The Lord Jesus Christ was the
greatest preacher this world has ever known. Let us never
tire of hearing his precious words. Let us never become content
merely to think of the scriptures that have been given to us and
the message of the Lord Jesus Christ in those scriptures as
something commonplace. Let us always be aware of the
privilege that we have to both read and to hear these things
in our day. You come to church to hear a
preacher speak. But I tell you this, that the
best sermon that I will ever preach, the sermon that will
do your heart good and speak to the deepest needs of your
soul, will be that sermon which is closest in content and sentiment
to the things that the Lord Jesus Christ has said. Those things
that are most faithful to his message. And that is my prayer. I don't want to come to you with
clever vocabulary. with sophisticated thoughts,
with any philosophy of how to get through this world easiest,
most successfully, in the best way. Let others deal with those
matters. All I seek is an opportunity
to preach the gospel to you with the faithfulness of the words
of Christ himself and his apostles. Truly, truly, the scriptures
testify of him. Never man spoke as this man. And we come to hear the words
of Christ tonight. In John chapter 6 and verse 63,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. The flesh profiteth nothing. Oh, we go about so much to pamper
and provide for this body, this flesh, and whether it's our mind
or whether it's our muscles or whether it's our appearance,
whether it's our health, we go to tremendous lengths for this
flesh. but ultimately it profits nothing. It is the spirit that is important. The words that the Lord Jesus
Christ spoke, they are spirit and they are life. God grant
us ears to hear those words. God grant us a sensibility to
be able to take these words that Christ himself has spoken and
apply them to our hearts and may they minister to the deepest
needs of our soul. You can feed your mind with all
the wisdom that this world can offer. And you can exercise your
body. You can medicate your ailments.
You can change your circumstances. You can alter your point of view. You can aspire to and attain
all the accolades that men can give. But in the end, it matters
nothing. for the flesh profiteth nothing. The spirit gives life. That spirit is what makes us
who we are. It is our spirit. It is your
soul. If we spent a fraction of the
time upon our soul's need that we do upon our bodily needs,
we'd be better for it. And it's God's Holy Spirit who
bestows everlasting life. That communion, that communication
must come from spirit to spirit. And God is a spirit, infinite,
eternal, and unchangeable. And He ministers to our spirits. That's why that spirit needs
to be quickened. It needs to be awakened. It needs
to be enlivened. It needs to be living. And that spirit, if God would
make us alive, if God the Holy Spirit will speak to us this
night, then we will be blessed beyond measure. No matter how
much or how little we may have in this life, if we have the
Lord, we are rich beyond measure. There is an existence beyond
this life, this body. And I ask the question tonight
in all seriousness, are you ready to meet with God? Are you ready
to meet with God. The Lord Jesus Christ says, the
words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life. The words of Christ are true
life-giving words. So that day when the Lord Jesus
Christ sat down upon the hillside there in Galilee, when he went
up that mountain and when he found that place where he chose
to speak, to deliver this sermon, when he began to preach what
is called the Sermon on the Mount, it was the greatest preacher
preaching the greatest truths for the benefit of those with
the greatest need. Is that not worth hearing? Is that not worthy of our attention? This sermon extends over the
next three chapters, and it was in chapter five, six, and seven
of Matthew's gospel that the Sermon on the Mount was delivered,
or in those chapters. We call the first nine or 10
verses of the fifth chapter of Matthew, the Beatitudes. They are short but profound statements
concerning spiritual life. And it is the first of these
Beatitudes that is before us this evening. In Matthew chapter
5, verse 3, the Lord Jesus Christ says this, Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The first thing I want to point
out in this verse of just a few words really, is the blessedness
which those that the Lord is speaking of possess because of
what they are. These people are blessed for
what they are, namely, poor in spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ
says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, in many ways, we
might think that that is counterintuitive. That's kind of like the wrong
way around. If the Lord Jesus Christ is saying
that the words which he speaks, that the words which he communicates,
that revelation that he brings to men and women, if that is
spirit and that is life, then surely we would say that those
who were most blessed would be those who had most of the spirit,
that had most of the life. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
here is pointing out something very significant. He is saying
that it is poverty of spirit in which our blessedness lies. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now it doesn't mean blessed are
the poor in a material sense or in a financial sense. A life
of poverty is a hard life. Let us never despise the poor
and those who are in need. We do not make a grace out of
poverty, though I dare say that perhaps it is to be preferred
than a life of prosperity and plenty. In Matthew chapter 13
and verse 22, the Lord Himself speaks of the deceitfulness of
riches and how that chokes the Word of God and the reception
of the Word of God. What did the Lord say? The words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. but the deceit of riches chokes
the word of spirit and life. So perhaps there is a place like
the wise man of the Old Testament to say to the Lord in our own
life's experience, remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient
for me. That's Proverbs chapter 30 and
verse 8. Remove far from me vanity and
lies. What is he asking for there?
He's saying don't give me too little and don't give me too
much because in both there is vanity and lies. But just feed
me what I need for the day. The Lord picked up this sentiment
in his own prayer when he said, give us this day our daily bread. And perhaps the happiest men
and women in all of this world are those who have sufficient
for the day. Rather, what the Lord is speaking
of here is not financial poverty or material poverty, but poverty
of spirit. poor in spirit, and he uses a
word, blessed. Some of the newer translations
replace blessed with happy. Well, that may be quite legitimate,
but it doesn't carry the same richness, I feel. A blessedness
is beyond a happiness, surely. There can be happiness in this
world, that lasts for a little while, and then it is gone. But blessedness, when it is granted
by God, when it is declared by the Lord Jesus Christ, when it
is the portion of a sinner, is surely much more to be desired
than the fleeting joys and momentary happiness that comes with the
experience of our senses. No, blessedness is a good word. And if the Lord uses blessed
to describe this condition of the poor in spirit, then it is
good for us to reflect upon it. In truth, if we were coming to
this text in a broad sense, we would have to acknowledge that
all men and women are poor in spirit. There is such a poverty
in all men and women, for they have no knowledge of the spiritual
truths of God. They have no awareness of the
spiritual realities that the Lord Jesus Christ has revealed. Because sin in our life has made
us insensitive and incapable and unable to respond to anything
spiritual from God, we might rightly say that all men and
women in their natural state, in their sinful condition, are
impoverished in their spirits. No one has any ability to stand
before God in his own spiritual strength. We are all spiritual
bankrupts. Nevertheless, there is a people
in this world who know that they are spiritual bankrupts. There
is a people who have been given the knowledge, have been given
such insight and understanding as to realise that before a holy
God they are spiritually bankrupt. Those who are outside of that
group rather have this estimation of their own worth and they rely
upon their own self-righteousness, and they have assumptions about
their own well-being, and they depend upon their own human wisdom. And they say, I'll be all right. I don't believe in God. I don't
think I need to give him any place in my life. I don't have
to imagine that I am answerable to him. I don't care. I'm not bothered. It doesn't
matter. I have chosen a life. I am following
a course. I'm pursuing my ambitions. I'm
going in my own way and I'm happy to be doing so. They are spiritually
impoverished and they are ignorant of the state of their own soul. But some people have had a glimpse,
an insight of the true condition of their hearts. Perhaps you
have. Perhaps you've been made aware
that there will come a time when you will stand before God. and
you have seen something of the depths of depravity in your own
soul. Perhaps you've been in those
places where you've said to yourself, surely that wasn't me that said
that thing. Surely that wasn't me that did
that thing. Surely I wouldn't have been in
that place. And yet you know that in your
own soul, in your own mind, from your own lips, by your own hands,
the sins that you have committed, not only against one another,
not only against those that you love, not only against those
in this world, but against God himself, rise up in your conscience
and speak against your soul. Have you ever felt that? Have
you ever felt that sense of guilt? That weight of inadequacy? That awareness that if God were
to hold you this day accountable for your sins, that he must in
all justice say, depart from me ye wicked into everlasting
punishment? I know you not. The Lord Jesus Christ shows us
just how poor we are in our spirit. In the midst of this world that
is heading headlong to destruction in its absolute ignorance, then
truly we have been blessed. There is a minority, there is
a remnant, there is a little flock, there are individuals
here and there, one from a family, two from a tribe, two from a
city, who have been called out from this world by the power
of God the Holy Spirit and brought into a knowledge of the truth,
brought to realize their sinful state before the Holy God. And if you're numbered amongst
that little flock, then truly you are blessed. And the Lord
Jesus Christ recognizes that. Are you sensitive of your need? Are you aware of your sin? Do you realize the predicament
that you are in? Most presume themselves to be
rich. It takes a spiritual awakening. It takes a quickening. It takes
a work of creation. It takes God himself to open
our eyes and our ears to understand the true nature of our souls. So there's the question. Are
you a spiritual beggar? This word, Poor in spirit can
be interpreted as a beggar. Such is the poverty that we have
to go before the Lord and beg for his mercy. Such is our state
that we must go before him and plead that he will be gracious
to us. Are you poor in spirit? then
you're blessed indeed. One of the old English hymn writers
expressed it like this. What comfort can a saviour bring
to those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. New life from him we must receive. before for sin we rightly grieve. Friend, if you are a spiritual
beggar tonight, if you are self-confessedly poor in spirit, then God himself
has declared you blessed. because he's already at work
in your soul. He it is who has revealed these
things to you. Not by nature have you understood
the true condition of your heart. Not by human wisdom have you
probed the depths of your own sin and wickedness. But by the
illumination of grace, by the spiritual involvement of God
in your life, have these gifts been granted. We trust that the Lord will be
pleased to teach us what it is to be poor in spirit. You know,
if he has given you this glimpse, what few in this world know. You know your nature, and you
know your condition, and you know that your own heart and
soul have need of the mercy of God. Your words in the quietness
of your own heart before the Lord are words like those uttered
by the publican when he went up to the temple to pray. You
say with him, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That is the
testimony of those who are poor in spirit. Their constant prayer
is that He will be merciful to us in our sin. So the Lord Jesus Christ declares
these people blessed for what they are, blessed because they
are poor in spirit. And He also declares them blessed
for this reason, They are blessed because of what has been done
for them. They're blessed because of what
has been done for them. This Holy Spirit work of grace,
this illumination, this understanding that has been dispensed, this
revelation that has been granted in the sinner's soul by which
they in turn grieve for their sin and come to Christ seeking
mercy, come to Christ looking for grace and pardon and forgiveness. That's not the beginning of the
work of salvation. It might be the beginning of
the experience of salvation in the life of an individual. But
what we soon learn is that God has been at work long before
we first began to feel the pangs of our own conscience. And we
learn that a salvation was wrought for us, was worked out for us,
was established in eternal places and secured hundreds, nay, thousands
of years ago by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We do not save
ourselves when we come seeking mercy from the Lord. We are seeking
that He will apply to us the benefits of those things which
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished long, long ago when He came into
this world and died on the cross. The Holy Spirit opens a sinner's
awareness to His need. But that need is satisfied out
of God's goodness and grace in what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. Let me explain this. If the Holy
Spirit opens our eyes to see our sin, let me tell you that
for most people in this world, that will never happen. But if
he does, if he does, If he opens our understanding to know our
condition and to grieve for it, it is because he plans to bring
us to that place of receiving all the blessedness which God
has for us, that God has planned to give us for eternity, that
God first arranged to bestow upon us in his loving kindness
and in his desire to bring a people to himself. It is because the
Holy Spirit plans to bring us to that place of experiencing
the grace of God in our own life and the forgiveness of our sins. Salvation, we've said it before
and we'll say it again, is not a free offer. Salvation isn't
offered freely to everyone. Salvation is a free gift. and the difference is immense. If it was an offer, it would
be available for everyone. If it is a gift, it is bestowed
at God's behest and purpose in his time to whomsoever he will
in his way. And salvation is a gift from
God. It is planned by God. It was
executed by God, it's accomplished by God, and it's applied by God. God the Father thought it, the
Lord Jesus Christ bought it, and the Holy Spirit brought it. And these great privileges of
grace are freely bestowed upon those whom the Holy Spirit works
upon to show them their need of a Saviour. The poor in spirit
are blessed because their grieving for sin reveals to them that
they are amongst those loved by God from all eternity. If we grieve for our sin, it
testifies to the fact that God has loved us from before time,
that the Lord Jesus Christ had given to him our soul, that he
might redeem that soul out from under the curse of the law, out
from under the condemnation of sin, that he might pay the price
for it, and that price being paid might never more be demanded
of us personally. The Lord Jesus Christ has secured
and accomplished everything needful for the salvation and deliverance
of the chosen elect people of God. And God the Holy Spirit
begins the process of applying those gifts and graces to the
heart of a sinner by showing him or her the poverty of their
own soul. We are set apart for God's glory. We have been bound together from
all eternity in union with him. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to save us by his own blood, by that sacrifice upon the cross. And now he intercedes for us
there in heaven at the throne of God. Blessed indeed. Blessed indeed are the poor in
spirit for what they are and for what has been done for them. There's another little verse
in Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 30, verse 26. And it says this. It says, the
Cones are but a feeble folk. You know what a Cone is? Is that
a word that you're familiar with here at all? A coney is a little
rabbit. It's a little rabbit that is
so timorous that as soon as you see it, or as soon as it sees
you, it's scurrying away into the undergrowth or down a hole. A coney is a rabbit. And it says
in Proverbs, the coneys, or the rabbits, the rock rabbits, the
coneys are but a feeble folk. Yet make they their houses in
the rocks. And so that's what they do. That's
what they do. That's where they get their protection.
They put their burrows into the rocks and thereby they are safe
and secure from their foes, from their predators. But what a lovely
picture that is of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
we think of ourselves as conies, a feeble folk, and yet they make
their house in the rock, that rock which is Christ Jesus, that
rock which is the foundation upon which we stand, that rock
which is the ground of our acceptance with God. There is a people in
this world whose weakness whose feebleness, whose poverty of
soul, whose complete emptiness as far as this world
is concerned, they are despised, they are looked upon as being
ridiculous, they are thought about as being inconsequential
in every way. But that people are the very
people that God is pleased to delight in, that He has been
pleased to choose, that He has redeemed by the blood of Jesus
Christ, that He sends His Spirit to quicken and to open their
eyes and to trust in their Savior, Jesus Christ. They are a feeble
folk indeed, but when they discover their security in Christ the
Rock, they are safe, they are secure, and they are protected
for all time and for eternity. They are blessed because the
Lord Jesus Christ has died for them, and he has taken away their
sin. He has removed guilt far from
them, And He has called them His own, and He delights in them. These people are blessed for
what they are. They are blessed for what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done for them. And lastly, they are blessed
for what is prepared for them. What did the Lord say? Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Are
you poor in spirit? Are you a spiritual bankrupt? Are you a spiritual beggar? then
the blessings of God that the Lord Jesus Christ has won for
you are huge and immense and all-glorious and eternal. And yours is the kingdom of heaven."
Oh, we're blessed indeed, friends, if we are the Lord's. what it
must be like to be without faith in this world, to be without
faith in that moment of death, to be entering into eternity
naked and without a friend. Blessed indeed we are to be the
Lord's people. blessed for what he has prepared
for us. The Lord Jesus Christ says that
we shall have the kingdom of heaven. Now that's interesting
that he should say that or that Matthew should record it in this
way because the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are phrases
which are interchangeable. And indeed one of the other gospel
writers in writing upon this sermon and employing the very
words of the Lord in Luke chapter 6 verse 20 calls it the kingdom
of God that we shall inherit. So the kingdom of heaven and
the kingdom of God is the same thing. And the fact that we are
inheritors of this kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God, the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, this is for you, this
is yours, tells us that we are blessed indeed. This phrase,
it can mean the gospel. It is broad in its usage in scripture. It can mean this age in which
the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled the purposes of God and brought
about the full revelation of the purpose of God in salvation. The kingdom of heaven or the
kingdom of God. It can mean the gospel, it can mean the age of
grace. And if that is the meaning here,
then what it says is this, that this Kingdom of God, this Kingdom
of Heaven is for the poor in spirit. This gospel, this revelation
of grace, it's for the poor in spirit. That's what it was designed
for. That's who it's appointed for. That's who it's given to. It's
given to those who are poor in spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ
himself uses it often in the parables. He'll say, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto. a sword that goes forth to sow
seed, or a net that is cast, or whatever it might be. The kingdom of heaven is likened
unto, and it's a picture of the church, it's a picture of the
people gathered, drawn in this gospel age, those beneficiaries
of the gospel revelation of Jesus Christ. Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is
the gospel. The gospel is yours. The message
of grace is yours. What a privilege we have in this
world. We are heirs. If our father was
a millionaire or a billionaire, we might go through life thinking
that we were charmed. We had a charmed life. We had
so many benefits just handed to us on a plate. We wouldn't
have to work and we wouldn't have to worry and we wouldn't
have to be concerned about all the concerns that so many other
people have. And we may well be right to an
extent that we could have. a very happy and pleasant life. But it will come to an end. The
flesh profiteth nothing, but hold what we have in comparison
in knowing that all the blessings of the gospel, all the blessings
of grace are ours for time and for eternity. A blessed people
indeed. And yet I think probably on balance
the reference here is to heaven itself. That what the Lord Jesus
Christ is saying is that heaven is ours. The Gospel is ours. The blessings
of Christ's work, they are ours. And they will lead us into that
heavenly realm, that union with God, that audience with the Almighty
for all eternity. We think of God and we are so
benighted, so limited in our grasp and in our comprehension.
The Lord God is infinite. Now we struggle with the concept
of infinity because we always want to nail something down. We always want to put a number
on something. We always want to think that
we can call something by a name. If we can name it, then we can
begin to understand it. But God is infinite. He's beyond
our vocabulary. He's beyond our intellect. He's
beyond our awareness. He's beyond our comprehension.
And when we get to heaven, he will still be beyond our comprehension. And every single day of eternity
we will waken up and we will say, wow, what a God we have. I actually don't know if you
do waking up in heaven, but let's just say that you do. What a
God we have. He will always be infinite. He
will always be more profound, more glorious, more wonderful
than we can ever imagine. And it is to be our lot, day
after day, after year, after millennia, into eternity forever. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's theirs! It's meant for no one else but
them. It's designed for them. It's
built for them. It's made for them. It's a kingdom
and it has a throne in it and there is a king upon that throne
and he rules and he bestows all his magnanimity and his generosity
upon his people. It's a kingdom. And it's heavenly. He has made it so. He who is
the creator of all things in the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth. He created it. He created it
designedly. He created it purposefully. He created it with the inhabitants
in mind. He thought to himself as the
grand architect, what will best suit them for all eternity? Right, that's how I'll build
it. And heaven is designed for us. He said to his disciples, I go
to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again. How do people face eternity without
Christ? How do people face death without
any hope in the afterlife? How shall we escape judgment
if we neglect so great salvation? The Lord Jesus Christ says to
the poor in spirit, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. Where is that? in heaven, seated
at the right hand of God. Who's it for? The poor in spirit. Poor in spirit, but rich in prospect. Matthew 5.12 says, Rejoice, and
be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. The
psalmist says thus, Psalm 17 verse 15. As for me, as for me,
I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy lightness. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.