Jesus was blessing the poor in spirit vol 2

JESUS WAS BLESSING THE POOR IN SPIRIT VOL 2
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Matthew 5:3 "Blessedare the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.
The Beatitudes I – From Poverty to Royalty
Matthew 5:1-3
Dr. S. Lewis Johnsonintroduces the Sermonon the Mount and its first
Beatitude.
The Scripture reading this morning very short. I’m only going to read three
verses. Theyare from the 5th chapter of the Gospelof Matthew. You’ll
recognize them as an introduction to the Beatitudes and an introduction to the
Sermon on the Mount, as well as the first of the Beatitudes. I would like to
spend a little more time in the Beatitudes over the next few weeks in which we
study Matthew together, becausethey are so important, and I think are
sometimes misunderstood, these very familiar texts from the Gospelof
Matthew. If you have found the passagenow, I’m going to read beginning at
verse 1,
“And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was
seated, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth, and taught

them, saying, ‘Blessedare the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.’”
May God bless this reading of his word. Let’s bow togetherin prayer.
[Prayer] Father, we are grateful to Thee for the text of the Beatitudes, and the
greattruths that are so beautifully enshrined within them. Surely, as we
ponder then and reflect upon them, there comes overus againanew the sense
that they could have only come from God.
And how beautifully appropriate is this first of them: blessedare the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens. And we pray, O God, that in
the experience ofeveryone in this auditorium and the next, there may be this
sense ofpoverty of spirit in Thy presence.
We rejoice in the gospelof the Lord Jesus, which comes to those who have
recognizedthey have nothing with which to commend themselves to thee. We
recognize, Lord, that all sufficiency rests with our great triune God in heaven,
Father, Son and Spirit, and that we have no sufficiency within ourselves to
recommend ourselves to Thee.
We thank Thee that Thou art not satisfiedwith human righteousness, but only
with the righteousnessofGod; with that righteousness whichThou dost
supply, which Thou dost bestow on those who come and receive it in free
grace. And we thank Thee for all of the work of the Holy Spirit in revealing
these greattruths to us.

Enable us, O God, to live in the light of them, and may they not only penetrate
our minds, our hearts, our wills, for the obtaining of eternalsalvation, but also
be part and parcelof the principles by which our daily lives are lived.
We know from the study of the holy Scriptures that though we have come to
know him and have a righteousness acceptable to Thee, we still need the daily
enablement of the Holy Spirit’s ministry which comes to us in grace. So teach
us, Lord, to be reliant, not only upon the finished word of the Lord Jesus, but
upon which that which flows out of it: the daily ministry of the greatHigh
Priestin the Spirit for the perfecting of the saints.
And Father, we pray that this perfecting of the saints may be useful to Thee in
the accomplishmentof the purposes which Thou art accomplishing, not only
here in Dallas, but to the four corners of the earth. We praise Thee for the
little part which Thou hastgiven this assembly in the dissemination of the
word of God. And O Father, if it should please Thee, give us a greatershare in
the making of Christ known.
Bless the whole church of Jesus Christ, and in these days in which we live, in
which there are so many multitudes of people who are wandering about with
no shepherd, may they, through the preaching of the word and the testimony
of the individuals here, come to know him who to know is life eternal.
O God, we pray that Thou would give us the compassionfor the lostin
measure at leastthat our greatSaviorhad when he saw the multitudes
without shepherds, and was moved to compassionoverthem.
We thank Thee for this country in which we live. We pray for its leadership
and particularly in the light of the decisions that the citizens make this year.

We pray for the ministry of other churches, not only outside of Dallas but
right here in our own community, and in this part of Dallas, may Thy blessing
rest upon eachone of them in which the Lord Jesus is lifted us and exalted.
We commit to Thee the meetings that have been, that have already taken
place already this morning, and for the meetings of the remainder of the day.
May Thy blessing rest upon us. And we pray that it may be goodfor eachone
of us to have been here to hear the Scriptures.
For Christ’s sake. Amen.
[Message]This is the first of our series ofstudies in the Beatitudes of the
Sermon on the Mount. And the subjectis “FromPoverty to Royalty.” The
world is enthralled with riches, and it knows of what they consist, and who the
rich are. In fact, the world is so enthralled with riches that it feels that it can
attract almostany individual by the appeal to riches. All one has to is open up
one of the contemporary magazines or papers that we receive in our home,
and it’s not long before we see a full page ad, how to get rich.
I must confess I read every one of them. [Laughter] They all are very much
the same. And after the conclusionof the appeal – which really does not tell us
ever anything about exactly what is to be done to obtain riches – they exhort
me to actnow. They tell me that no salesmanwill call if I send in my name,
and they also tell me that the thrill of receiving money in the mail is one that I
will never tire of. [Laughter] And that may be, well, the only forthright,
truthful statementin the whole ad [sustained laughter].
The Lord’s answerto the question, who are the spiritually rich, is rather
startling: the spiritually empty. His attitude in that sphere seems exactly
contrary to the attitude of the world. Modern societydoes not teach, blessed
are the poor in spirit. In fact, the modern ideas are quite different. It’s ideas

of blessedness are something like this: blessed is the man who is always right;
blessedis the man who is satisfiedwith himself; blessedis the man who is
strong; blessedis the man who rules; blessedis the man who is popular;
blessedis the man who enjoys life; blessedis the man who is rightly adjusted.
It comes as a shock, and it opens a whole new realm of thought to realize that
not one of these men enteredour Lord’s mind when he spoke on the subjectof
blessedness. Blessedare the poor in the spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the
heavens. And this first of the Beatitudes makes our Lord’s position absolutely
clear. The eight others contribute to the crystalclearposition of Jesus Christ
with reference to the standard of life, expectedof those who are to enter the
kingdom. What we see really could be calleda portrait of the life of Jesus
Christ himself, because he is the one greatillustration of all of these
Beatitudes.
When we approachthe Sermon on the Mount, we have to immediately ask
ourselves the question: Of whom does the Lord Jesus speak?Now this is a
question that is necessarysimply because there is a greatdeal of confusion
about the application of this sermon. There are some of us who tell us, for
example, that this is for the world. This is the view of theologicalliberalism. It
takes two tacks. Some ofthese who are liberal in their theologysayit is given
us for the liberation of society.
The greatRussianauthor Tolstoy, who influenced Gandhi of India, put the
viewpoint that the Sermon on the Mount was for the salvationof society. He
said, for example, that when the Lord Jesus saidwe are not to swear, swear
not, that we should do awaywith all oaths in our society, and even those oaths
that we’re required to take in law courts. He said that the statement of the
Lord, “resistnot evil,” was to be carried out literally, and if we really carried
it out literally we would do awaywith our police forces and then we should
have the kind of societythat the Lord Jesus was speaking about.

Mr. Tolstoyand Mr. Gandhi did not understand the true nature of humanity.
And I must say, I would not like to live in a societyin which we did not have
oaths and in which we did not have the police force. That is, I would not like
to live in a societywith you [laughter] if we did not have these things.
Now you understand, of course, that when I sayyou, I don’t mean just you in
this auditorium. I mean you as representative of societyofwhich I’m a part.
We need the police force, we need government, for the simple reasonthat we
are not perfect individuals. If this is the plan for the salvationof society, it is a
woefully inadequate plan.
Others have takena slightly different tack among theologicalliberals and
have said that the Sermon on the Mount is for the world, but it is not the
whole societyof the world. It is the plan of salvationfor individuals in the
world. In other words, if we are to become Christians, then we read the
Sermon on the Mount and we use it as the pattern of life by which we may
obtain a right standing before God.
To my mind, the greatestillustration of this was not a theologianatall, but
one of the past presidents that we have had, a man who is not noted for
spirituality. I refer to Harry Truman. Someone askedHarry Truman once –
he was a Baptist; I’m sure the Baptists were quite glad when his term of office
ended, because he was a constantembarrassmentto them [laughter]. His
theologydid not match the theologyof most of the Baptists I know, and
certainly did not match their theologyin the sense ofwhat they were
historically standing for. For Mr. Truman said that “If you were to distill all
of my theologyinto an easycompass, I would suggestthat it’s contained in the
Sermon on the Mount, and salvationconsists in living by the Sermon on the
Mount.” I do hope that Mr. Truman is with the Lord. But if he is, he’s not
there because ofthat philosophy.

For if you searchthrough the Sermon on the Mount, you discoverthat the
terminology of salvation is not in the Sermon on the Mount at all. Not once do
we read how we may come to know Christ through faith in his finished work,
for example. Never once do we have the term salvationthrough faith referred
to, or anything close to it. Never do we read of justification by faith, nor do we
read of anything that may be comparedwith it. There are no evidences in this
sermon whatsoeverthat it was intended to be the means of conversionfor
anyone.
As a matter of fact, if we had read the opening introduction, where his
disciples gatheredround him, we would have realized immediately that that
was highly unlikely in the interpretation of the Sermonon the Mount, because
it was given to those who have already receivedthe messageofthe Lord Jesus
concerning salvation. So it is not for the world.
Then others have said, well, it’s for the church. It’s the pattern of living for
the believers in this age, the age in which we live, the age after the Day of
Pentecost, whichshall conclude with the coming of the Lord. James
MontgomeryBoice, who has a relatively recent work on the Sermon on the
Mount, has explained that this is the way of blessing for Christians. Now I do
not think that satisfies the context of this passage.
For example, it does not take into accountthe fact that the Lord Jesus, when
he gave this sermon, gave it under law. In the fullness of time, God sent forth
his Son, born of a woman, born under the law that he might redeem those
what were under the law. And as the Apostle Paul expresses it, he was the
minister of the circumcisionto confirm the promises made unto the fathers.
The Lord Jesus lived his life under law. That is why, when he healed the
lepers, he told them to go and offer the offerings that Moses had commanded.
And consequently, this, if it is a pattern of life, if it is a way of blessing – and I

do think it is a way of blessing – it is not for the church of Jesus Christ, for the
church of Jesus Christ does not dwell under law. And furthermore, the term
“church” as you well know is not found once in the Sermon on the Mount.
Now I think that Mr. Boice has made it very plain that this sermon applies to
us, and with that I wholeheartedly concur. But then that does not really tell us
anything, because we know that the whole of the Bible applies to us.
The Apostle Paul has stated in Romans chapter 15 and verse 4 that the whole
of Scriptures are the mind of God for us, but there is a greatdeal of difference
betweenthat which is for us, the whole of the Bible, and that which is directed
to us who are in the church of Jesus Christ. It’s the same difference that exists
when we go out to our mailbox and bring in our mail. I bring in my mail and
take a look at it, and some of it says “Mr. and Mrs. S. Lewis Johnson.” I feel
free to open that. And that which is addressedto S. Lewis Johnson, Jr., I open
that. But when I see a letter that is addressed“Mrs. S. Lewis Johnson,” or
“Mary Sibley McCormick Johnson,” [laughter]I don’t open that because
that’s her mail that’s addressedto her.
Now there are parts of the word of God that are addressedto the church of
Jesus Christ, and they are God’s mind for us and to us. But there are also
parts of the word of God that are addressedto the Nation Israel. They are not
my mail directly, but it is for me. I should learn from it. In fact, the Apostle
Paul gives us spiritual justification for this, because allScripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine. Incidentally, it’s profitable,
first of all for doctrine. So all of it is profitable for me, though it may not all be
addressedto me.
Now this becomes very evident when we read, for example, that the Lord
Jesus told the disciples, the apostles, thatthey were not to go to the Gentiles,
but they were to go to the lost sheepof the house of Israel. Now we would not
take that command to ourselves and sayto our friends, now that you’ve

become a Christian, be sure and do not explain the gospelto any Gentile, but
go to the lost sheepof the house of Israel. That was an historicalstatementof
the Lord Jesus fora particular time. This is not for the church.
There are dispensationalteachers who saythis is for the kingdom. There are
laws concerning the coming Messianic kingdom, and they are enforcedonly
when the kingdom has come upon the earth. And therefore, we should think
of the Sermon on the Mount as something that is to be, is directed to those
who will live in the kingdom of the future, after Jesus Christ comes to the
earth and establishes his kingdom. This is the way of blessing for the
inhabitants of the kingdom.
Now, I respectthe brethren who hold all of these interpretations with the
exceptionof the first. They’re not brethren. But I genuinely respectall of the
brethren who hold these interpretations which I think are erroneous, and I
hope they at leastwill respectmy viewpoint, too. And I have some very good
friends who take this interpretation that it is for the kingdom, but I ask you, if
this is for the kingdom, why did the Lord Jesus ask the disciples to pray in this
manner, in his greatLord’s Prayer, so called? Thy kingdom come? Now why
would a person standing in the midst of the kingdom pray, Thy kingdom
come, if he had his wits about him? [Laughter]
Not only that, we read of persecution. Do we have persecutionin the Kingdom
of God when the Lord Jesus rules and reigns in person? We have words
concerning want. Are we going to lack while the king is here ruling, and we,
his citizens, are there in his kingdom? We are warned againstfalse prophets.
We are also given instruction concerning divorce. There are many statements
in the Sermon on the Mount which make it necessaryfor me to saythat if
what is pictured here is the kingdom, then the kingdom is not much different
from the societyin which we are living now. I do not think that this canbe
sustainedas the interpretation of this passage.

I learned a long time ago, and I know you know this, but I have to keep
repeating it because you and I both so often fail to apply this rule in the study
of Scripture. If we are to understand holy Scripture, we are to read it in the
light of its context.
Now the Lord Jesus has been baptized. He’s been tested. He’s been seento be
thoroughly qualified to be the Messianic king. He has begun his ministry. He
has traveled over the north of Galilee. He has gathereddisciples unto himself.
He has been teaching and preaching the Kingdom of God, and he has been
healing in authentication of his position as king. And having gathereda group
of citizens of this coming kingdom to him as his disciples, would it not be
natural for us to expecthim to now instruct them in the principles of life
which are to guide them during the time that they are on the earth before the
kingdom comes while the king is here?
Would we not expect, in the light of the salvation of these citizens – in the
salvationthat is to be and in the light of the salvationof the disciples and the
apostles –wouldwe not expecthim now to instruct them in the principles of
life they are to live now that they belong to him? I think that’s imminently
reasonable and to be expected. And it seems to me that we can only conclude
that the Sermon on the Mount is designedfor citizens of the kingdom, who
have receivedthe message“repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand”
– not present, but near – and it is for them to guide them during that interim
betweenthe time of the king’s ministry and the time when the age changes.
And consequently, then, this Sermon on the Mount was directed to the men
who were living in the time of our Lord. It has its application for us. For all
Scripture is profitable for us, but it is not written directly to us. As we go
through, I will try to point out the things that are unique and concernthe

citizens of the kingdom, the disciples of the Lord Jesus and the apostles, and
of course the application that does pertain to us.
Now let’s look at the introduction to this sermon. “And seeing the multitudes,
he went up into a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came unto
him, and he openedhis mouth, and taught them, saying…” If the disciples are
to work well, they must have instruction.
Luke, when he gives the accountof the Sermon on the Mount, he gives it right
after the choosing ofthe Twelve. He states the Lord Jesus went up into a
mountain, and he prayed all night, and then he chose the Twelve. That will
have significance for us later on when we considerthe case ofJudas. But
having prayed all night, he chose the twelve apostles. And then having
gatheredthem together, he gives what one scholarcalls the ordination address
to the Twelve. Someone has saidit is the “manifesto of the king,” but it is
addressedparticularly to his disciples at that time.
Isn’t it interesting that the Lord Jesus taught sitting down? Why did he do
that? Why it was the customfor Rabbis to sit when they taught. They did
stand and stroll about, but when they stoodand strolled about, their teaching
was not official. When they satdown, they taught officially. That’s why we
still have expressions in our theologicalandalso our educationalinstitutions,
such as our collegesand universities, we speak ofprofessorso-and-so who
occupies the chair of philosophy, or the chair of theologyor the chair of New
TestamentGreek exegesis. We are recognizing the factthat this is customary
for the man who has been appointed to office, when he teaches as anofficial
teacher, he sits.
I’m not suggesting, incidentally, that that’s the way we should teach. I don’t
see any objection to it. In the Roman Catholic Church, it’s recognizedby the

fact that when the Pope makes his pronouncements that really count – now he
talks all the time, of course [laughter]. He comments on all the affairs of life,
but if we were goodRoman Catholics, we would know we would not have to
believe him if he tells us, for example, that there is injustice in Africa, we
don’t have to believe that; that is, as official church doctrine. But when he
speaks excathedra, that means, literally, in Latin, “[from] his chair,” then, of
course, as goodRomanCatholics, we have to believe that he speaks infallibly
as the voice of the apostles in the applicationof truth.
So when we read here that he sat down, he’s taking the position of a Jewish
Rabbi, for the Lord was recognizedas that by virtue of his functioning. He
wasn’t appointed such. They just recognizedhim as such when they taught.
And after all, that’s the best way to be recognizedas a teacher, if you can
teach.
Dr. Chafer used to tell us many years ago that, when he discussedthe question
of degrees, he would saythat there are some men who are not helped by a
degree. He said they already have ability to teach, and it’s manifest to all. And
then he said there are some men who are helped by a degree, they not having
the ability of the first category, needthe addition of the degree, which gives
them a little standing before certainpeople. And then he liked to say there are
some people who cannotget along without them.
Now the Lord Jesus was one of the first category. He was recognizedas a
teacher, and they puzzled. They said, how does this man know letters when he
has never been taught by our authenticatedteachers? Butthey did recognize
him as a teacher. There are three greatdiscourses in the Gospelof Matthew,
and the Sermon on the Mount is the first of them. It has been separatedfrom
the other two and called “a discourse of precept.” And the secondgreat
discourse is the one in the 13th chapter. I can hardly wait to get to it. It has to
do with the parables. And that is its character:parabolic teaching. And

finally, the greatOlivet Discourse in which we have the prophecies with
regard to the future.
The thing which characterizes allof the discourses – and we could include a
couple of more in the Gospelof Matthew, for this is the great teaching gospel
– the thing that characterizesallof them is that they are biblical doctrine.
From beginning to end, it is biblical doctrine. And ProfessorWarfieldused to
say, he didn’t like at all those men who liked to separate doctrine from
practice and suggestpractice is more important than doctrine. And after he
had discussedthis for some time, he usually like to add, “As a matter of fact,
everything in the Bible from Genesis 1:1 on through to the conclusionis
biblical doctrine; one statementafter another that is the teaching of God
through appointed men.”
So here, he sat down and he began to teachthem. It is authoritative teaching,
for he is the king, and so we are not surprised when he finished – I appointed
you to this text already, in chapter 7 and verse 28 and 29 – that when he ended
these things, the people were astonishedat his doctrine. And they were
astonishedat his teaching or his doctrine, because he taught them as one
having authority, and not as the scribes. When you listened to him, you knew
that what he was saying was true.
Now we look at the initial Beatitude. May I begin it with an old statementthat
is reported to have been made by Sophie Tucker. There are only two people in
this auditorium who are old enough to remember this [laughter]. Sophie
Tuckerwas an outstanding stage personalityof a couple of generations ago
when I was young [more laughter]. And she had had a life of outstanding
success, but she had come from abjectpoverty, and someone askedher, “Mrs.
Tucker, do you not think that you have receivedsome outstanding lessons in
life from your poverty?” And she replied something like this, “I was once
poor. I have been poor, and I have been rich. But believe me, rich is better.”

Now if I could say that, I think she’s right in the material sphere. I have been
poor. I have not been rich, yet. But I know there must something better than
that, that poverty. Let’s look at what our Lord does in the spiritual sphere.
He doesn’t say, “Blessedare the rich”—now he could have. If he said, blessed
are the rich in faith, for the New Testamentdoes containthat expression. But
he says, blessedare the poor—incidentally, he does not say blessedare poor,
period. Now Luke says that in his account:blessedare the poor. But it’s
evident from this accountthat it is to be understood in the sense that Matthew
has put it. Perhaps he added these words in order to make plain what the
Lord meant; we don’t know, exactly what was said. But the sense ofthe two is
the same:blessedare the poor in spirit. So he is not speaking about material
things.
I am sure that we all learn many things by being poor, materially. But that is
not what Jesus Christis speaking about. The first thing that he states is that
the consequencesofspiritual poverty are blessedness. Blessedare the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heaven.
This word blessedis very interesting. It was used of God-like blessednessin
the isles of the blessed. In other words, it was used of the life of the gods.
When a man used the adjective macharios, it had inevitably about it the
associationsofthe life of the gods. Incidentally, they Island of Cyprus is called
Macharia – the “blessedisland.” And the bishop of Cyprus is, as you know,
Bishop Macharios;BishopHappy or Bishop Blessed. The reasonthat Cyprus
was calledthe blessedisle is because the inhabitants of Cyprus, Cypriots, have
believed that on that island is everything necessaryto sustain life. And so
they’ve calledit Macharia.

That’s the word our Lord uses. Macharios are the poor in spirit, or
machariori, are the poor in spirit. So the reference then is to the blessednessof
complete satisfaction. It has nothing to do with the idea of happiness.
Sometimes we think that the true value in life is happiness. Why the English
word should tell us that is not true. The Englishword, “happiness” comes
from an old English word hap, which means “chance.” And it’s found in
“perhaps.” And, his hap were to light upon—that’s King James English. But
that’s the meaning of it. It’s a word that refers to chance.
Happiness is something that depends upon our circumstances, andso if we
receive a windfall financially, we’re happy. But when it goes,so goes our
happiness. Our Lord is speaking about something far deeper than the
happiness that depends upon circumstances.He is saying blessed– that is, the
man who is poor in spirit is the man who has the kind of life that characterizes
the gods, or in the Christian sense, the life that characterizesthe one who has
a relationship with the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That’s the
consequencesofspiritual poverty. The man who is poor in spirit is blessed.
Who are these people? The monied, the privileged? No. Experience doesn’t
support that. One of our Texas millionaires once said, “I thought that money
would satisfy all of my needs, but I was terribly disillusioned.” Incidentally,
it’s no reference to me. Voltaire, who charmed so many people with his
attacks onthe faith, when it finally came down to the real test of life, and he
was on his death bed, he cried out to doctor, “I am abandoned by God and
man! I’ll give you half of what I have if you can give me six months more life.”
Poorin spirit. There are two words in Greek forpoverty or poor. There is one
word, penes, which means a personhas nothing superfluous. When your bank
accountreaches zero, but you’re not in debt, then you are penes. My wife
reaches that with her bank accountevery month. [Laughter] She has the
record for diminishing her bank accountto $2.41, forthe whole State of Texas

I’m sure. And if not the record for quickness, then at leastthe record for
consecutive months of doing this. Penes is to have nothing superfluous but to
have nothing in addition.
There is anotherword in Greek which means abject poverty: tokos. That
adjective means that we have nothing at all. That’s the word for abject
poverty. That’s the word for the person who does not have anything but who
has nothing but needs. That’s the word that’s used here. Blessedare the poor
in spirit – blessedare those who are abjectly poor in spirit, who have
absolutely nothing at all in spirit, who have come to realize that, doctrinally,
they are depraved. They are spiritually unable to save themselves, that they
do not have anything with which they commend themselves to God. Such men
are fit for the receptionof justification by faith.
For it’s only when a person comes to this place in his life that he senses his
greatneed of the Lord Jesus. Luther said, “We are all beggars,”and he was
Scriptural in that statement.
There was a beautiful parable told by the Lord Jesus in the 18th chapter of
the GospelofLuke. It’s the well-knownparable of the Pharisee and the
publican. You’ll remember that two of them went to the Temple, and the
publican was beating upon his breast and saying, “Godbe merciful to me, a
sinner!” while the Pharisee was praying with himself, the Lord Jesus says, “O
God, I thank Thee that I am not like this publican over here;” unjust,
extortionist and various other types of things. I fast twice a week. I give tithes
of all that I possess. I thank Thee that I am not like the publican.
Now we don’t pray that in the 20th Century. Those of us who are associated
with the generalProtestanttestimonyin the Westernworld, we pray, O God,
I thank Thee that I am not like this Pharisee. And in our pride we express

ourselves in that way. Mr. Spurgeon liked to say that in the days in which the
faith was being abandoned in England, that that publican who cried out, God
be merciful to me, a sinner, had the soundest theologyof any Englishman.
Blessedare the poor in spirit, and he was poor – abjectly poverty-strickenin
spirit.
The philosophers have sought to understand the secretofhappiness. There
are 80 different ways in which the philosophers have soughtto introduce us to
happiness, and probably a few have been invented in the last decade or so
since men stopped counting.
It’s very striking that Mr. Gladstone was one of the first to point this out, that
in the Greek language, andalso in the Latin language, there was no form for
true humility. Those languages, withthe richness of vocabulary, had no word
that could adequately describe true humility. All of the words that are related
to humility in both Greek and Latin were words that have about them a sense
of meanness or contempt. The humble was the contemptible man. And it was
not until the Lord Jesus came, or the biblical revelation came with the idea,
blessedare the poor in spirit, that we have true humility set forth in the light
of the presence ofGod.
Diogenes wasa friend of Plato, and there is an old story that the ancients used
to laugh overquite a bit. Diogenescame to see Plato, and he walkedin – Plato
has some very luxurious rugs upon his floors – and he came and stamped
upon them and said, “Thus I stamp upon the pride of Plato.” And Plato was
not only a better philosopher and a better intellectual than Diogenes,but he
also had a better disposition. He said nothing about it until he returned his
visit sometime later. And he walkedinto Diogenes’place which was
ostentatious in its poverty, and he lookedand he said, “Why, I cansee the
pride of Diogenes peeping out from the holes in his rug.” [Laughter]

It’s very possible, you know, for us to be proud of our humility. Blessednessof
the poor in the spirit is the blessedness ofthe man who recognizes nothing in
himself. A fit subject for justification by faith. The cause of the blessednessis
describedas the kingdom of the heavens shall be theirs.
That kingdom is the kingdom they have heard the messageabout. They have
heard the Lord Jesus say, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is at
hand.” They have responded in repentance, and they have come to faith in the
Son of God and because oftheir recognitionof their abjectpoverty,
spiritually, the disciples have entered the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus, and
they are blessedfor having become citizens of that kingdom that is to come in
the future.
May I close with just a comment or two. This beatitude is, in a sense, a
commentary on the whole Bible. All of the saints of the word of God, from the
beginning in the Book of Genesis, fromAdam on through Abraham and
Moses andDavid and the greatprophets, on into the New Testamenttimes
with John the Baptist, who in the presence ofthe Lord Jesus said, “I shouldn’t
be baptizing you, you should be baptizing me;” on into the time of the
apostles. And finally, even to the end of the testimony of the apostles that we
have in the New Testament, and down through the years with men such as
Augustine and Luther and Calvin, into the presenttime, this greattruth has
its application to all of us: blessedare the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of
the heavens is theirs.
Mr. Spurgeon has said in one of his comments on this text, “He that is poor in
spirit is a Christ-admirer, as an old Puritan has said. He has high thoughts of
Jesus Christ. He sets a high value and appreciationon Christ. He hides
himself on Christ’s wounds. He bathes himself in his blood. He wraps himself
in his robe. He sees a spiritual dearth and famine at home, but he looks out to
Christ and cries, ‘Lord, show me Thyself!’ and it sufficeth.”

For you see, the man who is truly poor in spirit, recognizing that he has
nothing within himself that is acceptable to God, is read to look off to the
cross ofChrist, where God has, in this most beautiful way signified to us: here
are the riches that are available for all who will turn from themselves to him
who has offeredthe once and for all sacrifice for the sins of sinners.
The answerto the question, what is the secretofhappiness – and there is an
answerto the question – is found right here. And it involves the conviction of
sin, first of all. Then, the convictionthat the Lord Jesus has offereda sacrifice
in his blood that is availed for all who come to him. And that through this
there comes the gift of new life in Christ. That’s the secretofhappiness.
But it’s more than happiness. It’s not something that depends upon
circumstances. It satisfies us in all the circumstances oflife, even the tragic
circumstances oflife. Blessedare the poor in spirit, for in the midst of the
greattrials of life, they shall find true blessedness andsatisfaction.
Thomas Hookerwas a Puritan preacherand theologian, consideredby some
to be the father of constitutionalliberty in this country. In his deathbed, a
number of the members of his church gathered round him in order to console
him. And as he was on his deathbed some of them spoke outand said,
suggestedto him that because he had lived such a pious life, a life of such
greataccomplishment, that it was not the time for him to go into the presence
of the Lord and claim his reward. And Mr. Hooker, who knew his theology
said, “I go to claim mercy.” That’s true poverty of spirit, and true poverty of
spirit is that which characterizestrue royalty.
If you are here today, and you have never yet believed in the Lord Jesus, you
will never believe in him until the Lord Jesus has come to your heart in a

convincing way and has shown you that you are poverty-stricken spiritually,
that you have nothing with which to commend yourself to God. Your church
membership, your baptism, your sitting at the Lord’s table, your attendance
in meetings such as this, your education, your culture – all of the things that
we are inclined to trust in cannotavail in the presence ofa holy God.
Only one thing can: the finished work of the Lord Jesus. MayGodhelp us to
see how poor we are, and may he lead us to look outside of ourselves to one
greatobjective fact of divine revelation, the centerof all of the Bible: the
suffering Savior who cried, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsakenme?!”
as he bore our judgment, and then cried, “It is finished!” May God the Holy
Spirit bring you to trust in him is my prayer. Let’s stand for the benediction.
[Prayer] And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the
Father, the fellowshipand communion of the Holy Spirit be and abide with all
who know him in sincerity.
And again, O Father, if there are some here who think of themselves as rich in
spirit but poor in faith, by the Holy Spirit, so bring conviction that there may
come conversionto our Lord Jesus Christ. Go with us as we part.
For Christ’s sake. Amen.
JOHN MACARTHUR
Happy Are the Humble

Sermons Matthew 5:3 2198 Sep10, 1978
A + A - RESET
Take your Bible if you will, and let’s look at Matthew chapter5 together,
Matthew chapter 5. Sometimes I think the shorter the verse is the more I can
think of to say. And usually that’s because whenyou only deal with one verse,
you deal with it as one verse because it is so full of meaning.
It is so pregnant with truth, and we’re going to find as we go through the
Beatitudes, and we’ll go one Beatitude at a time, that even though they’re one
simple statementand only one verse, we have to take them one at a time
because they’re so loadedwith tremendous truth.
And so tonight, we’re going to be looking at verse 3, the beginning of the
Beatitudes, the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 1 says, “And
seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was seated,
his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them,
saying, ‘Blessedare the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’”
As we studied in our lastlesson, Jesus came to bring man happiness. Jesus
came to bring man blessing. Jesuscame to make life meaningful. And the key
to the kind of happiness and the kind of blessednessthat’s talked about in
these Beatitudes - the word “blessed” was ourtheme for part of our discussion
last time – the key to that kind of blessednessis following a new standard for
living, a new kind of life. And that is what Jesus sets forth in the Sermon on
the Mount.
In Matthew chapter5 through 7, our Lord is establishing and counter
standard of living, counter to everything the world knows and practices, a
new approachto living that results in blessedness,makarios. And we saw that
this makarios is deep inner happiness, a deep and genuine sense of
blessedness, a bliss that the world cannot offer, not produced by the world,
not produced by circumstances, and not subject to change by the world or
circumstances. Itis not produced externally. It cannot be touched externally.
The promise of Christ, then, in the Sermon on the Mount is at the very
beginning. He is saying if you live by these standards you will know

blessedness. And so in verse 3, it’s blessed, in verse 4, it’s blessed. In verse 5,
blessed. Verse 6, verse 7, verse 8, verse 9, 10, 11, and finally, as a result of all
this blessedness, verse 12, rejoiceand be exceeding glad.
The whole Sermon on the Mount introduces itself with a promise of
blessedness, happiness, deep, inner satisfaction. Nowwe saidalso last time
that this blessedness, this well being, this bliss, this happiness, in which
believers live and which they enjoy, is really a gift of God. Formakarios or
blessednessis characteristic ofGod.
The greatestpossible understanding of the term “blessed” comes whenyou
understand that God is blessed. So happy is the people whose Godis the
Lord. Blessedis the people whose Godis the Lord, for he, above all, is
blessed. “Blessedbe God,” says the Bible. “Blessedbe the Lord Jesus
Christ.” And if they are blessed, if they have this deep inner bliss, this deep
sense ofcontentment and blessedness because ofthe virtue of divine nature,
then only those who partake in that divine nature can know that same
blessedness.
Only as we partake of the very nature of God can we be blessed, canwe know
this happiness. It doesn’t belong to anyone outside those who know God. So
Jesus came offering a new standard for living. And his emphasis was not on
externals, it was on internals. He was not telling them a new way to live every
day. He was telling them a new way to think first that would result in a new
way to live every day. He was not talking only about behavior, he was talking
about attitude. He was saying that the inner part of a person’s life is the real
key to happiness. And lastweek, we talkedabout the fact that you can pile up
all you want stuff on the outside and it never brings any happiness to the
inside.
So that we see that Jesus is offering blessing and happiness basedon a new
standard of life, a new kind of living, a righteous standard, and if you will –
and this will be a keyword – a selfless standard. A selfless standard. This
greatsermon, the greatestsermon, no doubt, ever preached, focuses onthis
kind of happiness, this kind of blessedness. And the amazing thing about it is
as we said lasttime, the only people who canknow this blessedness are the

people who know they can’t live this way on their own and so they’re totally
dependent on Jesus Christ.
Now remember that I told you last time that the multitude was there and they
were hearing and they were listening. But the message wasreallydirected to
the twelve. Because no one outside faith in Jesus Christ could ever know this
blessedness. No one who didn’t have the power of God operating in his life
could ever function in this way. No one who had not come to this particular
point of humility could ever know and experience any of these great blessings.
Only the partakers ofthe nature of God canknow this blessedness.
And I believe, beloved, that this message is for all of us. I know that
historically some evangelicalshave objectedto the Sermon on the Mount and
said it’s too hard. Matthew 5:48, “Be ye perfect, as your Fatherin heavenis
perfect.” That’s too hard. That’s not for us. If it’s too tough, we just pass it
off to the millennium. Must be the kingdom and a lot of people have said that
the Sermonon the Mount is kingdom living. It is kingdom principles, but
there are lots of problems with that. It’s really impossible for many reasons.
First of all, the text does not say “this is for the millennium.” Secondly, Jesus
preachedit to people who weren’t living in the millennium. To me, that’s the
greatestargumentof all. Three, it becomes meaningless if you push it into the
millennium, because it says, “Blessedare you when you’re persecutedfor
righteousness sake. Blessedare you when men shall revile you and persecute
you, say all manner of evil againstyou falsely.” Now in the kingdom, my
friend, nobody’s going to getaway with that stuff. Or the Lord will rule with
a rod of iron.
Matthew 5:44, along with many other things, would become meaningless.
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do goodto them that hate you,
and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you;” It’s the same
idea. There’s not going to be any of that in the kingdom. And by the way,
another reasonI believe this is for all believers of all ages is because every
principle found on the Sermon on the Mount is found somewhere else inthe
New Testament.

This isn’t just for some super saints living in the kingdom. This is for us. It is
the distinctive lifestyle of a believer of any age. It calls upon us to come to a
new standard of living. It is Jesus saying to us, “Look, this is the way you
must live if you are to know happiness, if you are to know blessedness.”
And isn’t it wonderful that God is offering us that, that God is not a cosmic
killjoy? That God is not finding his greatestjoyin raining on your parade?
God wants you to be happy. God wants you to be blessed. And he gives us
here the principles.
And, you know, another thing that we ought to say about this is that this is
distinctive living. You live like this and I promise you you’ll be different. You
really will. In many ways, I guess we’dhave to say that Christians today have
lost their distinctiveness. We were talking about that a little this morning,
weren’t we? We have been shaped by the world. We have been molded into
the world.
The world’s music and its sex morals, its marriages, its divorces, its morality,
its liberation movements, its materialism, its approachto food, its approach to
alcoholic drinks, its approachto dance, its approachto entertainment, its
approachto sports, its approach to all kinds of things, and we get pushed into
that, and it’s very easyfor us to lose our distinctiveness.
And we’re seeing in our day something that the Lord has no doubt had his
heart broken over for all the years since the church began, and that’s the
corrupting of Christianity. And Jesus is really saying here, “Godwants you to
live different. God doesn’t want you to live the way everybody else lives. And
if you’ll live this way you’ll be happy. If you life this way you’ll be blessed.”
And, you know, I’ve always believed that the manufacturer knows more about
the product than anybody else. And if I have a carand I buy a car, the first
thing I do is read that little book that tells me what to do. I know how to stick
the keyin and shift it, but there’s other stuff I need to know. Or if I get
something that purchase an appliance, I read that stuff and I want to know
what they say, how that thing works.

And it’s amazing to me that the manufacturer of everybody who lives in the
world is God, and yet very few people want to turn to him and find out how
they best canknow happiness. How bestcan I know blessedness? How best
can I know fulfillment? You made me. You tell me. And Jesus does right
here.
I say again, he’s dealing with the inside. Now let me add this. The idea that
Jesus deals with the inside and with our attitudes and our feelings and our
thinking does not mean that there’s no commitment to the outside. Because
when the inside is right, the outside is right. Faith without works is what?
Dead. There’s going to be an outside. You were createdin Christ Jesus unto
goodworks. But the true outside, the real outside can only be produced by
the realoutside.
I think Martyn Lloyd-Jones gives the best illustration of this I’ve ever read.
This is what he says. “Take,forexample, the realm of music. A man may
play a piece of greatmusic quite accurately. He may make no mistakes atall,
and yet it may be true to sayof him that he did not really play Beethoven’s
‘Moonlight Sonata.’ He played the notes correctly, but it was not the sonata.
What was he doing? He was mechanicallystriking the right notes, but
missing the soul and the realinterpretation. He wasn’t doing what Beethoven
intended and meant.
“That, I think, is the relationship betweenthe whole and the parts. The artist,
the true artist is always correct. Eventhe greatestartistcannot afford to
neglectrules and regulations, but that is not what makes him the greatartist.
It is this something extra, the expression. It is the spirit. It is the life. It is the
whole that he is able to convey.”
There, it seems to me, is the relationship of the particular to the generalin the
Sermon on the Mount. You can’t divorce, you can’t separate them. The
Christian, while he puts his emphasis on the spirit, is also concernedabout the
letter. But he is not concernedonly about the letter. He must never consider
the letter apart from the spirit.
On the one hand, to claim the spirit without living according to God’s law is to
be a liar. On the other hand, to try to live out the law without the spirit is to

be a hypocrite. They both go together. The spirit is the right attitude and the
letter is the obedience that comes as a result. True spirituality, then, starts on
the inside and touches the outside.
Now as you look at the Beatitudes, you’ll see that they’re like sacred
paradoxes. They’re almostgiven in absolute contrastto everything the world
knows. And let me just say a word that I want as a little footnote here. You
see the word “blessing.” The word“blessing” or“blessed” has an opposite
word in the Bible. The opposite of makarios is ouai and we translate it “woe.”
The opposite of blessing is cursing. The opposite of blessed, Jesus saidin the
Sermon on the Mount “blessed” and he turned around to the Pharisees later
and said, “Woe unto you.” Those are opposites.
And let me hastento saythis. The word “blessed” andthe word “woe,”
neither one of them are really a wish. They are a judgmental pronunciation.
Jesus is saying, “I” – he’s not saying, “I wish you blessedness.” He is saying,
“Blessedis the man who goes this way, does this, thinks this way.” And other
places, “Woe to the man who does this.” They are judicial pronunciations.
They are not simply wishes.
Now as we look at these blesseds, these judicial pronunciations of God.
“Happy is the one who does this, who thinks this way.” We see a sequence.
Look with me quickly at verse 3. Firstwe see the poor in spirit. “Poorin
spirit” is the right attitude towards sin, which leads to mourning, in verse 4,
which leads after you’ve seenyour sinfulness and you’ve mourned, to a
meekness,a sense ofhumility, then to a seeking and hunger and thirst for
righteousness. Youcansee the progression.
And that manifests itself in mercy – verse 7 – in purity of heart – verse 8 – in a
peacemaking spirit – verse 9. The result of being merciful and pure in heart
and peacemaking is that you are reviled and you are persecutedand you are
falselyaccused. Why? Becauseby the time you have been poor in spirit,
mourned over it, become humble, sought righteousness, liveda merciful, pure,
and peacemaking life, you have sufficiently irritated the world so they’re
going to react.

But when it’s all said and done, verse 12 says you can “Rejoice, and be
exceeding glad: for greatis your reward in heaven:” And when you live like
that, poor in spirit, mourning, meek, seeking righteousness, and as a result of
it becoming merciful and pure, and peacemaking,and having the world revile
and persecute and say all these things againstyou, then you can be sure that
verse 13 is true. You are the salt of the earth. That’s what it takes. Youare
the light of the world. You can’t be salt and light, beloved, you can’t start in
verse 13 until you start in verse 3.
So let’s look at verse 3. “Blessedare the poor in spirit: for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.” This is so basic, so necessary. And I’m going to ask you
five questions tonight and I want you to just answerthem with me as we look
at this one statement. Why does Christ begin with this? Why does he start
with being poor in spirit? When he’s talking about a new kind of living, a new
standard, a new way to live, why does it begin here? Why is this the source of
happiness?
Well, simply because it is the fundamental characteristic ofa Christian. It is
the very first thing that must happen in the life of anybody who ever enters
God’s kingdom. Nobody yet ever entered God’s kingdom on the basis of
pride. Povertyof spirit is the only way in. The door to the kingdom of the
Lord Jesus Christ is very low and the only people who come in crawl.
Jesus begins by saying, “There’s a mountain you have to scale. There are
heights you have to climb. There is a standard you must attain, but you are
incapable of doing it, and the sooneryou realize it the sooner you’ll be on your
way to finding it.” In other words, he’s saying you can’t be filled until you’re
empty. You can’t be worthwhile until you’re worthless.
You know, it amazes me that in modern Christianity today there is so little of
the selfemptying concept. I see a lot of books on how to be filled with joy and
how to be filled and how to be filled with this and how to be filled with the
spirit and so forth. There’s lots of books on how to be filled, but I don’t think
I’ve ever seena book on how to empty yourself of yourself. Canyou imagine
a book entitled “How to be Nothing”? It would really be a greatsellerin our
day. “How to be a Nobody.”

You know, in so much of our modern Christianity, Phariseeismfeeds on
pride. Povertyof spirit, on the other hand, is the foundation of all graces.
You know, if you don’t have poverty of spirit, beloved, you might as well
expectfruit to grow without a tree as the graces ofthe Christian life to grow
without humility. They can’t. As long as we’re not poor in spirit, we can’t
receive grace. Now evenatthe beginning, you can’t even become a Christian
unless you’re poor in spirit.
And as you live your Christian life you’ll never know the other graces ofthe
Christian life as long as you violate poverty of spirit. And this is tough. Jesus
is saying, “Start here. Happiness is for the humble.” Happiness is for the
humble. Until we are poor in spirit, Christ is never precious to us. Because
we can’t see him for the looking at ourselves. Before we see our own wants
and our own needs and our own desperation, we never see the matchless
worth of Christ. Until we know how really damned we are, we can’t
appreciate how really glorious he is. Until we comprehend how doomed we
are, we can’t understand how wondrous is his love to redeem us. Until we see
our poverty, we cannotunderstand his riches.
And so out of the carcass comesthe honey. It is in our deadness that we come
alive. And no man evercomes to Jesus Christ, no man ever enters the
kingdom who doesn’t crawlwith a terrible sense ofsinfulness, repentance.
Proverbs 16:5 says cursed are the proud. Godgives grace to the humble.
This has to be at the very beginning. That’s why it’s first. Listen, the only
way to come to God’s kingdom is to confess your own unrighteousness,
confess your inability to meet God’s standards, confess thatyou can’t do it.
You can’t do it.
Paul experiencedthis. I think it’s – we won’t take the time to look at
Philippians chapter 3, but men were singing it tonight so beautifully. And
Paul, in that passage, says,“Touching the law, I was blameless.” And he says,
“However, I have no confidence in the flesh.” No confidence in the flesh. And
it all begins here, people. You enter God’s kingdom with a sense of
helplessness. Youenter God’s kingdom with a sense of desperation. And if
you want to know happiness as you live in his kingdom, you keepthat same
sense ofhelplessness anddesperation.

The church at Laodicea said, “I am rich and have need of nothing.” In the
words of Jesus to them were, “You don’t know that you are poor and blind
and naked. You think you are rich. You aren’t.” How many fools there are
in the world who never see the truth, like the little maid of Seneca who kept
telling everybody because she was born blind she is not blind, she would say,
“I am not blind. The world is dark”? Fool. There are people today saying,
“I’m not blind. The world is dark. This is how it is in the world.” Fools who
do not see the reality. “I am rich and have need of nothing.” And they’re
desperate.
Jesus begins here because this is where you gotto begin and this is where you
got to begin to get saved, and this is where you gotto begin to live the
Christian life in blessedness. There is no room for pride. And, as I said,
Christianity today in our world is feeding on pride. It is just feeding on it, on
the exaltationof the individual.
Secondquestion. Why does it begin here? Becausethis is where it has to
start. You cannot come to God unless you realize that you’re spiritually
bankrupt, and that’s the way you got to live your Christian life. You have
nothing in your flesh, nothing.
Secondquestion. What does this term mean, “poorin spirit?” We now know
why it’s here because it’s a start, but what does it specificallymean? What
kind of poverty is he talking about? Now some people suggestthat it’s
material poverty. They take Luke 6:20, which says, “Blessedare the poor, for
they shall inherit the kingdom.” And they say, “See, it’s just plain poor.” No.
When you have two records in the Bible in the Gospels, you compare them.
“Blessedare the poor.” What poor? There are all kinds of poverty, right?
You could be poor in terms of money. You could be poor in terms of your
education. You could be poor in terms of friends. You could be poor in terms
of a lot of things. So when you read Luke say, “Blessedare the poor,” and you
find Matthew, “Blessedare are the poor in spirit,” you make the conclusion
simply that Matthew tells us what kind of poverty Luke was referring to.
That’s all. It’s no big problem. We just put the two together, comparing
scripture with scripture.

What kind of poverty? Well, poor, without money, and there are a lot of
people who have written on this thought that God just blesses andgives his
kingdom to poor people. Now let me tell you something, folks. If he just
means the people without money, then the worst possible thing we as
Christians canever do is give somebodymoney. I mean, alleviating the poor
is terrible.
You know, feeding the hungry is ridiculous. We must stop immediately any
aid to anyone who is poor. In fact, what we really ought to do is just get all
the money out of everybody we possibly can so they’ll all be poor. We’d all be
sort of con men. See, we just need to getit all. Only thing is, in so doing, we
who getit lose. That’s stupid.
We can’t go around the world abolishing that kind of stuff. We’d have to
close everyorphanage, every hospital and all the missions and everything that
reaches outto needy people. And if spiritual blessednesscame from material
poverty – no. On the other hand, riches can really mess up people. I think
poor people have a running start on the right attitude towardlife, believe it or
not, because in their desperation they seek a source beyond themselves.
The selfsufficiency of the rich causes themto be hard-pressedto know God,
and that’s why the Bible says it is easierfor a camelto go through the eye of a
needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom, because he trusts in his riches.
A poor man has none to trust in. But there have been a few righteous people
who were rich. [Laughter] Notmany. Nicodemus, JosephofArimathea, oh,
some wonderful ones in the Old Testament. Philemon was no doubt wealthy.
But, you know, God isn’t talking here about material poverty. In fact, do you
realize that David said in all his years, he never saw the righteous forsaken
nor his seedbegging bread.
In Paul’s life, he had times of hunger and he had times of thirst, but he never
was a cringing beggar. And the Lord Jesus never went around with his twelve
begging for food. They were accusedofbeing mad – the disciples and the
Lord, – they were accusedofbeing ignorant. They were accusedofturning
the world upside down. And believe me, if they would have been beggars,

they would have been accusedof that, too. But no such accusationwas ever
leveled at them.
Well, you say, “Whatkind of poverty is it?” Well, he tells you. Poorin spirit.
Poorin spirit. Now let’s take that term. The word “poor,” ptchos, interesting
word. From a verb – now watchthis one – the verb in the Greek means “a
shrinking from something or someone to cowerand cringe like a beggar.”
That’s what it means. Like you just kind of cringe and cower like a beggar
does.
ClassicalGreek uses this word to refer to one who is reduced to beggary, who
crouches in a corner of the dark wall to beg for alms. And the reasonhe
crouches and cowers is because he doesn’t want to be seen. He is so
desperatelyashamedto even allow his identity to be known. Beggars have all
that stuff piled on, all those things pulled over their face, and they reachlike
this, lest they should be known.
By the way, the word “poor” here, the very word, is the word used in Luke 16
when it says, “Lazarus the beggar.” Thatis what the word means. It is not
just poor, it is begging poor. And by the way, there is another word in the
Bible for normal poverty, pens. Pens means you’re - generally and sometimes
there’s an overlap – but generallypens means you’re so poor you have to
work just to maintain your living.
Ptchos means you’re so poor you have to beg. You’re reduced to a cringing,
cowering beggar. Pens youcan earn your own living. You can earn your own
sustenance. Ptchos, youare totally dependent on the gift of somebodyelse.
All you’ve got going for you, no skill, no nothing. In many cases,you’re
crippled, you’re blind. You’re deaf. You’re dumb. You can’t function in
societyand you sit in the corner with your shamed arm in the air, pleading for
grace and mercy from somebody else. You have no resource in yourself to
even live. Totaldependence on somebodyelse.
Not just poor, begging poor. “Now that,” says Jesus. Justgetit. “Is a happy
man.” You say, “You got to be kidding.” Well, he’s not talking about physical
begging, physical poverty, but he’s talking about poverty of spirit. Listen.
This is the bestdiagnosis of man you could ever find. Man is empty, poor,

helpless. Canhe work to own his own salvation? Is he pens poor so that he
can do just a few things and if he cranks out hard enough and works hard
enough he may get in by the hair of his chinny chin chin? You think he can
cut that? No. He’s not pens he’s ptchos. He is absolutely incapable of
anything and totally dependent on grace from somebodyelse.
So, he says, “Happy are the destitute, cowering, cringing, beggars.” Boy, what
news, folks. The world says, “Happy are the rich and the famous and the self
sufficient and the proud.” Well, what does it mean in spirit? Let me talk
about that for a minute. It means with reference to the spirit, which is the
inner part of man, not the body, which is the outer part. That’s all. He’s
begging on the inside, not necessarilyon the outside.
Isaiahput it this way. Isaiah 66:2. “But to this man will I look.” Here’s God
talking. Now listen. “To this man will I look, evento him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.” It’s the man who shakes on
the inside because ofhis destitution. Psalm34:18 put it this way. “The Lord
is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and savethsuch as be of a
contrite spirit.” Psalm51:17. “The sacrifices ofGodare a broken spirit, a
broken and contrite heart, Oh God, thou wilt not despise.”
Isaiah57:15 adds this. “Forthus saith the high and the lofty one who
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, ‘I dwell in the high and holy place
with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the
humble and revive the heart of the contrite ones.’” Listen, people. God
identifies with people who beg on the inside, not people who are self sufficient,
not people who can work out their ownsalvation, not people who believe in
their own resources,but those who are destitute and beggarly.
It doesn’t mean poor spirited, in the sense oflacking enthusiasm. It doesn’t
mean lazy or quiet or indifferent or passive. It doesn’t mean that at all. A
poor in spirit individual is one with no sense of selfsufficiency. He is
bankrupt.
Let me give you an illustration. Look with me a Luke 18. In Luke 18:9 we
read a story. “And he spoke this parable unto certain who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous, and despisedothers:” There’s the

opposite. Here are the opposite of the poor in spirit. Here are the proud in
spirit. “ - who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised
others:” We’ll do it on our own. We’ve got all the resources, etcetera.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a
tax collector. The Phariseestoodand prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank
thee, that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and even as
this rotten tax collectoroverhere. I fast twice in the week, Igive tithes of all
that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not lift up so
much as his eyes unto heaven, - ” ooh, he’s like a beggar. He’s cringing. He
won’t look up. He won’t even look at God.
And he cringes “ - and he beats his breastand he says,‘Godbe merciful to me
a sinner.’ ” Want to hear the diagnosis Jesus gave? “Itell you, this man went
down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth
himself shall be abased;and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
Listen. That’s as clearas you’ll ever hear it. It’s the broken and the contrite.
“Blessedare the beggars,” saysJesus. Blessedare those whose spirit is
destitute. Blessedare the spiritual paupers, the spiritually empty, the
spiritually bankrupt who cringe in a cornerand cry out to God for mercy.
They are the happy ones. Why? Becausethey’re the only ones who tapped
the realresource for happiness. They’re the only ones who ever know God.
They’re the only ones who ever know God’s blessedness. And theirs is the
kingdom.
James put it this way. It’s not just the Sermon on the Mount, James saidit.
He said in James 4:10, “Humble yourselves in the sight of God and he will - ”
what? “ - lift you up.” The poverty here is not a poverty againstwhich the
will rebels, but it’s a poverty under which the will bows in deep dependence
and submission. I’m afraid this is a rather unpopular doctrine in the church
today. We emphasize celebrities and experts and superstars and rich, famous
Christians. But happiness is for the humble.
Can I illustrate it to you? Just listen. Jacob, Jacobhad to face the poverty of
spirit before God could use him. He fought God all night in Genesis 32, and
finally GoddislocatedJacob’s hip. Remember that? He dislocatedhis hip.

He put him flat on his back, and he said, “I give. I can’t do it alone.” And the
Bible says in Genesis 32:29 - I love it - “And God blessedhim there.” God
made him happy.
Oh, I think of Isaiah, used wonderfully by God, but he couldn’t be used at all
before he was poor in spirit. His greatlamentation over the death of King
Uzziah, King Uzziah died and he was so upset and he was thinking only of his
loss and only of what it was like not to have King Uzziah around, and God
graciouslyinvaded his life and God showedhim who really mattered, and it
wasn’t Uzziah. He showedhim himself high and lifted up in a vision. And the
result was that Isaiahsaid in Isaiah 6, “Woe is me for I am undone. I am a
man of unclean lips for mine eyes have seenthe king.” And at that point, God
blessedhim.
And Gideon. Gideon, Judges 6:15, became aware ofhis inadequacy, and he
said, “Oh, Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
ManassehandI am the leastin my father’s house. You must have the wrong
address.” And the Lord said, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of
valor.” You know who the mightiest man of valor is? The man who knows
that in himself he is impotent. That was the spirit of Moses. Godsaid,
“Moses, Iwant you to lead my people.” And he was so desperatelyunworthy
of the task. He was so horribly, fearfully, conscious ofhis inadequacy and his
insufficiency that God used him.
It was the heart of David when he said, “Lord, who am I that thou shouldst
come to me?” We see it with Peter, aggressive, selfassertive, confidentby
nature, and he says, “Departfrom me, oh, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” The
beginning of the beginning for Peter. The apostle Paulrecognizedin his flesh
is no goodthing. He was the chief of sinners, a blasphemer, a persecutor,
everything he had was dung, refuse, all things he counted lost, no confidence
in the flesh. He was sufficient for nothing. His strength was made perfect
then in his weakness.
Listen. When you admit your weakness, whenyou admit your nothingness,
that’s not the end. That’s the beginning. But that – watch it – is the hardest
thing you will ever do. It’s the hardest thing you will ever do. Jesus is saying

the first thing you got to say is, “I can’t. I can’t do it. I can’t.” That’s
poverty of spirit.
I think about the parable of the unjust servant in Matthew 18. Beautiful
truth. The unjust servant oweda fortune that he could never pay back, never.
I mean, it was an astronomicalamount of money. Verse 26. “He fell down,
and worshipped his master, and he said, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I
will pay thee all.’ ” He was saying, “Boy, you just hang in there and I’ve got
the resourcesto do it all.” Fool. No waycould that debt be repaid. And Jesus
was saying in that parable, “What a foolto sayto the Lord, ‘Just be patient.
I’ll do it all.’ ”
Poorin spirit, the absence ofpride, the absence ofself assurance, the absence
of self reliance. There must be an emptying before there can be a filling.
There’s gotto be. And this is the way to live, people, not just to getsaved, but
this is the way to live. You know, time after time after time when I face the
task of coming to the pulpit to preach to you, it goes in my mind and through
my mind, “Lord, you got to do it. You gotto do it. I know the mechanics,
Lord, but that’s just what I don’t want, the mechanics. You’ve gotto do it.
You’ve gotto do it.”
Saint Augustine, before his conversionwas proud of his intellect. He was
proud of his knowledge. And he says it held him back from believing. Only
after he emptied himself of his pride did he ever know God. Luther, the great
Martin Luther, when he was just a young man entereda monastery. And he
entered a monastery to earn his salvationthrough piety. But he had a tough
time doing it. And he woke up one day in his priesthoodlife and realized he
had an acute sense of failure. All those years and he wasn’tyet there. He
recognizedhis own inability to please God. He emptied himself of himself. He
basedeverything on the salvationprovided by God through faith, and that
was the beginning of the reformation.
Someone has beautifully written, “But though I cannotsing or tell or know
the fullness of thy love while here below, my empty vesselI may freely bring,
oh, thou who art of love, the living spring, my vesselfill. I am an empty vessel.

Not one thought or look of love I everto thee brought. Yet, I may come and
come againto thee with this, the empty sinner’s only plea, thou lovest me.”
The sum of the great truth is simply stated. The first principle of the Sermon
on the Mount is that you can’t do it by yourself. There’s a new lifestyle to live
and that new lifestyle promises eternalhappiness for you, but you can’t do it
by yourself, so that the only standard for living is for those who know they
can’t do it.
This conceptis seen, I think, in the first giving of the law of Sinai. When God
gave his law – now think with me – God gave his law on Mount Sinai, there
were no – there would be no idols, no adultery, no stealing, no murder, you
know, and so forth, bearing false witness. Buteven while God was giving it,
the people were down below breaking it, right? God was giving it to Moses
and Aaron was leading them in an orgy. So right at the start you have the fact
that God’s standards are not within the realm of man’s possibility.
Some of the people of Israelrecognized that. They recognizedthey weren’t
keeping God’s standard. So they gave sacrifices andthey confessed, andthey
came humbly, and Godin his sweetgrace forgave them. But there were other
ones who thought they could do it, so they boastedin their self righteousness
and they beganto try to keepthe law. Well, they couldn’t do it, either. So
they whittled the law down, and that’s why the rabbi started adding
traditions. They piled traditions up because the traditions were easierto keep
than the law of God.
Listen. The law that has grownup around the Torah, the Talmudic law, the
Jewishlaw that has grownup around the Torah, the true law of God, is
nothing more than a whittled down standard so that men could at leasthave
some sense of satisfaction. Now the rabbis said they were trying to protect the
law of God, but the factwas they were lowering the requirement so that when
Jesus arrived on the scene, they were doing greatwith the peripheral stuff and
they were living in daily violation of the true law of God.
You see, there were some people who thought they could do it. But they
couldn’t, and the ones who knew God were the ones who said, “We can’t,
God.” And humbly and penitently, they offered sacrifices ofconfessionand

God forgave them. It’s the same with the Sermon on the Mount. This is the
law. This is the way to live, but you can't do it, and you got to recognize it. By
the powerof the Holy Spirit and dependence on Jesus Christ, you’ve got to
desire it. And then you got to deal with your failures in humble contrition and
confession.
Jesus put the standard up there when he said, “Be ye perfect as my Father in
heave is perfect.” He said, “Unless your righteousness exceedsthat peripheral
whittled down righteousness ofthe scribes and Pharisees,you’re not going to
be in my kingdom. You substituted – ” Matthew 15:9 says “ – the traditions
of men for the commandments of God.” That’s not going to make it.
The whole purpose of law – see, watchit – the purpose of the Sermon on the
Mount is the same as the purpose of Sinai. It’s to show you you can’t make it.
The Sermon on the Mount was to show them they couldn’t make it and they
had to come to poverty of spirit and total dependence on God. You can’t just
present these standards to an unregenerate man and expect him to live them.
You know what that would be like? You think, I think James Boyce gives this
illustration. In the kingdom, the lion will lie down with the lamb, right? The
lion will lie down with the lamb. Isn’t that wonderful?
If you want to try something, go to the zoo and getto the lion’s cage and teach
that lion millennial truth. You teachthat lion that he is going to lie down with
a lamb and you getit clearin his mind. Then you take him over and put him
in with the lamb. You know what will happen? No lamb. You know why?
That lion will not cooperate onthe basis of the sermon. The lion’s gotto have
a new nature. You see? Youcan’t preach the Sermon on the Mount to an
unregenerate personand expectthem to live it. He’s gotto have a new nature.
That all begins with poverty of spirit.
So we ask two questions. Why does Christ begin with this? Because it’s the
beginning. What does it mean? It means humility. Povertyof spirit. What is
the result? And these are shorterquestions, so you can relax. What is the
result? Well, look and see. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Pronunciation
is fantastic. “Fortheirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is an announcement,

folks, not a wish. This is it. Theirs – and by the way, theirs alone – is the
thrust. Just theirs.
Who does the kingdom of heaven belong to? Justthe poor in spirit. Theirs is
mine. I’m in that theirs. I came to Christ, bankrupt in my ownlife, and I
askedGodtime and againto help me live every day of my life in that same
sense ofhumility and dependence. I hope I’m there every day. I know I came
that way and my salvationis forever. I’m in on that. So you know what it
says to me? Blessedare the poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Mine. Justme. I’m in on it. That’s exciting.
And by the way, that’s a present tense verb. Theirs, mine, ours is the
kingdom. We’re not just talking about the millennium. Someday it’s going to
be - it’s yours now. There is a future millennium in which the kingdom
promises become full blown, fully realized. But the kingdom is now. The
reign of Christ is now. Happiness is now. Blessedness is now. The kingdom
of heaven is the rule of Christ. It has a future Messianic aspect. Ithas a right
now aspect. We are now a kingdom of priests. We are now subjects of Jesus
Christ. We are now overcomers.
We have already, it says in Ephesians 2, been seatedtogetherin heavenly
places, the recipient of all of his grace and kindness from now throughout
forever. We have the grace now. Watchit. We have the grace now, the grace
of the kingdom. We have the glory later. The kingdom as I see it is grace and
glory. Grace now, glory later. What a tremendous thing. Do you know what
it is, people to possess the kingdom? That’s what the word means, to possess.
You possessthe kingdom. It is yours. The rule of Christ, the reign of Christ,
you know what that means? You’re his subject, he takes care of you. He
gives you what you need, he fulfills every need your heart.
Someone has written, “He keeps us abundantly full, full of grace, mercy, and
strength. Whateveris aheadin the kingdom, he now in the present provides
for us a vast abundance of riches. He is ever faithful to us and makes us
unutterably glad that we are his. In spirit, we are rich. We have all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. It’s here and now, and somedayeven
more.”

Well, two more questions face us. If – this is basic and so important - and if it
means humility and spiritual bankruptcy, sense of total inability – and I might
add there is nothing, there is nothing as sickening. There is nothing as
nauseating to the heart of God as spiritual pride. It violates this whole thing.
It is the worstwhen you think you have arrived at spirituality basedon your
own function in anything.
Two final questions. How do we become poorin spirit? Say, “John, I see the
messagehere. Be poor in spirit. How do I become poor in spirit?” Well,
don’t begin by trying to do it by yourself. That was the folly of monastacism.
They all thought they could be poor in spirit by going somewhere, selling all
their possessions, putting on a crummy old robe and sitting in a monastery
somewhere and owning nothing. No. That was the folly of asceticism,
monastacism, self-denial, mutilation. Some of them cut off some of their
organs. Theythought they could deny themselves in that way and attain this.
And by the way, you can’t do it by looking at yourself. Also, you can’t do it by
looking at other people. Don’t try to find somebody else who will setthe
standard for you. There’s only one place to look if you want to become poor
in spirit, that’s to concentrate onGod. That’s the first thing. Look at God.
Readhis Word. Face his person in its pages. Look atChrist. Look at Christ
constantly. As you gaze at Jesus Christ, you lose yourself. You lose yourself.
Secondly, not only look at God. I’ll give you three little principles. If you’re
going to know what it is to be poor in spirit, look at God, not at you, not at
anybody else. Look at God. Two, starve the flesh. Starve the flesh. You
know, even the ministries, even the ministries of this generationfeedon pride
in so many cases. We have to seek the things that strip the flesh naked.
You know, I went through some things in my own life less than a year ago
where I think I came to grips with something of the meaning of this. It’s a
fight for me to know this kind of spirit, but I think I came to grips with it to
the point where I really sought, I really sought the things that stripped my
flesh. You see, because it’s easyfor me to acceptthe accolades.
It’s easyfor me to hear the voices saying, “Thank you, John. Your message
blessedme.” Or, “I was savedwhen you preached.” Or, “It’s so wonderful at

your church.” Or, “Whata wonderful messageyou gave.” And it’s easyfor
me to take that. It comes realeasyto acceptcompliments. I don’t have to
struggle for that.
But for awhile, I began to have a hunger in my heart to seek, andit was, you
know, it can getinto a pitiful, poor me kind of thing real easy, but I had this
hunger in my heart to seek the thing that stripped my flesh bare. I almost
found myself wanting to face a folly because it drove me into the presence of
God and in the presence ofGod, I was destitute.
Not long ago, I was confrontedwith some things that upset some people
deeply. And it, my first reactionwas that it hurt me very bad, because if I was
in error, I didn’t mean to be in error. And then all of a sudden God began to
speak to my heart about the fact that more than anything this is what I
needed. I needed to be confronted with the fact that I was nothing and that in
one short breath everything that I ever dreamed or desired to do for God,
which, by the way, he doesn’t need me to do.
He can do it for himself through me – everything could be takenawaythat
fast. And in a sense in my destitution and in my loss and in my failure and in
my sense offolly and in the thing that I did that was wrong, I gaineda greater
measure of comfort than ever I would gain in that for which I was praised.
That helps you to starve the flesh. I’d say a third thing. These are the things I
see in my own life. I’ve gotto look at God all the time. Secondly, I gotto
starve my flesh. I don’t want to run to the thing that compliments. But
there’s a third thing and I think it’s simple. Ask. You want to be poor in
spirit? Ask. There’s one thing about a beggar. He’s always what? Asking.
You ever notice that. Always. Ask. “Lord,” said the sinner, “be merciful to
me, a sinner.” Jesus said, “Thatman went home justified.” Happy is the
beggarin his spirit. He’s the one who possesses the kingdom. Why did Jesus
begin with this? Becauseit’s the bottom line.
What does it mean? It means to be spiritually bankrupt and know it. What is
the result? You become a possessorofthe kingdom here and now and
forever. How do you become poor in spirit? Look at God. Starve your flesh.
And ask, beg. He doesn’t mind a bit.

Final question. How will I know if I am? How do you know if you’re poor in
spirit? And you know, you need to take inventory. How do you really know?
I’m going to give you sevenprinciples. They’re coming quick. How do I
know if I’m poor in spirit? Number one. You will be weanedfrom yourself.
You will be weanedfrom yourself. Psalm131:2 puts it this way. “My soul is
even as a weanedchild.” Oh, what a greatthought.
One who is poor in spirit loses a sense of self. Selfis gone. It’s gone. All you
think about is God and his glory and others and their needs. Self is gone.
You’re weanedfrom self. Number two. You will be lost in the wonder of
Christ. You will be lostin the wonder of Christ. You will be in 2 Corinthians
3:18, “gazing at his glory.” You will be saying, “Show me the Lord,” and it
sufficeth. You will be saying, “I will be satisfiedwhen I awake andthy
likeness lostin the wonder of Christ.”
Third. If you are poor in spirit, you will never complain about your situation.
Never. You know why? You don’t deserve anything, anyway. Right? What
have you gotto offer. In fact, the deeper you go, the sweeterthe grace. The
more you need, the more abundantly he provides. When you lack everything,
you’re in a position to receive all grace. There are no distractions, you see.
You will suffer without murmur because you deserve nothing. And yet at the
same time you will seek his grace.
How do you know if you’re poor in spirit? You’ll be weanedfrom yourself,
lost in the wonder of Christ, and you’ll never complain about your situation
because the deeper you getthe sweeterthe grace.
Fourth. You will see only the excellenciesofothers and only your own
weakness. You will see only the excellencies ofothers and only your own
weakness. Poorin spirit, the truly humble, is the only one who has to look up
to everybody else.
Fifth. You will spend much time in prayer. Why? Becausea beggaris
always begging. He knocks very often at heaven’s gate and he doesn’tlet go
until he’s blessed. You want to know if you’re poor in spirit? Are you
weanedfrom yourself? Are you lost in the wonder of Christ? Are you never
complaining no matter what the situation? Do you see only the excellencies of

others and only your own weakness? Do you spend much time begging for
grace?
Six. If you’re poor in spirit, you’ll take Christ on his terms, not yours. You
will take Christ on his terms, not yours. The proud sinner will have Christ at
his pleasure, Christ and his covetousness,Christ and his immorality. The
poor in spirit is so desperate he will give up anything just to getChrist, see.
Thomas Watsonsays, “A castle that has long been beseigedand is ready to be
takenwill deliver up on any terms to save its life.” He whose hearthas been a
garrisonfor the devil and has held out long in opposition againstChrist when
once God has brought him to poverty of spirit and he sees himself damned
without Christ, let God prosper. Let God offer. And he will simply say,
“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” He’s right. Someone who is poor in
spirit takes Christ on Christ’s terms.
Finally, when you’re poor in spirit, you will praise and thank God for his
grace. If ever there is a characteristic ofsomeone poorin spirit, it is an
overwhelming gratitude to God. Why? Becauseeverysingle thing you have is
a gift from him. And so in 1 Timothy 1:14 says the beloved apostle Paul, “The
grace ofour Lord was exceeding abundant to us.” Those who are poor in
spirit are filled with thanks.
Well, how do you measure up? Why do the Beatitudes begin with this one?
Becauseit’s the foundation. What does it mean? Oh, a deep sense of spiritual
helplessness. Whatis its result? The present possessionofthe kingdom of
heaven. How do I become like this? Look to God, starve the flesh, pray. How
will I know if I’m there? We just shared it with you. You’ll be weanedfrom
yourself, lostin the wonder of Christ, never complaining of your situation,
seeing only the excellencyof others and your own weakness. Youwill spend
much time in prayer. You will take Christ on his terms. And you will thank
God for everything.
The hymn writer sums it up for us. “Nothing in my hand I bring.” What’s
the rest? “Simply to thy cross I cling.” Let’s pray.

Oh, Father, we pray that there would be no artificiality to our lives, that we
would not seek some selfinduced poverty, but that we would know real
poverty of spirit. Lord, help us to know that as Paul said, “Whateverwe are,
we are by your grace, and nothing more.” We were blasphemers. We were
godless. We were undeserving and still are. And oh, God, help us to know
only by your grace do we exist in your kingdom.
If there are some with us tonight who has not entered your kingdom because
they have not been willing to do the hardest thing they’ll ever do, say, “I can’t.
I can’t please God. I can’t keephis rules. I can’t keephis laws. I can’t live
his way.” Maythis be the time they say that. And in the admission that they
can’t, may they know that you can. By your powerthat you can empower
them through Christ to do what they could never do.
Father, we thank you that some of us have been to that place at the foot of the
cross where we crawledinto your kingdom in humility and a sense of useless
worthlessness. And Lord, after we’ve gottenin and we’ve seenwhat you’ve
done through us, it’s so easyto be proud and boastful and we forget, Lord,
that we sustained that blessedness. We sustainedthat happiness by sustaining
that poverty of spirit.
Weanus from ourselves. Lose us in the wonderof Christ that we may be
truly poor in spirit, possessorsofyour kingdom and of the bliss, the
blessedness, the happiness that belongs to such. May we be so different from
the world that it’s obvious we belong to you. In Christ’s name. Amen.
JOHN MACARTHUR
The Only Way to Happiness: Be Poor in Spirit
Sermons Matthew 5:3 90-189 Apr 26, 1998
A + A - RESET

I want you to open your Bible tonight to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew
chapter 5. As I mentioned to you, I have recently been able to release a book
calledThe Only Way to Happiness, and it’s a book basically on the
Beatitudes. Jesus presents forus in Matthew chapter 5 the most profound and
at the same time paradoxicalteaching on true happiness. But it’s not just a
subject among many, it’s foundational to all His teaching, and it’s
foundational to entrance into His kingdom. God wants us happy.
Psalm 144:15 says, “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.” God
wants our lives filled with joy. God wants to bless us. He wants us to
experience bliss, a deep inner happiness, not produced and not affectedby
emotion or by changing circumstance, a kind of blessedness anda kind of joy,
a kind of bliss, a kind of happiness that is not subject to outside forces but
only inside ones produced by God in the heart. And this should be the
characterof a believer - blessedness,happiness, joy. This is what His kingdom
promises us and the Beatitudes says it so magnificently and so pointedly.
The Lord wants people in His kingdom to enjoy real happiness, and that’s
the subjectof the Beatitudes, and that’s the subject of the Sermon on the
Mount, which the Beatitudes begin. Of course, the sermon runs all through
chapter 7, to the very end, but Jesus starts with these Beatitudes, they’re
called. Eachone begins with the word “blessed,”which is just another word
for happiness.
Jesus was talking primarily to His disciples, you’ll remember. His disciples
came to Him, it says in verse 1, but also beyond them (they were the inner
circle)the multitude could hear what He was saying as well. Everybody needs
to hear about happiness - not just those who already know the Lord but
everyone. Everyone needs to hear that God wants to bring to us true
happiness, true blessedness.

The question is: How do you find that? And the Beatitudes indicate to us
that it really is opposite what the world would assume. Blessedare the poor;
the world would say blessedare the rich. Blessedare those who mourn; the
world would sayblessedare those who laugh. Blessedare the gentle or the
meek;the world would sayblessedare the proud and the confident. Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst; the world would say blessedare those who
don’t hunger and don’t thirst because they have everything.
We getshaped by the world, even those of us who are in the kingdom, and
our attitudes become shapedby the world. The world’s media (newspapers,
books, magazines, television, radio, music, movies, you name it) literally,
relentlesslysells us the world’s perspective and in the end corrupts our
otherwise pure thinking.
This is not just inimitable to our day. There were people in Israel,
including the disciples, who soughtto truly understand Godand the kingdom,
but their thinking was also corrupted by the reigning philosophy of their day,
which was perpetrated by religious leaders - in those days, Pharisees and
Sadducees. Jesus hadto clearawayall the lies and all the error and get right
back to the core of true happiness.
True happiness is found, by the way, only by entrance into His kingdom.
What does that mean? That simply means only by becoming a subjectof His,
only by acknowledging Him as King, coming into His sphere of life, coming
under His rule, coming under His authority, coming under His blessing.
That’s the only place true happiness occurs. So any offering of happiness is at
the same time a callto the kingdom. When Jesus said, “You’ll be happy if you
do this,” “You’ll be happy if you do this,” He was really saying, “This is how
you enter the kingdom, and there is where you find the happiness.”

So you have here not only teaching about how to be happy but teaching
about how to enter the kingdom because they’re the same thing. Entering the
kingdom is where happiness is found. And outside the kingdom, there is no
lasting happiness. The word “blessedness” has anopposite, the word
“blessing” has an opposite;cursedness, cursing. In fact, in the Greek, it’s the
word ouai, which is “woe” in English. And woe is not a wish regarding a
coming condition. Woe is not a descriptionof a presentcondition.
Woe is a truth pronounced on people, and it means they’re cursed. And the
word “blessedness”is the opposite. Blessing, makarios.Blessednessis a word
pronounced on people, pronounced on them as recipients of all the goodness
of God, which produces a condition of happiness.
The kingdom is a place for God to pour out blessing. Ephesians 1, verse 3,
“We have been blessedwith” - what? - “all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies
in Christ Jesus.”Whenwe came into the kingdom, we beganto be blessed. In
Ephesians chapter 2, it tells us that that blessing will go on foreverbecause, it
says, in the ages to come, He will show the surpassing riches of His grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He started blessing us the day we entered
into the kingdom. He startedproviding all the things to make us truly happy,
and that will go on forever and everin this life and the life to come.
God offers us salvation, from our perspective, to bring to us true
happiness, contentment, bliss, joy, gladness. That’s whatGod offers. And the
path or the pattern to receive that blessing and to enter the kingdom is
outlined for us in these incredible Beatitudes. It starts with being poor in
spirit, mourning, and being meek and hungering and thirsting for
righteousness.

It manifests itself in an attitude of mercy, purity, and peacemaking,and it
causes the world to reactto us with reviling and persecutionand false
accusation. Butin the end, it transforms us (in verse 13) into saltand (verse 14
through 16) into light. This is the flow of the Beatitudes.
The first step in entering the kingdom, the first step to happiness, is being
poor in spirit, realizing your spiritual poverty. The secondone is mourning
over it. The third one is humbly falling down before the glory of Godin your
condition. The fourth one is then pleading for a righteousness whichyou don’t
have and hunger for. That begins then to manifest itself in an attitude of
mercy toward others, a pursuit of purity and peacemaking in your own life,
and creates hostilityin the world. That’s the flow of the Beatitudes.
We want to start at the beginning because this is tremendously important
information, tremendously important truth for people who are outside the
kingdom as wellas for those who are inside the kingdom. Let’s take the first
Beatitude tonight in verse 3: “Blessedare the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.”
And we want to answera few questions that will be posed, and that will
take us through the meaning of the Beatitude. Questionnumber one: Why
does Christ begin with this? I mean this is the first recordedsermon of Jesus.
This is how He inaugurates His unfolding teaching throughout the New
Testament. It begins with these first things and this first statement, “Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is the first
real instruction Jesus gave in the New Testament, first gospel, the gospelof
Matthew, first recordedsermon of Jesus, first statement, “Blessedare the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

And it’s fair to ask why does He start here? It must be significant, it’s the
first thing said, first thing recordedin terms of actualpreaching from Jesus.
Why does He begin with this? Becauseit is the fundamental characteristic of
the Christian. It is the fundamental characteristic ofthe citizen of the
kingdom of heaven. All other characteristics flow from this one. This is where
everything starts. This is where happiness begins. This is where entrance into
the kingdom begins.
Jesus begins by saying there’s a mountain you have to scale, there are
heights you have to climb, but the first thing you must realize is that you are
outside the kingdom of God and you can’t get there on your own. The
mountain is too high, the heights are too great, you can’t do it. And you have
to start with that realization. You cannot enter my kingdom, you cannot be
happy until you realize your bankruptcy, your poverty.
This is very important stuff to the Jews who are very proud about their
religious achievements, very proud about their ceremonialaccomplishments,
very proud about the sacrifices theyhad offered to God, very proud about
their zeal for the law, very proud about their circumcision, very proud about
their identification with the covenantpeople Israel, very proud about their
self-righteousness. Theywere self-confident. They were self-important. And
Jesus says if you’re going to enter the kingdom and find true happiness,
you’ve gotto recognize that you have absolutely nothing, you are bankrupt.
That’s where it all begins. Poverty of spirit is the foundation of all other
graces.Povertyof spirit is where everything starts. You may as well expect
fruit to grow without a tree as the other graces to grow without this one.
Nothing happens until this happens. As long as a person is not poor in spirit,
that personis not capable of happiness in the sense that God offers it. That
person is not capable of entering the kingdom.

As long as I’m clutching my ownself-importance and my own self-
righteousness andmy own accomplishments and my own religiosityand my
own morality, and as long as I’m holding onto this as if it somehow gainedme
access to God, as long as my hand is full of that dirt, it cannever receive the
gold of God’s grace. Happiness is only for those who are unworthy.
Isaiah said it of Christ and Christ reiteratedit. Isaiah61:1, “The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me.” Jesus repeatedit in Luke’s gospel. “He has sentme to
bind up the brokenhearted.” Everything begins with broken-heartedness.
Until someone is poor in spirit, Christ is never seenfor what He really is. He’s
never precious. Before you can see how bankrupt you are, you can’t
understand how valuable Christ is. You can never see His matchless worth
until you understand the full extent of your own worthlessness.
He who sees himselfclothed in filthy rags can appreciate the robe of
righteousness thatChrist brings. Until you’re poor, you can’t be rich. Until
you’re a fool, you can’t become wise. Until you lose your life, you can’t save it.
Jesus oftensaid such paradoxicalthings. And why is this first? Because
inevitably what prevents people from entering into the kingdom is pride. And
at the very start, pride must be broken. Proverbs 16:5 says, “Cursedare the
proud.” These things God hates, a proud heart at the top of the list.
Now, pride doesn’t necessarilymean that you parade your money. It
doesn’t necessarilymean you parade your goods and your possessions,et
cetera. Pride means you put confidence in your personalachievement,
personalmorality, personalreligion, personalgoodness. You are unwilling to
acknowledge the fact that the best that you can do is filthy rags. The only way,
then, to come into God’s kingdom, the only wayto come to blessing, the only
way to be genuinely happy, truly happy both in time and eternity is to confess
your own unworthiness, your own utter inability to please God, your own
incapacity to meet God’s standard.

Jesus was blessing the poor in spirit vol 2

Jesus was blessing the poor in spirit vol 2

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