[0:00] Let's turn for a little to the chapter we read in Matthew chapter 5. And it's reading from the beginning, the first five verses.
[0:15] Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
[0:28] Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. I'm sure we would all have loved to have heard the Lord Jesus Christ preach and teach.
[0:41] And the huge crowds that always followed Jesus showed just how much his teaching was loved by so many.
[0:52] Of course, we know that many in the crowd were critics, the scribes and the Pharisees. Many of them hated the Lord Jesus Christ, but they would often be part of these crowds.
[1:04] But wherever he went, huge crowds followed him. And even his harshest critics had to say, Never a man spoke like this man. That was a statement that was made.
[1:17] And indeed, when Jesus had finished this sermon, because it is a sermon, when he had finished at the end of chapter 7, it runs through from chapter 5 through to chapter 7, tells us in chapter 7, verse 28, And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as the scribes.
[1:44] So, these three chapters, 5, 6, and 7, constitute one sermon. It's not a collection of Jesus' teachings and a collection of his thoughts brought together into this one.
[2:00] This was an actual sermon that was preached on a particular mountain at a particular time. And although you will find some of what was taught here in other parts within the Gospels, for instance, in Luke's Gospel, and in other parts you will find some of these similar teachings, that doesn't mean that Jesus only ever taught like what we have here once and never again.
[2:30] He would obviously teach the same things to different audiences. And that is an important part of proclaiming the truth, that we haven't always to be looking for, it's got to be something absolutely new that you see in different places.
[2:47] That's part of the way Jesus taught. But what we have here, as we say, is one particular sermon. And Jesus' teaching was always radical.
[3:00] It was revolutionary, because it was so different to the teaching that they were normally used to, particularly from the scribes. And we hear of that being said so often, that he taught, that's what it says at the very end, in fact, that he taught, he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes who were astonished at his teaching.
[3:26] And Jesus deals really in the Sermon on the Mount with two particular things. He deals with Christian character and with Christian conduct.
[3:37] And he begins with the character before the conduct. Because conduct comes from character. The type of character we are will often affect the way our conduct is in life, the way we live our lives.
[3:56] So Jesus begins first with the character, and then with our conduct with regard to different aspects of living. Our conduct with regard to the law, with regard to relationships, with regard to possessions and wealth, with regard to so many different things.
[4:17] And as we know, as we read through this, we find that it's often challenging, it's often provocative, it often makes us rethink and say, right, how am I, how am I in relation to these things?
[4:31] And sometimes, the word of God will make us feel very uncomfortable and realize that there are aspects of our lives that need to be worked at. And that doesn't happen overnight. Because as we're challenged by God's word, and sometimes, I'm sure you were very aware of how it happens, that sometimes, all of a sudden, we're challenged as we read a particular truth, and we say, it makes us stop and think and say to ourselves, well, this is actually not how I'm living.
[5:00] And very often, it's not an overnight, just discovery, and a total, immediate character change, and a conduct change. Sometimes it takes time, and you're asking the Lord for grace, and for help, and forgiveness for the way that you have been living.
[5:18] And you're saying to the Lord, well, Lord, I realize I'm now so challenged by your word, and you need to help me in this. And the Lord will often bring you into situations where what you've been praying about is being tried and tested.
[5:33] And this, of course, is a way the Lord develops us and strengthens us and such like. So, if you said that Christian conduct flows out from the Christian character, and he begins with that character and all the different, the types, you can see the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, and all these things.
[5:54] And so, Jesus begins the sermon by highlighting these characteristics. And he says of each one that they are blessed. Now, this word blessing, or blessed, is a word that we so often use.
[6:14] We often, in our prayer, we ask, Lord, bless, so and so. And I'm sure we have to be honest that there are times when we say, Lord, bless, so and so, that we can be sometimes quite vague in what we're saying.
[6:30] It's kind of a vague idea that the Lord will do something good. But we're not being specific about what we're asking the Lord to do. It's just in a kind of general, vague way that, oh, Lord, bless.
[6:41] But we should really think about what it is when we're asking the Lord to bless someone. We're asking them, the Lord, to enrich that person's life. And yes, to do good.
[6:53] But there has to be a, it's not a kind of a vague idea. It has to be a definite idea. And the Lord is, bless the Lord, who does bless our lives. And he shows us here that this blessing, it is part of, in all these characteristics, there is blessing.
[7:14] Now, again, we know that this word, blessed, carries with it the idea of happiness. happiness. And, it could, rightly be said at the beginning of each, each one, happy are the poor in spirit.
[7:30] that you could put that down. We tend to think of happiness, and I suppose it's what everybody wants in this life. You'll often ask people, and you'll say, what do you want out of life?
[7:42] And they'll say, well, to be happy. And at one level, that is right, because nobody wants to be miserable. There'll be something severely wrong with a person if they said, oh, I want to be really down and flat and miserable every day.
[7:56] Well, you'd say to yourself, that is something far wrong in that person's thinking. Everybody wants to be happy. But we often equate happiness with the idea that everything is good within us, that we're healthy in body, in mind, in spirit, and that circumstances all around us, that everything is good.
[8:21] And if that's how things are, then we'll be happy. But if things change, or the circumstances change, or our health goes away, then we become unhappy.
[8:32] But Jesus is showing that true happiness is not dependent upon just the physical things of life, that it goes much, much deeper, that it's into our spirit, that it goes deep within us, into the very depth of our being.
[8:49] And because it's quite obvious when, if it says, suppose you're just taking the very first beatitude, blessed are the poor. And you'd say to yourself, well, poor can't be happy, but of course it's not poor in pocket that is spoken of here, but poor in spirit.
[9:09] Happy are those who mourn. But then again, it tells us of the blessing that comes, because they will be comforted, and so on. So Jesus is showing that these blessings are above all that they are spiritual.
[9:27] And we always remember the quote of Augustine, you have made us for yourself, and our souls will always be restless until they find rest in you.
[9:38] And that is so true, that irrespective of what we have or if we don't have in this life, until we are at rest in Jesus, then we won't know through rest.
[9:51] So the first one is, blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, in order to know the true happiness here, there has to be a discovery of spiritual poverty.
[10:01] And that's not something that we can, a conclusion that we come to naturally. Because in and of ourselves, being absolutely honest, we can look at ourselves, and we can say, well, I know I'm not perfect.
[10:16] No person will say, you know, I'm perfect. Nobody would dare say that, because everybody's aware of faults and failings. And I'm not just talking about you as a congregation here, I'm talking about everybody.
[10:28] And people will say, I know I'm not perfect, but I'm not too bad. And we tend to measure our lives against maybe people who appear really good, and people who look really bad.
[10:41] People who have done terrible things. And we say to ourselves, well, I'm, I know I'm not a saint, people will say. But I'll tell you, I'm not like that. So people, most people look on themselves as kind of middle of the road, decent, law-abiding citizens.
[10:55] And they'll say to themselves, I'm all right. And that's how most people kind of think. And that's why people tend to rest on this self-righteousness, which is within us, which somehow believes that at the end of the day, God will be reasonably pleased with us, and that as we balance out our good and our bad, then that the good will hopefully outweigh the bad, and the Lord will say, well, there were quite a few things that were wrong there, but overall, your life was pretty good.
[11:28] That's not how it is. And it's only the Holy Spirit that can really show us that that's not how it is. Because the Holy Spirit will come, and the Holy Spirit begins to convince us, convict us and convince us that we have come short of the glory of God.
[11:49] And that we begin to see that there is deep within us, there's a twistedness, there's a perverseness, there is a rebellion, a natural rebellion, an enmity against God.
[12:02] And it's a quite frightening discovery. And that's where this poverty of spirit comes. It was David, the psalmist, who said, and he said, Lord, you are my Lord.
[12:18] I have no good apart from you. That's a discovery David had come to make. I have no good apart from you. Now that doesn't mean that a non-Christian is incapable of doing any good in this world.
[12:32] That is not the case. But with regard to our standing before God and what we are, it is imperative that we come to this discovery that we cannot make ourselves right.
[12:46] We cannot fulfill the law that God requires of us to fulfill. that we are coming short all the time in thought, in word, and in deed.
[12:57] And it's a distressing and a disturbing discovery when that is first made. And that is why if the Holy Spirit is at work within us, that discovery is made.
[13:11] But the remedy is also shown as well. Because it would be awful if all the Holy Spirit was to do was just to show us ourselves and to show us coming so far short of the Lord and to condemn us as hell-deserving and that he wasn't to point us to the remedy that is found in Jesus Christ.
[13:33] But of course, the Holy Spirit, this is his work. It's first of all to convict us and convince us of our sin but also to reveal to us the things of Christ.
[13:44] That is the great work, the great mission of the Holy Spirit in this world. So the poor in spirit is like the attitude of the prodigal who came to himself.
[13:57] That's the point. Remember, there was that time and that's what it says. And when he came to himself. When he came to himself in that field feeding the pigs and rags, there wasn't just, remember, it wasn't just that he saw the poverty of his condition because he couldn't go much lower.
[14:17] Because remember, as far as the Jew was concerned, the pig was an unclean animal and here is this man and he had everything and he's lost everything and he's now doing a job that most people wouldn't do.
[14:29] And he's in rags and he's so hungry that he would eat the food that the pigs were getting. So there was the discovery, the self-discovery.
[14:41] But as we were saying what the Holy Spirit does, it wasn't just he came to himself. But he says, I will arise and I will go to my father. You see, there was the twofold part of it.
[14:54] Because there was this awareness of who he was and what and he saw himself in all his helplessness, his hopelessness, his rags and his poverty. But he also, his eyes were brought to focus back on home.
[15:10] And back on his father who had all the resources and had all the plenty and he said, I will arise and I will go to my father. And of course, that is just how the Holy Spirit works within us.
[15:25] Brings us to see ourselves and then brings us to see the provision that is made. So there has to be this discovery of poverty of spirit.
[15:35] Paul made that discovery. Paul thought Paul thought there was nobody like him when he was Saul of Tarshish. And Saul could boast in his credentials because he was just top of the tree as far as Jewishness was concerned.
[15:56] if you wanted to have an A plus in Jewishness and to be at the very height so that people would look up and say, whoa, he's got everything.
[16:08] That's who Saul was. And he boasted in that. And he believed he was absolutely right with God because of these things. But when he was converted, when he became a Christian, he said he counted these things like refuse just to be got rid of.
[16:22] that they did while they were good blessings within themselves, they had no bearing upon his ultimate standing with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[16:36] And so Paul discovered his poverty of spirit. And the sobering thing is we cannot be full of self and full of Christ at the same time.
[16:47] There isn't room. It can't work like that. So the poverty of spirit is where we're brought down like the public and to say, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.
[16:59] But then we see that there is happiness that comes because we're told blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, as we know, there is at one level the kingdom of heaven is already ours.
[17:16] And what Jesus says is absolutely true. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Every single person who has come to discover that poverty of spirit and has accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour, theirs is the kingdom of heaven because we're told in the Bible that the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is within you.
[17:39] But there's a two-fold aspect to the kingdom. There is what we term the here and now and there is what we term the not yet. The here and now the kingdom is within us.
[17:52] The not yet is the time when we will be actually in the kingdom. So the first of all the kingdom has to come within us but at the end of the day when we die then we are brought into the kingdom.
[18:10] So there's the two aspects to it. So the moment that we are born again the kingdom of God is within you. That's what we're told. Why? Because the Holy Spirit the third person of the Godhead has come to live in you.
[18:24] Every single day and every single night has come to dwell. To abide. Beautiful word. Abiding. Taking up residence forever. And that's why the kingdom is already within you.
[18:39] And the Holy Spirit ministers to you all the time. It's wonderful. people. But then there'll come a time when you leave this world. And as Jesus said to the thief on the cross today you will be with me in paradise.
[18:56] As we know our catechism says that the souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory into the kingdom. Kingdom is in us now.
[19:08] and then when the moment we die the kingdom that is within us remains within us but we are actually brought then into the kingdom to be with the king forever and ever and ever.
[19:24] So you can see how we are happy to have how we are blessed to have a promise of this nature. We are all going to pass away.
[19:35] That's one thing we can't avoid. But as David says in the psalm I shall be as satisfied when I awake with your likeness because when we are brought into the kingdom we will resemble the king because as we said we are made perfect in holiness.
[19:56] And when we pray part of the Lord's prayer your kingdom come that's what we're praying for. We're praying for the Lord's kingdom to become greater within our own heart that in other words that we will come to discover more and more of the king.
[20:15] And that's the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to us. But it's not just that we're praying for the kingdom to come within our own heart but into the hearts of those whom we love into the hearts of our nation.
[20:30] That's what we want. God. And so this is part of what we would pray in the Lord's prayer. And so all the blessings, all the blessings, kingdom blessings are huge.
[20:45] We have like all the fruit of the Spirit, the love, the joy, the peace, all these things. And so this enriches a person's life beyond anything that the world could give.
[21:00] because to have the fullness of joy and peace and love and contentment and patience and goodness.
[21:13] And if your life is full of these things, then you're happy, you're blessed. Sometimes we say to ourselves, well, there are times that we're conscious of these things, but sometimes we might say to ourselves, well, I'm not, I'm not, maybe you're here today or I'm here today and saying, you know, I read about all these things and I hear about all these things, but you know this, I just don't, I'm not conscious, I'm not aware, not aware of the ministry of God's Spirit in that way in my life.
[21:47] Well, two things. One, sometimes we can be guilty of grieving the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, we remember, is very, very sensitive, very sensitive to sin, to our sin, to our fondling sin and cuddling sin.
[22:05] If I regard iniquity in my heart, that is if I take it and caress it and keep it there, the Lord will not hear me. You see, sin causes a block, it's a hindrance.
[22:17] And the other thing is, sometimes we don't have because we don't ask. The Lord says that. You have not because you ask not.
[22:29] And that's why, again, we're told in the Bible to ask. We have that, for instance, regarding wisdom. The Lord says, I want to give you wisdom. But often you don't have because you don't ask for it.
[22:42] Ask and you'll receive. And so it is imperative that we ask the Lord day by day, Lord, fill me with all the kingdom blessings.
[22:53] Because, Lord, you are here in my heart, but fill my heart with these things. Just move very briefly. Blessed are those who mourn. This is the sorrow of a broken heart, the ache that is there, the hurt of a bruised soul, the anguished mind.
[23:13] And it's quite a, sometimes a, quite a unique word, because while there is a sense of so much pain within yourself, there's also almost a sense of feeling for others as well.
[23:29] So, blessed are those who mourn. And the first thing I would have to say here is that the poverty of spirit and the mourning are tied together.
[23:42] Because we mourn because of the poverty of spirit. spirit. And the fact that a person mourns, and we're talking here at a spiritual level first and foremost, the fact that a person mourns speaks to us of life.
[23:59] Because if there isn't spiritual life within you, then you're not mourning because of your poverty of spirit and your sin. Because these beatitudes are actually linked.
[24:10] There's an order. The Lord hasn't just put these things in any kind of random way. There's a specific order. Because the poverty of spirit comes and then there's the mourning.
[24:21] All these kind of things come together. And so, we mourn. Now, the spiritual life in the Christian is in constant contact with the corruption that is within us.
[24:42] And that's what causes us to mourn. Many a sigh has come out of you. And it's, there's an ongoing battle within us.
[24:56] You know how it tells us in Galatians. We often read this at the time of a communion in Galatians chapter 5. And it talks about the fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh.
[25:09] And it says, but I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.
[25:21] For these are opposed to each other. There's a collision course going on within your heart, within your life. Beforehand, there wasn't. Before you became a Christian, it was the flesh that was in operation all the time.
[25:35] That doesn't mean you never had a good thought or anything. Of course you did. But this was what drove you on. But when the Holy Spirit comes in, the Holy Spirit doesn't remove and eradicate the flesh, the flesh remains.
[25:53] But the wonderful thing is that where sin did abound, grace does much more abound. So that we should be on a victorious course, but it's still a collision course.
[26:06] and it says if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident and there's this long list that goes on of immorality, impurity, idolatry, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, and so on.
[26:22] Then we have the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. So a person might say when we read that before a communion, taking the sacrament, oh well it should only be from verse 22 that I know, because it must be just the fruit of the Spirit, the love, joy, the peace, that's all that should ever be within my heart.
[26:45] No. I would say that if we don't know the struggle, and if we don't know the works of the flesh, we're battling against that.
[26:55] That's part of this coalition course, and that's part of what causes us to mourn. So often we feel failures. We want to be men of God and women of God.
[27:10] We're striving to be, and yet so often we feel dragged down. And like the apostle we say the good that I would I do not, and the evil that I would not, that's what I do.
[27:23] And so there's this collision that goes on, that causes mourning. so that we mourn because we long to be Christ-like. And so often as we look at ourselves, we feel to be so un-Christ-like.
[27:38] We mourn because we live in a society that is pushing God, or trying to, they can't, but they are trying to. And the thing is that God, it's not that they can't, a society can't push God out.
[27:53] If God, if God determines to make himself known in power within a society, it doesn't matter what a person might try to do, or what any group of people, or what any nation of people might try to do, they can't do it.
[28:07] But the worst judgment God can do is to hand us over to ourselves. And when sometimes we find that he did it with his own people, with Israel and with Judah, handed them over to themselves and gave them what they asked for.
[28:22] And sometimes that's, it's an awful judgment moment. Because God, as it were, withdraws his influence and his spirit more and more, and allows people to become what they're wanting, what a nation is wanting.
[28:37] It's not that God has become powerless. His arm isn't shortened, or his ear heavy, but your sins have separated between you and God. That's how I say I said it.
[28:49] And so this is part of what causes us to mourn. when we see our society changing, and trying to eradicate, it's extraordinary so many people, that is our chief aim in life, at this particular moment, is to get Christian influence out of all walks of life.
[29:10] It really is, you couldn't have a worse goal in life than to use your God-given gifts and talents in the pursuit of that.
[29:24] And yet that's what many people are trying to do. And we need to pray for our society that the Lord won't remove himself any further from us.
[29:35] And if God's people don't pray, and if we don't humble ourselves, because we need to humble ourselves, that's it, remember, we've said it often enough before, but when Daniel saw how things were, Daniel, who was beloved of God, who was an exemplary saint, saint, and yet when he makes this great confession in Daniel chapter 9, he doesn't say, they have sinned, but we have sinned.
[30:01] And the Lord says, if my people who are called by my name, if they humble themselves, if they seek, the Lord promises to heal the land. So it is imperative that the church prays, that you and I pray, that we take this to heart.
[30:17] We have before the throne of grace, the only hope of restoration, the people of God. It's not a political leader. They don't have the answer.
[30:30] It is the people of God. And we have to humble ourselves and seek his face. That is a great obligation that is placed upon us. And that comes from the mourning heart.
[30:41] Mourning heart because we're living in a society that is against the Lord. We mourn because we see those whom we love still without Christ. That hurts as well.
[30:53] And again, we mourn because of the sorrows of this life. Because of death and illness. Because of the pains and tragedies and all the many things that happen.
[31:05] But then we see that they shall be comforted. And this is a spiritual divine comfort. A consolation is the kind of word. And this is a word that was used to the Messiah.
[31:18] Consolation. Remember how Simeon, he was waiting for Christ. And this is what he said, that he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. And that's remember when he was introduced to the little baby Jesus.
[31:32] And he had spoken about this waiting for the consolation of Israel. And again, we've got to remember that one of the names given to the Holy Spirit is Comforter.
[31:44] And the Holy Spirit does that. the Holy Spirit brings comfort into our hearts, binds up the broken hearted. And one of the ways the Lord does that is by strengthening us.
[31:57] As we know that that word comfort that the Lord uses regarding his own ministry, the word comfort means to strengthen us inwardly.
[32:09] And so it's a wonderful thing to be comforted by the Lord. Moving very quickly, blessed are the meek. This is the last just very briefly. And again, this word is very hard to translate because we often think of meekness as being somebody who's spineless, somebody who's weak in character, somebody who will never ever stand up for himself, is quite ready just to be downtrodden.
[32:34] But that's not what this particular word means. the word in Greek speaks about equality or balance.
[32:46] It's got the idea of a ready willingness to obey, just like a dog that is trained and trained either to a whistle or a command or a move of a hand, and this desire to obey.
[33:01] But the idea also captures an unworthiness of one's own self. it doesn't mean this is a person who is very weak in character, but it's a person ultimately at a spiritual level, this meekness talks about somebody who is desiring to submit completely to the authority and to the rule of the Lord.
[33:29] And I think the best way to discover what this meekness is like is to look at a character in the Bible. And the obvious person is Moses. Because it tells us in the Bible that Moses, this is the Lord's declaration regarding Moses, Moses was very meek, more than all people on the earth.
[33:51] That's what it says of Moses. That's what the Lord said of Moses. Moses was very meek, more than all people on the earth. So at the height of Moses' leadership, relationship, he was meeker than any other person on the earth.
[34:10] Was Moses a weak character? Not at all. Moses was one of the most robust, strong, courageous characters that we will ever meet in the Bible.
[34:23] But he was meek before the Lord. He was utterly submissive before the Lord. all the time. He didn't want his own way and his own will, but God's way and God's will.
[34:37] There was a day when Moses wasn't meek. In the palace when he killed the Egyptian, he would have been ready to lead Israel and to side with the people of God, but in his own terms.
[34:49] Remember how he had to run away and for 40 years in the wilderness, 40 years as a shepherd, tending his father-in-law's flocks. The Lord was at work, molding, breaking, breaking, breaking, breaking.
[35:04] So 40 years later, burning bush, Moses said, not me, I can't lead Israel. My brother, go for it, ask my brother, but not me.
[35:16] Very different Moses. But anyway, we know that Moses led Israel. And the journey of 40 years was a punishing journey.
[35:28] And what Moses endured and dealt with shows the immense character, the strength of character. As we said, he was a robust, courageous man, but he was meek absolutely before God.
[35:45] There are so many examples. You remember the time when the Lord had said to Moses, do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to destroy this people and I will build a new nation from yourself.
[36:00] Now, if Moses wasn't a meek man, he might be saying to himself, oh, wow, isn't that wonderful? That I would be known as the father of this nation.
[36:11] Abraham was supposed to be the father of the nation, but I might get this mantle now. Is that what Moses thought? Not for one moment. Oh, no, Lord, that must not happen because the enemies will say, your enemies will say, it was because the Lord wasn't able to take the people.
[36:33] He took them out of Egypt, but he couldn't take them to the land of promise. You must not do that. Moses didn't want any honor or any glory for his own name.
[36:44] He wanted all the honor and all the glory to belong to the Lord. And that's how he should be. And that was, that's the very heart of leadership is meekness, submission before God.
[37:00] That's the kind of man that Moses was. And that is what the Lord requires of us as well. It's very interesting that Jesus, while speaking of himself, he rarely highlights his own characteristics.
[37:17] but he did of this. I am meek, he says, and lowly of heart. We don't find him saying an awful lot about himself, but that's what he said on one occasion.
[37:31] I am meek and lowly in heart. And the more that we seek to be meek and lowly in heart, the more we will resemble Jesus.
[37:46] And then we see the great blessing for the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. That doesn't mean that the meek will become landowners, or that will own vast areas of ground or such like.
[38:03] But this blessing that shall inherit the earth, it means that our lives will be absolutely lived with a spirit of contentment so that we will have a sense of fulfillment in this world that those who might be really wealthy landowners do not have.
[38:32] It was like the apostle said, as having nothing, yet possessing all things. Paul said to the church in Corinth, all things are yours.
[38:45] And you know, when the Lord gives you, if you are meek and lowly, he will give you a spirit of contentment so that you are content living in this world.
[38:58] And you can't put a price on that. And while this promise is given to you at a spiritual level here, there will also come a fulfillment of it at a much deeper level because we know that there will be new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.
[39:17] And we will inherit that in all its fullness. So the rich blessings that belong to the people of God are beyond anything that this world could even begin to remotely offer.
[39:32] I hope today that all of us have Jesus Christ as our Savior because it's only in Christ that we know sufficient of this poverty of spirit that causes us to mourn.
[39:46] And because of that, then that brings us into this lowliness of spirit before the Lord where we're humbled before the Lord.
[39:57] See, one should lead on to the other. So there should be a natural submission before the Lord. seeking his glory, his honor through my life.
[40:11] And that is a way that we will enjoy the fulfillment and the blessings that the Lord has for us. Let us pray. Oh Lord, our God, we pray that you will bless us and that you will bless us with every spiritual blessing.
[40:27] We give thanks for your words to us and help us to understand just how real and true they are because so often we live in a world that clouds our spirituality so that we cannot see in the way that we should.
[40:46] But oh Lord, make our vision clear. May we have a spiritual vision that we may see you in your glory. Help us, Lord, to love you more and more.
[40:58] help us to submit before your rule and your authority. Bless us with every spiritual blessing. Take us to our home safely, we pray, forgiving sin in Jesus' name.
[41:10] Amen. We'll conclude singing in Psalm 37, the 37th Psalm, verses 3 to 5.
[41:28] Psalm 37, verse 3. Psalm 37, 3 to 5.
[41:58] Vlg, Chus 1 to 3.
[42:27] Thank you.
[42:57] Thank you.
[43:27] Thank you.
[43:57] Thank you.
[44:27] Thank you. Amen.