Let's turn in our Bibles today
to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, reading the
first 10 verses. And seeing the multitudes, he
went up into a mountain, And when he was set, his disciples
came unto him. And he opened his mouth and taught
them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. for they shall be filled. Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. 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. I hope God willing to bring several
messages to us from these verses beginning this morning. They
make up the opening words, of course, of our Lord's sermon,
which is called his Sermon on the Mount. And he preached this
sermon, if you notice, to two different groups of people. He
preached this message, first of all, to the multitudes. If you notice the last verse
of the previous chapter, there followed him great multitudes
of people. And seeing the multitudes, verse
one, he went up into a mountain. So those he is preaching to,
One group is plenteous. One group is a great multitude. But then he's also preaching
to a very smaller group, 12 his disciples. When you look
at the parallel passage in the Gospel of Luke, you see that
this happened after he had chosen his 12 disciples. So we've got
a large group of people. and a very select small group
of people to whom he is preaching. And that's important. That's
important to notice as you read or look through this message.
Now, the verses we're looking at today are called the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes, what are they? Well, some people would say they
are a number of strange paradoxes. Strange paradoxes, especially
when you realize or when you learn that the word blessed means
happy. Happy are the poor in spirit. Happy are they that mourn. Happy
are the meek. Happy are they that hunger and
thirst after righteousness. And so many people would think,
well, that doesn't make sense. The people of this world, especially,
they would say, how can you associate happiness with mourning? That just can't jive. That just can't come together.
Oh, but it does. What we have here are characteristics. Let that sink in. That's what
we have here. We have characteristics of God's
people. Let that sink in now. We have
characteristics of God's people, God's chosen, saved, redeemed
people. We have characteristics of His
people. They're not natural attributes.
You know, some people are just naturally shy, some are naturally
pessimistic, some are naturally energetic, and they've got names
for all of these various character that people are born with. That's
not what we're talking about at all. No one brings these characteristics
with them when they come into the world. These characteristics
are Things that God works in the hearts of his people. And
we're going to see as we go through these, the Lord willing, that
they're true of you. If you're one of his children
this morning, you're going to see yourself. That's the reason
it's so important to bring the messages from these, because
it gives us an opportunity to check up on ourselves. Can I
identify with that? Is that true of me? Can I see
that in myself? Well, this is true. These characteristics
are true of all of God's children. And the order in which our Lord
gave them was not accidental. Especially the first four, I
believe we could say that. Because the first four, we will
see, they duplicate the experience of a sinner when God is working
in his heart and brings him to know Christ. Naturally, one follows
the other. And the two that we're going
to look at this morning, are the first things that a child
of God experiences when the Lord God, the Holy Spirit is working
in his heart to bring him to Christ. And when I say that, I want to
make sure that I remind us that none of these are written in
the past tense. None of them are. This is something
that's true of you today These eight things are true of all
of us here today, but there was a starting point. I guess that's
the way I should say it. There was a starting point for
all of us when God the Holy Spirit began to work in our hearts that
these things became true of us. But they don't, it's not like,
well, I went through that now. That's behind me, and I'll move
on to the next one, and then I'll, it's not like climbing
a ladder, let me put it like that, where you take one step
and then go to the second rung and the third rung. No, these
things naturally follow each other, but they remain in our
lives. As long as we are in this world,
these things will be true of God's people. these eight things,
these eight beatitudes, these characteristics of God's children. Now the first one, verse three,
blessed are the poor in spirit. Now it's not simply blessed are
the poor. Sometimes people like to read
it like that, but that's not what our Lord said. There was
a particular theology that came out of South America a few years
ago. I believe it was called liberation
theology. And basically what they were
teaching is that just because a person is very poor, that that
means they're part of the kingdom of heaven. Poor materially, poor
physically. But that's not true. This is
blessed are the poor in spirit, Now it is true, think about this,
having said that, it doesn't say blessed are the poor and
stop there, but blessed are the poor in spirit. But having said
that, the Apostle James, he tells us this, hath not God chosen
the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
which he hath promised to them that love him? It is true that
many of God's children are poor, materially poor, in this world. The Apostle Paul said something
like this when he wrote to the Corinthians. For you see, your
calling brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble are called. So it is true that God
saves many people who are poor in the things of this world.
But no one is saved unless he is made to be poor in spirit. No one. Actually, material wealth
has nothing to do with this beatitude. Man may have a million dollars
in his bank account. He may be overdrawn $1,000 in
his bank account. Has nothing to do with material
wealth. Abraham, he was a very wealthy
man, we know that. I love to read when he sent his
servant to find a bride for Isaac. And that servant loaded up, I
forget how many camels. He loaded those camels up with
gold and silver and jewels and all kinds of things. And he had
over 300 servants, Abraham did. He was a wealthy man. He was
a rich man. But when he spoke to God, when
he was in the presence of God, how does he see himself? dust
and ashes. That's poverty of spirit. That's
all I am. When he speaks in the presence
of God, Abraham sees himself poor, dust, ashes. That's all I am. Man may be wealthy in the things
of this world and be poor in spirit, Now, let me say again that this
being poor in spirit is not natural to anyone. In fact, generally,
just the opposite is natural. Most of us are very proud and
very haughty, and we can take care of ourselves, thank you.
Don't need anybody's help. I'm sufficient in myself. That's the reason that man wrote
that poem, Invictus, wasn't it? He wrote, it matters not how
straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. Now that's
man by nature. There's nothing poor about that
man. Poor in spirit. Nothing poor
in spirit about whoever wrote those words. This is something
that is wrought in the heart of God's elect people and really
the philosophy of this world. And I think I actually saw this
change in my lifetime where more and more emphasis is placed on
teaching people to confide in themselves. to trust in themselves,
to be self-assertive, self-sufficient. I don't need anybody. I can do
anything. Now, this morning I want to give
us two examples in the scripture, one from the Old Testament and
one from the New Testament, of being poor in spirit, of two
men who are poor in spirit. And the reason I chose these
two examples is because In both of them, we see or get a hint
as to how this poverty of spirit comes about. Here's a man who's
haughty. I'll take care of myself. I don't
need anybody to help me. But all of a sudden, by the grace
of God, he becomes a beggar, a mercy beggar. How does that happen? Well, only God can produce that,
I tell you. Let's look at one of these examples.
If you turn back in the Old Testament to Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah chapter six. The prophet writes, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. Now we learn in the New Testament
that Isaiah had a vision of Christ. It's the Lord Jesus that he sees
here. You can find that in John chapter
12. He got a glimpse of the Lord Jesus. Ha! And we sing that song about him
being poor and lowly, and he was. But he's no longer poor
and lowly. He's now the King of kings and
Lord of lords. And what Isaiah saw here is when
he saw the Lord, he was high and lifted up and his train Now,
a train, from what I've read, is that long robe that comes
behind them, and the longer the train, the higher rank they are. Well, this man here that Isaiah
saw, this one that he saw, his train filled the temple. And
these seraphim, these angels, were crying one to the other,
praising His holiness, His absolute purity, His wholeness. And after all, that is, I believe,
God's chief attribute, His holiness. His holiness. Well, when Isaiah
saw this, what happened to him? He wasn't poor in spirit before
this, but now he is. Read on. Then said I, woe is
me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. Now,
doesn't the scripture say, out of the heart the mouth speaketh?
The reason he said, I am a man of unclean lips, because he realized
he had an unclean heart. Do you know what the scripture
says about our heart? It is desperately wicked. Not just wicked, desperately
wicked and deceitful above all things. And now here, this man
who has a deceitful heart and a desperately wicked heart is
in the presence of God, in the presence of pure holiness. What's the effect? He's poor
in spirit. I dwell in the midst of a people
of an unclean lips. For mine eyes, here's the reason,
for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Now, when
a person comes under the sound of the gospel, here's a person,
maybe he's been raised in a home that has As he's always been
taken to hear the gospel preached, maybe he's in a place for the
first time. But he begins to hear for the
first time. And he begins to hear something
about the fact that the God with whom he has to do is holy. His law is spiritual. It's not just not lying, it's
not even having that desire to lie. Not committing uncleanness,
it's having unclean thoughts that go through your mind. And
what's the effect when a person, when God, the Holy Spirit, causes
a person to know something about God? Become poor in spirit. Begin to realize who I am and
who he is. I should say that the other way,
who he is and who I am. You know, that rich young ruler,
he wasn't poor in spirit, was he? He came to the Lord and,
good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And
our Lord said, well, keep the commandments. Well, all of those
I've done. All of those I've kept. He wasn't
poor. He didn't need anything. I can
save myself. That's basically what he was
saying. I can save myself. No, it's when a person, blessed
are the poor in spirit, it's when a person begins to see himself
in the light of who God is. And the spirituality, if I could
say this, the spirituality of the law of God. It's not just
outward actions, but the heart, those thoughts of the heart,
those desires that a man or a woman have, those desires. Well, that's one illustration.
Now, I want you to look at this one in the New Testament. Isaiah
became poor in spirit. Turn with me, if you will, to
Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke, chapter
number five. Here's a man who was a strong
man. Big man. He was a man who always
spoke out. His name was Peter. Peter. He didn't follow anybody. He
was somebody. I guarantee you, if you walk
down to the seashore where they had their boats and, have you
ever heard of a man named Peter? Oh, yeah. We know him. We know him. His boat's right
down there. We've heard him. We've heard
him. We know something about him.
Well, on this occasion, the Lord came, Luke chapter 5, and borrowed
Peter's boat. Beginning with verse two, it
says, and our Lord saw two ships standing by the lake, but the
fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets.
And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, that's
Peter, and prayed him, asked him that He would thrust out
a little from the land, and the Lord Jesus sat down and taught
the people out of the ship. Now, when he had left speaking,
he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep. Let down your
nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto
him, Master, we know something about fishing. Master, this is something I've
done all my life. And we've just finished working
all night. And we didn't catch anything.
And the best time to fish on this lake, I guarantee you, is
at night. Master, we have trod all night
and have taken nothing. And this is a good picture of
faith, isn't it? Nevertheless, at thy word. Not
what I think, not what I feel. Nevertheless, at thy word, at
thy word, I will let down the net. And when they had thus done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break.
And when they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other
ship, that they should come and help them, and they came and
filled both the ships so that they began to sink. When Simon
Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me,
for I am a sinful man. He's now poor in spirit. Seeing who was in that ship with
him, who he was, the power that he had, that he is a ruler of
all nature. And being in the presence of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only thing he could say is, I'm not
worthy. I'm not worthy to be in your presence. He didn't want the Lord to leave
him. He wanted to follow, and he did. But yet overwhelmed at
this point with being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ,
his only thought was, I'm not worthy to be here. What I'm saying
is he now is poor in spirit. That's a picture of being poor
in spirit. Poverty of spirit in the presence
of God. To be in his presence, Peter,
to be in his presence now, he sees himself as nothing, as nothing,
as not able in himself. You know, Charles Wesley wrote
a number of hymns, and I was looking for this particular hymn
this morning, and I was amazed to see how many in our hymn book
that Charles Wesley wrote. But one of the hymns that we
sing sometimes, Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to the bosom
fly. But I wanted this particular
line, false, false and full of sin I am. Thou art full of grace and truth. That's what it means to be poor
in spirit. to see that the Lord himself
is full of grace and truth, and I, by nature, am full of nothing
but sin. That's all that I am. Well, you
might say, why? Why is the poor in spirit pronounced
blessed? Why? Why did the Lord Jesus Christ
say, blessed, happy is the poor in spirit? Why? Because, now
listen to me. Because the person who is poor
in spirit now, he has the first sure evidence that he is a partaker
of God's sovereign grace working in his heart, that he is an heir
to the kingdom of heaven. You see, a person that isn't
poor, God's way is always to empty. and then fill. His way is always to kill and
then make alive. That's the way God works. And
this is the first mark that we see in a child of God. He becomes
needy. I tell you, Bartimaeus sitting
there beside the highwayside begging, and when he heard Jesus
was coming by, he didn't have any problem at all crying out,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Why? Because he was blind. He had
a need. People that don't have any need,
they'll never come to Christ. They'll never call for mercy.
Oh, if you see yourself today as needy, as poor, as needing
someone to do for you what you can't do for yourself, not most
of it, all of it, you're blessed. Happy are the poor in spirit,
for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Salvation is by grace. And no one deserves grace. You know, some people, they quote
that verse, Ephesians 2, 8. For by grace are you saved, through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. They know
that verse, and yet, when they think about their relationship
to God, they keep looking for something in themselves. something in themselves to give
them assurance. You'll never find it in yourself. The only thing you're going to
find in yourself is poverty, is need, is sin. No, the fullness is in Christ. It's in him. A person who's not
poor doesn't need a savior. He doesn't. Well, let's move
on to the next one hurriedly. Blessed are they that mourn.
Now, this mourning here is spiritual mourning, just like the poverty
is spiritual poverty. Now, we all mourn over different
things. When someone close to us passes
away, we mourn. Why? Because we love that one.
Man may mourn because he gets passed over for a raise or for
a higher position in his job. He may mourn over that. Well,
that's okay. That's natural. But this mourning
here is spiritual mourning. Spiritual mourning. It's what
the Apostle Paul calls godly sorrow. Godly sorrow that worketh
repentance unto salvation. Now, in one of our Lord's parables,
we have a good example of one who mourned. Let me call our
attention to this. Turn with me to Luke chapter
18. I love examples, and I love biblical
examples, if I can find them. And I found one here. Here's
a man who's mourning. Actually, our Lord tells us about
two men, and the contrast is so great. The contrast is so
great. One man, he's not poor in spirit,
and he's certainly not going to mourn. And listen, he's not
going to go home to his house justified either. Look at this
parable, beginning with verse 10. Two men went up into the
temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a Republican. The
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Now, you see, there's
no poverty here at all as we read his prayer. There's no need,
there's no want, he's self-sufficient, he can save himself, he can boast. Put this down before we read
on. God will not share his glory
with another. Now he just will not do that. And he's going to have all the
glory for your salvation if he saves you. He's going to have
all the glory, not most of it, all of it. This man, he wasn't
poor. I thank thee that I'm not as
other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. Do you see anything poor about
that guy? You see any mourning there in his prayer? No, there's
not any. But notice this next fellow,
this publican. And you know, they thought the
publicans, they made them equal with the harlots, remember that.
Publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God. The publicans
and the harlots, they like to hear the Lord Jesus Christ teach
and preach. Why did they like to hear him
preach? Because he dealt with people as we are. Those Pharisees,
they had such a high opinion of themselves and of their righteousness. They didn't need a savior. Oh,
but the publicans. Here's one. He wouldn't even
draw near in the temple. I suppose if we think about the
temple as a large building, a building maybe like this, if he came into
this building, he'd be back there in the foyer, maybe outside.
He didn't see himself as even worthy to come down to the front
of the church building. Why? Because he's poor, spiritually
poor. He wouldn't even lift up his
eyes. I'm not worthy. Everyone, we
just recognize God's above us, don't we? We all know that. God's above us. This poor man,
he wouldn't even lift up his eyes. Why? I'm unworthy. I'm poor. I'm needy. He would not so much as lift
up his eyes into heaven. And here's the problem. It's
not my neighbor. Not my parents. It's not my environment. It's not the preacher's fault.
Here's the problem. My heart is smote upon his breast. The problem is inside my heart. God, this is his prayer, I'm
needy. God, be merciful. And that word
merciful is actually propitious. God, be propitious to me, the
sinner. In other words, he's asking for
an atonement for covering for his sin. What did our Lord say? I tell
you. This man went home to his house
justified rather than the other. You know what justification is,
don't you? It's being declared by God to
be just, to be righteous. That only comes through having
the righteousness of Christ imputed to you. His righteousness becoming
your righteousness. That's what took place with this
man. But he mourned. And as I said this morning, all
of these attributes, they're not written in the past tense.
As a child of God today, we mourn. If you're like some people, when
they lay down at night, they kind of take an assessment of
their day and they think, I wish I hadn't have said that.
Why did I do that? And what do we do? We mourn. That's our life. We mourn because
we're not what we want to be and what we know we should be. As the Apostle Paul said, cried
out one day, Oh, wretched man that I am. Here's a man has no
equal as far as we know as a pastor, as a preacher rather, and a missionary
and suffering for Christ and getting the gospel out in that
day. And yet he calls himself, oh,
wretched man that I am. He's still mourning. And so are you. And I'll tell
you something else. We mourn over what sin has done
to God's beautiful world, don't we? When you read history and
when you look at things as they are today, you can't help but
mourn the deceit, the injustices, the cruelty, how that man can be so cruel to some other man. It's just unreal, isn't it? And
the history of the world is just full of it. I've been reading
about the Crusades recently, and oh, the number of people
that were slaughtered and starved out. And man, why would man do
that? We live in a fallen world. And yet, we know that God's world,
when he created it, when it came from his hands, when he spoke
the world into existence, it was perfect. It was beautiful. It was nothing bad at all. And yet, sin. Sin came in. what it's done to this world.
I think we mourn over the world itself, the situation of the
world. But you know what? We're comforted. That's what he said. Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. How are we
comforted? Well, a person who sees himself
as unworthy, as needy, he's comforted when he hears the gospel. Yes. Yes, I'm guilty, but there's
one who came, and not just anyone, but God's son who came into this
world, and he took my place. He died in my stead. He paid
the debt that I could never pay. We're comforted in knowing that,
and we're comforted also in knowing one day our Lord's coming back
again. And we don't know what we shall be, John said. I like what Jim Groover told me
one time before the Lord took him home. We were talking about
heaven and he made this statement. He said, David, whatever it's gonna be like,
It's gonna be a whole lot better than what we can even think.
And that's true, isn't it? We think about heaven, we think
about being in the presence of the Lord and all the wonderful
things that we read in the scripture. No more tears, no more sorrows,
no more hunger, thirst, all those things. But it's gonna be better
than we can even imagine. You know one of the things that's
going to be so good about it? We're going to be like Him. It
doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him. Amen. I pray the Lord would bless these
words and thoughts to us here this morning.