going here. But the Sermon on
the Mount is not a sermon, and this is something I think if
we can get this, it will help us unlock the blessings of the
gospel here. The book of God, the Bible, is
about the Lord Jesus Christ. I can stand on that statement,
and I would be happy to stand on that statement before God
himself, I really believe that the Bible is a book about the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says in Luke chapter 24 that
he explained to those two on the road to Emmaus from Moses,
from the Psalms, and from the prophets, all the things that
were written about himself, about how Christ should suffer, and
about how he should rise again and return to glory. And so,
by the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, He explains that
Scripture is about Him. It's about Him. And so when we
read these things in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, understand this,
that God here, through the Lord Jesus Christ, God is teaching
us what He demands of sinners. And then He teaches us where
to go. to find where those demands are
met. He teaches us where we can find
what He demands from us. I think one of the issues is,
and even when we read this, we see a large group of people And
they're thronging, they're gathering around the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in gathering around Him, they see Him physically. They
can touch Him. They can hear His voice. They
can see His face. And they hear what He says, and
they see what He does. And they have a preconceived
notion about who He is. He's the Messiah, they think.
Some of them do. Others don't think that. But
with these preconceived notions, They interpret what they see
him do and what they hear him say. And we have the same issue
when we read these words. We have preconceived notions
about how we are to approach God. And when we hear statements
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we immediately jump to the conclusion
that supports our preconceived notions. And our preconceived
notions are what every natural man believes. What is that? Naturally, we believe that we,
ourselves, in ourselves, can somehow, in some way, make ourselves
acceptable to God, either by something we just do out and
out, or by giving God's commandment, or God's requirements, by fulfilling
that in part, maybe gradually, finally someday, we'll reach
a level where God will say, that's enough, you've reached the bar.
But that is not the truth of the gospel. And the revelation
of the scripture is that the natural man, what we are naturally,
does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. We just don't
know them. We can't know them. We can't understand them because
they're spiritually discerned. And so let's read here from Matthew.
I'm gonna read the last two verses of Matthew 4, and then I'm gonna
read through the first 16 verses of Matthew 5, and just listen
to these words carefully, and with this context that in these
chapters Christ shows us what God demands of us and teaches
us where it's found. And I'll try to support that
claim as we go through this today. So look at verse 24 of Matthew
chapter 4. And Jesus' fame went throughout
all Syria. And they brought to him all sick
people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those
which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic,
and those that had the palsy. And he healed them. And there
followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from
Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond
Jordan. All over the place these people
came. They saw what he could do. It was amazing. What do you think it would be
like to see not just one, but multitudes of people healed?
People who visibly were sick, helplessly sick. in their head,
in their body, and even possessed by devils. And he healed them
all. What would you think about that? Well, Herod, the king,
the evil king, he wanted John the Baptist to perform a miracle.
He hoped to see some miracle of him. He's the kind of person
who was curious about the miraculous, the fantastic. Others followed
Jesus and ate the loaves and the fishes, and they were happy
that he could provide for them, for their physical bodies. And
some thought that he was going to be a king in Israel, on the
earth, and that if they were pleasing enough, or they found
favor in his sight, they would be right along with him, ruling
in that kingdom. And they would serve him in that
kingdom on earth, and he would subdue their enemies somehow.
And then others, which is probably the most common thing, is they
were just after the healing for their bodies. Deliver me from
this devil, heal my body, heal my mind. Now, what we see in
the next verse here, in chapter 5, verse 1, it says, And seeing
the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set,
his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth, and he taught
them. Now just pause with me on those few verses, just at
the outset here. Remember, there's two things
going on in our lives at all times. Two things. Two things
that are going on even now in this room. two things that are
going on in our minds and in the world, and two things that
are always going on in scripture. And if we can see this, if God
gives us grace to see this, it will help us to understand the
mysteries of the kingdom of God. And those two things are the
natural and the spiritual. The natural and the spiritual.
What we see with these eyes is natural. What we hear with these
ears is natural. What we understand through our
perception is natural. Men can understand a lot of things
naturally, and men do. But something else has to be
given to us. We don't understand it at first.
It says in 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. He
cannot understand them. Neither can he know them. Because
they're spiritually discerned. God has to give them to us. So,
right here, what we're seeing is that there's a multitude.
Many are gathered. Who knows how many? A lot of
people. And then it says, and the Lord
Jesus went up into a mountain. And then it says, when he was
set, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth. Don't
pass over these verses too quickly. First of all, there's a multitude. Throughout time, throughout the
world, there's always been a multitude. There's always been a large number
of people. The whole world is full of people.
Everyone born to Adam constitutes a multitude. And yet, And yet,
it says here that Jesus, seeing the multitudes, He saw them with
His physical eyes. No doubt that He saw them, and
they saw Him. But in seeing the multitudes,
the Lord Jesus Christ didn't just see a large number of people,
maybe 10,000 or whatever it was, a large number. He didn't just
see a crowd of people. He saw two kinds of people. He
saw those who were His sheep, and He saw those who were not
His sheep. And because He saw His people,
remember what does Matthew 1.21 say? He came to save His people
from their sins. He came to save His people from
their sins. He saw this multitude. In seeing
the multitude, it reminds us that of something Jesus said
in Matthew 20, 16. He says, Many are called, but
few are chosen. Now, unless God Himself, unless
God Himself saves us, We cannot be saved unless God does something
to intervene in our lives to deliver us from our propensity,
our sin, our nature, what we are by nature, what we receive
from our Father and what we are in ourselves, from our guilt
and our shame, from our filth and our corruption. Unless God
does something, We will never seek God. We'll never know God.
We will never understand the things of God. It says in Romans
3, there's none. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. There's none that doeth
good. No, not one. These are the truths
of the multitudes. Many are called. But God has
mercy on whom he will. Isn't that what the scripture
says? God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So in the multitude, there is a multitude of sheep. And these
are the ones for whom Jesus is about, these are the ones he's
going to address. He addresses all men, naturally. But he addresses his people spiritually. He speaks to them in their heart.
And that's what we're going to see here. So then it says, not
only was there this multitude, but he went up into a mountain.
Now mountains in scripture have a lot of things in common. Remember,
Jesus was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem, Mount Calvary. Abraham offered his son Isaac
on a mountain, Mount Moriah. And it says in Psalm 24, who
shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Take a look at that
in Psalm 24. Because this is what I see here
in these opening verses of Matthew 5. We have to keep the spiritual
in mind because it's not just healing. Remember, the message
of the miracles, and we're going to see lots of miracles as we
go through the book of Matthew, but the message of the miracles
is not the fantastic. It's not even the healing of
our bodies and our minds and dispossessing us of devils. The
message of the miracle is what Christ does to save His people
from their sins. And here in Psalm 24, He says
this, verse 3, Who shall ascend into
the hill of the Lord? A hill is like a mountain. Who
shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? That's where the Lord
dwells. Or who shall stand in His holy place? Here's the answer. He that has clean hands and a
pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to vanity nor sworn
deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and
righteousness from the God of his salvation. Now we know that
according to Romans 3, there is none righteous and yet God
speaks about someone who is able to ascend into the hill of the
Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is worthy to open
the seals to reveal God, to perform His will, to fulfill all righteousness,
and He alone is worthy. And therefore, when we see this,
He sees the multitude, He sees all people, but He sees His people
within the multitude, and He goes up into a mountain because
He Himself came from heaven He descended first from heaven,
and He told Nicodemus, No man has ascended up into heaven,
but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man who is in
heaven. So Nicodemus is wondering, how
do you know all these things? Did you learn about them by going
up to heaven and receiving instruction from God and then coming back
down here like Moses went up into the mountain? No, he tells
Nicodemus, I came from heaven and I descended from heaven and
I know what's in heaven because I'm the son of man who is from
heaven and in heaven. And so we see this, the only
one who can teach us who God is, what His will is, and fulfill
that will is the Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ. He went up
into a mountain because He's the one who ascended into heaven,
descended from heaven and ascended back up into heaven, and He's
the one who is the one Mediator between God and men. And so then
it says in the next part, when he was set, his disciples came
to him. Being set means he was sat down. He sat down. And being
sat down, it indicates that the Lord Jesus Christ completed a
work. And he sits down on the basis
of what he's done, and the perfections of it, and what follows is going
to flow from that. It says, His disciples came to
Him. Who were these disciples? Well,
in chapter 4, He called some of them, Peter and Andrew and
James and John. In calling them, they responded. They followed Him. The reason
they followed is because He gave them grace to be persuaded of
who He was and that He could save. And they followed Him. They just came. His word to them
had a compelling force on them that drew them to Himself and
they left everything and followed Him. And until God calls us,
we can't follow Him. So then look at these next words
in verse 2, Matthew 5 verse 2. And this is important. Notice
what it says. And he opened his mouth and taught
them. Do you see that? Who opened his
mouth? The Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ. He opened
his mouth. Remember when he opened his mouth
and the worlds were created? Remember when He opened His mouth
and called forth Lazarus from the tomb? This is the voice of
the Son of God. Nothing in heaven and earth resists
the power of His Word. He upholds all things by the
power of His Word. So when He opens His mouth, He
not only opens it with authority, what He's about to say is right
and true, but He opens His mouth with power to accomplish His
will. Isaiah 55, it says that that
the Lord's Word will not return to him void, but will accomplish
all that he sent it to do. God's Word is not weak. God's Word cannot be resisted. God will do all His pleasure. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
opens His mouth, His disciples are taught. They're taught. When God draws us, when He teaches
us, we're taught. Whatever God teaches a man, that
man knows. And until God teaches us, we
don't know it. So now let's read through verse
3 through 12. Blessed are, this is what 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. blessed are all these things.
He says, blessed are you poor, blessed are you that mourn, blessed
are you that are meek, and so on. And what do we naturally
think? When we read those, we naturally
think There's a blessing to be had. There's an attitude or a
disposition he's describing here. For example, the poor in spirit.
And if we can achieve, somehow strive in ourselves to achieve
that sense of poverty of spirit, then we'll receive the blessing
promise. The kingdom of heaven will be
ours. If we can, like this false notion I showed you in the Thomson's
King James Reference Bible, these are steps we have to climb to
achieve this higher altitude of spiritual life. This is, nothing
could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from
the truth. We in ourselves can never produce
what God requires. And if we could understand that
fundamentally, if God teaches us that, if God teaches us that
in ourselves we cannot come up with one of the things that God
requires, then we've begun to learn something. We've begun
to learn something. He says it starts here, blessed
are the poor in spirit. poor in spirit." Now notice,
he doesn't say, blessed are those who make themselves poor in spirit,
or if you're poor in spirit, then you will be blessed. No,
he says, you are blessed if you're poor in spirit. This is something
that, the things described here are not something that we come
up to. What's described here are the
work of God in His people to give them grace in order to receive
the blessings that He has given to them and promised to them.
In other words, I'll just repeat it. What these things God is
describing here by these attitudes or these dispositions are things
that are the work of God in us in order to enable us to receive
what God gives to us in Christ. You see, it's not because we
do something, it's not like, I have to do, I was, we're taught
this in school. If you learn these subtraction
facts, I'll give you five bucks. Or if you work really hard, then
you can, you know, compete in the hurdles. Or whatever it is,
everything in our life is somehow related to this sense of, if
you do this, then we'll do that. Reward and punishment are the
only things men know how to motivate with. But here the Lord Jesus
Christ says, no, no. First what happens is God does
a work. It's represented by what He said
here in the first two verses. What Christ does. He sees the
multitude. He goes to the mountain. He sits
down. That represents Him coming to
the earth for His people and teaching them on the basis of
what He would accomplish for them. And he opens his mouth
with authority and power. And now he speaks. He speaks
as though the work is done in them and the result of that work.
He says, blessed are the poor, or blessed are you poor in spirit.
The first thing we see here is that these things are not like
a rod that God is taking out to beat us with. Get poor. get poor in spirit in order that
I can give you something or he's not telling us here's some things
you need to do that you've been failing in in order to get the
blessing of eternal life what God is doing here is the Lord
Jesus Christ is doing is he's pronouncing blessings on his
disciples in order to comfort them because in the comfort in
the experience of grace in our lives We naturally have a doubt
that God really is doing anything with us, because we see these
things. Poverty of spirit. If you feel yourself to be poor
in spirit, what do you think? I don't have anything. What is
someone who is poor in spirit? I have nothing. I've never done
anything of any value. I have nothing to bring to God.
It says in Luke chapter 7, there were two debtors who owed a man
and they both had nothing to pay. That's what we are. We have
a debt we cannot pay. Nothing to pay with. Not only
do we have a debt we can't pay, but God's righteousness, His
requirements for obedience on us, is something we cannot provide.
We can't fulfill what God requires. We're poor. We can do nothing. Nothing to please God. We have
no potential in our lives to bring God value. We're like little
infants. You look at them and you go,
what good is this little infant in the war that's required in
the kingdom of God? Of absolutely no value. But that's
exactly what the kingdom of heaven is like. It's like little kids
who in themselves have no power, no strength, no knowledge. They're
empty. And so what God is doing here,
He's comforting His disciples that the work of grace, the grace
of God in us, when He teaches us the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, brings us to this attitude, this disposition. And it's not
like a climactic event in our life. Oh, I reached this point
where I was so poor and I broke through and after that I'm free.
Now I'm not poor at all. No, no, no. This is actually
a growth of maturity. We grow in this attitude of poverty
of spirit. And this growth in poverty of
spirit isn't just a negative. It's not just a void of something. It's a void of something in order
that something might be put into it. This poverty of spirit is
like an empty container into which God puts His grace. And
that grace is faith which looks to Christ and receives from Him
everything. So, the first thing we see about
this poverty of spirit is that the Lord Jesus Christ is comforting
His disciples because of the work of grace in their life which
is teaching them that in themselves they are nothing. Nothing. What have you done? I've only
done sin. I've only sinned against God.
And what do you have? I have nothing to pay. Remember
blind Bartimaeus? He sat by the side of the road
begging. He was blind. He had no value. You look at him. His name, Bartimaeus,
means son of the unclean. He had nothing to pay. And he
sits there begging. What does he do? What does a
beggar do? Someone's poor in spirit. Jesus
son of David have mercy on me and the people told him shut
up be quiet you're making too much And he didn't even pay attention
to them. He has nothing to lose and everything
to gain. Because he's totally void of
all value in himself. He sees the Son of God and he
cries to Him, Lord have mercy, have mercy. All I need is found
in You. I need everything from You and
I'll always need everything from You. And only in you will I find
all that I need." And so he cries out to Him. That's poverty of
spirit. One who is poor in spirit feels. It's not a doctrine. We can learn
the doctrine of total depravity. And it's true. Men are totally
depraved. We can learn that doctrine. But
until we know it in our heart, in our conscience, we know that
what does God require of me? He requires perfection. He requires
obedience. He requires submission. He requires
all these things. Faith, and repentance, and love,
and so on. Just go down the list. God requires
that. What am I going to do? Try to
work it up? If we do that, we've completely
left ourselves in the dark. We've opposed our own salvation.
But God comes to us in the Gospel, and He tells us, like He told
Nicodemus, when Nicodemus says, How can I be born again? What
do you mean, born again? I can't see the kingdom of God
unless I'm born again. And He says, How can these things
be? I don't understand it. I don't
understand it. And you're a master in Israel,
and you don't understand it. And Jesus says, He says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but
have eternal life. He pointed Nicodemus away from
the impossibility of all that he was to be born again to the
Lord Jesus Christ and his work for him on the cross. And that
finished perfect work. And he says to him, believe that. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He himself found himself in poverty. He had been a master in Israel,
and he couldn't even understand the ABCs of the gospel. He was
stupid in spiritual things, just like we are. And if God does
a work of grace in our lives, the first thing he teaches us
is that in yourself, you are nothing. You have nothing. Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. In fact, look at this. 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. It doesn't stop. Paul the Apostle
experienced these things and he writes about them for our
instruction and for our comfort in this walk of grace. He says
in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. I like reading these verses over
and over again. He says in verse 7, "...lest
I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the
revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the
messenger of Satan, to buffet me." It's like he goes into the
ring, mixed martial arts, and some guy is kicking and punching
and hacking on him. That's the messenger of Satan.
Why is he doing this? lest I should be exalted above
measure. For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said to me, listen,
my grace is sufficient for thee." The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. His grace of coming and dying,
His grace of giving life, His grace of sustaining that life
in faith, His grace of keeping, His grace of bringing you to
glory, His grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength, the
Lord says to Paul, is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong." You see, it's like, no, that doesn't make any sense
to me. Someone would say, what are you saying there? You're
talking out of both sides of your mouth. You see, that's the
natural man speaking. But the spiritual man says, If
I'm honest in my soul, if I'm truly honest, everything I've
ever heard, that I've heard in church, that was required for
me to do in order to be a Christian, in order to be a good Christian,
or whatever it is, in order to stand before God unashamed in
glory, has always come down to something I could never do. And
I had to be honest in my soul and say, I have fallen so far
short, I haven't even started the race. And yet, God says,
that's the beginning. That's where you start. What
experience do you have in the walk of a Christian life when
the Lord first shows you that everything he required of you,
he found and fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ? What did you
have? Nothing. And what did he tell you to do?
Look to Christ. Look unto me, all the ends of
the earth, and be ye saved, saith the Lord. And that's exactly
what he says to the most mature believer. As you have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Blessed are the poor
in spirit. If they're poor in spirit, they've
been blessed. If they're poor in spirit, they
will be blessed in that poverty. And if they're poor in spirit,
they're going to remain poor in spirit. They're going to grow
in poverty of spirit. They're going to say with David,
in Psalm 51 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. Isn't that a comfort? Do you
see why this is a comfort? Isaiah 55 says, if you don't
have any money, Then you come, you buy, and buy wine and milk
without money and without price. How do you buy anything without
money? Because the blessings of the gospel are not available
for sale. Someone else has paid the price. The ransom price was paid by
Christ. And so the poverty of spirit
is not just an empty bag. It's a bag in which God puts
the grace of faith to look outside of yourself to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And in looking to Him, do you
know what you find? You find, yes, I have nothing. Nothing. And it's my shame that
I have nothing. God is so good. God is so great.
But in having nothing, I realize that in having nothing, I have
all things in Christ. Colossians 3.11. Christ is all. He's all. He's everything. Colossians
2 9 and 10 says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth
bodily in the Lord Jesus Christ and you, you who believe, are
complete in Him. Complete where there's no more.
You can't just top it off. You can't add a little bit to
it. Everything is in Christ. That's the first lesson. Look
at the next verse. Verse 4. Blessed are they that
mourn. Mourn. What does it mean to mourn? Well, it means to really be sorrowful. It means to have a great sorrow
of heart. It's like you've lost someone.
You've lost one in death, and you mourn for them because you
can't get them back. You're mourning and mourning,
and you're very, very sorrowful. But how is this grace given to
us in Christ? How does this grace work in us
who believe? Well, it causes us to mourn because
we see that God has been so good to us in Christ. And in His goodness
towards us, and His patience with us in our life, and His
patience with us not only in our past life, but in our present
life. Especially in our present life.
Because we have so much light, so much understanding from the
scripture. In the light of all that He's given us, in the light
of the fact that we are a new man in Christ, He's given us
faith, and hope, and love, and all these things. In the light
of all those things, what do we find? We find ourselves, in
ourselves, not only to be no better, but to be worse. It seems like the light of the
gospel shines into cracks and crevices we never knew were there.
So that we find attitudes and motives in ourselves that reveal
our shame, our filth and shame. Not only that, but we find a
dullness of heart when we hear the gospel. How many times do
you hear the gospel and you walk away and say, I just heard eternal
truth, mysteries, held from the beginning of the world, and it
didn't even penetrate my heart. And you mourn over that. You
mourn over your unbelief. You mourn over your lack of love. You mourn over your stinginess,
and your self-centeredness, and your pride, and your lust, and
all these things. You mourn over them. Because
God has turned the lights on. And He's turned the lights on
to see the glory of Christ, the glory of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And seeing Him, you say, like
Job said, Behold, I am vile. Or like Peter said to the Lord
Jesus, depart from me, Lord, I am a sinful man. Or like Paul
in Romans chapter 7, he says, in fact, look at Romans chapter
7, verse 19. And we'll look at a couple of
verses there. Romans 7, familiar? I'm sure that you know these
things, but it helps to look at them. Romans chapter 7, he
says, verse 19, for the good that I would I want to do these
things that are good. What does he say? The good that
I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do." You see, this is a huge problem, isn't it? The
apostle Paul, how can you say this? How dare you say this? You claim to be an apostle? We'd
probably kick you out of the church. You're saying the good
you should do, you don't? And the evil that you ought not
do, that's what you do? And then he says in verse 24,
oh, wretched man that I am. Not that I was, I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? And then you can see here the
grace of God coming alongside the mourning man. And he says,
not in a void, not in, I'm wretched and I'm going to go out and plunge
myself into suicide. And he says, no, I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God. That is the mind of the Spirit
of God that God has given me to think, to see that Christ
has done everything and is everything that God requires of me. for
obedience, for sin payment, for everything. He says, with the
mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, what
I am by nature, the law of sin. That's what he finds. And so
that's what we see. Now this morning, I want to give
you a couple of examples of this because I think it helps us to
see this. Look at 1 Samuel. I was looking at 1 Samuel just
a couple of days ago, and this is a blessed book, 1 Samuel. In the first chapter, you see
the situation is Hannah, the mother, actually she was the
wife of Elkanah, and he had two wives, one was Penina, and Hannah
was barren, she didn't have any children. And to make matters
worse, the other woman that he was married to, Penina, mocked
her And so she was troubled, greatly troubled by Penina's
mocking and persecution of her for her affliction which God
had afflicted her. She was afflicted of God. She
had no children. She could do nothing about it. She could do
absolutely nothing to correct the problem. And so she weeps. It says, look at this, and it
said, And verse 7, and as they did
this, year by year they would go up to sacrifice. As they did
this year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord,
so she, Penina, provoked her, therefore she wept. Hannah wept
and did not eat. And then her husband, Elkanah,
said to her, Hannah, why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not?
And why is thy heart grieved? You see that grieving? That's
mourning. Am not I better to thee than ten sons? Sounds like
a husband, huh? So Hannah rose up after they
had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest
sat upon a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord, and she
was in bitterness of soul. Do you see that? And she prayed
to the Lord and wept sore. That's what mourning is. She
wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and she
said, Lord, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the
affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget
thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a child,
then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and
there shall no razor come upon his head. Now this was God who
prophetically put these words in her heart to pray. God put
His will into Hannah's heart to pray to Him so He could fulfill
His promise to her. Don't think that Hannah came
up with a new idea that God had not thought of before. Known
unto God are all His works from the foundation of the world.
So what came into Hannah's heart was put there by the Lord. he
put it in her heart to pray this prayer and he would fulfill this
thing and so it came to pass as she continued praying before
the Lord that Eli marked her mouth and Hannah says now Hannah
she spake in her heart only her lips moved but her voice was
not heard therefore Eli thought she had been drunken And Eli
said to her, How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine
from thee? And Hannah answered and said,
No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. Do you see
that? A mourning spirit. I have drunk
neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before
the Lord. What does a person who mourns
do? They pour out their soul before
the Lord. Have you ever found in the poverty
of your spirit But in the morning of your spirit, that you pray
and it's like the words just won't come. I don't know what
to pray. Lord, I don't even have the ability
to put words to my needs. And you just begin to pray, Lord,
I don't even understand my need. Would you see the need of my
heart? Would you meet that need, Lord? And you begin to pray.
And that's what a mourning person does. They pray, Lord, Lord,
even though the words may not come out clearly. But anyway,
she says in verse 16, "...do not count thine handmaid for
a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint
and grief have I spoken hitherto." And so it goes on and it shows
that, in fact let's read it, "...then Eli said, Go in peace,
and the God of Israel grant thee thy position." that thou hast
asked of him, and she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in
thy sight. So the woman went her way, and
did eat, and her countenance was no more sad." What made Hannah
mourn no more? It was the word of the Lord,
spoken by Eli, that her petition was heard, and God was going
to give her her son. You see, Hannah mourned because
she couldn't live without the Son. She asked for Samuel. That's what his name means, asked.
And she mourned for not having a son because every woman whom
God had given grace to see Christ, the promise of Christ in the
Old Testament, looked constantly for the Lord Jesus Christ to
be born. And they prayed that it would be through them. And
they labored in whatever way they could to be somehow part
of that promise. And here is Hannah praying, I'm
barren. How can I fulfill? How can I
be part of the promise of God? Have I been cut out of the inheritance
of God? What will become of me? And so
she prays, Lord, give me a son, give me a son. And this is what
a mourning person prays. Lord, give me the Lord Jesus
Christ. Give me Christ or else I die. I am my life what good is my
life if I haven't if I haven't got him and so we pray Lord give
me the Lord Jesus Christ teach me in my heart what you've done
for me and cause me to rest in you and you alone and so she
prays and then I want to see another example of morning there's
lots of them we could go to but this one is especially dear to
me look at Luke chapter 15 In Luke chapter 15, there are
three things given, and I've written about this in our handout,
three things given, so I won't spend time on the first two,
but there are three cases given here by the Lord Jesus Christ.
But look at verse one. It says in verse one of Luke
15, then drew near to him all the publicans and sinners for
to hear him. You see that? What a blessed
word that is. These publicans and sinners,
they come close to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they lean in, because
they want to hear what He has to say. They're leaning there,
and they're hearing Him. Why? Because He's sent from God. And because He receives publicans
and sinners. So they come to hear Him. And
the Pharisees and the scribes murmured. They said, this man
receives sinners, and He eats with them? And so Jesus spake
these parables. Listen to this from verse 11.
And he said, a certain man had two sons. Now, in these two sons,
we see the entire human race. All of us are like both of these
boys in our natural condition. One of them receives the grace
of God. And this is the first one, the
first son that he speaks of here. A certain man had two sons, the
younger of them. The younger of them said to his
father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
And he divided unto them his living. All that you have, Father,
someday will be mine. Give me mine now. And so his
father, you can see the reluctance in his father, perhaps, to give
him everything. Especially when he didn't seem
to be trustworthy, but his father is wise. It's a parable. We understand
the purpose of God in this. Verse 13. And not many days after,
the younger son gathered all together, and he took his journey
into a far country. Now, I hope that you can see,
what is this chapter about? Sinners. Why is it written? Because the Pharisees complained
that he received sinners. So here's a young man, he gathers
all that his father gave him, he took his journey to a far
country and there wasted his substance with riotous living,
profligate living. And when he had spent all, there
arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want."
Do you see that? That is the mercy of God. He
began to be in want. And he went out and he joined
himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into
the fields to feed swine. These pigs, these filthy pigs.
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that
the swine did eat. There's much to be unfolded in
here, which I'm not going to do right now. And no man gave
to him. And when he came to himself,
he said, now what does he have at this point? Nothing. He has
nothing. He's wasted everything. How many
hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare? And I perish with hunger. I will
arise and go to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned
against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called
thy son. You don't have to identify me
as your son anymore. You don't have to recognize me
when you're with me or I'm with you as your son. Just make me
as one of your hired servants and you don't even have to put
me in the place of the chief servants. Just let me serve as
a servant in your house. And he arose and he came to his
father but when, notice here, Sometimes we look at this parable
and we see the humility of the Son. We focus on that. But the
parable is meant to teach us the grace of the Father. And
when He was yet a great way off. I hope you see God the Father
in this. His Father saw Him and had compassion and ran and fell
on his neck and kissed him. And the words don't just mean
kissed him once, but kissed him much. And you can see, you can
see this son. No doubt he smells like the swine. He looks like the swine. All
of his clothes have rotted off. He has no shoes. He's lost everything
that was his father's. He had his father's ring before,
he doesn't now. And the son said to his father, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son. And before he could even get
the words out, the father said to his servants, Bring forth,
not just clothes, but the best robe, and put it on him. The robe of the righteousness
worked out by the son of God himself in his dying, in his
suffering, in his dying unto death in obedience to his father.
That's the robe. And put it on him. And put a
ring on his hand, that ring that identifies him with his father,
the sonship ring. And shoes for his feet. Cover
his feet. Give him the gospel that he may
walk in faith. and bring hither the fatted calf.
He says to his servants, preach Christ and him crucified and
kill the fatted calf and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and
is alive again. He was lost and is found. And
they began to be merry. You see that? That is a son who
was poor and now he mourns And in His mourning, He receives
all from His Father. This is the grace of God. This
is the experience of grace in our hearts. We find in ourselves
to be entirely unworthy of God's grace and His goodness only by
hearing the gospel of what God has done for us in Christ. Who
can deserve the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now I would like
to go on and talk about meekness and these other things, but before
I do, and I won't do it this time because we don't have time,
but before I do, I would be remiss, I would be at fault if I didn't
first tell you that these things, who is it that's speaking these
things in Matthew chapter 5? It's the Lord Jesus. But who
is Jesus? He's the master. He's the master. Who is he talking to? His disciples. And what is the master doing?
Remember, he said to his disciples at one point, it's good for the
disciple to be as his master. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
speaks about who are the blessed not out of a sense of I am over
here and I am fine and you're over there and you need to humble
yourself and do all these things. He speaks as one who has experienced
these things in his own heart and soul. Do you see that? Blessed
are the poor in spirit. What does it say in Corinthians?
It says For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you,
through his poverty, might be made rich. You see, when the
Lord Jesus Christ became poor, he emptied himself. Not only did He empty Himself,
like we think of ourselves when we're empty. I have nothing,
I am nothing, I can provide nothing, I never will be anything. And
then we look to Christ and we receive all from Him. That's
our experience. But His experience, when He emptied
Himself, He was equal with God and He divested Himself. He made
Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant.
And not just the form of a servant, but He was made in the likeness
of men in order that He might be He might take the debt, not
just poverty, but the debt of his own people to himself. And
having taken that debt to himself, he had to satisfy justice to
pay that debt in his own death. But not just the debt. He had
to fulfill all righteousness. He had to provide to God everything
God required for his people. That's poverty. Indebtedness. An obligation to fulfill all
that was required for his people. Not because it was his own debt.
But because it was theirs and he took it for them. It was a
voluntary willingness to take it for them. So when we read
in Psalm 34.6 This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved
him out of all his troubles. We're reading David in prophecy
speaking the words of our Lord Jesus Christ who himself became
poor under the debt of our sin in order that he might God's
justice what was owed by us and in paying that justice fulfill
all God's will and give that righteousness which he earned
to us look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 19 he says
in verse 19 of 2nd Corinthians 5 in fact I should read verse
18 all things are of God All things are of God. Our salvation,
creation, all of providence, everything's of God. All things
are of God. Everything's under God's control,
and it's a good thing that they are, because that way there's
no failure. "...who hath reconciled us to
himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit, This is the ministry of reconciliation.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing
their trespasses to them. Did God not impute the trespasses
of every individual in the world? Did the Lord Jesus Christ take
away the sins of every person in the world and not impute their
trespasses to them? Because if He did, then no one
has any sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ, it
says in Scripture, He died for me. It says in Galatians 2.20,
the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. He gave
Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.
All these things in Scripture teaches us, and this verse in
particular teaches us that The world are those to whom God did
not impute sins because Christ bore those sins. Let's go on. He has committed to us the word
of reconciliation. Ambassadors from heaven's throne,
coming with a banner, waving the white flag of peace. Now then, we are ambassadors.
Paul is speaking. Every minister of God carries
this word and he says, as though God did beseech you by us, we
pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God. And here's
the verse I wanted to get to. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Do you see this? Here is one
who was poor in spirit. How poor? He was made sin for
us. He cries in Psalm 40 verse 12,
mine iniquities. The sins of God's people were
laid on him. He bore them. It was for them
that he was punished. He was wounded and he bore their
iniquities. And it was by his stripes that
we're healed. That's poverty. He came so low. He stooped down from heaven to
earth as man. And then from man, he says in
Psalm 22, I am a worm and no man. Because he was made lower
than the angels as man, but he was made to be sin for his people
that he might be cursed by God under the law take away the curse
from them, fulfill all righteousness, and give them the riches out
of His grace." That's what it means when it says that He was
made poor, that we might be made rich. And who mourned but Him? One more place in Scripture.
Look at Lamentations. It's after the book of Jeremiah.
It's actually a lament by the prophet Jeremiah, but as all
prophecies, It's not the words of Jeremiah
just for the historical time that it's in, but it's a prophecy
of something that would come later and be fulfilled later.
And it's explained in the New Testament in the verse that we
just read. But look here, it says in In
Lamentations chapter 1 verse 8, Jerusalem hath grievously
sinned. What is Jerusalem? Jerusalem
is the city that's identified with, physically, the capital
of Israel. But in the New Testament, Jerusalem
has to do with the church of God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
remember? Jerusalem hath grievously sinned,
therefore she is removed. All that honored her despise
her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yea, she scytheth
and turns backwards, her filthiness is in her skirts. That means
she's committed spiritual adultery in serving other gods. She remembereth
not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully. She had
no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction,
for the enemy hath magnified himself. So now, up to this point,
in just reading this, we see the affliction that came upon
Jerusalem because of her sin. But notice in verse 10, the transition
begins. The adversary has spread out
his hand upon all her pleasant things. For she has seen that
the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command
that they should not enter into thy congregation. And all her
people sigh, they seek bread. They have given their pleasant
things for meat to relieve the soul. See, O Lord, and consider,
for I am become vile." Why were they vile? Because of their sin.
And now listen to verse 12. and listen to these words and
understand them to be the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is
it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold and see if there
be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones, and it prevaileth against them. He hath spread
a net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. They are wreathed and come up
upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fail.
The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not
able to rise up." Do you see that? This is speaking about
Christ having been made sin for his people, and having been made
sin for them, experiencing all of the shame before God, all
of the filth of their sins, and all of the guilt and condemnation
from God against us for our sin. He mourned. He was poor. And he teaches us as the master,
when you're mourning, when you're poor in spirit, when that poverty
of spirit and that mourning of spirit causes you to look to
Christ for everything, so that you find no confidence in yourself
in anything, then you are blessed. You receive everything because
you have the kingdom of heaven. They that mourn are comforted.
A poor man is one who has only Christ. And I pick these words
carefully. Poverty of spirit is someone who has only Christ. Only Christ. If you only have
Christ, then you're a poor man in yourself, but you're rich
in Christ. Because you can't only have Christ
unless you have nothing in yourself. There's one thing I've learned,
is that until I am unable to trust myself, I can't trust Christ. And mourning is someone whose
life is nothing but Christ. His life, a total loss. but everything
he has is what he has in Christ. We mourn for our sin, we mourn
for these things, but when we have all this mourning and this
poverty of spirit because we're nothing before God and we can
come to him openly and freely and present our case before him
as Hannah did and as the prodigal son and just pour out our heart,
then God points us to Christ and he says, everything I require
of you I found in my son. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you that you sent the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he became poor voluntarily. He obligated himself to pay the
debt of his people and to fulfill all of their obedience, and he
did that in his own death. We thank you, Lord, that you,
by your Spirit, now call sinners with the authority of heaven
from your throne to cause them to look to Jesus and to come
to God by Him. We have nothing in ourselves,
O Lord, and we'll never find anything in ourselves but cause
for sorrow and shame. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have salvation and cause for rejoicing. And we thank You,
Lord, that this is our hope, that You've made us poor and
caused us to mourn over ourselves but not just to stop there, but
to see the Lord Jesus Christ as everything. Help us, Lord,
to come to you by him and never, never leave him and never come
in any other way or trust in any other salvation. We thank
you for his saving grace that is full and perfect. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.