PRECEPTS FOR LIFE
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Precept Ministries International
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The following is an actual transcript of the PRECEPTS FOR LIFE Broadcast. For the purpose of filling transcript requests quickly, they have received only light editing. If you have questions concerning the material covered in this broadcast, Kay has published a number of books explaining the Scripture in depth. These books may be ordered by contacting the telephone number or address printed above.
SERIES: Sermon On The Mount
TITLE: Program 2 – You Can Know Heaven’s Yours
TUESDAY (1/19/10)
OPEN
When that moment of death comes whether it‟s close or whether it‟s far away, where will you be? Wouldn‟t you like to know without a shadow of a doubt that when you left earth that you would go to heaven? That the kingdom of heaven would be yours and I mean really yours in all of its fullness, in all of its peace, in all of its quiet, in all of its serenity, in all of its fulfillment. If you want to know that, my friend, keep on listening because you can know that heaven is yours.
PART ONE
You know as I climb this Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount, I‟m reminded of that day when He left the multitudes and when He came up to be alone with His disciples to teach them what the kingdom of heaven was all about. He was going to lay down some teaching for them that would absolutely astonish them, that would amaze them because it was so contrary to what they understood about the kingdom of
heaven.
It was on this mount that He sat and overlooked the region of the Galilee where His early ministry began. He did a lot of healing. He cast out demons. He set people free from illnesses, from infirmities, from handicaps but what He did that was more important than any of that was to teach the people. As we look at the book of Matthew the book of Matthew is a series of presentations of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And then the teaching that followed that. Well that day He came up here with the eleven disciples and by the time He was through teaching, there was a whole multitude that had gathered around Him. And what was He giving them? He was giving them the words of God. He was giving them the bread of life.
They wanted to know how the kingdom of heaven could be theirs and He opens up this precious, precious teaching with this statement, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Poor in spirit? They thought that they had to be strong. They thought that they had to exert themselves. They thought that they had to get out from and under the rule of the Romans because after all they had Father Abraham as their father and God as their father. So why should they be poor in spirit?
Why should they be submissive to anyone? But what Jesus began to do was give them what we call the beatitudes. The word comes from the word beatus and it‟s a Latin word. And it‟s the Latin word that means blessed. The Greek word for blessed is makarios, m-a-k-a-r-i-o-s. And the word makarios means this. We think of it as happiness but happiness has to do with circumstances. Happiness has to do with our feelings for that day and whether the sun shown and whether things went our way. But this is far more than happiness. Really, blessed means this. Blessed is the person who has God‟s approval.
And so who has God‟s approval and what do you gain when you‟re blessed? Well, He goes through this litany, so to speak, of blessings that come upon people with a certain kind of character. And it‟s very interesting because you see that it‟s an inclusive kind of thing because in chapter 5 of Matthew, in verse 3, He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
And then He goes on to say, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle…,” or the meek, “… for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) Here‟s a blessing upon people that are of a certain character and a certain attitude. And what is the blessing that
comes to the poor in spirit? They inherit the earth. And what is the blessing to those that come to those that mourn? It‟s the fact that they‟re comforted. And what is the blessing for those that are meek? The meek are going to inherit the earth.
And then He says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (5:6) That‟s the blessing that comes upon those that are craving a righteousness in their life. Craving a freedom from a sense of guilt, an understanding that they are right with God. He goes on to say, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
And, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for …,” the pure in heart will what? “…they shall see God.” And then He says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” And then, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted …,” now listen carefully, “… for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (5:7-10)
The beatitudes open saying this is what the blessing is to the poor in spirit. They‟re going to have the kingdom of heaven. Then it gives us the other blessings and then it comes full circle and it comes down to the fact that, “Blessed are those that are persecuted …,” now listen, “… for the sake of righteousness.” What is the kingdom of heaven all about? The kingdom of heaven is all about a person whose character has been changed. A person who looks at life in a different way through a different, so to speak, set of glasses. A person who has become right with God. And that person consequently, in becoming right with God, has a righteousness that awards them the kingdom of heaven. Listen to what He says in verse 20. He says, “I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.” (5:20) So where does entrance into the kingdom of heaven begin? It begins with those that are poor in spirit.
What does this word poor mean? Well they‟re several words in the Greek for poor but this means that your so poor, you are so destitute, you are so low, you are so down that you reach up your hand in desperation but your head is bowed totally and completely because you realize that you are as low, you are as poor, you are as object in your poverty as you can be. He‟s talking about an attitude, an attitude of heart, an attitude towards God that says to God, “God, there is nothing about me to commend myself to you. There is nothing about me that You would even want me. There‟s
nothing about me that can merit or can earn Your favor or could earn Your help.” And when we say it that way then God sees our heart. He sees that we see our total depravity before God.
Now you know, so many people don‟t like to hear that. They don‟t like to hear that, why? Because in our society we‟re always taught to look at ourselves in a commendable way. We‟re always taught, “Hey, you can do it. You earned it. You ought to be. You‟re number 1. Go for it! Go for it!” But that‟s not what earns you the kingdom of heaven. Rather it‟s poverty of spirit. I want you to look at Isaiah 57, verse 15. It says, “For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, „I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the…heart of the contrite.”
Now when He uses that word if we were to go back and we were to pull out the Old Testament word, the Old Testament word would be meek. That He dwells with those who are meek, those that are lowly, those that have humbled themselves before God. But I want to look also at Isaiah chapter 66 because there‟s another verse there in Isaiah chapter 66.
And I want us to look at verse 1 and 2 and it says this. “Thus says the LORD, „Heaven is My throne, the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house that you could build for Me? And where is a place that I could rest? For My hand made all these things…But this is the one to whom I will look, To him who is humble …,” to him who is meek, “… and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Precious One, He is not saying how we get saved but He‟s saying this.
That when you come to God, if this is your heart attitude then with this heart attitude God will bless you. God will approve that heart attitude and God will give to you the kingdom of heaven. As we look at this what I want to do is I want to take you to Isaiah chapter 6 because I want you to see that what happens is we get this poverty of spirit when we see God as He really is. In Isaiah chapter 6 we have the account of Isaiah the prophet and on the day that Isaiah comes into the presence of the Lord and he sees God and this is what he says. It says, “He came into the presence of the Lord …,” and he said, “… and one cherubim cried out to another, „Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.‟
And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called while the temple was filling with smoke. And then I said, „Woe is me…,” woe is me, “… for I am
ruined!‟” Isaiah chapter 6, verse 5, “… Woe is me, for I am ruined … For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” He knew he was unclean. He knew that he had unclean lips. He knew that he dwelt in the midst of an unclean people, because he saw the holiness of God and when he saw the holiness of God it brought him, literally, prostrate on his face before a holy God.
Precious One, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? We‟re going to look at it in greater depth in just a minute but I just want to ask you a question. Have you tried to come to God? Have you tried to bargain with God? Have you tried to plead your case? Have you tried to say, “God, I‟m sure. God, remember that time? I did something right. I was pleasing to You.” It won‟t work. It won‟t work.
When you come to God, you see Him as God and you fall flat on your face and you say, “Woe is me. I‟m ruined.
I‟m undone because mine eyes have seen the glory of the King, the glory of the Lord of hosts.” And when you do that, Precious One, and you reach up and say, “There is nothing worthy in me, nothing to commend myself to you,” then God says, “You‟re the one I‟m looking for. You‟re the son; you‟re the daughter I desire.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.” (5:3) I‟ll be right back and we‟ll talk more about this poverty of spirit so that you understand it and so that you can be sure, Precious One, that the kingdom of heaven is yours.
PART TWO
When He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, …” I want you to remember two things. Number one, that poverty of spirit indicates that there is a genuine repentance.
What does it mean to repent? Well to repent means to have a change of mind. And so when you become poor in spirit you have a change of mind. You really see yourself as you are but it‟s also a continual dependence. Because, you see, if I realize that in and of myself I have nothing to offer God, That there‟s nothing that I can do to please God, then I‟m going to live in continued dependence upon Him and that‟s what Jesus was all about. It was Jesus who said if we are thirsting that we are to come to Him and we are to drink of Him. Why? Because He is our source of supply. So I want us to look at that life of continual dependence upon God.
You
know, when Jesus Christ came He came to bring heaven to earth. He came to model for us what man would be like if man had never sinned. And yet even if man never sinned he would live in total and complete dependence upon God. In John chapter 5, in verse 19 this is what He said, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something that He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son does in like manner.” When we study His life we understand that Jesus always and only did those things that please God. That He lived in total and complete dependence upon Him.
And Jesus had to bring His disciples to that point where they would see their complete and total dependence upon Him. I think about Peter and I want you to go to Luke chapter 5. Jesus was teaching on the shore of the Galilee and the multitude got so great that Jesus got into a boat and it was Simon Peter‟s boat.
And He had Simon Peter push off from the shore. And then Jesus sat down and He was teaching the disciples. “And when He had finished speaking, …” verse 5, it says, “… He said to Simon, „Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.‟” Now remember, this is Jesus the boy from Nazareth, the carpenter that is telling Peter, the experienced fisherman how to catch fish. And that He‟s assuring him that he‟s going to catch a great load of fish. “And Simon answered and said, „Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at your bidding, I will let down my nets.‟”
And it says, “And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish; and their nets began to break; and they signaled to their partners in the other boat, for them to come and help them. And they came, and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.” I mean you talk about a haul of fish! Two boats filled and about to sink on that Sea of Galilee. “And when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus'‟ feet, saying, '„Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.…”
You see, poverty of spirit comes when we see who God is and then we see our total and absolute need of Him. I want you to go to Romans chapter 7, verse 24 because remember, Paul wasn‟t saved while Jesus was alive. And after he heard about Jesus Christ and the people, the Jews, becoming Christians he set out to persecute them. Paul had a desire to be righteous. Paul did everything. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I mean, he knew the word of God. He lived by the Law of God. I mean, he thought he had attained.
And
then the Law hit him and when he saw his own sin in Romans chapter 7, verse 24 this is what it says, “… wretched man that I am!” Poverty of spirit is in a sense is like beating your breast and saying, “… wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” That is the poor in spirit that inherit the kingdom of God because they truly see their abject poverty. They truly see their total and absolute need of God.
In Romans chapter 12, verse 6 he talks about gifts. When you and I get saved God gives us one or more spiritual gifts and it says, “And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them accordingly….” Now as he talks about exercising our gifts in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 Paul is going to tell us where these gifts come from and how we exercise those gifts. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12 where he says, “I don‟t want you to be ignorant of spiritual gifts…,”
He said I want you to know that, “…there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.” What is he saying? He‟s saying even after you come to Me, the very things that enable you to serve Me are gifts that I have given to you and He says in Romans 12, “I don‟t want you to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. I want you to understand that even the ability that I have given you, the ministry that I‟ve given you is from the Lord. And the effect that comes from that is from Me.”
What does God say in Romans chapter 11, because if we understand this as He gives forth the gospel, as He explains to us in Romans chapters 1 through 11 how the Jews are saved and how the Gentiles are saved which is all the same way. “It‟s by faith because by the works of the Law no flesh can be justified …,” why? “… because there is none righteous, no not one. There‟s none that understand it. There‟s none that seeketh after God.”
The Bible says in Isaiah 53, “All we like sheep have gone astray and we have turned each one to our own way.” What is poverty of spirit? It‟s seeing that our way is wrong. That our way is not going to satisfy God. It‟s seeing that in and of myself there is nothing to commend me to God. It‟s seeing I can‟t do it, God, but You can. And so as we come to the end of the section that presents the gospel in Romans chapter 11, he says, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments and
unfathomable are His ways! For who has known the mind of the LORD, that He might be His counselor? Who has first given to Him that it might be paid back again? For from him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him belongs the glory forever and ever.” That‟s the poverty of spirit and what comes with that poverty of spirit? The minute that you see your poverty of spirit you grieve because you have seen the holiness of God.
You have seen your own sinfulness and that‟s why Jesus goes on to say in Matthew chapter 5, verse 4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” And so what we see is there‟s a genuine mourning that comes and with that comes that comfort that God alone can give. Do you remember in Psalm 51 when David had sinned? He says, “Against Thee, and Thee only, have I sinned,” Psalm 51, verse 4, “And done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou are justified when Thou dost speak, and blameless when Thou dost judge.”
He goes on to say, “Create in me a clean heart….” He knows that even he cannot be clean apart from God. He cannot be right with God apart from God‟s grace, apart from God‟s mercy. That‟s why as you read through the beatitudes one builds upon another. The first one begins with telling us that if we‟re poor in spirit that we have gained heaven. And then it says, “Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
And what we‟re going to see is that when we walk in righteousness there‟s going to be persecution. There‟s going to be people that do not understand and you can know this for certain that when they do not understand and when they see your righteousness, then they‟re going to despise you and you‟re going to mourn and you‟re going to need to be comforted. And He will comfort you. He‟ll wipe away all your tears.
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