Let's take our Bibles and turn
to the book of Matthew, chapter 5. Our Lord is recently being
led into the wilderness by the Spirit
of God to be tempted of the devil. John the Baptist has been thrown
into prison. His disciples are being at this
time, while this chapter is getting ready to be started, being called
by our Lord to his ministry. The Lord has been teaching in
the synagogues and preaching, the Scripture says, the gospel
of the kingdom and healing all manner of diseases and sickness
among the people. And now we have, in this fifth
chapter, the beginning of what we all know is the Sermon on
the Mount. Here is the Master himself speaking. We would do well to hear what
he has to say. He is setting forth in these
first few verses, and I just plan to look at just a very few
of them tonight, probably the first five verses And he sets
forth people that are blessed. Now, what he is getting ready
to say is a mark of a believer. This is the characteristic of
a believer. This is not something that a
believer is going to, number one, admit that he did himself
He can't do it himself. These are characteristics of
a believer. Manifestations wrought by the
Spirit of God. Here the scripture says, starting
in verse 1, in seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. Now,
before we start with what he's going to say, let's realize what's
getting ready to happen. The law was given in a mountain. Here, the one who fulfilled the
law is going to speak from a mountain. He went up into a mountain, and
when he was set, you know the Scripture says that when the
priest would go into the temple daily, never sat down, there
was never a chair. You remember that in the tabernacle? The reason for that Their work
was never done. They could never be done with
the work that the Lord had given them. What they were doing was
in type. Here is the Master Himself, the
fulfillment of all that Almighty God had promised, the fulfiller
of the law. He went into the mountain, and
when He was set, the Old Scripture says that right now He has descended. and is set down on the right
hand of the Father. He has accomplished that which
Almighty God purposed that He would do. He would come and redeem
His people. It is finished. That is what
He said. And He sat down. And when He was set, His disciples
came to Him and He opened His mouth and He taught them. And here are blessed words that
are getting ready to come from the bishop, the great bishop,
Scripture says, of the sheep, the Lord of glory himself. And
he opens his mouth, teaching, and this is what the Spirit of
God has recorded that our Lord said. Number one, blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed, our Lord said, are those
who are beggars in spirit. Blessed are those who get their
living, I guess you could say, by begging, asking. We come to Him like blind Barnabas
we talked about last Sunday. He was a beggar. He was in need. He had nothing. He could offer
nothing. He could do nothing. He was a
beggar. Those that are poor in spirit
are those convinced of their sinfulness in Almighty God's
sight. This is the foundation virtue. No man makes himself to be poor
in spirit. God Almighty teaches a man what
he is. Men are, no doubt, poor in spirit. But these are those who regard
themselves, truly, in themselves, as wretched, miserable, naked. They are opposite of that haughty
and self-sufficient attitude that the world so admires. The world admires those that
seem to be able to get things done by shoving others around. I can handle it. You want something
done, come see me. I'll get it done for you. That's
the world's attitude opposite of that independent and defiant
attitude which refuses to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed,
blessed are the poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit is to realize
that before I have nothing. Before Him, I am nothing in myself. I can do nothing, and I have
need of all things. It is the realization of soul
emptiness before God. Lord, I need You. I need You. I can't. I can't. Now, rest assured. Man, by nature, thinks that he
can. He thinks that salvation is an
offer that he himself has the power or has the right or has
the ability to do with whatever he pleases, when he pleases,
how he pleases. We've read this how many times,
but I've got to read this to you again. I'll read it. John
1.13 says this, speaking of those who have become, by God's grace,
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which
were born, not of blood. You weren't born a Christian
because your mom and dad was a Christian. Because your mom
and dad are believers, it does not make you a believer. Which
were born, not of the will of the flesh, your mom and dad,
I, for my children, I could so desire that my children be believers. And I wish I had the ability,
man says. Now, let me restate that. Man
thinks he has the ability. to be able to somehow manipulate
and to so convince his loved ones on how to be. Let me lead
you through the Roman road. Flip here, flip here, flip there.
If this is so, then this must be so. If that is so, then this
must be so. Therefore, 2 plus 2 equals 4. Say these words, not by the will
of flesh. of the will of man. Men say that
man has a free will, as I have said before. Free will. Now, hear me well. Free. What
does that mean? Free. Hear that word, free. Free
means bound by nothing. Look it up. Free. No bounds. No. It is free. It is free. Well,
what is the bound? What is the catch? No catch.
Free. We are giving away turkeys. Free! What do I have to do? It's free! What do I have to pay? Nothing!
No bounds. Nor of the will of man. Man's
will is not free. He is bound by trespasses, sin. He's dead. He's dead. He's bound
by death. Blessed are the poor in spirit. They are not free. Man is not
free. Poor in spirit is a consciousness
of my emptiness. And this poorness of spirit issues
from the painful discovery that my own righteousness is his filthy
rags, which is in itself a wonderful discovery. that my best deeds apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Unacceptable. Unacceptable. Poorness of spirit brings an
individual, by God's grace, into the dust before Almighty God.
The prodigal son. The Scripture says, he came to
himself. What did it say he was doing?
He was feeding hogs. He was feeding hogs with husk. And the Scripture says he would
fain have eaten the husk themselves. And he came to himself. A Jew
looks at a hog, a pig, and that's an unclean animal. This guy had
come to a point that he was willing to eat the food of hogs. And
he came to himself. A believer is one who, by God's
Spirit and power, has been brought, by God's purpose and will, has
come to see himself. I'm in need. I'm in need. The poor in spirit, the Lord
Jesus Christ says, you go tell John. John sends his disciples
to the Lord and says, Are you the one that we seek? Go tell
John this. The poor have the gospel preached
to them. Not to their ears. The poor in
spirit have the gospel preached to their heart. This is a foundational,
fundamental trait that is found in every regenerate soul. He who is poor in spirit is in
his own estimation of himself, nothing. And Christ is all. John said, He must increase.
I must decrease. I must. Oh, but how does this
poorness in spirit come to be such a blessing? Blessed. That
is what the Lord said. Blessed. Blessed. You say, Boy, I tell you, the
way you were talking about it is just like a man being down
in the dust down and out and lowly and nothing, and the Lord
said, blessed are the poor in spirit. Because he who by divine
grace possesses this spirit of poorness is blessed. He is an heir of the kingdom
of heaven by adoption. That is to say, if the kingdom
of God's grace the kingdom of glory, blessed are the poor in
spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Isaiah 66 says this, ìTo this man will I look, even to him
that is poor, of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.î That
is a characteristic of a believer. No man makes himself that. and
says, I tell you what, I'm just going to humble myself. That's the most proud statement
a man will ever make. I'm just so humble. I'm so proud
of it. Blessed are those chosen, oh,
by the love of the Father, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, called
by the Spirit of God. Blessed, secondly, verse 4, are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those
who are sorrowful over their sin and grieve over their shortcomings. Now, this absolutely must be,
as I said, that first characteristic, a work of the Spirit of God.
It is He, the Holy Ghost, that convinces the heart of sin. Let me read something to you.
Zechariah, let me just turn there, Zechariah 12, 10. The scripture says, ìAnd I will
pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only Son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn. These that are troubled,
they that mourn. Blessed are they that mourn. Now, it's one thing to be sad
because I lost some money. Oh, I tell you, I thought I was
going to make a bundle. I invested in that over there,
and I'm telling you, I don't know what happened to this. Oh,
man! Oh, I'm just so sorry that this
happened here. It's not mourning over things
that are temporal. He's talking about here those
that are troubled over their sin. Those that mourn. Blessed are those that mourn.
by God's grace that mourns over his sin, mourns over that than
anything else in this world. He is more grieved over his disappointing
his Lord. Does it grieve you? I am going
to tell you something. I want you to stop just a second
and think about what he is saying. Because this is the characteristic
of a believer. Blessed are they that mourn.
The world questions how someone can be blessed while they mourn. But the believer rejoices in
that God Almighty has given him a heart to mourn over his sins. An unbeliever hears that and
says, Now, that just doesn't make sense to me. There are some
folks in here that know what I'm talking about. You know exactly
what I mean. It grieves you because of your
disappointment before your Lord. This is a great paradox. But
the regenerate is happy that the Lord has given him a heart
that would mourn over sin. He thinks to himself, if I didn't
care, something would be wrong. I tell you this, it ought to
bother us if sin doesn't bother us. There is a godless sorrow
which worketh repentance to salvation. Sorrow in itself, I know, is
not repentance. Remorse and self-condemnation
and external reformation is neither. Repentance, that is a change
of heart. It is a change of affection from
self and sin and the world to Christ which results from a new
life wrought by the Spirit of God, a new creature. Those who mourn spiritually are
blessed because the Spirit of God has wrought a work of grace
within them and has awakened them to see and to feel by faith
their need of Him again. Oh, I'm telling you, you find yourself in a realization of something
that you know, you know is a disappointment to Him. People say, oh, I'm just
a sinner. I'm just a sinner. To a believer,
that's no excuse. That is no excuse. You say, boy,
I tell you what, I thought you believed in grace. I do. I believe
it is by the grace of God that a man has a heart for Him, saved
by grace, called by grace, kept by grace, sovereign, saving grace. And that man that wrote the majority
by the Spirit of God, Paul the Apostle, that wrote those blessed
words, also was the one that said, wretched man that I am. The things that I would, that
I should be doing, I don't do. And those things I shouldn't,
those that I do, oh, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? Jeremiah said, I loathe myself. I make myself sick. I call myself a believer. By God's grace, if He doesn't
keep me, I'm gone. I know I'd be, but I'm so thankful. Blessed, blessed, blessed man. He'll never leave me. He'll never
forsake me. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. This mourning is from a tender
conscience made so by the Spirit of God. Broken heart. Sorrow over rebellion to God
and hostility to His will. You know, I just, I don't know,
I just wonder sometimes. Every time I see people, and
I'm telling you, it's just always just happy-go-lucky, everything's
great. Man, I'm telling you, I'm just
always right on, you know, three feet above the ground and on
the mountaintop and all this stuff. Well, I'm glad for you. I find myself so seldom in a
place where I can say that. It's a morning that is agonizing
to the believer. It hurts. It hurts. Let me ask you something. Let
me ask you, husband, something. Do you find pleasure in saying
things to your wife or doing things to her that just cuts
her to the quick and you know it? Do you find pleasure in that?
Is that fun? Is it? I mean, do you enjoy saying
things to cut her down or say something in front of somebody
else to embarrass her or something? Do you like that? Is that fun?
Or do you mourn over saying something and you realize it was an embarrassment?
Who are you? Oh, if I could just take that
back, if I could, if I would have just thought for just a
second about our Lord, about our blessed Lord who came into
this world, loved us with an everlasting love, never did one
thing, not one thing, that was not for our eternal good. never,
never did only that which was pleasing in his father's sight.
He came into this world, made himself of no reputation for
the glory of his father, for the good of his bride, and to
say things and to do things that are an embarrassment to ourselves
against him. This mourning, not limited, I'll
guarantee you, to the first time a man ever hears in heart the
gospel, it's a daily realization. In fact, the closer one, if I
can say it this way, knows, the more he knows of Almighty God,
the more he mourns over dishonoring Him. But that mourning does truly
has a comfort. This mourning is the sweet sign
of a sanctified soul. Mourning. Mourning over disappointment. Mourning over my sin. Mourning
over disappointing him. That is a marvelous sign. Let me read you this scripture. Ezekiel 9.4. Ezekiel 9, verse 4. The Scripture says, And the Lord
said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the
midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men
that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done
in the midst thereof, as a mark of life. or a man that mourns
over his sin. You may not see it. And if that
man has got any sensitivity to him at all, he will keep his
mouth shut. But inside, he grieves. How many nights, how many nights,
how many days has God's people mourned over themselves? Come
unto me, all ye that labor, that is, against sin, and are heavy
laden with your inadequacies, I will give you some rest. This
comfort is from the realization of full and free forgiveness
through the merit of his atoning blood. If we confess our sins,
he is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. And then, lastly, for tonight,
Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
those that have nothing spiritually, can do nothing spiritually, offer
him nothing spiritually. Beggars are beggars. Blessed
are the poor. Theirs is the kingdom. Blessed are the mourners. They
will be comforted. And blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth. is the fruit of mourning. It is the fruit of mourning,
of being broken over sin. A man is brought down. That is
what it is. You are brought down. God brings
a man down. That is a good place to be. Those
that are content in a patient spirit before God, meek, those
who are made ready for his sake to take offense and to bear injury
without resentment, you consider our Lord, who is our substitute,
meek. Meekness has something to do. That is a hard word to explain. I can tell you what it doesn't
mean. It doesn't mean weakness. People think that meekness equals
weakness. was a meek man. Our Lord said
of himself, ìLearn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart.î
He said he was meek. People say, ìWell, a meek man,
you know, Iíll run over him.î The Lord said he was meek. And
Iíll tell you this, I bet you in that day that he went into
that temple and took that whip and drove those money changers
out. I bet you they had a different interpretation of what meek meant. Meekness. Walk worthy, Paul says,
of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness
and meekness. So meekness cannot be separated
from lowliness. The Lord made himself of no reputation
in this world, but obedient to his Father. Meekness has something
to do with gentleness. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1, I
beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ to speak
evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness
unto all men. Meekness constitutes a broken,
submissive will and a receptive heart before Almighty God. My meekness. The Lord said, is
to do the will of him that sent me. Submissive. Submissive. That's a blessed man. One that
God brings down to submit himself to Almighty God. In whatever
lot the Lord has laid upon him, people say, oh my, I'm so unlucky. Man, I'm just, a believer says
it's the Lord. It's the Lord. We are going to
rejoice today, whatever this day holds. You know, people quote
that scripture, you know, this is the day that the Lord has
made, we will rejoice, be glad in it. You know, usually they
quote that when everything is fine, the sun is shining and
everything, but I will tell you this, how about if it is the
day that the doctor says, I have got some bad news. In that day,
those that are meek, that's when they'll say, this is the day
that the Lord's made. We'll rejoice. Be glad in it. As for me and my house, it's
what Joshua said. We'll serve the Lord. That's
a grace that is given by Almighty God. It has graciousness as its
basis. It's to quietly submit to God's
providence His word, His rod. The spirit of meekness was supremely
exemplified by the Lord Jesus Christ when David, speaking prophetically
of our Lord, this is the scripture that starts off, ìMy God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?î Thatís verse 1 of Psalm 22. The whole chapter is concerning
our Lord at Calvary, and He said, I am a worm and no man." Nothing
in him, that is, that resists the judgment of Almighty God. Men would trod him underfoot,
mistreat him, spit on him, mock him, torment him. Consider the
great contempt the Lord of Majesty endured in the redemption of
his people. submissive, set his face like
a flint to the cross. For this purpose, he said, I
came into this world. This is where I am going. This is why I came. Though he
was crucified through weakness, 2 Corinthians 13 verse 4 says,
Yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in
him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
Meekness is submissiveness to God's will. That's the bottom
line. To mourn over sin. To be poor in spirit is to have
nothing in myself. Mourners, poor, meekness, characteristics
of Almighty God. Meekness. Let me tell you how
meekness, the scripture says, blessed are the meek for they
shall inherit the earth. You remember when Abraham and
Lot's shepherds, their flock, people that were overseeing their
herd. You remember they had a little
squabble. Now, the herdsmen had a little squabble amongst themselves. And things just weren't going
good. This just wasn't good. And Abraham came to Lot, and
he said, Now, look, we just can't go on like this. We're brethren. We just can't have this. He told Lot, he said, Tell you
what you do. You take the half you want. I'll take what's left. Boy, somebody
would say, man, you left yourself wide open to that. You sure that's
what you want to do? Now, here's meekness. Here's
a man that's meek. Submission to the providence
of Almighty God. Scripture said Lot had a choice.
And what did he do? He set his sight toward Sodom.
He said, I think I'll take that. And Abraham said, OK, that's
fine. You take that, and I'll take
what's left." And Lot got just exactly what he wanted. And Abraham,
who submitted himself meekly to the will and providence of
Almighty God, inherited the earth. Blessed are the meek, blessed
are the mourners, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are
the blessed people. How thankful we are for this
time that we can just come, stop, and consider the wonder of your
marvelous grace that you would grant us the privilege to be
able to look into your Word and be taught by the Spirit of God. How thankful we are for your
good pleasure to raise up and maintain a place where we can
come and assemble ourselves. Father, we pray that you would
forgive us where we have taken so lightly this blessed privilege
and honor to come and assemble ourselves together for the hearing
of the gospel. We pray that you would take that
which has been set forth and pray that it has been set forth
in honor of our matchless, wonderful Savior, and hide it within our
heart, keep it, that we might use upon it. For Christ's sake
we ask these things. Amen.