Sermon on the Mount

Thank you, Mr. Wyblood.

Well, brethren, do you want to be sure that your spiritual house, your spiritual temple, is built on a firm foundation?

Do you want to be sure that your spiritual house will not seriously waver, and that it will certainly not fall, no matter how difficult times get in the future? Well, then it only makes good sense to study the teachings of the Rock the foundation, the chief cornerstone, the head of the Church of God, Jesus the Christ. It only makes good sense to not only read and to study these words and teachings of Christ, but certainly to live by them, to put into practice these words of our Savior, Jesus Christ. So, brethren, as Christians, we do need to take heart when it comes to Christ's words, His teaching on the Mount, the Sermon on the Mount.

Here we find instructions, we find words from the Word of God, and the foundation upon which to build our lives. So, last time in Part 1 of this sermon series, we saw why we ought to listen and heed the words of Jesus Christ that were spoken on the Mount. We established His credibility as the very Son of God, or Matthew did, and we discussed that in the first four chapters of the book of Matthew. We saw many parallels between Jesus and Moses.

We saw how Jesus is the prophet that was prophesied in the book of Deuteronomy, and that Moses spoke about, one to be like Him, in a sense, and certainly Moses was a type of Jesus Christ. We saw that Jesus was indeed a son of David and of Abraham, and that He was totally unique, one of a kind, people who came from all around to listen to Him teach and to be healed and to see the miraculous power of the Son of God.

Now, Jesus taught His disciples repeatedly during His three and a half year ministry. Here on the earth, He taught them repeatedly to live by His teaching, by His instructions. The Sermon on the Mount is a condensation of His greatest and most fundamental teachings. The Sermon on the Mount is an amazing compilation of vital instruction from our Savior. In this sermon, He speaks of great blessings to come upon His followers, in spite of the persecution that they would also need to endure as His followers.

He speaks of the importance of the example. His followers are set in a dark world, as was mentioned in the sermonette. We have come out of that box to a large degree by knowing the truth, by understanding the truth. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ upholds the law of God. He actually magnifies it. He explains it. He helps us to understand more fully what the new covenant is all about and what the application of God's law is in regard to the new covenant, the spirit of the law.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ upholds the sanctity of Marys between a man and a woman. He speaks about how we are to treat our fellow man, even our enemies. He speaks of the importance of proper prayer and fasting, and how we ought to long for his coming kingdom. He speaks of trusting in him and trusting in his father, and not worrying about the difficulties and the anxieties of his life.

He speaks of our focus and our need to seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness. He speaks further of how to treat one another and of the importance of humbling oneself in our relationship with one another. He speaks of persistence and how to approach him and how to approach his father.

He speaks of our need to be aware of false prophets and teachers and how to recognize them. He tells us to build our house upon the rock, our spiritual house built upon his teachings. Frankly, most everything we really need to know is given in the Sermon on the Mount to a degree.

It covers a lot of ground. Webster says that Beatitudes, which we will be going into now, Beatitude means a state of utmost bliss. Every one of the Beatitudes has the same general form. We set the tone for the Beatitudes. Christ sat down and opened his mouth. He sat down as a rabbi saying, going to say something very important by sitting and by speaking.

So the disciples were listening intently. Jesus spoke the Beatitudes not in Greek but in Aramaic, the modern Hebrew of the day. Aramaic and Hebrew have a very common kind of expression, which in fact is an exclamation, which means, oh the blessedness of, oh the blessedness of. This is the expression that is used in the Beatitudes that is shortened in English to blessed are. We're familiar with that. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. On and on it goes. It's an expression that means, oh the blessedness of, or an exclamation, oh the blessedness of those who do these certain things that we'll be talking about.

So the Beatitudes are not simple statements, but they are exclamations. William Barclay says on page 88 of his first volume of his commentary on the book of Matthew, and I'll quote it, he says, that is important to understand what I just said about these sayings, their exclamations. That is important for it means that the Beatitudes are not pious hopes of what shall be. They are congratulations on what is.

The blessedness which belongs to the Christian is not a blessedness which is postponed to some future world of glory. It is a blessedness which exists here and now. It is not something into which the Christian will enter. It is something into which he has entered. Now I would say it is something also of a future fulfillment in a greater way, certainly, but it's also relevant for us today.

It's not something that we totally have to wait for until Christ returns, until his kingdom is established. So we will discuss that and why it's so pertinent and relevant for us today. So that is how we should approach the Beatitudes as exclamations of what God is doing right now in our lives as his disciples, his followers who are putting his teaching into action in our lives.

That's what we need to be doing. We need to be putting these teachings into action, for it's not the hearers of the law that are justified, it's the doers of the law. It's those who put these things into action.

A Christian may rejoice now, at this time, in spite of his sufferings in this age, and we will all suffer to varying degrees in this life, but we can also rejoice now because we have God on our side. And that means everything to understand God, to understand his truth, to understand Jesus Christ as our Savior, to allow Christ to live in us. We can rejoice right now. And when we realize that God is promised, Christ is promised to never leave us and to never forsake us, no matter what happens, we will know that they are there. And we can count on them and we can draw strength from them. We know that God is the God of all comfort, and God will always be there for us. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. So we should be rejoicing now as Christians. So let's go to Matthew 5, where we continue the Sermon on the Mount.

Verse 3. Matthew 5, verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, blessed is the word, Makarios. It's the Greek word, Makarios, which means blessed or happy. This is a word that's actually used of God Himself, Makarios, the happy God. God is a happy God. Now, that doesn't mean He's necessarily always happy, but in general and overall, He is a happy God. Just like for the most part, you are probably a happy person, hopefully. But there are times when you're not as happy as others. God is a happy God. He's Makarios. Also, this was used in reference to the island of Cyprus. Cyprus was the happy isle because of its great beauty. Have any of you ever been to Cyprus? Anybody here? A few. A few of you have. I hate to say it, but I've never been to Cyprus. I'd love to go. It sounds like Hawaii. Sounds good. Sounds like a great place to visit. It's known as the happy isle because of its great beauty, its fertility, and its climate. It is rich in natural resources, and a person would never need to go beyond its coastlines to enjoy the perfectly happy life. That's what is said of Cyprus. So, again, it reminds me of Hawaii. I've always thought it would be wonderful to live in Hawaii. On page 89 of William Barclay's commentary on Matthew, he says, Makarios describes the joy that has its secret within itself. That joy which is serene and untouchable and self-contained, that joy which is completely independent of all the chances and the changes of life.

The English word happiness gives its own case away, he says. It contains the root hap, H-A-P, which means chance. You probably heard of the word happenstance. So, this root hap means chance. Human happiness is dependent upon the chances and the changes of life. Something which life may give and which life may also destroy. Many things can happen in life that will take away a person's joy will affect a person's happiness.

The Christian blessedness is completely untouchable and unassailable. That's what this is supposed to mean to us, that in spite of whatever comes our way, we will find joy if we keep our faith. That doesn't mean it won't be difficult for a time. And it may be quite a while, in some cases, before we find that joy again. But we must believe that God will give us that joy and that happiness. He will restore us. He will rejuvenate us, no matter what happens. That's what it's talking about here, to be blessed in this way. Berkeley says, The beatitudes speak of that joy which seeks us through our pain.

That joy which sorrow and loss and pain and grief are powerless to touch, in the extended sense, I would add. That joy which shines through tears and which nothing in life or death can take away. That is how we need to embrace life and look at life. We have to be prepared for anything. Anything that comes our way, because there are no guarantees in this life. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So we have to be prepared for whatever comes our way. And we can only do that when we are spiritually close to God and are taking nourishment from God and from Jesus Christ. And we're getting the sustenance that we need, the maintenance that we need from them.

In John 16, verse 22, Jesus Christ said, And you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you.

You know, Christianity is a process. It's a walk of life. It doesn't just happen as quickly over. It's a lifelong process. Conversion. Christianity. It's learning to have joy, again, no matter what happens, and to place our trust and faith in God and draw our strength from God and from Christ. That's what the Beatitudes are all about.

The first one here, the expression, Poor in spirit. For there is the kingdom of heaven. Happy or blessed are those who are poor in spirit. For there is the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God. It's interchangeable. Matthew uses heaven. Often times he wrote to a basically Hebrew and Jewish audience. So he used heaven. They knew that it was the kingdom of God, but they didn't use that name or pronounce it or write it. So that's essentially why Matthew uses heaven.

So the expression, Poor in spirit, equals humble. It equals dependent, vulnerable, and teachable. This is the kind of attitude of one who is poor in spirit. He's humble, he's dependent, he's vulnerable, and he is teachable. He's not haughty, not proud, not arrogant, not boastful. If one is poor in spirit, then he's not prideful. The Believer's Bible Commentary says that poor in spirit does not refer to a natural disposition, but to one's deliberate choice and discipline.

The poor in spirit are those who acknowledge their own helplessness and rely on God's omnipotence. They made a decision, a smart decision, to trust and rely on God and to realize that they fall far short of themselves. They sense their spiritual need and they find it supplied in the Lord, it says here in the British Believer's Bible Commentary, the kingdom of heaven where self-sufficiency is no virtue and self-exaltation is a vice belongs to such people. The kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is for the poor in spirit. For those who have learned not to be prideful, that was Satan's demise or that was the first sin, it was his pride. We have to be on guard or we will be in the box with Satan the devil. There are two words in the Greek that are often translated poor in English. The Greek word for poor in this verse, in verse 3, is not the one that speaks of someone who is poor but still has the bare bones, necessities of life. That's not the word. It is not speaking of the person who has very little but has enough. It is not speaking of the one who has food, water, and shelter enough to survive. That Greek word is the Greek word p-e-n-e-s. It is used to describe the working man who has no extras but is not destitute. Instead, the Greek word that is used here is p-t-o-c-h-o-s and it means absolute abject poverty. The poor in spirit are those who are in abject spiritual poverty. In other words, they really see their weakness. They really do see that they must surrender to God and give it over to Him and allow Him to work in their lives, to guide, and to direct them. So again, they're not so prideful. They've humbled themselves to a state of abject poverty, one who has nothing at all. I mean, that's really how we should look at ourselves spiritually. We are bankrupt spiritually without God. Without God, we are bankrupt completely. We are in abject poverty. That's what poor in spirit is talking about. Christ is saying that the person who is poor in spirit, again, He realizes his abject poverty apart from God. Without God, we are nothing. With God, great things can be accomplished in us and through us. So this is the person who has learned to truly depend and rely upon God, one who has great faith in God but understands his own spiritual weakness apart from God. Now, I don't know if any of us are completely there or not. I don't think I am.

This is something that I'm hoping to achieve more and more each day.

Because Satan is powerful. He's still the God of this world. He still tries to tempt us and to destroy us. But the more we realize how desperately we need God the Father and Jesus Christ in our life, the less Satan will be able to touch us. The less he'll be able to pull us into that box that was spoken of in the sermonette.

This is the person, again, who truly depends and relies upon God in all things. Now, that doesn't mean he's not a person who has initiative. It doesn't mean he's not a person that can act. It doesn't mean he's not a doer. Just the opposite. This is the person who realizes that there is great strength in the power of God's Holy Spirit dwelling in a child of God. There is tremendous strength. Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Paul was greatly humbled by all that he suffered, by all that he went through, by his sins, by persecuting the Church of God, by actually having people murdered who were God's children. Paul was one who came to this point, who emptied himself of the pride that was once there. He was full of pride before he was struck down on the road to Damascus. He was spiritually blind. Again, we mentioned that in the sermon. He was spiritually blind and God opened his eyes and he began to think outside the box and realize who Jesus Christ truly is. One he had persecuted, now one who he accepted as his Savior, as the Son of God. So, blessed is the man who realizes his own utter weakness and his helplessness apart from God. Even physically, our health could be taken away in an instant from an accident, from a disease, from deliberate violence against us. Blessed is the man who looks to God at all times and in every way, and is prepared for whatever comes his way. So, again, it's not a man who will not act, but one who goes into action, relying on God to see him through whatever circumstances come. This does not mean that blessed are the poor who live in squalor and physical poverty. It's not talking about physical poverty here. Poverty, for the most part, is not a good thing. Now, it might be good, in some cases, if it humbles us and teaches us to rely on God, but for the most part, God wants us to prosper and to be in good health. If we don't have enough to eat and we don't have enough to drink, we're not going to be in good health. We're not prospering, so God doesn't want that. This is not God's world. This is Satan's world, where billions of people are in abject poverty. I was talking to the teens about that in the Bible study. The millennium, the return of Christ, the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, will be a reign of abundance and peace and joy and happiness, unlike the box that so many people live in today, both physically and spiritually.

So, we should long for God's kingdom.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David all had great physical blessings. They were rich, physically, in many cases, in many respects. They were not physically poor. David says that he never saw a righteous man begging bread. There are blessings for righteousness.

But it was their spiritual reliance upon God that made these men truly great. Abraham humbled himself. Isaac humbled himself. Jacob humbled himself. He became known as Israel. He fathered the children of Israel, and God worked through the children of Israel.

So, these men were men who were physically blessed. David was a king, a great king, a very rich king, but it was his spiritual reliance upon God that made him truly great. He was a man after God's own heart. God looks on his heart. For a king, he truly humbled himself. And God allowed many things to humble him, many persecutions, many trials to come along to humble him. So, brethren, blessed is the man who is poor in spirit and relies completely upon God's strength and power in him to sustain him at all times. For then, shall he enter into God's eternal kingdom. But we can have the blessings of being poor in spirit today. There are great blessings that come to one who learns to humble himself and puts God first in his life. Tremendous blessings in many, many ways, both physically and spiritually. God will pour his blessings upon one who is truly poor in spirit. Now, let's go to verse 4. Matthew 5, verse 4. Blessed are the me, for they shall inherit the earth. I'm sorry, that's not verse 4. Verse 4 is, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Those who mourn will be comforted. That's a promise. They will be comforted. It is something that we should place our faith in. If we are mourning, we should realize that God is the God of all comfort, and we shall be comforted. In other words, it's just going to take some time. So we have to have faith as we mourn and know that God will bring us out of this trial, this problem, to a degree, or he will help us cope with it. He will help us make peace with it. We just have to have faith in God. So be patient, be faithful, wait on God, and know that he will comfort you and restore you even while you are in the midst of great trials. Now that's when it's the hardest, isn't it? In the midst of those great trials. That's when it really tests us. It tests our faith. It tests our mettle. What are we made of? Are we poor in spirit? You see, if we're poor in spirit, then we will be okay. Through the grief and the trials and the mourning that comes, we will be okay. We will have faith that God will see us through. The Greek word used here for mourn is the strongest word for mourning in the Greek language. It's the strongest possible word for mourning. People mourn for many, many reasons. This verse is primarily referring to those who mourn, first of all, because of their own sins. When we sin, we should mourn. We should have godly sorrow that leads us to repentance. To change. To stop doing whatever it is we've done. Go and sin no more, Christ said. So we should mourn whenever we've sinned. We should mourn. Also, it's referring to those who mourn because of the sins of others that have brought such destruction upon this earth. Our sins and the sins of others have brought tremendous curses upon this earth. So we should mourn for the state of this earth, for the abject poverty that's on this earth. We should mourn for those who are suffering in so many, many ways upon the earth.

And of course, it also is referring to those who mourn the loss of loved ones. When we lose a loved one, when a loved one dies prematurely or dies at all, mourning takes place. There is grief that's natural, that needs to take place in order for us to heal.

We should mourn when we are hurting. In fact, you won't have really any choice but to mourn. When you hurt, it's axiomatic. It happens. When we're hurting, we naturally mourn, to some degree. It is our natural inclination. No one likes to hurt. So whatever it is, there is a certain mourning that goes on when we're hurting. Our sins, again, should cause us to mourn, and we should have that genuine godly sorrow. For having sinned, a sin that separates us from God. Repentance is the way back to God. God grants repentance when He looks at our heart and when He sees that we're truly sorry for what we've done.

It is a prideful person who will not admit his sin. It is a prideful person who will not admit his sin.

The sins of others will separate them from God as well. It will bring judgment and curses upon others. And that will also cause us to mourn as we see other people suffer.

It is a human condition. We're all sinners, so we're all going to be mourning, to some degree. For the sins of one another. But when we are right with God, when we are repentant, we shall be comforted by Him. He is the God of all comfort. He is, again, promised to never leave us, to never forsake us, to always be there to comfort us through our mourning and through our grief, through our suffering, through our pain. Sorrow does make us stronger if we turn to God in our grief. If we rely upon Him, if we beseech Him, if we pray to Him, and if we believe in Him, again, we're going to be comforted. There's an Arab proverb that says, all sunshine makes a desert. All sunshine makes a desert. Sunshine is great, isn't it? We love sunshine, but too much sunshine is counterproductive in this life. Too much of it is counterproductive. We need some rain on occasion. We need some cloudy times.

Along with the rain comes cloudiness. Sometimes life is like a thunderbolt, and it's like heavy rain. Sometimes life becomes very gloomy and overcast. Again, at other times, life is bright and sunny. We have to be prepared, whether it's raining, whether it's gloomy, or whether it's shining brightly. We are God's people. We are sustained by God Almighty. It is Christ who strengthens us. It is Christ who gives us victory.

When we sorrow in God's Church, we are to have others who will also be sorrowing along with us. We sorrow for one another. We suffer along with each other. When one part of the body suffers, every part is supposed to suffer. We are to love each other enough to suffer for each other. That's true Christianity. That's the mind of Christ, to suffer for one another. If a person's most difficult time is in a person's most difficult time, they are generally bolstered by the love and the care of others. These cards make a lot of difference to people. When they get them, I know I've spoken to many who have received hundreds of cards. It's been a great source of encouragement to them. What if they received a thousand? What if they received a thousand instead of only a hundred or a hundred and fifty?

These things make a difference.

Realizing that people mourn to different degrees and in different ways allows us to be of greater value to the one who is mourning. Being kind, loving, and patient is vital if we are to help a mourner grieve properly. It's our job to help a person that's going through hard times. It really isn't so much our job to slap them in the face and tell them to buck up.

Now, that's how some people think they need to tell them to buck up. That's usually not super effective. Maybe once in a great while that might need to be done, but usually the softer, more gentler approach is more effective.

Some of us would be wise to heed that. Some people tend to be more that way. Buck it up. Again, there are times, but usually it's better to show a little empathy, some kindness, some care.

But doing something shows that you care. You may not know what to do, but doing something shows that you care. Even if you fumble it, generally people can see through that and realize that deep down you care or you wouldn't have done anything. You wouldn't have said anything. You wouldn't have done anything.

Also, doing something that shows you haven't forgotten is vitally important because sometimes people suffer for months. Months, sometimes years.

So showing that you haven't forgotten is important. It means a lot to a sufferer. When we see clearly the suffering of this world, we should sigh and cry. You know, the Bible talks about that. There's a prophecy of those who are going to sigh and cry over the abominations of this earth, the things that are going on, why there is so much suffering on the earth. When we sigh and cry, we mourn for the suffering of this age and we long for a better time to come. We long for a time that is truly beyond today, beyond the right now, a better time, beyond today. We should consider that. We should look for that time beyond today, a better time. We go to the Feast of Tabernacles to picture a better time, a time beyond today, beyond right now, a time when Christ will renew things and begin to really set things alight.

When God hears our pleas, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He's pleased.

We should long for a better time. So, brethren, we are greatly blessed when we mourn our own sins and when we repent of them. We are greatly blessed when we mourn for this world and its tremendous suffering and we long for a better day, thankful that we are comforted now and will be greatly comforted when Christ returns. So, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Webster's definition says, for the word meek, meekness, having or showing a quiet and gentle nature, not wanting to fight or argue with other people. That is to be meek, not wanting to fight. It doesn't say you might not have to. We'll get into that. Also, Webster's had three other definitions. One was to endure injury with patience and without resentment. To endure injury with patience and without resentment, that's a meek person. Secondly, it says deficient in spirit and courage. Now, that's not what this word means here. A meek person is not one who is deficient in spirit and courage. In fact, it's just the opposite. One who is truly meek is strong in the spirit of God and is courageous. A third thing was not violent or strong. Not violent or strong. Again, a person who is meek is also very strong. So, part of Webster's is correct as far as enduring injury with patience and without resentment. Yes, that is certainly a part of being meek and what Christ is talking about here. The meekness it is talking about in this verse is certainly not weakness. Many people look at meekness as weakness, but that's certainly not the case. In fact, it's the furthest from weakness. When true meekness is being displayed, there is great strength also being displayed. To be meek is to be able to endure injury with patience. Being patient while you go through injury, it reminds me of the scripture in 2 Peter where it says, if you suffer wrongfully and you take it patiently, it is commendable for you. If you take it patiently, if you suffer wrongfully and you take it patiently, then it's commendable. Obviously, if you are suffering because you've done something wrong, then that's not such a chore. There's not a lot of kudos for that because you've deserved it. But if you suffer wrongfully and you take it patiently, then it's commendable. To be meek is able to endure injury without resentment. That's not always so easy, is it? When we're injured, it's very natural to become resentful if someone is injuring us.

I've mentioned a little bit about my water situation at home, the drainage problems that I've had since I moved in. Well, I truly feel that I was injured because I was ignored, I was laughed at, I was scorned. I went to these people asking them, or telling them, look, this can't be right, there's no way this can be right. I've got a river of water. My backyard is a swamp. I've got fish four inches long in my backyard, swimming in puddles. This can't be right. They assured me that they did all they can do, that essentially it was my problem. And after a year, I finally went to the county because I knew they were wrong. I knew they had to be wrong. I knew that in this country, the good old U.S. of America, the United States of America, this could not happen and be right. And I was correct. And the county backed me up. And the county said, you will fix it. And finally, it's getting fixed after two years.

I suppose I could be a lot more resentful than I am. I don't really feel a lot of resentment. I just feel injured. And I'm not a real pushover, I have to say. They don't like me too much.

But I could have rolled over and had to spend the $15,000 that they've already spent to fix the problem. I don't have $15,000 to fix a drainage problem. Maybe you do, maybe you would have caved in and done it. I couldn't. But I'm thankful that I can stay up here honestly and say I'm really not resentful toward these men. Yes, I felt injured. And I'm still battling to some degree. It's not quite over yet. But God helped me through all this. I can't say that I was always perfect in the way I reacted. I lost my temper a time or two. I said a few things I wish I hadn't said that I would like to withdraw. It wasn't perfect. Don't claim to be perfect.

But it's been a very... it's been a learning experience to some degree. It's been a testing experience, I think, more than anything else. And in some ways I failed and in some ways I think I did okay. I'm grateful I'm not resentful. I really not. You know, I'm truly grateful. I'm not all burdened. I still sometimes wake up thinking about the problem, but I'm not really consumed with resentment about that. So I'm truly grateful to God for that. I give Him credit for that. But that's... you know, we're all tested in certain ways. Can we be injured and not resentful?

You know, God is a God of justice and a God of righteousness. Justice and rightness should be always defended to a point.

God does not want to see people taking advantage. He does not want to see people lying and cheating and stealing and doing evil and getting away with it without some proper consequences. That's not the God that you serve and that I serve. God is not a pushover. God is a God of love. Yes. He's also a God of justice and equity.

He does not want us to cave in so people are emboldened to take advantage, to cheat and to steal from others. God doesn't want us to do that. God wants us to stand up at times and be counted.

And to stand up against evil and wrongdoing. To take a stand. God believes in the law, one shall reap what he has sown because he put that law into effect. We reap what we sow. And when a person caves in, they're allowing the oppressor to, for a time, not have to deal with the proper consequences of their wrong actions. If I had not done anything, if I had not withstood them, then they would, I'm sure, be more emboldened to do the same thing to someone else in the future. Now they will think twice.

About doing the same sort of thing that they did to me. There are laws that govern drainage. You can't just pour everyone's water into someone else's backyard, people! That's not legal!

It's okay to fight that sort of thing.

It's okay to say, uh-uh, it ain't happened on this watch. I oppose that. The county backs me up. Fix it.

It's okay. You know, the sermon on the Mount is right where we live. Now we'll get to other scriptures that say we need to love our enemies. Frankly, I don't even look at them as my enemies.

You know, they're a business who is trying to make a lot of money, and they don't want to spend a dime they don't have to spend. But I don't know that I would really count on my enemies. You know, there's so many people, so many businesses like that. They're not unique. No, everyone isn't my enemy. It's just something I've had to deal with. So we'll talk about what it really means to love your enemies, to pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you and all that. You know, God's way cuts very deep. It gives us the answers that we need to cope with life. So, brethren, we're going to continue. I haven't actually completed this. There will be more to be said about this particular beatitude, but I didn't want to go too long today because we have some meetings that we need to take care of. I want to give everyone a little time for snacks. But blessed are the meek, for they're going to inherit the earth. Those who are truly meek will prosper on this earth. If you're truly meek, you're going to prosper on this earth, even right now, because God will back you up.

God will back you up. He'll be there for you. If you're truly meek, not weak, but humble, and yet strong, as you strive to oppose evil-doing and wrongdoing, then things will work out. Of course, there's a balance that needs to be sought at all times. I've tried to have balance throughout my fits of anger. It says, Be you angry and sin not. It doesn't say you can't get a little angry at times. Now, I probably did get angry and sinned, because I went maybe too far, and I've had to repent of that. I've actually said I'm sorry a couple times to these men who have persecuted me.

But blessed are the meek, for they're going to inherit the earth. I think that means to a degree right now, we're going to inherit the earth. You know, there will be blessings that come our way if we are truly meek. As Christ was meek, as Moses was meek, we are called to be meek individuals, to learn meekness.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Of course, I'm sure it means also we will be in the first resurrection. We will inherit the earth for a thousand years, and we will be able to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years, those of us who are meek and have learned this lesson. So, brethren, if you want to build your spiritual house on the rock, then take heed to what Jesus Christ says in the Sermon on the Mount. In the weeks ahead, we're going to study in detail Christ's instruction that leads to peace and contentment. You know, I can say, even though I've gone through a lot of grief and mourning through my drainage issues, I have also had a certain amount of peace and contentment, but it certainly has gotten better once the county backed me up. It certainly has improved since then. But, brethren, in the weeks ahead, we're going to study in detail Christ's instruction. We'll discuss what it means and how we can implement it in our lives, how we can please God and be the kind of people that He wants us to be, so that we can learn to be peacemakers and to have peace and contentment in this life. There are many blessings that come through following God.