Let us turn to God's Word and
turning to the opening words in the Gospel according to Matthew
chapter 5 Matthew 5 and I'll read the first three verses for
our text and seeing the multitudes he
went up into a mountain And when he was said, 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. Considering then these words
at the beginning of this fifth chapter in Matthew's Gospel,
we're taught here in the opening verse it was when he was set
that his disciples came on to him literally he went up into
a mountain and he sat down and as he sat down so his disciples
came on to him this was the usual posture of one who was a rabbi,
a teacher And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ was, of course,
amongst many other things, his various offices. But we do see
him behaving in the fashion of a rabbi. We have it later in
chapter 13. Interestingly, we're told the
same day when Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside
and great multitudes were gathered together unto him so that he
went into a ship and sat and the whole multitude stood on
the shore and he spoke many things unto them in parables. Again
we have reference to his posture, he sits, he goes and sits in
the ship and the people are there before him on the shore. This was the usual way in which
a rabbi would give his instruction to his various disciples. And
doesn't the Lord in chapter 23 speak of how even the Pharisees,
those who are occupying the seat of Moses, and therefore are to
be respected in a certain sense. Those words at the beginning
of that 23rd chapter then spake Jesus to the multitude and to
his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses'
seat. All therefore whatsoever they
bid you observe, that observe and do. But do not ye after their
works, for they say and do not, or they were not faithful teachers. They didn't practice the things
that they were preaching to others, but the Lord recognizes that
those who are looked to as men of some significance, rabbis,
they sit and they sit, as it were, in the seat of Moses. And so here we see how the Lord
is seated there in the mountain. And of course what follows, and
you're probably familiar with the content, I'm sure you are.
Chapters 5, 6, and 7 we call this the Sermon on the Mount. The posture there of our Lord
Jesus at the beginning. Well, what I want us to begin
to do this morning is to consider at least the opening part of
this chapter. the portion that runs through
from verse 3 to verse 12, and we call it the Beatitudes. Each verse here begins with the
same words, Blessed. And so this morning the first
of these Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. It's an interesting word. It also has the meaning of happy. Happy are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. More than that, it's
also really a plural. Blessednesses or happinesses. It's almost an exclamation. All
the blessednesses. or the happiness of these characters
that the Lord is describing here at the beginning of this discourse.
And thinking of these things, I recalled some of the writings
of Lachlan Mackenzie, a minister in the Scottish Highlands back
in the 18th century at Lough Caron, a remarkable ministry
there. And there's a wonderful piece
in which he describes something of the happy man. And isn't this
the man that the Lord himself is describing in the Beatitudes? And I'll just read this little
extract from the writings of Lachlan Mackenzie. He says this,
the happy man. The happy man was born in the
city of regeneration in the parish of repentance unto life. He was
educated at the School of Obedience. He has a large estate in the
County of Christian Contentment, and many times does jobs of self-denial,
wears the garment of humility, and has another suit to put on
when he goes to court, called the Robe of Christ's Righteousness.
He often walks in the Valley of Self-Abasement, and sometimes
climbs the mountains of heavenly-mindedness. He breakfasts every morning on
spiritual prayer, and sups every evening on the same. He has meat
to eat that the world knows not of, and his drink is the sincere
milk of the Word of God. Thus, happy he lives, and happy
he dies. Happy is he who has gospel submission
in his will, due order in his affections, sound peace in his
conscience, real divinity in his breast, the Redeemer's yoke
on his neck, a vain world under his feet, and a crown of glory
over his head. Happy is the life of that man
who believes firmly, prays fervently, walks patiently, works abundantly,
lives holy, dies daily, watches his heart, guides his senses,
redeems his time, loves Christ, and longs for glory. He is necessitated
to take the world on his way to heaven, but he walks through
it as fast as he can, and all his business by the way is to
make himself and others happy, take him all in all. In two words,
he is a man and a Christian, the happy man. In many ways,
of course, this is what the Lord is describing to us here in the
opening words of the Sermon on the Mount, these Beatitudes. And we read the portion in Luke
chapter 6, because in many ways it parallels these three chapters
that we have in Matthew's Gospel. In fact, there in that sixth
chapter we have the whole of the sermon recorded, but it's
not really the same sermon. There is a difference. You may
have observed it as we were reading through that passage because
that's not really the sermon on the mount as it were in Luke's
account of it, but it was a different venue where the Lord was Speaking
on that particular occasion, it was more on the plane, wasn't
it? He goes to a different place,
as it were, as he begins to give this instruction in that chapter. We have the name of the Twelve
Apostles here, at verse 13 through 16, and then we read, He came
down with them and stood in the plane. and the company of his
disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judea and
Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came
to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases." He's not
even sitting, he's standing there in the plane. It's a different
sermon, and yet there's a great similarity between the two portions,
what we have in Luke chapter 7, and what we have here in Matthew
5, 6 and 7. And obviously, as it's separate
accounts, so there are also differences. And there's a difference with
regards to what we have here as the first of the Beatitudes.
In the words before us this morning, it's, Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven but there it was somewhat
more stark in that 20th verse of Luke 7 blessed are ye poor
that's all he said blessed are ye poor for yours is the kingdom
of heaven And so reading what we have there in Luke it does
seem that the Lord is commending material poverty as something
that is virtuous in and of itself. It doesn't speak of being poor
in spirit but simply being poor. And of course we are probably
aware now that there are those Roman Catholic orders of monks
and of nuns and they take vows of poverty amongst other things
as if there's something commendable and good about material poverty
there's something virtuous in it and it might appear on the
surface that that's what the Lord is saying in those verses
in Luke chapter 6 Blessed are ye poor, he says. So stark a statement. Now, of
course, it's true that later when we come to the epistles,
James does say, Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen
the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom
that God hath appointed to them that love him? He has chosen the poor of this
world. So is there something really
commendable about material poverty? Are the Roman Catholics right
to encourage people to take vows of poverty? When it comes to
God's election, we need to be aware, of course, of what the
analogy of faith is, what the teaching of all the Word of God
is. True, it says there in James 2.5, When we think about the
doctrine of election, those whom God has chosen, it is an eternal
election that God has made. It was a choice that was made
before time was created. And God's choice, as it is eternal,
so it is also unconditional. There's nothing in those who
are chosen that has somewhere or other commended such people
to Him. Are we not told in Romans? Romans
9 and verse 11, the children being not yet born. neither having
done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. It was not in those who were
chosen. There he is speaking, of course,
of twin boys, Esau and Jacob. And God loves Jacob, but not
Esau. But it's nothing about Jacob's
character that in any way commends him. The children not being yet
born, it says. neither having done good or evil,
that God's purpose in election might stand. And so we're not
to imagine for a moment that there is something commendable
about anything in the creature that causes God to choose them
and to set his love upon them. As his election is eternal, so
it is also unconditional. The cause is not found in the
creature, The cause is in God himself. But when we see the
outworking of God's elect in love, we see that his choice
is something that confounds the people of this world. Because
when we see it outworked, it is in fact the poor that God
delights in. Remember the language that we
have there in the opening chapter of 1 Corinthians, where the Apostle
speaks of these things. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and there
at verse 26 and the following verses. He says, You see, you
are calling, brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh
not many mighty, not many noble are called but God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wives and God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty and base things of the world and things which
are despised hath God chosen yea and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are that no flesh should glory
in his presence Now, it doesn't say that God has not chosen any
of those who are wealthy in this world. It's not many mighty. It doesn't say not any, not many
mighty are called. God in his choice always acts
in that sovereign fashion. And when we come to consider
those words or the words before us in the text this morning blessed
are the poor in spirit we're not to think of this poverty
as in any way commending such to the Lord God himself certainly
not those words that we have in in Luke 6 blessed are ye poor
there is nothing intrinsically good in any man And when we think
about wealth we must also say there's nothing intrinsically
evil in wealth. The scripture doesn't say that
money is the root of all evil, does it? We need to be careful when we
think of the Word of God. Those words in 1 Timothy 6.10
are so often misquoted, misapplied. People say, money is the root
of all evil he doesn't say that at all it says the love of money
is the root of all evil covetousness which is idolatry that's what's
being spoken of we're not to think then that there's no hope
for those who are wealthy and rich and increased in goods over
against those who have nothing at all that God always delights
in those who are poor, poverty might itself be a sinful thing,
it might be something that has arisen because of man's foolishness,
because of his drunkenness, because of his gambling habits, because
of his idleness, because of his sloth. The wise man in the book of Proverbs
speaks of these things. Slothfulness, he says, casteth
into a deep sleep. An idle soul shall suffer hunger. There might be those who are
poor and It's a consequence of their sinful course of living.
We do need to be careful at the outset with regards to just what
is being said in the text. Let us not think like the devotee
of the Church of Rome thinks and imagine that a vow of poverty
is something commendable and makes a person more acceptable
unto God. Well, let us come to the words
that we have before us here in Matthew 5 and verse 3. Blessed
are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And
I want to begin with a negative really, to say first of all what
is not meant here, what is not meant. Poor in spirit is not
equivalent to spiritually poor. because there's a sense in which
all people, every person born into this world is born in a
state where they are spiritually poor. They're not poor in spirit,
but when we come into this world, what is our condition spiritually?
We are in great poverty. That's true with everyone. We
are all, without any exception, as an unclean thing. All our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We all fade like the leaves,
our iniquities like the wind, they are continually carrying
us away. How true that is, and it's emphasized,
isn't it, in Scripture. Remember the language of the
Apostle, writing there in the third chapter of that epistle
to the Romans. And he's quoting, of course,
from the Old Testament Scriptures. What striking words they are!
Romans 3.10, as it is written. And he's referring not just to
one portion in the Old Testament, but to two. He's speaking really
of two Psalms. Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. So this is the third time it's
written. It's written twice in the Old
Testament, And here it is written in the New Testament, as it is
written, there is none righteous, no not one, there is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, they
are all gone out of the way. that together become unprofitable.
There is none that do us good, no, not one. Their throat is
an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used his seed. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift
to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes. That is the condition of all
men. All men in that sense are clearly spiritually poor. We
have nothing. We are nothing before God. We are those who sinned in Adam. We were reminded of it yesterday,
weren't we? Those of us who were at the anniversary
service at Hegent. There is where it begins, Genesis
chapter 3. God had said, concerning the
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that Adam and
Eve were not to eat of it. In the day that they eat of it,
they shall surely die. Dying they shall die. It was
immediate, spiritual death. All are born then spiritually
poor. And now the Lord Jesus speaks
to those who are self-righteous. those who feel themselves to
be self-sufficient. And where does the Lord find
them? The solemn words aren't they there in Revelation 3 and
verse 17? Because the Lord is addressing
the church. You remember there in those two chapters? The second,
the third chapter of the Revelation we have the seven letters to
the seven churches. and of course those letters in
a sense it's a letter addressed to all the church that word that we have through
those letters is addressed to any and every church we might
say and what does the Lord say concerning those at Laodicea?
how they needed to be humbled how they were full of pride and
self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. I am rich, they say, and have need of nothing. They feel themselves to be so
good and so commendable and the Lord comes with this awful word
of rebuke, addressing them. I am rich and increased with
goods and have need of nothing. And the Lord says, thou knowest
not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked. And the Lord has to come and
remind us time and time again what we are by nature. We are
all spiritually poor. That is our condition as we come
into this world. That is how we live our lives.
until we know anything of the grace of God. Thank God there
are those who do know and experience the grace of God, because there
are some who are not spiritually poor, but they're made poor in
spirit. And these are the ones that we
read of here in the text. Here is the difference. These
are the people who, unlike those Laodiceans, they feel they're
spiritually poverty. They have a sense of their sins,
their utter unworthiness before God. We know, don't we, that sin is
very much of the creature. Forbid the thought to suggest
for a moment that God is the author of sin. That is an impossibility. That is a blasphemy, really,
to even suggest that God is the author of sin. There's a mystery,
of course, with regards to the origin of sin. We know it was
Satan who comes to Eve there in the garden, and comes by and
through the serpent. So we know our sin enters into
this creation. But what of Satan himself? He
was, of course, God's creature. He's a fallen angel. But he was
created good. All that God does is good. He's
a God of eyes too pure to behold iniquity. He cannot look upon
sin. We don't know. We're not told
in Scripture of the origin of that sin which was in Satan,
the tempter. We see in some measure it seems
to be pride from what we read in Isaiah 14 concerning the fall
of Lucifer, the son of the morning, who would grasp after the position
of God himself, but how was it that an angel could fall? We
don't know. But we're not to imagine for
a moment that God himself is the author. Sin is of the creature. But on the other hand we can
say, we must say, any sense of our sinnership is that that comes
from God. It's when God deals with a man.
That he is my poor in spirit, that he's made to feel just what
he is before God. And that was the experience of
Paul, wasn't it? When he was Saul. We're all familiar, I'm sure,
with the language of the Apostle there in that third chapter of
Philippians. In fact, we were looking at the
third verse only on Thursday evening. But he speaks, doesn't
he, so much of his pedigree. He had much that he could boast
of. A great deal he could boast of. He could have great confidence
in the flesh. He was circumcised on the 8th
day. He was a true son of Abraham,
he thought, because of his circumcision. Belonged to the stock of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. So he goes on,
but then How the Lord dealt with that proud Pharisee, who considered
himself to be righteous before the Lord of God, blameless. But
he said, What things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but done that I may win Christ. What a change! What
a change was wrought in the soul of this man, who suddenly realizes
what he is it's the grace of God and he cries out, oh wretched
man that I am in me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good
thing he was poor he was truly poor in spirit he learnt the
truth of his spiritual poverty by nature he had nothing it's
interesting to examine the words of scripture sometimes, isn't
it? Maybe some of you endeavor to do that, to do word studies,
and there are books that one can obtain in order to understand
something of the words that are used. We believe in verbal inspiration. We believe that the very words
of the Bible are the words of God, and we have a very faithful,
almost a literal rendering, word by word, of those original autographs
here in the authorised version. And looking at this word that's
used in the text, blessed are the poor in spirit, and it's
the same word really that the Lord is using in the chapter
in Luke, in Luke 6. And if we understand the word
then we see how we are rightly to interpret what he says there.
He's not speaking of those in that 6th chapter in Luke who
are to be commended because of their material poverty. No, the word poor is an interesting
word because it literally means beggarly. It means beggarly. It's from
a verb that means to crouch or to cower, to beg, to beg. What do wretched beggars bring
to God? They bring nothing to God. They
simply bring their emptiness, their need. They stoop into the
dust, pleading that God would deal with them in the way of
grace. A beggar poor, at mercy's door
lies such a wretch as I. Thou knowest my need is great
indeed, Lord, hear me when I cry." The language of Samuel Medley
there in the hymn 378, a long hymn. But there we see the beggar. And the beggar comes to mercy's
door, and he feels his wretchedness and he's pleading. This is the
one, you see, that we have here in the text, the man who is spiritually
poor. And God says, to this man will
I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and
trembleth at my word. All blessed are the poor in spirit. And then the Lord tells us, doesn't
he, why it is that they are blessed, why they're the happy ones. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven,
it says. And so we see here in the third
place that these people are really rich people. Theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. And how do they come into the
possession of this kingdom? Well it's only by faith. It's
only by faith. Again the language that we have
there in James 2 and verse 5 they have spoken of as rich in faith.
How can my beloved brethren Has not God chosen the poor of this
world, rich in faith, and heirs to the kingdom that God has provided
for them that love Him? They're the heirs of that kingdom
of God. They're really the richest of
people in that they possess something.
What is it that they possess? Well, two things I want to mention
as we begin to draw to a close this morning. Two things in the
sense by way of application. What is it that these who are
poor in spirit have possession of? Well, they have the gospel. They have the gospel. We read in chapter 11 and verse
5, the poor have the gospel preached to them. the poor have the gospel
preached to them and here in chapter 4 and verse 23 we read
don't we of the Lord's ministry Jesus went about all Galilee
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease among the people and his fire went throughout all
Syria brought unto him all sick people, that were taken with
diverse diseases and torments, and so on. But primarily here
is the Lord is preaching, and you know the significance of
the miracles. The miracles are there to vindicate
the message of this preacher. What is he preaching? He's preaching
the gospel of the kingdom. And these who are put in spirit,
they are the heirs. of that kingdom that he is proclaiming. And what a preacher is this man!
Why, he is the prince of all preachers when we come to the
end of the sermon. We go through chapters 5, 6,
7, and we're told there at the end of that chapter, Oh, what a preacher was this!
Never man spake like this man. He's not just another rabbi.
Oh yes, Nicodemus might come to him there at the beginning
of John 3 and say, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God. No man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. He is a rabbi, but he's more
than a rabbi. He is the true prophet of the
Lord. He is that great prophet, that
great prophet spoken of by Moses. Back in Deuteronomy chapter 18,
on two occasions we have reference to this prophet that the Lord
God was going to send in the fullness of the time. Here is
the word of the man Moses In Deuteronomy 18.15, the Lord
thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee,
of thy brethren, like unto me. Unto him ye shall hearken. And
then it's repeated, verse 18, the Lord God speaks through Moses,
I will raise him up a prophet from among their brethren like
unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command him. Who is this prophet? of
whom the man Moses is speaking well in many ways he's similar
to Moses but he's greater than Moses the law was given by Moses
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and here he is you see he is
proclaiming the gospel and he's speaking to those who
are poor in spirit He opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven." Well, interesting it is to notice that contrast between
the law and the gospel, between Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ. You think about the giving of
the law. Wasn't the law also proclaimed upon a mountain, the
Mount Sinai? And yet, when we see the account
as we have it, and the scene is set, isn't it, in Exodus 19,
we have the Ten Commandments, of course, in chapter 20, but
previous to that, the whole scene is really set in chapter 19. What a sight it is that the children
of Israel beheld, and how fearful it all is. They are to be kept
away from this mount. They are not to come near the
mount, they are not to touch the mount. Moses is commanded there at verse
12 in chapter 19, they shall set bounds on the people round
about saying, take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount,
or touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth the mount
shall be surely put to death. There shall not a hand touch
it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through." And later we're
told the Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke because the Lord descended
upon it in fire. And the smoke thereof ascended
as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly."
It's a fearful thing, it's a terrible sight. It's God coming, revealing
Himself in all the holiness and righteousness and justice of
His law. All that law, it's good. The
commandment, it's holy, it's just, it's good. There's nothing
wrong with the law, but here is God coming to sin us. And
what is the ministry of the law? more by the law is the knowledge
of sin but God comes on the mount and
here again in the sermon on the mount we see God now God manifested
in human flesh and he doesn't keep the people
from him seeing the multitude he went
up into a mountain and when he was set his disciples came unto
him and he opened his mouth and taught them for there is not bound set he
is not keeping them away they are coming to him all that the
father giveth me shall come to me he says for neither cometh
to me I shall in no wise cast out this is the gospel you see
And these blessed ones are those poor in spirit, those who are
taught of the Lord. Well, there is a ministry of
the law, we know that. We know that. Whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. To distinguish law and gospel,
the Lord needs to come to the sinner. That sinner who imagines
that he's He has something to commend him
to God. There's some merit in him yet. He's not learnt the
truth of his great spiritual poverty. He's not truly poor
in spirit yet. He's a proud man. He needs to
be humbled. He has a ministry of the Lord.
But then what a blessed fullness there is in the Gospel. What
a freeness there is. We sang of it, didn't we, in
our opening praise. the preciousness of that gospel,
full of the grace of God. And here is the Lord, you see,
he ministers to these poor and needy ones. The poor have the
gospel preached unto them. Oh, it suits these poor ones. I like this sentence from an
old particular Baptist minister, Joseph Kinghorn. The law requires
all but gives nothing. The gospel gives all but requires
nothing. There's the difference. The law
requires all. Do this, do this, do this. But it gives nothing. In contrast,
the gospel gives everything and requires nothing. We come with
all our poverty, all our nothingness. Nothing but sin I give to thee,
nothing but love shall I receive. That's the truth of the Gospel. From thy fullness we receive,
and we have nothing of our own. Freely thou delight'st to give
them to the needy. who have none. That's the wonder,
isn't it, of the gospel of the grace of God. The sinner can
come and cry to Him in the language of the Psalmist, O Lord, hear
me for I am poor and needy. Are we poor and needy this morning?
Is that how we come into God's house? We need fresh supplies
of grace. We can't live on yesterday's
grace. We need today's grace. We need it fresh, we need the
Lord to come to us again and again, that we might experience
all those blessings of salvation. You see, these are blessed, they're
happy souls because they have the Gospel, they have Christ
in the Gospel set before them. And so what do they have really?
Well, what we have here of course is the present possession, isn't
it? Look at the language of the text, theirs, shall be the kingdom
of heaven, does it say? Is it something they're going
to enter into one day in the future? No. It's in the present
tense. There's is the kingdom. There's
is the kingdom of heaven, here and now they have it. Because
it's the Lord Jesus Christ who was revealed to us here in the
gospel, as we sought to say. It's Christ himself. And what
a man is this man? Oh, what a man is this man? This man receiveth sinners, and
eateth with them. And he has all that fullness
of grace for the sinner. While Christ is rich, can I be
poor? What can I want besides? We might
be poor. Oh, but friends, what riches
of grace are there. Yea, happy is that people, whose
God is the Lord, says the Psalmist. If this God is our God, is He
your God today? Honestly and truly. Can you say
with the Psalmist, whom have I in heaven, but verily there
is none upon earth that I desire beside them, there is the one
thing needful. All blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." May the Lord be pleased
to bless his word. We'll go on, if the Lord will,
next week to consider what he said concerning the blessed ones
that mourn. for they shall be comforted."
And so it goes on, the blessings of the gospel of the grace of
God. May the Lord bless His word to us. Let us conclude our worship
as we sing hymn number 918 and the
tune Olivet 681 Blessed are the poor in spirit,
who their native vileness see. They are all toward sins demerit,
gladly own salvation free, and from Sinai to the wounds of Jesus
flee. 918, June 681.