Our Precious Beatitude Promises

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Short Summary
The discourse emphasizes the importance of actively applying the “exceeding great and precious promises” from Scripture, particularly the Beatitudes, to cultivate Christian character and attain the divine nature. It explores each Beatitude as a promise linking spiritual qualities—such as humility, meekness, mercy, purity, and peacemaking—to true happiness and blessings, highlighting the necessity of embracing trials, practicing forgiveness, and submitting to God’s will. Ultimately, it encourages believers to embody these traits through faith and perseverance, trusting in God’s mercy and the rewards of spiritual growth despite worldly rejection.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse on 2 Peter 1:4 and the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12)

Central Scriptural Foundation:
The discourse begins with a reflection on 2 Peter 1:4, which speaks of “exceeding great and precious promises” given to believers, enabling them to become partakers of the Divine nature. The speaker emphasizes the necessity of actively using these promises in the midst of life’s challenges, rather than merely reflecting on them afterward. The promises of Scripture are practical tools meant to empower believers in real time to overcome trials and temptations.

Practical Application of Promises:
The speaker advocates for mindfulness in applying these promises moment-by-moment. Doing so not only helps individuals but also equips them to testify to others and assist them in their spiritual journeys. The example of Jesus, especially near the end of His earthly ministry, is highlighted as the perfect model of using God’s promises under trial.

Selection of the Beatitudes as Key Promises:
Among the many promises in Scripture, the speaker chooses to focus on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12) because each is a precious promise given by Jesus that fosters character traits essential for attaining the divine nature. The Beatitudes form a mini-sermon within the larger Sermon on the Mount, providing a blueprint for Christian character and spiritual blessings.

Beatitudes as “If-Then” Statements:
Each Beatitude can be understood as a conditional promise: If a believer attains a particular Christlike character trait, then they will be blessed and happy. This teaching was delivered early in Jesus’ ministry as full disclosure about the cost and reward of discipleship—not a promise of earthly ease but of spiritual happiness despite hardships.

Spiritual Happiness vs. Worldly Riches:
Jesus contrasts spiritual blessings and happiness with worldly treasures, affirming that true blessedness is found in spiritual character and divine favor, not material wealth or comfort. The Greek word “makarios” (Strong’s 3107) is examined, indicating both “blessed” and “happy,” highlighting the dual meaning of the Beatitudes as both blessing and joy.

Humility and Gentleness (First Beatitude):
The first Beatitude (Matthew 5:3) is paraphrased as “Blessed and happy are the humble and gentle in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs,” moving beyond a literal “poor in spirit” to emphasize humility and gentleness as key spiritual attitudes. Humility involves active self-lowering (Matthew 18:3-4; James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6), and gentleness is described both as kindness and as the effort to tame one’s fallen nature. The speaker offers practical advice on humility, including reflecting on Jesus’ humility and sacrifice (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Use of AI to Explore Gentleness:
An innovative approach includes using artificial intelligence to generate nine practical ways to be gentle, such as being considerate, patient, a good listener, forgiving, humble, and grounded—emphasizing practical steps to cultivate gentleness daily.

Sorrow and Comfort (Second Beatitude):
Matthew 5:4 is interpreted as “Blessed and happy are those who know what sorrow means, for they will be given courage and comfort,” referencing Luke 4:18-19 and the ministry of Christ to the brokenhearted. The discourse distinguishes between sorrow over sin and sympathetic mourning for others’ suffering. Comfort does not mean removal of sorrow but receiving strength together with it (2 Corinthians 1:4). This sorrow leads to deeper spiritual growth and joy.

Meekness and Submission to Divine Will (Third Beatitude):
Matthew 5:5 promises the meek will inherit the earth. Meekness is defined as self-control, gentleness, and most importantly, submission to God’s will. The speaker uses the metaphor of the Great Pyramid’s granite leaf to symbolize accepting divine will in difficult experiences. Meekness requires courage and trust in God’s loving plan.

Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness (Fourth Beatitude):
Matthew 5:6 encourages believers to desire righteousness as intensely as basic needs like food and drink. The speaker stresses the spiritual focus over natural desires, referencing Matthew 4:4 and John 17:25-26. Righteousness is defined as God’s standard revealed in Scripture, and believers are called to fight for it daily, confessing failures and relying on forgiveness (1 John 1:9).

Mercy and Forgiveness (Fifth Beatitude):
Matthew 5:7 promises mercy to the merciful, reinforcing God’s principle of justice through forgiveness (Matthew 6:14-15; 18:35). The discourse urges sincere forgiveness without resentment, reflecting God’s mercy toward imperfect humanity (Romans 3:23-26; 6:23). Letting go of bitterness is vital for spiritual health.

Purity of Heart and Seeing God (Sixth Beatitude):
Matthew 5:8 states, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Purity means a heart focused on God’s will, not personal or worldly desires. Proverbs 4:23 is cited to emphasize guarding the heart, with the ultimate reward being the opportunity to see and be with God face to face.

Peacemaking and Being Called Children of God (Seventh Beatitude):
Matthew 5:9 promises that peacemakers will be called children of God, indicating that true peace starts internally and flows outward. Peacemaking involves humility, patience, and sometimes letting go of personal preferences to maintain harmony. God’s perfect peace is the model.

Persecution for Righteousness (Final Beatitudes):
Matthew 5:10-12 prepare believers for rejection and persecution due to their Christian character, assuring them of heavenly rewards and identification with the prophets. Jesus himself exemplified this through His suffering and death, remaining blessed and comforted by the promises.

Conclusion and Encouragement:
The speaker closes by reminding listeners that Jesus perfectly embodied the Beatitudes, and through His Spirit, believers can also receive these blessings. The Beatitudes offer hope, guidance, and the path to true happiness and divine nature through faithful character development and trust in God’s promises.

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Key Bible Verses Referenced:

– 2 Peter 1:4 – Exceeding great and precious promises to partake of the Divine nature.
– Matthew 5:3-12 – The Beatitudes, the core promises discussed.
– John 1:14 – The Word made flesh, full of grace and truth.
– Matthew 18:3-4; 23:12 – Humbling oneself like a little child.
– James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6 – Humble yourselves before God.
– Romans 12:10; Colossians 3:12; Ephesians 4:2 – Commands for humility, gentleness, patience.
– Philippians 4:4 – Rejoice in the Lord always.
– Isaiah 53:3 – The man of sorrows acquainted with grief.
– 2 Corinthians 1:4 – Comfort one another with the comfort received from God.
– John 17:25-26 – Jesus declaring the Father’s name and love.
– Matthew 26:41 – Watch and pray to avoid temptation.
– 1 John 1:9 – Confession and forgiveness of sins.
– Romans 3:23-26; 6:23 – All have sinned; justification by grace.
– Proverbs 4:23 – Guard your heart.
– Matthew 6:14-15; 18:35 – Forgiveness of others as a condition for receiving forgiveness.
– Matthew 5:10-12 – Blessings for persecution for righteousness’ sake.

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This discourse intricately weaves theological reflection with practical spiritual guidance, emphasizing the Beatitudes as foundational promises that shape the believer’s character and assure them of God’s blessings amid trials. It calls for active application of Scripture’s promises, humility, gentleness, mercy, purity, and peace, all grounded in a trusting and loving relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Transcript

And I’ve been thinking a lot about 2 Peter 1:4 whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature. Peter makes it crystal clear that we need to learn to use the precious promises if we’re going to reach our goal of the Divine nature. It’s been a focus for me to use the precious promises of while I’m in the midst of my experiences, I felt I wasn’t giving the promises enough. Practical Application the promises of Scripture are for our use, but if we don’t use them, they can help us. We always want to use their guidance and strength in real time to overcome the trials and temptations of life.

As we do this in a more mindful way than in our reflections upon our past experiences, we’ll be able to recall and testify as to how the promise has helped us in the prior experience. This will then help others in their ongoing experiences. Ideally, we’ll have a precious promise in our mind that we can apply to our experiences moment by moment. I know I’m not there yet. I know our Savior was there, especially at the end of his earthly life.

We know the Father and the Son gave us the promises, and they are the ones to whom we express our gratitude for each of the experiences and each of the promises that resolve the experiences.

But which promises apply to which experiences? Or do they all apply to each experience? It seems that most of them can be broadly applied to all of our experiences. But obviously in the time we have, we can’t consider all of the many exceeding great and precious promises. So I’ve chosen to discuss our Lord’s Beatitudes from Matthew 5:3 12 because each beatitude is a precious promise spoken by our Lord that can be used every day to draw us closer to the Father and the Son.

The Beatitudes focus on character attributes that we must put on to attain the divine nature. So there are complete mini sermon on the Promises within the larger context of the Sermon on the Mount and the precious Promises as a whole. Because Jesus was a great leader and teacher, he’s giving us his vision of what he wants us to be. He’s saying, in effect, these are the character qualities I want you to have, and these are the experiences that you’ll have to help you put on these qualities to be God’s people.

Each Beatitude is like an if then statement. If you attain this character trait, then you will be happy and blessed.

Our Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount at the beginning of his ministry. He was beginning to call his people, and in doing so, he was giving us what’s called full disclosure. He didn’t want us to think that by consecrating our lives to His Father, we’d be getting into something that would be like a vacation in paradise and the Beatitude. In the Beatitudes, he’s telling us if he will not just endure, but more importantly, learn from the difficult, difficult experiences I’ll give you. If you’ll acquire the Christian character that I’m going to teach you and demonstrate to you in my life, then you’ll be happier in your heart, mind, and spirit than any other way possible.

Any other way possible.

Others might think your physical and mental afflictions will make you miserable, but according to the Spirit, you’ll be the happiest people on earth. This is a seeming contradiction in our walk that our Lord is explaining to us in the Beatitudes and that we’ve learned to embrace in our daily lives as new creatures in Christ.

His teaching is that attaining the Christian character that he’s describing in the Beatitudes will give us the true spiritual riches, true happiness, true blessedness. If our lives are spiritually focused, then we’ll be given spiritual gifts far superior to the worldly treasures that worldly people are seeking.

But to attain Christlike character, there’s a price to pay. The price is what? The price is to sacrifice time and resources spent on worldly things and spend them instead on spiritual things. As we do this, we find the profound value of the spiritual in contrast with the lesser value of worldly things.

Jesus focused the Beatitude promises on this comparison and contrast. He emphasized the blessings and rewards to be given to us when we choose spiritual things over worldly things. Yes, we can have and receive worldly blessings in this life, but they can never match the spiritual blessings. I like the way that Vines states this focused meaning of the Beatitudes quote In the Beatitudes, the Lord indicates not only the characters that are blessed, but the nature of that which is the highest good.

Our Lord is promising to us the supreme blessing, goodness, and happiness from our Supreme God. The word blessed in the beatitudes is from Strong’s 3107 Macarios and Strong’s uses both English words blessed and happy to describe this word. In the verb form number 3106 Makarizo. The word blessed means to beatify, to pronounce or esteem fortunate call blessed count happy.

I believe it’s important to read both blessed and happy in the Beatitudes to more clearly communicate what our Lord is promising his consecrated people. Attaining mature Christian character is a blessing from the Lord, and the result is Christian happiness, the highest form of happiness. In the Beatitudes, Jesus is speaking to those that consciously feel that they need to change themselves. They know they’re not as close to God as they can be. They’re willing to admit this, and they’re willing to do something about it.

They’re even willing to consecrate their lives to God so they can be as close to him as they can possibly be.

In the Beatitudes, he’s giving us the standard to shoot for, to be close to the Father and the Son.

Now, as I read these Beatitudes, I’ll be giving what I call amalgam renderings of each verse meaning I’ve combined words from several translations and paraphrases into what I believe to be the best renderings of each verse.

Review some other definitions of words I’ll be using, so I’ll be on the same page.

Figurative language is a form of expression that uses symbolic words to convey an abstract message.

A paraphrase is not a literal word for word translation of a Bible verse, but rather an attempt to provide a clearer meaning than the original figurative expression.

Also, let’s remember that our Lord spoke the Beatitudes in Aramaic, the vernacular language of the region where he gave the Sermon on the Mount.

Let’s apply these definitions to the First Beatitude promise Matthew 5:1:3 and seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed and happy are the humble and gentle in spirit the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Now the King James translates this as blessed are the poor in spirit.

For each Beatitude, I had to decide whether to give a literal translation or a paraphrase. In this case, I chose a paraphrase because for me, the literal translation doesn’t convey the clear English meaning of the Aramaic figurative expression. Our Lord was expressing an abstract idea in Aramaic, which was translated into Greek and was then translated into English. One can see how some of the meaning of what he intended to convey might get lost in translation. So he must use the spirit of a sound mind to understand what he wants us to understand.

One thing is clear. The word poor as we use that word today, isn’t to be taken literally but figuratively, metaphorically. It’s not a requirement that all of the blessed and happy be poverty stricken, although some of the blessed and happy have lived in poverty.

Our Lord figuratively spoke the Aramaic word translated poor and didn’t speak the words in spirit.

The Daglok gives the same King James literal translation of Strong’s 4434 as poor, but parenthetically supplies the words in spirit as given by Matthew in the King James. So that makes poor in spirit. A paraphrase Matthew in the King James is paraphrasing Jesus, but the English translated paraphrase was has never been crystal clear to me from other paraphrase translations. It seems our Lord meant to convey a mental picture of someone that’s humble and gentle in spirit. So that’s the paraphrase I’ve suggested for Matthew 5:3.

So to be humble and gentle in spirit is the first spiritual requirement our Lord gives us in the Beatitudes. What kind of personal character attitude is he expressing to us?

Let’s close our eyes and envision the manner of a person who is humble and gentle.

What comes to my mind is a vision of our Lord Himself during this earthly ministry, and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking or a master in his life going about doing only good and demonstrating in his everyday life what it means to be humble and gentle. He spoke his words to us and then he showed us in his life how to live his words, and this is true of all of the Beatitudes, Our Lord being the personification of his own words while he was speaking them. After all, John directly observed this and gave us John 1:14 and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Thinking of our Lord and trying to be like him is the best way for us to embody the Beatitudes as we further examine the words he spoke and try to understand them better.

Strong’s 5013 for Humble is figuratively to humiliate in condition or heart abase bring low humble self.

Our Lord often uses this word humble in his action verb form. It takes positive mental action to humble ourselves. The Scriptures reveal that we must work to humble ourselves. It doesn’t just miraculously happen. We must humble ourselves like our best vision of the attitude of a humble child if we want the Father and Son to love us the most.

Matthew 18:3 4 Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Our Lord states this again in Matthew 23:12 using this active form of expression, and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted, and this seeming contradiction, that we must have a humble mental attitude if we’re to have any hope of attaining the kingdom glory, is clearly expressed by other inspired writers. James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up first. Peter 5:6.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. If we think it’s easy to humble ourselves, we’ll find that we’re gravely mistaken. There’s something in our fallen humanity that wants to be viewed as superior in some ways to others. The way of the world is pretty much completely given over to this pursuit. So we have within our fallen flesh.

And what is without us in the fallen world, what is completely at odds with what our Lord wants us to be as new creatures? He wants us to view ourselves as lower, not above others. Humble yourselves. Make yourselves low in your minds in comparison to others, and you will be blessed. Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in love.

Honor one another above yourselves.

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Ephesians 4:2. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient bearing with one another in love. Now, a practical way to practice humility is to think about what we expect from others when we do something that’s worthy of praise.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe that when someone does something praiseworthy, they should be praised in the right way. Not lavishly, not in a way that would puff someone up, but thank the person in a loving way. We can at least do that.

But what happens if we’re not thanked? We know this happens all the time. Then what is the way of humility?

We can humble ourselves by thinking of our Lord. Do we think he was thanked for all he did for humankind during his mystery and sacrificial death?

He could not have been thanked enough, but many times was not thanked at all, not to mention being persecuted unto death.

In his lowliness of mind. He humbles himself unto death, even the death of the cross. 2nd Corinthians 8:9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that through you, through his poverty, might become rich. Rich in what way?

Rich in Christian character. Rich in spiritual understanding. Rich in humility. Rich in agape love.

We can always humble ourselves by thinking of our Lord and His sacrifice. We can never have anything to be proud about when we think about him, all of our pride goes to how proud we are of Him. Now the other word paraphrase was spoken by our Lord in the First Beatitude is gentle, and what does that word mean as an adjective? It describes someone that is considerate or kindly in disposition, amiable, patient, like a gentle mother.

1st Thessalonians 2:7 TLB but we were as gentle among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own children.

I hope we all want to be like that. That’s how I envision our Lord who gently feeds the truth to us every day.

Now there’s also a verb form of gentle that we must use to tame our flesh before we can get to the point where we could be considered gentle. The verb form of gentle means to tame an animal such as a horse, to make it easily manageable, just as a wild horse that must be gentled, hopefully in a firm yet gentle manner. So we must work to gentle our fallen human nature so that it becomes more and more productive to our new creature.

Now, as an experiment and we talked about AI a little bit during the pre before the after the previous talk, I I typed the word gentle into a search engine and I received a generative artificial intelligence response which I think is very helpful. This was the first time I had used AI for anything and it’s pretty interesting. It’s been posted to the chat as a handout.

It gives nine practical ways of being gentle in everyday life. I keep it on my desktop to remind me to try my best to be gentle. Here are the AI ways to be gentle with others and with yourself. Be considerate. Smile, be polite and speak calmly.

Be patient. Avoid imposing your preferences on others and don’t be harsh. Be a good listener. Actively listen to others and don’t silence them. Be mindful.

Be aware of your words and how they affect others.

Be forgiving, forgive others and yourself and let go of past mistakes. Be helpful, lend a hand, serve with joy and encourage others.

Be humble, have a quiet ego and be down to earth.

Be aware of your assumptions. Notice when you’re projecting or assuming you know more than you do.

Be grounded, Be in your flow, be honest and have integrity. If we can work on all of these, we can make real progress in becoming gentle.

Now, what does it mean to be in your flow? In the context of this talk, it’s a state of full focus on full immersion, in full enjoyment of our walk in the narrow way when we’re in our flow, we generally lose sense of time, lose self consciousness, and anything that doesn’t have to do with the task at hand. We’re focused on what God wants us to be focused on.

When we’re in our flow, we feel we like to keep doing whatever we’re doing forever. In my own life, I feel in my flow most intensely when I’m developing these Bible talks. It’s a totally focused experience of closeness to the Father, the Son and the Holy Scriptures through the Holy Spirit, and I’m conscious that I’m communicating with the Father and the Son in a special profound way. Hours pass like minutes.

After three or four hours, the window closes and it’s time for the intensity of that flow to close until the next time.

We want, though, to be in that consecrated flow, in our studies and in our lives as often as possible, and it’s something we have to constantly work to attain. The world, the flesh and the devil, are trying to block our flow and bring us down to their level of dysfunction.

Our Lord in the Beatitudes and in all of his words was trying to keep us in flow, trying to keep us spiritually focused.

Now the next Beatitude has to do with sorrow, mourning, comfort, and it reminds me of the Scripture that our Lord read in the synagogue in Nazareth to begin his ministry. It really applies so well to each of the Beatitudes. Luke 4:18 19 Phillips the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, the humble and gentle. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

So this next beatitude is Matthew 5:4, also mostly from Phillips. Blessed and happy are those who know what sorrow means, for they will be given courage and comfort. I appreciate this translation because it’s not that we’re to be continually sorrowful just for the purpose of being sorrowful. It’s that we’ve learned the purpose of the permitted sorrow and that the Lord will bless us and we’ll be happy with the courage and comfort derived from the understanding of him being with us in the sorrow and bringing us out of sorrow into happiness.

After all, we’re exhorted in Philippians 4:4 to rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice. How are we to reconcile that word, to know what sorrow means while rejoicing at the same time?

Well, we have a wonderful reconciliation of this and reprint 37, 34.

Sorrow may be associated with sin and imperfection. It is proper that we should realize our fallen condition and be sorry for it. But this sorrow may be healed at once through the knowledge of the great redemption, sacrifice, and through our acceptance of a share in the merit of the same. But there is another sorrow or mourning, which is not because of sin, but because of sympathy. Our Lord, who was separate from sinners, had this spirit of mourning.

It was this mourning in sympathy that led to his tears at the tomb of Lazarus, and the same that led to his being called the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief in Isaiah 53. 3. In our imperfect fallen condition, even after our hearts are fully consecrated, Lord and imbued with his Spirit, it will not be possible for us to enter so fully into sympathy with others as did our dear Master. But we are to cultivate the spirit of sympathy which is a part of the Spirit of love, and the more we grow in grace and in character likeness to the great Teacher, the more we will have the spirit of sympathy, the more sorrow and mourning will appeal to us.

On the other hand, however, the more we receive of the same Holy Spirit, proportionately we will have the greater peace, the greater joy in the Lord, and the greater rejoicing because of what we will be increasingly permitted to discern in the unfolding of the great plan of salvation, under which all who mourn in Zion shall be comforted. So then, the most advanced Christians who have the deepest and most holy joy should be the ones who at the same time would have the deepest sympathy with mourning and sorrow. Who has not already noticed this, that as our Lord and Teacher is the exemplar of perfection, so those who most nearly imitate him are usually such as have had the deep experiences in the school of sorrow and mourning, and in whose hearts and characters deep spiritual lessons and characteristics have been engraved.

Now the word comfort does not contain the thought of relief, but rather that of strengthen together, strengthen together, or added strength. In other words, the Lord does not propose to take from us that noble quality of sympathy which we receive in the school of experience. But he does propose for all of those who become his true followers, that they shall be comforted or strengthened together, that he will give them a blessing of strength to endure, which will compensate their mourning and spirit of heaviness. He gives us through the promises of his word, and the glorious hopes which he sets before us and he gives it also through the living epistles of the dear members of the household of faith.

Now Note how the apostle calls this to our attention in 2nd Corinthians 1:4, where many times over he repeats the thought of our comforting one another with the comfort wherewith the Lord has already comforted us.

And from the same wonderful reprint 3734 we have an apt lead in to the next beatitude of Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, while also reinforcing our thoughts in Matthew 5. 3 regarding the poor in spirit the poor in spirit are humble minded who do not think highly of themselves, are unquestionably the same as the meek. The Gentle the Century Dictionary defines the word meek as self controlled and gentle, not easily provoked or irritated forbearing under injury or annoyance. Webster defines meekness as submission to the Divine will. That’s the key definition, Submission to the Divine will Patience and Gentleness from Moral and Religious Motives since we’ve already discussed gentleness and humility, I’d like to focus on the idea of meekness being submission to the Divine will.

This has become a very fruitful and profound topic for my own personal studies and meditations. It seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? We make a full consecration and that means that we fully give up our will. End of story.

Well, not really. There’s a further step, and this is shown by the granite leaf in the antechamber of the Great Pyramid.

When we consecrate, we give up our human will. We bow down and pass under the first low passage into the antechamber. Then, as we stand up or face to face with the granite leaf, the divine will. We’re still standing on limestone, but to have the divine covering of granite overhead, having our Lord’s oversight, we may be given some difficult experiences there, sometimes of sorrow and grief. Will we accept them as permitted of the Lord’s will?

How we accept these experiences will determine whether our consecration will be fully accepted as a living sacrifice. Do we fully accept the divine will and are we quickened to the active service? Yes. Then we will step forward under the granite leaf and onto the granite floor of the antechamber of Sanctification. The Lord can fully accept us and Spirit beget us.

We should never question the love of our Heavenly Father and what he permits us to experience.

We should only accept and trust the experience as God’s will and try our best to learn from what he’s trying to teach us. This way of accepting God’s will during the extremely difficult experiences gives us the opportunity to demonstrate to him our greatest trust and courage.

See, Accepting the divine will and meekness oftentimes requires a great deal of courage.

If we can do this in meekness, our Lord promises that we’ll be blessed with the inheritance of the earth, and this refers to our being part of the Mediator of the New Covenant. In Christ’s kingdom. We’ll have the great blessing of giving the earth back to the world of mankind after we’ve trained them to become its suitable stewards. What a wonderful feeling of accomplishment through our Lord that will be.

Next we have Matthew 5. 6 taken from the New American Standard Bible.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Hunger and thirst are two of the most powerful influences upon the natural man, and our Lord is transforming our perspective from natural things that influence the natural man into our powerful spiritual need for righteousness, goodness and truth as new creatures.

He was always trying to get us focused off the natural and onto the spiritual, such as Matthew 4. 4 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He was saying, yes, you must work to satisfy your natural needs, but you receive the greater blessing and happiness if you focus on your spiritual needs. This will take time and effort. It won’t just be given to you.

You will have to want it and work for it. The world, the flesh and the devil will do all they can to have you focus on unrighteousness and error. But our Lord will do everything in his power to help us if we have in our heart and mind to focus on our work for righteousness and truth. Well, what are righteousness and truth? They’re what God tells us they are in the Holy Scriptures.

God Himself has the great standard of righteousness and truth, and he describes to us his divine character attributes as manifested in the divine plan of the ages contained in the Scriptures, and he sent His Son to further manifest his righteousness and truth into a world that didn’t understand any of it except for a faithful remnant humble enough to be taught. John 17:25 and 26 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it that the agape wherewith thou hast agaped me may be in them, and I in them. We have to fight to uncover God’s righteousness and truth and make them our own personal standard that we fight for in a world that’s trying its best to cover them up. Jesus uncovered righteousness and truth.

He gave his life fighting for them, giving us the perfect example. Personally, I don’t win every battle, but I’ll never stop fighting. If we give into temptations, we’re violating God’s law of righteousness, truth, justice and love. We’re not happy, and that’s a failure. We’re living below our privileges.

A failure is an opportunity to confess, ask forgiveness, and improve. We must learn from each failure. Then when the next text comes along, we’ll do better. Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. A spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak, and when we have a failure, there’s always the battle to not be discouraged by it.

The precious promise of 1 John 1:9 NASB always helps us get back into the righteous way. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous so that he will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We must take our Heavenly Father at His word.

If we don’t believe in his forgiveness, then we really have no shot at making our calling election. Sure, our Father sends us the tests not to condemn us, but in his love to teach us how to do better. Just like in school. If the teacher had never given us tests, we wouldn’t have known our weak areas to study and improve.

Surely there’s a right way, a righteous and true way to handle every matter that comes to us. That right way is God’s will for us. Finding his will is sometimes obvious and sometimes complicated. But as we learn and apply the principles of righteousness from God’s holy word, then we’ll get better and better at finding the right way to do God’s will.

When we find the right way, we’re always blessed and always happy. This is what Jesus is promising us in Matthew 5:6 and the next Beatitude. In Matthew 5:7, we’re given God’s principle of justice based on merciful agape love. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Later on in the same sermon, our Lord states this principle of justice even more directly in Matthew 6:14 15 Phillips for if you forgive other people their failures, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you will not forgive other people, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you your failures.

Then in Matthew 18:35, Jesus teaches us that we must forgive one another from our heart. He is telling us that our forgiving others must be sincere. We can’t just say the words I forgive you and continue to harbor resentment in our hearts. We must work to root out every root of bitterness that’s poisoning our Spirit the Holy Spirit can’t prosper in a mind that’s weighed down and distracted by bitter resentment.

If we’re loving God with all our heart, then there’s no room for resentment.

Even if the person we trusted the most betrays us, and if we can no longer accept that person as a friend, it’s in our best interest to forgive them in our mind and heart.

They may no longer be worthy of being our friend, but they’re worthy of our forgiveness. Why? Because we’re not perfect either. That’s the principle of justice that Jesus is teaching here. Our perfect God forgives imperfect mankind through the perfect ransom sacrifice of Christ.

So in our imperfection we must forgive others.

Otherwise God’s justice condemns us and our bitterness will slowly destroy us with respect to our own sins. God applies the principles of justice and mercy to him. Every sin is a violation of his law. But let’s look again at first John 1:9, this time in the King James if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is another if then principle.

If we confess our trespasses, then he will forgive. But because God is perfect, his forgiveness goes beyond justice to agape love based on the ransom our perfect God forgives us despite our imperfections. If this were not the case, we wouldn’t have the life that’s growing within us. 1 John 5:12 he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

So we appreciate the consistency of our Heavenly Father, that He applies the same principles of justice to himself that he applies to us. He holds himself to a perfect standard. He can meet that standard, we can’t. So he’s merciful to us and we love him for that. We wouldn’t be here without his love and mercy.

Romans 3:23 26 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So in proportion that we realize our need of God’s mercy for our failures. We’ll exercise that mercy to others. That’s what God wants to see in us. Jesus came back to this principle again and again in his ministry, and he especially expressed his indignation to the Pharisees who manifested the opposite spirit of pride, hypocrisy and unforgiveness. So I suggest that we don’t think of this only as a chance to be ready to forgive the next trespass against us, but to dig deeper.

Search your heart and mind for injustices, pain and suffering that others may have caused you. Root out any resentment you find there from your heart and mind. It’s not helping you, it’s hurting you. You may not be able to get rid of it all at once, but make a start. Work at it.

You’ll be blessed and happy, just as the Lord promised in Beatitudes.

And one more thing on this don’t resent yourself. We all make mistakes. We’re all prone to the condemnation of the great adversary. The great Accuser will seek to discourage us to the point where we feel like it’s a hopeless task to overcome our besetting sins. The biggest mistake we could ever make would be to give up.

It’s not the adversary that will judge us. It’s not ourselves that will render our own final judgment. Our Heavenly Father is judging us, and he is more loving and forgiving than we can even imagine. First John 1:9 One more time, this time from the NIV. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Trust God at His word. Our next Beatitude promise is Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. To be pure in heart means to have a pure inner mind, a pure will, pure intentions. It means that we set our affections on God’s will and not anyone else’s will, especially not our own.

Why is that important? It’s vitally important because that’s what our Heavenly Father is judging in us. Our Lord being a great teacher, wanted us to have the correct test paper in front of us. Satan puts before all in the world the wrong test paper, the test of seeking after worldly wealth, fame, and position. Some pass the test and some don’t.

But even the ones that pass the test don’t earn the mark of eternal life. We want to take the test and pass the test that gives us the mark of eternal life. Proverbs 4:23 New American Standard Watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life. We’re so blessed to know that our Savior is giving us the right open book test through God’s word and is giving us all the tutoring and attention we need to pass the test to attain the mark of the prize of eternal life.

So then, what will be the greatest reward of passing our tests? The reward we’re all striving for each moment? The reward that our great Teacher Jesus is promising us in this text. Our prayers have to be transmitted through our mind to the Heavenly Father. How is that transmission made?

I’ll start over. So then, what will be the greatest reward of passing our tests? The reward we’re all striving for each moment. The reward that our great Teacher Jesus is promising us. This text to see God.

If we could just see our Heavenly Father. If we could just be with Him. If we could just have the opportunity to tell him face to face what he means to us, how much we love him, how grateful we are for all he has done for us. We want to sing of the goodness of our God. In our resurrection, Jesus will be there introducing us to our Father.

We’ll see them both face to face. We’ll be able to thank them for all they’ve done for us. We’ll be able to thank our Lord for laying down his human life for us all along, along with all the suffering that went with it, for teaching us day by day and for being the basis of our forgiveness. For blessing us with the right test right now so we can give the right test to all the billions of the world in the kingdom.

And the Next Beatitude, Matthew 5, 9, and it’s the last Beatitude where our Lord describes what he wants us to become. It reaches out toward others, proceeding from the inward peace we’ve attained by putting on the other Beatitudes. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. When we’re peacemakers, we’re making peace for ourselves and helping others to have peace.

It’s something we have to work to have. It’s not something we’re just born with. We have to develop the peace within us before we can begin to spread it to others. If we have a heart full of strife, that’s what’s going to go out from us to others. If we have a peaceful heart, others will know it.

So as is true of all of the Beatitudes, we have to do a heart check. What’s in my heart? Have I made peace in my heart with myself? Do I really love Peace myself? Yes.

Then I must try to make peace with others.

Sometimes we’re able to make peace in situations where there’s strife and calm the strife. That might be what we’re thinking of when we read this Beatitude. Those opportunities are important to use to make peace, but they’re probably not a daily occurrence. How can we be peacemakers each day? A good way is to not always want our own way.

Let the other person choose the way. As long as it’s not against the Lord’s will and not going to cause harm, let it go. I see a lot of strife being caused by folks always wanting their way, even in the little things of life. So let’s not sweat the small stuff. It will help us to have peace and to be a peacemaker.

To the extent we can do this, we’re promised that we’ll be children of God. That is, we’ll be manifesting one of the attributes of our God that will make us his children. Because we’re like him in this way. Our Heavenly Father is always at peace, and he’s always a peacemaker. He’s so perfectly balanced in the divine attributes of justice, love, wisdom, and power that it’s impossible for him to become agitated or unloving.

We want to be peacemakers like our Heavenly Father. We must become peacemakers to be his children.

The final beatitudes in Matthew 5:10 through 12 tell us in advance that the world will reject what we’re trying to become, and they will tell us how we’re and they tell us how we’re to react to that rejection. These promises tell us that even when we put on the Beatitudes of Christian living, we won’t necessarily be blessed by the world, but will always be blessed by the One that counts, our Heavenly Father. So we read, blessed are they which are persecuted for 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, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Our Lord on the cross, through his physical pain, could be so blessed, happy, and comforted by all the Beatitude promises. In the end he could see that he had been faithful to them all, and that he had passed them on to his disciples. Through his majestic words and life in His Spirit, he was blessed and happy, and may the Lord add His promised Beatitude blessings and happiness to each one of you.

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