believing that you're destined for
heaven when you're not would be the most
tragic self-deception David servants
book the great gospel deception will
help you be sure that heaven will be
your eternal home order your copy and
heavenward on TV alright let's continue
here in Matthew chapter 5 looking at the
Beatitudes at the beginning of Jesus's
Sermon on the Mount and I mentioned
previously that we shouldn't be looking
for ourselves in one of these Beatitudes
we should be looking for ourselves in
all of these Beatitudes because we want
to be among the Blessed and if you if
you take out just one of these at the
exclusion of others looking for just
what defines yourself you're making a
huge mistake and you could easily then
be to see thinking that well hey at
least I got one out of the nine so at
least I got partial blessing thicker
okay no you want to find yourself in all
nine of these Beatitudes and as I said
previously the blessings are not nine
different blessings they're really just
different ways of saying the same
blessing over and over again you will
inherit the king of heaven in fact the
first and the last beatitude blessed are
the poor in spirit for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven and the last be
attitude that says bless our blessed are
you when you've been persecuted for the
sake of righteousness yours is the king
of heaven you see there it is at the
beginning and the end it's talking about
getting into the kingdom of heaven and
everything between that is just another
aspect of the blessing of going to
heaven you're one day you're going to be
comforted you're going to inherit the
earth of course we know that the
righteous are not going to be forever in
heaven one day heaven comes down to
earth will be a new new earth and a new
heaven and so forth and we'll be living
eternally in those places will be
satisfied will receive mercy we will see
God as
are told of one of the blessings in
verse number 8 and we will be called
sons of God now I recognize that some of
those blessings are present blessings
because once you believe in Jesus you
immediately become a child or a son of
God but you haven't yet seen God have
you you haven't yet inherited the earth
you could say I receive mercy sure but
the greatest revelation of the mercy of
God is going to come when we are living
in his kingdom and we realize oh how
merciful God has been to me okay and
again no matter how terrible your life
might be no matter how many challenging
circumstances that you are facing in
your life if you're on the way to heaven
you are blessed there is a blessing
that's destined for you praise God and
when you read these you might think
sometimes wow these people don't sound
like they're too blessed I mean they're
persecuted and so forth and and these
are the gentle people and their morning
and so forth but truly from God's
perspective if God says you're blessed I
believe God knows what he's talking
about and God can see the future God
knows what's going to happen God is not
just looking at our present
circumstances he's looking at everything
that we have to look forward to and if
we'll have faith in him if will trust
him well then we can look forward to all
the blessings in eternity that are still
waiting for us we have an inheritance
the Bible says that is imperishable and
undefiled and it will not fade away
waiting in heaven for us make you Jesus
alright now let's take a look at these
Beatitudes one by one and see if we can
find ourselves in them because by
evaluating ourselves and why do these
Beatitudes we can figure out whether or
not we're one of those blessed people
who are on the way to heaven you see
although some people teach that the way
to get to heaven is just to you know
pray a short prayer and then you got it
you can never lose it and it doesn't
make any difference how you live your
life because this is all by grace and
has nothing to do with your behavior a
lot of people teach that it doesn't
agree with what Jesus taught you know if
you're among the Blessed then
you know you you're defined by the
characteristics of the blessed and
you're going to receive the blessing of
the blessed if you're not defined by the
characteristics of the blessed you're
not blessed and you're not on the road
to heaven and so people who are born
again people who are children of God are
different than those who are not don't
dare try to convince me that the Holy
Spirit can come inside of somebody when
they believe in Jesus and not radically
transform them and of course the day
that you first repent and believe in
Jesus well that's the beginning of an
ongoing lifetime transformation as he
who began a good work and you completes
it until the day of Christ Jesus we're
going to see in these Beatitudes some of
the steps of that very transformation
that I'm talking about the very first
one in Matthew 5 verse number three
blessed are the poor in spirit for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven now you
think goodness gracious what does it
mean to be poor in spirit well some
folks and I tend to agree with them
because I haven't found anything better
than this interpretation is that Jesus
describing the initial recognition and
realization that blessed people have
when they realize their spiritual
poverty umbra Jesus told that story
about the Pharisee and the publican who
went up to the temple to pray and the
one guy the the tax collector recognized
his spiritual poverty whereas the
Pharisee did not recognize a spiritual
poverty he was really full of pride and
looked down upon the tax collector and
said I thank you Lord I'm not like other
people like this guy over here well the
tax collector was recognizing a
spiritual poverty beating his breast and
saying God be merciful to me the sinner
all he was the blessed man wasn't he
because she said he left that place
justified that is forgiven just as if he
had never sinned and that's the
beginning place in a relationship with
God you have got to recognize that apart
from Christ you are nothing more than a
rebel without a cause a hell bound
Center who deserves exactly what you're
going to get and people who are self
right just because they go to church or
they keep a facade of righteousness on
their exterior you know and do a few
good deeds if it once a while those
people are to be pitied they're not
among the Blessed because their
self-righteous and their righteousness
scripture says is like filthy rags it's
the person who is blessed who recognizes
that I'm a sinner who needs a savior and
so when we proclaim the gospel to people
we've got to help bring them to that
first step we talked about this and we
looked at the Ministry of John the
Baptist he called people to repentance
he pointed out their sinfulness and
their corruption and so forth so that
they would see themselves as God was
seeing them and then therefore they
could be motivated to repent okay
blessed are the poor in spirit see you
next time