Matthew chapter 5. Now Thursday
we looked at the subject of assurance. Assurance. And I've been thinking
about that all week. I've continued to think about
that. You know, our true assurance is the object of assurance. objective assurance. That is,
our true assurance is the object of our faith. He's our assurance. Christ is our assurance. that
he will save us, that he will do everything that needs to be
done, and he will save us. That's our real true assurance. But when we think about assurance,
we tend to think about subjective assurance, a feeling within us,
a feeling in our heart. And while I thought about this,
this scripture came to my mind, and I thought, we need to remember
what our master taught us. Matthew 5, verse 3. Here's what
he said. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Our subject is the blessing
of poverty. Now Christ is here describing
a very small remnant. There's only been a very small
remnant in any generation who knew what they really are in
themselves before God. They know what they are in themselves
before God. I only want to deal with verse
three here, but I want to read through all of this, these Beatitudes,
just to see what our Redeemer said. Let's read these before
we get into this verse three. He said, 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. 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. And you know that reward in heaven
is Christ. He's our reward. He's our reward. Now let's go back. I wanna look
at verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I wanna look at the persons
spoken of here. I wanna look at their privilege
and then their portion. Now first of all, the persons,
the poor in spirit. Now notice it's poor in spirit,
poor in spirit. Now, according to God's purpose
and according to God's predestination, the majority of those that God
saves in this world are poor in worldly possessions. They
are poor in worldly possession. You see your calling, brethren,
how not many wise men, not many are after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. For God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. There's not many. Hearken,
my beloved brethren, James said, 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? But if we're poor in
worldly things, that's okay, that's fine, because God made
it so. First Samuel 2.7 says, the Lord
maketh poor. He didn't just save people because
they were poor, He made them poor in worldly possession. And they were His chosen from
before the world was made. He makes poor. Christ came from
the riches of glory and He became poor in worldly things. He was
in the riches of heaven in the world. Untold riches he came
down to this place and became poor he didn't own anything while
he walked this earth He didn't have a place to lay his head
and you know who he identified himself with the poor and needy
That's who You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that
though he was rich yet for your sakes He became poor that ye
through his poverty might be made rich He called out poor
fishermen and spent his days with them. He walked in and out
and around and about the poor. He warned us about riches of
this world. He said, you think how impossible
it would be for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
He said, that's how impossible it'll be for a rich man to enter
into heaven. But with God, all things are possible. But you
know what God's gonna do first? He's gonna make you poor. He's
gonna make you poor. Literally, that's what happened
to the Apostle Paul. He was rich before conversion. After conversion, he became poor
in worldly possessions for the gospel's sake, for his brethren's
sake. He described himself as troubled,
persecuted, cast down, poor, and having nothing. But here's
the thing about a believer. If we have nothing in worldly
possessions, scripture says we're poor yet making many rich. We have nothing yet possess all
things. That doesn't sound right to a
natural man. That doesn't sound possible to
a natural man because you can't see that with natural eyes. That's
how it is spiritually. But here's the truth of the matter.
A sinner can be poor in worldly possessions and be rich in spirit. What do I mean by that? Well,
all are poor in spirit in reality. All are, but the majority think
themselves rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. In reality, all are poor in spirit,
but not everybody sees it. Not everybody knows it. Most
think they're rich. They think they're rich. To be
rich in spirit is for a man to think himself to be rich in the
freedom of his will, rich in good works, rich in the knowledge
he has of God, strong in faith, strong in knowledge and understanding. Somebody that thinks they're
full of good works, thinks they're triumphing over their sin, getting
better and better and better as they go. Progressing constantly
in holiness. That's somebody who's rich in
spirit. They think themselves rich in spirit. Among a natural
religious men and women, you won't find poverty of spirit
that Christ is talking about here. A natural man does not
see himself or know himself to be poor in spirit. He sees himself
as rich in spirit. That's the worst place you can
be, to see yourself rich in spirit. It's a terrible place to be.
Christ declares the blessed are poor in spirit. Now what is that? What is it to truly know yourself
to be poor in spirit? It's to see yourself and own
yourself as nothing but a destitute bankrupt sinner. That's what
it is to be poor in spirit. It's somebody who knows they
need God's mercy every hour of every day. Not only in doctrine, but in
spirit and in truth they know this. Not only in spirit and
truth, but in act they know what sinners they are. Not only in
act, but in their very heart they know how corrupt they are.
If spiritually you have nothing, and you know that in you, you
have nothing, you know you can do nothing, you're totally nothing,
poor in spirit, you're flat broke spiritually, you're bankrupt
spiritually, you're in debt spiritually, you have total inability spiritually,
if you know this about yourself, Christ says, blessed are the
beggars. That's what that word also means.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. It could just as well be translated,
blessed are the beggars. The poor in spirit believe on
Christ. The Holy Spirit has come. He's
given life. He's made you to know yourself
so that you look out of yourself to Christ and there's your only
confidence is in Him. The Holy Spirit has shown you
the poverty you are in yourself. He's made you to know the poverty
you are in yourself and so as a beggar you look only to Christ
for righteousness and holiness and completeness and acceptance
with God. That's somebody poor in spirit. Christ is their only righteousness.
He's their only holiness. Apart from Christ giving us this
understanding and giving us faith to believe on Him, we know we're
too poor to possess anything. We're constantly begging Christ
for more faith. Do you constantly beg the Lord
to increase your faith? You do. If you're poor in spirit,
you do. You're constantly asking the
Lord to save you from you. You know what it is to be assaulted
by Satan. Constantly. You know what it
is to be assaulted by your sin nature. Constantly. And so you're
constantly asking the Lord to put a hedge about you and protect
you from the devil. You're constantly asking the
Lord to turn you from being confident in you. To turn you from putting
any value on anything you do. To save you from yourself. That's what it is to be poor
in spirit. The poor in spirit are those that mourn. And they
mourn because our love to Christ. Our love to Christ is so cold
and so faint. And at the same time, we see
Christ's love to us is hot and zealous. And that's just the
opposite of us. You're not gonna hear a believer
going around singing, oh, how I love Jesus, because we just
don't have much love. We just don't have much love.
When Christ sat at the table, that night, he said, one of you
will betray me tonight. Poverty of spirit was quick to
ask, Lord, is it I? That wouldn't surprise me. If
you're poor in spirit, you'd be the last to be surprised if
you were the one that would betray Christ. Judas was the last one
to ask it. And I think he just asked it
because the others did. Because he didn't expect it. He was rich in spirit. Poverty of spirit says, if the
Lord doesn't save me, then I won't be saved. If the Lord doesn't
make me righteous, I have nothing to offer. I can't look to my
works for holiness. When God says, be ye holy for
I'm holy, that makes the man poor in spirit. flee to the Lord
for holiness. The proud man, the rich in spirit,
immediately thinks, well, I need to look to the law. I need to
look to my works. I need to really check out what
I'm doing. The poor in spirit says, Lord,
how can I be holy unless you make me holy? We make a mistake looking for
this grand feeling of assurance in our own hearts, in our own
spirits. The Lord will make you know that
underneath you are the everlasting arms. He'll make you know that.
He's not gonna leave you without some feeling of assurance. I
wouldn't want an experience of God's grace that was unfeeling. There's some feeling in knowing
God. but we make a mistake looking
to that feeling. Because just think about it,
if you look to a feeling and you had this feeling that you're
safe and secure and that you really know him and you've got
this wisdom and these good works or whatever that gives you this
feeling of assurance, aren't you really assured in that feeling
rather than in Christ? You see, this thing doesn't make
sense to a natural man, but when you are poor in spirit, that's
what keeps you at Christ's feet, with your assurance being in
Him rather than in yourself. I want it to be in Christ, don't
you? All spiritual blessings are in
Christ. I want my blessings to be in
His hand, not mine. I'm thankful Christ is the author
and finisher of faith. I'm so thankful God's not looking
to the quantity or quality of this little mustard seed that
I have called faith. I'm thankful Christ is the wisdom
and power of God because I don't have any apart from him. I'm thankful that when my heart
condemns me, God's greater than my heart. I'm thankful that the
foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. There may come a day when I don't
know me, much less know the Lord. But I'm thankful he knows them
that are his. Now let's look here at the privilege.
What's the privilege of these that are poor in spirit? Our
Lord says they're blessed. The word means well off. It means
happy. They're blessed, they're happy,
and they're rich. Our Lord is so different than
that. Our Lord says come by without money, without price. Our Lord
says those that are poor, they're rich and well off. Poor in spirit. Natural man, especially a naturally
religious man, looks at these things and says, no, uh-uh. He
says, this is the truth. It doesn't make sense to sinful
flesh. He says, this is the truth. You
say blessed are the poor in spirit? Natural man says, no, blessed
are the rich in spirit. Confident, strong. A natural
man says, blessed are they that mourn? That doesn't make sense. To be blessed is to rejoice,
be always happy. Well, God's people are happy,
but we're mourning while we're happy. They say, they hear blessed are
the meek, and a natural man says, well, I'm meek, I'm humble, and
he's proud of it. My will's my own. Don't you infringe
on my rights. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Natural man says no. It's more
blessed to be well fed and fat. You'll be able to point out your
works and see what you've done for the Lord so you can show
people you and what you've done. Blessed are the merciful. An
actual man says, just look how they treated me. You expect me
to be merciful to them? I'm merciful most of the time.
But now, they don't deserve mercy. They deserve vengeance. That's
what's in the heart. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Blessed are the peacemakers. An actual man will say, yeah,
now that describes me. That describes me. I'm holier
than thou. Come not near me, and if you
do, I'll wage war on you. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake. Natural man says, no, blessed
are those that are in ease in Zion. God says, cursed are those
that are at ease in Zion. These things are backwards. to
a natural man. He doesn't understand these things.
He doesn't see any reasonableness about these things. But believer,
if you're suffering from poverty of spirit, if you're longing
for a token of Christ's presence, Christ says you're blessed. Christ says you're well off.
If you're mourning, weeping in your spirit, Because you see
yourself so poor in spirit, mourning over your sin, mourning over
your unbelief, God says, you're well off. You're rich. You're
rich. You'll be comforted. There's
a great happiness to a believer who mourns his sin because Christ
is his only comforter. This is better experience than
explained or declared because how can you explain to somebody
how you could weep and mourn and be poor and be comforted
and be well-off and rich and blessed and happy? You just gotta
experience God's grace to understand it, don't you? Do you hunger and thirst for
Christ, your only righteousness? Christ says you're blessed. He
says you'll be filled. You'll be filled. Only those
that are empty are filled by God. Only those that are mourning
are made to laugh and be happy. Only those that are poor are
made rich. You've heard me say before, the way up with God is
down first, first down. And don't ever turn around the
other way. It's constantly in this life, seeing ourselves and
seeing what we are and going down, down, down and seeing Him
higher, higher, higher. John said, He must increase,
I must decrease. God feeds you with the gospel
of His sovereign electing grace, reminding you He chose you freely
in Him. That's what He fills us with
when we're hungry and thirsty. Thankfully He doesn't let us
feed on this flesh. He doesn't let us feed on something
in this life. He feeds you with the blessing
of particular redemption that Christ come and He secured the
redemption of all His people by His shed blood. Thankfully,
when we mourn and we weep and we hunger and we thirst and are
persecuted, the Holy Spirit of God never stops drawing you irresistibly
to Christ's feet. That's what it is to be drawn
irresistibly to Christ's feet, is to be made poor, bankrupt,
hungry, thirsty, mourning. Those are the only ones you're
gonna find around Christ's feet. The true child of God sees himself
poor, sins his only possession. He's empty of righteousness in
himself. He's tossed and turned by Satan's assault. But Christ
says that very poverty is the result of God richly blessing
you. If you're gonna be richly blessed,
the result's gonna be poverty of spirit. A natural man doesn't
even want that. That doesn't even sound appealing
to a natural man. Nothing spiritual sounds appealing
to a natural man. Nothing. God has to give you
this hunger and this thirst. God has to make you want his
blessing rather than the blessings of your flesh and of this world.
Christ says to every child of God in poverty of spirit, blessed
are the poor in spirit. How's that? Listen to this, Ephesians
1-3 says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. We're rich and we're blessed
because our blessings are in Christ. All blessings are in
Christ, in his heart rather than in my heart. In His hand rather
than in my hand. In His works rather than in my
works. All my blessings are His to give.
In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace. Riches. Poor? You're rich. In His grace. In Christ. and he's abounded toward us,
not just a little scant measure, he's abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of
his will. This world doesn't know the mystery
of his will. He made it known to you according
to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself. You think
about our love. It waxes and wanes It's just,
it's so little to begin with, and then it's hot, cold. Love in God's heart's everlasting. It's without variableness, without
a shadow of turning. The blessing of eternal life
is safe in Christ, who is our life. What if you had to protect
eternal life? What if God gave it to you and
said, okay, you have eternal life now. Now get from here to
the end of your life and keep possessing it. Aren't you glad
he didn't do that? Christ is my life. I'm glad he's
my life and I'm not the one trying to hang on to eternal life. Eternal redemption. What if God
said, you have redemption, but now, If you mess up tomorrow,
you're not going to have it anymore. I wouldn't make it till tomorrow. But it's eternal redemption because
it's in Christ who's eternal and whose blood is effectual.
Do you know the sound of this trumpet? Do you rejoice in it?
Do you hear this sound? Scripture said, blessed is the
people that know the joyful sound. Do you remember who Christ was
anointed to preach to? He didn't say I was anointed
to preach to the rich. He said I was anointed to preach
to the poor. The poor. The poor in spirit
will hear this sound and they'll rejoice in this message. Our
blessing, our happiness, our riches is this. When I'm weak,
Then am I strong, for the power of Christ rests upon me. Aren't
we, and we're a, just a strange being to ourselves, aren't we?
When we're weak, and we're really weak, and we're mourning our
weakness and all that, God says that's when you're really strong.
When you see you have no strength but Christ, that's when you're
really strong. And we have a tendency to not want to be in that state. We don't want to be in that morning
state. We don't want to be in that week
state. And that's our sin nature, because when we're stronger in
ourselves, we're really weaker spiritually. We just don't get
it. We just don't really get it.
To be weak in spirit, to be cast down, to be totally Looking out
of yourself to Christ in him alone. That is strength Because
he's our strength The happiness of the poor in spirits knowing
this now listen. This is our happiness right here.
I am nothing But Christ is all This world just don't say you're
nothing I You need to be proud of yourself.
You need to have some self-confidence. Believers have self-confidence.
Way too much. But to know in spiritual matters,
I'm nothing. Christ is all. That's to be rich. And that's to be happy. It's
to know when I'm vile, I'm corrupt, I'm totally depraved, but in
the person of my great and glorious head, I'm without spot and without
blemish or any such thing. I'm perfect. I'm accepted. I'm complete in Him. That's happiness. That's blessing. That's the riches
He's talking about. You only can know this when you're
poor in spirit. You can't know this unless you
know yourself to be vile, corrupt, nothing but spots, nothing but abomination of God
in yourself. so that you see and know and
trust that Christ is your only acceptance with God. In Him,
you're perfect. In Him, you're complete. That's
riches. What is this happiness? What
are these riches if we have all our poverty in ourselves and
behold all our riches in Christ? What is it? What is our portion? What does he say we have? Here
it is. Here's our possession. Theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Now get what the Lord's saying
here. And don't miss this. Listen very carefully and think
on this and get this. Get this. Christ says, you know,
somebody else could say, I don't have any assurance. I don't have
any subjective assurance. I don't feel assured in my heart. I just, I feel so poor and weak
and nothing. And I just, and at the same time,
this person is saying Christ If Christ doesn't save me, I
won't be saved. Christ is all. I must be saved by Christ and
Him alone. But I don't feel anything in
me that gives me any confidence in me. Listen to what Christ
is saying to us right here. True spiritual poverty, rather
than disqualify us for what is to come, is instead the earnest
and the foretaste of the enjoyment of enduring eternal riches. Do you get that? I don't feel
anything of myself but poverty. I don't see anything but sin
and wounds and bruises and putrefying sores from the top of my head
to the sole of my foot. That's all I am is nothing. Christ says, if Christ is your
all, if he's your only confidence, if he's the only one that you
trust to save you, rather than your feelings, rather than your
confidence in your profession. Him alone. Christ says, that
doesn't disqualify you. That makes you rich in all the
blessings of God. We need to get that. We need
to understand that. This thing of the full assurance
of faith and the full assurance of understanding and the full
assurance of hope, it's about having all my assurance in Christ,
not in my heart. Christ says this to you that
are poor in spirit. All things are yours, and you're
Christ's, and Christ is God's. That's what our Lord means when
he says, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You possess all things. If Christ is your all, then you
possess all. It's a good thing to be poor
in spirit, a good thing. Let's stand together. Father, thank you for this word.
Thank you for teaching us this when you walked this earth. Thank
you for reminding us in your word and bringing us a message
to remember not to be looking within at ourselves and looking
for some riches in us to assure us. Make us look out of us to
Christ only. Lord, will you bless this word? Lord, make us to see our poverty
of spirit. Make us to see the riches we
have in Christ, how unsearchable, just how full we possess everything
in Him. Lord, we pray you truly meet
with us this hour. As we take a break here and we
come back, don't let us forget this. Help us to talk about it
to one another. Help us to come in and sit down,
prepare ourselves to hear your word again. Lord, take the world
out of our hearts for just a little while. Let us truly meditate
on the things of God. We ask you this and keep us thinking
on it. Lord, forgive us for our rambling
and our thoughts being here and there and everywhere. Lord, focus
us on Christ. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen.