And turn with me back to Matthew
chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. The title of the message this
morning is Blessed Poverty. Blessed. poverty. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I'm going to start by
asking you a question. Who is truly happy? Truly happy. I don't mean giddy. I don't mean something that is
frivolous. Those things are They come and
they go, but I'm talking about true, everlastingly happy and
joyful. We hear this all the time. If
you just get this, then you will be what? Happy. This thing will make you joyful. It will give you joy. It will
give you the comfort and satisfaction that it promises. Take a new
car, for example. You get a new car. You're in
need of a car. You say, man, if I just had this
new car, then it would solve my problems. And I'll tell you, getting a
new car does make you feel Joyful. No doubt it is anything we receive
in this world. It is a blessing from God. But
yet this thing, this vehicle that we treasured so much in
the beginning, pretty soon we're eating McDonald's in it. We're
throwing trash in the floorboard. You go into my car right now
and you will see a mess in that car. Why? I don't treasure it
as much as I did when I first got it. The shine has worn off
a little bit. And now then, when the engine
starts to go out and the brakes start to go out and it costs
more for you to keep that piece of junk running than it does
to get another one. And you're no longer happy. That
car becomes misery. It becomes work. The car you
took so much pleasure in and joy in now gives no satisfaction
because it gives no transportation. It gives nothing. Did that car give you all the
joy that you thought it would? No. So what do you do? Well,
you say, well, if I just had another one. If I just had a
newer one, then, and then, that would be it. That would be it.
Just another one. And when that car, you find out
that it doesn't make you happy, then you'll just say it again
and again, because this is our human reasoning. This is human
logic. This is human and carnal wisdom. Always reaching for the next
best thing. This is the most religious age.
There is a church within a mile and a half. I know that there
are five different churches within a mile and a half, more than
that probably, just the ones that I saw. That's not including
the ones I didn't see. And what are they doing? Oh,
if you want a happy marriage, then you need to do this, this,
this and this. Why is the divorce rate so high?
If it's so religious, if that message is working, you'll be
happy if you have a great marriage. You'll be happy if you have this
person or this thing. But I tell you, every earthly
thing begins to evaporate. All of the pleasure you thought
it would bring you only will bring you misery and unhappiness. The flesh is always wanting more,
more, more, more, more, more, because enough is never enough. It never makes us happy. Well,
if my husband would just do this, then I'd be happy. No, you won't.
If my wife would do this, then I'd be happy. No, I won't. No.
It's not that. There is no happiness in anything
in this world. There's no lasting joy in any
person in this world. Matter of fact, Solomon said
about everything under the sun. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity
and vexation of spirit. Now, I'll tell you what, if you've
not experienced that, you are a liar because that is true. Every one of us has experienced
this. every single one of us. Now, I want you to hear not the
wisdom of our thinking. I want you to hear the wisdom
of Christ. Happy, blessed are the poor in spirit. Happy are those that are bankrupt
in spirit. Now these two words, happy and
poor, blessed and poor, in human minds do not go together. Who in the world ever said it
was happiness to be poor? Who said that? Who said there's
happiness in poverty? The same idiot that said that
there's happiness in riches. There's no happiness in riches.
There's no happiness in poverty, but Christ is not speaking about
physical poverty. He's not speaking about monetary
poverty. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
about spiritual poverty. And this is the first point,
all men are spiritually poor. In the carnal language, the word
poverty is relative. In our country, if you make a
certain amount of money, say you make $25,000 a year, well,
you would be considered in the poverty level. And why is that
so? Because they base it on an average
salary. Say that the average salary is
$80,000 to $100,000 a year. Well, you're well below the poverty
level. Now you take that same $25,000
and you go to a third world country and all of a sudden you're rich
and they're poor. Because the average salary is
about $5,000 a year. You see how it's relative poverty
as far as economics is relative to your situation? It's relative
to where you're at, the place and the circumstance. But this
is exactly how lost sinners view spiritual things. They view it
in a carnal way. They view it in a way that they
understand poverty. Yes, I am poor in morality. I may be poor and not perfect. I'm not perfect. But I'm better than that guy.
Isn't that the terms? I'm better than him. I have more
than he has. I'm in poverty, yes, but not
as impoverished as this fellow over here. It's because they
think poverty is based on morality. It's based on personal actions. It's based on something you do. That's not true. Because we are
all born in poverty. We are all guilty. This is very simple. We are all
guilty of breaking God's law. I'm not even talking about the
Mosaic law. Y'all don't know. Not everybody
knows everything in the Mosaic law. Not everybody understands
everything in that law, but you have a law written in your hearts
that you know. You have a law that's written
in your hearts by God that says you would not lie, that you should
not steal, that you should not bear false witness, commit adultery.
All those things you know to be wrong. If you take a person who's never
heard the law of Moses in the darkest jungle, And I'll tell
you that they know not to steal. Somebody went over there and
grabbed somebody else's spear and put it in their tent or their
little wooded shack. I'll tell you this, he knew it
was wrong to take that man's spear. Never hearing of the Word
of God. Why? It's because it's in his
heart it's wrong. And you've broken that. You've
broken that law. You are indebted now to the justice
of God, just as you break any law in this country, you should
be indebted to the to the to the judge and the jury to the
sentence that they pass. You would be indebted to that.
And friends, we, by nature, are born in debt and poverty when
it comes to the matter of the justice of God. And friends, when I say poor,
I'm not talking about some people having more and some people having
less. I'm talking about absolute zero. You and I have absolutely no
goodness whatsoever. Zero. Well, that's offensive. I don't care. It's not my word, it's God's
word. It's offensive to my own man just like it is yours. But
it's so. There is no one good. No one. Go to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis
chapter 6 and verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Continually. In other words,
the motive behind every thought. We don't think of motives all
the time when we do things, do we? Sometimes we just do things. And we don't think about why
we did it or what we were actually doing most of the time. But God
says, all of your motives and all of your thoughts are evil continually. That's what God said about man.
that our thoughts of evil is continuous. Well, he had the
flood. He sent the flood. Well, what did God say after
the flood? Now then, God saved those eight persons. There were
eight people left on the face of the earth. And what did God
see when those people came out of the ark? Go to chapter 8 and
look at verse 20. Scripture says, And Noah built
an altar unto the LORD, and took of every clean beast and every
clean fowl, and burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled
a sweet savor. And the LORD said in his heart,
I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake. For
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Oh my! Nothing changed, nothing changed. Man is evilly, continually evil. And if that were not bad enough
that you were without any righteousness, without any goodness, it's also
that you owe. It's not it's something just
to have zero balance in it. When you have nothing, that means
you have nothing, but you owe nothing. Oh, it's worse than
that. We don't have any goodness, and
yet we owe a debt to God that we cannot pay. We owe a debt
to God that we cannot pay. What is the debt that all men
owe to God? What do you owe to God? Don't
think about your neighbor. Don't think about anybody else.
What do you owe to God? Because you'll have to give an
account before God, and not anyone else will give an account for
you, but you. What do you owe to God? God tells
you what you owe. Be ye holy even as I am holy. What do we owe as payment? How can I pay that? I've not
been as holy as God is. I've sinned against God. What
then is the payment, God? What do I owe you? The soul that
sinneth, it shall surely die. You owe your death. You owe that. And the problem with our death
is we have nothing in the bank. We have nothing with which to
pay. They had, at this time, what
they called debtor's prison, where if you owed a man a certain
amount of money and you didn't have any money to pay it, then
he could put you in prison indefinitely until you paid him. Now, let
me ask you this. How in the world are you going to pay somebody
while you're in prison? How can you work and earn money while
you're in prison? You can't. It's an impossibility. You're stuck. Jesus said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. This was not meant as a knock,
but this was meant in true sincerity. The most moral people that ever
lived on the face of the earth were the Sadducees and the Pharisees. When you go out and you have
a little garden, do you count the leaves on your plant so that
you give the proper amount unto God? They did. Do you walk around studying the
Scriptures all day, having them all memorized? I'm talking about
the Old Testament law that they had, the Old Testament that they
had. They didn't have to have a scroll. They had it memorized.
And they did this from their youth. This was not something
that adults did. They trained their children to
read and to write by the law of God. And they taught them
to memorize it. And they could recite it at any
time that they chose. How morally upstanding these
men were. And Jesus said, except your righteousness
is better than that, you'll never see heaven. God demands holy perfection. God demands holy perfection and
we are guilty and we owe a debt we cannot pay. See, God doesn't
require for our debt that we do our best. Well, I'm trying
to do my best. Well, you don't have any best. I don't have any best. We're
bankrupt. We are poor in spirit. We saw last week in Micah chapter
6 when the prophet was repeating the question. He said, what shall
I do that I may be able to ascend unto God, that I may be acceptable
with God? Shall I offer rams of a year
old? Shall I offer ten thousand rams and ten thousand rivers
of oil? Shall I give my firstborn son?
for the sin of my soul? No. What was the answer? To do justly. Love mercy and
walk humbly with thy God. To do justly. What is a just
thing to do? If we are guilty, if we are bankrupt,
what is the right thing to do? Is it not to confess what we
are? That's just right. Stop putting up a front. Stop trying to impress people
with your great theology, morality. No, simply put, we are but worms. And what has a worm ever done
to be able to satisfy you? How much more are we indebted
to God that we cannot satisfy Him? The Scripture says that sin is
mixed with all we do. I'm preaching to you. God sent
me to preach to you. God gave me a message for you.
But even in my message, Even in my preaching, it is mixed
with sin. This wicked nature we are born
with, that we inherited from Adam, is incapable of doing any
spiritual good whatsoever in the sight of God. Now, if you want to please me,
it doesn't take much. Because I'm just as bankrupt
as you are. And the penalty for such things
is everlasting hell. Everlasting. My kids. It doesn't take them
long to get bored. About five minutes, five minutes,
if doing nothing and they're bored. Time moves so slowly for them,
time moves so fast for us who are getting older. But actually, it's moving at
the same pace. And I'll tell you, eternity.
is longer than I can possibly understand. And those who owe
God a debt for their sin will pay it. Go to Revelation chapter
20. Verse 11, it says, And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat upon the throne, from whose face the earth and
the heavens fled away, and there was no place for them. And I
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books
were opened. And another book was opened,
which was the book of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which are written in the books. According to what? What are you going to be judged
by? What is God going to judge you by? Your works. Your works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them, and they were judged every man according to their
works. Says it twice. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. And this is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. How then does this understanding
of spiritual poverty and our eternal debt that we cannot pay,
how is this a blessing? How does this make you happy?
Does anything I said so far make you happy? Is there anything
you want to shout for joy because of your debt you owe to God?
Well, this is the reason that Christ said, happy are the poor
in spirit. Even because Christ Jesus was
sent to pay the debt. Ah, here's the joy. Here's the
happiness of it. Everyone who has nothing Everyone
who owes everything to God and cannot pay, Jesus Christ came
to pay your debt that you owe to God. Not because we were better than
others, but out of God's free and sovereign grace, He purposed
to save some. Now, you better get a hold to
that. God purposed to save some, not
all. Well, who did He purpose to save?
Those who are poor in spirit. Wait, didn't you say everyone
is poor in spirit? You bet. Everyone is poor in
spirit. But not everyone thinks themselves
to be poor in spirit. Not everyone truly believes themselves
to be bankrupt, to be empty of goodness. People are always trying to hold
on to something. If you've got something, if you
think you have something to please God, well, you're not really
poor, are you? Jesus Christ came to seek and
to save that which was lost. Are you lost? Are you without
hope? And confess to God. Bow to the
truth of God's Word. And I'll tell you, everyone who
bows before God's Word concerning their poverty will be made rich
in all spiritual things. Rich. The Scripture said, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved." All who are chosen of God are
given to the Son. You see, Jesus Christ was my
surety from eternity. He was my surety. He was my guarantee. He promised. that He would come
and pay my debt, the debt of all the elect of God. He promised
to come. He promised to satisfy the debt
we owed. He promised to take care of the
sins that we could not, by our doing, take care of. Why, then, would you try to merit
God's favor? Why are you working so hard? I just tell you to look upon
the perfect Son of God, to look by faith, to believe,
to trust Christ, to believe what God's Word says about Him, that
He is the righteousness of God. That He, as a man, obtained the
righteousness you and I couldn't. That He, by His death, had paid
in full every last drop of blood for the sin of His people. That
He bore the guilt and punishment for our sins. that He has brought in an everlasting
righteousness, not by our works, but by His grace. Behold the man upon the cross
who bore our sins, and as His blood flowed from His body, God has already accepted His
payment. In Isaiah 43, verse 25, it says,
I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgression. Why would
he do such a thing? For mine own sake. Well, it wasn't because I was
good, no. It wasn't because I was always doing the good thing in
school. It's not because I was always
trying my best. No! God did it because He would. That's it. There's no other reason.
You find a reason in yourself, you're not in poverty. I don't
find a reason in myself for God to do such a thing. But I know this. And I believe
this. that Jesus Christ has paid my
debt in full. I know I have a debt. I know
I couldn't pay it. And I know this, Jesus Christ
has paid it all. He has paid to God everything
that we owe. If you owe money to somebody,
would it not be a blessing for someone to come and pay the debt?
Would you not be happy about that? Would that not make you
happy? Well, you bet it would. How much
more so Christ is paid for all your sins? And God sees you as
holy. God sees you as perfectly righteous. God sees you who believe on Christ
as he sees his own son. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Are you poor in spirit? Then
I tell you, believe on Jesus Christ. And I know this, your
debt has already been paid. Already. He's already satisfied
the debt. And therefore, we are rich In
mercy. We are rich. In forgiveness. We are rich in righteousness. We are rich because God has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. I'll close
with this illustration our Lord gives here in Luke. Believe it's Luke chapter. Oh, I didn't put it down. Hold
on. I'll find it in just a second.
I lost my chapter. Anyway, I'll have to look it
up later, but in Luke's Gospel, this man Simon, this Pharisee,
asked the Lord Jesus Christ to dinner, and Jesus said, I have
somewhat to say unto thee, and he said, Master, say on. He said
there was a certain creditor that had two debtors, one that
owed 500 pence and another 50. One owed five million and the
other owed five dollars. Simon answered, and when they
had nothing to pay, the debtor frankly, freely forgave them
both. Now tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him most? And Simon answered and said,
I suppose him that he forgave most. And Jesus said, you've
judged rightly. And he turned to the woman, this
woman was a prostitute, this woman was a known sinner. He
turned to this woman who was washing his feet and said, Simon,
Thou seest thou this woman. I entered into thine house, thou
gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with
tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest
me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased
to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore,
I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little." Can you not see the correlation between
your spiritual poverty and your love for Christ? How spiritually poor are you? How much do you owe to God? How much has God given to pay
for your sin? The more we understand about
this, the more we love Him. The people who have been forgiven
much, love much. But if you've only have need
of little forgiveness, you have little love for the Savior. You have little love for Him. I love Him because He paid my
sin debt. I love Him because He has freely
forgiven me. I love Him because He first loved
me. Is that your confession? Are
you spiritually poor? Then look to Christ and you shall
be spiritually blessed with all things. All spiritual things. I pray that God would bless us
with this understanding of who we are and what Christ has done
for us. The stand will be dismissed in
prayer.