We will miserably fail in this life.

In Luke, the word used instead of “fall” is ruin. Oh how many lives have been ruined because people failed to heed God’s warnings, because people delayed to obey!

Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

Conclusion

Hebrews 3:12-4:1 “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”