Matthew chapter 5 again this
morning. I want to read verses 1 through
12 and then we will deal primarily with verse 3. Let me read these
to you. Matthew 5 verse 1. And seeing
the multitudes, the Lord Jesus Christ 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. 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 exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ begins
here in verse 3 with this word, blessed or blessed. And it's one of those words that
is used so much in our day that it's like anything that becomes
a catchphrase or a word that's just so commonly used, it loses
its meaning. But the word means highly favored
by God. In this case, supremely favored
by God. The first place the word is used,
if you'll turn with me, is Genesis chapter 1 and verse 22. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 22. And what we read is, God had
created the whales, an ever-living creature that moves, and the
waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged
fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. And verse
22 says, And God blessed them. Who did the blessing? God did. How did He do the blessing? God blessed them saying. He blessed
with His Word. And what was the substance of
the blessing? Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the waters and the seas. And by speaking, by blessing
and speaking, God made them what He blessed them to be. Sinners
pray to God to bless men, to bless our brethren. But when
God blesses according to His purpose and His power, He effectually
makes sinners to be possessors of His blessing. And so here,
really we have a demonstration of a comprehensiveness of what
a blessing is. We have the incarnate Word of
God, Christ Jesus the Lord, who was made flesh and dwells among
us. We have Him. speaking the Gospel, the Word
of God. And we have Him telling, teaching
what it is He does when He blesses, or the character of those that
He has blessed. Now these are not stages that
a believer strives for, one by one. or that he gradually attains,
or that he arrives at little by little. These things tell
us what a believer is in whom God has effectually, upon whom
God has effectually blessed. Every believer is poor in spirit. Every believer does more. Every believer is meek. Every believer does hunger and
thirst after righteousness. Every believer is merciful. Every
believer is pure in heart. Every believer is a peacemaker.
And every believer is persecuted for righteousness sake. If these
characteristics describe you, then you have been and are blessed
by God. Now, this is our Bible study,
so we're going to take these one at a time and go through
them over the next few weeks. So we're going to start here
with verse 3. Here's the second. First thing,
blessed. We have some idea of what it
is to be blessed. It's by God, it's by His Word,
and it is what He makes us to be. Now, secondly, blessed are
the poor in spirit. Now, being poor in spirit, is
opposite to what we are as we are born into this world the
first time. You see, when we were made, we
were made by God. God made man and not the other
way around. And we were made of the dust
of the earth by God. Did you know you were made from
dirt? From the earth, that's what you
were made from. And that's where you're going.
You're going back to it. We were made of dust. That's
all we were, was dust. Formed by God. And God breathed
into us the breath of life. And man became a living soul. And our life depended and depends
upon God alone. We can't sustain ourselves at
all. And God made everything that
has ever been made and gave it to us. But when we transgressed
against God in the garden, in Adam, man went away from God
backwards. totally backwards and immediately
we began as as Me and as all mankind we began to think we
were as God and So the natural man the way we're born in Adam. We think God owes us something
and Man thinks God owes us something. Look at Psalm 10, verse 4. Can you get there quickly? Psalm
10, verse 4. It says, the wicked through the
pride of his countenance will not seek God. God is not in all his thoughts. Now, you know it's pride when
you spend hours upon hours looking into the mirror and combing your
hair and thinking to yourself how beautiful you are. Well,
that's not all that's being spoken of here. What is being spoken
of here is the pride of the natural man's countenance. The natural
man really does think that he deserves for God to do something
for him. that he deserves for God to have
something to do with him and therefore a man won't come to
God. He won't seek after God to know
the true God because pride, a haughty spirit, a heady, high-minded,
stout-hearted, hard-hearted pride won't let him. He don't think
he needs God. He doesn't think he has to come
to God or needs anything from God. The Lord said, there is
a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not
washed from their filthiness. He said, they say, stand by thyself,
come not near me for I'm holier than thou. And He said, these
are smoke in my nose and a fire that burneth all the day. When
that verse is quoted, a lot of times the folks who don't want
to have anything to do with religion like to say that's what you religious
folks are always saying. Don't come near me, I'm holier
than thou. But this is what the ungodly
man says. Don't come near me. And he says
it to God. Don't come near me, I'm holier
than thou. The pride of his countenance
won't allow him to come to God, won't allow him to seek the true
and living God because he thinks he's holy. He really thinks he's
holy and that's the spirit we have when we're born into this
world. Now, the Lord says blessed are
the poor in spirit and they are blessed because God makes his
people to be poor in spirit. Now, Ezekiel 11, look there with
me, Ezekiel 11. Ezekiel 11, verse 19. This is what the Lord Jehovah
says of those whom He blesses. Verse 19. Ezekiel 11, verse 19.
He said, I will give them one heart. That is a heart that's set on
one, a heart that is given by one, born of one, and is set
on one. It's the singleness of heart.
It's the simplicity that we have for Christ, the single-mindedness
we have for Christ. He said, I'm going to give them
one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. Do you see
that? Look in your Bible there. Ezekiel
11, 19, God said, I will put a new spirit within you. And
I will take the stony heart, that way you're born into this
world, that pride-filled stony heart, I'm going to take it out
of their flesh and I'm going to give them a heart of flesh,
a new heart, created anew. That they may walk in my statutes,
and keep mine ordinances, and do them, and they shall be my
people, and I will be their God. And the new spirit that God kills
makes a sinner to behold what he truly is in himself, and thus
he becomes poor in spirit. Before, when he thought he was
holy and right and God owed him something, he was haughty in
spirit and walked around proud because he was rich in his own
estimation of himself. But when God gives him this new
heart, he becomes poor in spirit. He sees what he is. Being poor
in spirit is to know that in myself, I have absolutely nothing
to offer God. Nothing. He will receive absolutely
nothing from me. And He will receive absolutely
nothing from you. Nothing. And until He gives you
this new spirit, you don't see that. You're rich in spirit.
But you gotta be made poor in spirit. Being poor in spirit
is to know I need righteousness which I don't have and I cannot
produce. I need to have my sins blotted
out forever. I need to be made holy to be
accepted of God and I can't achieve that by any of my deeds. I need to be saved from start
to finish by God through the Holy Spirit, through the blood
and righteousness of Christ Jesus my Lord. In other words, a person
who is poor in spirit is so bankrupt. Their pockets are so empty. Their
bank account is so drained. Their safes have been ravished
by sin, and there is no wealth in them whatsoever. Not in their
person. Not in anything they can do,
say, think, or be, or become. There's nothing. They're bankrupt. And so, they come to God wanting
one thing. Mercy. Mercy. Begging for mercy. Those poor
in spirit come to God fearing and trembling because they now
respect God as God. The poor in spirit come owning
that we are nothing, that we have nothing, and that we can
produce nothing. The poor in spirit come begging
God to give freely what God is pleased to give. Have you ever
seen fellas that are on the side of the road and they have this
sign up and it says, we'll work for food? When you go by and
you throw about a nickel or dime or dollar or whatever, and they'll
thank you and they just pour and they're just begging whatever
you'll give them. But stop sometime and ask them
to get in the vehicle with you and come home and tell them you
got about an acre of grass that needs to be cut and you got some
work for them to do. And they'll tell you to go on
by. They're not begging. They're not begging. They're
wanting something for free. A beggar will take whatever you
give them. Whatever you have for them, they'll
take it from you. They'll take whatever you're
willing to give them. And that's what God makes a sinner
who is poor in spirit. He makes that sinner willing
to take whatever God will give him. Now, Psalm 34, 16 says,
the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And he says,
But the righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and he delivereth
them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh, he's close
unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be
of a contrite spirit. You know why he's close to them?
You know why he's near them? Because he made them that way. He entered in and gave them.
They've been blessed before they even knew they had this broken
heart and this contrite spirit. They've been blessed by Him when
He gave them this broken heart and this contrite spirit. And
so when they cry out with this broken heart and this contrite
spirit, He's near to them. He's right there because He's
the One that made it. He made it. David said, Thou desirest not
sacrifice, else I would give that. Thou delightest not in
burnt offering. The sacrifices of God. This is
what pleases God. Are you ready? A broken spirit,
a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Now let me show you A contrast of what this old spirit, that
holy spirit, and this new spirit is. Look at Luke 18. Luke 18. And we'll see what our Lord's
pleased to give right here. Luke 18, verse 9. The Lord spoke this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. You see, they had this rich spirit
about them. They had that old rich spirit. They didn't need God. But this
is what the Lord said to them. He gave them this parable. And
He said, two men went up into the temple to pray. They both
were religious men. The one, a Pharisee, he was well
versed in his Bible. He knew his Bible. He knew what
the Word of the Lord said. And the other, a publican. The
publican, he was like a tax collector, is what he was. He defrauded
people. He robbed people. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. He recognized verbally that it's
God who makes you to differ. And he thanked God that he was
different. He knew, he thanked God that
saying, it's God who makes men to differ. It's God who's made
me not be like these others. That's what he said. But now
listen to what his spirit was, where his confidence was. I fast
twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. His confidence was in his obedience. His confidence was in what he
had done. Therefore, he wasn't poor in
spirit. He didn't need Christ because
he thought by what he did, that's actually what made him different.
Now look at the next person, verse 13. And the publican, standing
afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. He was ashamed to even look up
to God. He was without strength so that
he couldn't even look up to God. He was so poor and destitute,
he couldn't even look up to God. But he smote upon his breast
saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Mercy. Just mercy. And the Lord said, I tell you,
this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Why? For everyone that exalteth
himself shall be abased. He'll be rejected. And he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted. When you go to your father and
you ask something of your father, you want something, you need
something from your father, when is it that your father gives
you what you need? When you come prancing in there,
arrogantly demanding what you think your father should give
you, because you think He owes it to you for some reason? Because
you think that it's not right that you didn't get what you
wanted and you think you should have your way because you should
have your way? Or, when you come to your Father
broken, destitute, needing what only your Father can give you.
You know, when you come that first way, I guarantee you if
your father is a good father, he gonna send you away empty
handed. But I bet you every time you've
ever come to your father crying for mercy, really needing your
father, you never, ever have been turned away. Have you? This is what the Lord said. To
this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth at my word. God said, I'll look on that man.
I'll give him mercy and grace. Well, verse 3 in Matthew 5 says,
blessed are the poor in spirit. How are they blessed? Look at
that last phrase, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Those who are poor in spirit
are rich in God. Look over at Mark 10, and we'll
close. Mark 10. In Mark 10, we read there that, Mark 10, 13, they brought young children to
him, that he should touch them. And it's interesting to know,
go home tonight and read this, but there was all kind of disputing
going on between some grown folks here. And they're trying to have
some real deep doctrinal questions, they're trying to ask the Lord
to find out who's right, who's wrong, and who could get what,
and who was going to be denied, and all these things. And in
the midst of all this, they brought young children to Him, just children,
that He should touch them. And His disciples rebuked those
that brought them. And when Jesus saw it, He was
much displeased. And said unto them, Suffer the
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of God. In our text, he said, blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. And here he says, suffer little
children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such
is the kingdom of God. Those that are poor in spirit
are like little children. They come unto Christ the King. And of such is the kingdom of
Christ the King. That's who His kingdom is made
up of. Those who come to Christ as little
children, poor in spirit. The blessing is to be made a
little child, poor in spirit, who comes unto Christ the King
because yours is the kingdom of God. Everything you need to
inherit this kingdom is in Christ everlasting righteousness Perfection
of holiness no more remembrance of sins, but as long as you imagine
that you are somebody with something in yourself to bring to God then
you are nothing and have nothing and But if you're nothing and
possess nothing in yourself and are simply coming to Christ for
all, then the God of all grace says, you have everything. The kingdom of God is yours. It's yours. Look at verse 15
there in Mark 10. Verily I say unto you, whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, He
shall not enter therein. Come in that rich, haughty spirit.
He said, be tough for you. But those little children, look
what He did to them. Verse 16. He took them up in
His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them. You see that? You see that? Now that's backwards from how
we think naturally. But that's right side up when
God gives us a new spirit. That's how God does things. You
see that? All right.