What does it mean to be comforted? You shall establish yourself on righteousness. What’s righteousness? Turn to Isaiah 51:3, “The Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places.” (v. 12) “I, even I, am he who comforts you.” (v. 19) “Two times of calamities have befallen you. Who feels sorry for you and commiserates with you. There is desolation and destruction and famine and sword; how shall I comfort thee?” He’s already answered the question. I, even I, am he who comforts you. What does it mean to be comforted? It’s a synonym for salvation. It means to be saved.
Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, who are thoroughly repentant, who have turned from their sin, who love God and keep his commandments, who are broken hearted for their own spiritual strength and they cry out to God in helplessness and despair, these are the people that are going to be saved. These are the ones over whom God is ruling now. Comforted means saved.
Matthew 5:5: “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” What does it mean to be meek? Ps. 37:11: “But the meek shall inherit the land…” There it is. It isn’t original with Jesus. Would you be surprised if I told you that Jesus said almost nothing that is original with him? He did almost nothing that someone before him had not done. He came performing all of these mighty works…it wasn’t unusual. It’ wasn’t unique. In many instances they weren’t even impressed. They didn’t run out and say, Boy, did you see that miracle? We’ve never seen anything like that before. They said, “What manner of man is it that does these things? No one can do what he is doing unless God is with him.” They had been sustained throughout all of their history with miracles. In Hebrew there isn’t even a consciousness of miracle as there is in English. There isn’t even a word for miracle as we think of miracle in English. Why? These people were the children of God. They just expected it. It wasn’t a miracle, it was an inheritance. So he says almost nothing unique. He’s always hinting back to that which had already been said and then getting his own idealistic interpretation as he had come to reveal truth.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Right out of Ps. 37:11. But what does it mean to be meek. Whatever it is I want to get it. I want to be it because it’s only going to be the meek that are going to inherit the earth. Look back up 37:9, “evil doers shall be cut off; but those who wait and hope and look for the Lord shall inherit the earth.” Now it tells me here that those who hope and look and wait for the Lord are going to inherit the earth. By the way, what is hope? Hope is now wishful thinking. Hope is one’s confident conviction that God will do what he said he will do. Who are going to inherit the earth? Those who are hoping for, waiting for, and looking for the Lord. They are going to inherit the earth. v. 29, “Then the uncompromisingly righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.” v. 21, “The wicked borrows and pays not again; but the uncompromisingly righteous deals kindly and gives (is generous).” Who is going to inherit the land? The uncompromisingly righteous will. What does it mean to be meek? It means one who is hoping for, who is confidently expecting the coming of the Lord, who is waiting for him, who is uncompromisingly righteous, in that he gives of himself in the ministry to others. This is the person who is going to inherit the land. What does it mean to be meek? To be uncompromisingly righteous. Who’s going to inherit the land? The uncompromisingly righteous are going to inherit the land. What does it mean to be meek? It means to be righteous.
Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Do you see what’s happening? He’s just building one right on top of another. What does it mean to be meek? It means to be uncompromising righteous. Now blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting after that righteousness. Ps. 37:17-19: “for the arms of the wicked shall be broken; but the Lord upholdeth the righteous. The Lord knows the day of the upright and blameless; and their heritage shall abide forever. They shall not be put to shame in the time of evil; and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.” Do you see that? There is a lot of nonsense that’s going around in the body of Christ. A lot of it is based on nothing more than fear that things are getting bad, times are getting hard, it’s going to get worse and worse, economic situation is going to collapse, money market is going to collapse, the whole world is going to collapse around us, and therefore we need to go out and store up all of this rapture foods, freeze dried foods, and get ready for the rapture. One of these days, when all of this comes down, if we don’t have all of these groceries stored up we won’t make it through. The church is going to have to go through the tribulation and all kinds of nonsense. Listen brethren, I know of great men of God, great churches, that have been deceived by this doctrine. I could name off one right after another. I know of two here in Texas. I’m talking about great churches and great people. I was speaking at one of them several years ago, and the church was so large that it had 8 full time pastors on the staff. They came to me excited and told me how that God had showed them how hard things were going to get and how they needed to store up all of these groceries and they had gone out and bought four acres of ground and every pastor had bought an old box car and they were going to fill that box car with groceries and go out and bury it in the ground and have all of that food ready whenever difficult times came. After talking with them they abandoned the whole project. That whole concept is based on fear and the Bible says that God has not given us the spirit of fear. Fear doesn’t come from God. What do you mean? Who is this man? Who is this that is in me? God! Do you mean that this one who had the power to take five loaves and two fishes and feed thousands and then take up 12 baskets full can’t supply me in my hour of need? You mean this one who took 7 water pots and turned it into wine hasn’t got the power to take water and turn it into gasoline if necessary to get me from point A to point B? If he doesn’t do it that way at least he could transport me in the spirit like he did Philip. What does this say? “The Lord upholds the righteous and he knows the days of the upright and the blameless, and they’ll never be put to shame in the time of evil.” In the days of famine they’re going to be satisfied. V. 25: “I have been young, and now am old; Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, not his seed begging bread.” How immature can the body of Christ be? I happen to have close personal friends of mine that have numbers tattooed on their arms from Concentrations camps in Nazi Germany. They told me that one of the first things that happened when Hitler rode into power was that they came and confiscated all of their food. One of our prayers partners, a mighty warrior for God, out in CA, five years old Hitler used her as an example of the pure Arian race because she was blond headed and blue eyed and he didn’t know that she was a Jewess. Wounded 38 times in her body with shrapnel with the bombing of Berlin. Laying in the gutter with her life’s blood flowing out of her veins, cried out to God to spare her, came here, found Jesus as her Messiah and she’s on fire for God. She’s told me time and again that the highlight of the week was when they got one egg. They spent all week thinking about how they were going to cook that egg. Were they going to hard boil it or were they going to scramble it or were they going to fry it. What were they going to do with it? The first thing the Nazi’s did when they rode into power was to confiscate all of their food and all of their goods. Do you think it’s going to be any different if times get hard? The only way that we’re going to be sustained and that’s to be uncompromisingly righteous and if we are because even in the midst of famine we’re going to be fed and I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. Isaiah 55:1, 2 “Wait and listen everyone that is thirsty. Come to the waters and he who has no money come, buy, and eat. Come buy priceless spiritual wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for that which does not satisfy? Harken diligently unto me for that which is good and let your soul delight itself in the fatness, the profuseness of spiritual joy.” Isaiah 65:13: “Therefore thus says the Lord God, behold my servants shall eat but you shall be hungry. My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame. Blessed are those are hungering and thirsting after righteousness because these are the kinds of people God saves.” That’s what it means to be filled. Ps. 22:26, “The poor and afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord who diligently seek for, inquire of, and for him and require him as their greatest need.” Notice who is going to eat? The poor and afflicted. See how all of this builds on one after the other? What does it mean to be poor in spirit? What does it mean to be a spiritual mourner? What does it mean to be meek? Uncompromisingly righteous. Now who is going to be filled? Those who are uncompromisingly righteous who are hungering and thirsting after God’s salvation because these are the people God saves. Righteousness in Hebrew doesn’t mean holiness. It has two meanings: in the broad meaning righteousness means salvation, and if you’ll just look in Isaiah you’ll notice the righteousness is used time and time again synonymously with salvation. Righteousness means God’s salvation. In narrow limited sense it’s the Hebrew word tzedakah, and it means alms giving. We’ve already read the uncompromisingly righteous is going to inherit the land because he gives.
Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Where do you find giving mercy in the Old Testament? You don’t. You will never find it used of man in the O.T. but you will in the writings of the Rabbis. You’ll find it in Rabbinic literature showing mercy and bestowing mercy, but you will find receiving mercy. Proverbs 28…what does it mean to receive mercy? This is magnificent but it smarts a little bit. We think mercy is receiving comfort or being sensitive to one’s needs and ministering to them and holding their hand when their sick, visiting in the hospital. v. 13: “He who covers his transgressions shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsakes them shall obtain mercy.” Who is going to get mercy? Whoever forsakes his sin and confesseth it. Do you remember that the poor in spirit are those who are sorry for their sins, they are repentant, penitent who has turned to God, loves his word and keeps his commandments. Now mercy…he who confesses his sin and forsakes his sins shall obtain forgiveness. So mercy means forgiveness. Now, here’s the rub. Blessed are those who are forgiving for they shall be forgiven. Do you remember what Jesus said? If you expect me to forgive you you’d better be forgiving and forgive your brother. If you’ve got any sacrifice to offer unto God and you’ve got anything against a brother you go to your brother and get that thing taken care of first and then come and then come and offer your sacrifice. If you do not forgive your fellow man your heavenly Father is not going to forgive you. If you don’t forgive you’re not going to be forgiven. I see it everywhere I go. Men and women have been expecting something from God. They’ve been praying for healing and haven’t received it. Why? I dare say that more people fail to receive from God whatever it is that they need whether it be prosperity, physical healing, whatever because their bound with spirits of bitterness and resentment and unforgiveness. Their holding a grudge against somebody and their just bound up with all of that hate and anger and bitterness and they won’t let go. It happened 30 years ago but they won’t forget. Do you know something? God doesn’t expect you to forget, he expects you to forgive and then whenever you forgive it doesn’t make any difference. You say but you just don’t understand how I’ve been hurt. You don’t understand what that person did. You don’t understand how that person treated me. You don’t understand what that person said. I don’t care. What I do understand is that unless you forgive you’re not going to be forgiven, so that means it doesn’t matter how you feel you’re going to have to forgive. You can be honest with God and he knows all of this anyway. You can say God, you know my feelings. You know what happened and you know that I don’t feel like forgiving. But because your word says to forgive and because I love you and I want to keep your commandments I’m going to forgive. The confession of my mouth is going to be I forgive and then you say I forgive and say it over and over and all of a sudden you do forgive because God got your feelings in line with the confession of your mouth. Then you can begin to receive from God. Blessed are those who are forgiving because they’re going to be forgiving.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. What does it mean to be pure in heart? Where is that found in the O.T.? What kind of people are the worshippers of God? Ps 24:3, 4: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in the holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto falsehood, and hath not sword deceitfully.” What does it mean to be pure in heart? Never to have lifted yourself up to falsehood, nor sworn deceitfully. What does it mean to be pure in heart? It means to be a man of integrity and not a liar. How does one of the Ten Commandments go? Thou shall not bear false witness. What does that mean? It does not mean thou shalt not lie. There are all kinds of lies and we’ve thought that all kinds of lies were bad. One lie is just as bad as another. There are little white lies and there are big black lies and all kind of lies in-between and one lie is just as bad as another. That’s not what this commandment says. There are times when a little white lie is the better part of wisdom. How do you like my new hat honey? Is your coffee and toast ok this morning? Are your eggs like you like them? I’m going to eat them because if I don’t I know whose going to be fixing them tomorrow. To bear false witness means to give false witness in a court of law. You remember that the Bible says that at the mouth of two witnesses a matter of established. What this has to do with is that in a court of Law when man is on trial for his life, you’re not going to bear false witness against him that will lead to his harm, so when it says in the Biblical text that thou shall not bear false witness and when it talks about lying it’s talking about the intent on the part of the person to deceive to one’s harm. Lying in Hebrew means an intentional deception to the harm of the individual.
Who is going to stand before God? Who is going to see God? The one who has a pure heart. But what does it mean to have a pure heart? It means one who has never lifted himself up to falsehood to intentionally deceive. One who is a person of integrity, a man of his word, one whose word is as good as his bond. I’ve had to live down, for 30 years of my life, going into a community, trying to live down the reputation of some preacher before me who was run out of town because he didn’t pay his bills. Now the situation has worsened. It’s not just preachers anymore but people in the pew. It’s gotten to the business that I’d almost rather do business than a heathen than I would a Christian because at least they pay their bills. About the only time that I’ve gotten ripped off in my ministry is with Christians. Somehow or another we’ve for this Pollyanna philosophy that God owes it to us. I’ve got it coming to me. You don’t. God expects his people to live in the world and before the world without rebuke. He expects them to honest and live within their means, to be men and women of integrity and people who pay their bills on time or at least make arrangements to take care of their obligations if difficult times befall them. To be pure in heart means to be honest, it means to be a man and woman of integrity, and one whose word is as good as their bond. Who’s going to see God? Those who haven’t sworn deceitfully nor lifted themselves up to falsehood.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. What is a peacemaker? It’s never used of men in the O.T., it’s only used of God. But it is used in the Mishnah. (Peah 1:1) Do you know what peah is? The plural is peyot. Have you ever seen an Orthodox Jews with the long side curls hanging down? That is a peah, plural peyote. He doesn’t cut the corners of his hair. Why? This ties in with everything that we’ve been saying. In the O.T. commands the Jews that he isn’t to cut the corner of his hair to remind him that he’s not to cut the corner of his fields, but he is to leave the corners of his fields for the poor to glean in. It was Ruth that was gleaning in the field of Boaz.
It's not found in the O.T., but it is found in the Mishnah. Sons of God you’ll find in Hosea 1:10. “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass that, in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.” Who are the sons of the living God? Those who are making peace whatever that means. What is the Hebrew word for peace? Shalom. What’s the Hebrew word for Hello? Shalom. What’s the Hebrew word for goodbye? Shalom. We can go on and on. One of my colleagues when he was writing his doctoral dissertation did the entire work on the root shem, lamed, mem from which shalom comes. Shalom means to be whole, complete, perfect, at peace, at rest, saved, secure. Blessed are those who are bringing men and women into wholeness, into completeness…these are the people who are called sons of the living God. How can one bring one into peace? How can a man be whole, saved, secure, how can he have real peace? Jesus says, My peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Be not afraid. Only in him can one be made whole. Blessed are those who are bringing men and women into wholeness, completeness, salvation…blessed are those who are getting men and women saved because these are the ones who are called sons of the living God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What does it mean to be persecuted for righteousness sake? There are over four mistranslations in this passage alone. It has absolutely nothing to do with persecution.
