The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] a very good morning to you church thank you all for for being here i want to thank especially the the worship team and those involved in prayer and announcements and of course the av team who are behind the cameras right now uh thank you all for making online church possible uh happy chinese new year to to all of us who are who are celebrating i know this year is a bit it's a bit different as we can't travel we can't go back to our hometowns but i hope that all of you have still
00:00:39 been able to connect with your extended families well god's presence is here so let's let's dive into his word and see what he has to say to us today's scripture reading comes from matthew chapter 5 verses 7 to 8. let me read that for us blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they will see god let's pray heavenly father lord thank you for this lord's day thank you for who you are uh we bless your holy name father god and uh i pray i pray that this sunday your word
00:01:17 would come alive to us i pray that you open up our hearts uh that we would be able to hear the truth that you have for us today in jesus name amen so over the past few sundays we've been going through the book of matthew and last week dr peter preached on the first few verses of the sermon on the mount but to give us a little bit of context i want to go back one chapter so to matthew chapter 4 verses 23 to 25 to let us know what is going on what are the circumstances uh before jesus starts preaching this
00:01:50 sermon on the mount okay so matthew chapter 4 verse 23 and he went throughout all galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people so his fame spread throughout all syria and they brought him all the sick those afflicted with various diseases and pains those oppressed by demons those having seizures and paralytics and he he healed them and great crowds followed him from galilee and the decapolis and from jerusalem and judea and from
00:02:24 beyond the jordan now while it doesn't say specifically who do you think are the kind of people that make up this crowd who are the kind of people that you think are following and flocking to jesus right if i would hazard a guess i would say this crowd is made up of the weak the lame the poor the hungry right the the prostitute the garbage collector the street sweeper the day laborer um this is not the kind of crowd the not not the typical crowd that you would see following a spiritual leader right this is a uh
00:03:03 a very unusual sight and i believe that when we understand who his audience is it becomes easier to understand why he starts the sermon the way that he does right he starts by speaking truth into the hearts and the lives of the people in front of him blessed are the poor in spirit oh wow that's that's me right blessed are those who mourn that's me too blessed are the meek that's that's me right and no note that jesus is not saying you have to be these things in order to enter into the kingdom no
00:03:38 right if not he would have said saved the poor in spirit or only the meek will inherit eternal life and and also many of the saints of the old and the new testament we know do not have these traits for example paul was not poor in spirit peter was anything but meek right so so i don't think he's saying you must have these traits in order to be saved what i do think he's saying is that they are blessed they are blessed but why why are these people so blessed it doesn't seem like they're blessed poor in spirit those who mourn those who
00:04:15 are meek it doesn't seem like they're blessed but they are because these are exactly the kind of people who are looking for the kingdom it is the poor it is the destitute the sick the forgotten the oppressed who are looking for the kingdom because they have nothing to lose the world has nothing to offer them as opposed to the wealthy uh the healthy the the well-connected the protected the reputable the honorable right they have to count the cost because the world has plenty to offer them but these people in front of jesus
00:04:53 they have nothing to lose they will be the first in the kingdom because they are ready to storm the gates to storm the gates of heaven and therefore they are blessed and then in verse six jesus changes gears blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness right this can no longer be referring to the poor and the destitute because all of us all of us no matter whether you're wealthy or whether you're poor no matter what race no matter what gender we should all be uh striving to be thirsty
00:05:29 and hungry for righteousness and the same for verse seven to nine right uh the merciful the pure the peacemakers no matter who you are or your status in society we should be striving towards these things this is what all citizens of the kingdom should look like so jesus starts off with the first three beatitudes speaking life encouraging uh his audience in front of him and then the next five beatitudes are a description of what the citizens of the kingdom should look like what is really important
00:06:02 to god what is the real currency of the kingdom and now we get to verse 7 our text today blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy now if i ask you to define mercy i get the feeling that a lot of us would get it wrong i i know i got it wrong so in preparation and in my study for for this sermon um it broadened my understanding of mercy a lot because i had a very narrow view of mercy so i think that most of us would define mercy as not giving someone something they deserved for example someone stole something from
00:06:42 me right that person should be punished if i'm merciful i will not punish that person right not giving them what they deserve and i think a lot of us who have been in church for a long time preachers like to pit mercy and grace together right they're sort of the same different sides of the same coin right grace is giving someone what they don't deserve and mercy is not giving someone what they do deserve right so so there's a nice contrast there but i think that mercy encompasses a lot more than that a lot more than
00:07:15 just forgiveness right we're going to look at three passages matthew chapter 9 verse 27 and as jesus passed on from there two blind men followed him crying a lot crying aloud have mercy on the son of david are they saying son of david jesus please forgive us we are sinners we are sinful and we would like to have your forgiveness we are so wrought in our spirit in our soul because we are so dirty we want to be holy is that what they are saying i don't think so right they've heard the stories of jesus
00:07:54 that everyone who encounters jesus no matter what the illness no matter what the ailment no matter who the demon jesus has been able to heal them and so what are they asking what are they saying when they say have mercy on the son of david they're saying jesus please spare a moment look our direction be compassionate on us heal us because we would like to see we know that you can do it be merciful to us another passage exodus 34 6 then the lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him that's moses
00:08:33 and proclaimed his name the lord and he passed in front of moses proclaiming the lord the lord the compassionate and gracious god slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness this this is a key passage a key verse because this is the first time in all the bible that god proclaims his own name right god reveals himself in his own words god gives us his mantra right from genesis onwards god reveals himself in many different ways we find out a lot about god in genesis 1 for example we find out that he's creative we find
00:09:11 out that he's omniscient omnipotent he's outside of space and time right we learn all those things they are revealed to us in genesis 1. but this in exodus 34 is the first time that god proclaims his own name this is what god wants people to think about when they think of him okay and what does he say the lord the lord the compassionate and gracious god slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness now in the niv that's the niv version it uses the word compassionate compassionate but if you look in other
00:09:48 versions like the esv the nasb or the kjv you'll see the word merciful there the lord the lord the merciful and gracious god so what does that tell us it tells us that those two words are very similar in their meaning there's a lot of overlap between compassion and mercy so when you think of compassion what do you think of you think of someone who is kind someone who's caring someone who's hospitable someone who's forgiving someone who is um empathetic someone who has pity on others right and this is what
00:10:30 god wants us to know about himself i god am a god of mercy i god am a god of compassion last passage matthew chapter 9 verses 10 to 13. and as jesus reclined at the table in the house behold many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with jesus and his disciples and when the pharisees saw this they said to his disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners but when he heard it he said those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick go and learn what this means i desire
00:11:12 mercy not sacrifice for i came not to call the righteous but sinners jesus is quoting hosea 6 6 here i desire mercy not sacrifice but it means the same thing back in hosea's day as it does when jesus said it right it means dear mr pharisee i prefer compassion over your religion i prefer giving over tithing loving over reciting i prefer generosity over piety i prefer empathy over theology i prefer someone who is hospitable over someone who is knowledgeable that is what jesus is saying he's saying you pharisees are so caught
00:11:58 up in trying to please god that you have forgotten who god is in the first place you have forgotten the lord the lord the compassionate and gracious god that is who god is these people are sick and in need of a savior not sick in the physical sense but in the spiritual sense and you are supposed to be their religious leaders they're spiritual leaders they're teachers of the law and yet you won't even have a meal with them because you think that you are so clean so pharisees you will be overlooked
00:12:35 because you have received your reward in full the blessed are the merciful the kind-hearted the compassionate those who have pity on others those who are hospitable those who have mercy on others the loving for they will be shown mercy verse 8 blessed are the pure in heart for they will see god notice for a second where purity originates from right it's from the heart there are many ways to seem pure but really there's there's only one way to be a prime example again is the pharisees right turn with me to
00:13:24 matthew 23 so matthew 23 verses 23 to 26 woe to you teachers of the law and pharisees you hypocrites you give a tenth of your spices mint dill and cumin but you have neglected the more important matters of the law justice mercy faithfulness you clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence you can fake purity but you can't fake having a pure heart right matthew 15 18-19 but the things that come out of a person's mouth comes from where comes from the heart and these defile
00:14:07 them for out of the heart comes evil thoughts murder adultery so on and so on whatever we do on the outside is a reflection of who we are on the inside even the pharisees although they pretended to be pure right they pretended to be religious at the end of the day the true intentions of their heart came out they schemed they twisted the law and they had the son of god executed on the cross right they weren't being pure because they loved god no they were being pure because they wanted to be seen as men of
00:14:47 reputation they wanted to be honored they didn't want anything to have to do with god they were in it for themselves and so the truth of their heart came out purity is a theme that runs throughout the bible right and that's expected right any the bible is supposed to reveal who god is and who we are and so of course any attribute of god doesn't matter what it is purity uh holiness mercy grace love those are all themes that will run throughout the bible okay and so so let's zoom in on this one attribute the purity
00:15:25 of god what does the bible teach us about the purity of god well it starts right at the beginning in genesis 3 when adam and eve disobeyed god when they ate the fruit they became impure and and they were cursed and they were banished from eden three chapters later in genesis 6 we read the story of noah where god floods the entire earth to the tallest mountain so that every human and every uh land animal drowned because of what because the lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become
00:15:59 on earth and that every inclination of the thought thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time genesis 6 5 and yet he saves one man and his family noah and why why does he specifically pick noah is it because he was a great carpenter i need someone to build an ark i need a boat builder noah's my man i don't think so is it because noah was a good gardener right we know that he he gardened his own he planted his own grape vineyard after the flood again i don't think that is why god saved noah and his family it's obvious
00:16:38 why god saved noah and his family it says in genesis 6 9 noah was righteous blameless and faithful that is why god picked noah further along genesis 18 god destroys two cities two great cities sodom and gomorrah and why because the outcry against sodom and gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous genesis 18 20. and yet again he saves one man in his family lot lot and his family why because he was a righteous man right and i know there's some debate as to whether lot was a righteous man or not but i'm
00:17:21 just going to go with what the bible says 2 peter 2 7 says and if he rescued lord a righteous man who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless right lord lived in sodom and gomorrah and because he was a righteous man he was broken up distressed in his heart because of all this evil that he was seeing around him exodus 26 god gives moses the design and the specifications of the tabernacle and in that design god designed to have a room called the most holy place or what we call the holy of holies
00:17:54 that was to be separated by a long thick curtain so that no one could enter it signified the separation between the holiness of god and the unholiness of man and only the high priest could go into the holy place the most holy place once a year to make atonement for the people and i could go on and on the bible uh there's so many examples so many stories in the bible where uh that illustrate this point that god is a god of purity right exodus 7 to 14 god annihilates egypt because she was murderous and oppressive to the
00:18:32 hebrews exodus 32 when the hebrews start worshiping the golden calf god orders the levites to kill execute 3 000 of their fellow men in one day levicus 10 nadab and abihu who are priests they're sons of aaron because they were cavalier in the way that they worshipped they offered worship to god they were struck down by heavenly fire in numbers 25 when the moabite women seduce the israelite men to sleep with them and to offer sacrifices to their gods god sends a plague that kills 24 000 of them in one day and the plague only stopped
00:19:10 because of what one righteous man phineas he saw one of his fellow israelite men bringing a moabite women right in front of the tent of meeting and he had it he took a spear he ran them through and god said okay because of the righteousness of phineas i'll stop the plague god cannot stand sin he hates it it is vile to him it is disgusting to god he must separate himself from him isaiah 59 2 but your iniquities have separated you from your god your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear
00:19:52 habakkuk 1 13 your eyes are too pure to look on evil you cannot tolerate wrongdoing no sin no impurity nothing unholy can ever enter into the presence of god it will either die or burn up god cannot tolerate sin we serve a holy and a pure god and when we understand when we understand the holiness of god it makes sense it makes sense why jesus would say blessed are the pure because if god is holy of course he wants his children us to be holy right and he knows he knows how difficult it is to be pure
00:20:40 in this corrupt world he knows he understands how we are tempted and bombarded at every turn we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness but one who has been tempted in every way and yet without sin jesus truly understands because he came down to be a man he truly understands how difficult it is to remain pure and so that's why god is pleased and honored when we his children pay the price make the sacrifice to remain pure despite the cost and sometimes sometimes the cost
00:21:19 is very very high you know the story of shadrach meshach and abednego right the the israelites were were exiled into into babylon and the king of babylon king nebuchadnezzar sets up this massive statue this golden statue of himself you know humble guy and he he summons the people in he brings in a band and he says when the band plays everyone needs to bow down and worship this idol of myself and so when the band plays shadrach meshach and abednego they're the only ones left standing and so they're brought to the king
00:21:57 and they say these three these three men refuse to worship your idol and so king nebuchadnezzar says i'll give you one more chance when the band plays worship worship my statue or i'll have you thrown into the fiery furnace and then we'll see who can save you from my hand and the three men said if you throw us into the furnace god will save us but even if god does not we will not bow to your statue we serve and worship the one and true living god and him alone and and we know the rest of the story
00:22:39 right king nebuchadnezzar throws them in three men went in they saw four men in there it was the angel of the lord and so they came out unscathed they were saved they were rescued right and that that is a story of triumph a story of overcoming a story of purity but there are also stories of impurity stories of men falling right probably the most famous one is david and bathsheba in second samuel chapter 11 right david sees a woman bathing on the roof and he goes and sends one of his servants to inquire who who is this girl
00:23:19 right he finds out that she's bathsheba wife of uriah daughter of eliam and instead of leaving it at that knowing that she's a married woman he summons her he has her brought to the palace and he rapes her and sends her home soon after she sends word back to david saying i'm pregnant oh no i'm gonna get caught what am i to do i know i'll have her husband come back from the battlefield uh have him sleep with her and then he'll think it's his baby no problem easy peasy and so he has uriah brought back but uriah is such a
00:24:02 loyal soldier he refuses to go even into his house he sleeps on the doormat two nights in a row he says how can i enjoy my warm house my wife while so the armies of israel are out fighting my battles i cannot and so he's he sleeps on the doormat two nights in a row so this this plan is not working so he sends you right back but he sends him back with a letter to joab the commander of his army and the letter says uh i want you to have your right place on the front lines place him on the front lines where the battle
00:24:43 is the thickest and then remove your army essentially uriah was carrying his own death warrant and so joab obeys the command and uriah is killed david's off the hook he thinks he's got away with it but of course god sees everything and god sends prophet nathan to pronounce a curse on him to confront him and and david apologizes david repents but this is what nathan says second samuel chapter 12 verses 11 to 12 out of your own household i'm going to bring calamity on you before your very eyes i will take your wives
00:25:23 and give them to one who is close to you he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight you did it in secret but i will do this thing in broad daylight before all israel that is the curse that god pronounces on king david and also the son that bathsheba bore he died an innocent baby died years later another one of david's sons absalom he stages a coup and he takes over the throne and now david is forced to flee and absalom's first order of business is to line up david's ten concubines and he rapes them on the top of the
00:26:05 palace in broad daylight for all to see god's curse obviously comes true right and and long story short absalom and his men david and his men they come to battle and absalom along with 20 000 other men fall due to the civil war to decide who would sit on the throne so let's run through this timeline a little bit okay david rapes bathsheba david murders uriah the innocent baby born dies absalom takes the throne so david is forced to flee absalom and his men david and his men get into a civil war
00:26:47 absalom and 20 000 other israelite men die because of the war and for what for what for one fleeting night of pleasure for a few hours of excitement on david's part the cost of purity is indeed high but the cost of impurity is much much higher a recent example of that headlining christian news all over the globe is the the ravi zacharias scandal right if you don't know the news on this ravi zacharias is a world famous christian apologist for the last 40 years his ministry has been to travel the world
00:27:38 to speak at universities to speak at conferences to preach at churches and to answer questions right and defend the faith he passed away may 2020 and a few months after that in august last year allegations came up that he was that he was indulging in sexual misconduct and so in december of last year rzim the ministry that he founded the ravi zacharias international ministries they released a statement and i'm just going to read you a short snippet of that in august 2020 allegations of sexual misconduct were made against our
00:28:15 founder ravi zakaras while the investigation remains ongoing yesterday we received a brief interim update sadly the update indicates this assessment of ravi's behavior to be true that he did indeed engage in sexual misconduct this is deeply troubling and wholly inconsistent with the man ravi zacharias presented both publicly and privately to so many we are devastated for those who have suffered from ravi's misconduct and for the pain that they are enduring rzim will publicly release the miller and martin report as given
00:28:49 to the board as soon as possible after the investigation is complete impurity and unrepentant sin can have consequences even beyond the grave can you imagine the hurt and the suffering of those victims can you imagine the speakers who are on who work for rcim under that umbrella traveling the world trying to make a case for christ trying to strengthen the face the faith of christians all over the world and this news comes up can you imagine what it must be like for them can you imagine what it must be like for
00:29:31 robbie zacharias's wife that he left behind his daughter who is now the ceo of rcim and probably was the one who wrote this statement the cost of purity is high but the cost of impurity is much higher so for those who overcome for those who withstand those who are truly repentant uncorrupted by the world you are blessed you are blessed uh not not in some prosperity gospel kind of way where if you're pure you'll have a ferrari and a bungalow to live in no that's it's nothing like that right you can look at look at those
00:30:15 the people in the bible who are pure even they suffer look at any contemporary missionary right all the big names william carey hudson taylor jimin elizabeth elliot graham and gladys stains they suffered look at the early church peter james john paul all the disciples all 12 apostles died march's death except for one uh john they tried to to kill him but he refused to die so they exiled him the prophets of the old testament elijah elisha moses jeremiah daniel they suffered the patriarchs of the
00:30:57 faith abraham isaac jacob joseph they suffered go back even further noah job they suffered so so don't buy into this this prosperity gospel nonsense right it's found nowhere in the bible so you might be asking me sam so if i'm pure i'm going to suffer and if i'm impure i'm going to suffer so what's the point what's the point of it all might as well do what i want to do right well let's look at the text what does it say it doesn't say that you won't suffer it doesn't say that you will die rich no
00:31:35 it says you will see god you will see god now now what does that mean what kind of a reward is that right turn with me to psalm 24. so now uh if there's any passage that that you want to turn to it's this one i purposely don't have it up on the screen because i want you to see it in your own bibles right psalm 24 verses 1 to four verse one the earth is the lord's and everything in it the world and all who live in it for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters he the psalmist exalts god to his
00:32:17 rightful place he says the earth everything in the earth everything around the earth the sun moon stars galaxies the entire universe was made for god by god through god for god right it was it was all god god is the king of kings and the lord of lords he puts god in his rightful place who may verse 3 who may ascend the mountain of the lord who may stand in his holy place the one who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god the one who has clean hands those are
00:32:59 your deeds and a pure heart those are your motive intentions your motivation right who does not trust in an idol right the greatest command is to love god with all your heart soul mind and strength to trust in an idol is the total opposite of that and so what is the reward given to someone who has clean hands a pure heart and does not put his trust in an idol what is his reward it is that he can ascend the mountain of the lord and stand in his holy place the reward is god himself god himself is the reward the presence of god the
00:33:43 knowledge of god a greater revelation of who he is a greater adoration of his beauty a greater brokenness over sin a greater comprehension of his character a greater dependence on his every word a greater eagerness for evangelism a greater fear of the lord a greater glimpse of his glory a greater heart for the lost a greater intolerance for immorality a greater joy in suffering a greater knowledge of the holy a greater love for him blessed are the pure in heart for they will see god that's what it means
00:34:28 that is what it means it means that they will get more of god and that's perfect it's perfect because what do truly pure people want what do truly pure people want they want more of god right they don't want a ferrari or a bungalow they want god in your presence there's fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures evermore psalm 16 the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me by still waters he restores my soul psalm 23 one thing i ask and i do seek to dwell
00:35:14 in the house of the lord all the days of my life to gaze upon his beauty and seek him in his temple psalm 27 better is one day in the house of god than thousands elsewhere psalm 84. does that sound like someone who's longing and yearning for some material thing for a ferrari oh that sounds like someone who is completely 100 percent fully satisfied in god so you see the pure and heart long for god and the reward for their purity is god himself did you see that that cycle did you catch that those who are pure in heart long for god
00:36:07 and the reward for their purity is that they will get more of god they get exactly what their hearts desire and so we as christians ought to be the most happy the most joyful the most satisfied the most fulfilled people on earth is that not right and you know what's the great thing all these psalms that i've been quoting you guess who wrote them david david wrote these psalms you mean some some other david no no david and bathsheba david david who murdered uriah david that same david he wrote those psalms he
00:36:52 repented he turned from his sins and he turned to god so much so that god calls him a man after my own heart when david fell he fell hard it's true but because of the gospel david and we can return to god right it's not about what we have done it is about what christ has done for us that is what the gospel is all about god is a god of purity god is a god of mercy and he wants to be merciful towards us sinners right but can you imagine if god was only merciful he said yeah i want you in my presence i want you my son my
00:37:34 daughter i want you home i'll forgive all your sins all sins forgiven come home that would not be a god worth worshiping that would not be a just god that would not be a holy god you see the darkness in our own lives right you see you can see your own heart you know what you've done you see the news you read the history books right there's so much evil in and around us that if god were to just snap his fingers and say all is forgiven she would not be a good god worthy of our worship he would not
00:38:16 and so what does he do he takes our sin upon his own shoulders he sends his son jesus christ to pay the price for both purity and impurity to pay the price for our purity and our impurity he lived the perfect life of purity and when he died he took our impurity on his shoulders and he paid for that price he swallowed the wrath of god in our place he died the death that we should have died that is the gospel so that we can come to god holy and pure when god looks at me he sees sam perfect never committed a
00:38:59 sin in my life that's what he sees because the price has been paid what does he ask for in return he asks for us to believe him and to turn from our sin to believe him and to turn from our sin we can't we can't muscle this together right this is a spiritual thing we have hearts of stone and we need hearts of flesh so this is not something that we can muscle together we need to pray for god's salvation do you want to be pure do you want to be merciful do you want to see god and do you want to be shown mercy
00:39:44 believe him believe him believe him and repent for the kingdom of god is near those of you who are joining us for for the first time or maybe perhaps for the first time this is sort of making sense to you uh and you feel in your heart are tugging you feel god pulling you towards him saying my son my daughter come home i've made a way in jesus christ come home if that's you normally we would ask you in church to to stay back and speak to one of our elders or our pastors who are always happy to to help and and
00:40:24 to answer your questions uh but obviously we're not able to do that now uh and so the av team have come up with this brilliant idea of having a qr code uh and so when the qr code shows up if you scan the qr code you're gonna be taken to a google form to ask you for some contact details uh and to know a bit about yourself where you're at what questions you have so that we can connect with you so if this is you if this is making sense for the first time if you want to explore this further i would encourage you
00:40:56 to scan that that qr code and fill out that form for those of you who are christians who are walking with god remember remember that we serve and we worship a god who is pure and a god who is merciful and he blesses those who strive to be like him he sees how difficult it is to be merciful and pure in this corrupt world he sees the sacrifice he sees every time you choose to pay the cost every time you reach out to be kind every time you care for someone else every time you're hospitable every time
00:41:38 you're loving he sees he sees so continue to be steadfast because your sacrifice is not in vain you are blessed let's pray heavenly father thank you lord for this passage today lord thank you that you are both pure and merciful lord i pray that you help us to be the same in jesus name amen
