I invite you to turn this morning to Matthew chapter 5, page 962 in your Bibles. Matthew chapter 5, we're continuing our study in the Beatitudes, and today in verse 7 we come to the merciful. Since I've been reading this over and over, I thought we would try something this morning to do this somewhat responsibly, so when we get to the first Beatitude, which is verse three I will read and then please in the next beatitude you say that out loud and then we'll go on like that and please don't leave me hanging so this is Matthew chapter 5 and we'll begin at verse 1 and again I'll read the first beatitude in verse 3 and then we'll do it responsibly from there seeing the crowds he went up on the mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 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 others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you may the lord bless the hearing of his word this morning well we come to a bit of a shift in our study of the beatitudes today and i think what we've not really done so far is look kind of at the structure of the beatitudes and what jesus is doing and i think it's best to kind of do that as we go along and see as it's being filled out sort of the intention of jesus and you'll notice here that those first three beatitudes really are describing the blessed man's relationship with the lord the blessedness of our walk with the lord think of them blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of god and kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth all those those first three beatitudes are really describing for us and helping us with the unique blessedness of our walk before the lord and how our relationship with him is to go and the blessedness of that walk they are we are blessed to be humble before him we are blessed to be sorrowful as we looked at in the right way of mourning for sin and seeking for the lord's help we are blessed to be meek and these are particularly showcasing our life before the lord but then last week we came to beatitude that was a little bit unique blessed are those who hunger and thirst act for righteousness for they shall be satisfied that i said seems to be at least to me the center of the Beatitudes, these eight Beatitudes, the remaining Beatitudes are describing, I think from here, the blessedness of our life in relation to one another, our neighbors, mercy, and purity, and peacemaking, and happiness when the world hates us, and especially how we respond when the world persecutes us. Now, what does all of that echo? The law. All of that echoes the law. The first four commandments, of course, you know, command our relationship with the Lord. And the last six commandments command our relationship with our neighbor. But what is different about the Beatitudes? What is important about what Jesus is doing here in the Beatitudes? Well, you'll notice here, these are not, and we've been saying, entrance requirements. These are not commanding us to, in a sense, to do this and live. This is describing the blessedness of those who have already entered the kingdom. The blessedness of you, God's people that you enjoy in this life. It's describing the blessedness of those who have already entered the kingdom. Now that's quite a bit different than how the Pharisees looked at the law. But there was something crucial here that's different in these Beatitudes that the Pharisees missed about the law. What was it? Well, it was this. They thought that their righteousness by far was by far enough in life for God to accept them. So Jesus would say soon after this, listen, unless your righteousness exceeds their you're theirs you're not entering the kingdom that was a startling statement these were the best of the best so jesus would say your righteousness has to exceed theirs what the pharisees missed about the law was that there was never a provision for righteousness in the law that they could achieve themselves to meet the standards of the law well what's different here it's that seems to me sandwiched strategically in the last beatitude between the relationship between god and neighbor is this provision for righteousness that's what the law could never do the law never provided an alien righteousness is what we say at the center of the beatitude sandwiched between the relationship between God and neighbor is this this blessedness of the provision from God for righteousness that we looked at last time there's um is not just an external keeping of the law talking about the righteous but here we're getting to what the law the heart of what the law commands which is love isn't it interesting that Jesus never gave a beatitude that said blessed are those who love if that's the heart of this all well love's not here because all of these qualities that he describes demonstrate in the life of the believer true love of god and neighbor so as we now begin to move to our relationship to one another we might ask this important question if the pharisees did not achieve the righteousness that's here provided what would be the core problem in their lives i think jesus is going after the jugular here well they would not know the lord first three beatitudes and particularly they would have a deep problem with the relationship to their neighbor what would it be where do you think jesus would begin if we're looking at that first sort of core issue and dealing with the relationship to our neighbor so you get the point here sandwiched between these is a righteousness god provides they don't have it they're living in terms of the law themselves thinking they'll fulfill righteousness now jesus is moving to neighbor let's talk about that this is where jesus begins blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy let's begin with that fundamental question then as we look at this today of what is mercy what is mercy we're not talking about grace here grace of course refers to something that's unmerited that we do not deserve god's favor that we don't deserve mercy is a little bit different isn't it mercy boys and girls is something indifferent we're addressing those who are helpless we're addressing those who've ruined their lives ruined things brought on a misery to themselves who are absolutely helpless to get out of it mercy is as is often says is grace in action but here we get i think into the heart of what jesus is concerned about and and he's speaking here and he raises this all-important uh what you might say quality in the blessed life of being merciful all of us want happiness we're desperately trying to create that we want a perfect life we want a perfect family and we want everyone to see ourselves that way i've said this before this is one of our greatest problems with the witness in the church today is that we show ourselves different than what's often going on internally. The problem is what we know is that misery is all around us. We've all seen it. Think of the misery in this world for a minute with me. Let's just think about that for a minute. At times, people come into your minds who have wrecked their lives. Can you think of any? You see them down the streets in Escondido. Some people have fried their brains on drugs. Some people have ruined their organs due to alcohol abuse. Some, even worse, have lived a life of crime and suffering in prison because they've done awful and terrible things. In all these cases, we say, well, the reason that guy is, the way that they are, he is, the way that he is, is because he's destroyed himself. I was just walking downtown last night. There was the woman laying there right in the middle of downtown, laying on the street, and that's her bed. What do I think of that woman? We shake our heads. Our conclusion to the matter is we found a way to describe the misery that they are in and we're satisfied with that answer. That's what they've done to themselves. Take the vilest offender in life. There's certainly a righteous anger that we have when people do terrible things like murder and we cry out to the Lord. But I'm not talking about thinking in all the possibilities of this. I'm thinking in the moment here as Jesus presented this, blessed are the merciful, what do we say of that person? Well, we say, sure. They've wrecked their lives. There's earthly consequences to actions. They get what they deserve. Get the wicked away from us. This is exactly the life they've chosen. We've determined in life that nothing can be done for people like this. We have a reason that people are the way that they are and the way that we handle it is to put them out of our minds. I passed by that woman last night and immediately she was out of my mind. She did that to herself. Our lives are going well. We're together. We're not suffering this way. So we quickly move away from any more thoughts of people who've done this. There are different circumstances, of course. Ones that we try to explain, but we can't. We hear this week, I just heard of a shocking death of a 45-year-old high school friend back in my hometown. And I thought to myself, 45 years old, must have been on drugs. It must have been alcohol. It's the first thing. And I feel better and I move on. I'll just think about it. But it wasn't. It was epilepsy. Death by epilepsy. That's the kind of stuff I don't want to hear. One person's lot in life is quite a bit different from another's. We look for reasons for everything. We look for reasons why families fall apart. I've seen it in the ministry. Why does that happen? We look for reasons why somebody's life is totally upside down. And we say, well, it must be because of this. And it must be because of that. And we move on. That's what we do. As long as our lives are together, as long as our bank accounts are full, as long as our life is generally going well, our children are doing well, our life is not in harm's way, truly, truly, we don't want to be bothered with this stuff. Nothing we can really do for these people anyway. They've made their bed. Maybe. All of that's coping mechanism, of course. For what we haven't considered is the day of our affliction may come tomorrow. Then who will care for us? Then who will care for us? We, by nature, are just like that. That's the natural way. Whatever concern is placed on those who suffer in this life from the world, it's just words. We see this all the time in political speech. Oh, we care about the poor. We care about making life better for the oppressed. It's all posturing. We know it. We're worried about low wages in this country. We're worried about gas prices for people. We're worried about Americans not doing well while they spend recklessly and accumulate more debt. what of the kingdom of God? I think this gets to the heart of what Jesus is here describing. The shepherds of Israel who had their righteousness were incapable of showing mercy. Think of this great record in the scriptures. Again, he entered the synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand. How many withered hands do we have here? I saw the other day a man in Escondido blew up his hand from a firework. You know what I said? What a fool. And again he entered the synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand and they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with a withered hand, come here. And he said to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to harm? To save life or to kill? They're silent. I don't know what this must have looked like, beloved. I'm thinking I would have been trembling, maybe. He turned around and he looked at them with anger. That's a scary verse. He could have consumed them with his eyes. grieved at the hardness of heart and said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he stretched out his hand and it was restored. They were completely uninterested and incapable of mercy. As if their own righteousness in keeping the Sabbath gave them the good life that they have. As if, since, they are living a life of ease and comfort. They're not an affliction like that man. They're not an affliction like Blind Bartimaeus. They're not an affliction like the man born blind. Because in their thought, that means something's wrong with them. That's how Jewish thought was. They're not blessed of God. And of course, because my life's together, that indicates my right standing. Because I'm moral, and I've got lots of kids and grandchildren and lots in life, that indicates it. Here was the result. Woe to you, shepherds of Israel, who only take care of yourselves. Should not the shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, you clothe yourselves with the wool, and slaughter the choice animals, but you don't take care of the flock. You've not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You've not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You've ruled them harshly and brutally. So, no mercy. No mercy. How different Christ was when He was looking at the multitudes of peoples walking in life. One day He looks out at the crowds. and he wells up with compassion. For they were like sheep without a shepherd. Somebody asked me that when I was going into ministry. It was one of the best ministry early questions I had in examination. When you go down to the mall, you know, some people like to go people watch. You can learn a lot. The mall, people watching. What do you see? Do you see? What do you see? Well, that's a good question. What do we see? Jesus is here describing a particular blessing for you that's different from the world. What is it? When we look at fellow image bearers of God and we think of the afflicted and those suffering all these terrible consequences for their actions that were foolish. What do we see? What the merciful recognize is that people wreck their lives all the time. Think of the awful problem of addiction. I'm sure if truth be told, there are people and brothers and sisters struggling with addiction here that's not known. You want out, don't you? When I was at the Modesto Rescue Mission years ago preaching, I remember asking that basic question to all of these people who were stuck. Do you want out? Every hand went up. They all wanted out. But they ruined their lives. They ruined their lives on their own accord. They did it to themselves. well, that's what sin and alienation has done to everyone. And beyond that, people suffer terrible things for things they didn't even do. That's still a big problem, isn't it? Why do things happen to some that don't happen to others? Why are some people always afflicted and other people aren't? Why does one family get hit the way it does and one family never has anything? A heavy hand of affliction may fall on someone and you can't find the answer and you can't write it off and you can't cope with it. So you learn not to think about it. See, Jesus is describing something different. Then what the merciful do is bear those afflictions. What the merciful do is learn to weep with those who weep. It's what Calvin said. The people who suffer have the same bodies we do. They have the same common humanity. The truly merciful that are blessed in this life of the Lord are filled with compassion over those who suffer from their foolish choices or not. And who is to say the lot would be any different for us tomorrow if it were not for grace. Think of him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. Could you righteous man be Naaman the Syrian tomorrow? Filled with leprosy? Could you righteous man be David and Bathsheba tomorrow? Who later in life got into that mess. The prideful think because of their hard work and their good words and the things that they do. these things can't happen to us we'll live forever the wicked prosper but the merciful they know that good and bad happens to two people alike and the wheelchair bound person who gets let down off out there to come into worship is no different than the man with strong legs who walked in here the man with strong legs was not more deserving to walk than the man in the wheelchair no matter what no matter what he did and Jesus is saying there's a blessedness among the righteous that looks at things quite differently quite differently look tomorrow as you drive through Escondido. It's not hard to do here. Look at the woman lying on the sidewalk in her filth. Look at the poor who have nothing. Look at the wicked who live miserable lives. Look at the suffering and tell me what's different. What is different? One thing. Mercy. Mercy to you. There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked that man's sores. Every day the rich fellow walked to his mansion and there he passed by Lazarus. His heart was never stirred. blessed are the merciful blessed are the merciful says Jesus our hearts are moved by people's sorrows we know what caused this all when that person who's wrecked their lives and fallen into the pit that they dug how many times the psalms say this Lord pull me out the pit that I dug comes up and asks you for something what do you say well there are enough people that would say just go get a job i'm not saying we don't use wisdom not what i'm saying but when we see the lost when we see the poor when we see the hurting when we see the suffering when we see in our body in this church the things that people go through, the merciless, tune it straight out. And they go back to their pain-free, prosperous life. That's the reality. We're living in a time even more when Christians are really angry right now at the state of things. Look at the wicked. Who might say in the face of these evils, right? Gavin Newsom's a wretch. Gavin Newsom's a wretch. If you didn't have mercy and you were put in that position, would you be better? Would you be better than Biden? Would you be better than Trump? Where would we be without the mercy of the Lord? what if the Lord had let us do what we really wanted to do? Can you trace back your life and ask that question in your past? What if he would have said, when you tried what you tried, go, be warm and well-fed, and he let you walk away in it, when you were doing what you knew was directly against the law of God that you were raised with, The merciful enter into that suffering. Their compassions grow. Kindness follows. We feel their pain because they are us. And there are many suffering here for various reasons. You know, it may be something they've done or it may not. The merciful shoulder that burden and they share in that sorrow. And they learn to carry one another's burdens because that's what mercy is. That's what mercy does. It goes beyond just a feeling, of course. James took our Lord's teaching and said, a person who fails to show mercy will be judged without mercy. That's a scary verse. Our Lord is saying that the blessedness of the righteous is that they go far beyond the pomp and pretense of the world. They go far beyond that. They actually show mercy. They actually care. It's not mercy to say, go, peace, be warm and well-fed and then do nothing about physical needs, says James. What good is that? When someone is living that and living in what they're doing, and we say, I mean, think about this issue. Sometimes I think we hear this and think, what about people in sin? as if mercy means we say nothing. That's not mercy. Or that there's no discipline. That's not mercy. Mercy speaks the truth in love. Mercy, true mercy, goes after the wandering. Doesn't let them remain in their sin. Mercy is turning somebody back from their ways. Mercy is helping those in need. and I think the beauty of this today to encourage us is that Jesus attaches a promise to this blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy obviously no one will ever show mercy this way in life unless they have first received mercy from the Lord that's that's so clear and Jesus is not teaching that mercy here is dependent upon our action of mercy for eternal life that's not what he's saying here. The truth is Christians need mercy first. Think of this truth. All of us along the way dug a pit somewhere and we fell in, all of us. There are many points along the way that I have made choices. What if God had never restored me? And we simply now, as Christians, talk about everyone else digging their pit. But this is precisely what we did along the way at some point. And God didn't turn away his head from us. And God didn't say, look at that fool. Look how careless they've been with everything good I've given them. Look how awful they've been to me. Every departure, everything you've done, every sin, every wicked deed. That had a just reason that could have ruined your life. Not only physically, temporally, but also eternally. And the father did what? The father sent his son. And his son said, I do pity them. And the father, out of the love for you, said, yes, son, go and rescue them. Pull them up out of that pit. And He looked on us as sheep without a shepherd and He exercised mercy. And where do you see it? At the cross. Where justice and mercy kissed. And the Lord in the middle of that affliction cries out to His Father. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. that obviously spilled over into Stephen's life for when he was being stoned and boulders are hitting him in the face he said the same thing all the mercy that could ever be given to us there's no greater mercy that could be shown to us came when Christ died for us and saved us with a gift because his mercy was not just talk our lord desires to encourage us with a blessing of this beatitude he wants to encourage you that this is who you are different from the world since mercy will be a quality in the life of a true believer he wants to encourage us that as we've received the same mercy in our lives then there will also be a consequence that the measure in which we give we will also enjoy that in this life think about this for a minute my lord's describing something here wonderful to close this out do you ever struggle with what may happen in your future well any sensitive person who knows sin knows exactly this feeling you know we've prayed i've prayed lord let me not wreck my life let me not destroy what's good let me not live in foolishness let me not have a bad end of things which could happen in this temporary temporary life i don't know if you've ever had that fear there's still a lot of things you could do at this point to bring a sad ending on yourself you know that right we might still try tomorrow there might be somebody here tomorrow who we're dealing with who we have to put under discipline because they went and tried like the prodigal to feed on the pig swine pods you ever wonder if god may not show mercy to you in the end because you've had you have a terrible go of it that might come i've had those thoughts i think many people fear that he's already said that he will bless our troubles in these beatitudes our hardships our sufferings our oppressions whatever they might be when we cry to the lord he promises to answer us but i think what we should see here is a sort of encouraging a definitely encouraging promise in this as we continue to be blessed to exercise mercy in our lives to others there's a promise here we will always as we have from the beginning continue to receive mercy from him he will never give us as our sins deserve and that mercy will be characteristic of our lives the whole way through this is the blessedness of being merciful and of God's mercy to us. When our time of difficulty comes, when our lives are turned upside down, when the world hates us for righteousness, the blessedness is we are blessed. When we are blessed to show mercy because that is who God has blessed us to be, mercy will never depart from us. When the day of tribulation comes, he promises you this what does the psalm say you can say it with me for a minute at the end of psalm 23 surely goodness and shall follow me all the days of my life and i'll dwell in the house of the lord forever that's the last verse i'll never take it so you see beloved when you look at this week and you look at in the church and you see people who have gone astray, who have hurt themselves, who are lost, who are in pain, who suffer. Weep with them. Have compassion on them. Help them. Bear with them. Love them. The world doesn't do this. It's all pretense. The world doesn't do this. The Lord is saying to you, mercy is following you the whole way through, from beginning to end. It's just true. The merciless die without mercy. Isn't that scary? How sad. It's when the great mercy of the Lord has captivated our hearts in the cross. That was given to us while we were yet sinners and never even asked for it. then that we would live in confidence that God has blessed us to show mercy since he has always promised from the beginning to judge us not without mercy but with mercy all your days. Now, could there be any more encouraging news for you? Could there be? This is the mercy that's followed you from beginning to end. And he's saying, I've blessed you as my people to be my merciful in this life. Shocking? Yeah. Because the world doesn't know it. Blessed? Yes. Because this is the very character of your Savior who loved and died for you when only you deserved wrath. That changes everything. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for showing us mercy. thank you for caring for us this way where would we be and when we see these people who've ruined their lives may we not explain it away may we recognize oh lord and see a common humanity in sin and what we deserve may it be oh lord that we show mercy and true love and care for people since you have blessed us to be this in this life as your salt and light. Help us, O Lord, to think about those in our lives who do need mercy. Help those who are struggling, O Lord, with your favor because of failure and sin and misery to turn to you early and to receive your help. Pull them out of the pit they've dug. And let us, O Lord, have compassion like our Savior, not as the Pharisees who simply came to show that everything was perfect in their lives when that was the greatest lie ever. Most of all, thank you for supplying a righteousness outside of us to forgive us and that gives us the confidence to stand before you blameless. In that hope and in thanksgiving, we pray these things. In Jesus' name, amen.