Grosey's Messages

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Consider The Preacher. The Lord Jesus Christ. The best of preachers. 'He went up.'  His words—an oracle; his works—a miracle; his life—a pattern; his death—a sacrifice. 'He went up into a mountain and taught.' Jesus Christ was every way ennobled and qualified for the work of the ministry.

The Lord Jesus was an INTELLIGENT preacher. He had 'the Spirit without measure' (John 3:34) and knew how to speak a word in due season—when to humble, and when to comfort. We cannot know all the faces of our hearers. Christ knew the hearts of his hearers! He understood what doctrine would best suit them, as the farmer can tell what sort of grain is proper for such-and-such a soil.

The Lord Jesus Christ was a POWERFUL preacher. 'He spoke with authority' (Matthew 7:29). He could set men's sins before them and show them their very hearts! 'Come, see a man who told me all things that I ever did!' (John 4:29).  Christ was a preacher to the conscience. He breathed as much zeal as eloquence. He often touched upon the heart-strings. He spoke 'as if he had been within a man'.  He was able with his two-edged sword to pierce a heart of stone! 'Never man spoke like this man!' (John 7:46)

The Lord Jesus Christ was a SUCCESSFUL preacher. He had the art of converting souls. 'Many believed on him.' (John 10:42), yes, people of rank and quality. 'Among the chief rulers many believed' (John 12:42). He who had 'grace poured into his lips' (Psalm 45:2), could pour grace into his hearers' hearts. He had the key of David in his hand, and when he pleased—he opened the hearts of men, and made way both for himself and his doctrine to enter. If he blew the trumpet, his very enemies would come under his banner! Upon his summons, none dare but surrender.

The Lord Jesus Christ was an AUTHORISED preacher.  'The Father who sent me, bears witness of me' (John 8:18). Christ was sealed and inaugurated into his ministerial office—as well as his mediatory office. If Jesus Christ would not enter upon the work of the ministry without being authorized by God, how foolish for any put themselves forward with out a call from God.

The pulpit where Christ preached. 'He went up on the mountain.' The law was first given on the mount, and here the Lord Jesus Christ expounds it on the mount. It was a convenient place to speak in, being seated above the people. It made a natural platform for everyone to see and hear Him,

 'When Jesus saw the crowds.' The people thronged to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, and he would not dismiss the congregation without a sermon- 'seeing the multitude he went up on the mountain'. Jesus Christ came from heaven to work for souls. Preaching was his business. He was keen to preach to them. He who treated sick bodies with compassion (Matthew 15:32), much more pitied dead souls. It was his 'food and drink, to do his Father's will' (John 4:34). 'When Jesus saw the crowds', he goes up into the mount and preaches.

Now these Beatitudes are something quite different from what we might think.  The Lord Jesus delivers this teaching here as something that can restore your soul.

Psalm 23: He restores my soul! 

A soul can be lost, or gained, or restored from the sinfulness that mars every human born into our world.        Mark 8: What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Could you be losing your soul in this crazy world?

This idea of BLESSEDNESS is the idea of having your soul RESTORED.

Blessedness.  We sometimes say "God bless." I sometimes finish a letter or an e-mail with one simple, all-encompassing, religious yet inoffensive word, "blessings."

I leave messages on facebook for folk celebrating some event. No one has ever chipped me for saying "Every Blessing."        Many people invoke God's blessing after someone sneezes "God bless you."     But what does it mean to be blessed? What does it mean to be blessed by God? Does it mean good health—I hope that sneeze, by divine intervention, doesn't turn into something worse? Does it mean much wealth—I hope God prospers you and this country economically, bringing security and comfort? It can mean those things. Health and wealth can be great blessings from God. The Wisdom Literature of the Bible, especially Proverbs, speaks of such blessings. The Prophets also add their voices, as they predicted that when God's kingdom finally arrived there would be a reign of peace and plenty (see Isaiah 65:16–25; Haggai 2:6–9). Even as we look at the start of Jesus' earthly ministry, we get the impression that this "blessed" kingdom has arrived. What is Jesus doing in 4:17–25, right before the Sermon on the Mount? He is "proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom," and he is "healing every disease and every affliction among the people" (4:23). Jesus is teaching about God's kingdom and showing via healing that it was beginning to come.

He calls people to repentance, as part of the Kingdom of God, and as part of His preaching.

Matt 3:  Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him,6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance.

4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

4:23 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.

Just as the body needed healing of every disease and affliction, so our souls need healing of every sinful disease and affliction of the human heart.  The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.  Our souls are a mess of selfishness and pride. And the Lord Jesus alone can adequately and properly restore you soul.

This Blessing Is About Entry Into The Kingdom of God

I have been reading a book about self esteem by a theologian and his Psychiatrist wife.  They note that many psychologists have attempted to cure the souls of their patients.  But only One knows the human soul completely from the creation of it, to the redemption of it to the restoration of it.

The Lord Jesus alone can call you to have your soul restored by repentance.  

So this Blessedness is

Something Powerful   it is closely linked to deep repentance. The Kingdom comes with repentance from people. But it brings blessedness as well.

Something Pending 

Matthew 23:39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"  Rev 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!"

Something Present    The godly are in some sense already blessed. The saints are blessed not only when they arrive in heaven—but also while they are travelers to glory. They are blessed before they are crowned. We are already enriched with heavenly blessings(Ephesians 1:3). We are 'partakers of the divine nature' (2 Peter 1:4),  by transformation into the divine likeness. This is blessedness begun. Your self esteem and sense of who you are, is built on the fact that you are not entirely who you are.

We are already blessed—because our sins are not imputed to us. 'Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity' (Psalm 32:2). God's not imputing iniquity: It is as if the man had never sinned. The debt book is crossed out in Christ's blood, and if the debtor owes ever so much.. we are forgiven the debts!

We are already blessed because we have the first-fruits of blessedness here. We read of the pledge of the Spirit, and the seal of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22), and the firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:23). Heaven is already begun in a believer. 'The kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit' (Romans 14:17). This kingdom is in a believer's heart (Luke 17:21). The people of God have a foretaste of blessedness here.

We are already blessed in this life, because all things tend to make us blessed. 'All things work together for good to them that love God' (Romans 8:28). We say to him that has everything falling out for the best, you are a happy man. Believers are very happy, for all things have a tendency to their good.  Even when you make really bad shots at golf, it reveals your heart and your head. And maybe you just needed more exercise anyway, and God helped you get it.

Even our sins make us aware of stumbling and keep us humble.

Believers are already blessed—because we are in covenant with God. This is clear by comparing two scriptures: 'I will be their God', (Jeremiah 31:33), and 'Happy is that people whose God is the Lord' (Psalm 144:15). This is the crowning blessing, to have the Lord for our God. Impossible it is to imagine that God should be our God—and we not be blessed.

Something Personal … Obviously. The Lord Jesus is speaking to you as an individual about what He intends to do in your life.    Something Precious            

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God! 

Now we have a world today that puts the emphasis primarily upon what you have. "Blessed are those that have wealth." "Blessed are those who have strength." "Blessed are those who have power." "Blessed are those that have knowledge." "Blessed are those that have prestige." "Blessed are those who have popularity." You know the big b's—the bucks, the brains, the beauty, the brawn—those are the things that people think bring happiness. Blessedness—a lot of people have those things that don't have joy; they don't have blessedness. Jesus here is putting an emphasis not primarily on what a man has, but what a man is. "Blessed are…"   The word describes not just a poor man, but a person whose absolutely, totally, devastatingly impoverished. And Jesus called such a one "blessed." "Blessed are the poor in spirit."

To most in Israel in Jesus' day "the kingdom is at hand" meant God would soon make his reign evident on earth. If God begins to reign, then Rome no longer reigns; the end of Rome's political and economic dominance is nigh.  When Jesus says, "The kingdom has come," he means God will exercise his royal authority in a new way through his own person and ministry. The Gospels use three phrases interchangeably: "kingdom of heaven," "kingdom of God," and simply "the kingdom" mean essentially the same thing. God reigns and his reign must be as visible on earth as in heaven.

It is the Kingdom of glory in the future and the Kingdom of grace in the present. God's power and authority break into history in a new way in Jesus' teaching, His healings, His assault on the strongholds of Satan, His redemptive work at the cross in His resurrection, and His ascension to the right hand of the Father where He reigns now, until his return in glory.

In the believer right now the Kingdom of grace is transforming us to Christ. And the Beatitudes steps you through how the Kingdom of grace develops in your heart.  It is personal. God is changing you within so His grace might reign in your life.  And Entry and growth  in the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven begins with: Blessed are the poor in spirit.

 

The Lord Jesus shows us that poverty of spirit is the very basis and foundation of all the other graces which follow. You may as well expect fruit to grow without a root, as the other graces without poverty of spirit. Until a man is poor in spirit, he cannot mourn.  When a man sees his own defects and deformities, and looks upon himself as undone, then he mourns after Christ.

Until we are poor in spirit—we are not capable of receiving grace. He who is swollen with self-excellency and self-sufficiency— is not fit for Christ. He is full already. If the hand is full of pebbles—it cannot receive gold. The glass is first emptied, before you pour in wine. God first empties a man of himself, before he pours in the precious wine of his grace. None but the poor in spirit are within Christ's commission.

Until we are poor in spirit—Christ is never precious. Until we see our own wants, we never see Christ's worth.  'The pearl of great price' is only precious to the one who is poor in spirit. He who needs bread and is ready to starve, will have it whatever it cost.

Until we are poor in spirit—we cannot go to heaven. 'Theirs is the kingdom of heaven'. Poverty of spirit tunes and prepares us for heaven. By nature a man is puffed up with self-esteem, and the gate of heaven is so narrow that he cannot enter. Now poverty of spirit lessens the soul; it pares off its superfluity, and now he is fit to enter in at the 'narrow gate'.

There are many too good to go to heaven.     (Luke 18:9-14). 9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.'13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.". Paul, before his conversion, thought himself in a very good condition, 'touching the law, blameless' (Philippians 3:6). He thought to have built a tower of his own righteousness, the top whereof should have reached to heaven; but, at last, God showed him there was a crack in the foundation, and then he gets into the 'rock of ages'. 'That I may be found in him' (Philippians 3:9).

He who is poor in spirit—is a Christ-admirer. He has high thoughts of Christ. He sees himself naked—and flies to Christ, to be clothed in the garments of His righteousness.  The poor in spirit sees all his riches lie in Christ, 'wisdom, righteousness, sanctification . . '. In every need, he flees to Christ! He adores the all-fullness in Christ.

He who is poor in spirit—is lowly in heart. Rich men are commonly proud and scornful—but the poor are submissive. The poor in spirit roll themselves in the dust in the sense of their unworthiness. 'I abhor myself in dust' (Job 42:6).  If he can do any duty, he acknowledges it is Christ's strength more than his own (Philippians 4:13). As the ship gets to the haven more by the benefit of the wind than the sail—so when a Christian makes any swift progress, it is more by the wind of God's Spirit than the sail of his own endeavor. The poor in spirit, when he acts most like a saint, confesses himself 'the chief of sinners'.

Philip Yancey,  Thunderously, unarguably, the Sermon on the Mount proves that before God we all stand on level ground: murderers and temper-throwers, adulterers and lusters, thieves and coveters. We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace.

HAVE YOU DISCOVERED YOUR SITUATION?

Well, first of all, a man must discover and admit just who he is. Many people have never really seen this. For most people, their greatest need is to see their need. Most people sit in churches on Sunday morning in their glad rags, heady, haughty, and high-­minded, thinking they're doing God a big favour by being there. They are Egomaniacs or Narcissists strutting to hell, thinking they are too good to be damned. But there must come a discovery. And you know how that discovery comes? That discovery comes, my dear friend, when we see just who God is and then we understand who we are.

For example, Simon Peter. Simon Peter was a take­charge type of fellow. Simon Peter, the big fisherman, you know, he was always giving his opinion. Of course, he was frequently wrong, but never in doubt. Somebody said about the only time he ever opened his mouth was just to exchange feet. He was putting his foot in his mouth all the time. But Simon Peter one day had a glimpse of the majesty, the glory, of Jesus Christ. And then, do you know what he said? He said, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man O Lord." (Luke 5:8) He finally saw his bankruptcy.

Isaiah the prophet—what a great man was Isaiah the prophet! Isaiah 6, where he said, "I also saw the Lord, high and lifted up, sitting upon the throne," and then he said, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the Lord." (Isaiah 6:1, 5) Isaiah had poorness of spirit.

HAVE YOU BECOME DEPENDENT ON THE SAVIOUR?

She was beautiful. She was charming. She was gifted. She was the talk of the town—a lovely, gracious, talented girl. She sat at the piano and played. The crowds came and they told her how sweet and how beautiful she was. But there was a preacher there that night. His name was Cesar Millán. And Cesar Millán approached this young lady and said, "You have charm, and you have grace, and you have beauty; but if you don't get saved; if you don't see your need and give your heart to Jesus Christ, you're just as lost as the worst harlot in London." She was insulted a little bit. She was shocked by the rudeness of this preacher. I think God the Holy Spirit knew what she needed, though, because she went up to her bedroom and tried to sleep. She tried to laugh it off. But she couldn't laugh it off. And at three AM in the morning, Charlotte Elliott gave her heart to Jesus Christ and was born again. She was the one who wrote a song "Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, O lamb of God, I come, I come." That's the way she came.