Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. So, this morning, we continue hearing our King's words, listening to His message, listening to His royal proclamation as He declares the reality of His kingdom, the reality of His rule. That's what His kingdom is. Word of God speaks of the kingdom of God. It's talking about His reign. It's not talking about a castle somewhere. His rule, His reign over us. And this we must know. If He is truly reigning in your life, if He is reigning as the King upon the throne of your heart, as we have spoken of, these principles that He is declaring to us will be a reality. in our life. Yes, maybe in different measures among us, but still a reality nonetheless. So last week in verse 9, We looked at the Lord's declaration concerning the blessedness of a peacemaker, the rejoicing of the peacemaker. We saw as he got, God calls him to be his child, makes him to be his child, how we should rejoice the child of God. We are sons and daughters, but even on a greater sense of the Lord left in most cases, left that daughter part out because he knows us. And we would, we would make a division. He said, no, you are all sons. which is the highest place. You are all sons. We are the children of God. What rejoicing! We spoke about the responsibility of the Peacemaker in glorifying and honoring our Father, our God, who has adopted us as His child. And then the resemblance of the Peacemaker. The Peacemaker resembles His Father. He takes on His character. But then as I pressed us to learn exactly what this peacemaker of verse 9 really is, And we looked at the ultimate peacemaker to see that, the biological Son of God, the only begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. When we saw that, He who is the exact expression of this peacemaker, He is the fulfillment of this word peacemaker in verse 9. As we saw that, we may have winced a little bit. when I told you as we looked at his example that a true peacemaker, this child of his father, did not desire peace at all costs, but in fact desired true peace, which only comes and only can come through the upholding of and the standing upon and of righteousness and truth. You may have been thinking as I was trying to relay the truth of the passage, what we see in these words, You may have been thinking, well, I don't know about all that. You may have been thinking, no, I think to be a peacemaker, I think to be a peacemaker is that we just do everything and anything we can to be friends with everyone so we can just, quote unquote, love one another. Well, there's something you should know. I'm going to be very transparent with you. I, too, might want it to mean that. I too struggle with the sin, and it is a sin, of caring too much of what people think about me instead of caring enough of what my God, considering first what my God thinks about me and what my God desires of me. I too struggle with the fear of controversy. But here's the thing. We all must believe and we all must bow to God's Word. if we will be a peacemaker, if we will be the children of God. We must all bow and believe, believe and bow to God's word and that's the reason that we want and should want and should desire and long for God's message in the text and not my message out of or from the text because just look at the text. Verse 9, let's start again there. 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. Hmm. Do you think that this peacemaker then with what we have just read, do you think that he's just saying, y'all just go out there and try to be buddies with everybody at all costs? Can you see God's message in the text? God's message in the text is the peacemaker. In verses 10-12 this morning, which is what we'll be dealing with, which comes on the heels of verse 9, God's message in the text is the peacemaker. The true peacemaker is not a buddy maker. The true peacemaker, this is verses 10-12, is peacemaker part 2. Peacemaker continued. Peacemaker the sequel. So last week we saw in verse nine the rejoicing and the responsibility and the resemblance of the peacemaker. This morning in verses 10 through 12, we will seek to see, number one, the reception of the peacemaker. Number two, the reckoning of the peacemaker. Number three, the reality of the peacemaker. And lastly, the reward of the true peacemaker, the child of God. And understand, as we begin, Enforce this once again. The implication of this text, of this truth that Christ is declaring to us concerning the peacemaker is that being a peacemaker is not something you can do and be in addition to a child of God. Being a peacemaker is what a child of God is. It's what he is. So first, the reception of the peacemaker. persecuted for righteousness sake. Ouch. That's painful, isn't it? Yes. Yes, it will be. It will be. But here's the thing, this should not be a shock to us, children of God. This should not be a shock to us. We have 6,000 plus years of actual history that if it shows us anything, it shows us this, that God's people will suffer persecution. God's people will suffer persecution. In case someone here doesn't realize and doesn't understand, we live in a fallen world that is at war with God. Now, we live in a very religious world, but it's a far different thing from being religious and being a child of God. Most of the time, those two things don't ever meet. We live in a fallen world that is at war with God. Psalms 2. The heathen rage and imagine a vain thing. That's the world we live in. And the heathen have always been very religious people. The pagans have always been very religious people. So he's not talking about a lack of religion. He's talking about the lack of truth. The lack of being true children of God. We live in a world that is at war, actively at war with God. We live in a world that is at war with the ways of God. A world that is at war with the righteousness and truth of God. And if we are God's children, they will be at war with us as well. When we demonstrate and imitate His ways, they will be at war with us as well. When we uphold and stand for His righteousness and His truth, they will be at war with us also. The ultimate peacemaker, he made no bones about this. He did not want his followers going out into the world blindly. The Lord Jesus, He is a gracious and merciful Savior. And He is a God and a Savior who wants us to know the truth. And so to us, His disciples, and to the disciples that were actually hearing His words this particular day, He said, listen, you need to know something. The world hates me. They hate me. Know this. Be aware. Don't be shocked. They will hate you too. The Apostle Paul sure understood this. Philippians 1.22, he wrote, for unto you it is given. So you understand what he's saying. Unto you there is given a gift. A gift in behalf of Christ. Here's the gift. Not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. The Bible is crystal clear on this subject. If we are the children of God, we will suffer. If we are the servants of Christ, the world will hate us. So how in the world have we come to the point in modern Christendom that we think to be a peacemaker is to do everything that we can to minimize all controversy? To be a peacemaker is just to strike a compromise so the two parties can at least live together Well, maybe not harmony, but at least, you know, they won't be fighting. The nation that we live in is going down the tubes on a sled called political correctiveness. And the church is right there. Quirk Church is right there with them. We just got to be buddies with everyone at all costs. But children of God, our King says, that's not the case. So children of God, peacemakers, know this, don't be shocked. If you will truly be a child of your Father, you will be seen as an enemy to this world. And they will hate you and hurt you, and they will persecute you. And here's the thing, it may not only be the world, It may also be some of your brothers and sisters in Christ as well. Or let's flip it over. It may be us who are doing the persecuting, who are doing the hurting. So let's be careful here as we begin. Let's be sure we understand that what we are about to see in this text is not a license to be a jerk. Let's just say it like that so you all understand. This is not a license to be a jerk, and it's not a license to be a Pharisee. It's not a license for these things. It is a license to truly love. You know, if we have a child, our own child, and that child is going down the path of destruction, and we see it and we do nothing, You can say all you want to, you can have the best relationship in the world, relationship in the world with that child, but if you see that child going down a path of destruction and do nothing, you don't love that child. You're not loving that child. That's not love, just being a buddy. Love is intervening. Isn't that not the love of Christ? Did He not intervene? Did He not step in? Did He not stop us on our way down the path of destruction? That's what love is. This world is so backwards, and it shouldn't surprise us. But the sad thing is, many believers can have this backwards. They've been filled all this garbage of the preacher's message out of the text instead of God's message into the text to where they don't know what love is anymore. The love that they're trying to give is really hate. It really is. It's not caring for a person at all. It's actually hating that person and much more hating the Word of God. But here our King is giving us a license to truly love. To love with the love of Christ. As He does, let's be sure to see the reason under this first heading. The reason for this blessed but painful reception. The reason for this reception. Notice verse 10. It says that these peacemakers are persecuted not because they're jerks or rude or just plain obtuse. Not because they think they're better than everyone else. And listen, we can fit into all of those categories. But they are persecuted for what? What does it say? Look at it. Look at God's Word. They are persecuted for righteousness sake. And then in verse 11, the true peacemakers here, the loving peacemakers, are and will be gifted by God with, the first thing is revile, and that means they're going to have insults hurled at them. The second thing is persecution, and the picture of this word is being chased out of town because of the fear of your life. That's what the picture of that word is. And then the evil lies of men. So they will be gifted by God with these things. but not because they or their lives or their attitudes or their pridefulness and their arrogance is worthy and deserving of these things. No, our King says they receive these things. This is what He says for my sake. They receive these things because of Me. They receive these things because of Jesus. As a matter of fact, to really understand this reception, the true peacemaker's reception, along with the reason for the blessed but painful reception, We need to look at the mindset also of the recipients here, the peacemakers' mindsets. The verbs in verses 10 and 11 are really interesting. Verse 10, the Greek verb translated by the phrase, they which are persecuted, is what is called a present passive participle. It literally means, what it means is, what it's actually saying here is they allow themselves They allow themselves to be persecuted. They know it. They expect it. The king has told them. They hate you. They hate me. He said they're going to hate you. You are my servant. They will hate you. They will seek to destroy you. They hear that. They know that. They expect it. He's the king of truth. He would not lie to them. But they count it as nothing. It's worth it for righteousness sake. Do you hear that? That's what it's saying. This persecution to these people, to these peacemakers, it's worth it for righteousness sake. And this word persecution means they're fleeing. They're fleeing because someone is chasing them to kill them. But it's worth it for righteousness sake. It's worth it for the cause of truth and righteousness. it's worth it. And in verse 11, the verbs found in the phrases, there's three phrases. Men shall revile, that's the first phrase, and actually the second is just the word persecute. And then, they shall say, that phrase, speaking of the lies against them. All three of those verbs are in the very same tense and makeup. They are aortous, active, subjunctive verbs. which means this. I tell you that so you'll know. You could find it in the same place I did, you know. You got a good concordance. But I want you to understand what it's saying and the fact that all three of them are saying it the same way. All three of those verbs. It means this. The peacemaker, the child of God, his life, his or her life, they are lived in such a way that they are always, at all times, continuously and constantly their lives are lived in potential for insult, potential for persecution, potential for slander because of the cause of King Jesus. They live their lives with such abandon to themselves and for Him that there is always potential in their life for persecution, constantly potential in their life for persecution, for revile, for lies to be spread about them. You remember we saw last week that the word maker in the word peacemaker really meant that he or she's life was all about making this true peace. Yes. Sold out to it. Sold out to it. And therefore, there is a constant in their life for persecution and ridicule from those that he or she is seeking to make peace with. This is certainly not buddy making. It's not. The reason this potential is always there, because this peacemaker, this peacemaker is seeking to make peace for Christ's sake. It's all in the text. For righteousness sake, for Christ's sake. They're seeking to make peace for Christ's sake and peace for Christ's sake is always about righteousness and truth and never about compromise. We looked at that. We thought about how Christ approached us last week when he came to give us true peace. He didn't say peace, peace, everything's okay. You just keep going like you're going and do the best you can. That is not what Christ said. Listen, if you think that is what Christ has told you, and you think that's how Christ has given you salvation, I'm going to be very clear to you because I love you. You do not own his salvation. He came to you, pointed you, put his finger in your chest, and he says, you're the man. You're the sinner. You're the sinner. he was unrelenting until he brought us in grace and mercy to the one single solitary person that could save us and that was he himself. Not compromise, truth and righteousness. So let us all know if we will be the child of our father and the brother of our brother, the Lord Christ, this is the painful reception of the true peacemaker. Well, before we cower in the corner, let's press on to see the reckoning of the peacemaker, secondly. Because verses 10 and 11 declare that this is a blessed thing. This persecution is a blessed thing. Blessed are they, happy are they, blissful are they. Look at verse 12. Rejoice and be exceeding glad with what is expressed in the previous two verses, for because great is your reward in heaven. Now notice this phrase. For so, or just like, persecuted they the prophets which were before them. So rejoice, he says, But he says rejoice over pain and suffering and hatred and insult and persecution from our fellow man. Rejoice even when lies are spread abroad about you. How could this possibly make us happy? How could this possibly make us blissful? I'm going to tell you. I haven't seen much of it, but I've seen enough of it to know it don't make me happy. It doesn't make me blissful. The sad thing about it is because I'm not seeing it in the right light. I need to see it in God's Word. That's where I need to see it. How can these things make us happy? How can these things make us blissful? Well, the whole reason for our King, the Lord Jesus, declaring these kingdom principles to us is so that we might know the truth. And so we might know His mind. And so we might think and reckon as He reckons. And verse 12 actually tells us how Christ, how God reckons the true peacemaker, reckons His children, reckons His children being persecuted. When He sees His children imitating Him, being true peacemakers for righteousness sake, and then the repercussions of that are just as it has always been. Persecution, ridicule, insult, hatred comes their way. It reminds Him. It reminds our God. He reckons them like unto His prophets that came before them. Now, unfortunately, most of us New Testament saints aren't familiar enough with the Old Testament prophets to understand what an honor it is to be reckoned by God Himself to be in their category. Do you understand what an honor it would be for any of us to be reckoned by God, to be placed in the same category as men like Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and David, and Isaiah? He says, when I see you stand for Christ's sake, when I see you stand for righteousness' sake, and when the world comes against you, I'm reminded by you of the promise. Wow, it ought to make us rejoice. What higher honor, what greater work could we know? You know, these prophets, they were people who were personally selected and called out by God Himself to be instruments in His own hand. I mean, I think about this oftentimes, what it is to be an instrument in the hands of God. I was a technician for a lot of years. And I had still got a lot of them tools, right? And I had had a tool for the job. Spent, that's my wife, vast amounts of money to have the right tool for the right job. And you open the drawer, and you reach in there. And sometimes it's that favorite tool for that particular job. And you reach in there, in your hand, and you're going to use it, because you know it works. That's what God does with us. He reaches in his box, he has a work that he wants to accomplish, and he reaches in his box and pulls out the tool. He's got to work for that work. He's going to master it. He's going to be the master of it. He's going to wield it as he sees fit, but he's going to accomplish the job through that tool. That's what these prophets were. They were used in God's own hand. And what higher honor, what greater work could we know in this life but to be used by God Himself as an instrument of righteousness? To be used in the hand of the Almighty who does not need us for anything, but yet He would allow us to be used for Himself. To use you, child of God. God Himself would use you for His own sovereign, eternal purpose. Think about that. Think about the honor. Is there any higher honor than that? I would have said before you that there could be no higher honor in this whole life than to be used in the hand of the Master, the Lord of heaven and earth. to be used for His work and for His glory. I've been reading through the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah, you know, when he saw the glory of the Lord, the Lord in His glory, I should say, when he saw the Lord in His glory upon His throne in Isaiah chapter 6, he fell down before the Lord and he said almost immediately, he said, here am I, send me. Go over to chapter 6 and read it. Here am I, and now he said a few other things, but really those things were just as he saw the glory of the Lord, I mean, the greatness of God, he realized his sinfulness, but immediately then, he says, here am I, send me. He didn't even know what, he didn't even know where the Lord had planned for him, but here's the thing, you can see it, it's implied, it didn't matter. He just saw the reality of God Himself. And just to be sent by this God, the glorious God Yahweh, it didn't matter who, what, or where. It didn't matter. Here am I. You, God, just send me. You just send me. It doesn't matter where. The Lord sent Him to His own nation, Israel. To His own family, Judah. He even stood before the King of Judah Himself But here's something we should understand, thinking back to those prophets. Did he just say, did he just come to his family, the tribe of Judah, the only one that was left? Did he just say, oh, let's just get along. Let's just hold hands and everything will be okay. Everything's going to work out, y'all. Let's just quote-unquote love one another and everything's going to be a peace, peace, peace, peace. Is that what Isaiah did? No, he did this. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. For the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters, they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." That's what he did, that's what he said. He also said this, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we do all faith as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us. Why? Because of our iniquities. Now do you think when Isaiah went and proclaimed this to his family, Judah, do you think he was fearful? I would tell you yes. Do you think that the people hated him for it? I would say absolutely. They hated him for it. But here's the thing, he was a prophet, he was a servant of God, and he must declare God's and he must declare the righteousness of God, because only the truth and righteousness of God and the God of truth and righteousness could save his nation. Peace, peace, when there is no peace will not save anyone. It will condemn them to hell. God sent Isaiah. He sent him out into the streets. I see some of the things that the Lord made these prophets do, and I'm like, Lord, I want to send me, just don't send me like that, okay? He sent Isaiah out into the streets naked and barefoot, humanly demonstrating the spiritual reality of the nation. Oh, I am sure he was the talk of the town. I am sure he was the ridicule of the tribe of Judah, the shame of the city. But it didn't matter. He was God's prophet. He was an instrument in his master's hand. Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, was one of the greatest prophets, the greatest men of God that ever lived. God showed him more about the glory of the coming millennial kingdom than any other human being. You can read it in his writings. And according to history, evil King Manasseh, king of his own family, his own tribe, because of Isaiah's relentless commitment and pursuit of truth and righteousness, because of Isaiah's faithfulness to God, because he would serve God and no one else, the king had him sawn in two with a wooden saw. But you see, in God's reckoning, That was God's gift. That was God's reward to this blessed, faithful man, Isaiah. He would be counted in the same number to suffer as the Christ he prophesied. And to the peacemaker in our text, God says, God reckons you He thinks of you, peacemaker, like Him. Oh, indeed, rejoice. What an honor. What an honor. So we see the peacemaker's reception, how others, especially of the world, but shamefully sometimes other believers will see them and persecute them and treat them and hate them. And then how God reckons or how God views them, sees them. He sees them in the same light as the prophets, as his prophets, as his servants. He sees them worthy to suffer like their Savior. But then let's see here just briefly, number three, the reality of the peacemaker. And this actually allows us to see how he sees himself. You may have already noticed, but maybe not, in this passage of the Beatitudes, there are actually two Beatitudes that are directly linked together by the text. They're all founded and built upon one another. We've seen that as we progress through them. The two are directly linked by the words of the text themselves. Verse 5, verse 10, I'm sorry. Verse 10, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now there's no coincidences in God's word. This is intentional. And I think it shows a reality, a mindset, verse 3 is the mindset, that results in an action. Verse 10, so listen. Here it is. What does one who is spiritually impoverished One who is spiritually destitute, one who is spiritually bankrupt, what do they have? Nothing, right? Nothing except what he or she has been given. And what is it that we, the poor in spirit, have been given? You can see it in verse 10, it's righteousness. They suffer for righteousness' sake. We've been given righteousness. Or we could divide it, but it's one and the same. We have been given God's truth and God's righteousness. That's what we've been given. We were destitute, bankrupt, beggars before God. But God came to us and He gave us His truth and He gave us His righteousness. That's what we have. That's what He's given us. And do you realize this is really children of God, saints of God, this is really all we have. It's all we have. And we've been given it in pure mercy and grace to us. God has given it to us and has been given to us from God himself. Listen, if you do not own the truth of God and you do not own the righteousness of God, you can own the whole world and you will be absolutely destitute. You will be, if you do not own the truth of God and the righteousness of God, you will be blindly about to step off into the eternal damnation of hell. But you could be the richest man in the world. You could own all the possessions of the world. But if you do not have God's truth and God's righteousness, in reality you are destined But on the other hand, if you have the gift of God's truth, and you have the gift of God's righteousness, you can own nothing of this world, but yet still, you are the heir of everything. Is that not what the text says? Is that not what verse 3 and verse 10 say? You own the kingdom of heaven. You are heir of everything. But do we really realize this reality? Well, we might say, but guess what? Talk is cheap. Because the implication of the text is that the realization of this reality will be borne out in our actions. If we know truly that all we have is God's truth and God's righteousness, if we truly understand the unequaled and unsearchable value of God's truth and God's righteousness, Will we, can we just sell them out for a bowl of stew? Something that pleases our own flesh like Esau? If we truly know, that's what the whole account of Esau was about, you know. He had something that was given to him by God, his birthright. He'd rather have his flesh satisfied for a moment than possess the eternal gift of God. If we know, truly know the real reality of God's truth and God's righteousness, the real value of them, can we just sell them out for peace, peace, when there is no peace? Can we just sell it out for the preservation of self? Or will we, upon seeing the reality of God's truth and God's righteousness, will we say, Here am I, God. Send me, God. It doesn't matter where. It doesn't matter when. It doesn't matter to whom. It doesn't matter what it costs me. But I will serve you. I will go for you. I will uphold and stand for your truth and your righteousness. I will go for my King. I will go. This is the reality of and reality for the peacemaker. He has nothing, poor in spirit, but he has God's truth and God's righteousness and everything else is inferior to that. Everything else is considered in light of that actually. Lastly, number four, let's consider, in verse 12, the peacemaker's reward. The peacemaker's reward. Look at verse 12. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Great is your reward in heaven. What do you think when you think of rewards, when you think of heavenly rewards? Have you ever considered that? I think sometimes when we think of rewards, especially heavenly rewards, we think of gifts. Gifts just being showered upon us. First understand the word here rendered reward. We need to understand it means a due payment. Uh-oh, a due payment. That's what the word means. Literally a wage earned. for a work performed. That's what reward here means. Just like death and hell is the wage, is the payment due, the reward for sin, so too here this word reward speaks of a wage paid, a payment that is due, a reward in heaven. Here's where it really gets interesting. See the word great? Great is your reward, that word great. The Greek word rendered great here is translated great, just like it is here, about 60 times in the New Testament, six zero. But the same word is translated over 200 times in another way. It is translated by the word many. Many. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for many are your reward in heaven. Saints, do we really realize that our lives are not our own? Our lives as the redeemed of the Lord, as the children of God, they are His. He bought them, He purchased them for His Son and for Himself. Our lives are to be about Him. Our lives are to be lived for His glory and His praise. Every breath of our life is for that. Because here it is. Our lives, this little blink of time between the two eternities, is really all about the souls of men. The souls of people. That's what it's about. It's no coincidence. It's no mistake that the first command is to love the Lord our God with everything. And the second, that is, like unto it, Christ says, is to love your neighbor as yourself. So our lives are to be about God and others. You hear that? Our lives are about to be about God and others. God and others. God and others. Where does I fit in that? God and others, by God's own command. Here, Jesus said, I'll break all the commands down into two. Love the Lord your God with everything and see that neighbor love him as you do yourself. Your life, my life right now, if you don't hear anything else this morning, hear what I'm about to say. Your life and my life right now is having an influence on others. It is having an influence on others, but more, your life right now is having an influence on the eternal soul and state of another. You hear me? What influence are you having? Young people, listen to me. What influence is your life having on others? What influence? Your life is having an influence What are you, what is your life influencing? What is the influence that you are having on another? Are you influencing them for you? Are you influencing them because you say, you think, you desire, I want their friendship, I want their favor, I want their appreciation? This ain't just for the young people, although it is. We do the same things, don't we adults? We interact to others in many different ways because we want something out of the interaction. It's all about I. Is that what our life, is that the influence that our life is having? Or is our life influencing others for the glory of God? Are we more concerned with Him and them than ourselves? Really. We all know, we all understand, don't we children of God, don't we peacemakers? That for a soul to be saved from eternal wrath and hell, they must hear not just not peace, peace when there is no peace. They must hear not how great you are, and not how good of a Christian you are. No, for a life to be saved from eternal destruction, they must hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. They must hear about God's truth and God's righteousness. They must hear about the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is the person of God's truth and God's righteousness. They must hear Him. They must hear the reality of them and the reality of Him. They must hear of the greatness of their sinfulness and the exceeding greatness of their Savior. Well, now let's get real here. That's what the Lord is doing in this text. And it's gonna keep getting realer and realer and realer, all through five, five and six. I asked us, are we more concerned with him and them than ourselves? Well, let's answer that question with another. How many souls will you receive as your reward in heaven. Many will be their reward. How many souls will you receive as your reward in heaven? Well, I don't have anything to do with that. Yes, you do. This reward, this reward is a payment due for a wage or work completed. How many souls? Are you more concerned with yourself than with God and others? And the real answer to that question, oh, we can say that, we can justify it, can't we? But the real answer to that question is at the end of the verse. How many souls will you receive as your reward in heaven? Is your life, child of God, is it committed to God's work? Is our life committed to making true peace? Being a true peacemaker? You remember God's principle of sowing and reaping, right? You must sow to reap. That's logical, isn't it? You must sow to reap. You have to work to get reward. All we have to do is just open the door here and look outside. We see that in action. There have been seeds sown in these fields and there is fruit produced. You have to sow to reap. Well, we should know that the purpose for all of these pictures all around us in God's creation is to show us the reality of the spiritual, not just the physical. As servants of God and stewards of God, there's a spiritual application to the principle of sowing and reaping. We must be about sowing truth and righteousness. And it's hard work. As a matter of fact, the whole point of verses 10, 11, and 12, the whole point is that before the fruit comes, there is guaranteed to be pain, persecution, insult, and the wrath of men. But it's what we do. We must do it. We must give ourselves willingly and faithfully to it. And here's why. Because we know that only truth and righteousness can save the souls of men. Only truth and righteousness can save moms and dads. Only truth and righteousness can save sons and daughters and aunts and uncles and grandmothers and grandparents and friends and loved ones. Only truth and righteousness, not peace, peace, when there is no peace. Only truth and righteousness. Only the gospel, the true gospel, and there's only one in God's Word. Only that can save. the souls of people. We know that because we know it by experience. The truth and righteousness of God is what saved us. And without it, we would have nothing. Without it, there is nothing. There is nothing. King Jesus says to the true and faithful peacemakers. Many will be your reward in heaven. Amen. What other kind of rewards in heaven would we expect? That kind of dawned on me this week. What do you expect when the scripture talks about rewards? What other kind would we expect? Silver and gold? Well, we're going to see this afternoon that we're going to walk on gold really indicating to us that the value of it is nothing. I don't think that many of us are going to go out and collect a bucket of asphalt this afternoon and treasure that, are we? But gold is what the Lord's going to pay the new city with. It's going to be the value of it is nothing. Would it be other things that we desire? Well, we're going to have the all in all himself. There is nothing else that we will desire. Or is it that we will receive the reward, the wage due or higher? Being able to see the souls of men that God saved through us as He used us as His instrument, as He used us to speak, as He used us to demonstrate, to live the truth and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's interesting that passage in Revelation It says of martyred saints, their works shall follow them. Could it be the souls of men? Their works are their rewards. Will you have any reward in heaven? You need to consider that. Will your reward be great? Will it be many in heaven? And I'll tell you, you can't count them now, Only heaven will reveal the truth, so all we can do now, saints, all we can do now, peacemakers, is live our lives for the glory of the Lord and the true peace of others at all and every cost, except for God's truth and God's righteousness, because there is no true peace without that. May God help us. to hear his word this morning for Christ.