Would you turn back to Matthew
chapter 5? Does anyone know what the last
word in the Old Testament is? It's curse. Curse. It's the last word. And when the Lord opens his public
ministry, In Matthew chapter 5, what is His first word? Blessed. Now, there had been 400 years
since there had been any prophetic word. Malachi ends up with God
saying, I'm going to smite the earth with a curse, or lest I
smite the earth with a curse, the last words. 400 years without any word from
God. No prophetic word. And then our
Lord begins with the word blessed, blessed. And he gives what is
called the Beatitudes at this time. What we're going to do
every Sunday night for the next eight weeks, I guess, is look
at the Beatitudes. I'm amazed. We began this work,
this church some 30 years ago this summer. That's amazing,
isn't it? And, uh, I have never preached a preach from the beatitudes
on numerous occasions, but I've never given one message for each
beatitude. And that's what I want to do
as the Lord enables us beginning tonight. Verse one and seeing the multitudes, he
went up into a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came
unto him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs, and might I say only theirs,
is the kingdom of heaven. Now, the Beatitudes define what
a believer is. They don't tell us what a believer
ought to be or what they should strive for, but the Beatitudes
tell us what a believer is. This is a description of all
of God's elect. They enter into every one of
these things, blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn.
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. Now, the first one he begins
with is blessed are the poor in spirit. Now listen very carefully
to this statement. All men are spiritually poor,
but not all men are poor in spirit. Everybody's spiritually poor.
They just don't know it, but not everybody is poor in spirit. This is a description of God's
people. Poor in spirit. And this is the foundational
beatitude. All of the other beatitudes arise
out of this one. This thing of being poor in spirit,
whatever it means. I want to be somebody who's poor
in spirit. Oh, may the Lord cause me to
be someone who's poor in spirit. This is the foundational beatitude. Now, one's not more important
than the other. They're all equally important.
They all go together. Where you have one, you have
all eight. That's always the case. But this is, well, this
is the one the Lord begins with. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of God. And you know, I'm glad he
started here, aren't you? What if the first one was blessed
in the pure in heart? I'd have a hard time going on, I'd just
go ahead, there's no point in going into this. I can remember
reading that, blessed are the pure in heart. Before I understood
what it meant, it just troubled me so much because pure in heart?
My heart seems anything but pure. And yet our Lord says, blessed
are the pure in heart. We're gonna get to that in a minute.
That's the new heart that he gives. But he begins with poor
in spirit. Poor in spirit. You see the gospel
begins on the inside. Poor in spirit. Not on the outside,
this is spiritual. Poor in spirit is foundational.
All of the other Beatitudes come out of this poverty of spirit,
and poor in spirit is wholly supernatural. It took omnipotence
to create something from nothing, didn't it? Now you think of the
mighty power of God in creating something from nothing. There
was nothing And he said, B, and it was. Now that takes omnipotence
to create something from nothing. But did you know it takes the
same omnipotence to take something and make it nothing? pour in
spirit. The same power that's exercised
in the creation of the universe is used to make somebody pour
in spirit. It's a holy supernatural act
and being pour in spirit it's always best to stay that way.
Now, if you're poor in purse, there's nothing wrong with wanting
to be delivered from that. I mean, I'd rather have enough
money to pay my bills than be poor in purse. But here's a poverty
that I don't want to leave. I want to always be poor in spirit. Let me show you why. Turn with
me to Revelation chapter three. Revelation chapter three, verse 14. And unto the angel of the church
of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the amen, the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, I know
thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. You know what it is to be cold
and unfeeling. And you feel like you're not
hearing anything. You're cold. It may be hot to somebody else,
but it's not to you. You're cold. And you know what
it is to be hot, where you, you hear the truth and your glory
in it. And you're rejoicing in what
you're hearing cold and hot. And look what the Lord says.
He says, I, he says, I would that you were cold or hot. So
then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will
spew thee out of my mouth. Now, what is this thing of lukewarmness?
Because thou sayest, I'm rich, not poor, but rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing. And you know not that you're
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Now, I don't
want to be one of these people the Lord spews out of his mouth.
I want to stay poor in spirit. Now, what is this poverty of
spirit the scripture speaks of? You know, man's religion has
very little to say about this. We hear of the higher life, but
we don't hear much about the lower life. We hear about being
filled, but we don't hear much about being emptied. Now, this first beatitude, is
not about what you have, it's about what you don't have. Now
you think about that statement. This first beatitude is not about
what you have, it's about what you do not have. It's about an absence of something
rather than the possession of something. When you talk about
poverty, you talk about what you do not have. Now, what is this thing of poverty
of spirit? Who are the poor in spirit? Well, here it is. Spiritually,
I have nothing. I am nothing, and I can do nothing. Now, that's poverty of spirit.
I have nothing. that I can recommend myself to
God. I do not have a penny's worth of merit. If all it took
was a penny's worth of merit, I couldn't come up with it. I
have nothing. I don't have one single thing. I don't have a feeling. I don't
have anything that can recommend me to God. I'm poor. in spirit. I don't have anything.
That's what poverty is. Poverty is an absence. I have
nothing that God could accept. No good works. I don't even have
the proper feelings. I can't come up with anything.
I have nothing. And the reason I have nothing
is I am nothing. This has to do with my sinful
nature. Here's why I have nothing. No merit. I don't even have the
power of free will to choose because I am nothing. Whatever
I do is sin. I am nothing and I can do nothing. It's what the scripture calls
inability. The Lord said, no man can come
to me. Doesn't say he's not allowed
to. It says he lacks the ability to come to me. No man can come
to me except the father which has sent me. Draw him and I'll
raise him up. At the last day, our Lord said
in John chapter 15, verse five, without me, you can do nothing. Now he didn't say without me,
it's with great difficulty that you do things or even without
my assistance, you can do nothing, but without me, you can do nothing. You can't hear the gospel. Not
with hearing ears. You can't believe you can't repent. You can't love God. Without me,
you can do nothing. You can't persevere, you can't,
you're spiritually poor. Now that's what spiritual poverty
means. It means, I have nothing, I am
nothing, and I can do nothing. Is that your experience? Do you
know anything about what I'm talking about? poor in spirit. You know, some poor people are
to be pitied. Unfortunate circumstances have
brought them there. Perhaps some sickness has brought
them into poverty. Some, maybe they were born into
poverty and you feel sorry for them. And there's some poverty
that's to be blamed. It's because of a sinful course
of action. Now, anyone who is poor in spirit,
no, it's their fault. They're poor in spirit. It's
their fault that they are the way they are poor without resources,
powerless to enrich poor without a helper. Poor. This word is
also translated a beggar, a beggar. Blessed are the beggars in spirit. Remember the blind beggar, Bartimaeus?
Let me tell you three things about beggars. Number one, they
don't work. Number two, they're dependent
upon charity. And number three, they're not
too proud to beg. I think of Bartimaeus. Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. He needed mercy. You know what everybody did? They said, hold your peace, Bartimaeus. Shut up. What did Bartimaeus
do? The Scripture says, He cried
them more a great deal. Have mercy on me. Now, if you're poor and needy,
and this is Bartimaeus, he wasn't just poor, he was needy. I'm
not only poor, but I have great needs. I need mercy. I need forgiveness. I need God to do something for
me. I need to be accepted by God.
I need to be justified. I need to be given faith. I can't
come up with it. I need to have my sins forgiven.
I need repentance. I have great needs. I'm poor. I have none of these
things by nature and oh how desperately I need them. Nobody ever needed free grace
more than me. I know that's the truth. Nobody
ever needed the freeness of his grace more than me. You see,
because of my poverty, I need God to choose me. I need election. Because of my part, my poverty,
I need Christ to put away my sin successfully. I desperately
need Him to do that. Because of my poverty, I need
His invincible, irresistible grace to grab me and overcome
me and give me life. Because of my poverty, I need
Him to preserve me and cause me to persevere because if He
doesn't do it, I won't do it. These are not doctrines, they're
necessities. This is life or death, heaven
or hell. I want to be able to sing, though
Satan should buffet in trials or come, let this blessed assurance
control that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and it shed
his own blood for my soul. Now, that's who the poor in spirit
is. He's poor. He has nothing. He has nothing. He can do nothing. He has great
needs. Now, why is it blessed to be
poor in spirit? Because this goes against what
the world would think. It doesn't seem to be good to
be poor in spirit. I'd rather have confidence. I'd rather,
and humanly speaking, I want to have confidence in what I
do. But what is this thing of being poor in spirit? Why is
this a blessed thing? Because the world would think,
why would you want to be poor in spirit? I'd rather be strong
in spirit and rich in spirit. Poor in spirit? How can that
be a good thing? Well, here's the first reason.
Because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's the only folks who are
saved. That's the only folks that God's done anything for.
Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's only the poor that will
be in the kingdom. What's the entrance requirements
for the kingdom of heaven? To have nothing. You can't come in if you have
anything. What if a store was open, the
only people that can come into this store and get things is
people who have nothing? That's the way the kingdom of
heaven is. Now, we can't even imagine that now because there'd be people,
I mean, if we did that physically now, people would lie and say
they had nothing and they'd come in and take all they could get,
you know that. But I mean, really, in the kingdom of heaven, the
only people that are allowed in are the people who have nothing. You know, the Lord said it's
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, how hard is it
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle? It's impossible. It's impossible. If I have riches,
I will not be saved. Christ came to save the poor.
Now here's the second blessing of poverty of spirit. First,
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If you're poor in spirit, the
kingdom of heaven's for you. Here's the second blessing. Being
poor in spirit makes me a candidate for God's mercy. If you had some money that you
wanted to help somebody with, would you give it to a wealthy
man? Or would you give it to a man who had a sick child and
didn't have even a dollar to go to the doctor? Who would you
give your money to? You know who you'd give your
money to. You'd give your money to that person who needed. You
know, this thing of being poor in spirit, it doesn't do you...
Mercy's for the miserable. Lord, I'm miserable. Give me
mercy. Don't try to come good and high and no, you come low. If you only had $10 to give away,
who would appreciate it the most? The man who had $500,000 in the
bank or the man who didn't have a dime and hadn't eaten for two
days? Who's gonna appreciate that $10 bill? Did not Christ Himself say, I
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance? Here's the third reason why it's
good to be poor in spirit. It's good to be poor in spirit
because that means God saved you. This is what all of God's elect
have in common. Every single one of them. They
may differ in many ways, but they have this in common. have
nothing to recommend themselves to God, they are nothing, and
they can do nothing, they're totally dependent upon the grace
of God. Every single one of them. They're
in complete agreement there. If he's made you poor in spirit,
you now have true riches. Now think of this scripture.
In Isaiah 66, the Lord said, to this man will I look. This
is the one God says He looks to and if God looks to you, you're
in good shape. To this man will I look even to him that's poor
and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word. You know, in the Psalms, David
said 10 times, I'm poor and I'm needy. That's the man after God's
own heart. Now he was materially wealthy and rich. He had anything
he could want materially. But how did he describe himself?
I'm poor and I'm needy. In the Psalms, he said to save
the poor and needy. and to deliver the poor and needy,
and to hear them, and defend them, and prepare goodness for
them, and set them on high, and lift them from the dunghill to
set them among princes. Is your address Dunghill Drive? You're poor and needy. He came for you. Now I want you
to think about this. Only the poor have Christ himself
preached the gospel to them. He said, he hath anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor. Now, if you're not poor, all
you get to hear from is me. I won't do you any good, will
I? I don't want to just hear from me. I want to hear from
the living God. Now, if you're poor, the Lord
Jesus Christ, by his spirit, preaches the gospel to you. I want to hear from him, don't
you? And the only people who hear from him are poor people.
People with riches and already filled up, he passes them by. You know, I listened to the TV
message this morning. I was so blessed from it. It
was such an encouragement and a blessing to me to hear that
message. I remember when I preached it, I thought it was as flat
and dry. I thought, man, that was a waste
of time. The point is, when the Lord's
speaking to me, it's Him speaking, and not just a man. If you're
poor, Christ himself preaches the gospel to you. If you're
not poor, all you're hearing from is a man. Here's another blessing of poverty
of spirit. You cannot receive the truth
without being spiritually poor. It is only as I have no righteousness
that I trust His only. Isn't it simple to trust His
righteousness only when you don't have any? But when that issue
is clouded and confused, you don't really trust His righteousness
only. But when you have absolutely none of your own, it's easy to
trust His righteousness as your only righteousness before God. It is only as I am nothing that
I receive Him as my all in all. If I'm something, He can't be
all to me. It's only as I'm nothing that
I receive Him as my all in all. It's only as I have nothing to
pay that I can trust His payment only as everything in my salvation. It's only as I have no way of
getting to God by myself that I can come by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's the only way I can
come. If I have some other way, I won't come by Christ. But as
long as, but when I have no other way to get to God, oh, I can
then come only by the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord did say,
no man comes to the Father, but by me. You know, it's only as a sinner,
that I can hear the gospel. Any other way, I can't hear.
Poverty of spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You see, when you understand
poverty of spirit, when you understand that you are nothing, you lack
the ability to do anything, You have nothing. It's only when
you understand that, that in and of yourselves, you're poor
in spirit, that the gospel is meaningful to you. Grace isn't just something you
agree with or give assent to. It's your life. It's the only
way you can be saved. How? Through being poor in spirit. Now, this poverty of spirit actually
is the greatest argument in prayer. Now, turn to Psalm 70, if you
would, please. I want you to look at three Scriptures here.
Psalm 70. David says in verse 5, Psalm 70 verse 5, But I am poor
and needy. I have nothing and I have great
needs. Make haste unto me, O God, thou
art my help and my deliverer. O Lord, make no tearing. I tell
you what, when you're poor and needy, you can say this to the
Lord, Lord, I don't have anything else. Make haste. Look in Psalm
86. Bow down thine ear, verse one,
O Lord, and hear me, not because I'm good, but because I'm poor
and I'm needy. This is why he asked, hear me.
Bow down your ear from heaven and hear what I'm saying, because
I'm poor and I am needy. Turn to Psalm 109. Verse 21, but do thou for me,
O God, the Lord, for thy name's sake, because thy mercy is good,
deliver thou me, for I am poor and I'm needy. And my heart is wounded within
me. Now this is an argument in prayer.
We don't come and say, Lord, give me this because I got it
coming. Give me this because I've been obedient and good and
righteous. No, Lord, hear me, bow down your ear because I'm
poor and I'm needy. And if you don't do something
for me, I won't be helped. I'm completely dependent upon
you. Now that's the only argument
there is truly in prayer. All that other stuff that we
call prayer is not really prayer, it's just going through the motions
of religion. But oh, when the Lord causes us to see we're poor
and needy, how we cry out. Now, if you can't come with a
poor spirit, come for a poor spirit. If you can't come with a poor
spirit, Ask the Lord to give you this poor spirit. This is
the foundational truth. You know, I don't come to Christ with faith.
I come to Christ for faith. I ask him to give me that faith.
We come to him for all things. This is what somebody who's poor
in spirit does. Now this is the last thing I'd
like to say about poverty of spirit. Only the poor in spirit are honest. Everybody else is just lying.
You know, pride is such a groundless thing. You know, them that walk
in pride, the Lord knoweth how to abase. But pride is such a
groundless thing. And anything other than poverty
of spirit is a lie. It's spiritual pride. It's a
lie. It's not even real. Only the poor in spirit are honest. And I love what Barnard used
to say, honest people don't go to hell. People who are honest
before God about what they are. They don't come in as actors.
I love the language Paul uses of Timothy. He said, when I saw
the unfeigned faith that is in thee. Unfeigned, it's the real
thing. You really do believe Christ
is your, only way to the Father. I mean, you really believe that?
You really believe you are nothing but sin? It's unfeigned, not
fake faith, but unfeigned, unacted out, real. Now, to all the poor
in spirit, listen to this scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse
9. Paul said, For you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was Oh my, the riches of the Lord. You want to talk about rich.
He's God. He owns everything. And anything
He doesn't have, He can create. He's utterly God. Rich. Rich in praise. He had the angels falling before
His feet. Rich in the love of His Father.
Oh, how His Father delighted Him. Their delight in one another
in eternity. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he
became poor. Now he became materially poor.
He didn't have a place to lay his head. You know, all of us
are going to a nice place to sleep tonight, aren't we? I don't
know of anybody here that's a street person. We got a place to go.
He didn't. The son of man hath nowhere to
lay his head. But more than that, on the cross,
he became poor in righteousness. When the sins of God's people
became his, he became poor in righteousness. He became poor
in love. He felt nothing but his father's
awful frown. Now, you think of 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 rich. To everybody who's poor in spirit,
You have riches beyond your wildest imagination. You're joint heirs
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Rich in grace. Rich in God's
acceptance. Rich in righteousness. Rich in
love. Let's pray.