Bible Believing Fundamentalist

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BLESSED ARE

THE POOR IN SPIRIT

In several of the first verses of this chapter, Christ states the distinctive

features of the Christian character, and affirms the blessedness of those

In this discourse I shall show —

I. WHAT IT IS TO BE POOR IN SPIRIT

we understand our own guilt and helplessness, and realize as a practical

fact our own utter emptiness by nature of every thing good, and of any

tendency to that which is good. It is one thing to hold this in theory, and

another thing to be heartily sensible of the humbling fact. Most professing

Christians admit in words that they are in themselves wholly helpless and

destitute, but to know and feel as an abiding practical conviction that this

is their true spiritual condition how few are able!

us to every thing evil — that we understand that the habitudes of our

minds, that our appetites and propensities, that nearly the whole power of

the sensibility continually tends to selfishness.

know people hold in theory that salvation is all grace, and suppose

themselves not to doubt it; and I know too that very many of those same

people do not believe it after all: they do not conceive it so as to realize the

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fact. Ask them — do you expect to be saved by your own works? and

they will say no, to be sure. Are you shut up to the grace of God? Yes.

But to hold it as part of your creed, and to realize it as God’s truth, are

two vastly different things.

way of obtaining help. This too is held in theory, and many suppose

themselves to understand it, who yet do not really apprehend it at all. And

let me ask, who that has come to a realization of this fact has not been

astonished to see how superficially he once held the truth on this point?

Who in such a case has not been shocked to see in how loose and heartless

a manner all the truths respecting the importance of man were held by him

— to see that his belief was mere theory, without ever so much as reaching

the heart at all? To be poor in spirit implies a right sense of the fact that

we are shut up to faith in Christ as the only possible way of obtaining

help in our helpless condition.

working of God’s Holy Spirit, and the sovereign grace of God as

manifested through Christ, to produce this faith. Not that it is not our own

exercise; it is indeed, and from its nature must be, but we must be sensible

that without the Spirit of Christ we shall no more exercise this faith, than

we shall get to heaven by our own works of obedience to law. It is one

thing to hold this as the doctrine of an orthodox creed, and quite another to

feel it in our inmost being.

My own experience speaks strongly here. I was led to contemplate

unbelief as a distinct sin, and its infinite guilt and inexcusableness. The

question came — do you believe God as you believe men? Do you take

His word and trust in His promise as you take the word and trust the

promise of men? The answer was unavoidable — no, I do not. I do not

trust God’s promises as I trust man’s promises. Herein was revealed and

laid open to me my infinite wickedness, that I would not trust in God’s

promises and rest in them, even as firmly as I would trust in the word of

men. I saw it now clearly. I saw the God-dishonoring, damning (for so I

viewed it) the God-dishonoring, damning fact, that while I knew, and

confessed, and saw clearly that God would not and could not lie, after all I

did not believe fully and with all my heart. I would not take the word of

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the Mighty God as I would the word of frail and fallible man. And then,

being led to perceive my absolute unbelief, I felt notwithstanding, that

unless God pleased so to reveal Himself to me, that I could throw my soul

upon Him — so to enlighten my mind and draw it to Himself by laying

open before my soul His goodness and truth as to induce me to cast

myself on Him by faith, I should sink. I felt that unless He would give me

faith in Him, I was as certain to be damned as that I existed. Now this is

what I mean by being sensible that you are shut up to God for faith. But

moreover, we must be willing thus to be shut up to God. We must not

merely see the fact, but be willing to be thus. We must see that we are

condemned and that justly, for not being right; and hopeless, helpless in

ourselves, shut up to the sovereign love of God to work that which is well

pleasing in His sight, and thus shut up to the sovereign grace of God by

our voluntary wickedness.

our utter wickedness, helpless and just condemnation. The mind must

perceive and feel its guilt in such a sense as to be sure that its salvation is

out of the question, except Christ shall substitute His death for ours, a

ransom for our souls; such a sense of our own vileness as to lay hope out

of the question altogether, except through the sacrifice of Christ. O it is

easy to say we are helpless and that Christ is our only hope and

dependence; it is easy to recite for our creed — “I believe that salvation is

through Christ alone and wholly.” But how hard is it to see our vileness

and guilt — our abominable filthiness, our loathsomeness, and our

hopeless condemnation except Christ be applied to our souls in His offices

and relations as Redeemer, Savior, Sanctifier, Teacher and King. How hard

to know this as we know what we see and hear without eyes and ears.

of Him is implied, but a willingness to have it so — a willingness to cleave

to Christ in all His offices and relations, a setting aside self, a self-loathing,

a self renunciation in all respects, a casting away all hope in ourselves, all

dependence upon ourselves, all trust in our own wisdom or righteousness,

or our efforts at sanctification, and every thing else which is our own.

These things are implied in poverty of spirit in the text. In short it is a

correct view of our utterly helpless state, a realizing sense of that fact, and

a disposition of soul corresponding to such views.

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I come now to show —

II. WHY THOSE WHO ARE THUS

POOR IN SPIRIT ARE BLESSED

the kingdom of heaven.” They have already the first elements of the

kingdom of God within them.

might have had it as mere theory after the flesh, but if they have come to

feel and realize their state in its dreadful aggravations, flesh and blood have

not revealed it unto them, but God has uncovered with His own hand the

deep vileness of their souls and undertaken their cure.

salvation. After Christ has provided a feasible method of salvation, so that

God can be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, the greatest

difficulty is to make mankind see their need of Christ. It is a great work to

make men feel themselves hopeless, to humble them, to tear away their

self-dependence and self-righteousness, and the notion of resources in

themselves for any thing good. God is constantly engaged in bringing about

this result. When a man has come to know himself and to renounce himself

in all respects as to dependence and hope, then rely upon it the greatest

difficulty is over come, and the chief discipline endured.

of hope in his own righteousness or efforts after righteousness, and burn in

upon his soul a sense of his real abominable wickedness and hopeless ruin

in himself — O this costs more trouble and patience and loathing of soul,

and anguish of spirit than anything else. How many times must he be

infinitely ashamed of himself — so sunk in the lowest pit of shame, as to

abhor himself with unutterable loathing! How often be compelled in agony

to exclaim — Infinite wretch that I was. How full of pride and of hell I

was, and how little I knew it! To be mortified so many times in order to

empty him of himself; he must weep, and agonize, and grieve, and despair

so often; must undergo a perpetual dying — for it is indeed a perpetual

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dying, while passing through this process of having himself shown to

himself. He sees this sin and that sin, is ashamed here and ashamed there,

is mortified at every turn; he dallies with temptation, breaks his

resolutions, and falls into shameful sins, and is vexed and angry at himself,

and ready as it were to spit in his own face; he stumbles, and plunges, and

flounders and falls, till at last all hope vanishes, and the soul lies down,

weary and worn out by vain struggles, and gives up in despair. All this is

painful enough; but once gone through with, the man begins to understand

himself thoroughly, becomes poor in spirit, glad to renounce all self, part

with his own righteousness, his own wisdom, his self-dependence, because

they are nothing. When he is thus thoroughly crucified the most painful

work is done. If he falls from this, then he must do his first work over; but

let him keep in this state of mind, continue thus poor in spirit, and the

rocks and breakers are well nigh past.

remedy for his disease. He is in an attitude in which Christ is best pleased

to see him. The thing is effected for which Christ has been laboring.

Heretofore Christ has been trying to crown Himself upon the mind, but

self has been a constant hindrance and this Christ has been belaboring with

a continual stroke. Christ would knock and knock, but to use a homely

figure, the mind has been brushing up, and brushing up, and putting things

to rights like an untidy housekeeper, unwilling to admit Him, and trying to

put matters in a little better trim instead of letting Christ in forthwith, and

saying — “Lord, thou seest what filth and rubbish are here.” He is obliged

to knock and keep knocking and to stand without till His head is wet with

dew, and His locks are the drops of the night. The sinner is making

preparations, and must become exceedingly righteous before he comes to

be saved. But when Christ has convinced him of his own utter

helplessness and that the more he tries to wash and cleanse his pollution,

the more polluted he becomes, and that all he can do is only sinking him

deeper into the horrible pit — then, then the soul is ready to receive Christ

in all His offices and relations — to receive a whole Christ as presented in

the gospel.

is. He has learned to reject himself, and that his dependence must be

utterly and forever on another than himself. He has learned how blessed it

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is to be nothing, to know and do nothing of himself, to be universally

dependent upon Christ for every thing — for breath, for grace, for faith,

for every thing; to have Christ his “all and in all.”

fullness in Christ, they do not wish any strength of their own. Their

wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption are in Christ, and

they need and wish for none of their own. Christ is all they need, and they

need nothing in themselves. They have them all in Christ, and they are

willing and glad to have them in Him.

of trials. They neither have nor seek any resort in themselves. They know

in whom their strength lies, and who is their strong tower. They can

depend on Christ for all, and they know He cannot fail them. But let me

say,

perfectly destitute and worthless. They have no reputation to build up,

they have no appetite that must be gratified, no passion that must be

catered for, none of these to contend for or hold on to. They are emptied

out, and every particle of self value is gone entirely. They labor not for

themselves, but for Christ.

proper sense, emptied of dependence upon themselves, then they are rich

in faith. But I hasten to conclude with several

REMARKS

am I strong.” Paul you know had a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan

to buffet him. He was at first very uneasy at it, and he besought the Lord

thrice that it might be removed, but Christ told him His grace should e

sufficient for him. As if He had said, “I shall not remove that thorn. I gave

it to keep you under such a pressure of infirmity that you could never

forget your dependence upon me.” Paul then gloried in his infirmity. He

says he gloried in infirmities and tribulations and persecutions, because

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they emptied him of himself, and made Christ his strength. They made him

know his weakness and his strength. When he was weak in himself, he was

strong in Christ. His trails kept alive a sense of his entire dependence, and

thus prepared him to do all things through Christ who strengthened him.

in a spiritual state without being aware of it. In my intercourse with

Christians, I have often been struck with the sad mistake made in respect

to what is a spiritual frame. Certain high wrought pleasurable emotions are

often regarded as the highest spiritual states; whereas other states, which

can exist only under a high degree of the Spirit’s influence, are nevertheless

not so regarded at all. Is this state, in which a man sees himself all empty

and naught, shut up to God’s goodness, shut up to God to make him as He

shall please, a vessel of wrath or a vessel of mercy — sees how infinitely

reasonable it is for God to deal with him thus; that it is just for God to

consult wholly His own wisdom, and to consult the creature not at all, and

that he lies in the hands of God as clay in the hands of the potter, for God

to mold from the filthy lump a vessel of honor or dishonor as seems good

in His sight; when he feels thus, and lies crucified and dead as to the least

idea of self-dependence — is this a state of weak and low spirituality?

Nay verily. Scarcely can there be a state of higher spiritual exercise than

this. This poverty of spirit, total renunciation of self, is far enough from

being a carnal state of mind.

healthful to be laid in the dust, to be emptied, and stripped, and made

naked and bare; to be laid in the dust and kept there. It is the only state of

mind that is safe. Of a man who is kept in such a state, I have great hopes.

Individuals, when Christ reveals to them the depth, as it were

bottomlessness, of their misery, and gives no such revelation of Himself,

and of His intention to do all for them as to give them a firm hope, feel

greatly disheartened. There is such a sinking away from all expectation in

themselves, that unless Christ gives them an indication of His love, and

opens a medium of communication between Himself and them, a state of

great misgiving and anxious suspense will ensue. The mind comes into a

state in which it does not rebel, it does not murmur or weary itself except

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in this; it does not see at the time, its acceptance with God. It feels that

God would be just in casting it out, and it lies there with the eye fixed on

Christ, and cries, “If God does not take me up, and by His self-moved

goodness sanctify and save me, I am lost to all eternity.” While there is

nothing in the mind upon which it can seize as a present evidence that

Christ is his, this self-renunciation and self-emptying will leave the mind in

a state of despondency. I do not mean of despair. I hardly know how to

express it; the mind is not joyful, nor is it in that agony which is the

accompaniment of clear light and desperate resistance; but it is in

despondency, in a kind of mourning — and perhaps that is what is meant

by the “mourning” in the next verse — “Blessed are they that mourn for

they shall be comforted.” The mind mourns when thus completely

emptied of all self-trust, while yet is has no such hold on Christ as to feel

assured of its interest in Him. It mourns for sin, for its own madness; it

mourns at the thought of being separated from God, it mourns over its lost

condition. It is a state of most perfect mourning. If you have experienced

it, you know well the state to which I refer. If you have experienced what

it is to be driven out of self, and torn away from self, and crucified to self,

before you had faith to lay hold on Christ and feel yourself set upon the

rock; if you have every been emptied of self, having no longer any

expectation of helping yourself, no more than of creating a universe, having

no more thought or intention of trying to save yourself, or of doing any

thing effectual for yourself, than of walking in mid air, or than of stepping

upon the boiling waves, (for if you have been in the state, you no more

thought of helping yourself than of going a journey to Europe across the

Atlantic on foot,) having it well settled in your mind, that you will no

more succeed in doing any thing in your salvation, than you would succeed

in walking from the top of a house into mid air, if you have been thus, and

at the same time the offices and relations of Christ were not so revealed to

you as to enable you to avail yourself of them, then you know the

mourning which I mean. It is any thing but a worldly sorrow, any thing but

an ungodly sorrow. It is a sorrow after a godly sort which worketh life.

And remember — a man needs to be thoroughly emptied of self in order to

come into the state of mourning above described. Most have so much self

reliance, so much complacency in self, and know so little of themselves,

that they cannot have this state. It can be produced in no other way than

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by showing a man his character and nothingness as they really are. But I

remark

great spiritual enlargement. Where you witness great spiritual enlargement,

inquire and you will find that in proportion as it is deep and abiding, the

season of spiritual poverty was thorough and complete. If the sense of

poverty be slight, the enlargement will be so, and the opposite. If the

enlargement be great, the man can tell you what none but spiritual minds

can tell; such experience as “none but he that feels it knows;” and the

things that he will tell you will be any thing but unreasonable. He sees

what common eyes never saw. He has found out what all men ought to

know, but what few have seen. If his enlargement is abiding, he will have a

rich history to give. He may not be communicative, but fish him out, get at

the bottom of his heart, and he will drop his eyes and tell you what he

found in himself, how he found himself out, how he sank, and kept sinking

from one depth to another still lower, till it was like sinking into the

bottomless pit itself. He was driven from the last hold upon himself, the

last link was broken, and he fell into the arms of Christ and was saved.

And O, the salvation! Such a salvation is worth the having! But again,

only way to get Himself before the mind. In no other way than by

revealing to us by bitter experience our own weakness and sin, can He

make us renounce ourselves and cast our all upon Him: and so He takes

this way. And I tell you that no man can have a more important revelation

from God, than this same revelation of self by the Spirit. And no man sees

God in Christ, or apprehends Christ as He is for the soul, till he has seen

himself — till he sees the old man and the necessity of putting on the new

man.

Christ. See a young convert — young converts know little of themselves

or of Christ. They run well for a time, but they must be taught more of

Christ, and this they can learn only by learning more of themselves. Well,

Christ begins the work in a soul. The convert was all joy, but his

countenance falls. Poor child! do not scold him. He is sad; he dares hardly

indulge a hope. What is the matter? He desponds. You encourage him to

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trust in Christ and rejoice in Him. But no, that will not serve the turn, that

does not remove the load. Christ has undertaken a work with him — has

set about revealing him to himself, and the work will cost the poor soul

many prayers, and tears, and groans, and searchings and loathings of heart.

He prayed before for sanctification and he is astonished out of measure.

He receives any thing in the world but sanctification. He prayed for the

Baptism of the Holy Ghost, and he verily expected some beatific sight. He

thought he should see the heavens opened as Stephen did. But instead of

this, what a state! he seems given over to the tender mercies of sin. Every

appetite and lust is clamorous as a fiend; his passions get the mastery; he

frets, and grieves, and vexes himself, and repents and sins again; he is

shocked, ashamed of himself, afraid to look up, is ashamed and

confounded. Poor thing! he prayed to be sanctified, and he expected Christ

would smile right through the darkness, and light up his soul with

unutterable joy. But no! it is all confusion and darkness. He is stumbling,

and sliding, and floundering, and plunging headlong into the mire, till his

own clothes abhor him, and he is brought to cry — “Lord, O Lord, have

mercy on me!” He expected — O what a fairy land! and he finds — what a

desert — barren, dark, full of traps, and gins, and pitfalls; as it were the

very earth conspiring with all things else, to ruin him. Child be not

disheartened; Christ is answering your prayer. Cold professors may

discourage you, but be not discouraged; you may weep and groan, but you

are going through a necessary process. To know Christ, you must know

yourself; to have Christ come in, you must be emptied of yourself. How

will He so this for you? If you would but let go of self — if you would but

believe all that God says of you, and renounce yourself at first and at once,

you might be spared many a fall; but you will not, you will believe only

upon experience, and hence that experience Christ makes sure that you

shall have to the full. And now, mark: whoever expects to be sanctified

without a full and clear and heart-sickening revelation of his own

loathsomeness, without being first shown how much he needs it, is very

much mistaken. Till you have learned that, nothing you can do can avail

aught; you are not prepared to receive Christ as He is offered in the gospel.