Word of Salvation – Vol.47 No.42 – November 2002
Spiritual Bankruptcy
Sermon by Rev A Quak on Matthew 5:3
Scripture Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8; Matthew 19:16-26; Matthew 5:1-12
Suggested Hymns: BoW: 130; 519; Rej 296; 306
Congregation in the Lord Jesus.
Let me share with you a very interesting set of statistics: At the last census, 66% of Australians said they believed in God, and of those only 20% went to church more than once a month.
Two years ago a Christian research group did a random survey of 5000 people. More than 90% of those surveyed believed they would go to heaven.
That’s amazing isn’t it. Less than 20% of Australians actually do something about their faith, yet 90% believe they are good enough to go to heaven. And, if he were alive today, the person of whom we read in Matthew 19:16-22 would consider himself to be in the 90% – he’s good enough to go to heaven.
You can just picture the situation, can’t you. Here comes someone to meet Jesus. He is rich; he has Italian leather shoes and a wardrobe of tailored suits; he has money invested to be comfortable in retirement; he carries an American Express gold card and he uses it frequently as he lives a first class life.
He is young – maybe in his thirties, maybe younger. He pumps away fatigue at the gym. His belly is flat, his eyes are sharp. Energy is his trademark and death is an eternity away.
He is also a man’s man; you don’t make it this far this quick in life if you’re not. He knows what life is about. You got questions – he’s got answers. You got dilemmas – he’s got solutions. He knows where he is going, and he expects to be there tomorrow. He’s got what it takes, hasn’t he? And, to top it all off, he seems to have a pretty good grasp on religion as well. I’ve kept all the commandments, he says. If anyone was going to win the applause of God, this rich young man has got to be a good candidate. And yet he leaves Jesus with sadness in his heart because he knows he hasn’t made the grade.
What went wrong? Why isn’t he blessed? Part of the answer can be found in Matthew 5:3. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Now don’t just focus on the word ‘poor’ and conclude that this young man has too much money and possessions for God’s liking. The amount of possessions you have has nothing to do with whether you will go to heaven or not. The issue is one of attitude. God looks for people who are ‘poor in spirit’.
The prophet Isaiah is that sort of person – one who is poor in spirit. Isaiah was a member of an influential family in Israel and was therefore well educated. Isaiah was quite familiar with the royal court, and he loved the LORD sincerely. Isaiah has every reason to be quite secure in his faith. In chapter 6 of his book, Isaiah recounts a vision in which he witnesses the Lord seated on His throne. He is in the direct presence of his Creator. How does Isaiah respond as the Lord confronts him? “Woe to me. I am ruined! For l am a man of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Think about that picture for a moment. Here is a man of stature, yet also one who knew how unnatural it was for a mere man to be in the presence of a holy God. Isaiah knew the effect of sin and how much his imperfections stood out against the Father’s pure perfection. Isaiah had all these thoughts in mind as he stands in the presence of God, and he reacts accordingly. His reaction is the essence of what it is to be ‘poor in spirit’ – it causes us to face head-on the fact that we stand with empty hands before God.
No works are good enough. No faith is strong enough. No life is worthy enough. We open our spiritual account before God and it says, “spiritually bankrupt”.
And that’s why the rich young man went away from Jesus knowing he didn’t make the grade. The young man has not gone to Jesus because he wants to be exposed as being “spiritually bankrupt”. He has gone to Jesus to get the official stamp of approval – he wants Jesus to show the world that he has made the grade.
We see it in the way he approaches Jesus. “What good thing must I do to get eternal life?” What must I do? He’s trapped in the mindset of thinking that he is able to earn his way into heaven. We would call such an approach spiritual arrogance – and this rich young man has quite a bit of it.
We can fall into that trap sometimes, can’t we? I am part of the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia. I defended doctrine in your name, Lord. I learnt the Heidelberg Catechism and went to profession of faith class. I faithfully attend church morning and evening. My devotional life rarely skips a beat. I have fostered an attitude of constant prayer. I work hard for the youth of my church. I… I did it!
And we look to God for some sort of stamp of approval – only to find that God is silent. And rightly so! God is not impressed when we try coming into His family on the basis of our achievements. If God worked that way – giving out tickets to eternity on the basis of what we do – if God worked that way, what sort of God would that make Him?
Only a puny god could be bought with our money. Only an egotistical god would be impressed with our pain. Only a temperamental god would be satisfied by our sacrifices. And only a heartless god would sell salvation to the highest bidder.
But God is not like that. He is a God of grace, love and forgiveness; a God who gave His Son for us. A God who gives us hope when we are on the road of hopelessness.
That’s a truth we need to discover again and again. That’s a truth we need to hold on to in every moment of failure. Because that’s a truth which helps us understand what it means to be poor in spirit. And when we are poor in spirit, we step into the crowd of those who are blessed.
Such being the case, poverty of spirit is the first visible sign we have of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Poverty of spirit is the first sign we have that Jesus is claiming us to be His own possession. Those who display this characteristic are the ones who are at the first stages of having their hearts opened by the Spirit of God. “What must we do to be saved?” cried Peter’s audience at Pentecost. Repent! You need to recognise that you have been heading in the wrong direction, and turn around.
The existence of “poverty of spirit” is the reason we place such importance on “Christ-centred” preaching. Christ must be preached if people are to change and have hope. We preach about the only One who can give hope and assurance to those who look back on their life and ask themselves, “have I really been living as a child of God?”
We preach about the only one who can lift and release the numerous young, and not so young, people in our congregation who are tied to the world and to a lifestyle which is far from pleasing to the Lord. We preach about the One who sacrificed Himself, so that you, you who are weary and burdened, could have peace with God. We preach until poverty of spirit leads every person to cry out to God in repentance and confession: Lord have mercy on me for I am a sinner. We preach so that the Isaiah’s of this world, those who stand before God and say, “I am ruined”, can have faith, a 100% assurance, that the One who volunteered to take your punishment from the Father will never let you go.
With what we have heard so far it is tempting to think that poverty of spirit is something that only happens at the beginning of your faith walk and, once you come to faith, the need for poverty of spirit disappears. But that’s not true. Poverty of spirit is an ongoing attitude we must have in our Christian walk. There is never a time when we have it altogether – and the Apostle Paul teaches this truth in a most powerful way. I’m thinking about Paul and his words in Philippians 3:4a-8:
“If anyone else thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eight day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But what was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
Paul has a pretty impressive record. Many would have considered him to be the “Zeus of the Saints”. Yet Paul knows what it means to display this ongoing attitude of “poverty in spirit”. Note again what Paul says in verse 8: “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.”
That word translated as “rubbish” is quite an interesting word – it can also be translated as “human excrement”. Paul is literally saying, When it comes to my achievements I consider it all to be a pile of human dung, so that I may gain Christ.
Our attempts to impress God with our human achievements are not worth anything more than just flushing down the toilet. Can you see what Paul is doing as he addresses the congregation with these strong words? He’s kicking away a whole heap of false foundations, isn’t he? Paul is stripping away even the tiniest spot that could be interpreted as providing a false foundation.
You can’t have false foundations as a believer, can you? But we still have a habit of trying to salvage some credit for ourselves, don’t we? We fall into the trap of coming to God with all our good achievements. And God patiently watches as we display our efforts – kind of like ‘show and tell’ at kindergarten.
Here, Lord, let me recite the Heidelberg Catechism off by heart. And we give that to the Lord and He treats it as it deserves – He flushes it. So we try another tack and hold up our church attendance sheet. And the Lord casts an eye over it and, without raising an eyebrow, flushes it as well. And we keep coming again and again – and patiently the Lord deals with it – until there is nothing left for us to show.
And that is precisely the point we need to be at. Whether we are at the beginning of our faith-walk, or near the very end, we must be people who continue to strip away every false hope, every self-assured achievement, and every misdirected ambition.
Our souls are exposed. We have been spiritually stripped naked. Our spiritual poverty is all there is left. And that is good! It’s good because you will see yourself as God sees you. You’re not a person who has made a whole heap of credible achievements. You’re a person who has got nothing else to offer the Lord except for your sin, and your guilt, and your shame, and your failures. That’s the reality of being poor in spirit – and it’s a good reality because it pushes you into the background – and when you are in the background Jesus can step forward.
Jesus steps forward to take your sin – the sin that can keep you eternally separated from God – and He buries it forever. Jesus steps forward to take your guilt – guilt that can stop you from looking to the future with hope – and He forgives it forever. Jesus steps forward to take your shame – the shame that you carry because you know you have hurt God – and He turns it into confidence forever. Jesus steps forward to take your failures – failures that keep coming up like large potholes in the road – and He covers them out of sight forever.
Those who are poor in spirit say, “Lord, I have nothing within myself that I can offer you. I am totally dependent on you to use me for your service. I come to you with empty hands to wait for your deliverance.” Then Jesus steps forward and does it all.
My friends, throughout your walk before God on this earth you constantly have two choices: the first is, will you keep pretending that your life is filled and that you have got it all together? If you do, you are going to go from here even emptier then when you first arrived. The second choice is, will you come to the Lord with empty hands, hands that have accepted their poverty in God’s sight?
It doesn’t matter who you are; whether you are a Christian, and whether you have been a Christian for a long time – you need to continue to accept your spiritual poverty. Come to the Lord with empty hands so that you can be filled. Come so that you can be crowned as a member of God’s Kingdom, and that is the greatest riches ever.
Amen.