–Ken Pratt  (A Love to Die For)

       “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”
                    –Revelation 12:11(NIV)
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       “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”  
              –1 Peter 1:18-19 (NKJV)

       “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
              –1 Corinthians 6:20 (NKJV)

Read those verses carefully.  Do you understand?  In this age of people clamoring for their so-called rights, what rights do you have as a Christian?  Yes, you have some, do not let anyone tell you that you do not.  You have a right to call God your Father.  You have a right to enter the throne room with your requests.  You have a right to His protection.  You have a right to eternal life.  You have the right to have your sins forgiven.  And here is the crux of the matter–sins forgiven.  Why?  Read the above verses again.  You have been redeemed, purchased by the precious blood of Jesus, bought with a price, therefore you are no longer your own.
     “I have my rights!”  No, not if you belong to Christ.  Let me say this before going further, there is a difference between civil rights and spiritual rights.  Yes, we all have the rights of an individual under the laws of the country in which we reside.  However, in the bigger and deeper picture even those rights are precluded by being purchased by Christ.  Purchasing means the transfer of ownership and purpose.  No long are you, your own.  Not in ownership, for God is now your Master.  Not in purpose for His will must become ours.  As believers we no longer have the right to direct our lives.  We are under the direction, the care, and the protection of the Almighty.
     Listen to the people clamor, and I will ask to whom do they belong.  Listen, no one belongs to themselves.  They are slaves to their sins, their ideas, their emotions, their habits and to their father the devil.  Ah, but my friend, we have been purchased, we have a new master.  I would encourage you to read Romans and see this marvelous change that comes about when our ownership changed.  We now work for the heavenly Master; our purpose is now to serve Him.  We are no longer in bondage to sin and as Barclay writes, “A Christian is a man who thinks not of his rights, but of his debts.”  We had a debt we could not pay, and we have even a greater debt that He paid–grace and mercy can never be repaid, except by complete surrender of the will and life to God.
     Man is not free to sin, but free not to sin.  The Christian, because of his servitude to God, “can never do what he likes, because he never belongs to himself; he must always to what Christ likes, because Christ bought him at the cost of His life.” (William Barclay)  True happiness and joy comes then from service to the Master.  Foolish the man who thinks that he would be happier doing what he wants–self-service, selfishness.  No true happiness, true joy comes from service to Christ.  And I will mention part of it is to have proper respect for the Master.  We are to revere Him, to keep Him in awe.  “Oh the blood of Jesus; it washes white as snow.” (Gabriel Allred) and because of that precious blood we serve Jesus.

There are things more important than money.  There’s self-respect.”

                    –Louis L’Amour  (Showdown at Yellow Butte)

 

       “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

                    –1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV)

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“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…”  The clods drop, but the wealthy person just lays there, his wealth doing him no good now.  Before looking at Proverbs 10:2, I want to look at the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, “Those who love money will never have enough.  How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness!” (5:10, NLT)  I look at celebrities, at entrepreneurs, at politicians who gather in wealth by legal or illegal means and what does it get them.  In the long run, their hearse will not be pulling a U-Haul with their wealth in it to their grave.  “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…”  Two questions must be asked:  Where is your treasure?  How did you obtain it?

               “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death.”  –NKJV

               “Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.”  — ESV

               “Ill-gotten gain has no lasting value, but right living can save your life.”  –NLT

 

     It’s a shame that money is needed in society to get by.  Money, to pay the bills; money to pay for the thrills.  There is nothing wrong with money as long as it stays in the right priority in one’s life and is not gotten by ill gain.  Bob Beasley writes, “Treasure gotten by theft, extortion, fraud and the like are really treasures of wrath, and not ‘treasure’ at all.”  Paul says, “But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” (Romans 2:5, NKJV)  Think of that–“treasuring up wrath.”  

     Let’s add the words of Jesus to this, from the Phillips’ translation:  “Don’t pile up treasures on earth, where moth and rust can spoil them and thieves can break in and steal.  But keep your treasure in Heaven where there is neither moth nor rust to spoil it and nobody can break in and steal.  For wherever your treasure is, you may be certain that your heart will be there too!” (Matthew 6:19-21)  There is a scene from one of my favorite movies, “Conagher,” where there is death in the bunkhouse.  The ranch owner asked, “What makes a man go to the bad?”  The cowpuncher, Johnny, answers, “It’s the money.”  Conagher replies, “Lord help us if that’s what it is.”

     Think for a moment.  Where was Enoch’s treasure?  It was walking with God.  And God treasured his faithfulness and his walk.  Moses, lived forty years in wealth and splendor all around him, but decided that there is a deeper, greater treasure than all the wealth of Egypt.  Naboth would not sell his vineyard to the king.  Ahab eventually gets the vineyard with the death of Naboth and with it came the “treasure of wrath,” a curse of God.  

     Remember the rich man, “So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.  The rich man also died and was buried.  And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”  (Luke 16:22-23, NKJV)  Then there is the rich man who built new barns, and had many goods who said, “‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years, take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’  But God said to him, ‘Fool!  This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’  So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God!'” (Luke 12:19-21, NKJV)  The treasure of wrath.

     Wealth cannot deliver from death.  What joy is there in an abundance of wealth if not used wisely and properly?  One reason why many are philanthropists is that it eases the conscience and it touches something in their soul.  Pity the person who extorts and gets wealth by fraudulent means.  Their wealth cannot help them in the grave.  J.L. Flores says, “The richest man cannot purchase exemption from this law [of death] with all his wealth.”  Where is your treasure?  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…

       “Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous!  For praise from the upright is beautiful.”
                    –Psalm 33:1 (NKJV)
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“I’m blest, I’m blest, I’m blest” (or blessed); do you remember the chorus?  Perhaps it should be, “I’m spoiled, I’m spoiled, I’m spoiled…”.  This one little word in the Beatitudes has significant meaning and is often overly simplified.  It is vital that we learn the meaning of this word before continuing our study.

               “Then He [Jesus] opened His mouth and taught them, saying:  Blessed are…”

Thomas Watson sets the tone when he says, “Transitory worldly things are not commensurate to the desires of the soul—therefore they cannot render him blessed.  Nothing on earth can satisfy the souls’ desires.”  This world has nothing that can truly bless us.  Those in the world seek many things:  power, wealth, fame, fancy clothes, fine food, and other material things to try to satisfy their inner longing.  Jesus is trying to show us the true picture of what being “blessed” is all about.  
     I have heard many times from parents on various different occasions, “I just hope they’re happy.”  I wonder if they know what they are saying.  Yes, we want happiness, but we want more than that.  We want to be blessed.  Happiness is good, but it is not lasting.  That is why the translations that use the term “Happy” instead of “Blessed” are missing the mark; it is only partially correct.
     To be “blessed” goes far beyond being happy.  “Happy” does not give the complete thought, however don’t throw it out, for happiness is indeed part of being blessed.
Thomas Watson writes, “Yet many are digging for happiness here—as if they would fetch a blessing out of a curse!”  Do you get that?  How can we be happy in this cursed world, when man, himself, is cursed?  Where is lasting happiness?  It is here for a moment, like a wisp-o’-smoke or an echo from the campfire, then gone.  Happiness, therefore, is fleeting.  “Happiness by any art or chemistry, can be extracted from the world.” (Watson)  “I’m happy, I’m happy” but only for a while.
     Here is the gist of the meaning, I am blessed because of what God thinks of me.  O the blessedness of being a child of God.  O the blessedness of being saved.  O the blessedness of going to the heavenly Father.  “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” (Psalm 1:1, NKJV)  True blessedness cannot come from “things.”  Perhaps the Amplified will give us a better picture, “happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—
with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions.”  See, happiness is involved, but it is only part of what being blessed is all about.
     The problem is that we often try to fulfill our desires, to be happy, by worldly means.  The soul is a spiritual thing so how can we satisfy the spiritual with the natural?  How can we think we can gain happiness/blessedness by the riches of the world?  Thomas Watson puts it this way, “Happiness is too noble and delicate a plant, to grow in this world’s soil.”  Therefore we should not look to worldly things to fulfill this longing of the soul.  This blessedness that Jesus is speaking of is a declaration of what is truly the best way to live.  This blessedness, this joy cannot be taken away by the things of the world, the turmoils, the battles, the storms, the terror, the material things that are there.  We are blessed because we are in Christ.  Therefore, it is unthinkable to be a gloomy Christian.  We are blessed!  Man seeks for this but it is beyond his scope, his grasp.  “Blessedness is the perfection of a rational creature.  It is the whetstone of his ambition, the flower of his joy. Blessedness is the desire of all men.” (Watson)  Man desires, but he can only receive temporary happiness.
     As we delve into each of the Beatitudes it is important to keep this concept in mind.  The blessing of each is related to our relationship with Christ.  Grasp hold of the words of David, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” (Psalm 32:1-2, NKJV)  The NLT translates the first part thusly, “Oh the joy of those whose sins are forgiven…”  Are you beginning to get the picture?  I like the words of William Barclay in regard to the Beatitudes, “The very form of the beatitudes is the statement of the joyous thrill and radiant gladness of the Christian life.”