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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
Hi, I'm Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
Have you ever heard someone say, “I'd rather see a sermon than hear one”? The truth is, we need both. And there's no sermon we need to learn and do more than the famous Sermon on the Mount. In this new series on My God and My Neighbor called “Living the Sermon,” we'll look at Jesus’ teaching verse by verse.
He will be the preacher. We will be the audience. And all we have to do is open the Bible to Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. And then, if we do what Jesus said at the close of this sermon, that is, hear and do what He says, we will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock and the storms of life couldn't shake it.
Today I'm reading from Matthew chapter 5. I'm going to start in verse 1. We're beginning a study of the famous Sermon on the Mount, and I'm going to read verses 1 through 12. Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 through 12.
“And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then 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. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful. For they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’”
And thus begins the famous Sermon on the Mount. Many of you have read this section before. You remember some of the illustrations and some of the teachings in this Sermon on the Mount. You have heard many sermons on the Sermon on the Mount. So, some of the passages in this section will be more familiar to you than others are.
But I want us to start at the beginning. Next to the Ten Commandments, this is probably one of the most well-known sections of the Bible and it's also one of the richest sections in the Bible. This sermon contains many of the keys to Christian living.
It doesn't tell us everything. It doesn't tell us many of the things about the church. It doesn't discuss the plan of salvation in detail, but it does give us the foundational principles. And at the same time, this section of Scripture, as many of you well know, is one of the most misused and misapplied places in all the Bible.
But I want to take you back to the preaching of John the Baptist. Do you remember in Matthew chapter 3 verse 2 that John the Baptist said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”? In other words, it is near. Now, the kingdom of heaven is the church. And the church was about to be established. It was established on Pentecost Day of Acts chapter 2. And so, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you find that there is the preparation for the establishment of the church and John the Baptist was sent as a forerunner to Christ. He was sent to prepare the way for Christ. And he did that by preaching repentance, by calling people to repent. He told the people to get their hearts right and their lives right. Now, Jesus said the same words in Matthew chapter 4, verse 17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The kingdom is near.
Now, I want you to notice what happens when the Sermon on the Mount begins. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 3, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom.” The kingdom of heaven. Look again at verse 10. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
So the first thing that Jesus does in the Sermon on the Mount is to tell people what it means to be in the kingdom. And he shows people how they must live in it. The very first thing that he talks about is not worship or baptism, or the qualifications of elders and deacons. That's later on, and that is essential.
But the first thing that he talks about is the fact that we have to get our hearts right. We have to be right on the inside. Now, this section in Matthew chapter five, verses three through 12, is oftentimes called the Beatitudes. And that's kind of a fancy word that has a Latin root to it. Many people have made a play on that word and have said that this is a section of the Be-attitudes because it talks about the attitudes that we must have or be. This has to be done because if a man's heart is not right, he can't be right. No matter what he does that may be good in a sense, if his heart is not right, then he's not right.
And so, the Sermon on the Mount tells us what to do. It tells us what not to do. But the first thing that it says is that we have to get our hearts right. We have to be right on the inside. And the very first one of these Beatitudes is to be poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit is just the opposite of being proud in one's spirit. It means not to be arrogant. It means not to be self-sufficient, puffed up, and high minded, and independent toward God.
This is the first thing that Jesus mentions, and for good reason. The Bible says in Isaiah 66, verse 2, “But God said, To this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word.” Psalm 34 verse 18 says, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.” Psalm 51 verse 17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.”
So this beatitude can be seen in how people respond to God and to God's Word. For instance, a man that's proud in spirit is going to reject God's Word. Let's look at ourselves for a few minutes. Let's apply these words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” to our own lives and to our own hearts. This is somewhat of a checklist.
Here are some things that you will admit when you are poor in spirit. First of all, you will admit that you're not wise enough to direct your own life. You'll admit that you don't have the answers. You're not wise enough to know what you should do in every situation. You need that wisdom from God.
Jeremiah 10. 23 says, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walks to direct his steps.” So you and I need to be poor in spirit, rather than being abundantly wealthy in spirit and being independent and thinking that we don't need God's Word, that we don't need to study the Bible. We need to realize that that we don't have any wisdom on our own that really amounts to anything. We need the Word of God—Jeremiah 10:23.
Number two, if we are poor in spirit, we will admit that we are not good enough to earn heaven on our own without the grace and mercy of God. In Titus chapter 3, verse 5, the Bible says that it was “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” Paul writes: it's not because we were so good. It's not because God owed this to us. As a matter of fact, when you go back earlier in Titus chapter 3 and you look at verse 3, he says, in the past we ourselves “were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.”
Now, that's not the kind of life that's going to earn anybody salvation. But this is the sinfulness of mankind that Paul is talking about. He said, we don't have enough goodness within us to earn our salvation. It had to be by the grace and mercy of God, and that came through, he said—notice what he says in verse 5—he says it was “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” There's not a period there. He doesn't end the sentence there. He said that according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
Now, that takes you back to [and that is an explanation of] John chapter three, verse five. In John three, verse five, Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Titus chapter three, verse five is an explanation of John chapter three, verse five. And he puts in here the element of God's grace and God's mercy, but let's go on.
Number three. If we are poor in spirit, we will admit that we are not strong enough or smart enough to beat the devil by ourselves. We need the grace and the mercy of God. We need prayer. We need the strength of the Bible. You know, the Scriptures say in Psalm 119 verse 11, “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
In Ephesians six, verse 15 and 16, the Bible talks about taking the shield of faith. We need the shield of faith so that it will deflect all the fiery darts of the devil, because that's what temptation is, that's what it's about. So if we're poor in spirit, then we'll rely on the mercy of God and the grace of God to help us in temptation.
We won't be so prideful that we think that we can take the devil on our own. We won't be so arrogant that we don't think that we need to confess our sins and pray that God will deliver us.
Number four, if we're poor in spirit, we will admit that we don't know the future. Only God does. You see, the Bible talks about boasting about the future—what we're going to do next, what we're going to do tomorrow, and how that we're going to spend money on this and do that in the future.
The Bible says in Proverbs 27 verse 1, “Do not boast about tomorrow, because you do not know what a day may bring forth.” In Isaiah 46 verses 9 through 11, the Bible says that God “Declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done.” It's a common fault of mankind to think that he knows more about life and especially the future than he does.
When we're poor in spirit, we just say, I don't know. I don't know if I'm going to live. All I can say is, it's in the hands of God. And if the Lord will, that will be our attitude toward life.
Number five, if we are poor in spirit we will admit, we will realize, we will be aware of the fact that we don't own anything for very long. And we will realize and admit that what we have, we only have because of the good hand of God. The Bible says, “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness of it” [1 Corinthians 10 verse 26]. When we say that something is ours, that it belongs to us, that we own something, we're only using that really in an accommodative way because God owns everything.
Acts 17: 25 says, “He gives to all life and breath and all things.” And we need a lot more of this poverty in spirit in that way. A lot of times when people think of the expression being “poor in spirit,” they think that it means that a person doesn't have any confidence at all. Well, what it means is, instead of having the kind of self-confidence and self-reliance that people oftentimes are so proud of today, it means that we have confidence, it means that we have assurance, but we have that confidence because of God. We have that assurance because of God's promises and because of God's providence in our lives.
Number six. If we are poor in spirit, we will admit that we don't reach a point in this life where we don't really have to work at being Christians, we don't have to make any effort at it.
We never reach that kind of level in the Christian life. We never get strong enough where we don't have to pray. We never become so knowledgeable that we don't have to study the Bible. The Apostle Paul never reached the point where he could just coast in the Christian life. Paul said, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” or a reprobate [1 Corinthians 9, verse 27].
Paul said, “Forgetting those things which are behind.” He said: I press toward the mark. I press forward to the things that are before me [Philippians 3, verses 13 and 14].
Now let's look at the second beatitude in verse 4. Matthew chapter 5 verse 4 says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Grief is a part of life. It's human to feel sorrow and to grieve at times. None of us likes it, but all of us feel it at times. Even Jesus did. You remember the Bible prophesied that Jesus would be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” [Isaiah 53 verse 3]. So it's normal to cry. In fact, it's good to shed tears.
There's a release of tension that comes with tears. That's why the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 3 that “sorrow is better than laughter.” Laughter's a good thing, but grief can be even better because there's healing that comes with tears. Sadness is like any other feeling in the Bible. The Bible doesn't say “Don't be sad” just like it doesn’t say, “Don't ever get mad or don't ever be afraid.”
What it does tell us is what to be afraid of, what to be mad about, or what to be sad about, or when to be sad, and how much to be sad. The Bible never says don't have feelings, but it does tell us how to regulate those feelings, how to control those feelings, and how to express them in the right way.
When Jesus talks about those who mourn, Matthew chapter 5 verse 4, blessed are those who mourn” or grieve, He's not just talking about any kind of grief here. Jesus is talking about grieving or being sad over the right things in the right way. So, for instance, When Jesus says in Matthew chapter five, verse four, “Blessed are those who mourn,” He's not talking about somebody like Ahab in the Old Testament who was sad about something that he had no right to expect. In 1 Kings chapter 21, verse 1 through 4, Ahab wanted to buy a vineyard, but that vineyard belonged to a man named Naboth. Naboth told him no. He said: I don't want to sell this because it's been in the family for a long time and I want to keep it in the family. That's it. So when Ahab heard that, he went home, the Bible says, heavy and displeased, and he turned his face away and wouldn't eat anything. In other words, he's pouting. This is a grown man. This is the powerful king of Israel, and he's acting like a child. Jesus is not talking about something like that in Matthew chapter 5, verse 4, when he said, “Blessed are those who mourn.”
He's also not talking about being sad over losing something that we had no right to have to begin with. In 2 Samuel 3, we find the story of a man named Phaltiel. He had married unscripturally and unlawfully the wife of David. David was being chased by his father-in-law, Saul, and so he was away from his wife, Michal. And in the meantime, Saul, his father in law, had given his daughter, David's wife, to this other man.
And, evidently, he had married her because the Bible says that he was her husband. So, after the death of Saul, David sent his men back to get his wife from this man, Phaltiel. And Phaltiel, when the messengers came from David, “went behind her weeping.” It broke his heart to lose her. But he had no right to have her. He had no right to have those feelings. She belonged to another man. She was another man's wife. And don't you wish that television shows and books and movies today would respect the law of God when it comes to marriage? They paint a picture of somebody who has done something wrong, and they try to get you to feel sorry for the person who's actually in sin.
But also, when Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn,” He's not talking about being sad because of sin, and then not doing anything about it. For instance, Judas Iscariot regretted what he did to the Lord. He sold the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. But in Matthew chapter 27, verses 3 through 10, the Bible says that he regretted that. The King James uses the word repented, but that means that he remorsed. He relented of what he did. He had not just second thoughts, but he had a regret about what he had done. But he didn't do anything to change. If he had truly repented, in the biblical sense of the term repent, then he would have changed his life. He would have confessed his sin before God, sought forgiveness, and changed his life. But he went out and hanged himself. Just feeling sorry is not the same as repentance. It's not the same as changing your mind and changing your life. That's what repentance is. There are many people that feel sorry when they get caught, or especially when they suffer the consequences of their sins.
Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 26 says that a thief is ashamed when he is caught. But the question is, what are they sorry about? Is it because they've hurt their family? Is it because they've hurt their friends? But especially, is it because they have hurt themselves? Because they've hurt themselves financially?mBecause they have hurt their health? They've hurt themselves physically, and they feel sorry for themselves? They grieve, but it's not true sorrow. True sorrow means that we're sorry that we have wronged God. That is real, godly sorrow.
And a very important passage, which is a great commentary on this, and it clarifies a lot of these questions, is 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 10. Paul said, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death,” that is, spiritual death. So, there are two kinds of sorrow according to this passage. There's, first of all, the sorrow of the world. Now, that's when a person sins, and he feels sorry for himself, or maybe he is truly grieving, but he doesn't do anything about it. He doesn't turn to God. He doesn't change his life. We, as preachers, talk oftentimes to people who are suffering the consequences of their sins. They're paying for what they have done, and we as preachers see people who shed many tears because of the trouble they're in as a result of their sins. But many times we see that people never change. They don't do anything about that. They don't seek God's forgiveness, and even if they do, they turn right back to it in just a few days, weeks, or months. Paul says there's a different kind of sorrow, a true sorrow, and that is godly sorrow. It produces repentance, which leads to and brings about salvation.
So when Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn, he's not talking about any kind of crime. He's not talking about any and all forms of grief. He's talking about true, genuine, sincere grief and sorrow as God defines it.
But let's look at the positive aspect of what Jesus says. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Let me read to you a few passages from the Bible on this subject, and you may want to write these down. I'm sure that some of you have heard these before. In Psalm 30, verse 5, the Bible says, “For his anger is but for a moment, his favor is for life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” In Psalm 126, verse 5, the Bible says, “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.” And then in the New Testament, in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, Paul said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
Paul says God comforts us and that gives us the ability to comfort other people. And the longer you live the Christian life, the more you appreciate verses like Matthew chapter 5, verse 4. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” because the longer that we live on this earth, and the more troubles we have, the more comfort we need.
Sometimes Christians need comfort because of persecution. The Bible says that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Jesus talks about this in verses 10 through 12. Sometimes it's hard. It is hurtful. It brings pain. But the Bible says that God comforts those who mourn. Family troubles cause a lot of grief. Marital problems bring a lot of misery on earth. Children that disobey and rebel and go wild worry their parents to death. The Bible says in Proverbs 17, verse 25 that “the father of a fool has no joy.” Sometimes friends betray us and that causes a lot of grief in this life. The Bible says that when we're doing what's right, when we're trying to live the Christian life and we have people that forsake the Lord or forsake us, the Bible says that God comforts us.
Psalm 27 verse 10 says it this way, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” Sometimes there are all kinds of events that are just beyond our control, that bring a lot of grief to this life. Job said in Job 14 verse 1, “Man that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble.”
So we have all kinds of diseases. We have all kinds of illnesses that cause us to suffer and to mourn. The Bible says that Job's grief was very great because of his suffering in the book of Job. And then of course, death brings a pain in the soul like nothing else. You can almost feel the tears of people in the Bible as they wept for their loved ones. Abraham wept for Sarah, Jacob wept for Joseph, David wept for Solomon. Death is in the world because man was cut off from the tree of life, and this happened because of man's sin. But it brings great grief. It's the sting of death. It's the pain that sometimes seems to be unbearable.
And Jesus himself knew the pain of death. He felt it himself. In John 11, verse 35, which is the shortest verse in your English Bible, the Scriptures say that Jesus wept. Why? Because of the death of Lazarus.
Now, let's talk a few minutes about how God does comfort us. First of all, the Bible gives us comfort. That's one of the ways that God comforts us. Romans 15 verse 4 says this, “Whatever things were written aforetime”—that is, in the Old Testament—"were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
Another way that God comforts us is through other Christian people. Now we saw that in second Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 where the Bible says when God comforts u. That gives us the ability to comfort other people.
Here's what the Bible says in Romans 12 verse 15, “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” In 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 18, Paul talked to the Thessalonians about the fact that they didn't need to weep and mourn over the loss of Christian loved ones like other people weep. And he said, “Comfort one another with these words” [1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 18].
And, of course, another way that God comforts us is through prayer and His divine providence. The Bible says in James chapter 5, verse 16, that the “effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails” or produces “much.” What a blessing that is. And what would this world be like for Christians if we couldn't go to God in prayer and ask Him to comfort us when we have to deal with all the problems and the burdens and the heartaches of life? And that doesn't mean that God is going to take away the pain as soon as we pray about it. Sometimes, in fact, many times, we have to bear that burden for a while because God has purposes. God has reasons as to why we have to endure grief—oftentimes, a lot longer than we want to or expect to. But you pray to God, and in the meantime, you shoulder that burden. The Bible says that God will comfort us.
Now, another aspect of this comforting that God gives us is this thing that we call time. And many times have you heard it said, or maybe you've said to somebody that “time is a great healer.” The passing of time does help to ease the pain. It doesn't take it away, but it does help. There are several books in the Bible that especially deal with this subject of coping with grief.
One of them, of course, is the book of Psalms. The book of Proverbs is also another great book. There are stories scattered throughout the Bible of people that had to live with grief and sorrow.
But there's another book that deals with grief from a different perspective, and that is the book of Ecclesiastes, and it shows that grief is a part of life. But it also shows that grief in life does not last forever. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 1 through 8 that life is a series of cycles. So listen to what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 beginning in verse 1: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up.”
Now listen to verse 4. There is “a time to weep and a time to laugh.” Life is a mixture of these feelings, and these experiences come and go in cycles. That's what Ecclesiastes chapter 3 tells us. So time is a great healer.
And of course, one of the greatest comforts that we have in this life is the promise of heaven. In Revelation, chapter 14, verse 11, the Bible says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth, that they may rest from their labors.” One of the sweetest words, one of the most appealing ideas to us in this life, in this very busy life, is the idea of rest. And you'll notice that Jesus ends this section we call the Beatitudes by talking about how great heaven is.
He says in verse 12, “great is your reward in heaven.” Paul says it this way in Romans 8 verse 18, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” In 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17, Paul said, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
If you look at all the suffering and all the pain that we go through in this life and you add it all up, that suffering is nothing compared to the glory of heaven. We've only looked at two of the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, and think of all of the lessons and all of the good that can come from studying this section.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” And in the next lesson, God willing, we will talk about more of these Beatitudes. God bless us to study His will every day.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs.
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