Today we continue our study in the life-giving words of our Lord Jesus. And I shall expound in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 3. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 3. Where the Lord Jesus says, as he begins the Sermon on the Mount, the first words from the Sermon on the Mount, which he addressed to his disciples in the hearing and the presence of a great multitude of people, he opened up his message with these words, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Now a little before this, he preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, in Luke chapter 4 and verse 18, quoting the words of Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1, and saying very much the same thing. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." The good news, the gospel, and gospel simply means good news, is to be preached to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, to proclaim the year of Jubilee, proclaim the release of all debts, that's what happened in the year of Jubilee, the recovery of freedom for all slaves.
The year of Jubilee in Israel took place once in every 70 years. The year, the acceptable year, a wonderful year, a year when once in a lifetime, once in 70 years it comes by, the year of Jubilee, a year of rejoicing, in which if anyone owed any debts to any person, all debts were remitted, you were free automatically of all debts. So the poor, who were under oppression of these debts, were immediately set free. Those who could not pay their debts, and had to sell themselves into slavery, and become slaves. All slaves were released on that year.
And this year of Jubilee symbolizes the coming of the kingdom of God. When the poor will be set free, the captives are set free, the slaves are set free, and it is a time of healing, the healing of wounds, recovery of sight to the blind, and liberty to the oppressed. And so, the year of Jubilee is particularly precious, of course, to who? To the poor. The rich have no debts, and they are not in danger of becoming slaves. So the rich do not find the year of Jubilee very desirable, because they will have to set their slaves free. And they will have to let those who owe them money, they will have to let them go, by the law of Israel. So it is not a year of Jubilee, a year of rejoicing for the rich, but it is a year of rejoicing for the poor. It is good news, good news to the poor. And that is what the kingdom is. And so, in that light, we begin to understand what the Lord Jesus came to do. He said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach the gospel to the poor.
Now what this means is precisely what we need to study. What this means in the spiritual area is what we need to study. Now of course, it tells us that having read this out in Nazareth, his hometown, he closed the book, in verse 20, and gave it back to the attendant, because he read this book in the synagogue, that is, he read the Bible in the synagogue, as was the practice in those days. And then he said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." You have heard this scripture, Isaiah 61, verse 1 and following, fulfilled in your hearing. You are witnesses of its fulfillment. These messianic words, relating to the promise of the coming king, who would proclaim the year of Jubilee, in fact, the year of Jubilee was not practiced in Israel anymore, for a very, very long time, was now to be fulfilled in the Messiah.
But his own people did not accept him, the Nazarites did not accept him. And so, there is another passage of teaching, in which the Lord Jesus says, "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and among his own people." The meaning of what this is, was fully expounded in my Christmas message on being spiritually minded. You see, the carnally minded looks at Jesus, looks at people, purely from the human point of view. "How can this carpenter be the Messiah? We know him from his childhood." They are unable to be free from human thinking. They cannot think that God, manifest in the flesh, can come into the world as a human being, as a carpenter. It seems impossible to overcome this mental hindrance to the carnal mind.
The carnal man, the natural man, reduces everything to his own level. He cannot think spiritually. "Since that's somebody I know, how can he be the Son of God?" Well, what if the person you know is the Son of God? How do you know he isn't? It is very difficult in the lifetime of a prophet to evaluate the stature, the spiritual stature, of a prophet. This so often happens. A great artist is never appreciated in his lifetime. The paintings of Van Gogh, or the paintings of these great painters, were often never appreciated. They were never appreciated in their lifetime. Not even Beethoven, Liszt, and all these great musicians were much appreciated in their lifetime. But today, oh, beautiful from Liszt, yes, to another generation, who can be freed from these human associations. They are able to evaluate the true quality of these men.
The great prophets of Israel were not honored in their generation. Today, we recognize that they are prophets of God. But in their generation, they were not honored. Jeremiah, more than once, was accused of being a traitor, thrown into a pit, where he nearly died in the pit, if he were not rescued in the last moment. He was dragged away by a bunch of people into Egypt, where he didn't want to go. He was manhandled and abused. You see, the prophets of Israel, one after the other, they were abused in their day. When Micaiah prophesied to Ahab that he would die, he was slapped by some other so-called prophets. He was contradicted, one against the whole crowd of prophets. He was the only one who prophesied the truth. All the other prophets prophesied a lie. Yet they all claim to be prophets. So one against so many, who can be right? The majority is surely right. The majority is surely wrong. That is the problem in the spiritual world. It is always the minority that proved to be right as time went on.
But in their generation, they were not appreciated. A prophet, the Lord Jesus said, is not without honor in God's eyes. But in his own time, in his own country, he has no honor. That happened to all the Old Testament prophets. One by one. You know that happened to Amos. It happened to Hosea. It happened to all of them. One by one. They had no glory in their generation. They were ridiculed. They were outcasts. They were hated by the people. So much so that Jeremiah almost despaired that he should continue his ministry at all. Many times, you remember, Jeremiah said, "I will not preach anymore. I have had enough of this people. If they want to perish, let them go and perish. I have said my thesis is finished." Then, you remember how he says, the fire burned in his blood. His love for God, his love for his people, could not be suppressed. He still had to preach and take the consequences, hated as he was by the people of Israel.
Who likes to be told, "If you do not repent, you will perish"? Who likes to be told, "You are sinners, that God is about to wipe clean by means of the fire of destruction"? So it is with all the prophets. And when the Lord Jesus preached, it was no exception. They hated him, especially the leaders, the religious leaders of Israel. They hated him. And they finally nailed him to the cross. The prophet is not without honor. They would not hear.
The only kind of people who will hear, who will rejoice at the year of Jubilee, at the coming of the kingdom, are the poor. And so we need to study. These are the only people who are spiritually open, who will and can become spiritually minded. The rich, they are the ones who have everything to lose. Therefore, they do not welcome the gospel. Unless of course, you will so trim the gospel and so overlay the gospel as to make it acceptable to the rich. The Lord Jesus does nothing of the kind.
And so let us consider then Matthew chapter 5. I shall not preach on this particular passage concerning the words of the Lord Jesus about Elijah, how Elijah did not go to the Israelites, but to the foreigners, to Sidon, and to a woman who was a Gentile. Because the Israelites did not accept so great a prophet as Elijah. They didn't accept Elisha either. This Elijah was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets in terms of spiritual power. But he was rejected. Rejected by his generation. There is no glory in serving the Lord in one's own generation. One is likely to be hounded and persecuted for one's troubles of preaching the truth.
But let us turn to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 3. And the parallel passage to this is Luke chapter 6, verse 20, which reads, "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God." Blessed are the poor. So there is a difference between Luke and Matthew, in that Luke has "blessed are the poor," and Matthew has "blessed are the poor in spirit." And we shall study that also in a moment. There is also the parallel that in Matthew you have "the kingdom of heaven," and in Luke you have "the kingdom of God." These two, of course, are exactly the same thing, as this parallel shows. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven has no difference whatever. It's only a difference in terminology. The Jews, being reluctant to use the word God, they always like to use a circumlocution for God. They like to call God the Majesty, or simply, when they speak of God, they refer to heaven instead. But there is no difference at all in meaning in the term "kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven."
Now, there are three parts in this passage that we need to look at. First, "blessed are"; second, "the poor"; and thirdly, "the kingdom of God." What do these mean? What does it mean to be blessed? What does it mean to be the poor, or poor in spirit? And what is the kingdom of God? Now first, happy. Happy is very easy. We all know what happy means. "Blessed are" — the word blessed simply means happy. Happy is the man. In fact, that is how the Psalms begin. Psalm, the first Psalm, Psalm 1, verse 1, begins with these very words. "Happy is the man." The man, the happy man, what kind of a man?
Well, first thing we need to notice about happy is that throughout the scriptures, happiness is promised to a certain kind of man. "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on the Lord's law he meditates day and night." What kind of a man is happy? The man is happy who does not walk in wickedness, but walks in righteousness. Happy is the man who delights in God and in his law, and thinks about God's word day and night.
You see, happiness, spiritual happiness, applies in the Bible to a certain kind of person. And in fact, this beatitude, this blessedness, applies in the Psalms quite a number of times. And altogether, these words occur 19 times. There are 19 beatitudes in the Psalms, very parallel, very much parallel to the Lord's own beatitudes here. "Blessed is the man." In other words, this kind of man is happy because God imparts to him blessing. He is blessed because he is blessed by God. It is God who will make him happy. God brings joy to a certain kind of person. And if you are that kind of person, you will be happy. You will have God's blessing, which will make you happy. God will give you joy. But first, you have to be that kind of a person. Blessed is the man. And if you want to see the kind of person that God blesses in the Old Testament, you need only take out a concordance and look at the word "blessed" in the Psalms. You will see 19 kinds of blessedness. And if you remove the passages which repeat themselves, you will still have 15 or 16 blessings of different kinds. Or rather, blessings upon different attitudes, but they all amount to the same kind of person. Namely, the righteous, the blessed man, who does not sit in the seat of the wicked.
Now this takes us to the second point then. Who are these people whom God blesses with his joy? Whose blessing brings joy into their lives? Well, the words are, "Blessed are the poor." Now that is the exact reverse of what the world thinks. The world's motto is, "Blessed are the rich." And the Lord Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor." If you go to Hong Kong, the key blessing is "blessed are the rich." When you say "gong hei," it is "fat choy," that is the gong hei. Fuk, fuk is only for those who get rich. What is fuk? Fuk is riches. I mean, it is wealth. It is prosperity. And the Lord Jesus turns everything upside down by saying, "Blessed are the poor." You see, this is the fundamental principle of the kingdom of God. All the values of this world are turned upside down. That is the first principle you need to understand. There is a fundamental change of order, of sense of values.
Now, blessed are the poor. First of all, you've got to know, are you poor or not? Because if you are not poor, I'm sorry, you might as well not bother to listen to the Lord's teaching here because it has nothing to do with you. Because it is "Blessed are the poor." And you say, "I'm not poor." Too bad for you. I mean, there's no point carrying on looking at this passage because you are not going to be included. This is only for the poor. You're not poor? Forget it. It's as simple as that. Who are the poor?
But before we study who the poor are, we have to also know: do you know whether you are poor or whether you are rich? Now, there is a great tragedy that there are some people who are poor and think that they are rich. That is the great tragedy. And this happens also to Christians. Oh yes, it happens very much to Christians, especially in this generation. Let me read to you Revelation chapter 3 and verse 17. Revelation chapter 3 and verse 17. And this applies to the church of Laodicea. Christians indeed. And how many Christians are poor and think they are rich. But because they think they are rich, they have deprived themselves of God's blessing. Because you not only have to be poor, but you have to know that you are poor. Very important. You not only have to be poor, you have got to know that you are poor. Otherwise, you think you are rich, so you do not class yourself among the poor.
Verse 17: "For you say, I am rich, I have prospered." Prospered. That is the thing that happens to us. "And I need nothing." Not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Not knowing. You say, you think you are rich, and you prosper, you need nothing. And you don't know your wretchedness, your poverty. Now there is nothing so wretched as being poor and not knowing that one is poor. As being sick and not knowing that one is sick.
In John chapter 9 verses 40 and 41, the Pharisees say, "Are we blind?" Oh no, we are not blind. And Jesus said to them, "Because you see — because you see you are not blind, when in fact you are blind — therefore your guilt remains with you." To be blind and not know that one is blind, to be poor and not know that one is poor, that is a state of self-delusion that is most pitiable. You know, some people today may think they are healthy when in fact they are sick. You may feel just fine, but right now, perhaps, in some people, a deadly cancer is already present in the body, but you feel fine, you feel fine.
You know, that is what happened to my father. He went to the hospital for a routine medical check-up. He felt fine. No problem with him at all. And the doctor said, "What is this lump you got on your neck?" "Oh," he said, "this lump doesn't hurt, there is no problem to me at all." The doctor said, "Wait a minute, I don't like the look of this lump." But my father said, "I feel fine." "Yes, yes," the doctor said, "you feel fine, but I don't like the look of this lump." Two months, two months later, my father was dead. He was dead in two months. You see, to be sick, and we don't know it. We carry already the seeds of death in our body, and we don't know it. "I feel fine."
Sometimes, it's the sick person who lives longer than the healthy, you know that. My mother was always sick. My mother was always weak. She had this problem, and she had the other problem, and the other problem. And my father was always healthy and strong. He exercised, he boxed, he walked, he ate vitamins, he took care of his health. My father was always healthy, my mother was always sick, swallowing tablets, medicine all the time. But you know who lived longer? My mother. The sick who knew herself to be sick, she lived longer. Strange. Many times, I think about it in the scriptures. The race is not to the swift, nor is the battle to the strong.
Nothing is so sad. Of course, in my father's case, there was no way he could know that he was dying, that cancer was already in his body. There's no way that you and I can know it. But spiritually, we can know it. Because the Spirit of God is here to point out to us the fatal disease that is in our soul. So, do you know whether you're poor or not? Maybe you feel that you're not poor. And because you don't feel you're poor, you feel these words of Jesus really have no application to you. Blessed are the poor. See, I'm not poor, so you might as well turn away. Who has to listen to this? Who needs the Sermon on the Mount? This is a message for the poor. And seeing that you are rich, or you think you are quite well off, you don't need it.
Well, let's consider then what this poverty is. What does this poor mean? But first, let us consider the question about the relationship of Matthew to Luke. We saw already that Matthew has "poor in spirit," and Luke simply has "poor" with no qualifying phrase at all. It is simply the poor. And we saw that when the Lord Jesus quoted the words in Isaiah 61 verse 1, in Luke chapter 4 verse 18, he quoted these words, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor." There is no qualification of "in spirit." But of course, both are true. The reason is simply this. Luke is — Matthew is correct in the sense that just being financially poor is not a qualification for spiritual blessing. Financial poverty in itself is not a ticket to heaven. There must be more than just physical poverty. There must be a poverty which leads us to also a corresponding poverty in the spiritual realm. In other words, it is blessed to be poor financially if that financial poverty also leads you to a spiritual humility. That's very important.
If you are poor but you try to pretend that you are rich, that you try to bluff your way into impressing people, then you have made nothing but a fool of yourself. And I think those of us who know the situation in Hong Kong know this so often happens. A person lives beyond his means. A person cannot afford a car, but he will buy a car, even when he has to borrow money, just in order to save face. You have to be able to put a face out. And so you live beyond your means, and as a result you get poorer and poorer because you go further and further into debt.
So often as it happens, somebody gets married in Hong Kong, and of course to go and get the bride you have to drive a presentable car, and so you go and find a rich friend who might lend you the car, which is very unlikely, since rich friends are among the most stingy people in the world, and so what you have to do is you have to go and rent a car. And rent, of course, hopefully not some small tiny little car. You've got to rent something for the face. For one day you've got to get a big car, and so even if it kills you, you rent that car, hopefully something like a Rolls Royce, or if you can't manage that, maybe a Mercedes Benz or something like this. And so for one day you pay several hundred dollars to rent this wretched thing so that you can take your wife to church, or wherever you are going to get married, in something presentable. It's all for the face. You don't want anybody to see that you are poor, so you've got to pretend that you are rich.
And so the point here simply is this: being poor is not a ticket to heaven. It is being poor and recognizing this in such a way that it corresponds to an attitude towards God of humility. Now turning it the other way around, riches — and I mean physical riches, material riches — is in the Bible a positive hindrance to one's spiritual life. And here there is no compromising whatsoever. Being poor can be a spiritual blessing if it is translated into the right spiritual attitude. But being rich not only can be, but is, a positive hindrance to one's spiritual life unless one deals with this riches in a properly spiritual way.
This point the Lord Jesus makes very, very clear without any shadow of doubt. Riches is a hindrance. We see that, for example, in his words to the rich young ruler. He did not allow the rich young ruler to become his disciple except on the condition that he sold everything that he had, gave it to the poor, and then follow him. He would not allow the rich young ruler to follow him as is. Now most people today would be willing to tolerate that. "Be nice to say I got a disciple who is a millionaire, you know. My disciple, he's a millionaire. He has five Mercedes Benz. He owns a factory. That's my disciple." The Lord Jesus said no. He said to the rich young ruler, there is only one condition upon which you can be my disciple. And the rich young ruler said, "Yes, yes, what is it? Could I pay a hundred thousand dollars?" The Lord said, "No, much more than that. You sell everything you've got, give it to the poor, and then you come and follow me."
Now if the Lord Jesus could have made it easier for the rich young ruler, you can be sure he would have done so. Don't you think so? He would certainly have done so, because the Scripture tells us he loved the man. He didn't do this out of hatred for the man. He did it out of love for the man. But the reason the Lord Jesus did it is because material riches is a positive hindrance to one's spiritual attitude.
Now today we are in the grip of spiritual trouble because we want to compromise our attitude towards riches. You cannot do it. I would not be preaching faithfully to you today if I tried to cover this over. Riches is a positive hindrance. That is why James says in James chapter 5, "Woe to you rich!" No qualification whatever. "Woe to you rich!" Blessed are the poor. Woe to the rich. The gospel has never been a gospel for the capitalists. Unfortunately for the capitalists, he has never been able to reduce the teaching of Jesus to suit capitalism. It will not do. It will not do. The Lord Jesus has everywhere — if you study the Lord's teaching on possessions, it comes to the same thing. He will not compromise with the rich. He does not tolerate a person who goes about trusting in riches.
Therefore in the Sermon on the Mount it says, "You cannot serve God and mammon." You cannot do that. But the church wants to say, "Yes you can. I'm serving mammon, that is serving money, and I serve God too." The Lord Jesus says you cannot do this. You either live for God, and therefore mammon becomes a slave, money becomes only a slave, only a means to an end, you simply dispose of it, but you cannot serve it.
Now that makes the gospel so difficult for a society such as we have in Canada, a society in which everybody except a few of us has a reasonable bank account. And you say, "Well, what's your qualification to preach? You're wearing a nice tie, white shirt, your jacket doesn't look so bad. I mean, here you are preaching against the rich. You have a car in the car park there, none less than an Oldsmobile. And here you are talking about rich." As God is my witness, let me say one thing to you. Let me say one thing to you: I lack nothing. But let me say that in all the years of preaching the gospel, and I say again as God is my witness, I have never once been able to save up one cent. Not one cent. We don't know this, but I say this: I have not, through all the years of preaching the gospel in this ministry, I have never been able to save one cent. I have not one cent stored up out of the preaching, out of the earnings of my preaching, never. And God is my witness to that. I have no surplus. I have nothing in which I have ever been able to store up, lay aside for a future year from my preaching. I have never made riches out of my preaching.
Many years and spoken at many conferences, and conference fees are high. For a three-day conference as a main speaker you can be paid up to six hundred dollars for three days. In spite of all this, I have not saved up one cent out of my earnings through preaching the gospel. "Store not up riches for yourself on earth." I have not been made rich through preaching the gospel. When I preached in Liverpool, I lived on subsistence income. I lived on purely free-will contributions. I didn't take even a salary. My successor today — I sow and somebody else reaps — my successor in the church in Liverpool receives an income five times, five — one, two, three, four, five — five times what I received when I was in Liverpool. Now even though he receives five times my income, he is only getting more or less, maybe a little bit above average income in England. I received one fifth of his income. I am in no way unhappy about this, because for me, I aim to store up riches in heaven. Now what he does with his income, maybe he also stores it up in heaven. I don't know what he does. That's for him to decide. But I say this because it is important for a preacher not just to be blowing hot air, but that he witnesses by his life of what he preaches. So in case anyone thinks I am preaching here simply from my head and from theological learning, let me say to you, if I cannot live as the Lord said, "Store not up for yourself," of all the preaching that I have done, of all my earnings, I say again as God is my witness, I have stored none of it.
And so here is the point that the Lord is calling us to, to be poor in spirit. And the point I am illustrating is that there is a close association between poverty on the financial level. Poverty does not mean that you have nothing to eat. Poverty simply means that you have no surplus, or you do not keep a surplus, you do not retain a surplus. And so often times we simply have to understand this relationship, because as we see in the Sermon on the Mount, we are called to trust in him to supply our needs. For years I had to put that into practice, with no income and no resources. In my student days I just had to look to God. No income, no resources, nowhere to turn to but God, and he never failed. Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And I am one well acquainted with poverty. Three years in China, I knew what it was to suffer hunger in the stomach, literally.
# The Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit (Part 2)
He never failed me. He said, "Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you." I promise you that if you follow me unconditionally, you seek my kingdom first, I will see to it that you lack nothing. I have lacked nothing. I lack nothing. So good is God. Even though I did not store up anything so as to be able to fall back on it. When I was in England, I had some reserves upon my father's death. But because my income in working for the church was so small, I virtually wiped out all those reserves. I had nothing to store up. And since coming to Canada, I had nothing to store up either. I don't aim to store up anything. And somebody might say, "Well, what about your retirement? I mean, what happens when you retire? You've got no money." My God has his way to supply my needs. Whatever I have, I am but a steward of it. But God forbid that I should get rich from preaching the gospel. God forbid.
So there is a close relationship between material poverty and spiritual poverty. Let us bear this point very carefully in mind. To the rich young ruler, the Lord Jesus would not, under any circumstances, allow him to be a disciple, except he go and sell everything. But today the church turns down the message. After all, we are a church of middle class people today. And therefore we turn down the message. Oh, it's okay. Don't worry about it. Sure, don't worry about it. The result is that you are not poor. And therefore you are not poor in spirit. And therefore, is yours the kingdom of heaven? Is yours the kingdom of heaven?
But now, don't congratulate yourself to say, "Oh well, if you are poor, I am poor too. You know, and most of us are students. I got no money. So, hallelujah. The kingdom of God is mine." It's not so fast. First of all, you might get rich one of these days. You know, when you graduate, yeah. When you graduate, then you carry your degree out, and be something or other. And then you are going to walk around with your bachelor's, or your master's, or your PhD, or whatever. And then you bring in all the money. Oh yes, and one of these days, you are going to be rich. And you say, "Blessed are the poor. I hope he doesn't — the pastor doesn't preach on this again." Whenever I listen to this, very uncomfortable. The gospel is very uncomfortable. Why? Because they force you to trust in God, not in your bank account. Oh, we want to have God, and we want to have mammon. We want to have both. And alas, the Lord will not allow it. And so one of these days, whether you explicitly or implicitly make a choice, you will make a choice. Or you have made your choice.
But if you are right now poor, don't congratulate yourself either. Not so fast. As we have said, being poor is not a ticket to heaven. You have got to be poor in spirit. Oh, you say, "Getting to the kingdom of God is real hard. I thought I was poor, and therefore I'm already qualified, and still I have to be poor in spirit." What does it mean to be poor in spirit?
Well, when we study this word "poor," we discover that poor, in fact, even without the words "in spirit," the word poor in Hebrew implies, itself means, humility. It means, itself, meekness. You can see this, for example, in Proverbs chapter 16, verse 19, where the Hebrew word for poor is literally the word poor, but it means, in that context, very clearly, meekness, humility. In Isaiah chapter 11, verse 4, it says that the Messiah, when he comes, will deliver justice to the poor. There again, the poor means the meek, the humble. Now, this is very curious. If you take the word poor, a word which in Hebrew is "ani," if you take that word poor and look it up in a Hebrew dictionary, you will see the Hebrew dictionary will tell you that the word means poor, lowly, meek, humble. There is no way to separate the meaning when this word is used. And the richness of this really comes forth. I just read Isaiah 61, verse 1. The word poor, again, is the same word, which actually again means meek, or humble, as well as poor.
This comes out most powerfully in Numbers chapter 12, verse 3, where this word is used. Let me read to you Numbers chapter 12 and verse 3, of Moses, that servant of God. Which shows you what kind of a person the Lord Jesus is thinking of when he says, "Blessed are the poor." In Numbers chapter 12, verse 3, here it is the case where Miriam and Aaron — and you know that Miriam is Moses' sister, and Aaron is Moses' elder brother — spoke against Moses. Well, Aaron thought, "I am your older brother, so I am entitled." You see, the same attitude of the flesh, rather than the spirit. Thinking in the same way as these Jews looked at Jesus. "You belong to Nazareth, you are our kinsman here, and you say you are something special, you are the Messiah, the Son of God."
Now, Moses was appointed by God to be the leader, the prophet in Israel, and Miriam and Aaron often had reason to be envious. And they thought that in virtue of their personal association with him, as brother and sister, they had the right to speak against him. Now, that is very wrong. Be careful of speaking against the servant of God. And so, they spoke against Moses, because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. Moses had married somebody who was not of the Israelite stock, but was a Cushite. And they said, "Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? Are you the only prophet around here?" in other words. And the Lord heard it. Be careful what you do, because the Lord hears what you say.
And now, verse 3 says, now Moses did not say, "Hey, hey, come on, you be careful, I am the prophet of God around here." Moses did not answer them one word. He did not debate with them, he did not talk back. Instead, he fell on his face before the Lord. Such was the man. And so, verse 3: "Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all the men that were on the face of the earth." And as a result, he just went before God, and God, as you know, as you read on, brought judgment, in verse 4 onwards, brought sudden judgment. And suddenly, the Lord said to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, "Come out, you three." Oh, wow, they must have had quite a fright there. "Come and meet with me." And the result, of course, is judgment against Aaron and Miriam.
But the point I'm getting at here is this. Verse 3: "Now the man Moses was very poor." Very poor. That is the Hebrew word that is here translated "meek." It is the same word, the same Hebrew word, as in Isaiah 61, verse 1. "The gospel is preached to the poor." There is exactly the same Hebrew word as is here translated "meek." That's very interesting, isn't it? Moses was very poor, more than all the men on the face of the earth. Now here it means, of course, poor in spirit. Poor in spirit, therefore, means meek, humble. That is what I say. If you are financially poor, let that poverty permeate to your spirit. Don't let the world mislead you and think you have to bluff your way into impressing people. Let the God of all mercy look upon you. And he will have regard for your poverty. He will lift you up. You don't have to try and brag your way, or bluff your way, through life. Let God be your strength and your power. Let him lift you up, and set your feet upon the rock.
Now that is the word poor. You see, poor, this Hebrew word poor, can mean literally poor, or poor in spirit. And here, as we see in Numbers, it means, of course, poor in spirit, and not just materially poor. Moses was born in the house of princes. He was born in Pharaoh's household. He was able to inherit the position of a royal prince. But what did he do? Like the rich young — unlike the rich young ruler, he turned his back upon the world. He turned his back upon the position of being a prince in Egypt, and all its glory, as we read in Hebrews chapter 11. He chose rather to suffer affliction, poverty, with the people of God, than to enjoy the riches of Egypt. He was both poor literally, because he chose it, and he was poor in spirit. That is even more important.
In Isaiah chapter 29, verses 18 and 19, we find again the same Hebrew word, poor. In verse 18, it says, in that day, in the day of the Messiah, verse 19: "The meek" — again, the Hebrew word poor, the RSV has translated it "meek," and quite correctly so — "the poor shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord. And the poor among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel." Again, you see, because the gospel will be preached to the poor. Now, what about the poor? In Amos chapter 2, verses 6 and 7, you find that the poor is a synonym for the righteous. The righteous and the poor are mentioned together as synonyms. Because, if you are poor in spirit, that is the essence of righteousness.
The poor are the defenseless. The people who are oppressed by the rich and the powerful. So that they have to look to God as their shield and their defender. If you are rich, you can defend yourself, you don't need God to defend you. But the poor have no one to defend them. They have to put their cause before God. The poor are people without hope in this world. They can't look forward to a rich retirement. They can't look forward to having a speedboat out on the St. Lawrence, or a cottage by the lake. They have no such means. They have no hope as far as this world is concerned. God alone is their hope. They have no sufficiency of themselves. God has to be their sufficiency. They must look to God day by day.
And I know that life. I have lived it many times. Three years in China, I had to live every day: "Lord, I have no food to eat. Please supply my food today. Give me this day my daily bread." Oh yes. Literally, I had to pray this every day. I would get up in the morning, and my stomach would be groaning. And I put my hand in my pocket, and I didn't have one cent there. I would say, "Father, you are my father. Your child has no food to eat. Please supply my food today." And he did. He did. Day by day, through three years.
And the same thing happened when I went to England. As I told you, I was studying there. And many times, I had no means. I didn't know how I was going to pay my school fees. I had no money. But I would say, "Father, if you want me to study, you provide the means." Many a time, I would register for the next term, and I didn't have the 50 pounds to pay for the term's fees. I would just come and say, "Father, if you want me to study, you provide the means. If you don't want me to study, I'm happy to drop this degree. It means nothing to me. What is a degree? It is the Lord that matters." But the Lord did provide my needs. So much so, that when I graduated, my mother said, "I don't understand it. Your God is truly the living God. I don't know how it's done. But really, your God provides all your needs."
You see, I practice these things. I know them to be true. The Lord does not put to shame those who trust in him. This is the reason why, if you say, "Is this man foolish, that he does not store up money? He does not care about his retirement, or how his child is going to go to school? How is she going to study when she grows up?" My God is sufficient for my needs. If you consider that foolishness, blessed foolishness. Blessed foolishness. Because God never fails. He never fails. How blessed it is to be poor, and in that poverty, to know God. A God who never fails. The rich don't know what they are missing. They are the truly poor. They have never experienced what God can do for them.
Have you experienced God's provision? How can you rejoice in God when you don't know what it is for God to be your defender, to be your upholder, your provider, your strength? You know, in these days, I have to trust in God in another way. For my physical strength. You know, God takes us through various stages of training. And now has come to the point where now I must depend upon my physical strength from him, day by day. I am physically now so weak, that many times, I say to Helen, "I don't know how I can survive this training program. I don't know how I can survive it." Many times, I come back, and my head is throbbing. And I am utterly exhausted. And I think, in two days' time, there will be the next training program. I don't know how I am going to survive. I don't know how I am going to see myself through this.
Sometimes, I feel in the morning, I am just so worn out. I just can't — I haven't the strength to get up. But the Lord is going to be my strength. Now I have to depend on him for physical strength. Even for this, literal, physical strength, to see me through. And I hold on to this promise: "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." In other words, God will never give you a job that he doesn't give you the strength, the physical strength, to see you through. And sometimes, in these last days, where through exhaustion, even my whole chest just cramps up. I just have to say, "Lord, I am trusting you to see me through this training program. I don't know how I am going to survive it. But if I have to die at the end of it, at least see me through it until the last day." And that will be to your praise and to your glory. It's so wonderful, that he sees us through.
You know, for me, we used to be physically very strong and very healthy. It's very hard to take, that you have arrived at a stage where physically your strength is so gone, that you must depend on him. So I am poor in every sense, even physically. In health, blessed be God, I am so poor. Poor physically, so that I must depend daily for that strength. To preach his words, to get on with the training team, and the 101 things that remain to be done in ways of looking through manuscripts, of writing letters, and so on and so forth, the visitation.
So, to be poor — the blessedness. "Blessed is the man who is poor." And we find this throughout the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 5, verse 38, following, we find the poverty of the man who does not hit back. Who, when he is slapped, merely in his weakness, turns the other cheek. In humility, turns the other cheek. Oh, that is poverty. I don't fight back. I don't use my Kung Fu, my Judo, my boxing. Yes, I know Judo, I know boxing. And yet the Lord says, "No, I shall be your defense." When they slap you, I, the Lord, will repay. I am poor to the extent that he is my defense. I don't even defend myself anymore. I am no more my own defense minister. My minister of defense has been cancelled from my cabinet. My finance minister is also cancelled. Everything is gone. Only now I am left with a king. He is the king. He is the foreign minister. He is the minister of justice. He is the minister of provisions. Minister of finance. Everything. I have to look to him for everything now.
There you see, unless you can accept this key statement which opens the Sermon on the Mount, you cannot accept anything in the Sermon on the Mount. There is nothing in the Sermon on the Mount that is acceptable to you. Is it? Be honest with yourself. It is distasteful to you. "Turn the other cheek." Come on. "You know what belt I have for my judo? This wretched guy that dares to hit me, I will let him feel what it feels like to get messed up with my type." You know what boxing is like? Do you know what kind of an uppercut I can deliver? Ha ha. You give me one here, and I will show you what an uppercut I have got. What kind of a punch I pack in this fist of mine. The Lord says no. "I will repay. You trust me." Distasteful to the natural man. I can't stand this. Can you? Isn't it wonderful?
And then, in chapter 6, we have that same thing again. "Don't store up treasure," it says in verse 19, "on earth." You say, "I don't store up treasure, how am I going to live when I'm out of a job, when I retire, when I'm sick, how am I going to live?" The Lord says, "Look to me. I will supply your needs. Do you trust me, or you don't trust me? Do you see the birds of the air? I feed them. Do you see the flowers of the field? I clothe them. And how much more will I do that for you? Do you trust me?" You see, the whole thing is faith. The faith to trust God to defend you. The faith to trust God to supply your needs. And what if you are wronged by other people? "Judge not." Leave the judgment to God. You are slandered. You are maligned. You are misrepresented. It's okay. "Judge not." Leave the judgment to him. Oh, the call to discipleship. How high a call.
Let us then notice one thing here. Let us notice it very clearly. What kind of a man is happy? Blessed is the man who believes the event. No, I got it wrong there. Blessed is the man who does a lot of good works to save himself. No, you didn't say that either. Blessed is the man who is poor in spirit. Here is the heart of the teaching of the Lord concerning the whole Christian life, concerning the whole of salvation. You are going to be saved, not because you believe the right doctrines, not because you do a lot of work which is meritorious, so that you can earn your own salvation, but because you are a certain kind of person, namely, poor in spirit.
You see how perfect is the Lord's teaching? It is not what you believe. It is not what you do. It is what you are that counts. Get this thing very clear in your mind. There is the power and the beauty of the Lord's teaching. Do not make the mistake of so many evangelicals today who think they will be saved because they believe the right doctrines, even though they are detestable people who behave disgracefully, who are rude and arrogant, who trust in riches, who boast in riches, who are unsympathetic, critical, without compassion, and they think because they believe all the right doctrines, they will be saved. This is foolishness.
Or there are the other kind of wretched people who think that because I do a lot of good works, I give a lot of money to the poor, I help other people whenever I have time, which is not very often, but when I have time, I help them, and I do this and I do that, and therefore I am a good man and I deserve to be saved. I have earned my own salvation. They think they will save themselves by works. These are also fools. It is not what you believe only or what you say you believe. It is not what you do. It is what you are that matters in the teaching of Christ. Don't make one error or the other. The error of so many evangelicals who think that just believing is going to save. The mistake of so many other people and so many other religions, including some parts of the Catholic Church, and I say some parts because it is not official Catholic doctrine, who think that by good works they will be saved. Equally wrong. The Lord's teaching is: what you are that matters.
Now the question is then: you have to be poor in spirit. Now what kind of a person is poor in spirit? How do we become poor in spirit? The only kind of person who can be poor in spirit becomes so through repentance and through becoming a new creation. The psalmist put this perfectly in Psalm 51. Let me read to you some verses in Psalm 51 that sums it up perfectly. Salvation is taught already in the Old Testament very clearly. Even as the Lord himself quotes the Old Testament. Psalm 51. If you want to become this kind of a person and you ask, "How can I then become poor in spirit?" You have to start with Psalm 51.
"Have mercy on me, O God. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, O God. Wash me thoroughly from my sin, my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." Repentance. You become poor in spirit and recognize your poverty in spirit when you recognize that you are a sinner. And you say, "Have mercy on me, O God. According to your abundant mercy, blot out, I beg of you, my transgression." Repentance. That is repentance. Repentance is well known in the Old Testament. It's not something — a new discovery in the New Testament. The Old Testament saints are gloriously saved too, you know. And they have a lot to teach us about salvation.
The next part is this: to become a new person. "Create in me a clean heart, O God. And put a new and right spirit within me." New creation. "Create a new heart. Put a new spirit within me." Oh yes, the psalmist understood perfectly. You need to repent and you need to let God recreate you and make a new person out of you. The Old Testament saints, I say again, gloriously saved. They knew what it was to be poor in spirit. That is why when you are recreated, you become a new kind of person. So it is not what you believe, what you do, it is what you are by God's power in making you a new person. So this being poor in spirit is simply the means by which God has made us to be a new person. This is the new person that we are talking about. And there is no other way you can inherit the kingdom of God except by becoming a new person.
This is what John chapter 3, verse 5, that well-known verse we all know: a man must first be born of water and of the Spirit before he can enter the kingdom of God. It is the same teaching, simply put in different words. But clearly defined for us that we understand when Bible speaks of faith, what faith means. In John chapter 3, don't go and quote "God so loved the world that whosoever believes in him shall have eternal life" and so on, without knowing what "believes in him" means. Because earlier in John 3, it tells us what "believes in him" means. "Believes in him" means believes in him in such a way that God is able to regenerate you, recreate you, that you are born again of water and of the Spirit. It is not your faith that saves, it is God who saves you through becoming poor in spirit. There is nothing miraculous about faith. It is God who is the author of miracles, who creates a new person.
And so we must close as our time is gone. And we begin to see then, inherit the kingdom, as we see from John chapter 3, is simply to inherit eternal life. There is the kingdom. God will give them the kingdom. That is, God will give them eternal life. But, you do not get this eternal life without having the king. You see, the king is nothing without the kingdom. The kingdom is nothing without the king, rather. If you are going to receive the kingdom, you don't receive a package called the kingdom. You receive the king. That eternal life is in Christ. Outside of Christ, you don't get him. The only way to have eternal life is to receive the king. In receiving the king, you receive life. Life is a consequence; eternal life is a consequence of having Jesus as king in your life.
Now, the rich don't like to have Jesus as king. He might tell you — he might tell you, like the rich young ruler, "Sell all that you have." "I don't want to hear this. I don't want to hear this. I like what the preacher said the other day. Just believe in Jesus. You have eternal life, no conditions, no strings. Sell all that you have? No, no, no. That's only for the rich young ruler. That's not for..." One law for the rich young ruler and another law for me. Hallelujah. God is so good. Don't kid yourself. The same principle that applies to the rich young ruler applies to every one of us. He doesn't stand in some kind of a special category. You think he loved money more than you do and more than I do? How do we kid ourselves? Not at all. There is one law for all persons. There are no two laws for different people. There's one law for the rich young ruler and one law for me? No, no.
It is the poor who accept Jesus as king. And in receiving Jesus as king, you have received the kingdom. The kingdom simply means his government. How can you receive his government without receiving him? But in receiving Jesus as king, the consequence is you have also received life, because he is the king who brings life. Of his government there is no end. He brings eternal life into your soul.
So then, let us close by pondering this question once more. Are you poor? Are you poor in spirit? Do you know that you are poor? Are you open and receptive? Do you have the faith to trust God to supply your spiritual and material needs? Do you have faith to trust God to be your defense when you are oppressed? Do you have faith to trust God to see you through physically and spiritually? Do you receive him as your king? Let us be quiet before God in prayer.