When Bankruptcy Becomes a Blessing | Part 1

Who are the poor in spirit? Listen to Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers. In today's world, there's a stronger emphasis on what we have than what we are. The world says, blessed are those with wealth, strength, power, knowledge, and popularity. But in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus puts an emphasis not primarily on what a man has, but what a man is.

The first of these character qualities is a poorness of spirit. If you have your Bible, turn to Matthew chapter five, as Adrian Rogers reveals when bankruptcy becomes a blessing. We'll be finding Matthew chapter five as we begin today a wonderful journey through the Sermon on the Mount. I think all of us have read the Sermon on the Mount and have enjoyed it, but we're going to look at it, I trust, in a new and a fresh way. And today, we're going to start with that part of the Sermon on the Mount that we call the Beatitudes. Someone has called these Beatitudes the attitudes that ought to be. The Beatitudes. And what they are is really a blueprint for happiness.

What they are are foundation stones for building your home and your life. Really what they are, they are the keys to the kingdom. Now, I begin reading in Matthew chapter five, verse one, it speaks of the Lord Jesus. And it says, in seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall seek God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. The attitudes that ought to be these wonderful Beatitudes. I've heard that a big dog saw a little dog chasing his tail, said the big dog to the little dog.

Why are you doing that? The smaller dog said, Well, I have been studying philosophy, and I believe that I have mastered philosophy. I have discovered the deepest need of a dog is happiness. And he said, I have also discovered that happiness lies in a dog's tail. That is why I am chasing my tail. He said, If I can ever apprehend that tail, then I shall be a happy dog.

The old dog who was wiser said, I too have studied philosophy. I too think it is a good thing for a dog to be happy, and I too believe that, to some degree, happiness lies in a dog's tail. But he said, I have made a discovery that the more I chase my tail, the more it runs away from me. But he said, When I forget about chasing it and go about my business, it always comes after me. So it is with happiness, the more we pursue it, the more it runs away from us.

But when we go about our business, it comes after us. But my dear friend, happiness is not in a dog's tail even for a dog. But for those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ, there is happiness, there is joy. That's what this word blessedness means.

It's a word almost hard to be translated. It could be described to be full of joy. It could mean to be congratulated, to be self-contained, to have what you need within you. And we call it blessedness. And so we're going to be thinking about a blueprint for blessedness, laws for living, attitudes that ought to be. And the first one is found in verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This is the first key to the kingdom. Blessed, blessed are the poor in spirit. Now notice in all of these beatitudes, Jesus Christ is talking about what we are, not primarily what we have.

Now we have a world today that puts the emphasis primarily upon what you have. Blessed are those who have wealth. Blessed are those who have strength. Blessed are those who have power. Blessed are those who have knowledge. Blessed are those who have prestige.

Blessed are those who have popularity. You know, the big B's, the bucks, the brains, the beauty, the brawn, those are the things that people think bring happiness. But a lot of people have those things that don't have joy. They don't have blessedness. Jesus here is putting an emphasis not primarily upon what a man has, but what a man is. Blessed are, and then he describes character qualities. And the very first of these character qualities is a character quality called poorness of spirit. Poorness of spirit.

So I want us to think about this number one key to the kingdom, poorness of spirit, and what's he talking about? Well, he's really talking about being a beggar. He's saying blessed are the beggars.

Blessed are the beggars. Now there's several words in the word poor. One word is a word that just speaks of poverty like the widow who put her two mites in the offering place. You remember that story, the widow's mite? She was poor, but at least she had two mites.

She had something to give. That's one word for poverty that's found, but that's not the word that's found here. The word that is found here does not speak of that kind of poverty. It's another word. It's a word that means a beggar. A man that has absolutely nothing.

It's a word that was used in Luke chapter 16. You remember the story of the beggar that was at the gate of the rich man named Lazarus, and the dogs came and licked his sores, and he ate the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table? That is, he was absolutely, totally, completely destitute.

That's the word that's used here. A beggar, not just a poor man, but a person who is absolutely, totally, devastatingly impoverished. And Jesus calls such one blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the beggars. Now, who are these blessed beggars? I mean, what is all of this? The world wouldn't say that's the way to be blessed.

Not at all. Well, three basic things I want you to see with me today as we look at this passage of Scripture. And first of all, I want you to see the spiritual beggar and his bankruptcy. The spiritual beggar and his bankruptcy. What does Jesus Christ mean when he says blessed are the beggars? Blessed are the beggars. Blessed are the bankrupt.

What is the meaning of this? Well, let me say right away, Jesus is not talking about financial poverty. Jesus never said it's a blessing to be financially poor.

Don't ever get that in your head. The Bible never puts a premium upon being financially poor. Now, the Bible teaches we ought to have compassion for the poor. The Bible teaches we ought to help the poor. The Bible teaches we ought to give to the poor. The Bible teaches that many times poor people are rich in faith.

But never any place does the Bible teach that material poverty as such is a blessing. If Jesus Christ is talking about the blessedness of financial bankruptcy, then it is our job to make everybody on this earth poor and to get poor ourselves. I mean, that would be our responsibility.

To immediately divest ourselves of any wealth and to help everybody else. To do the same thing and just have one world of poor people so everybody could be blessed. Does that make sense to you? Do you think that's what Jesus Christ was teaching?

Not at all. Jesus Christ had many friends who had material blessings. So he's not talking about financial poorness here. He's not talking either about a person being poor spirited. He says blessed are the poor in spirit, but he doesn't say blessed are the poor spirited. That is a person all hung over. Sort of a milk toast type of person. You know, I'm just no good.

Poor me, you know. What some people call humility, I call poor posture. That's not what our Lord is talking about. When he says blessed are the poor in spirit, not the poor spirited, he's not talking about some outward expression.

Going around with a face as long as a saxophone, looking like a cruise director for the Titanic. That's not what he's talking about either. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ said, when you fast, wash and anoint your face so you don't appear to other people to be fasting.

I'm fasting. That's not the way. He's not talking about that. He's not talking about a person being poor spirited.

What's he talking about? Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, human nature is made of body, soul and spirit. With your body you have physical life, with your soul you have psychological life, and with your spirit you're to have spiritual life. With your body you're to have spiritual life. With your body you know the world beneath you, with your soul you know the world around you, with your spirit you know the world above you, the spiritual world. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. But before a person can enter into the kingdom of heaven, he must first of all admit that in his spirit, in the realm of the spirit, no matter how much he may have in the material realm, no matter how much he may have in the psychological or the soulish realm, in the spiritual realm, he is absolutely totally bankrupt and a beggar before God. If he doesn't see that, he will never ever get into the kingdom of heaven. Not just that he is spiritually poor, but that he is spiritually a beggar.

That he is bankrupt. Sir, when you come to Jesus Christ you do not strut into his presence. The very word for beggar, the very word for poor comes from a root word which means to cringe and to cower, to shrink back.

There are no peacocks in heaven. He's talking here about a person who is totally, completely, devastatingly bankrupt to the point of being reduced to being a beggar. And when he comes to God he must say in my hand, no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. That's where it begins. That's where it begins.

That's the reason that this character quality is put first. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now you'll see some people who sit in a congregation like this and they say, well, yeah, pastor, that's right. I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as some other people. I say, dear friend, you're not yet bankrupt.

You're not yet bankrupt. When you have that attitude, yeah, I know I'm not perfect, but yeah, I've got my faults, but on the other hand, pastor, there's some pretty good things about me. Friend, you've never seen yourself. You've never discovered what the Bible says, that even your righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of a righteous and a holy God. We're going to see later on in this Sermon on the Mount that Jesus Christ said, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in the wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

And they were better outwardly than any man, woman, boy, girl in this building today. All right, so what we're talking about now is the spiritual beggar and his bankruptcy, but now I want you to think about the spiritual beggar and his brokenness, because you see, brokenness follows bankruptcy. And what is the brokenness, the broken behavior that follows?

Well, first of all, a man must discover and admit just who he is. Many people have never really seen this. For most people, their greatest need is to see their need. Most people sit in churches on Sunday morning in the glad rags, heady-hearty, high-minded, thinking they're doing God a wild favor by being there. It's true.

I mean, most of the people, I've said it before, are egomaniacs strutting to hell, thinking they're too good to be damned. But there must come a discovery. And you know how that discovery comes?

That discovery comes, my dear friend, when we see just who God is and then we understand who we are. For example, Simon Peter. Simon Peter was naturally an aggressive man. Simon Peter was a take-charge type of fellow. Simon Peter, the big fisherman, you know, he was always giving his opinion. Of course, he was frequently wrong, but never in doubt. Somebody said about the only time he ever opened his mouth was just to exchange feet.

He was putting his foot in his mouth all the time. But Simon Peter one day had a glimpse of the majesty, the glory of Jesus Christ. And then, do you know what he said? He said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

He finally saw his bankruptcy. Isaiah the prophet. What a great man was Isaiah the prophet.

And if you read the book of Isaiah in chapter 5, he is thundering out woes against this sin and woes against that country and woes against this people. Woe is you. Woe is you.

Woe is you. Then you come to Isaiah chapter 6, where he said, I also saw the Lord high and lifted up, sitting upon a throne. And then he said, Woe is me. Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the Lord.

Isaiah had fullness of spirit. I remember reading in the Bible about a woman who was a Syrophoenician. That is, she was a pagan woman.

She was from Phoenicia. And Jesus happened to be there in that place. And this Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus Christ. She had a daughter that was demon possessed. And she wanted Jesus Christ to heal her demon possessed daughter. And Jesus Christ, in order to bring her to a point of brokenness of spirit, said something that sounds awfully cruel to her. She said, Master, have mercy on me. And Jesus said, I haven't been sent to you.

I have come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus said, is it reasonable that we would take bread from the children and give it to dogs? And in effect, he was calling her a dog. That doesn't sound very good coming from Jesus. I mean, that he would call her a dog. And here, he used the word for dog that meant household pet. You don't take the food off the table and give it to the dogs.

You give it to the children. Jesus said, I've come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And that Syrophoenician woman, you would think she would have gone off in a huff and said, I've never been talked to such a way in all of my life. Some religious leader he is.

I thought he was a man of compassion. She didn't say that. You know what she said? She said, you're absolutely right. She said, that's the truth, Lord. But she said, even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table. And when she used the word dog this time, she didn't use the same word Jesus used. She used a word that meant scrungy, back alley, cur, mangy dog, ravenous, back alley dog.

That's the way she described herself. Jesus' heart was broken. He said, woman, great is your faith.

You're going to have exactly what you ask. What happened to this woman? The same thing that happened to Simon Peter when he saw the Lord. The same thing that happened to Isaiah when he saw the Lord.

The same thing that happened to this woman when she saw the Lord. They became poor in spirit. They were beggars in the sight of a righteous and a holy God and these beggars in the sight of a righteous and a holy God, God exactly what they wanted. The Apostle Paul, if there was ever a man that it was hard for him to see himself as bankrupt, it was the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul, first of all, he had the right birth. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Secondly, he ran in the right society.

He was a Pharisee. Thirdly, he had the extracuriments of being a Roman citizen. Next of all, he had the best education that money can buy. He was learned at the feet of Galileo and he would have today the equivalency of a triple PhD. He was fluent in many languages. He was a world traveler. He had been keeping the Jewish laws with an exactitude that was amazing. But one day he caught a glimpse of Jesus Christ and he said, all these things that I counted gain, I now count as loss.

I took them from the asset side of the ledger and I put them on the liability side of the ledger. All these things I was depending upon. He said, I count them, are you listening, as dung, d-u-n-g, excrement. That's what I count them as, that I might gain Christ. Spiritually bankrupt. I mean totally, totally, totally a beggar in the sight of God. Now friend, you talk about something that knocks the legs out from underneath human pride.

That does, doesn't it? I mean there are a lot of people listening to me today who say, boy I'm not going to go that route. Who does he think he's talking to? I'm a pretty good guy. Well you and all the rest of the pretty good guys are going to go straight to hell. Until you see yourself as a beggar in the sight of a righteous and a holy God. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now when he discovers this, then he gets a different dependency.

You stop depending upon the things that you used to depend upon. You don't depend upon your natural birth, your pedigree, what your parents may have been. You may be from the finest family in this city, but that's not even a count of the judgment. God has children, but he has no grandchildren. You have to be born again.

Oh, I love that last thought from Adrian Rogers. God has children, but he has no grandchildren. You must be born again. We're going to hear part two of this important message coming up tomorrow. But if you have questions about who Jesus is, about what he means to you, how you can surrender your life to him fully today, go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio. You'll find resources there and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD and mention the title When Bankruptcy Becomes a Blessing. This message is also part of the insightful Sermon on the Mount series, The Keys to the Kingdom. With a complete collection, all eight powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD or go online to lwf.org slash radio to order.

Or you can write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Well, thanks for joining us and studying in God's Word today. Remember this from Adrian Rogers, for most people, their greatest need is to see their need. Discover your spiritual bankruptcy, depend on God's promises and declare it to others today.

And join us next time for When Bankruptcy Becomes a Blessing. We'll hear part two right here on Love Worth Finding. A listener reached out recently on Facebook and left a word of encouragement. Love Worth Finding continues to lead people to Jesus Christ as their personal savior and Lord, despite Pastor Rogers' passing years ago. What a strong and effective ministry. To God be the glory, praise, and honor. Well, as 2020 winds down, Love Worth Finding wants you to know how much we appreciate your prayers and faithfulness, especially during a year like this one, one that's been so different in many ways. One of our ministry friends has given a generous gift with the hope of encouraging you to give above and beyond at year end. And to thank you for your generosity, we want to send you our brand new Names of God card set featuring the beautiful artwork and biblical inspiration from our collaborators at Crewe & Company. Call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD today.