Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit - Tim Conway

[Music] you can open your bibles whatever version you might have to matthew chapter 5 as my desire is to once again look at the sermon on the mount this is only the second message we had somewhat of an introduction last week today i simply want to look at the first of what is known as the beatitudes i might speak more about where that name even comes from but today blessed are the poor in spirit verse 3 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven let's pray [Music] the father here we go with our lord's sermon on the mount the first words that he spoke that came out of his mouth he opened his mouth and taught them saying and here are the words of really what matthew counts to be the the first and a very long treatment of just truth coming from the messiah's lips as he enters into his teaching ministry proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and i i pray lord make please make this time profitable for us make this rich make it helpful even redeeming if there are those that need redemption i ask in christ's name amen okay the first thing that i really want to deal with is maybe a definition of blessed we see it blessed are the poor in spirit blessed are those who mourn blessed are the meek blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness you we see the word used over and over and over that is that is a term that is not unfamiliar in the christian realm blessed but what's the meaning now listen if you look at some very popular preachers men who i love and respect they basically equate blessed to happiness now even as a young christian when i when i heard these preachers do this one one especially is in california and another one especially had a long time ministry in london when i hear that they equate blessed to happiness even as a young christian i kind of i was puzzled that they did that because i i knew my bible enough at that time to recognize that bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name and i thought bless there does not equal happy and and as i was cracking some books open on that very that that very definition of the word um john stott and d.a carson both hit that and they both emphasize that they think that that is a poor way to define the word which in the original is makarias blessed now listen happiness is subjective that means happiness has to do with you and the frame you're in jesus is not speaking subjectively here he is speaking objectively he is declaring people who are poor in spirit are blessed you know the reality is that you can take people that are blessed of god and depending on where they're at in their life they may or may not be happy at the moment i just think i would agree i think that that it's misleading to simply equate this greek word with the word happy what is it what does blessed mean the real issue is blessed means to be favored it means to be an object of god's special grace it it's the recipient of divine favor it means to be privileged it means it's one upon whom god smiles listen that is enough right there if you just simply define blessed as that is an individual that god smiles upon that's that pretty much captures it you see the rea we only have two types of people in the world you are either in the category of blessed when it comes to how god sees you how god deals with you you're either in the category of blessed or you're in the category of curse now listen if you're in the category of cursed you fall into that group of people that are known as the children of wrath the sons of disobedience and even though kindness may be shown to you to lead you to repentance that is not an indication that you're blessed it may be an indication that you're a recipient of kindness but the the reality is not too long you continue in that same path you're going to find that being an object of wrath you're going to be drinking that wrath of which you're the object it hangs over your head now but so anyway the the reality is jesus is not declaring so much what the christian feels he is declaring a reality about the state of a person who is poor in spirit he is saying they are blessed and theirs is the kingdom it's a very objective statement that he's making here so blessedness you don't want to just ever simply reduce it to happiness being blessed comes down to that very reality it means you are in the favor of god and you are under the smile of god and listen if you're under the smile of god how will he not also give you every good thing do you recognize what it is to be an object of i mean there in ephesians what 2 7 that throughout the coming ages he shows forth the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in christ jesus through all the coming ages he's showing the riches of his grace do you recognize what it is to be a christian i'm telling you this we don't hardly recognize in this world the glories it's an eternal weight of glory it to be in the category of blessed is to have it all now the question often comes up is this present or is this future these beatitudes like the promises theirs is i think all you have to do is look at the verb forms in english to recognize that you don't want to just say it's now or future it's both theirs is the kingdom of heaven but we know that there's aspects of the kingdom that are not fully realized here you can enter it here you can inherit aspects of it here but we know that the inheritance that is now ours in heaven we actually haven't taken possession of it so we enjoy many privileges being in the kingdom being already converted in this place and yet it's not fully realized i mean when you go through these look at this blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted but the reality is as much as we shall be comforted and every tear wiped away the reality is the christian experiences a great deal of comfort even in this life right i mean the sense of pardon of sin that is very comforting you just talk to somebody that struggles with with assurance who is not necessarily feeling that and and you can recognize what a massive comfort it is just in this world just to have a sense of assurance blessed are the meek they shall inherit the earth i mean even right there even though we're going to inherit the few the earth and the future what does the apostle paul say to the corinthians doesn't he say all things are yours even now like apollos is yours and peter is yours and i am you know and he isn't that how he speaks he basically says he he basically says that all of it is ours things present things to come he says you're christ christ is god but i mean you have him you have god god is yours i mean the reality is that even mercy blessed are the merciful they're going to receive mercy but haven't we already received tremendous amount of mercy here but is more going to be shown us yes is that grace and kindness through all the coming ages so don't get so caught up in this i mean look the reality is that we get four tastes here we get the fullness there so we don't really have to wrestle too much now as i mentioned last week there's no imperatives here not in the beatitudes christ is not commanding anything christ is giving us indicative verbs he's indicating what's true you don't want to as i said last week we have such an aptitude we have such a i have bent naturally to want to do something it's very interesting that jesus just sits down he begins to speak to his disciples and he doesn't tell them to do anything he simply says gentlemen i want to give you some facts but if you find an individual that's poor in spirit let me tell you what 100 of the time is also true that individual the kingdom of heaven is theirs remember we looked last week at mark 9 and we saw that possessing the kingdom is the same as possessing eternal life they're synonymous you find somebody that's poor in spirit you see this this is a fact it's not a commandment he is basically saying every single person that enters heaven will be somebody poor in spirit remember how he divides them right and left he says i was hungry and you fed me i was hungry and you didn't feed me but you know what's also true you are poor in spirit and you are not that's the reality that we're being faced with here he's not telling us to do anything he's just basically saying how it is he's describing who's saved who's not saved and he just simply says it blessed are the poor in spirit it's a it's a matter of fact that's it every person on the planet who is described by this terminology the kingdom's theirs there's no exceptions you recognize that if you are poor in spirit if you fit the meaning the kingdom's yours that's what he says there's no exceptions here there's only blessed and cursed in the world and if you want to know which one i mean here it is poor in spirit he's jesus isn't here to debate he's not here to argue he's simply stating a fact with no imperatives i'll tell you this each one of us has to face the sermon on the mount i mean we could try to ignore it we could try to run away with it but the reality is this is the one who is coming again king of kings and lord of lords this is the one who is going to judge all men this is the one the judgment seat of christ this is him you can't we can try to ignore it but you can only ignore it for so long because he's coming again and listen these are the words he spoke those not his words they're the words of the father the father sent him into the world to basically convey a message to us and here it is and each one of us have to come face to face i do i mean as i sit down and i study this before i bring it to you this this isn't just this isn't an academic thing i'm i'm confronted by realities just like you are we all have to face this if you argue if as we go through the sermon on the mount if you find yourself arguing you know what it does it's a reflection on you not on jesus or his words it's a reflection on you it says tremendous amount about you something's wrong my do you recognize our reaction to the sermon on the mount doesn't it it's kind of like has been said before you know you get somebody and they begin to critique rembrandt paintings but you see what your opinion of that painting is says a whole lot more about you than it says about the painting because the painting's already been declared to be a work of art now whether it is or not i mean maybe that says something about me maybe i'm just know some of that rembrandt stuff is kind of peculiar but listen with this there's no peculiar i mean jesus was peculiar but never in a wrong way very singular so poor in spirit that's what's on the table here of course the question is this what is it well i'll tell you this it's not what the jews expected you know what the jews expected you can tell what the jews expected by the way john the baptist starts his ministry and you remember the jews came out and he said don't say to yourselves what [Music] what did he say yes don't say well we're children of abraham because you see that was where their confidence was abraham abraham's our father we're in the lineage we've got the proper family we've got the proper heritage here and right from the beginning he said no don't you don't want to say that jesus does not see what g what what the average jew would have expected and listen even his disciples his disciples were just as deceived about this as anybody you can tell by the expectation they kept asking is the kingdom knows the kingdom now you know they didn't understand either what the jews would have expected is for christ to sit down and begin teaching and say blessed are those who are descendants of abraham blessed are you who are of the house of israel blessed are you who can identify with david and with with abraham and isaac jacob blessed are you if you've got the proper lineage and the blood flows through your veins that also flowed through their veins and i've come just like david of old i've come to subdue the enemies of god i'm going to take up the sword and we're going to put down the the romans just like the amalekites were put down by david we're gonna we're gonna put down the enemies of god see that's what they expected and you know this this is the true david and you know if they're thinking they recognized well in david's day david went out david and joab and commander of their army and the military they went out see they imagined this whole thing was going to be political it was going to be military and you can understand why they would have thought that they thought somebody was going to come in and basically free up the kingdom again just like it was in the day of david days davidic days solomon's days that basically we were going to we were going to be the empire upon the face of the earth that was once again going to have preeminence and we were going to have one sit on the throne and there were all these glorious promises see that's what can you imagine see you'd have to put it in the context to sit down and it's like okay this guy's saying he's the messiah let's hear what he's got to say and the very first thing out of his mouth as far as matthew's account i mean aside from you know interaction with the devil and but when he goes to teaching first words blessed are the poor in spirit i mean we know it because we've heard it and we've read it so we're not overly rolled over bowled over shocked by it but this is this is just not what they expected this this this they i mean you basically had this nationalistic jewish expectation about the kingdom the jews had a very materialistic outward focus on what all this meant and jesus just comes along he dashes the whole thing to pieces listen to what this is blessed are the poor in spirit see the jews were looking at rome they were looking at these enemies and jesus said take your eyeballs and look at yourself see this is a self attitude this is that's basically what this how do you see yourself this is where it all begins poor in spirit now here's the thing recognize what's happening here do you recognize that somebody that is poor in spirit they have come to recognize a fact about themselves do you see that poor in spirit it's a realization they have come to this consciousness it it has to do with the with the thinking it always does because that's where repentance takes place and repentance is a change of mind and you see where the change this this is the deepest possible change of mind that happens in a man or a woman suddenly there's a consciousness that in the sight of god i'm nothing it's this person that comes face to face with god and becomes aware of his utter nothingness it's looking in the mirror so you've got the mirror there and you look in it and suddenly you see there was always this perception that there was at least some beauty there there was something attractive there was something that god might find acceptable but suddenly there's this realization you look i'm covered with sores from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet that's i have nothing nothing my own but sin and what a person in that position recognizes i mean it's it's kind of like the lame in the days of jesus walk the earth i mean you can almost imagine this when when ruby and i stayed in london four years ago we stayed right there at cripplegate and i began to think about the cripplegate in the day it was just like in jesus day they brought all the cripples and they laid them there like by the pool of bethesda can you imagine you're laying there you're impotent you're covered with sores and the per this is the person that recognizes that's exactly where i am and they recognize that there's a door between them and god but you know what that door is suddenly all it is is mercy you see it puts a person in a position where they recognize they just want to cry mercy because they recognize that you know what they recognize they recognize they deserve hell they recognize they deserve damnation they recognize that they they are filthy rags it's the person that comes to the place where they just recognize all the excellence i thought there it is all it's spent my riches that all that i had to offer all that i had to pay with it's utterly gone and they look up and they say famine is upon me they recognize the bank account's empty it's not only empty it's in the red and deeply so i owe 10 billion pounds and i don't have anything to pay with i don't even i don't even have a penny to start with and i mean this is the reality it's a reality that mankind just does not grasp he does not see he does not recognize do you recognize among almost the eight billion people upon the face of the earth that in and of themselves as they are by nature as they are in adam they don't have a single penny among the lot of them to be able to pay god with not a penny of worth or merit in any of us and you recognize in all the masses of mankind you have a few that become aware of this fact that's the issue the world doesn't know it yet the fact is that this truth does see jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit there are some among all the masses of mankind you have a few that suddenly their own self-assessment lines up with truth and you know what it is that fact when that fact breaks in upon a person's brain it strips us it's painful it's humiliating it's the deepest form of repentance as i've said before why because it changes a man's mind about everything it changes a woman's mind about everything because basically the way mankind walks through this life is he views death he views you see god eternity is written upon our hearts man has to suppress what what is known in his own soul about god romans 1 says there's no true atheist and the reality is that when mankind basically thinks about standing before god i've actually talked to some people before on the streets that said well when i die i'm going to tell god you see that's that's how man is because even if you're not so bold and brash to say it like that even when you talk to the person who says well i've never killed anybody see they're saying the same thing well i've got at least that in my life you see poor in spirit there's no compartment where i can say well at least i'm okay there the poor in spirit have come to recognize nothing in my hands i bring we sang it simply to thy cross i cling there's nothing there wretched mankind that we are we don't have anything to pay with but we but mankind isn't disturbed by that because mankind doesn't see it because in his pride mankind is blind to it so he doesn't recognize it you do recognize what's happening here poor in spirit is different from the fact that we are poor in spirit you see all the world is in a spiritual poverty being poor in spirit means you've come to recognize it and i'll tell you this obviously it's something that only god can open our eyes to and here's the reality because the moment your eyes have been opened to it jesus comes along and says no matter how wretched you may now feel about yourself jesus says yours is the kingdom no exceptions i mean that's the reality this person this this is a person that is going to recognize and confess their sinfulness and you remember the difference you remember how it was with the pharisee and the tax collector see the tax collector obviously was poor in spirit why because he stood far off he'd not dare raise his eyes to heaven he stood with his head down god be merciful to me the sinner see he saw it all and and he was appealing to mercy because that's what happens when your eyes get open to the true condition that you're in you recognize i don't have any claims on god except mercy that's it is there mercy for me is there mercy for me because you see yourself your vile you're this thing you're you deserve to be cast away there's nothing in you that that can be offered and and you you recognize that those sores and that ugliness it's not just that i'm in this condition it's my fault i'm blameworthy i'm guilty i did this i'm the rebel i it's this disgrace is mine i brought myself to this honor and mankind is unaware now see you have to come back to this this this is such it's it's such the critical matter of thinking about this it is a person who has come face to face with a fact the blessed one of our text has discovered a fact that is but little known the masses of mankind are just utterly ignorant and all you have to do is look around last time we were here we we were involved with the evangelism of this church go out on the streets either city center or middleton i cannot tell you how many times we offered tracts to people it happened all the time what did the people respond with i'm good i'm okay do you know something if it broke in upon them what they truly were in the sight of god they would not have slept that night they would have taken the track they would have been stopped in their tracks or even more they would have fallen on their face on the ground because that's exactly what's going to happen on judgment day as i'll tell you what happens on judgment day suddenly it's all peeled away men are naked in the sight of god and they suddenly see what they are by seeing who he is because that's what always happened you remember what happened to isaiah when he stood in the presence of god there in isaiah 6. suddenly he was aware of who he was on judgment day that is going to be the terror of it men suddenly who had very boastful mouths here are suddenly going to be silent they are going to see themselves for who they are before this infinitely holy christ who sits on this throne in light of judgment day they i mean that's what happened but see that's what happens in this world when suddenly it breaks in upon the sinner who and what they are the world out there so far from realizing they're destitute you know what the you know what the world's like they high esteem they they're like the pharisee what did the pharisee do thank god that they weren't like other people and you know that's that's how people in this world they can always find somebody that they believe that they're better than somebody you know when i'm not as bad as so and so we were we were having some conversation about well i can tell you that this this happens in various times in various families i was the black sheep of my family but you know what when god saved me the family wasn't happy the family seemed disgusted do you know what happens when the black sheep in a family gets saved it suddenly causes everybody else to have to look at themselves and see when that person was the black sheep guess what everybody else was always better and that makes people feel good that makes that that builds confidence they got the you know look i'm better than him and as soon as we can say that we think well certainly we're okay with it certainly i've never done anything that would demand hell is you see when that person gets saved suddenly people don't like it i found people like me better as a black sheep than like me as a christian and suddenly it opens their eyes to some reality they begin to recognize wow that's never happened to me or wow now all of a sudden they don't measure up and they don't like that the reality is that we're always trying to produce this affirmation within us have you ever have you ever noticed this is not by accident have you ever noticed like disney movies have you ever noticed this message or you just trust yourself you trust your own heart that message is prominent today that is right out of the pit because jesus christ as he wants to tell us about his kingdom he starts right at this place blessed are the poor in spirit and the message it's subtle not so subtle it's coming to our children self-esteem you know they're always trying to even this this occult even even the magic aspect look for some power within you look for some ability within you they're always looking inside trying to find that good trying to find that power trying to find something self-esteem and and self-exaltation it's self-attainment it's always there believe in yourself that idea just controls the world just express yours believe in yourself you ever heard that i mean that's how the world talks that just controls everything but whatever the truth as to our true condition is known be certain of this god did that in the same way in the same way that jesus could say simon peter flesh and blood did not reveal that to you simon son of jonah my father revealed that to you so it's the same way the god you know that the god who created out of nothing same god who has to show us we're nothing nobody comes to this perception of themselves this attitude about self naturally it has to be produced by the almighty that same god it's it's altogether true he gives life but you know what supernaturally he's got to slay us and that's we've often heard you've got to get people lost before you'll ever get them saved that's that is all together true jesus said who needs a doctor it's only the sick man but you know what we are way too healthy in adam adam has a very healthy race the biggest problem in getting people saved is not their sin it's their good wow brethren there's no question about that i see it in my own family i can talk to them they they can acknowledge to some degree they're not perfect they've done sin in their life but they will not come to christ you see people don't really see the value of the doctor and so tell they see all the sores and they see the disease but pride is so blinding it shuts a man's eyes what we need is we need omnipotence to lay bear in our own brains what we truly are and i'll tell you a vision of who we really are is like i say it can be very painful but there's nothing that's so healthy our imaginary goodness it is so hard to conquer no thank you i'm good that's that's a lie you see you see what happens jesus says i came to bear witness to the truth let that sink in do you recognize what happens when a sinner sees they are nothing and they don't have a penny to pay with and they deserve hell do you know what just happened as horrible as i mean it lays the person open it's bitter water to drink i mean you drink a cup of this is gonna cause me to see who i really am my true condition before god i drink it i look in the mirror and i'm this hideous deformed diseased full of sores covered with dung and you say that's that's uh that's horrible that's bitter water to drink but do you realize what just happened suddenly for the first time the person is dealing with truth you see it's the first truth which will lead us to many others but that's the first truth and that's exactly what jesus said you got to be sick before you come to the doctor now you you see you may be sick but you don't go to the doctor until you realize you're sick then you go to the doctor you see that truth will open the door for all the other truths to follow it's a hard truth but you know what if that's all the further you are i'm wretched i'm but jesus says yours is the kingdom it's just it's a phenomenal thing blessed is that poor cast down one who knows his condition feels desperate destitution in all of it i mean you look at the world oh how healthy they all are i'm good don't need that yeah i'm gonna die not too long but probably not gonna be today and i don't i don't need that i'll tell you this he who loves his own soul is never going to despise knowing the worst about yourself that is the absolute healthiest place you can be in coming to a true self-assessment a true self-knowledge bitter water bitter water but oh how healthy it is for you to know the worst of your situation god help us to know the worst of our situation staying blind staying in our pride that's that's to be in the category of the curse and and you know one of the things that i do find interesting is think about what the law is meant to do have you ever read like in romans 3 romans 5 romans 7 there's various places galatians it tells us why the law was given 1st timothy chapter 1. why is the law given who's it for exactly what's it meant to do romans 7 to show them the sinful do you see the first gospel blessing picks up right where the law leaves us when it's done its best that's what that's what the law is for it's supposed to bring us right here because we look at the law you know what you know what man does with it he approaches the law with health i mean he was a little kid mom what do i have to do to get to heaven i remember asking my mom that she was in there at the ironing board in my bedroom i said mom what do you have to do she said keep the ten commandments that's a good catholic answer right so you know off to the bible i went found the ten commandments must have been in the index because i don't know how else i would have found it there it is exodus 20. i read through them had i kept any of them i mean as i went through for one well i thought i kept those maybe i broke these and what was my attitude well i just have to do better i have to work oh how healthy we are right well i can do this i just have to i have to work on this now listen think about this beatitude blessed are the poor in spirit it's the first of the beatitudes it's the first in the matter of christian experience honestly now listen you recognize this is where truth starts this is where the christian experience starts as i said before we all have to face the sermon on the mount because this is the starting point this is where christianity starts and see everything flows from here all the other beatitudes follow this because it's in this soil listen blessed are they who mourn but who's going to mourn until they see what they truly are blessed are the meek but i'll tell you what nobody is meek towards other men until they have once have been reduced to nothing and see what they really are you'll be meek towards other men when you recognize you're nothing blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness but you know what as long as you think you've got your own righteousness you don't anger in thirds you see it's the soil from which all the others grow and oh by the way i am going to remind you of this first beatitude until you probably say why does he keep saying that i'm going to keep saying it all the way through the sermon on the mount because it is essential do you realize when god says that unless you forgive others you will not be forgiven that's in the sermon on the mount when he says unless you tear out that eyeball of lust you'll be thrown into hell when he says judge not lest you be judged when he says if you hate others you're in danger of hell he says be perfect as your father is perfect you see why we don't make this into a method of salvation because you always have to go back to the first beatitude you see the sermon on the mount flows out of this not just the other beatitudes the whole sermon do you recognize what jesus has just done he said blessed are those who recognize they're nothing i want you to be perfect i want you to be pure i want you to put away lust and put away hate and put away all this do you you can kind of feel what jesus is doing in all of this is he's basically describing the very kind of person who is capable of attaining to these things why because you know what happens when a person recognizes they're empty they look to the lord to fill them that's what happens when people are broken and destitute and bankrupt when they see that they are miserable and wretched and blind and naked and poor what does a beggar do he opens his mouth and he begs it's it's like jesus sets up a standard in the sermon on the mount this is standard for beggars because what the beggar does is he goes to the lord as a pauper and he says lord i'm empty i can't do this i'm a failure i'm miserable lord you know in myself i i'm gonna fall flat on my face and you're telling me to live a life that just seems way beyond what i've ever been capable of lord i don't have the ability to do this and see this person it says gets filled this person gets help this person has shown mercy this person is endowed with grace you see when a person's in this position they're constantly looking to christ they're not the people who i'm gonna pull myself up by my own bootstraps okay jesus says lap the head off this sin yeah boy i'm i got my act together i'm gonna go do no you see what happens is you we gotta go back to the first be attitude every single time because if you go back there what you recognize is i'm bankrupt and so where are the eyes of the bankrupt well they're constantly on christ they open their mouth to him they're like blind bartimaeus blind bartimaeus he recognized i'm blind i can't make myself see and he cried out and he cried out and he cried out and gave jesus no rest until he got his sight well it's going to be the same as we go through the sermon as we as we find ourselves moving through this sermon on the mount what's going to happen is if we have a true recognition of who we are and our own spiritual poverty before god then what happens is we're crying out for mercy all the time we're crying out for grace we're crying out for ability we're crying out that the lord would change us and make us what we need to be this first blessing blessed are the poor in spirit the first one it's it's really unlike the others you see it's an absence rather than a presence of some praiseworthy quality as you move down well blessed are the pure in heart blessed are the merciful but you know where it starts is it it this this first one the per this man or this woman is distinguished not for some virtue that they have it's rather just the opposite the chief characteristic is this person is aware of his own sad deficiencies that's where we start it's intentional undoubtedly the lord put this one first because absolutely on purpose in order that the grace that he manifests will all the more be seen as grace and see this you just have to come back can you imagine the jew i mean they're coming in here and they're thinking yeah the davidic kingdom is going to be set up in rome yeah they're going to be shown a thing or two and you come in there and this guy is claiming to be the messiah and oh boy the kingdom is at hand and you sit down and you're listening blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven it's jesus doesn't first put purity he first puts poverty he doesn't first put you know blessed are the merciful he first puts blessed are those who recognize they need mercy and that's where it is it's brethren i cannot emphasize to you enough we all have to come face to face with this every one of us this is life and death this is the kingdom or not the kingdom this is in this is out poor in spirit it's not doesn't say poor in money it's it's a spiritual reality this teaches us that we need to mind above every other thing spiritual realities it's it's a matter that concerns us at the inside it we cannot be satisfied with external religion none of that christianity is no just mere form of godliness merely just the letter of truth it's not that brethren we require the secret meaning of all of it what i mean is this we require the spirit of god to do something in here where it's not seen to others where there's some kind of revelation we need that reality it doesn't work to come and play church it doesn't work to come in and and sing hymns and not have the reality on the spiritual level blessed are the poor in spirit this doesn't have to do with material possessions it doesn't have to do with plain religion plain christianity it has to do with something that's happened on the inside god has done something omnipotent supernatural we need god to bring this truth into our innermost soul he's got to teach us this is where truth starts everything short of this blessing is to come short i mean it's just to come short if you don't start here you've you come short all together and if the only perception up till now if the only perception that you've been given is simply this one this painful discovery that you're just a putrifying mass of sores but still jesus pronounces his blessing upon you and blessed you are and blessed you will be it's a good place to be it's a paradox is it not i mean they're the ones that get heaven really this massive mess these people i mean when everybody else has it together and everybody else is so good and everybody else is so prominent everybody says stuck on their self-esteem and high in this world this poor pathetic group of people these people that have this attitude about themselves that are devastated and listen but i'll tell you this theirs is the kingdom and you can't find a greater promise given to abraham or isaac or jacob or david or any of them any of the prophets any of the martyrs any of the apostles i mean if you're that poor little one that's seeing yourself it doesn't matter how obscure you are how backwards where you come from jesus says you can be sure of this you are partaker of the greatest imaginable promise ever given to men yeah wow poor in spirit they're the ones lifted from the dung hill and where are they put i mean you think about the world who do they like who who are the heroes in the movies you know who they are they're the ones that got their act together they're the ones that get revenge they're the i mean we know the self-esteem they're the athletes in the world they're the political ones you know who are the ones that are worshipped who are the ones that i mean it's you're in that you're in a land of kings and queens prime ministers we've got our presidents you know people and yet you know what the reality is you know who the true kings and queens are in this world this motley crew that we're talking about and the day is going to come when the googles and the face books and all of this is going to be burned up and you know who's going to rise up out of the ashes and show to be the true kings and queens and to sit on the throne it's this group blessed are the poor in spirit that's it [Music] these are the folks the world they worship the ambitious the sports heroes we all we know how it is the real kings and queens in this world are one day going to be recognized and they don't come from washington they don't come from london they come out of groups like this and this is one of the reasons that that so many of us we keep going because we know it's kind of like i mean brethren i trust that there are any number of you in here you basically can say what peter said jesus said you want to go away too you want to go away you want to go away there's the door you know jesus did speak like that boy it's kind of like can you imagine being the disciples um these guys are walking out over here and he turns to them and he says they're not going anywhere he says you guys want to go too it's like what are you picking on us for they're the ones leaving but that's how jesus was you guys want to go too and there's there's impetuous peter again but did he not speak the truth [Music] lord where are we going to go you see if you've been once brought to this place bunyan very artfully wrote this into pilgrim's progress [Music] you remember when christian was quizzed about what happened to pliable where'd he go and christian said if he would have had this load on his back like i have he wouldn't have gone back you see this this is where we're at lord where are we gonna go i mean you've shown us lord we're nothing without you and we deserve hell lord you've shown us we're bankrupt we're wretched we're poor we're pitiable we're blind we're naked but we don't have anything where are we going to go you have the words of eternal life god helping me i'm not going anywhere because i know what i am in and of myself i desperately need him that's what happens i'll tell you this only the poor in spirit have any evidence in their life that they are possessors of heaven none others poor in spirit those words sound like they describe people that are owners of nothing and yet they're owners of everything this this is the great paradox blessed are the poor in spirit it's like we wear the rags of poverty but when you pull those rags back there's gold underneath that's the reality so i'm just going to end with this even though jesus does not go here i know that if i'm preaching this somebody sits there and says what you just described i have not felt i mean i can know theoretically i can know academically i know in theory the truth that you're saying i can read it off the page of my bible too but if i'm going to be honest [Music] i guess i've never been brought to feel that i'm empty i've never been brought to feel my need i've never been brought to feel my sickness like you're talking about i can imagine somebody whether it's in this room or wherever my voice may go through the technology somebody's going to wonder so if jesus is just basically saying what's true i haven't experienced this what i'm just on the outside and that's it is that all there is i might as well eat and drink for tomorrow i die that person i want to address how does somebody become poor in spirit well obviously the last thing you would ever do is try to make yourself poor in spirit because that's just absolutely to undo what being poor in spirit is it's absolutely the opposite for you to think that you could make yourself that way is to be the opposite of that the person that's poor in spirit recognizes their destitute and they can't do anything to help themselves so the last thing you want to do is try to make yourself poor in spirit by some machinations of your own [Music] so here he is stating this fact where do we go where do we go is it all just hopeless how does somebody become poor in spirit if they're not well the first thing is this don't look at yourself i mean yeah you can look at yourself to see the sores but don't look to yourself to make this happen listen what you want to do is this think and you want your thinking to be controlled by scripture so if if you have any hope that you who are not poor in spirit would become poor in spirit you can't think that you'll ever arrive there without washing your minds in scripture what you want to see is this you want to look at god look at his holiness look at how he kills sinners look at how he killed everybody but eight souls look at how even righteous men tremble before him and they fall as putty at his feet look at that look at who the goddess scripture is look at his greatness read job look at at his magnificence try spend time there go there asking the lord to show you who he is but listen it's it's kind of like i mean i know this is this is only an illustration it's a bad one at that but you recognize what i'm saying here you all like your football here you all like your manchester teams i see a lot of kids i'm living across from a school i see those little guys they can really kick that ball hard but you know one of you men if you got around like para's boys and you start kicking the ball well you can probably feel like i can kick farther than they can i can kick harder than they can i can maybe even kick more accurately than they can well yeah when you're around little boys if you're if you're older you you can feel pretty good about yourself you can feel pretty superior you can yeah but go out on the field one of your manchester teams and try to dribble the ball around out there try to try to kick there compare you see now all of a sudden you feel pretty little you feel pretty small that's what going to scripture and finding god's requirements finding god's law you see that's what it's meant to do it's supposed to strip us it's for sinners why because it causes us to see i'm a failure it causes us to see the sinfulness of sin it causes us to see that we fall short and look at christ because i'll tell you what you find in christ is you find perfection the way you've got to be if you're ever going to stand before god because the wage of sin is death the soul that sinneth that shall die jesus is the only one that perfectly walked that you just look at his life you look at how he even as we talked about on friday look at how he interacted with women men that ought to devastate you on the spot ladies i mean you seriously you compare yourself to christ to the love that he had the purity that he had the holiness that he had and we just we fail we miserably fail but i'll tell you this the spirit of god is in the business of working on sinners in a way that glorifies christ not glorifies you you see what you want is all you're boasting to come to an end where you can't even say well at least there's this one place in my life no no what we want is we want to see into scripture i'll tell you this think on judgment day you just think on what the god of scripture really requires when you stand there on judgment day see think on christ think on god think on their holiness think on the cross why do you think god had to pour out his wrath on his son on that cross because man's good what does that tell you about your sin what does it tell you about sin at all that god would crush his own son pour his soul out like water upon that gibbet upon that that the tree as scripture calls it why my god my god why have you forsaken me you see we want to we you want to think there and if you say no i won't i won't do that then the kingdom is not yours and it never will be and you will perish but i i know this that if there's anything to make us nothing it's to look into the holiness of god if there's anything to make us feel like isaiah did that i'm a man of unclean it's just to gaze at the god of scripture it's just and you have to be thinking are you pure like he's this is just a mechanical reading of scripture do you remember what happened to peter remember when he fell down and he said lord depart from me why i'm a sinful man where'd that come from i'll tell you where it came from it came from just being in the presence of christ and watching him and seeing him hearing him beholding what he did beholding who he was and suddenly peter is struck by who he is just like just like with isaiah you want to be struck with who you are get in the presence of god go where he is and i'll tell you where god works he works in the midst of his scripture if you're not poor in spirit that's where you want to go and you want to look jesus expected this jesus reproved those who saw his mighty works and didn't repent and the repentance he's looking for is people to change their mind about their own goodness and about their desperate need of him and see how did it come it came in the face of his miracles he said you ought to look at his miracles and something ought to resonate within you that i need this christ i need him don't get obsessed with how much you feel your poverty that's not it no one gets obsessed with how much they thirst before they drink i mean people won't get obsessed with that if you have any desire drink the spear and the bride say come let him who hears come that him who thirsts come whoever desires let him take the water of life freely how much do you have to desire just enough to take the glass of water it doesn't matter if it's great or small how much do you need to see your desperate condition it doesn't say it doesn't matter as long as you see your need of christ and you go to him that's sufficient nothing in my hands i bring simply to thy cross i cling so that this is the starting point the first beatitude blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven father i pray that you'd add your blessing to that which was said today in christ's name i pray amen

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 9,454

Rating: 4.9537573 out of 5

Keywords: sermon, mount, Tim Conway, humility, poor, spirit

Id: 9DcK_AMYHWs

Length: 67min 0sec (4020 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2021