| all his bed in his sickness. I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish? And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it. All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt. An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. By this I know that thou favorest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.". We should be beginning to see that each thought the Lord put forth is building and expanding on the preceding thought. How foolish we are to think that we can take a verse out of context and get the true meaning of God from it. Once again, in discussing the merciful, the Lord Jesus Christ has brought us back to Matthew 4:19 and Jesus making us fishers of men. Part of the mercy that we receive from God is a desire to be merciful to the poor in spirit. We are saved to serve not saved to sit and adorn. The will of God includes being active for him. Blessed are the pure in heart, expands on blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness as we see in Psalm 15:1-2, "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.". Again, Jesus is pointing to Holy Spirit control, ye must be born again. Blessed are the peacemakers brings us right back to being fishers of men. There is only one way to make peace and that is to lead men to an understanding that they must be born again to attain the peace that passeth all understanding. Matthew 5:10-11 tells us, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for 23 _______________________________________________________________________________ righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.". These verses build on what has been said in verses 5 through 9 by giving us a glimpse of the cost of obeying verses 5 through 9. If we are truly being witnesses to the whole truth that Jesus brought to man, there is no question but that we shall ( not might ) suffer persecution. This is further expanded in verse 12, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.". Here Jesus is pointing to how serious the cost of the persecution can be. There are three references in I Kings that come to mind as to this seriousness. I Kings 18:4, "For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them in a cave,...". Also, I Kings 18:13, "Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid an hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?". And finally, we see Elijah, who after slaying the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, has fled into the wilderness, hidden in a cave and been confronted by the Lord giving this answer in I Kings 19:10, "And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.". In verse 14 we see that the Lord was in no way interested in Elijah shying from his duties, even under persecution unto death. This wasn't a popular message then, nor is it now. Preaching of this part of the Gospel is extremely scarce in this country. It never has been popular for man to be told how narrow the way truly is, that man must die to self, in order to gain Holy Spirit control and return to the image of God. Man must quench his will ( soul ) in order that he not quench the Spirit. Man doesn't like to hear that, because he still believes that he can be as gods. But, that's not all, the sermon on the mount covers 109 verses and we 24 _______________________________________________________________________________ |
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