When God confused the languages at the time when the world was speaking in only one tongue, and they wanted to build a tower whose top would have all the constellations, and it would be a worship apart from him. He stopped it by confusing them in their speech, and ever since then, it's been hard for people before whom I stand for the first time to clearly understand me. I was born in Poland. I am Jewish by birth. I came into true Judaism m forty— over forty six years ago. But I have a New York accent, and the South hasn't cured me at all. So if you will bear with me, I'll try to be as articulate as I know how. And shall we open the word of God to Matthew, the fifth chapter? Can you hear me in the back? Thank you. We shall read from verses one through fourteen. Matthew five, beginning with verse one. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, being that thy Spirit is the author of this word, and being thy Spirit constantly puts the Son of God to the fore, and being that thy spirit is consonant with what thou hast said when he came up from the waters, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, so may thy spirit minister him to our hearts this morning. Not our heads, but our hearts. So that, being ministered to, we pray that thy blessed Spirit will incline our wills to be obedient to what we have seen this morning. Enable us, our Father, because this thy people is not merely listening to a personality, not an individual who's never been here before, but it's the Spirit of God who is ministering to them, and may they listen to what the Spirit saith. We ask it, our Father, in the name of thy dear Son, our Savior, he who will soon finalize our redemption. In his name we ask it, amen. I know in what I'm about to say will seem rather strange, it will seem harsh. There is no relevancy between what I am going to say and the type of culture, uh, in which we are living. But I am sure that should we be living under the iron curtain, should we be living in a place where we have to suffer for our belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, I am sure that the spirit of God will make at the message very meaningful. But nevertheless, being that it's been a burden on me to bring it, I will bring it, and may the Lord do with it whatever he sees Sees pleased. pleased. Now, when I read this block of scripture, we find the key to all that has been read in verses thirteen and fourteen. Ye are the salt of the earth, and in verse fourteen, ye are the light of the world. Might I, uh, take this gospel of Matthew and put it in its proper context? Matthew was written to the Jewish people, that the Hebrew people, that they might see that the promised Messiah is none other than he who has come. And what is being spoken of here is really the principles whereby the kingdom wherein the Messiah will reign will have it prosper through those who are with him, and what he will need would be salt and light. You will notice if you read from chapters five through seven, nothing is ever mentioned about the blood of Christ for atonement for the soul. Nothing is mentioned about the believer being a member in the body. Nothing is mentioned about, uh, uh, the Christian principles that we find in the epistles. But no matter where we read the word of God in the Old Testament, or some of the Old Testament in the New, especially in the gospel accounts, we must keep this in mind. Although it may not have been written for us, nevertheless, it is not, may not have been written to us, nevertheless, it is for us. The, the Jewish nation is not the church, and therefore in the Old Testament, the church is never mentioned. But nevertheless, all the principles of a relationship to God, obedience to him, all these principles are for you and for me who are enabled by the Spirit of God to walk even as he walked. So, putting that aside, we are making now spiritual application. We ask ourselves why the emphasis on ye are the salt of the earth and ye are the light of the world. Because salt retards corruption in food and in other spheres. It's also used as a healing process, and light is very much needed when there is darkness. So it's the retarding of corruption, and it's a dispelling of darkness. If you and I were merely left here upon the earth to enjoy ourselves and to go on living the type of life that we are accustomed to and which our culture has so much of to keep us busy and attractive, then I am sure that the Lord might have made a mistake in leaving us here, for after saving us, why not take us home immediately? But no, he had a purpose in leaving us here, and the purpose is, as expounded in the epistles and mentioned by our Lord himself here and there, interspersed in the various gospel accounts, that you and I are to manifest the work of the profession that we profess. And James gives a marvelous exposition that though the body may be there, if there is no breath in it, of what good is the body? It is dead. Therefore, for a believer to say he is trusting Christ without the spirit of Christ and the life of Christ animating him, then there is something desperately wrong. And here we notice, salt, light. These terms are used to emphasize again what James had written, what our Lord especially had spoken, and what Paul gave clear expositions on in his various epistles. Now, how is salt gotten? Salt is gotten by a process of mining, a process of gathering from a rough source. And being that it has to be mined and then processed, it has to be broken, it has to be sieved, it has to go through a process. And from verses three right through, uh, verse, uh, 8, we see how salt is brought to the fore. First of all, in verse three it says, blessed are the poor. Now, if the poor are the blessed ones, then God is not fair. For why should he only bless the poor? Is there anything wrong in being rich? Nothing wrong in being rich, and there is nothing wrong in being poor. But why should the blessedness be pronounced on the poor? Because it is bringing to our attention that if the rich man is not poor, and the poor man cannot see any riches that he will ever possess, then there is an inequality. But here it's speaking, I believe, to his disciples. He taught them in verse two, saying, blessed are the poor. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. Then down through the church age, and even the epistles to Philemon and other, uh, connotations here and there through the scriptures, there were rich people. But is there a virtue in being rich? No. Is there a virtue in being poor? Not at all. But what is it speaking of here? Blessed are the poor in spirit. And if the rich believer is merely enjoying salvation and trusting in his riches and is not poor in spirit, how impoverished he is spiritually, then there is no blessing on that life. So blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they who realize how impoverished they really are. And for instance, hold your place here and turn with me to Romans, the third chapter. And in Romans, the third chapter and verse twenty three, we read here, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Then, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be the prop- to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. But when it says being justified freely, what does that mean? It means in what our Lord, using the same word mentioned in John the fifteenth chapter, where he said, they hated me without a cause. They hated me without reason. It's the same word as we find here in Romans the third chapter and verse twenty four, freely. Now let me read Romans three twenty four again. Being justified without a reason, without a cause which God could find in us for which to justify us, he did it by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. So there is one reason to show you how impoverished you are, no matter what your circumstances might be. You're impoverished spiritually, no matter how much Greek you know, no matter how much Hebrew, no matter whether you wear fine clothes and dwell in a a lovely home, or whether you have not enough to keep body and soul together. That is not the issue. The issue is this belief, a child of God, that no matter what your circumstance, are you poor in spirit? You may be poor, but if you are not poor in spirit, then there is a bitterness, there is a reaction, there is no devotion to God because you do not realize that you, as the rich man, can be just as proud, just as proud as can be. But if you realize Godward how impoverished you are within, the benediction is blessed. Blessed. So it goes on, and Isaiah's the sixty sixth chapter, it says, Where is the house that you built unto me? Are not all things mine? But to this man will I look, to him who is of a humble spirit and a contrite heart. You know, as I am ministering, I am conscious of the fact that there are three kinds of believers here. Three. Three. And it reminds me of the tabernacle, as well as the parable in Matthew thirteen of the sower and the seed. In the tabernacle, there were three divisions. There was the court, the holy place, the holy of holies. In the parable of the sowing, of the sower and the seed, it says some shall bear thirtyfold, fold, some sixtyfold, fold, some a fold. In the tabernacle, or rather outside the tabernacle, the priest walked by natural atmospheric light. If he wanted another light in where there was darkness, he had to go from the court into the, into the holy place, and there was the lampstand. But if he wanted the light of God's presence, he, the high priest had to go from the holy place into the Holy of Holies. That is why, as I'm giving the word, and I'm trying to convey unto you the three types of reactions, it doesn't bother me because there's the thirty-fold Christian, the sixty-fold Christian, the hundredfold Christian. And our Lord said, herein is my Father glorified, not that you might bear fruit, not that you may bear more fruit, but herein is my Father glorified that ye might bear much fruit. So I know when you leave here, some of you will go away and say, boy, what freakish ideas. That's perhaps the thirtyfold. fold. Then the sixtyfold fold would say, well, it's true, but it's not possible to live that kind of life. But the hundredfold, fold, which are likened in the first epistle of John to the fathers to whom John had written. There were the fathers, the young men, and the children. The fathers will get a glimpse and a meaning, and it will begin to pulsate and penetrate. The thirtyfold will look curiously at the sixtyfold. The sixtyfold will look oddly at the hundredfold. but the hundredfold won't look at the thirtyfold or sixtyfold, but the hundredfold will look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of his faith. So as I'm giving it, you say, my, it sounds difficult. But blessed are the poor, those who realize how impoverished they are in their spirits. In my fl- in me, that is in my flesh, said Paul, dwelleth no good thing. There's a dichotomy there. I want to, and yet I don't want to. Within I desire, but then there is the pulling away to the other side. So, in Revelation three seventeen, the church at Laodicea, the church age in which we are living now, the church has finally pushed Christ out, has become very, very religious, has become very active, but pushed him out, and he stands at the door and knocks. And he speaks to Laodicea, and he says unto her, you do not know that you are poor, that you are miserable, that you are blind. Why did he say she was poor? Because she said she was rich. She didn't need anything. And that's exactly what's happening in our day. As I said to my wife, I said, love, let's always be carrying our shroud with us, for we never know when things will take a turn. And the child of God who lives in the light of eternity will realize, even though the riches of the world is before him, he will, pardon me, he will always walk with a shroud, recognizing that death might come at any time unforeseen, and recognizing that there might be a dark place in which the Lord God may put us. But blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, in quarrying the salt, that is the beginning. But then in verse four, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. In your personal life, many of you have cried for one reason or another, and you've looked to the Lord to comfort. But it was so, uh, what they say, uh, what can I say? It was so, uh, uh, short of comfort, uh, fleeting, quickly leaving us. Why? Because we mourn for the wrong reason. Verse four is explained by verse three. Blessed are they that mourn for what? For losing money, losing health, losing job, losing a loved one? No. Blessed are they that mourn in realizing how impoverished they are in their spirit. And very few of us mourn over that. No longer do the people of God cry for the right reasons. They always cry for, no, most of the time they cry for the wrong reasons. Blessed are they that mourn for such impoverished condition. And why do they not mourn for it? Because they are not living in the light of eternity. They have lost the vision of the holy. They have been, uh, ensnared by the religious temper of the world system that's very religious indeed, using the name of Jesus and all these things. That's why they don't mourn any longer, and if they mourn, it's for the wrong reasons. Blessed are they that mourn for such an impoverished condition. Along that line, my people according to the flesh have mourned because of the persecutions down through the ages. Our blood has flown in all the avenues and boulevards of the world, and they have mourned, and where is God, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But one of these days they will mourn for the real reason. And in Zechariah twelve ten, they shall look upon him who has been thrust through, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only begotten son. Then I want you to notice, when one mourns for an impoverished condition within, then verse five begins to operate. Blessed are the meek. It produces not a weakness, but a meekness. What is meekness? Meekness is power in control. And power and control in the individual believer's life is this: God has given me a free will, and it is within my power to forfeit that will for a higher will. And I can only come in the life of the individual who mourns for such an impoverished condition spiritually within their lives. Blessed are the meek, and instead of the world system overcoming them, they will be able to overcome the world system with its philosophy of materialis- materialism. But in the kingdom age, no longer, no longer will Israel be led away, but when she shall mourn for him, according to Zechariah twelve ten, then they shall inherit the earth, and not until then. And the spiritual application is, instead of the world system which is upon this earth inheriting us, we inherit it by overcoming it, and it has no attraction for us. And you know what happens? All of a sudden, our appetites begin to change. And so we notice in verse six, How do our appetites change? Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst. Well, everybody hungers and thirsts. But our appetite in hungering and thirsting takes on a different desire. It isn't food for the belly, pardon me for the crude expression, no. It isn't clothing for the body, uh-uh. The appetite is changed in we hunger and thirst after righteousness. It is then that we are filled. The only way to counteract that which pleases the eye, that which, uh, the flesh desires, thereby lifting us up above others in our estimation that we have more than they, look better than they, etcetera. The only way to overcome that is by realize- realizing how poor we are within, mourning for such condition. It produces a meekness, and our appetites change. It's no longer this, but it is that. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. In the fourth chapter of John, there our Lord must need go through Samaria. He was tired, he sat at the well, but in doing so, he took the initiative. He knew that this woman of Samaria was going to come to get water at the well. He offered her water that shall spring up unto everlasting life. And as the time went on, even though he was an hungered before she came along and the disciples went out to buy food. There he was in that condition, and there she was coming for that water. When it was over with and she realized that he was the Messiah, that for which he came, the water that was so indispensable to her, was of no meaning. She left her water pot. And when they came with the food and said, Master, take, eat, he said, I have meat to eat of, of which you know nothing. Righteousness was fulfilled, and as righteousness was fulfilled by his hungering for her soul and she being gratified with the food of righteousness, she left her water, he was not hungry. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. How is salt produced? Salt is a purifier, purifier. And when these things take place, look at verse eight. Blessed are the, what's the next word? Verse eight. Blessed are the pure in heart. There's the salt has taken place. The heart is no longer contaminated, see. It's working within. The salt is in operation. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I don't know what gifts some of you have been given by the Spirit of God, but I'll tell you, if your heart's desire is to serve him, remember one thing, no matter how sacrificially you serve him, no matter how you spend yourself, if the salt is not in the offering that you offer up, he doesn't want it. The salt must be there. How do I know? Hold your place here and turn to Vayikra, that is Leviticus. And in Leviticus, the second chapter, I want you to notice verse thirteen. And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt. Neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering. Now listen, with all thine offerings, thou shalt offer what? Salt. And beloved, after forty seven years of being privileged to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, I had to, through many chastenings, because of wanting to be here, to be there, to have my schedules filled up, people to hear me, et cetera, et cetera. And the salt was missing. The people were blessed, but not my soul. Therefore, they were blessed because of the word given, but I was not blessed because the salt was missing. When the kingdom is set up, and there's a priesthood again as a memorial unto him, the king who shall sit there on the throne, and the sacrifice will be a memorial as to what he did in shedding his blood. When all these memorials are still practiced as memorials, we read again in Ezekiel forty three twenty four that the salt is not to be missing in any of the offerings. So no matter how beautifully you might express yourself, no matter how marvelously your elocution might be, your sentence structure, your, your grammar, your personality. If the salt is missing, you're a empty in your soul. That's why our Lord says, have salt in yourselves. So how is salt produced? It is mined. And where is it mined? It is mined from within. It is breaking inside, and then through the brokenness, it goes through a process until the heart becomes pure in its motives, and then we see God. But just as there's a breaking from within for Saul, how is light produced? And I want you to notice the next verse, right here, verse ten. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Might I say, and this is not only for ladies. We must not forget we're living in a sophisticated age, and it's women's lib. Adam's rib, but it's the devil's fib, as someone said. And if you are a child of God, it's for both men and women in Christ Jesus. And it says here, not to be persecuted for being busybodies, not being persecuted for being higher critics of others, but blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Now, how? How, How? how can I ward off being persecuted? The only way I can ward it off is not caring a bit about righteousness, just caring that I've been saved and there's pie in the sky that I'll have by and by for which I sigh. So, the only way to ward off persecution is not care about the righteousness of Christ, not care about personal righteousness in my life, and so long as I play it safe and become a smoothie, no one will ever bother me. And I wonder if such individual has ever been born again. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So just as soil is produced by mining from within, so light is produced by breaking from without. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Then verse eleven, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. If for, if it's for any other sake, you may deserve it, but if it's for his sake, then you're suffering for righteousness' sake. Then it says, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. A breaking within foresaw, a breaking without, that is being persecuted, the body broken from without. Paul said in one of his epistles, though the outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. And the reason why I and you, who claim to be born from above, are such dull believers, and there is nothing that moves people anymore, is because the world and the God of this world has been able to religiously so organize them that they can be even sweeter and more gracious than some of God's people. And there is a counterfeit. But when it is for righteousness' sake, which can only come to pass when I'm broken from within and I mourn over such condition, and it produces a meekness in me, and my hunger and thirsting is after righteousness, and it's that kind of life that's finally manifesting itself, then the martyr is not suffering to gratify his ego, but rather suffering to glorify God. So we notice here various, uh, scriptures, and the Word of God tells us in Judges, the seventh chapter, that the Lord spoke to Gideon, and he said, Gideon, I have a work for you. Even though Gideon protested, finally he was willing. Took with him thousands of men, I think it was about three thousand. The Lord said, too many. Take them down by the waters, those who leisurely drink in the waters reject. Those who drink by holding their weapon in their hand and merely lap the water choose them. And there was a hundred men. They were broken up in companies of three. And Gideon said, now here, take every man his lamp, put a candle in it, and have your sword ready. And in the dark, as you encompass the land, when I say the sword in the Lord, uh, uh, the sword of the Lord and Gideon. You say the same, hold up your pitchers, and then take your sword, break the pitchers, and when the pitcher is broken, the light will shine forth in the dark place. And that's exactly what happened. Why is light necessary? Because there is darkness. Why is breaking from within necessary? To produce salt, to purify the heart and its motives. And righteousness is the bent of that light. Why is persecution from without necessary? Paul said, and turn with me, and with this I close, turn to second Corinthians, the fourth chapter. And in second Corinthians, the fourth chapter, he goes on to say this. Here is what he says. Is it the fourth chapter? Yes, look at verse six. And in verse six, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts. Why? That we might sit down and enjoy it and be on a rocker? No, get off your rocker. It's to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, who has seen in the face of Jesus Christ. But where did he put this light? Verse seven, He has put this treasure in earthen vessels, in our beings, where the soul dwells in this body, where the soul is, he has put it in the earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. What does Paul mean? He means this, that our excellency will never bring forth that light, that treasure he put in there. But the excellency and the power is of God. Well, how does he bring that about? Here's how he brings it about. Paul says, I have this treasure in my earthen vessel. You have it in your earthen vessel, but what does God do? Verse eight on shows what God has done with his body and with the bodies of those who served him. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, like we saw in Matthew five, but not forsaken. Cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body that treasure, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life, the light also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Then he goes on, for which, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. Why? That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Then he goes on here, verse sixteen: for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man, the light that's been put in there, the treasure. What happens? It's renewed day by day. And might I say in closing, that although some of you may be wondering through all the confusion through which your mind is revolving, what does it mean? What is he talking about? Beloved child of God, if you are a believer, it may be that your appetite has been deadened because you are finding your pleasures and satisfaction elsewhere. And the only reason we were left upon this earth has been expounded on in Romans six and seven, that we have been crucified with Christ, crucified in our personal ego, crucified in our bodies, and we are to reckon it so moment by moment, day by day, week by week, so that the light, the treasure might come forth in the vessel that is broken. May the Lord help me because I am more responsible than you are, but we are both responsible. I am responsible in claiming that I, by God's gracious Spirit, has drawn me to him for salvation, and that he put me into the ministry, and the Spirit of God, I claim, is enabling me. Therefore, what is not true of me to that degree, must I be answerable in chastenings before I'm taken home. But it's also true of you. May the Lord make you realize, if this is a lot of confusion, it means that you're finding your pleasures, you're finding your gratification elsewhere, rather than himself. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed triune God, we bless thee. And one of these days we are going to outpraise and outworship the whole angelic host. But our Father, only to that degree that our souls are enlarged with regard to thyself and the portion through which thou hast ministered to us. Oh, our Father, desire, or enlightenment rather, or wish does not mean will. And we pray that thou will work within our souls to will thy will, for there is only one will, thy will. That's the shortest definition of righteousness, thy will. So enable us, our Father, and if our Christian lives are gloomy and we have to have the other attractions, it's due to the fact that these principles are not realized or desired. We pray thee that thou will dismiss us not only with the consciousness of thy presence, but the knowing of thy spirit within us until this becomes operative. We ask it in his name, thy dear son, our savior. Amen.