"The Upside Down Kingdom, Part 1" Matthew 5:1-6 Sunday Morning Worship Service

And so this morning we're going to look at the first four Beatitudes, and they really stand together as a unit.

And so I want to begin by reading the passage.

If you would take your Bible and turn with me to Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew chapter five.

And the title of this message is The Upside Down Kingdom.

Matthew chapter five, one through six.

This is God's inspired and errant and infallible word.

Jesus saw the crowds.

He went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

He opened his mouth and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

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

With these words, we have the first recorded, the beginning of the first recorded sermon by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It was preached by the greatest preacher who ever walked the earth, Jesus Christ.

It's the greatest sermon that's ever been preached on this planet, the Sermon on the Mount.

And it focuses upon the greatest subject, which is the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.

And as Jesus addresses the crowd that gathered, it wants to show them how radically different his kingdom is.

His kingdom here is within the hearts of men and women, the sovereign, saving rule of God in the hearts of those who have entered into his kingdom.

And how antithetical, how juxtaposition, how totally contrary the kingdom of heaven is compared to the kingdoms of this world.

And how radically different from the religion of the Pharisees.

The Pharisees had externalized religion.

It was all about the facade.

It was all about the outside.

And Jesus will say to them, You honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from me.

And he came to establish the religion of the heart, which was how it was originally set up.

And Jesus will expound the law, and he will become the great expositor of the law in this sermon.

He will exegete and interpret the law and give its true intended meaning.

The Pharisees had said, Well, we haven't killed anybody, so we are right with God.

And Jesus said, No, but you have anger and bitterness and hatred in your heart.

You are a murderer in your heart.

And they had not committed the act of adultery.

At least it hadn't been reported.

But Jesus said, But you have lust in your heart, and you are an adulterer.

And so Jesus kept driving home the necessity of the heart being right with God.

It was nothing new.

Solomon wrote, Watch over your heart, for from it flows the issues of life.

And the great Shema in Deuteronomy chapter 6, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

It was always, from the very beginning, a religion of the heart.

True religion in the kingdom of God is that which starts in the heart.

And so as Jesus gives this sermon, his disciples are there.

Eleven of the twelve were in the kingdom.

One was not Judas.

But there was a vast multitude that were there.

The Pharisees were there.

There was this crowd that had been under the influence of the Pharisees.

And so Jesus needing to define who is in the kingdom?

Who has exercised true saving faith?

Who has genuinely repented?

Who has taken that decisive step and entered through the narrow gate?

Jesus defines the narrow gate in these first four Beatitudes.

In a sense, they are Jesus' four spiritual law booklet.

These are the four defining descriptive characteristics of authentic, genuine faith that ushers you into the kingdom.

At the end of this sermon, Jesus will give one of the greatest evangelistic appeals that has ever been preached.

He will say, Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad, that leads to destruction, and many are those who find it, but the gate is small, and the way is narrow, that leads to life, and few are those who find it.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, and perform many wondrous works?

And I will say unto them in that day, Depart from me, you who work iniquity, I never knew you.

He who hears these words of mine and acts upon them is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock.

And when the rains came and the winds blew and beat against the house, it did not fall, because it was built upon the rock.

He who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them is like a very foolish man who built his house on the sand.

And the rains came and the winds blew and beat against the house.

And great was its fall.

Because it was built upon the sand.

When the crowd that day heard this sermon, it says they were astonished and they were amazed, literally out of the Greek.

It put them out of their mind.

It blew their mind.

They had never heard true preaching like this.

And they said, he spoke not as the scribes and the Pharisees, but as one having authority.

As Jesus begins this magnum opus, this tour de force, this Mount Everest of a sermon.

He begins with these eight beatitudes.

The first four stand together and mark the entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

This is what true conversion looks like.

This is what true saving faith looks like because it is so easy just to be swept up with the crowd and say, Lord, Lord, and perform many wondrous works.

This is what separates the true believer from the false convert.

This is what separates the wheat from the tares.

This is what separates the wise virgins who trimmed their lamps and the foolish virgins who did not.

So as we look at these first four today in this first service, everything that Jesus says here is totally opposite of what was in the minds of the people that day.

That's why it shocked them.

That's why it blew their mind.

The world says, blessed are those who are upwardly mobile and who have everything that they need and who push their way to the top.

And Jesus says, No, blessed are those who are poor in spirit.

The world says, blessed, happy, happy are those who are entertained and who laugh.

And Jesus says, no, not in my kingdom.

In my kingdom, blessed are those who mourn and who weep.

The world says, blessed, happy are those who are influencers, who are impact people.

And Jesus said, No.

To enter my kingdom, you're going to have to be gentle and lowly and meek.

Or you may not enter my kingdom.

And so what Jesus has to say here, we need to hear today.

Because we still have a superficial Christianity that's with us.

We still have a superficial religiosity that fills churches.

We still have the many who are on the broad road headed for destruction.

We still have the few who are on the narrow path that lead to life.

I've been a pastor for almost four decades now.

And by the grace of God, I have seen hundreds of people come to faith in Jesus Christ.

And out of that number, I would say nineteen out of twenty were church members.

Members of the church that I pastored.

People who had been baptized.

People who were deacons, whose husband was an elder, were people who had grown up in this church.

And one by one by one the Lord found them out.

And revealed to them that they were one of those who had just been saying, Lord, Lord, but had never met the risen Christ, had never been born again.

So I want us to look at this.

My assumption is the vast majority of you know the Lord.

But I can say with all certainty, not everyone here today knows the Lord.

We couldn't gather this many people together in one room.

We couldn't gather this many missionaries together.

We couldn't gather this many preachers together in one room.

And everybody who claims to be a Christian actually knows Christ.

And so I don't know where you are with the Lord, but it may well be that this message is intended for you.

This may be the arrow shot from the bow of heaven to hit your heart and to bring you to the realization that I must enter into the through the narrow gate, into the kingdom of heaven.

It's so narrow that it's very carefully defined.

You can't stumble through the narrow gate.

You can't weave on the highway and come through the narrow gate.

It's so narrow that you have to very intentionally and carefully take that decisive step of faith and enter through the narrow gate.

So I want God's best for you.

I want you to be in the kingdom.

I want you to be blessed.

As Jesus says, blessed.

And so, by way of still of introduction, let's talk about the word blessed.

It's mentioned nine times here in the eight beatitudes.

The last one, which we will look at tonight, is a double blessing.

Those who are persecuted.

But what does the word blessed mean?

As with many words in any language, there's a primary meaning and there's a secondary meaning.

And we have to have both to understand what it means.

It's almost like the word holy or holiness.

You can't be one-dimensional and understand what holiness means.

And so what does the word blessed mean?

There is, number one, an eternal blessedness.

And number two, there is an internal blessedness.

And the only people who will ever know the internal blessedness are those who have first come to receive the eternal blessedness.

So what is eternal blessedness?

Jesus says it nine times here.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Blessed are the gentle.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Blessed, blessed, blessed.

Well, to be blessed is the opposite of being cursed.

If you're not blessed by God, you're cursed by God.

There's no middle ground.

There's no halfway house.

There's no other option.

There's no riding of the fence.

There's no other category to be created.

You're either a believer or you're an unbeliever, right?

You're either in the kingdom or you're out of the kingdom, right?

You've either been born twice or you've only been born once.

There's no other categories.

And so it is here with the word blessed.

That those who come into the kingdom are those who are graced by God with saving grace.

They are favored by God with redemptive favor.

They enter into the kingdom, and it says, for example, at the end of verse 3, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

These alone are citizens in the kingdom of heaven.

There is no one in the kingdom who did not come this way by becoming poor in spirit.

And so it means to be graced and favored by God.

Think of Ephesians 1, verse 3.

Ephesians 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us.

Sound familiar?

With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

When you enter into the kingdom, you are blessed with the multiplicity of all of the grace of God.

You were chosen in Christ, predestined in Christ, redeemed in Christ, reconciled in Christ, made alive in Christ, sustained by Christ, held fast by Christ, the fullness of all that it is to be blessed is to be the recipient of the saving, sovereign grace of God.

And if you're not blessed, you're cursed.

You're the object of the wrath of God.

In Romans 1, verse 18 says, For the wrath of God is revealed, present tense verb, is revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.

Romans 1:18

So today in this house of worship, there are those who are under the grace of God, and there are those who are under the wrath of God.

There are those who are under the favor of God, and there are those who are under the fury of God.

And so when Jesus pronounces this blessed, he is pronouncing the blessedness of saving grace.

An eternal blessedness.

For all who receive this eternal blessedness, it leads to internal blessedness, which is joy and gladness and contentment and satisfaction and rest in the Lord.

It's not really happiness, because happiness is a totally different concept.

Happiness is dependent upon your happenings.

It's dependent upon your happenstance.

And if your happenings are good, then you're happy.

Your football team wins, you're happy.

If they lose, you're no longer happy.

Because your happenstances are changing.

And it is the world that gives happiness.

Unbelievers can be happy.

But Jesus is talking about something that the world cannot give.

That whatever your circumstances are, whatever is changing around you, whether it is the best of times, whether it is the worst of times, there is a constant on the inside of you, which is the joy that only Christ can give.

John 15, 11.

These words I have spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be made full.

You can be going through the worst of times and have joy if you're a believer in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul is put into prison for two solid years.

He's in chains.

This dynamic, hyper-driven man is confined to house arrest in Rome.

And nevertheless, he says, Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I say, rejoice.

When Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, he is saying, These who have come into my kingdom through eternal blessedness are now those who know and experience an internal blessedness that is not dependent upon the rising or the falling of circumstances around them.

No sermon ever started more positively than did this sermon.

It's really an echo of the book of Psalms.

It's really an echo of Psalm 1.

How blessed is the man who does not stand in the path of sinners, sit in the seat of scorners, etc., but his delight is in the law of the Lord.

This is really a reaffirmation and a restatement of how the book of Psalms begins.

It's the greatest life anyone could possibly live.

If I had 10,000 lives, I'd give every one of them to Jesus Christ.

With every one of them, I'd enter through the narrow gate.

The Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard.

But the Bible says, of the believer, you will find rest for your soul.

For my burden is easy and my yoke is light.

And so Jesus here is really swinging open the gates of paradise and inviting this mixed multitude comprised mostly of unbelievers, caught up in the apostasy of the nation Israel, under the heavy handed false teaching of the Pharisees.

Jesus is opening up the gates of paradise and summoning those who have been entrapped in the false religion of Israel to now enter into the kingdom.

But it is a Kingdom unlike anything this world knows about, and it is a kingdom unlike what you hear in the temple or here in the synagogue.

Jesus now becomes the great evangelist.

And he becomes the great expositor.

And he is the great theologian.

And so let's look at these in the time that remains.

I want you to note first in verse 3 a bankrupt spirit.

This is the first step of entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

And this is like in a baseball game, first base.

You have to go to first base first.

You can't just run to second base or third base.

If you don't go to first base, you're out.

And so this first beatitude is intentionally placed here by Jesus.

There is a theological order here.

There is a sequence to these beatitudes.

And Jesus intentionally begins here.

This is where Paul begins the book of Romans with the sinfulness of man.

Because no one will ever be saved until they know they're lost.

And no one will ever be saved until they confess what a wretched sinner they are.

Jesus came to die for only one kind of person, a sinner.

He did not come for good people because there are no good people.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Any organization I've ever been a part of, I've had to submit a resume and kind of toot my own horn and list all my accomplishments and have letters of reference and post everything.

It is the total opposite in the kingdom of God.

You actually have to recognize and confess how bad you are to get into the kingdom.

It is a kingdom for sinners.

Jesus has come as the great physician, not for those who are well.

He has come for those who are sick.

And you're going to have to confess to him how sick you are in your sin before you can enter into his kingdom.

And he's the gatekeeper.

He's the guardian here at the Narragate.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, not poor financially, but poor in spirit.

And this word for poor is a Greek word that means to literally have nothing.

It's less than poor.

It's lower than the poverty level.

It means to be reduced to such abject poverty that you have nothing in your pocket, you have nothing in a house, you don't even have a house, you have nothing, and you are reduced to the role of a beggar, and all you can do is be like blind Bartimaeus on the side of the road and just hold out an empty hand and be dependent upon the mercy of another to put something into your hand.

To be too embarrassed to even look up and to make eye contact with the people as they come by, and to be like the leper and just cry out, unclean, unclean.

Every one of us who have entered through the narrow gate have all declared our personal bankruptcy before holy God.

Our books have been audited, we've been weighed in the balances, and we have been found wanting.

And all of our righteousness is as filthy rags in his sight.

This is where it begins to enter into his kingdom, not beat your breast and say how good you are.

But to see yourself as God sees you.

As one who has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

He says, for theirs, and it's so emphatic, it could be really read, for theirs and theirs only, for theirs and theirs alone is the kingdom of heaven, meaning everyone else is outside the kingdom, everyone else is under the wrath of God, everyone else is without grace, favor, and mercy.

It is only these who are in the kingdom.

Those who are poor in spirit.

Do you know how poor in spirit you are?

Can you think back to your conversion?

Can you think back to that time when you entered into the kingdom?

Can you remember looking at the books and saying that you owe a debt you could never pay?

That the wages of sin is death, and you had to come before the bar of heaven and declare your spiritual poverty.

And that all you could do is extend an empty hand and pray for mercy.

And say, In my hands no price I bring simply to thy cross I cling.

That's the first step.

But that's not enough.

Even unbelievers know they're not perfect.

Even unbelievers know that they've messed up their life.

Look at the next beatitude.

It's a repentant heart.

Blessed are those who mourn.

It seems so upside down, does it not?

Filled with joy are those who mourn.

Well, there is no joy and there is no gladness until there is first mourning.

And this is a good mourning.

It means to be deeply convicted of your sin.

Not just to intellectually acknowledge it, not just to check boxes that, yes, I agree that I have fallen short of the glory of God, but to be smitten on the inside and to be crushed within one's heart and soul because you understand that your sin has violated the holiness of God.

That your sin has offended holy God.

It's not just what your sin has done to you to make a mess of your life.

No, it's not about you.

It's about the glory of God.

And you see how your sin has been so repugnant to the infinitely holy eyes of God.

Now, the world loves its sin.

The world revels in its sin.

I mean, we're having some month this week on whatever this month is, on just absolute reprobation.

The world parades down Main Street over its sin.

If you want to get TV ratings up, make it raunchier.

Go ask Disney.

Jesus says, no, not in my kingdom.

In my kingdom, my citizens do not revel in their sin.

They repent of their sin.

And this word for mourn, do you see it there in your Bible?

This word for mourn, there are multiple words that are used in the original language for mourn.

And this happens to be the strongest, the most severe, the deepest grief, the wailing over the dead.

It was a word that was used in a funeral procession where a spouse would be wailing in such a manner that the voice almost could awaken the dead.

That's the word that is used here.

And Jesus chose it intentionally.

It doesn't mean that when we entered the kingdom that we all were crying out loud, but it does mean on the inside we were.

When I was eight years old, I walked this aisle.

When I was 12 years old, I went with my youth group.

When I went to college, it was this.

When I got married, it was this.

And when do you think I was saved?

I said, I'll tell you when you were saved.

When did you mourn over your sin?

When were you filled with grief and mourning over your your cosmic treason and spiritual adultery against God?

That's when you were converted.

And when your life was radically changed and transformed.

Listen to James 4, verse 8.

James 4:8

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Be miserable.

It's an imperative command.

Be miserable and mourn and weep.

Verse 9, let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

You see, this marks the entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

Not a one of us giggled through the narrow gate.

Not a one of us skipped through the narrow gate.

When we genuinely, authentically, authentically came to faith in Christ and entered through the narrow gate, we came limping through the narrow gate.

We were crippled as we came through the narrow gate because we had been brought under the knife of the word of God that had cut us to the bone.

When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, this Jesus, whom you crucified, God has made to be both Lord and Christ.

The next verse, they rushed forward.

They interrupted Peter's sermon.

They couldn't bear to hear any more of what they had done to their Messiah and their Savior.

And they said, What shall we do?

It says they were cut to the heart.

Katanuso.

It's a word that's used of the priest who would take a knife and slit the throat of the sacrificial animal to place it on the altar.

They had been cut to the core by the sharp, two-edged word of God.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and able to pierce as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

For there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

That's every man's conversion.

You and I were filleted.

We were cut to the core.

And whether there were physical tears or not, we suffered a heart wound.

How young can a child be and be converted when they come to grips with the poverty of their spirit and weep and mourn over their sin.

It says, For they shall be comforted.

You see that at the end of the verse, for they shall be comforted.

That comfort is the weight of sin being rolled off their guilty soul.

It is the heavy weight of sin that has been long been a millstone around their neck, the heavy weight of sin that has been a burden that they have drugged through the streets.

They are finally released from the condemnation of God.

There's now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And for the first time in their life, their soul is comforted.

If you confess your sin, He is faithful and righteous to forgive you your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

From the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, every inch and every ounce of you, washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So it's a repentant heart that's absolutely necessary to enter the kingdom of heaven.

There is no saving faith without repentance.

They are the heads and tails of the same coin.

Wherever there is true saving faith, there is always a repentant heart.

Otherwise, it's merely an intellectual assent to some facts.

The truth of those facts must crush the heart.

Can you remember when you were converted?

Can you remember when you came through the narrow gate?

Whether you were in your bedroom, whether you were at camp, whether you were at church, wherever you were.

But there's more.

In verse 5, there is a submissive will.

I mean, Judas was somewhat convicted and hung himself and went straight to hell.

I mean, there has to be more than just the conviction.

There must be the surrender of the life.

There must be the submission of your life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

That it's the end of you.

And you deny yourself and you take up a cross, which is an instrument of death, and you now are a dead man walking, you are now following after the Lord Jesus Christ.

He says in verse 5, blessed are the gentle.

That translation is lacking.

Blessed are the meek.

That's lacking.

The Legacy Standard Bible, I think, has the best translation of this.

Blessed are the lowly.

Those who have lowered themselves under the right hand of God.

Those who have who are no longer pushing themselves up.

They now have fallen like cut timber at the feet of Jesus and have now yielded their life to Jesus and surrendered their life to Jesus and submitted their life to Jesus.

You no longer are running your life.

That's over.

You now are under new management.

You are now under the master and the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Every moment of every day, every step that you take, it is a following of Jesus, and he will not follow you.

You follow him.

And that's what is implied here.

The word was used in the first century in what we call extra-biblical sourcing of a wild horse out in the meadows that was born in the wild, has never had a rider, is free to gallop and run wherever it wants to go, to kick up its heels, to drink when it wants to drink, eat grass when it wants to eat grass, do whatever whenever, until someone comes with a rope.

And it's called to meet the horse.

And for the first time, the horse is broken.

It's not that the legs are broken, it's that the will is broken.

And for the first time, the rope is put around the neck, and the man who makes the horse is on top of the horse.

And now the horse is under a master.

And when the master pulls the reins to the right, the horse runs to the right.

When he pulls to the left, the horse goes to the left.

When he pulls back on the rope, it stops.

When he cracks the whip, it goes.

That's what it is to be meek.

That's what it is to be lowly and to be gentle.

It is to be under the lordship of Christ, and to follow the direction of his word and the leading of his spirit for your life.

It's very graphically portrayed in Matthew 11, verse 28 and 29.

Matthew 11:28

Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Now listen to this, verse 29, take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

Now what does that mean?

Take my yoke upon you.

It's the picture of an ox submitting to a yoke to be put around its neck and on its shoulders.

Because when the yoke is placed on the ox, it is now under the control and the direction of the master.

And when Jesus says, take my yoke, my yoke upon you, it's a mental picture, a submission to the Lordship of Christ.

You've heard the term in the Old Testament, it's also in Acts 7, to be stiff-necked.

Moses said to Israel in the wilderness, you're a stiff-necked generation.

And Stephen said to the Sanhedrin, you're a stiff-necked.

That's when an ox refuses to have a yoke put around its shoulders and neck and hunches up its shoulders so that there's no neck for a yoke to be around.

That's what it is to be stiff-necked.

You refuse to submit to the authority of a master.

And Jesus says, Blessed.

Blessed are you when you submit to my yoke.

Because he alone knows what is best for your life.

He alone leads us into green pastures, restores our soul.

He alone leads us on the narrow path which is the epicenter of his will, which is good and acceptable and perfect.

The greatest decision anyone could ever make is to humble themselves and yield their life to the lordship of Christ at the moment of entrance into the kingdom.

There are no rebels in the kingdom.

There are only those who have taken the yoke of Christ who are in the kingdom.

And what Jesus is doing here, he is defining what true saving faith is when you come through the narrow gate.

And you will continue to live this way in the kingdom.

As you enter the Kingdom is how you progress in the kingdom.

Now there's one last beatitude, and I must do this quickly, and that's in verse 6: a hungering soul.

The progression here, once you admit you're bankrupt, you have nothing, you weep and mourn over it, you humble yourself under the lordship of Christ, and then you hunger and thirst for that which you must have to find acceptance with God.

You must have a righteousness to be given to you, a righteousness that you could never work for, a righteousness that you could never merit.

It must be, as Martin Luther said, a foreign righteousness, an alien righteousness, a righteousness outside of you.

It is a righteousness that must come down from the throne of grace.

It is a righteousness that was secured by the sinless life and substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a righteousness that Jesus achieved with a lifetime of obedience to the law of God that you and I have broken day after day, and the ultimate act of going all the way to the cross and bearing the sins of his people and therefore becoming a curse for us.

Upon the cross, Jesus became the penalty and the curse for our law-breaking.

2 Corinthians 5, 21, him who knew no sin, God made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness is a metaphor for saving faith.

John 7, verse 37, Jesus said, If anyone thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.

John 7:37

And out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

To drink of Christ is synonymous with coming through the narrow gate.

In John 6, verses 51 and 53, Jesus said, after he had fed the 5,000 men, probably a crowd of 20,000, when you include women and children, Jesus then said to the crowd, Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me.

John 6:51

And you will die in your sins if you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood.

He's not teaching cannibalism.

What he is teaching that is a picture, a very graphic, vivid picture of hungering and thirsting for Christ and the righteousness that he alone can give to us.

And he gives it, the Father gives it in the act of justification by faith alone.

Solafide.

He declares us to be the perfect righteousness of his son as we come through this narrow gate.

The prophet Isaiah said, All of our righteousness is as filthy rags in his sight.

The best we have to offer are minstrel rags in the sight of Holy God.

They're repulsive and offensive to Holy God.

If you are to find acceptance with me, you must receive the righteousness that I have provided for you in the life and the death of my Son, Jesus Christ.

He lived in our place, he died in our place, and he secured the perfect righteousness that now clothes us from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet.

And as God looks upon us, there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

As he looks upon us, he simply sees the perfect righteousness of his own Son, Jesus Christ.

You must hunger and thirst for that.

Genesis 15, 6, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteous.

What Jesus is doing here is preaching the gospel.

What Jesus is doing here is throwing open the gates of paradise and inviting this lost crowd to come to him, but he's defining what it is to come to him.

The one who issues the invitation sets the terms.

And I love Jesus for many reasons, one of which is he's a straight-talking preacher.

He doesn't butter up anybody, he doesn't manipulate, he tells it like it is.

He is very much a bottom line preacher.

And so here's the question as we conclude our time.

Does this describe your conversion?

Does this describe your entrance into the kingdom of heaven?

You were born, you entered this world in the kingdoms of this world.

To enter through the narrow gate, you leave the kingdoms of this world and you enter into the kingdom of heaven.

You're in the world, but not of the world.

Parents, as you evangelize your children, it is imperative that you understand what real conversion is.

Elders, teachers in this church, as you minister to people, as you take in new members, it is critically important that you understand what it is to be in the kingdom of God.

I think it would shock us and amaze us if we only knew who has not yet entered the kingdom of God.

That's why the Bible says examine yourself.

Whether you be in the faith.

This marks the entrance into the kingdom.

Tonight we will look at the last four.

And they are the result of the first four.

The first four are the root, the last four are the fruit.

And this will be the result of the one who enters the kingdom according to Jesus' call.

If you've never believed upon Christ, I urge you to do so today.

But it's not just a, yeah, yeah, I believe.

It's a you've got to do business with God.

You've got to enter into the travail of your soul.

And lay hold of Christ.

Let us pray.

Father in heaven, these are strong words from a gracious Savior.

And so, Father, give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see.

No doubt this message was hard in the first century.

No wonder they wanted to kill Jesus.

They're hard for us to hear in the 21st century.

Lord, we thank you for the hard sayings of Jesus.

We thank you that he gives the unvarnished truth.

We praise you that you sent your son who doesn't tell us what we just want to hear, but what we need to hear.

So, God, be at work in this house of worship today, even as we are about to be dismissed.

May you disturb those who need to be disturbed.

May you convict those who need to be convicted.

Holy Spirit of God, do your office work in this place today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to meet you personally at Emmanuel Bible Church.

Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church.

If you want information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.