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[0:00] All right, if you've got your Bible, go to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5, continuing in the Sermon on the Mount, and we've been looking at the Beatitudes.

[0:28] Let me just say, you guys are about to bring the ceiling down in this place. I love it, and we've been, amen, we've been talking about do we at some point have to have a second Saturday night service, and by the looks of it, we have that answer, but so glad that you're here and excited for what God's going to teach us tonight from His Word.

[0:49] If you're a guest with us, we've been working through the Beatitudes, a very famous passage of Scripture, just verse by verse, looking at each one and trying to unpack what it means to belong to the kingdom of God and how that looks differently from the kingdom of the earth.

[1:07] And so let's pick up Matthew 5 here. We're going to read the whole passage again like we have each week, but we'll focus specifically tonight on verse 8. And so now that you're nice and comfortable, would you please stand, if you're able, as we read God's Word, this is our reminder that what has authority in this place is the Word of God.

[1:29] Matthew 5, 1 says, So seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[1:46] Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

[1:57] Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

[2:11] Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

[2:29] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

[2:40] Isn't this such a beautiful passage of Scripture? Let's pray and let's ask God's Holy Spirit to come and just open our eyes to see it. God, thank you for this time now in your Word.

[2:51] Lord, I pray that you would come and speak to us. As we pray often, Spirit of truth, come and guide us in truth. We can't see these things, we can't understand these things without you.

[3:06] So open our minds to understand, our hearts to receive what it is that you have for us this evening. We'll give Jesus the glory for it and we pray it in his name.

[3:17] And God's people said, amen, amen. You can be seated. We're not red states. We're not blue states.

[3:29] We are the United States. Is that the only amen I'm going to get? Oh, it's like, let's just pray and go home, all right?

[3:40] That phrase that I just said is kind of the typical rhetoric you hear from a politician. It's a plea for people to come together, to put aside their differences and to be united.

[3:56] And the reason you hear that kind of rhetoric is because, as you know, we live in a deeply divided nation. Certainly the last election showed that.

[4:08] But our current situation is not the first time in American history that our nation has been divided. In fact, I would submit that it's not even the most divided America has ever been.

[4:21] For prior to the Civil War in the 1860s, America was being torn apart. It was divided geographically between North and South, politically between Republican and Democrat, economically.

[4:36] But, of course, the main reason for America's division in the 1960s was racially. The issue of slavery was front and center. As new states emerged and new territories were being found, the advocates of slavery and the opponents of slavery, they would fight each other to see who would have control over that state.

[5:02] Kansas, for example, was known as Bleeding Kansas because of all the fighting. Of course, to make matters worse, that famous Supreme Court decision of 1857, known as Dred Scott, decided that a slave living in a free state was still not allowed to be considered free, which only fanned the flames of division even more.

[5:32] So along came a senator who thought he had a peaceful compromise. His name was Stephen Douglas. Douglas argued for allowing those that settled new territories to decide for themselves whether they would be a free territory or a slave territory.

[5:55] Douglas thought that allowing both free states and slave states to coexist within the same country, that that would provide a solution for the nation's division.

[6:08] But there was another rising politician that realized that coexistence could not and would not work.

[6:21] America, he believed, simply could not and would not survive as a divided nation. His name, and you know it, was Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln. And Abraham Lincoln, in the summer of 1858, at the capital of Springfield, Illinois, running for Senate at the time, delivered what are some of the most famous words that have ever been delivered.

[6:48] He said this, and I quote, A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

[7:04] I do not expect the union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall. But I do expect it will cease to be divided.

[7:16] It will become all one thing or all the other. You see, faith family, Lincoln, unlike his colleague Douglas, understood that in order for a country to survive, in order for a nation to be truly united, it could not be anti-slavery and pro-slavery at the same time.

[7:47] And the truth is, faith family, what Lincoln said is not only true about a country, it's true about a life.

[7:59] A team that's divided will not win. A company that is divided will have a toxic culture, a church that is divided will not be effective for the mission of God.

[8:14] And according to Jesus, a heart that is divided won't see God. And that's what's behind what Jesus is teaching in the sixth beatitude.

[8:31] Look at it again, chapter 5, verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This beatitude, like all the others, gets to the very core of what it means to be a Christian.

[8:46] A Christian is someone who has realized their spiritual bankruptcy, that they are poor in spirit, that they don't have a spiritual penny to their name. And they are broken over that.

[8:58] They mourn. And they are in a humble state that is meekness as it relates to God and others. And they hunger for a righteousness that they do not have in and of themselves.

[9:09] It's a righteousness outside themselves that's found in Christ. And they are merciful to others because of the mercy that God has shown them.

[9:19] This is a Christian. And now we add to that that a Christian is also pure in heart. And as a result, they see God. Now, this is not the only place in the Scripture where this is taught.

[9:34] For example, Psalm 24, verse 2. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a, say it with me, pure heart.

[9:49] So, who ascends the hill of the Lord? Who will stand in his holy place? Only someone with a pure heart. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14. Strive for peace and for the holiness without which no one will what?

[10:05] See the Lord. Only the pure in heart will see the Lord. Isn't that wonderful news? Isn't this fantastic news? The people who get to see God are the people whose hearts are totally pure.

[10:21]  Which means, of course, I don't get to see God. You either.