2. Jesus was not saying, "Do these things and merit heaven." He was saying, if you believe and trust God He will save you and this will mark your life. These will be the principles you live by.

3. There is a two fold message or pattern to each B-Attitude.

In Verse 7 the message is that to be saved we seek mercy from God and then as a child of God we will show mercy to others.

4. Jesus was rebuking the superficially and externally religious. He was addressing those who outwardly made a show of religion that did not come from a change in one's heart..

Matt. 23:27, He called the scribes and Pharises, hypocrites, whited sepulchers, beautiful on the outside, but inside full of dead men's bones and uncleanness. In other words their actions did not come from their hearts, but we motivated by their pride and their wanting the praise of men. The were proud of their religion. Their pride was in their own supposed righteousness and being better that other people. God's grace and mercy was not a part of their religion. To them sin was what other people did who are not as good as their were. The looked down on everyone else and in their own minds elevated themselves to the point they thought God was lucky to have them. Sadly, they were unsaved, lost in their sins and blind to the truth's and true rigtheousness of God. This is why Jesus was preaching this message. He was address their spiritual need which was to see their sin and pride and in humility turn to God for His grace and mercy.

John the Baptist, called some of those who came to be baptized, a generation of vipers and rebuked them saying, "who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore, fruits befitting of repentance" (Matt. 3:7-8).

5. You see what matters is what is on the inside. You can put on an act, a show or outward appearance. But it is still just a show.

ILLUS: Like many TV evangelists who put on a great show of being concerned for the poor and orphans and who do it for money. One of the investigative programs such as 60 minutes investigated a TV evangelists who was raising money for an orphanage in Haiti. He was getting millions of dollars each month. They went to Haiti and found the orphanage was a only run down building with only a hand full of children who were being poorly kept. It was only a front.

As bad as we think that is we too can represent ourselves as being more than we are. We are all subject to outwardly representing ourselves as being more than what is truly in our hearts. It is certainly something we must guard against.

6. Jesus in the B-Attitudes is saying the believer must be broken in spirit, mournful, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful pure in heart and peaceable.

All these are internal qualities. These are like a barometer which indicates the state of our heart. A person who loves the Lord will outwardly be merciful to others.

Further, Christ is concerned with what produces our behavior. It is worthless to put on a show of righteous acts if you do them for the wrong reasons.

Giving, attending services, praying, singing, holding a position in church, or helping others is what a true believer should do, but to do it for personal recognition is a sorry motive.

To do it to serve our Savior, and worship Him and edify and lift up other believers because we love God and our brethren is the correct motive.

Only what is done for the Lord will last. The best we can do without God is worthless.

Like a church treasurer in a church I knew back East. He was full of pride. He was ugly in questioning every dime spend and gave everyone a hard time. He clearly showed little love or care for the church members and treated people like they were out to steal money from the church. He acted put out when presented a receipt for something that was purchased for the church.

The problem was a heart problem as clearly his heart was not right with God. Why did he bother to do the job? The church for some can be a stage to parade on, to show off, to be praised. You see the point is not what we do, but why we do it.

7. The B-Attitudes address our hearts. It calls to question why we do what we do.

Martin Lloyd-Jones: "We are not meant to control our Christianity: our Christianity is rather meant to control us."

In the Old Testament God said He was not interested in the rituals of sacrifice and of the blood of bull and goats. Heb. 10:4-6

He is not interested likewise in religious activity if ones heart is not right.

8. One commentator said, "You need to be spiritually bankrupt, you need to recognize that your are destitute beggar who have nothing to offer God. Your hope is to see your true condition and reach our your hand as a beggar who can't do anything to help himself"

It is not normal humanly to seek to feel like this. We are repealed at the thought of considering ourself as beggars. Of having needs we can not fill without help.

Many close their minds to such thoughts and miss the founding principles on which God is building His kingdom.

You see this is reality! This is the raw truth. This exposes hypocrisy and strips away the masks we wear.

A. False Secular View: If you are good to others they will be good to you. Shakespeare's thoughts expressed this idea.

Mercy is the most becoming thing a king can wear.

Mercy can be humanistic: Like the rich, look down on the poor, and say you poor things, you cannot do for yourself, so I who am so much better, will reach down and help you....now kiss my feet.

B. False Religious view: If I do this for God, He will do something for me. If you are good to others they will be good to you.

It is wishful thinking to believe that because you show mercy, others will be merciful to you.

ILLUS: While in Beaver, a man was killed on I15 south of Cedar City in the late 80's. This man who was a carpenter had fallen on hard times in California and was traveling to Idaho to a new job so he could feed his family. He had little money as sleeping in a sleeping bag to save money. He had compassion on a stranger who was hitchhiking and stopped and gave him a ride. When the good Samaritan stopped at the rest area, the hitchhiker stabbed him with a knife, wrapped his body in the sleeping bag and dumped him beside the road. I was working as a reporter for the local paper took pictures of the morbid scene beside the Interstate.

C. Greek word for "mercy" is "ele e mones." It is used only twice in the New Testament.

We find it in only in Matt. 5:7 and Hebrews 2:17.

"Wherefore, in all things it behoved Him to be made like His brethren, that He might be merciful and faithful High Priest."

The illustration is that Christ "intercedes" for us. That is His mercy. It means to "succor the afflicted" to give help to the needy and to rescue the miserable.

Basically it means to show mercy and benefit someone else because there is a need. The mercy Jesus is speaking of is one is affected by the sufferings of others and seeks to alleviate that suffering. It ignores the cost of the help.

James 2:15-16. "If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, by ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?"

Verse 17, continues and makes a comparison between mercy and faith. "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."

Mercy in the Bible is more than feeling pity, concern or sympathy. It is putting concern into action. What is the worth of pity or feeling sorry for a person. It is worthless if it does not produce some action of benefit to the one who as a need?

Faith without works is dead. Dead people have all the organs all their body, .yet dead people do nothing. Their spirit is not there, they have no life.

Where there is life there will be action. Where there is a true spirit of mercy within a person there will be a showing of mercy....a benefit to the person.