Eight Steps to the Kingdom, Part 2

As a grandparent, I always enjoy watching your own grandchildren perform. I would say this particular feast, and I'm speaking not just on their behalf, but I know it's reciprocal, that they will go home from the Feast of Tabernacles with new friends in Australia and new friends in Indiana that they will take home with them. So as I looked at the group up here, I looked at a group of children, and I said, I've seen them at the swimming pool, I've seen them at Boston Pizza, and I've seen them a few other places, all enjoying one another.

So it's a great delight to see the multiple generations sharing the Feast of Tabernacles together. Well, I'm sorry for those of you that didn't get to see Lake Maureen. Mr. Saloma made me feel better. My son and I took off after services into the gray thinking, well, this is going to be an interesting day. And we got to the Bow Parkway. When we arrived there, the sun had already broken out in all of its glory.

And there was so much to photograph that by the time we finished, we looked at the watch and said, we're not going to have time to make it to Maureen Lake. So we felt disappointed that one of the things we couldn't check off, and you made me feel better, Raynor. You know, in this part of the country, when you see cars stopped along the roadside, you slow down and say, I don't know why they're stopped, but it's got to be important.

And my son was driving and I was gawking. And I said, there's a car up there stopped, go slow. And on about a 30-foot ledge, there were two rams, and they were munching away. And I got out and started taking pictures, and they migrated. And then they migrated a little lower, and then a little lower, and then a little lower. And the next thing, they were standing right in the middle of the road in front of us, and both of them decided to get up on their back legs and do a little headbutting.

There was another fellow standing beside me, and I looked at him, and I said, you know, I'm glad they're up there and not here. And I said, if they turn around, all I need to know is that I can run faster than you can.

And he stopped a minute and looked at me and processed that and then grinned. But I was serious. So it was a wonderful day. We had a chance to see bull elk grazing on the roadside, rams, and a few other things, so it was a delightful opportunity.

Well, I promised you at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles that I would give you a half of a message and then at the end give you the other half. And as I prefaced it at the beginning, I mentioned that the Beatitudes are in reality when you look at them, eight steps toward the Kingdom of God.

If I didn't mention it in the first, I do need to mention it now that as you walk through them, and we've made that point with the first four, that some of them are so explicit that you don't have to ask any questions. The others are implicit. And so as we walk through them, some simply say, yours is the Kingdom of God.

Those are no-brainers. Others don't say that, but as you ask, okay, when do I receive what is being offered? They all take you to the same place. And that's why I said there are eight steps to the Kingdom. Whether they explicitly say to you, if you are this, the Kingdom is yours, or whether they say this is what you will receive, you have to ask yourself, when do I receive it? And the answer is, with every one of them, in its fullness, in its fullness, you don't receive it until the Kingdom.

So let's pick up where we left off. We're on number five right now. Matthew 5, verse 7, says, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Mercy is an interesting trait. When I think about mercy, I always go back to exactly the same place in my mind.

I don't know how many of you, because we have different nations represented, and I know the United States and Canada share some common television, but I'm not sure if Australia does. How many of you are familiar with Tool Time? Tim, the toolman, Taylor? Let me ask how many are not. That would be easier. It was a very, very popular long-running American television comedy, built around a bumbling man who had a public-access television show called Tool Time, and he gave advice on tools. He had a relationship all the way through this long-running series.

He had a relationship with his next-door neighbor. They maintained a mystery all the way to the very end, because he'd go talk to his neighbor across the fence, and you never saw more of his neighbor than from here up. So you always wondered, what does his mouth look like? What does his face look like? He'd go talk, and his name was Wilson Wilson.

And so he'd go talk to Wilson. And here was Wilson's eyes and his hat, and he was full of all sorts of sage advice. Well, I say that because when I was pastoring the church in Birmingham, Alabama, I had a Wilson-Wilson relationship with my next-door neighbor. Now, I heard earlier, as Mr. Salomo was giving the greetings from the feast, that the greetings from East Texas were written by Howard Baker. My next-door neighbor was his father. Now, his father wasn't in the church at that time, but his father's name was Giles. And Giles was a salesman, and he had a perfect salesman's personality. He had an impishness about him. He had a voice you could hear half a block away. He'd meet at the hedge, and the hedge was tall enough that a lot of times, if I saw any more than this of Mr. Baker, it was a miracle. And we'd talk back and forth across the fence. One day, Mr. Baker was talking to me about his college education. He had attended Northwestern University, and he said, one of my professors had been in World War I, and he had been horribly disfigured in the trench warfares. And he said, I was sitting in class one day, and he was lecturing, and I was doodling. And he stopped his lecture, and he looked back, and he said, Baker, are you drawing me again? And being the personality that he was, he said, yes, sir, and I hope it does you justice. And he said, Baker, I don't want justice. I want mercy. Never forgot Mr. Baker's statement, picturing a badly disfigured man with a brilliant mind, teaching a class at Northwestern, and simply saying to him, I don't want justice. I want mercy. We all want mercy. All of us want mercy. But we human beings are an interesting lot. Because when you stop and back up a little bit from that statement, there are different people in our lives. We want, at best, justice for our enemies. We want fairness for our friends, and we want mercy for ourselves. This beatitude speaks to those who want mercy for everyone. There are times with your enemies, at the very best, you want justice. At the very best. You always want your friends to be treated fairly. But when push comes to shove, mercy is at the top of the list for ourselves. And Christ is saying, blessed are those who want mercy for everyone. There's one great parable that relates to the issue of mercy, and most people don't grasp the magnitude of the parable's lesson. It's in Matthew 18. As I did in the first message, and obviously I'll give myself away in terms of a personal proclivity, but when I look at biblical terminology, I desire to know what it means in today's terminology. And this is another one of those that the terminology masks the lesson. Matthew 18 and verse 24. The parable begins in verse 22. Jesus said, I do not say this to you in terms of forgiveness. Peter said, how often do I have to forgive? And he says, do I have to forgive a man seven times?

And he said, I don't say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. Or in other words, there's no end to the ability to forgive. And he said, therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents.

But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and that payment be made. The servant, therefore, fell down before him, saying, Master, have patience with me and I'll pay you all. And the master of the servant was moved with compassion, and he released him and forgave him his debt. But when that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, he laid hands on him and took him by his throat and he said, You know, pay me what you owe me. So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me and I'll pay you all. But he wouldn't have it. He went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servant saw what he had done, and they were very grieved, they came and told the master all that had been done and the master after he had called him said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Now that's a powerful enough lesson in its own. But there's more. You look at the statements, and they're not in terms that we use today. Somebody's forgiven ten talents, or ten thousand talents, excuse me. Another one is forgiven, or is begrudged in this case, a hundred denari. Let me put it in the terms of today.

A denari at that day in time was a hundred days, a hundred pence, or a hundred denari, equal one hundred days' wages. So a denari was the laborers' daily wage. A hundred of them would be a hundred days' wages. Let's just say that you make $20 an hour, and that's the pay scale that you live by. Your hundred days' wages are $16,000. So the servant who owed the servant, owed his fellow servant $16,000. Now that's not a small debt. If somebody owed you $16,000, you'd like to have it back. It's not, I gave you a hundred bucks, I'll write it off. It's a substantial sum of money, and it's a sum of money you'd like to have back if you loaned it. Ten thousand talents. That's a different kettle of fish. Ten thousand talents is $180 million.

So one man is forgiven, a $180 million debt. Written off. We'll forget it. Get on with your life. And he turns around and grabs another man by his throat, and shakes him till his teeth rattle, and says, I want the $16,000 you owe me, and if I don't get it, then to debtor's prison you go until your family can raise it and settle your debt. Now can you understand why God says, I got angry, and I took that person, and I gave him to the torturers until he paid me back.

So you want us to understand the magnitude of the realities of life. And that is, you will get from me what you will give to your fellow man. At the heart of the relationship that we have with God is the fact that he is anything but fair with us. We don't ask him for fairness. We ask him for mercy. And he complies. The last thing God gives us is fairness. He gives us mercy beyond imagination. But when he extends it, in that extension he says, I expect you to pass it on.

I expect to see it move from you to others in the same fashion that it is moved from me to you. You know, if we could create a second golden rule, we all know the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In the spirit of what is here in Matthew 5 verse 7, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy, we could write legitimately a second golden rule, do unto others as you would have God do unto you.

And it would be absolutely as legitimate in every respect as the other golden rule. As I said, all of these steps to the kingdom are steps to the kingdom. Some explicit, this one, it's implicit. What is the ultimate mercy, underline ultimate, what is the ultimate mercy that God can give us? It's that point in time when the seventh trumpet blows and we are transformed from mortal to immortal. Because there's none of us that is going to earn that transition. And it is the transition that moves us from simply temporary occupants of this earth to people who will live forever.

And so when he says, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy, we realize mercy in its fullest sense. The first eye blink when we look at ourselves and we're no longer mortal. And we think God has now extended to me the highest form of mercy possible. Matthew 5, verse 8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. What does it mean, pure in heart? Now everyone wants to see God. In fact, we as human beings, we live with this dichotomy.

We know the Bible says if we saw Him, we would die because of His brilliance. But we would like to be able to see Him without dying. So as a human being, there's a natural curiosity that says, I'd really like to see God. You know, even Moses, he said, can I see you? And the relationship there was so tight and so close.

He said, I'll put you in a little crevice in the rock where it's almost like a focal plane shutter on a camera. It's just this slit moves by quickly. And he says, I'll let you see my back as I move away from you. And that's as much as I can allow you to see without you dying from the experience. Well, Moses got a very rare treat, and yet at the end of Moses' life, Moses couldn't tell you what God looked like from that little exposure. He was simply paid a compliment. We're close enough. I'll let you see as much as it's physically possible to endure.

And then it's over. If we need a starting point for understanding a pure heart, let's begin with Matthew 12. Just go back a few chapters. This is one of those places... I'll give you the verse in a second. This is one of those places where Jesus Christ is giving the Pharisees what for. He really gives it to them in the end of Matthew, but he's giving them what for here.

And he says in Matthew 12, in verse 34, you bunch of snakes, you brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A pure heart is evidenced externally by a pure mouth. Never stop to consider that a foul mouth is a contradiction to a pure heart. As he was saying to them, you brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, in other words, inside you're conniving, scheming people, how can you speak good things?

Because it is out of the abundance of what is in here that what is here comes out. So he's making a point that a pure heart is evidenced externally by a pure mouth. A foul mouth is a contradiction to a person who claims a pure heart. The two of them are in sync. The two of them move in synchronized movement. So God came within eight people of destroying humanity off the face of the earth. Do you remember why? If you were to assess in one small, short statement the reason, do you remember the reason?

Let's go back to Genesis 6. Let's look at the reason. Genesis 6 and verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent, and the margin says thought, every thought of his heart was only evil, and the margin says all the day. So he looked at humanity, and this earth had moved to the place where when God looked around at how many people he could put on an ark, he came down to one man and his wife and their children.

And in looking at humanity from one end of this earth to the other, he says, I am looking at a world where every human being on this earth has a 24-7 evil mind. Have you ever been around anyone like that? I enjoy studying human nature, and I enjoy studying human beings, and every once in a while I see an individual just observing people. I see an individual that does not seem to have a capacity to have a single good thought come from their mouth.

I'm not speaking in the church, I'm speaking just in watching people in general. And I find it fascinating because most people can go back and forth, and most people do go back and forth. But once in a rare while I've watched an individual, and I think, well, I'd like to watch them a whole lot longer because for the short period I've watched them, they can't generate anything that comes out of their mouth that isn't perverse.

I wonder if that's every day, all day, all year. It was in Genesis 6, verse 5. And so you had a population that was cranking out things unacceptable to God every day of the week, every week of the year. There wasn't a clean mind among them.

Or if we put it in the context of this beatitude, there wasn't a pure heart among them. And that's why God said, I'm sorry I made man. And except for Noah and family, God would have erased man off the face of the earth. Now turn with me to Luke 17.

In Luke 17 there's an inference. Not a good one, unfortunately.

In Luke 17, verse 26 it says, And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. Now we focus on the normalcy of it. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, till the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Left out, verse 5 of Genesis 6.

But by inference, when you say it will be as it was in the days of Noah, you have to ask yourself how many pure hearts there will be at that time.

We don't live in a good time. We live in a time that if people have substance, they are, as we say, fat and sassy.

There's a certain arrogance, a certain haughtiness, a certain indifference to religion, a certain spirit that says I don't need God.

For the 15 years my wife and I have lived in the Portland area, we have been very conscious of the fact that we live, and I've mentioned to the congregation every so often, we live in the land of the great unwashed.

Meaning we live in an area that really, in all the United States, demographically, we are in the least religious part of the United States.

We're in the part of the United States where people have less need for God, there is less church attendance, there is less outright expression of God or anything about God than any other part of the nation that I live in.

I enjoy conversations with my son Philip, who lives in northeast Texas, and I enjoy the memories of the years that my wife and I lived in the South.

At times it can have the name put on it of Bible Belt, and in the part of the country I live in, that's a term that is used disparagingly.

To me, it's a credit.

When I talk to my son and I talk to him about the school that he teaches in, and he expresses some of the attitudes and spirits there, I say, you know, I wish we had them where we live.

There is still a greater respect for God, no matter whether it's rightly done or not, there is still a greater presence of a sense of God in the Bible Belt areas than there is in the northwest.

As I said, we live in sad times, and in certain parts of the country, sadder times than others.

One of the key elements to understanding this particular beatitude takes us on a little bit of a side trek.

Have you ever realized that God the Father has a zero tolerance for impurity?

He sent his son down here to be a sacrifice. He sent his son down here to learn by experiencing it what it was like to be human and to be an advocate before his throne for humanity.

But God the Father has a zero tolerance for impurity.

Tomorrow, as we enter a new feast today, the speakers will focus on a time when God the Father decides himself to relocate.

God the Father is not relocating to this place until it is absolutely, totally pure.

I grew up listening to commercials. My grandmother loved soap operas, so I heard a lot of soap commercials.

The Ivory Soap commercial was that Ivory Soap was 99.4,400% pure.

I don't know whether that's true or not, but I know one thing.

God is not coming back to an earth that is only as pure as Ivory Soap.

When God melts down the heavens and the earth, and it cools down, and he brings new Jerusalem out of heaven and places it here, he will reside on an earth that is 100% pure.

He has no tolerance for impurity.

When we look at the Beatitude in this, it says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

It is only those who are pure of heart who will see God.

And when will they see him?

Well, as I said, all we have to do is read, and I'm sure someone tomorrow will do so. All we have to do is read Revelation 22 and the first four verses. When God the Father decides, Now, now, with all the judging done, with all the impurities removed, with all the refining finished, now I will come down, and I will be with man, and I will be their God.

Then, we will see God.

Then, every single solitary being, I can't say humans, because at that point in time there won't be any humans, every single solitary being will see the Father. Barn's notes make a comment in this regard.

Regarding the pure in heart, Barn says, That is whose minds, motives, and principles are pure, who seek not only to have the external actions correct, but who desire to be holy in heart, and who are so.

Men look at the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

Very, very true.

On to Matthew 5 and verse 9, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

This is an interesting parable in terms of what it says and what crosses people's minds are not always synonymous.

What is the focal point? If you were to create a focal point, if you're like me, I underline, as I'm writing, if I want to note a focal point, I will bold it or I will underline it, or if it's really, really, really important, I will bold it, underline it, and italicize it. So when I see it in writing, it's got everything there that says, Whoa, this is important.

What is the peace in all of this that you would highlight, that you would underline, or if you were typing it, you would bold? Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

You know what I would bold and highlight and italicize and underline?

One half of a word.

It's the letters M-A-K-E-R-S.

Most people want peace.

Far, far fewer.

Make peace.

I remember the broadcast as a young man, even as a boy.

And comments about religious people and the Ten Commandments, since the majority of the Christian world believe the laws are done away.

And Mr. Armstrong would wax eloquent about everybody in the world once the Commandments applied to them, whether they believe in doing them themselves.

I don't want anybody stealing from me.

I don't want anybody lying to me.

I don't want anybody murdering me.

I could go down all the Commandments and I could say, I don't want this done to me.

So, as a recipient, I don't know anyone that doesn't want the Commandments practiced by the person on the other side of the conversation.

In light fashion, we all want people to be peaceable toward us.

We all want people to approach us in that spirit and that attitude.

But that's not what the Beatitude is all about.

The Beatitude says, blessed are the peacemakers.

This is not passive. This is active.

This isn't, here I am, give it to me and I will smile and acknowledge it and thank you for it.

This is what I have to do.

You know, there's a world of difference, just as Mr. Armstrong's old analogy when he was making the point that there's a big difference between wanting everybody to obey the Commandments in how they treat you and your willingness to keep the Commandments toward man and God.

In a world that doesn't revolve around diplomats and international relations and international politics, for lack of a better term, it's very easy for people to scoff at diplomats and this seemingly endless shuttling back and forth that goes nowhere and produces nothing, or at least the way people look at it.

Over the years I've come to appreciate the efforts of those who are diplomats and ambassadors. And though their successes may be far fewer than we would like, there's a lesson to be learned from them. As a younger man, I lived in a world that accepted as the norm that would never change, that Israel and Egypt will always be at each other's throats.

For the younger generation, they haven't lived long enough to be aware that Egypt and Israel were at each other's throats.

And Israel and Egypt reaching the place where they are not the focal point of Middle Eastern strife in their conduct toward each other was the product of people who were willing to be peacemakers.

Not people who sat on each side of the border and said, I wish you wouldn't lob rockets on my side. People on the other side saying, I wish you wouldn't point your tanks at my side.

It was the fruit of those who were willing to be peacemakers.

We're all familiar with 2 Corinthians 5 and 20. I won't even turn there. You don't need to turn there.

It simply says that we are ambassadors of Christ. We've sung the song. In fact, we've sung the song a couple of times during the Feast of Tabernacles. You're an ambassador.

That means by occupation you are a peacemaker.

Six years ago now, I had to look it up this morning, time goes by in such a fashion that it's hard to remember. Six years ago, I was on the way home on a Sunday, early Sunday afternoon from Spokesman's Club. We have a Spokesman's Club, and we had a Spokesman's Club back then in Portland, Oregon. It was about a 25-minute drive from my house to the northeastern side of Portland where we had Spokesman's Club.

I turned on the radio, and I wanted somebody to keep me company, so I turned on the radio. I'll ask another question since I need to know where the audience is. In the northwest and on public television, there is a gentleman who tours Europe primarily that has a touring program on every week. His name is Rick Steves, and he's based in Seattle. How many of you have heard of Rick Steves?

More than I expected. I turned on the radio, and Rick Steves has been on television for years and years and years. Here he was on radio, and I thought, I've never heard a radio program. I've watched his television programs. He said, I'm going to do something different today. He said, and this was at a time when Middle Eastern strife was ratcheting up and becoming the headline in the news, and he said, I'd like to do something different today.

I'd like to interview a gentleman about this fundamentalism that is on the rise and the terrorism that is produced by it. I listened with rapt attention all the way home, and I have listened multiple times since then because of the profoundness, yet the simplicity, of what I heard. The interviewee was a gentleman by the name of Lord Aldredyce.

And as Rick Steves was giving his credentials, I thought, My, I can't imagine a better package of credentials to allow a person to understand peacemaking. Lord Aldredyce was, in no particular order, he was very knowledgeable, obviously, about law and government. With the title, Lord, he was a member of the House of Lords. So he is a member of the higher chamber of the British Parliament.

That would put him in the middle of all of the political decision-making and discussions that go on in Parliament. So you are in the know, governmentally. Lord Aldredyce's father was a Presbyterian minister, and Lord Aldredyce was a Presbyterian elder himself. So I said, aha, interesting. Not only are you conversant with everything that goes on at the highest level in British politics, you also are a man of religion. Obviously, if you are not ashamed to be known as an elder in the Presbyterian Church, then you also have a focus that is Biblical. And that you can be in government, but at the same time, your mind can go back and forth between British law and the Word of God.

And then they added one other component that I smiled and I thought, how fascinating. See, he was also a psychiatrist. I thought, what a package! The man is in the middle of the greatest body of decision-makers in government in the whole of the British Empire. He's an elder in the Presbyterian Church, which means he has a respect for God, and God is not absent from his decision-making. And his whole profession, as far as profession goes, is the study of and the understanding of the human mind. After that introduction, they had me hooked.

Lord Aldredyce, to add to this, you know, it's nice to have all the credentials, but credentials without product are just credentials. Lord Aldredyce had been a part of the body that had created the Good Friday Accord, which put an end, formally so, to the wars between the Irish Republic and Army and the British government of Northern Ireland.

In the spring of 1965, I got on a ferry at Liverpool and landed in Belfast to assist Mr. James Young in the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread in the Belfast Church. He drove me through the streets of Belfast, saw the high brick walls that cordoned off the Catholic communities, all the graffiti on the walls, decrying the injustices of the Protestants.

These were the graffiti put there by the Catholics. He had mentioned that it had not been too terribly long before I had arrived, that there had been a bomb thrown at a shop, not too terribly far from the building that the church met in, in downtown Belfast. And driving through all of that and looking at all of it, I had the opportunity first-hand to see the hatred, the distrust, the contempt, and even the violence that one body of Irishmen were bestowing on the other and the other retaliating and kind.

Lord Alderdice was among those who brought that to an end. And Rick Steves asked him, can you summarize what it is that causes and feeds these stripes? And as I listened to about a minute to two minutes of Lord Alderdice's statement, I couldn't have asked for anything clearer. I would recommend, in fact, I will recommend, any of you who are computer people, all you need to do is Google Rick Steves' interview of Lord Alderdice, and you can hear the whole interview. But if you want to hear the essence of it, since they're clocked on a meter, all you need to do is start at about the eight-minute mark and listen from the eight-minute mark to about the ten-minute mark, and you'll have everything that I'm saying to you, with the gentleman's voice passing it on.

When Rick Steves said, what causes this kind of strife? What causes this kind of catastrophe?

And he said, when people face trauma, assault on their identity, particularly where they feel disrespected and humiliated, they fall back on the response of violence.

They have a fear of others, and they see others not as someone with whom they can engage, but as someone that they must attack in order to defend themselves.

I thought, how telling? His comment about what creates and then feeds and endlessly fuels these wars was almost as concise as the book of James, where James says, from whence come wars among you? I thought, Lord Aldredyce, you have put this in the most succinct fashion.

When people are traumatized, they feel assaulted, and particularly they feel disrespected and humiliated.

They resort to violence, and they don't see the person on the other side as someone with whom they can engage, but they see that person as someone that they have to attack in order to defend themselves.

Have you ever had someone you really didn't like, that you also, whether you took the initiative or you simply happened to be in a place where that option could be initiated, where you heard that person recount their life, and you found out why they were the way they were?

And upon finding out why they were the way they were, your entire attitude toward them changed?

I had a classmate at Ambassador College that I just simply didn't like.

Didn't like his manner, didn't like his demeanor, didn't like his bearing, I didn't like the look on his face, I didn't like the way he approached life.

And then came his icebreaker speech in Spokesman's Club, and I heard about the fact that he was orphaned as a child. His father died, his stepfather was a brutal man, and how that he'd have to run into the woods from the beatings that he took.

By the time his icebreaker was finished, nothing had changed about his personality, but how I felt about him changed.

Instead of seeing him the way I had seen him before, I saw him as a different individual.

Basically what Lord Aldredyce was saying, only in different terms.

1 Peter 3 1 Peter 3, verse 10 It's a citation from the Psalms. It says, 1 For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile.

2 Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.

You see what was being said there was the same thing that I, in a sense, ask you to highlight in the beatitude.

It isn't the peace lover. It isn't the person that says, I really like peace. I can sit and enjoy peace. I can enjoy peaceful surroundings. It's the peace pursuer. It's the peacemaker.

One of our hymns, actually, is built on that particular psalm. I've forgotten, without taking our hymnal and looking through it, whether we left it in one of our earlier permutations of the hymnal or whether it's still in our hymnal, but the hymn about seek peace, pursue it earnestly. Upon the just are the eyes of God.

It's the pursuit of peace.

And it says, those who are peacemakers shall be called the sons of God.

Makes sense.

Another one of these cases where Jesus Christ was giving the Pharisees what for, he said to them in John 844, he says, you are of your father the devil.

He said, you act like him and therefore you're his children.

We know whose children you are by who you imitate.

You ever watched a little guy, especially a boy? I haven't noticed it with girls, but I haven't noticed it with boys. You ever watched a boy of about four years old or so walk away from you and you see his backside as he walks away and you say, I know exactly whose kid that is because he walks exactly like his dad.

First time I saw that I laughed, I said, I don't even have to have that child turn around. I don't even have to ask anyone who he belongs to because he's sauntering down that aisle just exactly with the same pace and the same gate as his father. Christ said to the Pharisees, your demeanor, your conduct, your actions, tell me who your father is because you act like your father.

So when we flip that coin over and it says, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God, figuratively speaking, people would look at you as you walk away and say, I know whose kid he is because he's just like his dad.

There's no greater compliment than anyone could pay any one of us. That then to be said, I know whose child he is or she is because they are just like their dad.

Isaiah chapter 9.

One of those segments that was taken out of Isaiah by Handel, the writing of Handel's Messiah.

Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of God.

Prince of Peace.

Paul said to the Corinthians, scripture that's been read earlier in this feast, that there would come a time where the sons of God would be revealed.

It was in Romans 8, the previous message cited Romans 8 in the area between verses 19 and 23, where the time would come where the sons of God would be revealed.

When are you going to be revealed?

There was another statement made in that message, and I thought to myself, I remember when Mr. Armstrong used to talk about us as the kingdom of God in embryo, because the message says, the kingdom is here now in the sense of having representatives and ambassadors, very truly so.

But we will be revealed, really, really revealed, at the time the kingdom comes.

The next beatitude is Matthew 5 and verse 10.

Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Just as with the previous beatitude, there are three words in that beatitude that I would underline. Take a look at it and see if you can see which three they might be.

Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now, while you're looking for it, I might say what is obvious here, and that is we move from an implicit to an explicit.

The last one said, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

We'll be called the sons of God when we are fully revealed, and that will be when the trumpet blows.

But this one is explicit. Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

So, it's yours.

The three words that I would underline for righteousness' sake.

You can't write, blessed are they who are persecuted for being obnoxious, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

We have a bumper sticker in Portland. I don't adhere to it. Maybe that's why I live on the other side of the river in Vancouver.

But there's a bumper sticker that is common in the Portland area.

Bumper sticker reads, and it is genuine, help keep Oregon weird.

For those of you who have not been to Oregon, you can't appreciate the truthfulness of that bumper sticker.

There's a pride in being weird. There's a pride in being out of step with everyone else.

There's a pride even at times of being obnoxious. There's a pride in being outlandish.

This is not about that.

This is not, blessed are they who have been persecuted for their weirdness.

This is not, blessed are they who have been persecuted for their obnoxiousness.

This is, blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

There are times when people take the approach that there are nine Beatitudes.

I'm giving you eight. I don't see nine. I have no argument with those who like nine.

I simply limit it to eight because everything from verse 10 onward has only one focal point, and that is persecution.

So if somebody wishes to subdivide it, I have no qualms with that, but I am giving you eight.

And see it as eight because nothing after verse 10 deals with anything but persecution.

Verse 11 says, There's your key word. Falsely for my sake.

There was a scripture referenced earlier in the feast, and I'll reference it just as the previous speaker did without going there.

And that is in the book of Peter where Peter makes the comment that there will be those who speak evil against you because you don't walk to the same excess of riot, if I use the old King James terminology, that they do.

And they will speak against you as evildoers, yet in the kingdom, or at that time, they will praise God for your example.

So you get this whiplash that you can be spoken evil of because you're out of step.

Now, you know, if you're weird, in somebody's view, because you're obeying the Word of God, thank God for your weirdness.

That's a weirdness that's God-approved.

And that's the one Peter is talking about. When Peter says, they're going to look at you and say, that nutcase, and I'm a mutter, mutter, mutter.

And yet, when God opens their eyes, they say, wow! What an example I had.

As a little child, we lived in southwestern Idaho. My maternal grandparents lived in Walla Walla, Washington.

And on long weekends, we'd go over the Blue Mountains into Walla Walla.

To do so, you have to go through College Place, which is an Adventist community.

And I remember, as a boy, standing in the backseat of the car, driving through College Placing, all of these people dressed up like I am, going into a church building on Saturday.

And I asked my mother, I said, Mom, why are those people going to church? It was an Adventist community. And she looked back at me, I will never forget, Mom looking back over the seat at me, with all sincerity, saying, Bobby, they don't know any better.

And you know what? Every time we went to visit my grandparents, and we went through on Saturday, I remember, as a boy, internally, shaking my head, saying, those poor people don't know any better.

Those poor people don't know any better.

And then God opened my mind and realized, all the time I'd been shaking my head, I didn't know any better.

That's what Peter's talking about, okay? That's what Peter's talking about when he says they will speak evil against you.

But in the kingdom, they will glorify God.

This can be a very difficult concept to understand. No normal person wants to be persecuted.

Why, then, is it a noble position?

Why am I blessed to be persecuted?

It isn't blessed to be persecuted. It's blessed to be persecuted for righteousness' sake.

And as I said earlier, there's a big difference.

Final Passover, Jesus Christ said to His disciples, don't think it's strange. If they persecuted Me, they'll persecute you.

So He said, you know, I'm about ready to leave and I'm going to leave you behind. I've got some last advice for you.

Don't think it odd if you end up persecuted. If they persecuted Me, they'll persecute you.

You know, they didn't persecute Jesus Christ for His looks.

They definitely didn't persecute Him for His clothes. They were so valuable they wouldn't even tear it apart.

They cast lots so one man could go home where they really find suit of clothes.

They didn't persecute Him for the way He walked or the way He talked. They persecuted Him for what He stood for.

So all the externals, they didn't create persecution. He was a common...

He was described as somebody that looked like anyone else on the street at that day and time.

So they didn't persecute Him for His looks, His clothes, His walk, His talk.

They persecuted Him because of what He stood for.

As Mr. Star Wars said in the sermonette about the race, staying with the race, being willing to stand firm for what you believe without folding under persecution means an awful, awful lot to God.

It's why the constant reminder that He that endures to the end, or as he said in the sermonette, He who finishes the race, it means more to God than I think we probably understand.

God alone really knows what you are, and He really has confirmed what we are when we stand for something, when all the human pulls are to go the other direction.

He knows all of our pulls. He knows every one of our infirmities.

And when they're all pulling this way and we will resist the entire current and go the other way, I don't think we understand how much that means to God.

Now, you get a glimpse of it, don't you?

When Abraham had the dagger up and the angel said, Now I know? Put the dagger away.

There's an animal over there entangled in the briars. Bring him over, put him on the altar and sacrifice him.

But now I know. Now I know exactly who you are, and I know exactly what you are.

When it says, Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, this is where God says, Now I know who you are. Because I know every pull says, I don't want to be persecuted.

I don't want to be a misfit. I don't want people to say things about me.

And yet we say, this means more than all of that.

And therefore I will do this even though these will be the consequences.

God says, Now I know. There's only one more component to this that was shown most eloquently in the life of Peter.

And I alluded to this in the first message where there's a Peter of the Gospels and there's a Peter of the Epistles.

And the Peter of the Epistles is a totally different human being than the Peter of the Gospels.

As a learner, he was aggressive and he was impetuous.

He was full of confidence.

Not always deserved, but he was full of it.

And his mouth was way ahead of his ability to perform.

The late Peter in the Epistles is a beautiful, beautiful human being.

I delight in reading 1 and 2 Peter with the ticker tape of the Gospel Peter going through my mind and saying, What a beautiful transition in a human life!

What did he learn during the interim period?

He learned the most important thing that he could.

He learned a lesson that Christ had modeled for him.

He had learned to be willing to take persecution for righteousness' sake, rather than grab the sword and hack off the high priest's servant's ear and square things up.

When you prove to God you will stand for what you believe, even when it makes you very unpopular.

And when you keep on doing the right, even when you're abused for it, you make a statement about your convictions.

God wants to know how you take unfairness.

And the worst form of unfairness is to be persecuted for doing the right thing.

Everything within a human being cries out, if I'm doing the right thing. You watch children.

Boy, there's nothing that makes a child howl more than when they get chastised, and they were the one that was right, and their brother or sister was the one that was wrong.

And that doesn't go away. We get older.

We get taller. We get older. We get more wrinkly and bolder and all the rest of those things.

But that part never goes away.

You can look for justice, or you can seek revenge, but coming to understand that life is not fair, and letting God be the one who makes it right.

Well, that's one of the ultimate proofs of faith. And what is God willing to offer people who can internalize that? The kingdom of God.

So, brethren, the next time you read the Beatitudes, they aren't just great literature.

They aren't a part of the heritage of religious prose.

They are the description of those who will one day rule in the kingdom that these eight days picture.