All right, Matthew chapter 5,
titled our lesson, Blessed are the Poor in Spirit. Matthew 5
begins with what we call the Beatitudes. It begins what we
call our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and He begins it with
the Beatitudes. And the word blessed that He
used, blessed are the poor, blessed are they that mourn, blessed
are the meek. That word blessed means supremely blessed. It means
supremely happy. And in these Beatitudes, the
Lord is not telling us how to be saved. You don't have to do
these things or adopt these attitudes in order to be saved. He's not
telling us how to be saved. Salvation comes by faith, by
believing the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord's not telling us
how to be saved, and the Lord's not telling us how to live either.
He's not telling us what a believer ought to be. In these Beatitudes,
The Lord is telling us what a believer is by God's grace. These are
the things that God has made his people to be. See, the Lord
is pronouncing blessings that all of his people already have. All of his people already blessed
with these things. So the Beatitudes are the evidences
of salvation. These are the blessings that
God gives his people when he saves them. It's part of the
new nature that he gives them in the new birth. And you'll
notice that these blessings, these beatitudes are all in the
present tense. It's not what you're going to
have someday. It's what the believer has right now in Christ. And
it's very important for us to understand this, that the people
who are blessed of God are not the people we naturally think
that they are. God's blessings are always, in every case, the
opposite of what we think by nature. We think the rich are
blessed. That's what we think. Somebody
that can just go out and afford to buy anything, that's a blessed
person. You know what God says, blessed are the poor in spirit.
We think people who are happy and are laughing are blessed.
People who are dancing through life, that's the blessed people.
God said, people who mourn are blessed. We think the bold and
the confident, they're blessed, we think. You know what God says?
God says the meek are blessed. We think folks who are full and
who need nothing, we think that's the blessed person, the blessed
man, the blessed woman. God says the empty are blessed,
the hungry and thirsty are blessed. We think people who are powerful,
who are in charge, who can do anything they want, we think
that's the blessed man. God says the persecuted are blessed. In every instance, it's the opposite
of what this flesh thinks in it. I pray our Lord will teach
us this, this grace in the heart, not just something in the head,
but grace in the heart. And the Lord willing, in the
next few weeks, it's my intention after looking at the first of
these Beatitudes anyway, to bring one message on each of them.
And today we'll look at blessed are the poor in spirit. Now it's
beautiful to me how this message of God's grace begins. Verse
one, Matthew five, and seeing the multitudes, he went up into
a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. The Lord went up into a mountain
to bring this, his message, the sermon on the mountain, teach
his grace. He went up into a mountain to
do this. I think that's significant. I remember another time God spoke
from mountain, don't you? God spoke from Mount Sinai. And
He gave the law. And on that mountain, Mount Sinai,
the curse of the law was pronounced upon men. And men ran from that
mountain, didn't they? They ran away from it in fear.
They told Moses, don't let God talk to us. Let God talk to you.
You come back and talk to us. But in this mountain, the blessings
of grace are going to be pronounced from the lips of the Son of God
Himself and His people were drawn to Him. They came to Him. And if I can tell you one more
time, You come to Christ. Come to Christ. These folks came unto Him. They were blessed. And if we'll
come to Christ, we will be too. Now verse 2, He opened His mouth
and talked to them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Now you'll notice the Lord doesn't
say blessed are the poor. He's not talking about financial
poverty here. He's talking about spiritual
poverty. Blessed are the poor in spirit and attitude. David
was a wildly wealthy man, wasn't he? How many times did David
say, I'm poor and needy? I'm poor and needy. Even though
he was the richest man on earth, he said, I'm poor and needy. You have false religion. Talks
about how to get rich financially, don't they? They talk about things
of this flesh. I have more of the things of
this flesh. in relation to this ship, in relation to this thing
of poverty, they talk about how to get rich financially. They
talk about how to be full of the stuff of this world. And
they say, now God's blessed you if you're rich, if you're rich.
You want God to bless you? They say, give to me, you know,
and I'll be rich and then God will make you. They say that's
God's blessing. But what does the gospel do?
Does the gospel give you riches in this life? If you hear the
gospel, let me tell you the very first thing the gospel does,
the very first thing, the gospel strips you, leaves you naked,
poor, and needy spiritually. Because the gospel never deals
with the external, ever. The gospel deals with the internal.
When the gospel speaks of riches, it doesn't talk about riches
of this life that's going to get all burned up anyway. It
talks about riches of God's grace in the heart. The Lord said, blessed are the
poor in spirit. And you might think, well, then
he's pronouncing a blessing on all sons of Adam because all
men and women are spiritually poor, aren't they? And that's
true. All men, all of us here are spiritually
poor, but you know, all men are not poor in spirit. We're ruined
in Adam. The problem is most men don't
know it. Those who are poor in spirit know it. They know that
they don't have anything. They know they're spiritually
bankrupt. And those people who don't have anything, those people
who are spiritually bankrupt have zero. God says those people
are blessed. They're blessed. The poor in
spirit have nothing. They don't have anything spiritually.
They don't have any merit at all. There's no reason found
in them. They can't find any reason. When
they look at themselves, they can find absolutely no reason
God would do something for them. That Pharisee in the temple,
when he prayed, he found something in himself that he thought, God,
you know, God ought to bless me. I fast twice in a week. I
give tithes. I give alms. But the poor in spirit can't
see any reason at all in themselves that God would do anything for
them. They have a sin debt and they can't do anything to pay
for it. They can't even help to pay for it. The poor in spirit
had no willingness to come to Christ. They're empty of willingness
to come to Christ and they're empty of any ability to come
to Christ. Our Lord said, you cannot come
to me and you will not come unto me. There's no willingness and
there's no ability to come to Christ. The poor in spirit don't
have any righteousness and they don't have any good works by
which they can earn any righteousness. The poor in spirit cannot love
God. They don't have the ability.
They love themselves. They love the God of their imagination,
but they don't love the true and living God. They can't believe
on Christ. They have no ability to make
themselves believe on Christ. Try as they might, they cannot
repent. The poor in spirit have nothing.
But you know, a better description of the poor in spirit would be
to say they are nothing. The poor in spirit have nothing
because they are nothing. And you think, that's a blessed
person. Yes, it is. The poor in spirit
have nothing. That's the blessed person. The
poor in spirit who have nothing and are nothing are blessed of
God because they are the only people in this world who need
Christ. If you need Christ, oh, you're
a blessed person. Oh, you're a blessed person.
And in a sentence, The poor in spirit are blessed because they
have no hope and are without Christ in this world. And those
are the only people who will come to Christ begging for mercy. And the poor in spirit understand
the meaning of the word importunity. You might remember a few weeks
ago, Elder Eric Floyd wrote an article on importunity. I said,
if you don't know what that means, go and read the article. You'll
find out what it means. Well, the poor in spirit may have never
heard of the word importunity, but the poor in spirit know this,
I'm not going to quit begging. And that's importunity. Just
I won't quit begging. I won't quit begging. I won't
quit calling for mercy. I won't quit calling upon Christ
because He is my only hope. And I tell you a good illustration,
there's several good illustrations of that in scripture, but the
one that came to my mind was blind Bartimaeus. There sat blind
Bartimaeus begging. And he couldn't see, but he heard,
he heard something. He heard that Jesus of Nazareth
was passing by. Blind Bartimaeus couldn't see
him. He didn't know where he was, but he cried out for mercy. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy upon me. And they said, shh, blind Bartimaeus,
this is a dirty, stinky, smelly beggar. We're ashamed. We don't
want, we don't want Jesus to see this, Homeless man in our
town, you know, we want to make our town look good and spruced
up. You just be quiet, stay out of sight, and we'll give you
a few quarters later on. The importunity is this. He cried
all the louder, Jesus, son of David, have mercy upon me. He
wouldn't shut up. You know why? Jesus of Nazareth
was his only hope. He was poor in spirit. And what
happened to him? He was, of all those people in
Jericho, I know of two men that were blessed. Zacchaeus and Blind
Bartimaeus. Lord gave him sight. I want to
give you seven reasons why the poor in spirit are blessed of
God. Number one is this. The poor
in spirit are blessed of God because God's made them poor
in spirit. It's not something that they
did on their own. God had to make them poor in spirit. Like
I said, most people don't know they're poor in spirit, do they?
The only people who know that they're poor in spirit are people
that God's made to be poor in spirit. You know, by nature,
we think we are really something. I mean, we really do. We think
we're something. False religion is full of people who are trying
to please God, who think that they can. And you know why they
think they can? They got a dead nature. We think, we actually
think by nature, we can do something to make God happy with us. So
he'll save us, so he'll bless us. And we've got to become nothing
before God will ever bless us. And the only way we'll be nothing
is if God makes us nothing. And I tell you how he does it.
It's by the word of his power. You remember the story of creation? Nothing, just nothing in the
blackness of space. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. God said,
let the dry land appear. God said, let the animals appear.
God said, let the plants grow. And it was so. God created everything
from nothing. There wasn't something there
and he refashioned it into the world that we live in. There
was nothing. And God spoke and suddenly it was something. Well,
by nature, we think we're something. And the only way something's
going to become nothing is if God in His power speaks, speaks
by the power of His word and makes us nothing. And if somebody
knows that they're nothing, that's a blessed man and a blessed woman
because God's made them to be that. Number two, the poor in
spirit are blessed because Christ is everything to them. He's everything. The poor in spirit, they can't
do anything. Well, they're going to be blessed
because Christ will do everything for them. He'll do everything
God requires. The poor in spirit don't have
anything. And they're going to be blessed because Christ will
be everything for them. The poor in spirit, they know
that they are spiritually bankrupt. They're poor. But Christ, they're
blessed because Christ fills them with the riches of his grace.
The poor in spirit don't have any merit of their own. And they're
blessed because God accepts them in the merit of his son. The
poor in spirit don't have anything to help pay for their sin. And
they're blessed because Christ pays it all with his precious
blood. The poor in spirit had no willingness
to come to Christ and no ability to come to Christ. And that's
the blessed person, the blessed man, the blessed woman, because
the Holy Spirit's going to make them willing in the day of his
power. And he'll irresistibly draw them to Christ. They won't
be able to stay away from him. The poor in spirit don't have
any righteousness or any good works. And they're blessed. Because God's going to make them
the righteousness of God in Christ. And they're going to perform
the good works where unto he has ordained them. The poor in
spirit can't love God. And they're blessed. They're
blessed when God sheds abroad his love in their hearts. The
poor in spirit cannot believe on Christ. Try as they might,
they cannot make themselves believe on Christ. That's a blessed person. Because you know what God does
for them? Gives them the gift of faith. Let's them see Christ.
The poor in spirit can't repent. And I tell you this often, repentance
is a whole lot more than just being sorry. And God does give
his people a spiritual sorrow over sin. Try as we might, we
can't feel any sorrow about our sin. We love it. What a hypocrite to talk about
how sorry we are about our sin. Not by nature we're not. But
repentance is more than being sorry, it's a turning. Repentance
is turning, it's a radical turning. It's turning 180 degrees to the
opposite of everything you used to think. We can't turn like
that. And God blesses his people and
gives them the gift of repentance. He turns them 180 degrees. He
turns them from their idols to Christ, to serve the true and
the living God. And they believe everything the
exact opposite of what they used to believe. They used to think
they are something. Now they know they're nothing.
They used to think that they could do something to make God
happy with them. Now they know their only hope is Christ. And
they turn to him. God gives them the gift of repentance. The poor in spirit are nothing,
absolutely nothing. And God makes them to be something.
You know how he makes them to be something? By putting them
in his son, giving them union with his son, putting them in
the body of Christ. Now I would venture to say that
everybody here knows the doctrines of grace. We all know the five
points of Calvinism. And I tried to remember when
it was that I learned the five points of Calvinism. And I couldn't
remember. I mean, I know I learned them
at some point. But just as far as my mind can remember, those
things are what I always know. I've always memorized those things.
Brother Henry said one time, he said, Frank's always known
the five points. He'd been a good Calvinist a
long time. He could recite the five points of Calvinism going
down his head backward at midnight. And that's true. I hate to say the five points
of Calvinism, what we call the doctrines of grace. This is the
gospel. John Calvin didn't come up with it. He may have put it
in five points, but this is the gospel. And these things are
not just doctrine to the poor in spirit. The poor in spirit
have no ability. They cannot choose God. I need
God to choose me. See, that's the poor in spirit.
The poor in spirit have nothing. They can't pay for any of theirs.
They can't even help pay for it. They can't have less sin
than somebody else. So I need Christ to pay for my
sin and I need him to do it for me specifically. I don't need
him to just die for me to give me a chance to be saved. I need
him to die for me specifically. to put my sin away because I'm
poor in spirit and that's my only hope of salvation. The poor
in spirit have no ability. They cannot come to Christ. So I'll tell you what I need.
I need God to draw me to Christ irresistibly. So I must come
to him. The poor in spirit can't keep
themselves. So I need God to keep me by the
power of his grace. And I'll tell you when a sinner's
gonna be saved. When that doctrine stops being doctrine in the head
and starts being my need in the heart. That's when a sinner's
saved. All right, thirdly, the poor
in spirit are blessed. Because the poor in spirit are
the only thing that God's done anything for. God has mercy on
the poor in spirit and he brings them, he puts them in the kingdom
of heaven. He says, verse three, blessed
are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now
we've looked at that last couple of weeks about Christ going preaching
the kingdom of heaven and how it is that a sinner is put into
that kingdom. Well, the poor in spirit are
blessed because God's put them into that kingdom. And I tell
you this, now the kingdom of heaven is not heaven. It's God's
church. It's God's people. But nobody's
going to end up being in heaven who was not poor in spirit on
this earth. And I can show you that in Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. No one is
going to be saved. No one is going to be in the
kingdom of heaven, in the body of Christ until they are poor
in spirit. In Matthew 19 verse 23. You know
this is the story of the rich young ruler. And after he went
away, said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you that a
rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again,
I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of heaven. He's not talking about somebody
who's rich in the world's goods. He's talking about somebody who's
rich in spirit, who thinks he's still got something. It might
not be much. But he thinks he's got something
that's worthwhile. He thinks he's got something
that will commend him to God. And it is impossible. It's not
just unlikely that that man enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's
not just hard for him to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's
impossible. The Lord's not speaking in a
picture here. You know, some people say this
eye of a needle that had a One of the gates in Jerusalem, one
of the cities, looked like the eye of a needle, like an oval.
And they could teach these camels how to get down on their knees
and scoot through there to get into the city. It was a hard
form to do, but they could be taught to do it. That's not what
the Lord's saying there. He's talking about, I don't know
how much a camel weighs. We'll say it's a ton. A one ton
camel going through the eye of a needle that you sew with. If
I held up a needle, you couldn't even see the eye. It's impossible. for that animal to fit through
the eye of a needle. And it is impossible for a rich person
that thinks they've got something, anything to commend them to God.
It is utterly impossible for them to be saved. It's impossible. But what a blessing if God makes
us poor in spirit, if he makes us to be nothing, if he makes
us a beggar before God, because God will save that person. There's
no greater blessing than for Almighty God to save us and put
us in His kingdom. That's a blessing. Bob, we might suffer some between
now and then. We're talking about that. We might. We might try
not to complain about it, but we might suffer some between
now and then. But that's a blessed person. God has saved him. Mercy on him. All right, look
at 2 Corinthians chapter 8. The poor in spirit are blessed
because Christ died for the poor in spirit, and he only died for
the poor in spirit. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. The Lord Jesus Christ made His
poor, poverty-stricken people to be rich. And He did it by
the blood of His sacrifice. When Christ was made sin for
His people, He was made poor. He was made poor for His people.
He took their poverty away from them and put it into His own
body upon the tree. He was made poor. I want to be
so careful now saying this. He was made poor in righteousness. He called himself a worm. When
he cried, I thirst, he wasn't talking about water. He was talking
about the same thing David talked about when David said, I hunger
and thirst after righteousness. He had been emptied of his righteousness
and made sin for his people. He became poor in love. He felt
none of the father's love. but he felt all the father's
wrath against the sin of his people. He became poor in fellowship,
union with his father. He cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? He was separated from his father
for sin. Christ became poor and he suffered
and died so that he could make his people rich. His people are
poor in righteousness. They have no righteousness at
all and he made them the righteousness of God. He made them perfectly
right. He gave them all righteousness. His people have no love and he
gave his people the riches of his love. He made them loved
in him. So we're accepted in the beloved.
And he gave his people union with him and fellowship with
the father so that they'll never be separated from God again.
Blessed are the poor in spirit because Christ died for them
to make them rich. All right, here's the sixth thing.
Look at Matthew chapter 11. The poor in spirit are blessed
because Christ is preached to the poor in spirit. Many people
may hear the gospel, but I'll tell you who hears it, who the
preaching is sent to, who God will apply that preaching to
the heart. It's the poor in spirit. Matthew 11 verse 2. Now, when
John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent
two of his disciples and said unto him, Are not he that should
come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto
them, go and show John again those things which you do hear
and see. The blind receive their sight.
The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The
deaf hear. The dead are raised up. Now all
those things, those are miracles, aren't they? What a miracle that
somebody is blind. The Lord touches them or just
speaks and they receive it. Suddenly they see. What a miracle.
What a miracle that the deaf hear. I saw a video this week
of an infant baby born deaf, and they fixed that kid up with
hearing aids, just an infant, put these hearing aids, and I
watched that child's face. The first time he ever heard
his mother's voice. Oh, I was just, I was so thrilled.
I don't even know who this is, but it just thrilled me. The
master didn't put a hearing aid by his ears. He gave him a hearing
ear. What a miracle. The lepers are cleansed. There's still no cure for leprosy.
And the Lord cured them. And the dead. The Lord went to
a funeral and raised somebody up from the casket. What a miracle. You want to hear a miracle that's
equal to that? The poor at the gospel preached in the There's just no words. Gene,
in his prayer, thank God he gave us a place. We can hear the gospel
preach. That's a miracle. What a miracle. And if we hear
it, if we see Christ, if we believe that Christ is, oh, what a miracle.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our greatest need. I don't care what it is you think
you need. And we all need things. And I'm not saying you don't
need them. We need food and clothes and
shelter and all these things, you know. But our single need
is the Lord Jesus Christ. God in his mercy causes Christ
to be preached to the poor. Aren't you thankful the poor
in spirit? And then last, the poor in spirit
are blessed. Because only the poor in spirit
have power in prayer. The poor in spirit have good
reason to pray, and Almighty God will hear their prayer. I
want to show you just a few scriptures on this in the Psalms. Psalm
34. The poor in spirit have power
in prayer. Remember the Lord told that demoniac,
you go home and you tell your family and your friends what
great things the Lord's done for you. That's what David does
here, Psalm 34, verse 6. He said, this poor man cried
and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
This poor man cried and the Lord heard him. And if you're poor
in spirit and cry, the Lord will hear you and save you too. All
right, Psalm 40, verse 17. But I am poor and needy. Yet
the Lord thinketh upon me, the Lord thinks upon the poor and
the needy. Thou art my help and my deliverer,
make no tearing, O my God. And I tell you this, if you're
poor and needy, He won't delay to come to you. He won't delay
to hear you. All right, Psalm 69. Verse 32. The humble shall hear this and
be glad, and your heart shall live to seek God. For the Lord
heareth the poor and despiseth not his prisoners. The Lord always
hears the poor in spirit. They're going to hear him and
be glad. Now, if you're poor in spirit, you cry out to him
and your soul will live. Right across the page, one last
reference here, Psalm 70 verse four. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. And let such as love thy salvation
say continually, let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy. Make
haste unto me, O my God. Thou art my help and my deliverer.
O Lord, make no tearing. Lord, don't hear me and run to
me. Make no tearing to come to me
and help me because I'm any good. David's not saying, Lord, help
me because I've done this, that, or the other for you. He's saying,
here's the only reason that you should hear me. Here's the only
reason you should make no tearing to come and deliver me because
I'm poor and needy. And the Lord always will. Always. So indeed, the poor in spirit
are the blessed, aren't they? Oh, may God make us to be poor. Lord bless you.