Blessed Are The Merciful | Matthew 5:7

Scripture

• Matthew 5:7

About this sermon

Introduction: Every treasure that exists in this world possesses qualities unique to that treasure — qualities that distinguish the treasure from counterfeits. There will always be thieves who seek to counterfeit what it truly valuable to rob others and enrich themselves. Jewels have been counterfeited. Currency has been counterfeited. Artwork has been counterfeited. In each case, people who know what distinguishes the real from the imitation can identify the difference. The genuine article possesses qualities that can’t be perfectly reproduced. In these beatitudes we meet with the jewels of conversion. We meet with the artwork of God. We have a testimony to the treasures that the grace of God has imparted to the people whom He has saved. The devil is a great counterfeiter. He is a deceiver and a liar. He loves to deceive spiritually bankrupt people so that they settle for, they glory in, something that is not real. Imagine the embarrassment of proudly displaying your newly acquired famous painting at some important gathering, only to have an arts expert pull you aside and tell you why it isn’t real! There is something far worse to occur in the future when Jesus tells us in this same sermon that a day will come when many say they knew Him, only to hear that He never knew them. These beatitudes, considered carefully in succession, prove the genuineness of what belongs to salvation. These qualities exist together. They are not separated. They all speak AS ONE of God’s gracious work in human souls when He makes a person HIS OWN. The humility that the Spirit of God teaches when He enlightens the sinner WILL BE FOLLOWED BY MOURNING. The mourning that the Spirit of God produces, when He humbles, WILL BE FOLLOWED BY MEEKNESS. The willingness to be subjected, to be submitted to the yoke of Christ, that the Spirit of God produces, when He breaks the heart over sin, WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. And that hungering and thirsting after righteousness, ONCE SATISFIED, will be very much aware of the MERCY OF GOD, and will be full of THE MERCIES OF GOD. One of the ways that you know that you know the righteousness of God — the righteousness received as a gift by faith, and the righteousness being learned in the way of sanctification — is that it is produced in a life very much aware of the grace and mercy of God, and therefore has compassion for fellow sinners. SHOW ME A SPIRITUAL PEACOCK AND I’LL SHOW SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER KNOWN SALVATION’S RIGHTEOUSNESS, OR THEY ARE SOON TO BE HUMBLED BY THEIR FATHER SO AS TO BE REMINDED OF WHAT THEY REALLY ARE WITHOUT JESUS CHRIST. • GOD’S MERCY LED US TO SALVATION IN JESUS CHRIST We sometimes focus so much on the time of our conversion that we fail to reflect on and appreciate all the circumstances that prepared us for the day that we met our Savior. We forget the many kindnesses to us that God gave when we were still His enemies. We forget the patience that He demonstrated to us when we were by our very natures deserving of His wrath. We forget the way that our God prepared and orchestrated the pathway that would lead to our meeting with the gospel. We forget the PEOPLE whom God placed in our lives, who prayed for us, and brought the gospel to us, and demonstrated the gospel for us. -I think about parents who taught me to pray when they themselves were not walking with God, and how even as a child those prayers brought to my awareness the reality of God, and the reality of my soul, and the reality of an existence beyond this life. -I think about how God, even in my lostness, kept me from forms of sin that would have left their scars on me, even beyond the multiplied sins that I did commit. -I think about how God preserved MY LIFE, MY VERY EXISTENCE, unto the day that He would rescue my life. Times when I could have perished, but I did not perish. -I think about God’s common grace to me in the form of loving parents, and two brothers, and people throughout my life who cared about me.

Topics

• Love & Compassion
• Blessing & Favor