Building a Life of Love and Mercy

so we were looking at what are known as the Beatitudes commonly in Christendom Matthew chapter five and like I said from the beginning when you turn to the New Testament the first long message of Jesus in the Gospels is in Matthew five six and seven and that comes right at the beginning and at the end of it as I said he said that if you listen to these words and you take all of them seriously and you obey them you build your house on the rock now everybody wants to build their house on the rock nobody wants to build their house on sand which says one day when the rain and the flood which is a picture of trial and judgment come it'll collapse [00:00:04]

I think the little trials that come along our life now if they make a shake it is probably a warning that we are not ready for the final trial and judgment so we must take these little it's not the final hurricane and flood it's only a few drops of rain that make us shake and then we need to ask ourselves am i building on rock or on sand and it's we don't have to wait till the final day to find out whether we are built on rock or sands too late we need to know now in the little trials that come into our life are a way by which God shows us whether we are built whether we are building on rock or on sand [00:00:54]

may the Lord cause you went Estonians 3:12 to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people so that he may establish your heart without blame in holiness so what is true holiness how can I be established without blame in holiness it is by my heart abounding in love so I saw that in God's eyes righteousness is love if I don't have love however holy I think I am if I don't love others however holy I am according to this verse I am NOT established without blame please remember this first always [00:04:27]

so please keep that in mind dear brothers and always it begins in home in the home we are to be witnesses in Jerusalem first then Judea and Samaria so it's no use trying to love brothers and sisters in the church if you love your own wife or husband so that's where it begins so righteousness is there and I need to have a hunger and thirst for it a tremendous longing for a heart that's filled with love for everyone tremendous longing to be absolutely righteous and pure in all areas in my speech and my thoughts and my attitudes motives in money matters and in love for one another [00:06:28]

if you do not forgive others your father will not forgive your sins no matter how much you pray do you know the number of believers who have claimed the blood of Jesus has cleansed me from all sin whose sins are not cleansed oh I claim 1 John 1:7 1 John 1:9 I've confessed my sins they are forgiven they are not forgiven brother because there's somebody you have not forgiven however much you claim 1 John 1:9 if you have not forgiven others according to Matthew 6:15 God with your father he's not talking about the worldly people your father means he's your you're his child who will not forgive your transgressions [00:13:14]

judgment will be merciless merciless means God will treat you as if you have disobeyed every commandment of his just like we read in verse 10 you stumble in one point he got to look upon you as if you're guilty of having broken all his commandments so here's the one point you are not merciful to others judgment will be without any mercy to you because you have shown no mercy but if you are being merciful to others people have done tremendous evil to you spoken evil to you cheated you of money and property and whatever it is God's mercy will be in abundance exactly in proportion as you've been merciful to others [00:15:57]

so when I want healing I think of that verse how will God have mercy on me and heal me I got to be merciful to others and the more abundantly I am merciful to others more abundantly God's mercy will be upon me and upon our children so dear brothers even if you have a selfish person be merciful to others that's the most selfish thing you can do be merciful to other people because if God's blessing will be upon your life because that's not the reason why we should be merciful the ideal reason why we must always as Christ as God has been merciful to me I must be merciful to others [00:21:29]

so what is purity of heart that's another thing we've already thought of righteousness in verse 6 this must be something more than righteousness righteousness is having a clear conscience that my heart I seek to love everyone I've sought to be merciful to others and mild all those qualities are already there mourning for big sin now it's talks about purity of heart it must be something more than what is already being covered and I believe that refers to see there's there's only one person who was pure and that's Jesus Christ that means having a heart there's no place for anything other than Christ [00:31:14]

in fact your love for Christ must be like the light of the Sun and your love for all these other people must be the light of the stars yes there is love there the light of the stars but it disappears when the Morning Sun rises in other words in the presence of the love of Christ my love for others disappears it's there but I can't see it because I can see only Jesus you know how you look at the Sun and then you look around you can't see other things clearly because your eyes are so full of that blinding light that's what it means to be pure in heart [00:33:34]

if my heart is like this I'll be able to see God all the time I'll speak to him face to face like God said about Moses I speak to Moses face to face and that's what I want I want to be able to see God another meaning of this is that if my heart is pure I'll see God in every situation I'll never see Judas Iscariot coming to betray me now I'll see my heavenly father giving me a cup to drink like Jesus didn't get cemani Peter saw Judas Iscariot because you didn't see God there and he took out a sword to fight [00:36:51]

a person who sees God will always react like that he'll never fight and if someone does come to hurt him and like Malka says that soldier that servant Peter cut off his ear and Jesus heal it immediately do good to the fellow who's come to ramas when you see God that's how you are you'll be like God doing good to the fellow who's come to harm you so that's the meaning of saying God bless it up the pure in heart and if we are not seeing God in every situation if you find yourself facing a situation right now and you can't see God there [00:37:55]

so let me give you this I was wanting to show you this passage in the Old Testament which is a very lovely passage if you turn to Ezekiel turn with me to Ezekiel and chapter 44 peace turn to this verse this is a passage which the Lord spoke to me nearly 60 years ago fifty-five years ago at least in Ezekiel 44 he distinguishes between two groups of Levites who were serving him believe i'ts were the ones who went into the tabernacle on to the temple to serve him but he says among them there are two categories like the Lord has said to the among believers there are two groups of people [00:39:59]