Supply The Word

Thanks and praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

POOR
Sermon 25 BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
MAT 5:3.

This word poor has more than one meaning. LUK 21:2 says, "And he saw
also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites." This is
dealing
with money. This word poor comes from the base word peno in the Greek.
It means: "Necessitous; to toil for daily subsistence; [a working man];
straightened by circumstances in private." This is not talking of a
public beggar. It is talking of someone in the lower, poor class. This
is someone living at the poverty level, but who had the necessities of
life.

MAT 5:3 says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the
kingdom
of heaven." This word poor comes from the base word ptosso in the
Greek.
This word means: "a beggar; as crying; pauper; strictly denoting
absolute or public begging." These are two completely different words.

We must understand that when we are speaking of spiritual poverty, we
are speaking of the beggar class. When the Lord undresses His people of
all their own righteousness, they learn to see their spiritual
nakedness. They can add nothing. They have nothing to offer. They are
public beggars. All their righteousness becomes filthy rags, and they
have absolutely nothing to offer from self. Spiritually, they are so
totally poverty stricken that they are public beggars.

Those who are declared as blessed in our text become beggars at the
throne of grace.

Jesus opened His mouth with kingly authority, "saying, Blessed are the
poor in spirit...." It is so blessed that He could say that with such
authority. He was saying that those who are empty in themselves are
blessed. Those who have been made to cry as the blind man, saying,
"Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me," LUK 18:38.

They have nothing to offer within themselves because they have been
brought to be public beggars. They have only one plea to make, and that
is the Publican's prayer, who "standing afar off, would not lift up so
much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be
merciful to me a sinner," LUK 18:13.

The Lord makes spiritual beggars out of His people by showing them
their
miserable condition outside of Christ. In JER 31:9-10 we read, "They
shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them...."
The Lord takes away all the dross. He takes away everything that we can
build in ourselves. This is showing the spiritual poverty. These people
have nothing to offer within themselves. "...I will cause them to walk
by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not
stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. Hear
the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar
off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him,
as
a shepherd doth his flock."

This verse shows how the Lord will work in the heart of His people.
They
will come weeping over their sins, and He will lead them with
supplication begging for mercy.

Verse 11 says, "For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from
the hand of him that was stronger than he." We are all under the
captivity and power of Satan. We are all under the captivity of sin and
our own hard heart. This verse means that the Lord has redeemed Jacob
with the price of His blood. The Lord brings them to spiritual poverty
to understand their need of redemption.

The Lord's people will weep over the bitterness of their sins against
such redeeming love! ZEC 12:10 says, "And I will pour upon the house of
David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and
of
supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and
they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall
be
in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."
When the Lord does pour upon His people the Spirit of grace and
supplication, they see their spiritual poverty. Then they understand
that it was their sins that pierced their lovely Lord!

The Lord said, "...they shall look upon me whom they have pierced...."
If you understand your sins, then you never have hard feelings toward
the person who hung Christ on the cross. ISA 49:16 says, "Behold, I
have
graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually
before
me." Then we can see that our sins have engraven those scars in the
palms of His hands. We look upon Him whom we have pierced with our
sins.

Oh, beloved, a faith's view of our Saviour in His bloody sweat, of His
pierced hands and side to redeem us from our sin, works humility in our
hearts. In our spiritual poverty, we have nothing but praise and
thanksgiving to offer.

When we look on Him whom we have pierced, we shall mourn for Him. The
Lord said, "...they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only
son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn." We see the bitterness of sin. We see that it was
our
sins that pierced Him and hung Him on the cross. When we see the
sinfulness of sin, we become true haters of all sin.

We can see that the only hope we have of standing righteous before our
Heavenly Father is in that blessed Atonement and perfect obedience of
Christ being imputed to us. Then we see we have nothing to offer within
ourselves.

MIC 6:8 says, "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth
the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God?" This humility is the fruit of Christ's
righteousness being imparted in us. Breaking down the power of
rebellion
and pride is the first step in the work of grace. Amen.

How blessed are they who truly see
Their emptiness and poverty;
Whose souls are humbled in the dust,
And who in Jesus only trust!

Glad they renounce their former pride,
And wholly in His name confide;
Only in Him they make their boast,
Who came to seek and save the lost.
Gadsby selection, 1838