What a Real Christian Is

All of us are happy for laws like truth in advertising or pure food and drug laws that keep us from being deceived. Every once in a while you're reading the newspaper about some poor widow or some retired couple that was conned by one of the experts, and I'm glad when the police enforce the laws and get people like that.

I don't like to be fooled. But there's one thing worse than being deceived, and that is deceiving yourself. That's worse.

It's one thing for someone else to fool me, but when I fool myself or try to kid myself, I've taken a step down. And yet there are millions of people in our world today who are really kidding themselves. There are people who are fooling themselves about their health.

They keep saying, oh, I'm doing well, I'm fine, I'll be better, and actually they're dying. There are businessmen fooling themselves about their finances. Oh, it's going to be different when they're heading for bankruptcy.

But, you know, you can lose your health and the Lord and a doctor help you regain it. You can run into financial problems because of poor management and someone helped to rescue you. But, my friend, when you and I fool ourselves about things spiritual, we are playing with eternity.

This is one reason why our Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount. One of the greatest deceptions in the world today is religious deception. People are being fooled, and in Jesus' day they were being fooled.

They were being fooled by the scribes and the Pharisees, and one reason why the Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount was to explain to people true righteousness. He says, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. When you get to the end of the Sermon on the Mount, you find the Lord saying something like this, beware of false prophets.

They'll come to you as wolves in sheep's clothing. Watch out for the counterfeiters. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

And he closes the Sermon with his parable about the two builders. Here's a man who actually thought that his house was going to stand, and it didn't. He fooled himself, and he lost his soul.

Our Lord begins the Sermon on the Mount describing the kind of a person who really is in the family of God. When you read Matthew 5, verses 1-16, you're reading a full-length portrait of a true Christian. Our Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount to his disciples, primarily.

The multitudes heard over their shoulder, but he was explaining to his disciples what it really means to be a believer, and it might be good for us today just to examine ourselves. These disciples were brought up religious men. They had been taught to pray the prayers of the Old Testament.

They'd been taught to maintain a kosher home. They had been taught to tithe. They were religious men.

They were not worldly men. They were religious men. And then they'd come to know Jesus Christ and trust him, all except Judas.

And Judas was one who said, Lord, Lord, but didn't do the will of God. And so our Lord is saying to his disciples, it's possible that even among you there is one who is not for real. There's one who is not a true Christian.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church and said, Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Peter wrote to believers and said, You make your calling and your election sure. The Lord Jesus sent a message to a whole church in the book of Revelation and said, You say, Oh, we're rich and increased with goods.

We have need of nothing, when in reality you are poor and wretched and blind and naked. It's possible for us to be kidding ourselves. What a tragedy it would be for someone hearing my voice just now to get to the end and discover you had never truly been born again.

Our Lord suggests to us in these first 16 verses of Matthew chapter 5, that the important thing is not outward action, but inward attitude. It's not the saying of prayers. It's not the giving of alms.

It's not the paying of tithes. Rather, it's the inward attitude. We have here the B attitudes, the attitudes that ought to be in our lives.

He follows these B attitudes with the picture of salt and light. When you put the whole package together, the Lord is saying to us, You can know whether or not you're born again. You can know it by your attitudes.

Our Lord suggests here that there are four basic attitudes that we need to examine to see whether or not we are truly in the family of God. First, our attitude toward ourselves. Verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

He's not saying blessed are the poor spirited. There are those people who, because of personality or psychology or the circumstances of life, are very poor spirited. They have tired blood.

They are maybe shy or reserved by personality. He's not talking about that. There are some people who have a mock humility.

They keep going around saying, Oh, I'm nobody. I can't do anything, and they may be right. By poor in spirit, the Lord is saying we know ourselves, and we're honest about ourselves.

The poor in spirit are those that the Lord looks to. Back in Isaiah chapter 66, verse 2, God says this, To this man will I look, to him that is contrite in spirit. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

The very door that leads into salvation is the door that has the sign on it, I am a sinner, and I cannot save myself. Our Lord begins this sermon talking about people who know they are poor. Poor in what? He's not talking about poverty and material things.

That would mean that Abraham never got saved, because Abraham was a wealthy man. That would mean that David was never saved, because David was a very wealthy man. Down through the years, God has been pleased to save men and women of means.

When he talks about being poor, he's talking about an inward poverty. Has that hour ever come to your life when you looked at your own resources and said, Dear God, I cannot make it myself? That's the beginning. Ever heard the crowing of the cock, to realize that all of our boasting and bragging and blustering is just so much carnal promotion? You see, it's just the opposite of the world's attitude.

The world doesn't say, Blessed are the poor in spirit. The world says, Blessed is the man who asserts himself. Blessed is the man who brags on himself.

Blessed is the man who promotes himself. Blessed is the man who is proud of himself. I know you heard about the young man who was courting the young woman and trying to impress her, and he said to her, You know, I'm a self-made man.

And she icily replied, It's nice of you to take the blame. You see, no Christian ever says, I'm a self-made man. He says, I'm a God-made man.

Paul said, By the grace of God, I am what I am. Take that word flesh and turn it around and you have the word self. The Bible doesn't have much good to say about flesh, the old nature.

I know that in me, that is in my flesh, said Paul, there dwelleth no good thing. Jesus said, It is the spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing.

Over in Philippians 3, Paul says, We have no confidence in the flesh. Now you take the people of the world and divide them into where their confidence lies. Two groups.

There are those who say, I have confidence in myself. I can make it. I don't need God, I don't need Christ, I don't need the Bible.

I can make it. There are those who say with the Apostle Paul, There came a time in my life when I knew I couldn't make it, and all of my righteousness became filthy rags. The Lord gave a story about this.

Two men went up to the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector, and the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. You know why he prayed with himself? He was his own God, saying, God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men.

I thank Thee that I tithe. I thank Thee that I'm not like this dirty politician over here. That's the world's attitude, self-sufficiency, self-esteem that is bloated into the worst kind of pride.

The publican beat himself up on the chest because he knew where his trouble was, right down here in his heart, and he wouldn't even lift up his eyes, and he says, God, be merciful to me, thee sinner. And Jesus said, that man went down to his house saved. What is your attitude toward yourself? Now, our Lord is not saying we shouldn't have a certain amount of self-esteem.

You've got to learn to love yourself and accept yourself if you're going to love your neighbor and accept your neighbor. I'm not talking about people who have low ego quotients, people who go around saying, I am nobody, I can do nothing. Our Lord is talking here about those who know themselves.

They're sinners. They have nothing. They're bankrupt of themselves.

They're broken and poor. He says, this is the kind of a person to whom I can open the door to the kingdom of heaven. Now, what is your attitude toward yourself? A Christian's attitude toward himself is, I am nothing, Christ is everything.

I am poor, but he's made me rich. I am broken, but he has healed me. I cannot work my way in, so he finished the work and he took me in.

The second attitude our Lord deals with is in verses four through six, our attitude toward our sins. Now, there are many wrong attitudes toward sin. There are those who deny that sin even exists.

There are those who brag about their sins. There are those who enjoy sin and then try to cover it up. If a person is going to be a child of God, he's got to do something about sin.

It is sin that keeps people out of heaven. It is sin that keeps us from fellowship with God, and so the Lord says, now you've dealt with yourself. You're poor.

Now it's a deal with your sin. Blessed are they that mourn. Was there a time in your life when you mourned over your sin? The Bible has a word for this, repentance.

There is a sorrow of this world that brings death. There is a regret and a remorse that can be used of the devil to destroy, but there is a godly repentance that brings restoration and healing and forgiveness. The difference is Christ.

Blessed are they that mourn, admitting our sin, not hiding it, weeping over it, not treating it lightly, hating it, turning from it. No one can get into the family of God dragging his sins with him. There has to be a turning from sin, but we don't stop there.

Verse 5, blessed are the meek. Not only do we mourn over our sin, but we come to the Lord in contrition and in brokenness before him, which leads to, blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Oh, do you see it? The true Christian is one who has come to the point in life where he says, I don't want sin.

I don't want the wages of sin, which is death. I don't want the pleasures of sin, which are for a season. I don't want anything to do with sin.

I'm hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and this righteousness can only come from God. It can only come from Jesus Christ. Once again, the parable of the Pharisee and the publican.

The Pharisee had a self-righteousness. I thank thee, God, that I'm not like other men. My friend, you measure yourself by other people, and you'll convince yourself you're going to heaven, because you always find somebody worse than you are.

In the city of Chicago, it wouldn't be too hard, but you start measuring yourself by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and that's different. That's different. That's what Paul discovered.

Paul said, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, touching the law blameless, the righteousness of the law blameless. Then one day I saw Jesus Christ, and all of my righteousnesses became so much garbage, and I laid it aside to receive Jesus Christ. The thing that keeps people out of heaven is self-righteousness, exalting man, and denying Christ.

Paul wrote in the book of Romans about the Jewish people, who would not submit to the righteousness of God, who, going about to establish their own righteousness, rejected the righteousness of Christ. People are still doing that. If I come to you and say, my dear friend, on what basis are you getting into God's heaven? What is your answer? Is it your baptism, a church membership, a visiting of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's table? Is it the keeping of the law? What is the basis for your getting into God's heaven? If your answer is anything other than the righteousness of Jesus Christ received by faith, you're not getting in.

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness. What is your attitude towards your sin? Now there are those who would like to go to heaven, but hold on to their sin here on earth. They don't want to repent.

Repentance is much more than just a feeling. Repentance means to change our mind, change our mind about sin. It means to stop arguing with God and saying, God, what you say is right, and then meekly submitting to him.

Notice the stages now. First my attitude toward myself. I can't save myself.

I'm too poor. Then my attitude toward my sin. I mourn over it.

Meekly I submit to the righteousness of Christ, and by faith receive it. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now this leads to a third attitude in verses 7 through 9. First my attitude toward myself.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. My attitude toward my sin. Blessed are they that mourn, that meekly submit, that receive righteousness by faith.

Thirdly, what is my attitude toward the Lord? Verses 7 through 9. The merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers. What a marvelous connection we have here. Here are three statements that outline for us what our relationship ought to be to the Lord.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Now our Lord is not suggesting here that you earn mercy. Nobody can earn mercy.

If you earn mercy, it's not mercy. What he's saying here is this. When a person is saved, he is saved because of the grace and the mercy of God.

And having received this mercy, he is now able to share this mercy with others. Mercy means that God does not give me what I do deserve. Now you know what you deserve.

I know what I deserve. We deserve hell. We did nothing before our conversion.

We've done nothing since our conversion to merit anything else. Mercy. Over in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul describes the terrible plight of the unsaved person.

And you hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin. Dead. Not sick, dead.

Not handicapped, dead. Not limping, dead. Dead in sin.

Not only dead, but enslaved. You walked according to the course of this world. According to the prince of the power of the air.

The spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Dead, enslaved, disobedient. What a terrible picture.

But he goes on to say, but God. Not but man, not but the church, not but religion. But God.

But God who is rich. We started off with blessed are the poor. But God who is rich in mercy.

For his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sin, hath raised us up together with Christ. For by grace are you saved. God in his mercy does not give me what I do deserve.

And God in his grace gives me what I don't deserve. That's what he's talking about here in verse 7. What is your relationship to the Lord? Is it one of mercy or merit? Is it one of grace or goodness? Now this leads to forgiveness. Verse 8, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see.

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The eyes of the unsaved person are darkened. His mind is darkened.

His heart is darkened. He can't see. Oftentimes in witnessing to people, I've heard them say, well, I don't see.

I don't, that's right, they don't. That's why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. He was in the dark.

And Jesus said to him, you've got to be born again, Nicodemus, if you want to see. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. When you receive his mercy, he changes your heart.

He implants a new nature. He forgives. He cleanses.

And you see God. Whom having not seen ye love physically. We've never seen the Lord physically.

We've seen him spiritually. And of course, this leads to peace. Verse 9, before I was saved, I want you to know I was a troublemaker.

And a good one. When I got saved, God made me a peacemaker. You see, the unsaved person's at war with God.

In verse 7, he needs God's mercy. In verse 8, he needs God's forgiveness. In verse 9, he needs God's peace.

The unsaved man is at war with God. He's an enemy of God. The mind of the flesh is at enmity with God.

Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Amazingly enough, God commended his love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus said, greater love has no man than this, that a man laid on his life for his friends. He died for his enemies. And oh, what a marvelous thing it is when you have peace.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Oh, do you have that peace? What is your relationship to the Lord? What is your attitude toward the Lord? Is it one of mercy? Thank you, God, that you saved me. Is it one of purity? You've experienced forgiveness and cleansing.

Is it one of peace? Do you have peace with God and the peace of God? And are you a channel of peace from God as you walk through this world? That's what it means to be a Christian. Not to be a troublemaker, but a peacemaker. Not to work your way in, but to depend upon his mercy.

What is your attitude toward the Lord today? Is Jesus Christ to you the source of God's mercy? Is Jesus Christ to you the one who has given you purity and heart? Is Jesus Christ to you your peace? For he is our peace. Having made peace by the blood of his cross, come unto me and I will give you rest. Do you have that today? Now, the fourth attitude he deals with in verses 10 through 16.

He began with my attitude toward myself. Poverty. I haven't got what it takes.

I'm bankrupt. Then, he moves into my attitude toward sin. I mourn over it.

Meekly submit to the Lord and let him cleanse me. My attitude toward the Lord. Receiving his mercy, his purity, and his peace.

And finally, in verses 10 through 16, our attitude toward the world. That's interesting. Jesus said, if you're really a believer, if you're truly saved, you'll know it by your attitude toward the world around you.

Now, by the world, he means the society without God. He means that whole system of things that is without Christ and against Christ. We live in it.

We are not of it spiritually, but we live in it physically. Our Lord Jesus said, I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil one. We are aliens in a foreign country.

We are strangers and pilgrims. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our allegiance is to heaven.

All of our life comes from above, not from beneath. And so, while we're living here, we have a problem with the world. Our Lord tells us here that the world to the Christian is a place of conflict.

Conflict. Jesus says, the world hates you because it hated me. But be of good cheer, I've overcome the world.

This is a place of conflict. For many people who profess to be Christians, the world is not a place of conflict, it's a place of conformity. There are those who try to tell us they are saints of God, who have one hand in the world, one foot in the world, and try to have the other hand with the Lord.

And my Bible says, friendship with the world is enmity with God. Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters.

He's talking about that intimacy, that closeness of relationship that comes when God is our friend and the world is our enemy. Now, it doesn't mean we go through the world hitting people with our Bibles. It doesn't mean we go through the world declaring war on everybody and being prosecuting attorneys.

God never called us to be prosecuting attorneys. He called us to be loving witnesses. That's what he goes on to say.

You're the salt of the earth and you're the light of the world. The world to the believer is a place of opposition and opportunity. Opposition because the world does not believe the truth and the world does not accept Jesus Christ.

Opportunity because here we can represent Christ. It's rather interesting that our Lord uses salt and light as pictures of the believer. He's telling us what the world is really like.

Salt, the world is decaying. It's falling apart. It's dead, falling apart.

Like a corpse. You're the light of the world. The world's a dark place.

So, here's the world. A dark, decaying, defiant place and here we are peacemakers and the world declares war. Here we are salt and the world is decaying.

Here we are light and the world is in darkness. The sad thing is the world thinks that we're the ones that are in the dark. The world thinks we're the ones who are stupid and dead when actually it's the world that's in the darkness.

Intellectual darkness. Men by wisdom did not find God. This world by its wisdom has not achieved spiritual things.

Moral darkness. Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved.

Spiritual darkness and it's all going to lead to eternal darkness. Hear me, my friend. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you belong to this thing that the Bible calls the world.

But, oh, if you're a Christian, a true believer, then you've been called out from the world to go back into the world to be a minister, to witness, to win. Salt and light. Salt works silently and you can't see it operating.

Light instantly works and you can see it. Salt speaks of character. Salt speaks of retarding decay.

Salt speaks of seasoning. Salt makes people thirsty. If you and I are the kind of salt God wants us to be, then they're going to thirst for what we have.

Light speaks of conduct. Let your light so shine before me that they may see your good work, but not glorify you, glorify your Father which is in heaven. What is our attitude toward the world? Do we look upon the world as a place of opposition? Are you persecuted for righteousness' sake? Not for saying dumb things, not for acting like an evangelical fool, but for righteousness' sake.

Are we persecuted for his name's sake? You can go to work and sit down at lunch with the men or the girls in the office and you can tell them that you're a Lutheran or a Presbyterian or a Baptist or an Anglican or anything. Even tell them you're an agnostic and they won't argue with you. You tell them you're a Christian.

You bring the name of Jesus Christ into the conversation and see what happens. And so here are four attitudes that you and I must examine to see whether or not we're truly born again. Because when you're born again, a change takes place.

Once you were at war with God, then you become a peacemaker. Once you were dead dirt, then he made you salt. Once you were darkness, then he made you light.

A change took place. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away and all things become new.

What is my attitude toward myself? Is there someone here today who says, Preacher, by my good works, by my own resources, I'm going to get myself to heaven. If you're saying that, my friend, you aren't going to get there. Because Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What's my attitude toward my sin? Well, it's not too bad. Lots of people, you know, God will just wink at it.

Oh, no, blessed are they that mourn, that are meek. What's my attitude toward God? Am I trusting his mercy? Have I received his righteousness? Am I experiencing his peace? What's my attitude toward the world? Is all of my enjoyment in the world? Is all of my interest in the world? These are the attitudes that mark a true believer. He knows how bankrupt he is.

He mourns over his sin and turns from it. He turns to God and receives by faith mercy and forgiveness and peace. And then he discovers that the world he lives in hates him and opposes him.

But bravely and faithfully, he goes into that world to be solved and to be light to the glory of God. If you're being persecuted, it's a good sign you belong to the Lord. Many years ago, I remember reading a story about a man who today would not be very popular, but back before movies and television and things like that, he was very popular.

He called himself the human fly. And he used to go from town to town and climb up the sides of buildings. I don't think he would attack the Sears Tower or Hancock building, but he would go to the biggest buildings they had.

Back in those days, if a building was, oh, 20 stories high, it was pretty good. And all of the area would show up on a Saturday morning to watch the human fly go up the side of the building. No nets, no ropes, no cables.

And one day he was going up the side of a building and he would go from window ledge to something sticking out up here and a brick up there. He hesitated and the crowd was down there kind of holding its breath. It looked as though he couldn't find a place to get a hold on.

Finally, he found something and got a hold and began to pull himself up and fell back and was down on the concrete and was dead. And he went and opened up his fingers of his right hand and they found in his hand a handful of cobwebs. While he was climbing the building, what he thought was some good, solid mortar on which he could get a hold turned out to be a fistful of cobwebs.

You can't climb on cobwebs unless you're a spider. There are people in Chicago doing that. They're going to get their way up to heaven.

They're going to make it. They are religious, baptized, catechized. Oh, dear friends, one of these days you're going to get a hold of a handful of cobwebs and it'll be too late.

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, and the end thereof are the ways of death. And Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount by saying, I want you to know for sure that you're born again. I want you to know that you're in the kingdom because then there are other things I want to talk to you about that'll make your life so enriched and so wonderful.

The word he repeats over and over and over and over again, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, happy, wonderful, blessed. It's a great word. It's a great word.

Has he ever said that to you? Was there an hour in your life when you looked up to him and he said, blessed? Now, if there wasn't, then I warn you, there's going to be an hour in your life when he'll look down at you and say, cursed. Depart from me, ye cursed. I never knew you.

Only two categories. Blessed, cursed. Your decision determines which you are in.

Oh, this is why Jesus died. And this is why Jesus lives. And this is why the Holy Spirit works.

And this is why the Bible speaks that someone here today may come and say, I want to be a true Christian, not just a religious person, not a counterfeit, but a true believer in Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, may there be those today who will come to the Savior, not only here in this congregation, but in our radio congregation as well, to come and trust the Savior and know for sure that they've received his mercy, that they are trusting his righteousness, that they are his salt and his light. Oh, Lord, work in hearts now.

I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.